i am the thief

things have been quite busy, so that i haven't sat to write here,
but i have written other things, like this talk on Luke 23, see below
if you've got time then
What would Jesus say to 'those who think it's too late'?
Luke 23:32-43

Tonight we're coming right down into this room. We’re not interviewing out not the street as the paparazzi - but tonight it’s possible that Jesus is walking up to knock on the Acorn Hall doors and talk to some of us in here who think that maybe it’s too late.

And I don’t know that many of you are thinking that this is you. I don’t know that anyone in this room thinks that they don’t have enough life left to make a decision to follow Jesus.
It might be you worrying about that though. You might be one of the sober thinkers in this room who are aware that we’re not all going to live forever. We’re not all going to make it to old age even. I’m 23, I won’t die any younger than 23, but I could die at 23. While some of us in this room will be around for years to come.

But I think that this question is getting at is: we want to know what Jesus expects from us.
I mean, what are His standards. The phrase “too late” presumes that something has happened that disqualifies you. That you’ve crossed some line, some point of no return. 
I guess most of us probably think that there are two possible problems. Maybe we become a christian too late in life to do all the good things we think that we think Jesus expects from us. If we don’t have long left we won’t be able to sit in a church every week like Jesus wants and give our old clothes and our money to the poor. We won’t be able to read the bible every day and pray every day and do all those things that we think Jesus needs us to do for us to be good enough.
Or if we become Christians too late we might think that we’ve already done too many things. Maybe we can see our lives filled up with heavy mistakes. Bad things, really bad things, things we don’t want to ever mention. Words we never want to pronounce. Too many to be forgiven.

But even if you’ve never really sat down with those questions. I guess we’re all wondering what Jesus wants from us. If it’s your 1st time here with us, or your 2nd or 30th it’s possible you’re unsure what Jesus wants from you.

And maybe more than wondering what Jesus would say to a celebrity, you might be wondering what Jesus would say to you. If Jesus was here, what would He say to me. How would He answer me when I asked Him “what do you want from me?” Where’s the line?
When have I gone too far? What’s the point of no return? At one point is there no hope for me?
How bad is too bad? How good is good enough? Because it’s not always clear.
Just what does Jesus expects from us?

And there’s an amazing scene here as Jesus dies. Let me pain the picture for you.
Look with me from v32

“Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. 34Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
 35The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One."
 36The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar 37and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself."

so at this stage of the story about Jesus we meet him walking to a place called “the Skull” which doesn’t sound like an enjoyable place. and when they get there they crucify Him. It’s easy to miss it if you’re not looking for it. All the gospels state it this plainly. They crucified Him.
And what’s involved there is no small thing. His wrists are hammered into wood, they bring up the wooden cross and he literally hangs off His wounds. He’s largely covered in blood from the whipping and beating earlier. He’s had his beard torn out and his face spat on. Everyone on the ground is sneering at Him. Hid clothes are being divided amongst the soldiers in front of Him. He’s being mocked by the soldiers too who are offering him wine vinegar to prolong his suffering.
And like everyone who is crucified there’s a notice above His head heralding His crimes. So if you can imagine you’re walking past and you see this horrific scene of a man stripped of every dignity and even His life, and through the crowd of hecklers and haters you look above His head to see why He is there. What is he guilty of?

v38 There was a written notice above him, which read:
THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Jesus is being killed for being the King of the Jews.
And if we were there at the time we’d get the political significance of this. Because the Jews only had one King and that was God. One King, one God, with lots of names. YHWH. The Great I Am. The LORD. The Creator of Heaven and Earth … and for Jesus to claim to be the Kind of the Jews, as the sign above Him said, was blasphemy and treason and arrogant and a lie.
But the only thing is … Jesus was the King of the Jews. He is the King of the Jews. He’s the King of every part of our reality.
Jesus is the God who spoke with Abraham and told Him the whole idea of making a great nation. Jesus is the same God who spoke to Moses from a burning bush and convinced Him to talk to Pharaoh about letting the Israelites go. Jesus is the same God who rained 10 staggering plagues on Egypt, and all but carried the Israelites through the desert for 40 years. He’s the one who gave them miraculous meat and bread and water and who took them into the Promised Land of Canaan. He’s the one who defeated all the enemies in their way. Who at one stage stopped the sun in the sky so they could win a battle. Jesus is the same God who cared for and ruled over Israel for a thousand years, even being kind enough to bring them back from captivity in other nations which they deserved. The people trembled when He spoke, they begged not to hear His voice, it was so terrifyingly awesome.

And that God, is here, as a man. Suffocating and bleeding to death at the hands of the people He has chosen and formed and cared for their whole lives. He’s the King of the Jews. But at the time nearly no one understood this. (but it’s very important, so remember it, we’ll be coming back to it)

And amazingly, in v39, in the middle of all of this a conversation starts up between Jesus and the criminals either side of Him. Through the excruciating pain one of them screams out insults at Jesus probably telling Him how useless He was, how pathetic He was “aren’t you the Christ?” he asks Jesus “save yourself and us!”
All three are hanging there in agony, and one criminal just turns on Jesus. I guess you can imagine what kind of a character he must have been, to be deserving of crucifixion. A modern-day murderer sitting in the electric chair. Full of hate with nothing to lose. He must have been thinking: it says He’s the king of the Jews, people say that He’s the Christ. Well then why isn’t He using His power to get us out of this situation?! What’s He doing?! This guy’s an idiot. He’s pathetic.

But the other criminal doesn’t let this open barrage of abuse go on. v40 he says:

“The other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? 41We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."”
He recognizes the Jesus is from God. He recognizes that unlike His own track record, Jesus is completely innocent. And He recognizes that Jesus is a King who is inheriting a great Kingdom.

And I don’t know what the ideal circumstances for meeting God, the Perfect King of the Universe are. But this is who Jesus is. I think if I was going to meet Jesus just randomly while He was on earth I’d probably choose to be in the middle of teaching a large congregation of under privileged children about God from bible passages I’d memorized in their original languages while I also distributed my hard-earned money to them and others in need. And Jesus would turn up and I’d say “oh, hello, I didn’t see you there”

But this criminal meets Jesus while he’s most likely naked, pinned by nails on a wooden cross. And he’s dying publicly because he’s a criminal deserving of death. And above his head is most likely a list of his crimes. It’s in that context that he meets Jesus.
And he calls over to Jesus hanging on His cross, below His own list of crimes the king of the Jews
And he says:
 42 "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
 43Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

And I’m fairly sure that Jesus was aware that this guy was not about to get down off the cross and start giving to charity. He wasn’t going to all of a sudden teach Sunday school. There is nothing this guy has to offer. He can do nothing good. He has no time left. In a few hours He will be dead.
What does Jesus expect from this guy? Well Jesus doesn’t expect Him to do anything.
And Jesus says "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise”

And can we get a better example of someone who has a host of sins piled upon his back? 
A dark history. A series of mistakes. Regrets. Horrific deeds. He is hanging on a cross because the world has decided he is so bad he should be expelled from life!
And there’s literally a list of charges hanging against him
And Jesus says "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise”

what does Jesus expects from us?

So I want you to consider - if this was you, I want you to imagine that you’re holding a sign that will be nailed above your head. What if you had a sign above you as you met Jesus… I want you to imagine gripping onto that for a few minutes as we think about this. And think “what would it say?”

Mine would be quite a large sign to fit everything in. It might start with “arrogant, inconsiderate, materialistic, quick to judge people, cares more about what people think than what God thinks. Loveless, prayerless. Full of anger, full of hate, hypocritical”

And each of us will know the specific things that are on our signs, the events we can’t forget.
It could be anything. That time you stole from a store, that time you disobeyed your parents. That time you punched that person. That time you spread that rumour, that time you trash-talked someone because you didn’t like them. Maybe you cheated on a test, maybe you lied about what you did or what you have or who you are. Maybe it was taking drugs, drinking alcohol under age, getting drunk. Maybe vandalism. Maybe as you meet Jesus it has written high above your head “rarely takes Jesus seriously” or “is ashamed of Jesus in front of other people”.

There’s a wide range of ages and stages of development here. But there are probably a lot of us here with a list of sexual sins written above us.
We’ve looked at things we’d never want our parents to know about
We’ve thought about things we don’t want anyone to know about
We’ve crossed so many lines so many times with a boy or girl.
A lot of us feel guilt over these things, what we’ve done with another person, the things that go on behind closed doors. What we want, what we do and so much guilt because of it. There are a million different other things that we’re each be dealing with that weigh us down with guilt.

And the point is - you go right up to Jesus with a comprehensive list of every regret and every mistake and every unwholesome deed, thought or word in your life written above your head.
And you say to Jesus ‘help me’

And to each person who goes to Him He says "I tell you the truth, you will be with me in paradise”

And you think “what?”
Is that all I have to do?
…
And the answer is “yeah, that’s all you do. You just come to Him. Come to Him and ask for help, ask for forgiveness. Even the most pathetic prayer like the thief’s prayer, if it’s meant from the heart will receive that same reply from Jesus I tell you the truth, you will be with me in paradise”

And do you still have in mind that important thing I told you to remember. Just who Jesus is, who is hanging on the cross in this passage? He’s God. Limitless, beautiful, powerful, author of reality, God. Pure and perfect and holy and blameless God.
And it’s because Jesus is that innocent God, dying that criminal’s death that He is able to save us. His crimes above His head are just a true statement of who He is. Who is dying the cross? The King of the Jews, God Himself.

And it’s as if He has space to spare above Him.
Since He is dying completely innocently. Since He carries no crimes of His own, He has room to take yours. You’re invited to come to him with your sign. Come to Him with your long list of regrets and sins and mistakes, come to His cross with every bad thing you’ve done and will do, come with all your inabilities to do anything good Come to Him with all your heavy guilt and inadequacies and nail your sign above Him. Throw all your sins over to Him.
There is nothing that could possibly be written on your sign that would disqualify you if you come to Him. There is no list to long or too dark the He can’t handle. He takes it all.
And instead of you being executed for all these things, it’s as though Jesus says “I’ve got this one”
“I’ll pay for that” and He dies instead.
And it is the most amazing thing to be able to let that sign go. All of it. Let it go. For it to be done, for it to be deal with, for it to be covered by Jesus.

What does Jesus want from us?
He wants you to come to Him.

And the two thieves on the crosses either side of Jesus answer our original question for us.

When is it too late? Well for the one who is forgiven, it’s never too late. At whatever point in your life, even right at the end, even when you’re guilty for all the world to see, we can still come to Him and be forgiven.

And from the other criminal, if we’re asking “when is it too late?” - we see it’s only too late, when you will refuse to come to Jesus. This other hanging there with them, dying there for his crimes, has nothing to lose, but he still won’t ask for forgiveness, He still won’t come to Jesus for forgiveness. But why would you not?