? Introduction
Gilles, a
French colleague in the Laboratory where I used to Study in
“I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘But I know that she did many good things in her life. She gave plenty of money to charity; she helped the poor, she went regularly to the church...”
Is that the
right way to heaven? Let me tell you something about “Mr Born Again.” Three
people seriously question the emphasis of “Mr Born Again”. Their names are, “Mr
Good family”, “Mr Good Life”, and “Mr Good Churchgoer.”
Asked about
the necessity of being born again:
Mr GOOD
FAMILY says, ‘We
are a Christian family. My parents are Christians. I’ve been brought up a
Christian. I’ve always been a Christian .’
Mr GOOD
LIFE says ‘I
don’t do anybody any harm. I’m a good citizen. I pay 100 pence in the pound. I
try to help my neighbour. What more can I do?’
Mr GOOD CHURCHGOER says ‘I have been a Christian all my life. I was baptized. I’ve been confirmed. I attend church regularly. I’m a church member. I take communion.’
Is that true?
Are these sufficient conditions for a person to be saved? Is that the right way
to heaven?
Well let us
see what Jesus taught concerning this. There is a wrong way to heaven and also a right way.
We are going to look at a story of a criminal who went to heaven! This is found
in the gospel of Luke 23:26-43
“Now as they led Him (Jesus) away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, who was coming from the country, and on him they
laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus. And a great multitude of the
people followed Him, and women who also mourned and lamented Him. But Jesus,
turning to them, said, “Daughters of
We see in this account that there are were 3 crosses. Matthew mentioned 3 crosses in his gospel; Mark also mentioned 3 crosses, and so did John. They all tell us that Jesus was in the middle and that on one side was a thief and on the other side was another thief. In fact the words which some of the writers used tell us that these two menpeople were more than thieves; they were criminals; the worse sort of criminals.
This was the final insult toward Jesus. After all who was Jesus mixing with? He was mixing with prostitutes and crooks. So when they crucified Him it was as if they were saying to Him: “Well! You have liked living amongst these people, you can die amongst them as well.” It was a final insult, which they expressed to Jesus of Nazareth.
What they did not realize of course is that 700 years before that Friday, Isaiah the prophet predicted this.
The Old Testament books are like a range of mountains. From different parts of the Old Testament you can see the future. When you come to the book of Isaiah the mountains are very high. When you come to Isaiah chapter 53 it is the highest peak in all the Old Testament. There Isaiah the prophet, as he stands on the top of Isaiah 53 and looks down for centuries ahead of him, he looks 700 years ahead and slightly more. He talks about the One who is great; who is going to live and going to suffer and die and rise again. He said, “He(Jesus) made his grave with the wicked.” So when He would come He would die with wicked people. Then he says talking about His (Jesus’) death: “He made intercession for the transgressors.” In other words He prayed for wicked people as He died.
So 700 years before it was clear that when the Saviour came He would die amongst crooks, because all the details of that great Friday were planned, not 700 years before, but right back there in eternity. Every single tiny thing which happened, the order in which it happened and how it happened, was all spelled out in God’s plan.
I hope you realize, therefore, that when men and women did their most wicked deeds- the most wicked things they could think of- and when they threw in the face of Jesus Christ their final insults, what they considered to be their greatest insult, was actually the plan of God coming to pass. YOU CANNOT DEFEAT GOD!
One of these
thieves had a privilege, which many of us would love to have. When Jesus died
and went immediately to His Father’s presence in paradise, He also took one of
those thieves with Him.
I hope you have
realized already that what I am going to say is very different from what you might
hear from many other people and religions. Many people are teaching that if you
are good enough you can go to heaven, but I am talking to you about a wicked
man, a criminal, who has gone to heaven. That is what makes the Gospel a Gospel
of good news.
First of all
I am going to tell you about the life this men lived.
? The life
he lived
To know this
we need to look at Matthew’s account of the same event. This is found in
Matthew’s gospel chapter 27, verse 38:
“Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one
on the right and another on the left. And those who passed by blasphemed Him,
wagging their heads and saying, “You who destroy the temple and build it in
three days, save Yourself! If You
are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” Likewise the chief priests also,
mocking with the scribes and elders, said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot
save. If He is the King of
As far as we
can tell the two thieves were probably members of the gang of a certain Barabbas.
If that is true they were both merciless and criminals.
They were people who cut other people’s throats, robbed their houses, violated them. They were greedy, cruel and unkind and the
Law put them on their crosses.
And yet, one
of them went to heaven!
It was
For you read above in verse 44, “Even the
robbers who were crucified with Him reviled Him with the same thing.” You see they both threw up the same insults as
the other people, who also were twisting Jesus’ words. Look at it! Verse 40, “You who destroy the temple and build it
in three days, save Yourself!” It is true that Jesus said, “I’ll
destroy the temple and I’ll build it again, but it was clear He was talking
about the temple of His body. They deliberately twisted His words and so did
the robbers.
Again in
verse 40, “If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” These people were saying, “Hey!
We don’t believe you are the Son of God. We don’t believe there is one drop of
deity, one drop of God in you. But if you are the Son of God come down from the
cross.” Here were these two dying thieves joining in with all this cruel
haranguing of Jesus.
Now look at verse 42, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He
is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will
believe Him.” It is
as if He can take out the nails and somehow come down from the cross where we
have nailed him, then we will believe in him. So let him perform
a miracle; let him prove who he is. There are these two robbers then saying,
“Yes go on prove yourself.”
What they
didn’t realize, of course, is that if He saved Himself, then no one else could
be saved!
Look also at
verse 43, “He trusted in God;
let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.” In other words: ‘We don’t believe
a word of what you have said.’ Here are these two criminals saying, “and nor do
we. We don’t believe a word of what you said.”
Yet one of
these criminals is now in heaven!
So something
happened after
Did he get
baptized? He never left that cross. Although baptism is commended by our Lord
Jesus, it is not being baptized which is the door to heaven.
Did he go to
a communion service? Did he put money in the collection? Did he join the
church? Did he live a life of Christian discipleship? Did he make any
sacrifices for Christ? Did he put all his talents at Christ’s disposal? Did he
serve Him in gladness? We have here a wonderful picture, which tells us that
however good those things are (and they are good by the way) not one of those
things, not even one, is the door to heaven. That is not the way
at all that sinners are saved.
Yet this man
went to heaven! He went hand in hand with the Son of God through the doors of
heaven on that wonderful Friday.
Let us come back to Luke’s gospel to chapter
23, from verse 39 onwards. Here Jesus promised him paradise by
The criminal
starts the day
insulting, haranguing, harassing and being cruel with his words
to the Lord Jesus Christ, but by
I hope this
shows you that people can be converted very quickly. I hope also that it shows
you that you too can read this booklet and may very quickly be sure of going to
heaven.
So, let us
consider what he came to realize.
a.
Sense of God
Look at verse
39; “One of the criminals who
were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and
us” then we get one
of those wonderful ‘BUTs’ which you find in the
Bible, “But the other,
answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under
the same condemnation?” Something remarkable has happened! Out of this man’s mouth has come
all sorts of filth and now something has changed! His friend continues to
insult Christ, so he says to him, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?” Into this man’s thoughts and into his heart
has come a sense of God! That is the way it always happens when people are to
be saved. Seven years ago, the last thing in the whole world, the very last
thing I wanted in the world was to become a Christian, but as I continued to
meet with Christians and hear God’s word, the Bible, preached and expounded, a
sense of God invaded me. A sense of God which was bigger than I was! That is
how it always happens. It always happens that way. Suddenly someone wakes up to the fact that
there is God and they have to deal with Him, and answer to Him. They are
responsible before Him. They will have to face Him; for this God is God the One
who is to be feared. The fear of God is now getting hold of this thief.
b.
Sense of sin
Next let us see
what happens. Verses 40 and 41, “Do
you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? “And we
indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds.” Can you see what has happened? He
has got a sense of God which is condemns his life, and now a realisation that
this punishment of death is deserved! He would not have ended up on that cross
if he has just been guilty of taking a few pennies here and there. He is in that
place where he is in his dying hours. He can look back on his short life, and
he sees the terrible things which he has done. He is well aware now that he deserves
what he is getting. There is a sense of responsibility. “I have done that, and
if I’m punished for it, then I deserve to be punished.” There is in his heart a
sense of failure and wrongdoing. It is what we call actually in the Christian
faith, THE CONVICTION OF SIN.
No one is a
Christian if he does not have some form of conviction of sin. Some people have
such conviction of sin that they become suicidal and die in despair but that is
not what I am talking about. Some people have a conviction of sin, which shows
them up for what they really are, but it drives them to Jesus Christ. That’s
what I’m talking about.
This man
suddenly has a sense of God and a sense of sin. A realisation
that he is getting that which he deserves and it is al his fault. He had
lived contrary to how he should have lived. He had failed to live as he should
have.
c.
Sense of purity of Christ
Can you see
what is happening to him? Verse 41, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?
“And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man
has done nothing wrong.” I don’t suppose either of these two criminals
had ever seen anything like that which the saw on that Friday. As they were paraded
through the streets- as criminals who were to be executed- they had seen the
Lord Jesus Christ stop and speak kind words to women. Not thinking of Himself but talking to them about themselves and their
children. I don’t think they had seen anything like it before. Next they had
seen the naked body of Jesus Christ laid down on a
cross, as it was flat on the grass. Then as the nails were hammered into His
wrists, and other nails were hammered into His feet, instead of swearing and
blaspheming and calling the people who did it every name He could think of,
there was a tenderness that came out of Him in prayer! For they had heard Him
pray, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” Never had they seen something like that before.
No one who
lived in
Now when you
have a sense of your sin and wrongdoing, and you also hear that there is one
person who is sinless, you know that there is hope for you. There cannot be any hope in
any religious leader, because
they are all sinners. There cannot be any hope in any of the world teachers, because
they too are sinners. Yet there is One life, just One, where even His enemies had to admit that
they could find no fault in Him (Jesus). For when they wanted to put Him on the
cross they had to pay false witnesses. Only one life, only one, has been
perfectly lived. He was completely pure and spotless, unpolluted- having lived a
life as pure on earth as God’s life in heaven. For it was God’s life, lived in
its heavenly purity here on earth; for God had become man. The thief realised
that. So there is a hope for you in that One who lived
a perfect, sinless life.
e.
He sees that Jesus is King
Let us move
on. What else did he realize? Look at verse 42, “Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”
The only
crown that the Lord Jesus Christ ever wore was a crown of thorns, which was
pressed down on His head. The only sceptre that Jesus ever carried was a stick,
which was put into His hand when they mocked Him just before they killed Him! Yet
this criminal can see that Jesus is a King. Though His kingdom cannot be a
Kingdom of this world, this man has faith to see that Jesus, this pure Man,
this God-Man is a King. He has the faith to see that other kingdoms will pass
away (and they will), but at last there will only be one Kingdom with one King;
the one who is crucified on the middle cross.
Already it was
written above His head “This is Jesus the King of the Jews.” The crowd though
mock Him for this. Of course some of the Romans had heard Him say “my Kingdom
is not of this world, if my Kingdom was of this world my servants would fight
for me.” So it is not a political Kingdom; it is not an earthly Kingdom, but it
is the everlasting Kingdom and it is the spiritual Kingdom into which we
already enter. He is a King with a
Kingdom, and this criminal said to himself: ‘I will talk to Him. I don’t know
when He will come to His Kingdom; I don’t know when we will see the real crown
on His throne; I don’t know when we will see every knee bow to Him and every
tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, but I know that we will!’ So he prays- not
to Mary or John or any other saint- but to Jesus. “Lord, remember me when you
come to Your Kingdom.”
It is amazing
isn’t it? He starts with mockery but by
WONDERFUL! This is one of the clearest
pictures of the gospel which we have any where in the Word of God.
So that is
the life he lived and what he came to realise. Now I want to say a bit about
the faith he exercised. Verse 42, he said, “Lord, remember me.”
Is it true
that the eternal Son of God (Jesus) is actually interested in one crook? He has
ever lied, ever stolen, ever had dirty thoughts and ever deceived any body. Is
it possible that the Son of God is interested in an individual sinner who has
deliberately chosen this path? Is that possible? This man had faith to believe it!
“Remember
me…”
Is it
possible that a man who is dying could understand that his spiritual welfare is
the most important thing and more important than getting of the cross? The
other criminal said, “If you are the Christ save yourself, get down from the
cross and take us down with you.” He was like a man who wants to burst out of
the prison and live as he did before. However, this man now comes to see that
more important than getting off the cross is being right with God, and going
into His Kingdom. That Is faith!
So look at
this: 2 men from the same gang, one still insulting and mocking; whilst the
other is sticking up for Him: “don’t you fear God,” he says, “since you are
under the same condemnation?” So he stands out against his friend.
Here too are the
chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees; they were the
people who reckon they knew how to live as religious people. Yet they are all
walking by saying horrible things that any tongue can say about Jesus Christ. There
is only one voice speaking up (and it is not Mary or John!) It is this criminal.
It is him! That is the faith he exercised.
Now I want to
talk to you about the promise the man received. I told you about the life he
lived, what he
came to realise, the faith he exercised, and here is the promise he received:
Verse 43, “Jesus said to
him, (and here it is), “Assuredly, I say to you”” It is a Greek word which in English basically
means IT IS FIXED and IT CANNOT BE CHANGED; it is 100% certain.
“Assuredly, I say to you…” I am sure that this man’s ears are
listening as they have never listened before. He is going to be leaving this
world any moment, when the sinless One, the God-one, the pure, kind, the
powerful One, says just to him, and to no one else “Assuredly, I say to you”. What an answer that is!
Our Lord does not
say it to the other thief nor foes He say it to all
the people walking by. He say it to just one person; just one, this criminal.
“Assuredly, I say to
you, TODAY...” You
may have been influenced by Catholic friends or the sort of Catholicism that
comes across on the media, and you have got the idea that when people die, because
you are very impure or - especially if you are a dying thief- you will have to
go through thousands of years of purgatory. Then little by little the terrible
flames of purgatory will purify you until at last you are fit to go into
heaven. Well! It’s only a way of getting money idea. It is just an invention this
idea of purgatory. Jesus didn’t believe in it and this is why Christians don’t
believe in it. He told this man (remember, one of the most wicked men that had
ever lived) that he would be with Him TODAY in
WHAT A
MARVELOUS GOSPEL THIS IS! It tells you that all your sins can be forgiven. It
tells you that you can be with Christ the moment you die. It tells you there is no further purging necessary if you come to the Lord
Jesus Christ. It’s a fantastic message! The world has nothing like it. “Assuredly, I say to you, today”, says Jesus, “You
will be with me in Pradise.”
Can you grasp
that? What did they have in common? One is the eternal Son of God and the other
is a thief and possibly a murderer! What
have they got in common? They have nothing in common, except that the sin of
one is being carried by the other. “You will be with me.” Where? In
We don’t read
that our Saviour says anything else to him at all. He didn’t need to hear any
thing else did he? That is all a sinner needs to hear.
TODAY : What speed!
WITH ME : What company!
IN
That is the
promise he received. Now the last thing I want to say to you is to give you the
reason why all this is in the Bible. There is a life he lived; there is what he
came to realise; there is the faith he exercised; there is a promise he
received; so why is all this in the Bible?
Well, just to
show to us that there is a wrong way to heaven and that there is also a right
way. That is what it is all about.
Do you have to be a special person to go to
heaven? NO!
Do you have to be in a special place? NO!
Do you have to have special words? NO!
Do you
have to have special attainments? NO!
So who goes to
heaven? Jesus Christ does in His own right. There is nothing about Him that
would cause Him to be shut out. Also every one who is joined into Christ and
embracing Him, and clinging to Him and trusting Him, goes with Him. That is,
those who realise that they are sinners in the sight of God; and realise that
Jesus is the Son of God who came from heaven to be the Saviour of all who trust
and believe on Him.
Let’s think
about it. How near did this man get to hell? Just a hair’s breadth! He stayed
on the cross till
How near did
the other thief get to heaven? I don’t know how many feet or yards were between
the three crosses, but it was quite clear that they were able to have a conversation
easily with each other. So he was only a few feet from the Son of God! So why
did he go to hell? Because he stayed as he was, which is
always the reason.
So you see
that you can be within a hair’s breadth from hell and go to heaven. Also you
can be within a hair’s breadth of heaven and go to hell. The whole thing is a
picture. What divides the world is Jesus Christ. The whole issue is decided by
your relationship with the God, who has come amongst us and lived and died and
risen again. The whole thing is decided there.
Why was he
saved? So that none of us might despair, no one can say, “I am too bad”. Why
was the other lost? That none of us may presume, so that no one can say, “I
don’t need it.” Why is the story in the Bible? To prove the truth of the Word
of the Lord Jesus Christ, “All who the Father gives to me will come to me.
And the one who comes to me I will never cost out.”