Would you open your Bible with me please to the Gospel of Luke, the 23rd chapter, where
we'll begin reading in verse 32 for our Scripture this morning.
Luke chapter 23, beginning with verse 32.
Two other men, both criminals, were led out with Jesus to be executed.
When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him 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.
They divided up his clothes by casting lots.
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.
The soldiers also came up and mocked him.
They offered him wine vinegar and said, If you're the king of the Jews, save yourself.
There was a 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 Christ?
Save yourself and us.
But the other criminal 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, I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.
We think of the cross of Jesus as uniting and bringing people together.
At the cross, God and man are reconciled, at the cross, Jew and Gentile are brought together
into one new person, the church.
At the cross, one person is reconciled to another.
But there is another opposite perspective that is also true, and that is that the cross
separates.
A statement that Jesus made earlier in his ministry is one of the most perplexing of
all that he made.
He said, Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth.
I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
Matthew chapter 10 verse 34.
You need to look at the context to understand what Jesus meant when he said that.
You see, Jesus brings with himself an element of separation and division.
For when one chooses to follow him, his pathway then splits from those who reject him.
And so friendships have ended.
Families have been divided because of the cross of Jesus.
The cross of Jesus separates as well as unites.
His cross proved to be a place of separation between two men who were perhaps partners
in crime.
The two men that we read about in the text in Luke.
The cross of Jesus separates humanity, all of whom are as undeserving as these two thieves,
into two groups.
The redeemed and the reproachers.
Those who are the saved and those who are the lost.
God does not divide humanity into two groups based upon those who are the deserving of
salvation and those who are the undeserving of salvation.
That is not the division.
All are undeserving.
But the cross does divide humanity into two groups called the redeemed and the reproachers.
You see, grace by definition is given to those who have no claim on salvation, whatever.
There's an illustration in these two undeserving thieves that we need to examine more closely
as we think about what they shared in common.
It really was a great deal.
In the first place, they shared sin by their births.
Both of them were born sinners, just like all of us are born sinners.
And because we have that nature of being a sinner, when we get old enough to act out
our will, we sin.
We perform the deeds of sin.
We act out sin because we are sinners by birth and by nature.
Those two thieves, like the rest of us, shared in sin by their birth.
And then they shared in crime in society.
We don't know the particulars of it.
The language says that they were thieves, that they were criminals.
It may be that they were associated with Barabbas, who had by this time on that morning of Jesus'
crucifixion already been released.
These two were not released.
They were taken out to the place of execution.
And that tells us the third thing that they had in common, and that is judgment by the
government.
Rome had arrested them, had tried them in some fashion, and now they had been judged
and were being taken out to the cross that that judgment might be fulfilled.
There's a fourth thing that they share in common, and that is blasphemy toward Christ.
In Matthew chapter 27 verse 44, it is very clear that when they were first crucified
and hung in place, both of the thieves blasphemed Christ.
They both hurled their insults and mockery at Him.
They shared that in common.
And finally, they shared in common an unworthiness before God.
They deserved condemnation, not only by Rome, but by God, because of their sin.
These men were thieves, and the Bible makes it clear that there will not be a thief in
heaven unless he's been forgiven.
First Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 10 lists, among other things, thieves as those who cannot
inherit the kingdom of God.
And of course, the fact is, whatever expression of sin there is in our lives, it prohibits
us from entrance into the kingdom of God.
It may not be an action, it may be an attitude, it may not be things we've done with our
hands, it may be words with our mouths, but it is our sin that separates us from God.
These thieves shared in common an unworthiness before God.
They deserved condemnation, just like you and me.
But the wonderful story of the text is that the cross separated the two thieves.
What is it that caused the difference between them?
Well, it was what happened as they were dying next to Jesus.
One on either side of them.
The text tells us that in the first place, one of the thieves repented.
That is, he changed his mind.
The word itself is not used, but it's clear from the words that he does utter that there
is a profound change in one of the thieves.
He begins the morning on the cross, blaspheming Christ, and changes his mind about Christ
and about his crimes.
He accepted responsibility for what he had done.
He acknowledged his own guilt.
He condemned himself and declared that Christ was innocent.
What was it that caused the thief to repent?
Had he heard something during the trial of Jesus as he was perhaps in the praetorium
being prepared for crucifixion?
Had he witnessed the crowd?
Had he listened to them as they were marched along out to the hill called Calvary?
Did he listen to what the crowd was saying to Jesus?
Did he watch Jesus as he was nailed to his cross and see the contrast?
One of our newspapers this morning gives rather graphic detail of some of the torture the
Iraqis used in their incursion in Kuwait.
It's absolutely inhuman.
And sad to say, not altogether unusual in this world near the 21st century.
But it nearly sickens your stomach to read some of the things which were done to other
human beings.
None of those things surpassed the cruelty of crucifixion.
The person brought out to the hill was laid down upon that crossbar.
Normally, the one who was being crucified had to be held down by several soldiers if
not tied down to his cross beam before they could force his hands open and nail the nails
right into his hands or into his wrist wherever they chose to do it.
He screamed in agony, cursed those who were crucifying him.
Once they had done that deed, they picked up that cross beam with the thief nailed to
it now.
And with a rope that was up over the stake that was upright, they pulled that cross beam
up into place and nailed it there with his writhing human being hanging by his hands.
They would put him up just far enough for his feet to be off the ground, usually about
two feet only.
And then they would hold his feet and they would drive another spike through his feet
to hold his body on that cross.
There he would hang in agony as he bled, as he was tortured and asphyxiated, and over
the course of several hours finally died.
It was a bloody and torturous scene.
Perhaps this one thief saw how Jesus responded to all of this as a lamb led forth to slaughter.
Have you ever seen a lamb led forth to slaughter?
He skips right up to the executioner.
He doesn't know what's coming.
A sheep doesn't.
Jesus did.
And suddenly he's dead.
Jesus gave himself to the cross, submitted himself to the soldiers who nailed him there.
Perhaps it was his dignity as he was stripped naked and then hung as a sacrifice before
the gawking eyes of his mockers.
Something, something profound changed the mind of this thief.
And he repented.
He changed his attitude.
Secondly, I see that he believed in Jesus' claim to be the Messiah.
He said to him, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
How did he know about a kingdom?
Well, he was able to look up and read the inscription on the cross, this is the king
of the Jews.
Maybe that's what planted the idea in his mind.
Perhaps it was the word of the mockers.
For they said, if you're the king of the Jews, save yourself.
Maybe it was something again at the trial.
We don't know, but somehow this man believed that Jesus was the king, he was the Messiah.
There was some gracious work of the Holy Spirit revealing who Christ was to him.
And having repented, he then believed.
And thirdly, I notice that he publicly confesses his repentance and faith.
There is no thought in his mind of those standing around the cross weeping or mocking or gawking.
His eyes were fixed on Jesus alone as he says to him, remember me.
Fourthly, he appealed to Christ to save him with those very words, Jesus, remember me.
He had heard Jesus already utter from the cross, Father, forgive them.
It seems inherent in the thieves' words is a conviction of existence beyond death.
Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
They were not coming down from those crosses alive, no one ever did.
But he says, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
He believed that Christ was the Messiah and had a kingdom yet to come.
He appealed to Christ to save him.
And fifth, Christ promised to save the thief.
The thief had said, Jesus, remember me.
Jesus said, you shall be with me.
He said, remember me when you come, when you come.
Jesus said, today.
He said, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
Jesus said, today in paradise.
Jesus promised to save this repentant, believing thief.
Miriam Lefebvre Krauss wrote these words, three men shared death upon a hill, but only
one man died.
The other two, a thief and God himself, made rendezvous.
Three crosses still are born up Calvary's hill, where sin still lifts them high.
Upon the one sag broken men who, cursing, die.
Another holds the praying thief, or those who, penitent as he, still find the Christ
beside them on the tree.
There was no ritual.
There is no baptism.
There is no church membership.
There is no opportunity to do good works, to add to simple faith.
Because you see, the gospel is by grace through faith plus nothing.
He began the morning with blasphemy, and as a criminal.
And yet a dramatic revolution took place in the soul of this one thief.
He had witnessed Christ's submission in silence as the Lamb of God.
He had heard the prayer for forgiveness and claimed it for himself.
He saw and heard the mocking throng, but canceled that out of his own life and witnessed to
the fact that Christ is truly the Messiah.
So the cross of Jesus forever separated those two thieves, those compatriots in crime.
It forever separated them, not just as they died, but for all of eternity.
Now remember, both were undeserving.
The difference was that one repented and one refused.
There are several observations I make on the text based upon our study.
One is that the work of Jesus on his cross was sufficient.
Jesus said, you will be with me today in paradise.
When Jesus died on the cross, his spirit did not go to hell, contrary to the Apostle's
Creed.
He went to Hades, the place, the realm of the dead, but he did not go to the burning
fiery hell.
His work was finished at the cross, and he himself said, today, my friend, you will be
with me in paradise.
And yet there are those today who think to offer him again in a mass or in some other
ritual, who think that Jesus must freshly be offered again for sins.
But the Bible says that Jesus' sacrifice 2,000 years ago was once and for all time
sufficient.
It was sufficient for the thief who believed, as it is sufficient for all who will believe
today.
The sacrifice was sufficient even for a thief.
Someone may say, well, I'm worse than a thief.
I care not what terms you may use to describe the depth of the guilt that you may feel for
what you have done in your life.
I want you to know that in Jesus Christ there is forgiveness.
The shedding of His blood on the cross of Calvary was sufficient for whatever sins may
be a part of your record.
There is nothing that is beyond the power of God to forgive and to wash away by the
blood of Christ.
Someone says, you just don't know.
Yes, I do know what Christ has done.
I don't know what you've done.
But I know that Jesus is able to save you.
His work on the cross was sufficient in that day as it is today.
Secondly, Christ enjoyed the fruit of His suffering even before it was finished.
The thief was among those who were purchased, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.
Go back with me to the book of Isaiah for just a moment to the 53rd chapter.
The Gospel in Isaiah, where we have this graphic prophecy of the death of Christ written more
than 700 years before Jesus died.
Verse 4 says, Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered
Him stricken by God, smitten by Him and afflicted, but He was pierced for our transgressions.
He was bruised, crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.
We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord
has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Let me just take a moment.
Do you remember the chorus from the Messiah here?
It says, All we like sheep have gone astray.
I think Handel did a beautiful job picturing that musically.
Can you think of the tune in your mind?
It is a light, lilting, skipping tune like sheep that are dancing and prancing and playing
together.
All we like sheep have gone astray and turned everyone to his own way, and oh what fun we're
having.
And He comes in His chorus to that point, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity
of us all.
And suddenly the joy stops in this large and deep and rich sound.
It says, the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Sin is that way, isn't it?
It deceives us.
It makes us think that we can play with it and get away with it and have fun with it.
But if you want to see what the price of sin really is, look at the cross, friend.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth.
Led like a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not
open His mouth.
Step on down to verse 10, yet it was the Lord's will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer.
And though the Lord makes His life a guilt offering, He will see His offspring.
Let me just stop the reading there.
When the Lord Jesus was still on the cross, being offered for our guilt, dying in our place,
while He was still there suffering, He saw with His eyes His offspring.
He saw in the midst of His suffering the fruit of it all.
When this thief who was hanging a few feet away from Him repented and believed.
G. Campbell Morgan says, has it ever occurred to you what that meant for Jesus?
Reverently attempt to get back into the mind and heart of Jesus.
Forsaken of His disciples, the butt of brutal mockery on the part of the rulers of His people
spit upon, cast out, all the howling mob around Him.
And suddenly the blaze of glory, this flame of light, one man recognizing His redeeming
kingship and flinging Himself out upon His mercy.
Right there and then in measure, He saw the travail of His soul and was satisfied.
As He swung the gates of the kingdom of heaven open to the dying malefactor, He entered into
the joy that was set before Him for which even then He was enduring the cross.
Second observation I make is that Jesus enjoyed the fruit of His suffering even before it
was finished.
My friend, every time someone repents as did this thief, Jesus rejoices.
Because yet again, freshly comes to His mind the joy of His suffering in saving those who
are undeserving.
My third observation is that Christ takes believers to be with Him in their death.
He said to that thief who believed, today you will be with Me in paradise.
Today not merely in My future kingdom, today you will be with Me in paradise.
And using that word, Jesus used a word that is not common in the New Testament in describing
the afterlife for believers.
Paul uses it in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 as he describes his own experience of being caught
up into paradise for a brief moment, probably when he was stoned and left for dead in his
ministry and yet came back and was resuscitated.
He had an out of the body experience to put it in the language of some today.
He says I was caught up to paradise.
Jesus said you will be with Me today in paradise.
The word is a Persian word.
It was brought directly into the Greek language and it literally means a park, a garden, a
manicured spot, a place of beauty and delight.
They were in an ugly place of suffering as they hung upon the cross.
And yet Jesus said to this one who believed, today you will be with Me in a place of unbelievable
beauty and delight.
Paradise at that time was another compartment in Hades as best as we can understand it.
A place that is now empty because Jesus emptied it in His resurrection and took the righteous
dead who were there to heaven itself, which is also called by Paul now paradise, a park.
And as you read of its description in the book of the Revelation, you see why it's
called a park, trees, fountains, a river, a beautiful place.
Christ takes believers to be with Him in their death.
It's a wonderful comfort to those who have lost loved ones, who died in Christ, to know
that they have left the place of suffering, that body perhaps of illness and pain.
And having died to this world, they are with Christ at home in paradise.
My final observation is in this quote, better late than never.
Yes, there are such things as deathbed conversions.
We should not think lightly of them.
I recall a dear pastor friend of mine who was called to the hospital where a man was
dying and had asked for a preacher.
Going into the intensive care unit where the man was, he had been in a terrible accident,
no hope of recovery.
He was still conscious, unable to speak.
And yet my pastor friend took him by the hand, introduced himself, and as briefly as he could
explained the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to this man, that Christ had died for his
sake, had been raised from the dead, that he might be saved, and that if he would trust
the Savior alone for his salvation, he could know what it means to be saved and to go to
heaven.
And he said to this man, if you right now will trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, will
you squeeze my hand?
And the man squeezed his hand with all of the strength that he had in his body, and
then it wouldn't limp as he died.
Here's a thief who is only minutes from his own death.
And he says, Lord, remember me.
And Jesus said, today my friend, you will be with me.
Better late than never.
How in contrast this is to Stalin.
Eyewitnesses report that on his deathbed, he raised up, he sat up in bed, unable to
speak, he raised his fist toward heaven, clenched it, and shook it at God, and then slumped
in his bed in death.
His dying moment, one of refusal and rejection.
Here on this day of his crucifixion, God saved one in this way, that is, in his final moments,
so that none might despair of that possibility.
But he saved only one that way that none might presume.
It is a deadly error to think, I'll wait till tomorrow, I'll wait till sometime in
the future, I'll wait till my deathbed.
We cannot presume either that we will know when we are a moment from death, or that our
heart will then repent, as it may be desiring to today.
The cross of Jesus stands on a line.
It is a line that separates humanity.
On the one side of that line are those who repent of their sins and are therefore redeemed.
On the other side of the line are those who reproach Christ by ignoring Him, neglecting
Him, or denying Him.
And that line divides not only humanity, but all of eternity into two destinies, paradise
and hell.
John once said, the cross is God's final warning sign, a warning sign that He has erected
for those who are on their stubborn, independent way to hell.
My friend, if you walk by the cross, you walk by your last hope.
I quote author Max Lucado, who says, what in the world did Jesus have to gain by promising
this desperado a place of honor at the banquet table?
What in the world could this chiseling, quizzeling ever offer in return?
I mean the Samaritan woman I can understand, she could go back and tell the tale.
And Zacchaeus, he had some money that he could give.
But this guy, what's he going to do?
Nothing.
That's the point.
Listen closely.
Jesus' love does not depend upon what we do for Him, not at all.
In the eyes of the King, you have value simply because you are.
You don't have to look nice, perform well, your value is in bread, period.
Think about that for a moment, says Lucado.
You are valuable just because you exist.
Not because of what you do or what you've done, but simply because you are.
Remember that.
Remember that the next time that you're left bobbing in the wake of someone's steamboat
ambition.
Remember that the next time some trickster tries to hang a bargain basement price tag
on your self-worth.
The next time someone tries to pass you off as a cheap buy, just think about the way Jesus
honors you and smile.
He says, I do.
I smile because I know I don't deserve love like that.
None of us do.
When you get right down to it, any contribution that any of us make is pretty puny.
All of us, even the purest of us, deserve heaven about as much as the crook did.
All of us are signing on Jesus' credit card, not ours.
And it also makes me smile to think that there's a grinning ex-con walking down the golden
streets who knows more about grace than a thousand theologians.
No one else would have given him a prayer, but in the end, that's all that he had.
And in the end, that's all it took.
Two thieves were there at Calvary when Jesus was crucified.
Condemned for the crimes they committed, they hung with him, one on each side.
One of them taunted and mocked him and died in guilt and disgrace, but the other chose
to believe him and received God's mercy and grace.
I hope this morning that if you have not crossed that line, that you will do it today and get
on the side of the line where redemption is.
Let's pray.
Father, I pray that in the closing moments of this service, with the Holy Spirit probing
our hearts, exposing us, showing us what we are, that like the thief of old, we may have
grace to repent and to believe and to publicly confess, as did he, Jesus as Savior and Lord.
With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, my friend, I wonder what God may be saying
to you today.
Are you saved?
Are you redeemed?
My friend, this cross is a dividing line.
Which side are you on?
Which thief will you see in eternity?
You will be with one thief or the other, heaven or hell.
And right now you have the opportunity to choose.
Will you take it?
I pray you will.
Let's take our hymnals and stand together.
I'd like for us to sing number 206.
It is a hymn that says, There is a Redeemer, God's own Son, precious Lamb of God, Messiah,
Holy One.
Let's stand as we sing.
And as we sing, if today you, like this one thief on the cross, would change your mind
and place your faith in Jesus Christ, and you are unafraid to publicly identify with
Him and to confess your faith, I invite you to slip out from where you're seated and
come and take my hand here at the front.
And we'll have elders and staff who will be able to pray with you and talk with you
as your need may be.
Will you come today?
Let's sing together of God's Redeemer, His only Redeemer.
There is a Redeemer, Jesus, God's own Son, precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Holy One.
Thank you, O my Father, for giving us your Son, and leaving your Spirit till the work
on earth is done.
I know, my friend, the struggle can be great.
The struggle with your own mind and will is a struggle to the death.
Will you today make that decision that will change your destiny from hell to heaven?
Will you today change the side of the line that you're living on and come to the Savior
as we sing the second verse about Him?
Come right now.
Jesus, my Redeemer, name above all names, precious Lamb of God, Messiah, all for sinners slain.
Thank you, O my Father, for giving us your Son, and leaving your Spirit till the work
on earth is done.
Just last verse is for believers, and it says, when I stand in glory, just imagine being
there and in that place of paradise and looking and seeing Jesus, the Redeemer, and this thief
that we read about, and others who've gone before us in Christ, and oh, what a day that
will be when we're in glory together.
Let's sing about that day when we see His face and serve Him forever.
When I stand in glory, I will see His face.
There I'll serve my King forever in that holy place.
Thank you, O my Father, for giving us your Son, and leaving your Spirit till the work
on earth is done.
Lord, remind us as we anticipate that future day of heavenly service that there is still
work on earth to be done, and that you have given us the Holy Spirit to enable and to
empower us in that work.
So may we be about your business in the world.
This week, in Jesus' name, amen.