author: Ryan Hayden Take your Bibles with me and turn to Luke 7. Luke 7.

What does the word "marvel" mean to you? If you are my age or younger, you probably immediately think of comic books or super hero movies. Push that aside.

What does the word "marvel" mean?

The dictionary defines "marvel" in verb form as "to show or experience great surprise and admiration." In noun form it is "a thing or person that is very surprising and causes great admiration."

I marvel at Nikola Jokic. Here is this fat looking white guy in the NBA who shares the court with the most athletic humans on planet earth and he looks like an overweight dad running with flip flops on. Yet somehow, despite being slower than everyone else, he is the best player in the league and probably one of the best passers of all time.

Some of you remember when the first iPhone came out in 2007. Nowadays touch screens are so common they seem like they were always here. But kids when that first iPhone came out there was nothing like it. It felt like technology from another planet. It didn't seem like it could be real. I marveled at that.

In our text today, Jesus marvels at something. The Bible only tells us Jesus marveled at two things:

• The unbelief of the jews
• The faith of a certain Roman centurion

Let's read that story here in Luke 7 verses 1-10:

[!bible] Luke 7:1-10 - KJV

1. Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum.
2. And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die.
3. And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant.
4. And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this:
5. For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.
6. Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof:
7. Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.
8. For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
9. When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
10. And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.

There are several surprising things in these verses:

First, we are surprised to find a centurion who is concerned about his servant.

This would have been a Roman soldier. An officer. (A Centurion is a similar rank to Captain in the army.)

These roman soldiers were known for being cruel. For flexing their muscles. It would not have been surprising in that world for a roman centurion to kill his sick servant because he was of no use to him anymore.

But this Roman Centurion is different. Surprisingly so. He is very concerned about his servant. He deeply cares for this servant. That's surprising.

The second surprising thing we see in this story (and the first thing that jumped out to me) is in verse 3 which says he (the Roman centurion) sent unto him the elders of the jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant.

This is highly unusual. The elders of the jews? That would be the pharisees. What do we know about these Pharisees?

We know they hated Romans. They hated the Roman occupation. They despised the Romans so much they were a constant thorn in their side. These jews had a favorite word for gentiles. Do you know what it was? "Dogs." They despised Gentiles and especially despised their Roman captors.

We also know they really hated Jesus. They did not have a high opinion of Jesus and were trying to undermine Him.

So imagine the surprise of everyone when a group of these Pharisees come to Jesus (the crowd was probably thinking "what now?") and they come and say "please come and heal someone?"

"Who?"

"A roman centurion's servant. Please. Please come and heal him."

Can you see how weird this scene is?

So the question is "why?" Why do you want me to heal this Centurion's servant? What is so special about this Centurion?

"He's worthy."

"Interesting. Why do you think he's worthy?"

"Well, he loves Israel and he...um...built us a synagogue."

Do you see what is going on here? The jewish leaders love this guy for external reasons. They think he is worthy because he bought them a synagogue. He wrote a big check.

So this contingent of jewish leaders comes to Jesus and says "come with us and help this centurion - he's worthy."

And Jesus goes with them. But before they get to the Centurion's place another group comes out and meets them. These are people that the Centurion sent.

They bring a message from the Centurion himself. He says "Lord, don't trouble yourself. I'm not worthy that you should come to my house."

So get this. You have the pharisees and they are saying "This guy is worthy (he writes big checks.)" Then the centurion and he is saying "I am not worthy."

There is something else going on here. It was considered defiling by jews to go into a Gentiles house. That's not something that was ever in the Bible. But it was how the jewish people of the day thought.

So it could be that this Roman Centurion thought "I don't want to mess up this Rabbi by having him come into my house"

But what is really amazing is what the centurion said next, he said "just say the word and my servant will be healed, I know how authority works, I have authority and I'm under authority. So just say it and he'll be healed."

This is what caused Jesus to marvel at the centurion's faith. It was shocking and surprising and admirable. So much so that Jesus said "I have not found great faith like this anywhere in Israel."

Of course, Jesus did heal the man's servant. When the group got back to the Centurion's house, he was already healed.

So I want to talk to you about marvelous faith. Marvelous faith.

Faith is one of the most important thing for us to have.

It is the differentiator between being a saved person and a lost person. It is through faith that we come to Christ and are saved.

Ephesians 2:8 says:

[!bible] Ephesians 2:8 - KJV 8. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

We are saved by grace through faith. It is through the exercise of faith that we become Christians.

Everything we do as Christians, needs to be done in faith. Hebrews 11:6 says:

[!bible] Hebrews 11:6 - KJV 6. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

You cannot please God without faith. It is impossible. 1 John 5:4 says...

[!bible] 1 John 5:4 - KJV 4. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

Sometimes we sing the song "Faith is the victory, faith is the victory, oh glorious victory that overcomes the world."

So faith is this crucial part of being a Christian. But what does it mean to have faith?

I think this confuses a lot of people.

• Some people seem to think faith is this mystic thing. Like you can't understand it. You can't define it.
• Some people treat faith like a superpower.
• A lot of people seem to think faith is the ability to pretend like the world is one way.

But I want to show you from this story today that faith is none of those things. Faith is really just seeing the world clearly. Seeing things as they really are when the rest of the world refuses to see.

This centurion had great faith, marvelous faith. And there were three parts to his great faith.

Let me give you those three parts and that will be our message today:

The thing we can learn from the centurion's marvelous faith is...

1. Marvelous faith sees ourselves as we really are.

You see, the Centurion could have looked at his position and said "I'm important." He could have looked at his repuation and said "I'm worthy." But he actually looked at Christ and said "I'm unworthy."

A key element of true faith is seeing yourself as you really are. Seeing your heart as it really is.

Sometimes, people will get defensive in a situation and they will say something like "if you could just see my heart." Well, I don't want you to see my heart. I know my heart. It's a mess.

Here is what the scripture says about our hearts:

[!bible] Jeremiah 17:9 - KJV 9. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Romans 3 sums it up like this:

[!bible] Romans 3:10-18 - KJV 10. As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15. Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16. Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17. And the way of peace have they not known: 18. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

[!bible] Isaiah 64:6 - KJV 6. But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

You see, the Bible teaches us that we are all wicked, that we have wicked unclean hearts and even the good things we do are filthy.

None of us are worthy to come before God and none of us are worthy to fellowship with Jesus.

Most people refuse to see that. They refuse to look into the mirror at their own heart.

Someone has said that we tend to look at other people's sins under a microscope and our own sins like we are looking through a telescope - but backwards.

We excuse ourself. We exaggerate our goodness and minimize our sin.

Real faith starts when we see ourselves as we really are - as God sees us - as wicked sinners, as hopelessly broken.

When a person develops true faith - one of the things that happens is they start to see themselves as they really are. They start to see the sin in their heart and in their life.

This Centurion seems to have a very clear view of who he is, despite what other people said about him.

But that's not the only things we see in the marvelous faith of this Centurion. The second element of marvelous faith is...

2. Marvelous faith sees Christ as He really is.

This Centurion may have never heard Christ speak. He may have never met Christ on this earth. But He had a right view of who Christ is.

He recognized Christ's power. If he didn't, he wouldn't have asked for Christ to come and heal his beloved servant.

He saw in Christ someone who was compassionate and wanted to heal - or again, he wouldn't have asked.

But where this man really shines in his faith was his recognition of Christ's authority.

You see, this Centurion saw in Christ someone who had authority over the unseen realm of the universe. He understood that Christ didn't need to be there to heal - Christ just needed to speak it - and it was done.

When you have authority, you speak and people listen. Things change. I think we saw this over the last two weeks with the new president. There is a lot of authority to change things vested in that pen. He doesn't have to personally do things, because he is in charge.

And this Centurion was in charge. He wasn't out there personally doing something. He was giving the word to the Lieutenants and the Lieutenants gave the word to the sergeants and the sergeants got the privates to do it.

So this man recognized that Jesus was more than just a teacher. Jesus was more than just a healing rabbi. Jesus was in charge of the universe. Jesus had real authority.

Can I tell you - it may not seem like it sometimes, but our God is in fact in charge. He is the one pulling the strings. He does answer prayer and with a word, with a nod, He can make things happen.

Jesus may be despised on earth today, but one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

So what does this mean in practice? What does seeing the world as it really is mean on Tuesday morning at 10:17am?

It means you accept the world as God defines it. You live according to His word. You believe that God is in charge and will work things out for good.

And it means that you get on the authorities good side. I hate to even mention this because its so polarizing and political.

But did you notice what has happened with the president in the last couple of months. One of the most curious things has been these people who were openly against him suddenly changing their tune. Why did they do that?

Because reality has changed for them. They recognize that there are new forces in charge and they want to be on the right side of things.

When we recognize as Christians that God is in charge - truly in charge - then we want to be on God's good side. (And the only way we can do that is through Christ.)

So what do we learn from this centurion "marvelous faith?" We learn that marvelous faith sees ourself as we really are and marvelous faith sees Christ as He really is.

But there is a third thing that I think made this man's faith marvelous. A third thing we can learn about marvelous faith.

3. Marvelous faith is when, having seen ourselves and Christ, we act on it.

You know, it is one thing to say we believe something. It is quite another to act like we believe something. Very often, we pay lip service to ideas we don't really believe.

In the Bible, in the story of David and Goliath - there were thousands of soldiers on the line who would say they believe in the power of God - but only David stood up and acted on it, trusting in God to deliver him from Goliath.

If someone was to tell you the building you were in was on fire and you were like "Yes, yes, quite so, I believe it. Now, what's for dessert?" Do you really believe the building is on fire? No, if you did, you would act on it.

Friends, listen, a lot of people pay lip service to Christ, and pay lip service to being a sinner - but if you truly believed you were a sinner and you truly believed Christ was the savior - you would act on it.

Maybe there is someone here today that needs to come to Christ for salvation. You've heard the gospel. You have understood it. You pay lip service to it. But you need to act on it, you need to rest on it.

Maybe there is someone here today who is living a self-willed life. You say you are a Christian - but you routinely do things God tells you not to do. You say you believe in God, but you act like you will never have to stand before Him.

Maybe today you need to take a step of faith and act on it - and start living like God is real.

You might say you believe that the world is lost and that we Christians are called to share the gospel - but you never think of evangelism. You never think of missions - maybe you need to put your faith into action today.

The Bible says "Faith is the victory that overcomes the world" but faith must be acted on.

Conclusion

So, what is true faith?

• It isn't some mysterious thing.
• It isn't pretending that things are different than they are.
• It starts by seeing ourselves as we really are - as sinners before a Holy God.
• Then we look to Christ and see Him as He really is.
• Then we live like it.

Are you living a life of marvelous faith? That's what God wants for all of us.

Let's stand for invitation and prayer.