Luke 23:44-49

[0:00] Gospel of Luke chapter 23 starting at verse 44 says, And it was about the sixth hour and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.

[0:11] And the sun was darkened and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.

[0:23] And having said thus, he gave up the ghost. Now, when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God saying, Certainly this was a righteous man.

[0:35] And all the people that came together to that site, beholding the things which were done, smoked their breasts and returned. And all his acquaintance and the women that followed him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things.

[0:52] And that's the passage that we're going to be preaching from this morning with the Lord's help. Beginning back at verse 44 again says, It was about the sixth hour and there was darkness over all the earth until about the ninth hour.

[1:07] So beginning about noon, there was a darkness that came over the land. Remember, Jesus had been hanging on the cross at this point for about three hours.

[1:18] He was hanged there about nine o'clock in the morning. And this being the sixth hour would have been noon. So he'd been hanging there for three hours along with these other two.

[1:28] And it says that this darkness came over the land until about the ninth hour, which would be about 3 p.m., 3 in the afternoon, as we might say.

[1:40] So this darkness was upon the land. It was upon all the surrounding area. And folks, I know I brought it up here and preaching and teaching before that darkness.

[1:52] It wasn't just a cloud that was passing over the sun at that time. It says here in verse 45, it says, And the sun was darkened and the middle of the temple was rent and the mist.

[2:04] If the sun was darkened, it could only be darkened by Almighty God. God created that sun. God created this earth. He created this universe and He can do anything with it.

[2:16] Then He wants to, I'll tell you why that darkness came over the entire land. It's because you read in the Gospel accounts where Jesus Christ said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

[2:29] You don't read that in this passage of Scripture here, but it's in the other Gospel accounts where Jesus said that the darkness came over the land because Almighty God had forsaken His only begotten Son.

[2:43] And the Bible says God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If God let the sea, if God abandoned His Son to stay there on that cross, that is why the darkness came over the land.

[2:58] That is why all these things happen that we read here in Scripture. Hey, God had not only abandoned His Son, He had abandoned everyone that was there, everyone that was present, everyone in that area had been abandoned by Almighty God.

[3:17] He was nowhere to be found at this point. God is the one that darkened the sun. God is the one that dug these things. And it was God who had the plan from the get-go that these things must be accomplished for the redemption of mankind.

[3:36] Hallelujah. The land was darkened. The entire area was darkened. The sun was darkened and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. We got to remember, excuse me, we got to remember what time of day this was.

[3:53] And I think that's why the Gospel accounts are so particular about what time of the days these things took place. It says that this was about noon, that it went dark, and it was about three hours later that these other things started to come to be.

[4:10] Folks, this would have been about the time, about 3 p.m. in the afternoon, about midways through until the afternoon. This would have been the time that in the temple, the priest would have been burning incense before the altar of the Lord.

[4:24] And it says that the veil of the temple, it was rent in twain, it was rent. And the mystery in the other Gospel accounts, it was rent from the top to the bottom, indicating it could not have been a man that rent, that that veil in the temple, it could not have been a man that climbed up there and done this.

[4:45] It had to have been Almighty God that done it. And we know from the accounts in the Word of God that this was indicative, that the veil was being made through the death of Jesus Christ for all men to have access under God.

[5:03] That veil was so thick and it was made in such a way it completely separated God from man. No matter if it was priest, no matter if it was you, if it was Gentile, whomever God was completely separated by man, from man, by this veil.

[5:26] And he is the one that ripped the veil from top to bottom in the midst. He is the one that made the way through Jesus Christ that men could have access to him.

[5:40] Hallelujah. He done these things. God done these things. No man, man's the one that put him on the cross. Man, the Jewish man and the Gentile man alike.

[5:54] Hey, when Jesus was on trial, was he not sent to Caiaphas? Was he not pitched back and forth between Caiaphas and Pilate both?

[6:05] It was both of those men, Jew and Gentile alike, that put Jesus Christ on that cross. Pilate may have thought that he washed his hands on the matter. He may have seen it in his own mind and maybe even in his own heart that his hands were washed clean of the matter when he said, I can't find any fault in this man.

[6:23] He says, and the Bible says he delivered him over to be scourged, but directly after the scourging is when the crucifixion took place. Hey folks, it was Jew and Gentile alike that put him on the cross.

[6:36] The Gentiles, a lot of times the modern church world, they want to blame the Jews for crucifying Jesus. The Gentiles were just as guilty of it as the Jews were.

[6:48] And the Jews were just as guilty as the Gentiles were. No one is more or less guilty. The Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

[7:03] Everyone of us is guilty. Everyone of us, we're guilty of it. He said, when Jesus cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands, I commit my spirit.

[7:15] And having said this, he gave up the ghost. I like John's account of that. John's account of this very same matter says he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.

[7:31] Now folks, and I may have totally preached it here, I don't know, but that's very important. If you and I are dying, Jesus knew he was dying.

[7:44] Jesus knew he's dying. Both of those thieves on either side of him knew that they were dying. They knew they were dying. Jesus knew he was dying. If you know you're dying because of your nature, because of what we are and because of what we do, we will fight it tooth and nail.

[8:05] We will fight death to our very last breath. But the Bible says Jesus in the Gospel of John says he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.

[8:16] If you're fighting it, you'll give up your ghost and that'll cause you head to bow because there's nothing left in you. There's no life left in you. Jesus said it is finished in the Gospel of John.

[8:29] That was his last words. And folks, that was the greatest three words ever spoken this side of eternity. It is finished is what Jesus said. What was finished, the price had been paid for the redemption of mankind.

[8:42] That's what was finished when Jesus said it is finished. But when it said that he bowed his head and he gave up the ghost, he didn't, hey, no man took his life. The Jews were guilty of putting him in there.

[8:54] Yes, and the Gentiles were guilty of putting him on that cross. Yes, but nevertheless, Jesus voluntarily gave up his life. He didn't have to do it.

[9:05] He was under no obligation to do it. He done it because that was the will of Almighty God that he gave up his life. He done it because that was the will of the Father.

[9:16] Jesus Christ voluntarily gave his life. So when the Bible says that he bowed his head and then he gave up the ghost, it means he knew it was over.

[9:28] The price had been paid. He bowed his head and then he died. And happened in that order. Verse 47, Now when the Centurion saw what was done, he glorified God saying, Certainly, this was a righteous man.

[9:48] And all the people that came together to that site beholding to things which were done, spoke their breath and returned. What was the Centurion?

[10:00] What was the purpose of the Centurion? This would have been the man that was in charge of overseeing this crucifixion. He is the one that would have overseen all the other Roman soldiers that were up there on that hilltop that day.

[10:15] He was not only overseeing the crucifixion of Jesus. He was overseeing the other two, the ones on either side of him as well. But this Centurion, it says, the Centurion in Luke's account.

[10:27] Folks, this was a Roman. This was a Gentile. This was someone that could have cared less about Judaism. He could have cared less about the temple or the veil in the temple. He could have cared less about the law.

[10:38] He could have cared less about any of these things. But I promise you, this Centurion had heard the conversations that was going on around the town for the past three years.

[10:50] I guarantee you, this Centurion, he had heard the conversations that had taken place between Jesus and that thief there on the cross. He would have been there when all this happened.

[11:02] He would have heard Jesus Christ say, my God, my God, why is that forsaken me? He would have known that this was the Son of God.

[11:12] Matthew and Mark both have him saying that surely, certainly this was the Son of God. Luke here, he says, this man was righteous.

[11:24] The Centurion knew that Jesus Christ was innocent. Therefore, he knew that he had overseen the crucifixion of a man that was completely innocent.

[11:39] Now, we don't have it in scripture. It is nowhere in scripture. This Centurion got saved. But folks, his statement, his statement alone shows that he believed.

[11:53] In Matthew and Mark's account, it says surely or certainly this was the Son of God. In Luke's account, he says, this was a righteous man.

[12:06] He knew what he had done. He knew what he had done in the very next verse here in Luke's account. He says that the women, the women that have followed him from Galilee, they were standing afar off.

[12:20] They stood afar off. So all the people who came together to that side, beholding the things which were done, spoke to the rest and returned and all his acquaintances and the women that followed him from Galilee stood afar off, beholding these things.

[12:33] This Centurion was right up on the scene. He was right up there where all the gore was taking place, where all the bleeding was taking place, where all the agony, every moan, not only from Jesus, but from the other two that were there with him.

[12:47] He was right there at the forefront of all this. These women that you read about a couple of verses later, they were standing afar off and all the acquaintances, they were all standing afar off.

[12:58] But folks, in verse 48, it says all the people that came together to that side, beholding the things which were done, spoke to their breasts and returned. Hey folks, if I'm reading this correctly, and you correct me if I'm wrong, but if I'm reading this, it says the people that came together at that side and they beheld the things that were going on.

[13:20] It says they smoked their breasts and then returned. That tells me that there were some people that witnessed the initial crucifixion of Jesus Christ and they had spent their time there.

[13:33] They had witnessed the things and many of them were people that just a week before were screaming, hope's there now to the Son of God. They were screaming praise the Lord as he came into Jerusalem.

[13:44] They were saying these things. They had beheld Jesus Christ coming into town, riding on the coath, following the mass, just as Zechariah prophesied that he would.

[13:56] But if I read this correctly, they had seen the things, they had beheld the things. They had returned to their homes. Then they came back for another gander and it says they had smoked their breasts and returned.

[14:13] What does that tell me? That tells me they went back to what they were doing. They went back to their homes, went back to their wives, to their husbands, to their children. They went back home where there was food.

[14:25] Maybe they had something on the kettle, cooking, but they returned and they smoked their breasts. Why do they smoke their breasts? That was a sign of penance.

[14:37] That was a sign they'd been pricked in the heart. That's used nowadays. That's used nowadays. You ever see people on TV? You see stars on television, popular folks.

[14:51] You see athletes do it. They do like this. They're smiting their breasts. They don't even realize what they're doing. Most of them don't. But they're saying I care.

[15:01] They're saying I love, I love you. I love whatever's going on. But they're saying I care when they do this, when they smile. And it's the same thing that was going on here.

[15:12] It says that they were there. They beheld the things. They came and they smoked their breasts and then they just went back. Now, did any of those people get saved?

[15:23] They end up converted. Scripture don't tell us. Scripture does not tell us. But it shows they were pricked in the heart with the things that they beheld.

[15:33] What were they pricked in the heart with? Folks, this is the same Jesus that went through Delali. He went through Capernaum. He went through all these towns, all these villages.

[15:44] Went through Samaria, went into Jericho. He went to all these places and performed all sorts of miracles over a three-year span, a little over a three-year span.

[15:56] This is the same Jesus that some of these people had witnessed the miracles that he was performing. They had seen the blind eyes open. They had seen the lame walk.

[16:07] They had heard or seen about the dead coming back to life after Jesus had done these things. They had heard of Lechers Hill. They had heard of his miracles.

[16:18] My goodness, what would it take to make these people penitent? What would it take to make these people feel like they had done something wrong? What would it take to make these people repent?

[16:30] It took the death of Jesus Christ on the cross before they ever smote their breasts in penitence. It took the death of their Savior, of your Savior, of my Savior.

[16:42] It took His death before they were able to show any amount of repentance. And the same thing goes for you and I.

[16:54] If the gospel was preached, if it was preached when you got saved, the death of Jesus Christ had to have been brought up. The blood had to have been brought up.

[17:05] The death, the burl, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is the core of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If people don't realize what was done on their behalf, it won't prick their conscience.

[17:20] It will not do it. These people had, they had either seen or heard about the loaves and the fishes being multiplied. Not only once, but twice that happened in the gospels.

[17:32] They had seen or they had heard of all these miracles that Christ had performed. And those things did not bring them. Those things didn't bring them to a penitent attitude.

[17:42] Those things didn't bring them to a sorrowful attitude. What brought them to a sorrowful attitude is the death of Jesus Christ. The fact that their Savior, their Messiah, that the Jews, that the Jews have been praying for, have been hoping for and have been asking for a father for so long.

[18:01] He was hanging there on the cross, dying. He was there. He was hanging there, bleeding the death. And not only that, he was hanging between two known criminals.

[18:12] He was hanging between two known sinners. Hey, that should have opened their eyes because Isaiah 53 says that he was numbered among the transgressors.

[18:24] He was counted just as one of them were, even though no God was ever found in his mouth. They should have known.

[18:35] How many people have run from the gospel? Yeah. Just this year, we're about to wrap up May of 2021. How many people have heard the gospel and ran from it?

[18:46] How many people have witnessed miracles within their own families? I'm talking about salvation. How many people have seen a drunk daddy or a stoned mommy saved by Jesus Christ?

[18:59] How many people have witnessed these things and they've witnessed the miracles of Jesus Christ and they know that it's real. They know deep down their hearts somewhere. Hey, God, give every one of us a conscience.

[19:10] He gave every one of us a heart and the Bible says, I'll wrap my law upon their hearts. Hey, every one of us knows right from wrong. Every one of us knows good for evil.

[19:22] That's why the Bible says, we're one of them. They call evil good and call good evil. Well, because we all know the difference. These people here, it took something like this to open their eyes.

[19:35] It took the death of Jesus Christ. It took his bloodshed to open their eyes to make them smite their breasts. They didn't believe when they saw the miracles. They didn't believe when they saw prophecy of the Old Testament being fulfilled in the Son of God.

[19:49] They didn't believe when they saw any of these things or something got to their heart. Something made them have a penitentiary attitude when they saw Messiah being killed and they smote their breasts and they returned.

[20:05] That's some disturbance, great. It really became, they smote their breasts and they returned. They just walked by.

[20:18] Now listen, some of the other Gospels say some walked by railed against them. Some walked by and wagged their heads. You read different accounts in the different Gospels.

[20:28] But here Luke records, they smote their breasts and returned. They said, I care, something's hit me, something's pricked my heart.

[20:39] They went to where they'd originally seen these things and showed their penitence, showed their remorse. But then they just went back, says they returned to whatever it was they were doing to begin with.

[20:54] They came, they beheld, obviously they left, they left. I said, Jesus, all in all was on that cross six hours from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

[21:05] Thereabouts, people didn't want to hang around for six hours. Think about all the people that were present for this. The chief priest was there, the scribes were there, all the elders were there, the higher-ups were there, the Pharisees, the Sadducees.

[21:25] But also think of the Gentile people that were there. Folks, it was a mix. That's why when Pilate wrote on the superscription that hung there upon the cross, said Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.

[21:39] And the higher-ups and the Jewish religious clan said, don't write on there that he's the King of the Jews, write on there that he said that he was the King of the Jews.

[21:51] And Pilate said, what I've written, I've written. In other words, Pilate was messing up. He believed that he was hanging, he was crucified, and then some man, he believed that Jesus Christ was the King of the Jews.

[22:04] He wasn't about to change. And I think he done it because he believed, plus he knew it would get on those high Jews, nerves that if he denied that request for him.

[22:15] But when he wrote that superscription and it hung above Jesus there on the cross, it was written in Hebrew, it was written in Greek, and it was written in Latin because those were the three dominant languages of the day, therefore, anyone that passed by that cross, whether they were mourning, whether they were wagging their heads, whether they were making fun or mocking, everyone would know that that was salvation, that was hope, that was God's Son hanging upon that cross.

[22:48] That's why it was written in those three languages. All the people came together though, I'm sorry, and all his acquaintance, the women that followed him from Galilee stood afar off, beholding these things.

[23:02] He stood afar off, why? Folks that were such a crowd gathered. Now listen, you remember this was Calvary, this was a hill, and the Hebrew tongue that was called Golgotha, the place of the skull.

[23:18] Everybody else would have been down below that. You see movies, you might see pictures of a crowd of people around the cross of Jesus Christ. I can assure you that wasn't how it was.

[23:31] They were up on the hill, they were outside of Jerusalem. They were outside, right up to the Hebrews, in the book of Hebrews.

[23:41] He said, let us go into him outside the camp. Outside the camp, boys, a sermon in that. He was outside of Jerusalem, he was outside the Holy City.

[23:54] He was outside of that time. This would have been Friday afternoon. Shabbat, or the Sabbath, would have began at 6 p.m.

[24:05] that afternoon. At 3 p.m., Jesus was dead, 3 p.m. thereabouts. All these people were gathered afar off, beholding these things, including the women that had followed him from Galilee.

[24:19] Everyone, this and one of the other gospels, it says Mary Magdalene, she was in the midst of, there's a whole bunch of people that were gathered afar off. Folks, I don't know that all 11 disciples were there.

[24:32] I would hope that they were. I really would hope that they were. I know John was there, because Jesus addressed him. Jesus addressed him from the cross. But it wasn't thousands of people gathered around this cross.

[24:46] Morning, the death of Jesus Christ. They may have been down the hill. There may have been a few of them that made it up to the top, made it within a certain distance.

[24:57] I mean, Jesus, he wouldn't have had the strength. He was, he was man. He was fully God and fully man, but he wouldn't have had the strength to have hollered plumbed down the hill at John. John had to have been within, within, within a distance of Jesus' voice for him to have addressed him.

[25:13] So John made it up there. But they were beholding afar off. What happened after all this?

[25:23] After all this, and Jesus is dead. We read about this man named Joseph of Aaron, and we read about a man named Nicodemus who's brought up in John chapter three.

[25:34] That's where we're introduced to him. Joseph, Joseph of Aaron, and he was also in the Sanhedrin Council. He was part of the Sanhedrin as well. Jewish history backs that up.

[25:47] They were both what we would call closet disciples of Jesus Christ. They hadn't publicly made their profession just yet. Why was that? There was a fear in them.

[25:59] Just like there might be in you. Just like there might be in me at times. Lord says, tell that person that you're praying for. Quote some scripture to so and so.

[26:11] That woman that's ringing up your candy bar and your gasoline down at the station. Tell her about me. And there's a fear that comes over us. Lord, I don't even know them.

[26:23] Well, they might think I'm crazy. Joseph of Aaron, and Nicodemus were closet disciples of Jesus Christ. What did it take for them to make a public profession?

[26:37] It took his death. It took his death just like it took his death for that Roman Centurion to believe that Roman Centurion.

[26:48] Well, hey, he done hurt the conversation between Jesus and the thief. He done hurt the one thief. Say, hey, if you're God, get yourself and both of us down off of here.

[27:02] And he heard the other thief say, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. That Centurion would have heard every bit of that. And he would also heard Jesus say today, thou shalt be with me in paradise.

[27:17] But still yet that Centurion didn't believe. Not until, not until the death. Folks, at this point, you read a lot of this in Matthew's account of this same time frame.

[27:30] Earthquake, darkness, saints coming out to grave, all kinds of things that happened. But what did it take? It took the death. It took the death for this Centurion.

[27:41] It took the death for Joseph of Aaron, Thayin and from Nicodemus to make public profession. They were believers. They were, but hey, God had to bring them out of that darkness at some point.

[27:53] He had to drag them out of that closet through the death of Jesus Christ. But if you notice after the death of Jesus Christ, Joseph had no problem whatsoever going on the power and begging for the body of Jesus Christ.

[28:08] Hey, that was a public profession of faith in Jesus Christ. If ever there was one and Nicodemus, he was no exception. He's the one that brought the yellows and the mirrors.

[28:20] He's the one that brought the embalming things. These were public professions of their faith. They said, I've had enough of this religion. I've had enough of being a Pharisee.

[28:31] I've had enough of the Sanhedrin Council. I've had enough of the law. And it took the death of Jesus Christ to make them see that. It took the death of Jesus Christ to pull them completely out of the law and completely out of that sect that they were in.

[28:48] It took his death to do these things. Hey, folks, like I said, this would have been Friday afternoon. They would have only had about three hours before Sabbath started. They couldn't completely embalm the body.

[29:00] That's why you see them wrapped in a little bit of linen and you see them putting just a little bit of spice on them. They didn't have time to do what normally would have been done.

[29:12] But Mary, Mary, when she goes to the tomb and mourning in the third day, what did she go for?

[29:24] To anoint the body of Jesus Christ to finish the embalming. Folks, that shows.

[29:36] And I preached about Abraham not long ago and his weak faith. That shows Mary's weak faith, Mary Magdalene. It shows her weak faith.

[29:47] This all shows Nicodemus' weak faith, Joseph of Aaron, Matthias' weak faith. It shows the Centurion. He said, surely this is the Son of God.

[29:58] We read nothing else about him. Nothing else about him. Throughout the entire scripture, I'll read a thing else about that particular Centurion. But he believed.

[30:09] He believed Mary Magdalene when she showed up to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus Christ. What was she anointed to? To the burying. Because all this happened right before Sabbath started and they were forbidden by law to do anything along those lines on the Sabbath.

[30:30] You know what else is amazing about this? According to Jewish law, and this was law that Almighty God gave himself. This wasn't no man made law like the Pharisees were done for.

[30:42] According to the law that God had given the Jews, if they touched a dead body, they were unclean. They were ceremonially unclean.

[30:52] What Jews want to be unceremonial or ceremonially unclean for the Sabbath day. That was the holy day. That was the day you were supposed to set aside for God.

[31:03] But Joseph of Aaron, and they had Nicodemus both high ranking Pharisees high ranking Pharisees. They were both willing to touch the dead body of Jesus Christ just a couple of hours before the Sabbath started.

[31:20] They were willing to do that. Like I said, they were finished with that. They were finished with trying to keep the law under salvation. They were finished with trying to keep that under redemption.

[31:31] Hey, I'm not saying they enjoyed breaking the laws of God. I'm saying that they realized that the laws of God never earned them salvation. That them keeping whatever laws go to put in his book.

[31:43] It was never meant to bring redemption and never meant to bring salvation. They saw it more important to take care of the body of their Savior than they did to follow any law.

[31:57] Hallelujah. I wish the church would grab ahold of that. I'm talking about the church worldwide. Take care of the things of God. Take care of the things of Jesus.

[32:08] Take care. Take care. Take care. Watch your steps. Watch how you walk. Hey, folks, watching how you walk and keeping the law will never get you to heaven. Praise God that it won't cause I'd be in trouble and you would too.

[32:20] It's the blood of Jesus Christ. You take care of that. You keep that in your mind. You keep that deep in your heart and the law will follow. It won't follow perfectly. You'll never keep it perfectly and neither will I.

[32:33] But the blood of Jesus Christ when it was shed on the cross at Calvary, hey, that's century knew that was a perfect man that was hanging on that cross.

[32:44] He knew he was innocent. Knew he was righteous. He knew all these things. The women that stood afar off and all the other council of people that was standing afar off.

[32:55] They were there for a reason. They were there for a reason. They knew something. They knew something was taking place. Now listen, this darkness that fell over the land.

[33:09] This wasn't. This wasn't like a cloud passing over the sun. They still probably been a lot when that happens. If it's in the middle of the day, this was noon.

[33:20] This would have been the brightest point during the day. But there was darkness that came over. It was complete darkness.

[33:31] These women that stood there afar off. They didn't budge. They didn't move. They didn't say, let's get out of here.

[33:42] They didn't say, this is creepy. They didn't say none of these things. They stayed right there. Right there. Mary, the mother of Jesus, she was amongst them as well. She wasn't about to leave her boy.

[33:55] They stayed right there. How many of the others though? I don't know. Scripture don't tell us. But it says that they were there. Then they wouldn't. They came back and they never gone.

[34:07] Why did they leave? Maybe they got bored. Maybe they'd seen dozens of crucifixions and couldn't really see anything different with this one.

[34:17] Just another guy on another tree on another day. Maybe they didn't hang out until that darkness started, until the darkness came over to land.

[34:29] I don't know, but folks, there are people in the world now, and undoubtedly, there have been people coming to this church since I've been preaching here that have heard the gospel.

[34:39] They came and lost. They heard the gospel and they left lost. There was undoubtedly all types of different people witnessing these events and witnessing the darkness and witnessing the earthquake and all these other things that we read about.

[34:57] Folks, there are several miracles that happened just in the six hours that Jesus Christ was on the cross. Those are counted as the miracles of Scripture.

[35:09] There are several of them there in those six hours that took place. These people fell witness to those miracles there. Yet, undoubtedly, there were many of them that still died and went to hell, and if that's the case, they are still there to this day.

[35:28] The blood of Jesus Christ was shed. He died. And he died, and when he died, that centurion took everything that he had seen, everything that he had witnessed, everything that he had heard, and coupled it with the death of Jesus Christ.

[35:48] He said, this was a righteous man. This was a just man. He was innocent of everything that was laid before him.

[35:59] When they said, when the Pharisees would come and they would say, this man's proclaiming equality with God, this man's claiming to be God, this man says that he can forgive sins.

[36:13] No man can forgive sins, but God himself, Jesus never once denied that he was God. Jesus never once denied that he was the Son of God.

[36:24] Jesus never once denied any of these things, but he let them to question whatever they were going to question. Hey, God knew thousands of years, millions of years before any of this ever took place.

[36:36] He knew what those Pharisees would say. He knew what the Sadducees would say. He knew what the Centurion would think. He knew about the women. He knew about the crowds.

[36:46] He knew that they would be shouting, Oh, Sadduce to Jesus right in the end of Jerusalem. And just a few days later, he knew those same people would be screaming for the death of Jesus.

[36:58] God knew all those things. Jesus knew all those things and they still happened. They still happen. But even though the miracles, even though prophecy had been fulfilled, the Old Testament prophecies, the Jews still didn't believe.

[37:14] Gentiles could have cared less about Old Testament prophecy. They wouldn't give a hoot about those prophecies, but nevertheless the Centurion, the one that was watching over the crucifixion of our Savior.

[37:31] I think the man believed. I know he did. Because he refers to him as the Son of God, Matthew and Mark. He refers to him as righteous, innocent, hearing the gospel of Luke.

[37:45] John don't even have anything to the Centurion say. But nevertheless, it took the death to do all these things. Hope that Jesus had come to earth and had been mobbed in a back alley somewhere and beat the death.

[38:05] It would have done me no good though. It would have done me no good. Why is that? Because if that had happened, it wouldn't have fulfilled Old Testament prophecy.

[38:15] It was not a fulfillment. All of the prophecies of Jesus Christ, even if he had come here and been born of a virgin, and he was, that fulfilled, that fulfilled prophecies in Micah, or I'm sorry, in Isaiah.

[38:33] If he was born in Bethlehem, that fulfilled prophecies of Micah. I mean, all kinds of prophecies were fulfilled through Jesus Christ.

[38:44] But if he had come here and not been crucified, if he had not shed every bit of his blood on a tree, he would not have been our savior.

[38:56] Prophecy had to be fulfilled, and it was fulfilled. I've talked before that Jesus had come here and died of a heart attack.

[39:07] Done is no good. People say, well, he just had to die for our sins. No, he had to shed blood for your sins. And he had to do it in public. He had to do it in open, and he had to be abandoned.

[39:21] Well, he had to do it completely and utterly by himself. And because he done that completely and utterly by himself, he is completely and utterly able to save, praise God.

[39:33] He done it all by himself. He had no help from Peter, from John, from Thomas. He had no help from the Centurion. He had no help from anyone else around there.

[39:43] Hey, the other guards, hey, not long before this, you read about them gambling for the garments that he was wearing. You read about all these things that were going on.

[39:54] Nobody cared about salvation, redemption. He had to do it because nobody else could or would. And he done it completely and totally by himself.

[40:07] I think this Centurion got it. I think he understood it because the Bible says, if you confess Jesus Christ, the Son of God, believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, that shall be saved.

[40:24] He confessed it. Why did he confess it? Because he believed it. That's all the reason. Now listen, he hasn't been raised from the dead yet, but you keep in mind before the death of Jesus Christ, before his death, there was at least two people converted.

[40:47] There was a Centurion and there was a male effector on a cross. Two people believed before he even died. That don't even include.

[40:57] That's just this six hour frame here that we're talking about. That don't include the three and a half years that led up to this. How many people believed on him? Now listen, there was a lot of folks, they believed on them.

[41:09] They believed in his miracles. Scripture says that, but after a while they got tired of it. And they went away and never returned to Scripture says.

[41:20] Those are the talk of people. John says, in 1 John, they left us because they were not of us. They believed in what they were seeing, not in who was performing it, not in who was doing the miracles.

[41:34] They believed that there were miracles taking place, but not in the one that was performing it. You keep in mind there was at least two converts here, two very unlikely converts.

[41:46] You also keep in mind that thief that was on the cross, that was a Jewish man. So there was a Jew saved, praise God.

[41:57] And there was a Gentile saved. Right there while Jesus was on the cross, there were two converts, one from each class. It came to the Jew, yes, it came to the Jew first and then to the Greek.

[42:10] The folks, it came to all. It came to all. That man was on the cross there. He was been a Jew and the one that, the centurion, he would have been a Gentile.

[42:22] There was one of each saved right there. One of each that was converted, one of each that believed on who was hanging there on that tree. How many people have heard the word of God, have heard about the miracles?

[42:35] Like I said, just this year, just in 2021, leading halfway through the year yet, how many people have heard about it or witnessed miracles, loved ones, relatives, husbands, wives, girlfriend, boyfriend, whoever being saved?

[42:54] How many people witnessed these things and heard the gospel and still walked away?