Today You Shall Be With Me In Paradise
Last Words of Jesus on the Cross • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 2 viewsNotes
Transcript
Handout
The First Word Was Forgiveness
Mercy - Not getting what we deserve
We deserve condemnation and Hell for our disobedience against God
What we get instead because of Jesus? Forgiveness
The Second Word Is Heaven
Grace - Getting what we don’t deserve
We don’t deserve Heaven.
What does God give us because of Jesus? Heaven
Before I get to the second word of Jesus on the cross, let’s set the stage.
Luke sets up this scene in a very fascinating way for us.
We’ll see the condemned presented before the judge, the attorneys cases, each criminal presenting their case, and then the final verdict given.
Read: Luke 23:35-43
The King
The King
vs. 35 - The Messiah, Chosen One by the soldiers.
vs. 37 - IF You are the king...
vs. 38 - The Moniker: King of the Jews
vs. 39 - The Christ, Messiah by the first thief
vs. 42 - The thief refers to Jesus’ Kingdom.
vs. 33 - one on His right and the other on His left.
The King was the one who in ancient times would play the role of the judge.
The accuser and the accused would appear before him and plead their case.
A classic example of this was King Solomon and the two prostitutes.
Both gave birth to a child, but one of the children died.
The first woman claimed that the second woman had killed her son in the night by lying on him, but then got up and switched the boys claiming that the first woman had rolled over her boy and the alive child was the second’s.
King Solomon said to grab a sword and split the child in two and give one half to each.
The woman whose child it really was cried out, no, give the other woman the child.
Solomon had his answer and gave the child back to the real mom.
We see a similar thing here with the two criminals, but with an ironic twist to begin with.
Actually, Jesus is on trial with the first thief playing the accuser and the second the defense.
God being the judge.
The Attorneys
The Attorneys
Do you not fear God. (vs 40-41)
God is put forth as the judge.
The implication is that they are on the cross because they are serving a punishment given by God.
They were suffering justly.
Sentence of condemnation.
In this scene we see Jesus as the accused before God as judge.
The Prosecuting Attorney (vs 39)
The accusation - Is this the Christ of God, His Chosen One. (soldiers)
Evidence - “Are you not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” (thief echoes)
A mocking accusatory tone.
Prove it.
Blasphemes both God and Jesus.
By the thief echoing this claim, he was in essence saying, “Guilty, as charged. He’s not really the Christ.”
Satan said something similar in the Garden and in the wilderness.
Did God really say you shall not...
If you are the Son of God...
The Defense Attorney (vs 41)
We know that somehow through it all the thief recognized one very important fact.
“This man had done nothing wrong.”
Pleads for his innocence.
The just for the unjust.
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;
The Defendant’s Testimony?
Just like all the other accusations against Him.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.
and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;
The Condemned
The Condemned
Now, we’ll flip it back around. The accused before King Jesus.
At first, there was no difference between the 2 thieves.
In nature, in history, in circumstances they were one.
They were both condemned for being thieves and criminals.
The word for thief is one that includes violence and often murder and insurrection.
The word for criminal is one who is an evildoer, malicious and cunning.
They were both in their dying hour deriding the suffering Savior.
“He trusts in God; let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” The robbers who had been crucified with Him were also insulting Him with the same words.
vs 41 - And as the second thief says, “We are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds.
They were both guilty.
And neither was receiving mercy.
Again, mercy is not getting what you deserve.
The Justice of God
The thieves were receiving what they deserved for their deeds
The thief did not actually question the justice of Rome. He could have said the crucifixion is too harsh a punishment for anyone.
And yet we see them accepting it as just.
The Change
The Change
vs. 39 - One of the criminals
vs. 40 - The other...Does not say criminal...
literary device. The word for “other” (heteros) here means other but different.
He was one of the criminals, but now something is different.
Something changed in the second thief.
Somehow the second criminal repented.
Repentance is necessary for salvation.
Repentance is a change of mind about sin and sorrowing over it.
It is also a forsaking of it, turning from sin and self being your god to the Heavenly Father.
The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross 3. Here We See the Meaning of Repentance and Faith
Yet there is more in repentance than these. Really, repentance is the realization of our lost condition, it is the discovery of our ruin, it is the judging of ourselves, it is the owning of our lost estate. Repentance is not so much an intellectual process as it is the conscience active in the presence of God.
The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross 3. Here We See the Meaning of Repentance and Faith
The thief’s “repentance toward God” was accompanied with “faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”
God did a miracle in the heart of the criminal.
Maybe the sign above Christ’s head had something to do with it.
Maybe the way Jesus handled Himself on the cross persuaded him.
Maybe the utterance of forgiveness for those who hung Jesus there spoke to him.
Whatever the external, God had to do a work in his heart first.
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
Without the divine work of God on our hearts, we remain blind.
It’s why we pray, father soften their hearts, open they’re eyes, unstop their ears. So that they might see and hear and believe.
God designedly chose to save this thief under the most unfavorable circumstances that no flesh should glory in his presence.
not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
The Case Against And For
The Case Against And For
Thief 1: The Case Against (vs 39)
Blasphemer - hurling abuse.
Thief 2: The Case For (vs 41)
This second thief’s actions and punishment show him to be a criminal, but because he repented and put his faith in Christ, he is no longer a criminal before the Lord.
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
New Creation
The Closing Request And Verdict
The Closing Request And Verdict
Jesus (Lord) / Truly
Truly.
Amen.
To be firm
To be steady
To be trustworthy
OT - At the end - so be it.
NT - affirmation, in truth, it is so
When Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say unto you.” It could be rendered, “I who am the Amen (truth itself) tell you as a most certain and infallible truth.
Jesus? Truly
Remember Me / Shall Be With Me
I just want you to remember me.
It would have been enough for Jesus to say, “You shall be in Paradise.”
But no, He says, “You shall be WITH ME in Paradise.”
Be with me (Abide)
It is true that Heaven is a place where we shall be delivered from sorrow and suffering, a place where we shall experience a quality of life beyond our wildest dreams, a place where we shall walk on streets of gold and dwell within pearly gates, a place of melodious music and blessings beyond compare. But that is not why God is making a way for our sins to be forgiven.
We are saved for fellowship.
Christ did not come to secure servants, but to make a way for us to enter into fellowship with himself.
Heaven is about being in the very presence of God Himself, for Heaven without Jesus would not be heaven.
Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.
And the craziest thought is that Heaven will not be Heaven in the highest sense even to Christ until his redeemed are gathered around Him.
It is His saints that He longs for and it is for Him that we long!
“I am my beloved’s, And his desire is for me.
But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better;
“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
Paradise or not. It doesn’t matter where, but with whom.
It’s Jesus’ presence that makes paradise Paradise.
When You Come / Today
Today.
It’s an emphatic word.
His divine grace exceeds human expectation.
The thief asked whensoever you happen to come.
Jesus says, “TODAY”
The thief was thinking earthly kingdom.
Jesus says, “Paradise”
The thief asked to just be remembered.
Jesus says, “You shall be with me.”
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,
In Your Kingdom / In Paradise
When you come in your kingdom.
It would appear that the thief thought that Jesus would assume his reign immediately.
And Jesus’ response gives us an eternal glimpse.
I want more for you than just an earthly kingdom.
I want you to be in Paradise with me
The Second Word Of Christ On The Cross: Heaven
The Second Word Of Christ On The Cross: Heaven
The thief was condemned and deserved his punishment. Justice was being served.
He recognized that the one next to Him was suffering unjustly.
Jesus was innocent while the thief was guilty.
The thief repented and put his faith in Jesus.
He was the Messiah.
He was God’s Chosen One.
He was the King of the Jews.
The thief was begging for mercy.
Remember me.
Remember my affliction.
Remember my faith.
Jesus cry for the “Father to forgive them for they know not what they do...” could have easily, by His foreknowledge, been a prayer directed at the 2nd thief.
Jesus not only granted Him mercy and forgave him, but extended grace.
I’m not just going to remember you, you’re going to be with me.
I’m not leaving you in the earth, I’m giving you Paradise.
You’re not just not getting what you deserve, I’m giving you what you don’t deserve - Heaven.
Application / Summary
What About You? Which Criminal Are You?
Do you fear God?
We are all under the same sentence of condemnation as the thieves.
“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one;
For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
Do you recognize your depraved condition?
It is not until our desperate condition is realized that we discover our need of a divine Savior.
We have to be stripped of our filthy rags of self-righteousness before we are ready for the garments of salvation.
We are thieves and have robbed God of His glory. Any time we take glory for ourselves, we are robbing God of His.
Will you put your faith in the innocent Christ, who did nothing wrong and who died for your sins?
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
Will you receive His mercy and grace; His forgiveness and Heaven?
Closing Song
The Hymn of Heaven
