Luke 7:1-23: Healing Of Centurion’s Slave / Raising
Widow’s Son / Delegation Sent To Jesus From John The Baptist”
By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study, we looked
at verses 37-49 which take up the third and final study we will did in the
Sermon On The Mount.
1.1.1. We saw that Jesus began to teach that His disciples are not to judge
others.
1.1.2. Jesus also began to teach the importance of choosing good teachers for
oneself.
1.1.3. Then, finally Jesus began to teach the importance of obedience to Him
as Lord and to His word.
1.2.
In our study today, we are
going to look at the first 23 verses of chapter 7.
1.2.1. In two miracles which Jesus performs, His authority over death,
illness, space, and distance is established:
1.2.1.1. Jesus heals the daughter of a Roman centurion, and the centurion’s
faith and humility cause Jesus to marvel.
1.2.1.2. Jesus raises from the dead the only son of a widow from the city of
1.2.2. A delegation is sent to Jesus from John the Baptist inquiring whether
or not Jesus it the expected One or whether they need to wait for another.
2. VS 7:1-10 - “1 When He had completed all His
discourse in the hearing of the people, He went to
2.1.
In this passage, we read the
moving story of yet another miracle performed by Jesus. In this miracle, Jesus reveals that He has
the ability to do the miraculous without even being present where the miracle
occurs.
2.2.
This story is moving for
several reasons:
2.2.1. Some Jewish elders from the city of city of
2.2.1.1. This story is amazing because the Jews typically did not care for
Romans, nor Romans for Jews. However,
this centurion was regarded so highly by the Jewish elders that they came to
Jesus and told Him that this man was ‘worthy’ for Jesus to heal
him.
2.2.1.2. The centurion was possibly a Jewish proselyte, but more likely a person
in process to becoming a proselyte. Had
the man been a proselyte he probably would have been described as being a man
who loved the Lord.
2.2.1.3. It is interesting, but sometimes you will run across a person who does
not know God but who shows more godliness in his character than many of God’s
people. This may have been the case with
this man.
2.2.2. The centurion is a very generous man.
The man loved the Jews so greatly that he had even built them their
synagogue in the city.
2.2.3. The centurion had such a love for his sick servant that he so
desperately wanted the servant to be healed that he asked the Jewish elders to come
to entreat Jesus on his behalf.
2.2.4. The humility of the centurion is great.
Though the Jewish elders felt that the centurion was ‘worthy’ for
Jesus to come to his house and heal his servant, when the centurion finds out
that Jesus is on the way to come to his house he sends some friends to tell
Jesus that he is ‘unworthy’ for Jesus to come to his house.
2.2.5. The centurion has faith in Jesus to heal his servant even from a
distance, and this faith is so strong that Jesus actually marvels at the man’s
faith, saying his faith is greater than any Jesus had seen in
2.2.5.1. There are only two places in the gospels where Jesus marveled at
anything, here marveling at this man’s faith, and also marveling at the
unbelief of the Jews (Mark 6:6).
2.2.5.2. This centurion knew very little about the Lord and His word, and the
great things God’s word tells us that He did in history past, however the
centurion exercised great faith in Jesus.
When I consider the fact that I have access to many full Bibles (and
Bible resources) and the benefit of looking back in history at the great things
the Lord has done over the centuries, how little is my faith in comparison to
this man. How great is your faith in
comparison to the truth from God’s word that He has communicated to you?
2.3.
A ‘centurion’ was a
Roman commander of a hundred. The “cen”
on the beginning of the word indicating 100.
A “centimeter” is a hundredth of a meter, whereas a “millimeter”
is a thousandth of a meter. In Spanish
the word for 100 is “cien” and taken from this word.
2.4.
This centurion felt “unworthy”
to have Jesus come to his house because he was a man who had other’s under his
authority. In other words, this
centurion recognized the great authority and holiness of Jesus and because he
in comparison was a sinful man who had others under his authority, he felt “unworthy”
to have Jesus come to his house.
2.4.1. This centurion is an example for us in the church of what type of
humility we ought to evidence in our life.
Do you recognize your unworthiness to have Jesus come to your house and
hang out with you?
2.4.2. It is the grace, mercy, and love of God that led Him to send His only
begotten Son to come and die upon the cross for our sins, for each of us are
sinners who instead deserve the justice of God.
My friend, don’t ever ask God for what you deserve, ask Him instead for His grace and mercy! And by the way, the Lord because of His love,
mercy, and grace loves to hang out with His children.
2.5.
Jesus next will raise a young man from the dead. Before we do, a friend of mine sent me this
story from Montana which is totally unrelated to anything in this study, but I
thought I would share it here just because it is funny. On a tour of
Immediately the Pope shouted and summoned them to
come over. "I give you my blessing for your brave
actions!" he told them.
"I heard that there was bitter hatred between loggers and
environmental activists. But now I have seen with my own eyes that
this is not true."
As the Pope drove off, one logger asked his buddies
"Who was that?"
"It was the Pope," one replied. "He
is in direct contact with God, and has access to all of God's
wisdom."
"Well," the logger said, "he may have
access to God's wisdom, but he sure doesn't know anything about bear
hunting. By the way, is the bait holding
up okay, or do we need to go back and get another one?"
3. VS 7:11-17 - “11 Soon afterwards He went to a city
called Nain; and His disciples were going along with Him, accompanied by a
large crowd. 12 Now as He approached the gate of the city, a dead
man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and
a sizeable crowd from the city was with her. 13 When the Lord saw
her, He felt compassion for her, and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 And
He came up and touched the coffin; and the bearers came to a halt. And He said,
“Young man, I say to you, arise!” 15 The dead man sat up and began
to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother. 16 Fear
gripped them all, and they began glorifying God, saying, “A great
prophet has arisen among us!” and, “God has visited His people!” 17 This
report concerning Him went out all over
3.1.
Nain was a city in northern
Galilee just 20 miles southwest from
3.2.
In this story we recognize
that Jesus is being directed by the Father for the timing of Jesus’ visit is
incredible. Since the Jews according to
the Law of Moses would bury their dead on the same day they died (Deut. 21:23),
this event probably occurred in the late afternoon (the time when funerals were
generally held) just as Jesus and His party had arrived into town.
3.2.1. The Lord knows all of our goings out and comings in, everything about
us. We must be careful to believe that
He hears and even has an answer for each one of our prayers even before we
bring our requests to Him.
3.3.
There is such a contrast
between Jesus and His disciples and the funeral procession party they met. Jesus and His disciples were walking and
joyously praising the Lord while the funeral goers were wailing in grief and
anguish.
3.4.
In
3.5.
We see here though that as in
all of Jesus’ wonderful healings that He healed because He ‘felt compassion’
for people. In Isaiah 53:3 it is
prophesied that the Messiah will be a “man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief,” however aside from Jesus’ horrific experience of going to Calvary’s
cross most of the sorrow and grief that Jesus experienced was that which others
around Him were experiencing. In the
gospels we see that Jesus is always touched by the suffering that anyone is
going through. Notice though that it was
only Jesus’ compassion which led Him to perform this resurrection for no one
requested this of Him.
3.6.
Jesus not only experienced
the sorrow and grief that others experienced, but He also came to do something
about it. This is seen in His extensive
healing ministry as well as in His going to
3.7.
We see in this funeral
procession that the town shared with this widow in her time of grief here, and
we have to empathize with this poor woman from the city of
3.7.1. First of all, she is a ‘widow’ and this was a horrible fate for
a woman in Israel for there was really no place in their society for widows nor
any program for providing for widows.
3.7.2. Secondly, she had now lost her ‘son’.
3.7.3. Third, he was her ‘only son’ so now she was childless.
3.7.3.1. Being childless in
3.8.
During His ministry and the
accounts in the gospels we see that Jesus broke up every funeral He
attended.
3.8.1. In John 11:25-26 Jesus had been summoned by Martha and Mary because
their brother Lazarus was sick but by the time Jesus came Lazarus had
died. Jesus then encouraged Martha to trust
that He could raise up her brother from the dead by saying, “25I am the resurrection and the
life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and
everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
3.8.2. One day Jesus shall speak and all of the dead will be raised from the
dead, and at that point since the church will already have been raptured up to
be with Jesus, this resurrection will be to go to the Great White Throne
Judgment of condemnation for non-believers.
3.9.
Though Jesus empathizes with
our sorrows and griefs He also wants to replace them with faith and joy in the
Lord. Jesus tells this woman not to weep
not because it is wrong to express such emotions but because He wanted her to
have faith in Him and to realize that He had come that He might take away her
grief by raising up her son from the dead.
3.10.
The text here says that the
young man was being carried in a ‘coffin’ however what they carried the
dead on in those days was really a board used like a stretcher. The man would have been wrapped in cloths
lying on the board.
3.11.
Notice that according to the
Law of Moses that just as Jesus had earlier defiled Himself by touching the
leper when He healed him, that Jesus also defiled Himself when He touched this
‘coffin’ or stretcher board (Num. 19:11). Himself being holy and undefiled by sin,
Jesus was not defiled by such acts.
Plus, Jesus compassion is expressed here by His personal touch.
3.12.
It is amazing to consider
this scene for a moment. Jesus touches
the stretcher that the young man is laid on and the procession halts. Then, Jesus speaks to the young man and tells
him to rise. Imagine the tension that
must have been in the air at this moment.
Can you imagine if you were at a funeral and a man stopped the service,
walked up to the coffin, and then told the person in the coffin to rise from
the dead. If this young man does not
rise from the dead then Jesus loses all of His credibility as a prophet and
teacher. However, God was working
through Jesus’ life and by Jesus’ word the young man sits up and begins
talking, for he is fully restored to life and health.
3.13.
This young man sits up and
begins to talk and what an incredible story this young man must have told. I only wish I could have been there to hear
the words that he spoke.
3.14.
We see here that ‘fear’
gripped the people and they ‘began glorifying God’ because
of seeing this great and wonderful miracle performed by Jesus. The report about what Jesus had done spread
quickly so that more and more people kept flocking to Him at this time.
3.15.
Elijah and Elisha both
performed miracles and were great prophets of the Lord, therefore the people
thought that Jesus surely must be a great prophet on the order of an Elijah or
Elisha. Plus, both Elijah (1 Kings 17:21)
and Elisha (2 Kings 4:31, 34-35) were used to raise people from the dead.
3.15.1.
Note however that compared
to Elijah and Elisha, and their raising of the dead, that it was effortless for
Jesus to raise the dead. Jesus simply
spoke the word and it was done.
4. VS 7:18-23 - “
18 The disciples of John reported to him about all these
things. 19 Summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the
Lord, saying, “Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?” 20
When the men came to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to
You, to ask, ‘Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?’ ” 21
At that very time He cured many people of diseases and afflictions
and evil spirits; and He gave sight to many who were blind. 22 And
He answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and
heard: the blind receive sight,
the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear,
the dead are raised up, the poor
have the gospel preached to them. 23 “Blessed is he who does not
take offense at
4.1.
John the Baptist was sitting
in jail at this point in time. He had
been jailed for rebuking Herod Antipas of his sin, especially that sin of
adultery in taking his brother Philip’s wife, Herodias, to be his wife.
4.2.
Darrell Bock states that
Josephus wrote that John the Baptist was placed by Herod Antipas into prison at
Machareus, which is a fortress east of the
4.3.
What was going on in John
the Baptist’s life to cause Him to send this delegation to Jesus to find out if
He was the ‘expected One’ or not ?
4.3.1. Having been raised in the wilderness, John the Baptist was probably fit
to be tied sitting in jail and not able to come and go freely.
4.3.2. John probably was now fighting a huge bout of depression as well. Warren Wiersbe writes the following about
John, “It is not unusual for great spiritual leaders to have their days of
doubt and uncertainty. Moses was ready
to quit on one occasion (Num. 11:10-15), and so were Elijah (1 Kings 19) and
Jeremiah (20:7-9, 14-18); and even Paul
knew the meaning of despair (2 Cor. 1:8-9).”
4.3.3. There appears to have been some confusion in John’s mind about the
things that Jesus was now doing, about Jesus’ calling and ministry.
4.3.3.1. Though John the Baptist and Jesus were introduced to each other at
birth, and surely Elizabeth and Zacharias told John as a youngster as much as they
understood about Jesus’ mission as the Messiah, John had been raised in the
wilderness apart from Jesus and thus he really didn’t personally know Jesus
that well.
4.3.3.2. John the Baptist was really living in the Old Testament era and
mindset. His life was one of living
according to the law, and His ministry was one of judging the people for
violation of the law as he told them to repent and begin to perform good
deeds. However, Jesus was not living His
life as though He was such a staunch law-keeper. Jesus was more concerned about evangelism,
and He was trying to teach people to live in the grace and mercy of God, and
John probably didn’t understand a whole lot about this new covenant living
Jesus was bringing to mankind.
4.3.3.3. John was confused. John the Baptist
knew that Jesus would be the lamb who would take away the sins of the world,
but like all of the rest in Israel he also probably believed that the Messiah
when he came would be a political Messiah and overthrow Rome and place the Jews
over the nations of the world. Yet, all
Jesus seems to be doing is going around performing miracles of compassion. Was Jesus doing what the Messiah was supposed
to do when He came? Was Jesus really
then the Messiah? John wondered if he
had misunderstood the nature and calling of Jesus.
4.3.3.4. John was plagued by doubts at this dark point in his life. His doubts were not unbelief but
none-the-less they plagued him and he wanted answers to them. Warren Wiersbe writes, “Doubt is not
always a sign that a man is wrong,” says Oswald Chambers; “it may be a sign that he is thinking.” In John’s case, his inquiry was not born of
willful unbelief, but of doubt nourished by physical and emotional strain.”
4.4.
John did the wise thing when
he took his doubts to the Lord. If we
will just come to the Lord when we are having our times of doubt and ask the
Lord to help our unbelief, then just as happened with John the Baptist, so we
too will have the Lord resolve all of our doubts.
4.4.1. I have led people to come to faith in Christ by simply having them pray
with me that the Lord would answer their doubts and help them to come to
believe in Him. I have never yet seen
anyone who did not have the Lord answer their doubts when they simply brought
them to Him.
4.4.2. If you are doubting the Lord’s promises for you today, how about asking
Him to help you with your unbelief?
4.5.
The response that Jesus has
for the delegation from John the Baptist is to simply hang around and see the
great things that Jesus is doing in performing healing, raising the dead,
preaching the gospel to the poor, etc.
These things attest that Jesus is fulfilling the Old Testament prophesy
concerning the Messiah.
4.6.
There are a number of Old
Testament scriptures that tell us that when the Messiah comes that it will be
an age of miracles and that the Messiah will perform healing and even raise the
dead, including these from the book of Isaiah:
4.6.1. Isaiah 26:19, “19 Your
dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and
shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn, And the earth
will give birth to the departed spirits.”
4.6.2. Isaiah 29:18-19, “18 On
that day the deaf will hear words of a book, And out of their gloom and
darkness the eyes of the blind will see. 19 The afflicted also will
increase their gladness in the Lord,
And the needy of mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of
4.6.3. Isaiah 35:5-6, “5 Then
the eyes of the blind will be opened And the ears of the deaf will be
unstopped. 6 Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of
the mute will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness And
streams in the Arabah.”
4.6.4. Isaiah 42:1-7, “1 “Behold,
My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I
have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. 2
“He will not cry out or raise His voice, Nor make His voice heard
in the street. 3 “A bruised reed He will not break And a dimly
burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. 4
“He will not be disheartened or crushed Until He has established justice
in the earth; And the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law.” 5 Thus
says God the Lord, Who created the
heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who
gives breath to the people on it And spirit to those who walk in it, 6 “I
am the Lord, I have called you in
righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, And I will
appoint you as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations, 7 To
open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon And those who dwell in
darkness from the prison.”
4.6.5. Isaiah 61:1, “1 The
Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
Because the Lord has anointed me
To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners.”
4.7.
Today, we are living in this
age of miracles, the age of the Messiah.
We pray for and we need to continue to pray for people to be healed by
Jesus, and perhaps even be raised from the dead, as in our story here. The Lord doesn’t promise to heal every time
that we pray for healing to occur, however often He does heal those whom we
pray for.
4.8.
Jesus is gracious in His
response to John the Baptist and in this response He just basically encourages
John to have faith and to look into the scriptures to see if indeed the Messiah
is supposed to do the things that Jesus is doing. Jesus does challenge John not to stumble over
Him as He pronounces yet another beatitude here, namely, that those who do not
stumble over Him are ‘blessed’ or ‘happy.’ In this beatitude there is an implication of
judgment for stumbling over Jesus, for those who do so shall not be ‘blessed.’
4.9.
We will discuss in our next
study more about how Jesus really felt about John the Baptist, as Jesus goes
into a discourse about John the Baptist, and John the Baptist was a great man.
5. CONCLUSIONS:
5.1.
In our study, we looked at
two miracles which Jesus performed which demonstrated His authority over death,
illness, space, and distance. Jesus
healed a centurion’s slave from a distance and then raised a widow’s only son
from the dead. In response, can you
trust Jesus’ authority to take care of you and the problems you will have in
your times of need?
5.2.
With little knowledge of
God’s word, the centurion exercised great faith in Jesus. Lets ask the Lord to increase our faith this
day.
5.3.
John the Baptist took his
doubts to the Lord and the Lord settled them in his mind, because the Lord
always does this when we take our doubts to Him. Lets commit ourselves to taking our doubts to
the Lord, when we have them.
5.4.
Lets enjoy to the fullest
extent this age of miracles of the Messiah which we are living in today.