Savior: In Pursuit of Paradise | Part 3

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How would you um define paradise?

Like, like describe it.

Just think about it.

Like what is paradise?

Maybe who are mountain people?

Anybody mountain people?

Like you just, the majestic mountain, like that's paradise.

Okay.

How about beach people?

Okay, okay.

We got more beach people this service.

It was kind of split last service, not gonna lie, but um maybe maybe when you think of paradise, it's this, you know, picture perfect, quiet garden.

Maybe it's a lake.

It's the majesty, right, of the ocean.

Um we think about paradise too, it's it's not just a place, but it's also a state of being.

It's it's this sense of well-being and bliss and uh like joy and happiness and and harmony and and life is right.

And we get like slices of that.

We even talk about it, right?

You get a slice of paradise.

Um, in fact, um, something for me that's like this is a little bit like I love I love competition.

Okay.

So in in paradise for me, like I love like to be competitive, right?

Um, I know on the strength finders, I like my number two strength is competition.

Um, some of you didn't even know that was a strength.

Uh well, you're welcome.

You learned something.

It's a strength.

My wife doesn't fully agree it's always a strength.

Um, but uh Friday.

Friday was like a slice of paradise.

We saw the sun.

Remember that yellow thing in the sky that we pay so much money here for?

Like it was just beautiful sun, and Friday's my day off.

Often, Jenny, I get just some time together, a little date day.

And we tried something.

We went, uh we live across the street from a park.

There's pickleball courts.

Um, anybody pickleballers you put okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Um we've never tried it before.

I don't even know if you say pickleballers.

I don't know.

I'm sorry if I offended your community.

Um, right?

Uh but but we went over there and we, you know, got in line.

We we pick up pickleball.

That's what we did.

We got out there, we tried something new, we're out.

It was so much fun.

It was beautiful, this competition, so I enjoyed that.

It was new, so my wife enjoys that.

That's part of paradise for my wife.

She just loves new and adventure.

And then it was so nice.

We went out uh, you know, on a bike ride in our neighborhood, and just was like one of those days.

And we get those from time to time, don't we?

Just one of those days, like this slice of paradise, of perfection, of beauty, this breathtaking, of moments that are meaningful and matter.

The longing of the soul is for paradise.

Hardwired deep inside each of us is this longing, this desperation for paradise.

And we get glimpses of it, don't we?

We get moments of it, and yet the reality is, is in this life it's fleeting.

They're passing.

They're pictures of like, oh, that's what life could be.

Oh, that's what life should be.

Taking in the grandeur of the mountainscape, or taking in the beauty and the expanse and the wonder of the beach and the ocean, you sense the majesty of it all and your smallness, and you're once more brought into the reality of God's beauty and creation.

The soul longs for paradise.

And yet it's so often just beyond our grasp, where we just don't get a hold on to it very long, do we?

How can you find the paradise your heart truly longs for?

Where you actually can hold it and it takes hold of you.

And then we live in this world, right?

Um, well, that's hard.

A paradise lost, a paradise broken.

And what do you do when life doesn't turn out the way you hoped, the way you dreamed, the way you longed for.

You know, the um antithesis to paradise is crucifixion.

Um we're in a series called Savior, where we're looking at Jesus' final words from the cross.

Each week, these are Jesus' sermon, basically from a cross.

He has seven sayings.

The pulpit is his cross.

And in this moment of crucifixion, by the way, the Romans perfected torture in the ancient day that stands up to today.

Historically, this is the most painful, anguishing way to die.

Uh, even in our English word, um, the English for the most painful thing that we can experience is the word excruciating, which means out of or from the cross, as painful as the cross.

That Jesus is in a moment of anguish.

He is hanging on a cross and he's crucified between two criminals as people are on looking in disgust and horror because a crucifixion, it was um like today we talk about it, and in fact, we have gold chains that hang on our necklaces around it.

This was something that you wouldn't speak of in polite society.

It was that it was almost worse than a curse word.

Only the criminals, the most violent criminals and slaves, the worst of the worst, no Roman citizen would be executed this way.

And there's a crowd watching in disgust, and then in the middle of that scene, in the middle of that moment, paradise came up.

Jesus starts to talk about paradise.

We pick up the story in Luke chapter 23, verse 39.

Luke 23:39

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him.

Aren't you the Messiah?

Save yourself and us.

But the other criminal rebuked him.

Don't you fear God?

Since you're under the same sentence, we are punished justly for what we're for we're getting what our deeds deserve, but this man has done nothing wrong.

Like we know about him, we've seen him, we've heard of him, and people know about us and why we're here.

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

And Jesus answered him, Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise.

Between two criminals, Jesus makes a staggering promise to one of them that if true, awakens the soul to the paradise we've longed for and addresses the problem of a life not turning out how we hoped.

The longing of the soul is for paradise.

And the thief, the life didn't turn out the way he had hoped.

It's not the way as a child he envisioned it to be.

Obviously, he made some bad choices.

He even owns up to that.

He's getting what he deserved.

He's hanging upon a cross, he's his life is being cut short, and yet in that moment, he is getting promised something from Jesus that he thought was beyond his grasp or reach.

And in our time together, I just want to make a few observations that help us experience and step into the reality of the paradise that Jesus actually invites you and me into today.

And the criminal actually, the very first thing, he hints at this, and then Jesus affirms this.

The first thing I want you to notice is this.

Now is not all there is.

Now is not all there is.

Notice that the the thief next to Jesus says, When you come into your kingdom, when you come back, there's there's a time, and I know we're being executed, but death is not the end of the story.

I don't believe it's the end of the story.

Now is not all there is.

And Jesus says, by the way, you'll be with me in paradise.

Even though we're gonna die, you're going to live forever with me.

Now is not all there is.

We are made for eternity.

In fact, Ecclesiastes 3.11 says it this way: that God has actually set eternity on the hearts of humanity.

Like it's inside of us, and we have this inkling, we have this reality, we have this, there's more to life than just this life.

Let me ask you, what do you believe happens when you die?

You know, uh there's a Pew Research study that uh went researched Americans' belief around the afterlife.

73% of Americans believe in a heaven.

62% believe in hell.

One in six Americans don't believe in any afterlife, about 17%.

33% believe in reincarnation.

You're more likely to believe in reincarnation if you're younger.

Roughly three-quarters of America believe, says they believe, now is not all there is.

And yet here's the reality, and this is what our culture tells us.

This is how we live.

Now is all there is.

We live as if now is all there is, that all you have is today.

Right?

If now is all there is, then you have to get your paradise now.

You have to hold on to it, you have to grasp it, you have to escape to it.

YOLO, right?

Come on, you only live once, seize the day.

If now is all there is, if this one moment?

Did you know?

Think about this.

This is insane, by the way.

Uh, this isn't all of us, but uh did have you research just type this into the Google, okay?

Do this.

This is great.

Uh yeah, not do it into the Google.

That's right.

Billionaires trying to live forever.

Just type that in.

It's fascinating.

It's absolutely fascinating.

One billionaire, Brian Johnson, you may have heard of, he's a little um he is literally getting younger blood transfusion to live, yeah, from his son.

Uh to live longer.

Peter Thiel also, all in AI.

How can we upload our consciousness to AI when the singularity happens so we can become immortal?

Why?

Because there's a fundamental belief that now is all there is, and so I have to make the most of now, and I have to hold on to now, and I have to get my now.

And I have to create my paradise now.

It creates a self-centered scarcity mindset that I gotta get mine because you might get it at first.

First observation, the longing of the soul for paradise now is not all that there is.

And yet at the same time, this moment is all we're guaranteed.

This moment, thief on the cross knew with crystal clarity, like few of us know, death was moments away.

Was this his last breath?

Would he be able to breathe more?

Would he be able to speak more?

Would he have enough to ask a question?

He would make the most of this moment.

You know, when I was writing this originally, I wrote, today is not, you know, is all we're guaranteed.

And I'm like, that's just not true.

Life is made up of moments.

What makes life meaningful for us is our memories of those moments that we're able to recall and remember it, but we're just given these flicking moments, these passing moments, like right now, and then it's gone.

This moment is all that we're guaranteed.

You know, um, one of my mentors when I first started out in ministry, Dan Kimball, he's the first person that hired me uh in ministry.

He gave me one of the strangest gifts, and I I got rid of it because it creeped my family out, but he gave me a ceramic skull.

And I was like, oh, thank you.

And then he began to tell me, and it's true, the ancient philosophers, the poets, the stoics, and the early Christian fathers, they would keep a skull on their desk to remind themselves of the brevity life and the reality of death.

Moses in Psalm 90 would say it this way teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

And the truth is in our culture, we may not be doing blood transfusions, okay, that's for the billionaires, but what we try to do is mass death so we don't see it.

And so we don't live in that reality, and as a result, we don't live wisely or well.

We treat time as if we have all the time in the world.

This moment.

Life's just far more fragile.

You don't have to look far.

And often you don't have to look beyond your own life.

Uh on Friday, Jenny and I just got really, really tragic, sad news.

Uh her dear cousin that she grew up with, her son, who's a 10-year-old playing baseball, after practice, going home, got hit by a car and was killed.

And we live across the street from a park.

Yesterday was opening day.

Life is just far more fragile.

Oh, church, think about what would change in your life.

If you realize that there's more to life than just here and now, but all you get and all that you have is guaranteed this one moment.

And so instead of just living life however, thinking you can do it later, you would make the most of this moment.

The other thing we see, this is a hard one.

The criminal, remember the conversation the criminal is having with the other criminal, and basically tells the guy who's ridiculing Jesus, shut up, right?

And then he says, for we're getting what we deserve.

By the way, left to ourselves, we're destined to get what we deserve.

Left to ourselves, we're just destined to get what we deserve.

And I think sometimes when we think about that, the reality is like, well, what's the problem?

I'm a pretty good person.

I do okay.

Yeah, I've hurt some people, I've lied some things, but overall, I'm I'm a decent human being.

And then you read a passage like this, Romans 6.23, where it says, for the wages of sin.

Sin is this idea of not just the harm or bad things or hurt that we've done to others, it's also like a cancer that we carry.

It's just a part of who we are.

It's death.

Like the absurdity and destruction and the violence of death that we experience, the reason we put it off, the reason you know we mask it with, you know, Botox, and no, no shame if you're doing that.

That's fine.

I know a lot of people do that.

Uh, and all other things that you're like just trying to like stave off the focus of death, the reason we do that is because it's so violating, because we know we were made for more.

And that abrupt end at the because we live in the land of the shadow of death.

Of separation, of heartache.

See, left to ourselves.

We're just destined.

Sin, the cancer that we carry that has infected the world, that's infected you, and it's infected me.

It's just the end is death.

There's a biblical salvation story.

This is the story of God actively working to redeem and restore.

It begins this way in creation.

God created everything.

And he says, in the beginning, by the way, God created this is good news, by the way, because you're not an accident.

You have purpose, you have meaning, you have value because you have a creator who designed you.

And his original intent and design was to be in the garden, walking with humanity in paradise together, where we're one with God and each other, intimacy and harmony with people and with God, well-being, breathtaking, beauty, purpose.

And then we see what theologians call the fall.

Whereas humanity, we go, we just want to do it our own way.

And God says, just have your way.

And sin entered, chaos, cancer, death.

And the beauty of the gospel is that we are not waiting or working or trying to make our way back to God.

But that Jesus, the Creator, hung on a cross.

He literally came, stooped down to earth, and took on the greatest enemy humanity ever faced, death itself.

And then he defeated the grave that you and I might have life, so that he could say to that criminal today, today, today, you will be with me.

Promise of presence and relationship in paradise.

Creation, fall, salvation, heaven.

I think a lot of Christians don't really know what heaven's like.

Otherwise, you'd be way more excited about it.

Somewhere in our mind, we think heaven is like where there's a bunch of pillowy clouds, some dudes with harps and gals with harps, and there's lots of singing.

There is singing, Robbie, so don't worry, they're still singing.

Right?

It's this picture, and it sounds awful.

It does.

Like some disembodied, like living.

Heaven is the new Eden, the return to the garden, the new creation.

It's gritty, it's real, it's tangible.

You know, when my kids were little, the way I explained heaven was this way.

Heaven is the very best that earth has to offer, and way, way better.

It's the very best.

Like you love breathtaking majestic mountains, you love the ocean, you love pickleball.

It's the very best.

And way, way better.

You can't even fathom it.

It's paradise.

It's what your heart's been longing for and hoping for.

It's the ache of our soul because we live in the shadow of death, and it's him saying, I am restoring and returning and making all things right, where there is no more sorrow, there is no more pain, there is no more sin.

There will be right relationships where people will no longer lie to one another, but they'll love one another.

The biblical salvation story.

And the truth is, is we all need saving.

And we're all trying to save ourselves.

And there's another salvation story at play in our culture because we're constantly trying to figure out how do we fix ourselves and fix what's going on in me and around me.

And that's I want to call actually Mark Sayers, uh Australian uh pastor author calls it the secular salvation story.

And it starts with elements, and it's not that there's some elements that are very true in here, but it's how can I save myself?

The secular salvation story starts with your true self, your inner child.

It's this place of innocence.

It's the belief that humanity is basically intrinsically good.

And the gospel, the Bible actually says that you're made in the image of God in the fall, you actually, we all have a sin nature.

We are image bearers of God, and there's a distortion, and that we actually have brokenness inside us.

That's why every toddler, you never taught a toddler how to lie.

You've never taught a toddler how to say mine.

It's just hardwired in to our DNA.

Secular salvation story says there's this true self-age of innocence, and then trauma, and certainly we've all experienced trauma that's been done to us.

That there's this trauma that robs you of your innocence.

And I just want to be clear, there is truth to that there.

And in the secular salvation story, there is the sin is the binding commitments.

Society that puts its societal pressure norms.

And so if you can just be free of the binding commitments, free of your commitments to your family, of your job, of whatever thing that is holding you back or holding you down, then you will be in paradise.

And there's this rediscovery of your true self.

We talk about it like I'm gonna go find myself.

I need to look within myself.

And we're constantly focused on who?

Ourselves.

The centeredness.

And the end goal is pleasure and happiness.

And again, there is nothing wrong with pleasure and happiness.

It just, friends, is a terrible end and goal.

And here's what Christians do, here's what we do.

We take Jesus instead of being our rescuer, our redeemer, like I can't do any of this, I'm stuck, I need help.

What we do is we we use Jesus like a tool or a technique to rediscover ourselves.

Like a guide.

I don't need good news of what you did, I need good advice.

Just give me some more good advice.

And Jesus says, no, no, no.

It doesn't work that way.

And aren't you tired?

Because the end result of what we're experiencing is so much anxiety and depression and overwhelmedness.

And if it's up to you to save yourself, aren't you exhausted?

And Jesus says, I could take that for you.

I've come for you.

I finished it for you.

John Stott, theologian, says this grace is God loving, God stooping, God coming to rescue, God giving himself generously in and through Jesus.

I love this by the way.

There's two thieves.

There's two responses to Jesus.

We all get a response to Jesus.

Um but the one thief, notice this.

He said, Remember me.

And did you notice what Jesus didn't say?

He didn't say, um, it's too late.

Like, seriously, you're gonna ask now?

Kind of in the middle of something.

Like, what did you do with your life?

I mean, look at you.

Oh wow.

What were you thinking?

He didn't give him a list of to-dos.

He didn't tell him, well, you need to fix this up.

He didn't tell him you've done so many things bad that there's no hope for you.

He didn't do any of those things.

You know what he did?

The minute the thief, the criminal, just said, remember me, he said, today.

Because all that it takes is Jesus, will you rescue me?

And he says, Today you'll be with me.

Grace is God loving, God stooping, God coming to rescue, God giving himself generously in and through Jesus Christ.

Lessons we learn.

And friends, here's the good news.

We live in the shadow of the valley of death.

And the paradise our heart longs for is found in Jesus alone.

That inkling, that longing, that that nudge, that that breathtaking moment, that that moment of transcendence and deepened relationship, that's all pointing to one person, one moment, one longing.

It's Jesus.

Not Jesus plus Jesus.

Just Jesus.

We add so many things to it.

Well, Jesus plus my work, Jesus plus that relationship, and I give it freely.

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

Rescue me.

By the way, this is gonna sound a little funny.

Only needy people experience the rescuing of Jesus.

Until you recognize your need and go, I'm needy, you won't experience Jesus.

And that's many of our problems.

Because we're still trying to save ourselves, still trying to fix ourselves, still trying to say, I can good my way to God, or I can get my way out of this, I can figure out my own paradise.

Only needy people experience the rescuing grace of Jesus.

Jesus, remember me.

I am at my last ditch effort.

I can't go anywhere, and I know I'm moments away.

By the way, we're only guaranteed this moment, we're all moments away.

And Jesus answered him, truly I tell you, today you'll be with me in paradise.

Paradise is interesting, it's it's a Persian word that Jesus used here.

By the way, this kind of little geek fact.

Um the first people to come up with crucifixion were the Persians.

It's funny that he would use this word.

But paradise means heaven.

We often think of it this way, but it also, the original meaning for the Persians was a walled garden of the king.

Think about this.

The criminal says, Remember me in your kingdom.

Like, I don't know how this works, but if there's any chance, I'm just gonna reach out and hope it's my lifeline.

I'm just gonna ask, could I kind of squeak into the kingdom?

Can I get into the back door?

I know I don't deserve it, but can I somehow kind of squeak in there?

And Jesus says this, no, you're not squeaking in, you're not just eeking in.

Today you'll be with me in the king's palace, in the garden of the king.

Because there are no second-class citizens in heaven, and there is no one who just barely got in.

We all are desperately in need of the rescuing grace of Jesus.

See, Jesus gives us far more than we could ever imagine.

He gives us far more than what the thief even asked for.

Like, I just want to try to get in.

And Jesus says, You're with me.

You're with me.

The longing of the soul is for paradise.

C.S.

Lewis wrote this: if I find in myself a desire which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.

I'm a pastor.

I didn't need to tell you that.

But as a pastor, sometimes get like odd receptions or greetings from people, especially in Silicon Valley.

Years ago, um Jenny and I were on a date on a Friday night.

We're walking in downtown Lil Glenn, and we decide to kind of go up to the table.

It's packed out.

We know we didn't have a reservation or anything.

We just gonna see if we can kind of get in a little bit.

And um as we go up, uh we're walking, there's this patio.

I mean, just it's a Friday night, it's packed, it's loud, there's people everywhere.

And all of a sudden I hear this line.

This lady yelling, you can't save me.

I'm like, oh, you can't save me.

And then all of a sudden we see our neighbor.

Thankfully, she's hilarious, by the way.

She's got a great sense of humor.

Um, but she's with a whole bunch of friends that we don't even know, and she just sees me and she's like, you can't save me! And I'm like, oh hello.

And then she's like, um, yeah, hey, this is that uh, you know, uh surfer pastor dude I was telling you about.

The truth is though, all of us get a respond to Jesus in one or two ways.

It's either Jesus save me or you can't save me.

Jesus, rescue me, or I'm gonna keep rescuing myself.

And there's plenty of people in the church who have been working hard trying to continue to rescue themselves, getting a little bit of Jesus, but not saying, I need you.

Rescue me.

And as we close, I just want to give an opportunity.

If you're here and you've never accepted the invitation of a God who loves you, who came for you, who died for you, who defeated death, invites you in and says, today you will be with me in paradise.

The gift of God is eternal life, both now and forever.

I just want to invite you, if that's where you're at, would Jeby, all pray with me, close your eyes, bow your head, and just pray this prayer with me.

Jesus, will you rescue me?

I believe you came for me.

You died for me and defeated the grave that I might have life in you forever.

Would you come into my heart and make me new?

If you wouldn't mind just keeping your eyes closed, and if you prayed that prayer, would you would you just raise your hand so I could know and pray over you?

Amen.

Ah, Jesus, I pray for my friends and those who stepped from death to life.

Who asked you to rescue them and your response is today, not tomorrow, not later, not fix up your life today.

You're with me.

Thank you for the new life.

Thank you for your healing and your hope.

Live with an urgency.

The hurting broken world needs to know your grace and your love.

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