Luke 23:39-43 - Personal Prayer for Pardon

Every few months on social media I see something pop up about things that ought to be taught in school: how to change a tire, how to reconcile and balance a check book, how to safely shoot a gun, how to vote in an election, etc.

There is something I learned while young, poor and single that was not taught in any of my high school or college classes. This life changing bit o’ knowledge was that Saturday morning is sample day at the grocery store. Timed correctly, a young man can make an entire meal from the free samples at a grocery or warehouse store

I rarely would purchase any of the items that were being sampled, but occasionally I tasted something that made me want more. Today’s Scripture lesson is in the middle of a huge arc that connects God’s sample with the ultimate meal.

Transition: The sample offered by God is recorded in the first 2 chapters of the Bible, and today’s text revives the offer.

A Promise Tasted (Genesis 1-2)

Jesus offers something in today’s reading that is never mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures – Paradise. But the Hebrew Scriptures (our Old Testament) also describes a place that is never mentioned in the New Testament – Eden.

Last week we talked about the Old Testament being written in Hebrew and the New Testament being written in Greek, but between them was a street language called Aramaic. Just as we borrow words from other languages (Taco, Guillotine, etc.), the word paradise is borrowed from the ancient language of Persia. I’ve never studied Persian (a people group from what is now Iran), but research taught me...

A loanword from ancient Persian pairi-daeza which can mean “an enclosed space,” “park,” or “garden.” Ancient Jews translated the Hebrew words פַּרְדֵּס (pardes), and עֵדֶן (eden) with the Greek word “paradise” (παράδεισος, paradeisos). Within the Hebrew (and LXX) Scriptures:

• God planted paradise for His people (Gen 2).

• Paradise was taken away as a result of sin (Gen 3).

• Paradise will be restored for His people in the messianic age (Isa 51:3; Ezek 47:1–12; Rev 22:1–2).[i]

God made a sample of perfection and allowed the first humans to “taste” it, but they decided to take a different route.

Perfect Environment

God formed and filled this planet with everything necessary to be self-sustaining. There was perfect interaction between the foliage and the animals. There were perfect conditions for plants and trees. There was perfect balance between waters and dry land.

God set the planets in perfect orbit so that the gravitational pull on the axis of the earth could sustain all life with the ideal environment.

The Scriptures describe this perfect place as a garden.

Genesis 2:8 ESV:2016

8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

4. This wasn’t just any garden, it was a delightful and perfectly lush and fruitful garden.

Genesis 2:9–10 ESV:2016

9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.

Unrestrained Relationship

God Himself was supplying Adam with everything he could want—abundant and various food, diverse animals, purpose. Everything except what God could not provide Himself, human companionship.

So God created the perfect human companion, woman, for pleasure, fellowship and procreation.

All is “good”, (except man who is “very good”)

There is one phrase that we see each of the first 5 days of God’s creation: 1:4; 1:10; 1:12; 1:18; 1:21; 1:25 – it was good.

But on the 6th day God said something a little different in 1:31 – it was very good.

Transition: On that day the sample man was giving Adam as many hot samples as he could want, but a serpent suggested that God was withholding something from him. So Adam and the wife with him chose to substitute their own wishes for the perfect provision of God.

A Promise Made (Isaiah 51:3)

Sin creates a desert wilderness

When Adam and Eve chose their own desire above the Lord’s command, pain and suffering were introduced to the human experience.

Everything that we find hard to bear can be traced back to that one act of disobedience that is supported by each act by us that elevates our desires above the desire of God. (sickness, death, evil, storms, wildfires, pandemics, disabilities, etc.)

Being temporarily driven from the Garden may seem cruel, but it was one more act of God’s perfect love.

And in order to protect man from eating of the tree of Life and being stuck in that painful, broken world eternally, God lovingly separated man from the Garden and placed a fierce angelic sentry.

Hope brings comfort

Mankind finds himself in that wilderness that is apart from God’s perfect provision, but permits man to assert his own decisions apart from God.

While man chooses to serve himself, God renews a promise of a better future if we leave our selfishness and choose to make Him King once again. Gen 3:15 promises an offspring from the woman would offer a different way, what Christians call the Gospel. For about 7 Chapters toward the end of Isaiah’s prophecy we read about this One who could deliver selfish man from his own decisions and exchange them for the beauty, peace and provision of Eden remade.

Isaiah 51:3 ESV:2016

3 For the Lord comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.

Application

As this One is on the central cross of Calvary, We are introduced to these two men in Luke 23 who had traveled as far as they could into the alternative plan that Adam and Eve chose over obedience.

The first man traveled that route and wanted to continue—get me off this cross so I can keep doing what I want.

The Second man had discovered that this alternative universe is no picnic. He was ready for a change. He knew the end of his choices and He was ready for Jesus to take charge and provide something different.

Transition: In response to the 2nd man’s humble and honest prayer, Jesus responded with...

A Promise Renewed (Luke 23:43)

No more waiting - today

What Isaiah promised what would happen, Jesus announces that it is on the verge of happening. Eden was no longer an option, but Paradise was!

Kingdom/Paradise

The criminal #2 submitted to a Kingdom and Jesus granted him a transcendent place of blessedness, paradise[ii]

Many people today long for a Utopia or believe people become angels. Angels as described in the Bible are a separate created order incapable of being adopted into God’s family. A family resident is ALWAYS better than the employed staff.

Application

We hear the song, I Can Only Imagine and we wonder what Heaven may be like. We hear a lot of Country Western songs that make it sound like Heaven is some great round-up for all but a very few extremely, true “bad guys”.

I believe a lot of our imagination about clouds, harps and wings can be laid to rest with a reading of Eden in the first and last books of the Bible.

Transition: To one man who was willing to admit Jesus deserved a kingdom, Jesus promised him a return to the sample that was tasted by Adam and Eve.

A Promise Fulfilled (Luke 23:43)

The promise made by Jesus was yet to happen as it was spoken, but in less than 3 hours max it came true.

People debate if Jesus was making that promise on that day, or fulfilling it on that day. My understanding of the language that recorded the accounts of the crucifixion is that it the word is tied to the fulfillment on that day, after being said on that day.

Those who witnessed the promise describe the one proven to be King of this paradise.

Besides the 2 criminals who were crucified by Jesus, there were 2 groups of witnesses in addition to the guards. There was one group who loved Jesus and grieved what was happening, and one group who hated him and wanted to ensure that the crucifixion was complete.

These 2 groups produced 2 witnessed who are quoted in our Bible. The first group contained Peter who 50 days later publicly proclaimed what happened on that day.

Acts 2:23–24 ESV:2016

23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

3. Likely in the group was a hater who would change his story after a divine encounter on a rustic road - Paul

Romans 6:9–10 ESV:2016

9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

1 Corinthians 15:26 ESV:2016

26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

4. Peter who loved Him in the moment, and Paul who would later come to love Him both attest that God raised Jesus from the dead to prove that He was the King of the promised kingdom, He presides over the new paradise!

5. The empty tomb that we celebrate every year on this holiday is proof of God’s acceptance of Christ’s death for any who will turn to Him in faith and repentance.

6. I admit I have disobeyed God and sought my own way. I believe that Jesus offered his sinless death to pay the price for my sinful choices. I choose to accept Him as the Master of a new way of life, a new kingdom, and I trust that the resurrection proves this all to be true and that my sins are forgiven.

7. This is the Gospel that Flint Hills Community Church wants every person in Chase County to accept. Our success is not measures by how much money people give or how many people attend our services. Our success is the extent to which we make this Gospel attractive so that people receive it!

Conclusion:

Two sinners who had lived for self, are presented with a choice, the same choice that is still offered today. Jesus did not offer paradise because one criminal was more deserving, or was more religious, or did more sacraments than the other. Jesus gave each man exactly what he wanted. One man wanted to continue calling his own shots. The other was willing to submit to a new King.

Which of the two criminals best describes you today? Do you want Jesus to permit you to keep on doing whatever you want? Are you willing to become part of His kingdom, where He rules and sin has no place?

Which do you want more? The pleasures of this world and your choices, or the pleasures of Eden and Paradise where Jesus’ choices reign?

As Robert Frost once wrote: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

Or as Jesus Christ said: “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow…that leads to life, and those who find it are few[iii]”

Song of Response #210.... “Jesus Paid it All”

Benediction: 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24 (ESV) — Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

[i] Bass, Justin W. 2016. “Paradise.” In The Lexham Bible Dictionary, edited by John D. Barry, David Bomar, Derek R. Brown, Rachel Klippenstein, Douglas Mangum, Carrie Sinclair Wolcott, Lazarus Wentz, Elliot Ritzema, and Wendy Widder. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press. [ii] Arndt, William, Frederick W. Danker, Walter Bauer, and F. Wilbur Gingrich. 2000. In A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., 761. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [iii] Matthew 7:13-14. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2016. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.