Read Luke 23:33-43
Today is Christ The King Sunday. How many of you know what Christ The King Sunday means? It has different meanings for different denominations, including the Roman Catholic church, but for the Presbyterians it simply marks the end of a liturgical year. Next week will be the first Sunday of Advent, which is the beginning of a new liturgical year, starting with preparation for the coming of Christ, then Christmas, then Lent and Easter, and then Pentecost, and again by the end of November, we end the church year with this Christ the King Sunday.
The paradox of Christianity is that even though we know Christ is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, there is no physical proof that Jesus was enthroned into any kingdom. He has never worn a crown except the one made of thorns. In fact, he lived with the poor, befriended the outcasts, and ultimately crucified on the cross with the criminals. For some people outside of this faith, they just can't make sense of the two billion believers around the world that worship this God that is represented by a contemptible image of a cross and a crucified criminal. Everyone wants to have a god that represents beauty and perfection, but the cross and crucifixion is exactly the opposite of beauty and perfection.
Luke says in today’s passage that “When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.” He was not only crucified, but crucified between two criminals; being in the middle represents the worst of the worst, and the place was not called The Sacred, but The Skull. That is not a glamorous environment, but a place of death reinforced by its name, The Skull.
Maybe some of you are struggling with similar doubts. Can we just believe Jesus as a hero or someone who was wrongly killed for his strife for social political economic justice, rather than a King or a Messiah? Maybe denying his divinity would make our senses less stretched, and make us feel more comfortable. In fact, there are a bunch of people struggling with this issue right there on the hill of The Skull. They see very little sign of creditability there on a man who claimed to be the Messiah hanging on the cross at this gloomy and doomy place.
The religious leaders scoffed at him, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!” The solders mocked him, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” Some of his followers hid themselves in shock, others stood there under the cross speechless. One of the criminal in one side derided him saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”
In this incredibly bleak, sad, and gloomy moment of pain and bitterness, someone raised his voice that penetrated the entire negative scenery. “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Kingdom! Did you hear kingdom? Someone is seeing something different through this somber scenario.
He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Today, not tomorrow, not at the end time, not at the second coming, but today, you will be with me in Paradise. Someone at his last moment of life became a citizen of the Kingdom of heaven. He was admitted by the King that nobody else was able to recognize at that moment. All the crimes he had done is suddenly wiped out clean by the King of the universe just because his ability to see through the situation.
What makes someone able to see the sovereignty or divinity of Jesus? We can see from this man that there are two instant benefits of realizing Jesus sovereignty. He obviously believes that there is life on the other side of death. Otherwise he wouldn’t have asked Jesus to remember him after his death. His instant benefits are that his sins are forgiven and he is with Christ in paradise from that very day.
I don’t know what problems you are struggling with this morning, but what’s more important is what you are seeing in your heart right now. We all have pains and problems in our lives, but what’s important is whether our pains and problems are pushing us closer to God or pulling us away from God. Let us learn from this criminal’s last words, the actions we need to take to rise up above our problem.
1 – Fear God.
He said to the other criminal, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?” The word fear used here is often misunderstood in the English speaking world, as if we are to be afraid of God in a negative way. The original Greek word “phobeo” actually carries a strong sense of reverence. It is not the kind of fear that reacts to something negative, but something overly positive. It is the kind of fear towards a perfection that our imprecations feel unworthy of facing. It is a fear towards something absolutely awesome, beautiful, and honorable.
I don’t know how this criminal suddenly saw the glimpse of God in Christ. Maybe because he heard Jesus' prayer, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” Most others heard that prayer and saw it as a weakness, but this man heard it and saw it as a divine power—the power to forgive even the enemy at the most painful and deadly moment of life. He knew the person next to him had no sins and definitely didn’t deserve the kind of punishment he is receiving, but it was beyond human conception to see him forgiving those who crucified him unjustly. That must have generated in him the fear to witness this awesome beauty and perfection on this ugliest and hideous environment.
Three times in the Hebrew Scripture, it says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Ps 111:10, Pr 1:7, Pr 9:10) To see the sovereignty of Jesus Christ requires wisdom, and the wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord. So far I haven’t yet seen a great man of wisdom that doesn’t fear God. Bertrand Russell comes close intellectually, but still falls short when is comes to wisdom.
I don’t know what kind of crimes this criminal has committed, but at the last moment of his life he shows better than many others around him the fear of the Lord. He is saying to his fellow criminal, “Buddy, why don’t you come to senses? Even though we are dumb enough to commit crimes, we should not be too ignorant to not fearing God when we are on the verge of hell. If you have the fear of God, you should see what I see.”
The second action step is...
2 – Confess my sins
After declaring his fear of God, he continued with confession, “And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Unconfessed sins and guilt block our ability see the sovereignty of God. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Most people handle their guilt through denial. But the Bible teaches us to confess it. Look at this verse; the first phrase says, “If we confess our sins,” that means that we face our guilt by confessing it rather than denying it, the second phrase, “he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins” that is to say that we will receive the grace of God, and not only that He will forgive us by also “cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
When we are facing pain and guilt deep inside, we tend to use hurting words on others. All the scoffing and mocking shows that those people are feeling pain and guilt deep inside their heart that they refuse to admit—hurt people hurt people. Instead, they judged Jesus as if he was the worst of all, so that they felt comfortable about their supposedly lesser sins. They confess Jesus' sin rather than their own. That’s what we tend to do; we confess everybody else’s sin but our own. The worse sin we can point out on others, the happier we are. But, the truth is that unconfessed sins and guilt block our ability see the sovereignty of God.
What is sin by the way? Even though many people defined it in many ways, the easiest way to remember it is to look at the middle letter “i” when I put myself at the center of everything, it is called sin. Another word for “I” is “ego”. Someone told me that “EGO” means “Edging God Out.” That describes sin perfectly. The criminal next to Jesus on the cross is asking the other criminal on the other side, “Would you stop edging God out?”
How to confess your sins? The Bible teaches us to do two things in regard to confession. The first is to tell God about it. That means to include it in our prayers. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, he told them to include in the prayer a request to “forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” That’s confession. There is no reason to deny or hide our sins from God because God knows what we have done. King David pray in Psalm 69, “O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.” Since we cannot hide anything from him, why don’t we just confess it, and receive the forgiveness from God.
The other thing we need to do is to tell a trusted friend and ask him or her to pray for you. James 5:16 says, “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.” There is a healing power of God working in our confessing to one another and praying for one another. That is what the church is for. If you don’t have someone that you can confess your sins to and have him or her pray with you, that’s sad because God heals us through people. So find someone in the church that you can partner with for confession, payer, and healing.
The good news is, when we confess our sins and we are forgiven and cleansed, we see God more clearly. One of the Beatitudes says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Confession purifies our hearts.
3 – Ask God with Faith
This criminal then turned to Jesus and asked, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” You can sense the voice of awe, humility, and faith. He must be thinking, “I don’t know who this man is. I saw him being judged to be innocent, but people still wanted the Pilate to crucify him. Now he is being crucified unjustly. Yet, he is asking his Father to forgive them. He must really be the Son of God. He must be the real King, the Messiah. If he can forgive these murderers, maybe I still have hope. Maybe he will still save me from hell.” Then he turned around and prayed to Jesus, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
And his prayer was fulfilled instantly. Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Let us end this message by singing together hymn 599. There is only one line, so you don’t need the hymn book, “Jesus, remember me, when you come into the kingdom...”
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