Luke chapter number 23 the gospel of Luke chapter number 23. I'm going to begin reading at verse 32 And when I get to verse number 43, would you all please just join right in and read verse 43 out loud with me. Now, if you see someone near you that doesn't have a Bible, please encourage them. There are Bibles in the hymn racks by the hymnals. Also, maybe you'd like to just share your Bible with them. Luke's Gospel, chapter number 23. I'll start reading at verse 32. When I get to verse number 43, because it gives us a really important insight in the passage, I'll have you read that one with me, okay? Good. All right, Luke's Gospel, chapter number 23. The Bible says, And there were two other malefactors led with them to be put to death. And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, Forgive them, for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment and cast lots. And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others. Let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God. And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar, and saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew, This is the king of the Jews. And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, For we receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man, meaning Jesus, but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Everyone together. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Now, set in your minds the scene that this text of scripture is describing. Here is Jesus crucified on that central cross. On either side of him are crucified common thieves. Men whose lives have been so destructive and have been so lawless that the society in which they were then living had deemed them unfit to continue to live. And so they were condemned a capital punishment, capital death. And so here are these two men crucified alongside Jesus. And while they're there on that cross, in the heat of that morning, the crowd milling around all of the distractions, one of the thieves begins to rail on Jesus. Now this I find hard to even understand. But one of the thieves begins to rail on him and say, hey, you claim to be God, why don't you prove it? Get down from the cross and while you're at it, get us down. By the way, evidently that same taunt came from several sources. If you're really God, prove it by getting down off the cross. Aren't you glad that Jesus never accepted that challenge? Had our Lord endeavored to escape the cross, it would have proved that He was just a man like me or like you. I think by virtue of the fact that He chose to remain on the cross is a far greater evidence that indeed He was God in human form. So there on that cross, one thief begins to revile Him. Begins to curse him begins to act in the same Despicable manner as as did many of the crowd and the soldiers that were surrounding the cross But at the same time the thief on the other side now, you're please forgive me. I don't know why this is probably just Subconscious, it's probably Freudian, but I always put the believing thief on the right and then believing thief on the left That has nothing with my political views, but I put the believing thief on my writings. Yeah, it does many So here's a Here's the thief on the other side, and this thief begins to speak up for Jesus, and he says several things that we're going to refer to in a moment, but then he says in very simple terms, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom, and Jesus, and Bible scholars lead us to believe that because of the awkward position in which Jesus was crucified, that this may have been physically very difficult to do, But Jesus was able to turn his head in the direction of this believing thief, and he said these words, Do you have any idea what those words must have sounded like to this condemned man? Here he was, if ever there was a person who had a reason to face death with no hope. It was this man. He had lived a despicable life. He was a criminal. There is even some chance that he was a murderer. And this man had absolutely no reason to assume that he had any confidence with which to approach eternity. And yet Jesus was able to say to him, today shall thou be with me in paradise. Here's a man who never joined a church. Here's a man who never was baptized. Here's a man who did not live a good life. He lived a bad life. And yet to him, Jesus was able to say, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. What happened? What took place in that intimate exchange, the close proximity of these three individuals on those crosses? What happened that day that Jesus Christ was able to turn to this man and say, today, shalt thou be with me in paradise? From the text, let's notice four reasons why Jesus could make that statement to this man. Number one, Before our Lord could ever say to this thief today shalt thou be with me in paradise number one this thief had to realize who Jesus really was Number one, this thief had to realize who Jesus really was. You see, that was the great controversy of the day. If you read the Gospel of Counts, I love the book of Luke. If you read the Gospel of Counts, you will realize that during that Brief earthly ministry of our Lord. Bible scholars suggest that at the most it was about a three and a half year period. That may even be a bit of an exaggeration. But during this brief span of public ministry, the ministry of Jesus went from being a rumored event to being national frontline headlines. I mean, it became the biggest thing ever from all over Jerusalem and even beyond the areas of Israel, the message of Jesus and who Jesus was and the miraculous power of his healings and the phenomenal nature of his teachings. It went like wildfire. People began to wonder and everybody had their own opinion. as to who Jesus was. But we can even tell from the text of scripture that that question, who is Jesus, was still an unresolved question on this day. And look, if you would please, look at verse number 35. In verse 35 it says, And the people stood beholding, and the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others. Let him save himself if He be Christ, the chosen of God. You see the question there? Here were the religious leaders. If anyone should know who Jesus was, it should have been these well-studied men. And yet their question was, who is this man? If you're really the Christ, look at verse 37. And saying, if thou be the King of the Jews, save thyself. Look at verse 39. And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. The great question that permeated all of the events of the day upon which Jesus Christ was crucified was the question, Who is Jesus Christ? The Jews felt justified in killing him because Jesus had said, If you destroy this temple in three days, I'll build it again. Now they thought he was referring to the temple there in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, the temple that initially Solomon built and then it was destroyed and then following the return of the remnant after the captivity in Babylon, it was built again and then King Herod had greatly expanded it. They knew that literally hundreds of years had gone in collectively in the building of that temple and here was a man saying, if you tear the temple down in three days, I'll build it up. Now, Jesus was referring to his body. By the way, if he wanted to build the temple in three days, he could do that too. All he had to do was speak and it would happen. Okay, so we understand that. But the problem was, because he claimed to be God, because he claimed to have miraculous power, the Jews felt justified in putting him to death. The big question was, who is this man? Now, I suggest to you that when this thief first laid his eyes on Jesus Christ, Jesus did not look like much of a Savior. Do you remember what had happened the night before? Jesus was in the garden, praying. Suddenly, the peace and the quietness of that garden was shattered. The sound of the clanking of armor and the flickering of the torches. And here came the soldiers and arrested Jesus. He was betrayed by Judas with a kiss. And all that night, they abused Jesus. A year ago, in April, Kathy and I had the privilege of leading a tour in Israel, and we were down in that basement or cellar level under Caiaphas' house. Pastor, you've probably been there, and you can see where Jesus would have been tied to an iron ring, and his body stretched tight, and they took that Roman cat of nine tails and began to lice his body. All that night, Jesus was abused in various ways. The Bible says that the soldiers, in mockery of Jesus Christ, put a blindfold over him. The common people, considered to be a prophet, so they put a blindfold over Jesus' eyes, and then one after another, these big, burly Roman soldiers would walk up, and they would punch Jesus in the face with their fists, and they would step back and laugh and say, now, prophet, prophesy! Who just hit you? And they'd laugh. Because of their contempt of Jesus, they stripped him naked and they began to beat him with the Roman cat of nine tails. Josephus, the famous first century Jewish historian, describes in great detail what a Roman scourging was like. It's interesting how they typically had two favorite positions. in which they would scourge a man. Sometimes they would tie him in a stoop position over a post or over a piece of a tree, something to make the back tight. Other times, I think this is probably the case there under Caiaphas' house, they would tie their hands above their head and suspend their body. In either case, the net result was the same. It would make the skin of the upper torso was stretched tight, like on the head of a drum. And then they would bring that Roman cat of nine tails around the body of the victim. It had nine long strands of leather. Embedded in the ends of each of those nine long strands of leather were lead weights. Would look like ball bearings to us, but lead weights. Also in each of those nine long leather strands, they would insert no less than three sharpened metal hooks or sharpened metal barbs. And what the practice was, and these men who did scourges, they had it down to an art form. What the practice was, the scourger would plant his feet, and then they would take the handle of that cat of nine tails, and they would bring the whip across the back of the victim. The attitude was not to snap at the person. I've watched numerous dramatic productions done where they portrayed the crucifixion, and sometimes in the soundtrack, you hear the sound of a Western-style whip cracking. Jesus was not scourged with a Western-style whip. He was scourged with a Roman cat of nine tails. Those nine long strands literally would wrap themselves around the body of the victim. And as they did so, every one of those minimum 27 sharpened hooks or sharpened metal barbs would bite into the skin. Then came the hard part. Then that Roman guard with his feet planted, holding that handle in his hands, he would then give a vicious tug, ripping that whip loose. And as he did so, Everywhere one of those sharpened hooks or one of those sharpened barbs had dug into the skin chunks of flesh were torn away Josephus wrote that when a man was scourged with the Roman cat of nine tails It was not unusual that so much skin and so much tissue from the man's back was removed that you could see the kidneys with the naked eye and It was illegal for a man to receive that scourging unconscious. And so directly beside the scourging area, they would have a tall wooden barrel filled with salty brine water. And if the victim lost consciousness, they would stop the scourging just long enough to take a ladle or a pan full of that salty water and they would splash that over the open bleeding back of the victim and suddenly that person would come back to consciousness and they would continue the scourging. That night the Bible says that they tore the beard from Jesus' face. That does not mean that they carefully, in as painless a manner, begin to pluck each whisker. No, it means that they grabbed handfuls of his facial flesh and ripped the beard loose. Bible scholars suggest that in the process of tearing the beard from Jesus' face, not only did they probably tear away patches of his facial skin, some believe that perhaps even portions of his lips were torn away. That may explain why when Jesus did speak that sometimes they confused the words that he spoke. The prophet Isaiah said, his visage was so marred he was not recognizable as a man. Now that doesn't mean you couldn't recognize who he was. That means you couldn't recognize what he was. His body had been so brutally abused. His body now mangled flesh, swollen and distorted. You had to look twice to even realize that you were looking at a human being. Now, follow carefully. When this thief first laid his eyes on Jesus, Jesus did not look like much of a savior. But then he spoke. The Bible says that when he opened his mouth, perhaps with great pain, he spoke and he said these words, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And I cannot explain to you all of what was going on in the mind of this condemned man. But at some point, as he watched what had happened, and as he listened to the exchange, all of a sudden, it began to dawn on him, he's really who they say he is. He really is the Son of God. And all of a sudden, in the depths of his soul, it began to resignate. Jesus is God. The first thing that had to happen before this thief could ever hear Jesus say, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Number one, this thief had to believe who Jesus really was. He had to understand who Jesus really was. By the way, I'm not just simply suggesting this. I think we have the man's own words to affirm this. Because from the cross, while the one thief, forgive me on this side, the one thief was saying, you know, if you're really who you are, prove it by getting down. The believing thief basically leans over and says, man, what's wrong with you? Don't you have a brain in your head? Don't you realize we're getting exactly what we deserve? But then he made this statement about Jesus. He said, but this man, verse 40, hath done nothing amiss. Let me ask you a question. How could he say that? How could this, now follow me, how could this thief say, Jesus has done nothing wrong? I appreciated your pastor's gracious introduction, both in the letter that he wrote y'all, but also in his words of introduction. He said some nice things, I paid him to do that, but he said some nice things about me. But did you notice there was one thing he did not say? Did you notice that pastor did not get up and say, today we have evangelist Dave Jaspers speaking for us. He's a man who's never done anything wrong. Now, if pastor had said that about me, would you believe it? Yes or no? You guys are, well, what do you know about me? No, no, no. You would be exactly right, okay? I mean, we wouldn't believe that about anybody, okay? Whether it's pastor or whether it's you. If somebody said, oh, oh, well, they've never done anything wrong, we'd roll our eyes and say, well, yeah, they probably have. How could this thief say that about Jesus? And my friends, there's only one answer. Because he had come to recognize who Jesus really was. Before our Lord could ever say, today, shalt thou be with me in paradise, number one, this thief had to realize who Jesus really was. Number two, he also had to recognize his own sinful condition. Now let me help you out. Once you really understand who Jesus is, it's not hard to recognize who we are. You show me someone that says, well, I'm not that bad, and I'll show you someone who doesn't know Jesus. But you show me someone who knows Jesus, and I'll show you someone who says, I'm a sinner. Once we recognize who Jesus is, it is then that much easier to recognize who we are. And again, that's precisely what he said, verse number 40. I just love this exchange. But the other ends rebuked him. Okay, these guys are both going to die. But he rebukes the other fellow, and he says, Does not thou fear God? Buddy, what's wrong with you? Don't you're afraid a little bit of God? You're gonna die pretty soon. Dost not thou fear God? Seeing thou art in the same condemnation, and we indeed justly. Wow! That is an incredibly rare statement. I have had the amazing privilege in these last 36 years of ministry As Pastor indicated, I've preached in many different situations and I've worn lots of different hats, which I need to, as bald as I am, but I've worn lots of different hats through the years. But I've also had the tremendous honor of preaching in numerous penitentiaries, jails, and prisons. And my experience has been that when I'm in the penitentiary or the jail and ministering the Word of God, the inmates often will say, Psst, hey, Reverend, come here. They'll say, look, I didn't do it. I got framed. I have a lousy lawyer. You know, you got to get me out of here. More often than not, you talk to anybody that works in the prison systems, more often than not, a condemned man in prison is going to say, I didn't do it. Here's a man who said, I did it. I'm guilty. I'm getting exactly what I deserve. How could he make that statement? Well, it's because not only did he come to realize who Jesus was, but in that same moment of clarity, he came to recognize his own sinful condition. And by the way, that is a condition. that God requires. No one can get saved until they come to see themselves honestly as to who they are. We have a philosophy. There's nothing new about this philosophy. It's been around for centuries. They changed the names around, but you probably are most familiar with it. The idea of self-esteem. You need to learn how to love yourself. Give yourself a hug. Ooh, that feels good. Okay. You need how to learn to love yourself. And people saying, our problem is that we have too low self-esteem. Yeah, that's not our problem. Our problem is not that we think too lowly of ourselves. Our problem is we think too highly of ourselves. We are not honest about ourselves. But this man, I believe, simultaneous with the realization as to who Jesus was, suddenly he saw himself for who he was. A sinner, condemned, justly condemned to die. Well, that's not all. Before our Lord was able to say to this man today, shalt thou be with me in paradise? Number one, he had to realize who Jesus was. Number two, he had to recognize his own sinful condition. But number three, he had to rely upon the Lord alone for salvation. That's probably one of the hardest things for human beings. Because we've got this natural inbred instinct that says, I got to do it on my own. I've heard people say, well, as the good book says, I always get nervous when they say that. As the good book says, the Lord helps those that help themselves. I've got news for you folks, that's not the Bible. That's not the Bible. Okay, now, there are truths related to that, but the Bible doesn't say that. What the Bible says is this, it is not until I come to the end of me. And I'm willing to cast my entire dependence upon Jesus Christ alone. We call that faith. The verb form is we call that believing. And when I come to the place that I'm willing to put all of my trust, all of my confidence, not in my church, not in some ordinance or sacrament, not in the good things that I have done, but I put my complete confidence in Jesus alone. Then only then can I come to understand the wonderful joy of salvation. Well the same thing had to happen to him But it happened in a rather unique way. Look if you would please at verse 42 He said unto Jesus Lord Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom Lord remember me now if I had been doing personal work at the cross that day and And if I'd been dealing with this fellow, I probably would have corrected him. Now, wait a minute. You didn't say it right. You're supposed to say, Jesus, please save me, come into my heart. You know, whatever are familiar phrases that we've all heard through the years. But what did this man say? This man said, Lord, remember me. Now, we understand from the text that he has now come to a full understanding of who Jesus is. He realizes that Jesus is God. He realizes that Jesus is the Savior, but his request is a simple one. Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. In that simple request, this man placed himself entirely upon the mercy of God. In the Christian faith, we have two words that often we use interchangeably, and we should not, because they are distinct and unique. Those are the words grace and the word mercy. Now, do you know the difference between them? Grace is unmerited favor. Grace is when I receive something I don't deserve. I think we all would admit that salvation is a gift of God's grace. But what's mercy? Now follow me. Mercy is the opposite of grace. Mercy is when I don't receive what I deserve. If we got what we deserve, friends, we deserve hell. but God in his mercy saves us. When this man, it's recorded for us in verse 42, when this man said, Lord, remember me, he was placing himself entirely upon the mercy of God. Jesus, I knew who you were. I even said so when I spoke up for you. Jesus, I know that you have a kingdom beyond this world. Jesus, I know that you're God. And when you enter your kingdom, would you just remember me? And he felt that if he had that assurance that Jesus would at least remember him, he felt like he could die with some measure of peace. Well, he was in for a treat. Because our Lord turned his head, rested his eyes upon this man, and in verse 43, Jesus said, verily I say unto thee, now that's New Testament language for friend, I'm gonna make you a promise, okay? This is my word. Verily I say unto you, truly I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Can you imagine what those words sound like this man? As they were nailing him to the cross, he hadn't prayed the way Jesus had. He had cursed and sworn, threatened. It's probably pretty ugly. But when he came face to face with Jesus, and realized who Jesus was, recognized his own sinful condition, confessed it openly, relied upon the mercy of the Lord, and at that moment, he received from the Lord the promise of everlasting life. Today, shalt thou be with me in paradise. What an amazing exchange. What a beautiful vision of heaven and salvation all played out for us in the unlikely scene of a crucifixion and execution and death. Now, my friends, that same promise that Jesus made to this thief is available to us today. The Bible says, he came unto his own, but his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God. John 6 and verse 37 says, him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. God is still in the saving business today. But you can't come to know Christ as Savior until, first of all, you realize who He is. He was a man, but He was far more than a man. He was God. He came to die. He took our place. He was our substitute. He paid full for our atonement. He who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He took our place. He died for you. And today that wonderful offer of salvation is available for you today. I had the wonderful privilege of being raised in a very godly Christian home. I'm a third generation Baptist preacher in our family. So I got it bad, okay? This has been my whole life. But there still had to come a time in my life when I recognized my need of a Savior and when I trusted Him in faith and repentance. I remember when I was beginning to come under true conviction that I was a sinner. I was too proud to acknowledge to anybody that I need to be saved. And you might look at me and you might laugh and say, well, Dave, what would you be proud of? I can see what you'd ask. But now, what could you possibly be proud of? Well, I can't explain this to you. But at that time, growing up in a pastor's home, the congregation of our church loved our family. They loved us kids in the pastor's home. It was a common practice. That when visitors would come to our services, that church members would introduce us children. I'm the oldest of five. That church members would introduce us to the visitors. I remember many times, church members would hold me by the arm and they'd bring me around to a visitor and they'd stand there and talking to the visitor, they would be patting me on the head. And they would say, now this is David and he's the pastor's oldest and he's a good boy. He's a good boy. Happened all, wore the hair off the top of my head. He's a good boy. Now I had a problem. Now in front of all those people that said I was such a good boy, I needed to admit that I was a sinner that needed to be saved. You know what? I was too proud to do that. Isn't that silly? And for weeks, I was miserable. I began to try to figure out any way to skip church. Pastor knows that's hard when you're a preacher's kid, okay? You're gonna be in church all the time. If you're dying, you're gonna be in church all the time. I mean, that was hard to do, but I was so miserable. But I remember that Sunday night when my mother lovingly confronted me about the fact that I needed to be saved. You say, well, how can she know that? I believe the Spirit of God led her. Because when she confronted me, it was like the convicting finger of the Holy Spirit was just poking me in the chest. Yeah, you man, you, buddy, you need to be saved. I mean, it was personal. And I came to that realization that as a sinner, I was hopeless to save myself. But I put all of my trust and all of my dependence upon Jesus Christ alone. And in that action, I received everlasting life. Do you realize that that promise that Jesus made to the thief is available to you today? Perhaps you're a guest. Perhaps you've gone to church a lot in your life, but you can't look back to that time in your life when you got saved. You can't look at a specific time when you realized, I'm a sinner. I can do nothing to save myself. And someone loved you enough that they opened the Bible to show you what it means to be saved. Dear friend, if you're not saved today, then this church, this preacher, the Bible, and our wonderful God, we invite you today. Won't you come to know him? Won't you let us today open the Bible and show you exactly what it means to be saved? As I think about that blessed news, when the thief heard Jesus say, today, shalt thou be with me in paradise, it thrills my heart to realize that for someone in this room today, that news could be yours today. To come to know Him in whom is life eternal. What a blessing that is. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for this beautiful story in the gospel. teaching us of your personal love for each of us in the fact that you went to the cross for us, but also teaching us your personal love in the fact that you offered that gift of salvation today to those who would believe. Lord, we thank you that even this morning there is room at the cross for those that recognize their need of a Savior. So Father, I'm asking if there is anyone in this room, if there is anyone watching by way of streaming video, If there is anyone who someday down the road listen to this sermon in some recorded format and recognize, I need to be saved. Then Lord, for these, we pray. And we thank you that as we pray, that your Holy Spirit is doing a work in their hearts right now. Oh Lord, for the group here in this room, I pray that if there's anyone that needs to be saved, today might be the day of their salvation. Our loving Father, Thank you for the miracle, the gift of your grace, the miracle of salvation. What an incredible thing it would be if we could hear the story of every person in this room, how they came to be saved. Each one, a miracle of your grace. Thank you for this account recorded for us in your holy word. The account of this violent criminal, who came to know our Savior just moments before he died. Thank you for the miracle of salvation. Lord, I do want to pray, if there's anyone here that's not saved, by your Holy Spirit, would you confront them? Would you convict them? Would you convince them of their need of a Savior? And then, Lord, I want to pray right now, several men, several ladies, even a few of our young people, who by the upraised hand a moment ago said, I'm saved, but there's a spiritual need in my life. Father, during these days, if Jesus tarries, during these days we share together, help us to be tender and responsive to your word. Guide and direct even in this brief invitation, I pray. Have your way in our hearts.