In Peter Allison's sermon 'The Centurion's Faith,' he explores the biblical account of a Roman centurion who demonstrates remarkable faith in Jesus, as recounted in Luke 7. The sermon highlights two instances in scripture where Jesus marvels: once at the unbelief of his own town of Nazareth and again at the great faith of the centurion. Despite being a Roman officer, part of an occupying force despised by the Jews, the centurion is depicted as a man of compassion and integrity, who loves the Jewish nation and has even built them a synagogue. When his beloved servant falls ill, the centurion sends Jewish elders to plead with Jesus to heal him. Remarkably, the centurion expresses a profound understanding of authority and faith, acknowledging his own unworthiness and believing that Jesus' word alone is sufficient for healing. This faith, which comes by hearing and not by seeing, is contrasted with the unbelieving generation of Israel who witnessed many miracles yet did not believe. The sermon emphasizes that true faith turns to Christ, relies on the power of his word, and is accompanied by a sense of personal unworthiness. It explores the idea that salvation is by grace through faith, not by works, and highlights the inclusivity of God's grace, as demonstrated in the faith of the Gentile centurion. The sermon concludes with a prayer for God to grant this saving faith to all, recognizing human unworthiness and the sufficiency of Christ's redemptive work.

Please turn with me to Luke chapter 7. I'd like to begin reading at verse 1. Now when he concluded all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. And a certain centurion servant who was dear to him was sick and ready to die. So when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to him, pleading with him to come and heal his servant.

And when they came to Jesus, they begged him earnestly, saying that the one for whom he should do this was deserving, for he loves our nation and has built us a synagogue. Then Jesus went with them. And when he was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying to him, Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof. Therefore, I do not even think myself worthy to come to you, but say the word and my servant will be healed, for I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, go, and he goes, and to another, come, and he comes, and to his servant, do this, and he does it." When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel.

And those who were sent returning to the house found the servant well who had been sick. May the Lord shine His face upon us, His servants, and teach us His statutes. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would likewise give us eyes of faith this morning to see you, to see your power, to believe your word. I ask that you might be glorified this morning in the preaching of your word, and that you would sanctify these sinful lips to proclaim your riches and your glory in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, there are two occasions mentioned in scripture when Jesus is amazed, when he marvels. Two times. The first time He marveled at the unbelief of his own city of Nazareth. Here Jesus was present in their midst. He had done many wonders down in Judea.

They had heard about these things. He was now in their midst teaching in their synagogue. And they did not believe. They said, this is just a carpenter. Isn't this the carpenter that we knew, that we've known for 30 years, who's made our furniture and fixed our wagons.

Isn't this his mother and aren't these his brothers and sisters? He's just one of us. And Jesus says He marveled at their unbelief and was not able to do anything in their midst. Not because He didn't have power, certainly had the power, but God acts through and because of the prayers of his people. And there was no faith.

Prayers that arise from believing hearts. There was no faith there. He marveled at that. And the other time that we read of Jesus marveling is this story, this example. He marvels at the great faith that he saw in this centurion.

Centurions are, were Roman soldiers, Roman officers, and as such they were part of Rome, that the Roman army that the Jews particularly despised. They were the people that Jesus, the Jews thought had come to defeat. They were the enemies of the Jewish people. That's how they were viewed by the Jews in Jesus' day, by many of them. That didn't stop the unscrupulous ones, leaders, from joining them to make money off of the people.

But at least publicly they proclaimed their hatred for the Romans. And they looked to the Messiah as somebody who would deliver them, who would defeat the Roman army and deliver them, which happened just not the way they thought it would. So the centurion then is an off-captain of men, centurion meaning a hundred, but he could have had a smaller number or a larger number, maybe even sometimes as many as a thousand in a large garrison. He would have been the front line officer, if you will. What we might call today the platoon commander.

And even though the Jews hated the Roman army, scriptures speak generally very highly of centurions. There is really nothing bad that the scripture says about them. There's this centurion, there is the centurion that was at Jesus overseeing the soldiers at Jesus crucifixion who said truly this was the Son of God. And this centurion is described by Luke as somebody who feared God, As somebody who had given alms, had given gifts, had the Jews here attribute to him the building of their temple or of their synagogue. They say that he's deserving.

That's a lot to say for the Jews to say of a Roman that this man this centurion was deserving He loves our nation's built us. He's built us a synagogue. So he had he was wealthy as as many of his kind would be. And he used his money for the good of these people, which shows you that it's a good example of what Jesus had been talking about is to love your enemies. He was an example of that, showing kindness, loving these people, loving their nation, doing good for them, using the authority of his office for the good of those over whom he ruled.

That's the right use of authority. That's what authority is for. It's for the good. It's for the benefits, for the blessing of those over whom it is exercised. And this man had done that.

And where he saw needs, where he saw he could help these people he he did even building them a synagogue according to the elders that he sent so this this centurion a lot like a lot like Cornelius a centurion that Peter was sent to a little later in Acts. This centurion was loved by the people over whom he rolled, over whom his soldiers were garrisoned. And he heard, he heard about Jesus' works. He heard about Jesus. And that's our first point this morning.

This centurion was praised by Jesus for his faith. But faith comes by hearing. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing the Word of God, it's the Holy Spirit who opens our eyes and makes us alive, opens our ears and enables us to hear. After Jesus had concluded, Luke puts this event right after, chronologically he says it followed this sermon on the plane when he had concluded.

When Jesus had concluded all his sayings in the hearing of the people what we what what Luke has been recounting in chapter 6 which we've called the sermon on the plane very similar in content in many places but not everywhere to the Sermon on the Mount that Matthew records, which I think was a bit earlier. He hears what Jesus has done. He's never seen Jesus, or that we know of, or met him in person, but he merely had heard. People had come to him and told him the words of life. Come to him and told him what Jesus had said and done and he believed.

The skeptics today would like to tell us that well they might believe if God would just show up and do something that they could see. Then, they would believe, they tell us. If God would just make an appearance, if God would just, I heard one man in a debate say, well, if God would just cause this podium to defy gravity, then maybe I might believe in him. He thought that faith would come by seeing. But the Bible says it's just the opposite.

It's just the opposite. Faith comes by hearing, not seeing. It doesn't come through signs and wonders. In fact, you can see that in that the two generations in the history of Israel, The two generations that saw the most signs and the most wonders were the two generations that were particularly known for their unbelief. Remember the generation of Israelites that God took out of Egypt.

They saw incredible wonders. They saw the ten plagues. They saw God turn a river into blood. They saw God send plagues of locusts, just swarms of insects and frogs and lice. They saw darkness so thick you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, unlike anything they had ever seen before.

They saw Moses throw down his rod and it became a snake and then he could pick it up and it turned back into his rod. They saw every time Moses said something, every time Moses called on God to send a plague, God sent it. And when Moses called for God to remove it, God removed it when Moses asked God to. They saw all this. They saw the angel of death pass over their houses that had this blood that they had killed the lambs and put on their houses.

They saw God pass over their houses and kill the firstborn of every man and animal throughout the land of Egypt where the blood wasn't over the door. They saw themselves cornered, the whole nation, between the mountains on one side, the Red Sea on the other, and the Egyptian army, one of the mightiest armies in the world at that time, behind them. Where are they going to go? They saw God open a path right in the middle of the sea and they walk across on dry ground and this army with their chariots and horses not able to cross the exact same path moments later. They saw the bodies of Pharaoh's army, the soldiers, wash up on the shore.

They saw God provide food out of nowhere, just materialized on the ground every morning for 40 years Day after day after day Every day, but Sunday every day, but the Lord's Day There was food on the ground and all they had to do was go out and pick it up. And when they asked for meat, lo and behold, there was a innumerable multitude of quail. They just had to go out and kill them. They walked, they lived in a desert. You imagine going out with your family of a few people into a desert, a barren land where there's very little, and for 40 years you never lack any food, not just your little family, but 600, 000 men and millions of people with the women and children in a desert for 40 years and they never lacked food.

Their shoes never wore out for 40 years of walking in sand. You know, sand is one of the most destructive, abrasive things that we know of. We want to abrade something we use sandpaper. These people walked in the sand for 40 years and their shoes never wore out, their clothes didn't wear out. Now if this generation saw signs, if faith was going to come by sight and seeing signs, And this generation would have been the most faithful generation.

And yet, what do we read in the scriptures about that generation? With most of them, Paul told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 10, with most of them, God was not well pleased. He wasn't amazed at their faith. Their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Hebrews 4 tells us that God swore in His wrath that these people would never enter His rest because of their unbelief.

Jude says that God delivered his people, these were his people, he delivered them from Egypt and destroyed them who didn't believe. This was a nation of people who didn't believe. There were only two, Caleb and Joshua, out of 600, 000 people who believed. And yet they saw more signs and wonders than anyone else. Or Jesus' current generation that Jesus was in.

This was a generation whose hearts were hardened. They saw Jesus come, the Messiah, and work miracle after miracle after miracle after sign. He healed multitudes. He drove out demons That the people were powerless to drive out. He healed people that had never walked in their life.

And they didn't believe. Paul said to the Romans in Romans 11, I do not desire that you should be ignorant of this mystery that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. Blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. Blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. The elect were saved and these people who had these many blessings, they had the covenants, the promises, they were the heirs, Jesus came from them in the flesh, they had the law, they had the word of God, they had many blessings And yet they were an unbelieving generation.

This is the generation that crucified the Lord of glory, that said, give us Barabbas, a murderer, and not Christ. Even Pilate could see that Jesus wasn't guilty. And he wanted to release Jesus. These unbelieving Jews who had seen all these miracles wanted a murderer instead. Faith comes by hearing.

Faith comes by hearing. That's how God has ordained it. God has chosen, Paul said, the foolishness of preaching, the foolishness of proclaiming the Word of God to be the means of working faith. Jesus sends his messengers, his messengers to proclaim his word. And that is how this centurion came to faith.

He heard. He heard the reports about what Jesus had done. He heard the words that Jesus spoke as they were reported to him. And so when his servant now, this centurion's servant, his slave, whom was obviously very precious to him. And it tells you something about the character of this man, that here's his servant.

It's a doulos, the lowest of a slave. Somebody whose life was expendable in the Roman system. Somebody whom he could cast aside, he could kill without any notice. Somebody whose purpose was to be used and thrown away. But this person, this man's life is precious to him.

Is precious to him. In fact, he even calls this servant, even refers to him as a boy, my boy. It shows you the view that he had of those who were under his authority. He's taking a responsibility to care for this person. This man's life is precious to him.

And he's sick and ready to die. Matthew, in the parallel passage in Matthew, when Matthew records this, He adds that he basically had a paralysis and not able to get up a bit, get out of the bed. This Centurion hears Jesus and in faith turns to Jesus. Faith comes to Christ. Faith comes to Christ.

This Centurion sent a delegation of elders of the Jews to ask Jesus to heal his servant. See the focus of faith is not on ourselves and it's not on the faith itself. The focus and the locus of faith is on the object of that faith, Jesus Christ. The saving power of faith isn't in the faith. It doesn't reside in itself.

The saving power of faith is in Christ, the object of that faith. So it's not faith then in Christ that saves us. We say that, but it's not the faith in Christ that saves us. It's Christ that saves us through faith. Through faith.

And so this centurion turns to Christ. Faith comes to Christ. Faith looks to Christ. Faith comes to him and eats his flesh and drinks his blood. You do not have his word abiding in you, Jesus said in John, because whom he sent you don't believe.

And you are not willing to come to me that you may have life salvation is through faith for a reason salvation is through faith Paul says so that it might be according to grace. Paul is contrasting. Are we saved because of what we do? Are we saved because of who we are? Are we saved because of our abilities, of our ability to please God or our ability to do anything?

Or are we saved by grace, which means we don't deserve anything we're getting? Grace is something that is not merited, it's not deserved, it's not earned, it's not something that we are due or owed or get because of anything we've done. So Paul's contrasting these two ways of being saved and he says, salvation is by faith so that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who's the father of us all. Salvation is by faith so that it might be according to grace. If salvation was according to anything else, if it wasn't by faith, this believing and trusting and resting in Christ's work, then salvation would be a work.

It would be something we do to get it. Secondly, we see, thirdly we See that faith actively relies on the word of Christ's power. Faith actively relies on the word of Christ's power. The centurion had a servant who was dying, who needed to be healed. And what did the centurion, where did he put his actual trust?

What did he put his faith in? He didn't call for the doctor, he didn't go out and say, you need to find me a better herb, a better tool, a better drug. He sent a delegation to Christ. He put his trust in Christ to heal. To heal.

Psalm 29 that we opened our worship with this morning is a wonderful psalm about the power of Christ's words, of God's word. It speaks to us of all that God's word does. Talks about even the deer giving birth by the voice of God. The forest stripped bear speaking of what happens in a storm if you ever lived through a hurricane and and you look at the trees they're stripped bare we had a hurricane come through where we lived in South Carolina and behind our house was it just a dense overgrown forest of of trees and after the hurricane the morning after the hurricane came through, you looked out and it was just all gone. There were a couple bare Trunks sticking up.

But everything above 10 feet, all the foliage above 10 feet was gone. In fact, a lot of the trees above 10 feet were gone. Psalm 29 says, the voice of God did that. The voice of God causes the earth to shake the voice of God brings the rain to us and the wind the voice of God calms the wind And the centurion by faith rested in the voice of God, the power and authority of God to heal his servant. And he realized that it didn't depend on the physical presence of Christ.

So Christ comes, he hears this delegation of elders that are sent to him who actually plead incorrectly. They say this guy is worthy for you to come. You notice that? He's worthy. He's a good guy.

You ought to come because he's worthy. Jesus didn't say no he's not worthy, he had told people that. He didn't say that to these Jews. He actually came despite their wrong theology. He came with them.

But as he's coming to them and as he gets nearer to the house, we see the fourth mark of faith, response of faith. The centurion is filled with a sense of his own unworthiness, that he's not worthy for Christ to come to him. And he sends out more friends to intercept Christ on his way to his house to say, I'm not worthy not only for you to come to me, I'm not worthy to even come to you. So don't. And this too, this realization of our own unworthiness is a mark of faith.

We're not even worthy to be in Christ's presence. John the Baptist continually proclaimed, I'm not worthy to even untie the shoelace of of Christ, the one whom I am proclaiming. Peter, you know, when he realizes that he is in the presence of Christ, you remember they'd been fishing and Christ said, throw the net out the other side and they did. And they'd been fishing all night with nothing. They do what God says and their net is filled with fish.

And Peter immediately realizes that he's in the presence of a holy God. And he cries out, depart from me, I'm not worthy to be in your presence. I'm not worthy that you should be here. Paul, the same way, he tells, He calls himself the chief of sinners. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.

He said that as an apostle he was nothing. For in nothing was I behind most eminent apostles, though I am nothing, the very least of the saints, unworthy to be called an apostle." This is the voice of those who are speaking by faith. Remember the prodigal son came back to the father and said, I am not worthy. I'm not worthy to be called your son. Just make me a hired servant.

Let me at least Let me at least eat at your table. I'm not worthy to be a son in your home. We are unworthy servants and when we have only done what we were asked, we have only done our duty. Abraham, also, someone who is cited for the example of his faith, recognizes that he was but dust and ashes. Jacob, when he is praying for God to deliver him from the hand of his brother Esau, says that he was not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness of God.

And so, you might say, well isn't our life as a Christian supposed to be characterized by joy, peace, and contentment? Why this lament, this struggle, this holy discontentment. Because they're both true. They're both true. Paul had a constant awareness of his past failures.

And he continually brought that up. That I was a blasphemer, I was a murderer. Because saving faith gives us an awareness of our own unworthiness. And that constant awareness of our past failures, of our continuing corruption, is really a necessary part of experiencing the riches of God's grace, because It's the riches of His grace to us who are so unworthy. The riches of God's grace are only understood and realized when we see how they are shown to someone who is so unworthy like us.

Now we can't be stuck in our own unworthiness because that would then begin to just focus on ourselves. But it ought to always turn our eyes back to Christ when we see our own unworthiness. And we see it every day. Faith turns us back to Christ. Christ worthiness.

Christ beauty. His grace that He justifies the ungodly, that He loved His enemies, that he died for people who just weren't worthy of it. And when this message came, a message that also acknowledged, from the Centurion, a message that also acknowledged that look, you don't need to come. He said, I am a man under authority myself. I don't need to have my senior officer come into my presence to tell me what to do.

His word is enough. If he sends a messenger with a command, that's sufficient for me because I'm a man under authority and I am also a man with authority over others. And I don't have to go to them, physically get in their face to tell them what to do, but I can send a message. I can give them a command, do this, and I can send them off to do it. I can send a command by other people, and they do it.

I expect that they will do it said I Understand this and he says you he recognized that Jesus had authority that his voice commanded the heavens and the earth and everything in them, and the hearts of people, and the sickness that it afflicted His servant. And so He says, don't trouble yourself. All you need to do is say the word. You just need to heal. And Jesus, when he sees that, he marvels.

He turns around to the people that are following him and he says, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, Not even in Israel. Not in all the people that saw all the signs and wonders, not in all the people that had grown up hearing, having the Word of God, hadn't seen faith like this centurion had. This incident with this centurion is a precursor to the fact that the church would soon be filled with Gentiles. Peter went first to Cornelius and preached to him and the Holy Spirit fell on him and he was saved. He and his household and they were baptized.

And when they got back to Jerusalem there was a... They were called to account for why... We hear you've gone to the Gentiles. Why are you going to the Gentiles? And they had to recount to them how the Holy Spirit had come, fallen upon them, just like the Holy Spirit came to them on the day of Pentecost.

And when they heard that, then they realized that the Gentiles were also a part of God's people. But Jesus here is giving a precursor, a foretaste of that in recognizing faith, saving faith in this Gentile centurion. A faith that came by hearing, hearing the Word of God, a faith that turned to Christ, not himself, not anything else outside of Christ, but turned to Christ in his hour of need. A faith that relied on the power of Christ's word, because he believed that Christ had authority. A faith that was accompanied by a sense of his own unworthiness, but a sense of Christ's great worth and Christ's great worthiness.

Jesus Christ is no respecter of persons. He came to this man because he was asked, even though he was a Roman, even though he was in many ways an enemy of the Jewish people. Christ came to him because he asked in faith. There is nothing that any of us have ever done in our past. There is nothing that we can do that God cannot forgive, that Christ will not come and bring salvation.

But we need to come with faith. A faith in Christ and a distrust, an understanding of our own unworthiness of what we ask of Christ. May God give us and to each in our family this saving faith. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this short account in your Word of saving faith in this man, a faith at which you marveled, a faith that came from your Holy Spirit, that same Spirit who today brings saving faith to us and to our children. And we ask, Lord, that we may never lose sight of our own unworthiness, of the corruption of our own hearts, of the depth of sin from which you have delivered us.

But also, Father, may we never lose sight of your grace, that you justify the ungodly, that you save sinners who cannot save themselves, that you hear those who call upon you. Not those who seek to work or do something, but those who call upon you. And so we ask, Lord, that you would grant to us this saving faith in our Savior Jesus Christ, whose voice is powerful, whose voice calls the dead to life, who has triumphed over death, defeating it, who has crushed the head of the evil one, and who does deliver our souls from Sheol. Oh Lord, we praise and thank and bless your name this morning for so great a salvation. Amen.