Transcript

Good morning, church. It's really great to see you. I'm so thankful you're here. Today. We're in part three this morning of meditations on the cross.

We've been going through the stories around the cross and really considering what Jesus has done for us in that powerful moment, that moment in time that really separated time, if you will. That moment that is the climax of the biblical story, the. Well, just before the climax, you could argue Easter is probably the ultimate climax, the resurrection, which we will celebrate together next week. But we're looking at this from a lot of different angles. And today we're asking a question about that, and that is, which side of the cross are you on?

Which side of the cross? We're going to be looking at that famous story of the two criminals beside him on the cross. And this is not your typical kind of story because normally when you welcome a king into town, you don't immediately in the same week try to kill him. This is a very unusual story. We just celebrated Palm Sunday with the children, where they came in waving palm branches to kind of model what it would have looked like that day, where hundreds of people were throwing branches at his feet as he rode into town like a king on the back of a donkey, on the back of a colt.

And this was a triumphant moment. We call that the triumphal entry. And the people are shouting, what? Hosanna. Glory in the highest.

This is the king. And they're coming in like that, and they didn't even get it to the next Sunday. By Friday, they're shouting, crucify him. This is an unusual story. And the people, the criminals on the cross really modeled the people themselves, that they took sides and they didn't know which side to be on.

And a lot of people were tempted and were later found to be shouting, crucify him, rather than he is our king. Now we live in a divided country, really. And I would argue that humanity has really always been this way. Maybe we're just a lot more aware of it right now. It seems like if you watch any kind of news, you're going to see very polarizing stories where it seems like we're nowhere in the middle.

This idea of middle ground has seemed to really go away. And I think there's been some truth to that throughout human history. There's nothing particularly new now, but when it comes to the cross of Christ, this, I would say, has always been true, that the gray area is not very gray. You're either black and white on the topic, and you're divided perhaps even in your family, you may be divided. Which side do you choose now it's the 24 march, and so this is a good time of year to be talking about some division.

There might be some division in your very household right now as you watch march madness together and pick sides. Some of you had heartbreaking days this week. Ricky. I've been praying for you, brother. What a week for Kentucky and a lot of people.

You weren't alone. Hard week for so many. And a lot of people coming out of the woodwork. It seems like when your team loses and anybody else knows about it, they just want to get in your feed and tell you all about it. You feel that love.

And this is the kind of thing we're used to. I went to East Carolina University for school, and it didn't take me long to figure out. There's some things you need to know in order to rightly celebrate your team. And I'll know who in the room is truly a pirate fan by simply this phrase. And that's a first down.

Come on, man. I know you're a pirate. You're leaving me hanging over here. Pirates are. That's our first.

And I remember as a freshman hearing that going, and people are chanting stuff. I'm like, I'm out of place. I'm in big trouble. I'm wearing the purple, guys. Don't hurt me.

I got the golden purple on. But we learn these things. It's important to know whose side you're on. We learn how to rightly cheer. And I can remember growing up, we had cheers in my very home.

Like, we would watch Sunday football with my dad, and he had these little balls that these little bitty, tiny, squishy footballs. And anytime our team scored a touchdown, we got the opportunity to do a running catch into the couch. It's like we're praying for our team to score so we could do this. Like, he would throw them as high as he could to see if we could really hang out. We learned how to celebrate our side.

We learned how to pick it. Now, interestingly enough, I think many of us are living more like another story. In the Lord of the Rings, there's these hobbits that encounter these talking trees. And some of you are like, I'm checking out already. That's why I've never watched that.

But these trees are called ints, and one of them is named Treebeard. And I'm a nerd, of course. I love this story. And the Hobit later asks Hobbit Pippen is his name? He asks, whose side are you on?

And Treebeard replies, side? I'm on nobody's side because nobody's on my side. And I think that's a lot of humanity. That's, I think, how a lot of people feel. He thought he could avoid taking aside later on.

You'll see in the story, he discovered that death and devastation was coming his way and he had no choice but to choose aside. You might be here today thinking, I've heard this palm Sunday story before. I've heard a little bit about the cross of Christ. I don't know if it's important. I don't know if I should be moved by this story.

Even Christians in the room sometimes, we're like, we do this every year. Like, why are we doing this year in and year out? Whose side are you on? Are you saying I'm on nobody's side because nobody's on my side? Maybe you're looking at your life and going, I can't tell that anybody's with me.

The Bible says for those who love him, he is working things, all things out for the good of those who love him. And you might be thinking, I haven't observed that. I don't know who's on my side. The truth is, the question is, whose side are you on? His name is Jesus.

He died in our place. And that's the question we're going to wrestle with today. None of us were in Jerusalem on this day that Jesus makes his triumphant entry and none of us were there as he hangs on the cross some 2000 years ago between those two criminals. But let me tell you this, we're just like the people of that day. We're just like the criminals on the left and the right.

And the question is, what will you do? Which side of the cross are you on? In the gospel according to Luke, where we're going to spend time today, Luke chapter 23, we see the apostle recording that Jesus was crucified between these two criminals, one on the right, one on the left. You've seen the famous image. Both of these criminals were facing death, and rightly so, both seeing and hearing how Jesus faced death.

Yet you will see, as we read the text that they had very different opinions of the man in the middle. Very different opinions. They chose very different sides. I wonder, which side are you on? Let's read the text and see how this decision affected them criminals and how it now affects us.

Luke, chapter 23, verse 32. And on two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with him and when they came to the place that is called the skull, there they were crucified with him and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by watching.

And the rulers, they scoffed at him, saying, he saved others. Let him save himself, if he is indeed the Christ of God, his chosen one. The soldiers, they also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine. Save yourself, they said, if you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was also an inscription over him.

This is the king of the Jews. Now, one of the criminals who were hanged railed against him, saying, are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other rebuked him, saying, do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed, justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.

And he said, jesus, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he said to him, Jesus said, truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. It was now about the 6th hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the 9th hour, while the sun's light failed and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus calling out with a loud voice, said, father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And having said this, he breathed his last.

Now, when the centurion saw that, taking what had taken place, he praised God, saying, certainly this man was innocent. God bless the reading of his word. Amen. There's really three ways to look at this cross, three views to look at the cross of Christ.

1. The tragedy of the cross.

Now, we spoke a couple of weeks ago about just the awful nature of the cross upon Jesus himself. But that's not what I'm speaking to today. Here. We're looking at two different sides of one story, and one of them is a terribly tragic story. The tragedy of the cross is that there are two men who really represent me and you.

And these two men had very opposing views. Both of them looked at the same Jesus, were on the same hill, had committed similar crimes, and had completely different outlooks about forgiveness and about who this man in the middle was. The Bible tells us here in Luke that they're criminals. The greek word there is kakorgas, which is one of those words. You may know it means evil, though, in the Greek, but it's evildoer.

It's criminal. Matthew and Mark also tell us that they were robbers. They give us a little bit more detail into the story that they were thieves. And not just any kind of thieves. It could have chose a word there in Matthew and Mark to describe.

Just know Eclepto, as we call it. No, it's a different greek word there to describe. These are probably like highway robbers. They're in some sort of probably gang of guys that keep robbing people. And so they're rightly being crucified for their deeds.

That's who's on the left and the right. And one of them just completely rails Jesus here. He joins in to the temptation of the moment, that the soldiers are doing it, the people are doing it. They've been hearing all day, crucify him. Crucify him.

The soldiers are taking his garments. Now, we don't know for certain, but there's likely three men up there hanging without clothing. It is extremely, not just painful, but shameful, and I don't like to think of that. But it is probably true that they've divided all of his clothing. He is up there exposed and beaten and dying.

This is awful. Awful what's occurring here. And in the midst of that tragedy, it's already a tragedy. One of them chooses worse tragedy. Do you see it?

He refuses to believe that Jesus was lord here. He rails him. It says the word there, for rail is a word we know. It's blasphemo. Blaspheme.

And that's where we get blasphemy. Of course, he reviles him. He speaks evil of him. That's there in verse 39. In verse 35, we see the people standing by these jewish leaders who didn't believe they're railing, and they're scoffing at him.

It says, the rulers there scoffed at him, saying, he saved others. Let him save himself. If he's the Christ of God, he's the chosen one. So you've got the criminal choosing that side. You've got the jewish leaders choosing it.

You've got the Romans here, the soldiers on site, dividing his clothing, mocking him. It says, if you are indeed the king of the Jews, save yourselves. You can post a couple of images for me real quick. This obviously is a scene you've seen many times, but sometimes you don't consider the fact that above every criminal hung was going to be something posted above them. We don't often see the other criminals, and I don't have a picture of this, but the other criminals would have had something posted, too.

Hey, here lies Jonathan, the dirtbag thief that would have been on one of those guys, possibly above Jesus, though, strangely enough, is this written. And that may be difficult unless you know either Hebrew, Greek or Latin, but that's what was written on his post. And it says simply, jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews. The middle line might be the easiest for you there. In Latin, you'll see Jesus Nazareth.

Rex, where's king? And anyway, you jewish? Jewish? I don't do Latin. I do Greek and Hebrew.

But anyway, this is what's written above him. And all three of those things are written. In fact, it says in John, chapter 19, verse 20, that many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew, Greek and Latin. He wanted to make it clear when Pontius Pilate had this put above Jesus's head, I don't care who shows up, you're going to know who this guy was. I think perhaps because Pilate felt.

He felt dirty by the whole moment, because he's really given them an opportunity to choose someone else. They had a habit of, you can choose another criminal and maybe set this man free. And so I believe they beat him and they flogged him and all this stuff so that maybe when they presented him to the people, the people would go, okay, that's enough. That's enough what you've done to Jesus, because you and I both know the people knew. Pilate knew, this man's not done anything.

He's innocent of all crimes. So he presents them, and they still shout, give us Barabbas. Give us this terrible criminal who was guilty, just so you know, of murder and of inciting riots, too. Very, very high on the list of why Romans might crucify a person. No, give us Barabbas.

Get rid of Jesus. That's what they cried on Good Friday. Isn't that amazing? And so Pilate says, I washed my hands of this. That's why he posts this.

In fact, in another scripture, it says, Pilate said, I wrote what I wrote because the Jews were like, he's not the king. He's not our king. You can put on there that he said he was the king. But Pilate said, I wrote what I wrote, and it's staying. So I think he's upset by the whole event, the injustice of the whole event.

I don't know that there was any heart change in Pilate. I have no idea. But what he knew and what the people knew was, here's an innocent man crucified and now hanging there, Jesus, king of the Jews. Getting mocked by all of these people, including, and I think the saddest, the tragedy of them all is the man hanging next to him. Now, this is just one to one with a lot of our stories.

All right? Some of you are in a real mess right now. You were in a real bind. And what's sad about that is we have a tendency to compound that with worse. You tell one lie, and you get kind of caught in that lie.

So then you tell some more lies, and you just compound the tragedy over and over and over. And that's what this man, this poor, poor criminal has done here. And what is Jesus's response? This is a really sad response. He gets none.

No response. Isaiah 59 says, but your iniquities have separated you from your God. Your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear.

This all looked real foolish to this man. He thought, this is silly. This poor guy, he's getting the same torment as us and has no power to do anything about it. To him, it was all foolishness. Paul writes to the Corinthians, in fact, this very thing, one Corinthians, chapter one, it says, I know very well how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those who are on the road to destruction.

But we who are being saved recognize this message as the very power of God. Two different men, a whole lot of different people in the audience, and they saw this as what a fool, that he would do all of this and get himself killed. But one person there, and there was a few others. Mary was there, the apostle John, the disciple was there. Now, I think in that moment, they didn't really know what any of this meant, but one man.

One man got it, and it's this criminal, amazing, actually, the grace God shows him in this moment. In literature, we call what's happened in this event. We call this a double tragedy. A double tragedy where one tragedy leads to a far worse one. Shakespeare does this a lot.

If you study any of his plays. If you read stories like Romeo and Juliet, for instance, it portrays one of the most famous double tragedies there is, and that is Romeo comes seeing Juliet, thinking her dead, and kills himself. That's tragic. The double tragedy is that now she sees him dead and kills herself. That this story is compounding the awful things over and over, and this is common in a lot of literature.

I thought of a story that, again, let's just go ahead and put the check in the bank for my nerd dumb today. But I thought of this story, of the Star wars story, and that is the idea that Anakin goes on to be Darth Vader. I'd ruin that for y'all. I know these movies have been out forever, so get with it. But he goes on to be Vader.

And the way in which this happens is he starts having these dreams that his wife is going to die, and he starts having these terrible nightmares. And the Sith lord, the dark God, the bad guy, goes on to be darth sidious. You're learning so much now. The emperor, he begins to feed him lies and saying, hey, if you'll come over to the dark side, you can save her. We have the power over here to raise the dead.

We have the power over here to prevent death. And this is very appetizing to him. So he goes evil, and then the very decision to go dark is the very decision that leads him to kill his own wife by. He does, like a force choke kind of thing. You all have to watch the movie anyway, but it's devastating, actually.

It's really sad if you just think about the premise underneath it, that the very thing he was trying to avoid, he makes happen. This is really the Oedipus Rex story told all over again. If you know that story, that this double tragedy and that's what's happening in our lives, that's what's happening in this criminal's life. We are guilty of the crime. We deserve the death.

And in that very moment, we make fun of the savior.

That's a far worse tragedy. Hey, look, I'm guilty. You know what? I'm fine with this, too, church. I'm able to come before you and say, I am not okay.

I am not perfect. I think and say and do things I wish I wouldn't. And I have done those things for many years now. I bet if I was to ask my parents, they would say, hey, you've been doing that since we remember you talking. You've been doing some bad stuff.

And some of you are like, well, I've done some even worse stuff. Well, none of us have done anything worse than what might hang a man on a cross. We're all right there, guilty as he is. The question is, what do you think about the guy in the middle? Imagine a moment.

Imagine you're given the moment, church, to say, I am guilty of the crime, yet I know the guy in the middle, and he says, today you'll be with me in paradise. We don't have to live the double tragedy. It will be your story if you choose the second worst evil. That's the question. How do you view it?

Which side are you on? Do you see the cross like this first criminal? It's foolishness. It's bloody, it's offensive. I don't know how it means anything to me.

What is the cross to you? Do you want to compound your guilt by rejecting the savior? We've been given a way out. This is the glory of the gospel, is that humanity no longer has to live out this double tragedy. He's done something about this.

Here's the second picture, the second moment here that happens at the cross, and that is

2. The triumph of the cross.

Looking at two different criminals, one, there's terrible tragedy. The other is an amazing triumph, almost senseless one for those of you in the room who think logically and reasonably. And maybe I've noticed a lot of kids come out of the womb with this fairness thing in mind.

It's like immediately they know this is fair and this isn't fair. And I don't think we really grow out of that. When we see anything happen in our world around us, we go, well, that's not fair. And yet in this moment, God does something ridiculous. He says, I'm going to go ahead and save this guy over here.

I'm going to go ahead and set this guy free. This other criminal hearing what's going on, decides to rebuke the other criminal. Now, what's happened here? I want to give you a little bit of details here, because this might not even have been a question you asked, but I love you, and so I want you to know the details. And Matthew and Mark, it tells us that both criminals reviled him.

And some people look at these two testaments and go, well, there's a contradiction in the Bible. Well, there's a lot of these, actually, there's a lot of places you can go and go. And I'm not saying that those opinions are just totally illogical. They're actually logical arguments. But there's a lot of ways to look at it and go, okay, but there's a way to resolve this issue.

Matthew and Mark tell this story about how they've been hung there together and that everybody is picking on Jesus, and both the criminals are doing it, too. And I think they're telling you the truth. Why? Because I believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God. What Luke is telling us is there's more to the story that it began with everybody picking on Jesus.

But something begins to affect one of these criminals. A lot of stuff is said on the cross. A lot of stuff begins to happen. And it seems to have changed one of their hearts. Just before.

Luke is careful to tell us that Jesus has just said to people who have robbed him of his clothing, have beaten him mercilessly, and have now hung him here in this place called Golgotha, in this very place. Jesus says, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. They don't realize what they've done here. And you and I might be sitting on each side of the cross and going, well, that'silly.

Or maybe we're thinking, wow, how could you have that level of compassion for a people who are literally killing you? Maybe this is all just inferring from the story, but Jesus, he's gained quite a reputation in the area. Maybe this one criminal who was clearly a thief, clearly was working for ill gain. Maybe he heard some stories about a man who was multiplying bread and fish somewhere. Hey, I'd like to get in on that.

This guy, he don't even have to steal. He just creates. This is amazing. I've heard the tale. I bet many people had heard it.

And now he's watching him intently. Wow, I can't believe that he would forgive them. I can't believe that he would humbly take all of this and not rebuke anyone, but instead say, I forgive you. I don't know what all was going through this criminal's mind, but I think the gospels have told us there was a change of heart. And that's not that unusual, is it?

That's not that strange that you might immediately judge a person one way and then having been with them for a little while and seeing the way they work and seeing the way they speak, to go, I was definitely wrong about this person. Perhaps he really is indeed the son of God. There's a change of heart and three things have occurred. He comes right out and does very important things because some people would argue, hey, you've got to go through a lot of different things in order to rightly be saved. But I think the criminal on the cross tells us the very important, the nugget of the gospel.

We have to understand. Here's one. He admits that he's a sinner. He knows his problem. Look, look there at verse 40.

We are punished justly. We are getting what our deeds deserve. He knows who he is. He knows his problem. I'm going to die and I deserve it.

Here's the second. He acknowledged that Jesus was in fact sinless, a sinless savior. He says, there, look, this man has done nothing wrong. And then he asks, and this is really where it's at.

We make much of a lot of things, and justly so that we should spend time in the word, learning doctrines of justification and of righteousness and of eschatology and all of these things. I'm not belittling them at all. In fact, I think as believers, we should spend a great deal of time in prayer and in his word. But when it comes to salvation, it is simple. He asks Jesus, remember me.

When you come into your kingdom. Remember me.

We overcomplicate that process. It's really a simpler thing than this. Now, step one, we have to admit, is the hard one, I think, where we come to Jesus and say, I'm guilty and I deserve the penalty of the crime, but you're not. Remember me. That's all it takes.

Some of you have decided to go about your life living in the crime, knowing you've committed it, but unwilling to say, okay, fine. I can't do anything about this. It's yours. What are you waiting on? Why are you hanging on to this?

Jesus responded to him. Truly, I say to you, today, you'll be with me in paradise. Today. Boy, I gotta tell you, I don't want to endure the cross. But I would love to hear that today you're going to be with me in paradise.

For this man, the cross of Christ turned his tragedy into triumph. Jesus canceled the record of the criminal's sin debt. Just like that. Colossians, chapter two. We read this recently, and you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive.

Together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with all of its legal demands. This he set aside. What did he do with it? He nailed it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and the authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them.

And him, him being Jesus, when you look at the cross, what does it reveal in you? What does it tell you about yourself? Does it tell you and remind you, I am in need of a savior. This is for all of us. This isn't something we get over.

This isn't like, okay, I once was lost, but now I'm found. That's true. But however, when I look at the cross, it's a reminder that I have an ongoing need for Jesus Christ. I have an ongoing need for a savior. Do you see what your sin has done?

It has nailed him there, but it is finished. The second criminal began to understand just enough and received jesus'forgiveness. Do you see the triumph? I pray you do. And then the third, the truth.

3. The truth of the cross.

Oh, it's tragic for one, it's triumph for another, but it's truth for all of us. It's truth. In fact, Jesus says, truly, I say to you, today you'll be with me in paradise. This verse goes on to give us some details that I would like to share for you.

In verse 44, it says, it was the 6th hour. And if you're reading that, you're thinking, man, they got up early to crucify him. You're thinking, wow, they're working in the night. No, the jewish time is working very differently. The way in which they monitored time is different than you're familiar with.

The 6th hour had to do with the hour in which, from the point of waking up till now, and so the first hour would be like 06:00 a.m. When the sun rises. That's how they counted their time. So the 6th hour is around noon, and it says here that the 6th hour, there was darkness over the land. And then it tells us the 9th hour he commended.

He gave up his spirit. And that's 03:00 p.m. So he's gone through a terrible night of beating. He's gone through some terrible events. He's carried the cross.

And now here from noon to three, some wild stuff happens. Now to build a little bit on what maybe this one criminal had seen. We don't know exactly when it is they had this conversation. Luke puts it in a particular chronology, but perhaps he's already seen the sky darken. There's some wild events that start happening between noon and three on this day.

Maybe he's starting to see some of this and going, this guy's different. There's something different about him. It says in Matthew 27 that when the centurion and those who were with him keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake that had taken place, they were filled with awe and said, truly this was the son of God. Do you realize in these hours some amazing things take place? Some other historians outside of the biblical context talk about this.

Eusebius and Josephus. They write about earthquakes and darkness and the temple veil is torn. These are miraculous events that happen in this moment. And the centurions and some of the soldiers look on and go, whoa, we messed up. Look what we've done here.

The veil is torn between what? Between the court of the Jews and the holy of Holies. Now suddenly there behind you can see behind into the holy of holies. This is a place no one was allowed to go. Now there's good reason for that.

Stick around. For the rest of the year we're going to be digging in on Hebrews and all up in that, talking about what has happened in that moment. But Jesus is now our mediator, the one who allows us to go before the throne of God into the holy of holies. This is all meant to be a clear picture of what the cross has accomplished. All these events occur.

Jesus, the sinless son of God, has now reconciled people unto the father by the blood here on the cross. Colossians chapter one says, for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Here's the truth. Jesus reconciled us. Here's another truth.

We are the criminals. We are guilty. We are. We come out that way. Any parent in the room, can you testify to such things?

Did you have to teach them to sin? Did you have to teach them how to do it? Okay, now when daddy tells you to do something every once in a while, you just need to say, no. I didn't have to teach none of my kids to do that. They come out that way.

If you have several, they all come out differently broken. You'll see various aspects of sin and go, wow. And a lot of them are little mirrors too. You'll go, well, that one didn't show me all of the desperate sins, but that one's showing me some stuff. I'm tired of you right now because I already don't want to look there.

All right.

I know some people might look at this and go, I can't believe that I've come to church today and that pastor said, I'm guilty. Well, I know that might be hard news, but I am too. And the Bible doesn't leave us there. Thank God we born in this day. I praise him for this, that I'm on this side of the cross in time that I can look at it and go, I understand what God has done and I'm not left wondering now the only thing I'm left with here is a decision.

Do I agree? Do I agree with the Holy Father that I'm guilty? And then do I agree that he has paid the price? All I'm asking, Lord Jesus, will you remember me? Will you remember me?

We are under a death sentence. We're guilty of the sin. Romans three says we've all sinned we've all fall short of the glory, God's glorious standard. We're under a death sentence. Romans six says, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

And we have to individually decide what we're going to do about this. My parents couldn't make this decision for me. They could tell me all the true things, but at some point I've got to decide. Acts chapter four says, there's salvation in no one else. God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.

Now, I thought about playing a little clip for you, but I'll do my best with it. Some of you might be familiar with this pastor named Alastair Beck. He's one of my favorite preachers for a lot of reasons. He does a great job with the word, but also he speaks with a Scottish accent, which I can't get enough of. I don't know why I love it, but there's this reel that I've been seeing going around of him talking about this event, and I want to share some of it with you.

I'll do my best with it. He says, think about the thief on the cross. I can't wait to find that fellow one day and ask him, how did that all shake out for you? Because you were cussing the guy out with your friend. He says, you'd never been to a Bible study.

You'd never gotten baptized. You didn't know a thing about church membership, and yet you made it. You made it. How did you make it? How did you make it?

And that's what the angel must have asked you when you came to the gate. What are you doing here? I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing here. What do you mean you don't know?

Well, because I don't know. Excuse me. Let me go get a supervisor. Let me go get my supervisor angel real quick. Goes to the supervisor angel and says, hey, we just got a couple of questions for you.

First of all, are you clear on the doctrine of justification by faith? Are you clear on your ecclesiology? Have you studied the doctrine of scripture? And the guy's just staring at him. Eventually, in frustration, he says, well, then, on what basis are you here?

And the man said, the man on the middle cross said I could come.

It's as simple as that. Love that story. It's even better in a Scottish accent. Y'all should check that out, really should. The man on the middle cross said I could come.

There we are there. We're in that story. This is the only answer that works. Any other answer. If we were to go there and start any other answer in the first person, we've immediately started wrong.

I. Nope. But I did. But look at my works. But I.

Any answer there isn't good enough. No. The better answer is the man in the middle. Cross said I could come. This Jesus, I didn't deserve him, but he said I could be here.

That helps us both. I don't know how you've come in here today. Maybe you're not a part of this story yet. You've been thinking, I'm not on anybody's side because no one's on my side. Maybe you've been thinking that, but we don't have that option in eternity.

You're going to go before the Lord at some point, and the question is going to be, for what reason should I let you into this place? This is an old saying. I don't know if it's an old baptistic saying or what, but we used to ask, know if the father came to you today and asked, why should I allow you into my heaven? Any other answer other than Jesus said I could come isn't going to work. Any other answer other than the guy in the middle cross said I could be here.

And you'll ask people. I would encourage you. Try this this week. Ask some friends and family and coworkers. Hey, if God said you, why should I let you into my heaven?

What would you say? Boy, you'll get some wild answers. You'll get various things. You might even get some right here in the church. Oh, I was baptized.

Why did you say I? Oh, I came to church on the right days. What right days? I don't know those. No, it doesn't begin with I.

It begins with he. He did this. That's a glorious thing for the non believer. If you've come in here today and you've not put your faith in this, it's very simple. You are guilty.

Yes, indeed. But he has taken the penalty. And for us in the room, those believers in the room, boy, this is something we should never tire of. This is why we continually need to apply the message of the cross to ourselves. Because if we don't, if we don't come back to this place, the reason church, I've had people ask me, why Easter?

Why do we celebrate this stuff? Because to be honest, there's nothing in the Bible that says you ought to have this holiday. You ought to have this Easter thing. In fact, people will argue, hey, Easter is based off of these roman calendar things, and there's like, some secular stuff in there. And to that I go, but I never tire of the resurrection.

I never tire of the cross. And it's important for us, if we must, to mark a date in our calendar, that we will look at it again, even as believers, and go, I can't get over this, because the moment I start saying, I don't need to go back there is the moment I start saying, I a whole lot. I'll look at my good deeds. I'll look at what I can be. And I have found that in my life, the more I try to do things by willpower and by my own skill and my own gifting, they begin to just fall apart.

Before long, I'm at his feet again, saying, just remember me, and we don't have to do that. And we certainly don't need Easter to do it. Let me just argue for this. Resurrection Sunday is every Sunday. I don't care if we're in Habakkuk or judges or in Hebrews, no matter where we are, every Sunday is resurrection day.

And every Sunday I'm going to look for a reason to talk about the cross of Christ every Sunday, because it's a reminder to you and I that we are desperate for him, as the apostle Paul reminds us. Ephesians, chapter two. For by grace, you've been saved through faith. This is not your own doing. It is a gift of God, not a result of works.

So that no. 1 may boast, you and I, we weren't in Jerusalem that day that Jesus was nailed to the cross, but it was his love for us that sent him there. He already had you and I in mind. And our sin, our sin, our past, present and future sin is nailed. There.

It is finished. Which side of the cross are you on? Is it a tragedy to you? Or is it a triumph and a truth for your life? Let's pray now together.

Church heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this glorious story today, this opportunity to look with fresh eyes at what is a familiar story to some. In fact, you could argue this is something most people know, that there are three crosses. They've seen them all over. They've seen them in movies. They've seen them in town.

They've seen him on postcards. We're all somewhat aware that there were three there. But looking again at this story and reminding myself, Lord Jesus, I'm one of those criminals, and that doesn't dishearten me today. And I pray for the encouragement of your people that they don't look at that story and go, hey, I'm one of those guys on the left and the right. But the man in the middle said I could come.

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord Jesus. That's why we shout Hosanna today. We shout Hosanna because you took our penalty. You took our death and took care of that sin debt.

For us. It is done. It is finished, and you are raised, you are risen and alive. Today. We don't serve a God who is dead, but alive and conquered death for us.

What an amazing story. Hosanna. Hallelujah, Lord Jesus, for what you've done for us, I pray now for your people and for myself that we would live as if this were true, because it is. We would live lives that show off that God's mercy and grace has been poured out for us, that we are indeed guilty, but no longer. Because when God sees us, he sees Jesus and he declares innocent, blameless.

Thank you. Help us to live according to that, that we are new creations, as your word says all things new in us, that we would live according to that and according to your purpose, which you've designed for us. Now, dear friend, I recognize maybe one or two of you, maybe more, have come in here today and you've heard these stories. Maybe you've even been saying to yourself, I don't really want to choose a side. No one's really on my side.

Maybe you've said that, or maybe you've said, I don't get it. I pray today that God has done a work in your heart. And I would ask you, my friend, there's no reason to wait any longer. That God has designed you for himself, that your greatest life's joy and peace and purpose is in him, and to delay that is illogical. It makes no sense.

If that's you today, you've come in here and you're realizing, wait a minute. I know I'm guilty. I don't want to talk about it, but I know it's true. But you're telling me God's done it, that Jesus Christ has paid and I can be free. Yes, my friend.

And if that's you today, pray simply with me. According to Romans chapter ten, where it says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. If that's you today, my friend, pray with me. Jesus, I believe today that you are Lord. You're in charge.

I recognize Jesus. I'm like one of those criminals on your left and right. But I'm seeing you different today. I know that you took my death on the cross. The reason you did that was for me.

And that you paid for my sin that day. Thank you, Lord Jesus. And God, I believe that you raised Jesus from the dead. And because of that, when I look at the cross and the resurrection, it gives me so much hope that I am indeed free from sin's penalty and I don't have to fear what's coming next. God, I only ask now, would you remember me when you come into your kingdom?

Dear friend, welcome to the family of God. I pray the words of God are washing over you right now that you would hear from Jesus. Truly, I say to you, you will see me in paradise.

I pray that is the kind of comfort and assurance you feel now. God, I pray that over your people, that we are all experiencing that today. That truly, truly, I say unto you, we will be with the Lord Jesus in paradise. And so let's start living that way. God, give us boldness and courage as we face this week.

Coming up, it may be busy, but here we come, approaching resurrection Sunday, when some of our friends and coworkers and neighbors and family may just come to church. I pray you give us boldness and courage, that we would be examples of what salvation looks like. We pray all of these things in Jesus name. Amen.