37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.
38 And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.
39 And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.
Introduction
There are and have always been only three views that a person can hold concerning Jesus Christ. You can look upon Jesus as a deceiver, you can look upon him as deluded, or you can look upon him as divine. Or if you want to use the words of Josh McDowell you can say, “Jesus was a liar or a lunatic or he was Lord.” If you want to use the words of George W. Truett you can say that Jesus was either bad or mad or he was God. But in all of the history of the world those are the only three views that you can have concerning Jesus Christ.
Jesus faced those different opinions of himself from the very first. There were those who said that Jesus is a deceiver. He is a fake. He is a fraud. You cannot trust him. He is not who he says he is.
For example, those Pharisees said concerning Jesus that he had a demon. He was possessed by the devil. When Jesus was tried, the high priest accused him of blasphemy. He said, “This man claims to be the Son of God and he is not. He is a deceiver. He is a liar. He is a fake. He is a fraud. He is a bad man.” And there are still people who believe that and that’s one option open to you concerning Jesus.
The second is to say that Jesus was deluded. Oh, he was a good man, some say, but he simply thought he was someone other than who he really was. He was a lunatic. He had lost his mind. He was claiming to be the Son of God and though he was a good man and did some good things, he really was not the Son of God.
That’s no new thing either. There were those in Jesus’ day who said, “This man is mad. This man has lost his sense of reason.” In fact there was a time when his own family felt that Jesus was suffering too much from the pressure of preaching and teaching and that he was losing his mind. They wanted to take him back to the quietness of the little town of Nazareth so that he could regain his emotional health. Jesus knows what it is to be called crazy.
The other option, other than calling him a deceiver or a deluded man, is to recognize that Jesus is divine. That Jesus is the Son of God. As the Roman centurion who stood that day and watched Jesus crucified declared, “Truly, surely, this man is the Son of God.” That option is still open to us. There have been those down through the years and there are multitudes, millions today who gladly stand to say that Jesus was not a deceiver and not deluded. Jesus was in fact the Son of God and we gladly and joyfully declare him as our Lord and Master.
If Jesus is the Son of God, if he is the Savior, if he is Lord, then he is worthy of our highest and our best. In time, talent, money, in every aspect we ought to give our highest and our best to him.
And so, the most crucial question of all that we’ll ever face is that question, “Who is Jesus? Is he a liar? Is he a lunatic? Or is he really the Lord? Is he a bad man or a madman or is he really the God-man? Who is Jesus Christ?”
There are four things that will help us to understand who Jesus really is. First, the name of Jesus helps us to know who he is. Second, the aim of Jesus—his mission, his purpose—helps us to understand who he is. Third, the claim of Jesus. And fourth, the fame of Jesus. When you look at his name and his aim and his claim and his fame, they all converge at one point to say to us that the centurion was right: truly this is the Son of God.
1. The name of Jesus.
The name of Alexander stands for conquest. The name of Demosthenes stands for eloquence. The name of Beethoven stands for music. The name of Milton stands for poetry. The name of Judas stands for treachery. The name of Voltaire stands for atheism. The name Jesus ever and always will stand for salvation.
The angel announcing the birth of the baby Jesus to Mary said, “You are not free to choose his name. The name has already been chosen by God. You are to call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” And that very name Jesus means, “Jehovah is salvation.” It is the same as the Hebrew name Joshua, meaning the Lord is the one who shall deliver us, save us. From the beginning his name declared who he really is.
And so the disciples went out preaching that there is no other name given under heaven by whom men must be saved except the name of Jesus. They said whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord—meaning Jesus Christ—shall be saved. And the apostle Paul helps us to know something of the importance, the significance of the name of Jesus when he describes how Jesus was equal to God and one with God in heaven. He stepped down from the glory and the wonder of heaven to this earth to become a man.
But not only did Jesus step down from his place in heaven to become a man, he even humbled himself and became obedient unto death. He as a man died for us. But not only did he die for us, he was even willing to die on a cross, which was the most cruel and despicable way of dying. He died not just as a man. He died as a common criminal. He left heaven to become a man and as a man he died. He died not just an ordinary death but he died as a common criminal. And he did all of that for us.
And then Paul declares this concerning the wonderful name of Jesus: “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).
You look at the name of Jesus as it is given to us in the Bible and you come to the conclusion that the centurion was right. Jesus is the Son of God.
2. The aim of Jesus.
Why did Jesus come? What was his mission here on earth? What did Jesus hope to accomplish in coming to this earth? Did Jesus hope to build an earthly empire and to muster up political and military power? No, for Jesus, you remember, fed the multitudes who were so swept away by what happened that they wanted to make Jesus their king. And if he had come to be an earthly king, here was the time to do it. But Jesus walked away from the crowd that wanted to make him an earthly king. He reminded his disciples later on that greatness does not consist in rule. Greatness does not consist in being the master of men or in having authority over them. But real greatness consists of service. He said, “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).
He did not come to be a king. He came to be a Savior. He did not come to reign; he came to redeem and to give his life as a ransom for all.
Did Jesus come in order to gain popularity and fame? No, for he performed many miracles and as soon as he would heal a person he would say to them, “Shhh, don’t tell anybody.” He didn’t want to be known as a miracle worker. He never intended to set up a tent and to string up crutches and wheelchairs and attract a crowd because of his so-called miracle working power. Jesus wasn’t interested in that kind of prominence. Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost.
Did Jesus come to gather wealth for himself? No, he had all the wealth of heaven itself. In fact the Bible says that Jesus though he was rich yet for our sakes became poor that we thorough his poverty might become rich. And so Jesus didn’t come so that he might gain wealth. Jesus gave up wealth so that we might gain the wealth of everlasting life and a permanent relationship with God.
What is the aim, the mission, the purpose of Jesus coming? Listen to him in his own words: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” he said in the very first sermon he preached. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19).
Why did Jesus come? He came to proclaim to the poor that God loves you and God will save you. He came to heal those whose hearts had been broken by sin, by sorrow, and by the tragedies of life. Jesus came to set at liberty, to set free those who are in the bondage, from the chains of sin. Jesus came to preach the acceptable year of the Lord to say that the day of redemption has come, salvation is now available. That’s why he came.
You look at his life, and he is always pointing men to the cross. He doesn’t point them to his baptism. He doesn’t say, “Remember what happened to me on the Mount of Transfiguration?” He doesn’t keep reminding them of that marvelous Sermon on the Mount. But Jesus keeps saying to them, “I must go to Jerusalem and there I will be betrayed by sinful men and I will be crucified upon the cross.” And that word must suggests that he was a man under orders. A man on a mission. He had come here for one purpose, for one great goal. He had come with one aim and that was to become our Savior, our Lord, our Master. And so the name of Jesus helps us to understand who he is. And the aim of Jesus helps us to understand who he is. But you add to that name and to that aim:
3. The claim of Jesus.
The claim that Jesus made is entirely consistent with his name and his aim. It is this: “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father … I am in the Father, and the Father in me” (John 14:9-10). Jesus came and claimed to be God himself.
He claimed to be the one who had come to redeem us, to give us life everlasting. When he was on trial they asked him plainly, “Are you the Christ? Are you the anointed one? Are you the Messiah?” And Jesus said, “Thou sayest.” Which means “Yes, emphatically so. I am the Savior. I am the Messiah. I am the Son of God.”
He made other claims that were consistent with that title. For example, Jesus claimed the power and the authority to forgive sins. They brought to him one day a young man who was crippled. And Jesus said to him, “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.” That raised some eyebrows in the crowd because the people knew that only God had the power, the prerogative of forgiving sins. Was Jesus claiming to be God? Jesus knew that they doubted his power to forgive sins, but how do you prove that you have power to forgive sins? If I said from the pulpit, “Sins be forgiven,” you know nobody can do that.
How is Jesus going to prove to them that he has the power of God—that he can forgive sins? Here is how. He asked which is easier to say, “Your sins be forgiven you” or “Arise and walk.”? Well, they knew only God can forgive sins, but only God can say to a disabled man, “Get up and walk.” It would take the power of God to do both.
Jesus said so that you may know, so that you may visualize, so that you may see, so that you may be convinced that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, I say to you, “Man, get up and walk.” They knew that he had the power. He claimed and demonstrated the power to forgive sins.
Jesus claimed to have all authority. He said all authority is given to him in heaven and earth. Did he have that kind of authority? He spoke to the winds and the winds obeyed. He spoke to the seas and they became calm. He spoke to the demons and dispelled them. He spoke to disease and people were cured.
I ask you, if a man can speak to the seas and the winds and the demons and disease and every one of those things responds to his command, does he have authority? Jesus demonstrated that he did.
Jesus claimed to know what was in the hearts of men. He said, “One of my group will betray me. He has a devil in him.” And he was right. He also said to the proud, the arrogant, the self-confident Simon Peter, “You will deny me three times.” And though Peter never believed it, he came to realize later that Jesus knew him better than he knew himself. Jesus knew the hearts of men. Jesus said, “They will smite the shepherd and the sheep will flee.” And that night in the garden when they arrested him, what happened to the sheep? They fled into the night to desert him. He knew and knows what is in the hearts of men.
Jesus came to be the resurrection and the light. He didn’t say, “I’ve come to tell you about the resurrection.” He didn’t say, “I’ve come to point you to the resurrection.” Jesus said, “I am the resurrection.” Was he? Did he have that kind of power to raise the dead? They took him to the grave of Lazarus and Jesus said, “Lazarus, come out of the grave.” And he did. He never met a funeral possession that he didn’t break up. If he had not called Lazarus by name, all the dead who had ever died since the beginning of time would have come out of the grave, for he was the Lord and Master of life and of death.
And that claim is consistent with the fact that he is the Son of God. Jesus said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32). The cross of Christ was lifted up on that bleak hillside 2,000 ago and has become the magnet of history to draw men from all races and all cultures and all languages and all generations to him to find life.
Jesus said, “I am the door,” and men have found the way to God through him. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world,” and wherever he and his message have gone the darkness of superstition and ignorance have been dispelled. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life and the water of life,” and when people have taken him in, they have been satisfied in the deepest parts of their souls. Jesus said, “I am the vine and you are the branches,” and when people have been attached to Jesus they have found that life-giving source. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd,” and he has been finding people and speaking to a heart here and there saying, “God wants you. You belong to him.”
And so the very claim of Jesus as well as the aim of Jesus and the name of Jesus all converge to declare that the centurion was right. Jesus is the Son of God.
4. The fame of Jesus.
What about this man? Most men live and achieve some measure of fame if that is their fortune. But when they die their fame begins to diminish with them. And with every passing year their influence and their power over the lives of the people left on this earth become less and less. But a strange thing about Jesus—his influence over men has not lessened through the years. It has not diminished. His influence intensifies through the years. Listen to historian Kenneth Scott Latourette, who said, “As the centuries pass evidence is accumulating that measure by his effect upon history, Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on this planet.” That influence appears to be mounting instead of diminishing—the fame of Jesus is increasing.
Sometimes people have tried to compare Jesus to other great men like Gandhi, the great Indian teacher. And they have said that Jesus, like Gandhi, was just a good man, a holy man. But about 30 years after Gandhi died someone wrote a book about him and his disciples who followed him. They wrote down every word he said, more than 400 books written about the life of Gandhi, but 30 years after he was dead his disciples were scattered. They were following other teachers and other causes and could hardly be found. But 2,000 years later the fame of Jesus is still spreading across the earth. And rather than diminishing, it is intensifying until more and more people are bowing before him and claiming him. How else can you explain the fame of Jesus except in the words of this centurion, “Surely, he was the Son of God.”?
You put it all together, bring it to one sharp point, and it says this: The name of Jesus and the aim of Jesus and the claim of Jesus and the fame of Jesus are enough to convince anyone who is open minded. The centurion was right. This man is the Son of God. That means that I ought to accept him as my Lord and my Savior. That means I not only ought to accept him but I ought to confess him before this host today. This man is the Son of God. I take him as my Lord and my Savior. I will follow him. I will serve him. I will obey him. Because of who he is. Not a deceiver, not deluded, but divine. Not a liar, not a lunatic, but the Lord.
And I will follow him.
Huey P. Long grew up the son of poor Baptist parents in Northern Louisiana. He got some education in the state and then he went to Oklahoma for a semester and went to law school. Dropped out of law school, came back to the state of Louisiana and by the year of 1935, almost owned the state.
He started running for office and eventually became the governor of the state and vowed that he would one day be the president of the United States. His secretary wrote about his last day on earth.
A young salesman came into the office and said, “I would like to see the governor.” She said, “I am sorry but his schedule is full. He is tied up in a meeting, will be there late into the evening. There is no chance of you seeing him.” He said, “Oh, but I’ve got something that will interest the governor. I think he will want to buy what I have to sell if I could have just a minute or two of his time.” She said, “I am sorry. No chance of that.” The young man was persistent. He said, “Do you mind if I wait?” She said, “It is your time. But you won’t see him.”
He sat there through the afternoon and a part of the evening. She left at about five o’clock. By six o’clock the governor had still not come out of the meeting. By seven o’clock he still had not come out. At about eight o’clock the doors swung open and out walked the governor, his bodyguards, and his aides. The young man walked up to him and said, “Governor, I’ve got something I need to talk to you about. I’ve got an offer I think you’ll be interested in. If you’ll just give me a few minutes, just a minute or two of your time.” And Huey P. Long brushed him aside and said to him, “Young man, today I wouldn’t have time for Jesus Christ.” And he walked out of his office and down the corridor when out from behind one of the columns stepped a thin-faced man in a white suit who stuck a revolver in the stomach of Huey P. Long. Suddenly the man who had no time for Jesus Christ had all of eternity to think about it.
The centurion was right. This is the Son of God, and you ought to receive him. You ought to confess him. You ought to follow him today.