Highlands Fellowship The Cross: Today you will be with me in Paradise Transcript
Well, hey everybody and welcome to Highlands Fellowship. Whether you're joining us in Bristol, Marian, one of our venues, cafe venues, country chapel, online or on TV, I want to say a big welcome to each and every one of you. And I want you to know that I love you. I care about you. We pray for you regularly here at our church. And we're excited that we get to spend this time together today.
Today is Palm Sunday, which is when Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey with the crowd shouting, "Hosana! Hosana in the highest," which is a cry for help, but it's also a shout of praise. They gave him a king's welcome, which is what he deserved, of course. But things didn't stay that way for long. Later that same week, Jesus was being crucified on a cross. And today we're finishing up our series called the cross that we've been in the last three weeks as we've been leading up to Easter, which is next week.
And what a wonderful time Easter is as we celebrate our risen savior Jesus Christ. And I would encourage each and every one of you to invite someone to come and to be part of our Easter services because studies show that around 80% of the people who do not attend church would come if they had an invitation from you. And so be bold about inviting people to come and be part of our Easter services because we are able to share the greatest news that has ever been given. And we will do that again next week.
But today we're going to be uh looking at another phrase or some of the last words that Jesus said while he was hanging on the cross. And so in this series, we've already talked about Jesus asking his father, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And we learn that throughout Jesus's entire life, the only thing the only thing that Jesus relied on, even when he was despised and rejected, even when he was falsely accused, even when he was beaten for our sins, all Jesus needed was the presence of God the Father. And that's why it hurt him so bad when God had to turn away from his son when he became sin for us. But God the father, he had to forsake his son Jesus so that he would never ever ever have to forsake us.
And then we talked about Jesus saying to his father, "Father, forgive them because they don't even know what they're doing." For us, we were able to to see that we don't even recognize that we are in need of forgiveness. But thankfully, Jesus is willing to forgive us in spite of our own ignorance. And then last week, we talked about the words of Jesus when he said, "It is finished. It's complete." Jesus made the decision to commit to the will of his father and to follow through with the action by taking the next step that God had laid out for him, which was going to the cross to die for each and every one of us.
And this week, my prayer is that the words of Jesus on the cross would minister to you in a life-changing way. On this Palm Sunday, we look at the words of Jesus on the cross when he looked at a guy who was guilty, a guilty man, and he said this. He said, "Today, you will be with me in paradise." So, what I want to do is I want to show you an image. And and you've probably seen an image like this before. maybe on the side of the road, maybe it was a sign at a church or some famous painting or or perhaps a movie, maybe even something that was on an Easter card.
But you've seen three crosses, one symbolizing our dying savior, Jesus Christ. And on either side of him, on his right and on his left, there were two criminals. And the Bible doesn't tell us much about the two criminals. We don't know where they're from. We don't know how old they are. We don't know what they did to deserve death. But we do know that both of them interacted with Jesus.
One of the criminals, he looked at Jesus and he hurled insults at him. He said, "Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us." The other one, though, had a very short, very simple conversation that changed his eternity, and it might change yours as well. When the repentant criminal looked at Jesus and said this, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus looked at this criminal who only deserve death. And then Jesus said the most remarkable gracefilled words when he said, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise."
If you have your Bible or a Bible app, go ahead and open those up to Luke chapter 23. And if I could get all of you to participate for just a moment, I want to I want to ask you a question. And and really I do want all of you to think about this. I want you to participate. But I want you to think about this, okay? On a scale of one to 100, how good of a person are you? One being the lowest, the worst of the worst, the the creepy weirdo loser sinner. Okay? And 100 is perfect.
We're talking about Jesus. He never ever sinned. So, in case of in case some of you are wondering, let me just go ahead and make it really clear for you. You are not a 100. All right? You're not a 100. You may think you are, but you are not. Uh, so to give you a little bit of a perspective, uh, let's say the the lower digits uh, would be like the axe murderers like Hitler, the ones, twos, threes, and fours, you know, and then the higher end, let's say like Mother Teresa and Billy Graham, they would be in the 90s. Okay.
So, where would you rank yourself? Where would you rank yourself? One is the lowest, 100 is the highest. How do you think you would do? How'd you do? And some of you, you're probably there trying to defend your number right now, and you're going, you know what? I really am that good. I'm that good. So, so let's just do this. Let's go ahead and get it out in the open.
And if I get all of you to participate, all right, so let's go ahead. If you fell in between the ranges that I'm going to say, I want you to raise your hand. Okay. And be honest. Just tell us tell us where you are. All right. So, those of you that are in the the range from 1 to 50, from 1 to 50, go ahead and raise your hands now. Raise them up high. All right. Raise your Okay. Um, ushers, if you could, if you could come remove these bad people from the church. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just I'm just messing with you. We're glad you're here.
The lowerend bad people. We're so thankful that you're here. Uh, you know, uh, I know that doesn't make you feel that good, but here's what I'll say. You're the ones who make the top half possible. So, be encouraged by that. All right? You make the top half possible. Um, and I know that has to feel good. All right? So, if you're a 50 to 80, if you're 50 to 80, go ahead and raise your hand. Raise them up high. Raise them up high.
And so, if you're sitting next to somebody who is a 50 to 80, just go ahead and tap them on the shoulder and say, "Hey, you are a good person. You're a good guy. You're a good lady. just you're just a good person. Go ahead and tell them. All right. Next, we have the cream of the crop. The cream of the crop. So, if you are an 80 to a 100, come on. You shouldn't be embarrassed. Go ahead and raise your hands. You've messed it up for the rest of us our whole lives because you're so great. Just go ahead and raise your hands. All right.
You know, we can have a little bit of fun with this, of course. But, you know, it it's interesting and it's kind of funny to ask yourselves, where do you rank compared to others? Isn't it? But let me give you two really simple and really obvious thoughts about comparing. When you compare yourselves to others, one of two things happens. The first thing is this. You feel better about yourself. Like if you're sitting by somebody that you think is not that good of a person and you compare yourselves to them, you feel better about yourself. If on the other hand you're sitting next to someone who seems to be a better person than you, you do what? You feel worse about yourself. Right?
So when you compare yourself to others, some make you feel better. You know, I don't cuss like they do. I'm not as bad a person as they are. I tend to try to help people when they're in need. I give a little money occasionally to help out. I go to church every now and then. I'm generally a good person. I try hard. I've never killed anybody. I don't cheat on my taxes as much as other people do, right? You know, I'm a pretty good person. When I compare myself to others, some of you, you make me feel good about myself.
But on the other hand, there are some people who just are so great. They're so great. When you compare yourselves to them, you don't feel quite as good about yourself. You might even feel worse. You feel a little bit inadequate. For example, um some of you might be a mom and you've got a friend who is like this super mom, right? She's annoyingly perfect and you know her hair is perfect, her house is perfect, her kids are perfect and you're like, "How does she do that?" And she makes me feel bad about myself, right? I I I know I'm supposed to love her and I do, but sometimes I secretly I hate her guts because she just makes me feel inadequate.
It I it could be the guy financially that that everything just seems to work out for him. You know, you try so hard to get ahead, but whatever you do, it doesn't seem to quite work out for you and he shows up and he's got a new boat and he's got a new house and he's got a new car and I don't feel as good about myself at that point. Or it could be that you are sincerely a follower of Jesus Christ and you want to please God by the way that you live your life and yet you just can't seem to get it right. You you got this other friend who's like this mega Christian. You know it's that annoying person that walks into the room and there's like this sound that comes with them. You know someone has a hard time and they're able to quote the Bible verses for everything. You know, the Bible says, and you're like, "How do they do that? How do they that that's annoying and I can't do that?"
But when they pray, their prayers are like so eloquent and so powerful and you're just thinking, "Well, if I were God, I'd be like, well, well, sure. What else do you want?" Because their prayers are just so great. But when you pray, we think, you know what? It just sounds like I'm just I'm just kind of mumbling. Can't really get my words out. Right. Right. So you compare yourself with some people and you feel better about yourself. But then you compare yourself with others and you feel much much much worse about yourself. The question is on a scale of 1 to 100, how good of a person are you? Where would you rank yourself?
Luke chapter 23. What we're going to do today is we're going to look at two people who were not so good, who were hanging next to Jesus Christ. And so as he was giving his life for us on the cross, these guys are hanging beside him. So let's look at what scripture says in Luke 232 and 33. It says this, "Two other men, both criminals, in other words, not good people, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the skull, they crucified him there along with the criminals, one on his right, the other on his left."
So, we're going to dig a little deeper here, okay? Who were next to him? Two criminals. These were not good people. And not only were they not good people, but chances are, chances are very, very good that they were considered to be the lowest of low in society. When Jesus lived, crucifixion was just one of many ways to execute people. In fact, it was the most expensive way to execute and therefore it was reserved to do to do one of two things. One was to publicly humiliate someone and the second was to bring excruciating pain.
In fact, the word excruciating, it literally means out of the cross. The word we use today for the worst type of pain, the word excruciating means out of the cross. comes from this this way of execution. It I it was a very expensive way to execute because it would take at least four Roman soldiers. It would take a take a centurion and it would often take several days for a person to die with the sun beating down on them. They would start to go crazy. Their bodies would eventually wear down. It was used to humiliate and to torture the worst of the worst.
Now, we don't know what they did, but we know it was probably really, really bad. Jesus was hanging by what we would call the worst of the worst. Scripture goes on to say in Luke 23:39-43. One of the criminals who hung there hold insults at Jesus. Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us. But the other criminal rebuked him. Don't you fear God? He said, "Since you are under the same sentence." He continued, "We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve, but this man has done nothing wrong."
Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And Jesus answered this guy who could who could do nothing right, who who who couldn't make up for his sins, who only deserve death. In verse 43, Jesus answered him, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise." This story illustrates one of the most important truths in life and corrects really one of the biggest misunderstandings in the world today.
One of the most common misunderstandings in the world today is that good people go to heaven. That good people go to heaven. And we aren't really sure how good, you know, it may be maybe if you're 50 and above. Maybe if your last 10 years have been better than your previous 10. We don't know for sure what the tipping point is. But most people today want to believe, you know what, I'm not as bad as those other people. I hope I'm good enough. If I try really, really hard, I'm a good person or at least sort of good. And that good people go to heaven.
But this story illustrates perfectly that good people do not go to heaven. Forgiven people go to heaven. And there is a huge difference. Good people do not go to heaven because in reality none of us none of us are good. Scripture says that God alone is good and that all of us fall short of the standard of God. And the good news is this. The good news is that good people don't go to heaven. But forgiven people do.
So let's look at the forgiven criminal and look at two things that would apply to our lives as well. The first is this. The forgiven one admits wrong. All right. The forgiven one admits wrong. He says, "Hey, I've sinned. I've done something wrong." And in Luke 23:41, he says this, "We are punished justly for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. In other words, we have sinned.
And what's interesting is that today, many people don't want to admit to doing anything wrong. We compare ourselves to others. We say, "Well, sure, I'm not perfect, but I'm better than most." And when we compare ourselves to other people, it's easy for us to to rank ourselves perhaps above average. But when we compare ourselves to Christ who scores a 100, none of us are 100. None of us are good people. And what I want to do today is I I want to just actually prove to you that you're really not a good person. Okay?
So I'm going to ask you a few questions and I really need all of you to participate and I mean this is important. This is important. So the first question is this. How many of you have ever told a lie? Go ahead and raise your hand. Could be a little white lie, could be when you're four years old, could be when you were a teenager, could be whenever. Okay, I think about all of us have have done that. And so, um, we raise our hands when we say we've lied. Okay, so obviously, and I want you to help me out. If you've ever told a lie, what are you? You are a liar.
Okay, this next one, this next question is kind of personal, but we're going to ask it anyway. All right, just just be honest with me. How many of you have ever stolen something? Just go ahead and raise your hand. Lift them up. Lift them up there. Okay. Uh so if you've ever stolen something, what does that make you? Makes you a thief. Right? And here's another personal one. And and I don't want you to raise your hands. I really don't want to see your hands. Okay? I think I already know the answer, but just don't raise your hands up.
Have you ever had a lustful thought? Because in the New Testament, Jesus said, "If you look lustfully at a woman," do you know what he said? He said, "You've committed adultery in your heart." So, according to Jesus in the New Testament, if you've ever looked or you've ever thought lustfully, you are an adulterer. Also, wonder how many of you have ever put something ahead of God. I mean, just be really honest. If you put something ahead of God in your life and you've made something else a priority, I want you to go ahead and raise your hand. If you put something ahead of God, okay, what do you think that would make you? That would make you an idoltor.
So, let's just go ahead and call it what it is. All right. So, if you've done all these things, which most people have, you are a lying, thieving, adulterous idoltor. Okay. Welcome to Highlands Fellowship, where we're all about making you feel good about yourselves. All right, but here's the deal. When we compare ourselves to the standard of God, we are not good people. We We are not very good at all.
In fact, the Bible is clear. so clear in James chapter 2 verse 10 where it says this for the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God's laws. If you've done one thing wrong in God's eyes, you are as guilty like your sin separates you from him as much as if you've broken all of them. So on the scale of 1 to 100, it doesn't matter if you're a 12, a 48, a 73, or a 99. It doesn't matter. We've all fallen short. And we are not good in and of our own behaviors and morals before God.
As for the forgiven criminal, he admits wrong. I've sinned. I've done something wrong. The second thing that he does is this. The forgiven one asks for eternal help. He asks for help. Now, don't miss this. Both criminals ask for help. And a lot of people today when it comes to when it comes to God, they may not even be be sure that there is a God. But if there is one, they certainly want God to help them out in this life, right?
And so, the first one does that. Jesus, if you are the Messiah, save yourself. And while you're at it, why don't you go ahead and save us, too? In other words, God, if you're there, if you're there, make my life better. Heal my family member of cancer. Uh, help me get the promotion. Help me get the date. Help me buy the house. Help me get the raise. God, if you're there, help me. And help me now.
But the forgiven one asks for help eternally. Here's what he said in Luke 23:es 42 and 43. Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise." Check this out. All right. Both criminals were guilty. Both both were were suffering severely. Both were dying. Both needed a savior. both heard the same things during those fateful six hours. One was forgiven and one wasn't.
The reality is that every single one of us, we are one of those two criminals. The amazing thing to me is that there will be those of you and you'll sit side by side, side by side, and one of you, your eyes are going to be open spiritually. Maybe they've already been open. You have or you are going to call on Christ and you are going to be forgiven of all the sins that you've ever committed. You You're going to be totally transformed. You're going to become brand new spiritually. And your life on earth and eternally will never ever ever be the same.
But sitting right beside you, in front of you, maybe behind you, will be someone else who will hear the exact same things, have the exact same need and go, you know what? Check. Went to church. Where are we going for lunch? And nothing is going to happen. Both with the same need and the same opportunity. And one is transformed and one leaves exactly the same. You are one of two criminals.
It doesn't matter what number you are in the scare scale because here's the deal. Because of what Jesus did, his death on the cross and his resurrection, no matter how good you think you are, he is the one who is good. He is the one who is righteous. And it's only in him that we could ever even be considered to be righteous. Because if we're going to get technical, technically we are all zeros. Okay? Technically, we are zeros. And Jesus is a 100. And and when you call on him, you become a 100. Not because of your goodness, but because of his goodness.
You become a 100. And for those of you who are in Christ, you are not a 79. You are not a three, but you are a 100 because you are declared righteous because of what Jesus did for you on the cross. The Bible couldn't say it any more clearly than this in Romans chapter 3 verses 20- 22. The Bible says, "Therefore, no one no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law." I mean you put out the ten commandments there's not a person who's going to go 1 2 3 4 5 10 you know check got them all right what's the purpose of the law then the Bible says rather through the law we become conscious of sin.
the law is not there for us to say something like oh yeah I I did it all I did it all the law says that you can never do it all but you need a savior and here's the good news in verses 21 and 22. But now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. This righteousness is from faith, not from works. It's not from religious acti activity. It's not from joining a church. It's not from from being good enough. It's not from not being bad enough. It's from faith in Christ Jesus.
And check this out. The forgiven criminal on the cross, look at this. He couldn't do any good works. His hands were bound. He couldn't turn over a new leaf because he was stuck on the cross. This guy, he couldn't give any money to some organization because he couldn't get down, right? He couldn't start over and say, "From now on, I'll always or I'll never." He couldn't do anything but put his faith and trust in the grace of Jesus Christ. Saved by faith in him, not by works.
Because the reality is this, good people don't go to heaven. It's because of what Jesus did on the cross when he gave his life and said, "Father, it is finished. Into your hands, I commit my spirit." And he died. And three days later, the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty. And he has risen. And we're going to celebrate that again next Sunday. But the bottom line is this. You are one of two criminals and you're one on one of two crosses.
Though the repentant criminal was hanging on a cross, though he was fighting for every breath, though his life was slipping away, he saw something that the other criminal missed. When he looked at Jesus, something in his heart changed. We don't know what it was or what caused it. Maybe it was the way that Jesus endured the senseless beating or the torture without without ever striking back. It could have been when Jesus hung on the cross and he looked toward heaven and he said, "Father, forgive them for they don't even know what they're doing."
It could have been when the sun and the sky went dark in the middle of the day. It could have been simply a look as Jesus glanced his way and he saw Jesus's unconditional love. Or it could have been that the criminal had heard the stories of Jesus and how he actually loved and befriended sinners. We don't know. Though we will never know what it was, we do know that he experienced the love of God through Jesus Christ. When he could do nothing, nothing at all to make things right with faith. He said to Jesus, he said, "Remember me when you come into your kingdom." And Jesus looked at the dying criminal and he said this. He said, "Today you will be with me in paradise."
Would you pray with me? God, we come before you today and we are asking you to do something in us that we know we cannot do in ourselves. We have committed sin after sin after sin, whether it be lying or stealing or committing adultery in our hearts. God, we know we've put stuff before you, all of which are are sinful things, and it's time for us to get real with ourselves and to recognize that we have done something wrong. And truthfully, we're really not that good. The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. That's what you teach us in your word.
So, we're not good people unless we've given our hearts and lives over to you. And then we are seen as righteous in your sight. Not because of what we've done, but because the blood of Jesus Christ covers our sins. And so, God, I pray that you would work in our hearts and in our lives. Help us to understand the goodness of your grace and that is not by works that we are saved but is only by faith in you and the grace that you give through your son Jesus.
And if we recognize that and believe in you and give our lives over to you and follow you, we can have eternal life and we also can be with you in paradise. So my prayer today is that we would recognize the good gift, the free gift that is given through your son Jesus today. Maybe there's people who have already given their heart and life to Jesus and you just need to recognize that today you've been saved by grace through faith. It's not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not by works so that you can't boast about it.
Maybe you've been a believer for a while and at first it was by faith. But then now you feel like it's by works, that you do things so well and you're so good that you're certainly better than other people. But scripture teaches us clearly that that's not the case. Yes, we are to become more Christlike. Yes, we are to look more like him as we spend time with him. But we are only righteous because of him, not because of what we do.
There may be those of you here today that you recognize you're one of these two criminals as well. And as you look at the story, you look at the one that was not forgiven and you look at the one that was. And today you want Jesus to remember you. And so you say to him, "God, I know I've done wrong. I know I've messed up so many times. And today, I believe in you. I believe that you sent your son to die for my sins so that I can be forgiven and I can be set free from the bondage of sin and shame in my life and I want to live for you today. I give my heart and life over to you and I want to follow you with everything in me because I want to be with you in paradise.
If you've made that decision, welcome to the family of God. Let's walk together. Let's go on this journey together and let's seek after what God has for us because his plans are good. He is a loving God and we are to become more like him and we are to share the love of Jesus Christ in the world that we live in. God, we thank you for the gift of grace that you've given through your son Jesus Christ. And we want to live out of a response from that. Not to gain salvation, but because you've given us grace, we live out of that into the world and share the love of Jesus with the people we come into contact with. God, we thank you for your love and for your grace. We recognize it today. We praise you for it. It's in the name of Jesus we pray. And everybody said "Amen.