The Man Who Preached Christ's Funeral
By
Frank W. Moseley
Businessman
While searching through many letters of the great Souled Evangelist, Dr. Hyman J. Appelman, I discovered a letter addressed to me dated May 15, 1978. I often received letters from Hyman from around the world. The opening sentence was "Soon I hope to tape a message entitled 'The Man Who Preached Christ's Funeral'; and you, Frank, will have the first one." To the best of my knowledge, that tape was never made. Upon investigation, I found a transcript partly typed and many longhand notes by Dr. Appelman with this title. Because this world renown preacher's blazing spirit had one main mission, souls, souls, souls. I feel a strong responsibility to see this sermon in print and distributed as the Holy Spirit desires. Dr. Appelman was not only a "best friend" but an unbelievable "mentor." A Jew from Russia, a member of the Illinois Bar, he preached 55 years before receiving his new assignment and reward in 1983.
This sermon stands alone alongside the great sermons ever preached. God grant you the understanding to "soak up," an expression Hyman often used, all of this Heaven-sent message.
Healing and Igniting with you,
Frank W. Moseley
Kansas City, Missouri USA
Grateful acknowledgment to Texas Baptist Historical Collection, Alan J. Lefever, Archivist
© Southwestern Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas
The Man Who Preached Christ's Funeral
The greatest book in history, the story and the nearest to the truth in the record of the Bible that was written about the Lord Jesus Christ was written by the Jew who never became a Christian. He is accused by his own people of having embraced Christianity, and he wrote a smaller book to explain himself. The name of the man was Sholem Asch, the name of the book was "The Nazarene." Then Mahatma Gandhi, I heard a man say one time, a preacher of all things, that E. Stanley Jones said that Gandhi was a Christian. E. Stanley Jones never said anything of the kind. On the other hand, he testified again and again that he had never been able to bring M. Gandhi, the mighty leader of India, to an acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour. Gandhi said many times, even though he was not a Christian, that the hope of India was the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.
A large church in New York City, on the top of the beautiful round church edifice, they have a statue of Confucius, of Mohammed, of Buddha, of Moses, of Plato, of Aristotle, of Socrates, of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the Apostle Paul, placing the Lord Jesus Christ on the same level with the rest of them. Socialists, out and out Socialists, most of them Atheistic in their beliefs and the Communists, the out and out Communists, claim the Lord Jesus as the first Socialist and the first Communist. As a matter of fact, I have personally read in their writings again and again where they said that the reason that the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified was because the Capitalistic class of his day and time didn't like his teachings, they were afraid he would raise the poor in rebellion against them, so they nailed Him to the cross. Imagine the Atheistic Communists claiming Jesus Christ as a Communist.
It has been that way through the centuries. The Lord has been investigated, and a lie has been written, has been bisected in laboratory experiments more than all the rest of the people that have ever lived upon this earth. There is no exaggerating. The number of books written about the Christ, about His sayings, His religion, His testament, about His claims, and on and on. They have found fault with His teachings, they have said they were impractical, that is, that they cannot be lived up to, and I admit it. They cannot be lived up to unless you are born again and filled with the spirit, and then the spirit gives you the grace to live up to it. They claim that a lot of the things that the New Testament says He said, He never said, but Paul the Apostle and some of the other Apostles, invented them, either because they had so much faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that they spread all sorts of legends about Him or because they thought that He had said them. As a matter of fact, one of the brains of this day and time, a great teacher, a professor of Theology wrote a book in which he said, that it was a possibility that was well nigh a probability that the Lord Jesus Christ was born to Mary because of an illicit affair that she had with a German soldier, giving his name as Pantares. His book created a furor, and at least one denomination had it removed from its book stores. This man had gone too far to permit God-conscious Christians to be quiet about this unreasonable blasphemy. No one has ever found a spot, a stain, a blemish, a blight, a blot on the character of Jesus. He still stands before us to say, "Which one of you convicts me of sin? Which one of you finds any sin in me?" One of the greatest testimonies that has ever fallen from mortal lips about the Lord Jesus Christ came about in this wise. Under the Roman law, crucifixion was not a common form of punishment. There were just two crimes in the Roman Code punishable by crucifixion. One of them was what we call Atheism, what they called Blasphemy. Jesus Christ was accused of being a blasphemer because He said that He and God were one. The second crime thus punishable was treason. Jesus Christ was accused of being a traitor because he said that he was King of the Jews, when everybody knew that Caesar was King of the Jews. When He was delivered by Pilate to be crucified, a half squad of soldiers accompanied Him to the Cross. In the times of the Lord Jesus Christ, the squad was exactly the same as it is today because our close order infantry regulations were taken after Roman Legions. In this case it was a group of four hardbitten legionnaires. To them it was all in a day's work -- they had been to too many crucifixions-executions. They had no feeling in the matter. They were merely obeying orders; that was the extent of their involvement. A Centurion had to accompany them to see that orders were executed.
The Lord Jesus Christ was crucified at nine o'clock in the morning; he died at three o'clock in the afternoon. He hung on the Cross for six hours; and in that course of His agony, this was what happened. We read from the 27th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, beginning with the 50th verse, "Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the Holy city, and appeared unto many. Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, 'Truly this was the Son of God.' "
And when I read the record of Luke in the 23rd chapter of His Gospel beginning with the 44th verse; "And it was about the sixth hour at noon, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour (three o'clock). And the sun was darkened, and the vail 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;' 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.' “You see how the two statements fit into each other. This is where I got the title for this message, "The Man Who Preached Christ's Funeral." Truly this was the Son of God. Certainly this was a righteous man.
Now to take an outline, and I hope you will not forget it even though it is so simple. First, who was this Centurion? Second, what did the Centurion see? Third, what did he say? The Centurion was a soldier of Rome, ruthless, merciless, bloodthirsty. There was no heart in him. It had been drilled out of him in the battlefields. Blood was as common and ordinary to him as water is to you and me. He had no feelings. Everybody who knows the strict iron-bound discipline of the Roman armies, of the terrible legions who put everything and everybody to the sword would not have been able to find a single spot of compassion in the heart of this centurion. Many of them, came up from the ranks, hence boasted of their inhumanities. They won their promotions on the battlefields, won their spurs, won their titles, even as do officers of today's armies. He was a soldier of Rome! Remember that! He was a soldier of Caesar!! He was under iron discipline. There was no feeling in him. He had seen many crucifixions; he had officiated again and again; saw many men tormented on crosses. To him it was nothing to brood about, just a part of his everyday work. Not only was he a soldier of Rome, but he was also a stranger to God. He was a pagan; he was an idolater; he was not a Jew, certainly he was not a Christian, he was not a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether he had ever heard Christ preach out or not, I am not prepared to say. Had he been a disciple of Christ, I doubt seriously if he would have ever taken a part in the crucifixion. If he would have done nothing else, he might have given his life rather than watch that crucifixion, or he might have feigned sickness and been excused from it. Remember that not only was he a soldier of Rome, but he was a stranger to our conception of God. His gods were ruthless gods. His gods were harsh gods. His gods were idolatrous gods. His gods were not personal. They were vengeful deities living somewhere away from the haunts of men, taking part when they felt like it, moved by caprice instead of compassion in the affairs of those who were their devotees. We note one more thing about this centurion of closer interest to us. That he was a soldier of Rome does not apply to us. That he was a stranger to God does not apply to us either, because whether he was a Christian or not a Christian, you are not a stranger to God. You know that there is a God, a personal God, a living God. You might be a stranger to God in the sense that you are not a Christian, that you have never accepted Him as your personal God, that you have never trusted His son as your saviour, but not by the wildest, weakest, most wicked stretch of the most horrible imagining can anyone within the sound of my voice say that you are a stranger to God. There was that about that man that is common to everyone of us, and that is that he was a soul that needed salvation.
He was a soul who needed the pardon of his sins. He was a soul for whom Jesus Christ was dying on the Cross. He ... was a soul to be saved. So there … now … you have a description of the man … the one who preached Christ's funeral. A soldier of Rome with all that it entails of bitterness, harshness, blood-thirstiness, savagery, brutality, and coldness of heart. He was a pagan, a stranger to God, not knowing the Bible, nor the law of Moses, and no use for Jews and their religion except to mock them and laugh at them, but he was also a soul to be saved. Now ... what did he see on the Cross!! First of all, he saw a criminal, a criminal, a criminal, Jesus had been handed over to him by Pilate, the Roman governor-judge to be crucified. It was not within the realm or the province of this centurion, or any other soldier, to question the judgment of the Governor Pilate. Pilate said ... nail him to the cross, crucify him, and that was the end of it. He, the centurion, was not to question. He was not to reason, his superior officer, the governor has issued a command. The centurion was willing to throw himself into any sort of battle, kill as many as were required of him. This man was deserving of the Cross and had to be crucified. But the first thing he saw in the Lord Jesus Christ was a criminal, who had broken the law of Caesar and consequently, was being crucified in the awful execution of pain and agony because of his violation of the laws of Rome. But he watched Jesus Christ. He watched those two thieves being tied to their crosses, cursing/fighting/spitting into the faces of their executioners, using every kind of evil epithet until even his blood boiled in his veins and thought there here were men dying and all they could think about was curses, trying to break loose, trying to extend their lives an extra minute.
He watched as the nails cut into the hands and feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. He watched his spasms of pain, he watched his face grow ashen gray and his teeth bite into his lips until the blood flecked them, yet refusing to say a word. He saw a character such as he had never seen in his life. He had never seen a person like that. I say again, because he was the centurion, because the Jews were always rebelling against Rome and because so many of them were executed on crosses; I am certain that this centurion had seen scores of them die on their terrible crosses, but this man was different. He was a character! There was something about him that he had never seen before.
Third, he saw a conqueror, now watch it.
Don't go any further than I am leading you. He saw a man who was a conqueror over self, as a sheep before her shearing is dumb. Even so he opened not his mouth. The centurion was made to think by ... the silence of Jesus Christ on Calvary's Cross. He had conquered self. He could take that pain; he could take the ridicule and the cursing of the crowds and find nothing else to say except, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Even the centurion recognized a man who by some display of superhuman, some display of extraordinary power within himself, could transcend anything and everything that was done to him. Instead of cursing the people who were subjecting him to this indescribable pain, during that pain he hastened to bless them.
He saw a conqueror over his own flesh, over his own feelings. Which one of us ... when the pressing end comes upon us, does not start to complain, criticize, bewail, bemoan, and beweep our condition, but not so with the Lord Christ. Watch it now ... the centurion was all eyes, all ears. He had never seen anybody die on the cross in silence; and when this man did speak, he spoke words that showed he was not thinking about himself, except that cry, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" The centurion had seen men suffering, and he knew the pain to be terrible. He knew that the bursting of the blood vessels, that the crown of thorns imbedded in the head, that inhuman position, the cramp in his body, the twisting of the head against the true, when the saliva starting from the mouth of Christ ... in the face of all this, he saw the Galilean exercise divine power over himself. He saw a man who had conquered suffering.
Now ... what did the centurion say? He said two things and then inferred a third, and each one of those things applies to everyone of us. The first thing he said was, as I read it to you, "Certainly this was a righteous man." He said that Jesus Christ was a saint. He was a righteous man. He had heard Pilate say it, "I find no fault in this man." It is easy enough for us to see it, but we have 1900 years of Christian history. We have the New Testament, we have the resurrection, we have Christian assemblies, we know that Jesus Christ was a saint, beyond sainthood, above every other saint. The word saint could not possibly describe this cross-man. This rough, tough, rude, crude soldier who was used to talk of the barracks, who was used to the violence of the battlefield, who was used to the treachery and lies of his fellow men, who was used to every kind of evil in human character, yet recognizing that here was a saint. It took a whole lot more feeling on his part to say that "certainly this was a righteous man" than it takes for us to say that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Second, he said, as I read to you out of Matthew, "Surely, this was the Son of God."
Now please permit this. I'm not bragging with my knowledge of the Hebrew. There are some who will add to this and say, Truly this man was the Son of God. No, he didn't say that, He said, "Truly this was the Son of God." The Son of God. He knew that there was something different about him, something superior to ordinary humanity. Without any Bible, without any New Testament, without any resurrection, without any preaching, without any sort of any prepreparation, without radio, without religious literature, without Spiritual Songs, without anything of this kind, watching this man die the death of a criminal, a pagan said, " ... truly this was the Son of God." Yes, he said he was a saint, he said he was the Son of God. Then, by inference, he said a third thing with which all of us must agree.
If the centurion preaching the funeral sermon of the Lord Jesus Christ immediately upon his death told the truth, that Jesus Christ was a saint, that he was and is the Son of God, then the third thing applies, if he was a saint, if he is the Son of God, then he is the saviour of all mankind. He cannot be anything else for did not this man say, "I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly." Of Him it was said before He was born, "Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." yes, you and I can go further than this Centurion. This is not enough for us!! We do not satisfy our own minds, we do not satisfy our own consciences, we do not satisfy our own souls, we do not satisfy the gnawing of our own spirits when we say righteous man, Son of God. No, we must take that ultimate step and say, He is the saviour of mankind and even that is not enough. You may believe that He is the saviour of mankind, and die in your sins, and burn in hell. Yes, you must believe that He is your Saviour, and make him your Saviour. The very fact that He's the Saviour of mankind, the light of the world will rise up at the bar of God's witness against you, unless you make Him your Saviour.
Have you ... have you made Him your Saviour? Do you know ... beyond the shadow of a doubt that He is your Saviour? That His blood has washed away your sins, that you have been regenerated by His Holy Spirit? You say, of course I know, I'm a church member. That is not enough. You say, of course 1 know, I have been baptized. That is not enough. You say, of course I know, I have taken the Lord's Supper. That is not enough. You say, of course 1 know, 1 live right. That is not enough. Of course I know, I have made a profession of faith, but that is not enough.
Have you . . . had an experience with the Lord Jesus Christ? 1 have had people say to me, let me show you something and teach you a lesson that, please God, you'll never forget. How many of you believe that we must not forget. How many of you believe that we must not depend on feeling. We must depend on faith. Will you raise your hands? Oh, stretch them high, turn around and look. All right, how many of you believe in heartfelt religion? Please raise your hands. Well, what's the matter with you. What do you want heartfelt religion for? If you are not supposed to depend on feeling but on faith, what are you trying to do? I wouldn't give you a plugged nickel for all the faith in the world that doesn't result in feeling. Oh, if you are truly born again, you will know it. Don't tell me you don't know when you became a Christian because I won't believe you. Unless you are not telling the truth, you know the time when you were a sinner and the time you trusted Christ as your saviour. That is how I was converted at age 23. It is easy for me to remember, but my son, my daughter were converted at 6, not under my preaching. I was not even there. They can tell you the time when they trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal saviour. Hear me my friends, the problem is this.
Dr. Truitt told a story one time that I shall never tire of repeating to myself and to others. He was conducting the annual revival in Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and in that school at that time, there was a young man, brilliant as the day is long, gentle, kind, courteous, fine, but not a Christian. Oh he wasn’t wicked, he was not living an immoral life, but he was just not a Christian. He had a mental block of some kind that kept him from trusting Christ. They made an appointment with him and Dr. Truitt in the University President office. The two sat across the desk from each other. Dr. Truitt tried to reason with the young man about Christ and the Scriptures, his salvation and everything else that a preacher could say. The young man would answer, not bitterly, not harshly, yet answered by asking questions.
Finally, going for almost two hours, the preacher stood up as the young man stood up. The preacher walked around the desk and stretched out his hand to the young man and said, "Sir, you are highly educated, I appreciate your courtesy, I have nothing against you except the deepest compassion of my soul. I wish I could help you." The young man looked down at the floor and then raised his face. The preacher said, "Will you give me your hand as I tell you that I am going to pray for you." The man looked up, his eyes filled with unshed tears, and he said, "Dr. Truitt, I want to ask you a question." "All right, sir." "Dr. Truitt, I want you to promise me that you will answer me not as a preacher, but man to man." Dr. Truitt smiled as he said to the young man, "You know I am a preacher, and consequently biased in that direction, but I promise you the best I know how to answer you man to man. What is your question?"
The young man, still looking into the face of the preacher, said, "Dr. Truitt, is Jesus real to you? Is Jesus real to you?" I'll never forget when I first heard Dr. Truitt tell it in the Assembly of my seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He had a habit of moving first to one foot and then to the other as though he were placing himself on solid footing. He raised his right hand and stretched out his fingers as far out as they would go, and then he clinched it into a fist, then opened it again without saying a word to the lad. He raised his left hand and repeated, first the right hand, then the left hand. Then Dr. Truitt stepped forward to the platform and said, "Young gentlemen and young ladies, I told that young man that Jesus Christ was more real to me than the flesh on my bones and the skin on my flesh, and the young man threw his arms around my neck and pressed his tear wet face against my breast to say, Dr. Truitt, I'll take Jesus Christ as my Saviour on your recommendation."
Now you people reading this message do not have to take Jesus on my recommendation. You do not have to take him on the centurion's recommendation. Take one step in the direction of Jesus Christ, and you will know that he is the Son of God, the saviour of mankind and your saviour … but you have to take that step, no one can take it for you. You are not waiting for him. He is waiting for you. Take that first step!! You will find his loying arms extended to welcome you. You're SomeOne Special to God. He died especially for you.
THE GOOD IS EVER THE ENEMY OF THE BEST.™
Mark 8:36
YOU HAVE HIM AT CONVERSION HE GETS YOU AT CONSECRATION