Mark 15:1-47 || The Book of Mark || Pastor Diego Mesa

Father, thank you for the next few moments that we

can venture into your word. We just don't want to

read the Word. We don't want to just read the Bible.

We want the Bible to read us Scot and we

honor you in the next few moments in Jesus' name. Amen,

As we're getting close to wrapping up or in chapter

fifteen of Mark, we've taken this venture the entire year.

We've got one more chapter to go, and the next year,

on Wednesday, we will venture in, as Pastor Adam has said,

into the book of Joshua. And it's going to be

an amazing journey as we see about the children of

Israel and the leader Joshua possessing the land of Canaan.

And so here we are in chapter fifteen. And again

it's a long chapter. And maybe tomorrow or the end

of this week you want to read the entire chapter

for your devotions in the morning or whenever you do

that to get the essence of the whole chapter. But

I'm going to just read a few verses today, So

would you stand for the reading of God's Word? Only

five verses We'll start off with in Matthew fifteen. It's Matthew,

do I say, Matthew, Mark, I'm sorry Mark fifteen in

verse one through five. As soon as it was morning,

having held a meeting with the elder scribes and the

host Sanhedron, the chief Priest tied up Jesus and led

him away and handing it over to Pilot. So Pilot,

which was the governor of Judea, asked him, are you question?

Are you king of the Jews?

He answered him, you say so, And the chief priest accused.

Him of many things.

Pilot questioned him again, aren't you going to answer? Look

how many things they are accusing you of? But Jesus,

but Jesus still not did not answer, And so Pilot

was amazed at the festival. Excuse me, We'll stop there. Okay,

let you maybe seated. We'll stop there.

We'll come back and read many, many other verses. You know,

I was raised at Catholic.

I went to Catholic school for eight years. And you know,

I'm familiar with the Christmas story. I'm familiar mostly with

the Eastern story that was told.

To me back then.

But back then it was more of someone else's story.

It was more of the church story. It was more

of their story.

But in nineteen seventy eight, when I gave my heart

to Jesus Christ, well, we're about ready to read, which

all deals with the last few moments of Jesus's life

leading to the crucifixion. In nineteen seventy eight, that became

my story. And you might be a person like me

that right now, Christianity, faith, Jesus and the Crucifixion is

all about someone else's story. It's just simply a historical story.

It's simply something some ritualistic archive that's talked about at

a certain time of the year. But it's going to

eventually become your story. And I want to talk about

it through seven principal characters or identities that we're gonna

look at and Mark, because every one of those is you,

and every one of those seven characteristics is me, and

in some portion of.

Our lives we have been one of these seven.

So when we read the story of Mark fifteen, which

deals with all that's taking place with the trial and

then the beating and then down the Via.

Della Rosa all the way up to gal Gotha.

And if you've ever been to Jerusalem, anybody shalon people

here today people have gone to Drew.

You know what this road looks like.

It's very narrow, it's on cobblestones, it's on a mount

that takes place, and then Jesus crucified. And what our

challenges as Christians is that we don't become so familiar

with that story that we yawn and we think that

we know it all about it? What does this story

mean to us? What is this story mean to you?

That's what it's all about. What we're about ready to

study over the next few moments. What do we do

with this story? Is this story lived out in every

day of my life? Does this story drive my marriage,

drive how I work, drive how I raise my kids,

drive my lifestyle.

If not, it's just a.

Story, then it's just a ritualistic, ritualistic story, and it's

not personal.

It's someone else's story.

So with that in mind, let's go to the first

character that we want to look at today, and that's

the story a pilot, which we just read in our

opening verses, because we all are pilots sometime in our lives.

We all stand guilty of being pilot. If you ever

read the Bible, and you always and only identify with

the good person in the Bible. Then you probably need

to be humbled a little bit and repentive, because I

don't always want to identify with the good person in

the Bible. I want to identify with the bad person

in the Bible. Not so much to fall under the

guilt or the shame or the condemnation, but I want

to learn because it's in the Bible. These people, and

so all of us, at some time or another, are

like pilot. Notice what it asked pilots, pilots, he pilots.

People.

Pilots are still asking the same question that the original

pilot asked two thousand years ago.

Are you the king of the Jews? And you've got

a bunch of people on your jobs.

In society asking the same question, is Jesus Lord? Is

Jesus God? Is Jesus the Messiah? And yet Jesus is

literally standing in front a punctureus pilot, And yet Jesus

is manifesting his mercy and his goodness on people's jobs,

in their families and in our nation. But they still

are asking this question, is he really king of the Jews?

And that's the way pilots are. I don't know that

pilots are really looking for an answer.

I don't know if pilots are literally looking for an

answer pilots don't have.

When we deal with pilots, we don't have to respond

sometimes to pilots all the time.

The story tells us that.

Pilot asked Jesus a question, and Jesus didn't say anything.

To him the second time.

And sometimes the pilots in our lives need to be ignored.

Not everything, listen to me. Not everything in your life

needs to be talked about. Not everything question in your

life needs to be debated.

Not every question that's asked.

Of you do you need to give your opinion to

Sometimes the best virtue is to keep your mouth shut

up and keep your mouth silent. And Jesus doesn't say

a word to defend himself. He doesn't get baited into

an argument. And how many times have I been guilty

and you've been guilty?

When people are not going to change?

I love Jesus in all that Jesus is. He isn't

going to answer the fool's questions. He's not going to

enter into a debate. May I have that much wisdom

when I am around pilots who don't really want an answer,

who just want to bait me into a conversation, who

just want to fish for information, who want to just

conjure up strife. Come on, somebody knows what I'm talking

about today. Keep your mouth shut, talk to the hand.

I got no opinion. Sorry, you're not get anything from

me and Jesus in this situation. It doesn't matter if

he's the governor of Judea. I'm not answering you nothing.

And may you and I walk in that wisdom when

we feel. You know, there's an old saying that old

people says, you don't enter into a pissing match with

a skunk.

I'm not gonna explain that, just chalk it up. You

won't win.

You ain't gonna win against a pissing match against a skunk.

So don't get baited into these conversations that are hostile,

where people don't really want an answer, and you walk

away more frustrated. Jesus teaches melutely how to do that,

and pilots, pilots which are us too, have a conscience,

but they have no conviction. They have a conscience. The

Bible says, he knew what those religious leaders.

Were all about. He knew it.

But to satisfy the crowd. He was going to turn

Jesus over to them to be crucified. This guy is

not stupid, he's not ignorant, he's not naive. So he

has some level of consciousness. You can have the conscience

which says I know the difference between right and wrong,

but I'm not going to do what's right. That's pilots

in our lives. He has a conscience, but he has

no conviction, because conviction will carry out the right answers.

Here's my quote, it'll go on the screen. Here's a

little quote I want to give you tonight. Consciousness has

no purpose if you are not grounded in a relationship

with Jesus Christ. Everybody's got a conscience. The most immoral, wicked,

ungodly sinner, whatever we were, has a conscience. But that

doesn't mean we're going to obey the consciousness to do right.

It comes to a relationship with Jesus Christ and comes

to a relationship that's within his word. The second person

I want to introduce you to isbis. In verse number six,

it says, and the festival pilot used to release for

the people a prisoner whom they requested. There was one

name Barabbas, who was in prison with rebels who had

committed murder during the rebellion, wanting to set satisfy the crowd.

This is a little bit of that conscious portion. Pilot

released Barabbas to them, wanting to satisfy the crowd. How

many times have I been guilty? You've been guilty of

wanting to satisfy the crowd. I know what I should do,

but the pressure of the crowd is so strong. After

having Jesus flogged or whipped, he handed him over to

be crucified.

How many times can we be.

Guilty of maybe being a pilot, And how many times

can I be guilty and you be guilty of being

a barabbas. Barabbases are just simply known. Barabbases are guilty.

Barrabases are sinners. Barrabases are spiritual and natural criminals, rebels

and murderers and.

Enemies of God. We have all been barabbases.

Here's what the Bible says in Philippians three eighteen. For

I have off and told you, and now say again

with tears, that many live as enemies of the Cross

of Christ. And before you came to Christ, you were

an enemy. Now you may have not thought that way.

You may have not.

Looked at Jesus that way, but that's what the Bible says,

because the Bible says, if you're not for him, you're

automatically against him. In believing Jesus, I was not propagating

the Gospel, I was not pointing people to Christ.

Then you became an enemy of the Cross.

The Bible says this, and Ephesians that at that time

you were without Christ. Before we got saved, excluded from

the citizenship of Israel, foreigners to the Covenant of Promises,

we were people. You may have been rich, you may

have been killed, you may have been educated, you may

have had a lot of followers, but you were without

hope and without God.

In the world.

We were all guilty of being this man Barabbas.

Barabbas.

Barabis understood that day, whether he realized it or not,

that Jesus was becoming his substitution.

He was taking the place of Barabbas.

This was not accidental, This was not initiated necessarily by Pilot.

This is what God had for ordained that day. Barrabis

should have died for his sin, but Jesus stepped in

and he took the place of you. And I and

the Barabbases of this world that were criminals and sinners

and rebellious and hardened hearted. And he came in and

he took our place, and he died so that we

could live. And he was punished so we can be

declared innocent, and he was bound so that we could

be free, and he was judged so that we could

be forgiven. That day Barabbas should have died, we all

should die in our sin and go to hell. But

Jesus said, I will take your place. I will take

your place. When I was growing up, much like today,

you have aluminum cans and plastic bottles, and how many

of you know you can go to the redemption center

and virtually gain get money for that. But when I

was a little boy, you had coke bottles or just bottles,

and they had a redemptive value based upon the size

or the ounces within that bottle. Is there anybody in

my generation that remembers that. Come on, I'd steal them

from the neighbors. I'd go over and you go to

any market and you had like five cent bottles, and

you had like the ten cent bottles. Man, if you

got the ten cent bottles, you were in the money,

because you could do a lot with a dollar. Man,

you could you could feed a family of four, or

at least for kids potato chips and some ice cream

and strawberry soda for a dollar.

Come on now, So so we'd still bottles.

But here here's the reality of cans or plastic or

even those bottles their virtue of they're virtually of no

value to us, but they're of value.

To someone else.

And that which is of no value to us, the

person that declares that there's value will give you something

that's value.

To you for giving it to them.

And that's the relationship between Jesus, Christ and God and

the story of Barabbas. You and I are Barrabbas in

this story that should have died and paid paid for

our sins, but Jesus absolutely took our place.

My question that I have to.

Ask about Barrabas is this, is that what happened to Barabbas?

What do you do when you're literally this guy's in

prison and he's he's moments away from being executed from

either being a thief or robber or murderer or hanging

around a murderous crowd. I mean, he's going through those

last moments. If you've ever seen anybody on death row,

I don't care how bad they are to the bone.

When they realize that there are seconds away, all of

us are very humbled by what's about ready to take place.

That's where Barapas.

Is only to hear him say them telling him you

are pardoned, you are released.

When he walk come on, let's be there.

When he walks out of the prison and says what

just happened, He's like us, We don't fully understand the

price that he paid, the debt that was exchanged between

his son and the father.

We're just overwhelmed.

Was his life changed or did he go back into

the criminal life?

What do we do afterwards, say and been forgiven?

Do we return back to the vile life that we

once lived?

Or are we eternally grateful now? I don't want to

be Barabbas anymore in my.

Life because of what Jesus did for us. The next

verse is found in verse sixteen the third character. The

soldiers led him away into the palace that is the

governor's residence and called the whole company together. The third characteristic,

First we had the we have the pilots. Then we

have the barabbases, and now we have the soldiers, and

we all can identify with being soldiers. Soldiers are people

that follow directions and orders no matter what, without question,

even even no matter what it is, no matter what,

even if it's wrong. They don't want to lose their job,

they don't want to lose their friends, and they don't

want to lose their reputation. We're all guilty of that.

You might you might be guilty of that. On your job.

There might come a time when a boss asks you

to do something. There might come some time when a

husband asks you to do something, or your grown children.

Now that when you become a parent.

And soldiers just follow orders and they don't ask questions.

That say, you know, what should I be doing this?

But if I say, if I say no to.

A pilot, or I say no to the to the

government that's asking me to lead an innocent man to

be crucified, I could lose my job. I don't know

what that means to you. But if there ever comes

a place where you are asked by whomever to deny

your faith in Jesus Christ, You're gonna have to make

a decision. You're gonna have to make a stand. If

someone asks you to embezzle or cheat or lie, you're

gonna have to make a stand. If someone tells you

do not pray in the name of Jesus or bring

that Bible anymore, you're gonna have to make a stand,

or you'll be like the soldier and just simply comply.

I'm just following orders. I don't want to.

Lose my reputation. I don't want to lose friends or

whatever it is. So I'm asking you ahead of time

to think about it. What are my non negotiables in

my faith? You need to decide that today before you're

put in that pressured situation, because most of the time

we probably will succumb to the pressure if we've not

made up that non negotiable beforehand. What will I never

not do for the Lord is a non negotiable in

my faith. The next is the Simons of Syrenes that

we see in this story. They forced a man coming

in from the country who was passing by to carry

Jesus's cross.

He had carried a crossbeam of one hundred pounds.

Historians tell us to some point on that via Della

Russell Road, where he was dehydrated, he had already been tortured,

He was sleep deprived in his frail flesh and gave

out and he collapsed. It just so happens out of

the massive crowd that was there, one man is chosen

out of the crowd.

You and I are that person.

We are the Simon of Sirenes that get the privilege of.

Carrying Jesus's cross. Is it chance a coincidence?

Or have some things been predestined by God to do?

And will I do?

It? Is the question? Is it an accident.

That Simon Sirene is in that exact place, at that

exact moment. Is life about chance? Or does God have

a divine place for you in life? Does God have

a divine people for you to be around? Does God

have a divine plan for you? Or is everything just

a chance where I could say yes, no, no, biggie whatever.

Or is there a devine, something divine about the will

of God?

Something to think about?

What an amazing privilege for him to get that beam

that has this man sweat and blood on it and

put it on.

His back.

And identify with his sweat and with his blood, and

with his mockers and his sneers as he.

Walks side by side with Jesus.

See, the Bible tells me and Luke fourteen, if anyone

comes to me and does not hate his own father

and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even

his own life, he cannot be my disciples. And the

Bible talks about that you and I are commanded to

take up our cross and to follow him.

Simon Simon Sirenes are this.

Because if you read that scripture it talks about it

says Simon of Syene, which is northern Africa. So this

was a black man, it says there in the scripture.

In the Crucifixion.

Amazing in the story, Mark has to tell us that

he had two sons.

Alexander and Rufus. What does that have to do with.

This amazing story around Jesus' crucifixion. It almost seems insignificant.

Simon Soreene is very important in the story, but why

does it mention his two sons. Because the reality is

this is we are all Simon's and I want you

to recognize our fathers. Simon Sarene is a father and

he understands that his actions will affect his children. Drop

the mic slams to slap somebody, hit somebody. Does he

understand that I understand that as a man, that how

I relate to Jesus one way, good or bad or indifferent,

is going to affect my children.

That's what the Bible wants you to know. That.

It wasn't just about carrying the cross. It was about

when he carries the cross, his family will be safe,

his children will come to know the Lord, and they'll

never stop talking about my daddy. That day that helped Jesus.

Not about him being a plumber, an electrician, building a fence,

riding a cowboy horse, killing a deer. I want to

talk about him he carried the cross that day. I

don't know if you can handle this, because you're sounding

so somber tonight.

But I'm gonna attempt to show you.

In Romans sixteen, verse thirteen, Paul would later write, Now

this is a.

Long time after this story.

Greet Rufus chosen in the Lord and also his mother

and mind, God.

What the heck?

What the heck? All because of Simon, Sirreene Rufus is

now a grown man in the Kingdom of God, and

Missus Rufus is saved, and Paul the Apostle, the Great Apostle,

Paul adopted her as.

His spiritual mother.

All because of my man Simon Syrene, who stepped up

and carried the cross for Jesus Christ and took that

mockery and took that persecution, took that humiliation, took that shame.

You call yourself a man following Jesus, a weak man.

I don't need to go to church.

I don't need no Jesus, I don't need no crutch,

because that's the way the world.

Will talk to us as men. Simon Sarnes.

Exactly know what they're doing and recognize the opportunity that

they have and how they want to be remembered. We

almost done. Can you handle anymore? You're ready to go home?

I mean.

In Mark fifteen, verse thirty nine, here's the next character

when the centurion who was standing opposite of him, Jesus

saw the way he breathed, saw saw the way he breathed,

saw the way Jesus breathed. How many of you paid

how many of you pay attention to people's breath? Who

is this guy? We're all centurions. Here's a professional policeman

law officer. High ranking centurion means he's over one hundred soldiers.

Whatever you want to call.

Him, captain, sheriff, colonel, I don't care what you want

to say.

He has at least one hundred soldiers.

This guy is a professional centurion soldier that handles Roman crucifixion.

He's seen hundreds of people crucified. I work in that industry,

and usually officers have seen so much.

They're non bothered.

There's a sense of callousness about them. They feel, but

they don't feel. They have emotion, but they don't show

a lot.

They just seen so much. But here here's the guy.

I don't know how long. You're smarter than me look

it up how often crucifixions would take place, but they

were very familiar during that day.

That's the way Rome punished criminals.

I don't know how many he saw, but I could

promise you this was not his first crucifixion. And yet

he never in his life had seen a man like

that die, never stout professional, non emotional, but he says

this truly, this man was the son of God. Oh

my god, I've never seen a man die that way.

I've never seen a man tortured that way. I've never

seen a man not defend himself, not saying you're.

Doing the wrong. You all going to hell. I'm in

a cit.

He didn't say a word to defend himself. When they

offered him the sponge of the wine to kill him,

to deaden his pain, he rejected it. I don't need

no painkillers.

I'm gonna take it. All. His last breaths was all

about forgive them, for they know not what the who

the are you?

That when he took his last breath, he made a confession,

This proud, prominent atheist man said, truly, this is.

The son of God.

From the centurion are people that are high ranking influence,

who have high ranking influential positions, that are not ashamed

of Jesus Christ. This centurion he saw something, he heard

something that day. He knew something that day, and he

felt something that day that could not be absolutely ignored.

When the snicker, when the people sneered at him and

snickered at Jesus and said, here is a guy that says,

in three days, he'll, he'll, he'll, he'll reveal the temple.

Why can't he help himself on the cross? Why won't

Why don't he come off the cross. It's not that

he couldn't. It's the fact that he wouldn't. There's a

vast difference. Because it'll show on It'll show on the

screen here right now, the oddities that probably this centurion

saw that he had never seen before. And you'll see

on the screen the five oddities that took place around

the death of Jesus. Well, it'll come up right now,

watch us keep watching.

Just keep no audities.

Okay, that's why we need you to give more money

to the building program, because we can't put on the

screen five things. But the Bible tells us. The Bible

tells us that Jesus was crucified. They'll go back in

three historians, non Christian historians talk about the crucifixion of Christ.

Three historians.

People say, well, I'm into science, we'll go back and

study the science. Then this is not having you with

anything about Christian faith. Three natural historians wrote that you

could look at today about this man from Nazareth and

how he died and what happened around his death.

So he got on the cross. They put him on

the cross at nine o'clock.

At twelve o'clock, the things start happening and then he

dies at three o'clock six hours he's on the cross,

suspended between Earth and Heaven. The first thing that happens

is at twelve noon to three, there is darkness.

It is black, absolutely darkness.

How many of you would recognize that at noontime, all

of a sudden it went dark.

That would catch your attention.

Okay, then what begins to happen is that the moment

at three o'clock he dies, there's a giant earthquake that

takes place.

At that moment.

The Bible says that rocks in Jerusalem began to fall

and split in half. That's the third thing that began

to happen. The fourth thing that begins to happen, it

says dead people are raised from the dead and start

walking the earth. How many of you saw your great

great grandmama all of a sudden start walking to this earth.

That catch your attention? That would take place.

And the fifth sign that took place was the veil

in the temple was ripped in two. A thick veil

was ripped from two, not from bottom. It was ripped

from top to bottom, which signified that no man could

just simply do it, which signified that we all have

access to God anymore, that we don't have to go

through a man to get into the holies of holies

or coming to the presence of God, that the Old

Testament had ceased to exist, and that there was a

new Testament of grace that was offered to us. I

believe that that centurion saw some of those things as

well as what he saw about Jesus, and it captured

his attention. Two more points, and we're done, it says.

And there were also women watching from a distance. Among

them was Mary Magdalen, Mary, the mother of James and

the younger Jose or Jose and Saloon. Second to last

were the women. No brothers were around, no men were around.

Lord. We'll never leave you or forsake you. We're for you.

I'll die for you. They're all hiding. It's there.

These women don't flee, they don't leave, they don't abandon,

they don't desert, they don't hide, they don't run from

the Lord Jesus. They are there when it's unpopular, they

are there when it's not fun. It's there when they

don't understand everything, and they're there when it hurts. They're

faithful and dependable, and loyal women during dying moments and

difficult moments and devastating moments. I want to take a

moment because I think Jesus is encouraging women when he

puts this verse here. He's encouraging women in their value,

in their value that these are not ignorant women. These

are not naive women. These are not silly women. These

are not stupid women. These are not women of manipulation.

These are not women of baggage. These are not desperate housewives,

gossip girls, sex and the city women, or bad girls.

These are holy, chaste and righteous women of God. But

to twist on the way society looks at women today,

I've been doing ministry for a while now, and I

can tell you this. I love men, and I think

they're pretty great. And I've had a lot of men

as employees, and I've had a lot of women as employees.

And overall, the women in the ministry have been my

best employees versus the men.

Now, they've been good men.

I'm not saying that, but overall, if I look at

the percentage women have made better employees.

Than men, it says something to me.

And the last one is this one. And we're done.

It says this Joseph of Arimathea was a prominent member

of the Sanhedron, who himself was looking forward to the

Kingdom of God.

Came and boldly.

Went to Pilot asked for Jesus's body. Pilot was surprised

that he was already dead summoning this, and he asked

him whether he was already dead when he found him out.

When he found out from the centurion, he gave the corpse,

gave the body to Joseph, and after he brought some

linen in cloth, Joseph took He took Jesus's body down

and he personally wrapped it in the linen. Then he

laid him in the tomb. His tomb cut out of

a rock, and he rolled the stone against the entrance

of the tomb. We've looked at today that all of

us can identify that sometimes we're pilots, sometimes we're barabases,

sometimes we're soldiers Simon of Cyrene, centurions and women's, but

sometimes we need to be Joseph's of Arimathea. Joseph of Arimathea,

are people who give generously to the cause of Christ. Joseph,

Joseph of Arimathea are people who used their money to

finance jesus message and ministry, and Joseph of Arimathea used

their influence, their stature, and their prominence when needed or

called upon to witness, to promote and to.

Position Jesus's body.

If there is no Joseph and I don't have time

to go into this. Joseph had enough money that he

had a tomb. She didn't have a tomb. He had

enough money for a tomb. To have a tomb, you

had to have some money. Now, okay, the disciples and

the women can't go to Pilot and ask for the body.

It takes a prominent man by the name of Joseph

of Arimathea to go before the strongest man governor and

say I want his body, and Pilot doesn't negotiate with

him and deny him.

He says, I give it to you.

And there are people that need that are in the marketplace,

business people, affluent, people that can do things that some

Christians and preachers can't do, and they are so needed

in the body of Christ to promote the Kingdom of

God and the.

Message of Christ.

And do the work that the Body of Christ so

desperately needs to be done. And it says this in

closing the last verse in Mark fifteen, Mary Magdalen and

the mother Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of Jose, Jose,

whatever you want to say, we're watching where they lay,

where he was laid. No matter how that's how it ends,

no matter how bad it looks, feels or seems in

your life, the story is not over. There is to

be continued, because Jesus is Lord. There's a resurrection coming.

It's pretty sad right now, but it's to be continued. God,

I thank you so much for the beautiful story in

Mark's version around the crucifixion and the seven prominent characters

in this story.

We pray that we.

Identify with every single one of them God, and we

can play a role God, and the good ones God,

and we can learn from the bad ones. We thank

you Lord that as we end chapter fifteen, now got it.

Sometimes it looks dire in our lives, it looks hopeless

in our lives. Sometimes there's deaths in our lives. But

I thank you there's a chapter sixteen, Oh God, And

on Sunday morning there's a resurrection. There is a to

be continued, and I thank you for that to be

continued in the story of people's lives today. Then it

may look this way right now, and it may fill

this way right now, and you may be experienced something

right now.

But if you'll trust the Lord, it's not over.

It's just a comma, it's not a period. It's not

a dead dead end in your life. God will make

a way where there is no other way. We sang

the song. He's a way maker, he's a miracle worker,

he's a promised keeper, he's a light. And that's what

I pray happens to you today. I pray that there

would be a to.

Be continued in your life. God's not done with the situation.

God's not done with your life, and it won't always

be the way you're feeling or experience today. I pray

that supernatural breakthrough. I pray that you would stand strong

in the Lord. I pray that you would be patient.

I pray that you would be vigilant, and I pray

that you would stay in faith in Jesus' name. Amen,

thanks for coming to church. We're going to leave it

right now in a few moments. What I didn't show

you in this story was that there were two criminals

that hung on the left and right side of Jesus

just I mean literally feet from Jesus. One gives his

life to Jesus and the other doesn't. They both see him,

they both hear him, they both can feel him, but

one remains hardened in his heart. I don't need a savior,

I don't need a god. I don't need to be

forgiven of my sins. I could care less if there's

a heaven or hell. Yet the other one is the

polar opposite. I am a sinner and I need to

be forgiven, and I don't want to go to hell.

I want to go to Heaven.

You have to choose the one that you want to be,

the one that rejects or the one that accepts. I

pray tonight you're the one that accepts. Today and today

Jesus looks at you as he looked at that man,

and he said, today you will be with me in Paradise.

That man could have been a thief, a robber, a pervert,

a hormonger his whole life, but he made one righteous decision,

and that one righteous decision change the course of his destiny.

He would never ever have to pay for a sinful lifestyle.

He accepted the substitution of Jesus and now he.

Would be rewarded with heaven.

Boy, what a great outcome for all of us, What

great hope for all of us today. If you've never

accepted Jesus Christ is your Lord and savior, this is

your not You could have been like me again, raised

in religion but never have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Maybe you're a Christian, but you're not living for the Lord.

You're writing the fence and compromise in out, up and down.

Or maybe you're just a Christian that loves God, but

you've never been filled with the Holy Spirit, with the

evidence of speaking of telligen you want everything that God

has for you. When I count to three, I'm gonna

ask you to go like this the same way Jesus,

as we just read, died on a cross naked Martin

Beatens and we deearthed even I haven't been saved all

my life, and those few years that I was unsaved,

I was unashamed of the lifestyle I live. I'm not

here to glorify my sin, but I'll tell you this,

I'd cuss you out in a minute, I'd fight you,

and I didn't win all my fight, but I fight

you in a minute.

I'd fornicate with you in a minute. I'd get drunk

with you in a minute.

Now, all of a sudden, people come to Christ and

they're ashamed of it.

They don't want anyone to see them.

When I was in that way, when I was a sinner,

why should I be that way about my Jesus today?

You raise your hand right.

Now to acknowledge one two, give your life to Jesus.

One two three Raise your hand all across this auditorium

raise it up. One two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen,

god eighteen several hands. Say this with me, Dear Lord Jesus,

you know who I am. You know everything about me.

I can't fool you.

I recognize My goodness is nothing, but your goodness frees

me and forgives me. I ask you now to be

my living savior and to be the lord of my life.

Give me the courage to serve you for the rest

of my life. In Jesus' name.

Amen.

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