Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Makes Faith Revolutionary?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. And I'm Keith Simon. Right now, we're learning what it looks like to follow Jesus by working our way through the Gospel of Luke. What does it mean to have faith in Jesus? Is it a simple affirmation of his existence? Or is it having faith believing that he's God or that he's our Savior? Or maybe faith is something different.

Starting point is 00:00:32 Maybe having faith means believing. a certain set of beliefs. Like faith means, I believe that I'm saved by grace, or faith means that I'm justified by faith. What's faith? I mean, if someone asked you, how would you answer the question? What would you say faith is? Luke, Chapter 7, verses 2 to 10, is all about faith. And it's about a surprising kind of faith that comes from a surprising place. So let's read. In Copernum, a centurion servant whom his master highly valued was sick and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some of the elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. Okay, so let's pause here. What's a centurion? Well, a centurion was a Roman military

Starting point is 00:01:17 official who oversaw a centuria, which was a group of about 100 soldiers. Okay, so let's keep going. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him. These are the elders pleading on the Roman centurion's behalf. This man deserves to have you do this because he loves our nation. and he built our synagogue. So Jesus went with him. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to him to say, Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you, but 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 I tell that one, come, and he comes.

Starting point is 00:02:04 I say to my servant, do this, and he does it. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him. And he turned to the crowd following him and said, I tell you, I have not found such great faith, even in Israel. Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well. This is an unexpected story, a Roman centurion, a Gentile representative of the Roman Empire. this man understands Jesus's royal authority in a way which outstrips anybody else living in Israel. Jesus says that he has the centurion great faith. This claim, it would have been sacrilegious to the average Jew. A Gentile with greater faith than anyone in Israel, that's not even possible.

Starting point is 00:02:53 But Jesus dared to say it. So what do we learn about the nature of faith from this centurion? Well, the centurion certainly has internal belief, right? I mean, he obviously believes that Jesus is powerful. But more than that, he believes that Jesus is cosmically powerful. He believes that just as he, the centurion, has authority over his soldiers. So Jesus apparently has authority over the entire creation itself. He believes, if we could put it really simply, that Jesus is the, he has the divine king. So faith is certainly believed that Jesus is God, but even more so that Jesus as God is king over everything. But I think we can press into the meaning of faith even further. And it's for this reason. The centurion was a Roman. And we know that as a Roman, he was supposed to put his faith in a different king, the Caesar. The Caesar claimed to be divine. He claimed to rule over the entire known world. Certainly the centurion should have pled to Caesar to heal his servant.

Starting point is 00:03:59 but he doesn't do it. And refusing to do so and looking instead to a different king, when the centurion does that, he's doing something radical and dangerous. He was claiming that there was a different lord than Caesar. There's a different king than Caesar. In fact, there's a different king who is in fact over Caesar, and that's Jesus. This centurion, he was claiming that his ultimate loyalty, his ultimate allegiance, it didn't terminate on Caesar. He didn't give Caesar his ultimate allegiance. No, instead, he gave it to a Galilean peasant named Jesus. Do you see how radical this is?

Starting point is 00:04:37 Jesus saying that this centurion had great faith, he was saying something radical, but the centurion was doing something radical. He was giving his allegiance, his loyalty, not to Caesar, not to Rome, but to King Jesus. Now, this actually makes a lot of sense, because the Greek word for faith, it certainly entailed intellectual belief or assent. But when you use that word, that Greek word for faith, in a political context, or even more particular, in a royal context, and we have to never forget this, and Jesus was claiming to be a king, he was announcing the good news of a kingdom.

Starting point is 00:05:15 So all of this is happening in a political or royal context. When he used that word for faith in a political context, then it takes on a different meaning. It doesn't merely mean intellectual assent. No, it means something more than that. It now means allegiance. In fact, most instances of faith in the New Testament could be understood not merely as belief, but as believing allegiance, or even allegiance belief. Now, I don't want to miss the main point here. I'm not trying to give you a language lesson. The point here is just to answer the question. What does it mean to have faith? When we hear this story, I think we get our best answer. Faith is pledging our allegiance to King Jesus. Faith is pledging our allegiance to King Jesus. And this means that faith is always risky. The centurion gets it, and he takes on the risk willingly.

Starting point is 00:06:15 Giving his allegiance, pledging his allegiance to Jesus can mean losing his job, and not just losing his job, but maybe even losing his life. But he does it anyway, because King Jesus is worthy of allegiance. He understands that King Jesus is worthy of allegiance in a way that Caesar could never, ever merit. Okay, well, what's this mean for us? Well, it means that believing in Jesus for salvation. It doesn't just mean believing that we're saved by grace. True as that is. It doesn't just mean believing that Jesus is our personal savior. Again, as true as that is. What is faith? Faith doesn't mean just praying a prayer or thinking, I trust Jesus in my head. No, faith is a pledge of allegiance to a king. Faith is dangerous because it means renouncing our allegiances to all other worldviews, to all other

Starting point is 00:07:05 rulers, to all other loyalties. Faith is powerful because it calls us to change our entire lives. You can't genuinely pledge your allegiance to Jesus and then live for another king, whether it's yourself or anyone else out there. You can't pledge your allegiance, and ignore King Jesus' call in your life. It's just not possible. So do you have real faith? Not just belief, not just intellectual assent, but believing allegiance. Have you bent your knee and pledged your allegiance, your whole life, to King Jesus? This has become a nearly daily habit for me. And I got to admit, it is very humbling, but it's also radically life-changing. And that daily habit is praying a prayer where I give my allegiance to King Jesus. So let's just end this podcast with a

Starting point is 00:07:58 prayer like that. Pray with me. Jesus, I bend my knee before you. You are my king. You are my Lord. You are my God. You are my Savior. I pledge my allegiance to you and to you alone. I pledge my whole life to you. Help me to live my life today in your service for your king. kingdom as your servant, as your slave even, Jesus, you are a good king. You are the king of life. Help me to never forget that and to always live under your authority because it's precisely under your authority that life is found and best enjoyed. Jesus, we pray these things in your name. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps other people find this podcast more easily. Also, ask yourself,

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Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Makes Faith Revolutionary?

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