THE CENTURION

MATTHEW CHAPTER EIGHT

Sermon of the Week #200745-November 18, 2007

The rank of centurion in the Roman army was a very select fraternity. Seven of them are mentioned in the New Testament in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and in the Acts of Apostles. Each time they are mentioned they seem to be involved in some favorable way in regards to the Lord’s work.

The first mention of a centurion was when Jesus entered into Capernaum, and there came unto Him a centurion, beseeching Him, and saying, “Lord, my servant lieth in the house sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.”  If the centurion had asked me to come, I would have said, “I will come and pray for him.”  If he had asked the doctor to come, he would have said, “I will come, examine him, and give him a prescription, or an operation.” Jesus said, “I will come and heal him.”

This centurion was a man of remarkable faith. Jesus would say of him, “I have not found such great faith, no, not in Israel.”

His faith was great because of several reasons. The first was, he wanted Jesus to heal his sick servant. A ruler in John 4 asked Jesus to heal his son.  The leper just before this, asked Jesus to heal himself. Jairus in Matthew 9 asked Jesus to heal his daughter, and Jesus raised her from the dead. But this centurion was not asking for the benefit of son, daughter or self; he was asking Jesus to heal a slave. “My servant is sick of the palsy”, and asked Jesus to heal his servant.

Other Romans would have sold off the servant as unworthy of care, and buy another slave, and Jesus was impressed with this man because He came into the world Himself as a servant. In Philippians 2, Paul says that Jesus thought not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself taking upon Himself the form of a servant. Jesus came into this world as a slave. He told the Apostles in Matthew 20, “The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.”  And so, Jesus said, “I will come and heal him.”

Then again the second reason for his great faith was because he believed that Jesus could heal from a distance. He believed Jesus did not have to be present at the time, nor be able to touch him. Actually we need to have that same faith today in reverse. When we pray unto God, in Jesus’ name we are talking to someone we cannot see, and He can hear from a distance. One man in a hospital told me the nurse came in to bring his lunch at the moment he was praying. The unbelieving nurse said, “I will wait until you finish talking to yourself to give you your lunch.”  She did not understand how you can talk to someone you cannot see.

The third example of his great faith was when he said, “I am not worthy that you should come into my house, just say the word, and my servant will be healed.”  Perhaps the reason the centurion felt unworthy for the Lord to come into his house was because as a Roman centurion in a conquered land he had a very fine home, and was embarrassed to have the prophet Jesus who had no place to lay His head; and yet had the power to do anything, while he, the mighty centurion, had nothing he could do in the main issues of life.

The centurion said, “Just say the word, and my servant shall be healed.”  He had faith in the power of the Word of the Lord. The angel Gabriel said in Luke 2, “No word of God shall be void of power.”  In the second chapter of Genesis the power of the Word of God is demonstrated in creation six times. Six times God said, “Let there be”, and every time, “Let there be”, was followed by, “And it was so!” Would that all had the faith of the centurion; just say the word, “Lord, just say the word, and it will be so.”

Today we may respond, “Yes,” but the polls say. . . We say yes, but this is the 21^st century, and that first-century response to the gospel won’t work today. We say yes, I will tell you what I think, and I’ll tell you what the scholars say. All of that will not make any difference to Almighty God. The centurion at Capernaum had it right when he told Jesus, “Just say the word.”

Then the centurion reminded Jesus that he was also under authority, having under himself soldiers. He could obey orders, and he could give orders, and expect unquestioned obedience. I can say to a soldier, “Go, and he goes. Come, and he comes. Do this, and he doeth it.”

The centurion was in the Roman army, and he looks upon Jesus as the commander of a great army, and he was right. Jesus was the commander of the hosts of Heaven.

Think of the time in 2^nd Kings 6 when Elisha was surrounded by the Syrian army at Dothan, and the young prophet said, “Alas Master, what shall we do?”  Elisha said, “Fear not, they that are for us are more than they who are against us.”  Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes that he may see” and the young prophet looked up and saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire because the Lord was in command.

Think about Jesus telling Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Thinkest thou that I cannot beseech my Father, and He would even now send Me more than twelve legions of angels?”

Think of the power of twelve legions of angels, and then consider the power of even one angel. In the book of 2^nd Kings 19, the Assyrian army of Sennacherib came to conquer Jerusalem with overwhelming numbers, and the night before the battle, an angel of the Lord passed over the encampment and killed 185,000.

Listen to some of the verses the poet Lord Byron wrote in his epic poem, about the Destruction of Sennacherib:

“The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold

And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold.

And the sheen of his spears was like stars on the sea

When the blue wave roll nightly on blue Galilee.

For the angel of death spread his wings on the blast

And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed.

And the eyes of the sleeper waxed deadly and chill

And their hearts heaved, but once and forever grew still.

And there lay the rider distorted and pale

With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail

And the tents were all silent, the banners alone

The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail

And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal.

And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword

Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.”

The centurion did not realize that the Lord has two divisions in His army; the Heavenly division, and the Earthly division. Remember Paul urges Timothy, “Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier on service entangleth himself with the affairs of this life.”

The Lord has supplied the uniform for all His soldiers. Paul, the quartermaster, tells us he had plenty of girdles of truth, breastplates of righteousness, hobnail boots, shields of faith, helmets of salvation, and the sharp sword of the Spirit. Paul reminds us also in Romans 13 to put on this armor that he describes as the armor of light.

However, the Earthly division of the Lord’s army is not as disciplined as the Heavenly division. When Jesus commands the Earthly division to, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,” many of the troops won’t go. When Jesus commands His troops to, “Do this, in remembrance of me,”  many of the troops are AWOL on the Lord’s Day. Then when He commands recruits to, “Come unto me,” they won’t come.

The sad part about the Earthly division is the fact they like to drill every week in their resplendent uniform of light, drink a cup of coffee, eat a few donuts, then be complimented for their fine appearance, but have no idea there is a war going on, and the enemy even now is at the gates.

The gospel song can be changed somewhat to read like this:

“Backward Christian soldiers marching as in fear

With the cross of Jesus going to the rear.

Christ the royal Master leads against the foe

But we going backwards, our banners do not flow.

Like a bunch of weaklings moves the Church of God

Brothers we are treading where no saints have trod.

We are all divided not one body we

United in dissensions, and one in apathy.”

Then the fourth evidence the great faith is at the point in the narrative when Jesus marveled. What does it take to make Jesus marvel? There are only two times that we are told that Jesus marveled at something while on earth. He marveled here at the faith of this Gentile centurion, and in Mark 6, He marveled at the unbelief of the people in Nazareth when He returned to preach to the place where they knew Him best, and they admitted He had done mighty works, and then said that He was no more than a carpenter. Jesus marveled at their unbelief.

Israel had a great heritage. Their ancestors had crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, they had crossed over Jordan on dry ground into the Promised Land, they had such great prophets as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel; they had the prophet Elijah who was taken up to Heaven in a fiery chariot, they had been sustained by manna from Heaven during forty years in the wilderness, and yet they kept asking Jesus to show them a sign from Heaven. The Roman centurion had no such heritage and yet he was content, and had faith enough to say, “Just say the word and my servant shall be healed.”

Then the Lord declared, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven: and the sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into the outer darkness, there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.”

They shall come from the east and the west. In Revelation chapter 7, John tells us, “I saw and behold a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation and all tribes and people and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands; and they cry with a great voice, saying, Salvation to our God who sitteth on the throne and unto the Lamb.” Jesus said they shall sit down. That is a promise we can depend on; we shall sit down. Jesus said to the Church at Laodicea in Revelation 3:21, “He that overcometh, I will give to sit down with me on my throne, even as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.”

Sitting on a throne indicates reigning over something. The gospel song says it for us.

“We shall reign with him, Share the throne with him,

When in glory he comes again; Love him day by day,

Serve him all the way, In the fullness of glory we shall reign.”

And now here is this final statement about the centurion’s faith. Jesus said, “Many shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven, but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into the outer darkness. There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.”

There is a parable beginning in Romans 11:17 that illustrates casting out of the sons of the kingdom, in the story of the good olive tree, and the wild olive tree. God was a good horticulturist and had given good care to the good olive tree. But because of unbelief after some time branches were broken off, and some of the branches of the wild olive tree were grafted in, and became partakers with them in the root of the fatness of the good olive tree.

Then Paul says in verse 22, “Behold then the goodness and the severity of God: toward them that fell severity; but to thee, God’s goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou shall be cut off.” And then He said, “If the branches that were cut off, continue not in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.”

In the beginning of the church after the Day of Pentecost, the church was composed of both Jew and Gentile. Peter, in his first sermon that day explained it was the fulfillment of the prophecy, “And in those days I will pour forth my Spirit on all flesh.” Certainly His Spirit was not poured out on every individual. It was poured out on all flesh; all flesh is both Jew and Gentile.

On the day the church began, all 3,000 who became members of the church were Jews, and when the number increased to about 5,000 they were all Jews, and continued to be Jews; until the tenth chapter of Acts when Gentiles were included.

Jesus had predicted this event in John 10 when he said, “Other sheep I have which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and they shall become one flock, one Shepherd.” Then the church was one; composed of both Jew and Gentile.

So when Paul says in Romans 11:26, “All Israel shall be saved,”  all Israel is both Jew and Gentile.

There is no difference in how they are saved; all are under the same plan, both Jew and Gentile. On the Day of Pentecost when the Jewish audience asked what they must do, Peter said unto them, “Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him.” In other words one plan fits all; all Israel shall be saved.

This emphasis is made plain according to Paul in Galatians 3:27-29, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female; for ye are all one man in Christ Jesus. And if ye are Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise.”

And that brings us back to the faith of the Roman centurion of whom Jesus said, “Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven: but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into the outer darkness: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.” And Jesus said unto the centurion, “Go thy way; as thou hast believed so be it done unto thee. And the servant was healed in that hour.”