The Word To Live By: 7-28-26
Phil Waggoner
And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, begging Him, and saying, Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, terribly tormented.” Jesus *said to him, “I will come and heal him.” Matthew 8:5-7
The Word To Live By: This story about Jesus has always intrigued me because after all was said and done, Jesus said to His disciples in verse 10, “Now when Jesus heard this, He was amazed and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.” What I want to know is, what did Jesus see or hear that caused this statement? There are other scriptures where Jesus said someone had little faith, and that was to Bible believers, but I can only find one place in the New Testament where Jesus said someone had great faith and that was also to what we would call a non-believer (Matthew 15:28). There are several things I have identified that gave this man “great faith.” The obvious one is he believed that the Word of Jesus (God) spoken had the power to heal. He was also a humble man. He had more political and legal power than Jesus, yet he came to Jesus and asked for something and expected it to happen. (Think about that statement for a while.) And when Jesus said He would come and heal him, the centurion said, “I’m not worthy for You to come under my roof.” The officer recognized that he was a sinner, but that God was a merciful God and His grace went beyond sin. But what gave him “great faith” was that he recognized that Jesus had authority over the sickness and disease that plagued his servant. The centurion knew that he had the authority to tell those under him what to do and if they didn’t do it, the power of Rome would see that it was carried out. Jesus had the power of God behind Him to see that what He said was carried out. Buckle your seat belt; this is about to get good! In Matthew 10:19, Jesus, in talking to seventy-two disciples said, “Behold, I have given you authority to walk on snakes and scorpions, and authority over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.” Jesus, not me, gave you authority over all the power of the enemy. What’s the power of the enemy? Whatever method he is using to steal, kill, and destroy you (John 10:10). Once, growing up, we were living not too far from a lake and my father told me to go get my younger brother and bring him home. Long story short, my brother said, “No! you can’t tell me what to do.” I said to him, “Dad told me to tell you!” He said, “I don’t care!” I went home and told dad, and my dad went after him , and with much more power than my brother had, my father caused him to come home. You can find out about the power and authority of Jesus in Philippians 2 and Proverbs 18:10 and just about every other book of the Bible. My next question is where did the centurion get this great faith? And I have one more thing that caused Jesus to recognize the great faith in him. Tomorrow, tomorrow! I’ll tell you tomorrow. 😊
Read through the Bible in a year: 1 Corinthians 14:1-25; 2 Kings 8; Jonah 3;
Read through the New Testament and Proverbs: Proverbs 28, Matthew 14:19-36, Acts 28:
The sum of Thy Word is Truth Psalm 119:160