I became a Christian when I was seven years old and this morning I’d like to tell you how I came to make that all important decision. Now, as most of you know, I’m a P.K., which stands for what? Right- “Preacher’s Kid.” I’m the “son of a preacher man.” My father was a pastor for over 40 years, serving in churches in Maryland and Delaware. When I entered High School my Latin teacher, Mrs. Mohle, once told me I wasn’t a P.K. and instead was a “T.O.” I asked her what that stood for and she said, “Theological Offspring.”
Well, as a “theological offspring,” I went to church all the time. I mean we were there whenever the doors were opened-mainly because Dad had the keys! And much of that time my siblings and I were unsupervised. Now, don’t get me wrong. My parents were great it’s just that there were four Adams’ children and it was hard for mom and dad to do what they had to do to serve our church AND keep constant track of us at the same time. So from time to time my fellow P.K.’s and I got into a bit of mischief
For example, when I was seven, I noticed that after those services in which we celebrated communion dad was busy at the back of the church talking to the people as they left. And mom was in the nursery picking up my baby sister. So-no one was paying any attention to me or the communion table-a table that was loaded with grape juice and fresh but fragmented saltine crackers.
Now-back then saltine crackers and grape juice tended to provide the main staple of our “snack food diet” at home. I mean, in those days we drank more Welches grape juice than we did cokes. A Coke or a Pepsi was a real treat-kind of rare in our family. That day after church I was hungry-ready for lunch-and so when I saw no one watching I began to pig out on the remnants of communion. And I got away with this about three or four times-until my dad happened to look up and see what I was doing. Well-he came running up and told me to stop, but he didn’t spank me-and that got my attention because I knew by personal experience that my parents believed in spanking. But instead of administering his typical loving corporal punishment dad sat me down and explained exactly why what I had done was wrong. He told me that these particular crackers and grape juice were important symbols-the crackers served to remind us of the body of Christ broken for us on the cross and the juice represented the blood of Christ, shed to wash away our sins. I remember as we sat there Dad patiently showed me Scripture verses to back all this up.
Now-as a PK or TO-I had heard all this countless times before. I knew all about Jesus’ death on the cross. In Sunday School I had seen the pictures of those three crosses on Calvary. I mean, I knew Jesus had died for me-I believed that He did. But that day sitting with my dad, listening as he explained communion-that day was the first day I realized that not only did Jesus die for me-but also that I NEEDED Him to die for me. In those moments I came to understand the simple truth that-in spite of my parentage-in spite of the fact that I was a preacher’s kid-in spite of the fact that I never missed a Sunday at church-in spite of all that, I was a sinner, lost and separated from God-and my pilfering of the communion elements was just one example of sinful disobedience in my life-indicating that I was in need of God’s forgiveness and grace.
Well, that realization is what led me to decide to become a Christian. Now it wasn’t a hurried decision. I thought about what dad had said for a couple weeks and then when I told him of my desire to be baptized, he had me talk to a deacon-a growing Christian in our little church. And then a few weeks later in the little church in Seaford, Delaware where my dad was serving, I walked the aisle and told everyone that I had claimed Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior.
Okay. You’ve just heard my personal testimony-how I came to follow Jesus. Now-I don’t know about you, but I love hearing people share their conversion experience. We heard three powerful testimonies yesterday at the men’s breakfast and they all spoke to me. It is very moving to hear other people tell about the circumstances surrounding their own decision to become a disciple of Jesus Christ. How many of you enjoy hearing people share in this way?
Well you know, I think that one of the most dramatic, powerful testimonies I’ve every heard…is the one we are going to look at this morning. It is the true story of the thief who was crucified next to the Christ-a man who in the last hours of his life professed his faith in Jesus as the Son of God…Savior of the world. Take your Bibles and turn with me to Luke’s gospel chapter 23 and let’s read about it. We’ll be picking up where we left off last week. Look with me now at verses 39-43-a text that includes Jesus’ second saying from the cross.
39 – One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at Him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save Yourself and us!”
40 – But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?
41 – We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this Man has done nothing wrong.”
42 – Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”
43 – Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with Me in paradise.”
This morning we’re continuing the study we began last week. Remember, I told you that o prepare us for Easter this year we’re taking a close look at Jesus’ seven last words-His seven last sayings-from the cross. And if you were here last Sunday, you should remember that we began by focusing on Jesus’ first saying from the cross-a prayer in which our Lord said what? “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Well, the conversion of this repentant thief was the FIRST ANSWER to this prayer that Jesus uttered and it shows how GENEROUSLY His forgiveness was bestowed-for it was given even to the most UNLIKELY of recipients.
But to fully understand what happened in the conversation between Jesus and this thief we need to back up a bit and look at the context of this text.
As we do the first thing we should note is that the gospel writers tell us that Jesus was crucified with TWO thieves that day and before we go any further in our study we need to understand WHO they were and WHY were they being executed in the first place. Well, to do this we need to look at the Greek because the word that Matthew uses to describe these men literally means “bandits” or “hoodlums.” They were probably members of an organized scheme to overthrow the Roman government.
In fact there is good reason to believe that these men were partners in crime with Barabbas-the man who was released instead of Jesus. I say this because Mark 15:7 talks about Barabbas’ having companions when it says, “And the man named Barabbas had been imprisoned with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising.” In other words, these men hanging next to Jesus were not first-time offenders who had made a couple of slight mistakes in life and gotten caught. No, they were criminals, thugs-murderers! Either of them could easily have been on Jerusalem’s MOST WANTED posters.
In fact, the deep-down bad-to-the-bone wickedness of their character was shown by the fact that they both initially used their dying strength to join in taunting Jesus for as the drugged wine, mingled with myrrh, which these thieves had accepted earlier-as it started to wear off, Matthew says just like the crowd of mockers who surrounded the cross, “…the robbers who were crucified with Him also heaped insults on Him.” (Matthew 27:44) Now, the word that we translate as “insults” or “abuse” literally means “blasphemy.” In other words the two men shouted harsh, perhaps even obscene statements at Jesus. In their own dying misery they directed their curses and abuses at the Son of God.
Now, have you ever wondered why Jesus was placed on a cross BETWEEN the two criminals?
I mean if we were the centurion in charge of the Crucifixion, we would probably have put Jesus off to the side and the two thieves next to each other-after all they were partners. But that’s not what happened. Jesus was placed on the cross in the center. Perhaps this was Pilate’s idea. He may have thought this would be a way to add additional insult to injury, since the procurator had heard that this would-be messiah loved sinners so much. Or-maybe this particular arrangement was ordered by the Jewish officials, who did it because they wanted to leave a sarcastic impression that these were the only kind of people over whom this imposter-messiah reigned as king.
In any case this placement was a fulfillment of prophecy, for Isaiah had said that the Messiah would be “…numbered WITH the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:12) God had decreed that He Who was MOST holy, should die with those who were most UNHOLY. Erwin Lutzer puts it this way, “Jesus not only died AMONG criminals but was numbered as ONE OF THEM, and therein lies the heart of the gospel. God had His reasons for decreeing that Jesus should gracelessly hang between two thugs. He wanted to demonstrate the depths of shame to which His Son was willing to descend. At His birth Jesus was surrounded by beasts and now, in His death, by criminals.”
This should help us to realize how wrong we would be to say that God has stayed aloof from the brokenness of our fallen world! By no means-in fact He has descended to the depths so that we might ascend with Him to newness of life. He has come down to lift us up.
Well, verse 39 says that one of the thieves climaxed their back and forth barrage of insults by saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us.” When he said this Jesus was silent. He gave no come back-just as Isaiah had also prophesied, “He was oppressed and afflicted yet He did not open His mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7) Jesus didn’t answer the taunting question that this first criminal had sarcastically posed.
But Luke says, “the other” did. “The OTHER answered.” Now, in the Greek text the word “other” literally implies “other of a different kind.” This tells us that originally this man was shouting abuse along with his partner and all the others. He was the SAME as them. But now he was being changed. He was becoming different and we know he was because he told his compatriot, “What’s the matter with you? Don’t you even FEAR God, since you’re under the same sentence of condemnation? Don’t you realize that we’re getting what we deserve, but this man is innocent?”
In other words, there came a point when one thief’s taunting turned to silence and then the silence turned to awareness and the awareness to repentance. As he watched Jesus, suffering all that abuse so patiently, never reviling or insulting His tormentors, THIS thief began to see that the Man on the center cross was indeed Who He claimed to be. And when he did the thief turned to our Lord and said the most important sentence of his life, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”
I want to point out that the Greek here is in the imperfect tense-do you remember what we learned about that last week? The imperfect tense in Greek was used to indicate repeated action in the past. So, this thief made this request to Jesus more than once. As he saw Jesus’ life and his own ebbing away, he prayed “Remember me! Remember me! Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”
I also want you to note that his was not a plea for present relief or release. Nor was it a request for position or power. No, this repentant criminal merely wanted to be remembered when Jesus came into His kingdom. His request was a plea for a small mercy he knew he did not deserve.
It was much like the prayer of the publican in Luke 18, who “would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!'” (Luke 18;13)
Now, why the change? I mean other than the way Jesus responded to the crowd-what do you suppose it was that led this criminal to make this request? Well, I think there were a number of factors.
1. First, there was Jesus’ PRAYER.
This thief could not forget those words we studied last week-and he surmised that only a Man Who knew God could pray to the Father for the forgiveness of others. The prayer pierced his conscience and helped him to see that he was a sinner-that he needed the forgiveness Jesus spoke of.
2. And then I think another factor was the SIGN above Jesus’ head.
Remember what it said? “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.” Pilate had ordered that this sign be written in three languages and hung above Jesus’ head. Now-it was not intended to be a declaration of the truth-rather it was put there to sarcastically indicate that Jesus was being executed for treason-for claiming to be king above Caesar. But the criminal noticed this sign and he began to sense that the sign was true. I mean, he came to believe that Jesus was indeed a king for he pleaded, “Remember me when You come into Your KINGdom.” Think of it. This means Pontius Pilate in essence printed the first gospel tract!
And at this point I want us to note the hand of God in all this. I mean since Jesus’ cross was placed BETWEEN the two criminals this man could HEAR Jesus’ repeated prayer. He could SEE the sign above Jesus’ head. He could LOOK at our Lord hanging there and see on His face that His words were sincere and His love for even His crucifiers was genuine. If Jesus was on the end instead of the center this might not be true for the thief could have been on the end-unable to hear or see Jesus clearly.
3. And then a third factor in the thief’s decision might have been THE ONLOOKERS themselves.
This thief probably had not seen Jesus until that very day. As they were being nailed to their crosses he assumed that Jesus was just another criminal-the thief had no reason to believe he was in the presence of greatness. But then he heard the inadvertent testimony of the crowd, “He saved others…but He can’t save Himself!” (Matthew 27:42) The words were shouted in defiance and ridicule but the thief may have wondered, “What do these people mean when they say, ‘He saved others?'” Then, as the mob chided Jesus for some of His well-known sayings and miracles, the thief pondered their mockery and began to realize he just might be in the presence of a Savior.
AND-think of what he did! I mean, as Lutzer points out, he believed in Jesus at a time when it appeared that Jesus was entirely helpless to save anyone. In fact, he Himself appeared to need saving. Jesus hung as a helpless victim, not a king. He wore a crown of thorns. He had been flogged and beaten. His beard had been plucked out by the roots. His body was slumped-the nails having ripped His hands and feet. His chin rested on His chest, except when He gathered enough strength to lift it so that He might breathe.
What a pathetic sight? And yet for all that the thief believed. Think of it! This thief believed when Jesus’ own followers did not. He believed before the darkness miraculously settled over the land, before the earthquake and before the veil of the temple was torn in two. He believed without the evidence of the Resurrection and the Ascension-without having seen Jesus walk on water, feed the multitudes, or turn water into wine. He believed in spite of the crowd of onlookers who did not. I mean he definitely went against the flow of popular opinion that day. God’s Holy Spirit was obviously at work for It drew him to Jesus and the thief responded-BY BELIEVING! And when he did, he made his all-important request and Jesus responded with His second saying from the cross-a cry of assurance, “Today, you will be with Me in paradise.”
And be sure to note that Jesus gave the thief far more than he asked for-not only would he be remembered, this man would be WITH Jesus. There would be no soul-sleep-no purgatory-for the Bible does not teach these things. No, just as Jesus said, this repentant thief would be with Him in heaven-paradise-TODAY! What day of contrasts it was for the thief! He began it by being nailed to a cross and ended it by walking the streets of glory.
Now, obviously Jesus died before the thief so our Lord was on hand to welcome him into the eternal dwelling place. Spurgeon wrote that this “man who was our Lord’s LAST companion on earth was His first companion at the gates of paradise.”
Note something else. Hanging in apparent helplessness, Jesus still controlled the gate to paradise. He still had power to make a promise to the repentant man hanging next to Him and to judge the other thief who refused to believe. Never did Jesus act more truly as a king than in that moment!
Okay-what can we learn from the testimony of this thief? What truth can we take from our examination of his conversion experience? Well, I think we’ve already seen that there is a great deal that we can cull from this text but I want to emphasize just one MAIN truth and it is this:
When we come to Jesus, asking His forgiveness…when we decide to become Christians…we are justified-we are saved-by faith alone.
I mean, this criminal hanging alongside Jesus was not ushered into Paradise on the basis of anything he had done. It was his faith in God’s grace that opened the door and invited him in. Jesus heard his request and granted him eternal life-something the thief did nothing to earn. He didn’t have to be baptized. He didn’t have to perform six months of good works to earn heaven. He didn’t even have to pass through a one-week probation period where he proved himself worthy of the gift of eternal life. He was accepted into God’s kingdom on the basis of FAITH alone-faith in Jesus Christ. Arthur Pink writes, “[The thief] could not walk in the paths of righteousness, for there was a nail through either foot. He could not perform any good works for there was a nail through either hand. He could not turn over a new leaf and live a better LIFE for he was DYING.” As Yancey puts it, this incident is “another shocking reminder that we are not saved by what we do but by our simple faith in what God has done in Christ Jesus.”
This reminds me of the lyric of Augustus Toplady’s classic hymn, Rock of Ages. Do you remember the words?
“Not the labors of my hands can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know; could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone; Thou must save and Thou alone.
Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress, helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul I to the fountain fly, wash me Savior or I die.”
Now, why DON’T we bring something in our hand when we come to Jesus? Why don’t we bring our good works to Jesus to help pave our way to heaven? Well it is, because since we are all sinners, everything we touch is contaminated by sin. As Isaiah 64:6 says, even our best deeds-even our righteous acts “…are like filthy rags.” So, they hymn writer is correct. Before God we are indeed “naked, helpless, foul” sinners. Even the best things we bring to God are polluted by our sinful thoughts and attitudes.
So the main truth we should glean from this vignette from the cross is that we are saved by grace through faith alone. “…not by works so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8) You know, this is a truth that our culture seems to have a hard time embracing. I mean everywhere you look these days you find religious leaders advocating WORKS-BASED religion. LIVE A GOOD ENOUGH LIFE, they say, and you’ll enter paradise when you die.
Not too long after 9/11 I was channel surfing and came across The Larry King Show. His show that night included a panel of religious leaders discussing the Muslim faith. There was a female Muslim cleric, a liberal Roman Catholic priest, a Jewish Rabbi and a Christian pastor by the name of Max Lucado. Well, the discussion finally came down to the issue of WORKS vs FAITH. These religious leaders were discussing and debating what is it that gets us into heaven.
The Muslim said it was works. So did the Jewish Rabbi. Even the Roman Catholic priest said,
“Look, as long as you live a good life…as long as you do good things…then no matter what faith you embrace…no matter what religion you practice…you are on the same train…bound for heaven.”
At this point Lucado wisely pointed to the fallacy of this way of thinking. He said, “I believe the Bible teaches that we are saved by faith in Jesus alone-not by works. And, by the way, I want to point out that it was a WORKS-BASED salvation philosophy that led those fanatics to fly their planes into the twin towers. Their faith in works told them that if they did this they would be assured of paradise.”
Well the experience of this thief is a perfect proof text for this point-we are saved not by works but by grace through faith in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Salvation-eternal life in paradise with God-is a free gift to all who will in faith accept it. We come now to remind ourselves of this foundational truth-that Jesus Christ-the sinless Son of God-the only One able to do so-died on the cross in our place. He took our sin and its punishment on Himself that day. We remind ourselves of this glorious truth through communion and as we do, I invite all Christians present to partake with us. Even if you are not a member of this church….If you are a Christian…if you are His, this is Yours.
THE ORDINANCE OF COMMUNION
I hope that today if you are not a Christian-if you’ve never personally reached out to Jesus as that thief did-well I hope that as you’ve listened…and as you have watched us take communion, that you have come to the same conclusion I did 41 years ago. I hope and pray that you’ve come to see that not only did Jesus die for you-but that you needed Him to. And If you have, realized this then I hope you’ll make the same decision I did and pray right now and ask Jesus to forgive you of your sin and then commit to follow Him as Savior and Lord.
You know another reason I think God ordained it such that Jesus would be crucified in the center that day was to symbolize the fact that we all have a CHOICE to make.
We can either accept Jesus as did the thief on one side or reject Him like the one on the other. And the truth is those thieves will be separated forever-one in heaven the other in hell because of the choice they each made. The thing that has separated them was not the degree of their wickedness. They are separated because one decided to call on Jesus for help and the other decided to reject Him. The other thief is in hell even now-but not because of the horrible things he had done in life.
Now, to be sure he was a murderer and a thief. Probably by every rule of the book, he SHOULD have gone to hell. But he didn’t go there because of any of the things he DID. He went because of what he did NOT do. He did not choose to receive Christ as his Lord and Savior. He didn’t make the right choice. You see, you don’t have to DO anything to be spiritually lost. Just stay the way you are, living without God…ignoring Jesus…choosing to leave Him out of your life. That’s all it takes to be lost.
Now, you may say, “Well Mark I see your point but I think I’ll make this choice later. I’ll live the way I want and then like this thief, when I’m on my deathbed I’ll choose Jesus.” Well, there IS such a thing as a death bed conversion but the Bible doesn’t really endorse that here in this text-or in any text for that matter. And you know in reality this man was not saved at his LAST opportunity but at his FIRST. He was not there when Jesus did all His miracles. He did not hear the Sermon on the Mount. This was his FIRST experience with Jesus-his FIRST opportunity to choose to follow Jesus. Besides, as Billy Sunday once said,
“To live your life in the service of the devil and then to repent just before dying is like burning the candle for the devil and blowing the smoke in the face of God.”
So don’t do that. Don’t wait-let TODAY be the day of your salvation for as Hebrews 2:3 says, “How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?” When I made my decision to become a Christian at seven years of age, an elderly lady wrote me congratulating me. She told me that she had waited until she was in her 70’s to become a Christian and she regretted that so much….she said she wished that like me she had chosen Jesus as a child. So don’t wait. Commit to follow Jesus today! And if you make that choice then come and tell me about it in a moment. If God is leading you this morning to make other choices like deciding to join our church family, then I invite you to come forward and share them with me right now as we stand and sing.