so so so so so you you Well hello church, good evening to all of you who are listening in here, to Three Rivers Grace and anyone else who's watching tonight. It is Good Friday and we know that Jesus died an excruciating death on a Friday. And yet we call it Good Friday because of the good that has come to us, because of Jesus' sacrifice, because of his death. He died for our sins, which means that the excruciating and eternal punishment that we deserve for our sins, that is no longer upon us. Jesus took that for us. He took that in our place by his sacrifice. Well, I hope you have a Bible with you. If you don't have a Bible, please get one. Hopefully you have one nearby. I'm going to be reading in just a moment from Luke chapter 23. This evening, I want us to look at this passage in Luke 23. This past Sunday, Pastor Gary preached from Luke 19, Luke's account of the triumphal entry. And so I want to continue in the Gospel of Luke tonight, looking at Luke 23, the account of these two thieves on the cross on either side of Jesus. And then on Sunday morning, again, staying in the Gospel of Luke and turning our attention to Luke 24, where we read of the resurrection. And if you remember from last Easter, if you were with us last Easter, I preached from Luke 24 verses 13 through 35 on the road to Emmaus. So this year, I wanna just kind of pick it up where we left off a year ago and look at those, the few verses just following that as Jesus appears to his disciples there in Luke 24. So, if you'll turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 23, and I'm going to read, I'm going to start reading in verse 32. And then I'll read through verse 43, and then the passage we'll really focus on this evening is just from verse 39 to 43, the conversation between these two thieves and Jesus. But let me pick up the reading starting in verse 32. So follow along with me as I read Luke 23, starting in verse 32. Two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with him. And when they came to the place that is called the Skull, there they crucified him. And the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by watching. But the rulers scoffed at him, saying, He saved others. Let him save himself. if he is the Christ of God, his chosen one? The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, if you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was also an inscription over him, this is the king of the Jews. 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." Let's pray together. God, we thank you for this Good Friday. And we think of the immense good that comes to us because of your plan of redemption, how you sent your beloved Son, Jesus, into this world to live a perfect life and then to die this horrific, humiliating death on a cross, crucifixion. What a horrible way to die. And Jesus suffered there, not only the physical agony, but the wrath of God coming upon him, the wrath that we deserve for our sin. We thank you, Jesus, that you suffered that, that you endured that in our place. And so we do come rejoicing tonight because of what has been accomplished for us. God, we do want to pray also tonight for our church family. We think especially right now of Rachel Clayton, who's tested positive for coronavirus, and we just pray for your protection and your healing upon her life right now. Please restore her to health and watch over her family, her kids, her parents, those who have been around her. We pray for Rachel tonight. We also pray for Wendy Allman who works in a nursing home where One of the residents has tested positive for COVID-19, and so we just pray that you'll watch over that facility. Everyone else there, thank you that Wendy is still healthy, and we just pray that you'll watch over her health too. And for others in our church family who are serving in various ways where they're around many others who are sick, God, please just Watch over our church family in this time, and we just think of so many who are hurting, who are sick, who are dying, those who are losing loved ones. God, this is a very, very difficult time for our entire world. And I pray, God, that you will use this for good. We know that you work all things for good for those who love you and are called according to your purpose. And we don't know all of your purposes in this, but we do pray that you will show your glory and that you will bring people to a place of recognizing their need for you. We pray for revival in this time. We pray that you will draw many to yourself and that your children, your church around the world will shine brightly as we put our hope in you right now. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, as we look through this passage that I read for you, the outline's gonna be very simple this evening. We're gonna look at criminal number one, and then criminal number two, and then Jesus as we walk through these verses. Criminal number one speaks in verse 39. And then we'll consider this second criminal who speaks in verses 40 to 42. And then lastly, Jesus speaks in verse 43. So first of all, just briefly on this first criminal who speaks in verse 39. One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. Other translations say he was hurling insults at him. hurling abuse, blaspheming him, and that's the Greek word actually there, to blaspheme. This criminal is hardened toward Jesus. He's doing the opposite of worshiping Jesus. He's ridiculing him. This guy is a skeptic. He's a scoffer. Many others were scoffing as well, and here's a guy right there on the cross next to Jesus, and he's scoffing at him too. For any unbelievers who are listening to this tonight, I hope you'll be struck by this passage and struck by the contrast between these two thieves on the cross on either side of Jesus. The message that comes to us is don't be that hardened skeptic, scoffer, who's on the cross. You know, maybe you can identify with him in ways, in your pain. Maybe you're experiencing pain and suffering in different ways. Maybe some of that suffering is directly related to the consequences of your own sinful actions. In that agony, don't Don't give yourself over to anger. Don't give yourself over to scoffing and ridicule. Don't give yourself over to skepticism. Don't rebel against the very person who is the one person who can rescue you. Jesus Christ. Looking at this narrative, we ought to mourn the response of this first criminal. I mean, how tragic this is, the way this guy responds to Jesus. He is within feet of the Savior of the world, and yet he's so hardened by his own sinfulness and anger and pride, he's gonna go to his death and to his eternal punishment, even though salvation is right there in front of him. I pray that anyone listening right now who is skeptical toward Jesus Christ, I pray that on this Good Friday that you will be changed, that God, by his grace, send his spirit to change you from the inside out, to change you from the attitude of this first criminal into the attitude of this second criminal. You know, we all started out like that first criminal. We all started out separated from Jesus, scoffing, skeptical, hardened toward him in one way or another. It comes across in different forms. This week some of you maybe have heard about this or participated in this. Many have been sharing their testimony on social media and what a wonderful way for the world to hear just story after story of just how Jesus has changed people's lives. and how those of us as believers, how we've been transformed from a place of being hardened toward Jesus, resisting him and rebellious against him, into a place of rejoicing in having a personal relationship with him. On Wednesday, I watched my dad's testimony. And even though I've heard him share those things many times before, it was moving to listen again to the details of how God worked in my dad's life, how God drew my dad and my mom to himself. And just for me to think of, you know, remembering back and knowing what an impact that had on my life as a young person. And and even to today it brought tears to my eyes thinking about God's goodness to my own dad and mom Well, my dad was 28. I'll just share a few of the details with you now. My dad was 28 This was when I was 2 years old. I think I don't remember that of course, but my dad was 28 and That's how, at that point, God used a neighbor to begin to ask some thought-provoking questions that really got my dad thinking about spiritual things. My dad grew up right here in Pittsburgh, grew up in McKees Rocks, from an early age was learning things about Jesus, growing up in the traditions of the church, but as he headed off to college, was kind of questioning. everything and somewhat skeptical, agnostic about these things he had been taught about Jesus. He was studying the sciences in college, God just seemed irrelevant. Well, at age 28, he and my mom moved to Midland, Michigan. My dad was starting his career, starting a job there as a chemist. They had a home, had their first kid, me. And on this particular day, Mr. Gindelsberger, hopefully I get that name right, Mr. Gindelsberger was walking by. as he normally would, I guess, taking walks in the neighborhood. And my dad on this particular day was out washing the car, and Mr. Gindelsberger, 93 years old, okay, 93 years old this guy is, and he's walking and he's talking to people about his faith. And so Mr. Gindelsberger on that day asked my dad, hey, where do you folks go to church? My dad said, well, we don't really go to church. And Mr. Gindelsberger said, you know, a lot of people stay out of church because of what they don't believe. You should go and you should figure out what you do believe. And that got my dad thinking. And then another guy my dad knew who was closer to his age, could identify with his place in life, had a new career and home and family. And this friend of my dad's, he too started sharing his faith with me. with my parents and how Jesus had changed his life and so my parents began going to church with them and God used these different relationships to bring my parents to Christ. My dad's skepticism melted away and in its place grew a burning passion to know Jesus Christ and that passion has continued to grow over these 40 years. Let that be an encouragement. to any of you who are skeptical and maybe scoffing. Jesus can change your life. Jesus can change anyone's life from the inside out. And as we move on in this passage now, this is the miracle that we see in the life of this second criminal. So let's look at criminal number two now. And as we read what is unique to Luke's account here, we get more of this, the details here in Luke's account. This is unique to him. If you compare with Matthew and Luke, and this is a fascinating thing, always, to compare what we have in the different gospels. John, you know, is structured kind of in its own way. These three synoptic gospels, as they're called, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are parallel in a lot of ways. When we come to this point, We see in Matthew and Mark, there's just a brief detail about these robbers saying that these robbers, plural, reviled him. Okay, so that's the detail we get from Matthew and Mark, that the robbers, both together, reviled Jesus. But then it's here in Luke that we get the details of this one criminal who then apparently was, first of all, scoffing, but then came to a place of humility and of crying out for mercy. So as we put those statements together in Matthew, Mark, and then compared to Luke, It appears that both criminals started off scoffing at Jesus, but then over the course of these hours, and it was hours that they hung there on these crosses, over the course of those hours, this second criminal was miraculously changed and humbled. He was scoffing at first, but then he came to believe. 1 Corinthians 1.18 says, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. And that reality is illustrated with these two thieves. They're both looking at the same Jesus hanging right there in between the two of them. To one, it's folly. The cross of Christ is folly. But to the other, he's being saved. by the power of God. He's been watching Jesus over this span of time as they're hanging there. He's been watching how Jesus responds to the ridicule that's coming at him from all different directions. Hearing those astounding words of Jesus in verse 34, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Those are amazing words to come out of the mouth of Jesus as people are just heaping scorn upon him. This thief is seeing that, wow, this guy, Jesus, he's unlike anyone I've ever seen or known. There's an authority that he has. There's a graciousness that emanates from him. It's just astounding. And the scoffers are questioning some of the details here that this robber would have been listening to. The scoffers questioning, if he's the Christ of God, his chosen one, if you're the king of the Jews, and the inscription over him says, this is the king of the Jews, there's a lot this criminal is taking in. And by God's surprising grace, this man came to recognize that Jesus is in fact the King, the Christ of God, the Messiah, the Chosen One, the Savior. Well, notice how this second criminal speaks. First, he directs his attention at the other criminal and rebukes him for not fearing God. And he readily acknowledges that he, that both of them as criminals are deserving of the punishment they're experiencing. Do you see that in the latter part of verse 40? Since you, he's speaking to the other criminal, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation. And then verse 41, and we, so this is collective now, you and me, both of us criminals, we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds. This man has been humbled to see himself rightly. And he's been enlightened, the eyes of his heart are being opened to see Jesus rightly. This last statement in verse 41, but this man, now he's alluding to Jesus. He's referring to Jesus now. This man, Jesus, has done nothing wrong. Jesus has done nothing wrong. So this second criminal, he's honest to admit, hey, I've done wrong. I'll admit that. I have done wrong. I've done evil things that deserve the punishment that I'm suffering right now. But this man here, this Jesus, He is entirely innocent. He hasn't done anything to deserve Him hanging on a cross. It's really important for every one of us to admit our faults before the Lord. We need to be honest with Jesus and acknowledge that we've done many, many wrong things. We've had wicked thoughts. We've said things that should not have been said. We've had sinful attitudes, sinful desires. We're rebellious. And for all of these things, we deserve the just punishment of Almighty God. Don Whitney in his book, Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health. One of the questions, one of those ten questions to diagnose your spiritual health, one of them is, do you still grieve over sin? Do you still grieve over your sin? We need to understand from this, believers, we need to understand that grieving over sin isn't something that you just do at that moment when you become a Christian, but grieving over sin is something that continues through our lives in this world. Unfortunately, there continues to be sin in our lives. We need to be fighting it, and by God's grace, we're growing in holiness. He's conforming us. It seems painfully slow a lot of times, but He is conforming us more and more to the image of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And part of that growing in holiness is going to be a deepening of our awareness of sin, a deepening awareness of how offensive our sin is to God and how destructive and devastating our own sin is. And it leads us to grieve over our sin. Listen to what Don Whitney writes about this. He says, the closer you get to Christ, the more you will hate sin. For nothing is more unlike Christ than sin. Because Jesus hates sin, the more like Him you grow, the more you will grow to hate sin. And the more you hate sin, the more you will grieve whenever you realize that you have embraced that which killed your Savior. Let this be a time of repentance and humbling for each of us tonight. Take some time on this Good Friday to confess your sins to the Lord, to grieve over your sin, and then to seek the Lord's forgiveness, to seek His mercy. Repentance, grieving over sin, that can be such a sweet experience with our Lord. We're sad over our sin, but then we turn our attention to Jesus and rejoice in his mercy to us. So take some time to do that, to then seek his forgiveness and his kindness and his grace, which is what this criminal does next. In verse 42, he says, Jesus, remember me. Remember me when you come in to your kingdom. This is a plea for mercy. And it's also a recognition that Jesus is King. It's a recognition that Jesus can save. This cry for salvation is so simple and so heartfelt. If you're not yet a believer, let this be an encouragement to you that you don't need to have everything figured out before you become a Christian. You don't need to read the entire Bible in order to become a Christian. You don't need to take a class. You don't need to fix up your life in order to be a Christian. You don't need to reform your life before you can trust in Jesus. No. You don't need to wait. You simply need to look to Jesus and acknowledge your sin and recognize that He is King. He is our Savior. He's the one who died on the cross to forgive us. And you simply need to humble yourself and ask Him for that. Ask Him to have mercy on you. And you know the fact that Jesus does show mercy to this man? is such a profound picture of salvation by faith alone apart from any kind of good works, any kind of good deeds. Because for this man, there would be no good deeds, would there? He was about to die. And he had lived his life up to this point, not doing good deeds, but doing what? Breaking the law. The Bible is so clear and God wants us to see And here's such a poignant picture of it. God wants us to see very clearly the message that He does not save based on how good we are, because none of us are good. None of us are good in and of ourselves. We're sinners. Rather, salvation comes to us as a gift, not something we earn, but just as sheer grace from God, a gift to us. It's all of His grace. We don't earn it. Salvation is given to us totally undeserved. And we see this stark contrast here between the hardened criminal who gets what he deserves, punishment, And then this other criminal who is given a gift that he does not deserve. Jesus immediately grants him his request. Not because the criminal has reformed his life or has done a bunch of good deeds, no. The criminal has simply believed. He is looking to Jesus and asking Jesus for mercy. Well, we come lastly to the words of Jesus in verse 43. Jesus responds, truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. Be amazed that Jesus says this, that he says today this will happen. All three of them there on those crosses, they knew they were about to die. Jesus is telling this humbled criminal, who's now a believer, Jesus is telling him that on the other side of death is going to be paradise. And every one of us who are believers can find comfort in this truth. Death is not the end. Death will not mean eternal punishment if your sins are forgiven through Jesus. Death is not the end. For the Christian, death means going immediately into the presence of the Lord. That's what the Apostle Paul desired, as he expressed in Philippians 1.21. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. To die is gain. Why is dying gain? He says it a couple verses later, the Apostle Paul. A couple verses later in that same passage, Philippians 1 verse 23, To be with Christ. That's what's better. That's what's so great about heaven, is to be with Christ. Jesus talks about this in His high priestly prayer in John 17. John 17, 24. This is Jesus praying to the Father. And in this point, He's praying about us and on our behalf. He says, Father, I desire that they also whom You have given Me may be with Me, with Me, where I am, to see My glory. that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Brothers and sisters, that is the hope we have. That's the amazing inheritance that we have to look forward to, to be in the very presence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. What a thrill that will be. What a comfort that will be. There will be eternal joys, eternal satisfaction, eternal peace, without any tear or sickness or sadness or pain, because we'll be with Jesus. beholding His glory, praising Him for His kindness to us, which we could never have deserved. You know, right now we're hearing a lot about death, aren't we? We're hearing a lot about death. Every time we turn on the news, we're hearing about how many deaths there have been in the last day, how many deaths worldwide, how many deaths in New York, how many deaths here in Pennsylvania and in Western PA, how many deaths here in Allegheny County. COVID-19 is claiming thousands of lives every day. What a crisis this is that we're experiencing right now in our day, a tragedy that is part of living in this sinful, broken, fallen world. But as believers, We're different. This is part of how we're different as believers because of the hope we have beyond the grave. Because we have a Savior who has conquered the grave. So for us, we can live differently. We can live courageously. We can live sacrificially because we know that whenever it comes time for me to die, there's going to be something far better on the other side. So I invite you, on this Good Friday to worship Jesus. Look to this gracious King who gave Himself to be tortured and humiliated and hung on a tree in order to bear the shame of my sin and your sin. Cry out to Him. Cry out like this criminal did. Jesus, remember me. Have mercy on me. He will forgive you. He will forgive you, and you can have a relationship with Him, and you can look forward to spending eternity in His presence. Let's pray again together. God, again, we thank you for this good, good news that comes to us on this good Friday. It is horrific thinking of what Jesus endured on the cross. And we do grieve over those actions. We do grieve over our own sin, which is why Jesus had to go to the cross. The penalty he was enduring on the cross is the punishment we should receive for our sin. So as we grieve over our sin, I pray we will also rejoice in this wonderful salvation in this lavish grace that is brought to us through Jesus. And it's in His name we pray. Amen. Well, thanks for being with us this evening, for studying God's Word with us on this Good Friday. I hope you'll connect with us again Easter Sunday morning, Resurrection Sunday, 10 a.m. We'll see you then.