Jesus Marvels

In your Bibles, if you would join me in Matthew chapter number eight, the Gospel of Matthew chapter eight, we're going to read verse number five down to verse number 13.

His is the glory, isn't it? That's why we've come today to worship the Lord. And Matthew chapter eight verse number five down to verse number 13.

The Bible says, and when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him and saying, When Jesus heard it, he marveled and said unto them that followed, Verily, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. I say unto you that many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and 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 unto the centurion, Go thy way. And as thou has to believe, so be it done unto thee and his servants.

The servant was healed in the self same hour. Father, your word is before us is the bread of life. It is our wisdom, and we come and with joy sit before this truth. And we pray that your Holy Spirit would open our hearts and minds up to understand and grasp the weightiness of the glory of your word. You said in Psalms that you have exalted your word above your name, and I pray that we would hold your word in such reverence in our heart. Help us never to treat the things of God is common. May we honor you as we come and listen, and may we honor you in the way we leave in obedience. If anyone today doesn't know Christ, may today be the day of salvation. We ask it for the glory of your own sake.

In your name we pray. And God's people said, Man, you may be seated today. In all of something that you said or did. Now that could be in a very good way, or it could be in a very bad way, right? Sometimes spouses will shock one another because they forgot the birthday.

The anniversary date. Or they can cause you to marvel because they did some incredible surprise for you. I have marveled during sports games. Great plays that somebody pulled off.

Terrible calls like we see when we play the Chiefs. You know, I couldn't help it. You know, I have marveled sadly at this society.

I see things going on across the country. I saw just this last week a six foot six, two hundred and seventy pounds student in a school in Florida. When a high school teacher took his game console, a little Nintendo game thing away from him. That he ran up and knocked her down, knocked her unconscious as he hit her over fourteen times while she lay unconscious. I don't know how she survived it. Stuff like that just shocks you, doesn't it? And they asked him later, Do you regret it?

He says, No, I'll kill her if I see her again. This is the kind of thing that you see in this country. Just just shocking.

The transition for allowing transgender men into women's restrooms. Just yesterday across the street yelling incredible blasphemies against God. Incredible blasphemy against God. One man told me, he said, I went over there to ask him if ask a couple of them if I could share the love of Jesus with them.

They cussed me out and told me to get the blankety blank out of there. You know it just Just shocking sometimes You know we can be amazed in life things can cause us to marvel Today you have Marvel Studios creating all kinds of different superheroes you have the Incredibles But no one has caused me to marvel more than the Lord Jesus Christ We serve a marvelous Lord and when you read through the Gospels you find people marveling at Christ Shocked and literally stunned into silence by things that he said and did They marveled at his birth when the shepherds saw the glory of the angelic host open up the sky They marveled when they saw him born and a lowly manger They marveled his parents marveled when they saw the wise men from the East come and bow down and worship him and offer him gifts Even at 12 years old our Lord calls people to marvel when he was just a 12 year old child his parents brought him to Jerusalem at the Passover feast and When they left they did the unthinkable they forgot Jesus Like if you're gonna forget one of your kids by you know accident I Mean there's there's others that would have been better to leave behind you know what I'm saying all sorry James. We forgot you They left Jesus by accident They go and find him three days later, and he's in the temple as a twelve-year-old questioning and answering the doctors of theology Luke 2 records in verse 46 and it came to pass that after three days They found him in the temple sitting in the midst of the doctors both hearing them and asking them questions and all that heard him were Astonished extimized the word in the Greek it means they were blown away. They were thrown into amazement At his understanding and answers and when they saw him they were amazed his parents couldn't believe it Jesus said he would make people marvel in John 520 says for the Father loveth the Son and showeth him all things that himself doeth and he shall show him greater works than Than these he told his disciples that ye may marvel His disciples marveled at him when he calmed the storm in Matthew 8 verse 27 Says but the men marveled saying what manner of man is this that even the winds in the sea obey him Imagine being on a boat and Jesus knocks down the storm with his word He healed a paralyzed man in Matthew chapter 9 and it says when the multitude saw it they marveled When he cast out demons, he'll deaf and mute people it says the people in mark 737 were beyond measure Astonished he was blowing people away by the things that he did not only did his work But his words in Matthew 7 when he came off the mountain says the people were astonished at his doctrine when when the the leading Jewish religious leaders and The greatest minds came to Jesus trying to stump him Trying to catch Jesus in his words the way he answered them literally stunned them into silence in Matthew 22 22 It says but when they heard these words, they marveled and left him and went their way They were asking him questions to try to trip him up and make him look bad.

His answers were so incredibly profound They said stop asking him hard questions. He's making us look worse and him better This is how marvelous he was when When the priests and authorities to take Jesus the officers returned in John 7 46 and they said why didn't you take him? The officer said never man spake like this man The authorities were so amazed by what he said they could not even apprehend him Not only did his words make people marvel but even his silence caused people to marvel when he stood before Pilate and they hurled Insults and false accusation against Christ Christ would not even answer in Matthew 27 14 It says and he answered him to never a word in so much that the governor or Pilate marveled greatly What would it take to take a Roman procurator and calls him to greatly marvel? Jesus did it with his silence? You could not create Jesus There is no religion in the world that could have come up with Jesus Christ. It is so Amazing that people try to say well, you know, they've come up with Jesus I've even heard people say Jesus didn't exist and it's just so laughable Jesus is impossible. He is an impossible Person he is so shocking so stunning the things he said the things he did even the people that were around Jesus the way they lived caused people to marvel in Acts 4 13 the Jewish Sanhedrin the the basically the legislative branch of the Jewish Ruling body it says they marveled at Peter and John and took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus You know It is expected that Jesus as God would cause men to marvel and I believe one day when we stand Before God in heaven that we will stand and marvel for all of eternity that we will be dazzled. We will be shocked into all But I want to ask the question did Jesus ever marvel at something was Jesus ever taken back and stunned by something he saw and Consider what it would take for the Lord to marvel. I mean the one who spoke the world's into existence ex nihilo Out of nothing. What would it take him to be like?

Wow, I Mean that's an impossible thought isn't it yet? We read this morning in verse number 10 that Jesus marvels that that just It just takes me back so far Just an amazing statement when Jesus heard it he marveled There's only two places in Scripture ever records that Jesus marveled. What's interesting both times. He marvels at people's faith and one at their faithlessness today, I want to look at the marvelous faith of one found in Capernaum and then we're going to look at a response of our Lord to that why this man's faith was so marvelous and then we're going to look at a Not so marvelous faith in the city of Nazareth And so let's let's jump into this this morning in verse number one the marvelous faith at Capernaum Actually verse number five It says and when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, so Christ comes to Capernaum as we showed you last week. This is a City on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. This is the city of Peter and your James and John. It's it's a So blessed because it has the presence of Christ there but but we have to remember to whom much is given much is also Required and later this city would also come under the judgment of God because of their lack of faith But here he comes to Capernaum He's going to be setting his ministry up there verse number five goes on to say there came unto him a centurion Beseeching him now. What is a centurion? Well, that is a Roman officer over a what over a hundred men and people who Got to the position of centurion did so because they were men of battle men of war.

They had killed people they fought These these were manly men. These were warriors tough guys He ranked in that day between an officer and a non-commissioned officer equivalent to a modern sergeant major And what is shocking about the story is that this man is a Gentile the first two miracles that Jesus does here When he comes off the mountain is to two outcasts one is a leper Who's an outcast in that society that we saw last Sunday and the second is a Roman centurion? Who is a Gentile who is clearly an outcast among the Jews the Lord was showing here right away The gospel is for the outcasts. It's for the Jew the Gentile the bond the free the male the female And he comes beseeching.

It's pericole. Oh, it means it's a compound word pero Which is beside and Coleto to call he comes calling Jesus to come alongside of him to help him to aid him he's pleading this is the word of Begging really and and it's and it's in the present tense, which means he was continually pleading and In Luke's account it says in Luke 7 verse 4 Luke's account of this story says when they came to Jesus they besought him instantly and the word instantly speaks of this was a this was like a Emergency situation like Jesus we need you to come now. This is a medical emergency.

We we need you right away This is the blue light going off in the emergency room and what was the centurions plea? Matthew 8 verse 6 and saying Lord my servant life at home sick of the palsy grievously tormented So he tells us his servant is sick. The word servant here is not the word doulas Which is the word for slave but in Luke's gospel that uses the word doulas Which means slaves of this this young man was a slave a servant of this Roman centurion slaves were everywhere in the Roman Empire But the but Matthew uses a different word it he uses the word past PA is which is where we get the English word pedo Where we get also the word pediatric that means like a youth. So this servant was a youth.

This was a young youthful servant of the centurion and And what was this the wrong with this young man? It says he was sick of the palsy the word palsy Parallelicos we get the word paralyzed from its paralysis. He was unable to walk He was unable to move he was in a in a situation where Paralysis had taken effect upon his body and and he was grievously tormented. This means he was in terrible pain terrible agony You know as a pastor the places I've been in life. I have seen there are things worse than death There are there have been times where I visited people in both hospitals and in their homes where hospice is called in or pre-hospice Where people have told me pastor I am in so much pain. I want to die.

I Don't want to live anymore. I've suffered long enough I I've had people who've gone through chemo radiation and they said you know what if I ever have to go through all that again And we thank the Lord for those medical advances, but sometimes people have gone through those treatments and six months or a year They've been sick and just miserable and they said, you know, it's not worth existing. I would rather die I'm in so much pain tired of suffering And not only do people sometimes get to that point, but I've seen families in that place where they said, you know We pray for a loved one to be healed We'd love to see them get better. But if they don't we would we would just want their death death to come quick we want them to pass right away because to see them suffering is worse than seeing them die and Some of you have been there, haven't you and that's hard? there's no pain is pain reminds us of the The sinfulness of sin the effects of sin we all face that now in our day, we are blessed with incredible medical advances we have doctors and Pharmacists that can prescribe medication to help alleviate pain and suffering You need to understand in first century Palestine. They did not have the sedatives that we have today They didn't have the antibiotics people could come down with a somewhat regular illness that we may face Somebody could prescribe antibiotics that could bring their temperature down but in that day they would spike They could they could die.

It was it was not uncommon for people to die in their 20s in first century, Palestine. We Call it hyperpyrexia in this day when people get a temperature over 106 and they this was something that would happen somewhat common and And so people suffered I've always thought you know Sometimes get that romantic idea of the the when they were going out west. I like to I'm kind of that adventure guy you Ever go hiking and you're like, let's just go a little bit further and see what's ahead anybody like that You're like, let's just you know, just want to push it ahead. You end up getting lost and you're in trouble. So I Would have probably died I would have got lost and you know, I don't know, you know Just let's camp out here and see what happens. But I always thought it'd be so cool to go out west You know build your own house.

I know to be hard I've done construction, but just been so tough, but just find a place by a river and set up camp and just like I Thought all that been awesome. And then I thought what if I came down with a toothache? What if you had to get a tooth extracted All the romantic idea of going out west just went out the door. I thought man that would not be fun What if you come down with some kind of infection?

You're like guy, you know, where's it? There ain't no doctors around, you know, honey, pull this tooth quick, right? She's like I sure will You know In that day friends I just want you understand that there wasn't the the medical advances suffering people went through incredible bouts of pain This Centurion was a servant who who had a servant who he deeply cared for and This also tells you something about the Centurion. This was a compassionate man. He may have been a soldier He may have been a warrior, but he cared for people who were in his life And how does Jesus respond to this century and in verse 7 it says in Jesus say that him I will come and heal him Many believe the healing of the leper and the journey to Capernaum happened the same day that Jesus had preached So he preached Matthew 5 through 7 the Sermon on the Mount he comes down from the mountain Heals the leper he's journeying to Capernaum, which is not far away he enters into Capernaum And then the Centurion comes and you know, Jesus Jesus Sure was somewhat tired Walking by foot, you know what it's like Anybody get home from church on Sundays you want to eat a good meal and take a nap? Jesus had a human body didn't he?

He could have said, you know, I I'm really tired. I need to get some dinner. I will come tomorrow I've had a busy day. I'm worn out But the request by the Centurion becomes the priority of Christ friends we serve a God who is so humble and gracious and who serves our needs. It's an incredible reality you know Matthew 20 verse 28 says even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many in Reading John 13 the day before the Lord's death that evening. He washed the disciples feet You will hear of no God in any religion that would do that Jesus is impossible He washes their feet and The next time their feet would have been dirty would have been when they ran away from him that evening as they forsook him This is the gracious God we serve Anybody thankful that we serve such a selfless Lord?

Here in Matthew 7 he says I will come the word I is in the emphatic in the English It means I me myself. I'm the one I will come and heal him. You Know it's amazing knowing that the Lord knew he could just say the word and heal the guy doesn't do that. He's He's moved to personally be there like he could have said, okay, he's healed But he says no, I'll come I'll do more than sending my word to heal.

I'll be there I just want you to know today. Jesus cares about you You you know that? Like when you when you pray and you cry out to God the Lord hears He's a God full of compassion full of tender mercies His answers may not always come at the time and the way we thought but his answers are always right on time and always, right? and So we also see here the Centurion's marvelous faith that comes to light in verse 8 and 9 This is this is shocking.

This is unexpected. This is amazing it's so amazing what happens in verse 8 9 that it causes Jesus to literally marvel and Jesus uses this man as faith as an example and there's four things that I think that stand out about his Faith that makes it marvelous. First of all He had a faith that was seeking after God this this man had a real need He had a real trial a real burden in his life Instead of trying to figure it out by his own power and his own wisdom and his own might he he seeks after the Lord and James 4 to the Bible says we have not because we asked not and I think a lot of times friends in life when trials Come when difficulties come when when physical pain or relational pain or mental anguish Hardships come in our life.

We try to figure it out and then then when option a B and C doesn't work out We finally well, at least we can pray about it God shouldn't be option Z right? God should be option a B and C He's the one we turn to Jeremiah 29 13 God says he shall seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart So marvelous faith starts with a faith that seeks after God it elevates God as being the one who can answer Secondly, he had a right and exalted view of Jesus as Lord in verse 6 and in verse 8 He says Lord verse 8 the centurion answered and said Lord He didn't see Jesus is just a man. He saw him as the Lord Jesus Christ The word Lord is courteous in the Greek It means owner master supreme one sovereign who possesses absolute authority and ownership Uncontested power that is the description that's perfect for our Lord Jesus Christ the centurion recognized the lordship of Jesus Christ Thirdly those with a marvelous faith have a great humility and this is just glaring verse 8 Notice what it says and the centurion answered and said Lord. I Am NOT worthy that shall thou shouldst come under my roof Hold your place here if you want and turn over to math or Luke chapter 7 turn your Bibles to Luke chapter number 7 I want to show you a couple things in Luke's account of this story. That is helpful Luke gives us his View of this as it happened the Gospels are a fourfold account of the life of Christ like a like four men standing around Jesus giving us a panorama view and And in Luke chapter 7 verse 2 it says in a certain centurion servant who was dear unto him was sick and ready to die so this this servant it says was Dear unto him he was sick. He's at the point of death verse 3 when he heard of Jesus. He sent unto him the Elders of the Jews beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant and when they were come to Jesus They besought him instantly saying that he was worthy for whom he should do this So in Matthew, it says the centurion came to Jesus you read Luke's account And it says the centurion actually sent the elders of the Jews to Jesus So which one is it are there errors in the Bible?

Is this a contradiction? Well, Obviously, that's not the case in first century Palestine as well as in our culture today. It is understood when a representative of Someone in the authority over them Was sent that that person Represented the one who they were speaking for today We have ambassadors and representatives who go and speak on behalf of presidents or leaders You know the Bible says things like this and first Kings 6 verse 14 and Solomon built the temple Well, Solomon didn't build the temple Solomon had people build the temple, but he oversaw that right? They were his representatives as builders So in Luke, it also says the centurion built a synagogue for the Jews in verse number five The elder said he loveth our nation and hath built us a synagogue But the centurion didn't put his hand on the brick and mortar and put it up rather.

He funded it. He authorized it Matthew's account of the miracle is simply an abbreviation of Luke's account. So it says that centurion himself Communicated with Christ but did so by sending the Jewish elders as representatives now when when when you first read Luke you think You know, so he sends the elders of the Jews to Jesus. Does this man think he's He's superior Like too good to come to Jesus Like he's he's not gonna wear himself out. You know, he wants his servant to get better, but he heard about Jesus So hey, why don't you go get Jesus tell Jesus to come here and heal my servant Is this guy kind of an airy guy?

Is he prideful man? This was in a day when the Jews were under Roman oppression this Roman centurion Could have said, you know, I'm a Roman centurion. I have authority over you Jews.

I could tell you what to do Is that his mindset? Well, not at all Notice in Luke chapter 7 verse number 4 says when he came to Jesus when they came the elders Representing the centurion. They besought him instantly saying that he was worthy for whom he should do this They said this is a this is a guy who's done much for us Jesus these elders are talking on behalf of the century. They said for he is worthy Why for he loves our nation? He loves the Jewish people and he had even built us a synagogue And so the Jewish leaders are like this guy is a worthy man for you to come and do this for Notice how he responds in verse 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 I'm not worthy that you should enter into my roof verse 7 wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee but saying a word of my servant shall be healed The others are like this guy's worthy.

The man said no, I'm not I am not worthy The the phrase I am not worthy is he canos in the Greek It's the exact same word that John the Baptist used in John chapter 1 when he said The one who comes after me. I am not worthy to unloose the shoe latchet from his shoes You know, what humble people who have great faith do they see themselves as unworthy Back in Matthew 8 verse 8 it says the centurion answered and said Lord I am not worthy that thou should enter under my roof so you can flip back to Matthew 8 You see this this Roman officer understood something that was a part of the Jewish culture in that day You won't find this in in the Old Testament, but you'll find this in Jewish tradition Among Jewish tradition they said that you could not have Dinner or lunch with a Gentile. They will pollute you you will become ceremonially unclean You cannot enter into a Jewish household.

You will become defiled That's not in the Bible, but it's in their tradition. Tradition can mess people up sometimes, right? you can have sometimes good traditions, but sometimes they're bad and if they're man-made they can be a mess and so The Roman officer understood the Jews belief on that He understood that Jews don't come into my house Even though I love their nation built him a temple Jews never had entered into this this Roman Gentiles Centurions house because it would have defiled them according their tradition So so the man doesn't want to offend their Jewish sensibilities. So he's like Jesus I'm not worthy that you would under under my roof Isn't that humbling In a day when everybody feels like they should be the privileged that they should be the exalted that they should that Humility is just lacking in our culture today This man comes with incredible humility Those with great faith have a humble spirit this Centurion could have thought, you know, Lord I I have loved your nation. I have built the Jews a synagogue, you know, there should be a little reward for that I've earned some answered prayers here.

Can you can you uh, heal my servant really use this guy? This guy doesn't look to any type of earning the favor of God. All he could see is his unworthiness All he could see was that I I don't want to trouble you Jesus. I don't want you to come to my house I am not worthy Sometimes Christians can find themselves saying, you know, I've been going to church I've been reading my Bible and praying and you know, surely God's gonna give me some good stuff Surely God's gonna answer my prayer that they feel like they've kind of earned some answers to prayer And if that's you today, you need to understand this very clearly It is not and you're doing something to my sound it is not it is not That we earn favor with God. It is not That we do something that causes God to now Owe us something any blessings that we have is not based on the goodness of us But it's based on the goodness of the giver. Amen. You believe that You you believe that this morning?

Okay. I don't want to preach to self-righteousness. All right We we it is only by his grace We must always remember that Matthew 5 3 says blessed are the poor in spirit The repentant publican was forgiven not the proud Pharisee. So those with great faith, they believe the Word of God They also believe the Word of God look at verse number 8 He says he says I am not worthy that thou should come under my roof, but speak the word only that's so incredible Did you notice that this man doesn't say Jesus, can you pray for me? Jesus can you can you go to the Father and ask if he could heal me rather? He just says just say it Jesus you don't need to pray to the Father.

You are Lord. You can say it you have the authority this man Understood the power of the Word of Christ because he understood the power of the Christ of the words In verse 9 the centurion gives his rationale I love this in verse 9 he said for I'm a man under authority Having soldiers under me. I say to this man go and he goeth Another come and he cometh to my servant do this and do it and he doeth it If you've served in the military you understand when the sergeant says hey I want you to get over here and clean up your area.

You don't say I'll get to that Give me a few minutes Not quite yet. You know why you're laughing Because you had eight weeks that beat that kind of nonsense out of you, right? You cleaned your life up a little bit and you said yeah, we don't do that There's a whole lot of pain that comes in those kind of responses This man said listen, I understand authority. I Have a lot of men underneath me and when I tell them to go do something, they don't back talk They don't sass they go and do it But Roman soldiers were tough people.

They weren't allowed to get married for like Many times 20 years of their times of service They didn't have families like we have these men Fought they bled they were cruel. They crucified people and they could do it with pleasure These these were toughened hardened men And and this man understood authority he knew that In subordinates people underneath you when you told them to do something that they would follow that subordinates to you And so he saw Jesus as being so superior That his word was enough to make the disease illness paralysis pain agony to flee away Just by his words. He saw the authority of Christ's words as being that supreme It's just an incredible thing This is this is unprecedented in the Bible. He doesn't say Jesus.

Can you please come and heal this guy? He says Jesus, please don't wear yourself and trouble yourself to come here. Just say it When you read the scriptures you often find people saying Jesus.

I need you to be here for this. Do you remember in John 11? John 11 verse 21 and 32 Mary and Martha they what did they say to Jesus because their brother died They said Jesus if you had been here, my brother had not died This man says Jesus. You don't even have to come here and you'll hear my servant.

That's Unprecedented. This is unbelievable faith And what causes Jesus to marvel is this man's humility? He saw nothing in himself as being worthy and he totally believed in the Word of God This this so reminds me of Isaiah 66. I Love this passage. It says thus saith the Lord the heaven is my throne. The earth is my footstool.

Isn't that great? I Sit in heaven in the cosmos and I put my feet on your earth And then he says this where is the house that ye build unto me? Where is the place of my rest for all those things have my hand made? You can't give something to God he owns it all and all these things have been saith the Lord And notice but to this man, will I look? even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit that that speaks of humility both in a poor and contrite spirit a humble spirit and Trimbleth at my word You want to cause God who sets his feet upon the earth as his footstool to stand and say wow It's the person Who is humble and contrite and who tremble underneath the greatness of God's Word? Let me ask you What value do you place on this book How weighty is it in your life?

If you were to look at the last week of your life, how great of a priority and how Important has the Word of God been to you? Psalm 119 161 says princes have persecuted me without a cause but my heart standeth in all of thy word God's Word should make us just Trimble with joy and longing for obedience Romans 10 17 says faith is what comes from the hearing of God's Word And and and so we see a marvelous faith at Capernaum, let's look at a marvelous response from the Lord in verse 10 through 13 How does the Lord respond several ways? verse 10 says when Jesus heard it he Tommaso he marveled he was struck with astonishment This word is used 33 times in the Gospels. It's most often used of people being struck with all Amazing being dazzled being astonished by the things that Jesus did But here it's used of Jesus marveling at this guy Can you imagine like what that scene looked like Jesus preaches a sermon he had been healing doing miracles back in Matthew 4 people were astonished couldn't believe this going on Preaches a sermon everybody's like whoa Just astonished everybody's done.

It comes down Touches a leper heals a leper on the spot. Everybody's like, whoa I mean everybody was used to being dazzled amazed by Christ Then this centurion comes and says there's some elders sit from this insurance that hey, can you come and heal this guy's servant? He's he's at the this is code blue. This is this guy's life is on the line Can you come and Jesus said I'll come and heal him he gets close to the guy's house Some guys come out and say hey, he said please don't come to his house because they must have seen Hey, Jesus is coming centurion Romans and Jesus is coming. He says hey go tell him he doesn't have to come here Tell tell him just just speak the word. I know what authority is He has more authority than anyone could have if he says it it'll happen. These guys come out say Jesus I just want you to know the Romans and sure he said you don't have to come he's not worthy for you to even enter His house if you just say the word his servant will be healed and Jesus goes That's I mean, can you imagine the face of Jesus shocked I Think everybody's like we've never seen him look like that before We've seen a lot of people amazed around Jesus we've just never seen him get amazed Jesus is Mesmerized and shocked by what this guy said just wow.

Did you hear that? So Jesus uses this man's faith is now a platform to preach a mini sermon and A couple things stand out here verse number 10 He says verily I say unto you. I have not found so great faith What kind of faith did he call it?

Yeah, he called it great faith. No not where You think that's a little bit of a slight to the Jews? You kidding me this was so offensive to the Jews This was so aggravating to him, you know in the New Testament the book of Acts Paul would write about like all the Gentiles would Be like, yeah, you know, they would listen to Paul They'd be like, yeah, we agree with you until he said and to the Gentiles the gospel has come And then all the Jews rose up and said stone him. This man is not worthy to live They would listen to Paul up to the point when but when he brought the word Gentile and non Jew up because the Jews thought the gospel was just for the Gentiles. They had missed the truth And Jesus says I haven't even found this kind of faith among you Jewish people This Gentile has surpassed all of you.

You think that's offensive Let me ask you a question. Do you think Jesus was worried about offending people? And he refers to this as great faith Let me ask you a question Bible scholars.

You ready? How many times did Jesus refer to the disciples faith or the Apostles faith or even the Apostles Paul faith as having great faith in? The Bible how many times did he refer to them as having great faith?

You want to know how many the answer is? Zero nada Ninca could go on there's none He would often say where is your faith? You owe you of little faith.

Oh You of weak faith. Why did you doubt you know what when we read about the disciples faith, you know to reminds us of reminds us of us We're like, wow, they're just like we are What's incredible is there was two times Jesus refers to people having great faith One of them is in Matthew chapter number 15 of a Sarafinesian woman who by the way was a Gentile woman and the other is a Gentile man here in Matthew chapter number 8 absolutely incredible Anybody thankful that the gospel is open to the Jew and the Gentile And look what else he says in verse 11 and 12. I mean it gets more heated here No pun intended verse 11 And he says I say to you that many Shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob Where would they come from the east and the west?

Is that Israel? No, that's not Israel That's around the world other nations Gentiles they'll come from the east and the west and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven Notice what he says in verse 12, but the children of The kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Yeah, if he offended them by saying this Gentiles faith has passed all of you Jews and unless you Unless you come to me in faith, you're gonna be cast out because there's gonna be a lot of Gentiles entering the kingdom And you're gonna find yourself cast out into hell.

I Mean, this is just offensive No wonder when he preached his first sermon in his hometown of Nazareth that they took him and tried to throw him off of a cliff I think most churches today couldn't handle one sermon of Jesus I think if he preached in some churches, they would think he was the devil Genesis Chapter 12 verse 3 Lets us know as well as several Old Testament passages the gospel was never just for the Jews It was for the Jew and the Gentile the Jews thought only the Jews would be saved but the Gentiles were to also enter the kingdom and this is in the Old Testament and The promise was given to Abraham in Genesis 12 3 says I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that cursed thee and in Thee shall all families of the earth be blessed Abraham your faith would be with all people Psalms 22 27 all the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before the Isaiah 49 6 goes on to say I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation Unto the end of the earth this goes on in Jeremiah Zechariah on and on in the Old Testament The Jews were to be set aside to be to come out from the world to be a light to the Gentiles But they came out and said we're the only ones that are going to go to heaven and they they pushed away the Gentiles and Jesus came on board and said let me let me let you know that you're not the only ones entering the kingdom Now I want to highlight a rabbit trail in verse 11 if I could so thank you for saying I can't I I Want to ask this question in heaven. Are we going to know each other? Well, we recognize each other. Will you be who you are here there, but Except without sin and in a perfect perfected condition Or will we be just some generic identity? You'll be as somebody different You won't remember anything and you'll be just a whole new entity. I've had people say that before to me well, you know, you'll just be a generic soul and You'll have a different name. You won't be who you were here and dah, dah, dah, dah. Well The problem with that is that's not what the Bible teaches.

I Don't have time I could take you to about a dozen places in the Bible to show you in the New Testament Why that's not true, but let me just highlight a couple Here in Matthew 8 verse 11 according to this verse Does Jesus teach that people will be known in heaven as they were known on earth? How were Abraham Isaac and Jacob known on earth as Okay, this is class participation you ready that's how this works folks so a lunch is waiting on me too my wife has a roast I'm hungry. I'm right now. I'm seriously I'm hungry And if you work with me, we'll get there. All right, so Abraham Isaac and J I'm kind of being selfish right now.

I need you to help me. So on earth, how are they known? They were known as Yeah You're hungry too.

Good So I would also ask the question. What were they known as in heaven according to Jesus? Abraham Isaac and Jacob. So the Bible tells us their identity on earth is the same identity that they'll have in heaven Who you are here is who you'll be there Is there anybody that you would like to sit down with in the kingdom of heaven one day I'm gonna be great sitting down with Enoch. Hey, you know, what was it like when you were translated into heaven raptured up? Noah Abraham Isaac Jacob Moses Esther Elijah Elijah David Daniel Paul.

I mean this this would be a tremendous thing, won't it? You know even in Matthew 7 we had gone through that a couple weeks ago and in Matthew 7 22 the people who stand before God Will talk to God about the things they did on earth Didn't we prophesy in your name and in your name do many wonderful works and cast out devils they remembered all of that The Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17 Elijah and Moses were there the rich man and Lazarus They knew their identity the man in hell knew he had five brothers on earth These people were known as they were known here on earth and they remember all of that stuff Hebrews 13 verse 17 also talks about how pastors will give an account of those that are under their care the people of their church the only way I can give an account of the people in the churches I would have to remember and so Christ's warning in verse number 12 is Is very severe here. So he goes and talks about a warning that there's going to be many Gentiles entering Jews You need to make sure you're entering because many of you will be cast out and notice the great warning in verse 12 He says but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Wow He's not talking about losing some spiritual reward here He's talking about losing your soul in hell where you will be in such agony.

You would gnash your teeth You would grind them in pain and agony Just as the eternal bliss of heaven is real. So the horrors of hell are real and what's so shocking to me Is when I read this the man did not come to Jesus asking about heaven and hell He didn't come to Jesus asking like what? Well, you know what's gonna happen to us Jews and Gentiles with he didn't ask any of that stuff He said hey I have a I have a servant that needs heal and if I need you to heal this guy who's gonna die and and Jesus uses the man's faith as a platform to preach on hell What does that tell us? Let's just know Jesus made a big deal about eternity, didn't it?

Y'all with me. I mean Jesus just got done preaching on hell one of the most severe passages in all the Bible Matthew chapter 5 He said if your right hand keeps you basically from being saved if it offends you He said it's better to have your hand cut off and enter into life with one hand than having two hands and go to hell Where the fire is not quenched in the worm dieth not I mean he just lights it up and in the first major sermon He gets off the mountain. He does a miracle and right away. He preaches on hell again Did he have anything else to preach on? Let me tell you there's some people say I'd never want to never I don't want those hellfire brimstone preacher I can tell you probably wouldn't survive one sermon from Jesus. He preached on hell. This is factual He preached on hell more than everyone in the Bible combined Take John the Baptist all the fiery Old Testament prophets take all that they ever said about hell and eternal punishment He's Jesus the loving Lord Jesus preached on hell more than all of them combined. That's that's incredible Why did he do it friends?

What do you think he did it? He wants us to know it's serious. He's like you better wake up you think Covid's worrisome You you think some illness is a trouble. Do you understand you're mortal you understand it one day? You're gonna not just go through physical but you will stand before God and if you are not saved you will be cast into place Where you will be in agony forever.

Do you realize that? Jesus made a real big deal about this and he concludes in verse 13. It says in Jesus said into the centurion go thy way as thou hast believed so be it done unto thee and His servant was healed in the self same hour.

Do you know what I love about verse 13? There's nothing in this story that talks about the servant having faith But only the centurion having faith Didn't say, you know, my servant said you could do this. So I thought I'd send some guys on his bath No, it was a centurion's faith that brought the blessing You need to understand this friends when you have strong faith in God when you're humble You believe his word and you trust in him your faith will bring great blessing to the people around you You will shower blessings upon them because of your walk with Christ.

Some of you have received those blessings, haven't you? You know the Bible talks about that Paul Paul writes about that he says it's the faith and of a believing spouse can can be poured on to the Unbelieving spouse and God could bring salvation through that by his grace Let me bring you to one a third and final point turn with me to mark chapter number six and we'll conclude here Look at mark chapter number six Just a brief point I want to highlight here mark chapter number six here Jesus comes to his hometown of Nazareth and We find here another faith that Jesus marvels at but he doesn't marvel at their faith. He marvels at their faithlessness In Mark 6 verse 1 it says and he went out from thence and came into his own country and his disciples followed him And when it was when the Sabbath day was come he began to teach in the synagogue and listen many hearing him were astonished They were struck with amazement Saying from whence hath this man these things and what wisdom is this which is given unto him and even such mighty works are wrought By his hands they had heard about many miracles He would do many miracles and and they were just amazed by that Through verse 2 everything's great. You're like this is this is really awesome to see but then something tragic happens in verse 3 There is a change Verse 3 look look what they say They say is not this the carpenter. I Mean what didn't Jesus have his carpenter shop over on 3rd Street Isn't isn't this the carpenter it is his brother James and The son he's the son of Mary.

I mean his brothers are James and Joseph and Judah and Simon I mean his sisters are here with us It says and they were offended at him You know what Jesus says to that Jesus that a prophet is not without honor, you know The only place you're not honored as a prophet is in your own country among his own kin and in his own house. You Know how it concludes verse 5 and he could there do no mighty work save he that he laid his hands on a few sick folk and healed them and He marveled because of their unbelief He went around about the villages teaching. You know what that day Nazareth missed it they Had the glory of Christ in their presence and they missed it. You know what the problem was at Nazareth I mean did Jesus do something wrong was his teaching off that day were his methods off.

No the problem was not with Christ the problem was in Nazareth and And the problem was was this instead of elevating Christ as Lord they de-elevated him they saw him as is the all too common Jesus and The great sin of unbelief is produced by this listen closely the the marvelous Unbelief is created when you take the things of God and treat them as common We've Yeah, we've been challenged to read the Bible before I've read it before but you know what I read it last week I read it a couple weeks ago. I you know, I don't spend much time in the Bible. We treat it as common Oh did the pastor say we got a stand to read the Bible. Oh We just sat down We'll stand to cheer our team but we want to sit for the word I don't think you do I think there's people that could have a terrible mindset like that People say oh it's just church Let's get early to work Let's get early to the kids ballgame. But you know showing up 10 20 30 minutes late for church. It's just church.

I Mean, I don't really want to I'm not a fan of the music So I you know, let's just get there when maybe the preaching starts. It's long long anyway We'll watch a two and a half hour movie and get exhausted in a sermon It's just the Bible There's a man in Kansas City who was so severely burned from an explosion Robert Sumner shares this story in a book. He wrote called wonders of the Word of God And the victim's face was so badly disfigured. He lost his eyesight as well as both hands He lost both of his hands in this fire he was just a new Christian and One of the great disappointments was he could no longer read the Bible Then he heard about a lady in England who read the Bible with her lips Hoping to do the same he sent for some books of the Bible in Braille Much to his dismay.

However, he discovered that the nerve ending of his lips had been destroyed by the explosion One day as he brought one of the Braille pages to his lips his tongue happened to touch a few of the raised Characters and he could feel them like a flash. He thought I could I could read the Bible with my tongue At the time that Robert Sumner finished his book He said the man had read the entire Bible four times through with his tongue And we have two good eyes and probably three four copies of this at home Let me ask you is this become common to you? Is it just the Bible?

Is it just his word? Well, I'll I'll hear about it Sunday, really What about prayer we treat prayer it's just prayer, you know Christ died on the cross rose again tore the veil open But you know what? I don't know if I have time to pray this morning People treat the salvation of people as common You know people get saved around here somewhat I mean weekly we pray to the grace of God we see people make spiritual decisions and we trust that those folks are Truly faith in Christ is real When when you hear of somebody getting saved Can you even muster up an amen or a praise the Lord or is it just like oh, you know for debt before? I wonder what heaven thinks When like the Bible says in Luke 15 7 and verse 10 as well It says that heaven rejoices over one sinner that repents and and we're like, hey We had three saved at JDC last week or we had to save Sunday we had three saved Wednesday night and we had a couple people saved out on the street and people like I Wonder if heavens like You see those Christians down there They can't even muster up a praise the Lord Wow How can the Lord be on the throne of our heart who? Explodes in joy in heaven and we can't even get excited when somebody gets saved, you know There's there's three four people we had 14 people saved the last three Sundays Is that good?

Is that exciting? Guess who didn't save them? All right, and it's only the Lord's mercy that they're saved and when these people come down here You know, hey once you get by and say hey praise the Lord I'm so glad that you're in the family of God now, you know, we think My wife has a roast at home I am hungry the lines long. It's hard to get out of the parking lot Presbyterians always beat us to Bob Evans If not them the Methodist, you know, but Maybe that's why the early services has so many people we like 300 people in the early service, but When we treat the things of God as common I fear I fear that we could become like the church at Nazareth Friends let's never take it common Let's stand in office word Let's get on our face tomorrow morning and say God you Are so old How could I even begin the day without getting before you and worshiping you? I'm a child of God I can never get over my salvation You are so gracious. I have your word.

I Have had missionaries who've shown me entire Bibles that were handwritten in Chinese because they said when in China that we have the underground church and they would show us I've seen them I've been in churches in college where they said see the whole thing's written by hand and we would come together We would pass pages of the Bible out and people would take them home and memorize the entire pages They treated it like it was the most precious thing in their life more than food more than water They longed for it and we have three or four of them on our shelves collecting dust Let that never be said of any of us. I believe that you are people who love the word I believe you're here because you love Christ. I believe you're sincere. I believe that But I know for myself and you as well that sometimes Jesus can become too commonplace And we can treat the glory of Christ as something that's just not that special Let us elevate his glory this morning. Amen. Let us honor the king of glory. He's worthy Let us learn from a fellow Gentile.

Let's have faith in him. We are not worthy He is his word can do anything and let us exalt the name of Christ. Let's all stand this morning Maybe today you just want to come and take a moment in prayer. Maybe God spoke to your heart Whatever your need is, maybe you just want to come and worship the Lord Maybe you have a burden on your heart you say, you know I just need to cast my care upon him because he cares for me Whether at your seat or at an altar I Encourage you to do business with God today. Don't don't take lightly an opportunity to spend time with him Say why do you do altar calls? What do you have this time because you just heard a 50-minute sermon and now's a chance whether at your seat whether watching online Or at this place in this building that you have a chance to say God Help me now to follow an obedience to you.

We don't want any emotional decisions We don't want people to be manipulated by emotions. We want people to be moved by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit If you're here today, you say pastor if I stood before God, I don't know if heavens my home I'm not sure that if I stood before God that I would be in heaven I'm gonna be down front. We have men and women in the front that could talk with you at prayer rooms off of our sanctuary They'll just pull you aside and show you from the Bible how you can know when your life's over. You'll be in heaven today You could come many have already come to spend some time in prayer whether at your seat or at an altar Why don't you take that time? Seek the Lord father. We thank you for your work today We just want to honor you with our lives. Thank you for these precious people be glorified in How we view you how we read how we pray how we attend church how we get here how we go home how we live Without what we've heard be glorified through your servants. We ask it in Jesus name, amen.