“Ask and it will be given to you seek and you will find knock and the door will be opened to you” What’s more, if we do ask, we may ask people that can’t help us. That may sound straightforward, but many times we can find ourselves with a problem and we don’t ask for help. The centurion approached Jesus because he had a problem and he knew Jesus had the power to solve it. It says “The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant” (Luke 7:3 NIV). Luke’s account provides more detail surrounding the centurion’s request. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly” (Matthew 8:5-6 NIV). It says “When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. Matthew’s account of the centurion’s faith starts with him asking Jesus for help. Furthermore, we should not only ask, but ask the right people, in the right way. We can’t go far in life without asking for help. The first lesson that stands out in the story of the centurion’s faith is to ask for help using wisdom. What we can learn from the centurion’s faith is that we should ask for help using wisdom, to build faith through understanding, and become a person of value. Jesus commends his faith and at that moment his servant was healed. As Jesus was on his way, the centurion told him to just say the word and his servant would be healed. After hearing about Jesus, he had elders ask him to heal his servant. In summary, a centurion had a valuable servant that was sick. The story of the centurion’s faith is found in Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10. In this article, I’ll summarize the story of The Centurion’s Faith and share 3 life lessons from it. So seeing Jesus describe a centurion’s faith as great faith that he hasn’t seen the likes of in all Israel stands out. Throughout the gospels Jesus repeatedly tells his disciples they have little faith or they only need faith the size of a small seed to make big things happen. In the following verse, Jesus may well surprise His crowd by describing who will not be present at such a meal.To have Jesus describe you as having great faith is a big deal. Faith in Christ will be the deciding factor about who enters the kingdom of heaven, not nationality (Galatians 3:28–29). The essential thing to notice is that Jesus is connecting who will be in the kingdom of heaven to the Gentile centurion's faith in Him and His authority. This should not have been surprising to Jesus' listeners because of God's promise to bless the families of the earth through Abraham (Genesis 12:3). In other words, the kingdom of heaven will not be populated by Israelites alone (Galatians 3:7–9). Israel's great patriarchs will be there, but so will Gentiles from lands in every direction from Israel. More specifically, Jesus is describing who will be present in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus points forward to a time in eternity when all present will eat together in heaven, likely at what we now call the "marriage supper of the Lamb" (Revelation 19:9). Reclining around a low table to share a meal was the custom of Jesus' day. He says that many people will come from both the east and the west to recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Now Jesus adds what was likely a shocking statement to the overwhelmingly Jewish crowd of followers. Jesus has expressed His amazement at the man's faith, saying that he has not found that level of faith among the Israelites (Matthew 8:5–10). The centurion stated simply that he knew that distance was no obstacle to Jesus' ability to heal a person. A Gentile Roman officer has just demonstrated great faith in Jesus' authority over the natural world.
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