Never the same – a desperate leader
Preaching notes
This series is on encounters with Jesus. What happened when Jesus Christ crossed someone’s path
- at least, that’s the surface perception.
- You may already have realised that I’m cheekily bending the definition of an ‘encounter’
- First week it was all the disciples, last week it was two whole churches
- and this week it’s someone who was healed but never actually saw Jesus!
- This is an account of remote healing!
And yet there is not the least doubt in their minds or in ours that it was Jesus Christ who healed this man!
I’m troubled by the tendency I have to put the events of the Bible into a box
- label it ‘bible happenings that don’t recur today’
- let me re-read this – so we’d hear it as one of them may have heard it
2 There was a business executive’s PA, a man whom his employer valued highly, was terminally ill in DGH
3 The executive heard Jesus was coming through Eastbourne and sent some elders from his church to him, asking him to come and pray for his PA.
4 When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, he’s well-known locally, and paid for our church to be built.”
6 So Jesus was about to get into the car the mobile phone in the car rang. It was the executive phoning to say to Jesus: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come to see me. The whole of Europe wants to see you!
7 That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you personally. But you only need to say the word, and my PA will be healed.
8 For I myself am a man under authority, with employees working for me. I tell this one, `Go’, and he goes; and that one, `Come’, and he comes. I say to my PA, `Do this’, and I can consider it done.”
9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the people following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in the church.”
10 Then the men who had been sent returned to the hospital and found the PA perfectly well, waiting to be discharged.
He was a respected man and a responsible man
- centurion – leader of 100 other men
Oscar Wilde “I do prefer to travel on French ships – there’s none of this ‘women and children first’ nonsense!”
- Today religion is ‘women and children first’ – not in Jesus ministry
- it’s peppered with examples of men’s lives being changed when they put their faith in him.
- His whole disciple’s team was men.
Another significant feature: The focus of the Luke’s account is not on the servant (or the PA) who was ill – but the centurion! So why does the Bible concentrate on the centurion? What was it that made Jesus’ ears prick up?
Now there’s a man I want to be like – there’s a life I want to dig into! So what was it that made this man’s faith great?
What was it that impressed no less that Jesus about his trust in God?
Four attitudes that stimulate my own faith
that’s what I want to do today – to stimulate our faith!
My faith rises when I go to the right person
Centurion did this – he consulted the right person
let’s not forget the obvious!
- Get the right consultant and you’ll have the best available treatment
At the end of the service we’re going to have a time of prayer together
- we’ll be praying for God’s blessing on each other – his power – his patience – his healing – his strength – his wisdom
- whatever your need is tonight, it is to God himself that we will be going
When I go to Jesus I find my faith rising because I’ve seen him work before time and time again!
My faith rises when I avoid demanding of God
Centurion felt he didn’t deserve the personal attention of Jesus
I wonder if this was a change of mind of his behalf
- because in the previous verse we discover it was this very centurion who sent the elders of the church to see Jesus.
- I don’t think he was getting cold feet – but he simply felt that he didn’t want to bother someone as prestigious as Jesus to come to his humble home.
I think he knew he was in no position to demand of Jesus
My friends – when we demand that God should work in particular way in our lives we pray out of insistence and not out of faith.
I remember a friend of mine, a medic, clever, holding down a good job in a local hospital
- he joined our church – he came to see me one day
- made it very clear that he was coming into the church because he wanted to find a wife
- He was insisting with God that God should give him a wife – after all he deserved one (or so he thought)
- The trouble is he was so interested in the girls in the church that they (very astutely) kept him at arm’s length!
Can I say (and I don’t want to make a big thing of this) – when I stand here – unpacking this book – preaching the word as best my faltering technique will allow me to
- there’s a thought that often flashes across the video screen of my own soul – “Why me?”
- why should I have the privilege –
- I just – don’t – deserve it
- Why should God take the slightest notice of me? Why should he use me – I just don’t deserve it.
I don’t want to make myself out to be anything I’m not
- but I think I can touch just a little of what the centurion felt that day
A sense of enormous privilege that Jesus should take note of him!
He’s not demanding, he’s not insisting, he’s just deeply grateful (and just a bit gob smacked) that the God of the universe should put other business aside to take notice of him.
My friend – when you come forward to be prayed for today – there’s no need to demand – just thank God that he takes notice of a nobody like you
- and will discover him moving heaven and earth to meet you where you need to be met.
my faith rises when I avoid being proud v7
7 That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed.
To be humble is not to have a low estimate of myself, it’s to have a correct estimation of myself
My faith rises when I am obedient to the prompting of God v8
8 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, `Go’, and he goes; and that one, `Come’, and he comes. I say to my servant, `Do this’, and he does it.”
If being humble is having a correct estimate of myself, being obedient is having a correct estimation of my master
- This man knows what it is both to command and to obey
He can command because carries a position of superiority – Centurion >>>
- but right now, he’s putting himself in the place of a servant “You, Jesus, you give the word!”
- and he’s putting himself in the place of obedience to Jesus
- Lord, you say the word, you give the order, you issue the command
I can’t help wondering if the centurion actually thought that Jesus was going to ask him to do something heroic in order to obtain his servant’s healing.
- … if Jesus has asked the centurion to push a marble from there to Jerusalem with his nose – I think he would have done it!
Letters to royalty – “your obedient servant”
There was a prompting >>>
what’s faith like?
Faith is resting on the fact that something is true before I’ve experienced it.
E.g. Centurion “Just say the word and he will be healed.”
there seems little doubt in his mind!
Two schools of thought about faith
- … based on evidence
- … a leap in the dark.
Neither is the whole truth!
Faith becomes real when I begin thanking the lord that what he’s promised is true.
and resting on the fact that it is.
It involves my intellect
I know what the Lord has promised
It involves my soul –
I let my heart resonate with God’s will for me – “Yes Lord, I thank you that this promise is true for me”
If the was some way in which we could guarantee that God would heal, or answer the prayers
- we would use it to bend his arm right up his back!
- and he would no longer be sovereign
and we would no longer learn the precious lessons of having to wait for him.
different types of faith
historical / dogmatic faith
Believing the truths of the Bibles
temporary faith
Lasts for a time, then vanishes, or is not looked after
Faith is a bit like a plant – need right conditions to grow
E.g. Parable of sower –
Matthew 13:21 But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.
miraculous faith
Faith to work miracles to confirm to people that God is around here!
In NT miracles are sometimes called ‘signs’
- signs of what? >>>
Miracles were not there to defy science – after all they didn’t look at the world through scientific spectacles as we do
miracles confirmed that God was at work!
justifying faith
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Difference between seeking faith and resting faith
e.g. Airport waiting lounge – two types of people
those on standby – nervously pace up and down – constantly looking at watch – asking when next seat available
those with reservations – sit calmly in seat, knowing that their flight is certain
That’s the difference between someone who has heard God’s voice and responded to it and one who hasn’t >>>
a seeking faith
Feeling that “I’m on the right track but not quite there yet.
a resting faith
The centurion is an inspiring example of resting faith
- Even Jesus thought so! “I have not seen such great faith in all Israel”
- Why? – because he rested his faith on the word of Jesus
weak faith?
You may say ‘Oh but my faith is so weak’
- the question is – is it real
a weak faith takes hold of a strong God!
The woman who pushed through the crowd to Jesus was very weak, only touched his coat
- but she was healed!
- It was the touch of faith
the Lord’s promises are made not to people with strong faith, but to people with real faith.
Blessed are the poor in spirit (small faith) for theirs in the kingdom of heaven
weak faith may be growing
We all have to start somewhere
and God accepts you just as you are
What he wants to see in us is a willingness to grow in faith!
Pray
Lord deepen our faith in you
Develop our spiritual muscles!
