Luke Week 21 • Luke 23

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Thanks for listening.

Y'all are just the sweetest.

Like Bo said, I am Moses Boy.

I am the new-ish student pastor.

I've been here for about a month and a half now, and it's been such a privilege and a

pleasure to get to know you and some of your families and your students.

And so we're going to pick up where Bo left off in Luke 22.

Luke 22, Bo preached, and he showed us that there was a conversation happening between

the disciples.

The disciples were saying, who is going to be the greatest?

Jesus had just shared with them that one of them were going to betray him.

And the dialogue unfolds, and it gets into this dispute, and they're like, who is going

to be the greatest among us, the disciples?

Jesus, he kind of intervenes into this conversation, and he shares that, listen, a leader is one who

serves.

A leader is the one who lays himself down for the sake of others.

All throughout Luke, we get to see Jesus teaching, and he teaches what it means to be worthy and

what it means to be great.

And today, we're going to pick up in Luke 23, where Jesus practices what he preaches.

He becomes the perfect example of servanthood.

He puts on display what real love is.

Jesus, in Luke 23, he will give us a practical example of what he expects out of his followers.

And so, if you have your copy of God's Word, we're going to turn to Luke chapter 23.

Luke 23 · chapter mention

We're going to go through verses 32 to 49.

That's Luke 23, verses 32 to 49.

Luke 23:32–49

And so, what's going to happen is, I'm going to read the passage, and then I'm going to

pray, and then we're going to dive in and see what God has for us.

Hear God's Word.

Two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with him.

And when they came to a place that is called the skull, there they crucified him, and the

criminals, one on his right and one on his left.

And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

And they cast lots to divide his garments, and the people stood by watching, but the ruler

scoffed at him, saying, He saved others, let him save himself.

If he is the Christ of God, his chosen one, the soldiers also mocked him, coming up and

offering him sour wine and saying, If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.

There was also an inscription over him, This is the king of the Jews.

One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, Are you not the Christ?

Save yourself and us.

But the other rebuked him, saying, Do you not fear God, since you are under the same

senses of condemnation?

And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward for our deeds.

But this man has done nothing wrong.

And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

And he said, Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Our most beautiful God, you and you alone are worthy of praise.

You are awesome in power, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.

You are merciful.

You are faithful.

And God, you will by no means clear the guilty.

You are just.

And so we lay before you this morning that we are sinners, God.

We are fallen short of your glory.

Yet while we were dead in our sin, you came to redeem us.

You sent your son to die for our sins, Lord.

And that's what we celebrate this morning.

We thank you that you wanted to redeem us, that you had your heart set on sinners.

We thank you that we can be made alive in Christ by the blood of your cross.

God, I ask that you would hide me behind the cross this morning as I preach your word.

I pray that the word would land on softened hearts.

I pray that you would give us ears to hear.

Would you guard me from the evil one, Lord?

I ask that the proclamation of your word would bring people into new life and deepen the roots of others.

It's in your mighty name that we pray.

Amen.

So Luke, he sets the scene here in Luke 23, and he says,

Two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with him.

And when they came to the place that is called the skull, there they crucified him.

Up until this point, Jesus has been betrayed by Judas.

Jesus has spent a lonely and painful night sweating blood in the garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus has been snatched by a crowd of people who want to see him dead.

Jesus, by this point, has been denied by Peter, his most zealous disciple.

Jesus, the son of God, has been beaten, spit upon, stripped naked, and nailed to a cross at a place called the skull.

Up until this point, Jesus has reached the climax of his ministry.

It is here that the crux of our faith is formed.

It is here at the place called the skull or Golgotha that we get the center of our saving, the cross.

The cross is the catalyst in which God chose to change human history.

The cross is where Christ put on display what it meant to be the greatest, what it meant to be a friend,

what it meant to be a lover, what it meant to obey God.

Willow Ridge, don't miss this.

On the cross, Jesus shows us what it looks like to be a humble servant who seeks to please God.

God has commanded us to love the Lord our God with our hearts, our souls, and our mind,

and to love our neighbor as the same.

In Jesus, he taught John 15, 13, that greater love has no one than this,

that someone laid down his life for his friends.

Here in verse 32, we see Jesus, the Son of God, displaying true love, humility, and obedience.

Even in death, Jesus shows us what it means to love thy neighbor, to turn the other cheek.

Jesus, he was sinless and perfect.

Even in death, he had not one evil, malicious, or selfish thought.

While suffering in agony and heartbreak, Jesus proves that his passion for sinners outweighs the pain of the cross.

Jesus had his heart set on sinners.

In verse 34, Jesus cries out,

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Even in Jesus' most agonizing moment,

his greatest desire is that unworthy, sinful, broken people would be forgiven by God.

As they drove nails into his hands and his feet,

Jesus wished and desired that his murderers would get to know heaven.

And so, I don't know where you are this morning.

I don't know what kind of sins you've committed.

I don't know where your faith is.

But what I do know is that the cross isn't for the folks who have things all figured out.

The cross isn't for the strong.

The cross isn't for good people.

The cross is for the broken, the unworthy, and sinful.

And let's kind of sit on that for a moment.

Let's meditate on that.

That Jesus, the Son of God, the creator of the heavens and the earth,

he willingly hung on a cross to save those who are sinful, broken, and unworthy.

Does anyone ever feel sinful?

Does anyone ever feel broken?

Does anyone feel unworthy to be in this building today?

Well, the cross is the center of our saving.

It is where we as Christians draw our confidence.

It is the foundation of the Christian faith.

And that right there will lead us to our first point,

the significance of the cross.

The significance of the cross.

Jesus, he does three things on the cross for those who choose to love him.

The first thing that he does is he takes away our sin and guilt.

Jesus on the cross takes away our sin and guilt.

Now, in a room this size,

I can't assume that every last one of you are believers in Jesus.

And for you guys online, I can't assume that you love Jesus either.

And so what we're going to do is we're going to get back to the basics.

Jesus takes away our sin and guilt.

Moses, what is sin?

Well, sin is rebellion against God.

Sin is any thought, action, or attitude that doesn't reflect the holiness of God.

And I think if we're brave enough to admit it,

we can all confess that we are sinners.

We have all fallen short of the glory of God in some way.

We've all told a little white lie.

We've all done something mean.

I know for me, being engaged to my beautiful fiancee, Christina,

it has shown me how impatient I can be.

Anyone struggle with patience?

Anyone struggle with patience?

Anger?

Selfishness?

Pride?

The good news is, Jesus takes that sin from us on the cross.

We are no longer guilty of that.

But that's not all that he takes.

Jesus also takes our guilt.

Now, Moses, what's different about guilt?

Well, I'm glad you asked, Tim.

Guilt is the way you feel after doing something wrong.

Guilt isn't just about the things that you got caught doing.

It also involves all the things that you did that no one knows about.

When no one has seen us sin, our fault is still obvious to God.

When no one has seen us sin, our fault is still obvious to God.

And he will by no means clear the guilty.

Is that not scary?

That there are no secrets to God?

If you don't feel the weight of that,

maybe it'd be scary if everything that you've ever done

that no one knows about was put on these screens.

When we do something wrong and we get caught or we get away,

we feel heavy because we know that what we've done is unworthy.

And that weight can wear us down.

But here's the good news.

If you are a follower of Jesus,

Jesus took that guilt from you on the cross.

That thing you did, that thing you're ashamed of,

that thing you're embarrassed about,

that thing that keeps you up at night,

that thing that keeps you from receiving love,

that thing that makes you feel unworthy,

stop holding on to it.

Stop holding on to guilt.

Give it back to Jesus.

Jesus, he paid for it on the cross.

It no longer belongs to you.

Stop taking from Jesus what belongs to him.

Jesus has paid for your sin and your guilt.

There is no reason to feel unworthy or guilty

because Jesus, at the place called the skull,

took that from you.

He paid for it with his blood.

And so Jesus, the first thing he does on the cross is

he takes away our sin and guilt.

The second thing he does is

he takes God's anger or God's wrath.

I think sometimes Christians can paint God as passive

or nonviolent, you know,

the white Jesus with the long brown curly hair

holding the sheep, holding the peace sign.

I've encountered Christians who neglect the anger

and the wrath of God.

But Exodus 32 clearly tells us

that God's anger burns hot when it comes to sin.

God hates sin.

He hated it so much that he put it on his son

and killed his son.

The evidences of sin is played out in and all around us.

Look at the justice system,

broken families,

our own selfish and evil thoughts,

the way we neglect our faith,

the way we can treat one another sometimes.

God hates it all and he wants it snuffed out.

Here's the truth, friends.

The anger of God was aimed right at us like a gun

until Jesus made his way to the cross.

For some of us in here,

the anger and wrath of God is still aimed at us.

The cross of Christ causes the anger of God

to be redirected from us to himself.

This is what the Bible calls propitiation.

That's a really big and complicated word

for Jesus becomes our substitute.

Jesus, he takes the wrath and anger that we deserve

and instead we get God's delight.

We get his love.

We get his mercy, his forgiveness.

We get God's favor.

While on the cross,

Jesus had his heart set on sinners.

The Bible tells us in Romans 5, 8,

that God proves his love for us

and that while we were still sinners,

Christ died for us.

And it's because of that,

it's because he died for us,

he takes away the distance between God and man.

So he takes away our sin and guilt.

He takes away God's wrath.

But then he also takes away the distance between God and man.

Sin separates us from God.

It distorts our function.

Sin, it ruins our purpose.

But God's delight, his favor,

it enables us to be near to him.

That's our purpose as humans.

Our purpose as humans is to know God,

to be near God,

and to enjoy God.

Jesus and Jesus alone accomplishes this on the cross for us.

The cross of Christ is significant

because it's there at the place called the skull

where Jesus saves us from our sin,

God's anger,

and God's wrath,

and saves us to a warm and sweet relationship with God.

Verse 32 is more than Luke setting the stage.

It's Luke showing us that this is where foundation of faith starts.

But that's not all that it shows us, does it?

Look back with me to the text.

It shows us that there wasn't one cross, but three.

It says in verse 32,

two others who were criminals were led away

to be put to death with him.

One on his right

and one on his left.

Two criminals got to witness the details of the cross.

Listen to what this guy Warren Wiresby says on a commentary.

He says,

It was providential that Jesus was crucified between the two thieves,

for this gave both of them equal access to the Savior.

Both of them could read Pilate's superscription.

This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews,

and both could watch him

as he graciously gave his life for the sins of the world.

These two thieves are given the opportunity

to wrestle, much like us this morning,

with the authority and the grace of God.

The opportunity to understand Jesus, the Son of God,

graciously giving his life for the sins of the world

is where I want us to now put our attention.

This leads us to our second point.

And the second point is actually a question.

And that question is,

How will I respond?

So the first point was the significance of the cross.

And the second one is,

How will I respond?

This may be the most important part of the sermon.

I say that because once we as people

begin to hear about God's grace to us,

we are now given an opportunity to respond,

to do something.

As we get back into the text,

I want us to see the responses of two thieves,

and we can ask ourselves another question.

Which thief do I want to be?

Let's pick up in verse 39.

It says,

One of the criminals who were hanged

railed at him saying,

Are you not the Christ?

Save yourself and us.

Notice the humiliation of Jesus.

This thief was crucified with Jesus,

and he used his last breath to rail at Jesus,

to bark orders at Jesus,

the Son of God, the Creator,

who offers forgiveness.

While this thief hung guilty for his crimes,

he decided to mock God,

the only one who could save him.

This thief is an excellent example

of how we can believe in Jesus

and still go to hell.

Here's what I mean.

This thief, he talked to Jesus.

This thief, he believed that Jesus could save.

This thief even bore his own cross.

But this thief had the wrong view of Christ.

He misunderstood the person

and the work of Jesus.

When this thief called out to Jesus,

he wanted escape, not forgiveness.

He wanted deliverance, not conversion.

He wanted out of his suffering,

but he didn't want anything to do with repentance.

There are a lot of people who call out to Jesus

but don't want to be changed.

This thief, he yelled out,

Are you not the Christ?

Save yourself and us.

There was no way that Jesus could save himself and us.

That would have been a theological impossibility.

Jesus' death on the cross

is what provides us our way to heaven.

Jesus could not save us and himself.

John 3 verses 14 through 16 says,

John 3:14–16

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness,

so the Son of Man must be lifted up

that everyone who believes may have eternal life.

For God so loved the world

that he gave his only begotten Son

that whosoever believeth in him

shall not perish,

but will have everlasting life.

The first thief missed it.

He missed Jesus,

but the second thief, it clicked.

He understood.

Look back with me to verse 40.

This thief says,

He rebuked him.

He rebuked the other thief saying,

Do you not fear God

since you are under the same senses of condemnation?

And we indeed justly,

for we are receiving the due reward for our deeds,

but this man has done nothing wrong.

And he said to Jesus,

Remember me when you come into your kingdom.

And he said to him,

Truly, I say to you,

today you will be with me in paradise.

This thief realized two things.

He realized that Jesus was a great Savior

and that he himself was a great sinner.

Jesus is a great Savior,

and we are indeed great sinners.

Matthew 27, 44 tells us that

the ra-bers, plural,

who were crucified with Jesus

also reviled him,

insulted him,

mocked him.

Both of them.

But at some point,

this thief had a change of heart.

To be specific,

God,

his grace changed his heart.

This thief had a recognition of his own sin.

This thief had a fear of God.

He rebuked the first criminal.

He said,

Do you not fear God?

This second thief,

he feared the Lord.

He was so afraid of God

that he didn't run from God,

but he ran towards him.

This thief knew that

Jesus had his heart set on sinners.

Isn't it good news

that Jesus has his heart set on sinners?

And that God will save

even those who insult him?

In verse 41,

it says that

the thief said,

We indeed justly,

for we are receiving

the due reward

for our deeds.

But this man

has done nothing wrong.

This thief understood

that they were in their predicament

because of their wrongdoing.

He was willing to admit

that he was guilty

and that his consequence

was well deserved.

how many of us are willing to admit

how many of us are willing to admit

when we're wrong?

This thief knew that the dying Jesus

was leaving earth

towards his heavenly throne.

So he asked Jesus,

the Son of God,

to remember him.

He didn't ask for eternal life.

He didn't ask for heaven.

He asked to be remembered.

He knew that if he was going to make it

into the gates,

this Jesus was going to have to let him in.

I was talking to Christina

about this passage

and she said something

that pricked my heart.

She said,

this thief,

he never had the Lord's Supper.

He never took communion.

He never served on a mission trip.

He never felt the waters of baptism.

He never gave his tithes and offering

and yet Jesus still accepted him

into the kingdom.

Friends,

religious activity

will not get you into heaven.

followers of Jesus

are saved by faith

and faith alone.

Doing churchy stuff

will not earn you the love of God.

Only the cross of Christ

and your admittance of sin

will save you.

So now let me ask you,

which thief do you want to be?

Do you want to be the thief

who witnesses the significance

of the cross

and runs away from Jesus?

Or do you want to be the one

who witnesses the beauty

of the cross

and runs towards Jesus?

I've yelled

and stood up here long enough

and I'm going to go ahead

and close.

But before we close,

I want us

to understand something.

The significance of the cross

demands a response.

You can either repent

or stay under the anger

and wrath of God.

Maybe this is the first time

you've heard this

or maybe it's the 50th time

you've heard this

but you are making the decision

to repent.

Repentance is easy.

Well, Moses,

what is repentance?

That's a big word.

Repentance means

turning from this thing

that you thought

were going to save you,

maybe your wisdom,

maybe your money,

your own ability.

It's turning from that

and now turning to Jesus

and continuously

turning to Jesus

as your Lord and Savior.

Repentance sounds like confession.

It sounds like you saying,

Jesus, I'm a great sinner

and you're a great Savior.

Please save me from my sin.

Repentance is the only way

that you will receive

the benefits of the cross.

All those things I've talked about,

it's not yours

unless you repent.

Maybe you're already

a follower of Jesus.

Maybe you've already

made that decision

and to God be the glory for that.

So maybe for you,

your next step is

to fill out a connection card.

Maybe you're like visiting

for the 99th time

and it's time to scan

that QR code.

Maybe your next step

is to getting into

a small group in the fall.

We're super excited

about those kicking off.

Maybe you need to talk

to Dave Allen

about being in a small group.

Maybe your next step

is confessing

some guilt and sin

in your life.

Telling your spouse

that you're still mad

at them from two years ago

when they did that thing.

Maybe you just need

to share with somebody

where your heart has been.

Maybe it's to walk

alongside a brother and sister

who's more mature

than you in the faith.

Maybe this is a sign

for you to give yourself

to a season of prayer.

Plug.

So with all that said,

how will you respond

to the significance

of the cross?

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father,

you are awesome

in all your ways

and we thank you

that your heart

was set on sinners.

We thank you

that you loved us so much

that you sent your son Jesus

to die for our sins,

to bear the wrath

that we deserved.

That wrath was aimed at us

like a gun,

but Jesus,

he redirected it

from us to himself

and he took it on himself.

We thank you

that even though

you sit on a high

and heavenly throne,

that your heart

is set on sinners,

that you want

the unworthy,

you want the broken,

you want us, Jesus.

I pray that you would

work in our hearts

this morning.

Believing in Jesus

doesn't just change

our eternity, God.

It changes our today

and so I ask

that today

we will respond

by maybe loving

our friends

a bit better,

giving ourselves

to the word of God

a bit more.

I pray that you

would grow us

in your likeness, God,

and that the understanding

and the significance

of the cross

would change us

for the better, God.

I pray that this word

would move us

in such a way

that we would be compelled

to share with our friends,

to share this gospel

that Jesus will save.

We love you, Jesus.

I pray that you would

break our hearts,

help us to hate our sin,

to love your son,

and to yearn for the day

that you come back

to redeem us.

It's in your mighty name

that we pray.

Amen.

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