Jesus Crucified

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Ironton, Ohio

Campbell Chapel FWBC of Ironton Ohio - Pastor Bob Bradley

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Ironton, Ohio 45638

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Jesus is Crucified

March 12, 2008

Bob Bradley

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Luke 23:24-46

24 And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required.

25 And he released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired; but he delivered Jesus to their will.

26 And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.

27 And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him.

28 But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.

29 For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.

30 Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.

31 For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?

32 And there were also two other, malefactors, led with him to be put to death.

33 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.

34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.

35 And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him , saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.

36 And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar,

37 And saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself.

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

39 And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.

40 But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?

41 And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.

42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.

43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

44 And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.

45 And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.

46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.

I hope you did take time to read Luke 23, and not only that but the other accounts, as well as, the book of Matthew. All the writers spoke about the crucifixion and they all add a little bit of a different picture to it. As we read all four accounts of what happened, then we can gat a fuller picture of what did happen.

Keep in mind as we get to the death here at what is taking place. Do you remember we studied a couple of weeks ago about the Last Supper and Jesus washing the disciples’ feet? He tells them that He is going to go away. One is going to betray Him. We know that Judas goes and he makes his agreement with the chief priests and scribes. We know that Jesus leaves the Upper Room and He goes down the Kidron Valley down into a garden called Gethsemane. He walks maybe a mile from where He just had the Last Supper inside Jerusalem.

We also talked about the praying that He did and spending time alone with His Father. As He is praying, they were coming with as many as 600 soldiers with their swords, staves, and with their lanterns. They are walking over a hill at probably somewhere around midnight at night. Remember where Jesus was praying at and as the road led down the hill from the city of Jerusalem down to the Garden of Gethsemane; Jesus could have looked up and could have saw this great mob coming. He knew what was happening, but He continued to pray. He continues to seek the will of His Father. We know as He prayed there that His sweat became as great drops of blood. We know when He finished praying that He got the disciples and they go over there. Here comes Judas and he walks over and gives Jesus a kiss on the cheek. Because Judas had told the soldiers, “The one that I am going to kiss, is the one that you need to arrest. You hold Him fast.” We know that Judas did that. He comes over and kisses Jesus. Then Jesus asked a question, “Who are you looking for?” They said, “We are looking for Jesus of Nazareth.” We know that Jesus said, “I am He.” The Bible says that they fell backwards on the ground. When they laid hands on Him to lead Him away, we know that Peter pulled out his sword and cut off Malcham’s ear. Jesus just reached down and picks up the ear and puts it back on his head and he is healed. Jesus said, “You say that you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth. I am He. If you are looking for me then let these others go.” We know that they took Him. They lead Him up the hill that they just came down. They were going to take Him back inside the city.

Tonight, just for a few moments, before we look at His death, I think that we need to look at what happened probably from midnight on Thursday night until about six o’clock or so on Friday morning; that is the part of things that we don’t look at sometimes. We think these events happened and we think bam, bam, bam that it wasn’t any big deal. However, there were actually two different trials of Jesus. One was in the Sanhedrin in the house of Caiaphas and also one the next morning at Pilate. So we know that there were two different trials. We know that there were different aspects of the trials. We know that when they came and got Jesus in the garden, they brought Him back up this hill and back into the city—if I understand things correctly—probably was very close to where Jesus had just had the Last Supper. That is where He had eaten the Supper at with the disciples and washed their feet. Probably even the home of Mary, and Annas probably lived very close to where He had just eaten the Last Supper several hours before.

They bring Him back to Annas’ house. Annas is the father-in-law to Caiaphas. Actually, Caiaphas is the high priest. However, Annas was still yet the man in charge. They brought Him up here and we know that He is there. We know that it was about midnight when they take Him from the garden, walk back up the hill the mile or ¾ of a mile to get to Annas’ house. There were some questions there. Some things happened there.

Taken to Caiaphas

Then they took Him from Annas’ house over to Caiaphas. It is at Caiaphas’ house where the Sanhedrin or the Supreme Court of the land of Israel is meeting at. This is where they are going to meet in the wee hours of the morning and they are going to condemn Jesus to die. We know that they took Him over there. We know that as He is here, they say a lot of different things. There are all kinds of talk going on. There are two million people in the city of Jerusalem, but the Sanhedrin is meeting at one or two o’clock in the morning; which is completely illegal by their own laws. It was not legal for them meet and pass judgment on someone in the middle of the night.

However, here they are and they are meeting here and looking at what they are going to do with Jesus Christ. As you look at what happens here, this is the main trial. This is the Jewish trial. When you look what happens here, they ask Jesus some questions. They have to come up with a charge so that when they take Him to Pilate in the morning they have to have some kind of a charge so that when they go to Pilate they can say, “Hey, this guy is a criminal and He needs to be crucified.”

Remember, Pilate is the Roman Governor and the Jewish people did not have the authority to pronounce a death sentence upon anybody. They did not have that so they had to come up with a plan or scheme here so when they brought Him to Pilate that they could have some kind of a reason that could kill Him, or Pilate would pronounce sentence upon Him to die. We know that they brought in false witnesses and the false witnesses couldn’t even agree on their story. This one would say this and this one would say that and even though they had all these witnesses in there, they could not even come together on what He supposedly had done. Do you know why they couldn’t do that? He had not done anything wrong. There was not a charge that they could bring against Him worthy of any kind of punishment that would be right because He had not done anything wrong.

However, here they are—now that shows you the hatred that they had for this man. That shows you the hatred that the Jewish nation or the Jewish leaders had for Jesus Christ. We know that they questioned Him here and they asked Him, “Are you the Son of God?” He begins to tell them, “After awhile you are going to see the son of man coming in the clouds…” They said, “What any further need have we of these witnesses because He just spoke blasphemy. He said that He is the Son of God.” That was their charge. Their charge was going to be before the Sanhedrin that He is blaspheming God.

What that means is that He is cursing God or speaking disrespectful about God. Therefore, their charge is that He has committed blasphemy. We know under the Law that you were killed. That was going to be their charge. Throughout the night they did all kinds of things to Him. They beat Him. They spit in His face. They slapped Him. They did all kinds of things to Him. As you read the four different accounts here, you will see how he would have looked by the time daylight got here and they are going to take Him to Pilate; probably Jesus did not look anything like Himself.

I don’t care how big you are, if you are in handcuffs here or they have you bound and somebody walks up and hits you in the face, it is not going to take long before your face will swell up. If you read the scriptures they smote Him in the face. There is no doubt in my mind as you read the accounts here that Jesus had a very horrible night because of all that He is going through here: the beatings, the mock trial, the cursing, and all that He is going through here would have taken a toll on anybody.

Taken to Pilate

Here He is. They come up with a charge of blasphemy and that is good for the Jews but they are going to have to come up with something else when they take Him to Pilate the next morning; they are going to have to have something else because Pilate does not care anything about blasphemy. He does not worship the God of heaven. He doesn’t know anything about that and he doesn’t care anything about that. Pilate was a fellow that was very ruthless. He did a lot of things just to excite the Jews.

We studied a few weeks ago about the events that happened in the temple area where some people were slain and Pilate took their blood and…their sacrifices. When you look at that event, Pilate, no doubt, had something to do with the slaughter that took place there. He was a very ruthless fellow. As you look at Pilate, he did not care anything about Jesus. He did not care anything about the Jewish religion. He was over there because Rome had put him over there. He was the governor. He was in charge.

They are going to have to come up with another charge here to get Him condemned to die by Pilate—they are going to have to come up with something else. Pilate did not care anything about their blasphemy.

As you look at what happens here, about daylight or so the Sanhedrin and the multitudes that were gathered here, they are going to take Jesus to Pilate. They have made the decision—actually, before they get there; if you read the scriptures, after daylight in the morning, they come together—they ratify their decision that they made in the night so that it will be legal where their law is concerned. After they ratify their decision so that it is legal, they accuse Him of blasphemy.

They leave Caiaphas hour and now they are going to meet with Pilate. They come and bring Jesus to Pilate. They tell Pilate that this guy committed sedition. What that means is, they Bible says here that they said He is stirring up the people all over the country, all over this land, and all over Israel. He is stirring up the people. He is forbidding us to pay tribute to Caesar. He needs to be put to death. He is a criminal. We know that Pilate talked to Him. Pilate questioned Him and it did not take long for Pilate to say, “Hey, guys I don’t find fault in this fellow. I don’t find anything worthy of death.” They talk for a few minutes. As you read the whole thing, they had to come up with something else other than the blasphemy. Therefore, they said that He has committed sedition. As they talked, Pilate was satisfied in his own heart that Jesus had done nothing worthy of death. He knew that beyond any shadow of a doubt.

Caving in under pressure

Many times we cave in under pressure. People sometimes, even in our testimony, our witness for Jesus Christ; if we are put under a little bit of pressure, we want to collapse. We want to cave in. This is actually what Pilate is going to do. Pilate, as the conversation is going, finds out that Jesus is from Galilee. Pilate is the Governor is Judea. Jesus lived and was reared up in Nazareth. Nazareth is in Galilee. When Pilate heard that Jesus is from Galilee there is no doubt in my mind that he thought, “I’ve got it made now. I’ll send Him to Herod.” Pilate was thinking that he was going to get to wash his hands of this whole matter.

Pilate sends Jesus to Herod

Pilate hears that He is of Galilee. He takes Jesus, the chief priests, scribes and elders; this whole mob, they take Him over to where Herod is at. This is really pleasing Herod because as you read the scriptures, you will find out that for a long time Herod had wanted to see Jesus. He wanted to see Jesus do some of the miracles that he had heard about. Therefore, this really pleased Herod when he found out that Jesus was going to come over here and he was going to get to meet Him and he was hoping that Jesus would do some kind of miracle.

Get this…

This is something that I had never thought of in thirty years. I wondered why Jesus did not say anything to Herod. I wondered why He did not have anything to say. As you study about Herod; it was Herod’s dad that had all the children killed in Bethlehem when Jesus was a baby. It was this Herod here that had John the Baptist killed.

It is something how when we as individuals, when we as families, when we as churches, when we say, “Hey, I don’t want anything to do with the God of heaven—He can make that happen.

He did not say one word, not one word did Jesus Christ say. Do you know why? He knew what was in Herod’s heart. He knew exactly what Herod was thinking. He knew exactly who Herod was and how wicked and how ruthless and how sinful he was. It wasn’t that Jesus did not love him because He did. Jesus did not do anything just to be doing something. He did not do anything to waste time.

That struck me today when I was studying this. How today, we do the same thing. We might not say that with our actions. We might not kill babies. Or we may. We may not kill God’s prophets, but we may do that too. It is something when we take a stand that we do not want anything to do with God; then God is not going to have anything to do with you. Remember that.

Don’t think that God is up here on a string and that you can curse God all of your life and live a very wicked life and do all kinds of horrible and sinful things and die in that condition and go to heaven—it does not work that way folks.

Funeral Story

A few years ago, a preacher was having a funeral. They had asked him to come preach a funeral of a very wicked fellow. He had been to visit this guy many times. He said, “I want anything to do with God. You will never see me in a church. I don’t ever want to be in a church. I don’t want to go.” This guy died and they asked this preacher to come and preach his funeral. As they got him out of the hurse and start up to the door, he stopped them and he said, “We are going to have the funeral out here. We are not going inside. He told this whole community that he did not want anything to do with God, he would never be in a church house so therefore, and we are going to grant his wish. We are going to have the funeral out here.” Does that sound hard? No, that does not sound hard.

God is a God that will allow us to do what we want to do. He is not going to make you do anything. He is not going to make me do anything. There will come a time when we, no doubt, will wished that we would have done some things, but God is not going to make you do anything. God is not going to make you repent. God is not going to make you live right. God is not going to make you live a holy life in spite of what a lot of the Baptists want to tell you today. We have a free will and we will do what we want to do. We have the freedom to live as we want to live. God will not make us do anything. He might make us wish that we would have done it, but He won’t make us do anything.

Herod sends Jesus back to Pilate

We know that he is there and Jesus had nothing to say to Herod. Therefore, the soldiers there mock Him and put a robe upon Him. They do some very bad things to Him but they send Him back to Pilate. Pilate questions Him again and says, “I don’t find any fault in Him.” Then he says, “Why don’t we just release one of them. It is a custom that we have that we release one of the prisoners that we have each year at this time. What I will do is just scourge Him and then we will let Him go and everything will be fine. However, the whole crowd begins to scream and holler. “We don’t want Jesus but release unto us Barabbas.”

Barabbas

When you look at who Barabbas was, Barabbas was a guy that was actually that was guilty of sedition, and he was actually a murderer the Bible says. Here they have opportunity to have Jesus released or Barabbas and the religious leaders begin to cry out we want Barabbas. Take this guy and kill Him. Get Him out of our sight.

Pilate

Do you know what Pilate knew? The Bible says in the book of Matthew 28, Pilate knew that for envy that they had brought Jesus to him. Pilate knew that it was for envy or Jesus’ popularity that they wanted Him killed. Pilate’s wife has a little dream and comes out and tells him, “You had better not have anything to do with this just man. I have suffered many things in a dream because of this man.” Pilate takes a bowl of water and goes out on the porch; he washes his hands and says, “Hey, fellows I want you guys to know that I am innocent of this man’s blood.”

Do you know what? You cannot wash that away with water. It takes His blood to wash our sin away. Even though Pilate was making this statement—do you know what he went ahead and done? He said, “Take Him out of here then. I’ll release unto you Barabbas if you want this murderer released then I will release him. Then take Jesus and we will crucify Him. They scourge Him and they tie Him to a tree. No doubt stripped Him to His waist and they took a whip that had several pieces of leather in it tied on a piece of wood, at the ends of the leather they would tie pieces of bone. As they would take the whip and whip somebody, it would wrap around their body and as they would pull the whip back, then the sharp objects in the ends of the leather would actually just cut as they would pull the whip back.

It was not a pretty sight. The price of sin—it was a great price that had to be paid. There was a tremendous price that had to be paid. Our redemption and our salvation were not free at all because it cost Jesus Christ His life. We did not have to pay for it, but Jesus Christ did. It was a tremendous price.

Beginning the Lesson

We know that after they beat Him here, Jesus starts carrying the cross towards Calvary. As He starts carrying the cross, He probably does not walk very far and as we pick up the lesson—we know that as He is carrying the cross, He falls under the load of the cross. They get a fellow by the name of Simon. Not Simon, but a fellow by the name of Simon, a Cyrenian, they get him to carry the cross that Jesus could no longer carry over there.

It was a horrible, horrible time. I hope that we understand that. I hope that we understand how bad and how horrible that really was.

He starts walking to Calvary. They are not going to crucify Him inside the city. They are going to take Him outside the Northern wall of the city. There on a place that looked like a skull, they have some crosses out there and they are going to nail Him to a cross and not only Him but two other criminals that are also here. It’s not a pretty sight.

“Don’t weep for me”

As they go, as He is carrying the cross. He falls under the load. As He is going to the cross—He knows what is going to happen, He knows that just in a few minutes that He is going to be nailed to the cross. As He is taking the steps that He is taking, and probably many times, He may have been helped by many folks. I don’t know. However, as He is going He has some things to say. He makes a statement:

28 But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.

Jesus knew where He was going. Last Sunday night—I think—we talked about there had to be suffering before glory. Jesus understood that if He was going to get back to where He could have the glory that He had with His Father before the world began then He had to suffer. He knew that the only way that redemption could be bought and purchased for mankind is that He had to suffer. Jesus Christ knew that this was not the end for Him, but it was just the beginning of salvation for you and me. He knew that. He looks at the whole crowd and says, “…don’t weep for me.”

The crowd that was there, the women that were there, and the followers—there were many people in this multitude that was walking with them towards Calvary; there were many there that ate from the food that He had provided. No doubt, there were many there He had healed and that they had seen Him do some great things. He may have been in some of their houses. These folks were heartbroken. If you had been healed of leprosy, if you had been blind and could not see, if you had been dead as Lazarus was—and there is no doubt in my mind that Lazarus was here because he just lived a quarter of a mile away and he had been raised from the dead. Others that had seen what was going on would have been heartbroken. If you love somebody and they get beat like this—I don’t care if it was somebody I knew or not, it breaks my heart. That touches me when I see things like that happen. Don’t it you?

Here is a guy that did some great things for them. Here is a guy that they ate with, fished with, and seen Him do all kinds of wonderful things for three years or so. Now here He is with His face swelled up, big globs of hair is pulled out, from His waist and up, He looks like raw meat. Here He is going towards a place that He knows He is going to be nailed to a cross and He knows that He is going to be there six hours but yet He looks at the crowd and says, “…don’t weep for me…”

That shows you how much He loved us. Not only how much He loved us but how much He loves everybody. The very soldiers that were going to nail Him to a tree; He loved them. He was going to die for them just as He died for me and for you. He says, “…weep not…” If that had been me and you, we probably would have been screaming and hollering saying, “somebody help me, somebody help me.” And probably rightfully so but He says, “…don’t weep for me…”

28 But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.

Rejection

Jesus knew that rejecting Him, Jesus knew that this city and the religious leaders of this city—people that should have been teaching this nation about God, leading people in revival, and teaching people about spiritual things—He knew that they were a long way from that. He also knew what wickedness and sin would ultimately bring, not only to these folks that were walking here but also for all those of the city; Jesus knew what was coming.

Rejection of Jesus Christ brings judgment. There is no other way around that. We can sugar-coat it if we want to and we can say that God is a loving God and He will never allow anyone to die and go to hell. We can say that God will surely overlook me because I have been a good person and I’ve feed the poor, took care of the stray dogs, and fed the birds or whatever. It does not have anything to do with that. Rejection of Jesus Christ brings judgment. Jesus knew what was coming to the city of Jerusalem and He knew the suffering that was going to take place there. He knew the suffering that was going to happen because of the rejection of this nation, of this people—He knew what was coming.

I would to God tonight that we can instill in people how serious it is when we reject and when we deny and when we say that Jesus Christ is not the Lord of our lives; I wished we could understand the severity of taking that stand. You might say preacher, “I don’t do that.” If He is not the Lord of your life tonight then you are actually rejecting Him. If you are not allowing Him to be the Lord and the Master of your life tonight, then in reality you are rejecting Him. Because if He is not your Lord and your Master then He cannot be your Savior; and if He is not your Lord and Master, He cannot be your Savior so therefore you are rejecting Him. You are rejecting the work that He is about to do here, you are rejecting that. When we do that, I don’t care how much seminary we have had, I don’t care how much schooling we have had, I don’t care how many letters we have before or after our name; if we reject Jesus Christ suffering is coming. Jesus knew that. He said, “…don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves…” He knew what was going to come. That is a tremendous statement.

29 For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.

There is going to come a time here when suffering was going to be tremendous. They were going to be able to look around and say, “Hey, I’m glad that I never did have children.” because of the suffering that was going to come to this city. To all those that were going to be there and be suffering—He was talking about a very horrible time. What we know; this happened in 33 AD and Titus the Roman came to Jerusalem with his armies, a very brutal army. Do you know what they did? As you read history and these historians; you can read secular history about him coming, but as you read about what happened, they came to Jerusalem and slaughtered thousands of people. They tore the place down one stone at a time. They burnt the place with fire. People were scattered everywhere. People died everywhere. Do you know why? Because of what Jesus said 35 years before, “don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and weep for your children.” Do you know why He was saying that? Because He knew that rejection brings judgment. He knew that denial and rejection would bring the hand of judgment from God upon people’s lives. That has not changed any folks.

The Romans probably are not gong to come here, but that is not the bad thing. The sad thing is that there is going to come a time one day and it may closer for some of us than what we think and what we want to admit but there going to come a time that we are going to leave planet earth. It may be heart attack. It may be cancer. It may be—I don’t know how we will leave here. The means by which we leave here does not matter. What really matters is what kind of shape our soul is in when we leave here. If we have rejected Him and would not allow Him to be our Master and our Savior then the only thing left for us is a lake of fire. There is no place for good sinners and bad sinners. There is one place for all sinners, for all those who reject Jesus Christ, and that is a lake of fire. I know we don’t like to hear that. I know, “Preacher, don’t talk about that. Don’t tell us that. Let’s talk about how good we are. Let’s talk about all the good things that we do. Let’s talk about all the positive things we do. Let’s keep our minds on positive things.” I’m all for that to a point. It does not do me too much good to talk about the positives if I don’t let you know that there are some negatives out here. The positives won’t mean much to you if you don’t understand that there are some negatives out here. Heaven won’t mean a whole lot to you if you don’t know that there is a hell over here.

That is where people are going. Good people, people that pays their bills, they don’t beat their wives or their kids. They don’t commit adultery. They are good employees and they hold all kinds of different professions in the community. Yet, they are rejecting Jesus Christ and when they die, they are not going to heaven. I’m not being judgmental when I say that. Lost people, when they die, they go to hell; the lake of fire. Saved people, when we die, there will a time when we get to go to heaven. There is no in between. I’m not trying to be mean. I want us to understand how serious it is when we reject Jesus Christ. Serious, Serious, Serious matter

Horrific death

The Bible goes on and talks about a lot of different things here.

They lead Him away and the other two malefactors here. They take Him out to Calvary and there they hang Him on a cross. They nail Him to a cross. They take spikes, and stick His hands out then nail them to the crossbeam on the cross. They cross His legs and they drive big spikes through His legs and they nail Him to the cross. They pick up the cross and they drop it over in a hole. There He is hanging on a cross by the nails in His hands and His feet. Do you think that was pretty? Do you think the sight that would have been there with Him looking as He looked; blood running down His face, no doubt, His probably swelled shut, His hair probably a lot of it was gone, the crown of thorns they put upon His head. They mocked Him. They ridiculed Him. They spit in His face. They slapped Him. Now, He is hanging on the cross and probably does not even look like He is human. He was treated worse than any dog that would have been there then; all for me and for you. He did not need to be saved—He is God. He had not committed any sin. He is God. He knew that I needed a Savoir. He knew that you needed a Savior. He knew that the Father; before the world was ever created and formed, that it had been foreordained that Jesus Christ had to shed His blood so that mankind could have Savior.

There He is folks, He is hanging there. The two thieves are with Him. The crowds are on the ground. It was a crucifixion. A crucifixion was a capital punishment for the Romans. It was a very horrible death. Crucifixion was the worst kind of death that you could have.

While He is hanging on the cross—as you read about crucifixion, it was actually a big drunken party for most of the people that were there. They would come around and they would look up and they would move on, but they all were drinking. Do you know what they were doing? They were gambling for one of His garments. They were throwing all kinds of slurs at Him and mocking Him, “If you be the Son of God, come down we will believe you now. He saved others and now He can’t save Himself.” All kinds of blasphemous things they were saying to Him. He could have just spoken the word and they all could have been gone. All power both in heaven and in earth was given unto Him. He could have done whatever He wanted to do but yet because of His love for us He did not do that.

As we read to you here, the two thieves were here and one made this statement, “If you are really who you say you are then get down off of this cross. Save yourself and save us.” The other thief said, “What are you saying. We are criminals and we need to be up here. This guy here that you are saying all these bad things about, don’t need to be up here. He has done nothing wrong.”

God’s grace

One of the thieves looked at Jesus and said, “When you get to your kingdom, please remember me.” I don’t know how much this guy had heard about Jesus. Maybe it was because of the humility that he saw of Jesus. Maybe he saw the love and compassion of Jesus. I don’t have any idea. This one thief looked at Jesus and said when you get to your kingdom, remember me. Jesus looked up and said, “Today, you are going to be with me in paradise.” Isn’t that awesome that God’s grace can go that far?

Just minutes from death, but yet God’s grace is there. That’s awesome isn’t it? I don’t recommend anybody to do that. I don’t recommend anybody to put off this thing until you are ready to die because you may not be able to pray then. I’ve been in some places in my life after I have been saved, I’ve been in some positions and conditions that I could not pray. I was as saved as I am now, but I could not pray.

Things may not work out like you have them planned. The Bible makes it very plain today is the day of Salvation. The Bible tells us if you hear His voice, harden not your heart. Don’t turn Him away today. Don’t reject Him today.

We know that He stays on the cross from nine o’clock in the morning until three o’clock in the afternoon. We know that three o’clock in the afternoon He says, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” He said, “It is finished.” The Bible says that He bowed His head and He gave up the ghost. What that means is, He died. He did not faint. They did not knock Him out, but He died. “Into thy hands I commend my spirit.” He died.

The soldiers that were there, seen all the things that happened; they knew about Him. They knew who He was. They recognized Him but yet Jesus Christ died. He is dying there friend with blood running out of His side where they pierced Him with a sword and blood running out of His head where they beat Him. There was blood running out of His head where they have the crown of thorns on His head. There was blood running out of His torso where they whipped Him and done all kinds of cruel and horrible and inhumane things to Him. Yet the goal is me and you. The prize is me and you. He was dying to save me and you. That was the reason that He was doing what He was doing. That was the prize. That was what He was doing all this for; was me and you.

Sometimes when I look at that and look at my own life, do you know what I see? He sure got the short end of the stick. You better say that because none of us deserved it. If we got what we deserved we would be in hell tonight. We would be in a lake of fire tonight had it not been for the grace of God. We are saved tonight because of the grace of God. We are saved tonight because Jesus Christ died for us. We are saved tonight born again tonight has the spirit of God within tonight because Jesus Christ died for us. We accepted it by faith. You cannot save yourself and you cannot keep yourself.

He died for you and for me. He died so that you would not have to live eternity in a lake of fire.

Come…

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