The Two Thieves on the Cross

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There was a greater pain that Jesus endured on that cross. God the Father turned His back on Him. You see, God is such a holy God. As we saw in the garden, when man sins, it becomes a barrier between God and man. Adam was put out of the garden. Eve was put out of the garden. Jesus never sinned, but He bore my sin. Amen. And He bore the sin of all who would ever turn to Him in faith.

When He bore our sin on the cross, God the Father even had to turn away from His own Son. He turned His back. It became as dark as the blackest night in the history of the world—right at noon. And you have to understand how stark that was in Israel. The land of Israel only gets about eleven inches of rain a year. If you woke up one morning and saw a cloud, that was a most unusual day. The sun is bright, and in the middle of the day, at noon, it is burning down in the land. And all of a sudden, pitch black darkness—revealing that the Father turns His back on the Son. God the Father cannot even look upon His Son who is bearing sin. His own Son is rejected on the cross.

Jesus, in utter agony—how would you respond? What would you say to those Roman soldiers? What would you say to those religious leaders? Jesus said something so profound that no man could ever make it up. Look at Luke 23:34. To those men who crucified Jesus, those four Roman soldiers and one centurion who oversaw the process, Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." The Roman soldiers do not know who He is. They have no clue what they are doing.

The Centurion's Transformation

Now listen. You have to do the math here. One plus one equals two. Jesus prayed for the Roman soldiers to be forgiven. That's one. The second one is: God the Father always answers the prayers of His Son. You look down at the passage. The Roman soldiers eventually—in Luke 23:47—when the centurion saw what happened, he began praising God. He said, "Certainly, this Man was innocent." In Matthew's gospel, he calls Him the Son of God. In Mark's gospel, he calls Him a righteous man. Jesus prays for the very guys who nail Him to the cross, that God the Father would forgive them. The Father answers the prayer of the Son. By the time we get to the end of the story, the soldiers are saying, "This is the eternal Son. He is utterly righteous." And they put their faith in Christ.

The Criminal's Prayer

They are not the only ones. Somebody else puts their faith in Christ as well. Look down at Luke 23:39. One of the criminals who hanged there was hurling abuse at Jesus. So he is not only cursing the soldiers; now he is cursing Jesus. "Are you not the Christ? You claim to be the Christ? Save yourself and us."

Because Adam sinned, the whole human race plunged into sin. We were born in sin, and we started proving it early on. Just ask your mom and dad, or your mate, or your coworkers.

Jesus prayed a prayer, but now the one thief is going to pray a prayer. Luke 23:42 shows his prayer: "Jesus, remember me." The word "remember" is a term used throughout Scripture. "Remember me"—in other words, share your grace. Bring your grace upon me. Do not forget about me. Remember me when you come in your kingdom.

There is actually a ton of truth there. He prays to Jesus, showing that he believes Jesus is God—because you only pray to God. He also identifies that Jesus has a kingdom, which means he believes Jesus is a king. "When you come in your kingdom"—which means he believes Jesus is going to rise from the dead. We are all dying here, but when you come back in your kingdom as king, will you remember me? I am here justly. I am a sinner. I am getting what I deserve. You are here unjustly. You have never sinned. Will you forgive me and remember me and save me in the life to come?

Luke 23:43 shows Jesus' response: "Jesus said to him, 'Truly, I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise.'" That is Jesus' description of heaven. You know, Paul had a vision of heaven in Second Corinthians 12. Paul said there was a man he knew fourteen years ago—he is referring to himself. God took him to heaven and gave him a vision of heaven, and Paul said it was so different. It was so spectacular. It was so utterly unique that he could not tell anyone anything about it. Jesus just gives us a one-word description: Paradise. Paradise. Everything that paradise could be—Jesus sums heaven up as paradise.

The Choice Before Us

Two sinners. One righteous man. Two sinners getting what they deserve. One righteous man getting what I deserve, what you deserve. One sinner curses that righteous man. He will spend eternity separated from God, in hell. Another sinner seeks forgiveness from that righteous man. He will spend eternity in paradise. The question is: which sinner are you?

You are one of those good sinners, one of those religious sinners. You ought to see my neighbor. You ought to see a bad sinner. You ought to meet my boss. Understand this. I want to put it in the vernacular for you: Jesus came to die for bad people. He did not come for good people. He came to die for bad people.

Paul says that when we compare ourselves among ourselves, we are not wise, because we can always find some who are a little worse than us. The standard—the real standard—is God. God is the standard. When you compare yourself with God, you and I do not look good at all in any sense of it. We all need a Savior. Why? Because we are all sinners. Because we are all bad people.

Jesus said there is only one good—that is Me, God. You are here this morning. You are a sinner. You inherited debt from Adam and Eve. You have been acting on that for every year that you have been living. You are a bad person. Compared to who? Compared to God. He is the only good person. John 14:6 says, "No one comes to the Father except through me."

What True Faith Means

Let me sum it up with this thought. There are a lot of ideas out there about what it means to believe in Jesus. Everybody has faith, right? People have faith in something. Here is what it means to have faith in Jesus:

• You believe that Jesus is who He claimed to be. You believe He is the eternal Son of God. That He is God, very God.
• If you believe that, then number two: you believe everything Jesus said is true. The Bible says God cannot lie. So true biblical faith in Jesus means that you believe Jesus is who He claimed to be—the eternal Son of God, the sinless One.
• Number three—this is the final part of true biblical faith—you commit your entire life to everything He said. Because everything He said is true. Because He is God. And God never lies.

I thought I believed in Jesus for twenty-four years. My parents sent me to church sometime. I went to religious school. I believed in Jesus. No. No. I never committed my life to Him as the eternal God who died in my place for my sin, to rescue me from eternal damnation. That is who Jesus is. And He demands a full commitment of life—not a sinless life, but a life devoted wholeheartedly to Him.

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Let us pray together. Father, what an incredible Savior. The very Lord of the universe, the Creator Himself, entering into our world as a little baby. Sinless, living a perfectly righteous life, and offering Himself in the place of sinners on Calvary's cross—a perfectly righteous sacrifice in my place, in the place of all of those who follow Him.

Father, I pray that we as true Christians would rejoice in our Savior. Brian gave testimony this morning that he recognizes faith and trust in the finished work of Christ for salvation. So now based on that confession, we baptize Brian as a public display of the saving work that Jesus has already done in his life. For believers here today, we rejoice at the testimony Brian gave of the saving work of Christ on his behalf.

For anyone who does not have a saving relationship with God, know that what God did for Brian, He can do for you. It will require you, though, to turn from your sin and trust in Christ alone for salvation.

And so, Brian, based on your confession of the Lord, brother, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Bear with him in life's success and praise the goodness of life.