Luke 23:32-43; The Cross of Jesus

Jason Sterling April 13, 2025 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL Bulletin

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you have a copy of God's Word, turn with me to
Luke, chapter 23.
So Luke 23, 32 through 43 isthe passage.
This morning We've beenstudying the Gospel of Luke this
year and in the last severalweeks we've been in order to
prepare our hearts for Easter.
We've been just walking throughthe last week of Jesus' life

(00:21):
and looking at these key events.
This morning we're at the lasthours of Jesus's life.
We come to the crucifixion.
So follow along with me as Iread God's word, luke 23,
starting in verse 32.
You'll see also the passage onthe screen, but it's also in
your bulletin as well.

(00:58):
Let's look at God's Wordtogether, for they know not what
they do.
And they cast lots to dividehis garments.
And the people stood bywatching.
But the ruler scoffed at him,saying he saved others, let him
save himself if he is the Christof God, his chosen one.

(01:18):
The soldiers also mocked him,coming up and offering him sour
wine and saying also mocked himcoming up and offering him sour
wine and saying if you are theking of the Jews, save yourself.
There was also an inscriptionover him this is the king of the

(01:39):
Jews.
One of the criminals who werehanged railed at him saying are
you not the Christ?
Save yourself and us.
But the other rebuked him,saying do you not fear God,
since you are under the samesentence of condemnation and we,
indeed, justly, for we arereceiving the due reward of our

(02:00):
deeds.
But this man has done nothingwrong.
And he said Jesus, remember mewhen you come into your kingdom.
And he said to him truly, I sayto you today, you will be with
me in paradise.
Let's pray and let's ask forthe Holy Spirit to help us this
morning.
Let's pray together.

(02:21):
Spirit, would you come, wouldyou be with the one who preaches
?
And I pray that you would bewith all those listening.
We have lots of things we carryinto this room.
Some of us, our hearts areheavy, some of us are sad, some
of us are full of joy.
We're all over the place, butyou've brought us here.

(02:44):
You have this word on this dayfor us.
And so, holy Spirit, take thesepreached words and put them
inside our hearts, and I praythat we would all encounter in
some way the glory of Jesus andthe incomprehensible love and

(03:07):
value of the cross.
Only you can do that.
Please come in Jesus' name,amen.
There is a legendary episode ofthe Antique Roadshow from 2004.
And if you're not familiar withthe Antique Roadshow, it's a
PBS show where people bring intrinkets and they have these

(03:31):
experts there who appraisewhatever it is that people bring
in.
And on this particular episode,a man brought in a pocket watch
to this appraiser that had beenpassed down by his
great-great-grandfather and hadbeen in the family since 1914.
He'd actually taken it to aplace in town that appraises

(03:52):
things and found out that it wasworth $6,000.
That's a lot of money, butAntique Roadshow is in town.
He decides to take this pocketwatch that he thinks is worth
$6,000 in to get it appraised bya pocket watch expert that is

(04:14):
known for appraising Swisswatches.
And so the appraiser isexamining this watch and all the
unique features that areoriginal to this watch, and he
concludes that this exact pocketwatch has been sold in museums
there's very few of them, buthas actually been sold to

(04:34):
museums for a quarter of amillion dollars.
And the guy handling the watch,the appraiser, said that he had
never handled a watch thatvaluable, and the owner hears
this and starts to panic.
This owner is at a loss forwords and says no, you've got to

(04:57):
be kidding me.
It cannot be.
No way.
I can't believe it.
Are you serious?
Way, I can't believe it.
Are you serious?
I don't know how I'm even goingto get it home now.
He's at a complete loss forwords, and I tell you that story

(05:19):
because the point is that thiswatch had been in this family
for almost a hundred years.
But once the man understood theincomprehensible value of the
watch, it changed him, it lefthim speechless and it changed
his relationship to the watch.
Many of us, the cross has been apart.

(05:41):
We've grown up with the cross.
We've grown up hearing aboutthe crucifixion.
The cross has been a part.
We've grown up with the cross.
We've grown up hearing aboutthe crucifixion.
The cross has been a part ofour lives for as long as we can
remember.
We've grown up with it, we'veheard sermons on it, we have
crosses hanging around our necksand in our homes and my prayer
for each of us this morning is,like this man on the Antique

(06:03):
Roadshow, that we might, thismorning, see something.
We might see something in thecross that is of
incomprehensible value, that wemight see it in a new way and in
a fresh way and we mightrealize how valuable the cross

(06:24):
is and that it would change usand our relationship to it, and
that it might even leave usspeechless this morning.
So let's go back to the cross,let's go back to the crucifixion
and let's stand this morning atthe foot of the cross together,
and as we do, I want us to lookat three things.

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I want us to see thehumiliation of the cross, number
one.
Secondly, the salvation of thecross.
Lastly, the grace of the cross,the humiliation, the salvation
and the grace.
Let's look at those in turnthis morning.
First, the humiliation of thegrace.
Let's look at those in turnthis morning.
First, the humiliation of thecross.
This whole scene of thecrucifixion is one of

(07:10):
humiliation.
If you have your Bible open,you can look back.
It actually begins in verse 26when it says Simon of Cyrene was
carrying the cross of Jesus wascarrying the cross of Jesus,
and you are actually readingthat correctly.
If you hear the name Simon ofCyrene and the first thing that

(07:34):
it comes to your mind is who inthe world is that, you know
you're reading it correctly.
When that is your thought, whereis Peter?
Where are the other disciples?
Why aren't they carrying thecross?

(07:56):
You see, that's the point.
They are not there.
There's no one to carry thecross, except for this random
guy who's passing by A strangeris the only one left to help
Jesus.
Everyone else has left him.
He has been utterly abandonedby his friends.

(08:18):
He ends up at the place calledthe skull in verses 32 and 33,
and he's crucified there betweentwo criminals, one on his right
and one on his left, and he isstripped bare of all of his
earthly possessions Verse 34,the second part.

(08:41):
The soldiers cast lots todivide his garments.
So think about that.
Please get into this scene withme.
At the foot of the crucifixionof the Son of God, they are
playing a game, a game of dice.
They're gambling at his feetfor his stuff, valuing his

(09:08):
clothing more than him.
It is humiliating, it isprofane and it's every person in
this room's greatest nightmareto be completely exposed in
public, stripped of everythingyou own, all alone, no one with

(09:34):
you, shamed and publiclyhumiliated.
And Jesus faces all of thathead on.
And I think again, because ofour context, we are around the
cross, we hear about the crossand we hear about it often so
much that it loses itsstrangeness.

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Sometimes it's really strangeif you think about it, christian
, behold your hero Naked on across.
Christian, here is yourcenterpiece of life and of faith
.
Why?

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Why is the cross so over thetop in its shame and humiliation
?
To say it another way, whycan't we skip all of this and
just go to Easter?
Why can't we go straight to theresurrection?
Well, friends, you must haveboth, because this is what God

(10:42):
is like.
You must have suffering and youhave glory.
Tim Keller says Jesus is notjust a king, but he is a king on
a cross.
If he were just a king, youwould bow to him and submit to

(11:02):
him out of obligation, becauseyou have to.
But a king on a cross, yousubmit to him out of love and
out of trust.
You see a king on a cross.
That's what the people in thecrowd, that's what the rulers

(11:23):
and this one criminal hangingbeside Jesus.
That's what they miss Two times.
Look at verse 35 and 37.
If you are the Christ, saveyourself.
Behind that statement is if youare a Christ, if you are a king

(11:46):
, then you would not be on across, because that is too weak.
There is no way that what youare claiming Jesus this would be
what they would be saying istrue, because a king would have
might and power, power.
And so show us you're the king,show us you have that power and

(12:08):
come down and save yourself.
And in that invitation theyrealize and they reveal that
they have a false concept of whoJesus really is and what kind
of king Jesus really is, becausein their minds there's no way a
king and a Messiah would everget hammered and nailed to a

(12:31):
Roman cross.
They expected military might tosave good people from bad
oppressors, and that is not thegospel.
The gospel is bad people aresaved through the weak one, the
humiliated one, who would comeand save bad people from the

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oppression of sin and death.
And they miss that and that'swhy the Apostle Paul says things
in 1 Corinthians, chapter 1,verse 23,.
Like we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews
and foolishness to the Gentiles.

(13:17):
George Herbert has a famous poem.
It's actually written in 1633.
Do yourself a favor this weekand go read it.
You can find it online and thetitle of the poem is the
Sacrifice and it basically walksthrough Holy Week and in this

(13:37):
one scene that we're looking atthis morning, the people say now
heal yourself, physician.
Now you come down.
And Jesus responds alas, I didso when I left my father's smile

(14:02):
to fill his frown.
For you, whatever grief likemine, come down, jesus.
And Jesus says I did.
I came down to stay on thistree and to hang between two

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criminals and to be numbered.
This is a fulfillment ofprophecy as well to be numbered,
as Isaiah 53, 12 says, amongthe transgressors, so that I can
prepare a way for sinners tostand before a holy God, clean
and redeemed.
And so then the question is sowhat?

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What does that have to do withyou this morning?
I don't know your story, butsome of you this morning perhaps
think you're too bad for God.
Maybe you think of what you'vedone and who you are that
there's no way God could loveyou.

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Maybe you almost didn't comethis morning because you were so
overwhelmed with guilt andshame for what you did last
night.
Look at the cross.
Look at the cross.
Do you see in this cross thelove of God for sinners?

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Do you see in this cross justhow far God was willing to go in
order to save you, forgive youand make you clean?
Don't miss the incomprehensiblevalue of the cross for sinners.
Don't miss Jesus, a king on across.
It should leave us speechless.

(15:52):
It should leave us strugglingto find the words.
Secondly, the salvation of thecross.
Look at verses 39 through 43.
There's two criminals on eachside and they each have
different reactions to Jesus.
The first thief, cynical, railsagainst Jesus, mocks Jesus,

(16:15):
just like those at the foot ofthe cross in the crowds and the
religious leaders.
Because this thief wanted aking who conquers, just like
them, not a savior who suffers.
He wanted power, not mercy, andhis pride causes him to miss

(16:35):
the greatest gift the world hasever known hanging right beside
him.
That's the first thief.
The second thief has adifferent response.
The second thief is actuallyjust as close as Jesus to the
end of his life, and instead ofmocking Jesus, we see he
embraces Jesus.

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But it's remarkable here becausethe other Gospels actually tell
us that earlier in the day hetoo was mocking Jesus.
Luke doesn't include that inhis version and piece of the
story, but Matthew does.
Matthew 27, 44 says and eventhe robbers plural who were

(17:19):
crucified with Jesus also mockedand reviled him in the same way
.
And I tell you that becauseapparently something's changed.
This man went from mockingJesus to embracing Jesus.
And the critical question isokay, how?
How does that kind of thinghappen.

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Of course we would say HolySpirit, the Holy Spirit worked
in his heart.
But there's something else heretoo, I believe.
Look at verse 34.
He's hanging beside Jesus, andso he would have seen Jesus, and
he would have heard Jesus sayFather, forgive them, for they

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know not what they do.
He even says it in his wordsthat Jesus is innocent, and so
he knows that.
And he's seeing Jesus die.
Except Jesus is not raging out.
He's not raging out, jesus isnot protesting, he's not
spitting on all of theexecutioners and soldiers and

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cursing them.
No, jesus.
Instead, he prays and he saysGod, forgive them.
Who's capable of something likethat?
Only God, only God in the flesh.
And the second thief sees this,I think, and says Jesus is who.

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He says he is the Messiah, godwith skin on.
We don't know for sure when ithappened, but it happened and
something obviously clicked forthis second thief, so much so
that he goes from mocking tocrying out for mercy.

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The whole statement look atverses 41 or 40 and 41 from this
criminal is remarkable.
Let me read it again.
Do you not fear God?
So he's talking to the otherthief who's mocked Jesus.
Since you're under the samesentence of condemnation.
We are receiving our due rewardfor our deeds and this man,

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jesus, has done nothing wrong.
You want to talk about a loadedstatement?
That is a loaded statement andwe're going to look at it
Because there is so much here,and here we see the elements of
true conversion and truerepentance.

(19:54):
This man gets clarity on who Godis.
He's convinced of his guilt andsin before a holy God and he
cries out for mercy from Jesus.
He gets clarity on God.
That's the first thing he says.
Do you not fear God?
And I find that extremelyprofound, because he's

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acknowledging who God is andhe's acknowledging that we are
standing before him.
He knows our motives and oursecret thoughts, he knows our
actions, he knows our hearts andour words and he requires that
we one day will give an accountfor our life.

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This man gets that.
Do you, are you clear on thatthis morning?
That you will one day standbefore a holy God and give an
account for your life?
That is the first thing.
And then this man, we see, isconvinced of his guilt and sin.

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Look at what he says.
Jesus has done nothing wrong,but we have, we're guilty and we
are getting exactly what wedeserve.
You see, before you can enjoygrace and receive grace and
salvation, you must admit yourguilt, you must face what you

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deserve.
Our world, we live in a worldwhere it says that we're good
people who have made a fewmistakes along the way.
Friends, if you believe that,you will completely miss Jesus,
because the Bible says that weare sinners and that we, the

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wages of sin the Bible says, isdeath and that our sin before a
holy God deserves death, that weare guilty and that our sin
before a holy God deserves death, that we are guilty.
It's why every person thatjoins this church, you know
question number one what do theyhave to vow to that I am a
sinner in the sight of God,justly deserving His displeasure

(22:15):
except for God's sovereignmercy?
Rembrandt is a famous Dutchpainter and he has this very
famous painting maybe you'veseen it of the crucifixion.
It's called the Raising of theCross and obviously in the
painting the center of the sceneand the first thing that your

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mind is drawn to in this is thecross and Jesus hanging on the
cross.
And then you start to lookaround the painting and you
start to notice the crowd andthen you see someone who doesn't
look like they fit the sceneand doesn't look like they
belong Standing at the foot ofthe cross.
And it's Rembrandt.
He had painted himself into thescene.

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Why?
Because it was his way ofsaying I did it.
It was his way of saying it wasmy sin that put Jesus there.
And my question for us thismorning is have we painted
ourselves into the scene?

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For us this morning is have wepainted ourselves into the scene
?
Because until we do, grace willseem unnecessary to us.
Until we do, we will get boredvery quickly with Jesus.
Until we do, we will never seethe incomprehensible value of

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the cross.
And when we paint ourselves inand see what we deserve, like
this thief on the cross,suddenly we get desperate and we
cry out for mercy and for grace.
And that's the third part, right?
This thief calls out to God, toJesus, for help.

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I need a Savior, I cannot savemyself.
Jesus, save me, have mercy onme.
That's verse 42.
That's essentially what he doeswhen he says Remember me, jesus
, help me, remember me in yourkingdom.
He went from mocking God tofearing God, to being convinced

(24:32):
of his sin and guilt, to callingon Jesus to save him.
That's repentance.
That's what salvation lookslike, but you know what else it
looks like.
It's also a picture of how wegrow in the Christian life.
We often try to complicategrowth in the Christian life,
but it looks the exact same way.
You know what growing in yourfaith looks like, constantly

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growing in your awareness of howholy God is and getting clarity
on that.
And what does that do?
When you see the holiness ofGod, it helps you to see more
and more that you're not.
It helps you to see the depthsof your sin.
And then where does that leadTo?

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Over and over, just crying outI need help.
Jesus, have mercy on me,remember me.
You cry out for mercy and grace.
The second thief is showing us,yes, the way of salvation, but
also the way we grow in theChristian life.
I told you there was a lot inverses 40 and 41.

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Lastly, the grace of the cross.
Look at 43.
Jesus responds and says truly,I say to you that today you will
be with me in paradise.
Paradise is not what it is,because it's the cessation of
pain and suffering.
Yes, it certainly is that.

(25:59):
The bible assures us thatheaven, paradise is when all the
sad things will come untrue andall diseases will be done away
with and our relationships thatare broken will be reconciled
and on and on no tears, nomourning, no crying.
Paradise certainly is all ofthose things, but to focus on

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that misses the primary point ofparadise.
Look at what Jesus says Today.
You will be with me in paradise.
To say it another way, if youhave Jesus, you have the hope of
heaven.
Yes, but if you have Jesus, youalso have the substance of

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heaven.
Heaven is heavenly becauseJesus is there and you are with
him.
Think about the context of this.
He's saying this to a criminal.
He's saying I'm doing all ofthis.
He's saying this to a criminal.

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He's saying I'm doing all ofthis and going through this
suffering so I can have you withme.
He's saying I'm doing all ofthis.
Do you believe that thismorning, that is amazing Jesus
stays and doesn't come down sothat he could be with you this
morning.
If you believe and have faithin the Lord Jesus Christ, do you

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believe that Jesus wants to bewith you?
If you struggle to believe that, look at the cross.
Look at the cross, and I want tosuggest this morning that this
scene is a picture of theradical nature of the gospel and
the radical nature of grace andwhy Christianity is called good

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news.
Because think about this hereis a criminal who is sentenced
to death.
He has ruined his life, he haswasted his life, he's done
everything wrong, he has noresume, he has no religious

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accomplishments, he has nothing.
Here is a man who, for 99.9% ofhis life, has rebelled against
god and at the last minute hecries out god, remember me.
And he's completely forgiven,and fully forgiven for his sins.
Today you will be with me inparadise.

(28:33):
Does this bother you?
A lot of people are bothered bythis Self-righteous.
People are bothered by thisbecause it seems so unfair and

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it is.
And that's why the gospel andwhy grace is so radical, because
we see this man and we thinksurely he can't be forgiven as
bad as he's been.
And the gospel is jesus givingus what we don't deserve and
jesus taking what he didn'tdeserve.

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And that's what makesChristianity so amazing, that's
what makes it different than anyother religion in the world.
Every other religion in theworld says work hard enough, be
good enough, work your way toheaven.
Christianity, on the other hand, is grace that is amazing,
radical, scandalous and free.
It is the grace for the worstof sinners.

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It is hope for the hopeless andmercy for people like us who do
not deserve it.
I'll close with thisillustration.
This is an illustration I'veused before by Alistair Begg.
I cannot preach this sermon andnot use this illustration.
It's that good.

(30:01):
Maybe you've heard it, heard itfrom me, or perhaps you've seen
it online, but it's anillustration about the thief on
the cross and in the story it'slike imagine one of the angels
comes up to this thief, who'snow with him in paradise, and
says how did you make it?
And this man had been cursingJesus earlier in the day, he'd

(30:25):
never been to a Bible study,he'd never been baptized, he had
no idea what church membershipis, and yet he's in heaven.
The angel says how did you makeit?
And the thief says I don't know.
And the angel replies well,what do you mean?
You don't know.
Are you clear on the doctrineof justification by faith?

(30:47):
And the thief says I have noidea what you're talking about.
The angel goes what do you mean?
You don't know what I'm talkingabout.
What about the doctrine of thesufficiency of Scripture?
And he looks at him and says Ihave no clue.
And the angel, who's frustrated, says well then, on what basis

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are you here?
And the thief said.
The man on the middle cross saidI could come.
Friends, that's our only hopeand that is our fastball at this
church.

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That's our only message.
That's all we have to offer youevery single week at our church
.
The man on the middle cross, Idon't know where you are.
Maybe you're here and you donot have faith.
You do not.
You're not a Christian.
Maybe you haven't been tochurch in a really long time.

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Maybe you're full of guilt andshame.
Maybe your life feels chaotic,or maybe you've never been
better.
Wherever you find yourself, allwe have for you is this man on
the middle cross and he issaying come, and so will you
come to him this morning.
Come to him this morning.

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That's an invitation.
Let's pray.
Thank you for coming down,jesus, and for staying on the
cross.
You had the power to get off.
You had the power to do itanother way, but you stayed so

(32:35):
that we could be with you and sothat we could be forgiven.
Would you help us this morningto see the incomprehensible
value of the cross?
There's someone here thismorning that doesn't know you.
I pray that they would see youclearly, for your holiness, that
they would be convinced oftheir guilt of sin before you

(32:55):
and that they would call out formercy and grace to the Lord
Jesus.
Only you can do that.
Please do that in Jesus' name,amen.