On The Brink Of Eternity

I would imagine you have certain fears about who knows what—you know. You know what it is that you fear. It seems like every one of us have certain fears that are just part of who we are. Some of you are dreadfully afraid of heights. To get up on a ladder, climb up on your roof, or to be at the edge of a cliff, no way! Your knees go weak, your mouth goes dry. This is something you cannot do. Others of you, it’s spiders. If you see even the smallest spider, you go into a complete panic, and somebody else has to get rid of it because you can’t—and won’t—get anywhere near it. Some of you it’s closed-in spaces. Getting on an elevator would just maybe make you hyperventilate or something. We all have our fears.

One of the most common fears in humanity is the fear of death, the fear of dying. For many, they are dreadfully afraid of dying because for them to die is to be launched into the great unknown. They have no idea what happens when life here on earth is over, and because of that, they are terribly afraid. One thing that we all know is this: Our life here on earth will not go on forever. We know that by experience because every one of us know loved ones, who were part of our life at one time, that have now passed on. We also know it because that’s what the Bible clearly tells us. The Bible tells us that we are to number our days, meaning that our days do have a number and one day that number will expire. Scripture tells us that we should prepare for eternity because, “…it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”

The book of James tells us that life is but a vapor. It may seem like a long time while we’re living it, but in reflection, many of us who have lived many years can attest to the fact that it’s been really a very short period of time. All of us at some point will face the inevitable fact that our life will come to an end. Though we know that that is a reality, that does not mean that we don’t try to avoid it at all costs. I remember hearing of a guy saying, “I don’t really want to know when I’m going to die, but I do what to know where, and then I am never going to that place.”

I’ll tell you a true story of a friend of mine, this was years ago. We were meeting up for lunch, and he came in with this look on his face like he had just seen a ghost. I asked him, “What in the world’s going on?” He said, “You won’t believe this, but I just had a stranger, a guy I didn’t even know, he just walked right up to me, looked me in the face, and said, ‘I was just shown how you are going to die. You are going to freeze to death.’” That terrified him. I thought to myself, Man, if somebody told me that, I would just think the guy was a nut case and just dismiss it. For him, it was terrifying, partly because he lived in Colorado, which is a state that is frozen half of the year, so freezing to death might’ve been a very real possibility. I don’t know if it was a coincidence, but about a year later he moved to Hawaii with his family maybe to get as far away from any cold place as he possibly could. We do fear death. Even many of us as believers it’s kind of a scary thought.

This morning we’re going to consider our own mortality. Now, we’re not going to look at it in a morbid way, but we’re going to consider the fact that our lives here on earth are brief. We will one day pass from this earth and stand before God. The question is, what will that experience be like when we stand before God? In this Bible passage that we’re going to take a look at in Luke 23, we are going to see three men who are all going to die. The unique circumstance that they’re in is that they knew the day they were going to die, the place they were going to die, and the way that they were going to die. The three of them were going to die side by side on a hill in Jerusalem that we call Golgotha or Calvary.

I want to give you a little background to the story because where we’re going to pick it up is kind of midstream through the telling of this story. Jesus was hated by the religious leaders of His day and they wanted rid of Him, so they determined that they were going to have Him killed. Jesus was arrested and put on trial. The Jews did not have authority to put anybody to death, so they took Him to the one who did have the authority—the governor there in Judea by the name of Pontius Pilate. They brought accusations against Jesus, and Pontius Pilate would examine Him but determined that Jesus not only had not done anything worthy of death, he couldn’t even find any fault in Him whatsoever, so he determined that he was going to let Jesus go. The religious leaders pressured him, and we know the story that he finally consented and handed him over to the Roman guards who would have Him executed by means of crucifixion. Jesus would not die alone that day. There would be two other criminals that would die alongside of Him. They were each made to carry their own cross to that hill outside of Jerusalem, and that’s where we pick it up in verse 32.

Verse 32 says this, “There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. 33 And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. 34 Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.’ And they divided His garments and cast lots. 35 And the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, ‘He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God.’ 36 The soldiers also mocked Him, coming and offering Him sour wine, 37 and saying, ‘If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.’ 38 And an inscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. 39 Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, ‘If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.’ 40 But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.’ 42 Then he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.’ 43 And Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.’”

The crucifixion of Jesus is really the central theme to the entire Bible. The Old Testament is looking toward the time that the Son of God would be born into the world and eventually would be crucified for the sins of the world. The New Testament tells the story in the gospels. Then, after the gospels, it reflects back upon the death of Christ. It really is the central most significant event that has happened in human history was Jesus being crucified for the sins of the world.

The fact that there were two others that were crucified with Him is often just considered a side note, that it was just an incidental detail to the real story which is Jesus. This morning, we are going to take a closer look at those two others that were crucified along with Jesus because they themselves that day knew that their life was over. They were on the brink of eternity, and they would spend those last hours just a few feet away from Jesus. I think in these two individuals we see a microcosm of all of human history and all of humanity, for that matter, that all of us will face our own mortality, and we, too, are in a position of, what are we going to do with Jesus who called Himself the Son of God.

The first thing I want us to notice in this story is the amount of ridicule and mocking that Jesus had to endure. I think it’s kind of staggering to think that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, literally to give His life in order to redeem mankind, but those humans ridiculed and mocked Him mercilessly at the time that He literally was dying for them. There’s a verse in John 1 where John said this about Jesus. He said, “He came into the world, but the world did not receive Him.” Now, that’s a drastic understatement when we consider it. Not only did they not receive Him, many of them wanted Him dead. Even those that weren’t a part of putting Jesus to death were there that day ridiculing and mocking Him.

This ridicule, this mocking, this blasphemy was coming from all angles, I want you to know. It started with the Roman soldiers themselves. They were the ones that had arrested Jesus. They were the first ones to interact with Jesus on that day. If you read the gospel accounts of what they did, it tells us that they took a purple robe and placed it upon His shoulders. Why a purple robe? Because purple was the color of royalty. It was the color that kings wore. And so, they began to mock Him because He claimed to be a king. Placing this royal robe upon his shoulders, they thought, A king. He’s gotta wear a crown. We’ll make Him a crown. We’ll make Him a crown of thorns, and they pressed that upon His head. And, kings carry scepters, so they grabbed a reed and placed it in the hand of Jesus and began to bow down to Him saying, “Hail, King of the Jews,” no doubt laughing as they did it. That wasn’t even the end of it. It goes on to tell us that there were some that decided to blindfold Jesus and then punch Him in the face and say, “Prophesy. If You’re a prophet, prophesy. Who hit You?”

The religious leaders then would take Him to be crucified. When Jesus was hanging on the cross, it was the religious leaders that began to mock and ridicule Him. They made statements like, “You saved others, can’t You even save Yourself? If You’re really the Son of God, if You’re really who You claim to be, well, come down from the cross, we’ll believe in You.” The Scriptures tell us that there were crowds of people that were both there at the cross as well as passers by, people that just happened to be going down the road when this was happening, and many of them began to blaspheme Him also, shaking their heads, “If You’re really the Son of God, then save Yourself.”

Then we get to the two criminals that were on the crosses on Jesus’ right and on His left. That’s part of the story that we have here is the telling of the mockery that came from them. This is interesting to me because you would think because the three of them were all facing the same fate—they were all going to suffer that day, they were all going to die that day—that there would be some sort of camaraderie that would be between the three of them. They were all going to experience the same thing, and when you’re going through something that severe, especially with somebody else, you want that mutual support. You would imagine that they would be encouraging or supporting each other during this process, but that was just not the case.

In Matthew’s account it actually tells us that both of the criminals were ridiculing and mocking Jesus. Here in Luke though, it doesn’t tell us both of them were, it tells us that one of them was. That might sound like a contradiction, why is it that one gospel tells us one thing and another gospel tells us another thing? Some have pointed to this as an example of a biblical goof in that we can’t really trust the Bible because it’s not reliable, it’s got contradictions in it, and this is one of those things that is pointed out. In reality, there’s no contradiction here. The truth is is that initially both of these criminals were hurling insults at Jesus, but one of these criminals at some point during the crucifixion had a change of heart. We’re going to look at his change of heart as we take a look at this passage. We’ll get to that in a moment.

I want you to see how the first criminal was ridiculing Him. It tells us in verse 39. He has already heard the religious leaders mocking Jesus. He has heard the crowds mocking Jesus. He probably was aware of the Roman soldiers mocking Jesus because Jesus, by that time, was very swollen and bloody at the hands of the Romans, but now he himself chimes in, verse 39, “Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, ‘If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.’” In other words, “If You’re really who You claim to be, nobody else thinks that You are, apparently, then why don’t You come down from the cross. Save Yourself, and while You’re at it, why don’t You save us, too, because this isn’t exactly what we wanted either.” “But the other,”—had a change of heart—“answering, rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.’”

Suddenly, he is rebuking a one he formerly agreed with, and he’s turning to Jesus for help. What brought about the change? What made him go from being a mocker of Jesus to a believer in Jesus? You know, there are many that have gone before us that have found themselves doing the exact same thing. Those that had one time in their life were ridiculing Christianity, mocking the faith and Jesus, thinking that it was ridiculous to believe such things and then later in their life they, too, became followers.

Back in the 1930s there was a man by the name of Frank Morrison. He was not a believer and actually was very anti-Christian. He determined that he would write a book dispelling the notion of Jesus rising from the dead, just disprove it. He figured, “I could put an end to Christianity right now, all I have to do is look at the historical account and all the details and show in a book how this just did not happen.” So, Frank Morrison went about to do his research so that he could write his book, but the more he researched it, the more he became convinced that this was actually a historical event that took place in the first century and that it was actually true. He wrote a book, but it was not the book that he intended to write. He titled the book, Who Moved The Stone? The title of the first chapter of his book was this, “The Book That Refused To Be Written.” He begins the book by telling the story of what he intended to do, and he found he couldn’t do what he wanted to do, and it actually changed his life.

In the 1960s there was another man who did a similar thing. His name was Josh McDowell. He determined that he wanted to disprove Christianity, write his own book to show the world that this is a bunch of nonsense. He did his research and studied and studied. The more that he studied, the more he determined that what he wanted to disprove actually looked more true than he originally believed, and he wrote a book. It was called, Evidence That Demands a Verdict. Some of you, I’m sure, have read it, where the man who wanted to disprove Christianity became a Christian himself.

In the 1990s there was another man who was an atheist and a skeptic and his wife became a Christian, which he thought was the worst thing ever, “Now, I’m actually married to one of those kooks!” He decided that he would do his own research and write a book disproving the Christian faith so he could show his wife that she needs to give up this ridiculous notion. He was a Yale graduate, he graduated from Yale Law School, so he was a smart dude. In addition to that at the time he was working as a journalist for the Chicago Tribune, so he decided, “I’m going to take my skills as a lawyer, and I’m going to take my skills as a journalist and I’m going to combine those skills to write a book showing my wife and the world that Christianity is just a bunch of hooey!” The more he researched, the more he himself became convinced that his wife is right, that the Bible is true, and he wrote the book, The Case for Christ.

This thief didn’t have any opportunity or chance to do any research to determine the historical, factual evidence of the Bible and of who Jesus was. He was hanging on a cross. He didn’t have much time to live. We need to ask ourselves, “Well, what was it then that caused him from being a mocker to actually being a believer?” He couldn’t determine the evidence, but what he could do is have an interaction with Jesus that would change his life. In those few hours in just seeing how Jesus handled Himself, it would change his opinion. How would that happen? Well, you gotta imagine, when Jesus was carrying His cross, walking down the road with these two other thieves, each bearing their own cross, Jesus was already so badly beaten that He was half dead already. That was something that likely these other two thieves never had to face, at least to the severity that Jesus did, so much so that Jesus wasn’t even able to make it to Calvary with His cross, someone had to be made to carry Jesus’ cross because He was so weak at that point, He couldn’t carry it the rest of the way.

If it wasn’t enough for all of the beatings that He took that this thief was very well aware of, as Jesus is nailed to that cross and hoisted up, here are all these insults coming Jesus’ way. This thief is hearing Jesus insulted by the religious people, by the crowds, he apparently is aware of what the Roman Soldiers had done to Him, and now he’s listening to his buddy on the other side of Jesus hurl insults at Him as well and how does Jesus respond to that? You’ll notice in our text, verse 34, Jesus said this, “Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.’” This must’ve blown this guy’s mind because he had never seen another human being react the way that Jesus was reacting. How would a normal human being react to being pummeled, hung on a cross, and then ridiculed and mocked during the process? Would they not be angry? Would they not defend themselves? Would they not hurl insults back? That would be the natural human response, but Jesus doesn’t respond that way. Instead, He responds with an attitude of forgiveness, of grace, of mercy to those that were His enemies.

We also read another statement that Jesus made when He was there on the cross. If you remember, His own mom was there at the foot of the cross seeing her Son die. John, the apostle, was next to Mary. Remember what Jesus said? He looked down upon them and said, “Mother, behold your son; son, behold your mother.” It was Jesus’ way of saying, “John, will you take care of my mom now?” He wasn’t thinking of Himself, He was thinking of others, and all the while here is this thief who is watching how this Man conducts Himself. I believe that those were the very things that had convinced him that Jesus was not any ordinary Man, that whoever He claimed to be, that is who He actually is.

In fact, if we just simply look at how this man spoke in verses 40-41, we see several things that were very apparent about this thief. First, he knew that he was a sinner. It tells us that in verse 41 when he acknowledges that it was right that he was hanging on that cross. He was getting what he deserved. Second, he knew because of his sins he deserved judgment. That also is found in verse 41. Verse 41 as well tells us that he understood that Jesus was not deserving of what He was receiving, that Jesus Himself was without sin and that Jesus was a King and had a Kingdom.

Now, put all that together and you get a picture that those few hours…and understand this, the time on their cross spanned about six hours. We’re told that it was about the third hour of the day, which is nine o’clock in the morning, that they were nailed to the crosses. It was about three o’clock in the afternoon when the bodies were taken down from the crosses, so for those six hours, this man went from being a mocker to being a believer somewhere in the middle.

The way that Luke tells the story, it seems like it was about three hours into the crucifixion that this change of heart happened for him, largely because Jesus was so different than anybody he had ever met before. He stopped mocking, and he began to make a request. Verse 42, “The he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.’” That’s all he said, “Lord, can You please remember me.” He knew he was a sinner, he knew he deserved to be judged for his sins, he knew that Jesus was not a sinner but that He was a King and had a Kingdom, and that His Kingdom was not of this world. That was enough for him to turn to Jesus and say, “Jesus, please remember me.” He might not have known anything beyond those things, but we do know that he knew those things, and Jesus responds to him in verser 43, “And Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.’”

That word “Paradise” is only found three places in the New Testament. It’s found in a statement that the Apostle Paul made in 2 Corinthians when he was retelling about a vision that God had given him where he was taken from earth, brought up to the third heaven, which he called the paradise of God, and he saw things that he can’t even talk about. In Revelation 2, Jesus, in the letter that He wrote to the church of Ephesus, made mention of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. We find out later in the book of Revelation that that tree of life is in the Kingdom of heaven, so we know that when Jesus mentioned “Paradise” here to this man, “…today you will be with Me in Paradise,” He was making a reference to heaven.

Do you know what’s amazing about this young man is that there wasn’t anything that he could do to earn his salvation. I mean, he was within hours of losing his life hanging on this cross. He had no chance to be baptized. He had no chance to go to a church. He had no chance to read a Bible. He had no chance to do any good works. He had no chance to be confirmed. He had no chance to do any of those things. All he could do was believe, and according to Jesus, that was enough. He placed his faith in Christ, and Jesus was able to say to him, “…today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

The gospel of John tells us this, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” Two things are mentioned in that verse: believe and receive. On that cross, while he was dying, he did both. He believed in Jesus, and he received Christ into his life by simply saying to Jesus, “Jesus, please remember me when You come into your Kingdom.”

Let me ask you this, what were those last three hours on the cross like for this man? Did his pain suddenly go away? Did all of the affliction he was feeling because he was nailed to a cross suddenly disappear and instead he just felt awesome? I don’t believe so. He was still feeling the pain of what crucifixion inflicts, just like the thief on the other side of Him. Sometimes we have this idea that giving our lives to the Lord suddenly removes any problem or pain or struggle or anything in our lives that would be distasteful that suddenly it vanishes, Jesus just removes it all. I’m telling you, that’s not the truth. This guy, who is now a Christian, is hanging on a cross not far from another who has rejected Christ, yet they’re still facing the same torment, the same struggle.

What did change, though? I’ll tell you a few things. First, now he had peace with God. Romans 5:1 tells us that we who believe, “…having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” He might’ve been feeling the pain still, but there was peace in his heart. He might’ve been having the outward struggle still, as many of us do, but on the inside he knew, “I now am right with God.” Do you know what else he knew is that he was not going to be condemned by the Lord. Romans 8:1 tells us that if anyone is in Christ, they are not going to be condemned, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” Though he was being condemned by the world, though he was reaping the consequences of his own sins, what he knew is that once my life is over, I will stand before God and I will not be condemned. I will be forgiven. He also knew that there wasn’t going to be anything that would ever separate him from the love of God. Yes, I’ll feel pain for a few more hours, but nothing will separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, the end of Romans 8 tells us. Did all of his struggles go away? No, but he had peace with God. He knew he was forgiven. He knew that the love of God would sustain him.

He would have to hang on that cross for a little while longer, but while he hung there, he heard Jesus make some statements. Statements like, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” I don’t know if he understood what that really meant, but what that did mean is that in that moment, the sins of that thief was placed upon Jesus. By the way, your sin and mine was placed upon Jesus in that moment, too. As God the Father turned His back on His Son and allowed His Son to bear the full brunt of the punishment for the sins of the world, that’s why Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me.” Moments before He would die, Jesus said this, “It is finished. It is paid in full. I’ve paid it all.” The last statement that Jesus would make on that cross that, no doubt, this thief heard was, “Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.” Then, Jesus bowed His head and died.

That thief would live a little bit longer on that cross, but the time would come when the Roman soldiers would show up again because they wanted to take down the dead bodies before the sun set because it was Passover at that time for the Jews. They found that Jesus had already died. Both of the thieves were still alive, so they broke their legs.

I don’t know if you know much about crucifixion, but most of those that were crucified did not die due to exposure or blood loss, they literally died from suffocation because the only way for a person being crucified to breathe is to push up on the nail going through their feet. That would allow them to expand their lungs and then they would breathe out, which then would rest onto their hands again. Much of the torture of crucifixion is the pain being transitioned from your feet to your hands, to your feet, to your hands, as you tried to breathe. But with broken legs, they no longer could push up on their feet to gain a breathe, so they would suffocate soon after, which is exactly what happened.

That thief who had given his life to Christ there on the cross would breathe his last. He would close his eyes on earth and then he would open his eyes in heaven, probably staring at the smiling face of Jesus who said, “I told you so.” What an awesome thing that here is a man, I don’t know what kind of life he lived other than the Bible simply tells us he was a thief, a criminal, he hadn’t lived his life right. He didn’t even have time to fix his life, but Jesus fixed it for him because he believed, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom.” “You will be with Me today in Paradise.” And so, it was.

What about that other thief? All we hear is his voice mocking, ridiculing. There’s a stark contrast between these two thieves. Maybe in life they did the same things. Maybe in life they were buddies since third grade—we don’t know—and just constantly got into trouble until they finally began to do things that got them put on these crosses. We don’t know their story, but what we do know is that they were similar in that their actions were putting them on crosses. This one who rejected Christ seems to only be concerned with the here and the now. We learn that from his statement when he was mocking Jesus, “If You are who You say You are, save Yourself, and us, by the way. If You can get Yourself down from the cross, then do it, and get us down here, too.” His whole attention on Jesus, asking anything of Jesus is, “Jesus, fix my problem right now.” It wasn’t a thought of any eternal help, it was, “I need help right now.”

The truth of the matter is I think a lot of people turn to Jesus for exactly that. They’ve got a problem in their life right now, and they cry out to God, “God, I need help. I need You to fix this right now,” but they’re not really concerned with eternity, they just want their life to be fixed right now.

The other thief though, his request has everything to do with eternity and nothing to do with now, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” Obviously, Jesus’ Kingdom was not here on this earth, He was hanging upon a cross Himself. He was about to lose His life Himself, so this man knew that Jesus’ Kingdom is after death and, “Jesus, please make me a part of Your Kingdom then.”

What a contrast between these two—one is only concerned with now, the other one is concerned with his eternity. In John 3, we’re told, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” That verse actually describes these two thieves. The one who believed was not condemned; the one who did not believe was already condemned. They would both die on those crosses next to Christ, the rejecting thief though, his life on earth was as close as he would ever get to heaven; the believing thief, his life on earth was as close as he would ever get to hell as he was ushered into the Kingdom of heaven in paradise with Jesus, and the other would die in his sins.

Three men died that day, but each of them died in different circumstances. Jesus, the Son of God died for the sins of the world. The rejecting thief died with his sins on his own head. The believing thief died with his sins placed upon Jesus’ cross, so he died forgiven.

I said in the beginning that this picture of these three crosses on that hill in Jerusalem is a microcosm of all of humanity because every one of us in here today we are like one of those two thieves. We have sinned against a holy God. We are deserving of the judgment of God. The question is, how are we going to respond to Jesus? One thief absolutely rejected Him, the other embraced Him, which meant that one was forgiven and the other was not.

There was a man that lived back in the 1700s named William Cowper. He was raised in a Christian household, but his upbringing was pretty rough. He went through a lot of hardship, and that hardship soured him to the thought that there was a God who cared about him. At one point in his life, he threw his Bible away and attempted suicide. He would survive that attempt. After the attempt, he came into contact with a Christian man who began to minister to him, and he gave his life to the Lord. Later on in his life he wrote a hymn of praise to God. It’s not a hymn that we sing very often. Some of you might be familiar with it, but I would imagine most of us don’t know the lyrics of that hymn. I want to share them with you because it makes reference to this thief on the cross.

There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away.

I know some of you are forgiven, but there might be some of you in here that have, up to this point, rejected Christ. All of us one day, our life on this earth will be over. What we do with Jesus will determine what our eternity will be. As we close, I want to give you an opportunity to give your life to Christ, if in fact you have not done that. Let’s pray.