Words of Jesus Podcast - Great Faith Say The Word Only

Episode Date: March 11, 2022

The Pharisees side-stepped the question of the authority of Jesus; however, the Centurion recognized and embraced His obvious authority.   “Speak the word…you don’t need to come.”  There appears an unexpected divergence during the ministry of Jesus.  The people expected to receive Jesus rejected him; the heathens and sinners accepted him.  This is our warning.  The antichrist will capture many.  You can bet your socks a delusion sent by God will be good. ***Chapter 20: Jesus Heals The Centurion’s Servant JESUS went to Capernaum after he had delivered the Sermon on the Mount.  A centurion, a Roman military officer, came to him and said:            “Lord, my servant lieth at home, sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.”             Jesus replies:            “I will come and heal him.”            Thereupon the centurion said:             “Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my rood. But, speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having sholdiers under me; and I say to this man, ‘Go,’ and he goeth; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he cometh; and to my servant, ‘Do this’, and he doeth it.”            When Jesus heard these words, revealing the great faith of the centurion, he was deeply impressed and said to those who followed him:            “Verily, I say unto you, ‘I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.’  And I say unto you that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of Heaven.  But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.  There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”             Jesus said to the centurion:            “Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.”            The servant was healed at that exact moment. ***Scriptures:  Matthew 8:1; Mark 5:13; Luke 7:1-10

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello my friend, welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. I'm Don Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. Glad to be doing this for you and with you. We'd love to hear from you. If your intention is to get in touch with us, simply write to Don at thinkredink.com. I'm going to do something a little different here. If you've been following

along as far as chapter numbers are concerned, don't be so distressed that we're going to jump to chapter 20. And I'm going to lay aside chapter 19 in our little book of the words of Jesus. And the reason I'm doing that is, is chapter 19 is the Sermon on the Mount. That Sermon on the Mount is so packed. I'd really love for that to be, you know, all inside of, you know, a certain time. And so I'm going to, I'm going to set that aside for now. So don't be too distressed that our chapter numbers have jumped. You're still doing just fine. Alright, chapter 20 of our little book comes from Matthew 8 and

chapter 5 and Luke 7. This is when Jesus heals the centurion's servant. Jesus went to Capernaum after he had delivered the Sermon on the Mount. A centurion, a Roman military officer, came to him and said, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. Jesus replied, I'll come and heal him.

Well, that sounds like that's a done deal. Okay, let's go. Whereupon the servant said, Lord, I'm not worthy that you should come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. I'm a man under authority, having soldiers under me. I say to them, go, and they go. And to them, come, and they come. And to my servant, do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard these words revealing the great faith of the centurion, he was deeply impressed and said to those who followed him,

Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith. No, not in Israel. And I say unto you that many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness, for they'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus said to the centurion, Go thy way as thou hast believed, be it done unto thee. The servant was healed at that exact moment. I remember as a young man reading that scripture and thinking, how did we get from having great faith, from the

conversation that the centurion was offering Jesus saying, I'm a man under authority? I didn't understand that. I couldn't put those two ideas together. But then all of a sudden I started to realize that this centurion's faith was not in his own authority or in his own power. His intense

and exemplary faith was in Jesus Christ. Now I think that we are passing a particular point in time and point in teaching because we have moved from this Messiah that has to touch, he has to speak to these people and he has to touch, he has to speak to these people and he has to be

tangibly with them in order to make these, to bring these healings to pass. And I think what's happened here is this centurion, he recognized authority when he saw it. And he saw that Jesus had this authority and this had nothing to do with his ability or his proximity to the ill person.

It had nothing to do with many of the things that they used to bring, you know, here touch my child and heal him or because he's sick or I want you to pray for or I want you to do or I want you to perform some act. And the centurion says, look, although I appreciate you wanting to come to my house, I know who you are. And what I see

and the disparity between who you are and who I am it's going to become very apparent especially if you come to my house. I'm not worthy to have a man like you under the same roof as I am. But if you will, speak the word. I'm sure that's sufficient. How can you be sure that's sufficient? Because I understand authority.

I am a man under authority. I got people over me. I got people over me. I got people under me. And here's what I've noticed. If I have authority, I can say go. And he goes. He doesn't argue with me. If I say come, he comes.

And he doesn't argue with me. He does what I tell him to do. How do I accomplish that? I'm authoritative. I know what authority is when I see it. And you've got it. Now, this tickled Jesus so much that he actually he did what I don't know. I don't think it's good parenting, but parents do this. He

pointed at him and told his disciples, you see this? You see this? This is what I'm after. You know how we might put a child's report card on the refrigerator and say, you know, look at the one that's not so good in school and say, huh? See this? You see? I don't know that that's good parenting, but nevertheless, Jesus took the opportunity to say, I've not found so great faith.

Not in all Israel. And here this Roman, this pagan Roman warrior exemplifies more faith than anybody that I've ever met. All the Jews I've ever met in Israel. This guy, he's the best. And he looked at the centurion and said, go on home. He's healed. And the centurion finds out that he indeed was healed. Now, this is an interesting story.

Because there's probably not a one of us that have not approached the Lord about a particular healing or a particular request that we've made to Him and we have within us doubts. Of course we do. Don't beat yourself up about that. The best thing to do, and I keep telling you this, the best default is honesty. Just be honest. It's like the man that told Jesus, Jesus asked him, do you believe? And he said, well, yeah, I believe, but I need you to help my unbelief.

Like I got both of these things struggling around inside me right now. I need some help in this area. And this is an honest man. For a person to just, you know, blah, blah, blah, bunch of faith words and say, yes, I believe when they don't, you're wasting your time much less appearing to our lord jesus as dishonest you're not honest about this not at all and so we have a tendency to mess these things up and it's it's maybe through good intention it may be through ignorance it may be

for a lot of different reasons but um here we have an example of somebody that really just twitterpated jesus he was he was just tickled about this guy well you know what i want to do i want to be that guy i I really do want the Lord to be proud of me about my faith. So what does it require? It requires, one, that I'm not an ignorant jackass that just believes anything that is hee-hawed over the pulpit, and I'm out there just parroting what somebody else said or making excuses for things that don't make sense, making excuses for God for not moving, not doing, not working, not healing, not doing what he promised he'd do. You know, I asked for that tree to be

plucked up by the root and there it sits. I determined not to be that person but okay then what person should I be? Well here we have a guy that really got Jesus' attention. He got it and wow this was just a big day. Jesus couldn't even just deal with this on a personal level. He had to point at this guy and introduce his disciples to, this is the way faith works.

You remember when they came to Jesus and he had been doing these miracles and they said, by what authority do you do these things? And who gave you this authority? And Jesus said, I'll tell you what, I'll answer your question, but I need to know something else about you. I need to know if you understand what authority is. Well, they proved that they didn't.

How did they do that? Jesus said, I'll ask you a question. You answer mine, I answer yours. Now, we've talked about this particular situation before, and I pointed out that many people take this situation and they say, oh, isn't Jesus clever? He dodged the man's question. You know, a person who says that, I know you mean well, and you're probably saying what you heard some other

preacher say, or what your seminary professor told you, but a man who says that does not understand the authority of Christ at all. Do you really think that Jesus needed a dodge? In this particular situation, answer my question, I'll answer yours. Ah, they won't be able to answer that question, so now I don't have to answer theirs. You really think that was his motivation? Well, I happen to not believe that that was his

motivation. I think that Jesus had the authority to look at them and say, get out of here. I'm not answering your questions. Go away. It wouldn't surprise me at all. Matter of fact, he's told people to go away. Well, sure he did. You remember the Syrophoenician woman? He called her a dog and stomped at her and told her to go.

We're not talking about a Savior here that's in fear and trembling, and I hope he doesn't offend anyone, and he doesn't make anybody mad. No, he wouldn't have any trouble at all telling whoever asked him, by what authority do you do these things? Yeah, pack your grip and go.

I don't owe you any explanations whatsoever. I'm here because the Father sent me, not because you called and asked me to be here. You're not my boss. Or his kids say, you're not the boss of me. And I believe that he had that kind of guts, if you want to call it that. Intestinal fortitude. To look at men of whatever authority they happened to be, which was the highest spiritual authority on the earth.

And I cannot believe that he dodged this question by using tricks. As a matter of fact, when he said I'll answer your question if you answer mine, As a matter of fact, when he said, I'll answer your question if you answer mine, by the authority of these men who are asking this question, they could have stomped at him and said, you will answer our question.

They could have, but they didn't. Because there was something within them that made them doubtful as to exactly who were they talking to here. So Jesus says, answer my question, I'll answer yours. Alright, what's your question? He says, John, John the Baptist, his authority, did it come from heaven? Or did it come from men?

They reasoned among themselves, the Bible says, and they said, oh boy, if we say that his authority came from men, the people will stone us because they believe that John was a prophet. That'll put us on the outside you see the leaven at work here? You see they didn't do anything outside of consideration of pure leaven which was hypocrisy, which was saying what everybody wanted them to say in order

to win as many people as possible. Many modern Christians today think that's just being all things to all men. No, it's not. It's just being a coward or being ignorant and you just don't know. You know, if all the people just don't know. You know, if all the people that didn't know what they were talking about went home and quit witnessing, we might have a better persona in the world as Christians. But no, no, no.

They get saved today and some preacher talks them into winning people for Jesus and we take people out with 24 hours of experience of salvation and try to get them to go out and witness for Jesus and they don't know squat. They don't even know what happened to them. Nevertheless these men were not ignorant and unlearned men. And they were asked a question,

and they started to analyze their answers, and it started to occur to them that if we answer this particular way, we're going to be in trouble with the people. Well, then, let's just say that we believe that his authority came from God. And one of them said to the other, well then he's going to ask, why didn't you believe him?

We're not going to win in this, guys. We can't answer this question. If we answer this question one way or answer it the other, we're in trouble. So the Bible says that they went back to Jesus and said, we cannot tell. Jesus said, well, neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. Now, did he use that as an excuse? Did he use it as some left-handed reasoning? What did he do? What was that all about? Well, it's a matter of authority.

Jesus wanted them to know that if you don't understand authority, why are you asking questions about it? If you don't get it, you don't understand what authority is, where it comes from, who gives it, how you're supposed to respond to it. You don't know anything about authority. So what good is my answer going to do you? I'm not going to answer a question coming from somebody that doesn't even understand what they're asking. And I think that became

very, very clear to them, and certainly it was clear to Jesus. But then, here comes this centurion. This centurion that is well-versed in authority. He knows exactly how authority works. Why? Because he's a disciplined soldier. And soldiers, armies, they run on discipline. They run on logic and they run on authority. They give

authority to men. You know there's even a saying in the military that you don't salute the person, you salute the uniform. And it really doesn't matter how you feel about your commanding officer, whether you like him or not, or whether you admire him or not, whether you think that he's got all the answers, or that you're just proud to be led into war or into battle by this guy. It doesn't matter. You're going to do what you're told or you're going to Leavenworth.

They not only believe in authority, they enforce authority. You will do what you're told. And so authority becomes a part of a life of a soldier that's undeniable to him. I live in this situation all day long, all of my life, I know how authority works. Now with a guy like this, Jesus can deal with this guy. Because

he understands, he knows nothing of Yehovah, of Jehovah God. This guy's a Roman. He doesn't know anything about the fall of mankind and Adam and Eve and Noah and the covenant with Abraham and all these things and all the history behind all this, the promise of Messiah to come and redeem Israel. He doesn't understand any of that. But you see, to the Lord Jesus it was

essentially unimportant because He knows who I am. I don't know how exactly He knows who I am, but perhaps he's been following me around. Perhaps he's seen me working. Perhaps he knows of my reputation. Do you know Jesus actually said one time, if you can't believe on me because I'm the son of God, maybe you should just believe for the work's sake.

That's good advice. That's really good advice. I am who I say I am, and I can prove it. I can prove I am who I say I am. Watch this. Who can forgive sins but God alone, the Pharisees said. Well, which is easier to say, Jesus said to them, thy sins be forgiven thee, or rise up and walk? Would you like to take a stab at this? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, he saith unto the sick of the palsy, rise up and walk. He just constantly proved who he was.

And you know, when it comes to, look, I believe in good solid theology. I believe in good doctrine. I think we ought to know these things. I'm not saying that these are dispensable, but I'm saying when it comes to a relationship with Jesus Christ, you just got to know who he is. And the first thing that will occur to you, if you got any brains in your head at all, this guy's got authority.

And it was so rare for people to recognize his authority, the situation with this Roman centurion really stood out. And he says, man, nobody in Israel's got this understanding. Perhaps we should go to Rome and preach to the troops. But you see, one of our biggest problems is we don't understand who Jesus is. To us, he's kind of, you know, a little plastic statue on the dashboard with a magnet on your shoes. He's, you know, the little sheep-toting, sissified-looking little half-girl-looking shepherd boy.

You know, the little guy with the glow behind his head. The glowhead boy. He's, you know, sweet baby Jesus in a manger somewhere. I don't know what your ideas of him are, but if they don't include the fact that the Lord God of the earth turned to him and called him God, you don't have an understanding of who Jesus is. John saw him in his glory outside of this physical body, and he fell at his feet like he was dead. You can't believe what I saw. You can't believe it.

You can't fathom it. You had to be there. You see, I really believe that most of our lack of faith, if you will, stems from our cartoon ideas about who Jesus is, who he was, who he is today. And I think that that's the revelation that we need. We don't need Jesus revealed to us,

appear at the foot of our bed or hovering in the ceiling of our bedroom or, you know, seeing visions of his face in tortillas or any of the rest of this stuff. This is all just hokum. It's all ridiculous. If he does appear at your bed, how are you going to recognize him? He's going to look like the Jesus that you think he's supposed to look like. I've got news for you, friend. You're going to see the Antichrist one day. I happen to believe that our generation will. It's just my opinion. It doesn't really mean anything. I'm just saying that I think

we're going to see the manifestation of the Antichrist. You know what he's going to look like? Your vision of Jesus. He's the false Messiah. The false Messiah, the Antichrist whose purpose it is to make everybody think that he is Jesus Christ, does not come to this earth dressed in a red suit with a big long arrow-tipped tail and horns on his head. He doesn't do that. What's he going to do? He's going to come and look like and appear to you to be Jesus Christ, the one that you have in your head. That's what he's going to look like. Hey friend, you're not going to follow

him, are you? You know what? If you don't have a revelation from God the Father as to who the Son of God is? You might. You might follow him. You're not exempt from that. It's going to be a very, very strong delusion. How are you going to fight that? How are you going to see to it that you're not deceived? Because it's up to you. There's no promise of God that you're not going to be deceived.

As a matter of fact, God is the author of the delusion that's coming on this earth. He's the one that invented the delusion. Look, if our Father God creates a delusion, you can bet your socks it's going to be a good one. It's going to be something that's going to be very, very tough for you to understand. Well, what's our hope?

What's our, you know, how do we get over this? Real simple. It doesn't say that you have to know all truth. It doesn't say that you have to know your Bible from back to front. It doesn't mean that you've got to go to Seventh-day Adventist seminars and learn about prophecy and, you know, all the significance of the statue of Nebuchadnezzar or understand the book of Revelation or any of the rest of this stuff. You know what you have to do?

Just love truth. Because it says that he created the strong delusion that they all might be damned. Who loves not the truth. Do you love truth? Friend, listen, you better fall in love with truth. And let the Lord reveal who Jesus Christ is to you now. Because when you do, one of the first things that's going to happen to you, you're going to understand his authority in this earth.

His authority to judge you. His authority to cleanse you. His authority to raise you from the dead. We'll see you right here for more of the Words of Jesus series. Bye-bye. You've been listening to Don C. Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. Email don at thinkredink.com. That's thinkredc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you