Sermon: Today You Will Be with Me in Paradise

Now I would invite you to turn in your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 23 and our sermon text this morning is Luke 23 verses 35 through 43. My hope this morning as we open God's word is to present to you a very simple message of grace as we consider the gospel of Jesus Christ. And whether you are a Christian who has been here for many years of this church and you could be this morning reminded and given a greater joy in the gospel of grace,

or whether you are not yet a Christian and you're thinking through the Christian faith for the first time or uh another time, would you pay attention this morning to God's word and hear the the clear message of his grace in the gospel? That's what we're after today. And so as we prepare to hear from God's word, let's pray together.

Dear dying lamb, thy precious blood shall never lose its power until all the ransom church of God be sinned, be saved to sin no more Lord Jesus. We believe this morning that there is power in your blood. Your blood which was shed for sinners like us on the cross, your blood, which is a fountain, a fountain in which sinners like us lose all our guilty stains. Oh Lord, we pray that you would give us this morning the eyes of faith

to apprehend your grace, that you would wash us clean and that you would make us white us snow here. Now in the reading and preaching of your word, help us Lord to hear and we do pray that you would speak for your servants are now listening in Jesus' name. Amen. Let me tell you this before I read our text this morning picks up right in the middle of quite a grizzly scene. It is that dark scene on Good Friday where Jesus is being crucified.

So you get a a month in advance preview of what you'll celebrate together as a church family. Christ is hanging on the cross in our text and there are two others being crucified with him. We will look at some of Jesus's final words before he breathes his last and I'll begin, I'll begin reading for us verse 32 for some context. And then our main focus will be, as I said, verses 35 through 43. So hear now the word of God,

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. They know not what they do and 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's the Christ of God has chosen one. The soldiers also mocked him coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, if you were the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was also an inscription over him. This is the king of the Jews, one of the criminals who were hanged, railed at him saying, are you not the Christ? Save yourself in 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'll be with me in paradise. Amen. Thus sends this reading of God's holy ander sufficient word and he write its eternal truth on all our hearts.

Well, perhaps you've heard this story before, first told by DA Carson, Carson says, imagine two Jews by the names of Smith and Brown, remarkably Jewish names on that night of the first Passover in Egypt, having a little discussion in the land of Goshen

Where this is the first week our new south. Tell me, do you want me to do something? Do you want me to keep on with no mic? I'll do whatever you want. Says keep going back to our story. These men and Ghost Smith says to brown, wait, Are you a little nervous? Ah, you a little nervous about what's going to happen tonight?

Brown says, listen, God told us what's gonna happen through his servant Moses, haven't you? Haven't you slaughtered your lamb brother? Haven't you dobbed those doorposts and spread the blood on that lentil? Haven't you done that? Aren't you packed and ready to go? Aren't you going to eat the Passover lamb with your family and then get up on out of here?

The first response, well of course I've done that. I'm not stupid, but it's still pretty scary when you think about all the things that have gone on here in Egypt recently, I mean swarms of flies and frogs and rivers turning into blood. It's pretty awful. And now there's this threat of the firstborn being killed. Look, you've got three sons but I've only got one and I love my Charlie and God said the angel of death is gonna be passing through tonight.

You know, I know what God says I I put the blood on the door, but you gotta admit it's pretty scary. I'll be glad when this night is over. The first one more confident, he responds, bring it on. I trust the promises of God and the question for those two men is this the, the angel of death passes over that night and takes the firstborn. Which one of those two men lost their son?

The answer of course is neither

because death doesn't pass over on the ground of the intensity or even the clarity of the faith exercised death passes over on the ground of the blood of the lamb, not based on deeds performed in obedience, not sincerity or well wishing or progress or perfection, not because of anything in the one who was spared but only because of the blood that was spilled. Listen, ask yourself, what do you say to yourself when, when accusations come and your own heart and your own mind?

When you think about that last day, how can God possibly love someone like you who has fallen short of how he's called you to live? What will you say when you stand before him? God, I've tried my best God, I wasn't as bad. I was those other students out on campus.

No, I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. It's the blood of the lamb that secures the salvation of the people of God both in the Passover and here at the cross this morning. If you're not a Christian and you're thinking through these things or if you're a Christian who struggles with doubt, perhaps especially doubt because of your own sinfulness, if you're someone here

who worries about others you love who might pass into eternity, there are answers for all of you here at the cross. As we consider God's grace at the cross, we'll see that the cross teaches us not so much about how much faith we should have, but about what we are to place our faith in. It is not about the intensity of faith or even strictly speaking the amount of faith. It is the object of our faith, the blood of the Lord Jesus that saves.

And so this passage, it it, it shows us, it paints for us a picture of salvation. The language of salvation is used repeatedly. You notice that as we read through verse 35, the rulers say he saved others, let him save himself. Verse 37, if you are the king of the Jews, the soldiers say save yourself. And in verse 39, that first thief asks Jesus, would you save yourself and us? Salvation is this overarching major meta theme of Luke's gospel.

It's perhaps nowhere clear than Luke 19 verse 10, the son of man came to seek and to save the loss. That's what Jesus came for. It's salvation that's in front of us this morning.

My kids is part of their school at the Cheeseborough homeschool. Part of their school day is a a picture study where they take a a work of art from history and they learn the careful work of observation. Which parts of that picture are dark and bright, which parts of it have thick brush strokes, which way the people's faces are pointing also that they can try to discern what is the, what is the artist trying to communicate?

What is the artist drawing our attention to as we look at the portrait here before us? This picture of salvation in Luke 23, the first thing Luke does is he shows us a number of people in the background. He sets the context for us. He first points us to the foot of the crosses where there's a small crowd of people gathering around these men who are crucified. Verse 35 says, people stood by watching.

Some of these people have likely just been crying out for Christ to be crucified and now they've come here to this hill of Golgotha to see the outcome of their demand. But it's not just the common people, it's the Jewish leaders as well. Verse 35, still the the rulers are scoffing at him. The very Jewish officials who had orchestrated Jesus' trial scoffing and deriding him. He saved others. They say perhaps they're thinking about

how Jesus had previously healed and cast out demons. He saved others, but if he's really the Christ, if he's God's messiah, let him save himself. The people, the rulers, the soldiers, verses 36 and 37, the Roman soldiers carrying out pilot's commands. They offer Jesus here sour wine as a joke. They look at that sign that Pilate had affixed to the cross and they say, if you really are the king of the Jews, Jesus, prove it.

Show yourself to be powerful by getting off the cross. See the soldiers think just like the religious leaders, that if you were subject to Roman crucifixion you were automatically qual disqualified from being the Messiah. What they don't realize is that God's messiah is not only one who will one day reign over the world, but who even now has entered the world to offer grace and forgiveness.

These people around the crosses form the background for us. They're not where Luke points our main attention, but they're the context.

Look at the foreground of this passage, not just the people around the crosses, but there are three men hanging on the crosses and in verse 39, we see the first of these two dying thieves. He's speaking to Jesus. Now these two criminals who were crucified, we don't know much about their backgrounds, we don't have a list of their crimes. There's no rap sheet, but we know in the ancient world you were only subjected to Roman crucifixion if you were one of the worst

of the worst absolute heinous criminals. The text says here in verse 39 that this first man railed at Jesus. Some translations he blasphemed and it's interesting that even while he's cursing Christ, did you notice that just in case, just in case this first thief makes one final last ditch effort to save his own life, aren't you the Christ Jesus, get yourself off that cross and won't you get me off mine?

The thiefs understanding of Jesus appears to include that Jesus could have chosen not to endure the cross, that he had the power to get off it if he had wanted to and of course that thinking is right. Adolf Hitler was once quoted as saying he would never give a cigarette to someone he loved because it is quote universally agreed that non-smokers live longer than smokers. As Pastor Ralph Davis says, truth often comes through surprising channels.

The first thief here he knows some truth about Jesus. You may be here as not a follower of Christ and you may know some truth about Jesus, but understand this morning knowing truths about Christ is different than what the Bible calls saving faith. And so there's a contrast for us here in this picture. Perhaps the first thief has darker hues and the second thief has brighter colors because it's the contrast between them we're meant to see

in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Luke draws our attention to this focal point of the picture of salvation, the the point he most emphasizes this conversation between Christ on the cross and the second criminal, the the dying thief. I want you to consider with me this morning three elements of this focal point in the picture, the essence of faith, the joy of salvation, and the freedom of grace. First, consider the essence of faith.

Some of you men who are on the men's retreat this weekend may say, this is what we heard about all weekend. Good. It's a wonderful thing to spend more time on. You know, one of the ways to discern whether someone has saving faith is to actually look for evidences of repentance. Repentance is just a turning away from sin. Just as faith is a turning to Christ and it's often been said that repentance and faith, they're two sides of the same coin

that is they necessarily go together. You cannot have one without the other. To turn from sin is to turn to Christ. You cannot turn to Christ without turning from sin. And so if we're looking here for the essence of faith, we ought to see evidence of repentance. This man is known in church history as the penitent thief, the repentant thief. Did you notice that it's especially his repentance that's highlighted here. There's actually three evidences.

The first is in verse 40, what does he do? He rebukes the man reviling Jesus, even though, excuse me, even though he once did the exact same In Matthews and Mark's account of this story, we learned that it was initially both thieves that were jeering at Jesus and insulting him, but it appears in Luke's account that one of them has changed his posture here. Perhaps even a change happening in his heart, he turns to the first thief and rebukes him.

How can you taunt this innocent man? You are guilty yourself and your suffering for your crimes. What gives you the nerve to insult him? Don't you fear God? You're suffering the judgment of God right now.

He begins to apprehend what our catechism will say as the filthiness and ness of sin. Ness is a good word. It's a word I think of when my two boys at home take off their socks. The stinkiness of sin, the thief hears, he looks on the crucified Christ. He realizes, oh my goodness, what I once thought were small imperfections in my life. What I once thought to be mere character flaws are actually high handed sins against my maker.

He sees sin in himself and in the other man for what it really is and he turns from his hostility toward Jesus. Where else do we see his repentance? We see it as well. Verse 41 where he declares his own punishment to be just while asserting the innocence of Jesus says, it says I deserve it, but he says, this man has done nothing wrong. He does not deserve this death. He has no sin of his own repentances sin for what it is

and repentance sees Christ for who he is. Third, look at what he says to Jesus in verse 42.

He turns to Jesus on the middle cross and he says, I think perhaps a little more quietly, Jesus, the only person in this account to use the personal name of Christ says, remember me when you come into your kingdom, he asks to be remembered. He doesn't ask for earthly deliverance like the first man. He asks for some future benefit at some future time to come.

How can you be thinking about the future when you're hanging on a Roman cross? Let's see. He seems to assume that the cross will not be the final word, at least for Jesus, that one day Jesus will have great power, he will have a kingdom and so he cries out to him. Jesus remember me perhaps alluding to the words of Psalm 25, remember your mercy, oh Lord, and your steadfast love for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth

or my transgressions according to your steadfast love. Remember me for the sake of your goodness. Oh Lord, how do we know this man is truly repentant? He sees his sin for what it is. He sees Christ for who he really is and then he cries out to Jesus for help. This man truly was repentant and therefore we can say he truly at saving faith. Here's what it looks like. He says, I cannot save myself. I cannot change the outcome of my life.

I cannot escape the judgment that I rightly deserve. If there is any hope for me, it must come from outside of me, not from inside of me.

Listen, of course it's not clear how much this man understood. We don't have a full doctrinal statement, but it is clear as one scholar says this remark is a messianic confession and expresses the hope of being with the messiah. In other words, it it's an expression of saving faith. Calvin will say, I know not that since the creation of the world, there was ever a more remarkable and striking example of faith.

The essence of saving faith in the words of the Westminster confession is accepting, receiving and resting upon Christ alone for eternal life. Whether you're Christian or not this morning, would you be clear on this faith as the Bible describes, faith is not a vague optimism about the future. It is not well wishing or mere hope that things will work out. Saving faith according to scripture is trust. Trust in the person

and work of Jesus relying on him instead of relying on self looking to what he has done to bring salvation instead of what I have done to earn salvation. What if Christians believe for thousands of years it's that our salvation rests not on what we do as an offering up to God but on what Christ has done for us. This is how Christianity is different from any other world religion or system of philosophy that we as Christians bank at the end of the day,

that a real person has really done something in real history and that it really counts for us.

And because that happened, I rest in it. I trust it. Just like right now, you are sitting in these pews and you trust them to hold up your weight

and do you see the upshot of all of this that if it were any other way, it would only produce more misery If this thief tried to work out some deal with Jesus, if he told Jesus, listen, I will live how you want me to live. I will clean my life up. This thief would have no hope. He would only be more miserable. You know when you and I deep down in our hearts, when we begin to believe that we are a little more accepted or a little more loved by God

because of how we've obeyed, 'cause of how we've lived in this life, not only is that an impossible standard but realize it. It makes it an impossible standard of living that we now have to measure up to. If I believe my acceptance with God is based on what I do, it puts me in bondage. It puts a weight on me that I was not created to bear

and instead of bondage what Jesus says to this thief dying on the cross is he speaks to him a better word and he tells him about the joy of salvation, the essence of faith. Think with me second about the joy of salvation. Jesus offers this man joy in verse 33. There he says to him, truly, I say to you today you'll be with me in paradise. Paradise is the same word in your Bible used in the Old Testament to describe the garden of Eden, that place

where Adam and Eve walked with God. Jesus says to this man on the basis of your faith, you will be with me in this paradise where you just like Adam and Eve will walk closely with God unfettered fellowship, unmediated intimacy with your creator. The flaming sword will no longer block access to God because you have been brought near by my blood. Jesus says, on the basis of trusting in me, I grant you eternal joy.

We should also notice the emphasis on the immediacy of the word today. You'll be with me today. Jesus says he doesn't teach about a place called purgatory, place of refinement. As Roman Catholics teach, he says that immediately right after death, that same day, the one who dies in faith will be with him at God's right hand.

The apostle Paul will develop this doctrine later in places like Second Corinthians five and Philippians one, and of course one Corinthians 15, what happens to a Christian after death? Scripture says that a Christian dying in faith experiences a separation of their body which lays in the ground and their soul goes immediately to the presence of Christ in heaven and later on, eventually that body and that soul are reunited and remade in glory.

We could put it succinctly in the words of our shorter catechism. Question 37, what benefits do believers receive from Christ at death? Answer, the souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness and do immediately pass into glory and their bodies still being united to Christ, do rest in their graves until the resurrection.

Listen, this doctrine of the resurrection of the state Christians enter after death. It has massive implications for how we view the end of life, our own, the death of loved ones. It's not a mere platitude to say at a Christian funeral that this person is in a better place. When we say papa has gone to be with Jesus, we're not making it up. When we say of the deceased Christian, they are beholding their savior face to face.

We believe it's true for the believer in Christ. There is absolute joy after death. Our heavenly home is better than this earth. That's why Jesus calls it paradise. When you face death in the Christian life, you place your hope in the joy of salvation, the eternal bliss that awaits the Christian when they pass from this life, and I want you to imagine what this must have felt like to that thief on that cross on that day.

Imagine what joy is offered to him. I was thinking about this this morning as we sang the words grace unmeasured vast and free that knew me from eternity. Grace will lead me to heaven where I'll see your face, I'll never cease to thank you for your grace. Those concepts were sinking into the mind and the heart of this thief and so he experienced not only the essence of faith and not just the joy of his salvation, but he understood the freedom of grace.

Consider this with me finally, the freedom of grace. Grace of course, is a christianese term. It's a churchy word. You don't hear it very often unless you name your daughter grace and it's not always very carefully defined. The word grace. One of the good definitions I've heard over the years is that grace is unmerited favor or undeserved kindness from God that he shows to sinners who actually deserve the opposite grace.

And if that definition is true, then grace is by definition free. It's the freedom of grace that's on display here. Even though the word grace is not in the text, the concept absolutely is, and grace is not what we would be expecting as we come to this passage. We would expect God who's holy and righteous and just and fair God who has shown us how to live and he wants us to obey him. We would expect God to think like this

If there are people who live lives of great obedience, I like them. If they can quote the scriptures up and down, that is good. If they have been raised in a covenant family and grew up going to dig extra points, if you have recently returned from an SCF spring break trip, you have greater favor with God. If you are active in a growth group, you are a little more ahead of other people who aren't. That makes sense to us that God would favor people

who are good and righteous, but friends we would never expect God's favor to come to a man like this, a thief hanging on the cross, A man who's lived his life with complete disregard for the law. Again, we don't have a record of all of his sins, but if you were condemned to Roman crucifixion in the ancient world, you were one of the worst of the worst of criminals, murderers, insurrectionists moments before this cursing Jesus.

You wouldn't expect Christ to show him favor and kindness and notice what we don't read of here. I don't find anywhere in this text where this man is baptized, where he goes through church membership. We don't have a story about his growth in Christ's likeness. I don't think he's read a word of the Westminster confession and yet it's implied so clearly that he's forgiven by Jesus. His sins are washed away in the blood of the lamb.

Forgiveness comes to this man for free without any principle of earning completely, irrespective of any degree to which he deserved to be forgiven. And I think this is perhaps as close as we get in scripture to what we can call a deathbed conversion. You know what I mean? A deathbed conversion, someone who changes their tune at the end of their life, especially if it's someone who has lived a rotten life full of lying and cheating and just

before the end they ask for forgiveness. You know to a lot of people today, the thought is reprehensible that someone can be forgiven for a life of lawlessness just before their death. It seems unfair that someone can hate and murder, cheat and lie all their life and at the last moment just apologize and they get off scot-free. Well, our passage speaks to someone like that who is a critic of deathbed conversions.

It says to this person first, the objection is not an awful one. There's something good in the objection to deathbed conversions because it's concerned with justice. Isn't it guilty people ought not to be pardoned for free or else justice is miscarried. And so in this piece of the objection, the answer is that for the sinner who places faith in Jesus, who trusts in Christ where there is a real reliance upon what he has done, the lifetime of wrongdoing of

that sinner is not forgiven on a whim. God doesn't forgive people by just sweeping their sins under the rug. No, what does he do? He takes the record of debt of that sinner and places it on his son. And so when Christ dies in the place of sinners, the sin of sinners is really punished, is really paid for justice is upheld. It's not miscarried for the sinner who trusts in Christ. Now the second thing the passage says to the critic

of deathbed conversions is this, that it seems if you have a problem with such last minute forgiveness, you're probably assuming something about yourself. See, to recoil at the freedom of grace implies that you don't actually believe you need grace, that you yourself don't need free grace. If you rail your fist at how can this person be forgiven, you probably believe that you've earned it. You have to assume that unlike the guilty person,

you are actually somehow deserving of kindness and forgiveness, perhaps because you believe that the magnitude of your own sins is smaller than this other person. It seems there's this default wiring in all of our hearts that we really want to prove ourselves to God that because of our sinful nature we want to show God we're morally good and acceptable. And so we like to accept his favor and his love because deep down we believe that he kind of owes it to us.

Who wouldn't say it out loud? I understand that, but often we feel like we've earned at least a little bit of God's merit, a little bit of his favor. And listen, just as we want to be absolutely clear on the essence of saving faith, we want to be absolutely clear on the working of God's grace. Because if salvation is 99% God's work and 1% my merit, then the effective piece of that transaction is my merit and not his grace.

Grace must be 100% free. Otherwise it is not grace. If it is by grace. Paul says in Romans 11, it is no longer on the basis of works otherwise Grace would no longer be grace. You mean I don't have to do anything to earn it? That's right. You mean I couldn't do anything to earn it if I tried? Yes. You mean it's really that easy? Yes. This is why the gospel means good news. If you have never felt like the gospel of grace is too easy,

you might not understand grace. If you think deep down that God's love for you is based on how you have responded to him or how you have lived your life or the kind of faith that you have walked in or anything in you, then friends you don't understand grace and this is what you and I need. Again, whether you're following Christ or not yet following Christ, what you need every day is to be reminded of the freedom of grace.

A trust in a room this size. Many of you have seen this clip before that's gone viral sermon preached by Alistair Begg speaking about the man on the cross here. Beg is worth quoting at some length. Listen, he says, if you were to die tonight and you were getting into heaven, what would you say? Now if you answer that in the first person, you've gone majorly wrong. Why should I get into heaven? Because I, because I believe

because I have faith, because I am this. 'cause I'm continuing to listen. The only proper response is in the third person. 'cause he 'cause he think about this thief from the cross. Beg says, I can't wait to find that fellow one day in heaven and ask him, how did things shake out for you? Because listen, Mr. Thief, you were cussing the guy out. I didn't think you'd make it in. You'd never been in a Bible study. You've never been baptized.

You don't know a thing about church membership, but you made it. How did you make it? He says, well, I don't know. What do you? What do you mean you don't know? Let me go get one of these angels. Angel comes over, okay, Mr. Mr. Thief, can you define for me the doctrine of justification by faith alone? Guy says, I've never heard of that in my life. Okay, well, tell me about your doctrine of scripture. Not a clue. Finally that angel starts to get frustrated,

beg says, and he asks him, okay then on what basis are you here?

And he's, he responds Well, the man on the middle cross said, I could come. Now that's the answer. That's the gospel that this man over here said I could come. And if you and I don't preach that gospel to ourselves every day, day after day, if we begin to trust our own experience or our performance even one bit, then we are headed either for abject despair because we don't think we measure up or sinful delusional pride because we think we do.

No, because the sinless savior died, my sinful soul is counted free for God, who is still just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me, if your salvation depends on you at all, then you have no hope. But since it depends on grace, we have every reason to hope. There is hope for any sinner, no matter how great, no matter how little time left. And so listen, if you are not a follower of Jesus, would you hear God's word calling out to you this morning

that there is an offer of grace and forgiveness and eternal life for you if you might look upon Christ and turn from your sin. If you are a Christian here who struggles with doubt and in particular the doubt because of your own imperfections and sins, would you place your confidence not in any vain hope of your good deeds outweighing your bad, but rather in the sure hope that Christ has born your transgressions? If you're someone here this morning

who is worried about the salvation of others that you love, perhaps people who have run far from Christ, would you be encouraged? There is no sin so great as it is outside the reach of God's grace. There is no sinner alive today. With so little time left that repentance is not still possible. And perhaps there is no thing that our God loves to do more than to show off His grace by displaying it in the salvation of the un unlikeliest of sinners.

Receive God's grace this morning, rest in his grace and rejoice in his grace. Let's pray.

Our Father, there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from emmanuel's veins and sinners, even sinners like us. Plunge beneath that flood, lose all our guilty stains. The dying thief rejoice to see that fountain in his day. And there Father have I though vile as he washed all my sins away ever since by faith I saw the stream thy flowing wound supply, redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die. So Lord, when this poor lisping stammering tongue

lies silent in the grave, then in a noer sweeter song, I will still sing thy power to save. Father, thank you for your son. Oh Lord Jesus, we pray this all in his name. Amen.