Faith as a Tool or Faith as a Fruit? A Review of ‘The Faith That Gets Heaven’s Attention’

[00:00:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:01] Let's pray together. Now Father as we come to open your word we want to hear from you. Lord I know there are people here that need to hear your voice. They need a healing touch from you even today. They're wondering why their prayers are not being answered or at least that's the way they perceive it. So as we look at this story about a man who had faith that was so outstanding it actually amazed you. Let us learn from it because Lord we too
[00:00:31] want to have amazing faith. So speak to us as we open your word and we ask this now in Jesus' name.
[00:00:39] Amen. All right. Grab a seat and turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter 7 and the title of my message is The Faith That Gets Heaven's Attention. Have you ever been talking
[00:00:55] on the phone and that person drops your call but you're not aware of it and you're still talking?
[00:01:02] and you're wondering why they're not saying uh-huh or right or maybe they didn't laugh at your joke and then you realize you lost them about two minutes ago or have you ever been in a text thread where you're going back and forth and and all of a sudden they're just gone they
[00:01:17] start ghosting you and you get those little bubbles you know what I'm talking about like what are you listening are you are you not talking with me anymore or have you ever been trapped in a
[00:01:26] group text. Sometimes I'll end up in those and they degenerate into memes and emojis and your phone just keeps beeping. Finally you say, I don't want to be in this conversation. Sometimes we can feel that way in our communication with God. We feel like God drops our call, so to speak. We feel
[00:01:47] as though the Lord is in effect ghosting us. He's not talking to us anymore. Now that may be true in some ways because sin can separate you from God.
[00:01:59] It can break down your communication.
[00:02:01] The Bible says God's hand is not short that it can't save.
[00:02:05] His ear is not heavy that it cannot hear.
[00:02:08] But your sins have separated you from your God.
[00:02:11] But then the Bible says if I'll confess my sin, he's faithful and just to forgive me my sin and cleanse me from all unrighteousness.
[00:02:19] So I need to confess my sin and deal with that.
[00:02:22] But having said that, there are times when God is not ghosting you. Well, let me restate that.
[00:02:29] He's never ghosting you. But my point is that he is always listening, but it may seem as though he is not listening. So we want to talk about that because here before us is a story of a man
[00:02:42] who had faith that was so significant, so amazing, that it actually amazed Jesus. And I believe that we too can have a faith that is similar to that, that will cause him to pay attention to what we
[00:02:58] are saying. And the story is found here in Luke chapter seven, starting in verse one. And it says this, now when he concluded all of his sayings in the hearing of the people, and this is referring
[00:03:10] to the sermon on the plain, a variation of the sermon on the mount that Jesus gave. So he had finish that, he enters Capernaum, and a certain centurion's servant who was dear to him was sick
[00:03:25] and ready to die. When the officer heard about Jesus, he sent some respected Jewish leaders to ask him to come and heal his servant. And they earnestly begged Jesus to help the man. They said,
[00:03:37] if any man deserves your help, he does, for he loves the Jewish people and even built a synagogue for us. So Jesus went with them. But just before they arrived at the house, the officer sent some
[00:03:52] friends to say, Lord, don't trouble yourself by coming to my home. I am not worthy for such an honor. I'm not even worthy to come and meet you. Just say the word from where you are, and my
[00:04:04] servant will be healed. I know this because I'm a man under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers.
[00:04:13] I only need to say go, and they go.
[00:04:15] Or come, and they come.
[00:04:17] And if I say my servant should do a certain thing, they do it.
[00:04:21] Now look at this, verse nine.
[00:04:22] When Jesus heard this, he was amazed.
[00:04:25] Don't underline that.
[00:04:27] This caused Jesus to be amazed.
[00:04:29] When Jesus heard this, he was amazed.
[00:04:32] And turning to the crowd that was following him, he said, I tell you, I have not seen faith like this in all of Israel.
[00:04:39] And when the officer's friends returned to his house, he found his servant completely healed.
[00:04:45] We'll stop there.
[00:04:48] Jesus was amazing.
[00:04:50] Everything that he said was amazing.
[00:04:53] Every miracle that he did was amazing.
[00:04:55] There was no one who ever walked our planet like Jesus.
[00:04:59] We read after he gave the Sermon on the Mount that people were amazed at his teachings.
[00:05:05] he calmed a storm on the Sea of Galilee we read that his disciples were amazed. When he cast a demon out of a man again we read that the crowds were amazed. And they said we've never seen
[00:05:18] anything like this in Israel. So he was amazing to many people. But here's the question. What amazed Jesus? Apparently it was the prayer of this man. And who was this man? He was a Roman
[00:05:33] One centurion. He wasn't one of the followers of Jesus. He wasn't one of the religious leaders.
[00:05:40] He was what we would call a pagan. A man who served in the military of Rome. A centurion basically would be in charge of a hundred other soldiers. The centurions formed the backbone of the Roman army. The most exclusive and powerful military on the face of the earth.
[00:06:00] A Roman legion of full strength was around 6,000 men. So the centurions were natural leaders. They were known for their steadfastness and dependability in battle. They weren't desk jockeys. They led from the front which means they had a high mortality rate. And
[00:06:19] when a centurion spoke people would listen. And here we have this unusual man who has faith unlike anybody else around him. Now it's interesting to note that whenever a centurion is mentioned in the New Testament it's in a positive light. Starting with this man.
[00:06:40] And then we have the centurion that opened the door for the gospel to be preached to the Gentiles in the home of Cornelius. We have the centurion who stood at the foot of the cross when Christ was crucified and said, truly, this was the Son of God. So they're always
[00:06:57] brought in a positive light. And this man raised as a pagan, worshiping the false gods of Rome, like Jupiter and Mars and Caesar himself, seemed to have more insight than people who had spent their time studying the scripture. You know, sometimes non-believers get it before believers
[00:07:18] get it. Illustration. Jesus before He was crucified said, I will be crucified and I will rise again in three days. He said it over and over again. But somehow when that event finally happened it was a shock to His own followers. The two disciples on the Emmaus Road summed it up
[00:07:36] perfectly when they said to Jesus, not knowing it was Jesus who joined them after His resurrection on their journey. They said we were hoping he would have been the one to deliver Israel but it's been three days since he was crucified. Hoping. Past tense. In other words they're saying
[00:07:54] we put all of our hopes in him but he disappointed us. So even though he spoke about his resurrection his disciples forgot it but the non-believers were paying attention because we read about the Roman soldiers that said, you know that deceiver, speaking of Jesus, when he was alive said,
[00:08:14] in three days I'll rise again. Maybe we had to post some guards by the tomb. Interesting.
[00:08:20] How is it that they got the memo and the disciples didn't? That reminds me of a story that I read, a true story about a bar that was built in Texas. A local church started a campaign with
[00:08:32] petitions and prayers to stop it. And work progressed until right before opening lightning struck and burned the bar to the ground. The bar owner sued the church saying they were responsible because of their prayers. The church denied any responsibility or connection to their prayers
[00:08:55] and the fire. So it went to court. The judge read through the plaintiff's complaint and the defendant's reply. And he said, I really don't know how to decide this. It appears that we have on one hand a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer and an entire church congregation that
[00:09:14] doesn't. Are we shocked when God answers our prayers? Sometimes apparently we are. But here's another thing about this centurion. He loved the Jewish people. They even said he loves our people and He built us a synagogue. That should not surprise us. If you study the Bible, it won't
[00:09:36] be long until you too have a love for the Jewish people. Oh, by the way, that's a controversial thing to say right now. Because there's a rise of anti-Semitism. And I think we need to understand
[00:09:51] that the Bible is a Jewish book given to us through Jewish authors primarily. And God sent a Jewish Messiah. And this is a Jewish history book as well. So as you study the Bible, you're
[00:10:06] going to have a love for God's chosen people, the Jews. I, not being a Jew, am a Gentile.
[00:10:13] I, like many of you, have been grafted into the promises given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so this man, a centurion, a Gentile, had a love for the Jewish people. And as Christians, we too should have a love for the Jewish people. You can applaud now, go. Greg, you're pressuring
[00:10:38] us. Well, I just want to tell you where you should applaud, that's all. But he had a servant, a slave effectively. And by the way, Romans treated their slaves as mere objects. You could, if a slave was sick, you could say, well, I don't want to care for him medically.
[00:10:56] And you could turn him away and you could even have him put to death because they were a mere object under Roman law. But this Roman centurion cared about this man that served him. It's almost
[00:11:08] as though he were like a son to him. And he thought, you know what? I believe that these Jews have a relationship with God. And I believe this man Jesus is their Messiah. And I believe
[00:11:19] this Jesus can help my servant. And so he sends word for help. Now it brings up the question, where did sickness even come from? Why do we have sickness in the world today? Well it all goes back
[00:11:33] to our first parents Adam and Eve. If Adam and Eve had not eaten of the forbidden fruit we would have never been sick. If Adam and Eve had not eaten of the forbidden fruit we would have never
[00:11:44] aged or we would have never died. If Adam and Eve had not eaten of that forbidden fruit I would of hair today. So sickness comes into the world as a result of sin, and sometimes God allows it
[00:12:01] in the life of the child of God. One of the classic illustrations is that of Job, a man who was so godly that the Lord literally bragged on him in heaven in the presence of Satan himself,
[00:12:15] saying, have you considered my servant Job, a perfect and upright man, one that fears God, and shuns evil. And the devil hearing this said, well, Lord, you put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property and you prosper him and everything he does. Look how rich he is.
[00:12:33] But if you take away everything he has, he'd curse you to your face. The Lord said, all right, you can test him, but don't harm him physically. But the Lord allowed a series of calamities to
[00:12:45] come into Job's life. Now when I read the story of Job, I think, man, Lord, if you're ever for a fleeting moment feeling proud of me, please don't say it out loud in front of Satan. I don't want
[00:12:58] to experience Job part two. See, the problem with Job is he had never read the book of Job.
[00:13:05] He was living it in real time. He didn't know how it would turn out. He didn't know how the Lord would bless him in the end. But yes, a series of difficulties came into his life. And God allows
[00:13:16] sickness in our lives sometimes. And it doesn't always make sense. But he can use it as well.
[00:13:23] The Apostle Paul had the unusual experience of dying and going to heaven and returning back to earth. And I can tell you this. Anyone who is in heaven right now, if given the choice, would not
[00:13:36] come back to earth again. But Paul was not given the choice. He was brought back again.
[00:13:42] And that's a pretty awesome thing to have actually been to heaven. And he said, lest I should be exalted because of the abundance of revelations I experienced, there was sent to me a thorn in
[00:13:55] the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me or to beat me. Three times, Paul says, I asked the Lord to take this away and God said my grace is sufficient for you because my grace is made
[00:14:09] perfect in weakness. Why does God allow sickness? Sometimes to keep us humble. Sometimes to keep us dependent on him. You know sometimes we turn our back on God. We have a little success. We have
[00:14:24] some prosperity. We're doing well in life and we forget all about God. He might allow something to get our attention. A wake up call if you will. As the psalmist said before, I was afflicted.
[00:14:36] I went astray. But now I have kept your word. So God can allow sickness for his purposes.
[00:14:42] But here's the deal. God can also heal sickness. And I think we need to pray when we're sick and ask for his healing touch. I mean first of all there's what we call natural healing. But to me
[00:14:54] it's a miracle. The human body is a miracle to me. The way that it repairs itself as God has built these things in. And, you know, I look at what they can do now through medical science. As you
[00:15:08] know, I had a hip replacement done recently. I have people come up to me all the time asking me for my advice on hip replacements now. I'm quite the expert on the subject. My advice is you don't
[00:15:21] do it until you have to, but just get it done when you have to get it done. And when I met my surgeon, he said, I am part butcher, I'm part carpenter, and I'm part surgeon. I'm
[00:15:33] like, uh, okay. So the butcher part, well, look, they have to cut your bone off. And then the carpenter, they've got to hammer a titanium rod into your bone, and they need to do it just right. And then surgeon, they have to sew you up afterwards. I had a friend who had
[00:15:52] two hip surgeries. He's thinking about getting a third one. No, I'm kidding. You only need two.
[00:15:58] But he just liked it so much he wanted a third. No. So he's had two. And he said that when I was going in for my second surgery, I was wheeled into the room. I could hear them working on other
[00:16:09] patients. And I said to the anesthesiologist, put me out. I don't want to hear this. But man, when you get out of there, it's like a miracle. You can walk. I mean, now when I travel, I don't
[00:16:20] even think about it. And I set off the metal detectors. Because you're supposed to tell them I have a titanium rod. But you know, so there can be what we call natural healing. But to me,
[00:16:31] that's still a gift from God. But then there can be supernatural healing. Where the doctors haven't given you any hope. Where there is no surgery that can be performed. Where there is no medication that can be prescribed.
[00:16:46] But if this happens to you, do not give up hope because God is still in the healing business.
[00:16:53] And you need to pray about that.
[00:16:59] I believe that there's a promise of healing found in the Bible.
[00:17:02] Isaiah 53 says, he took our infirmities and carried our sorrows.
[00:17:07] We considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted.
[00:17:11] He was pierced for our transgressions.
[00:17:13] He was crushed for our iniquities.
[00:17:15] The punishment that brought our peace was upon him and by his wounds. Another translation says stripes. By his stripes we are healed. Remember prior to the crucifixion Jesus was scourged 39 times. By his stripes the Bible says we are healed. Now I know that is primarily
[00:17:38] speaking of supernatural restoration and healing and being made right with God because Christ bore our sins. But then Peter quotes this in 1 Peter 2 24 and he says he bore our sins in his
[00:17:52] body on the tree so we might die to sin and live for righteousness. And then Peter says by his wounds you have been healed. And the word for healed that Peter uses is a verb that always
[00:18:04] speaks of physical healing. Am I suggesting God heals everyone? No. Am I suggesting God heals some? Yes. Should we pray about this? Absolutely yes. The Bible says if there's any sick among you call for the elders of the church to pray for them and anoint them with oil and the effectual
[00:18:26] fervent prayer of a righteous man will accomplish much. And there have been so many times that we've had the pastors and leaders of our church get around a person and pray for them and we have
[00:18:40] have seen miracles take place.
[00:18:44] You know when Jesus, yeah that's worth applauding for.
[00:18:46] It's true.
[00:18:49] You know Jesus healed people in different ways.
[00:18:52] Sometimes people touched him and they were healed.
[00:18:55] Other times he touched them and they were healed.
[00:18:58] In the case of the Roman centurion, he just spoke the word and the man was healed.
[00:19:03] There's one occasion where a man was blind and Jesus spit in the dirt and wiped it in the eyes of the blind man And the guy was partially healed because he said, I see people like trees walking.
[00:19:17] In other words, his vision was blurry.
[00:19:19] Then Jesus touches him again and he's completely healed.
[00:19:23] It's the only two-stage healing in the Bible.
[00:19:27] And the reason I bring this up is because sometimes God just, boom, heals like that.
[00:19:31] Other times it happens over a period of time.
[00:19:34] You just get better.
[00:19:36] So you just keep praying about it.
[00:19:38] There is even another occasion where Jesus literally went to a blind guy and spit in his eye. That is hardcore man. I mean to spit in the dirt and wipe it. Ok. He spit in the
[00:19:50] guy's eye. I was over at my son Jonathan's house last night and he has a little dog named Biscuit and Biscuit was very excited to see me. He was licking me, licking me. He licked
[00:19:59] me inside of my mouth. I didn't like that. Kind of gross. You know people say oh the Mouth of a dog is cleaner than a human.
[00:20:07] People, they drink toilet water.
[00:20:11] Anyway, to spit in a person's eye, that's next level.
[00:20:18] But in this case, it worked and the man was healed.
[00:20:22] And so we should pray.
[00:20:23] The Bible says you have not because you ask not.
[00:20:26] So this centurion was asking.
[00:20:29] And Jesus was amazed by his amazing faith.
[00:20:33] Because we read in verse nine, when Jesus heard this, he was amazed.
[00:20:38] Do you know there's only two times in the Bible where it says Jesus was amazed?
[00:20:43] One time is here, amazed by the amazing faith of the Roman centurion.
[00:20:48] The other time Jesus was amazed was not by faith, but it's when he was amazed by a complete lack of faith.
[00:20:57] It happened in his hometown of Nazareth.
[00:21:00] He went to the synagogue and read out loud From Isaiah chapter 60.
[00:21:06] The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor and bring healing to the captives, the recovery of sight to the blind, heal the brokenhearted,
[00:21:20] and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
[00:21:22] So he reads it.
[00:21:24] And then he closes the book and says, this has been fulfilled today.
[00:21:31] Oh, that didn't play well in Peoria.
[00:21:35] Because immediately they said, well, what are you saying?
[00:21:38] Are you suggesting you're the Messiah?
[00:21:41] Yeah, that's exactly what he was suggesting.
[00:21:44] He was declaring himself as the very Messiah.
[00:21:48] And they said, recorded in Mark 6, hey, he's just a carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon, and his sisters live right here among us.
[00:21:58] were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. And then we read Jesus responded a prophet is not without honor except in his own country. And then in Mark 6 5 because of their unbelief he couldn't do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a
[00:22:15] few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. Again Jesus was amazed twice. Once by a pagan soldier's great faith. He knew very little about him.
[00:22:30] And the other time by people who knew him his whole life. The people who knew Jesus best couldn't see him for who he really was. Meanwhile a Roman soldier who had spent his lifetime worshiping false gods recognized the real deal when he saw it. And he applied
[00:22:48] faith and he believed. What is faith? Well, the Bible says in Hebrews 11, 1, faith is the substance of things hoped for. It's the evidence of things not seen. I think that we take the idea of faith
[00:23:03] and make it way too mystical. When in fact, we act in faith every single day. When you go into a restaurant and order from the menu and eat what they serve you, that, my friend, is an act of
[00:23:17] faith. You're putting your faith in the server. Don't ever tick off a server. You're putting your faith in the cook. You're putting your faith in the fact that hopefully this restaurant is following the regulations and your food will be fresh and you'll be okay as a result of eating it.
[00:23:36] You apply faith when you board a 747 with probably not a great understanding of aerodynamics.
[00:23:45] You trust that despite the takeoff weight of around 900,000 pounds that you're going to get into that giant metal tube and arrive at the place you're going to. That's an act of faith.
[00:23:58] Or when you go to the pharmacist and they fill your prescription, you're trusting they're going to put the right pills in the right bottle. And then when you go to the doctor and the list goes
[00:24:08] on, we apply faith every day and all kinds of things. And then someone says, put your faith in God. And you say, are you insane? There's no better place to put your faith than in God
[00:24:21] Almighty. Well, the centurion understood that. But faith is not mere intellectual assent.
[00:24:32] I can believe something that's true, but it's not technically faith. The Bible says the demons believe and tremble. That doesn't mean that the demons believe that Jesus Christ is the Lord and they follow him. It just means they know he is powerful. They know he is God. But they
[00:24:48] haven't acted on it. Faith is belief plus action. Faith does things. When you go over to Hebrews 11 which is sometimes called the hall of faith. You read about what people who had faith did with their faith. Abel offered a sacrifice. Noah prepared an ark. Abraham
[00:25:07] obeyed and later Abraham offered up Isaac. You have to use faith. Faith is not something you put in a display case and admire. It's something you put into use. It's like people with all these four-wheel drive vehicles, right? You know, they jack them up really
[00:25:23] high. They're 25 feet in the air. They drive by, whoa, look at that chassis. Big wheels, big tires, lots of lights, lights on top of lights. There's cruising along. Look at that thing. Where do you go four-wheeling? He says, are you kidding? You know how much money I
[00:25:41] having this thing? Where are you going? To the car wash. Where are you going after that? Maybe another car wash because I'll get a little dirt on it. Why don't you take that bad boy out in the
[00:25:53] dirt and use it for what it was made for? Faith is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. So we need to apply our faith. And really the whole Christian life is lived through faith.
[00:26:07] The Bible says we're saved by faith.
[00:26:10] By grace you've been saved through faith, it says.
[00:26:13] And you live by faith as well.
[00:26:15] The Bible says the just shall live by faith.
[00:26:17] But listen to this.
[00:26:18] Faith can make the difference between something happening and not happening.
[00:26:30] When God led Moses and the people of Israel through the Red Sea, the Lord directed Moses to hold up his staff. Why? God could have just opened the waters. He didn't need Moses and a stick. But he wanted Moses to participate. It was an act of faith and trust in
[00:26:48] God. You hold that stick up and you turn to me. And a lot of times for us it's just taking that step of faith and involving ourself and calling out to God. You know Jesus didn't heal every person
[00:27:03] who was sick when he walked our planet, but for those he came into contact with and asked for his intervention, he always healed them. Think about blind Bartimaeus who heard Jesus was coming up the
[00:27:15] road. He cried out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. They said, hush, quiet down, don't bother him, and he yelled even louder, and guess what? He got healed that day. That's the power of amazing
[00:27:28] faith. Now let's shift gears. There's another story before us here in Luke chapter 7. It could not be more different than the story we just saw. Instead of a powerful, wealthy Roman centurion, we have a woman who's lost everything. Her husband has died, and now her beloved son has died as
[00:27:49] well. Sometimes God heals us as he did with the centurion's servant. But what about when the healing doesn't come. Even worse. What about when death comes? Isn't that the end? No. Death is not the end. Not for the Christian. We live forever. We're eternal. Jesus said, I am the resurrection
[00:28:11] and the life. He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Then he adds this line. Do you believe this? Jesus also said
[00:28:24] in the book of Revelation.
[00:28:25] I'm the living one.
[00:28:26] I died, but look, I'm alive forever and I hold the keys of death in the grave.
[00:28:32] I'm so glad he has the keys.
[00:28:34] If I had them, they would have been lost by now.
[00:28:36] I lose everything.
[00:28:37] I lose my keys.
[00:28:38] I lose my wallet.
[00:28:40] I have those little Apple Air tags on everything.
[00:28:43] Like, where's my wallet?
[00:28:44] Beep, beep, beep, beep.
[00:28:45] I'm walking around the house like a crazy person.
[00:28:47] If I had those keys, they would have been long gone, but Jesus has them and he has the final word.
[00:28:53] but these two stories are placed side-by-side. We have the powerful centurion with rank influence and resources, and we have a widow who had nothing. The centurion reached out to Jesus, but in contrast, Jesus reached out to the woman. She didn't ask for anything. She didn't even know
[00:29:12] who he was, but they both needed help from him. Let's read the story. Luke 7, verse 11.
[00:29:18] Soon afterward, Jesus went with his disciples to the village of Nain, and a large crowd followed him. A funeral procession was coming out as he approached the village gate. The young man who had died was a widow's only son, and a large crowd from the village was with her. And when the Lord
[00:29:40] saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion. I would underline that. When the Lord saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion and then he said don't cry then he walked over to the coffin and he touched it and the bearer stopped he said young man I tell you get up then the dead boy
[00:30:04] sat up and began to talk and I love this verse and Jesus gave him back to his mother great fear swept the crowd and they praised God saying a mighty prophet has risen among us
[00:30:16] and God has visited his people today and the news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding countryside. We'll stop there. You see, Jesus was deeply moved by this woman's plight.
[00:30:31] Verse 13 says, when the Lord saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion. That's the nature of God. God is full of compassion. Sometimes people say, the God of the Old Testament is harsh and judgmental. The God of the New Testament is compassionate and loving. That's another way
[00:30:51] of saying I never read the Bible and I don't know what I'm talking about. The God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are the same God. He's loving. He's compassionate.
[00:31:05] He's merciful. He's just. He's righteous. He's all those things at the same time. Oh yes we see acts of mercy and compassion in the New Testament especially through the hands of Jesus as in the story before us. But we also see acts of compassion and forgiveness
[00:31:23] in the Old Testament. How about when God forgave the entire city of Nineveh when they repented of their sins. That is why Jonah didn't want to go preach to them. Because God came to Jonah, a patriotic Israelite, and said go preach to the people of Nineveh the avowed
[00:31:40] enemies of his people. Jonah reasoned, hey, if I go preach to them, God being who he is, will be compassionate and he'll forgive them. And I would rather he just judge them and destroyed them. So I'm not going to go preach to them. I'm going to go and get a boat in the opposite
[00:31:58] direction. Well, you know the rest of that story. God had the last word. Jonah swallowed by a great fish or a whale deposited on the shores of Nineveh. He gives this message, 40 days and
[00:32:11] Nineveh will be overthrown and sure enough those people turn to God and it's probably the greatest revival in all of the Bible. And then Jonah is angry with God and here's what he says to the Lord in Jonah 4.2, Lord this is what I said you would do. This is
[00:32:26] why I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish because I know you're a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity." And here is Jesus showing that compassion. Nobody asked Him to do this. And this is what
[00:32:47] I find so amazing. Now I have been making a case for calling out to God and using your faith but yet in contrast here is the story of where God just sovereignly intervenes.
[00:32:57] woman did not cry out to God. Picture this scene. It's a procession of people with the boy in the coffin. The coffin was probably opened. I remember years ago, well not, yeah, a few years ago. We were in Alabama filming Jesus Revolution. And did you know a good
[00:33:17] part of that film was shot in Alabama? Substituting for California. Did a pretty good job didn't it. And so we had a day off from shooting. So Kathy and I went to New Orleans. We'd never been
[00:33:30] there before. And while we were walking down one of the streets there, we heard a little brass band playing. And it was a funeral service. A little brass band was marching before a coffin. So it's
[00:33:44] a similar scene that we have here. But they would have professional mourners at this time. You would actually hire people to scream and yell and lament. It's a very sad scene. And here's a woman
[00:33:56] who's lost everything, her husband, now her boy. And it just tugged on the heart of Jesus. And he reaches out and touches her or touches the boy, I should say, just showing that God can intervene
[00:34:11] no matter what the circumstances. But even if we do die and we will eventually, we have the hope of heaven. But there's something else that could happen before that and it's called the rapture of the church. That too is a controversial topic these days. I don't know why. Back when I first
[00:34:33] became a Christian you heard a lot of teaching on the rapture of the church. In the 90s it was a very popular topic with the left behind novels. But nowadays you hear people saying oh no you
[00:34:46] shouldn't believe in the rapture. And some guy named J.N. Darby invented the rapture. You ever heard that before? So there was this guy named J.N. Darby in the 1800s that popularized the teaching of the rapture. His notes were featured in the notes of the Schofield Cross-Reference
[00:35:03] Bible, which happened to be the first Bible that I started reading. And so this was, it's called dispensationalism. That's a theological word, but I just call it biblical teaching. No, Greg, you're wrong. The word rapture is not in the Bible, isn't it? Depends on what kind of a Bible
[00:35:21] you have. Because actually, in 1 Thessalonians 4, 17, the Apostle Paul says, the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout and the voice of the archangel, the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive and remaining shall be caught up together with them in the air,
[00:35:40] and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
[00:35:43] And that phrase caught up comes from the Greek word harpazo which is translated in the Latin version to rapturus leading us to the English word rapture.
[00:35:56] But this event isn't spoken of in the Bible.
[00:35:58] It's spoken of many times in the Bible.
[00:36:00] Jesus himself talked about it when he said, in my Father's house are many mansions.
[00:36:05] If it were not so, I would have told you.
[00:36:07] and if I go, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, you may be also.
[00:36:13] The Apostle John talked about it. The Apostle Peter talked about it. It's a biblical teaching, and it can happen at any moment. It's different from the second coming. The second coming happens at the end of the tribulation period at the battle of Armageddon when Christ returns to the earth,
[00:36:33] in the Bible says, all the earth will see him. As the lightning shines from the east to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. But in contrast, the rapture is described by Jesus as
[00:36:44] when he comes as a thief in the night. See, in the rapture, he comes for his church. In the second coming, he returns with his church. In the rapture, it's before judgment, the judgment of the
[00:36:57] tribulation period. In the second coming, he returns with judgment at the battle of Armageddon.
[00:37:04] And this is why the Bible tells us to watch and be ready, because a rapture can happen at any moment. So that's something that we can thank God for. So listen, call it the rapture, call it the
[00:37:15] harpazo, call it the great escape. It doesn't matter. Just be ready for it, because it could happen in our lifetime. Go ahead and applaud. Having to cue you with the applause lines today, folks. Let me come back to this centurion and close. Here's a powerful wealthy man
[00:37:38] who was the pride of Rome. But the worship of false deities and Caesar himself left him cold and empty. Then he heard about Jesus and then he demonstrated his faith. Causing Christ to say he was amazed at the faith of this
[00:37:54] man. Now contrast him with the people of Nazareth. Familiar familiarity had bred contempt. Because Jesus had literally lived a perfect life among these people. And most of it in Nazareth. Everybody knew Jesus. He is a hometown boy. He was the best neighbor.
[00:38:15] The best son. The best friend. The best everything. If you needed help moving your house Jesus would help you. You need help fixing that? He is a carpenter's son. Jesus would help you. You could depend on him. You knew his brothers and sisters. But yet when he declared
[00:38:32] himself as the Messiah these people would have none of it. And they turned against him.
[00:38:37] And yet he lived a perfect life. Sometimes people say I'd become a Christian if I could find a hypocrite free church. My response is if you find a hypocrite free church please don't join it. You'll spoil it. You see we all have moments of hypocrisy in our life.
[00:38:57] we can say was certainly Jesus was never a hypocrite. Jesus was never inconsistent. Yet these people did not believe.
[00:39:06] And another interesting thing to me about the life of Jesus is He starts His ministry at the age of 30. Why didn't He start it at the age of 20 or earlier? He could have had
[00:39:20] so many more teachings and so many more miracles performed because He wanted to walk among us and live in the world that we live in. He knows the human experience. He's lived our life. He's
[00:39:34] breathed our air. He died our death. And then he rose again from the dead. So we can know when we call out to Jesus. He knows what we're experiencing. But yes, those people rejected him.
[00:39:50] Because every time you hear the gospel and do not respond in the affirmative, your heart can get harder. Meaning the church can be a dangerous place. Because if you just come in here message after message and gospel presentation after gospel presentation and do not respond to
[00:40:09] Christ you can have a heart that is so calloused. The Bible says, he who is often reproved hardens his heart and he will be cut off without remedy. In other words don't mess around with this.
[00:40:22] If you realize you need Jesus, don't put it off another week or another month, respond.
[00:40:29] The Bible says, today is the day of salvation.
[00:40:33] Yes, this centurion had amazing faith, why?
[00:40:38] Because number one, he knew he was a sinner.
[00:40:40] He said to Jesus, don't come under my roof.
[00:40:44] I'm a sinful man.
[00:40:45] I'm not worthy for you to come and visit me.
[00:40:48] He knew he was a sinner.
[00:40:49] And the Bible says we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
[00:40:54] Number two, he knew Jesus was the Savior.
[00:40:57] He knew he was the one to reach out to.
[00:40:59] And thirdly, Jesus heard and answered his prayer.
[00:41:04] Do you know that you're a sinner?
[00:41:05] You are.
[00:41:06] We all are.
[00:41:08] Do you know you need a Savior?
[00:41:09] You do.
[00:41:10] We all do.
[00:41:12] Do you know Jesus will be your Savior and your Lord and your friend if you will call out to him?
[00:41:19] the Bible says whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
[00:41:24] And we're gonna close now in prayer.
[00:41:26] And I'm gonna give you an opportunity to call out to Jesus because there might be somebody here that needs the forgiveness of their sin.
[00:41:34] Somebody listening or watching right now on one of our other campuses or online or wherever you are and you're not sure that you'll go to heaven when you die.
[00:41:45] When I've talked about the rapture of the church, she would say, I don't think I'm ready for that.
[00:41:50] I'm not sure I would be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
[00:41:56] But I want to be.
[00:41:57] Hey, you need to call out to God.
[00:42:00] He's just a prayer away.
[00:42:02] So we're going to pray and I'm going to extend an invitation to anyone here that wants a relationship with God and wants to go to heaven when they die and they want to find the meaning and purpose of life.
[00:42:15] Let's pray.
[00:42:15] Father, thank you for your word to us.
[00:42:17] Thank you for your love for us, that you're a compassionate God, full of mercy, and ready to forgive anyone who will call out to you. Now I pray for the folks that are here and others that
[00:42:30] are watching on our other campuses and in other places. If they don't know you, let this be the moment they believe. Now while our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed, maybe you would say today,
[00:42:42] man, I need Jesus. I want him to forgive me of my sin. I want to know that when I die, I will go to heaven. Listen, if you want Christ to come into your life, if you want him to forgive
[00:42:56] you of your sin, if you want to go to heaven when you die, if you want to be rapture ready, I want you to pray this prayer out loud after me. In fact, I'm going to ask everyone to pray it as
[00:43:10] a show of support for those that are praying it for the first time. Let's all just pray this together. Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know you're the Savior who died on the cross
[00:43:25] for my sin and rose again from the dead. I repent of my sin. I turn from it now and I choose to follow you. Thank you for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer. In Jesus' name I ask this.
[00:43:49] Amen. God bless you.