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A very good morning to all of you, welcome to our second English worship service here at Gospel Light Christian Church, grateful you can join us as we continue our series in the book of Matthew. We come to this series called the Authority of the King, it's really a description of the miracles of Jesus Christ recorded for us in Matthew chapters 8 and 9. Matthew records for us nine miracles in these two chapters that display His perfect authority over diseases, over disasters and over death. And last week we began by looking at how Jesus healed the leper. As you know, leprosy in those days was an incurable disease but Jesus with His one word absolutely cleansed and healed the leper. Today we are going to see a second miracle of healing and this is a healing of a slave, a healing of a servant to be specific, this is a servant, a slave of a Roman centurion.

So today's sermon is very simple. It's a short story. We are just going to then conclude with some applicatory thoughts and we are going to dive right into Matthew 8 and verse 5. It reads, “When He”, that is Jesus, “had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to Him, appealing to Him,” he's asking for help to heal his own servant and he said, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” Now you might be asking what is a centurion, the word centurion is very much linked to the word “century” which means a hundred, so a centurion is someone in the Roman soldiers, in the ranks of the Roman Empire who leads about 80 to 100 Roman soldiers. Sometimes they lead a lot more because they can be combined together but the centurion is someone who is respected, honorable; someone who is influential. So you imagine this Roman captain of the army, he comes to Jesus because his servant is ill and he could not find anyone who could help him.

So Matthew records for us this Roman centurion comes to Jesus. Now this is, for example, something very strange already, because in those days the Roman Empire are the conquerors of the Jewish nation, Israel is not her own, Israel is a subjugated country, they are a vassal state as it were, they don't rule themselves, they are ruled by the Romans, they have to pay taxes to Caesar. So for a Roman citizen to ask a Jewish citizen a Jewish person for help is not very common. What more a Roman centurion, a respected man coming to a carpenter's son who’s a Jew. So this is unusual.

Well I do want you to note in Matthew 5, it is said that the centurion came to Jesus, but actually the centurion didn't come directly to Jesus, he came to Jesus via others, via proxy, so in Luke 7 it tells us more clearly the centurion sent to him the elders of the Jews. So yes it was a centurion that asked for help but he didn't go to Jesus directly, he came to Jesus via Jewish elders. Now, the Jewish elders I think are quite happy doing this for the centurion. You say, why would the elders be happy to do this for the Roman centurion? Well because this is a special Roman centurion; this centurion is very unique in that the elders of the Jews said to Jesus, “He is worthy to have You do this for him, for he loves our nation.” This Roman centurion is different, other Roman citizens they hate our people, they take advantage of us, they despise us but this centurion he's special, he loves our nation, not only that, “he is the one who built us our synagogue.” [Luk 7:4,5] A synagogue is where there is the teaching of the Old Testament of the Word of God and this centurion, unique guy. So they came to Jesus saying that the centurion has “a servant who was sick and at the point of death,” [Luk 7:2] now we are not told what sickness this is, but he is very sick and is about to die, Matthew tells us he’s so sick, he's paralyzed at home and he is suffering terribly. [Mat 8:6] So Jesus, would You help this special centurion's slave or servant?

Well, Jesus said to him, via again I think the Jewish elders, “I will come and heal him.” [Mat 8:7] Sure I will, and so he records for us, He “went with them.” [Luk 7:6] He was on the journey from wherever He is at Capernaum towards the centurion's house and, “When He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to Him, ‘Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have You come under my roof.’” [Luke 7:6]. You don't have to come, I'm not worthy of Your presence but all You need to do Lord, is “say the word, and my servant will be healed.” [Mat 8:8] Now this centurion said, “I know that You healed probably the leper with a touch, You healed many people going to them, but I know You are more than able to heal even if You're not near them, You only need to say the word and I'm sure my servant will be healed.” And to that Jesus said, oh, sorry he continues to say, the reason why, “For I too am a man under authority,” I'm a Roman centurion, I work for Caesar, I understand what it means to be under authority. Likewise, I'm a man who exercises authority over others, I lead soldiers so I'm a man familiar with authority Lord; I say to one, “Go,” and my soldier goes, I say to another “Come,” and my soldier comes, I say to my servant, “Do this,” and he does it; that's what servants are supposed to do, they live under authority, I understand that.

And so Jesus heard this and marveled, “He marveled and said to those following Him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.” [Mat 8:10] Now, every commentator would latch on this and say, there are only two times recorded in the Bible where Jesus marveled; first time here in Matthew 8 where He marveled at the great faith of the centurion; the second time He marveled was at the unbelief of His own Jewish people. So Jesus marveled at the centurion's faith who believes that Jesus could heal even from a distance, via Wi-Fi or whatever I do not know, but He could heal from a distance but His own people did not believe Him, He marveled at their gross unbelief.

So to the centurion Jesus then said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” [Mat 8:13] and the story has a happy ending in verse 13, that says, “the servant was healed at that very moment.” Indeed, all He needs to say is be healed and he was healed. So that is the story and that's why I think today will be a shorter sermon. But not so short until I'm releasing you now. My job is not just to tell the story, but to teach what God intends to communicate behind the verses and I just want to close with three simple lessons, three simple applicatory thoughts.

Number one, let's not miss this whole idea; it is important to read Matthew 8 and Matthew 9 with that understanding Matthew is organizing his materials, he’s putting all these miracles together to show you and me there is great authority in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we must see the great authority of Jesus; Jesus had authority over leprosy no one else can do that, but with one word He drove out leprosy, with one word He drove out this sickness; He has absolute authority.
Now we are not people who may be so used to absolute authority, at least not for me, I don't think I have absolute authority at home and I'm not talking about my wife, alright, I don't have absolute authority at home, even over my own kids because there are so many times I tell Shawn and Matthias it's time to bathe, and you know what they do? Wah, I wish they would do that, they don't do that, they act blur, they continue playing with their toys as if daddy didn't say anything. “It's time to sleep”; “no, it's too early,” they will remonstrate, they will rebel they would have all kinds of negotiations, I don't have absolute authority until I bring out my cane. They are more scared of the cane than me but we are not so used to authority sadly in my family, but in this case, there is no disease, no leprosy that can say no to the authority of Jesus; every disease goes with one word of Jesus Christ and the, just to put this point more clearly across, let me just go to the third miracle because it's so short. The third miracle recorded in Matthew [8:14,15] is how Jesus entered Peter's house, saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever, touching her hand and now the fever leaves her and she rises and begins to serve Him. So again the same story right, there is no sickness that will not obey the authority of Jesus Christ.

Now I just want to note two things with you in this text. Number one notice that Peter was not a single man. In other words, he was a married man. He had a wife and he had a mother-in-law. Now there are some people who say Peter is single; no, according to Matthew, according to the Bible he's a married man. Well you say why are why you labour this point, because there are implications for those who understand. But number two, I want to say that if you put the first three miracles together you’ll notice that Jesus healed not the elite but He healed those who are the down and outs of Jewish society in those days.

He first healed a leper, a leper is like a, is a, he's only better than someone who is dead, apart from that, he's like a zombie, he’s a living dead on earth, but Jesus healed a leper. Number two, Jesus healed a Gentile. A Gentile is considered unclean, despised by the Jewish people. Number three, Jesus healed a woman. Now, it's not nice to hear, but in those days, women do not have the same social standing as men, but in these three examples Matthew organizes it in such a way to show us the compassion, the kindness, the generosity of Christ. But here we see Jesus again exercising His authority and as a result of that we follow that with verse 16 that tells us, “That evening,” many people, “they brought to Him many who were oppressed by demons, and He cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.” [Mat 8:16] There was absolutely no demon, no sickness, no disease that will not obey the authority of Christ, everything goes and He healed all who were sick.

If Jesus, if we live in those days, then I tell you SGH, Tan Tock Seng, NUH (names of some hospitals in Singapore) can chap lap (meaning pack up in Cantonese dialect), can, can close shop. I mean you really do not need these hospitals, many diseases doctors can't cure you of, but Jesus absolutely did it.

Now then Matthew writes for us, he describes the story and then he now adds his commentary, he adds his insight. He says, “This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.’” [Mat 8:17] So Matthew says I'm writing to you these stories not just for bed time purposes. I'm writing to you these stories to tell you Jesus is the One who is prophesied, promised, predicted of, back in the days of Isaiah, hundreds of years ago, God had already said there will come, someone will bear away illnesses and our diseases. In other words, Matthew again is proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that the coming Savior is none other than Jesus Christ, God's Son.

Now, he quoted this from Isaiah chapter 53; if there's one chapter you need to be familiar with in Isaiah, I know Isaiah is not an easy book but if there's one chapter you need to know is Isaiah 53 and indeed this is taken from Isaiah 53 that says, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” This is a passage about the suffering Servant about how Jesus, that Savior, that Messiah would have to suffer, but let's read on, because there's more to that. It says, “yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed.” [Isa 53:4,5] Now, I want to emphasize that Matthew applied this or applied this to physical healing or physical diseases; it's a foretaste, it's a symbol of something even more, because in Isaiah 53, the suffering Servant will not only bear away our physical illnesses but He will carry away our spiritual illnesses; sin, transgressions, iniquities. The suffering Servant will heal us from physical disease and also from our spiritual disease of sin.

He has authority not only of over physical diseases, but also over spiritual sin as you will read later on in the book of Matthew, and Matthew 9 in particular. He's going to do that. He has authority over that, you say, how, why does He have authority? Well in this very same text, you know the reason why, because Jesus was stricken, He was smitten, He was afflicted, He was pierced, He was crushed, He was chastised, He bore wounds. In other words, this authority over disease, over sin, His ability to heal and to forgive and to restore man to God, this ability is earned, is bought by Jesus Christ on the cross. Now don't get me wrong, Jesus as God has absolute authority over diseases and sin. He has, He's God but Jesus as Messiah, Jesus as Savior, that authority is earned on the cross. He paid for salvation; He paid for salvation with His life. So this authority of Jesus is not just something granted out of thin air, but this authority is earned because He's going to do an atoning work on the cross; He's going to pay for your sins. Such is the righteousness of God that no sin will be unpaid for, it will be paid for by the Son and because He paid for it or will pay for it fully on the cross, it is full authority given to Him.

DA Carson, he says, “The authority of Jesus must never be seen in independence of His atoning sacrifice -  it is always a function of His work on the cross.” So this morning I want to tell you that Jesus has great authority because He paid it all, and I want to say to you, behold your King, look at your King, He's such a good and righteous King; which king will lay down his life for his people, which king will lay down his life for sinners, for rebels? This is our King. Our King will save us from our sins, who would take away all illnesses and purchase heaven for you and for me. The King who will destroy the works of the evil one, the King who will redeem us, this is our King, His great authority that is purchased by His blood.

Let me move on to the second observation. I want to say to you, of course, this text is meant to highlight the authority of Jesus, but this text uniquely highlights the great faith of the centurion, isn't it? I mean, in those days, it is not always that people could recognize Jesus as the Messiah. Today when you look at the Bible and you look back at history and you say of course Jesus is the Messiah, but in those days it's not so obvious to a lot of people. Some thought that Jesus was just an ordinary man, a carpenter's son. Some thought that Jesus was a mere prophet, someone who gives the message of God. Some even say Jesus is just the son, or he did all these miracles by the power of the devil, they, they did not really know who Jesus was, but this centurion knew who Jesus was.

The centurion said, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed.” Lord! Now if you were a Roman centurion and meet a Jewish man you probably, probably call him what, dog, hey dog, come. Probably that's what might happen, but he didn't call him dog, he called Him Lord and he repeats that again later on, “Lord, I'm not worthy to have You come under my roof.” Now, why would the centurion called Jesus, Lord? Jesus doesn't look like a king, He doesn't look like a master, He doesn't look like a lord, isn't it? I mean, Caesar, in his royal robes and crown would look more like a king and it will be appropriate for the centurion to say Caesar, Lord. Why would he called Jesus, Lord, unless, unless the centurion saw beneath the surface to who Jesus really is, a King sent of God. He recognized Jesus is king, he recognized Jesus has authority because all He needs to do is to say the word and the disease will be dispelled.

Now my question then and maybe your question then is, how can the Roman centurion know about Jesus? I mean would you walk to any man and say, Lord? Let's say you go to McDonald's and say, Lord can I have a Mac, you won't do that, I mean, siow ah you (meaning are you mad), you know, Lord? So why would this centurion walk up to Jesus and say Lord, Master? Because he knew that Jesus is Lord and Master even though His appearance doesn't look like one. How does he know it?

My conjecture, I suppose, is this - I think the centurion must have heard the Scriptures from the Jewish people and in particular the elders of the Jews. He must have asked them questions, dialogued with them, otherwise why would he loved the nation, otherwise why would he build them a synagogue? I mean he can build them a marketplace, Tiong Bahru market, sell food, just as good; why did he build for them to worship venue, why would he build for them a place where the Word of God will be propagated? Well because I think he values the Word of God as has been taught by the Jewish elders. Now of course, all this is conjecture but I don't think it's that far off.

He must have heard the Word of God and he must have heard the Word of God, probably from the Jewish elders. And so he must have heard that in the Bible, long time ago, thousands of years ago, God has always been promising a powerful King. You say, where did it all start? Let me tell you, it started long ago, for example, in Genesis 49 where God gave the hint of a King, clear hint that there will come a King. “The scepter shall not depart from Judah.” [Gen 49:10] Do you know that is a reference to how a descendant from the tribe of Judah will be King? And the King is none other than Jesus Christ. I mean, scepters are held by kings. Now this is very early prophetic saying about the kingship of the Savior, but it gets more developed over time, that's the way God reveals truth over time. He doesn't reveal it all at one shot but He reveals them progressively. So, centuries later, in 2nd Samuel, God says that the Messiah, the Savior will be a King who has an everlasting reign. God saying to David, “And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.” [2Sa 7:16] Now, obviously we know Solomon didn't have an everlasting kingdom, right, I mean, he died and later on his kingdom is taken from him. So obviously this prophetic saying does not apply to King Solomon, but it refers to someone after Solomon and He will come to be an everlasting King; He will reign forever.

So you see that, okay the King will be from Judah, the King will be reigning forever and this motif of a King or the kingship of the Messiah gets even more pronounced when you come to this Christmas passage of Isaiah chapter 9, where it says, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder, and His name will be called wonderful Counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,” [Isa 9:6-7] and so on and so forth. This child is a unique child, He's going to be a King, He's the everlasting Father, He's the Prince of Peace but He's going to be born as a child and He will be sitting on the throne of David for an everlasting kingdom. I think the centurion must have been hearing these promises from the Jewish elders who tell them we are now a people ruled by the Roman Empire but one day, our King will come and we will be His people for evermore.

And this I think is why the centurion could say, Lord, You have all authority because I believe the Old Testament, I believe the Scriptures, all the prophecies regarding You. So that's why Jesus marveled at his faith. Wow, you could believe, when none in Israel believe like you did. You say, pastor, so you say so much, what, what so much, what's the point? I think the point is this, the point I'm trying to make is this - great faith can be found in the most unexpected of places, great faith can be found in the most unexpected places.

Actually, the converse is also true - in the place where you expect to see faith, you may not always see it. Can I say that again, in the place where you expect to see faith you don't always see it. Just I think this week or last week my son Shawn he asked me, “Daddy, are all pastors’ sons believers?” I said, “Shawn, I don't think so.” He said then, “How many?” “I don't know.” Then he keeps asking, “How many percent?” I said, “I don't know.” Then he said, “50%?” I said, “Maybe. I do not know.” And then he said, “Isn't it sad?” And I said, “Yup, it is sad, it is sad that many who grew up in Christian homes, many who are maybe even pastors’ kids, they are not Christians.”

Why? Because faith is not something I can engineer in someone else's heart, I can't do that. Salvation is of the Lord. Where you expect great faith to be present, maybe you are a godly man, you're godly lady, you're godly parents, and you say, “My kids must be Christians!” Not always, you must always point them to the Gospel, but it doesn't always guarantee they must be Christians. In fact, I think one of the worst things anyone can do for your kids is to pressure them into becoming Christians.

I was just speaking with Pastor Paul and he was commenting on how he has known many pastors who probably, probably exerted great pressures on the kids or maybe the church environment exerted such great pressures on the kids that when they grow up they turn totally the other direction. In fact he just shared very sadly about a prominent pastor in the Philippines who had four kids, three had attempted suicide and one just took his own life, two weeks ago because the expectations on them not only becoming believers but becoming pastors is overwhelming, and if you don't meet up to the expectation you, you feel like you, you have failed; but you see my friends, grace does not run in the blood.

Just because you are Christian parents doesn't always mean your kids will be Christian children. Don't pressure them to, to behave like a Christian when their heart is not there. Keep praying for them, keep pointing them to the Gospel, but hey, don't artificially engineer such things, you can't. And I'm shocked when I read my own on, on my own devotional reading, I was just reading Samuel, of first Samuel and I read about the prophet Samuel; Samuel is a great guy right, one of the godly man in the Bible and you know what I read? I read his two sons were terrible sons. I mean, what? I thought Samuel would lead his family well, I mean before Samuel was Eli. Eli was terrible, his kids were terrible and God laid the blame on Eli. But Samuel, as far as I read was a good guy, but his kids were terrible. Well, grace doesn't automatically run in the blood, and so you read in the Bible we have good kings, godly kings and the children are terrible, evil men; and then you have an evil king and the children become a godly man. Wah, great lah pastor, I can live an evil life and trust God to save my sons. Now of course not, I say that again, it's your due diligence, it is how God works. He might use, it is His will to use your patient sowing and watering in the hearts of your kids to lead them to faith, but at the end of the day, salvation is of the Lord. It's a very humbling reality. So I think that's the negative side.

But let me switch to the positive side, the positive side as I've said is that great faith can be found in the most unexpected of places. Great faith can be seen in people you least expect to believe. You know how it is when we go evangelism right, let's say you go to a park and you say, I want to share the Gospel with someone new. First what do you do, you survey the ground, you see who are the people there, and generally I realize people like to go to the ladies, ladies who looked very humble, very gentle, very nice; you like to go to speak to the ladies, but the guy who smoke and have tattoos all over the place, wah, this one no chance lah, this one no chance to be saved, so evil, so Ah Beng, so gangster, no way he will be saved, and so we, we in our minds we already worked out our mental model, this kind of people cannot be saved, that race cannot be saved, that religion cannot be saved, that one who go to atheism club cannot be saved, we have already ruled them out. But great faith can be found in unexpected places. Now when we think about our workplace, you think about your, your school, you think about Punggol, and you see all kinds of people, and say, ah this one have this idol, that one, this one don't speak English, don't speak Chinese, I don't think they can be saved, ah this one don't understand, cannot read, cannot be saved, we have already ruled out so many before we could even give them the Gospel. But let the centurion be an encouragement to you, if a centurion can be saved so can your neighbor, so can your colleague, there is no one too hard for God to save. So what do you do to help them get saved? Do what the elders of the Jews did, I think they showed him the Scriptures.

So often we are stuck in evangelism, because we think we must be so clever as to overturn all their intellectual questions. Now by all means try to answer, if it's helpful to answer, answer them. But, you know, we are not all very smart people, and there always smarter people than us. We are given the mandate to witness to them Jesus, tell them about Jesus, and ask and pray that God would take His Word and blessed it to their hearts that they may be saved, and by the grace of God, great faith will be found in unexpected places. Let your priority in evangelism not be about clever reasonings and answerings. I think the answer, I think those are relevant and helpful at times, but let it be going through the Scriptures, showing them from the Bible, who is Jesus, what is sin, how do you need to repent and believe in Christ.

The last thing I want to say in this text is the great cost of unbelief. Jesus gives a commentary of the story Himself. Seeing that the centurion, though humanly speaking, far away from God has now in reality come to God, He said, following the example of the centurion coming to faith, “I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” [Mat 8:11] This is a fantastic verse, this is a verse that speaks about a feast, you know, in those days when they eat they don't sit at the buffet table and, they lie like that right, the Roman inclined way. So many will come from everywhere, the east and the west and come and sit at the feasting table; with who? With the patriarchs, with the fathers of faith, with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and this is the kingdom of heaven feast; they will all come, and this verse I think is a reference to an Old Testament passage in Isaiah.

Isaiah prophesied of a day of a feast, “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples”, look at this, all peoples, all peoples, not just the Jews; it includes Chinese, Indians, Filipinos, Americans, all peoples, “a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow…” [Isa 25:6] Do you eat marrow? You all don't eat, it's an Indian delicacy okay, I love it tulang (meaning bone in Malay), wah, nice. If you think it's not so high class, French food also got marrow, anyway marrow is a picture of rich stuff, so there will be a feast on the mountain of the Lord, the Lord of host, where everyone would come from all races and backgrounds will enjoy, we will feast, we will take pleasure, we will commune together and this is no ordinary feast because he goes on to say, in Isaiah 25, “He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces...” [Isa 25:8]

I'm pretty sure you can read a hint of Revelation here. In other words, this is of a prophetic future feast, future celebration, future joy where people will come and there will be no more death, there will be no more interruption to this great communion and feast, there’ll be no more tears, no more sorrow, no more sickness, no more curse. “It will be said on that day, ‘Behold, this is our God;…This is the LORD; we have waited for Him; let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation.’” [Isa 25:9] So Jesus, I think referring to Isaiah 25 said, I tell you, many will come, from all peoples and have a great feast with those who believe in Me - Abrahams, Isaacs, Jacobs; and who are those who believe in Me? Not just the Jews, people everywhere like the Roman centurion.

Now by the way, some of you have studied the Bible a little bit more and you hear these words like “dispensationalism”, heard of that? Okay anyway, not so relevant, not so prominent today, but there are people who argue this question, “What is more important, Israel or the Church?” Israel, Old Testament right? Church, New Testament right? So they ask, what is more important, Israel, or the Church? What is your answer? Well, I will not answer that question directly but except to say in this verse, I recognize it is not the nation Israel, it is not about just the New Testament Church, but it is all about the kingdom of heaven. Now not all of Israel is true Israel, Romans tells us, and in the New Testament Church, we must not think of ourselves as so special as if Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are cut off from us, we are part, one and all, part of the kingdom of heaven. So from the beginning to the end God is working out His salvation plan, drawing people from the kingdom of this world into the kingdom of heaven. I think that is the, that is the right understanding of how you should look at the Old Testament and the New Testament.

But this is a celebratory verse and it is in the background this contrast of this tremendous joy, eternal joy with God in heaven forever that this is the great cost of unbelief – “while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” [Mat 8:12] Who are the sons of the kingdom? In this context, it refers to the Jewish people. You who should follow your father Abraham's footsteps, did not, you're the sons of the kingdom, but you would not turn to your Messiah, you will not turn to the one chosen of God and therefore in your unbelief, you will be thrown into outer darkness. Now there are some people, actually some so-called theologians today who say that God will not send anyone for eternal punishment in hell. All that will happen to them is that they would disappear into thin air – “annihilationism”, you are annihilated, gone, poof, but that's not true because the Bible says they will be thrown into darkness where there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth; there will be extreme agony and torment for evermore, especially when you know there is a group with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob feasting forevermore.

But this is why your King came; your King came so that He may lay down His life, die on the cross, rise again the third day, to pay for your sins, to earn that authority to forgive us our sins.

My friends, today you can come to the King. You can come and bow before the king, you can kiss His feet and worship Him and this King is the one who leads you together with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob into the feast of heaven forevermore. This is our good and righteous King; behold the King today. So there is great authority in Jesus Christ, because He paid it all; there is great faith in the centurion because he read and he believed the words of Scripture, and there's great blessing for the centurion even right up, I believe till today forevermore. Would you join him, would you be one of those from the east and west, and North East Singapore Punggol, to come along and be part of this feast? May God bless you and bring you into His kingdom as you repent and believe in Him and His Son today.

Let's bow for a word of prayer together. Jesus, and what He did is something that confronts you today. You can either think all of this is a lie, or you can believe this is true. The Bible tells us, He is the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father but by Him. And therefore I say to you, you have to make a choice. There's only one way to God as described in the Bible, you can either ignore this at your own risk or you can say like the centurion, “I hear the words of Scripture and I believe, I choose to believe Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, the King who will bring us into everlasting kingdom with God.” So this morning, I urge you, I want to encourage you, please take a look at the King. He has demonstrated;, He has laid down His credentials in miracles recorded over and over again, and most of all the ultimate miracle - He died and rose the third day; He is the Son of God. He is the Lamb of God that can take away the sin of the world, and so please right where you are, I ask God, I plead with you, turn from your sin, repent and believe in Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

Perhaps some of you are here today, as Christians and in your heart, you have ruled out many people in your life; they can't be saved, they can't hear the Gospel, they can't understand the Gospel, they won't believe the Gospel. But maybe today you can be encouraged to know that great faith can be found in unexpected places. Didn't Jesus say all authority is given unto me; go ye therefore and make disciples of all…all peoples. I pray Gospel Light, we will be a people boldly taking the Gospel everywhere and to everyone. On whose basis, on whose authority? Jesus. All authority is given to me.

Perhaps this morning, you're suffering from sickness, disease, and you wonder if God could ever save you from your sickness or disease. Let me say this, God has all authority over sickness, over disease. You see, sickness and disease is a result of sin. Not all sickness are a direct result of sin, but ultimately we have sickness and death because sin entered the world, but herein is the marvelous work of Jesus Christ on the cross, He died on the cross, paid for all sin and in heaven there will be no more sickness, no more sin. He has authority over sickness and so if there be sickness and suffering in your life today, it's not because God is not able, but because He has a greater purpose and plan for you than you could ever imagine, so trust Him. Maybe it's because you're struggling with cancer, maybe you are struggling to have a kid, maybe you are struggling with some ailments, God is able, trust Him.

So right where you are this morning, I just want to encourage you to make choices of faith, choices of faith to repent and believe, choices of faith to step out of your comfort zone and to give the Gospel where God has called you to, steps of faith to trust Him regardless of how tough your situation, your health might be. He is King, and you can trust Him. Father, this morning, we thank You for Your Word. We ask that with this simple story, with this simple lesson, it will be locked in our lives and that we may then be mindful to live by faith in the power Your Spirit provides. O God be merciful to draw many from the east and west to join that great feast of heaven. Melt hearts, turn men and women from sin unto Your Son today through the gracious powerful work of Your Holy Spirit. Comfort those who are struggling through sicknesses and trials of life, embolden Your Church to take the Gospel where it has not gone before. Thank You Jesus is our King, we ask all this now in Jesus’ Name, amen.

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