The dying thief’s unexpected encounter with Jesus demonstrates that salvation requires nothing from us—no religious works, doctrinal knowledge, or moral righteousness. The only reason anyone enters heaven is because of “the Man on the middle cross.” We bring nothing to the table, neither positive achievements to impress God nor negative failures that disqualify us. Our natural tendency toward pride in our accomplishments or guilt over our failures is overcome only when we adopt Jesus’ dying attitude: “Father, into Your hands I commit my life.” This surrendered faith, like the thief’s simple request “remember me,” is the only response to Christ’s finished work that brings eternal life.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:00] Great to see you here. If you don’t know we are preparing ourselves to become the most informed congregation in the world for Easter and we’re doing it early so that we can chew the fat on all things Easter and in the evenings we are talking about the seven sayings of Christ. I did make myself the task of doing all of the seven sayings in the four weeks and tonight I was working on doing two and as I was trimming and scraping and making the two fit in I realized it was impossible so I’m gonna leave one out. I’m sorry. One of my favorites I chose not to leave one out that you might not like. I left one out that’s one of my favorites and that is when Jesus said to Mary, Mary this is your son and to John, John this is your mum. That one I’m leaving that one

[00:01:11] out which I think is perhaps the most interesting but we’ll do that another day. No we won’t. We’ve only got four weeks here. Maybe I’ll come back and I can do that another day only if you’re interested. You can text me if you are. I’ll assess that. So we’re talking about the seven sayings of Christ. We are in the Bible app. You can follow that link. It’ll take you there or it’s inside the Bible app if you’re not already into it. We are at the seven sayings and I’ve marked six and seven in yellow because I’m really interpreting all the others in the light of those if you didn’t get the cue from last week and we also last week did number one and number three I’ve decided to not do so the one we’ve done and the one we’re not going to do are blue and tonight

[00:02:11] we’re going to do number two. Truly I tell you today you will be with me in paradise. Alright you’re going good. You know what’s coming. Let’s read it and that’s all we need to read. We’ll be out of here well before 6.15. Not. One of the criminals who railed at him or who were hanged 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 same sentence of condemnation and we indeed justly for we are receiving the due reward for our deeds but this man he has done nothing wrong and he said Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom and he said to him truly I say to you today you will be with me in paradise now you understand that this is Jesus one of the thieves the other

[00:03:31] thief is referred to they’re hanging on their crosses in this time and so it’s no surprise that it has to be early on they’re they’re not well they’re struggling for every breath they are being executed in the middle of all of this and so this it really is an amazing conversation to have I’m gonna pray and then we’ll get underway let’s pray Lord Jesus may these words that you said to the thief so long ago ring in each of our hearts we might understand the significance of them Lord I thank you in Jesus name amen I want you to understand that because Jesus could say it is finished because the task of paying for the sins of the world had come to an end because full atonement had been made for the sins of the world and just so that Jim has heaps of topics

[00:05:03] for his apologetics class I would say let’s get this clear it’s not just the elect it’s everyone and Jesus has paid in full one sacrifice for all one sacrifice for all time it’s the most amazing thing and he said it is finished and after he’d said that he could then trust himself into the father’s hands as he died father into your hands I commit my spirit I want you to understand that that is the ultimate example of faith he is the Son of God he’s the creator of heavens and earth everything was made through him everything was made for him and there he has completed perhaps the greatest task that an individual had ever been given to pay for the sins of the world to pay for your sins and for mine and they’re having finished that completed the job and having done it on

[00:06:35] a cross he can say it is finished and then he says father into your hands I commit my life he didn’t say oh at last it’s all over I’m coming home no at the end he said father into your hands I commit my spirit you and I I’m assuming you’re like me you have heard Jesus reveal himself to you and he says follow me and in this world in this day of easy believe ism in this day and age when everything we do we do for ourselves we sometimes think that his call to follow him is all about us it’s all about us finding forgiveness it’s all about us getting a home in heaven it’s all about the benefits that we can receive and seldom do we realize that when he said follow me he was on his way to calvary and we hear him say things like if any man follows me he must take up his cross

[00:08:02] and deny himself and so on and there’s these really extraordinarily difficult demands that we find difficult to understand and even let alone follow and he says if you don’t do it you cannot be my disciple and our arms go up and just go well I thought this was all about me I thought it was about my forgiveness I thought it was about all of this stuff instead we need to see his example when he could say it is finished and then he holds up his life and says father into your hands I commit my spirit you and I we’re the very same we’re people who need to hold up our hands and say Lord you’ve paid for all of my sins you’ve done everything all I can do is commit myself to you into your hands I commit my spirit when we die to ourselves when we’re following Jesus when we’re

[00:09:08] accepting him when we are being a disciple a follower of Jesus and dying to ourselves that’s what we’re doing you’re hearing me excellent other than creating controversies for Jim’s apologetics class I will I will just like to add when Jesus said I’m going to paradise I believe taking cues from Luke 16 that he’s talking about Abraham’s bosom the place call it the good half of Hades if you like where the departed faithful would go in the Old Testament era and in between and their Abraham’s bosom where Lazarus went that is paradise the good half of Hades separated by a chasm from the bad half of Hades where the rich man went to and Jesus promised the guy on the cross I’ll meet you there right Jesus went there not to say g’day to everyone he went

[00:10:28] there to release them and to take them to be with the Lord we’ll put that in for Jim’s apologetics class but I’m also struggling when I come here to preach I will confess that I have to open up my database and I keep a record of all the sermons I’ve done anywhere soon as I preached somewhere I write in wear and what happened and what would the people like and all that kind of stuff and I keep a look I don’t I just have where at what I said and all the rest Anyway, I put in Salisbury Baptist and it goes, there’s a huge list. So I have to be careful what I say because I might have said it before. So I have that problem. The other problem I have is I’ve heard Jim preach so much. You might not understand this and whenever he preaches, I remember what he says, and I remember what he says, because I might want to copy it,

[00:11:25] right? That’s just what preachers do because I know if he says that there’s going to be something good here and I might get some assistance and some help. So I’ve got to be careful because a lot of the stuff that I have in my resource bank for sermons, a lot of it might have come from Jim. Tonight’s one of those problems because I can remember hearing Jim preach at Easter time about the thief on the cross and how it was an unexpected decision. That was the title of the sermon I reckon and I don’t know that that was advertised but that’s what you would call it that the thief had to make an unexpected decision. He wasn’t expecting to make a decision that would alter his path for eternity. He was there being crucified! It was totally unexpected! But he had to make a

[00:12:23] could make a decision about Jesus. And you can just imagine this grand evangelistic event, and Jim was preaching and there was this whole, you know… he had to make an unexpected decision. He was there being punished for his crimes and there was a man who was completely innocent. And he was seeing the forgiveness in his eyes. As he said, Father forgive them for they know not what they do, and there was his friend. And his friend was railing at him.

[00:12:51] friend was saying exactly what you’d expect someone who didn’t believe in Jesus to say and he was letting him have it. Eventually the other thief goes look I can’t stand this, leave him go, he’s innocent, we’re guilty, we’re getting our just desserts and he had to make an unexpected decision and you can just, you I don’t know if you think like this but I’m sitting there as a preacher I’m gone this is good and you can make application and you here tonight you might have to make an unexpected decision too. Jesus reveals himself to us you might have come here expecting A, B and C and unexpectedly Jesus wants X, Y and Z. You might have come here for such and such a reason but Jesus wants this. Jesus has died for the sins of the world and said it is finished. Jesus has said

[00:13:57] into your hands I commit my spirit and he wants all of us to be saying the same thing. You might not be expecting to do it but the revelation of Jesus is such that all of us will leave having said it. So here I am going oh have these people heard all this before? The answer is probably, you probably have. So I’m not going to say all of that, I just did. See how I slipped that in there? An unexpected decision was made by the thief on the cross. You get that right? What he should have said is what his mate said. If you’re so great Jesus why don’t you get us down? Isn’t that our biggest problem here? We’re being crucified so if you are anything fantastic why don’t you just get us down? That’s what the Romans were saying the

[00:15:21] guards were thinking the same thing. If you are the king of the Jews why don’t you just call on some angels and bring it? Why don’t you just save yourself and us? No. Jesus knows that whatever it is that might bring us to him, whatever we might think our need is, he has a very specific answer and he wants to provide that answer to us. He knows our greatest problem is our sins. Our greatest problem is to be in relationship with God, to have a restored relationship with our Creator and it doesn’t matter what brings us to him, he’s wanting to wiggle us to receive that. You might come to him on a cross, realize that there’s something special about him and be thinking hey can you get us down? Because well he certainly could. Could you get us down? Jesus isn’t interested in saving you from dying on a cross, Jesus is interested in the forgiveness

[00:16:49] of your sins. But notice the thief, he doesn’t say can you get us down? He’s gone beyond that and he says when you come into your kingdom will you remember me? Big talk for someone on a cross. They’re both about to die and death wouldn’t stop Jesus’ kingship. Death would not alter Jesus’ ability to be a king. In fact somehow he knew that through death Jesus was going to get more power and a kingdom. Please remember me and Jesus’ fantastic answer today, you’ll be with me in paradise. And then there comes an unexpected result from the unexpected decision. I want to tell you a joke. A man and a woman were in a tragic car accident and died.

[00:18:19] Unfortunately the wife was killed instantly and the husband doesn’t sound like a joke yet does it? No no but it will be, it’s coming. The husband didn’t die until a little bit later. So when it came to going up to heaven the woman comes first and there at the gate was an angel and the lady arrives and looks around and goes is this heaven? We were in the car, there was a truck, I’ve died and gone to heaven, is that right? And there was an angel and the angel said yeah that’s right and she said well can I come in? And the angel said sure on one condition. And that is you spell a word for me, if you get it right you’re in. And she goes well what’s the word? And the angel said it’s love.

[00:19:42] Love, what did you expect? So she goes L-O-V-E and he says great you’re in. Then the angel says uh just can you just hold on a sec, I’ve got to go and do something, can you just mind the gate for a sec? And the lady goes oh yeah I don’t know what to do. The angel said yes you do, just do what I did to you, piece of cake. She said all right no problem. So she’s standing there and who should come? But her husband and he comes and he goes the semi-trailer, the noise, the screech, this we’ve we’ve died, this is heaven right? It’s and you’re here too and she goes that’s right and he goes is this heaven? Have we made it? And she goes oh nearly, nearly and he goes how do we get in? And she goes you just need to spell one word and he goes what word? What word? She goes Czechoslovakia. What a cool joke, it’s not funny at all if you’re having trouble at home and you’re married.

[00:21:12] But the reason why I told you that joke is because it gets you thinking about what’s going to happen and what you will say if you were to die. It is a famous challenge if you were to die tonight and God asked you why should I let you into my heaven? I think it’s in Christianity explained as a course. I think it’s in evangelism explosion. It’s quite a common challenge to give to people and it helps them to understand the gospel, the basis upon which we’re acceptable to God in heaven. I don’t think there’s going to be an interview. None of that is true. It’s all this the part of jokes and all of that. I think God already knows and the truth is when we’ve accepted Christ now, when we come to faith in Him and we say on the basis of Him having said it is finished and paying for all of our sins and we say into your hands I commit my life. That is the transaction that gets us in the door and that has already happened.

[00:22:31] As Jesus said you’ve passed from death to life. Symbolized by baptism wasn’t it cool to witness one this morning when somebody gets figuratively buried and figuratively raised. That’s already happened when we come to Christ. There won’t be any interviews to get in the door after you’ve already died. You got all of that but you get the jokes. It makes it good for jokes but it’s also good to help us to learn things. A guy called Alastair Begg, Scottish-born American so because he’s Scottish but because he’s American he has the coolest accent. A bit of a tempered Scottish one. Scottish so it’s cool but a little bit American so you can still understand it. He’s famous for applying this challenge. What would you say if God says why should I let you into heaven? To the thief on the cross. It’s all right for us to think about it. What would we say but what did the thief say? Imagine his interview.

[00:23:59] It’s really hilarious. You can google him up. He’s on YouTube Alastair Begg and he paints this picture of it. It’s really rather funny and he has these interviews of the thief with the angels at the gate and the first angel approaches him and or he the angel however you want to picture it and says it’s you. You want to come here? Well great. Can you tell me what you understand about the doctrine of justification by faith and the thief goes I don’t know what you’re talking about. He says well let’s pass that. Let’s let that one slide. Tell me what you understand about inerrancy and the inspiration of the scriptures. Where do you stand on that watershed of theology and the thief goes I really have never heard of any of that before. The angel goes well I don’t know what to do with you. I think I better go and get a superior angel to me. So he tags out and gets another angel to come in and I imagine

[00:25:29] them having a word to each other. I’ve got a problem one here. You need to deal with this. So the bigger angel comes in. He’s got no problems. He’s a bit tougher and so he says ah you’re expecting to get in. I’ve heard you don’t know anything about justification. I’ve heard that you don’t know anything about inerrancy. You’ve never heard of any of it. Well let me ask you this question then. Have you ever prayed and invited Jesus into your heart? And the thief goes I think the only Jesus I know was dying on the cross next to me. Is that who you’re talking about? And the angel goes ah look have you made a commitment? And the thief goes well I committed a crime. Is that what you’re talking about? I was being crucified for committing a crime. The angel’s just got smoke coming out of his ears. He says I’ve actually heard

[00:26:58] that you’ve got some forgiveness issues with the Roman soldiers. What are you here for? Listen do you think you can just come in here? Why do you even think you can get in? And the thief says I’m here because the man on the middle cross invited me. Full stop. Full stop. The only reason why you will get there. The only reason why I will get there is because of the man on the middle cross. He was the son of God and he said it is finished. Whatever it is that breaks your relationship with God and excludes you from heaven, he paid for on the cross. The thief dying on the very day with Jesus, the timing of it, provides a profound lesson and the lesson is simply this. That just like him, none of us bring anything to the table. As the apostle Paul said it, it is by grace that you’ve been saved

[00:28:55] and this is not of yourself. But isn’t it true that our sinfulness rises to the surface and we love to see ourselves contribute to our positivity with God. And all of us struggle, struggle in understanding that it’s not actually about us, it’s all about him. And on our tables there can be positive things and on our tables there can be negative things. You might think that you are and it’s true I know that some of you would pride yourselves in being doctrinally better than others. We’ve got the doctrines of salvation ticked off. We’ve got a belief in the sovereignty of God. We’ve got an acceptance of the inerrancies of the scriptures. Let’s be honest, it sets us apart and we see it as a positive thing on the table. That somehow it’s going to impress God. There’s nothing wrong with those things there. I’ve got all of them too but that’s not why.

[00:30:35] That’s not why the angel will say good you’re in. The angel is going to say good you’re in for only one reason. You know that. It’s because of the man on the middle cross. He’s paid. So there could be positive stuff there. I don’t know what you might have on there, positive stuff but more often than not the reality is for us that we’ve got negative stuff on the table. So we might be thinking that the positive stuff contributes and we might be thinking that the negative stuff disqualifies us. I don’t know what it is. It could be stuff that you’ve done. It could be stuff that you think. It could be stuff in your past from ages ago, or it could be stuff that you’ve done on the way here. Whatever it is, we have this negative stuff on the table. We all do. Let’s not pretend that it’s not there.

[00:31:42] We’ve all got it. The problem is, what difference does it make to us getting to heaven? The answer is none. The same as the positive stuff, because Jesus is paid for it all. And you and me, what do we do in the light of the positive and the negative? We do exactly what Jesus did when he died. We say it is finished. He’s paid for everything. Into your hands, I commit my life. Most Christians are on a roller coaster ride of pride with their positive gear, usually not so long lasting. And then they come down with the negative stuff and they just have guilt and their life is a roller coaster ride between pride and guilt, pride and guilt. And the reason is because they’ve never understood that their discipleship, their following of Jesus requires them to take up their cross. It’s not about them at all.

[00:33:15] And simply say into your hands, I commit my life. There are deep things in our hearts that stop us from saying into your hands, I commit my life. Jesus said it upon his death. You and I, we will say it at our deaths too. Even people who don’t believe in God often say it. Into your hands, I commit my life. You know, there’s nothing like falling off a cliff to get an atheist to pray. You get it. It’s only very few hard-hearted people that are still clenching their fists at God on their deathbed. It happens, but it’s rare. Most people, most people, and I’ve been with many people who have died, most even people who do not believe, are saying, I commit myself to God. There’s nothing else for you to do.

[00:34:51] But you have to have said that before your death, and you’ve completely trusted yourself in the same way as you would on your deathbed in the light of what he’s done on the cross. When that thief heard Jesus say, today you will be with me in paradise, what an unexpected result that was. It was totally unexpected, and that same unexpected result could occur for any of us. If we would simply say, Father, into your hands, I commit my life. As I’ve gotten older, what it means to commit my life to Jesus has changed. Can I say it’s gotten harder or more full in the light of who Jesus is and what he has done? There is a constant struggle in me to not think that the positives on my table or the negatives on my table impact the outcome

[00:36:36] with me and God. It’s not by works, positive or negative. No one’s boasting, it’s only by faith in Christ. The depth of what it means to say into your hands, I commit my life, is getting deeper and deeper and deeper as my life gets longer and longer. And what a privilege it is, what a privilege it is to know the richness of God’s love and acceptance as we go through life trusting every day, everything to Him. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard Jesus say it before. Today, you’ll be with me in paradise. It’s not an easy thing to say into your hands, I commit my life, everything. Give up the positives on the table.

[00:38:02] Trust Him for the forgiveness of the negatives on the table, whatever it is, and just trust Him, His, it is finished for everything. Your life is in His hands. You might as well just acknowledge it and live it so it’s true. Come follow me, said Jesus. Come and die with me. Lord Jesus, thank you for the wonder of what you’ve done. The wonder of it is just even beyond wonder when we understand who you are and the claim that you bring to each of us

[00:39:35] with your heart full of mercy towards us. Even before we were born, you came and paid for all of our wrongs. You came to give your life in our place. Lord, in this fallen world with hearts that are damaged and hurt, in this fallen world where we’re challenged to succeed and mocked when we fail, in this fallen world where failure is just so easy, so easy in this fallen world where our rebellion from you is just so common and a daily fault for each of us. Help us. Bring us to that place

[00:40:46] where we simply say, father, into your hands, I commit my life. In the light of Calvary’s full dealing with sin, we have nowhere else to go but to trust you completely. Lord, may it be that all of us will so abandon self and our connections to this fallen world and truly die, trusting you completely that we might know the wonder and fullness of life and what a difference. Salisbury would know what a difference Brisbane would know, what a difference this world would know if all of us here abandoned everything and simply said, father, into your hands, we commit our lives. Amen.