Matthew 2024

The reading is from Matthew chapter 8 verses 1 to 13, and it's on page 972 of the bibles.

When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him, a man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing, he said, be clean. Immediately, he was cleansed of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, see that you don't tell anyone But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded as a testimony to them.

When Jesus had entered Capernum, a sanctuary and came to him asking for help. Lord, he said, my servant lies at home paralyzed suffering terribly. Sheisa said to him shall I come and heal him? The centurion replied, lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof, but just 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 and said to those following him, Truly, I tell you I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Then, Jesus said to the centurion, go, let it be done just as you believed it would. And his servant was healed at that moment. Thank you, Ellie. And, good evening, everybody. If we haven't met before, my name's Tom, and I'm 1 of the pastors here.

And, we began last week, really, this series in Matthews's Gospel, we've preached the sermon on the Mount before here in the evening service, and now we're coming back to Matthew, and we're gonna be preaching through the, rest of it. And, we've come to this story here, the faith of the centurion. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. And he said to those following him, truly, I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. And so father, we pray that as we look at this story and try to understand what exactly it was that made this faith so remarkable that you would help us not only to grasp it as we look back upon it 2000 years from when it took place.

But that you would give us the thing that was amazing. Please would you grow and implant within us and create within us the sort of faith which made Jesus say this is amazing. And we ask it in his name. Oh, man. 1 of my favorite lines in in the bible, certainly in the gospel accounts, comes from verse 27 of this chapter, Matthew 8 verse 27.

This is the story of, Jesus calming the storm, and it will be, well known to many of us, I'm sure. You know, the story, he gets into the boat, the disciples are following him, and suddenly there's this furious storm that comes up on the lake, and, it's very threatening. These were experienced fishermen. They knew what it was to be in a storm and to live in a storm, and yet this 1 was altogether more terrifying than anything that they had witnessed before. And so the disciples go up to their sleeping Jesus who is meant to be the king in control of their lives, and yet he's fast asleep.

And they go up to him and they say, lord, save us. We're gonna drown. And he replied, you of little faith. Why are you so afraid? And then he gets up and he rebukes the wind, and he rebukes the waves.

And with just a phrase, he says be still or be calm, and the chaotic storm is turned into a mill pond with just 1 word. And then it's the response of the disciples. Which I really love in verse 27. The the men it says were amazed, and they asked, what kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him.

Now in the King James version, it's even better because we're told in the King James that the men are marveling, and they say, what manner of man is this? What manner of man is this? We have encountered men from all kinds of different categories. We've encountered religious men. We've encountered tax collector men.

There there are men in our categories, this is a category busting man. What manner of man is this? He doesn't seem to belong to any of the categories of men that we've been exposed to so far. And the word he actually uses there in verse 27 or the word that is used is very strong. In the NIV here, it's amazed, but the King James and others have it marvelled.

They marveled at him. They were in awe of him. They were stunned at what he was doing. They were they were thunderstruck. They couldn't believe it.

They were almost paralyzed by what they had seen. It was so stunning and so amazing. They marveled at him. And I learned this week, in in my reading that this is a word that that Matthew quite likes. He uses it 7 times in the gospel of Matthew 7 times this marvelling word.

And on every occasion, the word is used of people who are marvelling at something which Jesus either said or did. So a way he dealt with the situation, a miracle he performed, an answer that he gave. There are 7 times its people marveling in the presence of the god man, 7 times, except this 1 time, In verse 10, where we don't find men marveling at god, we find god marveling at a man. Verse 10 is the same word that's used When Jesus heard this, he marveled same word as verse 27. He was amazed.

He was stunned. And he said to those following him, Truly, I tell you I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. It's hard to think of a more positive endorsement than that, isn't it? The son of god himself, the eternal son of god, who can, in 1 sense, be surprised by nothing, and can be amazed at nothing for he knows the end from the beginning. He knows everything that happens across all history seems in this moment to be taken aback by something.

Something marvelous, something that strikes him. I have not found in Israel such greater faith as this. Now, a question for us this evening then. There's 2 sides of it. What is it that made this faith?

So marvelous to the lord Jesus Christ. That's the kind of textual question, if you like. What was it that made it so amazing? The application is, do we then have that thing? Do do we have that sort of faith that made even the son of god marvel when he encountered it in this story?

And so a working title for this sermon was how to impress Jesus. So whoever uploads it these days, I don't know, but we can call it that, how to impress Jesus. Firstly, let's have a look at this faith then. What is it that makes it so marvelous? Well, what we see here is that marvelous faith is moved by the needs of other people.

Marvellous faith is moved by the needs of other people. And you can see in verse 5 when the story begins, when Jesus had entered capernaum, a centurion came to him asking for help. And I'm told that that word asking can can be used as a sort of general light word for asking, but very often it's actually a lot stronger than that, and it can mean more like imploring or beseeching. You know, it's a it's a very strong, desperate request. You know, stop what you're doing.

Please, will you help me? Please. Whatever you're doing, will you can't, will you come? And that seems to be right because in this chapter, There are 2 other times that that word is used once in verse 31 and once in verse 34. And just look how it's translated for us there because it will shed light on what the centurion is doing in verse 5.

Verse 31, here we've got the restoration of 2 demon possessed men, men, and we're told that the demons when Jesus is about to drive them out The demons begged Jesus. That's the word from verse 5. The centurion asked, the demons begged Jesus. If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs, and then it comes again in verse 34. The whole town went out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, same word as verse 5, they pleaded with him to leave their region.

So the 2 other times that word is used in this chapter, it doesn't mean us, it means beg and it means plead. And so what we've got here is a centurion coming up to the lord Jesus Christ, not, you know, asking, you know, if you've got time or would you mind, or if you're not too busy, I've got an issue here that I'd like you to see to but more like there's a begging and a pleading and an imploring going on. Please, will you come and help? Please, will you stop what you're doing? Please, will you pay attention to this need?

That's the idea. Now, what is it that has made such a noble statesman so desperately needy in front of this Jewish rabbi? Well, it's the desperate need of the servant that he loves. You can see that there in verse 5. When Jesus had entered capernaum, a centurion came to him asking for help, lord, he said, my servant, lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly, suffering terribly.

In the King James, it's translated. He is grievously tormented. He is undergoing a a a shocking chronic pain. This is not the sort of paralysis which enables him to feel nothing at all, but some kind of parrot paralysis where he is in constant pain. He's being opened up by this tormenting, this grievous tormenting, And we get the impression that the centurion really loved this servant.

It's interesting in verse 9. He says, come, and he said, I say to my servant, do this, and he does it. Now he may be talking generally there, or he may have that specific servant in mind. I say to myself, do this, and he does it. We're told in Luke's account of this story that this centurion this centurion valued him highly, that he loved this centur this servant.

And so to see the servant in such great pain really moved his heart. That's the big thing. In Luke 7, the parallel account, we're also told that this servant was so ill he was about to die. And so here's the big point. This centurion was not indifferent to the pain of his servant.

He really, really cared. He was moved by the need and the pain of this servant. It's worth pausing just to sort of rub that in a bit because remember, this this was a centurion. And for him to behave like this, to be begging and pleading on behalf of a servant is somewhere beneath his normal station, isn't it? You know, we were just learning about those Brahmen hill people.

And 1 of the issues is they've got such status. They've got such wealth. They've got such power. They don't want to be seen to be a begging, needy people. And yet here is this centurion coming to Jesus, a man who is in charge of a hundred men, and he is so moved by the pain of his servant.

He doesn't really care what people think think of him. He he's gotta he's gotta help. Everything else goes on hold so he can try to help his servant. Markable, isn't it? Because for a man of that authority, a a servant is easily replaced.

Right? I mean, you just get another 1. I mean, if one's paralyzed and one's dying and one's not able to clean up and cook you. Is he or? Well, there's many others who will step up and take his place, I'm sure.

So let's just put him out to pasture, send him to the knackers, be done with him, replace him. A man of this power could surely have had him replaced like that. And yet he goes to Jesus risking his own status, risking his pride because he cares so deeply about the needs of this man. Normally, it would be the other way around, wouldn't it? Don't you think?

That instead of the master going to plead for the servant, it would be the servant being sent to plead for the master. But such is his compassion for this man, that he's he's actually been driven to Christ. And it's a beautiful scene because him and Jesus are now going to bond over a shared compassion for this man. That's what's gonna bring them together. They both they both love this servant, and they're both gonna bond over this desire to to help him.

And so here's something at least about Marvelous faith. It's it's moved by the needs of others. That's a good thing for us to chew over, isn't it? You know, as we think about and as we see that the lostness of the people around us or the the the physical suffering or the mental anguish that so many people are in. So we think about all the neighbors on this road and our own words, our on our own roads who who are without hope and without god in this world, do the do the pressing needs of others move us to the savior?

When we see them, do we say savior? Stop what you're doing. Please Do we implore him? Look at the needs? Please, will you will you help the lostness of these people?

The sickness, the mental pain of those around us? Or have we just become a bit too indifferent to it? It's 1 of the things about phones, isn't it? I was saying the other day in the Psalm 1 3 9 7, like, once it's with a phone, I'm exposed to more needs in the world that I've ever been than I've ever been, but it's somehow more indifferent to them than I've ever been. As well.

I I see more of them and care less about them. You know, hap that happens, doesn't it somehow? And yet, Jesus seems to think here that Marvelous faith is moved to him by the the needs all around us. So that's the first thing. Marvellous faith moved by the needs of others.

Secondly, Marvelous faith is honest about the human condition. Now, it is quite hard to to know, I think how the Jewish people would have viewed this centurion because on 1 hand, if you think about it, he is the leader or 1 of the leaders in an occupying army, which is never a popular place to be. Is it? You're 1 of the leaders of an occupying army who who's in your land. And we know that centurions did in the main have a reputation for being quite brutal people.

And yet this centurion does seem to have acquired, a different reputation for himself. So we know he was a compassionate man. We've just seen that. But it's interesting if you have a look, and I think it will come up on the screen. This is Luke's account, Luke 7 verses 4 to 5.

When they came to Jesus, now it's quite interesting in Luke 7. Because there, it's the servants of the centurion, not the 1 who's sick, but the other servants or the Jewish leaders, rather, who who go to Jesus and plead on behalf of the servant. So here in Matthew, it's the centurion himself, And there, it's these ambassadors who go for him. And some people sort of worry about that as a contradiction. But actually, when you remember that in the ancient world, a messenger was so tied to the 1 who had sent him that actually to hear from them was to hear from him.

It was that idea. So the centurion goes, he may have sent his men to go, but that was as if he himself were making the request, and Matthew shortens it in in in that way. But you notice what happens in verse 4, when they came to Jesus, these leaders, they pleaded earnestly with him. This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue. So here clearly, He's a he's a god fearing man and was loved amongst part of the Jewish community.

Cause here is a man who despite being a gentile and despite being a roman, a brutal centurion, has lent himself to our nation and has helped build our synagogue. So clearly, he's he's at some point, grown a bit sick of polytheism and has become wooed by the monotheistic tradition that he's surrounded by, and he's involving himself in in their work. So he was clearly a liked man even if he had this, brutal reputation or the centurions did anyway. So it's quite hard to know how he was viewed by others, but we know how he viewed himself. That's the key thing.

We know how he viewed himself, and it's there in Matthew 8 verse 7. Jesus said to him, shall I come and heal him? The centurion replies, Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. Now you notice what he doesn't say. He doesn't say Lord, he does not deserve to have you come under my roof.

My servant doesn't deserve you. I do. I do because I'm a centurion. I'm a man of status, but he doesn't. So just say the word and that'll be enough.

No. Interesting, isn't it? He says, I, I do not deserve you to come under my roof. Maybe he understands that for a Jewish rabbi, to visit a gentile home would actually be to defile himself. In Matthew 8, that does seem to be quite a big chapter, a theme rather.

So he touches the leper in verse 1 to 3. That's Jesus defining himself. He heals Peter's mother-in-law goes into a sick home. That's him defiling himself. Here, is he gonna defile himself?

I do not deserve this. It's funny, isn't it in Luke 7? The men who go to Jesus say, this man deserves to have you do this, but the man himself says, I don't deserve to have you come and do this. They say, you ought to do this for this man. He deserves it.

But when the man himself speaks, he says, I don't deserve it. There are so many things that could have stopped this centurion coming to Christ, aren't there? Time, you know, he's too busy, priorities, too much to do first, doubt, uncertain how he would be met, race. He's a Jew. I'm a gentile too unlike him.

But perhaps the thing that could have stopped him most of all was his status. He's too important. He's too proud. This is a centurion. This is a This is a respected man.

But that is partly what makes this faith so marvelous. He was moved by the needs of other people, but he was also totally aware of who he was before Christ. He wasn't worthy. He wasn't worthy to have such a 1 even come into his home. And so in many ways, this centurion was nothing like the leper in verse 1 to 3.

But in another sense, he was exactly like the leper. He saw himself to be needy, to be hopeless, to be morally corrupt even before the savior. He was not worthy. Kent Hughes is a a a Bible commentator says this. The great problem for most non Christians and even for many Christians is that they are strangers to themselves.

They're strangers to themselves. They don't understand. In other words, he's saying, we tend to think of ourselves more highly than we ought. That we are actually very good spiritual people, and we actually deserve Jesus to come into our house, and we deserve him to do for us the things that we would like him to do. But this centurion was not a stranger to himself.

He knew who he was despite his status and his authority. He knew who he was, unworthy before Christ. Paul says in Romans 12, for by the grace given to me, I say to every 1 of you, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought. So easy to do that, isn't it? To think of ourselves more highly than we ought.

But what made this faith marvelous in the savior's eyes is that this man was honest about the human condition. He knew he was not worthy and that he needed help. Thirdly then. Let's see that Marvelous faith trusts in the word of Christ. So it's moved by the needs of others.

It's honest about the human condition, but it also trusts in the word of Christ. Now, as we have seen, This centurion was clearly a god fearing man, and he had obviously heard something about the lord Jesus because in verse 6, how does he address Jesus? He says lord, lord. And he obviously, you know, has come to appreciate that there is a vast difference between himself and the lord Jesus, that the lord Jesus has a power and authority that he doesn't even deserve to be in the presence of. So he's learned stuff, and he knows stuff about Christ.

But what is remarkable is to see just how deep his faith actually goes. Now, let's look at verse 8 and what he says. The centurion replied, lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the words, and my servant will be healed. Now the question is, how did he come to that conclusion?

How did this man arrive at a point where he believed that neither the presence of Jesus was needed in his home nor signs performed by Jesus to prove himself were needed, but only that he would speak and it would be done. How did he get to that point? Well, look at verse 9. 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.

In other words, this is a man who knows something about authority. He is a man of authority, in other words, when he speaks things happen, and he's a man under authority. In other words, when he is spoken to, he acts. So this man understands how orders work. When I give orders my servants do when I am ordered, I do.

And so if you'd said to this centurion, how how is a universe ordered? How do you bring order out of chaos? How do you turn unreality in reality into reality? He would say an authoritative voice. That's what will bring order out of chaos when someone with authority speaks.

A world is ordered by the word. That's what he has come to understand. And so he says, no, Jesus. Look, just say the word because I under I'm from that world, Jesus, where words make things happen. So all you need to do is neither come nor perform a sign for me to prove yourself just you speak.

And this thing is gonna get done. And just look at Jesus' response. This is what really triggers him in a positive use of that word. When Jesus heard this, he marveled. And he said to those following, truly, I tell you I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.

So according to Jesus, trusting in the power of a word to order a world is faith. And then in verse 13, then Jesus said to the centurion, go let it be done just as you believed it would. Word faith in verse 10, word belief in verse 13. What actually are those words? What do they mean those words we use all the time?

They mean trust in the authoritative word of Christ. And that is what sets this gentile centurion apart from so much of the faith that Jesus had seen in Israel. You see the distinction he makes in verse 10. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. Now, at the beginning, I said that in Matthew's Gospel, this is the only time that word marvelled is used of god looking at man.

There is actually 1 other time in the new testament that happens. It's not in Matthew's Gospel, but it's in Mark. It's in Mark 6, 1 to 6, and again, the subject is faith. But this time, it's put in the negative. Have a look here.

This is symptomatic, I think, of the faith of Israel that Jesus is talking about. Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue and many who heard him were amazed. Where did this man get these things they asked? What's this wisdom that has been given him?

What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James Joseph Judith and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him.

Jesus said to them, may profit is not without honor except in his own town, among his own relatives and in his own home. He could not do any miracles there except lay his hands on a few people who were ill and heal them, and here's the word. He marveled at their lack of faith. He marveled at their lack of faith. Matthew 8 verse 10, he marveled.

I've never seen anything like this. Mark 6, he marveled at their lack of faith. And this is a pattern you see, sadly, with god's people throughout the new testament. Instead of trusting in the word of their Messiah King, They rested upon their privilege. They felt that they deserved to have him.

They were too confident in their own judgments. We know who he is. This is the carpenter's son. His brothers are with us. His sisters are with us.

We know our judgment on him is true. They seem to need these constant sign top ups. Like weekly boosters, you know, booster jabs. They they perform a sign for us. What about all the ones I've done?

Perform a sign for us, and we'll believe in you. Do do something for us. Do something impressive. You know, do do a sign, and we'll believe in you. Just to show us something, and they needed top up after top up booster after booster injection after injection of signs in order to sustain their puddle deep faith.

That's that's what they seem to need. And so isn't it remarkable that these group of people who had more of the word than anyone else depended less on the word than this centurion who had so much less of it, but understood it to be the authoritative word of the Messiah which he trusted. And there's another good challenge for us to chew over. Do we functionally live inside a a version of the prosperity gospel? We don't believe it outright, of course, but I wonder sometimes whether we live inside a version of the prosperity gospel where our faith is just too tied to what we perceive God to be doing or not doing for us when we want.

When things are going well and he's doing what we would like him to do, our faith is strong. When he doesn't seem to be doing what we want him to do and seems a bit absent. Our faith is weak. And so, really, our faith is only as strong as that good thing we thought he should have done for us anyway. And when it doesn't happen, our faith goes down.

And so is that not a form of the prosperity gospel? Where our faith is just too wedded to how prosperous God is making us rather than on the authoritative word of God which he has given to us. Hebrews 11 defines faith this way. Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Now that doesn't mean it's faith which lacks evidence or faith which lacks promise.

No. No. All of that is there. But here it's described as an assurance about what we do not see. Lord, I don't need you to come into my house.

I don't need to see you do it. I don't need to see you do something in order to trust you. I'm assured of the thing I hope for. That's the sort of faith that is on display here. And so Marvelous faith we see trusts in the word of Christ It's moved by the needs of others.

It's honest about the human condition. It trusts in the word of Christ. Let's look now fourthly and nearly lastly. Marvelous faith is lived and learned in real life. It is lived and it is learned in real life.

Let's just take a closer look at verse 9 because it's really struck me this week the way he argues, he argues here. 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. Now here is a man who understood the world that he lived in.

So I was thinking about he he lives in this world of servants and generals And when orders are given, things happen, that's his world. It's quite hierarchical. It's got an authority structure, and the word means everything. That that's the world that this centurion is in. But it's interesting, isn't it?

That that world has helped him to understand Christ. The what the world that he's lived in lives in helps him understand Christ. And it's almost if he's saying, look, Jesus, if this is true in my world, How much more is that true if you say something? Stuff is gonna happen. And so there's a principle here that's worth thinking through that the word of god is not just for the religious part of life.

It is actually to be lived and it is to be learned in every part of life. And so the Christian should always be trying to do these 2 things. They they they are reading the word of god, and they're saying, how does this help me understand my world? But they're also looking at their world, and they're saying, How does this help me understand the truth of Christ? What does the world that I'm in, whether it be a hospital world or an office world or a school world or a mom at the school gate world?

What do I learn here about people and in conversations that informs my understanding of the truthfulness of Christ's word. You read the word, helps you interpret the world, you read the world, and it helps you interpret the word. So for instance, this week, just to give you an illustration. I was reading a story, and it was a tragic story of a of a young couple who lost their infant son to sepsis, and it was a feature piece in in the paper. And basically, basically, what had happened is this child was getting sicker and sicker and sicker and the parents who both happened to be doctors kept taking this 1 year old child to the doctor saying, but please please will you do a blood test?

We think it's this, and and they got turned away. Then they would wait a couple of days and the child would get worse, and they would go again, or they would make a phone call. They ended up visiting A and E 3 times, the GP twice, not until eventually, eventually, after all their pleading, that the child got seen, but at that point, it was too late and the sepsis had taken hold and they they lost their they lost their son. And the article was just this this the desperation of these parents trying to get this kid seen to before it was too late. I was reading that this week.

Now do I need a story like that in order to understand the desperation of this centurion as his servant goes through such pain. Well, in 1 sense, no, because the word of god shows me how desperate he was. But in another sense, I do. I do need it. I do need to see the desperation of these loving parents in order for me to say, yeah, that must have been a bit like what this was.

Because I think sometimes we read these stories and they just come at us and we can forget these are real people, and these events really happened. And those words lying at home suffering terribly, those actually mean something. That that actually describes a real person tormented by pain. And sometimes my heart is so cold that it's not until I read stories like that in the world, that I actually think, oh, that must be what that was like. And so do you see?

We read the word and it helps us understand the world. We read the world and it helps us understand the word. That's something of what the centurion is doing. He's saying, I have read my world. I know how authority works in my world, and that has taught me something about what your word must be like.

It's true that, isn't it? Oh, you think of when Jesus says come to me. All you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Now what does that word help you to do? It helps you to interpret your world that there are people all over the place who are desperately searching for rest.

They are burdened by sin, burdened by the demands of this world, and they need a rest that comes from heaven. But you know, as you're living amongst these people in your lives, and you're seeing them tired because they haven't found rest in Christ and tired from life in this world. You think, oh, yeah. That helps me to understand what Jesus said. As I see, it worked out in their life.

I now get what he was saying about people needing rest. And so do you see, I wonder if 1 of the things that made this faith so marvelous in Jesus's eyes is that this was a man who had lived it and was learning it in real life. It didn't just belong to a synagogue world. He was working it through in his life and seeing what his life taught him about Christ. And that seems to be a marvelous, a marvelous thing.

And that is something that we should all be doing, isn't it? How does the word help me understand the world? Yeah. How does my world help me to understand the truthfulness of of Christ's Christ's word? And so there's something there about marvelous faith.

Now lastly, Let's look at the conclusion of the story. Marvelous faith and the age to come. Marvelous faith and the age to come. Just have a look at this, quote from the message. Now, the message is not a translation of the bible.

It's a paraphrase, really, but sometimes I think the phrasing of it, is just wonderful. So here's verses 10 to 12 from the message, and hopefully they'll come up there. Taken aback, Jesus said, I've yet to come across this kind of simple trust in Israel. The very people who are supposed to know all about god and how he works. This man is the vanguard of many outsiders who will soon be coming from all directions.

Streaming in from the east, pouring in from the west, sitting down at god's kingdom, banquet, alongside Abraham, Isaac, then those who grew up in the faith, but had no faith, will find themselves out in the cold, outsiders to grace, and wondering what happened. This man is the vanguard of many outsiders. Who will soon be coming from all directions. Isn't that why we can pray with confidence for the people in Nepal? Because we do actually know that that promise is true that the lord is gathering people from the east and from the west.

To take their place at this heavenly banquet if they will trust like this centurion did. It's because of this promise that we can pray those prayers that the unreached peoples of the world would be reached. But it's remarkable, isn't it? That the way the lord Jesus here with a turn of a phrase lifts us away from this domestic scene in capernaum and takes us forward to eternity and to the great heavenly banquet. And who is going to be there?

Who's gonna be sat there? At the table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob with these heroes of the faith. This centurion is gonna be sat there, and millions of others like him from all over the world. Who have this thing in common, no matter what their status or their background or their race or their privilege, they have at some point come to Jesus and said, I do not deserve. I do not deserve to have you under my roof.

I am not worthy of you to do this for me. And that's Marvelous faith in the end, isn't it? Marvelous faith is not look at me in my marvelous faith. It's a bankrupt person. Who says I don't deserve you.

I'm not worthy of you. I need you to save me. Those are the people that are populating the heavenly banquet. And I think in theory, the sons of Israel would have would have believed that. You know, I think if you'd said, what does the old testament teach teach about the gentiles?

Are they gonna have any part to play in god's kingdom at all? I think they would said, yes. Of course, the gentiles will have a part to play in god's kingdom. We've seen that in our old testament scriptures, and we know that's true. And they would have believed that in theory, the problem was when it actually started happening in front of them.

And when these people were pointed out, yes, the gentiles, I mean people like this centurion, by the way, That's who I'm talking about. Well, it was altogether more offensive to them when it actually started happening. It's often the way with doctrine, isn't it? Yeah. Christians ought to be patient people.

Yes. We all agree with that. And by the way, I'm impatient with that person. Oh, hold on a minute. I hear you know what?

You know, it's so easy, isn't it? Genals in the kingdom of god? Yes, please, lord. People like this centurion. Well, hold on a minute, god.

You know, we we're very easy to agree in practice until the point where it actually has to be worked out. And that was the problem for so many of the Israelites here, that they realized that in order to be part of this feast, they would have to humble themselves. That like the centurion, they too, for all of their privileges would have say, and we are not worthy, and we do not deserve you to come under our roof. But the problem is for so many that they could not acknowledge that they were in truth, like the prostitute and the leper and the centurion. And so they remained outside in the cold.

Then those who grew up in the faith, but had no faith will find themselves out in the cold, outsiders to grace, and wondering what happened. And so a question to ask would be, what is it that might be stopping you coming like this centurion? Do we believe that we are too busy? That we're too important? That he's too different from us?

Are we too afraid of what people might think? Well, there there can be all kinds of things which stop us coming like this centurion did? What what what is it? What is it for us that stops us coming? You see, most of us here are are not more important than this Roman Roman centurion.

In society's eyes, most of us here are not more important than this centurion was. But do we think that we are that we are in fact more important, or will we be part of this marvelous future of people who have come to the lord Jesus Christ and said for all of my status and my wealth and my influence, I do not deserve you. I don't deserve you to come under my roof. I'm not worthy of you. But thank you that you died for unworthy people like me.

That's what Jesus is saying there. The age to come is characterized not just by patriarchs or people who are in the know, but people from east and west who have come to this realization and said, lord, I'm not worthy, but you are. And so what is marvelous faith? That's the thing. And do we have it?

Well, it's moved by the needs of other people. That's true. It's also honest about the human condition. It also trusts in the word doesn't need these constant signs. It's trust in the word.

It's lived and it's learnt in real life. And that is the sort of thing that is gonna be championed forever at the heavenly banquet. So do we do we have it? Let's pray, shall we, that, that we would Heavenly father weak, we we thank you so much for this story. We thank you for, the compassion of this centurion upon his servant.

But we thank you more for the compassion of the lord Jesus Christ who who even came into this world. In order to save and to heal and to redeem. And lord Jesus, we do pray that the things which made you marvel on this day would be things that we are growing in. Help us please, not to be indifferent to the needs all around us. But we pray that as we see the brokenness and the lostness in this world, it would propel us towards you that we would come in faith saying, please, lord, would you do something here for this person?

Would you help them, please? We pray that you would help us lord to be honest about who we are. And we're sorry that that So much of the time we live and we think of ourselves too highly, more highly than we ought rather than having sober judgment and thinking of ourselves like this centurion did. As people with nothing in our hands, unworthy servants. And we pray that you would give us an increased trust in your word.

We're sorry lord that so often you we we don't believe the words in front of us and we require more and we demand more from you than what your word has said. And we pray too that you would help us to to live in this world and to to learn from this world about how better to understand your promises. We pray that we wouldn't just keep what we learn on Sundays for Sundays, but that we would take it out into the world and see how it applies and learn all about it there. We pray. And we thank you that 1 day we, who are yours, will be able to sit at this heavenly banquet with everybody else in the world who has said I do not deserve, but Jesus welcome me, please.

And lord, how we look forward to that day in Jesus' name. Oh, ma'am.