If I had to choose a favorite movie star—I suppose it would be John Wayne. I think I’ve seen every one of the 175 movies he made during his career—including The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Searchers and Red River and The Cowboys and The Green Berets and The Shootist—which turned out to be his last film. Well, this week I learned that the Duke became a Christian almost literally on his death bed. Wayne had been raised in the Presbyterian Church but he made it clear that he was frustrated with the infighting of various Christian denominations and claimed no particular faith. He was a heavy drinker and smoker and was married three times.
Then, in the mid-60’s Wayne complained of a persistent cough so he went to a doctor and was diagnosed with lung cancer. Typical for the Duke, he beat the disease but in 1978 he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He deteriorated quickly and you may remember this picture from his last public appearance—at the 1979 academy awards where he presented the award for best picture. I remember seeing him walk on stage and noticing that he looked thin and weak—very “un-Duke like.” He was obviously very ill.
Wayne had watched his friend John Ford die of stomach cancer and saw how His Christian faith had brought him comfort so in May of that year he agreed to talk to a priest. But he put off making a decision to accept Christ saying, he would wait to talk further before he died. In fact, he had always referred to himself as a “cardiac Catholic” which meant he would wait until his last heartbeat to make a commitment to our Lord.
Well, as the Duke grew weaker his son Michael urged him to keep his promise. Wayne agreed, called a priest, and confessed his sin and need for Jesus. Those were literally some of his last words because that night he slipped into a coma and two days later he died.
Now—of course I would not recommend we follow the Duke’s example here. I would never say wait until you are literally on your deathbed to put your faith in Jesus—for a couple reasons and the first should be fairly obvious. I mean, you never know when your death may come and a miscalculation would have eternally negative consequences. But second—to wait to follow Jesus until the end of your life is to waste your life. You see, the eternal life Jesus promises begins the moment we confess our sin and invite Him in. That’s when life can become truly abundant. Why live a moment without Jesus? Why NOT live an abundant life? It would be foolish not to!
In any case, I bring all this up because this morning as we continue our study of Jesus’ final words, we come to one of the most famous deathbed conversions of all time. 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 the second of Jesus’ final words 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.”
If you were here last week you should remember that we focused on Jesus’ first FINAL WORD from the cross. It was in the form of a prayer. Do you remember the words of that prayer? “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Well, the conversion of this repentant thief that we read about was the first ANSWER to this prayer that Jesus uttered. And it shows how GENEROUSLY His forgiveness was bestowed—because 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. 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—the terrorists of their day. 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—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 the others in taunting Jesus for as the drugged wine, mingled with myrrh, which these crooks 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 I was the centurion in charge of the Crucifixion, I 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. And 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. Irwin 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 you could say 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 criminal’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 crook began to see that the Man on the center cross was indeed Who He claimed to be. And when he did he 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 his 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. He wasn’t asking to get down from the cross. Nor was it a request for position or power. He wasn’t asking for a special position in Jesus’ Kingdom. No, this repentant criminal merely wanted to be REMEMBERED. 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 humble request? 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 that in essence Pontius Pilate 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 other 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) Of course these 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 here! I mean, he believed in Jesus at a time when it appeared that Jesus was entirely helpless to save anyone. In fact, Jesus Himself appeared to need saving. He 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 in His hands and feet holding Him to the cross. 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—-this MURDERER—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. Perhaps in His foreknowledge Jesus was thinking of this repentant criminal when He told His disciples, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)
In any case God’s Holy Spirit was obviously at work for It drew this man to Jesus and the thief responded—BY BELIEVING! 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 criminal far more than he asked for—not only would he be remembered BY Jesus, 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—THAT SAME DAY!
Think of it. What DAY of contrasts it was for this murderer! 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. In one of the books I inherited from my dad 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 Heaven. He still had power to make a promise to the repentant man hanging next to Him—and also 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, the 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.
As I prepared for Wayne Hensley’s memorial service yesterday I came across something about former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. During an interview before his 50th college reunion, Bloomberg confessed that his mortality has started dawning on him, at 72. He also said that he’s been sobered by how many of his former classmates have passed away. The author of the interview concluded, “But if [Bloomberg] senses that he may not have as much time left as he would like, he has little doubt about what would await him at a Judgment Day. Pointing to his work on gun safety, obesity and smoking cessation, he said with a grin: ‘I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to Heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have EARNED my place in Heaven. It’s not even close.’” I hope someone who heard that and knows Bloomberg corrected his flawed thinking because as our study of this second word from the cross teaches us we are saved by grace through faith alone “…not by works so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8) 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 the repentant criminal did. 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 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 criminal is even now separated from God for all eternity—but not because of the horrible things he had done in life. 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. So don’t wait. Commit to follow Jesus today! And if you make that choice then come and tell me or Bobby or Kevin 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.