A Man in Todays World - Steve Zehr

M warning everyone teaching the name of Jesus, and uh, it's good to

be here with you, see you again, and see friends and new people.

It's just nice to come over to the valley once in a while catch

up. If you care to, you could turn with me to Acts chapter

ten. It's a message here i'd like to bring starting at least with this

passage here. So I have a neighbor over there that I got to know

pretty rapidly after we moved. He's just down the road Traumas. He farms,

is very good farmer, and so I got to know him a friendly

person. His last name is Light, and I don't remember if it's spelled

l I T or l I t E. It was a short name.

I didn't know much about it besides that one day he not too long ago,

he stopped in and we got to talking, and I found out it's

not just Menonites that go into their genealogy. It must be it must be

some German variation of that, because he went real deep. He just went

both sides of the family, and Light evidently as a variation of some German

name Lick do something. And so he got to talking about that. All

his background, and I can't repeat the names, but on both sides of

his family. It just goes back. And he was naming his mother and

grandmother and on both sides and their families and all these last names, these

German last names, and so he knew my name, but I just mentioned,

you know, I think a lot of us have German background, he

said. I said, you know, my name is Zaire and I married

at Durstein and he goes, oh, yeah, yeah, those are those

are those are German names. And he goes yeah, he said, my

uh, my grandmother used to say that you can always tell a German,

but you can't tell him much. And um, oh, well that that

fits to some degree the way I know a lot of Germans. There's a

there's other things about our breed, um, this lineage of ours that I

think I've heard, I've heard said, um, you know, like like

we're blockheads, were stubborn, proud. There's a lot of positive traits too,

like um, achievers, talented, self sufficient, um, those those

things that make a man a man in the world, the abilities, and

of course this this message, this these traits these are not these are not

It's not so much about an ethnic title to these traits. These traits are

common to men, the the strengths or the weaknesses, the abilities, the

stubbornness, the pride um, the strength of weaknesses. We as men share

these these tendencies or these these um these weaknesses, the tendencies to maybe not

embrace our responsibilities. But in all that, I got to thinking a little

bit about men. I don't know, it's not Father's Day yet, but

um I thought about Jesus. When Jesus came to earth and he walked among

us, among men, one of the things that he did is he really

focused on a lot of people that we were misfits. They were the weak,

they were the cripples, they were the blind, they were the hungry,

they were the disease, the lepers. And Jesus focused on them.

He touched them, he healed them, he made them to see again.

But I got to wondering, is there a god for men? Is there

a god that we as men could have been attracted to? It was Jesus,

a man's man, a man that was Jesus, the kind of person

of Messiah, that capable men, talented, men, men with not anything

really wrong with them, men that were had good posture, good eye contact,

were self confident, We're achievers. Was Jesus the kind of man that

men could look up to and would be attracted to. Men that didn't feel

sorry for themselves, that were not victims, but took responsibility for their people,

for the people around them, put in a day's work, achieved things.

We're doers instead of just pretenders. Was Jesus a man for those kind

of men, for Germans or any ethnic group that has these tendencies, which

is men people. And as I thought about that, I thought of the

Roman centurion. Now, the Roman centurion we find at least seven times in

the New Testament, and I'm not going to go into all of those things,

all those different contexts, but I thought i'd look at the maybe talk

about the qualities a little bit of the Roman centurion, and I just some

things I had looked up. This is one fifth century text on the Roman

military, and it said that their centurion is required to have a numerous of

these what they called elite traits. And I think many of you would have

these. These aren't spiritual things, these aren't things that we have to have

succeed spiritually. But I think we can get the point here. The centurion

in infantry was chosen for his size, his strength and dexterity in throwing his

missile weapons, and for his skill in the use of his sword and shield.

In short, for his expertise in all exercises. He is to be

vigilant, temperant, active, and I like this readier to execute the orders

he receives than to talk. It's a little bit hard for some of us

to do, isn't it. He was to be strict and exercising and keeping

up proper discipline among his soldiers, in obliging them to appear clean and well

dressed, and to have their weapons constantly rubbed and bright. Centurions had to

be at least thirty years of age, literate so they could read written orders,

have letters of recommendation, and at least several years of military military service

as a commander. A centurion had to be able to maintain his troops morale

in peace and inspire his men in battle. Now, like I said,

there was seven, at least seven times they were mentioned in the in the

Bible, and it's it's possible that some of these centurions overlap that Maybe there

wasn't seven separate ones. But maybe some of the centurions mentioned were all the

same person. We don't we don't really know that. But Centurion number four

that we come across in the Bible and Acts chapter twenty two, he's the

centurion that put Paul into bonds and was ready to beat him. And Paul

said, wait a minute, I'm a I'm a Roman. You can't can

you just beat a Roman? And he went back to his commander. This

centurions did and said, you know, this man is a Roman. What

are you gonna do about this? And then centurion number five and six in

Acts chapter twenty three, they were the ones that they were taking Paul to

Felix and protecting him from a threatening the hostilities of the crowd. And so

if you notice, these centurions were all portrayed in a positive light in the

New Testament more or less. And then in the centurion number seven his name

is Julius, he's in Acts chapter twenty seven. He was the centurion responsible

to take Paul to Rome. And remember the story about the shipwreck and how

this his soldiers wanted to kill everybody, all the prisoners, And he was

the centurion that said, wait a minute, let's save these people. He

wanted to spare Paul's life. So it's centurion number one through three as they

come to us in the New Testament. I'd really like to focus on and

I'd like to begin by reading Acts chapter ten, although it's Centurion number three,

but it's the one we read the most of and I just thought i'd

give us a little bit of background, and so I'd like to read the

first twenty six verses of Acts chapter ten. Was a certain man in Cssoria

called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian Band, a devout

man and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms

to the people, and prayed to God alway. He saw an a vision,

evidently the ninth hour of the day, an Angel of God coming into

him and saying, unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him,

he was afraid and said, what is it? Lord? And he

said, unto him, thy prayers and thy alms are come up from Memorial

before God. And now send men to Joppa and call for one Simon,

whose surname is Peter. He lodged with one Simon, a tanner whose house

is by the seaside, he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do.

I'd like you to keep that in mind. That phrase there, he's simon

this Jewish tanner. It's going to tell this centurion what he should do.

And when the angel which spake unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of

his household servants and a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually.

And when he had declared these things into them, he sent them to Joppa

now tomorrow. As they went on their journey and drew nigh into the city,

Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour, and

he became very hungry and would have eaten. But while they made ready,

he fell into a trance, and he saw a heaven't open, and a

certain vessel descending up unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit

at the four corners and let down to the earth, wherein were all manner

of four footed beasts of the field, beasts of the earth, and wild

beasts, and creeping things, and fouls of the air. And there came

a voice to him, Rise Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said,

not so, Lord for I have never eaten anything that is common or

unclean. And the voice spaken to him again the second time, what God

hath cleaned that collnaught thou common? This was done thrice, and the vessel

was received up again into heaven. Now, while Peter doubted in himself with

vision which he had seen, should mean behold, the men which were sent

from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon's house, and said before the gate,

and called and asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, were lodged there.

While Peter thought on the vision, the spirit said unto him, behold,

three men seek THEE. Arise thou and get thee down, and go

with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them. Then Peter went

down to the men which were sent into him from Cornelius, and said,

behold, I am he whom ye seek. What is the cause whereo ye

are come? And they said, Cornelius the Centurion, a just man and

one that fearth God, and of good report among all the nations of the

Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send unto thee into

his house and to hear words of THEE. Then called then called he them

in and lodged them, And on the morrow Peter went away with them,

and certain brethren with Joppa accompanied him. Tomorrow after they entered into cesarea,

and Cornelius waited for them and called together his kinsman and near friends. And

as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet

and worshiped him. But Peter took him up, saying, stand up,

I also am a man. I think the message of this, the burden

of this message that I feel for myself, is to just encourage all of

you as men. This is probably mostly to the men, to your husband's,

your dad's, but to be men in today's world, that's that's really

I didn't know how to say, how is to title this, but I

think, as as you well know, the idea of being a man is

getting is getting confusing as the idea of being a woman. That's just a

practical side of where we're at. But think my thoughts here is is even

beyond that. Just as men can we take inspiration to be men for God

that God really does need you. He enjoys the men, the capabilities,

the abilities that we have as men, and to embrace that and to be

a man for God. And so that's what this this message is about,

this this inspiration. I'd like to just go back now to Um. Well,

as we think about this reading I just did before we go away from

this um, you think about these two men, Peter and Cornelius, and

I want to come back to this at the end of the message. But

they were both capable men, men really on the opposite side of the political

spectrum. Peter's whole thing in life was to follow Jesus to get rid of

the Roman rule. That was kind of how he started out in life.

Very um. Both capable of swinging a sword, both unafraid to confront hostility.

But what brings these two men together were they in essence, neil and

humility. Where God tells Cornelius the one that is keeping the Jews captive,

I want you to go to Peter and ask him what to do. Well,

the first centurion I'd like to look at we find in Matthew chapter eight.

I'd like to just turn to that Matthew chapter eight, and this is

the centurion that had a servant that was sick. I'd like to just start

in verse five there, Matthew chapter eight, Verse five. It says when

Jesus was entered into Campernium, there came into him a centurion, beseeching him

and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home, sick of the palsy,

grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal

him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I'm not worthy that thou

shouldst come under my roof. But speak the word only, and my servant

shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under

me, And I say to this man, go and he goeth into another

common he cometh, and to my servant, do this, And he doeth

it. And when Jesus heard it, he's marveled and said, unto them

that followed, verily, I say unto you, I've not found so great

a faith, No, not in Israel. This centurion, as we know

the story, he came to Jesus because of a concern for someone else,

because of his servant. That alone is something we can say. This man

was not a selfish man. He cared about his people. We could say

he had concerned. He was a compassionate man. Even the man with all

a military man with all these qualities. He was not a selfish person.

He come to Jesus asking for this healing. Jesus said, well, I'll

I'll come to your house and heal him. And this centurion told Jesus,

you don't have to come to me. All you have to do is is

say the word and my servant will be healed. And I wonder what did

what did this centurions see in Jesus? What was it that made him know

that about Jesus? And I looked it up a little bit, and according

to some of the research I found, this healing of the centurion servant would

have been somewhere in the neighborhood of the eighth Miracle of Jesus. Okay,

so it's relatively early in jesus ministry. And he can imagine this guard,

this Roman soldiers he has involved in the people's day to day life, may

have watched some of the other miracles of Jesus. You know, there was

the first one, the cane of the Wedding. I doubt that he would

have been at that one, possibly, but maybe some of the demoniacs that

he watched, where the Roman guard would have been called out to take care

of these unruly people, a little bit like the state police are today.

Couldn't do nothing with them. Chains wouldn't hold them. The Bible says that

prior to this, Jesus healed cast out devils by the word of his mouth.

And so this man, this centurion, who is used to commanding soldiers

to go out and accomplish victories, recognize Jesus and authority, a man that

was able to command legions that he couldn't control. And he understood that we're

both men of authority, were both men that can send out people. And

he saw in Jesus a man with authority, able to command legions and reach

into the spiritual world. This centurion was able to see this in Jesus.

And but what he told Jesus, He said, I am a man under

authority. I'm a man under authority. I'm a man in authority. But

I'm also a man under authority. And so he was trying to tell Jesus,

you do the same thing I do. Just tell your men, tell

the spiritual world that you're in charge to go. Heal my servant, this

this Roman centurion, you know, with all his his pomp, his power,

his temptations for pride and position. He was able to to to exercise

that quality, readier to execute the orders rather than he received, rather than

to talk. And I think with Jesus he saw in this this power,

this ability to do something. And Jesus said, I have never seen any

faith like this in all Israel. And Jesus was talking to a Roman,

not a Jew. I have never seen faith like this in all of Israel.

Enough wisdom, a man with enough wisdom to understand authority, enough wisdom

to exercise authority, enough man to a man with all the access to power

and ability, enough wisdom to see who he really was in life. And

I think that's really important for us as men to be able to really see

situations and see who we really are in life in order for us to be

able to exercise the duty that God has given to us. To be a

big enough man to recognize authority, especially authority that was beyond his control.

He said, I am a man under authority? Are you a man under

authority? You know, often we want to be men out from under authority,

but as real men that are going to be active in God's kingdom,

to be able to do things for God to be able to see the difference

and to be able to see what it means to be a man under authority.

I remember when I was young, I was eighteen, nineteen seventeen.

I worked for an establishment in this area called Smith's Seed Services. A lot

of you know where that that business is. And I worked there in the

summertime a couple of summers loading box cars. And I don't know if any

of you here have ever loaded box cars, but that used to be a

real popular thing back. A lot of the young guys did. That made

us tough. It was. We would three of us would load one hundred

and fifty thousand pounds, three hundred thousand pounds and fifty thousand and fifty pound

bags into box cars. It's box cars that are going down the train track

that we load them right here in Wholest in different places. It was extremely

hot, it was. It was the hottest job I ever had. We

were in a metal tube and we'd stand up near the ceiling. I saw

people get heat stroke. It was so hot. People would vomit. And

somewhere along the line, Smith Seed had this idea that it would be nice

if all the men wore the same kind of shirt, so they ordered in

these shirts and they were nice green shirts. They were had the Smith Seed

logo or name on one side, and they were these really nice they were.

They were heavy, canvas, baggy shirts. They were not the tight

fits it like like like like they made them different back then. Shirts.

They weren't so tight around the chest that you couldn't move. They were really

baggy. Um. They were so long that nobody could see my underwear when

I bent over. They nobody knew the name, that the brand name of

my shorts. They were. They were long, and it made shirts different

than they do now evidently, and they were heavy. And what we had

to do is where I was from a church that allowed it did not allow

short sleeves at that time, and the Tannent Congresstion they did not allow short

sleeves, and so I wore long sleeves loading these box cars to me and

anyone else that that went to this church. We loaded box cars and that's

sweltering heat. We wore long sleeves. And I remember one day I went

to my dad, he was sitting there in the office, and I said,

look, this is ridiculous, this is the this is the worst job

you could possibly have could I just borrow some of my friend's short sleeves for

the day while I'm working? And my dad do not say much, He

just I just remember he said, no, it's our church has a standard

and we should live by it. I knew he was going to say that,

and I didn't say much. I walked out. It was one of

a few times in my life I had a moment of clarity. I do

not say this to my credit, but I understood something about authority and about

being under authority. You see, when I was a little boy, little

as those little TJ. Bear boys that are there, Littler than that,

maybe I was before school. I was little enough to stand on the bench

beside my dad and put my hand on his shoulder. I was. I

was little enough to do that and not feel uncomfortable. When I was that

little, I remember members meetings where men stood up, daddy's of my best

friends, daddies of the children I went to preschool with. The daddies stood

up and they declared that unless they got their way with short sleeves, they

could not attend this church. And so they left, and they took my

little preschool friends with them and destroyed their lives, not alonely was it not

good enough to have long sleeves? Some of them, they're wives, weren't

good enough? You see, the point isn't the issue? You know?

The point is? Can you can you submit that the issue? Isn't the

point? We had a man here in the Bible that said, I am

under authority. What are you saying? I am being used by the whole

might of the Roman Empire because I can listen to orders rather than speak.

Made a man. It was somebody God admired. It was somebody Jesus looked

at and said, I've never seen such powerful faith, and all of Israel.

You know, I I've heard this thing happening a lot. I've heard

this phrase going around it. It seems like it's picking up steam, and

I don't know what to do about it. I don't know that I care

too much about it, other than I make some observation. And the phrase

is this, I do not want to be a Mennonite. I am no

longer a Mennonite. I am a Christian. I do not want to be

a Mennonite. I'm a Christian. And in the nearest I can tell,

it takes a whole lot more than being an x Menonite to be a Christian.

Last I checked that it was. It was. There's a lot more

acquirements to Christianity than not being a Menonite. And sometimes I wonder if they're

that, if they're even that sometimes. And one of the requirements is that

a Christian submits to authority. You can always tell a German, but can

a German tell authority when he sees it? So that's this centurion? What

what? What? What I find beautiful about him? What Jesus found beautiful

about him was his ability to recognize authority and the authority of Christ and have

faith. He was a man of faith. He was a man of authority,

and he was a man under authority. The second Centurion, I'd like

to look at Mark chapter fifteen, Matthew chapter fifteen. He was a He

was a centurion there at the cross. And as I thought about this man,

I'd just like to read one verse I think I'm supposed to be in

Mark. I want to read Mark chapter fifteen, verse thirty nine. 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. That's what this centurion said at the cross of Christ. Now,

what I see in this centurion, and I want to get to this

just to second, but I really see in this man a man of courage,

a man of bravery, a man that was not willing to compromise on

things that he believed were true. This is different than stubbornness, isn't it.

I mean, we can all be stubborn, but he was. He

was not a person willing to compromise and on what he believed truth to be.

He stated it. You were speaking in your Sunday school lesson about being

willing to speak as we have opportunity when men asked the question. This was

the type of man that would speak the truth, speak obvious truths when he

saw them. And here he said at the foot of the cross, this

man was truly the son of God. Now to understand the import or the

amount of courage, of the strength of character of this centurion, this military

person, when you think about Jesus being on trial here, and it was

intriguing to me to think about this centurion. Probably was there. He was

like in our court system, maybe the bailiff through the court trial. He

was there. He stood there with his men, he kept ordered. He

watched the whole thing, probably forming his own thoughts and thinking his own ideas

and drawing his own conclusions about this court trial that was happening, And yet

as a dutiful soldier, willing to carry out any order that came down from

the judgment seat from Pilot. And so Jesus is on trial. And among

all the false accusations that were hurled at Jesus and all the things that they

did and said falsely to him, as I understand it, the things that

actually got Jesus crucified. There was basically two things that got Jesus crucified that

day. One was that he made himself to be the son of God,

which was equivalent of blaspheming, and you get yourself killed for that. And

the Jewish, so, according to the Jewish law, you deserved to die

for blasphemy. That was point number one. Jesus was guilty according to them,

he made himself to be the son of God. The second thing that

could get you killed was on the Roman side of things, is if you

made yourself to be a king, if you became a pretender to the throne,

and you were going to cause a rebellion. You know, they might

they might give you a slap on the wrist. It might throw you in

jail for a while. But it was very common in those days for insurrections

and rebellions to arise in the country because remember this was occupied territory. The

Jews hated the Romans, and so they the whole idea of Peter and James

and John and the disciples wanting to join Jesus because they were waiting for a

messiah king that would come and throw out the Romans. They wanted to They

wanted to be a part of the rebellion that finally cast the Romans out.

So there's a lot of political tension. We think there's political tension here in

the US, and there is, but most of it won't get you killed.

There might be some dispute you to that. It seems like it is

getting worse, But in a lot of countries it is like they kill their

political enemies. And so the Jews ruled the Romans, ruled Judea and the

land there with an iron fist, and I think they were fair. But

if you got out of line and you said I'm a king, they would

kill you. And so there was these two points that they found Jesus.

It was a sham, of course, no doubt, but they found Jesus

guilty. He's saying he's the son of God. And then the Jews said

in John chapter nineteen, he says that Pilots sought to release him. But

the Jews really leverage this idea when they said they cried out saying, if

you let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend, For whoever makes

himself a king speaketh against Caesar. And so the Jews were smart people.

They knew enough to kind of leverage pilot and force his hand. And so

now Jesus's guilty on two accounts, one of blasphemy, the second of making

self to be a king, guilty by the Jews and the Rome and condemned

to die on the cross. And this Roman centurion with his soldiers, they're

in charge of this crucifixion. They take Jesus out and they do all the

things. You know, it was this centurion's patriotic duty to defend the Roman

empire against impostors, against enemies of the state. It was his sworn duty

to crucify enemies of Rome. It wasn't so much about his feelings and how

he felt about it. But he took Jesus and his soldiers. They went

out, they divided his garment, They gambled on him, They put a

crown of thorns on him. They beat him, and they let people abuse

him and spit on him. They made fun of him, they scourged him.

It's hard for me to believe that this Roman centurion really had anything personal

against Jesus. He was just carrying out his duties. And as he watched

this all happened, and they tipped Jesus up, and they watched the people

come by and mock you. I just thought of all the things that he

would have watched he saw this all take place. The process that caused this

centurion to change his mind, I don't know what it was what all happened.

We know that in the in the middle of the Crucis fiction process.

If we read some of this, you can read this story here. All

of you are familiar with it. As they the people went by and they

mocked Jesus, and suddenly the lights go out, the sun goes black.

It's as dark as the tunnels of hell Injudia. There. Can you imagine

the rush, the moment of silence, and then the babble as people scrambled

for torches, and the soldiers holding up torches, and the flickering, dancing

flames and shadows of Christ on the cross, and the centurion standing there and

all his glory and all his bravery, trying to get people under control.

And he's watching up there, shining the light to see if Jesus is still

alive and still on the cross, if nobody's taken him down, and he

feels, you know, for three hours. That takes place, and then

then grounds shake, there's an earthquake, and Jesus says it is finished.

He dies, and a temple curtain is torn in half. He must have

probably heard about that. It's probably probable that he sees saints rides from the

dead and these dead people, these tombs open, and people are walking the

streets. In my mind's eye, though I see a man under control,

keeps his composure. He's been through a lot in life. He's been through

all kinds of battle situations. He's trained for these kind of things. But

as he stands there and he watches all this and he sees Christ die,

he makes this simple and yet profound statement. Truly, this man was the

son of God. They're in front of the Roman Guard, in front of

all his soldiers that he's supposed he's in charge of to keep order of.

In front of the Pharisees and the priests of the of the Temple, in

front of all the disciples that had run away from Christ when he was when

he was captured, there in broad daylight for everybody to see and anybody that

cared to to hear, he says, this man really was the son of

God. You Jews got it wrong. In fact, we have just killed

a king. In row. In Luke chapter twenty three, verse forty six,

it says a little bit different. He said when the centurionsault was done,

he glorified God, saying certainly this was a righteous man, and that

that word righteous is translated into innocent. He said, we just killed it.

We just killed an innocent man today. This man really was a king.

In fact, in all of Judea, he probably is the only man

that deserves the title of king. And in just one concise statement, he

says, I disagree with a verdict that was passed down. I'm with him.

I'm with him, y'all, can do what you want to with me.

You can put me up on the cross for heresy, for for contradicting

the Rome. Do you realize how much courage it took for that man to

say that? And we live in a in a world where it's so easy

to compromise, it's so easy to not stand up for what we believe,

and I think that is one of the biggest problems with the church. People

ask me an all the time. I don't even look very wise, and

so I'm a little puzzled by why people even ask me such difficult questions.

And sometimes people ask me, Steve, you know what do you what do

you think is wrong with the church today? And I just say what,

I don't know. I'm not I don't I'm not smart enough to answer that

question. There seems to be like a lot of things that are wrong.

But more I think about it, I wonder just the inability for men to

stand up for what they believe compromise. He just stated what he knew was

true at the risk of his own life. I think we all admire courageous

men, men that will take risks. That's that's what we admire. But

it is so hard for us to do it ourselves. I was. I

was visiting with my dear brother in law, Trevor a lot of you know

him, I guess, And and you know, over there we're having a

water shortage. It's been a drought for quite a while, and you know,

we're desperate for water, kind of getting used to it. And of

course Trevor he just drills it well. Everybody said you can't do that,

and he's like, well, you know, I'm gonna try. And so

he drills well and he gets water. And I was talking to the other

day and he was like, why don't you drill well up at my placement?

So what if it's dry? I mean, we're talking a six digit

plus flip the coin, and just I don't you know, that's a lot

of money, just to what if there's no water in it? And he

just looks at me in kind of his grin, he says, God hates

cowards. I said, where does it say that, Lora Angeles Wilder,

I don't I don't know where it's I don't know if it says that in

Lorangles enough, but I got a kick out of it, and you know,

I don't know if it's true or not, but surely if it is,

if God hates cowards, he must have been looking down from heaven that

day and really loved that centurion. Centurions down there saying I'm with him,

I'm with him, and God is looking down and said, yes, there's

a man that I can trust. Do you want you? Really? I

find this interesting, But there's all these Bible legends and traditions about these men

in the Bible that have been passed down through history. We don't read about

them in scripture, but tradition says that a lot of people believe that this

centurion writer that I just read about, was the first Christian in the New

Testament. I don't know if that's true or not, but I found that

the tradition goes on to say and said, when this centurion was in the

process of this whole thing, this this crucifixion was happening, he was actually

suffering from an eye infection at the time, And tradition says that he would

have been the man that stabbed the side of Jesus with his sword, and

when all that blood and water gushed out, a little bit of it got

in his eyes and he was immediately healed. That's a beautiful story, isn't

it. I hope it's true. I think it's I'm gonna, I'm gonna,

I'm gonna go with it. They say that he later went on and

he became a martyr for Christ. What we do know is that he said,

I'm with that man on the cross. The rest of you can do

what you want with man, but I believe would killed an innocent man.

And he lived his life that way, a man that spoke truth, a

man full of courage. And today God is still looking for men, just

like God was in Ezekiel's day, where it says, there I soft forign

man among them that should make up the hedge and should stand in the gap

before them for the land, that I should not destroy it. But it

says in that day I found none. I found none. I found no

man that would stand in the gap, that would be that guy that stands

there in broad daylight and say the truth, stand for the truth. But

I leave. God found one in that centurion, and God wants to find

one in all of us. The third centurion we read about in Acts chapter

ten, and just go back to that briefly. This man's Cornelius. He

was a devout man, and we're told about his life here in Acts chapter

ten. A centurion by the name of Cornelius, his righteous, his devout,

his generosity, and he finds favor with God. He is a serious

minded man about his desire to be close to God. And the apostle Peters

told him a dream that one day Cornelius is going to come and visit you.

And Cornelius is told him a dream or the angel came to Cornelius and

said, I want you, a Roman centurion, to go to this jew

that you are in charge of keeping under submission, to keeping under our thungue.

I want you to go to him and ask him what you should do.

You realize how much humility that would take a man under authority, a

man with authority going to Peter, just a poor Jewish fisherman to find out

what he should do. A man of faith, a man readier to execute

the orders he receives than to talk. This was this was part of the

qualification to being a man in those days, of being the best man you

could be. That was just in the Roman world. And yet God used

this man mightily, I believe, for his kingdom. You know, tradition

says about Cornelius. And here again, I don't I find this interesting.

I think it's I think it's some of these traditions we don't you know,

they're not scripture, but neither are a lot of other things we read in

history. But tradition would say that this, this centurion, this Cornelius Um

possibly was the first bishop in Cesarea or there's another city that, between two

different cities, he was the he was the first bishop one in one of

those two cities. I think of Cornelius and all the qualifications of being a

a man, a man in today's world. You know, we talked about

somebody had mentioned laya to sea today, and we got a lot of warning

about lay it a sea. Rightly, so, I think our churches,

we our time and history, we deserve the critique as much as anyone probably,

And yet isn't there a side about lay it a sea? You know?

Maybe they had their focus a little wrong, but they were they were

they were doing it. They were getting it done to the best of their

ability with great success. Can God use men like that? I think God

can. And God was able to use this centurion man because of his faith,

because of his humility to be a leader in the Church of Jesus Christ,

to be a bishop in the Kingdom of God. He just used those

same qualifications, the same we could say, o our German tendencies, our

human tendencies are lao Sean tendencies. But when God used them, when found

a man that was willing to humble himself, God could use him in mighty

ways, use those gift and attributes that made him a centurion and make him

a leader in his church. But first he had to bend his will and

his heart to another man. You can always tell a German you can't tell

him much, or can you? And when you can, you've got something.

And God had something here. You know, when I think of myself,

I'm more and more I see myself for who I really am. And

I you know, I'm not extra tall, I'm not extra strong, I'm

not extra smart, I'm not extra talented, I'm not extra gifted. But

this man, Cornelius does inspire me in a real deep way to be everything

God intended me to be, even if it's a little bit, to be

a man for God, A man that doesn't compromise, a man that is

humble and that comes with a lot of things, humility to be wrong,

humility to be kind, a humility to care about a servant that's sick.

A man that takes responsibility serious. I will take that topic, brother Dan

asked me about. I will not try to find fifteen hundred different excuses to

avoid it. I'm a man, and men do things like this, Men

take their place, men embrace responsibility. I will do that. I will

do what God called me to be in the family. I will work when

things are hard. I will never ever give up. I am a man,

and it just really inspires me to be a man of faith and to

be a man that believes God and believes that God can do things because He

is in charge of a whole lot of things that I can't control. And

I am man enough to bend my need of Christ and to say, you

know, I can't control these situations. I'll let you do it. I

have faith to believe you will take care of things. A humble man,

a brave man. This man inspires me to be everything that I can be,

and I think it should inspire you too. All of you here,

young men to old men, centurion men, German men, lay it us

seeing men, stubborn men blockheaded men, men, put your men. You

go out and you work because God made you that, and God wants you

to be that way, and God wants to inspire you to be men for

him. God bless you. That's all. H.