Jan. 24, 2023 - Just Informed Talk - Craig James
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| Hi and welcome back. | |
| We're going to do our God's Grace is Greater segment right now where we're going to be looking in the book of Luke, the Gospel of Luke, chapter 7. | |
| We're going to be talking about the first 10 verses here that give us this incredible story of a centurion's faith being rewarded. | |
| We're going to talk about these verses and how they basically give us a lesson for today that we can use in our lives. | |
| But let's just start by doing a dive into the scripture itself where we're going to read Luke chapter 7 verse 1 through 10. | |
| Picking up from where we left off, which if you guys will recall, we left off with Jesus giving us the sermon of the Beatitudes, telling us to love our enemies and not to judge others, and to judge a tree by its fruit, and understand that if we build our house on the foundation of Jesus, that it will withstand the many afflictions that we may face in this world. | |
| So, I do really hope that these next few words, to give you context of where we're at, speak directly to your heart, and then we'll kind of break it down as to what it may mean for us today. | |
| Let's go ahead and read chapter 7, verse 1 through 10, a centurion's faith. | |
| He says, | |
| For I too am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under my command. | |
| I say to this one, Go, and he goes, and to another, Come, and he comes, and to my slave, Do this, and he does it. | |
| Jesus heard this and was amazed at him. | |
| And turning to the crowd following him, he said, I tell you, I have not found so great a faith even in Israel. | |
| When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health. | |
| So this is a fascinating story and you have to kind of put yourself contextually where this is all happening and in what situation this is all taking place under. | |
| Jesus is living and preaching all around these Jewish and Gentile areas, but they are all controlled. | |
| They have one similarity. | |
| They're all controlled by the Romans, the Roman Empire, that is. | |
| And Luke, in his writing, really highlights this, I believe, not only because of the fact that this is an important story and a part of the gospel, but because Luke himself, being a Gentile, wanted to show to us how Jesus' ministry was different than any other ministry wanted to show to us how Jesus' ministry was different than Because Jesus had come not as a Jew speaking only to Jews, but he came as the Messiah speaking to all. | |
| And this is a great example of that. | |
| Because in this example, we're shown this complicated situation where a centurion who has a slave who he cares for very deeply, and in those days, a slave could have been somebody who was cared for deeply by an individual. | |
| and it wasn't necessarily the kind of... | |
| What we get as far as our modern day connotation of slavery was. | |
| It was a little bit different back then. | |
| It was more of like an indentured type of servitude. | |
| And it was very common among those of that day, especially in the Roman Empire. | |
| And in this particular example, you can see here that Jesus had this centurion who basically realizes that his servant is sick and about to die. | |
| And he knew about Jesus, so he asked the Jewish elders to request him to come and save the life of his slave. | |
| Now, when they went to Jesus, they said that the centurion slave was worthy because he had love for the nation of Israel and had basically been responsible for building a synagogue. | |
| So Jesus went to them. | |
| And he was not far from the house, and the centurion essentially sent friends to tell him, Lord, don't trouble yourself, since I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. | |
| That is why I didn't even consider myself worthy to come to you, but say the word, and my servant will be cured. | |
| And he gives this explanation of his authority that he has over men. | |
| And This is an incredible understanding that happens here, this exchange, right? | |
| Where there was a man, probably a pagan, you know, believing in the Roman traditional paganism that was of that day, recognizing the power and authority of Jesus Christ as the Messiah and one who was able to cure somebody who was about to die. | |
| And in this exchange, Jesus is Very much impressed, it would seem. | |
| Because the centurion admits that he has authority over men and soldiers. | |
| He can say to them, come and go. | |
| He has slaves, he can say, come and go and do this. | |
| But he's admitting that Jesus has a superior authority. | |
| Authority over life and death. | |
| An authority that he doesn't possess. | |
| And that he fully submits to. | |
| In acknowledging that he is not worthy... | |
| To have Jesus even come under his roof. | |
| Now, why is this a big deal? | |
| Well, because in those times, the Romans saw themselves as superior to the Jews that they were basically ruling over. | |
| And for a centurion to say openly that he was not worthy of having a Jew come under his roof, well, that was pretty revolutionary for the time. | |
| And in that example, we see for ourselves how Jesus came not only for us, or not only for the Jews, but for us all. | |
| And in this particular example, we can actually see that surrendering to his authority and power, no matter how powerful we think we are in this world, is the ultimate sign of submission. | |
| But It's also something that Jesus will recognize and be amazed by. | |
| I mean, Jesus heard it and was amazed. | |
| He told the crowd, I tell all of you, I have not found so great a faith even in Israel. | |
| So he says, this centurion, who is a part of the Roman Empire, who is overseeing soldiers, he has authority over men, He has recognized me in a way that I have not even found amongst the entire country, the entire peoples of Israel to that point. | |
| And I think we should all strive to have that kind of faith in Jesus. | |
| The same faith the centurion man had in Jesus' great healing power, but his authority over life and death. | |
| Because in this example we learn that Jesus not only was amazed, but what does he do? | |
| He heals the slave whom they had asked him to heal. | |
| So what do we learn through this whole story? | |
| Well, we learn that submitting to the authority of the Messiah and acknowledging his authority over life and death, not only can it amaze people, But it can amaze Jesus himself, and that he can grant us the things that we go to him for. | |
| And I hope that you guys recognize that in your lives, no matter what authority and power you have in this world, or lack thereof, to be quite honest, Jesus will recognize you wherever you are, wherever we are. | |
| And he will answer the prayer of the righteous man who humbly submits to his authority. | |
| And that's the lesson I think we can all take away from this. | |
| So that's where I'm going to go ahead and leave it. | |
| We'll say a prayer. | |
| We'll wrap it up and we'll go from there. | |
| Lord and Heavenly Father, we give you such thanks for this amazing and powerful story that teaches us, Lord, of the authority that Jesus held and holds over life and death through you, God. | |
| And we just pray and thanks for that. | |
| We pray that we have the faith of the centurion in our own lives to understand and believe that you, Lord, can do great things for us, with us, through us, and that all we have to do is submit, Lord. | |
| And although we may think we have power and authority in this world, help us recognize and understand that our power and authority is nothing compared to yours. | |
| And I pray, Lord, that all those out there Who need to feel you more closely and see a miracle right now. | |
| Have that opportunity, Lord. | |
| Not because of anything that they do. | |
| But because of your mercy and your grace and your loving kindness that you've given to us. | |
| As long as we accept. | |
| And we thank you for that most of all. | |
| We thank you for our eternal salvation in Jesus' name. | |
| Amen. | |
| Alright guys, well... | |
| I hope that you enjoyed that episode. | |
| We're going to go ahead and sign off there. | |
| We'll pick up right where we left off tomorrow with the next segment of Our God's Grace is a Greater segment. | |
| But thank you all for watching. | |
| We'll see you on the next one. | |
| There's links in the description on how you can support this channel. | |
| If you want to make a donation, make sure you like, share, and subscribe. | |
| Let me know in the comments what you think about everything we went through. | |
| If I missed anything, if you have any further interpretation or understanding that you want to share or a prayer request or whatever, Just go in the link below or in the comments below and let me know what you think. | |
| So, thanks for watching this episode of God's Grace is Greater. | |
| We'll see you on the next one until then. | |
| My name is Craig. |
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