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And turn with me tonight to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 23. Tonight we have been listening to Scripture, which takes us through the narrative of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And I want to take time during the sermon portion to spotlight a very particular moment within that narrative.
And not all of the Gospels tell this story exactly the same way. And that is not to say that the Gospels contradict one another, they do not. But the Gospels each focus on different aspects of both the life, the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And so what we do is we take a harmonious look at the Gospels and we look at all of them together to get the full story. But there are certain aspects that each one sort of focuses in on. And tonight we're going to focus in on something that is recounted to us in the Gospel of Luke.
I want to focus on the two men who were killed on either side of Jesus. I want to show how in many ways they are representative of all of mankind. Now I want to say from the outset I don't believe that it is good to allegorize Scripture and especially something that is a narrative.
It's not good to over-allegorize or to make a moral story out of a narrative. But there are times where we see in a narrative something that can be applied on a much grander scale. And that's what we're going to look at tonight.
So I'm not allegorizing these two men. These are two real men from history. These are two men who really existed at the time of Christ, one on either side of the cross. But I want to use them as examples of the world.
So in Luke chapter 23, beginning at verse 32, we read these words. It says, 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. Now if you'll move down with me a bit to verse 39. I'll pick up where the story picks up. It says, One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, Are you not the Christ?
Save yourself and us. But the other rebuked him, saying, Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds.
But this man has done nothing wrong. And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he, that is Jesus, said to him, Truly I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise. Father, I thank you for your word.
I thank you for the opportunity to preach it. I thank you for the opportunity to worship you. And I thank you, Lord, that because of your mercy, we know which is the right side of the cross. For, Lord, the world generally and by and large, and in many ways, stands on the wrong side of the cross tonight, looking at Jesus with nothing but derision.
But, Father, let us look to the cross with delight and with devotion tonight, as we look at this text together. I pray it, God, in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Most folks who've studied any history at all know that Jesus Christ is not the only person who was crucified in the ancient world.
In fact, there was a brief time in history where crucifixion was very common. In fact, one of the interesting things that we look at when we look at prophecy is that Jesus was prophesied as crucified.
He pierced his hands and his feet. We know that from the Old Testament, referring to what would happen to Jesus. And there was only a short amount of time in history where it was really popular and it was right in the same time of the life of Christ.
But when it was popular, and I believe it was introduced by the Persians, popularized by the Romans, perfected in their bloodlust, and when it was popularized, it was tremendously popular. Because it was a very good way to keep people from wanting to be criminals.
Because they would take insurrectionists, those who were going against the state, and they would nail them to stakes, and they would nail them to these trees, and they would put them on the roads. So that when you're entering or exiting from a city, you would see these dead carcasses hanging from the posts, as it were, as a sign.
It was a sign. Could you imagine? It was a moment of reality. This is what happens to those who go against us. This is what we do to criminals. And it is an especially heinous form of public execution, intended, as it were, by the state to dissuade its witnesses from engaging in crimes that would incur its wrath.
Just think of death on the cross and how it works. Death on the cross is death by asphyxiation, which means you die by running out of air. But unlike hanging, which causes the neck to compress and air to cease to make it to the lungs, death by crucifixion is hung by the arms so that the body weight compresses onto the chest cavity, pushing all of the weight down into the center of the diaphragm, making it impossible to continue to breathe in.
And eventually the lungs can only exhale and not inhale, and at that point the person asphyxiates and dies. It's a rather torturous, prolonged process of death. In fact, there have been recorded crucifixions where the people who were being hung to crucify would take several days to die, especially if they did it without nailing them.
If they just hung them, the process would take even longer for the body to succumb to the death on the cross. You remember when Jesus died, what did they say? He's died too quickly. They went and stabbed him in the side, and his blood poured out with blood and water to demonstrate, I believe, that it had pierced the pericardium, the sack that surrounds the heart and is filled with a liquid that looks like water, and when it poured out from the side from him to demonstrate that they pierced his heart, that he was dead.
Why did they do that? Because he hadn't been up there very long. Why did Jesus die so quickly? The other men had to have their legs broken so that they would no longer be able to push upward with their legs and take the pressure off their chest.
That's how they would keep themselves alive, and you know the instinct to want to live is very strong among men, and so men whose feet were nailed to a rugged post would push down on the nail in their foot so as to alleviate and get a breath.
I think about this every time I think of Jesus speaking from the cross. There are seven times Jesus spoke from the cross we know of. Could be more, but at least seven times Jesus had to push his feet down on the timbers and the metal post that was holding his feet together, push down and up to inhale and exhale a breath to be able to exclaim, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Which is a quote of Psalm 22. By the way, Jesus pronouncing his own messiahship in that quote. But I point to the crucifixion because I say this, this thing that was happening was heinous, but it was not uncommon.
And I think sometimes people might get confused and say, well, was Jesus the only one in the ancient world crucified? No, there were thousands that were crucified, if not in the hundreds of thousands who were crucified.
And even on the day Jesus was crucified, he wasn't the only one. On the day Jesus was crucified, he was crucified in the midst of two other men. That's how common the practice was. And these men are identified in our text tonight as criminals.
The King James calls them malefactors. The Greek behind that is kakos ergos is the word. It's two words put together. Kakos means bad. Ergos means work. So kakos ergos is bad workers or those who work evil deeds, evil people, criminals.
And I believe this. I can't necessarily prove this from scripture. I believe that these two men were cohorts of Barabbas. Because you remember Barabbas, and we heard Brother Andy read the scripture earlier about Barabbas.
Barabbas was supposed to be on the cross. Jesus is on Barabbas' cross. Jesus took Barabbas' place. Isn't there some interesting reality in that? Because Jesus took our place too. In many ways, we're Barabbas in that sense.
Because Jesus substituted for that man and his place on his cross, and I believe in between his cohorts. We do not know much of them. But what we do know is that these men had received the death penalty for breaking the law.
We don't know what the law was. We don't know what they did. We do know that the scripture tells us that Barabbas was an especially heinous criminal, which means that these men, if they were his cohorts, if my supposition is correct, then they were heinous as well.
Whatever the situation, they were condemned to die. And they did so on either side of Jesus Christ in one of the most torturous ways possible. Now what I want us to see tonight in regard to the text that we've read is three truths about these men that I think can also be applied more greatly on the world scale.
So here are the three things. Number one, they both started the day in the same condition. They both started the day as robbers, as criminals, as malefactors, as kakos orgos, as evil workers. And they both started the day railing against Jesus.
I want to show you this. If you have your Bible, turn over to Matthew 27, 44. Because this is something that Luke doesn't recount for us, but Matthew does. And again, this is not a place where Matthew and Luke disagree.
This is simply Matthew and Luke giving us the whole story when read together. And in Matthew 27, in verse 44, it says,. And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. Now just keep in mind, that's earlier in the day.
Even if you read Matthew's gospel throughout, you will see that this incident of both of the men reviling him in Matthew 27, 44, both of the men reviling him is earlier in the day. So Luke is telling us something about later in the day.
How long was Jesus on the cross? He was on the cross for about six hours. Their legal condemnation of death. Both of these men had done something that caused them to be on the cross. And their rebellious hearts were enraged.
And they were both railing against Jesus. And if you think about it, this is the state that all men are in prior to regeneration. Prior to salvation. The Bible says that we are born nature, or rather we are born with a sinful nature.
We are born children of what? Wrath. Like the rest of the world, right? Everyone is born DOA. Dead on arrival. Spiritually dead. We are all here in the same condition. Until God saves us. Until our hearts are regenerated.
Until our spirits are born again. We are all in the same condition. We are lost and we are dead in trespasses and sins. And here's the interesting thing about that. I really think that we've lost that in today's world.
I think people have forgotten that. Because we meet so many and see so many people who don't know Jesus. And yet we try to make excuse after excuse for their lostness. We say, well I know he doesn't know Jesus, but he sure is a good guy.
Or I know he doesn't know Jesus, but he sure does do a lot of good things. I know he doesn't know Jesus, but he sure does impress me with how much he gives. Or how much he works. Or how much he does. I've said before that at the cross, at the foot of the cross, everyone's equal.
Well outside of the cross everyone's equal the same. In the sense that they're all lost. No one outside of Christ is saved by any good thing that they do. And that's hard I think sometimes for us to wrap our mind around.
It's hard for us to even imagine. Because we know that most of the world doesn't know Jesus. Yet that's the state and condition of man. Just like these two men who are railing against Christ in Matthew 27, verse 44.
So too do all men, if they not with their mouths, with their hearts, and with their actions rail against Christ. I know people who say I love Jesus, but they live like the devil. They have no concern for Christ.
They have no love for him in their hearts. And thus these two men represent the whole world. And how we all begin. But then, at some point, a miracle happens. A miracle happened on the cross. Now many miracles happen.
If you want to go down the list, we can talk about propitiation. And we can talk about all the things that Jesus did. And the miracle that happened on the cross. But there was another miracle that happened on the cross next to Jesus.
See, a miracle happened on Jesus' cross. But also a miracle happened on the cross next to Jesus. Because these men who started the day in the same condition. Became separated by an internal conviction.
We go back to Luke chapter 23. And we read again in verse 39. It says, then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed him. Saying, if you are the Christ, save us and yourself. Actually he says, save yourself and us.
Well that man stayed in the natural state. He stayed in the lost condition. And he says to Jesus a derisive comment. He says, if you really are the savior. Why don't you just come on down off this cross.
And hey, take us with you. I think about the fact that really he's mocking Jesus' character. He was saying, if you're the king, get down off the cross. And take us with you. We're worthy enough. Get us down with you.
We don't need forgiveness. We don't need salvation. We just need to be vindicated. Take us down with you. And his own impending death and spirit of rebellion. Blinded his eyes towards the Jesus who he was speaking to.
He didn't care. He didn't care what he was saying. I think about men today. I've heard people say, demanding a miracle of God. They'll say, if God wanted me to believe in him, he would appear to me. If God wanted me to believe in him, he would come down from his throne on heaven.
He would talk to me. I don't understand why I can't see God. And as long as I can't see God, I won't believe in him. And until I can see him, I won't believe in him. And until God proves himself to me, I will not believe.
Come down off the cross. And take us too. But the other man. The other man was moved in a different way. The other man was moved by Christ's countenance. It says that the other man rebuked him. That is, rebuked his former cohort.
Rebuked the man with whom he had probably spent time doing crimes with. One man who he may have at some point called his partner in crime. And the text says he rebuked him. He called him out from the cross.
He took what little energy he had to push himself up. And breathe out and rebuke him. And say, do you not even fear God? Seeing that you are under the same condemnation. Notice what he's saying there.
You see, you're dying. How could you blaspheme God with the air that's literally leaving your body? How could you use your final breaths of air to blaspheme God? It tells you something about the nature of man.
I've heard of men who were so committed to their hatred of God. That in their final breaths they were just crying out their hatred to God. How does a man spend his final breaths crying out his hatred to God?
Here is one here. And his partner is saying, how can you do this? We're condemned. We're dying. Just like him. But the difference between him and us is that we deserve it. Read it again. He says, 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. But this man has done nothing wrong. He's crying out to his partner. He's saying, how can you say this to this man?
You know you deserve this. You know that we're criminals. You know that we're partners in crime. You know that together we deserve this. He doesn't deserve anything. How dare you spend your last breaths blaspheming God?
I don't know how God changed this man's heart in regard to the sense of I don't know all that this man understood. I will say this. He's a saved man. Because the text says in a minute that Jesus is going to look at him and say, today you'll be with me in paradise.
So if there's anybody in the Bible that we have confidence in their salvation, it can be this man. And Jesus told him that. Wouldn't that be a blessing to have the Lord just look at you in the face and say today thou shalt be with me in paradise?
And that's what the man received. But before that, whatever happened in his mind, whatever happened in his heart, we know it was regeneration. We know he was changed by God. He was given a gift of faith at that moment.
We know he was changed. We don't know though exactly what he understood. He didn't have time to take systematic theology. In fact, he didn't have time to do nothing. He didn't have time to do any good work.
He didn't have time to pay a tithe. He didn't have time to get baptized. He didn't have time to do nothing. And if you've ever questioned in your heart whether or not God can save a dying man, here it is.
There's a story of a pastor who died on the Titanic. I don't remember his name. Maybe one of you will and you can tell me after service. But it's a pretty famous story of one of the men on the Titanic who died.
And it is said that he went about as the ship was sinking into the frozen abyss that he would go to men and he would proclaim the gospel to them because he knew they were dying men. And he knew that that was all the time in the world that they had was to cry out to Jesus.
And he knew that Jesus could still save them even if they'd spent a life of debauchery, even if they'd spent a life in sin, even if they'd spent a life of doing nothing but hating God, Jesus could still save them in the moment of their death.
And so he went about proclaiming. And this is why I don't remember the pastor who popularized this, but a lot of pastors have used this phrase. They say we should preach as a dying man to dying people.
We should imagine when we're preaching, this is the last time I get to preach and this is the last time you get to hear. Because it may be. We may leave this place tonight. You know there's an 18 inch gap between you and eternity every time you drive down the road.
That's the distance between you and the car going the other way and you're both doing 60 miles an hour. Together you hit 120 miles an hour. You probably won't survive. 18 inch gap between you and eternity every time you drive down the road.
We don't know what tomorrow will bring. And I don't tell you that to scare you. I don't tell you that to get you ruffled in your feathers. I tell you that to remind you of the truth. Christ can save a dying man.
And He did. He saved a dying man. Here, this man is dying. He knows he has nothing else in his heart. He knows he has nothing else in his life. But something changed him. Now I've thought about this many times.
I've kind of tried to, in my mind, picture what the scene looked like. And of course, we've all been influenced by paintings and drawings and even film now of trying to describe what Golgotha looked like and what the cross looked like.
I think the passion came in and sort of drove in a lot of things that maybe weren't accurate. And there's a lot of other places, things that have driven in a lot of things that aren't entirely accurate.
We don't know what Jesus looked like. We don't know much about His appearance at all. We know He had a beard because they pulled hair out of His beard, things like that. But we don't know much about what He looked like.
But I'll say this. The Bible says in Isaiah 53 that He had no form of comeliness that we should desire Him, meaning, I believe, that He didn't necessarily have a regal appearance. I don't think that means He was ugly.
Some people have said Jesus was an ugly man. I don't think that we could go that far as to say that's what no form of comeliness means. But I think it does mean that He didn't necessarily have an appearance that drew people to Him in the sense of being handsome like King Saul or someone who was heads above all the people and the people came to Him because He was regal in appearance.
But I want to say this because I don't know what this man saw that day but I think that he looked at Jesus and I think he saw His eyes. Now you say you can't read this from the text and I'm going to say it's not in the text.
I'm telling you an opinion and if you want to get on to me later, please do. But I think that he saw in Jesus forgiveness. He looked over at the Savior who's dying and Jesus looks at Him. And He knows He deserves what He's going to get.
He knows He deserves what's happening. He tells us that. He says, how can you blaspheme God when we deserve this and He has done nothing wrong? And He looks to Christ and what does He see? He sees the Savior.
And God gave Him the faith to believe in that Savior. And what does He say? Does He say, save me Jesus, take me down off this cross, give me air in my lungs, fix my broken body, give me health and wealth.
No. What does He say? He says, Jesus, remember me. Remember me. And what happens next? Jesus looks at Him and says, today you will be with me in paradise. His body is torn in anguish. But at that moment His soul is at peace.
He who once feared death's sting can now look forward to death as a reprieve. Because He had assurance of His place in paradise by the mouth of Jesus Himself. They both started in the same condition. A miracle happened.
They become separated by their convictions. And the third thing we see is they proclaim their destiny by their confessions. Because the one on the left continued to deride Jesus. I say on the left and right, I don't know which side they're on.
But the one on one side continues to deride Jesus. And the other, because of the change of heart, begins to delight in Jesus. One hates Him and one honors Him. And so what do we know of these men? We know that the one who looked at Christ and derision died.
And his life was not over. I don't know how many of you saw this week. Apparently, and there's some debate about it. But apparently there's an argument going on as to whether or not the Pope has declared that there is no hell.
There's some debate as to whether or not he really said that. But I want to tell you, I don't care what the Pope says. The Bible declares there is a hell. The Bible declares it's a real place. And that the man who died on the cross next to Jesus, continuing to deride Jesus, did not go into oblivion that day.
He did not die and simply vanish into the air, as it were. His spirit continues to live on until this day. And he continues to this day to suffer, awaiting the final punishment. Where death and hell will be poured into the lake of fire.
He's there now. Right now. No reprieve. No forgiveness. Those eyes of forgiveness will never look upon him. And the other man, who was given the grace of God and repentance at the moment of death, is alive today as well.
And he, I say, is truly alive. He doesn't just exist in torment, but he is alive with Christ. Jesus said, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. And I believe it was that day. And I believe it's been every day since.
And I believe that man is one of the saints. Even that rotten, scoundrel, worthy of the punishment of the Roman cross. Even that rotten, sinful man is a saint of God by the grace of God. Given to us by Jesus Christ.
And he is there today. And he will come with Christ when Christ comes for his saints. And he opens up that final door to the kingdom. And we all enjoy that bliss forever. He will be there. And he will proclaim the testimony of grace forever.
As a man who was dying and yet was made alive. Beloved, these two men represent the world. The world, everyone, begins in the same condition. We all begin dead in trespasses and sins. But when God does a miracle in our heart.
When God does a miracle of regeneration. Our lives change. We go from derision to delight. We go from hatred to honor. We go from being on one side of the cross to the other. So tonight the question is which side of the cross are you on?
Are you on the side that looks to Christ with doubt? With hatred? With disgust? With pride? Or do you look at Christ and know that he is the only one that can forgive our sins. And he has on that cross.
Let's pray. Father I thank you for this opportunity to preach your word. I pray oh God that we who are under the sound of my voice. We in this room. Lord that we would know which side of the cross that we are on.
And Father if we are on the side of derision. If we are on the side that chides Christ. If we are on the side that doubts him. I pray tonight you would do a miracle. I pray if there is one here who does not believe in you that you would do a miracle.
That you would change their heart. For Lord we know not many days that we have left. We know not even if there are days or hours. But we know that you can save anyone. You have the ability to save anyone.
We are great sinners but you are an even greater savior. So God save those whom you will. And for those who know you oh Lord. May tonight be an opportunity to recommit and reaffirm themselves. In the faith that they know which side of the cross that they are on.
I pray this Lord in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen.