13th September 2026 : Luke ch 7 v 1 - 10

Luke ch 7 v 1 - 10

Brian, will you come and share the word with us, please?

All right, everyone. You know, in the songs there, beforehand, and Pat's just said it, but I scribbled it down here, in Jesus' mighty name, I believe. And we're going to be talking a little bit about that today with the centurion soldier. I'll just open in prayer if that's okay.

Father God, we just dedicate this to you, Lord. Father, I pray, Lord, as I open my mouth, Lord, Father, only your words come out, Lord. I pray, Lord, that you give us the ears to hear and the eyes to see. And Father, more importantly, the feet that will carry the gospel. In Jesus' name, Lord, have your way today, I pray. Amen.

We're going to be speaking today about the centurion prayer, the Roman soldier that came to Jesus. And I've tried to, when I've looked at this Roman soldier that's come to him, I've tried to look at the background to it. And I think about a Roman centurion, a Roman centurion was somebody who had 100 men underneath him. And wherever Jesus was, there was a crowd following Jesus. So they would have been pleased really with the Romans to make sure chaos didn't come out. So a lot of miracles that Jesus did, the Roman soldiers and this centurion would have seen it first hand.

Now they believed in pagan gods. They believed in all sorts of what I would call rubbish. But they were seeing God's divine miracles happening, which must have caused questions within them. It must have caused this like, what's happening here? Somebody's just, somebody was blind and now they're not. Somebody was lame and now they're not. Somebody were deaf, now they're not. And Jesus walking and doing these things in front of the Romans and everybody else would have caused a scratch on the head, if you like, to what was going on.

Margaret, love you. Margaret's going to come and just read the word for us and then we're going to go into it a little bit.

So this is Luke 7, 1 to 10. Now when he concluded all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. and a certain centurion's servant who was dear to him was sick and ready to die. So when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to him, pleading with him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they begged him earnestly, saying that the one for whom he should do this was deserving, for he loves our nation and has built us a synagogue. Then Jesus went with them, And when he was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying to him, Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof. Therefore, I did not even think myself worthy to come to you. But say the word and my servant will be healed for I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say to one, go, and he goes, and to another, come, and he comes, and to my servant, do this, and he does it. When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him and turned around and said to the crowd that followed him, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel. And those who were sent returning to the house found the servant well who had been sick.

So the centurion soldier, he was a man of power. He was a man of authority. He was a man that understood his authority that had been given from the Roman Empire. He understood these things because he had to walk within them. He'd seen the miracles of Jesus. He'd seen everything that had happened. I know the Jewish people would have been speaking. When Margaret just read the Word of God then, he said that they sent the Jewish leaders to Jesus and these people had been helped by the Roman. They'd been helped by the Roman to build the Jewish thing.

So something was happening with this centurion. Something was already happening with him where he was already caring for the Jewish people. He was a humble man. He was not a bad man. That's the truth of it. He wasn't a bad man. He was a good man. But he was a Roman soldier on the opposite side and still a man of authority and having to walk in his authority.

If my boss turns around to me on this surface and says, Brian, you're sacked, I'm sacked. If he tells me, Brian, go and do this, I've got to go and do this. And this is the authority that this Roman soldier understood. But watching the miracles that Jesus did, and I think, about like, you know, wherever Jesus was, there was a crowd with the loaves and the fishes, 5,000 people. That would have had to have been policed. He would have seen that. He would have seen them kind of things. And when he got back to his own quarters, the Romans himself would have been saying, how did that happen? How did he do that? Who is this guy?

Now he's come and he's helped the Jewish people. He's helped them build a synagogue. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't mention it in the word of God, but I'm pretty sure that within that time, the Jewish people would have been telling him, we are waiting for our Messiah. We are waiting for the Christ to come. We are waiting for this to take place. This is our biblical, this is what we're waiting for. And then all of a sudden, there's a guy turned up, Jesus, and he's doing these miracles. The Roman himself would have thought, who is this guy? And as the more things that he heard and he seen, maybe he himself was being convinced that this is the Christ just like a lot of the Jewish people at the time. But again, it was underneath pagan gods.

His servant, his servant being ill and in a really bad way, I've no doubt that he already turned to his pagan gods to heal and nothing has happened. And all of a sudden Jesus walked in and he sent the Jewish people to Jesus, please, go and ask this guy to do something for me. He needs help. He needs help. But the Roman man went to him humble. Now, when I say went to him humble, he went to him humble, but he went to him as a sinner. He knew his sin. He knew that Jesus was flawless. He's going to him humbly and he's going as a sinner. I am not worthy for you to come into my house. I'm not worthy for you to set foot in my house.

This is a humble person that has helped many people and I don't think this was a centurion that abused his authority. A lot of people now, today, abuse the authority they've got, whether that be over the staff, over anything, he abused the authority on many occasions. I don't believe this is the centurion guy was a guy that abused his authority. I believe he exercised his authority when he had to. But as he's gone to, he sent the Jewish leaders and he's got to that place and he just said, just say the word. He's recognised, just say the word and my servant will be healed. Just say the word. He knew from his authority that if he spoke and he said, you, do that over there, they had to go and do it. But if his bosses said it, he had to go and do it.

He understood that all Jesus had to do was say the word. He knew that he had authority over sickness. He knew that he had that authority because otherwise he would have actually come and touched your hand on him. And on many situations, when I first become a Christian and we first started praying for people, my understanding was I had to touch that person. You know what I mean? Because the word of God says, lay hands on the sick and they will recover. That was my understanding as a young Christian. As we've gone further into Christianity, it's nothing to do with me. That's the truth. It's absolutely nothing at all to do with me. It's all to do with God. It's all to do with, you know, you pray for somebody and if they get healed, they get healed. If they don't, they don't. It's still nothing to do with us. It's down to God. I just chucked that in, by the way.

Really, the centurion, he could have ordered Jesus to come. He could have ordered Jesus to come, tell that guy to come and heal my thing. But the way he went to him, or the way it was organised with the Jewish leaders, he went humbly. He sent it and he went humbly. And there's a great lesson for us in that. There's a great lesson for us to be humble before God, recognising who God is, because that's what I feel that this centurion soldier, even though he was on the other side and batting for the other side, he actually recognised that Jesus was the Christ. I believe that. He recognised that there's something different about Jesus. He recognised that he had authority over illnesses, over sicknesses and divine miracles happened in front of Jesus, obviously, but in front of the Roman soldiers as well, which would have got back to the centurion who was asked for this prayer. But Jesus, when he heard, just say the word and my servant will be healed, he marvelled at this. He marvelled at this. This was something that, no greater faith have I seen, not even in Israel.

That he marvelled at this. This was something that impressed him. And you know, we can do many things for God, many things that we think personally that we do. But the only thing that really pleases God is putting your trust in him, is putting your faith in him, is believing that he asks thee to do, whatever that is. But he comes to Jesus humble, a sinner needing help, and I've got big bold letters here to say, do you need help today? Is any of you lot today in a place today where you need help, where you need help from the body of Christ, where you need help from Jesus Christ himself? All we have to do is pray. Every miracle that takes place on Earth today starts with a prayer. It starts with starting.

Jesus spoke the word. And when we look at Jesus speaking the word, Lazarus was dead in the tomb for four days. They rolled back the tomb and he spoke the word, Lazarus, come out. That's all he did. He spoke the word. With people all the way through. He just spoke and it happened. He spoke things into creation. He made miracles happen when he spoke. And when the world was created, they spoke it into creation. And that's where we are today as a body of Christ today. We have to speak things into creation with faith and belief in Jesus Christ. We have to believe that them things are taking place. Just say the word and my servant will be healed.

Do you know what somebody, this is kind of something that happened on the Friday night group. And this is about two, three years ago. Sue will probably remember it and our Margaret and Paula will, etc. My brother came, my brother came to the house and he was distressed. He was upset and my brother goes shooting. One of his shooting friends, his wife, had been diagnosed with cancer. She'd gone to the hospital. She's had all the treatments. The cancer's gone into the lymph mode and boom. And they've literally sent her home because there's nothing else that they can do. There's nothing else that they can do. So they sent her home, give her the option, do you want to die in hospital or die at home? So she's been sent home. My brother came that night very, very distressed. He was distressed because his mate's wife was dying, who he had time for, but knowing that his mate was struggling with it. And he come to the group and he went, can you lot just pray? Can you lot just pray? He told us the situation about her being terminally ill and being sent home. And in agreements, we prayed. In agreements, the group prayed. In unity, the group prayed. And as we did that, three months later, the woman is still with us. The woman then, because she was supposed to die three weeks, not three months, the hospital call her back in. And when they've traced her and looked at the blood and everything else that was wrong, there is no trace of cancer anywhere. The whole cancer had gone completely.

And when I look at prayer, When I look at prayer, when I look at the belief of the group, of the belief of these people in here today, there's nothing impossible for our God. There is nothing impossible for our God. And all we have to do is trust him, just like the centurion. The centurion took him at his word.

And you know, when we read the word of God, it tells us our authority, All we've got to do is believe it and walk in it. And I'm not saying that to you as if I've got it all right. I've not. You know what I mean? I've not. I will myself struggle in many areas like everybody else does. But that's what the body of Christ is. Where I am weak, Pat is strong. Where Pat is strong, you might be weak, you might be strong in different areas. And that's what it's like when it comes together. That's the body of Christ moving as one. Because we're all weak and strong in areas and we sharpen each other to make each other razor sharp for the gospel.

At that very moment, at that very moment, the slave boy was healed. At that very moment, Jesus just spoke the word. And that's what we need ourselves. There's some things within our lives where we've got mountains in our life. We've got problems in our life. And what we need to do is seek God into a place where he speaks to us. And when he speaks to us in the situation that we're in, the mountain that we're facing, we know, we know faith, comes from hearing the word of God. It comes from hearing the word of God. But I look at it in a different sense as well. It comes from hearing the word of God. And when we've got a mountain in front of us, sometimes we need to hear the Word of God and God speak to us. Because when God speaks to us, it doesn't matter what happens out there. You know whatever God has said to you personally, that's what's going to happen. That's what's going to take place. It's not going to happen any other way apart from the way that God tells us.

Very much coming to the end of this. So the points really. The points to go through when I was reading this and I just jot them down and I'm just going to say them as I've wrote them.

The centurion had great power and wealth, but he still came to Jesus a sinner. He still came to Jesus humble as a sinner. Spend time with God and ask Jesus to speak the word into your situation. Nothing impossible for God. There's nothing impossible for God. I've got a great testimony about that, but nothing impossible for God. And there's really nothing impossible for him. All authority has been given to Jesus and he has given it to you and me. We need to understand our authority and put our trust in Jesus. We need to start walking within our authority.

And you know, I'm going to share that impossible because it's in me heart. Once, once I'm driving down the road in Liverpool and the Lord speaks into me heart. And he says to me, Brian, there's nothing impossible for me. For some people would have heard this story, for the people that are, I'm sorry, but here goes. And when I'm driving, a bit further, I ask the Lord, Lord, why have you told me that there's nothing impossible for you? Why have you told me there's nothing impossible for you? Of course there's nothing impossible for you, you're God. What kind of God would you be if there was something that weren't impossible for you? And then this bit of, what's going to happen here? What's going to happen here? Why has God told me there's nothing impossible? What mountain am I about to face? Basically, what mountain am I about to face? And a bit of panic came over me, if I'm being honest.

Anyway, I believe the Lord told me that something bad was going to happen to Stan that worked for me. But if he lifted the situation to God, God would deal with it there and then. So even though I was a very young Christian at the time, I realised that we have the authority to curse somebody and we have the authority to bless somebody. And that's why it tells us as born again, Bible believing Christians to be careful with our words. So I spent three days in prayer before I even mentioned this to Stan. And then I mentioned it to us. I said, Stan, I believe that the Lord has spoken to me and told me that there's nothing impossible for him. But I believe something's going to happen to you. And when it happens, you will know what it is. You will know what that is. But if you lift it to God, God will deal with it. And for about a week later, has God said ought else to you about this? What is it like? He's like, I say, I'm sorry, I prayed, Stan, but he's not telling me.

Three, possibly four months pass and Stan rings me up, Brian, sorry, I can't come in today. My mum has had a stroke. One side of her body is completely gone. She's dribbling. It's awful, Brian. And that thing that you was on about, it's here. Stan, Stan, remember what God said. There's nothing impossible for my God. Lift it to him and God will sort it. So Stan had about a week off and there was contact on the phone with him, but I didn't see him. And then this day he just turned into work. I said, Stan, what are you doing? No need to be in mate, I can cope here. You go home, spend time with your mum. He says, I can't. Watching my mum in that situation, it is killing me, Brian. It's killing me. Watching her, the body gone and the slabbering, I can't do it no more. I've got to get out of there and occupy my mind somewhere else.

His mobile phone at the time was going dead. His mobile phone at the time was going dead. So I said to her, I said, listen, ring Donna, give her my number, and then if anything does happen at the hospital, she can ring us. Yeah, I will do, yeah. It didn't take place. But at mcgull, #6 Old Street is where he was. And Stan's driving and he starts to drive forward and then he stopped. He went in his bag, picked up his phone, turned his phone on, it rung that I'm on my way and then his phone died. He said, Brian, somebody just told me to pick up that phone. Somebody just told me, I said, God's with us on this, Stan. All we have to do is believe and trust.

So we're driving to the hospital. And if I'm honest with you, I was a dead young Christian. I found it very hard to pray out loud. I used to hear people like, oh, in the name of Jesus, I just. Them kind of prayers, and mine would simply be, help. Because I didn't know how to pray proper. You know what I mean? I'm being honest. But that day, I'm in prayer. I'm in battle. And we're driving from McGull to Liverpool and I'm praying my heart out. Praying my heart out.

When we get to the Liverpool Royal, Stan turns around to her and says, right, Brian, I'm going to go in now. Let's go in there now. Let's go in there. Your man's got a stroke. We'll pray for her, she'll be healed there and then. Let's go in there now. Nothing impossible for my God. Brian, my family won't understand that. They're Catholics. I said I don't care who they are, come on, let's go. Anyway, he said, Brian, they won't understand that. I said, well, go and speak to him and I'll drive around the hospital. And I'm driving round in a coal wagon, waited for a phone call to go in and pray for his mum. Anyway, the phone call didn't come and I went finishing the rest of my work off.

And that night, we are at home. me and my wife. And we had a guest come in and the guest was a young lad called Martin. And he was one of them that didn't believe in the gifts of the Spirit, didn't believe in anything really. You know what I mean? He didn't believe in the gifts of the Spirit, didn't believe that God still did these miracles. And he literally, I stood up, we'd had a phone call already off Donna and Donna was Stan's wife. Brian. Stan's mum's about to die. Stan's mum's about to die. Stan's come home to take a white Bible back of the Bible so she could die all in the Bible. I says, you tell Stan from me there's nothing impossible for my God. Lift it to him.

Anyway, then Martin comes and he's having a brew. And I get up and I said, Martin, do you want a brew? And he goes, Yeah. I said, Tea. Yeah, tea. I went, How many sugar? Two. And as soon as he said two, boom, I'm down on my knees. I'm literally down on my knees. I'm down on my knees and I'm crying out to God. Father God, in the name of Jesus, I pray, Lord, you put a boldness within, Stan. Back into tongue. I don't go with saying it, but into tongue. Father God, show your presence within that room, back into tongue. Father God, in the name of Jesus now, meet Stan at his prayer life. Father God put a boldness within him. Father God, and it was just prayer after prayer. And then the prayer was over. I remember standing up and going, did you say two sugars, Martin? And Martin went, yeah.

My wife's at the side of me. My wife didn't know what was going on in God with me. I didn't know myself to be truthful with you. I felt like I was forced to my knees to prayer. As I went down, as I got back up and asked him did he want a brew, my wife's knelt down at side of me and she's got tears rolling down her face. She's also crying out to God.

We had a brew. Martin were like that. I've never seen anybody sup a tea as fast in all my life. And he went, right, he must have thought, get me out to this crackpot house.

The next day, Stan rung us. He said, I say, Stan, house things. He went, my mum died. And I've got to be honest with you, I went like that. There was a pause for about, don't sound like a long time, three, possibly 4 seconds, my mum died. But something happened. I said, tell me, Stan, what happened. He said, well, I'm stood there and the nurses are trying to bring me mum back with that machine thing. And then they just looked at us, I'm very sorry, there's nothing more we can do. They pronounced her dead and I just stood there. And as I'm stood there, This boldness come over me. And I walked around the other side of the bed. And I put my hands on me, Mum. I said, Mum, if you're going, go. But if you're stopping, stop.

The window come crashing open. The whole room went electric hot. And his mother come back alive. God, God met, God met Stan at his prayer. It didn't have to be a fantastic prayer. Mum, if you're going, go, if you're stopping, stop. And everything, when I looked, that testimony was over four months, five months maybe. And everything that God said all the way through it, God did. God did all the way through it. But it is a good testimony int it really.

But it started with, there's nothing impossible for God. And then miracles that Jesus did 2000 years ago is still doing them today. All we've got to do is get out of boat. That's all we've got to do. Make a step.

Where was I? Sorry to go on. All authority has been given to Jesus and he has given it to you and me. We need to understand our authority and put our trust in Jesus. Being humble is a great lesson. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Faith comes through hearing the word of God. And that ain't just through the word of God here, that's through this word of God. This is hearing it, hearing God.

Last, last bit. Jesus gave us authority over all the works of the enemy. So let's go out and use that authority. Amen.