CRCF””2/28/10
Introduction””Words are powerful. Words change our lives–especially those words that come from deepest in a person”™s heart! Someone has said a person”™s real self is best seen when they are drunk or dying””and that”™s usually pretty accurate. When someone is drunk, they lack the self-control to hold back and what”™s really inside, what”™s normally suppressed by good sense, comes pouring out. But the words spoken when someone is dying are, without a doubt, the most powerful words they”™ll ever speak””the words that will be remembered, the words that shape the rest of the lives of the loved ones who hear them.
God has given us the last words of Jesus before He died in the Gospels. He spoke 7 times from the Cross. And over the next 5 Sundays leading up to Easter, we”™re going to consider His words. And if we”™ve ever listened to anyone”™s dying words, if the last thoughts spoken by a dying loved one have ever stuck in our hearts and minds, I trust that together we will hear the words of our Savior as He reveals . . .
The Heart of the Cross:
Jesus Speaks from the Cross
Part 1: “Father Forgive Them”
Luke 23:34-43
The heart of the Cross is the offer of free forgiveness to all!
–VIDEO Clip from “The Passion of the Christ”
The heart of the Cross is the offer of free forgiveness to all!
Manning: “It is only this wounded Jesus who provides the final revelation of God”™s love. The crucified Christ is not an abstraction but the ultimate answer to how far love will go, what measure of rejection it will endure, how much selfishness and betrayal it will withstand. The unconditional love of Jesus Christ nailed to the wood does not flinch before our perversity. ”˜He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases”™ (Matthew 8:17).” (The Signature of Jesus, 169)
Luke 23:34-43 (NLT)
34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don”™t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.
35 The crowd watched and the leaders scoffed. “He saved others,” they said, “let him save himself if he is really God”™s Messiah, the Chosen One.” 36 The soldiers mocked him, too, by offering him a drink of sour wine. 37 They called out to him, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 A sign was fastened to the cross above him with these words: “This is the King of the Jews.”
39 One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you”™re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself””and us, too, while you”™re at it!”
40 But the other criminal protested, “Don”™t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? 41 We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn”™t done anything wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
43 And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
The heart of the Cross is the offer of free forgiveness to all!
I want you to notice 2 realities about Jesus”™ offer of free forgiveness:
1. Jesus offers free forgiveness to the worst of sinners!
Luke 23:34 & 43 (NLT)
34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don”™t know what they are doing.”
43 And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Most biblical scholars like Dr. Barclay share with us that the word ”˜said”™ is in the perfect tense in the Greek, which means Jesus kept on saying, “Father, forgive them.”
–To those Jewish and Roman officials who were responsible for the sentence of crucifixion, as well as those that physically drove the nails! Even to one who deserved the death of crucifixion!
John Wesley
“While they are actually nailing Him to the cross, He seems to feel the injury they did to their own souls more than the wounds they gave Him; and as it were to forget His own anguish out of a concern for their salvation.”
How would you have responded to these people””people who were cutting your life short? I”™m thinking curses, not a blessing. I”™m thinking hatred and anger and fear and all manner of ugly words””that”™s what would have spewed from my mouth, that would have been the natural, human response of any one of us!
Add to this the fact that Jesus was innocent of any crime, any sin at all, and His response is seen for what it is even more clearly””proof that He is the Son of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
By the way, you seen this picture on these slides? Do you know what it means? It means that OUR sin nailed Jesus to the Cross. It means we might as well have been in the crowd of condemning Jews! It means we might as well have been those Roman soldiers who drove the nails! It was YOU, it was ME that crucified Jesus!
And to US, Jesus speaks these amazing words””“Father, forgive them”!
The heart of the Cross is the offer of free forgiveness to all!
And what about the thief on the cross next to Jesus? Would we have loved Him like Jesus did?
Max Lucado:
“His title? Scum of the earth. His achievement? Death by crucifixion. His reputation? Criminal. His character? Depraved until the last moment. Until the final hour. Until the last encounter.
Until now.
Tell me, what has this man done to warrant help? He has wasted his life. Who is he to beg for forgiveness? He publicly scoffed at Jesus. What right does he have to pray this prayer?
Do you really want to know? The same right you have to pray yours.
You see, that is you and me on the cross. Naked, desolate, hopeless, and estranged. That is us. That is us asking, “In spite of what I”™ve done, in spite of what you see, is there any way you could remember me when we all get home?”
We don”™t boast. We don”™t produce our list. Any sacrifice appears silly when placed before God on a cross.
It”™s more than we deserve.”
The heart of the Cross is the offer of free forgiveness to all!
2. Jesus offers forgiveness to the hard-hearted and the broken-hearted!
Luke 23:34-43 (NLT)
34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don”™t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.
35 The crowd watched and the leaders scoffed. “He saved others,” they said, “let him save himself if he is really God”™s Messiah, the Chosen One.” 36 The soldiers mocked him, too, by offering him a drink of sour wine. 37 They called out to him, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 A sign was fastened to the cross above him with these words: “This is the King of the Jews.”
39 One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you”™re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself””and us, too, while you”™re at it!”
40 But the other criminal protested, “Don”™t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? 41 We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn”™t done anything wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
43 And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
The Jews, the Romans””they had no remorse for what they did. In fact, both groups were glad that they would soon have relief from the turmoil that Jesus had been stirring up.
On this dark Friday, they looked forward to a brighter Monday morning””a return to normalcy in their respective realms of power and control.
And yet, on behalf of the hard-hearted, Jesus prays for forgiveness!
The heart of the Cross is the offer of free forgiveness to all!
Then there”™s the thief on the Cross””a bad man whose heart is broken.
Max Lucado:
“The core of the gospel in one sentence. The essence of eternity through the mouth of a crook:
I am wrong; Jesus is right.
I have failed; Jesus has not.
I deserve to die; Jesus deserves to live.
The thief knew precious little about Christ, but what he knew was precious indeed. He knew that an innocent man was dying an unjust death with no complaint on his lips. And if Jesus can do that, he just might be who he says he is.”
And to this one””a brokenhearted man, Jesus grants forgiveness!
The heart of the Cross is the offer of free forgiveness to all!
Conclusion–
Max Lucado (Six hours one Friday)
“How do you live with the things you”™ve done wrong/ How do you cope with a guilty conscience over those times that you know you haven”™t done the right thing? What do you do with your failures?
Our mistakes come to us as pebbles; small stones that serve as souvenirs of our stumbles. We carry them in our hands, and soon our hands are full. We put them in our pockets and soon our pockets bulge. We place them in a sack and put in over our shoulder; the load scratches and chaps. And soon the bag of yesterday”™s failures is so heavy, we drag.”
What Jesus”™ words mean for YOU and ME personally this morning is this””we can quit dragging the weight of our sin around. Jesus”™ died to cleanse us from every single sin, every single failure. Jesus”™ death on the Cross bought free forgiveness for YOU, for ME so that we can walk through life with a spring in our step, in the freedom and joy of God”™s forgiveness.
But this truth needs to affect YOU and ME in another way as well””we need to imitate Jesus and have hearts of grace and love and mercy to ALL that we come in contact with, realizing that anything less is NOT the heart of the Cross!
Who am I to withhold the love and forgiveness that Jesus Himself extended? Who are you to decide that a certain person is just too bad, has hurt you too much to be deserving of God”™s grace from Jesus or from you?
By the way, one of the Roman officers who commanded the nails to be driven into Jesus”™ body WAS changed from a hard-hearted man to a broken-hearted man before the whole ordeal was over.
“When the Roman officer who stood facing him saw how he had died, he exclaimed, ”˜Truly, this was the Son of God!”™” (Mark 15:39, NLT)
The heart of the Cross is the offer of free forgiveness to all!
Eric Ritz
“In a lonely cemetery in New York City, there is told of a grave marked by a headstone which contains just one word –FORGIVEN. The source for that word begins
with our Savior”™s cry from the cross today.”
The heart of the Cross is the offer of free forgiveness to all!
Celebration of the Lord”™s Supper