I ,also, am a man under authority

Dear friends,
I pray that you are being blessed of the Lord. As I was meditating this morning I thought about the centurion who had a servant at home paralyzed. He was one of two gentiles in the gospels whom Jesus praised for their faith. What was different about his faith that Jesus would remark," I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel." Hebrews 11:6 says," Without faith it is impossible to please God". If we are truly born again and love God, it will be our desire to please Him. So I want to take a few moments to examine the faith of this centurion.

And Jesus said to him," I will come and heal him." The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof. But only speak a word and my servant will be healed. "For I, also, am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one,'Go', and he goes and to another, 'come' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." Matthew 8:7-9

First, let's look at the centurion. A centurion was an officer in the Roman army. He was in charge of a century which was a subdivision of a Roman legion. This would be one hundred soldiers under his command. We will draw some thoughts from this fact in a moment. Let's look at the entire text (Matthew 8:5-13) and see what we can glean from his character and actions.

In verse 5 we see, he came to Jesus. He sought Jesus out. He came to him pleading; he was persistent. Hebrews 11:6 which we quoted the first part above ends with these words: "And that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him". He came seeking Jesus. Let's make a couple of points within this point. 1. A Roman coming to a Jew for help was a great act of humility.
2. For him to have sought Jesus out, he must have believed Jesus could heal his servant.

In verse 7, we see faith drew a response from Jesus. God is moved by faith. It is faith that takes hold of that which is in the kingdom of heaven and brings it to earth.

In verse 8, we see the incredible humility of this man. Though in the natural his position was superior to a Jewish man, he humbled himself before Jesus. He asked Jesus to just simply speak a word and his servant would be healed. This was, indeed, great faith. Some of Jesus' best friends at Bethany, said ," Lord, if you had only been here, Lazarus would not have died, yet this Roman soldier said that he didn't have to come there, just speak a word.

In verse 9, I believe we find the keys to a victorious life.
1. We cannot have authority unless we are under authority. The centurion had authority over the hundred because that authority was delegated to him by a higher authority. He recognized that Jesus was operating under the authority of God. Jesus was fully man and fully God. As a man and a son He was totally submitted to the Father. He did nothing of His own initiative; He said nothing of His own initiative. He received His instruction from the Father. The works of the Father He did.

2. All authority has been given to Jesus. Matthew 28:18 John 17:2 Says the Father has given Jesus authority over all flesh. The centurion recognized that sickness, disease, infirmity,etc. were subject to the authority of Jesus and just like he could command a soldier under his charge, Jesus could tell disease to go and it had to go . He could tells demons to go and they had to go. He could tell the fig tree to die and it died. All natural kingdoms are subject to the kingdom of God.

So how do we walk in kingdom authority? To walk in kingdom authority, we must be totally submitted to the King. Authority ceases where submission ends. In James 4:6b,7 God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. The centurion was a great candidate for grace because of his humility and his recognition of a higher authority. If there are areas of our lives we have not submitted to God, then we are resisting God and submitting them to the devil. You may say that sounds a little hard, but remember what Samuel said to Saul when he was disobedient concerning the destruction of the Amalekites. "Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king." 1Samuel 15:23 As I was reading this, the thought came to me that though Saul remained king for many years after this that the kingly authority that God made available to him was gone, soon to be given to a shepherd boy with the heart of a shepherd, a heart after God's own heart.

In summary, authority is delegated to us by the King. We are His ambassadors given authority to do His business until He comes or as some translations say occupy until He comes. We, too, are men and women under authority.
Blessings,
Herb Dean