Transcript

During the years I served as the pastor of a local church, we received a phone call from a woman who said that her brother, Al, had received a terminal cancer diagnosis, and that he was visiting her at her house, which was just down the street from the church building.

She asked if I’d meet with him because he had questions about what happens after you die. When I met Al, my first impression was that he had lived a rough life. He had a rough appearance and a gravelly voice from years of smoking and throat cancer. Al also had very “colorful” language. Nearly every sentence had a curse word or two.

Al told me about his life. He had worked for many years for traveling carnivals, setting up and taking down the rides at county fairs all over the state of Wisconsin. He had never settled down. He lived hard and fast.

Al was very honest. He came right out and said that he was scared to spend eternity in hell, burning there in torment forever.

Al didn’t believe it was possible for God not to send him to hell because of all the bad things he had done. Al knew he was a sinner, and I didn’t need to convince him of that.

So I shared the grace of God with him, telling him that God could save anyone, that no one is beyond the reach of God’s grace. I told him that we are saved from hell, forgiven of all our sins, and given a home in heaven by faith alone in what Christ did for us at the Cross.

He had a lot of objections and found this hard to believe. At the end of our conversation, I gave him a gospel tract and a Bible. I asked him to please read the tract.

Al called me a few days later, and he said matter-of-factly, “I read that tract a few times. I believed it. Now I got some Bible questions for you.”

From this point on, Al was filled with questions. We’d talk on the phone, or text back and forth. We’d meet at a diner or at his sister’s house to discuss his spiritual questions.

Al would often talk about his past because he couldn’t understand how God could save someone like him with the things he had done.

One example I shared with him was the thief on the cross, and I pointed out to him that even though the thief hadn’t lived a good life, Christ told the thief that based on his faith in Him: “To day shalt thou be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

Al also struggled with what God’s purpose was for his life. We talked about the prodigal son, and how the father in that parable is like God the Father, who waits, looks for, and desires lost sinners, like the prodigal, to come home.

I told him some get home in time, some never make it back. I told him that God’s purpose for all of us is to come home, to be saved and accept God’s free gift of salvation.

As Al’s health deteriorated, it became more difficult for him to speak, so I would occasionally receive texts from Al with Bible questions. Then one day, I received a text from Al’s sister telling me that Al had passed away.

A couple weeks later, I got a call from his sister. She told me how in the days leading up to his death, Al had been sharing things from the Bible with his friends and family, some of whom were atheists.

But after Al shared his testimony with them, she said they were atheists no longer!

His sister told me that on the day that Al passed away, he had been sitting on a chair, but then he suddenly slapped his hands on his knees and said, “I’m going home!”

He stood up and walked around saying, “I’m going home!” Then he laid down in his bed, went to sleep and a short time later he “went home.”

I can’t turn to the story of the thief on the cross without thinking of Al. And today I know that Al is with the Lord in paradise in heaven, and I’m positive that he is still asking Bible questions.

Luke 23:32,33: “And there were also two other, malefactors, led with him to be put to death. And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.”

Luke wrote that there were two “malefactors” that were led away to be put to death with our Savior at the place called Calvary, which means “a skull.” Verse 33 states where they were crucified in relation to Christ in the center, one on the right and one on the left.

“Malefactors” means wrong-doer, evil-doer, or criminal. It is a very general word. But Matthew 27:44 adds, “The thieves also, which were crucified with Him.” We learn first that they were criminals, then we learn what kind of criminals they were, they were thieves.

And the Greek word translated as thieves tells us what kind of thieves they were.

A thief once broke into a grocery store and stole 11 cans of soda. After they caught him and tried to prosecute, they had to release him, because they couldn’t make a case.

The word “thieves” isn’t this kind of thief who secretly enters a house or business when nobody is around and steals. The word “thieves” speaks of a bandit. It refers to one who robs openly and with force. They were thieves who were guilty of armed robbery.

As George F. MacLeod once said: “Jesus was crucified, not in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves.”

After they were crucified, verse 39 here in Luke 23, tells us that one of the criminals was hurling abuse at Him. But there’s more to this story as we compare it with Matthew 27.

In Matthew 27:38-44, we read: “Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.

“Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.

“He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.”

Matthew tells us in his account of the cross that, at first, both thieves mocked the Lord. They BOTH joined in the mockery, the blasphemy, and the laughter.

As the scene began to unfold at 9:00 in the morning after Christ is crucified, the two that are crucified with him took part in the “jokes” and the tragic “comedy,” if you will.

If you’re the Son of God then surely you can come down from that cross, ha-ha-ha, is the idea. Didn’t He say He could tear down the temple and rebuild it in three days? I thought you said you were the King of Israel; if you come down, we’ll believe it. And then they laughed and laughed and smacked one another on the back.

These thieves were both also involved in the blasphemy and mockery. The scribes and elder mocked, the people around the cross and the soldiers took part in it, and the thieves mocked Him too.

Even though they were hanging on their crosses enduring the same type of physical suffering Christ was enduring, though they were experiencing an excruciating, torturous agony as a result of their crucifixion, they still mustered up enough energy to hurl abuse and blasphemy at Christ.

That’s how infectious the hatred was. They both used their waning energy for this. In their own dying misery they directed their curses and abuses at the Son of God.

That’s how deep hatred and cruelty can come from. Even in horrible pain as they were crucified and dying, they could still mock and ridicule another.

Luke 23:38-41: “And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

“And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.”

At first, both thieves were against Christ and mocked Him. But as the mocking continued by those around the cross and one of the crucified thieves, the other thief suddenly became silent. And then only one was left hurling abuse at Christ.

That thief said with sarcasm, “If you are the Christ, save yourself and us.” In other words, if you are who you say you are, get us out of this. The key word here, of course, is “us.” He was thinking solely of himself. He wanted release and to be saved from dying on his cross.

The irony in his mock to save Himself and us, is that in NOT saving Himself, Christ DID save us. He saved us from our sins. It was the opposite of the thief’s assumption that He couldn’t save anybody because He couldn’t even save Himself.

He told the Lord, “save…us” and that’s exactly what He was doing. He was saving us, providing salvation from our sins.

The Lord did not answer the taunting question: “If you are the Christ, save yourself and us.” You can see the thief’s doubt in the phrase “IF you are the Christ.” There was no “if” about it. Jesus was and is the Christ, the Messiah of Israel.

Christ was silent, but then we read, “but the other answering.” Originally this man was shouting abuse along with all the others.

But his taunting went silent as he watched Christ. The factor that likely changed his heart was the silence of Christ, the gracious way He handled all the cruelty. The quiet way Christ handled the ugly abuse thrown at Him, deeply affected this thief.

Christ showed His love for even those who mocked Him, because He was dying for them too. The thief saw that He did not return insults in kind like most would have.

What he knew about the One on the center Cross was what he heard and saw. He saw a beaten, bloodied, scourged, nail-suspended man, who was quietly enduring cruelty and hate. He had heard His words of grace, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And something told this man that he had never been in better company.

He saw in Him more than just a man. He perceived that the things people were saying about Him in jest, were in fact true: He was the King of Israel. He was the Christ and the Son of God. And he saw that Christ was righteous and had done nothing wrong.

The thief observed what Peter wrote in his epistle: “Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not…” (1 Pet. 2:23).

Now with a perception of truth and reality that he hadn’t experienced shortly before, he turned to his friend and rebuked him for his irreverence.

And it must have come as a shock to the thief to hear from the other side of Christ, his fellow thief rebuking him, “Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss” (vv. 40-41).

He probably thought: What happened to you since you were nailed up there?

The transformed thief now found the insults coming out of the mouth of his fellow criminal as completely wrong! He couldn’t understand it anymore.

He suddenly went from being a part of the mockery to not being able to comprehend it. So he asked his fellow thief, “Don’t you fear God? Don’t you know you’re getting what you deserve? Don’t you see that this man is righteous and doesn’t deserve this?”

It reminds us how our thinking changes with conversion. And what we previously believed and thought about Christ changes.

The transformed thief began to think about his soul and eternal destiny, and in doing so, he became very aware of the fear of God and divine judgment. And he warned his fellow thief that he too should fear God and be thinking about this.

As he was suffering and dying, the transformed thief realized that his true problem was not what was currently happening to him on the earth, but what was going to happen to him after he died.

He was a tried and proven violator of the law and he was dying a death that was just. And knowing his death was near, his wonder was: What is God going to do with me?

He reminded the other thief that he was condemned to die as well as Christ. And he asked him, “Why are you mocking Him like the religious leaders and Romans, when you’re up here dying on a cross too?”

He asked him whether he feared God and feared that God would punish him for cruelly mocking this innocent One. He was asking him: don’t you have any fear of what’s going to happen to you when you die and one day stand before God?

As our Lord said during His earthly ministry, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28).

You see the thief’s fear of God and His judgment coupled with a sense of his own guilt. And a person is often convicted by these things at their conversion.

This thief made a true assessment of his guilt and that they both were getting exactly the punishment they deserved. He knew it was just and right that they should die and that they were receiving “the due reward of our deeds.”

And this thief also made a true assessment of Jesus Christ: “but this Man has done nothing amiss [or wrong].” This thief didn’t compare himself with the other thief, and that he didn’t steal as much as him or he was not as nasty or mean.

The thief compared himself to Christ and His innocence and righteousness, and then he saw his guilt most clearly.

And he went beyond saying Christ wasn’t guilty of the crime for which He was being crucified, which was true too, to saying something far broader than that.

He stated that “this man hath done NOTHING amiss.” He was absolutely perfect.

He clearly saw the difference between those who had sinned and deserved to die and the One who was innocent and did not deserve to die.

And this reminds us that Christ was the perfect Lamb of God, the sinless One, Who as our Substitute bore our sins on the cross and paid their penalty in full for us.

As Paul put it in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

Luke 23:42,43: “And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”

After speaking to his fellow thief, this man then spoke to the Lord.

He understood the truth. He realized he was a sinner, unable to change himself or save himself from God’s judgment. And he understood that this holy One would determine his eternal destiny and could save him. So he pled for His mercy, and said, “Jesus, Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.”

“Remember me,” means more than just a thought and thinking about him. It’s a plea of a broken man, an unworthy sinner, for mercy and forgiveness.

What he was really saying was: Save me from the judgment of God. Save me from what I deserve. Forgive me. Have mercy on me. Permit me to see and enter your kingdom. I want to be in the glory of your kingdom and have eternal life. I know I’m not worthy, but please remember me. Please bring me with you when you establish your kingdom.

He heard the religious leaders mock Christ about being the King of Israel. He heard his fellow thief mock Him about being the Christ, or the Messiah. And he read the sign above His head: “This is the King of the Jews.” But now He believed it.

And for the kingdom that He would establish and be its King, the thief asked for citizenship in that kingdom.

Being a Jewish man, he knew that the Messiah would come to Israel in glory and power and establish a kingdom, fulfilling the promises to Abraham and to David.

He knew there would be a kingdom established on the earth in which Israel would be exalted, and the Messiah would set up his throne in Jerusalem. From that throne, He would rule and reign over Israel and the world in peace and righteousness.

The man had a Messianic understanding. He understood that the Messiah would bring in a kingdom. And by saying, “Remember me when you come in your kingdom,” he believed Jesus to be that Messiah.

And in a remarkable expression of faith, he knew nobody survived crucifixion, yet he still believed that death on a cross didn’t preclude or prevent Christ from becoming the King of and that kingdom on the earth. He believed this wasn’t the end for Him.

It took courage for this thief to defy the influence of his friend and the mockery of the crowd, and it took faith for him to trust a dying King!

By faith, he called Jesus, “Lord,” when he made his request, believing Jesus to be Israel’s Messiah and the Son of God. This is what saved him. If ever there was a deathbed conversion, this is it. And it happened at Calvary, with Christ Himself!

What was required of the thief to believe to be saved at that time, under the terms of the gospel of the kingdom, was Peter’s confession, that Jesus “was the Christ [or the Messiah], the Son of the living God.” And that is what the thief believed that day. He was not trusting, like we do today to be saved, that Christ died for our sins and rose again.

He was trusting in Christ’s identity. And according to the gospel of the kingdom, it was also required of him to be water baptized to be saved. But there was a slight problem with that. The thief couldn’t exactly do that, being nailed to a cross. But Christ knew his heart. And He knew he would have if he had the opportunity.

And thus, Christ responded with, “Verily.” And “verily” means truly. In love, the Lord said “truly” to reassure and comfort this dying man. “Truly I say to you, that today you will be with Me in paradise.”

Even as He hung on the cross, suffering, our loving Savior only wanted to comfort and reassure this man as he faced his death, and His statement is filled with comfort and assurance.

The thief’s salvation was personal and secure, guaranteed by the word of Jesus Christ. And so is ours! It is guaranteed by the Word of God.

The thief just asked for a place in the future kingdom and Christ gave him a place in His presence that day and forever after.

“Today,” he told him. Not tomorrow, not next week, not after a certain period of time, not eventually, not when the resurrection comes, “Today!” That very day. He told him, this day of your death, you will be with Me in paradise.

“Today” is a word of comfort. “Shalt thou be” are words of comfort, because there was no “if” or doubt about it. He said, “You WILL be,” as Christ gave him certainty about his place in paradise and having eternal life.

The words, “with Me” are comforting. There was no waiting place or transitional place. For the believer, it’s life here on earth, we die, and we’re immediately “with Him.”

Christ is in heaven right now, seated at God’s right hand. To die is to be “with Him” in heaven, dwelling in His presence forever. And as Paul says, “to depart, and to be with Christ” is “far better” (Phil. 1:23).

“In paradise.” After Christ died, He descended into paradise in the center of the earth, and so did the thief. Back then, paradise was in the heart of the earth in hades, and hades was divided into two sections: a torment section and paradise.

The Lord said in Matthew 12:40, “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” On the day Christ died, He descended into paradise in the heart of the earth, and so did the believing thief.

But at His ascension, when Christ “led captivity captive” (Eph. 4:8), I believe He took “paradise” and all the believers in it from God’s prophetic program to heaven. Because after this, 2 Corinthians 12:4 tells of one who “was caught UP into paradise.”

And so right now, there is a grinning ex-con walking through paradise above who knows what mercy really means.

And when Christ returns at His Second Coming to establish His kingdom on the earth, He will “remember” and bring this thief with Him, when “the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints” from God’s prophetic program, and the thief will be a citizen of that kingdom because of his faith in its King, and because of the faithfulness of Christ.

“Today” denotes the greatest speed! “You will,” the greatest assurance. “Be With Me,” the greatest company! “In Paradise,” the greatest joys!

The thief on the cross shows that no one is ever too far gone to be saved. By this man, we learn that people on death row can get saved. No one is beyond the reach of God’s love and forgiveness. But salvation is not universal.

There were two thieves. One went to paradise that day, but the other went to torment. Only one was saved because he placed his faith in Christ.

The entire human race is divided like the two thieves. The arrangement of the crosses teaches us something. It is a picture of all mankind. You have Christ in the middle and on one side, you have belief, and on the other side unbelief. Christ between shows the divide in mankind between those who believe in Him and those who reject Him.

If you are on the side of belief, trusting that He died for your sins and rose again, then paradise, glory and heaven await you immediately upon your death. If you are on the side of unbelief, then hell, judgment, and torment await you.

You are on one side of the cross or the other. Which are you?