Authority and Faith

Part 2

3^rd November 2012

Matthew 8v5-13
When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. "Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralysed and in terrible suffering."
Jesus said to him, "I will go 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 one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, 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 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! It will be done just as you believed it would." And his servant was healed at that very hour.

(Continuing from last week)

The centurion, a Gentile, a captain in the army of the oppressing superpower, made one of the most remarkable observations ever spoken to Jesus Christ. He said, "just say the word, and my servant will be healed. I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it.".

As a soldier, he understood authority (I'm sure that, in the Roman army, one thing you didn't do was ignore an order). And somehow he understood that Jesus had authority. Not just authority over people, but over disease. In fact, it seems that he understood that Jesus has authority over everything. If Jesus spoke a word of command, that command would be carried out.

At the beginning of history, we read:

Genesis 1v3
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

That's how it works. Whatever God commands, happens. If God said, "From this moment, let black be white" then, from this moment, black would be white. If God said, "In ten minutes' time, let a 9-legged hippopotamus walk down Fareham High Street" then, in ten minutes' time, a 9-legged hippopotamus would walk down Fareham High Street. God has ALL authority. What he says, goes. God does precisely what he chooses to do. Those he chooses to heal, He heals. Those He chooses to save, He saves. And He acts precisely when he chooses to act.

There is nothing God cannot do. As Jeremiah said:

Jeremiah 32v17
Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.

The centurion's words showed that understood this. And Matthew tells us that, "When Jesus heard this, he was astonished".

It is astonishing. Very few people really do understand these things, even today.

(Some might ask: If Jesus is God, and if God knows everything, how could Jesus be astonished about anything? The answer lies in the truth explained in Philippians 2v7-8. Jesus came to earth and lived as a man, laying down His divine knowledge as well as His divine power. How then did He perform miracles? The answer to that is He was baptised in the Holy Spirit - Matthew 3v16 - and performed miracles the same way that His church does today, by the power of the Holy Spirit.)