We're reading in the Gospel of Luke this morning chapter 23 We'll read verses 32 and 33 and then 39 and following You hold in your hands the very words of God Two other men both criminals were also let out with him to be executed when they came to the place called the skull There they crucified him along with the criminals One on his right the other on his left One of the criminals who hung their hurled insults at him aren't you the Christ save yourself and us for the other criminal Rebuke 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
Let's return to the scripture we read with John just a few months ago From Luke chapter 23 as we continue this morning in our study in the Gospel according to Luke We've arrived at the crucifixion In our study of the life of Christ as we've looked at the gospel the life of Christ according to doctor Luke Usually doing a study like this. I've noticed that ministers or churches or Bible study leaders that they've been in the gospel for a long time They come to the crucifixion and because we're at the end of there at the end of the gospel. They begin to move very quickly and After all everyone knows all the different stories concerning the crucifixion We have done just the opposite here in these last few weeks and we'll do the same for the next few weeks When Jesus got to the upper room and they celebrated the last Passover and the first Lord's Supper we began to slow down You know in movies when there's a scene That if it moves fast and in real life that moves fast so much is going on that you can't get it off You can't assimilate everything. So what the director does is it slows down the scene Everything goes in slow motion and you're allowed to see Expressions and people and events that you would miss if we're at regular speed Well, that's what we've done This is a crucial time in the movie This is a crucial time in the story and we've slowed it down so that we can assimilate more We took time to look at Simon from Sirein Roman said care that cross and we found there was a real story there We stopped to hear the prophet Jesus preach his last sermon on his way up God got there as he stopped and spoke to the women preach the women of Jerusalem now. We've come to that thief And oh for the we're going to slow down keep the sake keep moving slow and look at him And see what Jesus has to say to us through this great great story of the thief Let's pray and ask the Lord Jesus who is there at God goth of that day. He's here this morning. Let's ask him to teach us Our father Many of us want to hear a great message right now We want to be able to walk from here in a few minutes saying Wow, I just heard an interesting and captivating sermon our father sometimes more Into the sermon than I am into Christ Sometimes as hears We're more into a message than we are into Christ
Sometimes young men get married Because we're in love with marriage And not so much in love With their ride Our father I must confess
Sometimes I'm in love with the forms of the faith far more in love with them than I am with Christ Sometimes I'm in love with preaching and not with Christ Our father we all confess sometimes we come here. We want to be fascinated We want to be amused There were far more We want some money to say something that will interest us and we're not so into Christ
Father this morning we don't want a message that intrigues us We want a message that will draw us close to Jesus Christ
Our father We don't want to leave here captivated by a message. We want to be leave here captured by Jesus Christ himself We sing in that old spiritual Our father We sing just Give me Jesus Our father that would be our plea right now I can't preach that way But you can and our plea is just give us Jesus and his name we pray again How Did he know Someone came up to me and said well in the world is that title about how did he know and I said we'll just read the verse That's the text under it. Jesus said remember me or he said to Jesus or he said Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom I have been perplexed and puzzled for years
How did that thief know That Jesus was a king How did he know in this morning Daniel stood up and made his profession of faith Not one of us looked at Daniel and said How did he know Daniel's a covenant child raised in a covenant home He was raised with the gospel he was raised with God Some of you taught him as Sunday school teachers You didn't say we didn't say this more didn't even cross our mind how did he know but For years I thought you know when I get to heaven and I meet that thief I've only got one question for how in the world did you know he was a king How that was my question until the last two weeks
And I knew what I was going to preach two weeks ago I'm do I look back at other message I preached on this and I said I'm finally going I'm just going to say it. How did he know And you know what I found out I really did and I'm about to tell you how he knew It's a good question. It has more to do with us than we think So let's get at it First I want you to see in this passage an unlikely discernment Look at verse 32 Two other men both criminals We're also let out with him to be executed when they came to the place called the skull There they crucified him along with the criminals one on his right the other on his left Now skip down to verse 42 Then he said Jesus Remember me when you come into your kingdom The thief did not say look at it the thief did not say Jesus save me I'm a sinner He said remember me when you come into your kingdom your kingdom or the two operative words there That was an extraordinary statement He was saying Jesus I believe your king Jesus I believe you have a kingdom That was a most unlikely observation to make when the man To whom he was confessing or whom he was confessing to be a king was dying Nobly on a Roman cross the man just didn't look like a king. Jesus had been flawed. He had been mocked and teased. He did wear King a crown Thorns it was a mock crown for a mock king Did he not He just did not resemble Don Kiyote he said I'm Messiah And he jostled with windmills the name of God and this crowd there was still lampooning Their parody There he was naked dying on a Roman cross the object of derision. What did that speak see that made him think Jesus really was again We can't look at this we can't see him on the cross We can't think about this without remembering the words of Isaiah We read them this morning and are called a worship This is if if you're not a Christian this ought to be a puzzle to you Isaiah 700 years before Christ wrote in detail about Messiah's crucifixion and what did he write? Isaiah 53 at the end of verse two He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him Nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men A man of sorrows and very familiar with suffering Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised and we have seemed enough men dug their head rather than look at this awful gore of the crucifixion Isaiah was saying he did not look like a king So the so the thief's observation on the surface Things miraculous doesn't it However If you give below the surface if you really look at it You understand that that thief is more like us than We might have imagined You know for one thing we tend to think that the thief knew nothing of Jesus before the crucifixion Now thanks That would have been impossible Jesus of Nazareth was the best known Man in Israel at that time He was the best known man Roman or Jew in Israel Everyone knew of him what wasn't when he appeared before herod when he came to when he came us to herod as a friend What do we read? Herod had wanted to see him for a long time everyone knew about Jesus He was far more famous among the Jews than Paul and I even herod And we can see it and how the thief first addressed Jesus You know the thief this thief did not start off sympathetic to Jesus We missed that Luke doesn't record it But it's recorded in Matthew and I would ask you to turn to Matthew's account of this right now with me It's in Matthew chapter 27 Matthew chapter 27 and we'll begin reading with verse 41 In the same way the chief priest and teachers of the law and elders mocked him Verse 42 he saved others they said but he cannot save himself He's the king of Israel let him come down now from the cross and we will believe in him He trust in God let God rescue him now That God rescue him now if he wants him for he said I'm the son of God Now look at verse 44 and mark the words in the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also keep insults on him the priest and elders said if your Messiah Come down from the cross prove it if you're the son of God come down from the cross and prove it And what did you say we read it right there in the same way with the same words Just the same words they had to understand what the priests and elders understood They had to understand that Jesus had claimed to be Messiah
This thief hurled the same insults that Jesus as a religious leaders Your Messiah prove it your king prove it He may not have known all we know But he knew more than we think He knew about the miracles He knew this man had made blind men see He knew that he had made paralyzed folks walk he knew he'd raise the dead He knew like us there were some things he knew but We're like to thief in another way also sooner or later Jesus forces all of us To go to Calvary
To go see him there beaten seemingly defeated on a cross
If you had asked me several months ago, what was the greatest illustration of faith in all scripture I would not have hesitated. I would have said immediately that thief on the cross. I don't understand
However after the last two weeks of study I see him in a different light It was not only that he knew and we know It's that he was there at Calvary just like Jesus brings all of us to Calvary
Sooner or later Jesus brings all of us to the goer of Calvary and demands that we embrace him there as Savior and King Where is it to which we're always called in the gospel
We're always called Is it to the sermon on the mount now? That's not the centerpiece. Is it the resurrection? No
That's certainly a crucial point But we're always called to the cross We're always called to a beaten bloody Savior and King Jesus is on the cross that day and in a way He still is
Now of course we don't believe he keeps dying. He died once by our sins But when I was called and when you were called Was there somebody on the cross? Yes, there was And he was bloody and he was beaten and he was gore
He'll always bring us there never never can a man come to God and bypass the cross And folks here is the kicker There is an automatic resistance in us There's an actual scorn toward Embracing that kind of Messiah embracing that kind of king
You see we want a powerful CEO type What has become the religion of our day? It's the self-help books It's it's pick yourself up by your own big strap Books we want a powerful CEO type we want a model leader whose great strength will be an example File on rise to power We want a Savior that's Janet's grandchildren's favorite word Cool That they see something they like Cool we don't go to Calvary and say cool Power people Power with people with with well people on the boards People who are cool who wear cool clothes and drive cool cars and live in cool neighborhoods People who throw the right parties and belong to the right clubs. You know what? It's hard to introduce it's hard for them to introduce Their friends to the Jesus of the cross powerful men and women they don't like this kind of king Of victim I remember always long I remember to lady early in my ministry And she came up to me after a sermon one day and she was really really mad And she said why must you always speak of the blood and gore of Jesus great picture that resistance You know if that resistance if you don't understand that resistance you don't know your own soul Look at it. Look at it. Is that the Christ you want? Yeah, I mean think about it You're there at Calvary and you see this man. I mean the nails are driven through his hands It's an ugly scene. He has been flawed. We talked about what that he's a This just it's just gore It's hard and Isaiah said we turn our faces. We don't want to there's no beauty that would have cracked us to him
That the man you want is king. I thought for all those years that it was really something that the thief recognized to die in Jesus's king And he was hard to recognize in that way But you know what the main issue the main issue That the resistance it was not in Jesus the resistance was in the thief He didn't want that kind of savior here In the chief priests and elders didn't nobody did
Just like the thieves and everyone born in this world We have a stubborn and sinful resistance to recognizing our need for a crucified savior our need for a crucified king When Paul talked about the gospel coming to that great city of car The city that stood more for worldly power and wealth than any other city in the world at that time even more than Rome When he talked about bringing the gospels around what did he say read it? You can go home this afternoon and read two great chapters the first chapter of first Corinthians the first two chapters In that second chapter he minds the Corinthians he said what did I preach? I preached one message It was only a few words Christ and him crucified And what did Paul say Paul said that message of the crucified Christ To the intellectual to the worldly wise Greeks to the powerful Greeks It was foolishness. They laughed at the message just like the elders said hey come down if you're the Christ We don't need a crucified Messiah And what was each of the gist Paul wrote That he was he said he was foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling block to the moralistic Jews
At one point early in Julius Caesar's career Run turned against him. He said I better get out of here. He sailed out into the a gene With his with these leading officers in his army and he was captured By some pirates And they knew he was they demanded 12,000 pieces of silver and they sent his his leading officers to go get the money Caesar was with these Pirates for about 40 days and he ate with them Yeah, he was a powerful man. They enjoyed him And he ate with them and he laughed with him and every once in a while he would look at them and he say you know You're gonna pay for this. I'm gonna come back and get every one of you and I'm gonna crucify you And they laughed Now you know the rest of the story they came but they got the 12,000 pieces of gold Caesar was set free. He immediate returned to Rome raised to fleet and went after those pirates and he crucified Everyone to the man You know what I like that The world loves Julius Caesar's we love that kind of leader We love that kind of CEO tough powerful and we don't see that on the cross Look at him Is that your king power power to the sign up over the the cross and what it says is Jesus King of the Jews and he wasn't doing that doing that just to mark Jesus. He's doing that to mark the Jews He hated the Jews and the Jews hated him And he said here Is a joke of a king for a joke of a people
And they didn't want a king like him and need a new we The crucifixion offends us yet Thanks He is the king that we made He's a king for sinners He's a king dying for a nation of sinners
The thief was not the only one who made an unlikely discernment if you're a Christian so have you In places where autonomy and self-sufficiency is worshiped a Crucified Messiah it's not And if you know him you've gone to him as a sinner and you've embraced a bloody Christ Bloody for our own sin as Daniel told us under the justice of God you've embraced him And you have sin and need I need a crucifixion that's the kind of king Secondly, I want you to see a timely fear look at verse 39 of Luke 23 one of the criminals who are their hurled insults Eddie Aren't you the Christ say yourself and us but the other criminal we're getting don't you fear God Since you're under the same sentence What what do they say he said to the other thief You're under the same sentence. We're dying here. We're dying Don't you fear God? He said we're dying it's time we're not going to see the sun set today It's time to fear God We're going to meet him and we're going to meet him as thieves and criminals You know nothing brings life and eternity into focus like death If we found out right now that we only had six hours to live it six hours from now we were going to die our Perspectives would change about life our perspectives would change about eternity There was a desperation and this thief's cry for mercy. It was time for desperation. He was dying He was about to meet God face-to-face You know if that thief think about it that thief had been a businessman down in the middle of Jerusalem Reading out apartments and condos to the Passover pilgrims You know he would have been going through town. He would have been making money busy about the day Looked up and he saw that cross out there on Gargotha. You think he had given the second thought You think he'd have said hey, remember me when you come into your kingdom. He wouldn't have been thought about it There would have been no desperation He was dying and it was time for fear and that's a good thing You know Especially in evangelical Christianity in Christianity. I'm not talking about liberal Christianity I think they've just left the cardinal doctrines all along but even inside of evangelical especially in evangelical Christianity There is a real We avoid There's There's just a real effort To avoid saying the fear of God or the fear of God's judgment or the fear of hell And we say you know Jesus would never he's such a loving Savior he would never scare anyone Into the faith he would never scare anyone into confession and into heaven Let me tell you People that say that People that say that it's not only that they don't know scripture It is an effort to sell a salvation but not from sin It's an effort to sell a redemption, but without a sacrifice. It is an effort to sell an eternity without a hell Start reading the Bible I dare you go home this afternoon if you think if you walked in here saying you know You know, you just don't scare people to that. Let me tell you what You you go home and start reading. I don't care where you start starting Genesis Start in Leviticus starting to start in Isaiah start Matthew you will hear one message over and over and over again fear God fear God fear God How did the thief know I'll tell you how he knew he was dying He was desperate and he was afraid and that's good. He ought to have been In to do to run me 32 29 we read God says to Israel Oh that you were wise. Oh that you would understand and consider you are going to die
Yeah, we we make plans we buy insurance is I want to take care of my family if I die I want But have we made preparation for our souls are we prepared to meet him what if you were to die right now That's why that thief knew he was desperate a young man was flown into the Alaskan wilderness His adventure began in the spring of 1981. He was flown into that desolate north country He wanted to photograph The beauty and the mysteries of the tundra The first few entries in his in his diary were just full of wonder and all He had all the photo equipment. He had 500 rows of film. He had several firearms. He had 1400 pounds of provisions But along the way The diary began to change in August He wrote I should have used more foresight about arranging my departure. I'll find out soon He waited and waited and no one came it made all these elaborate plans All the photographic equipment all the food everything he made plans brought this whole thing But he forgot to arrange For his rescue and in November in 1981 He died in a nameless valley on the nameless lake 225 miles northeast of Fairbanks
The thief He had lived his life and made all the preparations for life and he got to the end He was scared. Don't you fear God this afternoon. I fear God. I'm going to die William Sorrowin before his death. He's an American writer and before his death in 1981. He telephoned the associated press And he he made a very Sorrowin-like observation He said to the associated press Everyone has got to die but have always believed an exception would be made in my case We all think that way don't we you know we ended that call after he said I always believe in the exception we made in my case he ended the call with two words a question now what Tomakis was a seven-century ascetic he wrote the latter of divine ascent He encouraged Christians to remember the reality of death. He wrote these words You cannot pass a day deboutly unless you think of it as your last day He called the thought of death the most essential of all works And we think that's more but no that's smart He would have said you're not ready to live until you're ready to die He wrote this a man who has heard himself sentence to death will not worry about the way the theaters are right
Are you afraid of death? Are you are you afraid of health? Are you afraid of God? If you're not a Christian
You ought to be afraid of all three if you are a Christian A Christian learns the fear God that he might not fear death that he might not fear hell that he can say it as well with my soul You know even in eternity you will not outlive your fear of God When we've been in eternity for a million years We'll fear him far more than we do today An unlikely discernment a timely fear and finally I want you to see an unusual grace Look at verse for which I love these two verses then he said Jesus How sweetness is Jesus? You remember me I'm going to embrace a crucified king you remember me when you come into your kingdom And Jesus answered that old thief I tell you the truth Today you will be with me in heaven Almost every sermon I read about this thief Spoke of the great grace he was shown I went back and I looked at sermons. I'd preached on this passage and I always talked about Oh, this is a trophy of God's grace
And we say you know he didn't know that much in Jesus Sadie He was only a thief Jesus Sadie You know, I've made that's the way most sermons I read about the thief. That's was their theme Well, I'm before you this morning to repent of that observation
Listen to me if that thief had less knowledge That didn't demand more grace If he had less morality that didn't demand more grace
I look back at the knowledge I had about Jesus and I must say this I look back at the knowledge I had about Jesus and salvation when I became a Christian You know the thief may have had more knowledge than I did I've certainly come to understand that my own hypocrisy and more pride Makes that thief look like my moral superior
To marvel for us to sit and piously marvel At the grace the thief received as if it took less grace to save us is a gross misunderstanding of our own sin The grossness understanding of the grace of God. It was an unusual grace that saved that thief it was It is an unusual grace that saves us all It's a suffering thought God paid no more for me than he did for the thief And he paid no more for the thief that he did for me
I read a paragraph this week and I want to close with this It comes from Robert Capon from a book entitled between noon and three And he was talking about Robert Capon was talking about grace And God and the prodigal son remember the parable and then this is what he wrote You're worried about permissing talking about grace. He said you're worried about permissiveness About the way the preaching of grace seems to say it's okay to do all kinds of terrible things As long you just walk in afterward and take the free gift of God's forgiveness Now why you and I may be worried about singing to give permission Jesus apparently wasn't he wasn't afraid of giving the prodigal a kiss instead of a lecture A party instead of probation and he proved that bringing in he proved that by bringing in the elder brother at the end of the story And having him raised pretty much the same objections as we do He's angry about the party He complains that his father is low-wing standards and ignoring virtue That music dancing and a fatted calf are in effect just so many permissions to go on and break the law And to that Jesus has the father say only one thing Cut that out We're not playing good boys and bad boys anymore Your brother was dead and he's alive again The name of the game from now on is grace Not bookkeeping You know That thief on the cross He was the prodigal son And Jesus looked at him He said today Today you're going to be with me in heaven This day may have started with you and across but it's going to end with you at a party
And we're the elder brother standing there You're going to throw a party For a thief Even the remnants Crucified Even the remnants of he's not fit to live And you're going to take him to heaven So how did he know The same way we know folks How did he get it The same way we get it