Sermon Tone Analysis

*6. FOLLOW JESUS-With a Bold Confession*

*Text: Mark 15:37-39*

*Sixth Wednesday of Lent -- 4-4-01 *

      At Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles, there is found an impressive painting of the crucifixion by artist Jan Styka.

Impressive, I say, partly because of its size.

It’s almost as long as a football field and as high as a three-story building.

It seeks to recreate the scene at the moment Jesus died.

To sit in the auditorium watching the curtain open and the lights play on that scene is an unforgettable experience.

One of the facets of the painting that transfixes viewers is the incident we are recalling today-the centurion in charge of the crucifixion, standing at the foot of the cross, making an incredible confession about the man who had just died.

Incredible, I say, because of who he was and what he said under the circumstances.

Confessing Christ as Savior and Lord is an essential and integral part of being a disciple of Jesus.

To be a Christian means to be a confessor.

Where there is no confession of Christ, there is no Christianity.

Jesus said: /“Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.

But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven”/ (Matthew 10:32,33 NKJV).

Following Christ and confessing Christ are almost synonymous terms.

In many situations the confession we are called to make is a bold confession, sometimes in a hostile environment-like the centurion’s at the foot of the cross.

His confession is an example of what it means to *FOLLOW JESUS-With a Bold Confession.*

 

1)   *      The centurion was led to boldly confess the truth about the Savior.*

The centurion Pontius Pilate assigned to oversee the three crucifixions on Good Friday spent more than six hours on Calvary.

At nine in the morning, he set about his task like the professional soldier that he was, just doing his duty, perhaps somewhat calloused by the fact that he had done this a number of times before.

Just another execution.

At nine in the morning, he didn’t even blink as the nails were pounded home through the hands and feet of Jesus.

But as the hours unfolded, he saw and heard things the likes of which he had never experienced before.

By three in the afternoon, a strange transformation had come over him.

At three in the afternoon, he stepped to the foot of the cross and made a confession that well might have jeopardized his whole career.

What happened?

Well, the circumstances certainly had something to do with the change that came over him.

Surely the rage of the mob must have left him wondering.

Many of the people assembled there were respected religious leaders, priests and members of the Sanhedrin.

What made them all behave more like wild animals than respected civil servants?

But all that was nothing compared to the unusual behavior of the man on whom they were venting their rage.

Never before had the centurion seen anything like this.

/“Father, forgive them/ . .

.”

Jesus said as they nailed him to the beam of the cross (Luke 23:34).

Just the opposite of the curses the centurion was accustomed to hearing from victims on other occasions.

And what strange thing was he saying to the dying thief who asked to be remembered?

A promise of paradise?

What a remarkable thing for one dying man to be saying to another!

And then, at the very end, he says with calm confidence, /“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit”/ (Luke 23:46).

Then at that very moment-bang, boom!

The earth began to shake and huge rocks were split.

The sun had disappeared, and then it returned, casting an eerie glow.

And as it did, the light dawned on him too.

Surely Jesus must be who he said he was.

The Spirit who enabled him to see the truth also impelled him to confess it: /“Surely this man was the Son of God!”/ (verse 39).

The centurion saw the truth and he confessed the truth ~/~/ not the whole truth about Jesus, but enough to reveal what the Holy Spirit had revealed to him.

How much of the truth he understood, we don’t know.

Some question the real meaning of the centurion’s confession.

Did he say that Jesus was merely “a son” of God or “the Son” of God?

The footnote in the NIV gives “a son” as an option.

But Luke’s account introduces what the centurion said with the remark, /“The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God”/ (Luke 23:47), and then he made his confession.

He may not have understood the intricacies of Christ’s active and passive obedience, or of objective justification, but he knew that Jesus was more than just a godly man.

Perhaps he knew by the power of the Holy Spirit what the Son of God had come into the world to do for sinners like himself, and that is what prompted him to make his bold confession.

PAUSE

      As we noted before, everyone who is called to be a Christian is called to be a confessor of Christ.

If we expect Jesus to confess us before his Father in heaven, then he expects us to confess him to the world.

He calls us his witnesses.

He doesn’t make that an option for us.

If sometimes we are more reluctant than willing witnesses, as most of us are, there’s only one solution.

We need to reconsider the magnitude of our sin so that we can fully appreciate the majesty of God’s forgiving grace in Christ.

Paul says,/ “Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all”/ (2 Corinthians 5:14).

Compels us, Paul says.

Good news does that to a person.

If you were to receive a notice that you won the Reader’s Digest sweepstakes, you wouldn’t keep the news to yourself.

So I ask you, what’s winning a sweepstakes compared to having your death penalty commuted?

What’s left but to tell other people eagerly and boldly, “Surely this man is my Savior and Lord.”

2)         *The centurion made an unpopular confession in a hostile environment.*

The really remarkable thing about the centurion’s confession is not so much the extent of it but the circumstances surrounding it.

It was an unpopular confession, and it was made in a hostile environment.

And if anything, that’s an understatement.

Remember, Jesus was accused of blasphemy and condemned by the high priest precisely for insisting that he was indeed the Son of God.

No less than that was implied in his responses to Pontius Pilate.

Yet here stands this centurion insisting that Jesus was the Son of God.

That certainly was not a popular thing to say, even if he was the officer in charge on Calvary.

Not only must it have made Jesus’ enemies seethe when they heard it, but it flatly contradicted his superior, the governor.

And if Pilate could be cajoled by a crowd whose rage was out of control, how would he handle the insubordination of the centurion whose confession enraged the enemies of Jesus all the more?

How would you have liked to be in the centurion’s shoes under those circumstances?

Well, whether we want to be or not, we are.

The world is still no friend of the Savior’s.

And it is in this hostile world that you and I are expected to make our confessions.

We confess our faith here in church.

“I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth.”

We are to also boldly confess our faith when confronted by a hostile world.

This can be extremely difficult to do.

Jesus warns us not to think that the world will be sympathetic to what we have to say and eager to hear it.

/“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven”/ (Matthew 5:11,12).

Sometimes a man’s foes will be the members of his own household, Jesus said.

Sometimes that puts pressure on us to back off or to find excuses for postponing our witness to others.

It’s easy to rationalize away our opportunities by telling ourselves there will be a more opportune time another day.

The centurion resisted that temptation, and (for Jesus’ sake) we will want to do the same.

Think of your confession as testimony for the defense of Jesus.

And then ask yourself, what if the roles were reversed?

Would you want your fate determined by witnesses whose testimony is like yours?

Sometimes opposition to our confession comes not from a hostile world, but from other churches and religious leaders.

Jesus told his disciples they could expect that, and so can we.

/“They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God”/ (John 16:2).

It’s always been that way.

Paul and the apostles experienced this treatment.