2017-11-05 Luke 23: 39-43 So Near-Yet So Far

LAST WORDS (Luke 23:32-38) October 28, 2017 Read Luke 23:32-38 – Last words. Show our true heart. Voltaire, bragged he’d put Xnty out of business: “I am abandoned by God and man! I will give you half of what I am worth if you will give me six months’ life.” Thomas Hobbes, brilliant skeptic who corrupted the faith of some of England’s greatest: “If I had the whole world, I would give it to live one day. I am about to take a leap into the dark.” Depressingly hopeless. So, consider this morning – what will be your last words? They’ll come sooner than we think. Jesus had some last words before His death. Crucifixion was invented in the 6th century BC, but the Romans had refined it as a torture. Victims were severely beaten, then made to carry their cross beam to the place of execution. They were attached with ropes, or with 5-7” nails causing unspeakable pain. The cross was raised, cruelly dropped into the ground and a slow, agonizing death followed. The feet were nailed with knees slightly bent so victims could push up in order to breathe, causing horrible pain in wrists, ankles and back as the wounds from the beating rubbed against the rough timber. Each breath was an agony. When the end was near, soldiers broke the leg bones causing suffocation. No one survived crucifixion. Jesus gave up His own life about 6 hours after He was crucified. No bones were broken thus fulfilling Psa 34:20: “He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.” Our word “excruciating” comes from the Latin excruciatus -- “out of the cross”. It was a horror. But the gospel writers don’t major on those physical details. Luke simply says, “33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him.” He is far more interested in the meaning of the cross than its brutality. Jesus’ last words from the cross are telling in that regard. The gospel writers record 7 such comments. Luke includes 3 of those, the first of which is the theme of our passage. Tho in excruciating pain, Jesus is in total control, and His first comment is one of history’s most hopeful statements. V. 34: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” What grace! Forgiveness results, of course, from repentance. Thus, even as Jesus suffers merciless torture, rather than seeking vengeance, He asks the Father to grant repentance. This is the meaning of the cross. This is no ordinary person; this is a Savior. He knows exactly why He has chosen to be there and asks the Father to insure His suffering be worthwhile. He seeks forgiveness not just for His friends, but for all – even His persecutors. And the Father answers! 1 Within hours a mocking thief finds forgiveness. By the end of the day, a hardened Roman soldier finds forgiveness. Within days of His resurrection, His unbelieving brothers find forgiveness. Seven weeks later 3,000 find forgiveness at Pentecost. Soon, another 5,000. And then Acts 6:7b: “and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.” Millions since have found forgiveness. Jesus’ death wasn’t wasted. But was it wasted on us?! There is paradox here. If Jesus were not dying, He couldn’t pray this prayer. Only bc He died could the possibility of forgiveness by God be imagined. But note Jesus’ reason for asking: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Some have said that Jesus was only praying for the Roman soldiers because they were the only ones who did not know what they were doing. But that is not true. The whole crowd was deceived. I Cor 2:8: “None of the rulers of this age understood this [the cross] for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” Who would kill God on purpose?! The problem was they were willfully ignorant. Having ignored God’s written revelation in prophecy, and the clear evidence of Jesus’ own life, they depended on their own human wisdom, and like always, it failed them. They “[knew] not what they do.” BUT that did not relieve them of guilt. They were willingly ignorant of 4 things that prevented their being forgiven. I. They Were Wrong About His Identity The truth stares them right in the face – in 3 languages, no less, but they mock it. 38 There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.” Every crucifixion victim had his crime posted on his cross. The Jews wanted Jesus dead for claiming to be God, but the Romans could care less about that, so the Jews presented Jesus as a threat to the emperor -- a revolutionary bent on replacing Caesar as Jewish king. BUT they only meant He claimed that. They were incensed that Pilate put up, “This IS the King of the Jews” as tho they believed it. It was an insult! John 19: 20 Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. 21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” Fascinating! All Pilate meant to do was tweak the Jews – but, in fact, he got it exactly right – and wouldn’t change it. Think God’s not in 2 control? He put the information out there for the whole world – in 3 languages! Jesus’ true identity as God’s King is inscribed on His cross, visible to all. But the blinders are on. They miss the truth. So, does that excuse them? Oh, no. They still need to be forgiven. They’re still accountable. Ignorance is no excuse. Jesus knows the issue is not that they CAN’T see the truth but that they RFUSE to see the truth. They, more than any people in history had the truth. They looked Him straight in the eye every day. They marveled at the authority of His teaching. They saw hundreds of confirming miracles. It wasn’t that they couldn’t see truth; it was that they wouldn’t see truth. Jesus knew why: John 3:19: “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” Their blindness is willful. They want their own way. Their denial is rebellion. They were wrong about Jesus’ identity because they did not want it to be true. V. 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!” There’s the problem. He did not conform to their idea of what Messiah should say and do. Their Messiah would never die on a cross! So they refused Him. They wanted a King they could control, not One who demanded to control them. His weakness appalled them! How many miss Jesus bc He’s not what they think He should be? Spurgeon said: “I do not believe there is a single honest man living who, having once heard the gospel simply preached, does not in his conscience believe it to be true. Light will penetrate. . . . But this is the very reason why men oppose it. They do not want it to be true. Thus when we reject the deity of Jesus – that He is God, we join the crowd at the cross who are crucifying Him. But our denial of His identity does not change the fact. We may define Him away as a harmless nice guy. But God’s view is different. Phil 2: 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Soon all of creation will acknowledge His true identity. But why not now when it counts? He’s praying for our forgiveness if we will only repent. 3 II. They Were Wrong About His Power V. 35b: “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” They assume He’s not saving Himself because He can’t save Himself. Wrong again! In Mt 26:53b Jesus says one word to the Father “he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” Powerless?! No more powerful person ever walked the face of the earth. Powerless? At the end of the age: II Thess 2: 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.” Powerless? No. He’s omnipotent! All powerful! Had Jesus’ mockers been in His place they’d have escaped if they had the power. They assumed He’d do the same. It never crossed their minds that He was about something bigger than His own physical life. It never crossed their minds that the cross was not a sign of weakness but of strength – that He was about something infinitely more valuable than saving Himself. We, too, think God is powerless when He doesn’t end ISIS and terrorism and evil. It doesn’t occur to us that withholding judgment isn’t a sign of weakness, but of patience. We forget God is a lot smarter than we are and has purposes we don’t yet get: Isa 55: 8) For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. 9) For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” God’s patience may frustrate us at times, but He’s not powerless! III. They Were Wrong About His Guilt The Jews hated Jesus – were sure He was guilty of blasphemy. Mark 14: 55 Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none. 56 For many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree.” Even false witnesses couldn’t get their stories straight. Herod found no fault in Him. Pilate declared Him innocent multiple times. Of what was He guilty? “Declaring Himself to be God,” screamed the Jews. Blasphemy. Yes – except – He really was God. So in the end He is being crucified for telling the truth about who He was. They were wrong about His guilt. The Jews failed to make their case. The Romans found Him innocent. The Father declared His verdict at least 3 times during Jesus’ ministry: “This is my Beloved Son.” Peter says in God’s eyes Jesus was “like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (I Pet 1:19b). Heb 4 4:15 says Jesus was “in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Here’s the truth. The only perfect person ever to inhabit this planet was crucified as a common criminal. J. C. Ryle was right: unconverted men would kill God, if they could get at Him." They would -- and they did! So if He was innocent and all powerful, why didn’t He overwhelm His accusers? Here’s why. Please listen. Bc in God’s eyes He wasn’t innocent. He was guilty. Not of His own sin, but of yours and mine. Jesus stayed bc He was doing something bigger than saving His physical life. He was providing eternal life for all who would believe by taking their guilt! That’s why He stayed -- as my substitute and yours. It’s very personal! Heb 9:28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” Jesus stayed on the cross for one simple reason. So you and I would not have to. In Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, a French aristocrat is sentenced to die. Just before his execution he is visited by a young friend who could have passed for his twin. After the guard leaves, the friend overpowers the doomed man with an anesthetic and exchanges clothes with him. Then, pretending to be the one condemned to die, he calls the jailor and asks that his “visitor,” unconscious with grief, be removed and returned to his home. On his way to the guillotine as substitute, the young Englishman speaks these final words: “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done. . . .” That’s why Jesus stayed – for us! Those crying out, “he saved others; let him save himself,” did not realize that had He saved himself, he could not have saved them. They were wrong about His guilt. It wasn’t His guilt He was bearing; it was theirs. IV. They Were Wrong About His Love Why did Jesus pray for forgiveness instead of revenge? Rom 5:8: “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” The greatest act of love the world has ever seen was Jesus hanging on the cross in our place. You’ve never been loved by anyone like you are loved by Christ. Doesn’t matter if you’ve been loved a lot or abused all your life, no one loves you like Jesus does right now. The proof is the cross. Jn 15:13: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” That’s what Jesus did for you on the cross. That’s the meaning of the cross. Jesus taking the Father’s judgment in your place! I say respectfully, if we turn down that offer of love and relationship with Him, we deserve hell. 5 Conc – So here we are at the cross. Others were there also. The soldiers. 34b: “And they cast lots to divide his garments.” As God’s Beloved Son died in their place, they cast lots for his clothing. They left with nothing but a used toga. Let me ask you? What are you leaving with this morning? The cross wasn’t about giving you money or prestige or success. It was about nothing less than giving you eternal life. All you have to do is -- accept it. So one of Jesus’ last words: “Father forgive them.” What will your last word be? Napoleon said: “I die before my time, and my body will be given back to the earth. Such is the fate of the great Napoleon. What an abyss between my deep misery and the eternal kingdom of Christ.” That’s tragic. Doesn’t need to be. Nik Ripken in The Insanity of God tells of a boy in the old USSR who went with his mother for a one-hour visit to the torture facility where his father was held. Prisoners came and went but Stoyan’s father did not appear. Near the end of the hour a guard walked thru the door carrying what looked like a bundle of rags. He lay the bundle on top of one of the tables. Stoyan says, “only because of the piercing blue eyes staring out at me from those rags did I recognize this skeletal figure as my father.” The 13year-old boy took his father’s hand and said, “Papa, I’m so proud of you.” His mother slipped a little NT under his wool cap. But the jailer saw her, threw the book to the ground and screamed, “Woman, don’t you realize it is because of this book that your husband is here? I can kill him, I can kill you and I can kill your son. And I would be applauded for it.” But Stoyan says his mother looked at the man and said, “Sir, you are right. You can kill my husband. You can kill me. You can even kill our son. But nothing you can do will separate us from the love that is in Jesus Christ!’” That’s the meaning of the cross. That’s why Jesus went. And the only thing that can separate you from the greatest love the world has ever known – the only thing – is YOU! You get the last word. Make it YES. Let’s pray. 6