Communion Message
(The 4 centurions)
August 5-6, 2000
Pastor Donald Sheley

For I have received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me. In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Mark records for us a scene at the cross. He writes, Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which is translated, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Some of those who stood by, when they heard that, said, "Look, He is calling for Elijah!" Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink, saying "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to take Him down." And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last. Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, "Truly this Man was the Son of God!"

One man and one man only is wholly competent to tell us the story of the death of Jesus and that man is this Roman centurion. You see, it was he who sent his band across the brook Hedron in the soft moonlight to arrest Jesus. It was this centurion who guarded Him as He was led to the house of Caiaphas, and then marched Him as a dangerous rebel to Pilate, and then to Herod, and then back to Pilate again. It was this centurion who overheard the strange parleying between Jesus and Pilate. He was the one who superintended the scourgings. He looked on when the soldiers mocked Him and it was by his lips that the message of Pilate's wife reached the governor's ears. And at his word of command the glittering spears began to move along the way to Calvary. He saw the nails driven in and then he stood with watchful eye and open ear in the strength of his Roman discipline and marked how Jesus died.

Now of this man we know nothing certainly until he stands in the light of the dying face of Jesus. That he was a soldier assures us of an ingrained habit of obedience, a perfect courage, an unflinching loyalty, and an honest and greatly simple heart. That he was a Roman soldier tells us that he belonged to the most dauntless army the world has known, whose deeds of valor went back through an almost unbroken record of success through seven centuries, and that he was a centurion tells us that he was a man in middle age who had seen service and had risen through the ranks to merit his high command. For no inexperienced stripling was ever appointed to a Roman post of authority. And when the Roman Empire at this point in the life of Christ could be analyzed, it was already in decline, but like every great organization it had begun to die at the heart. And when the pestilence of moral corruption had infected the governors and the counselors of Rome, there were still to be found in its armies men of fearless truth, of fine courtesy, and incorruptible purity.

It's interesting, when you analyze the character of the governors versus the character of their soldiers, the centurions. And there are four centurions mentioned in the New Testament. All four centurions are men of moral and even spiritual beauty. Of one of them the Jews said, He loveth our nation and hath built us a synagogue. And Jesus said of that centurion, I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel. That was said of a Roman centurion. Of another, Cornelius, the record is that he was a just man and that he feared God. He was a Roman centurion. The third was Julius. He was a centurion of the Augustus band who courtesly entreated Paul on his journey to Rome, and he gave him liberty and he treated him with kindness. He cared for him. That was a Roman centurion. And the fourth was this centurion at the cross, who as the slow hours of the day passed away watched Jesus die, and in the few and emphatic words of a soldier's lips he bore testimony to who Jesus was, and the generations of time have listened to his witness; This was the Son of God.

Now think with me, this centurion had no god but a Caesar in Rome. He's a pagan. He has no concept of righteousness. He knows loyalty, but he's fascinated as the way Jesus dies. He had never seen anything like this before. When Jesus is mocked, He revileth not again. When Jesus is mistreated, He as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so He openeth not His mouth. That's different. Every other criminal fought back. And when He hung on that cross with blood dripping from all of his body, He could look at the men with the hammers in their hands and say, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. This blew the old centurion away. I can imagine that in those moments as he stood there by the cross tremendous spiritual waves flowed over his soul. Could He have participated in the killing of the Son of God? Finally, he gives the world his witness and for 2000 years we know just exactly what that centurion thought of Jesus. I wonder, when we get to heaven if that old centurion is going to be there. He might be sitting at my table, and what an interesting conversation.

You know, we often talk about that great moment in the skies when we'll be gathered with the saints of the ages, and the Bible says that we'll have the greatest supper of all, the great marriage supper of the Lamb. All of the saints of the ages will be there. That's going to be a moment, isn't it? And I think the amazing thing is for us to look across those endless tables and see who's there. And the most amazing thing is we're there because of God's grace. You know God's grace saves to the uttermost. Remember old John Newton. He was the slave trader out of Africa. I mean he was wretched, vile, wicked, but one day he came to a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ and he too said, He is the Son of God. And with a heart that was changed he sat down and wrote that great hymn, Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Old John Newton is going to be there.

And you know I often fear lest we do not understand spiritual truths in the context of human experience. We sometimes have a tendency to push eternal realities off in the future, but one of the most wonderful things is as you and I eat supper together today the fact is one of these mornings is going to be our last supper together here. That's all right because the next supper is going to be in heaven, and to me these moments are very, very precious because this crowd will never meet again and be the identical crowd that's here today - never. Someone will be missing next time, and some new person will come. But on that eternal day when all of us have been waft into His eternal glory, no more goodbyes and some that we thought would never make it are going to be at our table. It's an amazing thought, isn't it? The old centurion, because of God's grace, could be there. I'll look for him. I trust you will too.

Let’s kneel and pray, shall we? Lord Jesus, we grapple with eternal realities and find that our imagination becomes to an end and our words find themselves to be empty because heaven is so far beyond us in its glory and its majesty and the fact that we're going to be there and join with the great saints of the ages is a marvelous thing to us. And those that, Lord Jesus, who shared in that experience of the cross, that thief is going to be there with us because You pledged him a place in paradise. And surely that centurion who has told the world who You were, the Son of God. Lord Jesus we kneel today as a family and friends, all a part of Your kingdom, and we just want to think you for the love, and the forgiveness, and the mercy that ties us together as one. None of us are perfect. All of us are sinners. All of us need Your forgiveness and Your grace. For that we ask, and for that we receive. We love you today dear Jesus. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. As all the world rushes by and life with its tensions bid us come, we choose to linger here in Your presence dear Jesus, to revel in Your grace, and to feel Your nearness. Ah, what privileged mortals we be. Thank you Jesus, and everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?