Three Crosses-Three Deaths

We have just had opportunity to remember our Lord's death in a visual aid with this symbolism of the bread and the cup. And now I would like for us to turn our attention to the Gospel account of Luke, where Luke describes for us Jesus' death on the cross. So Luke 23 in your Bible, please, Luke chapter 23. As the Gospels describe the death of Christ, they describe it as the darkest day in human history, the unfair trial of our Lord, the wicked cruel treatment of the Savior, even before he was taken to the hill where he was crucified, killing an innocent man, putting to death the very son of God, the blackest day in all of human history, the greatest crime ever committed in human history. The slow, agonizing, cruel death of the Roman torture of crucifixion, the blackest day in all of history. And yet in another way, it was the most blessed day in all of history. Because of what happened there, we're able to be saved. We're able to be forgiven of our sin. It was through what Jesus did on the cross that God is satisfied with the payment made for sin. And we can be saved, we can be forgiven, we can be his children, we can have an eternity in heaven with him, all of that because of the death of Christ. So the blackest day in human history becomes the most blessed day in human history. And it's all because of what Jesus did there on that cross. But I would remind you today, and what I want us to focus on is that there were three crosses on that hill that day. Jesus did not die alone on that hill. There were two others with him. If you have your place in Luke 23, look at verse 32. Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the skull, they crucified him there along with the criminals, one on his right and the other on his left. There were three men crucified on that hill that day. Galgatha, the place of the skull. Jesus and a thief are criminal on either side of him. And I want us this morning to focus on all three of those crosses because all three crosses and all three deaths have a story to tell. There is a story in each of those crosses, all three of them preach a message to us because what we have is three very different deaths on three different crosses on that hill that day. So let's look at them all three. Let's begin with the cross in the middle. Obviously the one that we typically focus on and rightly so Christ who is dying four hours in on that center cross. The gospels each describe parts of it. None of the gospels describes the whole event. But let's read Luke's description of the crucifixion of Christ. Verse 33, when they came to the place called the skull, they crucified him there along with the criminals, one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, he saved others. Let him save himself if he is God's Messiah, the chosen one. The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, if you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was a written notice above him which read, this is the king of the Jews. Now this partial description of Luke of what happened on that day in regard to Christ shows us what happened to Jesus, what he was doing there on that cross. But it presents basically man's view of what happened. What was happening on the part of the Roman soldiers and the Jewish religious leaders? This is their feeling of what's happening on the cross. Man's view is at that time really motivated by a couple of things. First of all, the Romans placed Jesus on that cross, allow him to be executed basically because of the charge that he claimed to be the king of the Jews. Remember in the trial of Jesus, Pilate really found no fault in him, no real just reason for him to be executed. But then the Jewish religious leaders played their trump card. They knew this would get Pilate right between the eyes. He claimed to be the king of the Jews. What are you going to do with that in regard to Caesar, Pilate? Are you going to be loyal to Caesar? Or are you going to let a guy go who claims to be the king of the Jews? Now they knew as everyone in Israel did that time that Pilate and Caesar were not on good terms. In fact, it would not be long after the death of Christ that Pilate would be relieved of his duty and be called back to Rome would no longer serve as the governor of Judea. So that hit Pilate's heart, he knew he could not cross Caesar. And so from the Roman perspective, the only reason Pilate even allowed Jesus to be crucified was because of the claim that he was the king of the Jews. On the part of the religious leaders, on the part of the Pharisees, why is Jesus on that cross? Primarily because he was a threat to their power, their authority, their position of religious leadership. This rabbi, this new teacher who's drawing such great crowds performing such great miracles. He's a threat to them and they want him removed, they want him out of the way. And then added to that, he claims to be God. Now of course he was God, but the Pharisees didn't believe that. The religious leaders didn't buy that. And so to them, that was blasphemy that any man would claim to be God. And so for those two reasons, he's a threat to us and he claims to be God, they wanted him dead. That's man's view at that time of what was happening to the one on the center cross. Man still has a twisted view of what Jesus was doing on that cross today. There are a lot of people today that believe that Jesus was some kind of religious martyr. That he simply died because he believed enough in his cause that he was willing to go all the way to death for his commitment to his cause and what he believed and what he taught. And so in some people's minds, Jesus is simply a good example of someone who is really committed to what they believe in. There's no saving value in his death to those folks. It's just a good example for us to follow. There are others who emphasize only the physical suffering on the cross. Now don't get me wrong. I believe that we should have a worshipful respect for the physical agony that Jesus endured on the cross. There are four worship scenes in heaven recorded in the book of Revelation. And in the second of those in Revelation chapter five, Jesus is portrayed as a lamb as though it had been slain. And he is visibly presented as one who has suffered, one who bears in his body the marks and the scars of that suffering. So we need a worshipful respect for the physical agony that Jesus endured on the cross. But that's not really the focal point of the word of God when it describes Jesus' death. Now obviously all they had to do in that day was mention crucifixion and every Jew or every Roman who would be reading these new Testament accounts would immediately have vivid images of the actual physical suffering. It's somewhat removed from us. They would know what that meant. But the focus of the gospels is not on Jesus' physical suffering. There is another view of his death, God's view of his death. Man's view is simply that he's a religious martyr, a good example, maybe someone who suffered horribly. But God has a different perspective on the death of Christ. God's view of the death of Christ has to do with what it accomplished for those of us who believe. What an accomplished. So when you read the epistles, the letters of Paul, Peter, and others in the New Testament, what you find is these beautiful doctrinal words that flesh out the real meaning of the cross. Words like redemption, which means that Jesus paid the price to buy us out of bondage to sin and to set us free. That's how the epistles describe the death of Christ. Or with words like propitiation, a word found three times twice in Paul's writings, once in John's writing. And that word means that Jesus was a satisfactory offering. He satisfied his giving of his life, satisfied the demands of a holy God, the righteous, demands of a perfect and holy God that none of us could ever hope to meet. That's propitiation. Or sometimes the writers of the New Testament use words like reconciliation. What Christ was doing on that hill that day, the real meaning of the death of Christ was reconciliation. And that is to bring us back into relationship with God, to bring us back to him because that relationship was shattered by Adam's sin. So that every one of us, as Adam's descendants, come into this world, separated from God. The Bible describes it as being enemies of God, at hostility with him. And Jesus died to reconcile us, to bring us back together, to bring us back into relationship with the Father. Or words like justification, that great word which describes that Jesus laid the groundwork for us to be considered and declared righteous in the sight of God, even though we're sinners, he declares us legally on the record books of heaven. Those are the kinds of words and many more like them, that the writers of the New Testament use to describe the death of Christ. So God's view of the death of Christ is focused upon what he did for us. Let's just scan a few of those references that describe the death of Christ in the epistles. First of all, in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21, these verses will be on the screen for you. God made him speaking of Christ, who had no sin, to be sin for us. You see that substitution he took our sin, to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. That's justification. We are declared righteous. God now sees Christ's righteousness on our account in heaven. It's not a list of our failings and sins. It is Christ's righteousness which he now sees. That's justification. 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 24. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness by his wounds you've been healed. There's substitution that he died in our place. He took our sins. He paid the penalty, propitiation. All of those thoughts are in that verse. Another chapter later in chapter 3, verse 18, Peter would say it this way, for Christ also suffered once for sins. The righteous for the unrighteous. In other words, the holy spotless Lamb of God becoming our substitute, dying in our place, taking on him our unrighteousness. Why? To bring you to God. That's reconciliation. To bring us back into relationship with God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the spirit. That's his resurrection. So all these great biblical truths are how the epistles describe the death of Christ. Galatians 3.13 says it this way. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. Christ is written, curse is everyone who is hung on a pole. Redemption that Jesus knowing the curse of the law that the law condemned us and showed us that we could never meet God's righteous standards. We're cursed by that law. We're under its condemnation. And Jesus takes that on himself and pays the price to deliver us from that condemnation. That's what that verse is saying. Even the prophet Isaiah, after he describes the physical suffering of Christ and describes his body and visage being so far marred that we would not even recognize him as human. After describing that, he focuses on the spiritual meaning of the death of Christ. Isaiah 53.5 says it this way. But this all this physical suffering was for a purpose. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him by his wounds. We are healed. Amen. It's like a hammer driving this thought home four times. He says in that passage Christ the Messiah took our place. And because of what he did, our transgressions, our sins are paid for. Our iniquities are paid for. His punishment brings us peace and his wounds give us spiritual healing so that we can be made right with God. So all of this is because of what Christ did on the cross. The real suffering, the real work on the cross was spiritual in nature. The one who knew no sin was taking our sin on him so that we might be saved so that we might be forgiven. He was separated from the father so that we would not have to be that was what was happening on that middle cross Christ. What was happening? He was dying for our sin. That's the message of the middle cross. But there were two thieves crucified with him. One on the left, one on the right, the Bible says. We don't know which one it was that we're considering next but one of the two, one thief could be described this way. While Christ was dying for sin by the end of that time, this thief was dying to sin. What I mean by that, that's an expression that the epistles also use, for instance, in Roman six, we who know Jesus as Savior have died to sin. And that simply means that our relationship to sin has changed because we are now in Christ. Whereas before we were saved, sin was our master. We were enslaved to it. We were in bondage to it. Is the way Roman six describes it. Now that we are saved, we have a new master. And our relationship with sin has changed. It's not that we no longer sin. It's not that we don't struggle with sin because we still do because of foolish choices we make. And because we still have a sinful nature, but our relationship to sin has changed. It is no longer our master. We're no longer in bondage to it. We have a new master. We are set free to serve Christ. That's the message of Roman six. And the way that's described most simply is that when you get saved, you died to sin. Your relationship with sin is not the same as it was before you trusted Christ. It is no longer your master. You no longer in bondage to it. You no longer have to sin. There is a way of escape. There is a way to overcome sin. There is a way to have victory. And that is through reliance upon Christ. Well, that evidently happened to one of those thieves. I remind you that verse 32 says both of them were criminals. So there's no room for us to say here. Well, one of them was a really bad guy who probably talked the other guy into whatever they did wrong. And the other guy was, you know, he was kind of innocent. He was kind of nice and good at heart. No, no. The Bible says they were both equally criminals. They were both guilty. And this man will admit that. They were both criminals. And beyond that, the gospel is also described that if the beginning of their time on the cross and maybe for the first few hours, they both mock Jesus. Matthew 27 and verse 44 says that both of the thieves hurled insults at him when they heard the religious leaders and the crowd mocking and they joined right in. Both of them did. But something happened to this one thief, something happened to him on the cross that changed his attitude and perspective entirely. You see it in verse 39. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him. Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us. Now remember, Matthew says both of them started that way. But now we're a few hours into the cross and only one of them is still hurling insults at Jesus. Notice what the other one says verse 40. But the other criminal reviewed him. Don't you fear God? He said since you are under the same sentence. We are punished justly for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. What's happened to this man? Both criminals both mocking him and all of a sudden a tremendous change in this man's whole outlook and perspective on Jesus and on himself. What happened to him? I think these verses make it clear that three things that happened to this man to bring him to the point where you could say he died to sin. He's considered a believer in the Lord Jesus. First of all, he realized his condition. He realized his condition. Look again at verse 40. The other criminal review came said, don't you fear God? Since you are under the same sentence. Now notice what he says next. We are punished justly for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man. Jesus, the one on the center cross, this man has done nothing wrong. You can see from those words that he understood his condition as a guilty center. He saw his own sinfulness. He says we deserve to die. We sinned. We committed crimes. We get what we deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. So in contrast to seeing his own sinfulness, he sees the absolute holiness of the one beside him. How did he come to that conclusion? As far as we know, he never met Jesus before. We don't even know if he'd ever heard of Jesus before. How did he come to that conclusion? He alongside Jesus has been hanging on that cross. He has listened and watched as Jesus accepts his punishment without a word. The only words he offers are words of grace and love and forgiveness and talking to his father. There is nothing like what the two thieves are doing. Cursing, blaming everybody, crying out for mercy that doesn't come from the lips of the Savior. Evidently, God, the Spirit used that to touch this man's heart. He has heard him cry out, father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing. When everything, no doubt in his mind and heart was crying out, curse you Romans. Jesus is praying for the forgiveness. He hears and sees the Savior. He hears the people mocking at the foot of the cross. He hears what they're saying. You claim to be the Son of God. You claim to be the Messiah and somehow the Holy Spirit uses that to convince him it's true. Maybe he even saw the accusation at the top of the cross which is described for us in verse 37 or excuse me verse 38. This is the King of the Jews. The inscription over a person who's been crucified basically was to give their crime. This is what they're on the cross for. And Pilate had decided that this is what would be above Jesus. This is the King of the Jews. It was really a mockery of the Jews saying, look, here's your King. Here's your King. Here he is. I'm putting you on a cross. But maybe he had come to see what people were saying about Jesus. This was true. He realized his condition. I'm a sinner. But this one dying beside me's different. He's not a sinner. He's done nothing wrong. I've come to understand he is who he claims to be the Holy Son of God, the King of the Jews. So he recognized his condition. My friend, if you are going to spend eternity with God in heaven, you must first of all realize your condition that you are a lost sinner. And the Bible says just like this man came to understand about himself, the Bible says the wages of sin is death. You know what wages are what you work for, what you earn, you deserve that. You work two weeks. You deserve to get paid. You deserve that. Well, the Bible says what we deserve because of our sin is death, eternal separation from God. We have to come to the point where we realize I'm a sinner. I don't deserve heaven. And I can't do anything to deserve it. But Jesus is different. He is the son of God. He is the one who died for me. He realized his condition. But secondly, he placed his faith in Christ. I think it's clear that he not only realized he was a sinner, but he realized Jesus was the answer. Notice if you will verse 42. Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Now that expression indicates he had come to believe at least three things about Jesus that he could now place his faith and confidence in. First of all, he knew that Jesus was the savior. He called him by his name Jesus. Remember the angel telling Joseph you will give him the name Jesus. Why? Because he will save his people from their sins. Jesus means Jehovah saves the meaning of the name. And I think this thief is now using it in the sense of faith and embracing Jesus for what his name communicates as my savior, Jesus, savior, the God who saves. He recognized Jesus was the savior, but he also probably being a Jew himself recognized that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. One of the accusations being thrown at Jesus, you say you're the king of the Jews. He evidently had come to believe that. That it was true. Again, see what he says, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. So you do have a kingdom. You are a king. You are the king of the Jews. So he recognized him as his savior and his king. And he bows his heart, his mind, and his soul to the one who's dying beside him as his savior and his king. We would save his Lord. And then he also believes in Jesus' resurrection. He said, whoa, John, that's a little bit of a leap. You think this guy understood something about resurrection? Well, look at what he says. Remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus is dying across just like this criminal is. The only way he can believe that Jesus will come into a kingdom will actually become a king over his own kingdom is if he lives beyond the grave. So in some simple rudimentary form, this man expresses a confidence, I hope, a faith in the resurrection of Christ. Jesus is the savior who is my king. He will be raised from the dead to enter his kingdom. That is a statement of faith. And it's the same kind of statement of faith that should occur with us when we realize our condition, we are lost sinners, but Jesus is the savior. He is my king and my Lord and I commit my whole life to him. And I believe in him as the resurrected son of God, who will rule that faith in Christ is exactly what this man did. But there's something else that changed drastically that day. Not only do you realize his condition, places faith in Christ, but he was received by Christ. I love what Jesus says to him in verse 43. Jesus answered him. Truly, I tell you today you will be with me in paradise. Paradise, that word indicates the very presence of God in heaven. Paul describes being caught up in the spirit in 2 Corinthians 12 to a place where he saw things that he was not even allowed to utter. He was not allowed to utter. Too wonderful for him to describe, but he was in the presence of God and he identified it as paradise. So I believe that Jesus is saying, when I die, I will enter the presence of my father and you will also, you will be with me in paradise. Jesus received him and changed his heart and life to a child of God who is now now given the promise of heaven. I find it so wonderful that he did not reject this man. He did not say to this man, no, no, you're too bad a sinner. Look at your life. Look at all you've done. Look at why you're here on this cross. You don't deserve anything. Well, of course, he didn't deserve anything. Neither do any of us. But thank God, that's what grace is all about. That Jesus receives us and accepts us when we turn to him, recognizing our sinful condition and trust him as our Savior. He receives us. I love the song that's out now about, I think it's by Ryan Stevens, about the gospel. He does a little part of that song where he speaks and he says the greatness of the gospel is not that I have received Christ, but that he has received me. And that is so true. The grace of God means that he has received me. That's grace. And that can only happen because of God's grace. I'm so thankful that Jesus didn't say to this man, you can't be saved because there's nothing you can do. You can't get down from here and go join a church. You can't get down from here and go baptized. You can't do anything good for me. You can't do anything to pay me back. Jesus didn't require any of that. And he doesn't require any of that today either. There's nothing you can do to earn in whole or in part your salvation. Baptism doesn't save you. Church membership doesn't save you. Living a good life, a clean moral law abiding, family providing kind of life, good neighbor kind of life. That doesn't save you. All those things are wonderful, but they can't get you to heaven. This man could do nothing to contribute to his salvation. And Jesus still says to him, you will be with me in paradise today. When you die, you will be in the presence of God. What a wonderful promise. It shows me that salvation is purely and holy by the grace of God. Nothing that I do can enter into it at all. He was received by Christ. But, friend, don't mistake what's happening here. There have been some who have looked at this thief on the cross pleading out for forgiveness and salvation with his last breaths thinking this provides a good model for me. I can wait until I die. I'm ready to die. I'm just about gone. And then I will get saved. You have no hope of that, friend. I'm reminded of an evangelist I read about who was holding meetings in a particular town and after the service, he was talking to a young man and encouraging him, challenging, pleading with him to trust Jesus as he saved you. And this young man said, kind of sneering, I'm going to wait on that. I don't need that right now. And he said to the advantage you remember the thief on the cross. And the evangelist response was which the because there was only one who recognized his need and turned to Christ. And you have no guarantee that even if you did come to that point in your life where you were ready to go into eternity, you have no guarantee that you would be of any kind of sound mind or of clear heart that has not been hardened by your sin and rebellion to be able to trust Christ. That's why the Bible says behold now is the day accepted time. Today is the day of salvation. The only time you really can have is right now. You cannot bank on tomorrow. You cannot be in assure, be assured in any way that you will have time in your last breath to trust Jesus. So do it now. Jesus dying for sin, one thief dying to sin, the other thief. Sadly as far as we know, dying in sin. In verse 39, he is still mocking Jesus. One of the criminals still crying out, aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us by this time. The thief that we just talked about has already come to a place of recognizing his lost condition and placing his faith in Christ. But this man evidently never does. Never shows any evidence of it anyway. And the promise of heaven in verse 43 is only given to the one who had asked Jesus to remember him. So that leaves me thinking and believing that the other thief never did turn in faith to Christ. We can't say that dogmatically. Maybe she's not recorded in the Bible. But because it's not there, we assume that he never turned in faith to Christ. There is only one thing that can happen when that happens. One result of that continued rejection of Christ. And that is an eternity of separation from God in the lake of fire, a place of literal eternal fire burning punishment for those who don't trust Jesus as their savior. That would have been his lot, his eternity. If he never turned to Christ, he died in his sin. There's only one more statement about the two thieves found in the Gospels. One more statement about them is not here in Luke. It's in John's Gospel. And we'll put it on the screen for you. John chapter 19 in verse 32. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus and then those of the other. And that's the last thing we hear about them before they die. Now, if you're familiar with the process, if you've heard crucifixion described before, you will remember that a part of the crucifixion, it was a slow, agonizing torturous death where people basically suffocated because of the way they were positioned and stretched out on the cross. They were not able to take deep breaths. Their lungs would begin to fill with fluid and they would slowly suffocate. So to increase the torture and prolong the suffering, they would place a little peg at the foot level of the cross so that instinctively they could lift themselves up and catch a breath. But the Roman soldiers wanted to get this done before Passover starts the next day or that evening at 6 o'clock. They want to get these guys off of these crosses and get this taken care of before this Jewish ceremony starts. And so they're going to break their legs so that the death process is speeded up. They do that with both thieves when they come to Jesus, the gospels tell us he had already committed his spirit to the Lord and died willingly. Nobody's going to take his life from him. He died willingly, gave up his spirit. The last thing we hear about these two thieves is their legs are broken. They are no longer able to get that upward push for breath and no doubt they quickly died. One of them had already died to sin. And so the Bible would describe him in his death as being crucified with Christ. That's the way Galatians 2 20 describes what happens to a person when they trust Christ. Galatians 2 20 says, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Isn't that amazing? Here's a man who literally physically by proximity was crucified with Christ on the same hill beside him. But because he placed his faith in Christ spiritually in his heart in his mind, you can also say of him, he was crucified with Christ. He died to sin and Christ became his Lord and Savior, his new master. But the other thief who died in sin immediately goes to hell to await the future resurrection and the sentence of being cast into the lake of fire. Three crosses, three deaths, three messages. Christ died for our sins so that through faith in him we might die to sin and be crucified with Christ and live eternally. But if you do not receive him as your Savior, you will like that other thief die in your sin and spend eternity separated from God. Years ago, a woman by the name of Helen Franzie Bauer wrote this simple poem about those three crosses on the hill that day. Three crosses on a lonely hill, a thief on either side and in between the Son of God, how wide the gulf, how wide. Yet one thief spanned it with the words, oh Lord, remember me, the other scoffed and turned aside to lost eternity. Forsaken is the hilltop now and all the crosses gone, but in believing hearts of men, the center cross lives on and still as when those sentinels first met Earth's wondering view. The presence of the Lord divides upon which side are you? Yes, still today, the presence of the Lord on that center cross, the presence of the Lord divides. The question you and I must answer upon which side are you, which of those thieves represent you this morning. The one who although he spent a lifetime in sin and even hours before he died mocking Christ, but yet he comes to realize his condition, places his faith in Christ and is received by Christ. Are you represented by that thief? Or are you represented by the other who continues on in his own way? Rejecting Christ, rebellious heart against him and dies in his sin, on which side are you? Let's pray together.