Focal Passage: Luke 7:1-10
A humble faith: In my observation, one of the greatest life struggles is often faith. I think that the reasons for that reality are many, but often stem from human disappointment.
In my forty plus years of ministry I have seen people with incredible faith, but I have seen more people that struggled everyday with their faith journey.
We live in a very self-sufficient, science-based world that doesn’t require people to live by faith on a day-to-day basis. Too often we find ourselves only trusting God in a crisis and not in the little things.
I remember hearing Dr. Adrian Rogers once say, “We have never seen the fourth man in the fire, because we have not found ourselves in the crisis of the fire.” It does seem that our affluence has kept us from growing in our faith due to the lack of our need for “real” faith.
I love this story of a man that is powerful and affluent but doesn’t hesitate to humbly declare his faith in Jesus.
The story that we find in Luke 7:1-10 is a story of the humble and yielded faith of a Roman Centurion. Consider verse 3 where it states, “when the centurion heard about Jesus, he requested for him to come and save the life of his servant.” Anyone reading this must conclude that this man had heard some incredible stories about this man named Jesus.
The Jewish elders did not have a complete understanding of who Jesus was or they would not have felt that they had to convince Jesus of the “worthiness” of this centurion’s request. The bible is clear that none of us are worthy of God’s mercy and grace.
James 4:6 makes it clear, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” This centurion could have seen himself as being above the Jews, but he humbled himself, because he knew there was something supernatural about Jesus.
A reverent faith: Today we see a diversity of approaches to the person of Jesus. I fully understand that many people want Jesus to be their “buddy,” but I do think we have lost something in the way we relate to Him as Lord and Savior. In Luke 7:7 the centurion sent friends to tell Jesus, “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, since I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.”
First, he acknowledged Jesus as Lord and secondly he acknowledged that he was not worthy of the Lord’s presence in his home.
Do we really see this story for what it reveals? A roman centurion declaring that Jesus is Lord, and then he proceeds to say that Jesus can heal his servant by simply speaking healing words. I hear many people asking, “What are we going to do about all the bad that is happening around us?” Let’s make Jesus known. Because some people had testified about all that Jesus had done, a centurion experienced saving and healing faith. We need to have a renewed faith in the power of the gospel.
An acknowledged faith: In verse 9, Jesus sums up the yielded faith of this man. He declares to those gathered, “I tell you, I have not found so great a faith even in Israel.” No acknowledgment was made of his deeds. Jesus simply states that he had “great” faith. Oh, and by the way, the servant was healed. B&R