Resurrection Talk Changes Unbelief

Resurrection Talk will come to us during the remainder of this celebrated Resurrection Week, with scenes which are less popular.

May Jesus, Risen Light of the world, through His Life-transforming Holy Spirit, grant us hearing ears to hear Him in Resurrection Light and Splendour. Amen!

When we looked at the saved malefactor, we could easily trace his path to change, without exercising much faith. However, in these other, no less desirous and stupendously miraculous changes, being brought to us, much faith must be exercised. This is wonderful, as, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. Romans 10: 17. Will we, by faith, continue to see unearthed treasure before us, sell all our possessions - our worldly ways, our self-owned thoughts, and our foolish pride – to name a few, in order to receive all that we find before us?    

Our Scripture text is Matthew 27: 54. When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified and exclaimed, Surely, He was the Son of God!  This incident is verified by Luke who indites this. The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, Surely this was a righteous man. Luke 23: 47. We are talking about real sceptics, unbelievers, for whom the man from Nazareth was just another criminal deserving of death.

We know that a centurion was a high-ranking official in the Roman army, who had charge over a hundred soldiers, although some scholars say that it was eighty soldiers. But who is this centurion? He is the one in command of those soldiers who have been most inhumane to prisoner Jesus. True, they were only doing as they were commanded, that is see that Jesus was crucified that day, but I doubt that they were told to mock Jesus. Luke 23: 36 - 37 state this. The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.  

Matthew is much more picturesque in his writing, as he details the soldiers’ dastardly acts towards Jesus. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. Hail, king of the Jews! they said. They spit on him and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. Matthew 27: 28 – 30.

We needed to have this clear picture of the centurion and his men for their actions show, without question, that these men did not believe in Jesus as God’s Son. To them, Jesus was an imposter, a fake and they had no qualms, or conscience, in treating Him, not just like a criminal, but as one from Beelzebub. It seems clear that they are simply following the religious leaders and hierarchy of the day, who denounced Jesus as an imposter and not of God. In fact, Luke tells us that before the soldiers began to mock Jesus, the religious rulers were mocking Him. The people stood watching and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One. Luke 23: 35.

But listen to what happened, when God thundered forth mighty, miraculous supernatural works. When unbelievably unnatural events were taking place, simultaneously, and the word co-incidence could not even be tagged to a single happening, the soldiers had a conscience-beater. These brave, military men, crumbled before the invisible Presence and inaudible Words of Sovereign, Omnipotent God. Listen again to their uniformed responses.

When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified and exclaimed, Surely, He was the Son of God! 

These are soldiers, men trained to handle all kinds of events, but today as King Jesus was dying in His Body, His Spirit was letting His voice be heard through the unprecedented string of supernatural events. What changes do we see that unbelief was changed to belief?

Change in Position: The Centurion who was the one controlling the events on Golgotha, along with his soldiers under his command, are now being controlled by the very King of the Jews, the Son of God, in His Risen Power. How beautiful and absolutely powerful is faith in Jesus, which allows us to see Christ’s human Body, dying on a gruesome cross, but His Spiritual Body, living with a glorious crown! The Centurion and all his men lie terrified in the place of the Skull, where they all are dead in the terror and darkness of fear. From the boldness of controlling, to the bending of being controlled. The fear of the Lord has overtaken them.

Change in Profession: The Centurion, along with his soldiers, just a few minutes before, were mocking and sneering Jesus, and His profession of Himself as of God, are now changed. Their entire talk about Jesus has been miraculously turned around. They now confess and profess in deepest conviction: Surely, He was the Son of God!  Only the Spirit changes the stubborn, unbelieving heart.

We leave this Resurrecting Talk celebrating! We are not just celebrating the fact that Jesus is Risen, but that because of Him, many an unbeliever, can come to believe and confess who Jesus really is.

Behold! People in the darkness of unbelief, are now people in the light of conviction, as Jesus’ Resurrection Talk has brought wisdom and fear.

Whoever you are on this day of challenge and change, know that Resurrection Talk can change and still changes the darkness of unbelief, in hearts and minds, which now know transforming peace and truth.