March 26, 2017 PM Service - The Savior Who Stayed by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Luke 23:32-43 and the Crucifixion Narrative

From the cross as last week. This one also in Luke's account of the Lord's crucifixion. Luke 23 beginning at verse 32 we read this, 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 for they know not what they do.

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 is the Christ of God his 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 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 said to him truly I say to you today you will be with me in paradise.

The Savior Who Remained on the Cross

The name of the message this afternoon the title is The Savior Who Remained. The savior who was there the savior who stayed the shepherd the good shepherd the true shepherd who didn't like the false shepherds of John 10 run off when things got hard when danger presented itself.

David that great prototype of Jesus spoke of how he as a shepherd would fight off the lion or the bear whatever it took no danger too great for him to stand and face them in order to protect the flock of which he was given charge.

And here Jesus in an infinitely greater way did not abandon even this one sheep while on the cross paying the price for our sin our Lord heard this request. Now Jesus had been beaten he had been ridiculed scourged stripped naked forced to bear his own cross to his own shamefully unjust execution.

He's locked in place there are nails in his hands and feet escape is impossible. Each breath brings greater agony his lungs are filling with fluids his faltering heart can no longer pump them away. He knows that the sins of all humanity past present future are about to be set to his account as if he were sin as if he were the sinner who did them all and he's about to suffer in his own person the wrath of God against every one of those transgressions the full weight of God's fury for every light-hearted use of his name for every dishonoring of his holiness for every time any human ever carried out an action disharmonious with God's revealed will.

All this about to come upon him in the midst of this suffering knowing what is about to occur from the cross next to him we traditionally think of this one as the one who was crucified on his right hand.

There comes this request Lord Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom. Now how did he come to be there this this criminal crucified on Jesus right he he said himself when he rebuked his fellow criminal whose last breaths excuse me whose last breaths were wasted reviling Jesus.

He said to that one 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. He was there. Why he was there. Because he deserved to be there.

He was there because he broke the law of man and that in that place cruel as it was that was the punishment for breaking the law that that criminal and his fellow criminal on the other side of Jesus had also broken when we think about it his presence there is of course no accident.

There's no accident. Isaiah had prophesied some 700 years earlier that Jesus would be numbered with transgressors. And here he was. Jesus innocent of the laws of man innocent of the law of God innocent of every aspect of God's holiness and righteousness and justice everything about God.

Jesus never once failed to display. He's innocent before God innocent before man. And there he is with a thief on each side just as the prophet had said. You might ask was Isaiah's vision limited to just what was seen.

I mean could just the two men satisfy the prophecy. And we don't have to dig too deeply to see that what was meant could only be represented by the two individuals. Jesus was numbered with transgressors.

He was counted as one of them treated as criminal. But the work of the cross extends far beyond what was just then visible. I mean the two thieves one on the right one on the left. Who are they. We don't get to know their name.

But in a very real sense they represent all of humanity. I mean they both like all sinners deserve to die. They both like all sinners had to look to Jesus and Jesus alone for salvation. And between the two of them really were all there.

On one side is the church those who upon seeing Jesus repent of their sins and trust him for salvation. On the other side is the world the one to whom Jesus represented himself no less than to the other but who refused to see Jesus refused to open their eyes their hearts and see him and believe and repent of their sin.

Really the whole world is there with God in Christ and with the repentant criminal on his right asking to be remembered by the Lord. We could say in an allegorical sense the church. The other one still railing against Jesus railing against the one who's repenting the world enmity with God.

The Repentant Thief, the True Shepherd, and the Gift of Repentance

But what a time to make such a request. After what the Lord had been through much worse than those criminals. He was treated far worse in the scourging before and all the other things that the gospel say he went through.

The criminals knew what it was like because they were at that point experiencing this horror. And yet he makes this request of the Lord. And it'd be like being led to the death chamber a gas chamber or the electric chair or to the wall where you're going to face a firing squad.

And along the way a complete stranger asks you for something. Um hey bud can you stop for a second. Can you loan me a dime. Can you do me this favor. Can you. Whatever the case would be i don't even quite know how to picture it.

I mean we'd look at this man as if he were a fool. We'd say well look i'm a little busy here or something. If this criminal this one on Jesus right hand going through in the same way what Jesus is by being crucified says Lord Jesus.

Remember me when you come into your kingdom Jesus is not like us. We're in that situation. We might get a little impatient. I might say you know maybe another time. Well no other time. Not where i'm going.

Not Jesus not the good shepherd. I mean hearing the pleas and cries of a lost humanity is what he came for. And he carried out his purposes to the end. Even there on the cross this man had gone from reviling and denouncing him as we read in the other gospels they had reviled him the whole time he'd gone from there to calling him Lord.

He had heard the mocking challenges that people made to Jesus. If you're the son of God come down from the cross. He had earlier with his fellow thief joined that chorus. And how he must have hoped how Jesus would do just that.

How he would remove himself from the agony and come down off the cross. Somehow as it seems everyone agreed that the Christ the son of God would be able to do. If he really were the Christ the son of God.

How he must have hoped to see Jesus do that. And then from being on the ground again safe from the cross rescue him. But the Lord didn't accept the challenge. That way he stayed on the cross which he in eternal covenant with the Father and the Holy Spirit had decreed to be the place where sin would be atoned for where the works of the devil would meet final defeat where death would receive its death nail.

The Lord remained in place just as he told Peter. Do you not think if I could call upon my father now and he would send 12 legions of angels right now to rescue me even from the arrest. Much less everything that proceeded after the arrest.

No the Lord stayed there. A thief must have been bemoaning his miserable fortune. Why Barabbas. And not him. Of all the criminals involved in this it's the only one we have the name. We only have the name of this one the one who was chosen to be let loose from the fate that he deserved.

Why him and not me. I mean that's why I'd be wondering. And now more wonderment piles upon this man. If he is the son of God what is he doing here next to me. I think we should look in wonder at the fact that when this criminal said Jesus remember me when he looked to his left because he's on Jesus right.

So he looks to his own left and sees Jesus there and speaks to him. Jesus was there to be spoken to. I alluded to false shepherds again from John chapter 10. False shepherds run at the first sign of danger.

But the true shepherd what did Jesus say again in John 10. The true shepherd gives his life for the sheep here next to our Lord. On his right hand was a sheep who had wandered away and when he finally came to his senses and wanted to be rescued even that in that great extremity soon to die this awful long-lasting agonizing death soon to meet that fate.

When he speaks and calls Jesus Lord who does he see there the great and good shepherd ready to save him from his sins. Jesus was there. He hadn't left because Jesus remained and didn't run off. This wretched man was about was able to change from one who had reviled Jesus to one who calls him Lord.

The apostle tells us this is why it is written. I will never leave you or forsake you. If Jesus didn't run from the danger of the cross. What does that mean to us. It means that neither will he leave us on our on our own in any straight that we find ourselves in.

He turned and found his savior still there still pinned to the tree still hearing the cries of a repentant soul. And he asked for so little he asks only to be remembered. John and James had asked for preferential treatment in the kingdom just before all this occurred.

Jesus says to them I can hear you talking what do you want. What or what are you talking about. They said well we want to be able to sit on your right now we want to be able to sit on your left side in the kingdom.

And Christ of course says well that's not yours to have that's not mine to give. And besides you cannot bear that cross in any case it came time to be on Jesus right and left hand where they thought they should be and which entrance price they were sure they could endure.

Of course they ran off terrified with the rest of the disciples. Now these two thieves are there on either side of the Lord where James and John said they should be. It was condemned thieves not the disciples but thieves who joined in Jesus' baptism.

It was a thief and ask. He understands that he's next to the Christ the son of God. He calls him Lord and he only asks don't forget me don't forget me. How little he asks. Like King Joash. You remember that from second Kings when Elisha said here is the arrow the Lord strike it to the ground and he only struck it three times instead of sevens.

He asked for so little of the Lord like the thief Joash had before him the storehouse of God. Yet he faltered in his faith thinking small in his willingness to shower blessings upon his loyal children.

The thief of course in a different situation than King Joash was the thief has recognized the author of life and asks only that he that Jesus that the Lord has a good and a long memory of him in a helpless situation really ultimately no more helpless than ours.

Without Christ death for him was unavoidable. The Romans would not speed his end along until his lingering became a nuisance to them. And you recall how they broke the two thieves legs because it was becoming a nuisance.

It was time to come off shift so to speak. And yet Jesus at that point was already dead. Yet he faced his end with a great advantage in life. He confesses his guilt and he makes a plea for forgiveness to Jesus the source of life.

And Jesus suffered next to me. He heard the cry. The other thief remained hard hardened in his sin. But not this man. His physical heart was failing just like Christ's was. Yet our merciful God melted the stony heart and gave him repentance gave him faith to cry out in repentance with his last breath.

Lord remember me. When you come into your kingdom he only wants to know that the one he now is called lord would think kindly of him. I think of it a dying sinner next to a dying savior in destinies with this common ground there at Golgotha early he earlier he had insulted the lord and now he seeks his favor.

Who among us did not do the same before we came to Christ as we spoke this morning about being slave slaves to sin and all the things that that entails and all the disrespect that that shows to God. Earlier he was just that insulting and reviling.

Jesus now seeks his favor. When Jesus gives us grace to cry out to him there he is just like for the thief still there ready to forgive ready to accept. And Jesus did accept this thief the one who had earlier disavowed him.

And so we must understand that repentance no matter where or when we find a place for it no matter how far along in life we must we might be no matter our circumstance when we do find repentance which of course is a gift that God gives with faith.

Repentance is never a vain or useless thing. Why is that. That's because Jesus came to forgive sinners. He began his public ministry with the word repent. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand repent even on the cross.

When he cried father forgive them for they know not not what they do. He thought not of himself but of these men's need for forgiveness for repentance if only they had asked. Well not all will repent.

Of course Peter's great confession of faith you are the Christ the son of the living God was immediately met with this from the Lord Jesus Christ. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven.

And though Jesus didn't say so explicitly here in Luke we know from other scriptures that that's just what happened with thief. God by his spirit opened the eyes of his heart so he could see in Jesus more than an innocent dying man dying an undeserved death but a savior who to whom he could plead even then even at that moment in that final extremity for salvation.

The other thief as I said allegorically we could think of him as the world. He reminds me what we read in Revelation chapter 16 verses 10 and 11. I think this represents the world very well. The fifth angel poured out his bull on the throne of the beast and his kingdom was plunged into darkness.

People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pains and sores. They did not repent of their deeds in the face of suffering which they knew was from God which they knew was because of their sins.

They curse rather than repent. They curse the God who has sent them the suffering in order that they might repent and end their suffering. And so miserably prideful and sinful is man that rather than repent before the God who's bringing that suffering.

Rather than repent they blaspheme the name of God. It's an almost perfect picture of the world from which on these times we come together here as a body we take refuge from. Repentance is a gift. Is it not.

Repentance is a gift. It's rather important to think in the order of salvation that we don't don't repent. And by repentance God gives us faith. It's quite the other way around. God gives us faith in order that we might repent.

It's a gift. Human reasoning cannot. It never has been able to arrive at repentance. The world wonders how to be absolved for their faults. The conscience bears witness to their sin. Heaven and earth the creation itself bear testimony of the goodness the glory of God.

The world struggles with the idea of having wrong to holy God whether they'll admit it or not. The heavens declare his glory. The firmament shows forth his handiwork. Romans 1 says is enough to hold men guilty.

And the conscience God gives us makes us sensible to these things. But their reasoning stops short. They find justifications for sin. I was born this way. My parents example was no good. It wasn't a big deal.

It didn't hurt anyone. Or they just redefine sin. And redefine sin and redefine sin until it has no meaning whatsoever for God to have given us the gift of repentance is a grace that we can never think too much upon or be too grateful for except for his mercy and the new heart that he gives.

We would all gnaw our tongues off. Rather than repent we would join the thief the one who is traditionally thought of to be on Jesus left and revile him to the very end. Rather than join the other thief and confess him as Lord and plead with him.

Remember me. Let us never forget the wonder that God gives us to make a sinner like us. And there we are reviling Jesus able to stop and repent and ask for forgiveness. No we would all be with the thief on the left.

The worldlings in revelation 16 chewing our own tongues off rather than swallow our own pride. Well Jesus gives him an answer he give gives anyone who will but repent. He gave us here in this church. We who believe in Jesus Christ gave us the same answer.

Truly I say to you today you will be with me in paradise. Well of course. For the thief that became literally true that day because he died soon after all this for us we could just take out the word today.

Because when Jesus hears our repentance when our faith is placed squarely upon him and the hope that we have in the atonement he accomplished at the cross he says truly I say to you you will be with me in paradise.

When will that be. Well my friend Mike Phillips when his father John Phillips was dying at one point less than a week before he died he said something really interesting. He said my business is to worship God.

The day I die is really none of my business but only God's. But we do know if there is repentance faith in Christ. Truly I say to you you will be with me in paradise. No different answer for anyone where there is repentance there is salvation.

Jesus sets his word by it. When he says truly he's saying amen. He's swearing by himself because there's none greater to swear by. He doesn't swear by God or by the temple or by the earth or anything like that swears by himself.

Truly I say to you it's a solemn oath. No witness not even the father. With calm assurance with complete confidence he makes a pledge that this man's eternity would begin that very day. That thief I believe is in heaven even now the Lord promised it.

So it has to be. If he is not neither is Jesus. If the thief is not in heaven now nor will we ever be. But he is in heaven now. We know this because Jesus promised to him on an oath. His yes meant yes.

His nose meant no no less and no more. Today you will be with me. And in the same way if we've repented of our sins if we have sought his forgiveness we will one day be there as well. The same Jesus who promised the thief promises us.

The same Jesus who accepted the once rebellious thief accepts once rebellious us as well. The same Jesus has the same regard for our repentance as he did for that poor man's. I say you'll be with me in paradise.

Where is paradise. Connelly was talking about it a bit this morning in Sunday school. Where is paradise. Paradise is where Jesus is. And why is that paradise. Because Jesus is there. Jesus the son of God first pleaded for his executioners father forgive them for they know not what they do.

And now he doesn't plead. He grants on his own authority. He grants to the repentant thief the benefits of what was just then a few hours from completion. Who can forgive but God alone. None only God can forgive.

And from the cross to that one repentant thief God the son did just that. There's a harmony of purpose we see here between God the father. God the son in John 17 to Jesus says you meaning the father have given him meaning the son you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

There's no transition between father father forgive and truly I say to you God is not at cross purposes but acts in perfect solidarity with his own will. Whether revealed when the son addresses the father or speaks on his own authority as he did to this man say truly I say to you today you will be with me in paradise.

Worthily Coming to the Lord's Table in Light of the Crucifixion

Well all this is really preparatory for the table we're told to come worthily to the table. We come worthily here to this table to these elements that remember this crucifixion that is really the subject of this message.

If we come in proper consideration of the body and blood of our lord consider this today. The lord has never turned away from those who seek him. He hears our cries to know him. He hears our cries even now as we seek his aid as we repent of our sins.

He didn't remove himself from the cross. So when the thief at last came to his right mind there was Jesus ready to forgive. Nor will he ever remove himself from us. He promised to be with us always. He promised our place in his heavenly kingdom.

And he promised to be here with us as we remember him in these elements. Amen.