A Prayer and a Promise (Part 2 of 2)

Not all of us react the same way when someone offers us a gift, and that's particularly evident when it comes to God's gift of salvation. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg teaches us about two drastically different ways we can respond to God's grace. We're in Luke chapter 23. Our focus this morning is on the two words that Luke records for us here as spoken by Jesus from the cross. One is a prayer in verse 34, and the other is a promise, and that comes in verse 43. First of all, in verse 34, Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. Now presumably, that had dawned somehow or another on one of these two criminals. The one to whom, in verse 43, the promise is given. The promise is given in response to his request in verse 42.

We'll come to that. Well, let's just focus on this gentleman for a moment, if we may. What was it that induced this tenderness in the heart of somebody who was clearly a fairly hard-bitten criminal? Well, you say, it must have been hearing Jesus' prayer. Jesus had just prayed, Father, forgive them. It must have struck him.

Good, that's good. But is he the only one who heard the prayer? No, both of them heard the prayer. So they both hear the same words of Christ, and they respond differently. Husband and wife attending prayers at Parkside routinely, both hearing the same sermons, both hearing the same words. One walking out saying, I don't buy that at all.

The other walking out saying, I believe. I know not how the Spirit moves, convincing men and women of sin, and revealing Jesus through the Word and creating faith in him. I don't know how it happens. The wind blows where it wills. You can hear the sound of it. You can't tell where it's coming from.

You don't really know where it's going. So said Jesus is everyone who is born of the Spirit of God. There is a mystery in this. This is not a mechanism. This is not an evangelical process. This man doesn't fit.

This man's conversion doesn't fit the standard package, does it? The things you're told to do and the way you're supposed to get there and the things you're supposed to understand and all the mechanisms—this fellow does it all wrong. The first criminal regarded the cross as a contradiction.

He was with the crowd. If this Messiah was genuine, he wouldn't be on a cross. The second criminal saw the cross as a confirmation, because he's on the cross. He must be the Savior.

Remember we said last time that the attitude of the first fellow was essentially akin to many people's response today? If you get me out of my dilemma, I'll believe in you. If you get me off this cross, I'll become your follower. I have a problem, I have a dilemma, I have a felt need. Deal with my felt need, and I will follow you. Save yourself and save us. That's pretty routine.

That's normal. What's God ever done for me? He does something for me, I'll do something for him.

Why should I believe in him? After all, isn't today Pearl Harbor Day? Do you know that my great uncle died out there? Did you see the atrocity of that? How am I supposed to believe in a God that allows these kinds of things?

That's what we listen to all the time. It's a perfectly understandable question. It's a very sorry conclusion. The second man, you see, he now realizes that his predicament is different from what the two of them formerly thought it was.

The two of them are hanging on a cross. Now, you see, do you have a problem? Yeah, we do. But listen to this. We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve, he says to his friend, but this man has done nothing wrong. It's remarkable, isn't it, how somebody in the final stages of their life should be processing information so well? I wonder, did he mean by this? You know, this is what's supposed to happen to you if you're a revelant of the state. This is supposed to happen to you if you're a terrorist.

Is that what he's saying? You know, this man doesn't done anything. The charges against him were trumped up. The charges against us were legitimate. Therefore, it is legitimate that we die. It's illegitimate that he die.

I think it's probably deeper than that. I think if push came to shove, this individual who was an opponent of the state would still do it all over again. His sense of zealous rebellion against the Roman authorities was so strong, I think—and I can't verify this, but I'm going to find him and look for him finally one day in heaven—and I'm going to ask him, When you said to your friend on the cross, We are getting what we deserve, were you referring to the punishment of Rome, or were you referring to the punishment that your sins deserve? I think that's where he gets to.

This man has done nothing. And we deserve to die. Yeah, but, you see, that's where people get off the bus in the conversation. People say to me all the time, Well, do we have to go there, Alistair? I mean, that's what I dislike about religion, they tell me. I don't like that sort of religious idea of admitting your guilt and being deserving of a punishment.

I don't like that. I don't like to think of God like that. That's why I don't like religion. That's why I'm spiritual but not religious. But, my dear friends, that is actually not the response of religion. The response of religion is represented in a story that Jesus had told earlier, back in chapter 18.

Luke sets it up by saying, To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told them a story. You see, religion makes people confident in themselves. Religion makes people stand up on chairs and look down on everybody else. Religion is epitomized by the response of these religious Pharisees—a Pharisee who welcomes Jesus to his home and can't understand why Jesus would deal with a sinful woman.

Why? Because religion thinks that God responds positively to people when they do good stuff. And this lady had done a lot of bad stuff. And if this man was really a messiah on the side of organized religion, why would he give any time to this lady?

Shouldn't he know? Well, shouldn't the Pharisee understand? So the religious approach is essentially, I'd like to tell you today what I've done. I'm a member of the Rotary Club, and I have been giving quite consistently to the United Way over the years. I've given my children a very good education.

They none of them have any debt at all. And frankly, I've done a wonderful job. God is, I'm sure, very pleased with me.

I actually regard the things that I've done of sufficient import to feel that he owes me a few favors. That's religion. That's also epitomized in the other story Jesus told, remember, about the two brothers—one who went away into a far country and made a royal hash of things, came back up the road, a sorry mess, met by his father, whole new outfit, shower, party, fatted calf, fantastic, dancing, jumping around, great hilarity. Elder brother out, hearing the music, calls a servant, says, What's the hullabaloo?

Oh, says the servant, I'm glad to be the one to report it to you. Great news, your brother is back. He was lost, he's found, he's dead, he's alive. But you remember what it says? And the elder brother refused to go in.

Here I have been slaving all these years. This fellow goes away, spends all the inheritance, blows it out completely in a far country. He comes back, and we have a party?

And I've been here all the time, and I never got a party? No, I have no time for a god or a father like that. No, I want a god who rewards the slaves, who rewards the religious.

I don't want a god who forgives the sinner. You see, a man or a woman cannot and will not come to Christ until they reckon with this, personally. The first criminal essentially makes a demand upon Jesus for what he thinks he deserves. The second criminal makes a request to Jesus for what he knows he doesn't deserve.

Now, let me say that to you again, because on this hinges the difference between believing faith and religious hopefulness. The first individual makes a demand upon Jesus for what he believes he deserves. The second individual makes a request of Jesus for what he knows he doesn't deserve.

Augustus, top lady, puts it masterfully, doesn't he? "'Nothing in my hand I bring, and simply to your cross I cling, and naked come to you for dress, and helpless come to you for rest. And I, the foul one, to your fountain fly, I want you to wash me, Jesus, or I'll die.'" Now, as I said to you, this man's transformation comes in a very special way, doesn't it?

Look at his request. Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Call him by name Jesus, and you will give him the name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

Jesus, remember me. Now, what's the man saying? Well, presumably he's processing the information, if this man is the Messiah, then he's king. If he's king, he's going to have a kingdom. And finally, when he gets his kingdom going, then perhaps he will remember me at that point.

Jesus' reply is wonderful. Let me just deal with paradise very quickly. Paradise, don't go away home and try and figure out where everything is. Paradise is a garden. When Persian kings bestowed honor, they made an individual a companion of the garden, so that, for example, the great hanging gardens of Babylon, which would be off-limits to the general populace, would become accessible to those who were made companions of the garden. Not only could they visit the garden, but they could also visit the garden in the company of the king.

So the king would be the companion of this individual within the garden. Now, we don't have time to work this out, but you go back to Genesis 3, and Adam and Eve were safely in the garden. They were in the company of God their creator. Sin enters in the world, and they are banished from the garden, and the cherubim with flaming swords guard the way to the tree of life. There is now no longer access to God.

Back down that same road. The whole of the Bible then points forward to a day when someone will come and, as it were, reopen entry to the garden. We're about to read of that in this torn curtain. And Jesus says to this individual, I know that what you're thinking about is some unspecified time in the future. But I'm gonna tell you about an immediate reality. You see, the emphasis here, I don't think, is on the place.

The emphasis is on the timing. Jesus isn't simply affirming the fact that this man and all the others who call on him in faith will go to heaven when they die. That's okay, but it's not great.

I mean, that's kinda good, but it's not great. You remember, in the death of Lazarus, when Jesus is making his way, Lazarus is now dead, he's in the tomb, and his sister comes and says, Jesus, you know, if you'd shown up on time, we wouldn't have to deal with this. And Jesus says to her, you shouldn't worry about this, because Lazarus will rise from the dead.

Do you remember what she said? Well, I know that Lazarus will rise in the last day. But that's no help to me right now! I want my brother back!

I mean, I know that there's gonna be a kingdom, and I know you get to be there in the end. But it's today. What about today? You see, Jesus is good on today.

We can't deal with this either. But you go back to Luke chapter 4. He reads from the prophecy of Isaiah, and he sent me to bring good news to the poor, the healing of sight to the blind, and so on. And then he gave the scroll back to the attendant, and he sat down. Remember, we said this was pivotal to our understanding of Luke.

And the eyes of the synagogue fastened on him. What would he say? What was the first word out of his mouth? Today. That's right, three of you got it right.

Go to the top of the class. He says to them, Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Not in some remote future. I'm the King, the kingdom's here. You remember when Zacchaeus, up the tree, meets Jesus, comes down, go home, conversation, Jesus comes out on the porch, and what's the first word out of his mouth? Today. Five of you got it this time.

What a group! Tremendous. Today this Scripture is fulfilled. Today salvation has come to this house. Today you will be with me in paradise. Today.

Not in some remote future. You see, this implies the immediate consciousness of the dead following their passage from this life. It's not my purpose to teach on this this morning, but notice where it sends us. If the dead are unconscious, then the assurance that Jesus gives to this criminal, that he'll be with Christ after he dies, is actually empty of any consolation at all. What good is that if somehow or another, in a remote future, in some far-off place, after I've been sleeping in the ground for five thousand years, I finally wake up and didn't realize I'd been asleep for five thousand years, and then here I am in the presence of Jesus.

I kind of like that, but I don't like it—the idea of anesthetic that lasts for hundreds and hundreds of years, and then they bring you out in the recovery room. Jesus doesn't teach that, does he? Well, remember me, Lord, when you get the kingdom thing going. Today.

Listen. Why do you think it is that there is such an emphasis on today in the Bible? Why do you think it is that the Scriptures say, Today is the day of salvation? Because God deals in the immediate!

He deals in the now! And this day, this very day, is a day of salvation for those who will believe. You see, John 17, Jesus prays, Father, I want those you have given me to be with me.

Ephesians 2, Paul says to them, And here's the wonderful thing. God has raised us up with Christ and seated us with him. And so Jesus says to this man, I can do far better than hook you up in a remote future. Today, he says, you'll be in my company in the place of security and in the place of bliss.

Now, in a few sentences, let me wrap it up. The prayer and the promise go together. Forgiveness is possible, because Jesus came and took our place. He was on the cross in the place of sinners, in order that we might be in his place. He took what we deserve, in order that we might get what he deserves.

He hanged naked, in order that we might wear royal robes we don't deserve. And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Christ Jesus to all who believe. Believe.

May I ask you as I close? Do you believe? Do you believe?

This righteousness from God, in Christ, comes to all who believe—the faith not of a religious hopeful but the faith of a trusting sinner. P.S. Well, I had these feelings long ago, in a much younger period in my life. I'm an older chap now, or I'm an older woman now. I think I've really left it too late. Well, you're not as late as this character, are you? The other gospel writers tell us that this fellow was actually in cahoots with the first fellow in the past hour.

The two of them were working it together. It was coming at Jesus in stereo. If you're the Messiah, get us off the cross. Who do you think you are?

Why don't you save yourself and save us? Three minutes before, this fellow was speaking like that. Now he says, Jesus, remember me. The poet puts words in the mouth of the central character in his poem, a character who dies falling headlong from a horse.

The poet gives him these words, Betwixt the stirrup and the ground, Mercy I asked, mercy I found. My dear friends, there is nothing like this in all of religion. It is foolishness to the religious hopeful. It is rubbish to the cynic. But to the one who believes, it is the power of God. C. S. Lewis said, I believe in Christianity in the same way that I believe in the rising of the sun.

Not simply because I can see it, but because by it I can see everything else properly. It's that kind of transformation. What a prayer. What a promise.

What an opportunity. When we put our trust in Christ, when we believe the gospel, that gives us a new perspective on everything. That's from today's message titled A Prayer and a Promise on Truth for Life with Alistair Begg.

Please keep listening. Alistair will be back in just a minute to close with prayer. You may recall that Alistair asked a very straightforward question today, namely, do you believe?

That's the most important question any of us will ever answer. If you'd like to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to believe the gospel, you can watch a brief video that's on our website. It's called The Story.

You can find it when you go to truthforlife.org slash the story. And whether you're new to learning about Jesus or you've been following Christ for a long time, you'll benefit greatly from a book we're recommending as a supplement to today's study. The book is called The Cross in Four Words, and this book explores all that Jesus accomplished on the cross. It takes us deep into four redemptive themes that are predicted in the Old Testament and then fulfilled on the cross. You'll even discover how the Old Testament books, all the way back to Exodus and Leviticus, foreshadow the provision God made for our salvation through Jesus. The Cross in Four Words is easy to read.

It's a relatively brief book, but you'll find that the connections it makes between the Old and New Testament are tremendously helpful. You'll learn more about God's plan for our salvation from the very beginning. Request your copy of The Cross in Four Words when you give a gift to Truth for Life today.

You'll find the book on our mobile app, or you can find it by visiting truthforlife.org slash donate, or if you'd prefer, you can call 888-588-7884. Now let's join Alistair as he closes today in prayer. Father, come to our hearts this morning, especially those of us who are amongst the group of the religious hopefuls, feeling that we haven't really done the homework or put in the time, and yet maybe there's just a possibility that we'll get through, because everyone else is in the same boat, and the teacher's going to grade us on the curve. I don't know how good we would have to be to be good enough for you, and if we could be ever good enough, then why would Jesus die? Bring us, Lord, into the realm of the trusting sinner, into the Remember Me group, into believing faith. Help us as we gaze afresh upon your cross to be ready to give our lives away, for we pray in Christ's name. Amen. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for listening. Be sure to join us again tomorrow as Alistair continues teaching from Luke's Gospel. He'll explain how Jesus' death is different from any other death in human history. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.