Title A Centurion's Faith (Matthew 8:5-13)
Contents
The tomb of Andrew Carnegie, an American 'steel king' who lived a life of faith, is said to have these words engraved on it. "Sleep here, the giant of the century who knew how to see those who were superior to him and knew how to use him." No one does not need a teacher. Wisdom is knowing how to use someone who is superior to you as a model. U.S. Andrew Carnegie, the founder of STEEL, has achieved extraordinary success because he was always humbly looking for, learning, and using those who were superior to him.
No one is perfect in this world. So, if you want to be a more perfect person, you have to find a better model than you. If you want to grow a little bit more than you are now and become a decent person, you must have a mentor you want to emulate. So are the saints. People of faith must find a model for their faith. There are many models of faith in the Bible. I think the centurion in Matthew 8, today's text, can be one of the models of that faith. What strengths of faith did the centurion show?
First, this centurion came to the Lord with a problem.
When we meet a problem, where do we go with it? You have to go where the answers are. Where you go when you encounter a problem determines a person's beliefs. Because when we meet a problem, the place we go to is where we think the answer is. Where do you go with your problems? Who are you in a hurry to find when you encounter a problem?
Many people have problems and go to places where there is no answer and only lose money.
Some people go to an incompetent doctor and the disease only gets worse.
Recently, two famous talents have committed suicide one after another. They were all Christians. They did not bring problems to God that would have met them. Until he committed suicide, he depended on alcohol, on people, and on himself.
Suicide is not the answer to the problem. Rather, it leaves more problems. Despair and giving up are not the answer to the problem. It happens because you have a problem and go to Satan.
The centurion in today's text took a problem and brought it to Jesus. You have to go to the Lord with your problems. “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” he said. He said, "If you ask in my name, I will do it." We also have family problems, disease problems, business problems, and many other problems. We must not have these problems alone, but bring them to the Lord and entrust them to the Lord. We must put them into the hands of the Lord.
Second, this centurion came to the Lord with someone else's problem, not his own.
These days are very evil times. A generation that does not think about anyone other than myself. Most of them are used to living by animal instinct. This is a generation that doesn't care what other people are doing. It is selfish and self-righteous. They don't care or think about others. There are more and more people who express their anger or emotions to others without reason and indiscriminately.
Just as children lose their lives when a frog gets hit by a stone thrown for fun, they do it for fun, but they cause serious damage to others, causing life and death.
However, this centurion in today's text came to the Lord with the matter for a lowly servant. Considering the social system at that time, the relationship between master and slave was not as high as the current labor-management relationship. The master was one of the list of properties that sometimes bought, sold, or abandoned slaves. Even the master had the power to kill a servant. But the centurion had a loving heart that had pity on his servant. So, he gave up his position and face and went to the Lord and asked for help to heal his servant. A bureaucrat in the ruling country had an affair with the people of the ruled country. It wasn't an order, it was a request.
Saints! Have you tried crouching for others, not for your own problems? Have you set up a bloodbath for others? Have you been begging and begging for others?
We see a lot of people struggling to live well. I see a lot of people struggling for their parents, their own problems, and the problems of their families. I've seen a lot of people running to get rich, to get a career, and to run for high school. I have seen many people running from market to market, from job to job, from bank to prosecutor to solve their own problems. However, it is not easy to see a person who struggles like this in order to save others and for the sake of those below him. But this centurion came to Jesus with the problem of the servant's disease.
The centurion is showing the faith that he struggles for others, not because of his own problems.
Learn and study to stay. You will study much better. Collect materials while thinking that you will get them and give them away. How can God not give? Get the power and ask for it with the determination to use it for others. God will give you authority.
The centurion had a heart for his servants. He had the heart of Jesus and the heart of the Father. Why can't we taste the kingdom of heaven when we believe in Jesus? Isn't it because you don't work for others?
Following the example of the centurion's faith in today's text, let's share the pain of others, reach out to those who are marginalized and in need, and care for them. Let's love our neighbors in pain, but share the pain with them. And above all, I hope they can bring their problems to the Lord.
Third, this centurion had faith in the power of the word.
At the centurion's request to heal the servant's disease, Jesus considers it wonderful and says that he will go with him and heal him. He said, "I will go and heal you." But the centurion dissuaded Jesus. And he pleads, "Only speak the word, and my servant will be healed." Seeing this centurion, Jesus was amazed and praised him, saying, "I have not found such great faith in any of Israel." Why was Jesus so moved? It was because the centurion's faith was the faith to know the principle. And because it was a faith that was thoroughly based on the Word.
The centurion was a man who knew what the authority of the word was. I knew what the authority of a conductor was and what the authority of a leader was. Please see verse 9. "I am also a man under the control of others, and there are soldiers under me. If you say to one go, you go; and to another, you say, "Come," and they come; and to my servant, do this, you do."
The authority of man The authority of the world comes when the superior comes and goes, and when the person goes, it goes. What is the spiritual authority of the luggage and the authority of heaven? did it. He was a junior officer, but his subordinates followed his orders. It is a confession of faith that if the Lord, the King of kings and Lord of lords, says whatever he says, the angels will obey him, and even the sick horses will obey him.
It is said that the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, and has the power to pierce and split soul and spirit, joints and marrow.
Hold on to the Word and pray. Hold on to the Word and believe that it will happen. God created the heavens and the earth with the word and created all things with the word.
When Jesus saw the centurion's strength of faith, he praised it, saying, "Truly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith in any of Israel." Faith is life. So it brings you active movement. It is a terrifying word to say that you can do what you believe. God did not say that it is by identity or by office. I was told it would be done by faith. The reason not to do it depends on your beliefs. You must have faith. You must have an active belief. You must have great faith. Anyone who has the faith approved or praised by Jesus will experience miracles and receive answers to prayers. In the text, as soon as Jesus declared to the centurion, "Go, it shall be done as you have believed", the servant's illness was healed. I hope that the centurion's faith will become your faith.