and invite you to stand and turn in your bibles to the gospel of Luke chapter 23 beginning at verse 39. Here God's word, One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him saying, Are you not the Christ? Save yourself from 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 duty ward 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. This is the word of the Lord. The story is told of two neighboring farmers. One was the eternal optimist. And the other was the exact opposite he was a pessimist. And on a beautiful sunny day, the optimist will wake up amidst the noise of all the tractors. And he would declare, oh, isn't it such a marvelous day? The sun is shining. And God's blessing will be upon our crops. And the pessimist would respond, yeah? But soon the sun will scorch our crops and we'll have nothing left. And then on a rainy day, the optimist would say, we thank God for this rain because it will water our corn and our wheat on all the other crops. And the pessimist would say, uh-huh. And if it doesn't stop raining soon, it'll flood out everything we've worked so hard to grow. So the optimist got tired of his pessimist friend. And he thought he would fix the situation. And he bought this bird dog. This very special bird dog. And he trained this bird dog to do tricks that no other dog on earth could do. And then after many weeks of training this dog, he took his friend and they both went duck hunting. And so in their boat behind the blinds, they're waiting for the ducks and comes the ducks and they fire the shots and some ducks fell. And the optimist told the dog, go get them. And the dogs, some assaulted out of the boat, walked on water and picked up the birds and brought them back to the boat. pessimist said, you, the optimist said, you're the greatest dog I've ever known on earth. pessimist said, yep, he can't swim, can he? Today, Luke is giving us a story of two men in a very horrible predicament. Two men with two different perspectives. Luke's theme throughout the gospel is salvation. It's rescue. That's his dominant theme. And the focus in Luke is on the desperate situations in which people find themselves. And you couldn't be in a more pickle than these two criminals. They're dying and they're dying without Christ. That's a quick word about crucifixion. Thought I'll throw it out to you. Crucifixion was called by many the historians in those days. It was referred to as the supreme penalty under Roman law. It was supreme over burning and decapitation. Crucifixion was so horrible that it was mainly reserved according to Martin Hengel as he researched the subject, that it was mainly reserved for people of the lower class and the less thigh. So Rome did not refer to people as enemies. They referred to any terrorist group or organization or any threat to their national security. Rome referred to them as less thigh, as robbers. These people were bandits. These people like their forefathers, the macabees and the zealots and no doubt barabas. They were seeking political means through arms. They were tried and convicted and sentenced to die. Hengel says that crucifixion was an utterly offensive affair. It was obscene in the original sense of the word. And for the son of God to be crucified on a cross, it is beyond imagination as to the horror and scandal that this man could find himself in. As he is dying, these are the two robbers or bandits evil doers. They find themselves with this supposed king in their midst. They are dying on a cross, publicly, cruelly, inhumanly. And it will be final in a few hours. The intent of crucifixion was to mistreat the criminal on the one hand. But on the other hand, the main intent was to put the fear of God into anybody who thought that, if you become a threat to Rome, you won't survive this form of punishment. It was a deterrent.
And so we turn to the text. And what I want us to see is we look at verse 39, first of all is that trials tend to make us bitter and resentful. The Bible says, one of the criminals who were hanged railed at him saying, are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. First of all, I want us to see that this is a picture of the natural man apart from God. He's right next to Jesus in his dying moments and he no longer has hope. All of his efforts have ended in failure. Tim Tinsley would say that he has placed his ladder on the wrong wall. And he demonstrates that he has no reverence and no respect for God, no man. And so he blasphames. He responds to Jesus with selfish demands and bitter contempt. So you're the Christ. Why don't you save yourself and save me first? This passage, verse 39, is a book end to the taunt that began Jesus' ministry in the wilderness, in chapter 4, in verse 3, and verse 9. All alone, the enemy of your soul and mine, whispered into the ears of the Lord Jesus Christ. So you're the Son of God, turn this stone to bread. You're the Son of God, throw yourself down from this hill. And that's the story of Jesus' life, constantly battling with the enemy of your souls, so that he might redeem it and reclaim it for the glory of his father. And the same devil who was in control of this thief. He was in control of Judas, the one who we learned on Monday, Kiss Jesus. And so if you're here today and you don't know Christ, I don't want you to think that you could remain neutral in your opposition and objects into Christ. We are not designed that way. Man's chief end is to worship God. And if we don't worship God, we worship anything other but God. And we will find ourselves deceived by the very evil one whom the Apostle Paul says, the God of this world who causes to walk according to the cost of this world. Do not leave you thinking also that you could be ready when your final breath is near. Would this passage is telling us in verse 39 as we look at this criminal, is that now is the day of salvation. And the salvation came to his friend. Salvation is offered to all, especially those who seem excluded. Look at verse 40. But the other rebuked him saying, do you not fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? Luke doesn't say why the second criminal had its change of heart. He doesn't say that. But we know from reading the Word of God that only the Holy Spirit can enable any sinner to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus. We also know that Christ was in their midst. So undoubtedly, he must have stopped talking and just started looking, just started gazing upon this one in the middle. Who is bleeding and dying with an inscription over his head. Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews. So he rebuked his partner in crime. He rebuked him. He said, no, you cannot think this way. There's something going on in this criminal despite his past. Despite all that has publicly been known about him. There is something wonderful that has happened to him. And he rebuked his friend. And he realizes his sinful and desperate condition. He publicly renounces his sin. He had reverence and respect for Jesus. He publicly repented of his sins and was granted saving faith. And he recognized Jesus as the king of the Jews. And he turns to Jesus as best as he could using his final breaths. And he says, not Lord. He says, yes, sure. Remember me when you come into your kingdom. He wants a right relationship with God. And he calls Jesus' name, the same name that Gabriel used to explain to Mary that your son will be called Yeshua because he will save his people from their sins. And so the question is, how could a holy God rescue his people and return them to the place of delight, return them to this Eden from which they came? How could he do it unless he himself passes through the curse in order to reach us? Yes, the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the leaders. They knew about the curse in Deuteronomy 21 that anyone and Paul says it in Galatians, anyone who hangs on a cross is cursed by God. But he who knew no sin became sin for you and me and the dying thief recognized this. And he says, yes, sure. Remember me when you come into your kingdom. Something wonderful happened to him that day. He became a theologian. He immediately understood that despite Jesus's death and his own death, despite the death of this one in the middle, this one in the middle has the ability and the capability of transcending through the portals of death. And he will have the capacity to remember him, this dying thief understood clearly. But the one on the cross was the one who came to deliver his people from their sin. And somehow he will rise above this situation, not knowing that within three days he will. While the Jews of those days saw Jesus raise the dead to life and did not believe in him, this dying thief saw a dying Jesus as one who would conquer death even on the cross. It's an indictment against them. It's an indictment against us. Even in death, this thief saw Jesus as the deliverer. And so this is what brings us to Luke's theme. Jesus says to him, this day, you will be with me in paradise. Jesus willingly laid down his life, unashamed of the scandal of the cross for many, and the mania, it's madness to think of a God who can die. How the Greeks felt? How can a God die? That's stupid. You're seminarians, that's this thing called the law of non-contradiction. It just doesn't make sense. You will remember me. I'll remember you. You will be with me in paradise. My brothers and sisters in Christ, this is the way Jesus must take so that He could save you and save me from our sins. From depths of woe I raised to thee the songs of lamentation. That's how bad off we are. How ugly sin is. That's how deep sin is. And so the reward Jesus promised was certain. He says, I tell you the truth. I'm dying. I can't even lie to you. I'm dying. I tell you the truth. It's certain. It's immediate. Today. Not tomorrow. Not after your soul sleeps. Not after some period of purging. Today, right now, it's personal. You will be with me. You will be with me. It's eternal. Time does not permit us to talk about the obvious problem in this text because we can fast that on the third that He died and He descended into hell. But wherever Jesus is, I want to be with Him. Wherever Jesus is, it's paradise. This is the same Jesus who told Mary and Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. This is the same Jesus who told the Jews in Luke chapter 3. I am the Lord of the Sabbath. I'm not a metaphor. I am it. I am life. I am Zoe. I am good life. I am full life. You will be with me. Jesus will never forget the cries of the desperate who call out to Him in humble faith. He will never forget the desperate cries of humble faith. Sadly, one day, He will not forget the demands of those who blaspheme out of angry, unbelief, either. So what is so good about Good Friday and how should we respond to this one hanging on the cross who is no longer there? He seated at the right hand of the Father. Many people want practical help in times of desperation. They meant they make demands on God to intervene. But when the crisis is over, they tend to return to their self-centered way of living. I've seen it. I've seen it so often. We call on the Lord. The Lord hears our cry and we think, okay, that's good. I'll just go about doing what I used to do. That's not what salvation is. It's not a get out of jail free card. Here's what else I want us to see in this text. One sinner was rescued so that we may not despair. There's hope for us. The other sinner was condemned so that we might not leave this place and presume upon the graciousness of Almighty God. My brothers and sisters in Christ. The road to spiritual maturity is both uphill and it is filled with thorns. It's not an easy road. Progress will be painful and costly because trials can make us become bitter and resentful. But I want to remind us that this is the way that Jesus went. And the promised reward that He offers to you today and me. They are out of this world. I can only imagine that dying thief singing my sin. Oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin not in part but the whole is nailed to the cross. And I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh, my soul. The name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.