Text: Luke 23:35-43
"TODAY YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE"
I must have had a look of disbelief on my face when the police officer pulled me over yesterday on Highway 7. "You were going 75 in a 50 zone, sir," she said. I purposefully looked behind me and then ahead of me to see only yards away a sign that said, "70 Begins". She noticed my look, but did not relent and said, "It's 70 there... but it's 50 here." There was no bending of the rules, there were no exceptions. There was to be no grace. Some of our small groups are studying a book right now entitled, "What's So Amazing About Grace?" In it Philip Yancey states that grace is amazing because it is so scarce in our world. It is so rare in our day-to-day living that when we stumble across it, it is simply amazing. That is why I count it a great privilege to bring to you a message about God's grace - His unmerited favour, his unearned forgiveness - simply because He loves you. I pray that you will leave here today knowing God's amazing grace in your life today. I pray that you will know grace to be real in your life and that even though you may have broken all the rules, He loves you and offers you forgiveness by His grace. We can turn to no better picture, no better living demonstration of grace than to our passage this morning. Here it is in all its godly wonder and beauty, in the midst of humanity's degradation and cruelty. If you have ever wondered what God's grace looks like, if you have ever wondered the extent of God's grace, if you have ever wondered about the breadth of God's grace, if you have ever questioned the application of God's grace, here it is pictured for us. God incarnate, Jesus, dying on the cross, practicing grace. There He hangs on a cross between two thieves. His hands feel like they are on fire from the nails they have driven into them. His ability to breath is becoming increasingly harder and harder. He can feel His lifeblood oozing out of is wounds and trickling down over His brow. He is in deep physical pain. He bears the brunt of the ridicule and the mockery of the crowd and even one of the criminals hurls insults at Him, "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us." And then a most unexpected thing happens - someone speaks out in Jesus' defense. It is the other thief. No one had been paying much attention to him. He had joined the crowd in their ridicule of Jesus but now his ridicule has changed to a rebuke. He has had a change of heart, rebuking the other criminal, "Don't you fear God, since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man had done nothing wrong." And you can you see Jesus, painfully and slowly, turn His head toward the this one who speaks these words of defense. His eyes focus and He sees the thief. The criminal offers a simple prayer, "Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom." And Jesus answers with these words, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."p> This is a picture of grace. Do you see it? Do you see its dimensions? Can you see the wonder of it? Do you see its implications? Can you see why the hymn writer John Newton called this grace "amazing"? Let me explain four truths. I
God's grace is amazing because it extends to all times. God's grace is offered to us when we are born, when we are middle-aged, when we are old and even when we are on the brink of death. This is the testimony of Scriptures. Here is a Christian we read about in the New Testament by the name of Timothy. He is brought up in a godly home. He never knew a time when God and wasn't part of his life, so that at a young age he placed his faith in God's Son, Jesus Christ. He remains faithful to God throughout his life and serves him joyfully throughout. On the other hand here is a thief on the cross, it is the last possible moment, and he utters a prayer of repentance and faith and is snatched from the fires like a burning stick. One day he is a hardened criminal - a sinner of the worst kind - the next day he is walking the streets of paradise. One Commentator writes, "The whole Gospel leads us to believe that both are equally forgiven before God. Both are equally made new and pure by the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, both are now right in God's eyes, both accepted and both will be found at Christ's right hand at the last day."1 To be sure - for those of us who have been in the faith for years, for those of us who have worked for God for years this seems grossly unfair, but this is the truth. And as God said to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and will have compassion and whom I will have compassion." (Exodus 33:19) (NIV) It is a humbling fact. We can claim no self-righteousness before God, not even length of service. "Well, I've bee in the faith for this many years ... but he has only been in a day and you're going to let him into your kingdom?" And God says, "Yes." The truth of the matter is that true faith in Christ, even if it is a day old, declares us not guilty before God as completely as the faith of someone who has followed Christ for fifty years. A Christian who has had faith in God for 70 years will stand with the same righteousness at the day of judgment as the one who has had faith for the last minutes of life. Both are saved by grace alone, both owe all to Christ. But be warned - if you have not repented of your sin and received Christ as Saviour and Lord do not think it is safe for you to put off repentance until the end of your life. If you think this way you are seriously misled. The longer people refuse to obey Christ's voice, the less likely they are to be saved. Scripture says, "Now is the time of God's favour, now is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6:2) (NIV) Few are ever saved on their death beds. In the words of commentator J.C. Ryle, "One thief on the cross was saved, that none should despair; but only one, that no one should presume."2 II
God's grace extends to all times, and God's grace extends to all people. In society's eyes this thief was a despicable man. He was most probably a follower of Barabbas whom you will remember Luke tells us was thrown into prison for insurrection and for murder. (Luke 23:19) Barabbas was slated for crucifixion too, but he was released by Pilate. So here was this man hanging on the cross beside Jesus, a murderer, a rebel, a thief and he is told that a place in heaven is reserved for him. My friends, do not think that you are ever outside the realm of God's precious gift of grace. His grace extends to the highest to the lowest, to the best and to the worst. There is nothing you have done, there is nothing you have said, there is nothing you can do that can remove you from within reach of God's grace. You can think as David thought, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me." You can think that the darkness of your sin will hide you from the grace of God but it will not be possible - for even the darkness is not dark to God, but he darkness is as light to God." (see Psalm 139) His grace extends to all people, no matter what their status, state or stature. Again, for those of us who are secure in God's love, this is important for us to remember. Sometimes we get to thinking that grace is only for us, for those of us who are approved - who live a certain way, who think a certain way and look a certain way, who behave a certain way. And we think grace can't be for them because they aren't one of us. Let each one of us examine our thoughts and thinking here. The truth of the matter is that God's grace extends to ALL people and we believers should not think that it is limited to a certain group of select people. This is important for sharing the faith, isn't it? Sometimes we think of some people as being so far out of reach of God's grace that we give up hope. Here is that uncle we've been praying for - has lived a life of hard drinking and high risk gambling - or here is that neighbour friend, she's just the nicest person you could ever want to meet but she refuses to have anything to do with God and His church. And in both those cases we believers sometimes think that case is hopeless, there is no way God can reach them. There is no way that God will be able to turn that Uncle around, there is no way that God will be able to melt the hard heart of that neighbour. But that's wrong thinking. God's grace extends to all people. And He can reach them; we need to remember that He is the God who is able. He is the God whose grace reached the criminal on the cross. He is the God whose grace reached me, and reached you.
III
It is grace that extends to all people, it extends to us at all times, and thirdly,
it is grace that extends beyond what we ask. The thief says to Jesus, "Remember me when you come into your kingdom." He asks only to be remembered, to be thought of. It's as if he had said, "Jesus in your kingdom I know that all the righteous will have a place and that there will be places of honour for the patriarchs and the prophets and for your twelve apostles. But in that day, Lord do not forget this poor thief who put his trust in you. Show him a little portion, at least, of your loving kindness and mercy." But Jesus answered and said, "Today you will be with me in paradise. Immediately, at once, and first of all, among those redeemed from sin after the death of Christ, he was to be admitted into paradise, the highest of heavens, no obscure place in the suburbs of heaven, but in the very heart of it and at the very side of Jesus. Isn't that the way with God's grace though? We ask for a little piece of bread so to speak, and we end up holding the whole pantry. We ask for God to save this certain person, a he ends up saving the whole family. For years the church prays that the doors of communist Russia would open so we could get some Bibles to the people and what does God do? He opens and door, and a few windows, and eventually tears down the walls and the very foundations of communist thought and rule. Oh, how we need to grasp the fact that our Lord is able to do immeasurable more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us. "Remember me." "Today you will be with me in Paradise."
IV
It is grace that extends to us at all times, it is grace that extends to all people, it is grace that extends beyond all that we ask, and fourthly it is grace that ushers us into the very presence of God. "Today," Jesus said, "you will be with me in paradise." This is the astounding, amazing promise that Jesus gives to each one of us to each one who believes. In Hebrews we read that Jesus is our high priest who lives forever and therefore we read in Hebrews 7:25 that He is able to save completely or forever, those who come to God through Him. If we are saved by grace, we are secure in that grace and we know that that grace will usher us right into the gates of heaven. There is not one passage of Scripture that gives us reason to doubt our own salvation. "I know that my redeemer lives" (Job 19:25) in him I believe. "I know that I have passed from death to life," ( I John 3:14) "I know whom I have believed and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day." (2 Timothy 1:12) I know, I know … that is the way the Scripture speaks in regard to our salvation. My friends if you do not know today that your name is written in heaven, if you do not know if your name is written in the reservation book in heaven, Scripture calls it the "Lamb's book of life", do not sleep tonight until you know it. Philip Yancey writes, "Ask people what they must do to get to heaven and most reply, "Be good." But the teaching and life of Jesus contradict that answer. All we must do is cry, "Help!"3 God welcomes home anyone who will have Him and, in fact, has made the first move already in the person of Jesus Christ. Do not rest until you know that your name is written in the reservation book of heaven. And if you know it, oh, how you can rejoice! It is the most wonderful thing to know that your name is written in heaven. We need not fear death, we need not worry about life beyond the grave. Oh how we can rejoice to know that when we die, "We will be with Jesus in Paradise." There are all those images of heaven with streets paved with gold and gates of pearl. But beyond all these metaphors, beyond all these images of beauty, is the truth that we will be with Jesus, the Lover of our heart, the Redeemer of our soul, the Shepherd who led us to the gate, the Lamb who bore our sin away, the King of kings and Lord of Lords, we will be with Him and see Him face to face. What a day that will be! The author asks, "What's So Amazing about Grace?" We can answer, can't we? God's grace, His unmerited, undeserved favour toward us is amazing because it extends to all times, extends to all people, extends beyond all we ask, and it ushers us right into the presence of God. That's what's so amazing about grace. Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - February 2002
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