Amazing Grace

Well, good evening, Christ Covenant, great to be with you tonight. Before us this evening is one of those passages that we all know, that we've all read many, many times, and tonight we have that wonderful chance to dive deeper into this text, and I think we all will recognize it as one of those texts and as both enigmatic and amazing at the same time. Both sort of perplexing and fantastic is this amazing story of Jesus and this criminal on the cross. So if you have your Bibles, we're in Luke chapter 23 tonight, just a short reading tonight. Just four verses, really five, I guess if you count all of them here, 39 through 43, and I'll start here at verse 39. One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him saying, are you not the Christ, save yourself and us, but the other rebuked him saying, do you not fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed, justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong, and he said, Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom, and he said to him, truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise, amen, let's pray as we ask God to bless that amazing passage for us tonight. Let's pray. Lord, we confess that this passage is mind-blowing. It is incredible to think a man who lived his life like this man, no doubt lived it, could find grace at the 11th hour. But Lord, that is the gospel. The grace is found in the most unlikely of places. So Lord, help us to be reminded tonight that grace is, in fact, amazing. We pray all this in Christ's name, amen. So this last week, I had an opportunity to see the new CS Lewis movie. Now some of you may have heard about this, it only appeared in the theaters for a brief time in Charlotte and then moved on, but it's been shown around the world, and it's just a biopic of sorts telling the story of Lewis's conversion. And really the title says it all, if you've heard about the movie, the title is The Most Reluctant Convert. And by the way, those are Lewis's own words about himself. And of course, we'll all see us Lewis fans, whether you read his fiction books or his nonfiction books, and it's a little bit hard to think about Lewis that way, because we think of him as this great stalwart, this great defender of the faith, and we forget that his story was rather amazing, that he did not start out, of course, as a believer. That when he entered Oxford, he was a hardened atheist who wanted nothing to do with Christianity and was very vigilant in his persecution, if you will, of anybody who believed in the Christian faith. He mocked it, he ridiculed it, he found it ridiculous. And then his God continued to work on Lewis little by little, eventually he finally conceded well, okay, I'll be a theist, I'll admit there's a God, but still this Christianity thing, I want nothing to do with that, that's silly, and then finally, at the end of all of it, kicking and screaming, Lewis commits his life to Christ. And when you think about the whole story, and I imagine if you had known Lewis and Oxford back in his day, you wouldn't have called him the most reluctant convert. You would have probably called him the most unlikely convert. I mean, if you knew Lewis in his heyday as a student, he was the last person on earth you ever would have believed would have become a Christian, it's only the last person that would end up being the Christian that he ended up becoming. Of course there's a lesson there isn't there that we all know, and that is some of the people that we think are the most unlikely to ever believe in Jesus are often the very ones that do. And sometimes the people who have been so the most likely to believe in Jesus are the very ones who don't. In fact, if you think about it, that's the story of the whole Bible. The whole Bible is packed with stories of paradox, of the people that look like they should believe don't believe. I mean, think about the nation of Israel, they had all the promises, all the scriptures, all the evidence, and yet the Jewish Messiah comes in the nation of Israel and largely speaking they want nothing to do with him, and yet Gentiles who have nothing to do with Israel's history embrace him fully. Think about the Pharisees, they were the teachers of the law, they were the great instructors, they knew God's word, if anybody should have put it together and connected the dots that Jesus was the Messiah, you thought, well the Pharisees would be the ones and they're not the ones. Instead it's tax collectors and sinners and some merit sins that believe in Jesus. I mean, make no mistake about it, the people that you think ought to be Christians maybe sometimes they don't and the people you think would never become Christians sometimes they do. And you look at a story like the one we just read a moment ago here in Luke 23 and isn't this an amazing example of that very thing, maybe a 30 second conversation that has changed in one sense our whole perception of the way grace works because grace is one of those things that does the things you don't expect and saves the people that you think have no business being saved. Now it's curious to know Luke is the only gospel that tells us this story. Now when we think about the gospel writers, no doubt they had lots of stories of Jesus they could tell you and they don't tell you every story they could never fit it all in one gospel that tells you that some gospel writers decided to include some stories and not others and no doubt Luke had at his disposal hundreds of stories of Jesus, many of which are probably conversions to Jesus and he could have told any of those stories and yet Luke and only Luke tells us this story of this man in his final hour that makes you wonder why it's not like he was anyone notable, certainly wasn't anyone respected, it was anyone special you're not going to get a gold store here for thinking I want that guy as a convert. I mean if we had written the story ourselves maybe it would have had Jesus as last convert to be Pontius Pilate and at the very moment Pilate converts or maybe it's herodic converts and finally believes in Jesus or maybe the head of the Pharisees converts and maybe if we had scripted it ourselves surely this is the last person that we ever would have put on the front page. I mean isn't it just a little bit embarrassing to think that after all of Jesus's friends abandoned him and Judas Batreza and Peter denies him and everyone runs away that the last person defending him on earth is a criminal, who's writing this story? This is the story of grace, you can see it in your title here tonight it's a phrase we use all the time amazing grace perhaps we should have sang the song tonight amazing grace and because we know grace so well it doesn't feel that amazing anymore and then we come across the story like this and we're like well maybe actually it is more amazing than we think. Now when we look at the story in detail I think it really sort of has three movements here I want to talk first about the initiator of grace and it's the way this man has saved is not like first plant shows and then I want to talk about the evidence of grace in his life although it was short after this and then of course the amazing blessings of the grace he received. Let's start with this first thing who in the world gets the credit in this story the person who's the initiator of grace now truth be told it's easy to read the story and leave the story rather impressed with this criminal I mean after all you got the first criminal mocking Jesus and who rallies to his defense was the second criminal and he sort of at the last minute makes a finally good decision with his life probably followed by or proceeded by many many bad decisions you might say well finally you got it together in the final moments finally you made a good decision to sort of defend this person Jesus and then you sort of marvel at this man's faith on his deathbed and think man this must be the hero of the story then you realize hold on a second this man is not the hero of the story he is not the initiator of grace in fact that's what makes grace grace he is the mere recipient of an amazing architectural move from Jesus long before this to save people for himself and in fact when you dive into the details of the story you realize he's not the hero Christ is the hero of the story I mean just think about this man for a moment what do we know about and what we're told in the story he's a criminal other English translations use the term feet that's a little unfortunate because the term feet makes you think that he just snatched purses or something like this and now he's getting crucified but no in the ancient world we know a lot about Roman crucifixion we know it was reserved some of the most heinous and wicked people no doubt this man has spent his whole life probably in crime who knows what crime he's committed maybe murder certainly definitely theft maybe rape maybe it hurt people and the whole the whole sort of region of today and he was famous for these things we don't know his whole track record but there's no reason to think he was a religious man there's no reason to think that he was a seeker there's no reason to think that this was a man hanging on the edge of belief his whole life and finally at the very end someone pushes him over the edge now this is a hardened rebel at every turn and here's the other things to know is that earlier in the crucifixion he joined his fellow person on the other side of Jesus mocking Christ now Luke doesn't tell us that one detail you have to go to the other gospels to learn it both criminals start out mocking Jesus both criminals start out in one sense blaspheming his name both criminals sort out making fun of him there's no reason to think there's anything about this man that is predisposed to spiritual things nothing to think that he's like a anachidimus one who's waiting for the kingdom of God and finally when he sees Jesus is oh there's a Messiah been longing for my whole life now this man is a rebel he is a person who's worked his way against God his home life and yet somehow some way he finds himself hanging right next to the savior of the world in his last hours making a mistake about it when you look at this whole scenario you realize oh it's probably not so much of this man that's seeking Christ but seems that Christ is probably seeking him more than that we also notice another fact about this question of who initiates the grace and that is the Christ is not just saving this man of the cross he's saving other people too during this hour and he's doing it in his greatest moment of weakness I want you to think for a moment of when this conversation takes place this conversation takes place at the darkest hour of Jesus his life the most pain the most suffering the most turmoil not only the physical pains of crucifixion but bearing the very sins of the world that God has put on his shoulders it's at that moment that Jesus looks outside himself and has a conversation with a criminal I mean if you could think about it if you could ever give someone a break for keeping to themselves this might be the moment if you ever could get Jesus a pass for saying I don't have time to talk right now I've got other things on my mind this would have been the moment but yet even in the midst of the darkest moment of his life what does he do he's looking outside of himself at this particular man encouraging him talking to him pursuing him saving him of course as I said a moment ago and this isn't the only person that was saved this day from all that we can tell this ensuring that the foot of the cross was saved remember when the crucifixion is over he says this man was truly the son of God from all we can tell Simon a siren that carried the cross of Jesus we have all kinds of different pieces of the puzzle that said yes he was probably converted and saved and then there's the women at the cross he was standing there that Jesus takes the time even while hanging on the cross to comfort you see the real hero of the story is here even at his weakest moment Jesus is still seeking loving saving pursuing and this man finds himself hanging next to that amazing savior by the way if Jesus is like this at his weakest moment can you imagine him at his strongest and Jesus can save like this hanging on the cross what can he do off the cross no this whole picture of grace is the reminder we need that when grace happens it is all of God's purpose and initiative Jesus is without a doubt the hero of this particular story by the way that's true for your life too sitting here tonight we always think that life is random that this guy randomly found himself really hanging next to Jesus at his death are you randomly here tonight have you randomly grown up in a Christian home are you randomly going to a school where you're here the gospel perhaps you randomly born to parents who know Jesus and have told you the gospel are you randomly in your life all the little things that no God has orchestrated you even here tonight to hear this message and who knows what plans he has for each of us because he is the great initiator of grace okay the first thing here is playing that is the hero of the story is not the the criminal for making a good final decision his life God has set off that he wants to save this particular individual okay that leads us to a second point tonight and that is leaving the initiator of grace and onto this evidence of his grace is there any reason I think this conversion is genuine I mean after all I mean we probably ought to be a little skeptical of deathbed conversions right I mean here's a guide with no their options here's a guide has all dead ends maybe we could think oh well he's just taking the last port in the storm he doesn't really believe he doesn't really trust there's no real conversion going on here maybe we ought to be a little skeptical this or a deathbed scene but when we look into the passage you know what we find we find not just Jesus setting up this moment of grace but we find evidence for grace in this man's life we don't know how long he lived on the cross I mean through crucifixions could last anywhere from a few hours to all day so probably several hours had passed before the time when he started mocking Jesus and by the time he actually believed in Jesus and died so we can't track a few of these things and our story gives some hints of what happens well let's impact the second point for a brief moment what is the evidence in our passage that God actually did something in this man's very short remaining hours well first we see this and that is he changed he actually reversed course he did an incredible thing he did a 180 hanging on the cross as I said a moment ago the other gospel tell us he started out mocking Jesus it's everything here the Greek word for mock here this is just this idea of blasphemy this idea that he is ridiculing it's the worst kind of derision you could imagine and by the way you get a feel for it by what the other criminal does notice what happens in verse 39 are you not the Christ saved yourself and us no doubt the other criminal was saying something very similar to that but then when you get a lives account something happened something changed something switched now he's defending Jesus look at verse 40 but the other rebuked him saying do you not fear God what's the matter with you are you really going to spend your final hours mocking this guy and he does a complete one Eddie now he's Jesus is advocate now he's Jesus is defender the man has changed he's turned away from his former patterns and he's begun a new pattern even in his short little few hours on the cross there's a word for this in theology you know it it's the word repentance it's to turn away not repentance is not just stopping something by the way repentance is not just ceasing to do something repentance is changing course I was doing this and now I'm doing that in the 180 of this criminal across his mind blowing you could just piece together what began to happen he probably started out mocking Jesus and then he began to watch Jesus no doubt it began to experience what he did and how he responded how he cared for the women at the foot of the cross the things he said the way he held himself on the cross he began to realize something here is different and there's real change in repentance and is that not the mark of the Christian a truly converted believer is there something different about them not by the way don't mistake this being converted doesn't mean you're instantaneously the way you wish you were or wouldn't that be great being a believer doesn't mean suddenly when you convert all your problems go away you never struggle with things again only if that were the case no change is often slow change is filled with starts and stops and ups and downs but here's the key a truly converted person is on a new trajectory and do we not see it here in this man's life here's another observation about evidence not only the change but he shows conviction of his own sin you notice what's interesting here is he doesn't just talk about Jesus he talks about himself by the way those are the we're going to get to the Jesus part in a little in a minute more fully but those are the two halves of conversion right the two halves of conversion is a recognition of something about Jesus but the other African version is a recognition of something about you something about me we recognize something about ourselves we see ourselves in a way that's actually finally accurate do you catch how this man describes himself verse 41 do you not realize you're under the same sentence of condemnation he says to his friend and then verse 141 and we indeed just will you're under it for we're receiving the due reward of our deeds now that is remarkable here's a man hanging on the cross and he says effectively you know what I realize I deserve this I had this coming to me this this is just in my case how many people in our world talk like that about themselves every time something happens to a person in our world it's not their fault in our world everyone else is to blame even in that world you can imagine him turning the Jesus and said well you know I did my best you know I had really bad parents I had a bad upbringing don't you realize I grew up without a lot of money he could have gone down the list of excuses he said well you know culture is the real problem here and it influenced me and made me the bad man that I am today or you know it's that social media that really took me off the rails and now I end up here hanging on a cross as a criminal no he says none of those things is you know what when it comes to me I deserve it you know it's one thing to say that God can judge you almost anyone would admit that it's a very different thing to make God should judge you how does someone have a heart like that by the way the other criminal didn't have a heart like that he didn't seem to think that wow I recognize the depth of my own depravity now that I'm hanging on the cross but rather this man did by the way that's the other evidence of conversion is it not the other evidence of grace it's not just a recognition that that you've got you know a turning from your past actions but you realize that I am not a good person I need saving that I deserve what's happening to me in fact that's the essence of the gospel right what is Jesus say I've not come for the healthy come for the sick I'm not come for the righteous oh you think you're righteous I'm not here for you but if you think you're unrighteous let's have a conversation here's another thing that this person did as evidence of his conversion is he began to apprehend things about Jesus so he turns away and repents that's the first thing then as you saw just a second ago there's a sense of a recognition of his own sin that's the second thing and then the third thing as we'll see he begins to realize there's something different about Jesus look what he says in verse 41 he says first I've deserved this but look at the second half of verse 41 but this man has done nothing wrong ah here it is he begins to recognize the righteousness of Christ you could even say in some sense he begins to recognize the holiness of Christ that this person is totally different than he is that he is wicked and this person is righteous and pure in other words he begins to apprehend wonderful things about Jesus he doesn't have a lot of time to apprehend it does he it doesn't have to understand everything about Jesus if you would have stuck a microphone in his face at this point say can you define justification by faith alone you may not have an answer can you quote the catechism now we probably can't have done that can you say the five points of capitalism probably never heard of them but I can tell you something there's something about this person Jesus that I really really am drawn to here's the sign of a true convert their interest isn't just getting saved there is interest isn't just the benefits of believing in Jesus a true convert is someone who sees apprehends and finds Jesus to be wonderful actually sees Jesus by the way do you realize how many people come to church every week across our country and they never really think much about Jesus they're there for the songs or they're for the community or they're there for whatever reason they're there for and they may talk about Jesus they may even hear about Jesus I don't actually ever see Jesus and find him to be wonderful this man in a short hour says this guy over here there's something different about him there's something wonderful about him I'm drawn to him this is a righteous man and you realize that there's something going on in this man's heart one final observation on this evidence you can see the momentum here by the way so he turns away from his old ways he realizes he's a sinner he realizes there's something about Jesus that's wonderful and then the last step is the ultimate step of someone who really loves and trust Jesus and is converted and that is he calls upon Jesus verse 42 look what it says and he said Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom he actually talks to him he cries out to by the way you could do all the first three steps but you need the last step don't you you actually call out to Jesus for mercy and help what you realize here on this particular request is how radical it would have been and we hear this story all the time I never dawns on us but I want to ask you this question what would you ask for on the cross I mean I could imagine you would have asked for what the other guy asked for is you notice the difference what the other three asked for get us down from here fix this problem stop my suffering relieve my pain you can imagine other kinds of requests it might have been in his mind maybe it's like well look could you give me a second chance can you if you give me down from here I promise all men my ways or could you let me say goodbye to my family one last time or who knows what all the different sort of approximate things you could ask for but he doesn't ask for any of the things that you would expect the person to ask for doesn't ask for anything I would ask for I would have said you know look I'm getting hung on a Roman cross step number one here is stop the suffering but he doesn't ask for that is it possible that he really knows the most important thing to ask for he asks for something about eternity by the way you can tell a lot about people about what they ask for this reveals so much in our hearts doesn't not what you ask for by the way God wants to hear all our requests and there's nothing too small or too big for him so don't misunderstand he cares about the little things he cares about approximate things we can ask God anything but it reveals a lot in our heart what we tend to ask God for we don't ask God for look at what it says about this man's heart the most important thing I want to ask you is where I will be in relationship to your kingdom remember me when you come into your kingdom don't forget me now that is the request a someone whose heart has changed you see where all the evidence is pointing here every arrow suggests that yes this is no fake deathbed conversion this this guy's for real something has happened to the man on the cross and by the way before we leave this second point certainly fitting is it not for us to ask wow are those four things true of me if I shown any change in my life if I ever begun a new direction do I have a of the right trajectory do I recognize my own sinfulness and when it comes to judgment yeah I got to admit when it comes to that I deserve it is there any sense in which you see Jesus and find them wonderful or is it just the idea of Jesus or is it just the abstract idea of church or maybe just the idea of salvation or is it a person that you see and then of course the real question is you ever called upon him it said Jesus don't forget me this man was really saved he was a recipient of amazing grace now think about amazing grace is it has blessings and this brings us to our last point I want to make tonight the first point is just a reminder of the initiator of grace it's all of Jesus orchestrating it the second point was the evidence of that grace okay well can we really suss out whether this is the real deal or not everything seems to suggest it's the real deal but then man the blessings then come fast and furious what are they there's so much we can say I just want to point out briefly here the most obvious and that is there's an eternal blessing that he gets verse 43 probably than one of the most well known verses in the entire Bible and Jesus said to him truly I say to you today you will be with me in paradise by the way did you notice here that Jesus doesn't just grant the man eternal life but he tells the man that he has eternal life you could he could not Jesus have granted the man eternal life and just never told him could not Jesus inside his brain said well I'm really suffering right now but I'm going to give this guy eternal life he'll find out later but no what happens is Jesus not only grants him eternal life but he actually tells him he will be with me today in paradise wow that is amazing goodness he realized how good God is to not just do things for us but the tell us he's going to do things for us and then tell us again that he's really going to do the things for us and then he's promised he'll do the things for us what does that tell you about what God knows about us that we are weak for people that doubt and wonder and that he piles on the reassurance one of the blessings here is that temporal hope that temporal comfort that Christ provides for this man as he hangs on the cross I'm telling you and you're not going to believe it that you're going to be with me today in paradise by the way I'm noticing notice the way Jesus practices this uses the term truly I say to you by the way this is all over the gospels you know what Jesus usually reserves that's truly truly I say to you for the most traumatic things that he knows you won't believe what he said in academia is truly truly I say to you the man has to be born again before you can enter the kingdom of God I know you won't believe it but you need to hear it you have to be born again or one time Jesus told the Jews I tell you the truth or truly truly I say to you before Abraham was born I am I know you're not going to believe this but this is reality he does the same thing here truly truly I say to you I know you're not going to believe it but it's true today today you will be with me in paradise now I don't know if you ever thought about it but he actually doesn't just grant this man's request he actually goes well and above and beyond the request did you catch that the man's like just remember me man I'll be a doorkeeper in the in the kingdom I'll be a servant I'll live in the in the servants quarters in the kingdom of God I mean by golly obviously I just want to make it in and what does Jesus do he doesn't say you just barely made it in in the servants quarters no Jesus gives him all the glories of eternal life as his own child the man just wants to be a servant Christ makes him a son the man just wants to be forgiven and remembered and Jesus says I'm going to give you the entire world I'm going to give you paradise

this is what grace is grace isn't merely God not giving us what we deserve which is judgment grace is God given us the opposite of what we deserve by showering blessings upon us beyond what we could even ask or imagine this man simply wanted to live and not be forgotten and Jesus says oh I've got greatness for you today you're going to live with me forever in paradise you're going to be at my table you're going to eat my meals you're going to be my child you're going to be loved see we think grace is about getting what is coming to you or we rather we think rather I should say we think that that's all the way it ought to be but what God says in grace is that now I'm going to give you even more then you can even ask or imagine that is the blessings of grace be sort of like going into a hotel and hoping just to get a room if I could just stay here I'm tired I just want to bed to sleep in and then keep her saying well actually the penthouse is open I'll give you that and you can stay here all week for free that's what grace is it's got showering upon you more you could ever ask or imagine as we pull this all together here tonight as a close this is one of those passages that calls for our self-reflection is it not so many things to reflect upon but do you realize that that is the way God treats you and I when we trust in Jesus that he promises eternity for us paradise to us not because we deserve it because he wants to shower his blessings on us and do you realize that we're no different than the thief on the cross we might think ourselves well you know that's a pretty big deal for him because he's a pretty bad guy but I'm a pretty good guy and so if I get paradise you know I probably deserve some of that no we're just like the thief on the cross today if that's you here's the thing God has promised in your eternal life in Christ and he doesn't just give it to you he tells you he's going to give it to you and then he promises he's going to give it to you and that's the great encouragement here today you have a God that loves you with all his being and has worked in Christ to purchase you for eternity and he's done that to us who are criminals and don't deserve it that that's the takeaway that's amazing grace amen let's pray Lord we're so thankful for this passage for your son or the good news Lord help us not grow so used to the story that it never dawns on us that we're the one on the cross we're the ones that we receive grace we're the ones that will be with you forever we pray all this in Christ's name amen