I'm sure that if I asked you to make a list of events that took place in Scripture that were unusual and just really unique, that you wouldn't have much trouble in doing so. And if you can look at Scripture as a whole and think about those times, maybe one of the things that, and I'm sure that the Kirkland's would put on their list right off the bat would be the flood. That was very unusual for the whole world to be flooded. Others might put down Balaam's donkey talking. That is not normal. That is unusual. You just don't go around hearing talking donkeys. Others might think of Daniel being in lion's den and coming out unscathed. That was highly unusual. Or even his buddies that went into the fiery furnace and they came out and they didn't even smell like smoke. That's another time, very highly unusual event in scripture. Maybe feeding of the four and 5,000 with a minimal amount of food. Another example of events in God's word that are highly unusual. I think of Lazarus rising from the dead. How many have seen people rise from the dead? highly unusual, highly unusual. Well, tonight we're going to take a look at a passage that you may think or have thought, this is not unusual. But I think as we dig into it, you'll find that it is an unusual event that takes place. We're going to be taking a look at Luke chapter 7 verses 1 through 10. But before we delve into Luke chapter 7, I'd like to kind of lay some groundwork and get our minds and our thoughts kind of in gear with the book of Luke. You'll know that the writer of the book was Luke. He was a Gentile. He was a physician. He was a doctor. He was the only Gentile to write in Scripture. And he wrote two volumes, that of Luke and Acts, which makes up a quarter of the New Testament. That's quite a bit. He was a medical missionary. If you want to put it in our mindset, he was a medical missionary for Paul. He went around with Paul on his missionary journeys. He was also one of two writers in the Gospels that were not apostles. Matthew was an apostle, and so was John. But Luke was not, and neither was Mark. There is some possible indications that Mark did see the ministry of Christ and possibly the death and resurrection. But as far as apostleship, Luke was not an apostle, neither was Mark. Colossians chapter 4 verse 14, Paul calls Luke beloved. which is worthy of love, worthy of love. That's the essence behind Paul and his opinion towards Luke. Luke was written to an individual. This is like a letter written to a specific person. It's much like Paul's letter to Flaman. Paul wrote specifically to a person. This wasn't written like Paul's letters to the church. It's not that. It's not even like Matthew who wrote to basically the Jewish group of people. This is directed towards a single person, and that person is the maleas. It's a personal letter, personal letter. He was another Gentile based on that name, and he could have been a ruler, one in authority, that Luke, you see him addressing him as most excellent in chapter one. So he could have been a ruler of such that Luke is addressing. But it's also a letter for us. It's a letter for us to observe and see what's going on. In chapter one of Luke, he lays out the purpose of his letter. He provides him with an accurate account of Christ's ministry. That's one. The second purpose is to assure him that what he has been taught is true. What he has been taught is true. So, keeping Luke's purpose in mind, we're going to take a look at this section of this letter in chapter 7. Keep in mind that it is accurate and it is true. It is accurate and it is true. And we're to believe what's written in here is accurate and it's assurance for us as well. assurance for us as well, that Jesus is God. Jesus is God. As I said earlier, this is kind of an unusual text. It's basically unusual for three reasons. Three reasons. The characters that are involved, their relationship with each other, and the unlikely individual that has great faith. You wouldn't have been able to pick him out as one having great faith, but we'll see that tonight. So we see characters involved are Jesus, a centurion who represents the Roman Empire, there's a slave to the centurion, There's Jewish elders, which are leaders there at Capernaum. There's Jewish friends of the centurion. And then there's the crowd that seemed to be with Jesus a lot, which included the 12 disciples as well. So you've got Jesus, the centurion, the slave of the centurion, the Jewish elders, the Jewish friends, and the crowd. So that's the makeup of the group that we're going to be looking at here tonight. So let me go ahead and read chapter 7 verses 1 through 10. When he, meaning Jesus, had completed all his discourse in the hearing of the people, he went to Capernaum. And a centurion slave, who was highly regarded by him, was sick and about to die. When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders asking him to come and save the life of his slave. When they came to Jesus, they earnestly implored him, saying, he is worthy for you to grant this to him, for he loves our nation and is he who built us our synagogue. Now Jesus started on his way with them. And when he was not far from the house, a centurion sent friends saying to him, Lord, do not trouble yourself further, for I'm not worthy for you to come under my roof. For this reason, I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you, but just say the word and my slave, my servant will be healed. For I also am a man placed under authority with soldiers under me, and 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. Now when Jesus heard this, he marveled at him and turned and said to the crowd that was following him, I say to you, Not even in Israel have I found such great faith." When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health. So Luke sets the stage here for us in the first couple of verses. Verse one, Jesus has completed the sermon on the mount or the hill, and he's coming down from there to Capernaum. And this would be not a day's journey, this would be a short walk, a few miles, and he's heading south from the mount or the hillside to Capernaum. And as he's traveling along, There is a centurion slave that is sick and. he is greeted by some Jewish elders, okay? In verse two, we see that the centurion slave who is highly regarded by him was sick and about to die. Now, let's just stop and think. Lots of times when we read scripture, we read it too fast and do not take time to think about what we have read. And I want to stop and think a little bit about what has just happened here. The centurion slave is sick and about to die. What is a centurion? Well, he's a man. He's a man. He was a Gentile, part of the Roman Empire. He had watch over a section of the Roman Empire with the duty to report to his cohort, commander, any issues that might arise. He was the eyes and ears of Rome. He started out as a soldier in the Roman army, worked his health up to a position to where he was managing, he was directing a hundred soldiers. He was one that had killed other men in battle, either with a sword or a dagger or some implement of war. He'd also killed women and children in captured cities. A hard and cold heart is a centurion. A dedicated man who stood the ground for Rome at all costs, even if it meant his own life. He was going to stand firm. He was a man who had been a soldier all his life. That's what he knew as a man. He was a Roman fighting machine. He was rugged. He had battle scars on his body. He had bulging muscles. He was a he-man, okay? Get the picture? This is a centurion. And the centurion has a slave. Now, what is a slave? A slave is either male or female. In this case, in verse seven, we see in the New American, it points to my servant being, or boy. So this is young male servant. He was dedicated to the service of his master. He had no rights. In fact, a Roman writer, Varro, maintained that the only difference between a slave, a beast, and a cart was that the slave could talk. That's the position of a slave. He fed his master before he got anything to eat. A slave worked either in the house, such as washing the feet of his master or of other people that came. He was also a person that would work outside the house in field work or whatever. So he was a working individual. No one, when they were small as kids, said, Mom and Dad, when I grow up, I want to be a slave. And no father or mother would wish that on their children, because it was such a lowly position. Such a lowly position. Okay, now we take a look here at the first unusual thing, and we see this in verse 2, in the fact that the centurion had this slave who was highly regarded by him. This slave was this young boy, was highly regarded by this he-man, this centurion. This lowly slave was highly regarded by the centurion. He had high regard for this living tool that could talk. That doesn't make sense. There's something wrong with this picture. This man of war has got concern about this lowly slave, the health of this lowly slave. How is it that a centurion hold a living tool in high regard and be concerned about the health of a slave? He had other slaves. You know, you just tote him off and get a new one. Was this a normal centurion? Let's read on. Let's see what we can get here. In verse 3, when he, the centurion, had heard about Jesus. Now that's not unusual because the centurion, his focus was to know what was going on in his area. So he's going to have his ears close to the ground as to what's going on. It wouldn't have been much trouble for him to find out what was going on about Jesus' activities. News about Jesus had gotten around Capernaum. And let's take a look. Let's go back to Luke chapter 4, verse 31. Let me start with... Well, let me start with verse 31. It says, And he came down to Capernaum, that he being Jesus, a city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on the Sabbath. And they were amazed at his teaching, for his message was with authority. In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, Let us alone. What business do you have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth, have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.' But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be quiet, and come out of him. And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, he came out of him without doing him any harm." And amazement came upon them all. And they began talking to one another, saying, What is this message? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out." Verse 37, And the report about Him, Jesus, was spreading into every locality in the surrounding district. Word was getting out about this Jesus and the power and the authority he had. If you continue in verse 38, this is where Simon's mother-in-law is healed. Go down to verse 40. And while the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him and laid his hands on each one of them. And he was healing them. Demons were also coming out of many shouting, you are the son of God. But rebuking them, he would not allow them to speak because they knew him to be the Christ. So they were bringing people to Christ, to Jesus to be healed from that area because word had gotten out. This is not just little bits of news. This is widespread. This is widespread. If you go on to chapter five, you see that you see the great amount of fish that Peter caught, and there was a crowd there, so they had seen that. The people had seen that. This was the talk of the area. This Jesus was performing miracles. Go on to chapter 5, and you look in verse 15 and 16. This is about the leper But the news about him was spreading even farther. The large crowds were gathering to hear him to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray. Jesus could not get away from the people unless he slipped away. And he had to do that so that he could spend time with his heavenly father. He was so inundated with all the people. It's a wonder that he could go anywhere due to the crowds. Verse 3 of chapter 7 goes on to say that the centurion sent some Jewish elders to Jesus with a request to come and save the sick slave who was about to die. This blows my mind too. How unusual is this? Here we've got Jews that are going to the centurion who represents Rome, who is a Gentile, and he's asking them to go to Jesus. Are these Jews colluding with Rome? What's going on here? What's going on? The Jews had no respect or love for Rome. They were under oppression of Rome. How could they even associate with the centurion? How could they do that? Why did the Roman Gentile centurion send some Jewish elders to Jesus? Because he had heard Jesus and the healings that had been performed struck a chord with the centurion. Could it be that this centurion believed that there might be a possibility that Jesus was God? Could it be that some of the Jewish elders had actually talked to the centurion about a Messiah coming? I don't know. I don't know. But He is sending these Jewish elders. He's putting faith into action here. He's putting faith into action. Could this man of war, the Gentile from Rome, come to realize who Jesus was? Could he have done that? Yes, he could have. And I think the text will prove that out. You know, Romans 10 chapter 17 says, so faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word concerning Christ." This centurion had heard about Jesus, had heard about His authority and who He was. You know, sometimes I wonder about within Jesus' disciple group Why not Matthew didn't have his head cut off by Simon the Zealot? Because you got two extreme opposites there. And that's what we've got here. That's what we've got here. Let's go on. verses four through five. And when they came to Jesus, that being the Jewish elders, they earnestly implored him saying, he is worthy for you to grant this to him, for he loves our nation. It is he who built our synagogue. We see here that the Jewish elders are imploring Jesus. They're not just saying, hey Jesus, if you got some time, if you're not too busy, Can He come with us? No, no. They are begging. They're begging Him. They're imploring Him. You have got to come and heal this slave. You've got to come. There is an urgent request here. A person's life is at stake. A life that is valued. a life that is valued. This was the message that was coming from the centurion through the Jewish elders who came on behalf of the centurion. The crowd may be asking, okay, why should Jesus help out this enemy of the Jews? Why should he be doing this? Notice that the elders support the request With the following, they say, he is worthy. This centurion is worthy. His character is such that he is worthy. He loves our nation. This is an unusual centurion. He loves the Jews. He loves the Jews. And his love is not just words. His love is action as well. He is one that built the first synagogue of Capernaum. He built, he beat out the Baptist, the first Baptist church of Capernaum. They got the first synagogue of Capernaum. He probably financed the building. We don't know. He may have waived the building permits. He may have granted zoning changes. I don't know. But because of this centurion, this synagogue in Capernaum was built. It was built. In verse six, we see Jesus' response to the request by walking towards the centurion's house. This implies that by going to the Gentile's house to heal this lowly slave, He is going there and doing such. He doesn't get far from the house. When the centurion sends some of the friends, the friends give Jesus a message, don't bother coming. Don't bother coming. The centurion makes three unusual statements here. These are unusual statements. First he says, I'm not worthy for you to come under my roof. He's saying that of a Jew. He's saying that of a Jew. A Roman centurion did not see himself on the same level as Jesus. He was not worthy. This Roman centurion who had a hundred men under him was not worthy for Jesus to come into his house. Then in verse seven, the second statement, I did not consider myself worthy to come myself, another statement of humility on the part of the centurion. And finally, the grabber in all this, the centurion says, just say the word and my servant will be healed. This is a statement of faith. This is a statement of faith. He is asking Jesus to perform a remote healing. All the other times up to this point, Jesus had been in the presence of those that He healed. He had been there with them. This was new, totally new. He's doing a remote healing. He's not even in the house. He's outside, away from the house. And he says, Jesus, if you'll just say the word, my slave will be healed. That is an amazing statement. The centurion says that it's not necessary for Jesus to be in the present to heal. The centurion does not stop at that, but provides an explanation behind his statement. In verse 8 it says, Also am a man placed under authority with soldiers under me and to say to this one go and he goes and to another come and he comes and to my slave do this and he does that the Centurion is applying by his example that Jesus has authority to heal remotely Jesus does not need to be in the presence of the one being healed. He has faith Jesus can heal and Jesus has the authority. He has the authority. We know that He has authority. He has authority over ailments. He has authority to heal the sick. But in like manner, He has authority to cause plagues to kill people. He has authority over the weather, to calm the storm, to cut the water supply off. But then he also has the authority to cause it to rain. He has authority over governments. He appoints leadership. He has authority over animals. He made the fish to come into Peter's net. He caused the frogs to crawl all over the land in Egypt. He's got authority over food, manna to fall from heaven and quail to come. Bread and meat, what more do you need? For men. Okay. The sea split, he split them wide open for people to walk, but then he caused the same sea to return and kill the Egyptians. He caused water to come out of a rock. He has authority over all things. Psalms 115 verse three, it says, but our God is in the heavens and He does whatever He pleases. Do you believe that? Do you believe that God can do whatever He pleases? Verse 9, we see Jesus' reaction to the message from the centurion. Jesus marveled. Jesus is amazed. He marvels at what He has just heard. So much so, that He turns to the crowd that has been following Him. This is a teaching moment. This is a teaching moment for the crowd. He says, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith." Now, that is a slap in the face. Of all places, he should have seen faith, it should have been with the Jews. Why? Because they had the very words of God. They knew what God was like. They knew the power, the authority that God had. They had the writings of the forefather. They had the writings of the prophet. All they needed to believe, all they needed to do was to believe, and they fell short. And here this Roman centurion, one that is battle savvy, and highly regarded sick unto death slave, you know, that he's got. He is one that also did not practice religion. He didn't go through all the religious practices. He is one that's considered unclean. He has shown the nation of Israel what it means to have faith in God. An unusual man with unusual faith, demonstrating how we are to live our lives having faith in God. The friends return, okay? When they arrive, what do they find? They find this slave that's sick unto death in good health. Now, keep in mind that they didn't have to go far to get to this house. Matthew's account says, and the servant was healed that very moment. Right then. The moment that the centurion expressed faith, Jesus could heal remotely. He was healed. Whenever we see Jesus perform a miracle, it is complete. It is complete. There's no on the road to recovery for those that have leprosy. There's no performing a physical therapy of those that were lame. There's no learning of language for those that were deaf and dumb. Healing was complete as though the person was not sick. Instantaneously, miraculously, amazing our God. We see miracles today. the miracle of a transformed heart. That is miraculous. It's miraculous because it's not something man in his own power can generate any more than you can you can born yourself. You didn't have anything to do with your birth. A transformed heart is a work accomplished only by God. It is complete and thorough. just like Jesus' healings. Praise God for the work that He does in the hearts of man. What does it say in Romans 10 starting with verse 9? That if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the scripture says, whoever believes in him will not be disappointed. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek and Centurions and women, and men. Oh, I'm sorry. Let's see. Let me get back on the scripture. It says, for the same Lord is the Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on him. For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. A transformed heart. As I stated at first, Luke wrote this account of Jesus and his ministry. They were to confirm what had been taught was true and that there would be assurance of what was taught was true. So let's take a look here and see some things that we can see in this passage. of what Luke was trying to portray here, what he was teaching, what he was saying. A Gentile, Roman centurion, believed Jesus was from God. He believed Jesus had the authority to heal. He had heard who Jesus was. If God could change the heart of man, then this Gentile ruler, who Luke is writing, could also be regenerated. God was not limited in what he could do. And for us, God can and does save even the most savage people. There is hope for family members who are vehemently opposed to the gospel. There's hope because God is not limited. God is not limited. Faith comes by hearing. If one does not hear about Jesus, how will they know? How will they know? So faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word concerning Christ. With faith comes action. With faith comes action. There are acts that back up the faith. It isn't that the works gain faith or that one is merited with faith based on works, for we know that faith is a gift. Ephesians 2, 8, 9. It's a gift. He found out that God was not a respecter of persons. He does good for all the lowly class as well as the high class. and everyone in between. This encourages us to act well for all classes of people and to do good for all people. Galatians 6.10 says, So then while we have opportunity, let's do good to all people, especially those that are of the household of faith. So let's do good for all those that are sick. In this case, we had a sick slave. The centurion showed good works and his faith in Christ. The centurion also showed humility. He was not worthy of going to Jesus or having Jesus come into his house. This was a huge act and a mission by this man of war. As a ruler, He had the ability to call out His slaves and His soldiers to do different acts, but He's admitting humility here for Jesus to even come into His house, an act of humility. We are to be a people that are humble and not proud. Peter says in 5.5, clothe yourself or put on humility towards one another. Why? For God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. There's probably some other things that we can get into concerning this passage. And looking at this, we see the faith of an unusual individual that we would not think would have faith, but he did. This brought glory to God, not only the healing, but the emphasis was the faith that this centurion had. He is pleased with submission to his will, to God's will, and the giving up of your will. Giving up of your will. As a hymn writer, John Sammis wrote, when we walk with the Lord in the light of his word, what a glory he sheds on our way. While we do his good will, he abides with us still. with all who will trust and obey. May we be a people that trust God in everything, that we trust him during the time of the elections. We trust him now. We trust him in the future. We trust him with our children, with our spouses, with our boss, with our employees, with our, even our own health. That doesn't mean we don't do anything. We're to vote, we're to plan ahead, we're to guide our children, love our spouse, submit to the boss, direct employees, take care of ourselves. But when things don't go our way, we're to submit to His will because He is in the heavens and He does as He well pleases. Thank God that He is in control. Let's pray. Father, I want to thank You for this passage. I thank You for this centurion, this man of war, this man that fought, killed people. Father, I thank You for his faith, his faith in Your Son. to accomplish the good work of healing. I thank you for his humility to admit that he was not worthy, not worthy for your son to come, not worthy for him to even come to this son. The Father, He had faith that you could heal regardless. You had the authority, you had the power to do so, and you do so today. I thank you for the miracle of regeneration and what you have occurred, what you've done in the hearts of the people here to regenerate our hearts, to cause us to be born again anew. May we spend this time in prayer. May we spend this time in prayer in talking to you and expressing praise, adoration, our thanksgiving, even confession if need be, and any requests because you desire us to come to you to do so. Thank you for this time tonight, in your name, Amen.