CHAPTER 7. The Centurion.
THERE are, you know, a hundred cents in a dollar, and a hundred years in a century, so you will not be surprised to learn that a centurion was a man who was commander of a hundred soldiers. Not Jewish soldiers, but Roman, for the land of Israel, in the days when our Lord Jesus Christ was preaching and teaching, and working miracles, was under the dominion of that great nation. And yet the centurions, of whom we read in the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, appear to have been, at least God-fearing men. We read of one in Luke, 7: who loved the Jewish nation, and had even gone to the expense and trouble of building a synagogue for the Jews in Capernaum: The ruins of this very synagogue have been dug up, not so many years ago, and they are very beautiful and costly. I do not know whether this kind centurion was in the habit of attending the synagogue he had built; if he was, perhaps he had heard the Lord Jesus teaching in it, or perhaps he had heard of Jesus through Jairus, the ruler of this same synagogue, whose little daughter, you remember, Jesus raised from the dead. But, however, that may be, he had heard of Jesus, and when he was in trouble about a sick servant who was very dear to him, he felt sure that He was the very One who could help him. Yes, and more than that, he believed that it only needed a word from the lips of that gracious Master to restore his servant to health. And did Jesus disappoint him? O, no! He never disappoints true faith. We do not even read of His speaking “the word,” but the servant was whole from that very hour. Another thing I want you to notice in this little story; not only did the centurion get his desire, and the servant get the healing, but someone else was made glad. Do you know who that was? Why, it was the Lord Jesus. He always rejoices in faith; He loves us to confide in Him, to trust His power and His love; to come to Him with all our requests, and to make known to Him all our desires, being quite sure that He loves us far too well, not to do the very best for us. And not only does He rejoice in His own people coming to Him, but He is longing for sinners to come to Him, and He will never drive one away, never say one is too bad, for His own word is, “I came to call sinners.”
We read of another centurion, who was present with his soldiers at the most solemn event this world has ever seen; I mean when our Lord was crucified. He saw the meek and lowly Jesus nailed to the cross; he saw the darkness over all the earth; he felt the great earthquake which accompanied it, and he heard when Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “It is finished;” and what effect did it all have upon him? We read that he exclaimed no doubt, in wonder and fear, “Truly, this man was the Son of God.” Can we not say the same, as we gaze upon that wonderful scene, and can we not add to his words, and say, “The Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me!”
We cannot consider all the centurions mentioned in Scripture, but we must look at one more, and he has a good character too. We read of him in Acts, 10, and we find him spoken of as “A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people (God’s people, the Jews), and prayed to God alway.” He was a Roman soldier, a Gentile; one with whom the Jews would not even eat, and yet he loved and feared God, and may we not be quite sure that God loved him? We cannot go into the whole story here, but it is very interesting to read, and we can learn a great deal from it.
First, it is nice to think that God is watching us, and knows our names. He sends an angel to speak to Cornelius by name; and, again, He speaks to Peter by his name. Then we see how the Lord arranges it all just to fit in, as we might say. He tells the centurion to send for Peter, and then just at the right moment, He explains to Peter by a vision; what he is to do. And again, we see Peter’s obedience. It must have seemed very strange to him to be told to go and “keep company,” as he says, with one of another nation., It went against everything he had ever been taught from the time he was a baby, but if his Lord told him to do it, why, he does it at once. He says to Cornelius when he arrives at his house: “I came unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for”. And then how beautiful the end of the story is, how Peter explains to them, that Jesus, of whom they had heard, and of whose death no doubt they knew, was in very deed the Son of God, the One ordained to, be Judge of giving and dead, and yet because He had died, and had been raised again, remission of sins was offered to everyone who would believe in Him. And we find that all who heard that wonderful, and yet simple sermon, did believe. They asked no questions; they raised no objections, but they believed exactly what they were told; it was God’s message to them, and all they had to do was to believe it. And lastly, the Holy Ghost is poured upon them—God’s gift to those who believe — “After that ye believed ye were healed with that Holy Spirit of promise.” (Eph. 1:1313In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, (Ephesians 1:13).)
Now before we close let me ask you if you are like Cornelius, the Roman centurion? Have you accepted the Word of God? Do you believe the message He has sent you, possibly many times? and if you have, do you know that you are “sealed by the Holy Spirit of God, unto the day of redemption?” (Eph. 4:3030And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30).)
ML 09/01/1912