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That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. All right, all right. Mark's gospel tells us these two guys were robbers, thieves. Talk about the thief on the cross, that comes from the gospel of Mark.
Luke calls them simply criminals. John just says, two other guys, two others. John in chapter 18 calls Barabbas. Remember Barabbas?
Gives him the same title Mark gives these two guys. Barabbas was a robber. Mark says these two guys were robbers.
The word means insurrectionists, revolutionaries, freedom fighters. Probably these two criminals were in the same ring as Barabbas. Barabbas should have been on that cross. And the crowd said, release Barabbas, crucify Christ. So Jesus is literally dying in the place of Barabbas. And his two buddies are on either side. Now the fact that John says Jesus was placed in the center and one was on this side and one was on that side is very important. In those days, it was an act of disgrace to put the worst criminal in the middle. The ringleader, if you will. The place Barabbas is gonna take, but it was like saying you are disgraced, you are disgusting, you are in the middle of this pack of people we are executing.
That's from a human perspective. I believe John wants us to know that Jesus died in the center of these sinful men because that's how he lived his life. It was predicted by the prophet Isaiah, let me just read this to you real quick. And he was numbered with the transgressors and he bore the sin of many and he made intercession for the transgressors. You see, Jesus dying with sinners was a lot like Jesus living. He was called the friend of sinners. That was the nickname of Christ. He's the friend of sinners.
I love that name. He can be my friend because he's the friend of sinners. The scribes and the Pharisees said to the disciples, how come your master eats with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus died and the closest people that died to him were the riffraff because that's who Jesus hung out with because Jesus believed anybody can be saved. You know that nobody's ever too bad to be saved.
The problem is so many people think they're too good. I don't need that. Oh yeah, you really need that. I don't need to be forgiven.
Oh man, we know you so well. You need to be forgiven a lot. See, most of us think we're too good and that's what keeps us away from Christ is when people admit that they need him. Speaking of admitting that you need him, there was a promise that Jesus gave to one of those criminals who died with him. John doesn't cover it, but Luke does. So would you turn with me to Luke? Keep a finger in John. Keep a marker there and go to Luke chapter 23.
Same story, different details. The 32nd verse of Luke, I pick it up. There were also two other criminals led with him to be put to death and when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. Verse 39, then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed him saying, if you are the Christ, save yourself and us. I know we know the story, but some detail you may not know. If you put all the gospel accounts together, you know we discover not one of them was mocking Jesus, both of them were mocking Jesus at first.
In those early hours, both of them were. Can I just say you got to be a really a mean guy? If on your deathbed, your last breath is mocking another person dying. You got to be a lowlife.
You got to really be a mean person, mean spirited. Both of them were mocking Jesus, but evidently one of them had a change of heart, which we're about to read about. Something changed in those hours.
What changed? Well, right before this, Jesus called out and he said, Father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing. Criminals usually don't say that. I think those guys are saying forgive them?
My prayer would be Father, nuke them. This is a prayer of forgiveness. Maybe one of those thieves are thinking, this man can grant forgiveness?
Could he forgive me? Whatever it was, his heart changed. The other answering rebuked him saying, do you not even fear God, seeing that 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. And then he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said to him, assuredly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise. Did you hear that promise?
Did you notice how he starts it out? He didn't go, dude, I really hope this is going to work out for you. Assuredly, I say to you today, you're going to be with me in paradise. There has never been a more explicit assurance of forgiveness in all of the scripture than what Jesus said to that dying criminal. Which begs the question, you mean to tell me that that's all it took for that man to be guaranteed heaven? He went to heaven, that rotten, filthy, revolutionary insurrectionist murderer guy?
I have a question for you. Was that thief on the cross ever baptized? I don't think so. Did Jesus ever say, I'm sorry, you can't get to heaven until you first get down, get baptized and get back up there and die, then you'll be with me in paradise. Did that guy ever go to church? No. Did he ever do one redemptive deed after his moment of repentance? No, he died. Even his prayer wasn't all that great.
It's one sentence. Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. It's all it takes, Jesus said.
You can come in today. There's never been a more graphic illustration of being justified by faith rather than by works. You don't earn it.
It's a gift. Assuredly, I say to you, today will be with me in paradise. I'll tell you a quick story that happened. Years ago, I got a phone call from Mrs. Ruth Graham. That was Billy's wife. She's now in heaven.
It was an afternoon here in Albuquerque. I picked up the phone and she said, Skip, this is Ruth. There's somebody I want you to visit, pay a visit to, call on for me. She told me his name. She goes, now, I got to tell you a little bit about this man. I know his mother real well. His mother and father worked for Fidel Castro. He was the ministry finance minister for Castro in Cuba years ago, and I met them when Billy and I traveled. But their son lives in Albuquerque.
Now, she said their son, he's a rough character. He has tried a few times to assassinate Fidel Castro, and he still has an impact with a group of people to make that promise come true one day. He's an assassin.
He's also a pretty hefty drug dealer in the area. I'd like you to call on him. Would you do that for me? It's so hard to say no to a sweet southern voice on the other side.
I said, Mrs. Graham, I'd be happy to. I went out to dinner with this young man, with this man, and he was indeed very rough, very hard, very cold to the gospel. Didn't want to hear anything about Jesus.
Been there, done that, whatever, whatever. Tried to bring him here a couple times. He heard Franklin speak and didn't want to have anything to do with the gospel. Got a phone call sometime later that he was in the hospital dying of cancer. Went to go see him. He put up that hard, cold front. A few days later, I went to visit him again. He had maybe 24 hours to live.
Maybe he wouldn't live through the day or night. He just had a few short hours to live, and I knew it. The doctors knew it, and he knew it. I said, Tony, it's not too late.
He goes, Skip, you don't know what I've done. Well, I had a pretty good idea for Mrs. Graham what he had done. I said, I want to tell you a story about a man who was hanging next to Jesus when he died, and he was a freedom fighter. He was a revolutionary.
He was a murderer. And he said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. It was a simple act of faith, Tony, and Jesus said, I say to you, assuredly, today you'll be with me in paradise. Tony, who had been looking away from me, turned his eyes toward me, tears coming down his cheeks. He said, that is love.
I have never heard of anybody willing to love someone like that so deeply. Within the next few hours before he died, he made his peace with God. And Jesus was able to say to Tony, today you'll be with me in paradise. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, it's more important than ever for Christians to stand for truth in our broken culture. And in the God Speaks Biblical Answers for Today's Issues collection of booklets from Skip Heitzig, you'll get equipped to speak God's timeless truth into the big issues of our time. God Speaks Biblical Answers for Today's Issues is our thanks for your gift of at least $50 today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your resources when you give $50 or more today to help reach people around the world with the good news of Jesus through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip.
That's being justified by an act of faith by the grace of God. Tony didn't earn anything and he knew it. This man didn't deserve anything. And that's what I want you to see. There's more here than meets the eye. I want you to notice that this thief on the cross did three things really quickly.
Number one, he confessed his own guilt. He said to his buddy, don't you fear God? We deserve to be here. He's saying I don't deserve heaven. I don't deserve a kingdom. We deserve death.
We're getting what we deserve. He confessed his guilt. The second thing I want you to notice is he put his trust in Christ. What did he call Jesus? Lord.
He didn't say, hey, you, whoever you are. He recognized him somehow as being Lord. Second, he noticed him as being king. Remember me when you come into your kingdom. And also he believed that Jesus, once dead, would rise again to enjoy the kingdom. Remember me when you come into your kingdom. I know you're going to die like us, but afterwards somehow you're going to enjoy life after death in a kingdom. So he believed in hope after death.
Here's what I want you to see. This man dying didn't have a whole lot of information about Jesus. He knew his name was Jesus. He knew he was from Nazareth.
That's what the sign says. He claimed to forgive people. He heard the crowd say he has saved others. And this guy's thinking, I am going to right now put my faith in him.
He didn't know much, but he acted on what he knew. And here's what I want to say. I meet some people who go, you know, I haven't investigated enough.
I've heard this. It's a pretty good message, but I don't really know if it's for me or not because I need to know a few more things. No, you don't. I guarantee you, you have enough information today to make a decision for Christ. You can find out a lot of that stuff later. You have enough information. Act on what you know.
Something else. He confessed his guilt. He trusted Christ.
He made it personal. Remember me, me, when you come into your kingdom. Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. I hope you know this, but God doesn't have any two-for-one deals. If you say, well, I believe I'm going to go to heaven because my parents were strong Christians. You know what? They'll go to heaven.
You won't. Unless you become a believer the same way they did. Well, my grandparents, they took us to church all the time. I think they're okay. It's okay for them, but not you.
It has to be personalized. God has no grandchildren, only children. As many as received him, to them he gave the power to become children of God, as many as would believe in his name.
You have an opportunity. These two criminals, think of the opportunity they had. Both were equally close to Christ. One died and went to heaven.
One died and was lost forever. There's an old saying that says, you make your choices, and your choices will turn around and make you. God gives us an opportunity. It's called life.
And in that life we can make choices, right choices, wrong choices, the ultimate choice for or against God. That's the deal. In the Midwest, I hear there's a courthouse that is situated interestingly. It is said that when it rains on the courthouse, that raindrops falling on one side of the roof will fall off the roof, drain into the Great Lakes, and be taken eventually to the Atlantic Ocean. Whereas rain falling on the other side of that same roof will drip down on the ground, make its way into the Ohio River, then the Mississippi River, and eventually the Gulf of Mexico. Two totally different destinations, same roof. What makes the difference?
Well, a little wind could make all the difference. We are able in this life to let our drop fall on one side or the other, and God allows us lots of time, and even in this last moment, that man could say, I want what you can give, Lord. Now let's close up our text back in John chapter 19, and look at his coronation. We've seen his cross.
We've seen his company, his coronation. Verse 19, Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross, and the writing was, Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. Many of the Jews read the title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew. That's the language of religion. Greek, that's the language of culture, education.
And Latin, that's the language of law and order for the Romans. Therefore the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, Do not write the king of the Jews, but that he said, I am the king of the Jews. And Pilate answered, What I have written, I have written. Picture the scene. Jesus is placed in the middle of this quaternion, this squad of four soldiers, and the guy in front is the guy who carries the sign, the placard that reads the crimes of the criminal to be posted on the cross.
There's a problem. Jesus committed no crime. What is Pilate going to write? Pilate kept saying, This man's innocent.
This man's innocent. I find no fault in him, but he's got to write something. So I believe his final, his last parting shot of revenge at those Jewish leaders for the blackmail of him making him crucify Christ is, I know what I'm going to write.
This is Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews. They didn't like it. And so they come to him as we read. Now there's something that is in the Greek tenses that when you understand it, it helps you make sense of it. When the leaders come to him and they say, Don't write that, the verb is in the imperfect tense. They repeatedly, they kept saying to him over and over again, Don't say that, don't say that, don't write that.
Say, He said I'm that, but don't put that. But when Pilate said, What I have written, I have written, that's in the perfect tense, that means it's done and it will always be done. So if I were to put it together and read it to you in an expanded Greek version, it would sound like this. The Jewish leaders kept saying to him over and over again, repeating, Don't say He's the king of the Jews, just say He claimed that. And Pilate said, What I have written, I have written, and it will always be written. In effect, Pilate is coronating Christ, calling Him what He really is. He is the king of the Jews. Okay, you remember when Jesus was born, the Magi from the east? Remember the question they asked of Herod and the people in Jerusalem? They said, Where is he who is to be born the king of the Jews?
Herod didn't like that. He thought he was the king of the Jews. Then when Christ is riding on a donkey into Jerusalem and the crowd shouted out the word, Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel. Now Pilate says he's the king of the Jews.
One final thread to tie all together. When Jesus comes again the second time, Revelation 19, with all the hosts of heaven in His glory, it says He's going to wear a name, a sign, a placard across His robe that says, King of kings and Lord of lords. So here you have John the Baptist saying, Behold the Lamb of God. Later you have Pilate saying, Behold the man. Now you have Pilate saying, This is the king of the Jews. The Lamb is the king.
If you receive Christ, you have to take both. You go, I like the whole thing of Jesus being the king and ruling and reigning. I like that part. That's a cool part. I don't want that part. If you take Christ, He's also the one who came first as the Lamb to bear your sin away.
You've got to take both. He has to be your Savior before you can rule and reign with Him. Okay, you remember in Revelation, just real quick, Revelation 5, don't have to turn there. John's in heaven and he sees his vision and people cry out because everybody says, Who's worthy to take that scroll and unloose the seals? And somebody says, The Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed. Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah. So John turns around to look at the Lion of the tribe of Judah. What does he see? A Lamb as though it had been slain.
He's looking for the Messianic Lion, the King, and he sees a Lamb because the Lamb is the King and the King is the Lamb. There was an officer in northern England patrolling his beat one night and he hears a whimpering and he finds a boy crying on the steps of a building and he goes up to the boy. He says, Little boy, why are you crying? Because after all, it's England. And the little boy said, Take me home.
The officer said, Well, I jolly well like to. Where's home? Well, the boy couldn't remember where home was.
He just kept crying, Take me home, take me home. So the officer started naming streets in town, street after street. The boy had no recollection of what street he lived on. The officer started naming shops and businesses and hotels and anything he could think of.
The boy had no recollection. Finally, the officer recalled that there was a large cathedral in the middle of that town. He took the boy out in the street so he could see in the distance and he pointed up to the steeple on the cross and he said, Do you live anywhere near that?
And the little boy smiled big and he said, Yes, yes. Take me to the cross. I can find my way home from there.
That's true of all of us. When you come to the cross of Christ, you're home. You've come to the Savior. He's the one who can wash away your sin. He's the one who can say to you, Today you'll be with me in paradise. And he'll also be the one who will take you into eternal habitation, eternal home, eternal glory, and you'll rule and reign with him.
Until he comes to rule and reign, we are indeed a cross culture. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resources that will help you confidently speak God's timeless truth into our culture.
Pastor Skip's God Speaks biblical answers for today's issues collection of booklets is our thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your copy when you give $50 or more. Call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. And did you know that you can get a weekly devotional and other resources from Pastor Skip sent right to your email inbox? Simply visit connectwithskip.com and sign up for emails from Skip. We'll see you next time. For more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word, hear on Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition. Make a connection Make a connection At the foot of the crossing Cast your burdens on His Word Make a connection Connection Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
