Centurion bible meaning series#

So Jesus, would You help this special centurion's slave or servant? So they came to Jesus saying that the centurion has “a servant who was sick and at the point of death,” now we are not told what sickness this is, but he is very sick and is about to die, Matthew tells us he’s so sick, he's paralyzed at home and he is suffering terribly. You say, why would the elders be happy to do this for the Roman centurion? Well because this is a special Roman centurion this centurion is very unique in that the elders of the Jews said to Jesus, “He is worthy to have You do this for him, for he loves our nation.” This Roman centurion is different, other Roman citizens they hate our people, they take advantage of us, they despise us but this centurion he's special, he loves our nation, not only that, “he is the one who built us our synagogue.” A synagogue is where there is the teaching of the Old Testament of the Word of God and this centurion, unique guy. Now, the Jewish elders I think are quite happy doing this for the centurion.

So yes it was a centurion that asked for help but he didn't go to Jesus directly, he came to Jesus via Jewish elders. Well I do want you to note in Matthew 5, it is said that the centurion came to Jesus, but actually the centurion didn't come directly to Jesus, he came to Jesus via others, via proxy, so in Luke 7 it tells us more clearly the centurion sent to him the elders of the Jews. What more a Roman centurion, a respected man coming to a carpenter's son who’s a Jew. So for a Roman citizen to ask a Jewish citizen a Jewish person for help is not very common. Now this is, for example, something very strange already, because in those days the Roman Empire are the conquerors of the Jewish nation, Israel is not her own, Israel is a subjugated country, they are a vassal state as it were, they don't rule themselves, they are ruled by the Romans, they have to pay taxes to Caesar. So Matthew records for us this Roman centurion comes to Jesus. So you imagine this Roman captain of the army, he comes to Jesus because his servant is ill and he could not find anyone who could help him. Sometimes they lead a lot more because they can be combined together but the centurion is someone who is respected, honorable someone who is influential. It reads, “When He”, that is Jesus, “had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to Him, appealing to Him,” he's asking for help to heal his own servant and he said, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” Now you might be asking what is a centurion, the word centurion is very much linked to the word “century” which means a hundred, so a centurion is someone in the Roman soldiers, in the ranks of the Roman Empire who leads about 80 to 100 Roman soldiers. We are just going to then conclude with some applicatory thoughts and we are going to dive right into Matthew 8 and verse 5. Today we are going to see a second miracle of healing and this is a healing of a slave, a healing of a servant to be specific, this is a servant, a slave of a Roman centurion. As you know, leprosy in those days was an incurable disease but Jesus with His one word absolutely cleansed and healed the leper. And last week we began by looking at how Jesus healed the leper. Matthew records for us nine miracles in these two chapters that display His perfect authority over diseases, over disasters and over death.

Centurion bible meaning series#

We come to this series called the Authority of the King, it's really a description of the miracles of Jesus Christ recorded for us in Matthew chapters 8 and 9.

We are looking for sermon transcribers/transcript reviewers.Ī very good morning to all of you, welcome to our second English worship service here at Gospel Light Christian Church, grateful you can join us as we continue our series in the book of Matthew.