"Today You Will Be With Me In Paradise"

[UNKNOWN]: Thank you very much.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do we have any true crime podcast fans here in the room today?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of a big deal these days, listen to true crime podcasts.

[SPEAKER_00]: The research shows over 19 million Americans listen to a true crime podcast every week.

[SPEAKER_00]: quite a business.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's not even including all the television shows about the evil next door that wants to just put that doubt in your mind that maybe that person you live next to has some hidden secret.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our fascination with criminals, though, is nothing new.

[SPEAKER_00]: Legends have been built, movies have been made, the stories told of criminals like Jack the Ripper, Billy the Kid, and while in the American West, Lizzy Borden, Al Capone, there's something about criminals that were drawn to.

[SPEAKER_00]: And something about it, I wonder if it's because I'm not like them, but I kind of am like them.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's something that I want to know more about.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are some crimes in life that are criminal, that are crimes because there's a law against it, and there are other crimes that are like morally wrong wherever you go.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have speeding laws, and you can get a ticket for speeding, not necessarily because it's morally wrong, everywhere, some people don't have cars, some places, but we've made it wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: Other crimes are wrong, anywhere you go, as a white spectrum of severity in crimes,

[SPEAKER_00]: We have something in common, though, every criminal, whether the crime you commit is really, really, really, really, really, salacious or whether it's kind of minor.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that is, we've looked at our own selves.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's impulsivity.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't control our emotions.

[SPEAKER_00]: Egocentric thinking at the moment of violating any law or any rule, we're thinking about ourselves and not others.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're thinking about ourselves and not the bigger, the greater good of our community.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's important that our criminal justice system, by the way, does a good job of isolating and dealing with behavior of crime, but not so much with heart issues and with motivation.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we think about the culture in the first century in the Middle East while we're separated by 6,000 miles and 2,000 years.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's something very similar between a criminal and first century judiya and a criminal in St. Louis.

[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't have to worry about speed traps, but they did have things like stealing and murder and things that are wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: in every culture, interestingly enough, taking a team and please pray for us, our team to Kenya is leaving this Wednesday for our trip to Kenya, our annual mission trip, where we'll be doing leadership training and also giving away the motorcycles and the audio bibles that you provided.

[SPEAKER_00]: But an interesting thing in the tribe in Northern Kenya that we work with, they're agrarian, they're shepherds, they take care of cattle and sheep and there's a lot of tribal skirmishes and one of the things that happens in these tribes

[SPEAKER_00]: is that it's something very virtuous and noble to sneak into your enemy tribes territory and steal their cattle or steal their sheep.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when you bring them back, you've done something noble that's what a warrior does.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it's interesting that they don't feel the same when that other tribes come into their territory and steal their sheep, which just illustrates the fact that there are certain things that are wrong everywhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: So in the Scripture passage, we're gonna look at today, two criminals sharing the crucifixion experience of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not sure, totally what their crimes are, but there are such a magnitude that they're dying on a cross alongside of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their verbal exchange talks to us about the nature of the afterlife, redemption, the fulfillment of God's kingdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, before we get into this exchange between Jesus and the two thieves,

[SPEAKER_00]: Be reminded of the context of where this conversation happens.

[SPEAKER_00]: So isn't sitting at a coffee shop somewhere talking about the theoretical principles of life.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is being executed in a barbaric fashion.

[SPEAKER_00]: The victims before they went, they're all three of them were whipped and dehumanized and scored, so they're bleeding, they're humiliated.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then they're told to carry their cross beam of their cross through the streets, where again, they're shamed publicly, weakened even more.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then they arrive at the execution site, and the victim would be stripped totally naked, tied, or nailed to the cross and the crosses put up, and then the feet would be secured somehow.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then the last step is a sign would be put on the top of the cross that would share what their crime is that they're being executed for.

[SPEAKER_00]: The person suffering from this beating, exposure to the elements, public humiliation, insects, everything that real life would bring, compromise, circulation, shock, grief, fear, broken bones, suffocation as they tried to breathe.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the context that they're going to have this exchange.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was not a quick way to die.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was a slow, agonizing way to die.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we have to have that in mind as we hear this exchange.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look with me at Luke chapter 23, verses 39, 43.

Luke 23:39

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the criminals hang beside him, scoffed.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you're the Messiah, are you prove it by saving yourself and us, too, while you're at it?

[SPEAKER_00]: But the other criminal protested, don't you fear God, even when you have been sentenced to die?

[SPEAKER_00]: We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn't done anything wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus replied, I assure you today, you'll be with me in paradise.

[SPEAKER_00]: So let's start by exploring the criminal's condition.

[SPEAKER_00]: Luke is doing a really masterful job at this part of the gospel of contrasting humanities, intense guilt, and the pure innocence of Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a theme in Luke's gospel, and it's really, really being emphasized here at the cross earlier, the Governor Pontius Pilate,

[SPEAKER_00]: The Tetra carried witness Jesus' innocence after this following this scene, even one of the Romans and Turingens is going to speak to the innocence of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we see a visual juxtaposition of the sinless Christ who's dying to forgive the sins of the world and this horribly misaligned, sinful, broken, criminal world.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the place where hanging on the cross between two criminals, the mercy of God is extended.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first criminal, though, taunt's Jesus, calling on him to prove his Messiah, says, save yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're the Messiah, if you're the one who we heard is going to bring the kingdom of God,

[SPEAKER_00]: which in his mind was likely overthrow this Roman tyrannical rule and oppression that we have, then you can show yourself right now before you die because when you die it's all over, it's game over.

[SPEAKER_00]: So why don't you get yourself off the cross and while you're doing it, get us off the cross as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, this is not just a sarcastic jab at Jesus, though the word that's used here is blasphemeo, which means the original Christians who saw this would have seen this as something very blasphemous at the heart of God, one commentator, described it as mocking Jesus by refusing to take his power seriously, which is blasphemy.

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't really believe Jesus was the Messiah, perhaps like many of the zealots of his day thought that it was gonna be a political revolution.

[SPEAKER_00]: Romans needed to be thrown off their oppression.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there's a sense in which we all are kind of like this in our own minds.

[SPEAKER_00]: In some respects, we stand in a similar predicament, our word actions, attitudes can be very self-centered.

[SPEAKER_00]: not only have we rejected God, but we show contempt for Him, by wanting His redemption to be on our terms.

[SPEAKER_00]: Inherit in even the most minor offense and the most minor form of lawlessness is a rebellion against God.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hear someone say, once until we understand the evil that is in every sin, we really don't know how to repent.

[SPEAKER_00]: The evil that is inherent in every sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: And every sin when you watch the evening news and you see who's been arrested for this and who's been arrested for that initial response is boy, that's not me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not that guy, but from a gospel perspective, the response ought to be, I'm not that guy, but I could be.

[SPEAKER_00]: It could be.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Germanal seed of every sin is inherent in me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And sin always wants to grow to be as big as it can in that area.

[SPEAKER_00]: So every lustful thought wants to be immorality, every thought of anger wants to be murder, every thought of of covetousness wants to be stealing or thieves.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what sin does.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's how it works.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then you bump into the sermon on the mount where Jesus kind of blows that all open to a thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, it's not just what you do.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's what's in your heart, even if you don't do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, oh, wow.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so it's not just the ax I do.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's if I have a lustful, vengeful heart, if I may not murder someone, but I really would just assume they weren't around.

[SPEAKER_00]: May not want to harm someone, but I really would be okay if something terrible happens to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's the condition that we share with these criminals, so the condition of our humanity.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then we look at the criminal's contrition and the second criminal shows us a path in verse 42 that's available to even the most hardened criminal.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we all fall into that category of the most hardened criminal, some way.

[SPEAKER_00]: He begins by issuing a really strong rebuked to the first criminal.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you not fear God?

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you not fear God?

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember that these three are not sitting in a comfortable place.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're hanging on a cross with their lives draining away.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in this dire straight, the second criminal, recognizing something that something is happening here that's cosmic.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's something happening here that's more than just three guys who say they're innocent being put to death on a cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he looks at the criminal, he said, we deserve to be here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Discide doesn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't you fear God?

[SPEAKER_00]: Harkin's back to Luke chapter 1 verse 50, where Mary and her song of praise said, his God's mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation.

Luke 1:50

[SPEAKER_00]: So this thief saw something.

[SPEAKER_00]: New something was going on that's bigger than just the three of them dying.

[SPEAKER_00]: He acknowledges that,

[SPEAKER_00]: He's justly receiving what he's do and the other criminal as well, and in a bold declaration of Jesus' innocence, he says, this man has done nothing wrong that word nothing done nothing wrong could also be translated, there's nothing in him that's out of place.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing in him that's out of place.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everything is where it should be in him, which is a really, really convicting way to think

[SPEAKER_00]: talk to someone this week working with another church in another state where some leadership issues and helping the person I was coaching was helping this leadership team to apologize and reconcile and they had gossiped about one another and said a lot of really bad things about each other and trying to help them to come to those things and I was talking to him about coaching them through that and I said but you also need to remind them and I was true of me on my worst days I probably said horrible things about people

[SPEAKER_00]: horrible because that's my heart I just am a sinner and so we have to come back to that we need God's mercy I have things that are out of place in me I love this person but I can say something horrible about them I give them a chance or I can judge them that's out of place and Jesus didn't have anything out of place and this man saw that there's nothing out of place in Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this is what contrition is.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what being penitent is and remorseful.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a heart posture.

[SPEAKER_00]: He turned to Jesus who was weak, naked, bleeding, bearing all the weight of all of the sin of the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he said, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember me when you come into your kingdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: Unlike the first criminal who was mocking Jesus, this man finds hope and trust.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because there's something bigger going on here.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's doing something, and this man, Jesus, who's dying next to us, isn't just a normal man dying, there's something happening here, then he is who he's been saying all along that he is, this Messiah, and all he can think to say is, remember me when you become King.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember me when you become King.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is important for us because in modern evangelicalism, we have equated,

[SPEAKER_00]: praying a prayer of faith, asking God to forgive our sins with ultimate freedom.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what we're supposed to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's repentance, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the prayer of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not incorrect, but it is incomplete.

[SPEAKER_00]: not incorrect, but it's incomplete.

[SPEAKER_00]: We tend to focus on the specific actions of sins, the things we do wrong, the things we don't do that we should do, the actions of sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, because we focus on that, the pathway to God is to say, God, I've done this and this and this and this and this, please forgive me for all these things that I've done and God promises, first John chapter one, verse nine, that if we confess all these things, he's gonna forgive us all these things.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so God, thank you that our account is good together.

[SPEAKER_00]: correct but it's not complete.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because even even in the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, before He shares the phrase, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

[SPEAKER_00]: What does He say?

[SPEAKER_00]: Pray your kingdom come.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: And my forgiveness of sins is under that umbrella.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when we miss what this criminal saw, we're chasing after sin management in our lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of saying, Jesus, remember me in your kingdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: When you become king, I want you to be king of me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to be king of every thought I have, I want you to be king of every thing I do, I want you to be king of my circumstances, I want you to be king of my reactions to people, I want you to be king, and guess what?

[SPEAKER_00]: When that happens, we sin less.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's actually a more effective way of dealing with the things we do when we approach it like this thief approached it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I deserve this cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember me when your kingdom comes.

[SPEAKER_00]: So when we pray, your kingdom come, we surrender our choices, we surrender the governance of our lives, we surrender everything to His purpose.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a much more effective way of living.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now let's look at the criminal's comfort, verse 43.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus replied to the second criminal, truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.

[SPEAKER_00]: Moments from his death,

[SPEAKER_00]: which would provide salvation for all who believes in all times at all places.

[SPEAKER_00]: With all creation ready to respond, because if you read rest of this story, all creation is ready to respond because the Son of God is dying to redeem all things to God's glory in the new heaven and new earth.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus pauses, because there's one soul that's looking to Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: One soul that's reaching out to Him in faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: The words he uttered could lead us down and will endless distributaries kind of streams that flow out of this river.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna go down some of them, but we can't go down all of them.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it'll feel a little bit topical, tied to what Jesus says here today.

[SPEAKER_00]: You'll be with me in paradise, but let's follow those distributaries together.

[SPEAKER_00]: The request was that Jesus remember him when he comes in his kingdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: His man was looking, as I said earlier, for some kind of future reign, some kind of future fulfillment.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know for certain, with certainty what it is, it may have had some political implications, but he certainly was looking for something beyond that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus promised that it would happen today.

[SPEAKER_00]: He would know the freedom, release, the connection, the forgiveness, the hope, and the comfort of God's kingdom today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everything that had gone wrong in this thief's life, and this criminal's life, and there had been much that had gone wrong to get him to this place, was going to be made right today when this kingdom comes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Something that is important for us here is we need to think theologically not simply chronologically when we approach this passage or passage is like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have to acknowledge that we are locked into this time space continuum here where we're thinking chronologically today means within these 24 hours and it does but it's not all it means and theologically today means in this experience and this thing that's happening right now and what's going on

[SPEAKER_00]: Salvation is being achieved through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and because you've asked me to remember you when I come to my kingdom today you have that paradise with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paradise is a Persian lone word from, it just means garden or part.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like today you'll be with me in the garden.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was used in the Greek step two agent for the garden of Eden in Genesis 2 verse 8.

Genesis 2:8

[SPEAKER_00]: Also in Isaiah 51, 3, the Lord will comfort Israel again and have pity on her ruins.

[SPEAKER_00]: Her desert will blossom like Eden.

[SPEAKER_00]: Her barren wilderness like the garden, like a paradise of the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: Join gladness will be found there.

[SPEAKER_00]: It describes a place where there's perfect harmony and integrity, where everything is integrated like it should be, like God originally wanted it to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like in the Garden of Eden, before sin, marred our lives in the garden, there must have been some kind of integrity and integration where heaven and earth just kind of flowed together

[SPEAKER_00]: The wonderful things of God when we read about God just like walking along with Adam, as though it's just an everyday thing that happens.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so there's something that was broken with sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that's what the garden is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember the distributaries that I mentioned, another one, consider the words of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because today you'll be with me in Paradise, but we know he's on the cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: Tomorrow he's gonna be in the tomb for a day.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not gonna rise again until the third day.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so he's saying today you'll be with me in Paradise, but Jesus hasn't risen from the dead yet, which we said is the hope so.

[SPEAKER_00]: How is he gonna be with him today?

[SPEAKER_00]: What's the paradise that he's gonna have today?

[SPEAKER_00]: When everything that we say that we hope for is because of what Jesus did when he rose from the dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think,

[SPEAKER_00]: We can, in some way, tie into what we would say about Old Testament saints, people that by faith in the Old Testament believe in God, trust in God's promises to the people of Israel, participate in the sacrificial system, have this faith that that's believing toward a Jesus that they didn't know, many didn't see, but by faith they've put their trust in Jesus and without knowing Him and been saved, there's a part of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Another challenge we have is our finite conception of space, time, and matter.

[SPEAKER_00]: We think of waiting as linear.

[SPEAKER_00]: The only way I know how to wait is with my clock.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's how I wait.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's not the only way to wait, that's how we wait, but again, thanks to theologically, today you'll be with me in paradise.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a time and a place where you are with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our language might help to think about just our language, how it conveys something that may not be the best.

[SPEAKER_00]: We talk about dying and going to heaven, or dying and going to hell.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't think that aligns exactly with what the New Testament teaches about our journey.

[SPEAKER_00]: We risk falling into an unbiblical separation of the body and soul as though we live in this life and the body and then we live in the next life and the spirit without any body and that's not what the New Testament teaches.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our ultimate hope is not dying and going to heaven, dying to, or if we, understanding of someone who doesn't know Jesus, dying to go to hell, that has, that has more to do with playto and the Greek mythology than it does what the Bible teaches about heaven or hell.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our ultimate hope is not dying and going to heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's as Paul writes in Romans chapter 8, in 1 Corinthians 15, Philippians 3, Colossians 3, and other places.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: Our ultimate hope is of a resurrection body in a new heaven and a new earth.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our ultimate hope is heaven coming here and we're experiencing eternity with God in heaven in a new body.

[SPEAKER_00]: The writer, the British New Testament, theologian entity, right called that life after life after death.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what our hope is.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's life after life after death.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's more than what we commonly think about.

[SPEAKER_00]: We might help to consider Jesus today.

[SPEAKER_00]: We read in the Gospels and Acts that Jesus rose bodily from the dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: After spending time with his followers, he ascended.

[SPEAKER_00]: And again, in our spacetime continuum, we think ascending means, okay, we watched him go up behind that cloud and then maybe took the earth suit off and was back in his spirit suit again or whatever.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that's because we only know how to think of going up like that ascending up when what actually happened is Jesus today is fully human with a fully human body.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't see Him because when He ascended, He didn't just ascend to a place above a cloud.

[SPEAKER_00]: He ascended to a different experience of life that we don't have access to at this moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we begin promises and the promise Jesus came in this whole sacrifice and resurrection is to give us the promise that we will have access to that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's our ultimate hope.

[SPEAKER_00]: The contrast between this life and eternity is not between a physical and spiritual body.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not correct to think that we're going to spend eternity as these floating around ghosts.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, the Bible is really clear.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have bodies and we'll have bodies.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now the difference is, these bodies will not be corruptable.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's what Paul talks about.

[SPEAKER_00]: First Corinthians, these bodies, he likens his old tense.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I like to go camping, and when that first couple of years in the tent, it's really fun because the seams are really tight, and the poles are all sharp, but after you camp in a tent for a year after a year after a year, it starts to leak because it wasn't made fraternity and it falls like that because you're going to have a body that's not made with human hands, there's continuity and discontinuity between the body we have now and the eternal body that we will have after the resurrection.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even our conception of New Heaven and New Earth takes us away from that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I imagine the experience in the Garden of Eden was one of harmony and what Jesus is saying today, you'll be with me in paradise.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a reconnection of integration, a reintegration of all things with God's plan.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not just human souls, but plants and animals and the environment and everything is waiting to be once again renewed as God wants us to be renewed.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can hardly comprehend that in our current state.

[SPEAKER_00]: Believers who die between now and the resurrection have the ultimate promise of the new heaven and new earth, and

[SPEAKER_00]: In the grave, and Paul talks about this in First Thessalonians chapter 4, when Christ appears, His appearing, those of us who have died in Christ will be raised from the dead, and those who are alive in a man will be caught up in here, to meet the Lord in the air, not to like be taken away somewhere, but to meet Him because He's appearing, He's bringing new heaven and new earth down here, so there's some continuity because those graves open, and Paul and First Corinthians 15 talks about.

1 Thessalonians 4 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: the resurrection body as coming out of the seed of this body so there's some continuity between who I am now and who I'm going to be in eternity in the new heaven and new earth, but there's also discontinuity because there is no corruption, there's no corruptability, we're not going to be falling apart anymore.

[SPEAKER_00]: The hope of the Christian is not simply going

[SPEAKER_00]: at Jesus appearing and being resurrected bodily in a way that we are going to be living a life as human beings, but as real human beings as God wanted us to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is where there are some principles from Scripture, and then we kind of build on them with some speculation, and you can get really granular with this, so this is just making granular, not what a verse says, but I think it's what a new heaven and new earth would be.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think in a new heaven and new earth, we won't have to have dog shelters for unwanted pets, where nobody wants them.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think that'll be, I don't think we'll have social workers to take care of children who are being abused and neglected in their homes because that's part of the corruptible creation.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think in the new heaven and new earth, I have to feel a little bit guilty because I have this wonderful long lasting lithium battery in my watch or my phone or my car and I know that their children in Congo they're mining cobalt so that we can have.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, there's so much broken in this world

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, New Heaven and New Earth, that all goes away, that all goes away.

[SPEAKER_00]: And somehow we live in integrity and we live in harmony with creation.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I don't say it in like a political way today, but in a true biblical

[SPEAKER_00]: creationist way, we ought to be leading the charge for helping to save and to care for the environment in the world we live in, because God has said, it's going to be renewed.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so yeah, God, the gospel is not just about saving souls, it's about all things coming together and being reunited in Him, making everything right.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the hope of the Christian.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just dying and going to heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: and spending that time, again, from our perspective, between death and the resurrection in somewhat of a unnatural state where our souls are in paradise.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've totally been rescued from everything that's broken here, but our bodies need to be reunited.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then once those are reunited, we spend eternity.

[SPEAKER_00]: And again, it's a little speculation, but we're probably gonna do stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: said thing is most people think of going to heaven is like that sounds boring really boring no you have a new body what are you doing your body now you get up you eat you you you go to work you talk to people you you're going to grow stuff in your garden but one of the weeds to worry about me it's it's just blows your mind how how it's going to work but we're going to be busy being human people in God's perfect creation for eternity that's the

[SPEAKER_00]: Another distributary that's probably worth going down is the destiny of the other thief.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk about that for a minute.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because if this first thief spinning eternity with God and the new creation knew it, some might say, well, what about that guy who is he dying and going to hell?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's just as unhelpful to think in terms of dying going to heaven as it is dying going to hell.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not that they're not real places.

[SPEAKER_00]: But hell is not some place that exists because we have this over-sensitive deity who gets really offended when people don't like him and so he's going to take those people and he's going to put them in hell and they're going to be punished forever.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not what hell is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hell exists because God exists.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just like heaven exists because God exists.

[SPEAKER_00]: Heaven exists because God exists, and He loves people, and He has a redemptive plan, and He has mercy, and He has grace, and everyone who's experienced is that grace, spend eternity, as we've looked at in a resurrected body, in New Heaven and New Earth, and anyone who spends eternity.

[SPEAKER_00]: in hell, spend eternity in hell because God is a God of love and God is a God of grace and mercy and they've rejected that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And only a God of grace and mercy can have people who don't follow Him get what they want, which is life eternity apart from God and that's what hell is.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is a place but it's also a rejection of God too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Two things are true from the Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: If any one of us spends eternity in New Heaven and New Earth, it's 100% because of God's mercy and grace in Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: What He's done.

[SPEAKER_00]: If any of us spend eternity separated from God in eternal punishment with hell, it's 100% because we've rejected the grace and mercy that God offers.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why there's a hell.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a fickle God who needs to punish people that he doesn't like.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's because who God is that that out is an outflow of His being and of His nurture.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, huge concepts for us to try to get our head around, but I think it's important as we look at this.

[SPEAKER_00]: So even if we've never committed such crimes,

[SPEAKER_00]: We know the seed of every crime is latent within us, and we have the same position as these criminals, and we either taunt Jesus, and we reject His purpose, or we voice, remember me when you come in your kingdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember me when you come in your kingdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the response of Jesus to that repentant criminal echoes throughout all of history.

[SPEAKER_00]: It carries the same life-changing power today as it did 2,000 years ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: When Jesus said, today, you will be with me in paradise.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus died, he rose again, he ascended to the Father.

[SPEAKER_00]: He now reigns the perfect human, the perfect human fully integrated only now.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's even more perfect because he died as a sacrifice for all of us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus still welcomes sinners, welcomes criminals.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every day, all day long, we turn to Him in faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: So question for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you made that plea to Jesus for Him to remember you when He comes in His kingdom?

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you made that plea if not today?

[SPEAKER_00]: You can receive the same hope at this dying criminal did.

[SPEAKER_00]: today you'll be with me in paradise.

[SPEAKER_00]: This day it happens.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh there are great promises that's going to be rolled out in a lot of wonderful ways as the plan of redemption goes but today you're with me in paradise.

[SPEAKER_00]: A simple prayer, acknowledging your need for rescue, asking forgiveness, asking to be remembered by Jesus does that.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you want to take that step today or if you want to talk to someone while I people at the front after the service for prayer, or if you just run into anyone in this building that has a first-free land you're on, talk to them and they should be able to help you with what your journey is and the questions you have so that you can today know what that promise is.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you've already experienced the transforming grace

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope that this little foray into today you'll be with me in paradise will help you to consider and wrestle with the full implications of salvation, the full implications of the hope that we have in Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there are parts of this will never be able to nail down totally, but it's a lot more than just dying going to heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a hope of a new heaven and new earth coming here and being able to serve and love God like we've never loved him before.

[SPEAKER_00]: Real creation filled with life, joy, and presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let that promise stir in your heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let it create gratitude.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let it move you to share with others.

[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel that we so often say, the gospel is about you for giving your asking God to forgive your sins.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's that, but it's so much more.

[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel is of God who wants to make right everything that's out of place in this world right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you can know him and you can be part of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray.

[SPEAKER_00]: Father, forgive us for letting the gospel be very small.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're grateful that we have a hope beyond this life and when our hearts stop beating, that we have a hope.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we want to celebrate the full hope of what that is, even in the little fraction of what we can understand, of what being resurrected with Jesus will mean, living eternally in your presence,

[SPEAKER_00]: having harmony with one another, with no more sickness, no more brokenness, no more of the oppression and crimes and the injustice that this world has.

[SPEAKER_00]: Help us to be a light for that gospel in this community in Jesus' name.