Serve the One in Charge
0 Amens
Serve the One in Charge
Matthew 8:5-13
1st Church, Lock Haven
INTRODUCTION: Follow the Leader
• Capernaum. – Jesus called it home. Because special people were there.
• Centurion was one of them. Not Jewish, but a God-fearer who had helped Jews practice their religion.
• Servant/son paralyzed – just like the man last week who was lowered through the ceiling – and in great pain.
• “I will go and heal him.”
• The centurion stops him. “I am not worthy.” He was a Gentile. WWII occupying army in Japan had to respect the customs of the day.
• Don’t come just say the word & my son will be healed.
• Something happens that doesn’t happen very often in the gospels. It happens a few times, but not very often. Jesus is astonished. I think that we will recognize this one when we get to heaven. I don’t know how, but we will know “That is the one who astonished Jesus with his faith.”
• I don’t know if we can understand the depth of the significance of this event for the religious leaders of the day. If someone came into the church today who was different from us & I said no one in this room is as good a Christian as that one is. Pretty harsh statement.
• There will be countless people like this one who will enter into the Kingdom of heaven, but you and people like you who were born into it will be cast out.
• Then Jesus healed the centurion’s son.
• QUESTION: HOW CAN WE BE LIKE THE CENTURION AND NOT LIKE THE RELIGIOUS LEADERS OF THE DAY? WHEN IT COMES TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, I WOULD RATHER COME IN LATE AND STAY, THAN TO BE BORN INTO IT AND CAST OUT. HERE IS THE DIFFERENCE. THE CENTURION KNEW WHO WAS IN CHARGE, THE RELIGIOUS LEADERS OF THE DAY DID NOT.
1. You know you are serving the one in charge when you remember who is in charge.
a. The centurion could have had the mistaken belief that he was in charge.
i. He was used to people obeying him.
ii. Jesus immediately agreed to go with him to the centurion’s home and heal his servant.
iii. The centurion stops and he says, “This is not my show. This is your show. You do it your way.”
You might not be in charge of 100 soldiers, but you & I get the impression time and time again that we are in charge of our life.
b. Our own goodness makes us think we are in charge.
i. Luke tells us about a centurion who was commended by the Jewish people as worthy of being helped.
ii. we are tempted to turn our religious practices around so that God will do what we want im to do.
iii. Catholic hit man. Killed over 20 people. Only did 10 years or so. The interviewer asked him, “You are a religious man how do you deal with it.” “I went to a priest & confessed everything I did. He asked me what I thought of myself. I told him I would burn in hell. He laughed. ‘Say 10 Hail Mary’s and 10 Our Fathers & don’t do it again.’” The interviewer said, “will you ever kill again?” “No.” “What about ______” & he named the guy who ratted on him. “That is another story.”
Serve Jesus, not yourself.
2. You know you are serving the one in charge when you do what he says immediately
a. Obedience requires no thought or deliberation
i. Soldier knows obedience is what matters (Steve Saint)
ii. The only deliberation is the discernment of whether it is God’s voice we hear.
b. The Centurion understood that Jesus commanded that kind of obedience from the whole of creation. He demands it of you.
Serve Jesus, Now.
3. You know you are serving the one in charge when you trust Him completely
a. The centurion left his suffering dying child, one of the hardest things for a parent to do.
b. Trust God’s word
c. Why did those in Israel not have faith (complete trust) in God/Jesus
i. They had a familiarity with scripture that bred complacency.
ii. They had a world view that favored pet scriptures. (Is. 53 was explained away, but the promises to David were well known.)
iii. They had a self-sufficiency that caused them to look to themselves before they looked to God.
Serve Jesus, completely
CONCLUSION
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