I invite your attention to the
gospel according to Matthew chapter 8. This morning's lesson will
continue the series on the healing ministry of Jesus
Christ. This is, I believe, the third division in this or the third
lesson in this series and we've been looking at the gospel of
Matthew chapter 8 verses 1 through 17 and also chapter 8 verse 28
through 9 verse 8 and then chapter 9 verses 18 through 38. In these
texts Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist
has set forth to us a number of different instances in which
Jesus Christ healed people. I would add that these healings
did not occur necessarily in the order that he gives them.
He is taking a number of healings and lumping them together. You'll discern that when you
study the parallel texts in Mark and Luke and you see that the
order of these healings is different. And it is because that Matthew
here is not concerned so much about chronology as he is with
taking the healings of Jesus Christ and putting them together
so that they could be studied together. observed in the previous lesson
variations in Jesus Christ's healing. We observed that Christ
healed a variety of infirmities, including leprosy, paralysis,
fever, demon possession, hemorrhaging, blindness, mutinous, and even
death. And this means that no one is
beyond the healing power of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Then we observed also that Christ healed a variety of persons,
both Jews and Gentiles, both young and old, both male and
female, both upper and lower classes, both free men and slaves,
both friends and strangers, and both those who came to him and
those who had to be brought. both those nearby and those far
away, both those he touched and those who touched him, both alive
and dead, both physically and spiritually infirm, and then
we began to look at some instances in which Jesus Christ healed.
Last Lord's Day, we considered the Israelite leper in chapter
8, verses 2 through 4. We observed that he was an outcast,
He was also an untouchable, and he was of the lowest class of
person among the chosen nation of God. And we made a spiritual
application concerning the healing of this Israelite leper in noting
that this instance was good news for all who are afflicted with
the leprosy of sin. Today, we come to Consider verses
5 through 13 of Matthew's Gospel, chapter 8, and we here will consider
Jesus healing a servant of a Roman centurion. Let me read the passage
for you, and then we will come back and expound it verse by
verse. Matthew 8, verse 5. Now when
Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him pleading
with him, saying, My servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully
tormented. And Jesus said to him, I will
come and heal him. The centurion answered and said,
Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but
only speak a word and my servant will be healed. For I also am
a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say
to this one, go, and he goes. And to another, come, and he
comes. And to my servant, do this, and
he does it. When Jesus heard it, he marveled
and said to those who followed, Assuredly, I say to you, I have
not found such great faith, not even in Israel. And I say to
you that many will come from east and west and sit down with
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. but the
sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. Then Jesus said to the centurion,
Go your way, and as you have believed, so let it be done for
you. And his servant was healed that
same hour. Now in verse 5, when Jesus had
entered Capernaum, Capernaum was the city where Jesus spent
quite a bit of his time, he actually resided there for a while, and
he had entered Capernaum the town also where Peter lived. Peter originally was from Bethsaida,
but now was residing in Capernaum. And these two cities, Bethsaida
and Capernaum, were quite close to each other on the northern
shore of the Sea of Galilee. And Jesus probably was coming
back here to Peter's house. He stayed some time there with
Peter. there in the house in Capernaum,
and we here read that a centurion came to him pleading with him. A centurion. He is a man with
authority over 100 soldiers. He would be somewhat a lower
or maybe a middle level of commissioned officer in our military, somewhat
like perhaps a captain, over a hundred men. And one thing
I want you to note about the centurions is these were Roman
soldiers in charge of a hundred men. They were officers in charge
of a hundred men in the Roman army. But it is an interesting
thing as you read about the centurions that the scriptures, the New
Testament, generally treat them in a very favorable light. These centurions appear to have
been very sensible military leaders and also rather sensible to fellow
men as well, even to Jews. Here is this one, and we'll consider
him in further depth in a moment. But I want you to note also the
centurion who was at the cross of Jesus Christ and in charge
of the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior. Now, yes, Early in
the account of the passion of our Christ, we read that this
centurion was evidently a very brutal man. And he was in charge
of the scourging of Jesus, and Jesus was scourged mercilessly. But there at the cross of Jesus
Christ, when he beheld the earthquake, when he beheld the manner in
which Jesus suffered and died, he said, truly this was the Son
of God. That's commendable. That is commendable. There is also the centurion by
the name of Cornelius. You can read of him in the book
of Acts chapter 10. And he was a very pious man. He sought God. That's why that
he had Peter come to him. revealed the Word of God more
plainly to him, but he was a Roman soldier, a centurion, a military
officer, and yet the Scriptures speak of him very favorably. There is another centurion in
the book of the Acts of the Apostles in chapter 22, and he was in
charge of of Paul, when Paul was taken prisoner, and he commanded
that Paul be whipped. And Paul said, is it legal for
you to whip a Roman citizen? Because Paul had Roman citizenship. And this centurion said, are
you a Roman citizen? And he said, yes, I am. And this
centurion said, do not whip that man. Even though he was considered
a great enemy even of Rome. He said, do not whip that man.
That man has legal rights as a Roman citizen. And then there
is another centurion in the book of Acts chapter 27. His name
also was given. His name is Julius. And Paul
was put in his charge when he was put on the ship to go to
Rome. And this man, Julius, a Roman
centurion, ascertained that Paul had liberty on the ship. Paul is a prisoner, but he's
given liberty to have free access to the ship. He could walk around
on the ship. And the point that I want to
stress to you is that for some interesting reason, centurions
are usually treated in a very favorable manner in the New Testament. particularly this centurion. Go to Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter 7. Now here is a
parallel account. And it's going to appear to have
some contradictions, but it does not. But I stress this parallel
account because it is lengthier than the passage that Matthew
gives. Well, maybe it is not lengthier,
but it does bring out some details that Matthew does not bring out. Luke chapter 7 verse 1. Now when
Jesus concluded all his sayings in the hearing of the people,
he entered Capernaum, just as we read a while ago in the gospel
according to Matthew. And a certain centurion's servant,
who was dear to him, This word servant means slave. He was the
slave of this centurion, and yet the slave was dear to him,
and he was sick and ready to die. So when he heard about Jesus,
having heard evidently that Jesus was able to heal the sick, he
sent elders of the Jews to him, pleading with him to come and
heal his servant. Now that appears to be contradictory
to what we read in Matthew's account. Matthew's account says
the centurion came to Jesus, but here Luke says, no, it was
not the centurion personally. He sent emissaries, and he sent
emissaries of the elders of the Jews. Is that a contradiction? No,
it is not. This man came to Jesus, but not
personally. He came to Jesus in the person
of these emissaries, these men whom he sent to represent him.
He came to Jesus in their persons. This is sometimes brought out
in a number of different ways, in a number of different instances
in other passages in the scripture. For example, in John chapter
4, we read that it was said that Jesus baptized more disciples
than John. Then we read parenthetically
that Jesus did not baptize, but his disciples did. But when his
disciples baptized, they baptized as his representative. So that
Jesus did indeed baptize people, but he did it not in his own
person, but in the person of his disciples. Now, consider
what these Jewish elders said of this centurion. Luke 7 verse
4, And when they came to Jesus, they begged him earnestly, saying
that the one for whom he should do this, that is the centurion,
they said, he was worthy. And here are their words. They
said, for he loves our nation and has built us a synagogue. He loves our nation. Now, here
is a man, a Roman centurion, who is sent with governmental
and military authority over the Jews, and yet he loved that Jewish
nation, and he loved that Jewish nation and their people so much,
he built a synagogue for them, a meeting house, much like the
one that we're meeting in right now. That's what a synagogue
was. It was a meeting house. Now,
why would he do this? It would appear that this centurion
had seen the worship of the Jews and evidently the Jews who worshipped
faithfully. He considered their worship and
he realized that this Jewish religion was far superior to
the idols and the idolatry and the blasphemous kind of worship
that was done by Rome. He looked at the Jewish scriptures,
he looked at the Jewish sacrifices, he might even have seen What
was in those sacrifices pointing to Christ? We're not told all
that he saw. But he saw the superiority of
the Jewish religion over the Roman religion, and he built
a synagogue. And so, when his servant became
sick, because he loved his servant so much, he said to the Jewish
elders, go and talk to Jesus and implore of Him to come and
heal my servant. And the Jewish elders did so. They came to Jesus and they said,
this man is worthy that you should come. At least he was worthy
in their estimation. And He loves our nation and has
built us a synagogue. Now, we read back to Matthew
8, verse 7, Jesus said to him, that is, to him through speaking
to his emissaries, I will come and heal him. I want you to hear,
consider the tenderness and the compassion Jesus knew that in God's predestined will
for himself that a centurion was going to beat him and be
in charge of his crucifixion. Jesus knew that this centurion
was under Pilate and under the Roman government. He knew that
this centurion represented those who would put him to death. And
yet Jesus said, I will come to him. I will come and heal the
servant. I find it interesting. Jesus
did not say, I will go to him. He said, I will come to him. I will come to him. And not only
that, not only will I come to him, I will heal him. The centurion asked and said,
Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof. but
only speak a word and my servant will be healed." Now, you may
ask, alright, how could he say that if he was not there? Remember that it was the emissaries,
it was the Jewish elders who represented this centurion, it
was they who came to Jesus. Now when Jesus says, I will come
and heal that servant, how could the centurion say, oh Lord, don't
come, don't come? Because physically he was not
there. Well, go back to Luke chapter
7. Luke chapter 7, verse 6. Then Jesus went with them, that
is, the Jewish elders, who had been sent by the centurion. Jesus
went with them to heal the servant of the centurion. And when Jesus
was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends
to Jesus, saying to him, Lord, do not trouble yourself, for
I am not worthy that you should come under my roof. Therefore
I did not even think myself worthy to come to you, but say the word
and my servant will be healed. Say the word. Notice, he did
not go to Jesus personally and say, do not come under my roof.
He sent his servants to go tell Jesus, do not come. Lord, I am
not worthy to come to you. One gets the impression this
man knew something about the gospel. We who know something of ourselves,
of our depravity and of our sin, we hear Jesus say, come to me
and I'll give you rest. And if we understand that about
ourselves, we must say, Lord, I'm not worthy to come. Well,
of course you're not worthy to come. That is what makes you
worthy to come. Knowing that you are not worthy.
Here is a man who could With the word, have Jesus taken prisoner
and questioned and whatever, have him arrested for this or
that? He had that kind of power. But here is a man who truly understood
something about the state of sinful men. Lord, I am not worthy."
He evidently had learned a lot about the Jewish religion and
of the Messiah, and I am not surprised if I learned that he
knew Jesus to be the Messiah, the one who would heal the sick
and raise the dead. He says, I'm sending my servants to you,
some servants, not the Jewish elders. These are different servants. Lord, I am not worthy to come
to you, and I am not worthy that you should even come under my
roof." Here is a man who knew something
of himself and something of Christ. In Luke 7 verse 7 continuing,
but say the word and my servant will be healed. Say the word. He knew that it
was not even necessary for Jesus to be there. Just say the word. This man was convinced of much
concerning Jesus Christ. All right, now back to Matthew
8, verse 9. And by the way, when he said,
only speak a word and my servant will be healed, he may have recalled
that this was true of a nobleman's son in John 4, verse 50. But
he said, For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers
under me. This man knew something of authority. He knew that authority had to
be obeyed. And I say that this one go, and
he goes, and to another come, and he comes, and to my servant
do this, and he does it. Soldiers do what they are told. I read a few weeks ago a number of books
about the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II. My father was
a parachutist in the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne
And I read a number of instances in these books where parachutists
were sometimes told to do what seemingly was impossible to do. Told to go take that town and
it looked like they could not do it. I recall one instance
crossing a river in Belgium, and not myself, but reading about
it in the book. And the German army had command
of this river, and it was a rather wide river. And these soldiers
of the 82nd Airborne were to get into little skimpy boats
and go across under heavy fire. And when their commanding officers
got into a tower to overlook the scene, They knew that they
were supposed to do it, and they said, no, it's impossible. There
is no way that we can get soldiers across that river in the kind
of boats they're giving to us. They were canvas boats, by the
way, with wooden frames. And the Germans hold the high
ground, they're firing on them. It won't happen, you can't happen.
And yet, the order came down, cross the river. Do the impossible. And they did
it. And these soldiers, knowing that
many, if not most, and perhaps all, were going to die in that
crossing. They ran down to the river, grabbed
those boats, put them in the water, got into the river, and
started rowing. Some of them didn't even have
paddles. They had to use their hands or the butts of their guns. And they were getting shot at,
getting killed, somebody get killed. You have to just throw
them overboard and keep going. And they made it. A good number of them made it.
But the point I stress to you is this, when a soldier is told
to do something, he does it. He does it. He knows the consequence
if he does not. Well, this man says, I am under
authority, meaning that I take commands from higher ups. And
I have soldiers under me, and I say to this one, go! And he
goes. And I say to another, come! And
he comes. And I say to my servant, do this! And he does it. And soldiers
and slaves have this in common. They do not question. They do. They do as they are
told. This man. knew that Jesus had
that kind of authority. He says, if I have this kind
of sovereignty, over a hundred troops, and they do what I say,
how much more sovereignty does this Jesus Christ have? I am
not worthy that you should come under my roof. Lord, you just
say the word. That's all that needs to be done.
You just say the word and my servant will be healed. When Jesus heard it, he marveled. As God, and he was God, is God,
but then, in his life on earth, he was God then. He would not have marveled. He
knew it was going to happen. But here, as the Son of Man,
Jesus heard this man's statement, and he just marveled. He marveled. And he said to those who followed,
Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not
even in Israel. His own people, the Jews, he
had not seen that kind of faith even among his own people. Gentiles,
on a number of occasions, showed how great faith could be. One would expect the Jewish people
to know something of faith and to exercise it, but particularly
among the Gentiles. The Gentiles apparently knew
more of humility, at least some of them did, than the Jews did. Here came a woman, a Gentile
woman, Syrophoenician. And she says, come and heal my
child. And Jesus says, It is not right
to give the children's bread to dogs. She knew what that meant. She
was a Gentile dog. Jesus is testing her. And she
said, true Lord, it is not right to give the children's bread
to the dogs. But even the little dogs are
allowed to come under the table and eat the scraps that fall.
And Jesus looked at her and talked, you know, what great faith this
woman has. Well, here is another man with
great faith. He marveled. I want you to see
also in Jesus' statement when he says, I have not found such
great faith not even in Israel. I want you to see this. And this
was an issue with which I struggled for a while when I was in the
military. I want you to see that piety and military service are
not necessarily incompatible. They're not incompatible. Piety,
this man was a very pious man and believed in Jesus Christ
and yet was a soldier. There were soldiers who came
to John the Baptist and they asked of John the Baptist, you
know, they were believing in Jesus and they said, what should
we do? And one might think that John
would say, well, first of all, you need to get out of the military.
You can't be a Christian and be in the military. But he didn't
say that. He just told him to be fair to
people. And I find great comfort in this,
that piety and military service are not necessarily incompatible,
because Jesus said, of this centurion, this man has great faith, greater
than I have found in Israel. And I say to you, he continues
in Matthew 8 verse 11, I say to you that many will come from
east and west, meaning he's here talking of Gentiles, Gentiles
in the east and Gentiles in the west, and they will sit down
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But
the sons of the kingdom, he here speaks of a different kingdom,
the kingdom of the Jews. But the sons of the kingdom of
the Jews will be cast out into outer darkness. Outer darkness. The darkest darkness. It was like Egyptian darkness. Darkness that could be felt.
The sons, the unbelieving sons of the kingdom of the Jews will
be cast out into outer darkness and there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. It is impossible to describe the horrors and the terrors of hell. It's impossible. darkness. Outer darkness. Weeping and gnashing of teeth. Well, this centurion will not
be there. He believed in Jesus. Then Jesus
said to the centurion, verse thirteen. Then and as you have believed, so
let it be done for you." I wonder how much he believed. Read the
next line, and his servant was healed that same hour. Here, observe this lesson. Great faith receives great blessings. Consider the faith that it took
for this man to say, Lord, you do not even have to come under
my roof. You don't have to touch my servant.
You don't have to even look at my servant. You just say the
word from where you are and my servant will be healed. The Lord blesses us oftentimes
according to our faith. It should not surprise us that
If we will not believe in Him with all our hearts, we're not
going to receive blessings. When we're asked, how can a man
be saved? You must believe with all your
heart, wholeheartedly. This man did. Go your way, Jesus
said to the centurion. Go your way. and as you have
believed, so let it be done for you. Now actually, he has said
this to the man's servants. He told the servants, go back
to the centurion and tell him, whatever you believe I can do,
that is what I will do. And the centurion said, I believe
he can heal my servant. And the servant is healed. The
servant is healed. We are slaves of sin. We serve under a sinful kingdom. But oh, if we have this kind of faith, this
kind of faith, undoubtedly, and I am not surprised
if I learned that the servant also believed. They believed and Jesus healed. Jesus healed according to faith. I pray that you and I may have
hearts full of faith. I pray that we may be faithful,
which simply means full of faith. I pray that we may never doubt
our Lord and Savior and his promises. I pray that we may trust in him
with all our hearts and do it wholeheartedly, knowing this,
that Jesus heals and saves such as who have that kind of faith
in him. And oh God, our father, be pleased,
we pray to bless this word to the glory of your son, in whose
lovely name we pray, amen.