Our text this morning is found in the 23rd chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Luke the physician who met Jesus Christ and was never the same. Luke chapter 23, and this morning our lesson will be from verses 32 to 39, here now the Word of Guy, two other men, both criminals, who are also led 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. Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing, and they divided up his clothes by casting lots. And the people, the people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, he saved others, let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, the chosen one. The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, if you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was a written notice above him, which read, this is the king of the Jews, one of the criminals who hung their hurled insults at him, aren't you the Christ, save yourself and us. This is the Word of the Lord. I said, we read with Durand just a few moments ago from Luke 23, if you are visiting with us this morning, we are so glad you are here. Thank you for coming to worship with us. We are in a gut study in the gospel, according to Luke, that centerpiece of the gospel, the crucial part of the story, the crucifixion, and we slow down, like you see a movie in slow motion, there's so much action going on, there's so much taking place in these scenes that we must slow it down to see the detail, to see it all. We didn't intend to preach this message this morning, I thought I would move to a different part of the scene, and we are moving to a different part of the scene, but we're also reaching back last week, we talked about the two thieves who were crucified with Jesus. We're going back to them this morning to begin with, and then we're going to widen the panorama and look at other folks besides these thieves. And I would encourage you to open your bibles, you never know what God is going to teach you, even in passages that you know so well. And we get here and we tend not to open our bibles so much, it's not a doctrinal, a dactic teaching, it's a story here, it's a narrative, and so when we know the narrative, so it's very tempting not to open our bibles, but you know just like what happened to me, just we are the last two weeks. I should say I opened my bibles to this passage, and I began to see what I had not seen before. Now because I'm wise, not because I'm smarter, but just as the Holy Spirit opened my heart and mind to see things I hadn't seen before. It's a marvelous thing folks, and if you're here and you're not a Christian, I know you don't believe what I'm saying right now, but it's what the Bible teaches, and you need to understand that. This is what Christianity is about, and this is the why of Christianity. If you read 1 Corinthians chapter 2, the great Apostle Paul said, what I see in Scripture and what I know in Scripture and whatever Christian season knows, he doesn't get because he goes to a classroom like a math class or a history class and learn. It's taught him, he's able to see it by the Holy Spirit, something supernatural happens. That's what is about to happen here. You've heard me pray, you've heard me say it, we've prayed it together, and I think most of you believe it. That it really is, not John's artel, it's the Lord who teaches us, and it is. And that's what I rest, and that's what we say every Lord's day morning, and it's why we pray their prayers because they are over and over again in Scripture, but it's laid out in detail, and if you want to read it, it's 1 Corinthians chapter 2, where he says, the world's a season here, but they really don't see in here. They hear the words, but they really don't hear it. And he said, the only reason we hear it is because the Lord opens our ears and opens our hearts to hear it. If you're not a Christian right now, and invite you to pray, God will listen to you, pray and ask him, you know, say, you know, I came here to hear John's artel, or here at theology this morning, but God, if you're there, teach me. Give me my ears to hear. That's all of that. All of us pray that together right now. Let's pray. Father, in this form of worship we have, we spend a lot of time in this week, Jennifer, in James, in the choir, putting this worship together, in the songs, in the specials, in the Scripture, in the prayers, in the call of worship, and our Father, in the forms important, but we can read the form, and it doesn't mean a thing. We can read the form, and really not be engaged in real worship, in love of you. Our Father, I'm a confessor, and I'm on the brink of that all the time, that I go through the motions, that I say the form, and my heart's not there. Our Father, you look upon the heart. We've come with feeble hearts we always do. We compare ourselves with the worship of heaven, Father, and we're blown away. We're like paupers looking on wealth that is beyond imagined as we watch heaven worship. For Father, our worship indeed is poverty compared to theirs, but we want to be better. Know the way we'll be better, Father, in your presence. As you reveal yourself to us and show us who we are, show us who you are, that we might know who we are. Our Father, thank you for your patience. Thank you. We gathered here, Father, and kind of week after week, and sometimes our Father, it has been absolutely blasphemous. We've been so feeble in our worship, and the angels of heaven have wondered at your patience was us. Thank you for your patience, Father. Thank you for not consuming us, and we pray, Father, that you would work on our hearts, but more and more and more, it's not just the form, but it's the heart. Our hearts engaged, and now we pray, Father, that you would come to our hearts and speak to us. May we hear your voice, may we know when we leave you in a few minutes that you've spoken. That's our prayer. In Jesus' name, amen. Do you know what you're doing? How many times have we heard the words, Father, forgive them? They nailed the exhausted, beaten dying Jesus to cross beings. He surveyed the crowd, the soldiers, the thieves, the people during and taunting. If you've been there, what would you have expected just at that moment? What would you have expected to say, unjustly tried, unjustly condemned, the world expected to hear words of hatred and condemnation, they expected the venom of anger to come out, but instead they heard those great words of grace, Father, forgive them. His words were shocking in that chaotic and evil scene. We hear it so often, and somehow we've sanctified this scene, and we haven't made it real world. We haven't made the gore real world. We hadn't made the jeering and the taunting real world. We haven't... We just kind of put a halo around it, but folks, this was on the edge of hell, and we hear those words, Father, forgive them, shocking words. Those first words have been repeated by millions who have died in his name through all of history, over and over again, the martyrs have tried, Father, forgive them. Usually, however the whole sentence is not repeated, Jesus said, Father, forgive them, they know not what they are doing. Most sermons were here, what's the focus, Father, forgive them. I must tell you, they've heard a whole message on this before. They know not what they're doing. Yet no words describe the activities surrounding the cross better than those words. Whoever, as you watch that crowd around the cross, it can be applied to everyone. They don't understand what they're doing. Why did Jesus say them? Remember who He was? He was deity. This was God making an observation about the world that was immediately around Him. Jesus was looking at the absurdity of it all, the cynicism of the criminals, the gambling of the soldiers, the taunting of the religious leaders, and He was making the observation. They don't know what they are doing. Remember when you were young? Remember when you were just doing something and you look on it now and you're embarrassed that you were doing it, it just made no sense and your parents knew it made no sense and your teachers knew it made no sense. And they looked at you and said, what do you know, do you really understand what you're doing? I love the true story of the mother who looked out her front door to check on her children like mothers are prone to do. She saw her four children under 10 playing in the yard and then she took a closer look. And somehow they had found some baby scumps and they were playing with them as if they were puppies. And this mother shot out the door screaming, scunk, children, scunk, run, run, and each of them picked up a skunk and ran. We look at that and say, do you know what you're doing? We want to go back and grab those soldiers gambling right there around the cross they could reach up and touch Jesus and they were gambling for his clothes and we want to yell it then. Do you understand? Do you understand what you're doing? We would yell at them like someone who was playing with dynamite in front of a fire. Do you have any idea? The problem was that those men, those things, those who leaders, all those people at Calvary thought they knew what they were doing. They were very sure they were in charge. They were very sure they were worldly wise winners. I'm afraid that all too often the message from heaven. The message from God to us is, do you know what you're doing? Do you really? Remember the story that Jesus told about, think about that question in light of every scripture you read. Remember the parable Jesus told about the man who spent his life amassing the fortune and then he got ready to enjoy it. He retired early and said, now I'm going to enjoy this first night. He died. He was over. What was the message? The man thought he knew what he was doing. He thought he was being wise. He thought he was being prudent and Jesus said, the whole time he was losing his soul. The whole time, all of his life he was selling his soul. He had no idea what he was doing, thought he did. This week I spent a lot of time looking at my life and thinking about high school, college, really thinking about the early days of my ministry. Now, the morning I had to come and ask God's forgiveness for wasting so much of my life. I looked at that and I said, that was such a waste. Such a waste. I'm not talking about that I wasn't in the ministry. I mean, even after I was in the ministry, I didn't know what I was doing. In looking at the absurdity of what these folks were doing at Calvary, I saw myself there with them too much. I think we tend to look at this and say, that's not me. Who were these people who did not know what they were doing? They were more like you and I than we want to think. I want you to ask yourself the question this morning, is you surveil your life, the life you live this week, the life we live this week, the last week, the last month, do we have any idea what we're doing? That's the question. Now let's look at the passage. I want you to see first a thief who sought self-preservation and lost God. Look at verse 39. One of the criminals who hung their hurled insults at him, aren't you the Christ, aren't you Messiah? Save yourself and us. What was he saying? He was saying, if you're Messiah, save us. Every person in the world, all of us have offered a similar prayer. We've prayed the same prayer. If you're God, if you're real, then do this for me. If you are God, you will save my child. If you're God, you will save my business. If you're God, you will save my marriage. If you're God, you'll take this cancer away. After the tragedy, we say, I don't believe in God anymore. If God were there, he would not have let my child die. The implication is that if God's there, he's going to serve me in a book entitled Sacred First. M. Craig Barnes has a chapter entitled, It's Not About You. And I read that chapter and identified with it so much, I read it again. He made the observation. He said, when people come to me, he's a counselor and he said, when people come to me for counseling and they complain or they're telling their story or whatever, he said, with 90% of the people I can start. I can start. Listen to them. I can start by saying, you do know, don't you, that life is not about you, that the universe is not about you. Now, I just disagreed with Barnes. I don't think it was 90% of the people. I think you can say it to 99 and 9, 10% of us, it's not about you. The thief thought that God had to be about him, saved me, be the God that I think you should be. But I want to do what I think is right, do what is good for me and I'll let you be God. Isn't that nice? If you do this for me, give me over this cross, give me over this fixed Lord, I'll let you be God. Listen to these verses, I just, I wrote them out from them right, I didn't have to look them up. Seek the Lord while he may be found, call on him while he's near. One thing that I ask of the Lord and that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. My heart says, seek the Lord, seek his face. Your face, Lord, will I seek? Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, come unto me all you ends of the earth, come unto me all ye that labor and heavy laden, what do all of those verses have in common? In all of those verses, the message of Scripture, the message of God from heaven is come to me, come to me, come to me, seek me, look for me, Jesus said come to me. We are called to God as he is. Now the thing, one of the God who would come to him as the thief wanted him to be. We want a God, he wanted a God who revolved around him, we want a God who revolves around us, who revolves around our job, our home, our famous God revolves around us. The Bible changes the center of gravity for our lives. The gospel changes the center of the universe. We're not the center of gravity, we're not the center of the universe, God is us. That's the message of Scripture. The thief was saying, Jesus revolved around me and what I want, Jesus was a means to self-preservation. He was a means to the thief's own end. His life was first, his life was his own end, his life was his own goal. The call of God, the call of the gospel has always been, I'm the end. You seek me. What did Jesus say? This is exactly what Jesus meant when you said, seek you first, the kingdom of heaven and all these other things will be added to you. When we cry, God, do this for me and I will say, your God, we're simply making God a means to an end. And that end is usually self-sufficient, do this God, do what I want, then you and what? You look at that thief, that thief sought self-preservation and he lost God. You want to shape the thief and you want to say, you don't know what you're doing, you don't know what you're saying. We want to say you don't need deliverance from a cross, you need deliverance from a self-centered life, you don't need to be rescued from those cross-beings, you need to be rescued from it and all about me, life, and what is that shouting to us? We say to God, God, do this for me, do this for my children, do this for my family, do this for my job, and God says, no, you don't need rescuing from that. You need rescuing from that self-centered life, from that light that it's all about you. What you're praying this morning, it's a great concern of your life. Restore the stock market, give me back my portfolio, the one I had about three years ago. Curve me from this cancer, you'll be gone, give me back my daughter, give me back my son, you'll be gone, don't let people find out father, I don't want to be ashamed, I don't want people to know what I've done, somehow deliver me from that shame. Prayers are prayers this morning, prayers about you, yourself and yours, be the God I want you to be, God, and you can be God, folks, give it up, give it up, the message of Calvary, the message of Christ, the message of the God of the Bible, yes, it's not about you, he's a seat man, look for me, lose your life, stop seeking your life, just look for me this morning. Did you come here to see what Jesus could do for you? Or did you just come looking for Jesus? There's a world of difference, there's a world of difference. Secondly, first we see a thief who sought self-preservation in Lost God, second we see a soldier who sought pennies and lost the treasure, look at verse 33, when they came to the place called the skull, there they crucified him, aren't those just those words, call the skull, and there they crucified him, along with the criminals, one is right, the other only is left. Now skip down to verse 34, the end of the verse, and they divided up his clothes by casting lots, by gambling, you know we see cruel scenes out in the world every day, horrid scenes, scenes of man's inhumanities, cruelty, well this was one of those pitiless vignettes. The soldiers drove the nails, they finished their ghastly duties, and then they sat around the man on the cross, the soldiers could have reached up and touched his feet, they sat down, it was a design cruelty, it was a design humiliation, they wanted him to see it, the dying man watched as they gambled for his clothes. It was a kind of grave robbery, only the man wasn't dead yet. Specifically, you know Jesus didn't have much specifically, they were gambling for what? For a robe, a robe that Herod used to mock him, remember the soldiers were teased him about being a king, and Herod joined into pathetic satanic satire by taking one of his kingly robes and throwing it upon this beaten pitiful Don Kiyote Messiah. Well that robe made it back through the teasing at pallets, I said, made it up gargatha, and those soldiers were gambling. They gambled for his robe. I've got to say this, I've got to take just a moment from the message, and so you know the Old Testament goes to different places in Jesus's life, constantly, all through the Old Testament speaks in detail about his life. The crucifixion is detailed in Psalm 22, you might want to read it this afternoon, I'm only going to read about two or three verses to you right now. Just to say, hey listen to this, isn't this interesting? Psalm 22, verse 1, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me, heard those words before? The psalmist wrote them 1200 years before Calvary. In verse 15 in Psalm 22, listen to this, my strength is dried up like a pot served, my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth, you laid me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me, a band of evil men have encircled me, now listen, they have pierced my hands in my feet, what did that mean? They have pierced my hands in my feet. Verse 70, and I count all my bones, in other words, I'm just wasted people staring glowed over me, and then in these verse 18, they divide my garments among them and cast locks for my clothing. Wow, those men were par of the prophecy. Isn't it an irony? They were gambling for a few dollars. What were they gambling for? A few dollars. Road was pretty valuable, but it would have been a few of our dollars, and they could have reached up at that very moment and touched the feet of the man who owned the cattle on a thousand hills. They sought pennies and they lost the treasure. Even more than irony is that they gambled for a road. A road to take home and say, look at me, I've got the Kings robe. All the while, Jesus was weaving a priceless robe for sinners that day. He was on that cross, he was weaving a robe for sinners like them. He was weaving a robe that they would be able to wear forever and ever and ever. It would never wear out. He was weaving a robe that they could wear to the most formal dinners of glory and be the best dress there. You know, you're not going to believe this. I'm admitting something now and I have done this secretly and even my family does not know this, but I like to watch or to read what the celebrities or the folks of the film industry or the movie stars wear to the Academy Awards. I get USA Today after the Academy Awards every morning, every year after the Academy Awards that morning, I get the USA Today and they were right about what they all wore and what it cost. They will spend $10,000, $25,000, $50,000, $100,000 for evening attire. And you've got to admit, as you look at it, most of the time, much of the time, it's just beautiful. In their effort to be unique, they know these stars want to be unique and so the designers taught them into paying exorbitant prices to wear clothes that really make the one who wears the clothes look silly. I mean, you pay $100,000 for an evening attire and you really just look dumb in it. You know, they're like the king. Remember, the king needed garments for his coronation and these Taylor's came and said, we're going to show you the finest garments in the world. They started sewing and he said, I can't see any thread. I can't see it. They said, only good people can see the thread. Only people that are righteous and good and moral. He said, oh, I see it. And you know, everyone hurting, everyone said, oh, we see it. And of course, the king was walking down the street naked and one little boy cried. Mom, the emperor doesn't have any clothes on. He's naked. Yeah, that's the way those folks are. And however, as usual, what they do is only what we do on a different scale. Think about it. We're like the soldiers. We're like the people there and hardly we fight. We gamble and scramble to get it on in this world, to get the right robe, to win the deal, to come home with Herod's purple robe, to come home with the Mercedes, to come home with the condo who knows where, to add on to build, to do whatever, to get to promotion. Something that makes us look like the king, that's the concern of our life. That's our lives. And from heaven's perspective, it's a lot of money for something that in heaven's eyes makes us look silly. You know, this week, all week long, we live our lives. We lived our lives at the foot of the cross. I love that cosmic view of Christ spreading on the cross and the world is underneath him. I know what that artist is saying. You go to your office in the morning. I don't care what your job is. I don't care where you go to work. You're at the foot of the cross. This morning, we're at the foot of the cross. Do we know what we're doing? Some of us are sitting there gambling, scrambling for the robe. We're seeking the pennies and folks, we're losing the treasure. We're seeking Herod's robe and we're losing God's Lord robe. You look at this and you see a thief who sought self-preservation and lost God. You see soldiers who sought pennies and lost the treasure. Thirdly, you see religious rulers who sought morality and lost their souls. Look at verse 35. The people stood watching and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, he saved others. Let him save himself. He's the Christ of God that chosen one. These were the folks. These were the folks that who arrested Jesus. They were a different sort. They were a kind of different sort than the soldiers and turned different sort than the thieves are so they thought. These were the people that had been at that house of Caiaphas. They had been at Pilot's Court. They're careful to stay on the outside because good moral people and holy people in Israel would not be caught dead in the courtroom on Passover. That was forbidden by the law and they were lawful. They were religious. They had been at Herod's Palace and here they were at the end of their quest and they could not resist to say it once more. You're a Messiah. That was a joke and they turned and said to the people, didn't didn't we tell you this man was a fraud. If he was the real thing, he would save himself. Now folks we really don't understand this. Those men were religious robes. They said all of their lives were you're sitting this morning under the preaching on the Word of God. They thought that their morality was so high that it could please God. They looked at the thieves, those soldiers, the prostitutes and they counted those folks to be the moral drags of society and they were the immoral and they counted themselves to be the moral elite. These were the green berets of morality. Yet there they stood. Think about it. There they stood and all of their pomp and holiness. There they stood mocking, teasing Jesus. Do you see the irony? Somewhere they lost it. They were so holy and so good. Yet they were teasing a dying man. Maybe junior highs do that. But they weren't junior highs. They were supposed to be the holiest men in the world and they were teasing, mocking a man who was being executed. They looked on the holiest man they had ever seen and made a joke of him. Just like the soldiers, just like the thief. They didn't know what they were doing. You know what? They were very much like that thief. He was after life like he wanted, not after God. He was after God on his own terms. Do this for me and you can be my God. These men were not so different from that thief. They were after a God that accepted them as they were morally superior, good people, the best people. They were after a God in their own image, a God that would suit them. Look at their words. He saved others. They didn't save himself. He's the Christ. They didn't save himself. They did not need saving you see. Jesus had been saying for three years that their religion, that their morality wasn't adequate. That's what the whole battle had been about. He had looked at their self-righteous morality and he had said, you see that thief in prostitute. You need grace as much as they did and they didn't buy it and they hated it. They were so proud of their morality. And how is that different today? You preach Christ in most churches. I'm not talking about out in the world. I'm talking about in churches and people are offended. They say my morality is efficient. I don't need a bloody savior. He had taught that they needed grace as much as a prostitute would you think. He had taught that they were not morally superior in the sight of God. Jesus could only be their Messiah if he performed like they wanted him to perform. The thief said, if you are Messiah, get me out of this mess and I'll let you be the Messiah. The religious leader said, Jesus, you didn't perform like we wanted the Messiah to perform. You can't be him. What an irony. They read their Bibles. They went to church religiously. They prayed every day. They were meticulous and obedient to the moral law and they lost their souls. Do you understand that? They went to church every Sunday. They went to Sunday school every Sunday. They opened their Bibles every day. They prayed every day and they lost their souls. They're going to be in hell. Do you understand that? If this doesn't cause us to tremble, one of the easiest places to lose your soul in this country is in the church. We created God who just suits us and we sit inside the sanctuary and religiously chant His mantra. I tell you facts. They're going to people, the people who fought hard for the deity of Christ who depended on their own morality and they're going to be lost.
There's a whole generation of liberals. We ought to wait. We get some mad at the liberals and we scream and cry about them. Let me tell you, there's ministers all across the country today, church and people are gathered to hear them. They'll pat people on their head and say, be good little boys and girls, go out and live a more life in the world and you'll be all right with God.
They're seeking a morality and they're losing their souls. I want you to understand if this is the only time that you are in independent Presbyterian church, that is not the gospel. The message is that your morality will never say here and I'm not patting you on the head and say, go out and be good. The message of Calvary is that you're a thief and a prostitute and you need a savior. That's the gospel. And that brings us to the fourth point. The thief sought self-preservation, lost God, the soldiers lost sought pennies and lost the treasure, the religious leader sought morality and lost their souls. Fourthly, one thief sought Jesus and he gained it all. He gained glory. Verse 42, then he said, Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom, Jesus answered me, my tale of truth today, you'll be with me in paradise. That afternoon had begun with this thief, cursing Christ. We saw that last week. They both started out cursing Christ. We know that from Matthew, but something happened somewhere along the way. He remembered the miracles of which he had heard. He heard this man and he expected an anger and venom. He heard him say, Father, forgive them, and it began to come together in that unholy as the place as the Holy Spirit was present.
And somewhere along the way, he quits saying, if your Messiah save us, he quits saying that and he just sought Jesus. He said, I don't care if I die on this cross today. He stopped saying, save me, give me all this cross. He said, I don't care if I die on this cross today. And I don't care how long it is, it may be a long time before you come to your kingdom, but I know you're king and when you get that kingdom, remember me, I want to be with you. He quit trying to remake Jesus. He quit trying to remake God and just said, you're king and I want to be with you. And that's enough. Look how Jesus responded. He said today, you will be with me in paradise. I meant to say at the beginning of the message, I was very grateful for two things. What caused me to preach this message instead of moving to another was a tape that I heard by Tim Keller and a sermon I read by a man named, a German named crewmacher. And Keller said something here at this point, you know, we're always fascinated with paradise. What's paradise? Where's paradise? When did Jesus go to paradise? You know what, we lose it all. The offerty words and Tim got this so right, the offerty words there. The offerty words is not paradise. The offerty words are with me. Jesus, I don't care where you are. I just want to be with you and Jesus said, you're going to be with me. That's it. That's all that matters. Why did Jesus come and die so we could make millions so we could live in a dream house so that we would never have any problems in that our children would never suffer sickness. Jesus died for this one reason so we could know him. That's it. Jeremiah wrote about it. The prophets understood it. Let let not the wise man, Jeremiah 923, not let let not the wise man boast of these wisdom or the strong man boast of these strengths of the rich man, boast of these riches. What are we supposed to boast in? What's our life to be about? But let him move both, boast about this that he understands and knows me. Can't beat that. That he understands and knows me. Have you ever been so in love with someone? How many just overcome? You look at, you look at a man or you look at a woman and you're just deeply heartfelt in love with that person.
Is that what happened to you? Have you ever loved someone so much that you would say, I don't care, I just want to be with that person. Though he slay me, though she slay me, yet will I love him, yet will I love her? You know, that's what Job said about God. That's what Job said about God. He said, God, I love you so much. All I want is to know you, that's all I want. Job said, though you slay me, God, yet will I love you. He didn't say, I will love you if you protect my children. I'll love you if you give me back my wealth. Lord, I'll love you if you restore my health. He said, I've known you, God, and I've walked with you, and I've talked with you, and though you slay me, if I have to die this afternoon on this cross, that's fine. I just want to be with you. Have you ever looked at all the world I had, everything? Have you ever looked and just sit? Just give me Jesus, have you? I'm not being melodramatic. I'm not being sentimental. The old spiritual says it best, surveys all the world, and just says, what did they say? I just want to be with you. That's all.