Who has believed our message and to whom has
the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up
before him like a tender shoot and like a root
out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty
to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance
that we should desire him. He was despised and
rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar
with pain. Like one from whom people hide their
faces, he was despised and we held him in low
esteem. Surely He took up our pain and bore our
suffering, yet we considered Him punished by
God, stricken by Him and afflicted. But He was
pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed
for our iniquities. The punishment that brought
us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are
healed. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each
of us has turned to our own way, and the Lord
has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was
oppressed and afflicted. Yet he did not open
his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent.
So he did not open his mouth. By oppression and
judgment he was taken away. Yet who of this generation
protested? He was cut off from the land of the
living. For the transgressions of my people he
was punished. He was assigned a grave with the
wicked, and with the rich in his death. Though
he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in
his mouth. Yet it was the Lord's will to crush
him and cause him to suffer. And though the Lord
makes his life an offering for sin, he will see
his offspring and prolong his days, and the will
of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he
has suffered, he will see the light of life and
be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous
servant will justify many, and he will bear their
iniquities. Right, Luke chapter 23 verse 32 to
43. When they came to the place called the skull
they crucified him there among with the crew
Along with the criminals one on his right and
the other on his left Jesus said Father forgive
them for they do not know what they are doing
and they divided up his clothes by casting lots
The people stood watching and the rule is even
sneered at him They said he saved others let
him save himself if he is God's Messiah the chosen
one The soldiers also came up and mocked him
They offered him wine and vinegar and said, If
you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.
There was written notice above him which read,
This is the king of the Jews. One of the criminals
who hung there hurled insults at him. Aren't
you the Messiah? Save yourself and us. But the
other criminals rebuked him. Don't you fear God?
He said. Since you are under the same sentence,
we are punished justly, for we are getting what
our deeds deserve. but this man has done nothing
wrong. Then he said, Jesus remember me when you
come into your kingdom. Jesus answered him, truly
I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.
Morning everyone. Can everyone hear me? If you
can't hear me during the service just tell me
to speak into the mic. Okay? Well Michael is
going to be preaching on Sunday. He's going to
be preaching I believe on 1 Corinthians 15. Is
that right Michael? And he says, Paul says, I'm
here to remind you of the gospel because it's
of first importance. Is that right? Yep. And
that's what I'm here to do today. So you're going
to get a double whammy of the gospel. Okay? And
we need to preach the gospel to ourselves every
day, don't we? Let's be fair. So before we start,
let's pray. Let's ask God for help. And let's
ask him to open our hearts and be receptive to
his word. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your
word. That's a lamp to our feet. We thank you
most of all for your glorious and indescribable
gift of your son, Jesus Christ. Help us today
to be lifted up and to be edified and built up.
by the wonderful promises that we find everything
in your son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, we gathered
here today to remember Jesus' remarkable sacrifice
for each and every one of us. He went through
a mock of a trial. He was spat on. He was beaten,
flogged. made to wear a crown of thorns and then
executed as a criminal on a cross and rejected
by his own people. This was no ordinary death.
This was a remarkable and selfless act of pure
love for his people. And we should never take
this for granted. And if we're really honest,
each one of us here today contributed to his
death. Why? Because we're all sinful and so Jesus
had to endure such a painful death so our sins
could be forgiven There if there is a famous
saying there are two things certainly life death
and taxes And we all know this is absolutely
true Death is horrible. It's ugly and it separates
us from our loved ones and it's final Many people
do many things to preserve their life, like going
on good health diets, going to the gym every
day, taking all these recommended supplements
that cost you a fortune. However, in the end,
death is inevitable. I want you to come on a
journey with me. I want you to imagine it's just
coming up to your 21st birthday and you come
down with a deadly virus. And there's a new vaccine
that's just come out that will cure this deadly
disease. The crunch of the matter is the vaccine
is very expensive. It's $100 ,000. And you have
a choice. You can use the $100 ,000 that's just
matured in your trust account, or you can spend
it up, the $100 ,000, living it up for a few
days. Well, I take an educated guess and say
that you would most likely use the $100 ,000
to pay for the vaccine that will save your life.
So by taking the vaccine, you have managed to
prolong your life but not keep it. Ultimately,
you will still die one day because death is certain.
I don't know if any of you have watched any of
the Final Destiny movies. The main theme of Final
Destination is that death comes for everyone,
anytime and anywhere, no matter what. No matter
how many chances you get, death will get you
in the end. You can cheat death, but you cannot
escape it. And this is true for everyone, is
it not? We see less graveyard in our towns because
it's a reminder of death. No one likes talking
about death, do they? It's not a great way of
making friends. And why do we die? Well, most
of you will know that it's to do with sin. Sin
and death go together. We're not meant to die.
God gave Adam and Eve the tree of life. And so
if they had not taken the forbidden fruit, they
would still be enjoying life in the Garden of
Eden. However, as you all know, they ignored
God's command, took the forbidden fruit, and
sin entered into the world, and death followed.
Now sorry if this all seems a bit doom and gloom.
But it's really important that we accept that
we're all going to die. And it's also important
that we know that Jesus has given us a lifeline.
He has given us eternal life through the Son
Jesus Christ. But we have to ask the next question,
and that is, how are we to obtain this free gift
of eternal life? Well, the answer to this question
is in our text, what was read out earlier by
Joel. about the short conversation between Jesus
and the thief on the cross. And we'll look at
that a bit later, but first let's have a look
at the context so we can get a better understanding
of the passage that we're looking at. Now interesting,
the conversation between Jesus and the thief
on the cross is only recorded in Luke. In all
of the three gospels, it just says that Jesus
was crucified between two robbers and in John
two others. Now crucifixion was a painful death
and could take days to die. Normally you would
die from asphyxiation or suffocation. That is
why they broke both the criminal legs next to
Jesus. Why? Because the Sabbath was the next
day and they did not want criminals hanging on
a cross during the Sabbath, which was a religious
day. so they broke both the criminal legs, and
consequently they would have both died by asphyxiation.
But interestingly, Jesus did not have his legs
broken, because he had already died, probably
because of the severe flogging he'd just received.
And this fulfilled scripture from Psalm 3420.
He protects all his bones, not one of them will
be broken. Now crucifixion was done as a deterrent
to keep order. and serve as a warning for people
if they did not conform to the Roman government.
And here we have Jesus and two thieves, either
side being executed in Golgotha, which was probably
on a hill in Jerusalem. Many people who were
crucified in Jesus' day would be hung on a cross
at the side of the road. And you could have hundreds
of people being crucified at the same time for
all to see. And this, again, was to serve as
a deterrent. and to keep order in the Roman Empire.
But why did Jesus have to die? I think Mark,
me and Mark were having a conversation earlier
about this. Why did Jesus have to die? And who
was responsible for Jesus' death? Was it Herod?
Yes. Was it Pontius Pilate? Yes. Was it the Jewish
leaders of the day, the Sanedrin? Yes. Was it
the Jewish people? Crying out, crucifying, crucifying,
yes. But let me get more personal. Were we responsible
for Jesus' death? Amen to that, sister. Absolutely.
Jesus' death was all to do with the atonement
of sin. It tells us in Romans 3 that God put
Jesus forward as a propitiation by his blood
to be received by faith. Propitiation is a fancy
word which means to take God's anger. upon himself
to appease God's anger. God hates sin and the
only way sin could be punished and appeased was
the perfect sacrifice Jesus Christ who took on
himself God's wrath and anger. So who was responsible
for Jesus's death? All of the above. However,
there is one other person I have not mentioned
who was ultimately responsible for Jesus's death.
Can anyone tell me who that was? Who said God?
Well done, Karen. You get a prize after the message.
Absolutely, God. If God is sovereign, ultimately
God is responsible. Now how do I know this? Because
Joel read this out earlier. Have a look what
it says in Isaiah. stricken by him and afflicted.
And he also says, yes, we consider him punished
by God. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity
of us all. So God is ultimately responsible for
Jesus' death. Why is this truth important? Because
it shows us how much God loves us. God so loved
us so much, he was willing to do what it takes
to sacrifice his one only son and Jesus was no
bystander in all of this Jesus said to his father
didn't he take this cup but your will be done
sweating tears of blood Jesus could have called
down a legion of angels to get him up down from
the cross but he chose not to because if he did
we would still be in our sins Jesus said I can
give my life and I can take it up So what we
have here is God and Jesus' love being demonstrated
in harmony by what they both did. What a remarkable
gospel. So we should never see our worth in our
family or in our house or possessions, but in
God alone for what he has done for us. See, love
is a verb, isn't it? It's a doing word and we
see this most clearly in what Jesus has done
for us. Interestingly, the Jewish leaders and
his own people were mocking Jesus saying, if
you're the son of God, come down from the cross,
save yourself. However, what they didn't realize
is if he had have come down from the cross, which
would have been much easier option for Jesus,
we'd still be in our sins awaiting eternal punishment.
So if we cannot escape death and death will come
to us all, Is there anything we can do about
this awful predicament? And the answer is yes.
There is Jesus Christ, he gives us a lifeline
and a way out. He has conquered death once and
for all and he has risen and he's at the right
hand of God, interceding for us and he's offering
each one of us eternal life. But how are we to
obtain this free gift? Well, there's generally
two ways that people seek God's forgiveness and
the free gift of eternal life. There's the right
way and there's the wrong way. So let's have
a look at the wrong way first and then we'll
look at the right way. You see we need to get
this right because there's a lot at stake here.
There's no mistake that the thief on the cross
who threw himself on the mercy of Jesus had done
nothing or very little good. in his life. Let's
be fair, his time was running out and he didn't
really have time to try and put things right.
So this rules out a gospel of good works, doesn't
it? If we think we can earn our way into heaven
by good works, we're just deceiving ourselves.
There are legalistic churches out there today
that preach a gospel of works which gives you
a set of rules to follow. such as you must attend
two Bible studies a week, you must attend church
twice a week, you must recite and learn the Catechism
and so on. Now the problem with this is that
we all fall short. We can't keep all these rules
and all this will do is lead you to despair and
want to give up. We do not follow a moral gospel
as though Jesus came as an example of how we
should live. Yes, he did this, but much more.
He took our place on the cross. There's other
churches who preach that if you do not speak
in tongues, you cannot be saved. I had a charismatic
person come to my door and ask me if I could
speak in tongues. I said to him, I can speak
in Yorkshire. But seriously, I said no. I didn't
even know what he was talking about. And he said,
well, you can't be saved unless you speak in
tongues. Again, works based. There's other churches
who teach the health and prosperity gospel. If
you're a true believer, you'll be healthy and
wealthy. But this just sets people up to fall,
doesn't it? Because people get sick and when
they do, they either fall away from their faith
or believe it's a result of sin that leads to
despair. You see, if we try and earn God's favour
by anything we try and do for God, we are subtracting
from the work of Christ. If we could somehow
please God by good works, what was the point
of Jesus coming in the first place? And by trying
to please God by good works, we're robbing Jesus
from his glory. We should never get the root
and the fruit of the gospel mixed up. The root
of the gospel is Jesus died for our sins because
he was perfect in every way and rose from the
dead on the third day. And he's now at the father's
side. The fruit of the gospel is how we live
knowing this truth. If we have a deep understanding
of how much God loves us and what he has done
for us by sacrificing his one and only son, then
we'll have a deeper appreciation. of what God
has done for us which should lead us to want
to please God by doing good not because we have
to but because we want to and this should be
true of every Christian. But if we think we can
please God in any other way we have got it completely
wrong and back to front. Now Michael preached
the whole letter of Galatians which warned us
about trying to please God by good works. So
why am I bringing this up again? Because we're
all prone to fall back in our old ways, are we
not? And think this is this way because our old
self is always at work. We need to be reminded
constantly that there is no place in the Kingdom
of God for righteous people. What did it say
earlier? What did Joel say? That Jesus died for
the ungodly, not for the righteous, for the ungodly.
Have a look with me at a good illustration of
this. It's in Luke. It's the parable of the Pharisee
and the tax collector. To some who were confident
of their own righteousness and looked down on
everyone else, Jesus told his parable. Two men
went to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and
the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood
by himself and prayed, God, I thank God that
I'm not like other people, robbers, evildoers,
adulterers, or even like the tax collector. I
fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.
But the tax collector stood at a distance. He
would not even look up to heaven, but beat his
breast and said, God, Have mercy on me, a sinner."
I tell you, this man rather than the other went
home justified before God. For all those who
exalt themselves will be humbled and those who
humble themselves will be exalted. So the question
is, which one are you? Are you the tax collector
or the Pharisee? So what is the right response
to God? Well, we have a fabulous illustration
of how we should approach God in the conversation
between the thief on the cross and Jesus. If
you notice, the first thing the thief says to
the other thief is, do you not fear God? He tells
us in Proverbs that the beginning of wisdom is
the fear of God. In other words, we should have
a deep reverence for who God is. Doesn't mean
we should be terrified of God. but we should
have a deep respect and a deep reverence for
God. The second thing the thief says is, since
you are under the same sentence, we are punished
justly for what we are getting, so we are getting
what our deeds deserve. But this man has done
nothing wrong. You see, the thief on the cross
now is confessing he's a sinner in need of God's
grace. And at the same time, He's acknowledging
Jesus's perfect life because he says this man
has done nothing wrong. And this should be the
same for all of us. If we cannot see our own
sin and our need for a savior, we are completely
lost. Can you say that you honestly deserve God's
wrath and judgment? and condemnation because
you fall completely short of God's standard.
If you can't, I do not believe you've understood
the Gospel and you're on slippery ground. There
is no place for pride in God's Kingdom. As Christians
we have to be honest with God. I don't know if
you remember Nick's sermon from Trinity a few
weeks ago. telling us that we need to be honest
about our shortfalls with God. See, God doesn't
want perfection. If he did, Jesus died for nothing.
No, he wants our honesty. So we need to have
a true understanding of ourselves. And if we're
honest, we've all fallen short of God's standard.
And we need to admit that to God and ask him
for forgiveness. I mean, that's why we're a confessional
church, isn't it? That's why we confess our sins
every week. And in our personal world, we confess
our sins every day, don't we? We are no different
from the thief on the cross. You know, when I
was in prison, I was in the middle of a service
and a guy came up to me and said, Tony, we love
you. You're just like one of us. I didn't know
whether to take that as a compliment or an insult.
And then when I thought about it, I thought,
you know what? He's right. I am just like one
of you. I'm a guilty sinner in need of God's
grace. And we should all be able to say the same.
Can you identify yourself with the thief on the
cross? Or do you somehow think you're better
than him? You see, it's easy for us to think,
well, thank God I'm not like that thief on the
cross. However, when we compare ourselves to
Jesus, well, we're stuffed, aren't we? Let's
be fair. We're just as bad. as the thief on the
cross and deserve God's full wrath. Do you truly
believe you're a sinner? And if the answer is
yes, that's great. If your answer is no, well,
you need to repent. We then need to see Jesus
Christ as our perfect sacrifice because as the
thief said, he has done nothing wrong. He lived
a sinless life. perfect in every way. He kept
the holy law perfectly. He was the perfect sacrifice
for our sins. Do you believe Jesus is perfect
in every way? Do you believe that he's God in
the flesh? If Jesus isn't perfect, he could not
be the perfect sacrifice, could he? And thirdly,
the thief on the cross says to Jesus, Jesus,
remember me when you come into your kingdom.
This man throws himself on Jesus as mercy, and
we need to do the same. He's nothing to lose,
has he? Let's be fair, he's going to die. And
yet he knows that Jesus can save him. He's done
nothing good in his life, I would imagine. I
would imagine he's never went to Bible study.
If you asked him what justification by faith
was, he'd probably look at you a bit funny. He
had very little knowledge of Jesus. But you know
what? He knew enough to put his complete trust
in Jesus. I mean you could look at this man and
think he's either the most unluckiest man that
ever lived by being crucified or he was the luckiest
man that ever lived because he was crucified
right next to Jesus. But he had enough faith
to put it in Jesus. Now it doesn't matter whether
you have little faith or you have a lot of faith.
What matters? is where you put your faith in.
The thief on the cross, interestingly, was mocking
Jesus prior to this, before he came to his senses,
just like the other thief, and this is recorded
in the other gospels. But he has had a light
bulb moment and realizes he needs Jesus, and
he repents from his former life and puts his
faith in Jesus. Now, here repentance mentioned
many times in sermons, but what does it mean?
repentance, true repentance mean? We're not to
get repentance and remorse mixed up. Remorse
is when you're sorry for what you've done. So
for example, I could be sorry for beating Linda
up during an argument, feel deeply sorry for
what I've done, but then the following week I
do the same thing. This is not repentance, this
is remorse. Another example is Judas, who betrayed
Jesus for a few silver coins, and he was deeply
sorry for what he had done. However, he then
goes on and hangs himself. That's not repentance,
that's remorse. Repentance is a change of art.
For example, Peter denied Jesus three times.
But then later on Jesus approached Peter and
asked him three times. Do you love me Peter?
Peter replied three times Yes, and then Jesus
said well go and feed my sheep and that's exactly
what Peter did You see repentance is a change
of heart. It's going in a different direction.
I'm going in this one direction away from God
That is true repentance, which is a change of
heart a change of living, a change of lifestyle?
Have you truly pended? Are you following Jesus?
Are you trusting in the work and the person of
Jesus Christ? Or are you trying to please God
by doing good works? Or are you doing good works
because of your deep love and appreciation of
what God has done for you? They seem similar,
but they are complete opposites. Now, some of
you might be thinking, well, I've been a Christian
all my life. Why should someone else like that
thief on the cross come to Jesus on his deathbed
and be saved? It's not fair. Well, the truth
of it is why should God save any of us? If he
decides to save some and not others, is he not
just? Just like the workers in the vineyard where
some had worked all day and the others only worked
an hour. they both received the same wages. Is
that farewell according to God? Yes, because
they both agreed. We should be glad if someone
has come to know Jesus on their deathbed. This
should be a great encouragement to all of us.
I'm sure some of you out there have loved ones
who've died and you're not sure whether they
were saved. I know I have. Well this passage
gives us confidence because it shows us that
God can call you the last minute before you die
because it's all to do with grace and not works.
Now for those who are here today thinking, I'm
never going to be good enough Tony, so why accept
Jesus as my Lord and Saviour? My answer is yes,
you'll never be good enough. That's the point.
Why should you accept Jesus your Lord and Saviour?
Because it's Him doing all the work. It's grace.
You'll never be good enough, but Jesus was good
enough. And if you put your trust in Jesus, who
has lived the life you can't and died the death
you can't, you'll be saved. Jesus will give you
his perfect life and credit it to you and meet
you where you're at. Believe me, there's no one
beyond God's forgiveness because it's all about
God's free gift. For instance, at Christmas you
receive gifts from family and friends, don't
you? Did you buy those gifts? Did you get your
hand in your pocket and buy them? No. Did you
work for those gifts? No. They were given to
you. They were free. All you had to do is accept
them. Well, that's the same as the gospel. You
can't earn it. You can't work for it. You can't
pay for it. It's free. And it's very humbling,
isn't it? Now, this should be very humbling to
each and every one of us because he gets rid
of any pride. we may have and humbles us because
there is nothing we can do to save ourselves.
If our salvation rests on God's free gift and
we can't do anything to contribute towards it,
it should make us all the more appreciative of
what God has done for us. And the last thing
I want to look at is what does Jesus mean when
he says to the thief on the cross, today you'll
be with me in paradise. Well, I believe Jesus
is alluding to heaven when he says paradise.
The Garden of Eden was like a paradise, which
was a typology of heaven. And here Jesus is talking
about the real heaven. So what can we learn from
this? Firstly, Jesus, when he died, he didn't
go to hell for three days, as some may believe.
No, his punishment was crucifixion on the cross
and his father turning his face away he could
have not gone to hell because he tells a thief
on the cross today you will be with me in paradise
not tomorrow but today why is this important
for us to know well as we talked about earlier
none of us can escape death it will come to us
all that is physical death however If, like the
thief on the cross, you've repented and solely
put your trust in Jesus, you will never, ever
be separated from God and Jesus. The second you
take your last breath, you will be with Jesus
in paradise. How good is that? Remember what
Paul says in Romans 8? Neither death nor life
will ever separate us from the love of God that
is in Christ Jesus. Nothing in this life and
nothing in the life to come will separate us
from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ.
No, brothers and sisters, we will not be put
in a hole and become a nothingness as some believe
when we die. We will immediately be with Jesus
in paradise. Wow, that should be a great motivation,
shouldn't it, for all of us to follow Jesus and
to do good. Not because God can love us more.
How can he? How can he love us more when he allowed
his son to die such a terrible death? Is that
not enough? Not only that, but he has promised
you and me eternal life. Your name, if you're
a Christian, is written in the book of life.
So please don't wait until you're on your dying
deathbed like the thief on the cross. The offer
of salvation is here and now. Your life will
never be the same, but take that offer. So a
quick recap, what have we learnt today? Well
firstly, none of us can escape death, we all
will die. Secondly is, Jesus is our lifeline
and can reverse this awful predicament by giving
us eternal life. Thirdly, for us to be right
with God, we have to accept that we are sinful
in every way and deserve God's wrath. Accept
Jesus as our perfect sacrifice and trust that
Jesus fully died for our sins and through ourselves
at his mercy. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we,
if we're truthful, each one of us, our thoughts
condemn us. We do things wrong every day. We
cannot keep your perfect standards. But Heavenly
Father, we know someone who did. Your perfect
Son, Jesus Christ. Help us always to keep our
eyes upon him, the perfector of our faith, the
one who came to do one thing, to die for us,
to take our place and to give us his righteousness
in all our sins and everything that we've done,
all our lives, was thrown on him on the cross.
Thank you so much for this indescribable gift,
Heavenly Father. You're a wonderful God, a very
generous God. I just pray today that we won't
keep this wonderful, wonderful promise, the gospel,
to ourselves, that we will be always willing
to give an answer to what we believe, to our
brothers, sisters, neighbors, anyone we come
in contact with. And we ask all of this in the
mighty name of Jesus. Amen.