Sunday, November 6, 2022 PM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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put to death. And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the criminals one on the right hand and the other on the left.

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Then Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.

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And they divided his garments and cast lots. And the people stood looking on, but even the rulers with them sneered, saying,

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He saved others. Let him save himself, if he is the Christ, the chosen of God. The soldiers also mocked him, coming and offering him sour wine, and saying,

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If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. And an inscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew.

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This is the king of the Jews. Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed him, saying,

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If you are the Christ, save yourself and us. But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying,

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Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds.

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But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

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And Jesus said to him, Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.

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If you consider Christ and the world, in verses 26 through 34, we are confronted with various aspects of our responsibility before God.

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What is man's responsibility before God? Seen in the profile of Simon the

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Cyrenian. Seen in the profile of the crowds who were following Jesus, and these professional mourners, these women who were mourning the death of the executed.

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The responsibility before God seen in the characters of these criminals who were hung from crosses on either side of Jesus.

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And again, also, Christ and his responsibility before God.

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And we've looked at the Cyrenian, Simon, from North Africa. A strong Cyrenian Jewish community was well known, and many of the

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Cyrenian Jews turned to Christ and became part of the church. Simon and his sons,

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Rufus and Alexander, ostensibly became important members in the church. So we considered

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Simon's role of serving Christ and the trial that was thrust upon him, yet in the mercy of God, the pain and the suffering and the trauma of him having to do this.

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Look what God did in his life through it. We thought of the crowds and these women who, these daughters of Jerusalem, who obviously saw themselves doing a good deed, following the executed man, the man to be executed, the doomed man, mourning for him, and yet Jesus turned the situation upon them and said that they should be concerned about their position before God, their need for repentance.

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And now the criminals. In verses 32 through 33, we read, there are also two others criminals led with him to be put to death.

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They were carrying their cross beams, just like Jesus had been before Simon carried it.

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They were being led to their crucifixion place, to their execution place, just outside of Jerusalem.

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And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left.

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Calvary is the place of Golgotha, the place of the skull, either named that because of the rock formation that looked foreboding like a skull, or simply the place where the carcasses were left.

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A tactic of the Romans to suppress insurrection, to crucify notorious criminals in a protracted, suffering, gruesome, heinous kind of death, outside the entrances to the holy city of Jerusalem.

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A reminder to all those who came and went, this is what happens when you cross the

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Romans. This was a tactic to enforce the famous Pax Romana, the peace of Rome, through brutal tyranny, making sure that none would oppose.

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It was a common scene, it was a common scene that criminals would be crucified outside the gates of cities in the

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Roman Empire. It was part of law and order. It was part of keeping the peace.

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These criminals, crucified with Christ, would have had their crimes written above their head.

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It would have been declared to everyone why they were up there. The purpose, of course, was to inform everybody who passed by, if you commit this kind of crime, this is the kind of punishment you'll receive.

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Now, as was stated later, with the one criminal to the other, we deserve this. We deserve this judgment.

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We deserve this punishment. We deserve this execution. And we recall, in the letter to the church in Rome, as Paul was writing to a church more connected to the political goings on of the

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Empire than any other church, that God has ordained the civil government as a deacon, a minister, to punish evildoers.

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And that Rome had every right to punish evildoers.

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We read about these criminals and consider that their late partner

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Barabbas was a murderer, some kind of insurgent terrorist, obviously looking to pillage and plunder to fuel their operations against the

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Romans. Part of these types of radicals who would soon knife a

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Roman in the back as they would eat a loaf of bread. And so, obviously, the civil government had determined these men to be dangerous to the state, to the peace and order, and they crucified them.

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Crucified them. Now, in between these two criminals, we see our own

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Lord, Jesus Christ, crucified. These men are facing their death.

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It is appointed to men once to die, and after this comes the judgment.

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These men are in the process of dying. Undoubtedly, they have been brutalized already, prepared for the gruesome spectacle.

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Hanging on the cross, they were soon to die. And their condition before God, their status before God, must be considered.

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They are murderers. They're criminals. They've been condemned by the state.

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Where are they before God? A question that one of them had no stomach to consider, but only to look and to mock and to blame and to point at others.

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And the other one did consider very carefully. Now, we see something about our

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Lord, though, when we when we read in Isaiah 53.

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In Isaiah 53 and verse 9, we read that they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death.

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He was numbered among with the transgressors, verse 12. He was numbered with the transgressors.

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He was Isaiah foresaw a suffering servant who died between criminals, who was counted as a great sinner.

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But the contrast is clear. These criminals died for their own crimes while Christ was in the place of their one -time partner

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Barabbas. He was dying in Barabbas' place. This was a legal maneuver by the

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Romans. They needed some kind of outlet to show that they were not completely, utterly, tyrannical.

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It was the custom to release to the Jews a political prisoner, so that they kind of let off a little bit of the tension.

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Right? And so this legal maneuver, they released Barabbas, but then

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Christ is in his place now on the cross that had been set aside for Barabbas. The moment is striking.

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These criminals are responsible not just before the state, but they're responsible before God.

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Their crimes posted above their heads. As cruel as the cross was, as cruel as the crucifixion was, they faced far greater torment in hell.

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They faced far greater suffering at the hands of a holy and wrathful God for their crimes.

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They needed salvation. They needed a Savior, a forgiveness that was unavailable to them from society, unavailable to them from the state.

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There was nothing left. Nobody could absolve them of their guilt, and yet they hung in close proximity to the

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Savior for the world. And Christ himself is there upon the cross, not because of the of the accidents of history.

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He is not, as Albert Schweitzer said, being crushed under the wheel of history, a misguided noble prophet.

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Christ is there because he willingly submitted himself in obedience to his

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Father. Not my will, but yours be done, he says in the garden.

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When confronted by the mob in the garden, he says, I am he, and they all fall down before him because of the power of the one whom they encounter.

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He could call down a legion of angels to be at his aid anytime he needed. He didn't need

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Peter out there swinging the sword trying to hack somebody's head off. He could have called all the angels to come to his aid.

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The only reason Christ was on the cross is because he set his face like flint towards that cross, and for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross.

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He was there willingly, obediently before the Father. It is in the history of redemption, a remarkable moment, that where the first sin of humanity regarded a tree,

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Christ is now hanging on a tree. Whereas the biblical metaphors that we've been given time and again in Scripture was the need for the reconciliation of heaven and earth,

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Christ is suspended between heaven and earth. Whereas cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree,

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Christ now hangs from a tree bearing our curse. And Christ is there mediating between God and man.

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He is there as the Lamb of God. He is there to reconcile us to God. His responsibility before God is as our representative, the only one in whom the

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Father is well pleased. Verse 34, what is

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Christ's responsibility before God? Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do. Here is our high priest exercising his responsibility before God, as he suffers upon the cross.

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Then we read that they divided his garments and cast lots, straight out of Psalm 22. Again, I know that you've probably noted as we read through in Luke 23, the echoes of Psalm 22.

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And there's more echoes than that from Psalm 31 and Psalm 89. Especially this mockery that we're going to see.

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And the response to God's Son. How did they respond to God's Son?

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Mockery all the way. Scorn all the way.

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The Jews mocked the claim of Christ in verse 35. The people stood looking on, but even the rulers with them, that means that the chief priests, the scribes, they're their leaders, with them, together with them, sneered, saying, he saved others.

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Let him save himself if he is the Christ, the chosen of God. That's treated of Psalm 22.

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In Psalm 89, in describing the ministry of the Messiah, in his saving work, they are mocking his claims of being the

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Christ. Well, just go ahead and save yourself then.

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They see Christ upon, they see Jesus upon the cross, and they mock him.

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It's a stumbling block to them. They do not believe. The Gentiles also mocked, the soldiers, verse 36, also mocked him as coming and offering him sour wine and saying, if you are the king of the

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Jews, save yourself. So he says, save yourself, verse 35, verse 36, save yourself.

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The Jews say to Christ, mocking him, save yourself. The Gentiles say, save yourself, in verse 37.

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And then in verse 38, we read, which I think is a very important point, and an inscription was also written over him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, this is the king of the

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Jews. And remember, the other criminals had their crimes written above their heads, what they had, what they had done wrong.

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Pilate, remember, in the trial, could find nothing wrong with Christ.

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The only reason why he gave in was because he feared the mob. He wrote, this is the king of the

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Jews, and he did so out of mockery. He's mocking Christ, certainly, but he's also mocking the

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Jews. He's mocking their jealousy. And we read in the other gospel account how they came to him and say, you should specify that he said he was king of the

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Jews, not just king of the Jews. He said, what I have written, I have written. Pilate doesn't believe.

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He is mocking. He is jabbing at the situation, certainly resentful for what he is involved with.

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But do you notice something about the king of the Jews? Isn't that accurate?

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Isn't it accurate that God promised to David, a royal heir, one to whom all the promises of Abraham were given?

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Did he not promise descendants as numerous as the stars to Abraham, and then later on, descendants as numerous as the stars to David, in light of the new covenant?

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That the king, you see, stands in for the whole people. Which is why when

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David sinned at the end of 2nd Samuel, all the people were under the judgment of God because of David's sin.

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But then David went and purchased the threshing floor of Ariana, and went and offered sacrifice before God, so that God would be merciful to the whole people.

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And that threshing floor later on became the building site of the temple. The king standing in for the whole people.

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And here is the king of the Jews. Here is the one who stands in for all of Israel.

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Everything that everything that God ever said to Israel and promised to Israel rests upon the shoulders of this man on the cross.

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And the declaration that he indeed is the Messiah is declared to the entire world in Greek and Latin and Hebrew.

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For he is the Savior to the Jew first and to the Gentile. The gospel goes out to all the world.

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Here is the king of the Jews. Here is the Savior for the world. And while this is going on, you have

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Jews mocking him, save yourself. Gentiles mocking him, save yourself.

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The criminals blasphemes him, verse 39. If you are the Christ, save yourself.

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Oh, this is real original. If you notice that the pagans aren't very original, they just keep on repeating the same mantra over and over again.

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Ever listen to an Eastern pagan worship service? It's the repeating of the same mantra over and over and over and over again.

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If you are the Christ, save yourself, save yourself, save yourself. But the

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Son of Man did not come into the world to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

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He did not come to save himself. He came to save the likes of those who mocked him.

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Came to save the likes of these Jews and these Gentiles and this criminal who mocked him.

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And so we have the the mockery of the Jews, the mockery of the Gentiles, the blasphemy of this criminal who is embittered at his situation.

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But the other, verse 40, answering, rebuked him, saying, do you not even fear

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God? Well there's the difference, isn't it? There's the difference between those who fear man and fear death versus those who fear

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God. When you fear God, this is the beginning of knowledge, the beginning of wisdom, the beginning of understanding.

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You fear God, things are put into their proper perspective. When you're wrapped up with God, thinking of him first and thinking of him most, how freeing this is, how liberating it is.

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This man is not, is in a situation where he should be fearing the the people around him, watching him die, the

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Romans who have tortured him, have pinned him to the cross. He should be fearing death that is looming upon him.

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But here he is in the moment by the grace of God, fearing God instead of fearing man and fearing death.

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The first man is embittered, lashing out at the one who is there, who the only

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Savior for the world is hanging feet away from him and he's embittered against him and lashing out against him just like the rest of the crowds.

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But this man fears God, confesses his sins. We are under just condemnation.

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Here's the fact of the matter, from God's point of view, from from every objective angle, I'm the problem.

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I'm the villain. I'm no victim. I'm the problem. I'm under just condemnation.

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We receive the due reward of our deeds. I deserve to die like this, he's saying. But this man has done nothing wrong.

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Even as he confesses his own sin and guilt and disaster, he confesses the the purity and the righteousness and the goodness of Christ.

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He sees in Christ the spotless Lamb of God.

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And then he says to Jesus, makes an appeal to Jesus, Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom.

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Jesus is dying on a cross and this man looks over and says, when you come into your kingdom, this is the faith of Abraham who was ready to slaughter

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Isaac upon the altar knowing that God could raise him from the dead. And we find that very same faith by the grace of God and this criminal hanging on a cross.

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It's obvious Jesus is going to die but he also knows that Jesus is going to enter into his kingdom. He says, remember me.

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And of course in the scriptures that idea of remembrance is not simply the retaining of information that some of us have a hard time with.

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This is the act of remembering. The acting upon. The being faithful to.

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According to this promise, I am going to act. So remember me when you come into your kingdom.

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And Jesus said to him, surely I say to you today you will be with me in paradise. You know, people sometimes wonder where Jesus, where, and again there's mystery here.

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But what happened, we know where Jesus' body went, to lay to rest in the tomb.

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But where was, where was Jesus in his inner man, parted from his body?

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Where was he? He was in paradise. And there's no reason to invent new categories and become very technical.

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We know that the promise here to this man, absent from the body, this criminal was present with his

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Lord. Isn't that good? Because he simply believed upon Christ.

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Now this passage here, with so much mockery in the world today about Christ. Mockery that he is the

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Savior. Mockery that he can forgive. Mockery that he can, that he can, he can save the, all the people of the world.

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Whether they're, whether they are, you know, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, no matter what language they speak, he's the only Savior for them.

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Here is a man who has nothing to offer.

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He's got, he's got nothing to bring into the kingdom to contribute.

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He's not going to be tithing in any church. He's not going to be starting any church plants, any missions.

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He is the, he's worse than the servants hired at the 11th hour. He didn't even work an hour.

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But look at the grace of God unto salvation. I have sat at the bedside of a man who was to die within a couple of days, who was a mocker, a scoffer.

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And I told him he may have, you know, five years as he was telling me he had, or five minutes.

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But the offer of the gospel is still genuine then, right?

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Look at the man Christ saves. Today you will be with me in paradise.

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And so Jesus, in all this mockery, save yourself, save yourself, save yourself.

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Jesus does save this man, and in dying upon the cross, he saves countless others.

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You know, it's made very clear throughout the text that Jesus is God's chosen.

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So many prophecies being fulfilled one after another, so many clear pictures of the gospel being accomplished after so many years of promise and pattern and type in the

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Old Testament. It has been made very clear throughout the gospel of Luke that Jesus is God's chosen, his chosen one, his chosen one, his chosen one.

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And we get to this text and you see how he was rejected of men, and rejected of men, and rejected of men.

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But that doesn't change the fact that God, that Jesus is God's chosen over and over again.

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So Christ is God's chosen one for the world, over and against the rejection of so many, and yet we see the hope of salvation in this text.

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Any questions or thoughts before we close our time together? Yes. So good.

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Mm -hmm. Scary.

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Interesting. Yes. Yes.

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Well, you know, when people begin to talk about how far gone they are, well, you're halfway there.

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Agreeing with God about your sin is part of it, but you also need to agree with God about his Savior. Yes. And it may account for why they are mocking him in this particular way, you know, that he would deign to identify himself, that he would dare to identify himself with this messianic figure of Psalm 22, and they mock him for it, as if for some reason he's got an inflated ego.

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And yet, Psalm 22, according to the opening line of it, when you watch the structure of Psalm 22,

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David casts down and it's seemingly no hope, but then there's this line that stands by itself, but God heard me.

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And there's just this moment after that,

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David once again is lifted up, he's raised back up, he's delivered out of his troubles, and he spends the rest of the time praising

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God in such a way that all the nations hear. And again, this is the joy that is set before Christ, that he endures the cross.

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And he knows that God hears him. Indeed, God raised him up from the dead the third day, and then the praises of God are declared not only among the people, but among the peoples, and that for generation upon generation.

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So the entirety of Psalm 22, the first parts of it are the suffering parts that we see fulfilled in the text, but then the joy set before him is also part of Psalm 22.

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And so, yeah, I think this is on his mind. Yes.

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Yeah, it was part of the mockery. They weren't treating him very well, were they? All right, well, let's go ahead and close by singing the doxology...