S8E9 - One Surprise After Another

from the sermon on the Mount and he's going to heal the servant of a centurion? Who's a Gentile? He even offers to go to the man's house which is against the protocol of first century Judaism. Today we're gonna see what Jesus expects from us that he finds in the man and he's so blown away that he says, I haven't seen faith like this in all of Israel. (upbeat music) - Welcome to The Forgotten Jesus Podcast. I'm your host, Adam French, where you'll learn about the real Jesus from the Bible. I'm here with Pastor Robbie Gallady and Candy Gallady, both Bible communities, communicators, authors, and Robbie's the pastor of Long Hollow Church and the founder of Replicate Ministries. And a new book has just came out. I know I'm gonna jump right into it 'cause I'm excited. I started last night, I started reading last night and I was up to Andy. - You're further along than Candy. - Wow, you're further along than Candy apparently. - Well, well, let's say why. - Candy Gallady. - Oh, I don't know what to do. - And she's got some things that she's gonna work through right in the water. - That's true.

- I said, "I am ready to read it." I said, "But I'm not reading it until you give me my sign copy." - Here we go, here we go. We're gonna do this on. - No, no, he delivered it this morning. - No, I did this morning. - He did this morning. - He did this morning. - And I have my book and I will read it. - That would be such a good video. - Have you watched this probably a couple weeks later, but I did snap a picture of me this morning. - You need to put it this morning. - And I'm gonna show you real quick the picture for those that you can't see it if you're here with us today, but my sister sent this to us and said, "This is probably my best picture ever of you." And it's here, Robbie Gallady. We had our first dog book signing today, Stella, you love this. Tubby got in line first and Annie had to wait. - Aw, it's a typical tubby. He cut the line. But anyway. - Well, we were talking about Tubby and Annie just last week because our puppy, Cookie, has a birthday coming up. - A good cook? - And so--

- When is the birthday? - October the 6th, she'll be one years old. - Let's go. - I can't even believe that already. - One years old and we were talking about dogs that we want to invite our friends. - I hope I know one or two. - Tubby and Annie, we're definitely on the list. That was the first one that came up with, so. But yeah, so-- - Tubby got to be on his best behavior. - I don't know if dogs can wait in here, that you got to treat you. You got to teach dogs to sit. - No, they do have to wait in there. - But yes, wait, come here. - The name of your book is "Wait Here" like you hear with your ears. Right now, it's sold out on Amazon. It's blowing up. - With sold out everywhere. - Especially everywhere. - Which is crazy. - My first printing sold out in less than a week. I've never had a book that I print. Yeah, praise the Lord. - Off the print. - That's good and bad because my publisher's like, "Oh, it's a good thing." I was like, "Well, not really 'cause nobody can get it now."

They do have the second printing. It's coming less than a week. So it should be out by the time you hear in this. But the key is the challenge. Tell 'em, you just started the challenge too. - Yeah, there's a seven week challenge. What's the name of the website? I forgot it. - "Wait Here Challenge." - "Wait Here Challenge." It's got, "Waitherechallenge.com." It's got a video that goes along with it. There's actually a little description there too that kind of sets everything up. I would encourage you to go now to the website. You can look at that if you're waiting on your book. The book is called, "Wait Here," but I love the, right underneath it, it says, "Recapturing the lost art of hearing God's voice." You're listening to our voices right now, but the most important voice you're ever gonna hear is the voice of God. And Robbie, you do a great job of just slowing us down, posturing our mind and our heart to hear from the power of God. And so, no matter what you're going through right now, this book is gonna meet you because God is gonna meet you. So, like I said, I didn't get as much sleep as I wanted last night 'cause I started the book. - You started reading.

How was it so far? How was it so far? - I love it. I love it. I was excited and thinking about where I was, when the revival started happening, and thinking, well, you and I are friends, so we've been talking about this, I guess, for six years now, when I first started having anxiety and things like that. And so, just, I've seen it happen in my own life. Like, I'm living proof of what this book can do in your life. And I know you both can say the same thing. Like, this isn't a book that, you know, you write about something that, you know, you studied and researched and you have, but it's, you wrote about something that you lived. Candy's lived it, I lived it, Josie's lived it. And we have that experience and it works. I mean, it does. It's changed my life, so I just encourage anyone to listen, to get it, this listening to get it, because it will help you. It's helped me. - Yeah, you know, it's funny. I didn't promote it or try to explain it that way, but you're right. It is for the person like us who was anxiety-ridden and stressed and pressure to perform. you know? The inner critic that never started. That's you. You're right. That is going to help

you to be able to silence the extra voices, the extracurricular influences, and start to binge your ear to the accent of the Holy Spirit. Once you hear from God, it changes everything. I mean, it changes everything. You know that. Well, and I think too, like I was just telling Brian, we got a new staff member who came from Recovery Refuge and from the jails, and now he's on staff here at the church. But I told him, I said, you know, self-love is limited because you can't love yourself enough. It's leaks, but God's love encompasses everything. And so when you sit with him, he lovingly ushers you in to the right spaces, the right truth, the right words. And so, if you want, if you're Charlotte, if I want to be happy, I'm just looking for happiness. We're not going to find it in yourself. You know, I just want to be loved. I just want my wife to do this or my husband to do this. God is the answer. You know, he's going to satisfy you. That's why this is so powerful. Yeah, I like to say, nobody's going to love you like God will, because no one knows you like God does. It's good. Come on. We're starting out with money shots. All right, here we go. Now we're talking about it. That's good. That's good. Come on. All right, we are in Matthew 8. We tried to make it out last week, but we got stalled on some good things. But today we are going to make it out. And I talked about how if you're studying along with this in our chronological CSB Harmony of the Gospels, this is the Harmony of the Gospels book, you don't need this, but this is kind of our guide to follow the life of Jesus in a linear fashion. So we're trying to see what happened because the gospel writers you have to remember are not writing chronologically other than Luke. They're writing to prove a point to explain who Jesus is. They're writing thematically to show you concepts. So it's important for us just to see Jesus as he's developing and teaching and talking. So just came down from the Sermon on the Mount. And Matthew 8, 1, verses 1 through 4 is not chronologically, in a sense, what happened chronologically. It actually already happened before. And again, I know this is going to mess some people up and say, well, why did Matthew put it there? The Jewish mind, remember, has no problems telling a story out of order. It would be like saying, Adam, you recorded the podcast, then you went home, and then you went to the gym. You're like, no, that's not what I did. I did it backward. I went to the gym, or I was at home, I went to the gym, and then I came to the podcast. Why would you do that? You're doing that to put emphasis on something. So Matthew puts, and we're not going to relive it because we can link it in the show notes, Robert or Ben, let's link that episode. When Jesus hears the man with leprosy, we've already talked about this, one of the Messianic miracles. Why does Matthew,

I just ask you, if you're listening, you guys too, why does Matthew decide, right? When Jesus comes off the hill, the Sermon on the Mount, he's encountering a man with leprosy. And the man says, Jesus says, if you're willing, you can touch me, and Jesus touches the man, which is like crazy. We're not going to talk about, but why would Matthew put it there? Think about that. Right. I mean, he marries that passage of the man with leprosy approaching Jesus right after the Sermon on the Mount. What is the reason for that? Vivian, you got an idea? Okay, raise power. Here's why. Let me let me lead you down. What was the what was the theme of the Sermon on the Mount? How to live in the kingdom of God? The blessed life. Was it human flourishing? There you go. Human flourishing? By what? Living in the will of God, the commandments of God. Okay, close. Yes, but the kingdom of God. You're right, you're getting ahead because that's from the kingdom of God. The whole thing, the whole, the whole sermon of the Mount is kingdom ethics for human flourishing. If you want to flourish, there's a human kingdom effort. Okay. Jesus, this whole ministry was about the kingdom of God. That's why I keep telling people, Jesus is kingdom. It can't be coming 2000 years from now, like we're waiting for the shoot. That's when I preach revelation. I was talking about like, the king is here. No offense to the book that's titled, "The King is Coming." Yeah, he is coming, but he's already here. And if I only look to a coming king and a kingdom, I miss the benefits and blessing. Jesus, his whole ministry, I mean, he's like, this, I was like, I missed it. What did he say? I already heard it before. It's the kingdom of, oh, yeah, I heard that. Well, it's like the same message and he's sticking to it. If it was only about the king is coming in the future, what's the point of the Holy Spirit? I was thinking the same thing. Like, what do we have the Holy Spirit for? What is the point, the purpose? You see what I'm saying? Like, why? Like, we know it's a seal, but it's so, he's so much more than that, right? And so it's like, if we, what would be the whole point of us having the spirit of the Lord today? Well, by the way, we're going to do this, that you're exactly right. So I'm in the process right now of didn't set up to do this, but I'm in the process of writing a book on Revelation. The entire series, I presealed Revelation, okay. I had two, as of now, I had two amazing calls with publishers that want the book.

It's just great, they want the book. You got to really want the book. One publisher turned me down because no offense, they published John Bavir and David Jeremiah, and they can't go against the party line. I get it, which is in time, she's gonna drop. Destruction, dog and maid, dog, all that. Again, I'm not saying I'm smarter than those guys, and people say, you think you're smarter than those guys. I think, and those who listen to this podcast will love this, and that's why when the book comes out, if it does, God willing, I want to do a shortened series on here, here's why. You have to know the Jewishness and the culture to understand the decoder. That's my point, the decoder. If you start with the wrong decoder in the illustration I used was the Toy Story with Ralphie when he sends off for the little Annie Orphan Club, the little Annie Orphan Overtine Club, and he gets the decoder in the mail, and he has to match like this symbols A, this symbols B, and he's all excited, remember you'll shoot your eye out that movie, and then he decodes, drink more Overtine. He was so mad, but here's the thing, if he doesn't have the right decoder to match up Gomatria and symbols and signs, then he misses the message, and I tell people, if you're reading Revelation, Sidemen will get back, with Revelation the letter in one hand,

and your news feed or your Twitter accounts or their Facebook or the television in the other, you've missed the point. You have to read it the way they did back then, which was Revelation in the right hand, and the Old Testament in the left hand. There are 500 plus illusions, some say 600, but 500 plus direct connections or illusions to the Old Testament in that book. - Wow. - 500 in like 400 verses, I think it is. But anyway. - I think the book will be in seminaries all across the world. I think it's a seminary-level book, I really do. - Well, I'm not writing it for that though. - I know, but I know you're not, but I'm saying, the sermon series and everything that you went through, and I remember, I mean, I think the most, to me the first two are the most, like you said, the decoder, the first two are three are the most important 'cause you don't understand the rest, but I really do believe that it's gonna be in seminaries all across. - I think seminary, yeah. - But I'm writing it for the average person too, because here's why. - Well, sure. - When I preach revelation, y'all went through it. You can't tell me everything. People always say, what did you mean here? So I wanna put everything in one book

so you can go back and read it again. What are you gonna say? - Well, I was just gonna say, and it's always good to know more than one side of something, right? - Right. - And study something for yourself. But what I was gonna say is, code breaking is fascinating, by the way. Like if you think about World War II, you know, a lot of the reasons the United States got their good intel was from code breaking. - It's not Bletchley Park, huh? - I wanna go to Bletchley Park so bad and you wouldn't let me. - I wanna go to Bletchley. - You ever heard of Bletchley Park at him? - No, okay, Candy goes all about it, by the way. - Not all about it. - We're in World War II history. - Okay, yeah, well, not fully, but yes. But yeah, Bletchley Park, this is total side note, by the way, but when you said the decoder, no, no, no, I can't take my stuff. - I'll take it, so you take, oh, I gave you some Reese Lisa though. - Oh, you did not. - What did you give me? - I gave you an idea, but keep going. - Yeah, you wrote it down. - Man, it's all this. - She's very selfish with her illustrations. - So like Britain and the United States,

like they had code breakers stationed at Bletchley Park. And a lot of them were actually women, but the best intel came from them breaking, you know, the Nazis' codes in order to determine what their plans were, you see. - That's crazy. - And the Nazis were transmitting these crazy codes. - So the ladies were there trying to break the codes? - Yeah, they would try to break the codes. - They were meant to. - They got figured out what they did to code it. - Oh, fascinating. - They helped win the war. - Yeah, yeah, I mean, it was pivotal, it was pivotal. And there was like a whole team, like, you know, mathematicians and just people who were being recruited because of their skill set. But the whole point was, and I mean, this would take, I mean, this took years, you know, and lots of time. It wasn't something that was easy, but eventually, you know, they would get really good intel and be able to like, you know, thwart the enemy's plans and stuff. But when you said decoder, I was thinking about that because it's so, that changed everything for me. And I mean, I know we're kind of getting off on a completely different tangent, but when you talked about going to the Bible and using the right decoder in order to understand and not based on tradition, what we have been taught

and what we have been raised to think, which anybody who would have taught you something about revelation would have been doing the best to their ability at the time. - Yeah, for sure. - But it's all about the tools in the tool belt, right? And you came at it from a completely different perspective of decoding it correctly from the onset and not superimposing tradition and things that have been taught. And I think by doing that, all the things that we know that we should be doing, it changed everything for me with the Book of Revelation. 100% can change everything. And nobody could read a book or listen to the series. And I don't think come away unchanged by something or challenged by some view that they have had in Hell too. - Yeah, yeah. - Even though we won't all, I don't think any of us know what's happening. - Well, and that's how we should grow as Christians. You know, some guy said, do me one time, and he thought he was sounding spiritual. He said, "I've held these views for 35 years, son. "I ain't changed, not one bit." Well, that sounds holy in sanctimonious. That's actually immature. Like, I'm not saying you change foundational truth. We're constantly growing and evaluating and learning. You don't believe or understand the same things you do when you're a new Christian.

Or even a year ago, you're learning. And that's what the Scripture is. You're looking at it differently. And for somebody to be stuck and immovable, I'm not gonna, I mean, that's just foolish. - It's not a good heart portion. That's the thing about this. You know, the reverence of the Lord has nothing to do with intellect. We don't reverence God because we're smart. We don't, you know, it's, it's, it has to do with, - We don't revere God, yeah. - Yeah, we don't revere, you know, we don't have a fear. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of women. So reverent, a wisdom, a reverence for God is the beginning of wisdom, right? Having to honor him. It doesn't say intellect is the beginning of women. It's how smart you are, right? So an adoration and a love and a respect for who God and his word is. And we approach it that way. And we say, I hope I'm right. I'm seeking God. - Yes. - I'm sitting at his feet. That's a, that's the kind of posture we have. And I felt, I never felt like during that series that there was anything that was like, oh, I'm, you know, my, I'm Dr. Robbie. And I'm, and even though you're a genius in my book,

it's like, you never, I never felt that way. And I think, I think that's why what Kenny said is true. If you actually read the book and you listen to the sermon series, which is all in all of it, go to longhollow.com and see the series now. I think you're going to get a lot from it. - Or my YouTube page. I went through the whole thing again. - That's right, YouTube channel. - Yeah, I went through the whole thing, YouTube channel again. Here's the line I use. Until you admit you don't know everything, you can't learn anything. - Yeah. - Think about that. Until you admit you can't, you don't know everything. - Well, what's the number one quality? - And it's just saying, be teachable. - That's good. - What's the number one quality of a disciple? - Yeah. - Teachability. - Teachability. Teachable. - Gotta be teachable. - All right, speak it up. - Don't you think, don't you think the more, like for me, the more that I'm studying and trying to get close to the God, the more that I know God or how to experience Him, the more that I realize I don't know.

It's like in his economy, it's a different effect. When we go to school and academia, it's all great. I've reached a level and let me teach you. But with God, it's like every level I reach, I'm like, okay, I don't know anything. He's like, God is way bigger than I thought. - Well, and I think we have to get out of our comfortability zone, you know what I'm saying? Because even me, if you say something to me that I don't agree with or when we first, let's just use this as an example. - What is going on right now? - I thought we were talking about Matthew. - Oh, we go back to it. - I think we gotta go back to it. - No, I don't know. - I don't know if this has anything to do with the face of the centurion, but Adam wants to hear it. - I don't know. - Adam's ready to hear it. - I don't even know if she's gonna-- - I don't even know if she's gonna-- - I don't even know if she's gonna-- - No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. - Adam, I was just gonna say-- - Don't make me get Josie on this mic. - I was just saying like-- - Don't you Josie, I'm talking to you. - Josie, people that have like staunch beliefs, you know, I'm one of those, okay?

Like when we would talk about like the unseen realm, right, the divine council-- - Oh my goodness. - Do you remember? It would be like-- - Did y'all burn that? - No, I was like, I was dogmatic, like, it was almost like, don't push me to go somewhere I'm not ready to go get, right? But like-- - There's some guys that are de-grouped like this. - Yeah, I don't think so. - It takes me-- - That guys are de-grouped. - Sometimes to kind of like-- - Daniel Puller, but anyway-- - No! - I'm playing it. Shout out to Daniel. - Yeah, it takes me time. - It takes me time. - Today? - Come on. - Happy birthday, keep going. - One of our favorites. - One of our favorites. - So happy birthday, Cam. - OK, so, yeah, it's like-- now I done lost my train of thought. What was I thought about it? - You know, it wasn't important 'cause it was from me. - No, about being dogmatic. - Dogmatic.

- Yeah, unseen realm, you're like, hey, I don't want this. - So I'm saying people who have like, in their mind, like about revelation or anything for that matter, they're so set on it because they're afraid that their train of thought might change or there is something they don't know. So it's easier just to drive down on, I've always believed this and I'm not moving from it or whatever, instead of saying, OK, could there be something I don't know? Could I be wrong? Is there a possibility? - Yeah, in theology we'll say there are primary issues and tertiary issues or secondary issues. The primary issues are gospel-centered salvation issues. Those are non-negotiable, right? Say by faith in Christ alone. and history. Those kind of, you know, you don't earn your salvation, it's by grace through faith. Those are primary issues. Revelation is a secondary tertiary issue. You and I could disagree completely about Revelation. That's what I love with Joby Martin said when I got up to his church and Joby was preaching on Matthew 24 and he and I were talking about my beliefs and he had seen some of the videos and I said, "Hey, let me just send you my sermons on this passage and you do what you want with them just to look at them." And when he got up and preached, he said, this was the Sunday before I preached on that Wednesday. He said, Church 11, 22, I just want you to know, he said, "This Wednesday you're going to hear Pastor Robbie Gallady from Long Hollow preach on this stage.

And later this year you're going to hear Philip Anthony Mitchell preach on this stage. You couldn't find two guys further away in eschatology than these two brothers and both will preach on this stage and both would get along and not be against each other because it's not. The main issue is not how we get there. It's where we end up. And boy, I thought that was so well said by Joby. So, yeah. Okay. Matthew 8. So just so you know, Matthew 8 is before, give you the punch lines since we've already got 20 minutes in and we haven't got there. Here's the punch line. Matthew is trying to show right after the Sermon on the Mount the kingdom of God in action. And what does he do? He takes the uncurable disease of leprosy and a man comes and here's what you understand. When Jesus heals someone outwardly, physically, it's always a picture of something symptomatically inside of them. Okay. Something below the surface spiritually. So for example, when Jesus healed, I mean, I don't want to get a hair myself. This is one of my favorite ones, Vivian. Remember when Jesus heals the man and he's blind and Jesus heals him and the guy opens his eyes and he says, I can see, but I can't see really well. I see men as trees. Trees. You remember this? Okay. Yeah. But how would he have known what a tree was?

He was blind. Well, he wasn't born blind. See, there was two issues, the Messianic miracle in Jesus' day was not healing a man who contracted blind. A lot of people would get blind from every day. It was a man born blind. So we assume because it didn't say it, but here's the thing. People are looking investigate, well, trees mean this and there's the tree from someone. That's not what's going on there. Then Jesus heals them again and he can see, okay? If you go back, Robert, I don't know where this is, but if you go back and look at the passes, we'll get to it soon. Jesus heals that man. It's like he's teaching and then he says, hold on, let me heal this man and it looks like an interruption, but it's actually an explanation. It's an interpretation of what he's doing. This is what Jesus always does. Here's what I mean. Jesus is teaching these guys and the disciples and they're hard headed. They don't get it. They have eyes to see, but they what? Don't see. So Jesus says, let me show you. We don't know this. Let's take the forest before the tree. You can't see the tree because of the forest. Exactly. I didn't think of that one. That's another go at the tree. He sees trees.

You can use that in your book. I got it. I got it. I'm just aiming to use that in the illustration. Yeah, but thank you. I got it. Okay. But here's the thing. So what Jesus says is you don't understand it. Here's what you guys are doing and he takes this man as a visual illustration and then he walks around. He could see, but he can't really see. He's like, hey, that's you. You have eyes, but you're not seeing, okay? So Jesus is always using people, circumstances, occupations, activities as examples. So that's what Matthew does. So that, we've already addressed that. So now we're going to get into Matthew eight, five, which is the faith of the centurion. And I just want to tell you, you could title this message one surprise after another because there's so many surprises in here that, again, I keep in mind, Matthew is right on the heels of what the kingdom looks like in action, healing a leper, unhealable. And now he's going to show you that the kingdom of God, Vivi, let me give you the punchline, isn't just for the Jews. It's actually for the Gentiles too. Watch this. This is so awesome. There's no accident. This is here. Okay. How many verses?

Let's just read them all and I'll stop you maybe, but let's just read them all. Let's see. Let's see how far we get starting in verse five, when he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him pleading with him, Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed in terrible agony. He said to him, am I to come and heal him, Lord, the centurion replied, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but just say the word and my servant will be healed for I too am a man under authority, having soldiers under my command. 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. Hearing this, Jesus was amazed and said to those following him, truly I tell you I have not found anyone in Israel was so great a faith. Okay. Let's stop here for a second. Notice what he's not saying. what he believes. Okay, not just what he knows. We're seeing right out the gate. Faith is not just intellectual, assent what you know, what you repeat. Faith always leads to action. That's why Paul and James are never against themselves. Jesus doesn't say, man, this guy knows the Torah better than anybody. He probably doesn't. What he's saying is this man is demonstrating his faithful nest in God or or or entrust. Now we get to it by what he's saying, which leads to action. So just remember that. I just don't want you to think because why would you say he hadn't found faith and there's a lot of people with faith around him. I mean, the religious leaders have faith, but that's not what he's talking about all. Okay. Verse 11, then I tell you, I tell you that many will come from east and west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the sons of the king. Okay, hold on. We're not going to read that yet because that's, that's the next one. Let's just stop there because that's, that's a good point.

Okay. So Centurion was a man who was probably employed by Herod Antipas, because that was his region north. Remember Herod the Great? When he died, he divided up his region of Israel into three sections. Did you know this? He had sons of Herod, Herod Antipas, Herod, Philip, Herod, Agrippa, Agrippa. How did I know that? Let's go. I just knew it was a Herod. Look at you. Aren't you brought in? She's locked in. Okay. So Antipas is the Fox. Remember, Jesus said that Fox Herod Antipas. Okay. He was probably assigned to guard the border of the town or he was to enforce taxes. So remember, Matthew had no authority. He's a Jewish man at a tax table who's probably a smart, nerdy business guy. He can't enforce the law, but the guy behind him can. So the centurion's over his soldiers. And Matthew's like, Hey, this guy didn't want to pay. So he's like, I got it. Step out the way. Get up here, French. You pay or you go to prison or you, or you die, you know, whatever. Okay. So, uh, another possibility too is that he was the leader of a battalion of soldiers that guarded what was called the way of the sea or the via Mars. You've heard of this, the via Mars. So the via Mars was literally the path that she went from West down Israel by the sea and it was a trade route. Capernaum remember was a very lucrative city because that's where the fishing enterprise was. That's where the market was. Think of it as a New York city. Okay. All Wall Street, Commerce is this is all roads lead there and imagine him guarding it.

We don't know for sure, but that's what it is. It's no accident. Again, that Jesus comes down and addresses this guy because remember it's about the kingdom, the sermon on the Mount. It's about, uh, flourishing, but you said earlier, it's about obedience. Now, how do I know that? How do I know the sermon on the Mount's about obedience? Because Jesus ends with multiple examples of fruit on a tree, obedience, building of a house, obedience, not many old do things, but they don't obey the kingdom of heaven. You say to me, Lord, Lord, but those who don't do or obey. So Jesus talking about obedience. And what does he meet? A man who knows obedience. Now, what is Jesus doing here? Jesus is doing two things. He's showing the kind of power associated with the kingdom and he's showing the kind of person that the kingdom of God reaches. This is a centurion. What does that mean? He's gentile or Jew. Gentile. Gentile. Okay. However, they say in the text, he's, he's honored what? The God of what? The God of Israel. Yeah. Now we know this from, obviously it doesn't say here, it says this in Luke. So go to Luke seven. Luke actually says, um, the people push Jesus to help him because verse, uh, read verse four, Candy of Luke seven. Luke gives us a little background here. Sorry. When they reached Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly saying, he is worthy for you to grant this because he loves our nation and has built us a synagogue. Okay. So here's a Gentile man supporting the Jews. We don't know if he was a God fear. That's what they called them back in the day. God fears. So that God, fear, like Cornelius in the New Testament, uh, in Acts, a God fear was somebody who what, you know, was a Gentile person who obey Yahweh. Yeah. Yeah. Who went under certain requirements. They'd be circumcised and obey the law. They had a big kosher rules, and they could follow the Lord as a citizen of, and you have this even today. Gentiles can convert to Judaism even today. So here, here's Jesus coming to town. He hears about Jesus. Jesus. He's this miracle worker, this rabbi. He goes to can you heal my servant, okay?

The man says in Luke, which is interesting, I want you to read this, the man says in Luke, I'm not where it reads six and seven for context. - Jesus went with them and when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to tell him, Lord, don't trouble yourself since I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. - Wow, okay, what is he saying here? What does he know about the Torah or the oral tradition? What is the oral tradition which became comes the Mishnah Talmud? What does the oral tradition say about a Jew going into the home of a Gentile? - You can't do it 'cause you become unclean, yeah. - Become unclean? Now, Jesus is not just any Jew. Who is Jesus? - To the side. - He's the rabbi of the Jew, so he's on another level. Rabbi shouldn't even come in contact with Gentiles, much less go to their homes. In fact, the sages of Israel say, I quote, unclean, don't go to the home of the Gentiles or associate with them as they are unclean and ritually contaminated because they store or have the possibility of storing corpses buried in their homes. So what they would do is when a family would die, they wouldn't go out and bury him in the community, they would either bury him or cremate the body

or burn the ashes and they would store the remains in the home of these Gentile homes or to put the corpses in the homes to live with the family. And they do this in parts of Africa now, they preserve the bodies, keep the family around. Josie, for me, you're probably with that. And in Africa, parts of the region, parts of the Middle East, they do that as well. But the Jews were strict. They said, you can't come in contact. If you did, you had to be, you know, ceremonially cleansed for seven days. So they basically say, let's draw a hard and fast rule. You think of the discrimination now. It's like everybody gets lumped in to a few different cases. And so this man is an outcast. So what he says is, I know the rules. I know normally you'd have to come in the vicinity of a person for healing. But I know who you are and I know you don't have to come. So what does he say? Just say, I love this one, just say the word in my what? My servant will be healed. Now, what Jesus does is Jesus surprises him though. What does Jesus say? - We're in Luke or Matthew now. - Jesus says we're in Matthew. - Let's see, go to Luke and it says... - Where's nine? - Oh no, Jesus, go to verse seven of Matthew, Matthew seven.

Jesus says to him, am I to come and heal him? What Jesus is saying is, do you want me to come to your house and heal you? This is staggering to the man. - Yeah, am I? - Yeah. - Don't look at it as am I to come like, or do you think I need to come? No, Jesus is saying, do you want me to come to your house and heal the man? That's a big surprise, okay? The second surprise is he's a Gentile. The third surprise to them is he's gonna heal him from a distance. Now, what is the point here? This man is the centurion and he's gonna teach us a principle about our relationship with the Lord. You ready for this? Here's the principle. To be in a position of leadership of any kind, young people listen to me. To be in a position of leadership of any kind, you need to know how to be under leadership, period. You can't be in leadership until you learn how to be under leadership. And the reality is everybody is under leadership of some kind. I remember when Rig was little and they were little and Rig wanted to do something and he's like, well, Daddy, you run the church.

You're the boss. You run the church. - No, Rig said it. - It's not Rig, yeah, not really Rig. And I remember him saying, yeah, everybody reports to you. You run the church, Daddy, you're in charge. And I would say, well, not necessarily son. I'm not in charge when I answer to a group of men, but I'm under the Lord, you know? I'm under the direction of the Lord, obviously. But I'm accountable to a board, you know, the Mac at Long Hollow, where I give an account and they do yearly updates and we do critique and I meet with them every month. And that's part of it. You know, I remember years ago, Paul David Tripp was on an event with JD Greer, I think he did his staff meeting. It was right after one of these mega leaders had fallen. I remember asking JD, who was a friend this question. And these are guys, have I mentioned their names? And this was in a succession of guys falling back then if you remember. And I asked him, I said, how does that happen? How do these guys who have books on their shelves and guys we look to? Paul David Tripp said, the problem is you will fall if you get on a level and you're on a platform and no one's standing there with you.

he was saying, "Nobody can speak into your life. Nobody can question you. Nobody can critique you. It's dangerous." And the line I use is a leader that can't be questioned is a questionable leader. That's good. Because back in the day it was, this was the man of God. No question God's anointed. No, no. That's contextually in the context of that day. That doesn't mean, Jesus is saying, "Gaze this brother to see if he's a false prophet or false wolf." And John's like, "Test every spirit." What are you talking about? Yeah. Now I'm not saying you have to be skeptical on a contrary and of everything, but the reality is, if you're following someone and they're the man of God and separated, the only difference between that man who's pastoring in you is that God has chosen him for the task. He's no better than you. He's no, I mean, the favor of God, maybe the anointing of God. It's a Christian just like you, filled with the Spirit of God, listening to the Word of God. And God leads him, obviously, but it doesn't mean he's immune from your questions or even looking at the leadership. And so I've learned for me, you need to be under leadership before you're in leadership. And that's what the man says. He says, "Listen, I know what it is." Here's what he's saying, Jesus. He's saying, "I know who you are because I live in a world where if Herod says something to me, I do it. I also have guys that listen to me, so it's trickled down." When I say go, they go. When I say come, they come. And what he's saying is this, this is so unbelievable. The man is comparing Jesus' authority and position to his. Herod Antipas was the king, and he served the king and did the king's bidding. Here's what he's saying without saying, don't miss between the lines. He's saying Jesus as the son, but basically what he's saying is, I'm a representative of the Roman Empire here. I'm carrying out the ministry of Rome here. Jesus, you're a representative of God the Father on Earth. Watch this. See, you miss it because you don't know the context. We just think, this guy's saying, "Hey, I got a bunch of people that do my bidding."

No, that's not what he's saying. What he's saying to Jesus in the Hebrew culture with the right to coder is, Jesus, I know who you are. Let me tell you how I know it, and he says it like he knows it. He's saying, you say go, and they go, or when he says go, I say go, he comes back. That's what you're doing. You're taking the authority from the empire of the kingdom of heaven, and you're directing people, and what you want from your followers is obedience. Obedience. And that's what Jesus says. I've never seen faith like this man in all of Israel. Now, that's a big thing Jesus is saying. Why is he saying that? Because a centurion who was given authority from heaven recognized as Jesus has been given all authority from God. And he's saying without saying, you ready for this? Jesus? I know who you are. You're the Messiah. He knew the power of God more. I love that. He is going to school the religious leaders around him in messianic theology. Because he recognizes Jesus as a Gentile. Think about this. Up to this point, the only people recognizing Jesus were the demons. And the first person, I mean, obviously the guy with leprosy does, but that was earlier. But after the sermon on the month, the first guy to recognize Jesus is a Gentile. And then Jesus says, hey, bro, I don't even need to go to your home. You already know who I am. Now, I love this. Jesus is saying miracles and healings are not hindered by proximity. I don't need to be near in order to heal. In fact, it's not restricted by location or geography. I actually can heal from a distance now. This is crazy. The Talmud records a very similar healing from another Galilean healer, Rabbi Hanani Bindoza. Hanini Bindoza is his name, Kannini Bindoza. Here's what it says in the Talmud. A man's agent is equivalent to himself. Rabbi Hanani or Kannania Bindoza prayed for the sick and knew that if the man would recover or not, and he knew from a distance if the man would recover or not, he didn't have to be present for the person to benefit from his prayers. Now, we know that today, but back then they didn't really understand that, right?

You had to go to the temple. You had to go to the presence of God. And what Jesus is saying is isn't amazing. We've seen that. We've prayed for people from a distance. The spiritual world is not restricted by being there in the presence. It's not restricted by geography as well. And we've seen this in our own life. It makes me think about if you have to have surgery, they don't have to strap you down. When you go to get surgery, they don't say, "Okay, put your handcuffs on." You're willing. You're not unwilling. You're surrendering to the scaffold of the doctor. it's a voluntary thing. We're voluntarily submitting to the power and authority of God. The world says, oh, that's going to limit you. If I submit to if I submit to Robbie's leadership, it's, oh, that's going to, oh, well, you're limited. Oh, no, no, no, no, this is, I'm sorry, we're operating in God's world. So when I submit, it actually opens me up to the song, a whole new, a lad, my favorite, a whole new world, Stella. That's my favorite. We watch that. We see that every few months we watch that movie. Come on. It's a whole new world out there. And we run around and we're beating. Why can't I grow? Why can't I get, I'm stuck. I keep peeling a ceiling in my life spiritually, business wise. Oh, it's because you're so unwilling to voluntarily submit to what God wants to do in your life or that leader in your life. Imagine if he just said, he said, if he'd, if he'd have pushed back, like he says, am I, am I to come to him? You know, like, I mean, there's another way to look at this. If you, if he pushes back on that, you know, it changes the whole story. Do you know about the centurion or Jesus? Well, I think, I think it's, if the centurion would, would have pushed back and, and on, say you need to come. Well, like if his, if his heart, if he was a guy that did not submit to the authority of, oh, yeah, yeah, his posture was different, how the whole story changes. Yeah. Well, and think about this, here's the difference, you got me thinking the difference is everybody has a choice. Will you submit to the authority of God or will you acquiesce to your own power and authority? And we've done that for years. That was pre-Christ. I lived my own authority. I thought I was, you know, had ingenuity and intellect and could beat my diction. And surely I'm smarter than this thing. And it led me the same place,

always the same time, always the same. And then you surrender to the Lord. And what you're doing is you're inviting his power, his authority in your life. And it always goes better, because God knows you better than yourself. And he knows what's best for you. So I think that's what you're saying. Yeah, we're going to say, Kenny, okay, uh, he ends with, I've not seen faith and we'll end with this like this in all of Israel. Here's what he's saying. Jesus is saying, the problem is this. Sometimes religion can get in the way of relationship. Here's what I mean. The religious leaders missed who Jesus was. The centurion, the centurion does it. The tax collectors don't. The prostitutes don't. The sinners don't. Why? What's the difference? They were looking for a Messiah to fit into their system and who they wanted him to be. And to appease the, the, the prostitutes, the sinners, the Gentiles, basically just accepted Jesus as he is. They just said, this is who he is. Not trying to make a Jesus of my own creation. Jesus to fit my own ideas. Jesus rubber stamped my plans. They recognized him for who he is. And they accepted him. And that was the difference between the religious leaders and Jesus. And I think that's what Jesus is meant. I hadn't seen faith like this since I've been here. Yeah. Yeah. You're accepting my authority. Yeah. Yeah. So the question is, who is Jesus to you? Yep. Is he the God of Israel? He's the Jesus of the Bible? Or is he a Jesus of your own imagination or creation? That's so good, so good. Powerful stuff. And you may be thinking, you know, right now is your boss is a terrible boss, right? But who is everybody's boss is the Lord. Because you know, sometimes you get in these situations and you're like, the guy over me is just ruining my life. And we get fixated on that. And I love what you, this, this is such a great teaching that you've just done because we can always say, Oh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna submit to the authority of God and how he's telling me to serve and love and pray for this man. And if we start praying for the people that are ruling over us in a way or, or, or leader that's off track, it changes our heart and changes our perspective. Yeah. Yeah. So it's a great, great word today. Always powerful stuff. We just want to say thank you for tuning in and listening. We want you to be a part of the team though. We would love for you to be a part of the forgotten Jesus team. If you want to do that, you can hit subscribe right now. Please like comment. Show me when you can so we can get the word out about the forgotten Jesus. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]