Luke's Gospel

When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernium. There, a centurion servant whom his master valued highly was ill and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him. This man deserves to have you do this because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.

So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him Lord, don't trouble yourself for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me, I tell this 1 go and he goes, and that 1 come and he comes.

I say to my servant, do this, and he does it. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him and turning to the crowd following him. He said, I tell you I have not found such great faith even in Israel. Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well. Soon afterwards, Jesus went to a town called Maine and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him.

Evening everybody. My name is Steve. I'm 1 of the leaders here and a very warm welcome to you. If it's your first time here or if it's not, as Dan has already said, we are going to be continuing our series in Luke tonight. I'm looking at Luke chapter 7 versus 1 to 10 I put 11 on there.

We're not doing verse 11, versus 1 to 10. This series has been going on for a couple of months now. Guys from Fight Club are going to be doing it. And here we are tonight's doing it again. Luke and the other gospel writers often use, a pattern in their storytelling, to contrast 2 people, 2 groups of people who have different mindsets or viewpoints or reactions to certain things.

Which is 1 of the things that we're gonna be seeing here tonight. So God willing, we'll see something of ourselves in this passage. And it will in turn help us to view our relationship with the lord in a different light. Dan's already prayed, but I'm going to break in because you're going to be brave enough. So here we go.

Father, do you pray that you'll help us now to hear and that you will speak now through to us, through your word. Please help us. I'm in. What do you deserve in life? What do you deserve in life?

It's an interesting question. And I think depending on how you're feeling at the time, or how you view yourself or the world. Your answers are gonna differ. You may answer differently for different reasons. So if you're a student, I think there's some students here tonight.

If you're a student in Kingston, you might artist slightly differently. So if we were to go into King's university on campus and find 10 random students say, hey, what do you think you deserve in life? There's a strong possibility that we'd get 10 complete different answers. So you might get people saying, I deserve to do well in my studies. I work I work really hard.

Or I deserve to get a good job at the end of uni because I've paid all this money. I deserve to be happy. I'm a I'm a nice person. I deserve to be appreciated more, and I feel like my friends really kind of understand how much work I put into these relationships, or I deserve a fulfilling romantic relationship Am I catch? All those things you might hear for you to ask a student at Kingst University or any university.

But if we were to spin it slightly differently, we were to go to, an office, for example, you might get very different answers if you'd ask that question. What do you think you deserve? I deserve more money. I deserve to get that promotion that I keep missing out on. I deserve a break and a holiday and a vacation because I work so hard.

I deserve more recognition for all the good work that I do, no 1 in this office appreciates me. Or we could go in a completely different direction, and we could go to a prison, hardened criminal serving time, and he asked them the same question. What do you think you deserve? They might say, I don't deserve to be here. Or they might say I do deserve to be here.

I deserve a retrial. I deserve to have my life turn out differently than it's currently going. Same question, different answers. The answer depends on the view you have of yourself and the view you have of the world around you, be that good or bad. Now you only need to turn on your TV or open a magazine or go on Facebook, and you will be inundated with pictures and videos and slogans projected what seems directly into your brain that say things like, Hey, you.

Yeah. You. The funny smart, good looking 1. Yeah, you. You deserve the best.

A better car, a better job, a better relationship. You're a kind soul, and you're entitled to joy and happiness more free time, more eating in fancy restaurants, and better hair. Because, hey, you're worth it. We're told constantly that we deserve the best, that we deserve good things, and all of it is geared around achievements, all geared around what we do. What do you deserve?

Well, it depends on what you've done for the most part. Who you are and what you've done? That's what decides what you deserve. So bearing all those things in mind, again, I ask, what do you think you deserve in life? And why do you think you deserve it?

This passage in Luke has 2 very different viewpoints on what people think they deserve, and we're gonna look at both of those tonight. The author, Luke is a doctor. So he's very clinical. He's very deliberate, very methodical in his phrasing and language. So when he says, or when he writes, this man deserves to have you do this, and then only a few verse later writes, I do not deserve.

We have to look at what is driving both of those statements. And how Jesus responds to both. So firstly, let's look at the deserving servants. So 0.1, the deserving servants, deserving in quotation case you're wondering. Looking me at verses 1 to 6 of chapter 7.

When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people, who were listening. He entered Capernum. There a centurion servant, whom his master valued Hani, was sick and about to die. The centurion heard Jesus had heard had heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him asking him to come and heal his servants. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him.

This man deserves to have you do this because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue. So Jesus went with them. Jesus has just finished preaching this gigantic sermon in luke chapter 6. Roy has done 2 sermons on that. They're on the website or on the podcast.

You wanna listen to those. Jesus just finished preaching that, challenging the hearts and the minds of the people who are listening there, and now he's entered the town of Capernum. And as is often the case with Jesus, his reputation has gone before him. People know he know he he is coming. And as is often the case, there is someone in the town who needs help that only Jesus can provide.

There's a servant of an important man who is in a grave situation. We don't know exactly how he got into the situation or what the issue is with him, but we know 1 thing that is that it was serious. It was bad. He was close to death. Time is running out for this unnamed servant.

His master, this important, Roman military man is so concerned he's desperate. And to rub the seriousness of this in, you have to understand this is, a Roman centurion. He's a military man. He would have seen, death first hand, almost certainly, a battle hardened warrior. And yet he's so distressed that he sends for help urgently.

He enlists the help of some religious leaders to go and find Jesus in the hopes that he can do something, anything. That's the situation. It's not looking good for this servant. Now, an interesting thing about this account is that the servant actually never meets that neither does the centurion. The sixth servant never speaks himself or even through a mediator.

He doesn't send someone with and so we have no clue what his attitude would actually be to Jesus. We just don't know, but what we do know is the attitude and the viewpoints of these Jewish elders who come to Jesus on his behalf. So they they seek out Jesus He seek him out, they find him, they come to him. This is in verse 4 that they pleaded with him earnestly. They aren't just trundling up to users and saying, hi to users.

How are you doing? No, no, you you you finish, that's fine. Yeah. So no rush, but there's, a guy who's he's a little bit sick. He's dying actually.

It's it's not that big a deal but if you've got time, then Here, you're pretty good at the healing. Is it possible for you to just come again, if you're busy, that that's okay. They don't say that given credit where credit is due. They know there's an urgent rush. They plead earnestly with Jesus.

As they should. But how they go about the pleading reveals a lot And it should come as no surprise to us, that the Jewish elders who we already know from various other stories in the gospels have missed the mark, it seems once again. Look again at verses 4 and 5. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him. This man deserves to have you do this because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.

They plead with Jesus. But they do it in a way that is, strangely demanding, I think. There's no appealing to use this compassion. There's no talk of what it would mean to the was master or how grateful he would be if this miracle was to happen, how overjoyed he would be of tears would just do this 1 thing. There's none of that.

Just straight to the demand. Now again, given the benefit of the doubt, let's assume they actually know this 6 servants their rush off their feet, they generally care for him. And in that the heat of the moment, they've just kind of forgotten their manners as it were. But again, let's not forget this is Luke writing. He is a doctor, very cynical, very methodical.

The language he uses here is done specifically. He doesn't even record them saying please, which you think would be something that would happen in this kind of situation if you're begging. But what he does record them saying is this. This man deserves to have you do this. Right?

Because he loves our nation. He built our synagogue. They instruct Jesus on what he must do in this situation. The servant is deserving, right? Because of what he's done, because of the actions he's taken in his life.

And because he's Jewish, He loves our nation. Jesus, he's 1 of us. Surely. Surely, that means he deserves to be healed. Surely.

Now, look, these are obviously good things. He loves god's people. That's a great thing. He built a synagogue. I'm assuming not single handedly.

If he did, even even better. That's a great thing. So the elders weren't wrong there. But the fact that the elders say he deserves saving because he has done this list of good deeds shows that they misunderstand their entire history, and their worldview is is broken at best. The truth is this, it is impossible to earn your way to God.

You can't earn the right to be saved. You can build a thousand synagogue single handedly in a day. With no help whatsoever, and you still wouldn't have done enough. A lot of you know that I have, a daughter, called Kayla. I love Kayla a lot.

I do. She's 2. She's almost 3. But Kayla doesn't seem to understand certain things despite our best efforts to to teach her. Me and Emma, we do our best.

She doesn't seem to get, consequence. The actions have consequences or rather she understands that there are consequences to actions but only in 1 direction. So if she's done something good, there should be consequences to that, but the negative stuff, not so much. So, here is an example of, a relatively standard thing that happens in our house. Around dinner time, which is 1 of the most stressful times in our house, period.

So I'll be giving Kayla dinner and she's not enjoying it because it is, I quote, disgusting. Just a new favorite thing to say. And I say Kayla, come on, you gotta eat some food. She shouts, no daddy. And I say Kayla, you've spoken about this.

She don't shout, mommy and daddy. And when you have to eat some food, if you eat a little bit more food, we can play with some toys afterwards. She shouts again, and it kinda goes round and round in a circle. I say, Kayla, if you keep doing this, You can go on the naughty step and there'll be no toys after dinner. Okay?

Come on here a little bit of food. And it escalates. It goes round and round and round and eventually she ends up on the naughty step and there's much tears and crying, mostly Kayla. And the time comes when, when she can come back into the room, she can get off the naughty And to her credit, she always says sorry. She always apologizes and says she's sorry for what she's done because she knows she's done something wrong.

And we always say it's okay, Kayla, we forgive you. It's okay. But then she'll often ask after she's finished if she can play with the toys. And I say, Well, no, you you can't play with the toys because you were naughty. We spoke about this.

We said if you kept doing this, then actually there'd be consequences, and you couldn't play with your toys. We can read a book. Can do something else, but you can't play with toys tonight. And it's at this point that she, often loses her her tiny little brain. Because in her head, she said sorry.

She's done what is required of her to get her way, and so she deserves to play with some toys. It's just it's logical. She's done the good deed, and now she deserves the reward. Now, ironically, my 2 year old daughter's mindset is actually very similar to the mindset of these Jewish elders. You appeal for help or support or or rewards.

Based on what you've done because ultimately you believe that you deserve it. Now, I want to be honest here because often what happens to me when I read basically any account in the Bible that talks about the pharisees teacher of the law, the Jewish elders. I often end up judging them and thinking, oh, these guys, they never get it right. Missed the mark again. And then the lords, in his great mercy often reveals my hypocrisy, the plank in my eye, as Roy was saying last week.

Because the truth is this isn't just, a very easy trap to fall into. It's a very difficult trap to avoid in the first place. Very difficult. From school to university to work and even in the homes that kind of been brought up in. We're taught from a very young age.

If you work hard, you can work your way to the top. You can succeed. So if you're applying for a job, what do you do? Get your CV, you stuff it full of as many relevant successes that are gonna be applicable to the job. You go to the interview and you sell yourself as the best possible person for the job.

Now, if you're applying for a job, that probably to be fair, the wise thing to do. But this mindset of pushing our own achievements, of striving to earn our way to the top has seeped itself so prevalent into almost every aspect of society that we often find ourselves relating to god in the same way. So you find yourself thinking about church and and the things you do. I come to church twice every single Sunday. I'm always friendly.

I'm on the welcoming team, smile at people, newcomers shake their hand. I serve teaching Sunday school, in youth, I'm on the PA or on set up, I need a home group I preach. I'm on the music team. I'm involved in mission. I never miss a prayer meeting.

I fly to Belarus to talk to students about British culture and stuff. I'm an active member of the church. Now, you might not be as overt as to say you deserve anything because of what you do. But the very fact that we sometimes think the good things we've done as opposed to the, as opposed to god's saving work through Christ. Very fact that we think about those things.

Highlights that our minds are not fully aligned with god. So what's your attitude? Do you find yourself like these Jewish elders? Relying on your own good works to earn favor with God. It's so easy for pride to sneak in, isn't it?

And so we must be on our guard. We must be on our guard to make sure we don't fall into the trap of trying to earn our way to god. The Jewish elders here just they they didn't get it. But if you look at verse 6, Jesus goes with them anyway. Lincoln verses 4 and 6 again.

When they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly. This man deserves to have you do this because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue. So Jesus went with them. Something about what they say speaks to Jesus compassion, and he goes with them. But the servant isn't healed because of this.

It's because of the attitude of his master, the centurion that he's healed. So let's look at him now. Look at verses 6 to 8. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him lord, don't trouble yourself. For I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.

That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority with soldiers under me, I tell this 1, go. And he goes. I tell that 1 come.

And he comes. I say to my servant, do this. And he does it. You see the comparison. It it's shocking.

The same core word deserve is used here, but it's used with a completely different attitude, a completely different meaning. They couldn't be more different. And this has made even more interesting when you think about who's saying it. Again, this is a Roman centurion. He's not a nobody.

He's not just a random guy on the street. He's a high ranking military official in the biggest army in the world at the time, a time when military power was probably sought after to be the most important thing in the world. The Roman Empire at the time would have ruled pretty much all of Europe, parts of Africa and Asia, and this guy was insuring which meant he had been ratified by the Roman army. He was a man of power and status. So if anyone was gonna make an argument about deserving or being worthy, surely it would be this guy.

And yet he responds this way. There's 2 things we can learn from this insurance. This is my second point. The Roman Insurance humility. He's humble.

Look at verse 6. The centurion sent friends to say to him, Lord, don't trouble yourself. But I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I didn't even consider myself worthy to come to you. I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.

Now he's not living in in a shanty town or a box under a under a bridge somewhere or a small hut or even like a perfectly nice house that's just a bit small. He would have had a really, really nice place. Would him be the kind of place that he could have invited guests, maybe some foreign dignitaries? And yet he is so humble that he sees himself as not deserving or worthy enough to be in Jesus presence. He's humble, and it's real humility as well.

And you can see that from what he says afterwards. He knows who he is. It's not fake. He says for I myself am a man under authority, was soldiers under me. I tell this 1 go when he goes.

This 1 comedy comes. I say to my serve I say to my servant, do this, and he does it. In other words, look, I know I have power. I know I have authority. I'm not pretending that I don't.

I know who I am. But I also know who you are, Jesus. And I don't deserve you. I'm not worthy. Is humble.

Now, humility today in today's modern society isn't really something that is valued, if we're honest. In general, we're told to be proud of pretty much everything about us. Even the bad things. Frawn every success, sell yourself, push yourself forward, and we lap it up because we love the glory secretly, don't we? Community means very little society today.

But to god, The god who opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Community is deeply important to him. There's something that we should all be striving for. There might be opportunities to push yourself up to take the glory for yourself, but the law opposes the proud. Don't forget that.

1 of the greatest movies of all time. While I talk about movies, is the third lord of the Rings movie. I feel like I told me I've had enough lord of the Rings talk recently, so I figured I'd bring it in. The return of the King It's a great movie. It won 11 Oscars.

It's awesome for a lot of reasons, but particularly because it's the culmination of about 9 hours worth of film at that point. And it's just this epic journey that all culminates in this film There are huge battles that I fought. It gives incredible odds. The king returns the leaders people to victory and he wins. And it's awesome.

If I hadn't watched it, I'd watch it. It's my movie recommendation of the sermon. As is often the case. At the end of the movie, when they're wrapping up, there's this scene with Aragorn, the titular returning king. When he's getting crowned, it's his coronation.

And he's won the war. He's united the realms of men, and everyone is happy they're smiling everyone's bow and he's walking through the crowds and it's this this joyous scene. As he's walking through the crowds, he comes across the 4 Hobbits. And they start to bow to the king as everyone else is doing. And Aragon puts out his hand and says, my friends.

You bow to no 1. And then the king, the man with the power, the 1 who's just been crowned as the king of all men, boughs before them. It's this stunning act of humility because while he is the king, he knows that he would be nothing If it wasn't for the word that these 4 little hobbits have put in already. It's exactly the same with the centurion. And it must be the same for us.

We have to know who we are and accept that. Yes. But we also have to accept who Jesus is and understand that no matter how great the world might try and convince us we are, how great we might feel we are in our hearts. Know that we're actually not worthy in comparison to users. That's the truth.

So my second point, the the humanity of the deserving, undeserving centurion. My third point the faith of the undeserving centurion. And this is the thing that really blows Jesus away in this encounter. He's amazed by the faith of this centurion. After humblings of the centurion says, this simple sentence in verse 7, look at verse 7.

He says, but say the word and my servant will be healed. Jesus, I'm not worthy to meet you to have you come into my life, to have you come into my house But I trust your words of authority so much that I know if you would just speak, if you just speak, it will be done. It's staggering. And remember, he's he's distressed about his servant. He wants him to be healed.

He means a lot to him. He's desperate. He wouldn't risk saying something like this unless he did truly believe it. And he does. He understands what it means to have power and authority over people.

I can only assume that through the stories he's heard about Jesus, that he recognized that Jesus too has power on authority, not just over people, but also over illness and disease too. Now, I want us to put ourselves in the Centurion's, sandals I guess they wear sandals tonight. What would you do in this situation? So you have someone who is really precious to you, who you love dearly, who is gonna die. You've tried everything.

Nothing works. Doctors, modern medicine. You're at your wit's end. You're running out of time. And you've heard stories about this this Jewish teacher.

Who, as far as you've heard, has the power to heal, apparently, apparently, just through speaking. And you've never met him before, but you know he's your chance, and you send people out to go and find him, and they report back and say, we found him. He's coming. We'll bring him to you and to your your loved 1. At that point, what do you do?

Be honest here. Do you stop him from coming? And put your faith in these supernatural stories that you've heard, but you've never actually seen with your own eye. Putting your own servant's life at risk. Or do you wait for him to come in person so you can validate what you heard these very unusual supernatural stories.

Find out if they're actually true. What do you do? I think most of us, if we're honest, and this is what I would do, if I'm honest, we'd just let him come, wouldn't we? We wouldn't stop him. We wouldn't take that risk.

We just let him come and do the work in person so we can validate with our own eyes. But this man, this centurion is not like that he has such faith in the words of Jesus that he risks it all. So certain is he in the power and authority of the lord. And this shows that this man understands who Jesus is. He's not just a Jewish rabbi.

He's not even just another man with authority. He understood that Jesus was indeed God. Who else could do this? Who else could speak into the world? And then It was so.

He put his faith in the words of the same man, the same god, who once said let there be light and it was so. In hopes that he will say let there be life. And again, it would be so for the servant. He has faith. He has faith in Jesus to heal his servant.

He's not leaning on his own work, his own reputation, He's not even leaning on the reputation of his servant, the good Jewish man. He's not trying to justify himself. Instead, he puts his faith in the 1 who justifies and heals. Look, if you're here tonight and you identify more with the Jewish elders than the centurions than the centurion You tend to put more stock in what you've done, your own good deeds, your own works, your own acts of service. Then I have to tell you the truth, and that is that actually it is futile to keep doing that.

It's completely pointless. It will get you nowhere. The truth is you will never be worthy on your own. No matter how much good we try and do. No matter how much we try and earn our way to God, we will always fall and the burden of that, the burden of that is so crushing.

I I was talking to a friend of mine, who's a a Christian. He doesn't come to to Cornerstone. He loves Jesus. But he was going through, a rough time. He just got married, and he was struggling to provide for his wife.

He couldn't find a job he was also studying. He was at uni at the same time, and his studies weren't going well. He was in the process of failing out and he wanted to make an impact with his life and with whatever job he got. And he just couldn't see a way to do that. And he felt like he was kinda running down this tunnel and there was just no light at the end.

And I was talking to him and I was trying to encourage him to pray and to give the issues over to Jesus. And just to to start small, you know, not to try and and aim for the star straight away, not to try and run a marathon, but we can even learn to to walk to to start small. And he seemed to really struggle, with that, advice. And I said to Emma afterwards, Emma knows him as well. That the problem with this guy was he was weighed down and burdened with the expectation of potential in him.

So he was brought up in a Christian home, which really great parents who taught him well, who loved him dearly, and he'd always been told from a very young age that he was really smart. And he was really is really smart, like genius level smart. And he's talented as well. It's 1 of those annoying people who are just like they're really smart and reattached in the way that they do goes really, really well. He was 1 of those guys, all through his childhood.

Growing up, people tell him how great he was, and his achievements would be celebrated pretty much everywhere. And now in his head, he, the high performer, couldn't perform as high as he'd hoped. And it was crushing him. The weight and the burden of having to achieve to perform to prove himself, it it was awful. It can be quite literally, and I used the word literally how it's meant to be used literally, actually damning for you.

As in it could send you to hell. But there is real joy and freedom in putting your trust in Christ. When you realize you don't need to do because it's already been done, There is joy there. Not by you, but for you. It has been done.

It's deliberate to know you can do nothing to make yourself right before god, but it is possible to be justified through faith in Christ's death. To the peace that transcends all understanding. It's a joy. If you don't know that here tonight, I I I pray for you, please. Come to know Jesus.

It is a true joy to know. It's freeing when you put your faith in Christ. You don't have to prove that you're worthy that you deserve anything because when the father looks at you, he doesn't see what you've done. He sees the loving son. He sees Christ.

Now I'm not saying you don't try. You don't strive to do your best for god. But it doesn't define you. Doesn't make you any more or less worthy of god's love. The only thing that makes you worthy of god's grace is god himself, his love for you.

That's the thing that makes you worthy of god's grace. God's love for you, not what you do, his love. So again, if that's not you here tonight, you don't yet know that joy and you're still trying to do it yourself, and you're weighed down by the impossible expectations. Turn to Jesus. Put your trust and faith in him.

See what happens to the centurion when he does it. Look at verses 9 and 10. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him and turned to the crowd following him. He said, I tell you I have not found such great faith even in Israel. Then the men went then the men who have been who have been sent returned to the house, and found the servant well.

It's the power of Jesus. He saves the life of the servants. From a distance, he speaks and there is salvation. He doesn't say because it was earned through doing good things, he says based on faith in his power, not faith in our own power. It's a power of Jesus.

To save those who are far off, there is no distance too far. No 1 who is too far gone. No 1 who has sinned so much that actually Christ can't save them. He's the ultimate example of humility. Keep affects the example that the Centurion sets for us.

Because he's not only the king who bowed like Aragorn in lord of the rings. He's the king who died. The king who was worthy and deserving of praise and glory and honor, but who humbly gave himself gave up everything for those who deserve nothing. That's who he is. So what do you deserve?

What do you deserve and why? Spiritual healing is on offer here. Family is on offer. Love and joy and peace is on offer. That anxiety that you feel that wells up in you sometimes, that can be removed.

The piece that transcends all understanding is on offer here tonight. So much that we don't deserve, but through faith in Christ and not of ourselves, we can have it all. So 1 last question. What are you putting your faith in? Is it yourself?

In your own good deeds, your own acts of service? Or do you say that the old hymn? Nothing in my hand I bring? Simply to the cross cycling. Father, please forgive us.

When we try and futally earn our way to you. When we count all the good things we do and try and bring that to you as if it means anything. We thank you so much that through Jesus, we can actually be made right with you, not because of anything that we've done, because of the work that he did for us on the cross. We praise and thank you for that. Please, lord help us to understand that we deserve nothing, but that you honor us by giving us everything purely through having faith in Jesus.

Thank you so much for that lord. Please help us tonight to remember that to take it away from Oh, man.