Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical, faith-filled vision for your life. I bless your eyes to see as Jesus sees. Though most people focus on doing, it's seeing that matters. Seeing shapes it all, how we think, how we feel. how he behaved.
This blessing for your spiritual eyes stands on strong promises. Whoever follows me, Jesus says, will never walk in darkness, John 8:12.
So may the darkness flee, Under the warm light of Christ, and your eyes be opened to a grand new perspective as you see as Jesus sees. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. If you want the starkest but truest picture of what life is with no grace, If there were no grace, all a man would be capable of doing would be suffering and dying ultimately. Every good gift. comes from God.
The whole world is held together by the grace of God. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Happy Easter and welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt. Excited for you to hear the teaching today in our Easter series as presented at Renolda Church in North Carolina.
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More on all of this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's Easter teaching. Here is Alan Wright. In Luke chapter 22, after Judas betrays Jesus, Jesus said to these soldiers who came armed, He said, am I leading a rebellion? that you have come with swords and clubs.
The question Jesus literally was asking was, Have you come out against a robber? The word robber Is the Greek word lestan which can also refer to a revolutionary A leader of political insurgents, a Rebel against Rome. Ironically, this Greek word lesten is the word that Mark and Matthew use in their accounts to describe the two criminals that are flanking Jesus. The first irony is in Luke 22, Jesus says, am I a robber that you come like this? and he will be numbered amongst the robbers, the revolutionaries.
You can only imagine what those two crooks, those two criminals, had experienced that day. It was ironic that on the day of their execution, there was very little attention that was being given to them. Even in the day of their death, There was no notoriety that were given to these heinous criminals. Though the form of execution, the cross, was the worst known to all of Roman civilization. And though their lives had obviously been notoriously evil, on this day, ironically, no one's even paying attention to them in their death.
Because this Nazarene named Jesus had been the centerpiece of the Fuhrer. and all of the controversy. And Jesus was beaten and scourged, flogged worse than they. And they, while they were While they were making their way with their crosses to Calvary. They they would have had all of this the stirring through their minds.
How the crowds had chanted, Give us Barabbas. Instead of Jesus. Give us Barabbas instead of these two other Criminals that would be executed that day. They had seen Jesus, how he was like a lamb that was led to the slaughter. They had heard the mocking, they saw that the centerpiece of history at that moment was this man Jesus.
What was all of the controversy about? What was all the fury about? These these two men like Jesus who are strapped To this Cross And they're Nailed there. And lift it up. They have seen Jesus all day.
In many ways, You could say On Good Friday, There was no one closer to Jesus. than these two men. In so many ways, they're the same. These two men. The first, he's guilty.
The second, he's guilty. Both guilty. An ugly life, a squandered life, an ugly life, a squandered life. If you try to make the penitent thief somehow more noble, Or less ugly? You missed the point of the story.
The point of the story is that they are equally vile. They have equally wasted their lives. They are guilty. And though it is not a popular posture to take. It is The absolute truth of the biblical position of the nature of life for anyone who is apart from the grace of God.
Yeah. To understand the majesty and power of grace. It must begin with understanding the poverty of human life without such grace. The Bible says we were born in sin. and all have fallen short of the glory of God.
In comparison to God's holiness, our best righteousness is like filthy rags. It is the position. of every human being. Spiritually. in a condition of guilt like these two men.
And these two crooks are the same in that they are helpless. The cross is a picture of abject helplessness. It is It is the starkest, most most cruel and and gruesome picture. of the helplessness of a man. Suffering and literally nailed to that which will cause his death.
Immobilized and unable to do anything for himself. The one on the left is helpless, the one on the right is helpless. The one on the left is guilty, the one on the right is guilty. And they are the same in this, they cannot escape their punishment and they are approaching the final hours of their lives. Elise Fitzpatrick, whose meditation On these three crosses, spurred so many of the thoughts I've had for today.
Said it this way: there are two men here who are criminals. Neither of these criminals can save himself. They are both utterly helpless. Their hands and feet nailed to a cross. They can't make amends or restitution, and no one is interested in their story.
They can't even breathe without great pain. And with every breath, the desire for oblivion grows. All they are capable of doing is suffering and dying. If you want the starkest but truest picture of what life is with no grace. If there were no grace, all a man would be capable of doing would be suffering and dying ultimately.
Every good gift. comes from God. The whole world is held together by the grace of God. These two men are the same, they are guilty. They are suffering.
They are immobilized. They are nearing their death. And their imminent death does the same to each man. It does the same to every man or woman. It distills their character and ideology.
Into a pure essence that is reflected in their closing words of their life. Out of the heart, the mouth speaks, and you see it in all. of its essence. I've had the privilege of being at many bedsides. of those that are nearing the end of their days on this earth.
It is When you are with a Christian man or woman, who has assurance of heaven. It is a beautiful thing. And it is holy. I'll never forget. An elder of this church, a man of God, a sweet man, everyone would say, how sweet a man.
But when he came to the last days of his life, utterly lucid, and so near to heaven, He called in first his sons and then his friends. and allowed his pastor to be one of those. to just speak blessing and wisdom. and convey honor.
So beautiful to see you. A man who has only Hours or days. How everything that matters has been distilled into one pure essence. and to watch it come forth like a nectar from heaven. It is holy.
And these two Convicted criminals. likewise coming near the end of their lives. You see in their words What has been boiled down. to the very heart The essence of all that they believe at that moment. Because life Is it is it?
is like this great watershed. It flows towards ungrace or it flows towards grace. It flows towards shame, manipulation, mockery, and the law, or it flows towards love and mercy and grace and unmerited favor. And everybody is somewhere growing in one direction or the other. And this crook on the left had been growing and growing in his attitude of shame and mockery.
So they both speak to Jesus. They are alike in this, they both speak to Jesus. And I wonder. Perhaps the cliché is true. There are no atheists in foxholes.
Very few atheists on deathbeds, not many. The question is usually not: does someone believe in God, but do they know who God really is? Like, no. what God has done in Jesus for them. They are alike.
when they speak. Yeah. This one on the left and this one on the right. They speak to Jesus and they ask ironically The same thing. They want to be saved.
And this is where the difference begins. They are all so alike. And they are oh so different. These two crooks. The first He speaks with No admission of guilt or acknowledgement.
of his need. Instead, do you notice how he speaks when he turns? the attention away from his own self-absorbed heart. And he actually rails. The word in Greek here is blasphemes.
He blasphemes Christ by saying, Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. Do you see, ironically, what he is doing? He is actually in the moments nearing his death blaming Jesus. You're not doing a good enough job.
People who seek to live With one upmanship through the law, will shame others. Because they want to displace the attention from the poverty and the need of their own heart. And it is a painful thing to ever admit that you need healing. It is a painful thing. But to not admit it, to not come into touch with your great need for Jesus, is to choose to not have the grace of God.
And this man who who is dying dying On a cross next to Jesus, he has no acknowledgement that he even needs Jesus except to mock him. And the man who is on Jesus' other side, a man who is likewise dying, a man who is likewise guilty, instead he confesses his guilt. Not in a morbid sense, not in a sense of therefore I must not be saved, but in this sense, that I deserve what I'm receiving. And he confesses Jesus' innocence instead. They're so different.
The first. admits his guilt. Does it admit of guilt? The second does admit his guilt, but then this. The first crook, do you see what he's doing?
Here he is. On the cross. And he's still living a manipulative life. You'd think a man who's Maybe he's lived his whole life, and this is the way he gets by: he mocks, he manipulates, he gets one up on someone. And here he is.
Seeking to shame the Son of God. You Call yourself God. Save yourself. Save us. You cannot worship God.
While you're demanding God, on your own terms. Worship. is surrender. And God will do for you what is above and beyond what you'd ever ask or think. But such blessing of unmerited grace Flows only to the yielded heart.
Yeah. It goes far to explain what the scriptures mean. when we are taught that God opposes the proud. He is so drawn. To those that are broken and contrite.
and spirit. It is to say those that know. that they need amazing grace. To these there is grace without measure. This is a picture of one man who is Hanging next to the giver of grace and does not recognize it, and another who somehow sees Jesus, even through his own suffocating last moments, he sees him.
The first man is a picture of how shame works. Mockery is a form of manipulation that essentially says, let's make a deal. This is the way all people of the law always operate. Let's make a deal. I will no longer mock you if you will do what I want you to do.
It may be pictured in such a dramatic way in this thief on a cross, but wherever there is shame, this is the way that it operates. It is a voice that says, I will no longer withhold my love and acceptance of you if you will do what I want you to do. It is a voice that says, If you're a good little boy, then I will accept you. If you're a good wife, then I won't intimidate you. If you're a good husband, then I won't belittle you.
This man And this man hanging on a cross, he doesn't get grace. He doesn't understand. You can't make a deal with Jesus. You can't make a deal with Jesus by your righteousness, and you certainly can't make a deal with Jesus by your mockery. There is no amount of shaking your fist at the heavens over the sufferings that you've experienced that will ever make a deal with God.
And there is no amount of your personal self-righteousness that could ever make a deal with God. There is only one of two choices: receive His grace or not. And Jesus, there hanging between these two men, picturing for us that there are only two ways of living: there is living without grace, or there's living with grace. And so Jesus is as he is being stretched and pulled between the two. And the man who speaks first He speaks as one as though he is going to somehow still manipulate the outcome in his final moments.
But does he not picture this is the cross. You cannot do anything to save yourself. And such is the awareness of a second man. He has come To the end. of his resources.
Your shame may work for a while. and it will run out. Mm. Master Alan Wright. Our good news message from this Easter series.
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Alan, for someone who's listening right now and they think of having faith, of having absolute freedom in Christ, of being satisfied. That Well, I've got this pain in my life. I've got this trial that I'm walking through. Where's the encouragement? Where's the good news of the gospel that says, even though there will be valleys, there still can be satisfaction?
Because you're going through something difficult in your life, there's a temptation to think I've done something wrong, Jesus is against me. There's a temptation to think that for some reason I'm abandoned by God. There's a temptation to think if I hadn't sinned so much, I wouldn't. And I think what the story of the three crosses tells me, Daniel, and what I want our listeners to know, is that. there is always a conflict between law and grace.
There's always a conflict between one approach that is I could never be qualified because I've been disqualified by my sin and I haven't done enough for God, and therefore I'll just remain in this pain. But the other option. Like the thief on the cross, turn to see Jesus, see him in his mercy, see him in his grace, and recognize that it is for sinners that he came to save. And I think, Daniel, in turning your heart, just Just even if you're in a great pain right now, and you turn it to Jesus and say, I just want to see you. I want to see you high and lifted up, and I want to know you.
And let that become the attention of your life. At least in these moments, turn your attention away from what do I need to do? Turn your attention away from how bad the pain is and just look to Jesus. And it's in that that our souls are satisfied. It's in that that we find real hope.
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