“What’s the Good Word?”

**INTRODUCTION

Welcome to “Key to the Kingdom.” My name is Bret McCasland. As those who seek to follow Jesus, one of the things we want to do is to grow in our faith. There are many ways to do that. From daily Bible reading and study to prayer and learning, to simply be still and to wait upon the Lord. And through those things, and many more, we are going through the process of maturing and becoming a person of greater faith. But how do we know we are making progress? Is there some way to measure the growth of our faith? It's hard to know, isn't it? In our lesson today, on “Key to the Kingdom,” we will look at one man who had great faith in Jesus, and he demonstrated it in a most unusual way. This man was not even a Jew, as was Jesus; and yet, as Jesus witnessed his faith, Jesus was very impressed and amazed. As we study this story it will give us the opportunity to think about some ways in which we can amaze Jesus with our faith. However strong our faith in the Lord might be, this story will help us to consider how it can be even stronger. I hope you'll stay tuned to this station as we now open our Bibles and study together.

**LESSON

One of the hardest things for people to do is to be careful about the words they say. How many times have we found ourselves talking to somebody and we realize, immediately, the words we are saying are not benefiting and blessing that person? In fact, they are doing more damage than good. Our words are not being seasoned with salt or seasoned with grace. Well, it's important to be careful about the words we say. We are warned about that all throughout Scripture. Peter and Paul and James all encourage us to be careful about what we say. And obviously, Jesus had plenty to say about the words we say. Very quickly, we can get ourselves into trouble when we say the wrong words. I want us to notice something about our words from a story which is found in the Gospel of Luke chapter 7. This is somewhat of a lengthy read, or story, but I hope that we'll pay close attention to the message. Let's begin reading with verse 1 of that 7th chapter. <When Jesus had finished saying all of this to the people who were listening, He entered Capernaum. There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to Him, asking Him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with Him, “This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to Him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have You come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I, myself, am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and this one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, He was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following Him, He said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.> Have you ever thought about what Jesus’ voice sounds like? Have you given much thought to the words He said? You know, I wonder if Jesus’ voice was soft and kind, or the words that He spoke, were they boisterous and filled with anger and quite loud? Well, in Scripture, we have examples of both. In the story we just read here from Luke, chapter 7, a centurion, or a Roman soldier, had a servant who was sick and dying. The soldier thought highly of his servant, of this man, and he certainly did not want him to pass away. And when Jesus came into the area of Capernaum, he thought, perhaps Jesus can come and heal my servant. He had heard about the things Jesus was doing. Just previously, in Luke chapter 3, 4, or 5, we find examples of Jesus healing people who were demon possessed. He healed Peter's mother-in-law. And no doubt, many other people were coming to Jesus to receive some sort of healing or blessing. Well, for the most part, perhaps even totally, the people who were receiving those blessings were fellow Jews. Jesus was a Jew, and so He was ministering to His own people. But this man was a centurion, and that simply means this Roman soldier was in charge of at least 100 servants. He was a man of authority. He was a man who had a position, and commanded them to do certain things. Well, we perhaps know, there was a great deal of animosity that had built up between the Jews and the Romans. Roman authorities watched over those Jews. They were always looking over their shoulder, in regards to the Jew’s religious practices and a host of other things. They would require them to pay a certain tax, which they themselves perhaps did not even pay. Yes, there were problems between the Jews and the Romans. And so what chance would this Roman soldier stand of even getting a hearing with Jesus? How could he get His attention? He perhaps thought to himself, well, those disciples are going to protect Jesus and they will not even let me get near Him. Well, when Jesus came into the village called Capernaum, he took a chance. He asked some of the high ranking Jews, with whom he had some dealings, to get Jesus to come and help him. He thought that was the best chance. And so they went off to find Jesus, and they found Him. And they told Jesus about all the good things this man had done for them; in fact, he had even helped them build their local synagogue. In other words, as we see in the text, this Roman centurion deserved Jesus' attention, and the Roman centurion believed that Jesus could prevent his servant from dying. And so with all of that in mind, Jesus goes to the centurion to see what can be done. He goes to where he is staying. But as He is going to the centurion’s house, some other people come, no doubt sent by the Roman centurion to Jesus, and they basically say, no, he changed his mind. He does not feel worthy of You coming even into his home, and so just say the word. That’s all you need to do, Jesus; just say the word and that servant will be healed. And no doubt that was a direction that had come from the Roman centurion. Use your voice to heal this man. Say something, even from a distance, so this man's life will be saved. I suppose they were basically telling Jesus, if you can heal someone who is not even in Your presence, then it's obvious You can just say the word and this man’s servant will be healed. Well, we don't know how many people Jesus had healed up to this point; we're not told, perhaps hundreds. And out of all of them, even among His own fellow Jews, no one had displayed such faith in the power of Jesus like this Roman soldier. The centurion had enough faith to tell Jesus, just say the word. Your word will be sufficient, whatever that word is, and I know my servant’s life will be spared. You know, when I think about the power, and what Jesus' words sound like, and the effect they have upon people, I wonder, how we can connect with that today? What does the word of the Lord sound like in our lives? How does the word of the Lord affect us today? Here are some things for us to consider. First of all, the word of the Lord is powerful. In Genesis chapter 1, John chapter 1, Colossians chapter 1 verses 15 and 16, we find the word that God spoke the world into existence, and Jesus was there in His presence. We read in Hebrews chapter 1 that Jesus upholds the universe by His word of power or His powerful word. We think of other demonstrations of the powerful word of the Lord. He spoke the word and the storm on the Sea of Galilee was calmed. He spoke the word and sick people were healed. Jesus spoke the word and the eyes of those who had been born blind were opened. And here on this occasion, we noticed Jesus spoke the word and the dying servant of a Roman centurion was healed. When we pray to the Lord, today, do we ever ask Him to just speak the word? Do we have the kind of faith, in other words, this Roman centurion had? Well, I am not suggesting we hear the audible voice of God. That's not what I'm saying. We have His word right here before us in the Bible. But do we pray giving attention to how powerful God really is? Do we pay close attention to it, to the point we can allow His word to have a powerful impact, not only on our lives but also on the lives of other people for whom we are concerned. That is, that is only possible when we are humble enough to receive the word He speaks. We not only receive the word from the Lord, but we submit to it. We hear the words of Jesus and we obey them. There is no limit to the power of the words Jesus speaks. And no doubt all of us have witnessed, at one time or another in our lives, how powerful the word of the Lord really is. When we pray to the Lord for His powerful hand to do something miraculous, to do something amazing, to do something that perhaps is out of the ordinary, do we have enough faith it will be done? And if that is not true, then the question is, why even pray in the first place? If we don't believe in the powerful hand of the Lord, then why do we even pray and ask Him to do something on our behalf, or on the behalf of other people? Jesus told His disciples this, in John chapter 14, “Whatever you ask in my name, this, I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” That's a powerful statement from Jesus, isn't it? He says if you have enough faith, if you really believe in Me and the power of My Father, then I will do it. You ask it in My name, believing in Me as the Son of God, I will follow through. Well, certainly we do not know all of the plans and the purposes of the Lord for our life. But no doubt we are witnesses to the fact that the word of the Lord is powerful and we can make testimony to that fact. But here's a second thing: The word of the Lord is a word of fellowship. This Roman centurion had a very special place in his heart for his servant. In other words, the servant was an asset to him. They had developed a friendship, perhaps a relationship over time, but a sickness had interrupted that fellowship. He did not want his faithful servant to pass away. Together, perhaps, they had represented the Jewish nation. Together they worked on building the local synagogue, for the people there in Capernaum. So the bottom line was the centurion was not ready to say goodbye. He held his servant in high esteem; even to the point he called upon Jesus to heal him; and he believed he would. Have you ever seen something like that happen in your life? Perhaps there was someone for whom you prayed, and in faith you called upon the Lord to intervene in that person's life. You called upon Him to heal him or her of that sickness. And the Lord did just that. Well, I hope we were not surprised that happened. We would not have even prayed to the Lord in the first place if we did not think He would respond. And so certainly the word of the Lord is a word of fellowship, and He restores that fellowship with those with whom we love. Something else here, the word of the Lord restores what is broken. If the soldier lost his servant, if that servant died, in other words, obviously the relationship would come to an end. The Roman official did not want that to happen. What would it be like if we held our relationships in such high esteem that we pleaded with Jesus to restore those which were broken? Is there someone whom we cherish? Is there someone whom we hold near to our heart, but there is something that has happened? Something has severed that relationship. Something has come between us. Hopefully, we would offer a message from God. We would want Him to offer a word of restoration to restore and to put back together that which has been damaged or broken. We would call upon Him to restore that relationship. What would happen if we made an all out effort to make our relationships work, and we begin by praying to that end? Do we have enough faith to ask the Lord to just say the word to fix what is broken? But then, on the other hand, do we not want our broken relationships to be fixed, and that's why we don't pray about them? We don't care enough about the people with whom we used to have a relationship, and it will remain broken. Well, one more thing here: The word of the Lord saves. Sometimes in the Bible sickness symbolizes a sin problem. And that does not seem to be the case with the servant here in this story, but the word for heal in this story comes from the same word which also means to save. How many times do we lose someone due to some kind of sin or problem in that person's life? And yet, we don't call upon the Lord to save that person from that sin. Maybe there is a sin in our life that needs to be addressed, and yet we don't call upon Him to help us eliminate and get rid of that sin problem. You know, the word of Jesus can redeem us spiritually, just like the word of the Lord can help and redeem and save us physically. And on occasion we need both. And when we come to situations like that, here are a couple of passages I would like for us to remember. Jesus stated, in Luke 6 verse 28, “Bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you;” Matthew 5, verse 44, “I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you;” and then here's one more, from James chapter 5 verses 15 and 16, “The prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” Yes, sin infiltrates the lives of many people. Sin is found in those who are followers of Jesus Christ, and, obviously, sin is found in those who don't follow the Lord. But all of us are affected by sin, either our own sin or by the sin of someone else. And that sin hurts, doesn't it? We hurt emotionally and individually, we hurt as a nation, we hurt at our places of work. All of us have experienced some form of sin and hurt and damage at one time or another. And the very best way to deal with the sin and the hurt and the pain in our lives, and also in the lives of other people, is to call upon the word from the Lord to save us from it. Since Jesus has the words of eternal life, then He also can just say the word in so many other areas of our life. And we need that, perhaps now more than ever. This Roman soldier here in the story did what ever was necessary in order to bring some kind of healing and hope to his servant's life. And that is a great example for us to follow today, to have that kind of faith. Even to the point we can call upon the Lord to just say the word and our prayers will be answered. You might be experiencing a major sickness or health problem. Something perhaps has overtaken you or one of your loved ones. You may be going through a broken relationship that needs to be healed. There may be a sin problem that is making you spiritually weak. If any of those things are happening in your life, or even in the lives of some of your friends, maybe it's time we do something about that. Maybe it's time we call upon a word from the Lord to make things better. And so, do we have the kind of faith through which Jesus can provide just the right word to solve whatever concerns us today? Do we know Jesus to the point we can ask Him anything, in His name, and know without a doubt He will do it? As followers of Jesus Christ, we are to be living with a kind of faith that allows Him to do great things in our life and also in the lives of other people. And through our faith, the Lord can bring about hope and healing and fellowship and salvation. You know, during Jesus' ministry, many people were impressed with the words He said. They were amazed at His teaching. He taught as one who had authority and not like one of their religious leaders of the day, and they were amazed by that. In this story, however, we noticed Jesus was amazed at the faith of the Roman centurion. What a compliment. It is one of only two times in all of Scripture when Jesus praised someone for their faith. A Roman centurion in charge of 100 servants had enough faith in Jesus to simply ask Him to speak the word, and he knew his request would be granted; and, that kind of faith impressed Jesus Christ. And the question we might ask ourselves, today as we close our lesson, is simply this: Is Jesus amazed by my faith? What kind of faith do I have in the Lord? Do I have the kind of faith that says just say the word because I believe in You, I believe in Your power, and I know that Your word will accomplish what it needs to accomplish in my life, or in the lives of other people for whom I am concerned. When the Lord returns to the Earth to reclaim His own, He will look for people who demonstrate great measures of faith. And I hope that He can start by looking into your life, and to look into my life, and that we all have the kind of faith that amazes the Lord.

**VIDEO CLIP

At one time, libraries like this one were a really big deal. This is where people would come to do some research, to read some books, and to come up with a final answer concerning a question they have on their minds. Maybe not so much, now, we have other sources to go to; but still we are looking for the final answer. We want the final word on something that concerns us. That’s the way it was with Jesus throughout His public ministry. People listened to His words. They hung on every word He said. He even had the words of eternal life. Well, one day a centurion who had one of his servants sick, about to die, he sent word to Jesus to come and heal his servant; and then he changed his mind and he sent another group of people to tell Jesus, “Just say the word and I know my servant will be healed.” Have you ever thought about the importance of Jesus' words? He can just say something and it happens. And that happened in that particular case. The man was healed. Jesus said the word and the storm on the sea ceased to rage. And no doubt, Jesus’ words are important. We are to listen to them and to follow them. But the point I want to make is, that man had great faith in Jesus, even to the point he knew that Jesus could just say the word and his servant would be healed. What about your faith today? Do you believe in Jesus enough you can say to Him, “Just say the word and I know the right thing will be done.” I encourage us to have great faith in Jesus Christ, today, so that we can say ourselves, “Just say the word.”

**CONCLUSION

Thank you for taking time to watch today's episode of “Key to the Kingdom.” I trust this message encouraged you in your faith. I do hope all of us will grow in our faith, even to the point Jesus is amazed. That will take some time, but the journey will be well worth it. This episode, along with many others, is available on our website, keytothekingdom.com. Please feel free to download any of these messages that might be of interest. There is never a charge or an obligation to do so. One-minute and two-minute videos are on the site, as well, and they provide a devotional thought for the day. Other information and Bible studies are also available. You may want to find us on Roku® television or to follow us on Facebook®. We would be most pleased if you did. On Facebook®, a short message is uploaded every week and we would welcome you as one of our followers. Finally, please consider downloading the free app onto your smart-phone. Hopefully all of these mass-media choices are convenient for you to use. It is our privilege and pleasure to share these messages with you, and we trust they bless you in a special way. Thank you again for joining us for today's broadcast. Consider joining us again next time, as we continue to study the Bible on “Key to the Kingdom.”