If you have your Bibles turned to two places in the Gospels, turn to Luke chapter 23 and put your finger there, and then Mark chapter 15.
I've been studying the life of Christ for over a year now, and I know I'm working through 1 Corinthians, but I've seen something as I've been studying something I've never seen before, and sometimes you can't wait to share what you've seen.
And it's, to me, is one of the more glorious things that I've never noticed in the Bible.
And it essentially comes from a couple of verses, 1 Luke 23, starting at verse 46.
This is right when Jesus is on the cross. He's dying.
In fact, this is the moment of his death.
Then Jesus calling out with a loud voice said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." And having said this, he breathed his last.
And now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, "Certainly, this man was innocent." Now flip to Mark 15, verse 39, the same exact moment in time.
And when the centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, "Truly, this man was the Son of God." Did you know that Christ, the moment he died, forgave this man?
Christ forgave the centurion-soldier, the man who nailed his hands to the cross and nailed his feet to the cross.
He forgave the executioner the very moment he died.
That's unbelievable.
It's unbelievable that God would do such a thing.
Though we don't know this man's name, I'm going to call him Rufus.
And I've chose the name Rufus one because it sounds like a Roman soldier, but also because this man was ruthless.
He was cruel.
We'll see that he was a very hardened man, an experienced soldier, probably had been in multiple battles.
He killed for a living, and he was literally ruthless.
Also, that's a good name for a dog.
And no doubt this man was a dog.
He was a Gentile dog that was a killer.
So who was Rufus?
Who was this man?
Well, he was a high-ranking official in the Roman army.
According to our text, he was a centurion.
Most likely, he was a lieutenant colonel, the second command under Pontius Pilate.
So at the top was Pontius Pilate, who was the governor of Judea, and underneath him was this man, most likely.
See, in the Order of Ring, there were four types of centurions in the Roman army.
You have a captain who oversaw somewhere around a hundred.
That's where the word centurion comes from, a hundred.
By the time of Christ, that came down to around 80, so somewhere between 80 and 100 men.
Then you have the majors. A major is the one who oversaw 160 to 200 men.
Then you have the lieutenant colonels, and they oversaw a battalion, which is somewhere between 500 and 600 men.
Then you have the colonel, which was over a legion, which is a thousand.
Well, the reason we think that this man was a lieutenant colonel was because of Matthew 27, 27, when Pilate handed him over to the centurion, it says a whole battalion of soldiers took him, which would be 500 to 600 men.
So if he's over the one over this, then he must have been a lieutenant colonel, and most likely the highest ranking officer in Judea.
And so this is who Rufus was.
He's an older man by this time, probably in his 30s and her 40s.
He experienced soldier.
And this man was completely and utterly unworthy for salvation.
This man should not have been saved at all.
In fact, as you learn more about him, the least, the less you will like this man.
And I want you to think if this man was doing to you what he did to Christ, would you have the heart to forgive him?
Just how unworthy and ruthless was Rufus?
That's a tongue twister.
Well, first of all, we learned that Rufus was the one who in charge of mocking, beating and scourging Christ.
Matthew 27, 27 says the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters and they gathered the whole battalion.
Again, that's about five to 600 soldiers.
And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him and twisting together a crown of thorns.
They put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand and kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, "Hell, king of the Jews." And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head.
And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.
And so here they're mocking him, spitting on him.
And here's Rufus. He's the one in charge. He's the one overseeing this abuse.
He's the one that's going to oversee the execution of Christ Jesus.
And not only did they mock him, they stripped him of his clothes and they put robes on him and they put a crown of thorns on his head.
And they put a stick in his hand.
The word reed here just means stick.
In fact, later it says there is a hyphsop stick that's translated as reed.
So it's just some form of branch.
And they put a branch in his hand as a skepticaler and they mocked him and made fun of him.
Then they took the stick out of his hands and started beating him in the face with it.
All the while spitting and mocking him, "Hell, king of the Jews." And after they mocked him, as we've already talked about a couple of weeks ago, they tied him up.
They put his hands to a post, tied him up, and they scourged him with a whip that had nine cords with balls of broken glass and stone and raked it over his back until his back was exposed with all kinds of lacerations.
And this is Rufus doing this. I mean, how can you do such a thing if you're not hardened?
How can you act so inhumane if you're not a hardened man?
So they despised and beat him.
Some of them used their hands to hit him in the face.
We learn that in Matthew 27, 30.
They struck him with their hands.
Maybe they slapped him.
Maybe they punched him.
We learn from Isaiah 56. This is the time that the soldiers pulled out his beard by the roots.
Isaiah 50 verse 6 says, "I gave my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard.
I hit not my face from disgrace and spitting." So Rufus may have been even the ones that's pulling on his beard, yanking it out, beating him.
The time Rufus was done with Christ, Christ was unrecognizable.
He no longer looked like the man Jesus Christ.
If you came in and saw him after they finished beating him, you wouldn't have known who it was.
Isaiah 52 verse 14, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.
You've got to look at Christ here, and he is barely alive before he's crucified.
And this is the means of crucifixion. All who are crucified go through this step.
And a lot of them, they said, would even make it to the cross because they were abused so terribly at this phase.
And Christ no doubt had barely the strength to stand.
We know that because Rufus forced him to carry his cross to the execution site.
But Christ, after a few steps, maybe he went a couple yards.
We don't know how far he went, but in the process, he buckled underneath the weight of it.
His back was tore apart.
His face was battered and bruised.
His cheeks full of blood.
And Pilate wanted to release him because Pilate knew he was an innocent man.
He knew that the scribes and Pharisees were only doing this because of envy and jealousy.
And Pilate says, let me free to you another person.
And they cried out.
No, we don't want we don't want Christ to be freed.
We want the insurrectionist.
We want Brabus.
You know, they charge Christ with insurrection, but then they say we want the insurrectionists to be free.
They're hypocrites.
And so they let another man free and Rufus was taken.
I mean, Christ was taken by Rufus to the execution site right outside the city gates to a place called Gaugatha.
Rufus was there.
In fact, we know that Rufus went with three other soldiers.
The centurion took three men underneath him.
We know it was four men because it was the full soldiers Rufus included who gambled over Christ's clothes before they nailed him the cross.
They took off his tunic cloak.
They exposed him.
And they started gambling over their clothes.
They wanted souvenirs.
I mean, what would they do?
They rip them apart.
It's like, you know, finally he had a shirt that was seamless and say, hey, that's too valuable to rip apart.
So they cast lots for that.
But the their his jacket, they ripped in four sections.
So all the soldiers could have a little souvenir to boast about.
And Rufus got his article of clothing as a little trinket of war of execution.
Rufus was there and mocked the Lord Jesus Christ.
Luke twenty three thirty five says in the people stood by watching.
But the ruler scoffed him and saying he saved others.
Let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, his chosen one.
And then it says the soldiers also that includes Rufus mocked him coming up and offering him sour wine, saying, if you're the king of the Jews, save yourself.
Another version says they took a stick and put a sponge on the end of the stick.
They put dipped it into the sour wine that they had there and they put it up to the face of Jesus.
And I think what they were doing, they were jesting him, mocking him.
They were made fun of people's shame.
That's what they're doing.
They're mocking his shame.
And as they put the sponge to his mouth, no doubt, Christ is going to put a wincing facial expression and then they laugh.
I mean, this is completely demonic to laugh and mock at the God of the world.
Rufus is among them leading the cheers, leading the execution.
In short, Rufus was the official executor of Christ.
He was without compassion.
He deserves to die. Christ deserved to live.
That's my first point.
Second point, we'll notice Christ's compassion on Rufus.
Christ was wounded and beaten and felt embarrassed and he was ashamed.
He was not bitter.
First Peter tells us in chapter 2, 22, he committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.
When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
Now, I know what you're thinking.
He just kept his mouth shut.
He's there on the cross and they're reviling him and mocking him.
And he didn't say anything in return.
He didn't do the tit for tat that we normally do.
How many times you got an argument with your spouse and they said something, I heard your feelings and you just snap something back.
You know, are you snap real quickly out of frustration?
He said, well, Christ didn't do that.
No, he didn't do that, but he did more than that.
It was greater than that.
He never allowed bitterness to seep into his heart.
It's not that he just kept quiet.
It's not that he just didn't say anything.
He continued to have compassion and love on them.
He still felt tenderness towards them.
You ever been wounded?
Someone hurt your feelings.
Someone did something.
Something someone has hurt you so bad that you get hurt.
And you know, Christ was hurt here.
He was ashamed.
He was embarrassed.
It was a real emotional wound plus the physical wounds upon him.
He was tortured.
Have you ever had anything that caused you to feel hurt within your heart?
And it's not simple to feel the hurt.
It's not simple to be broken.
It's not simple to feel wounded.
But how easy it is to be wounded in the wound turns to bitterness.
Where you become bitter, the soft heart becomes hard.
The tenderness within becomes a little callous.
And you become bitter towards the one who has hurt you.
Maybe you don't say anything.
You think well of yourself.
I didn't say anything in return.
Or you did not seek retaliation or revenge.
Maybe even prayed for them some way.
But in your heart, there was some bitterness there.
There was some form of a little bit of unforgiveness there.
That little seed of hardness crept in.
We've all experienced that.
We all know what it's like to feel bitter towards someone, to feel so hurt that you're upset and you're agitated with that person.
We all know what that feels like.
But let me tell you, Christ did not feel that.
He did not have that feeling of bitterness within Him.
He remained, while He was being beaten and mocked and crucified, He remained as gentle and lowly as He was when He was there with the woman at the well.
Can you imagine that?
I can't imagine that.
I don't know how someone can be that holy.
I can't understand how someone can be that pure and humble.
Someone that can be that righteous.
I don't understand the perfection of Christ.
It's remarkable that He can have such love and tenderness.
You know what He did as soon as Rufus put him up on the cross?
Rufus nailed his hands to the cross and his feet to the cross.
And then they erected him up, put him up on the cross.
And the first thing Jesus said, the first thing out of His mouth, He's hurt, He's beaten.
The first thing out of His mouth is, "Father, forgive them." They don't know what they're doing.
You see the tenderness in His heart.
You see the love in His disposition.
You see the softness in Him.
Rufus is a hard, hallus, cruel man and Jesus is the soft, tender man.
It's unbelievable.
Though he was crushed, he was not hardened.
He remained full of tender mercy.
There was not a revengeful spirit within him.
There was no hate in his heart, not even a touch of hate.
No animosity towards those who were mocking him.
No hardness of heart towards those who were crucifying him.
This is perfect, pure, unadulterated love at this finest level.
This is the greatest temptation ever faced by any man.
This is the worst temptation in the 40 days in the desert.
This was a time that you would have a little bit of justification to be mad, a little bit of time to be frustrated with your enemies.
But Christ overcome that temptation.
Not an ounce of hardness or bitterness or spite.
No revengeful spirit within him.
Though he was unjustly punished, he remained a forgiving Savior.
You see the first thing he said when he was on the cross is, "Lord, forgive them." You know the last thing he did, the last act of Christ, right before he says, "It is finished." The last thing he did, one of the mockers on his right hand or his left hand, one of the thieves was mocking him.
Then finally the thief realized, "Wait a minute, I'm about to die and I'm guilty and I know this man's innocent." The man looked to Christ as if he remembered me.
And Christ didn't go, "Hey, you were just mocking me." Christ says, "Today you'll be with me in paradise." He was on the cross for three hours.
The last act was asking the Father to forgive.
The last act was to forgive himself.
Now that's mercy.
You know what he did?
The first thing he did when Jesus went to paradise.
As soon as he died, the first thing he did is, "I want Rufus.
I want the one who crucified me.
I'll forgive him." Now that is unbelievable.
None of us, if we were honest, none of us would do that.
None of us would have bestowed forgiveness of the one who nailed us to the cross.
And that has raised me to my last point.
The salvation of the man who was undeserving.
How do we know Rufus was actually converted?
How do we know he was forgiven?
Because Rufus repented and believed.
That's how we know.
According to the text, according to all four Gospels, when Christ died it was a miraculous event.
When he says, "It is finished," I think he used his last breath to cry out.
In fact, with a loud voice, with agony, not just saying, "It is finished," you've got to see the suffering Savior.
You've got to see Him in agony.
And he's picking up, cruciatingly, picking up the weight off his shoulders so he can breathe.
And with his last voice, he cries out in agony, "It is finished." And Rufus, it says, in our text, it says, "Rufus was right in front of Christ when it happened.
He might have been five to ten feet away looking dead on at Christ." And it says, "Rufus saw Christ breathe his last.
And soon as he breathed his last, it is finished.
The sun went dark.
And then there was a great earthquake that split rocks in two." Rufus felt the ground underneath shake.
He saw the darkness and felt the darkness.
And then he says, "Surely, this must have been the Son of God." Luke 23, 46, it says in verse 47 actually,"Now when the centurion saw that what had taken place, he praised God, saying,'Certainly this man was innocent.'" You see, Rufus worshipped God that moment.
He went from mocking to worshipping, from scorning to praising.
It says in verse 47 of Luke 23, "Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God." The word here for "praise" is the word for "glory." Dax adzol, he glorified God in other words.
Some versions say he honored God.
Some say he praised God.
Some say he worshipped God.
But this is the idea he rendered esteem to God.
Matthew 27 talks about the soldiers there.
They were filled with awe and wonder.
And this wasn't just he saying, "Oh, this must have been the Son of God." He, in his heart, began to awe at what just happened.
And then he praised God at that moment.
You see, Rufus believed in the humanity of Christ.
In verse 47 it says, "He praised God, saying, 'Certainly this man.'" He knew he was the man of Lazarus, Jesus of Nazareth.
"Certainly this man was innocent, but not just a man. He was a holy man, an innocent man, but not just believing in the humanity of Christ. He believed in the deity of Christ." Mark 1539, "And when the centurion who stood facing him saw that this was the way he breathed his last, he said, 'Truly--" and you don't say this without the Holy Spirit and not mean it in your heart.
"Truly this man was the Son of God." You see, Christ's last act on the cross was to forgive the thief.
The first act in paradise was to forgive the one who crucified him.
The first person to be saved after the death of Christ was a Gentile.
Isn't that amazing?
He saved a Gentile, the first thing he did once he got to heaven.
And once he said on the right hand of the Father, "First act, first commission, I'm going to save that man.""I'm going to save that man from the surface. I'm after him." Isaiah 65.1 tells us, "I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me.
I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, 'Here I am, here I am to a nation that was not called by my name.
I spread out my hands all the day to rebellious people.'" Paul picks that up. He says to the Jews, "All day long, Jesus has cried out to you.
He was under her chickens, under her wings.
Christ called and called and he sought them." But Paul says about the Gentiles, "I was found by those who weren't even seeking me." Rufus was not looking to be saved that day.
Rufus wasn't seeking salvation.
He could care less about Christ that he was a religious leader.
Doing his thing, living his life, trying to work his way up the chain of command.
At the moment he was least expecting, Christ revealed himself to him.
And he turned from mocking to worshiping.
The first one he saved was not just a Gentile, but the executioner.
Now this is the grace and the kindness and the compassion of Christ.
Would you have saved someone like that?
Let me tell you, you are Rufus.
If you are saved today, it is only because of God's grace.
You did nothing to warrant it.
When Christ looked down at Rufus, when he saw Rufus, he could go,"Well, there is a little bit of good left in this man.
There is just a little bit of compassion. He loves his mom.
He could be a good soldier. If I could just get a hold of him, there is some value in this man that I could turn around and use for good." Christ saw nothing in Rufus.
There was nothing that would cause Christ to have compassion upon this man, who was a hardened man.
It was simply because Christ is compassionate.
It is simply because he is a man of grace and tenderness.
And he just looked at one who was completely unworthy and wasn't even looking to be saved and revealed himself to him in a special way in order that the man would be saved.
And if you are saved today, it is because God revealed himself to you.
He showed you his love, his compassion, his grace.
He showed you who he was.
And you didn't see a mean God.
You saw a loving and compassionate and tender God who says,"Come unto me, all you who are labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come unto me and I will save you.
Come unto me. I will all push you away.
I am tender. I am soft. I am a forgiving God." And you saw the glory of God, and it brought you to tears.
It brought you down. It caused you to worship him.
And listen, if you are going to worship God, you've got to see God as he is.
You've got to see his wonder, his majesty, his kindness, his gentleness, his love, his grace, his compassion.
And when you see who he is, he is altogether worthy of bowing down to and worshiping with you, worshiping him with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your soul.
There is none like him.
All of us would have failed the test.
Not to us be the glory, not to us be the light.
Don't shine on us.
There's only one man who's ever lived that's worthy of worshiping.
And that's the one who passed the test perfectly.
That's the man who loved when he was hated by all and forsaken by all.
You see, Christ came to save the unworthy.
Remember the woman who came to Jesus and broke up the banquet, and he was eating with a lot of the high and leaders of the city, the scribes of the Pharisees, and they were most likely at a table in a courtyard in this known woman who probably was a harlot, notable city in the woman who was a notable sinner in the city.
She came rushing up to the feet of Christ and the way they ate, they kind of bent down with their legs to the side.
They reclined at a table and she came back to him and came to his feet and just started weeping.
And here's this prostitute.
Everybody thought she was unworthy, and they got upset with Christ because they said to Christ, said to themselves they were thinking if Christ knew who she was, he would not let her at his feet.
And Christ looked at that woman who was weeping.
She knew she was a sinner.
She knew as she was unworthy.
He says your sins be forgiven.
You see, Christ saved sinners.
He came to save the unrighteous, the unworthy, not the righteous.
The scribes and Pharisees were not saved because they thought they had enough good works to make it.
They thought they didn't need to be saved.
They thought that they were good people.
Remember, it was the older son that was mad at the father for having a banquet and killing the fatted calf for the younger son.
And that's what the scribes and Pharisees, they're upset because Christ has mercy upon Rufus and harlots and sinners and tax collectors.
And so if you are in this room today and you are upset with Christ being compassionate to the unworthy and if you think that Christ shouldn't be merciful for those who don't deserve mercy, then you need to be careful because Christ didn't come to save the self-righteous.
The only ones who make it to heaven are sinners.
Those who know they're sinners, those who know they have nothing to offer the Lord.
You don't come to the Lord, and listen, this is so important for us to understand.
We don't come to the Lord and say, "Look, I went to church, I prayed, look at Rufus.
What did he do?
He didn't even have time to go, 'What have I done?' He didn't even have time to weep and mourn over his sins.
He didn't do anything.
There was nothing in him for Christ to reveal himself to this man.
He didn't deserve it at all.
You can't win salvation because of how many tears you cry.
You have nothing to offer the Lord.
The only thing you can bring to the courtroom of God is your sins and your filthy rags.
But good news is God forgives sinners.
If he was compassionate when people were trying to kill him, when he's under such agony and torture, how much more is he willing to forgive us now that he's in paradise?
You see, if you're going to understand the gospel, you must understand that it's only the unworthy who find grace.
Don't be offended by God's compassion.
I'm here to tell you you can be saved this moment.
You don't have to wait.
We don't do an altar call, but you don't have to have an altar call.
Rufus was converted looking at Jesus pass away, converted on the spot.
He turned from mocking to worshiping, from unbelief to belief.
And you can turn and look to Christ.
Jesus is looking to me all the ends of the world and be saved.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you too can be saved right now.
So I don't understand.
I've done too much.
He won't save me.
I'm a blasphemer.
I've rejected Christ for so long.
I've been ashamed of Christ.
Some of you may be pretending that you're a Christian when you're not and you're afraid.
You're afraid because you don't want people to be exposed.
Well, I thought you're a Christian all this time and you're afraid to expose that you're not a true believer.
So your pride is keeping you from believing.
But Christ will forgive you of your pride.
He'll forgive you of everything you've done.
There's nothing that hinders you from salvation.
There's nothing that he won't forgive.
You can be forgiven today no matter how large and deep your sin is.
Your sin can be covered because price paid the price on your behalf.
Here's an application for us Christians.
Peter looks at how Christ handled the abuse, the pain, the mocking as an example for us how to handle one another.
First Peter 2 19 for this is a gracious thing when mindful of God one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.
For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for you endure?
But if when you do good and suffer for you endure, this is a gracious thing inside of God for this you have been called.
That is God is called in your life and he's purposed in your life to be mistreated by others.
You're going to have it.
God wants you to have it.
He's ordained it in your life.
People will take advantage of you, exploit you, abuse you, speak negatively about you, gossip about you.
That's going to happen.
It's ordained of God.
But what is your response?
He said, well, I just can't say anything back.
I can't gossip back.
I just need to be.
I just need to look kind.
I need to feel.
No, it's your heart that God's looking at.
But this has been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps.
He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
When he was a reviled, he did not revile in return.
When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued in trusting himself to him who judges justly.
Here we're called to follow that wonderful example.
To have tender mercy and compassion on those who take advantage of us, exploit us, mistreat us.
There is no room.
And I know that we all fell here.
I know I fell here tremendously.
I've had a battle such bitterness in my heart.
Oh, Lord, please take the bitterness away from me.
I hate it.
Bitterness will destroy you.
Bitterness will ruin your life.
Bitterness will take the joy right out of you.
They'll take the strength out of you.
Bitterness is no place for Christians to have bitterness in their heart towards anyone, even their enemies.
We're to love our enemies.
We're to love those who despitefully use us and take advantage of us.
This is a hard issue.
But by God's grace through the power of the cross in Christ said an example for us.
We too can have no bitterness within us.
We can have pure love for everyone to be like Christ.
When isn't that gorgeous?
Do you not see the glory of that?
The beauty of that?
Do you not see how splendid that is?
How majestic that is?
See, this is the glory of Jesus Christ is that he showed us how it's done.
It is altogether glorious.
I don't understand it.
I really don't.
I would see when I first saw that Rufus was saved, I could not believe my my ears are my ears.
Or I could not believe this when I read this.
This is what it says that he worshiped God.
This man the executioner could not believe Christ would do such a thing.
But why would I be surprised when he saved me?
See the glory of Jesus.
See the goodness of Christ.
See the loveliness of Christ, the tender mercies of Christ.
Why are you?
I say this with a broken heart because I know some of you are unconverted.
I know when I've been praying for certain names of you.
I know I know and I know you could some of you could care less about Jesus.
You don't care.
You're more worried about everything under the sun than the Lord Jesus Christ.
You don't care that he died for you.
He suffered for you.
He took your shave.
You don't care.
Why do you not care?
I remember when Jesus went to Nazareth and he said when he entered a Nazareth, he said he marveled at their unbelief.
I can't understand it.
I think the Lord in one sense I understand depravity.
I understand all that.
But if you know that he died and suffered and bled and took health for you.
It took the wrath of God on your behalf.
And he says you don't have to do anything and I give you eternal life.
How can you turn that down?
How can you run from that?
How can you say I don't want it?
I beseech you.
I plead with you.
I ask of you God himself.
Jesus Christ through me says please be reconciled.
I made a way.
Come.
Come all of us.
Come to the light.
Come to the man who is perfect.
Come to the man who has no bitterness in him.
He will receive us.
Praise the Lord.
the Lord.
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