Today, You Will Be With Me In Paradise
Notes
Transcript
Words from the Cross - Week 2
This morning we are going go continue our series words from the Cross and look at the words and phrases Jesus said while he was on the cross. Last week, we covered Jesus’ words “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” We talked a great deal about forgiveness, and not just out need for it, but our need to give it. We looked into the Bible to see Jesus telling us if we withhold forgiveness from others, forgiveness will be withheld from us and we came to understand we have to make the choice to forgive the people who wronged us. If you missed it I would highly encourage you to go back and listen to that sermon and begin to walk through forgiveness for the people you need to in your life.
This morning as an act of participation, I just want to ask you a question, on a scale of one to one hundred, how good of a person would you say you are? You can answer out loud if you want to, you don’t have to, this doesn’t have to be a therapy session. With all of that in mind, I want to give you some people and you can tell me what you think about them. What kind of number would you give, Billy Graham? What about Mother Theresa? What about like an ax murderer or Hitler? With all of those numbers in mind, would that change your number about yourself? Would you think of yourself differently when you compare yourself to someone else? Remember, comparison is the thief of joy? Chances are you may not have changed your number too much. When we get asked these questions we tend to think like 50-80 is a pretty good person and a humble number at that so some of us would have probably put ourselves in there. We don’t want to think of ourselves as higher than 80 or something like that, because if you’re that kind of goody two shoes you make people sick and you don’t want to be one of those.
And this is kind of how we judge people, we don’t always use numbers but we are almost always judging our goodness and in some respect of the manner our faith based on the people around us. And when we judge ourselves based on other people there are generally only two ways that works out for us, we either feel better about ourselves or we feel worse about ourselves.
We check the news, or look at someone we work with or know, and think man I have never done something like that, I have never lied just to get my way. Those people are some bad people, and it kind of makes us feel good because we have created this class system in which we are the righteous.
On the other hand we can judge ourselves against other people and think man, they are always here every time the door opens, they seem to know the answers to every question in Sunday School, I will never be as good as they are. And as we start to think about our lives and our faith, what we tend to do is just want to be a little bit better than the next person. We want our badge of honor to punch our ticket into heaven to be we are a good person, and remember that just means we get ourselves in that 50-80 range above the lower half of people.
As we look at our text this morning, I think it will be important for us to realize Good people don’t go to heaven, forgiven people do.
Lets begin in Luke 23:32-33
32 Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him.
33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.
And remember this scene just a little bit, Jesus has been unjustly tried and beaten within just inches of his life, the Bible tells us he is barely recognizable, and he has been brought to Golgotha to be crucified. While he is there and they have the forces to do so, because crucifixion was not an easy task, they decided to crucify two other people at the same time, criminals we are told, one on his left and one on his right. These guys are not good people by the worlds standards neither then or today. And we get this amazing picture in this moment as the three of them are hanging there. Jesus is there as the savior among sinners and it is a shinning example of his life.
I just want you to think about something for a moment, the two criminals who are with him, they are being crucified justly, but Jesus, not so much. He has not done anything to be deserving of the judgment he has received. And then we find the scripture from last week.
34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.
35 And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!”
36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine
37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!”
38 There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”
The one thing we can see here that we didn’t really touch on last week when we were talking about forgiveness is Jesus here is acting as the mediator for these people all around the cross mocking him. They can’t even pray for themselves, they can’t see or get to the heart of God because their heart isn’t tuned into Jesus, but here they are and Jesus is praying to the father for them. Timothy makes us aware of this in 1 Tim 2:5
5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
And this is an amazing lesson we see from the cross, Jesus is the mediator for all of us to the Father. He’s the one that gets us there, its a great thing. So Jesus is hanging there with two criminals and what we tend to think if we were to judge this moment is Jesus is the only one good enough to make it to heaven, both the other guys are criminals and aren’t deserving. Which, is true, but lets look at what happens next.
39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
And the first guy sounds just like the crowd right? Come on do something big guy. I thought you were something awesome… Though, in his voice you’d be able to hear the desire, the hope Jesus would actually do something.
40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?
41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.”
But then the other guy says Bro, don’t you understand, we are headed for the same destiny he is, we are all going to die from what is happening to us. But can’t you see it, you and I deserved this, but Jesus, He didn’t do anything to deserve what he is getting.
And then, look at Jesus response to the one
42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
So, what marks the difference between the forgiven one and the unforgiven one? Both of these guys are equally close to Jesus, they have both been there with him for the last six hours listening to what was said, seeing people hurl insults, watching Jesus’ response, hearing him ask the Father to forgive the people. Both of them are suffering and in pain, both were dying and in need of forgiveness, but the big difference is the forgiven man admitted he was wrong. Remember, he said we are receiving the due rewards of our deeds.
Some of us find ourselves here from time to time, I have had conversations over the years with friends and members alike who talk about things in their life. I remember a man saying, You know I deserved to go to jail, I was drinking and I had no business driving, but I got myself into a place when I had no will to live, I had lost my hope in life but I deserved what I got.
I remember after my first thermodynamics test, which the prerequistes for this class were calculus 3 and physics 2, and getting an awful grade thinking, yeah I deserved that I didn’t study hard enough.
And we need to be able to look at our lives and realize without Jesus, we are all deserving of Hell and eternal damnation. Look at James 2:10
10 For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws.
Think about that for a second, it doesn’t matter if you keep some of the law and the Jewish tradition states there are 613 commandments or laws in the OT. So even if you were to keep 612 of them, and failed at one you are guilty of all of them. Even 612 isn’t good enough. It has to be them all.
And the forgiven criminal didn’t stop at admitting he was wrong, Then after admitting he was wrong, he asked for help. He said Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Don’t forget me. I need your help please help make it right. He knew in that moment the only hope he had was Jesus so he cried out to him to fix it.
The question becomes, do you recognize your need for Jesus? Do you see how much you need him in your life?
And what was Jesus response?
43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
There are a lot of things we could stop and talk about when it comes to paradise. And we won’t go deep down that rabbit hole. Probably the best way to understand it today is understanding paradise is synonymous with resting in God’s presence.
What you need to see today, is you are one of the thieves. You and I and everyone in the world is represented in one of these guys and our response to him is what changes our destiny.
Listen, no matter what number you gave yourself earlier when you decided how good you were, there is no number that would make you good enough to get into Heaven. Look at what Paul told the Romans 3:20-22
20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,
Much like the thief who couldn’t climb off the cross and begin to live a good life, you and I will never be able to live a good enough life, in fact the very next verse tells us all have sinned and fallen short of God’s standard. So our only hope for resting in Gods presence for eternity is for us to be forgiven. That man couldn’t get off the cross and you can’t earn your salvation, but look at what Peter tells us.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
So that’s the question church, do you recognize how much you need him? Are you ready to call out to him to and ask him to forgive you this morning; That is our only hope.
