The following is a chapter summary from the new book, Standing Near the Cross by Pastor Greg Neal. This book is excellent for personal Bible study, group studies like Sunday school, study for a discipleship program, or curriculum for college or Bible institute classes. You can learn more at Berean Publications.
Chapter Five – The Centurion: The Unlikely Witness
While crucifixion may have been the most barbaric means of execution in the days when Jesus walked the earth, the scriptures tells of one man who perhaps had grown callused to the process. He had witnessed criminals put to death this way in the past. On one particular day, he stood near a Cross, just fulfilling his duties as a Roman centurion, but the experience he had there was like no other. He went to work that morning like he had so often in times past; however, the realization that he would have before the day was out moved him to make a verbal declaration that he perhaps could have never imagine proclaiming.
In this chapter of Standing Near the Cross, we study how the Roman centurion, a man whose proper name we are never told, was affected so deeply that his declaration of seven short words gives testimony of his belief. This process is explained in depth, showing how that by standing witness to this momentous day changed an unsaved bystander into a proclaiming believer. Readers will see in this chapter how the transforming power of the Gospel can and will convert the most unlikely bystander. This study reinforces our responsibility as believers to offer the Gospel liberally to all, so that everyone will have the opportunity to echo what the centurion said that day, …Truly this was the Son of God.
Pastor Neal, through his preaching and his counseling, displays the compassionate heart of a pastor, follows the true leading of the Holy Spirit, and expresses a fervent desire to see lost souls come to know Christ. It is his ultimate desire to see the greater Jacksonville area reached for the cause of Christ and for revival to come to Northeast Florida.
