LUKE 23:35-43 JESUS REJECTED AND ACCEPTED2014 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 23:35-43 Jesus Rejected And Accepted

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2014.

There are two options when it comes to Jesus Christ. Two ways that you and I can respond to Him. That is, we can reject Him or we can accept Him. Those are the only two options and this is what we see by example in this scene here in Luke chapter 23.

Here we're continuing to consider Jesus on the cross. And we've been spending time over the past several weeks looking at different elements and different aspects to the crucifixion to better understand what Jesus has done for us. If I may remind you, at this point Jesus is hanging upon the cross. He has been up all night. He was arrested the night before in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He's been going through different trials after that. So he went through three Jewish trials and then three Roman trials and

Also, interspersed in between those, he had different beatings that were taking place from the Jews and from the Romans. He was beaten several times. And then ultimately, he was led to this place called Calvary where he was nailed to the cross. The cross was set up and he will hang on the cross for six hours.

Now this portion that we're looking at today is looking at the time where he has already been raised up. He's hanging on the cross. And so we're looking at a piece of those things that happened while he was hanging there for those six hours. And here what we are seeing is the response of the people around him to Jesus being crucified.

And again, here we get to see those two options that we have when it comes to Jesus. We will see those who reject Jesus here in this passage, and we will see one who accepts Jesus here in this passage. But those are the only two options. Jesus made that very clear in Luke chapter 11 verse 23, where he declared, "...he who is not with me is against me."

And he who does not gather with me scatters. Jesus made it clear that there is not a neutral or a middle ground, a gray area when it comes to responding to Jesus. He made it clear that we have a choice to make and we have to make a choice about who Jesus is and about how we will respond to who he is and what he has done.

And again, those options are to reject Him or to accept Him. Now, you might be here this morning and you have accepted Jesus. You have received Jesus. Or you might be here and you have rejected Him. But you're thinking, well...

If I'm here at church, of course I've accepted him. Well, I would ask you to consider, and I think this is appropriate for us to evaluate our hearts as we consider the different examples of those who reject and accept Jesus in this passage this morning.

Of course, these things are appropriate for, you know, the idea and the understanding of conversion. That a person who does not believe needs to believe and be born again. And they receive or they accept Jesus. But even for those of us who have accepted Jesus in that sense. We believed in him. We've been born again. There continues to be a need for us to maintain the condition of our heart.

To maintain the right heart in our approach to Jesus. Because we can easily become like the religious leaders or like the Pharisees. Where we get caught up in our religiousness. And in doing so we reject Jesus personally.

for our religion and there is a need for us to evaluate and maintain and so looking at these two examples of the groups that reject Jesus and then the one man who accepts Jesus is it's a necessary message for all of us to check our hearts and see where we stand in response to who Jesus is

And so we'll look at two points and break those down a little bit this morning. But the first point this morning is that there are many ways to reject Jesus. As we look at this passage, you'll see examples of different groups of people responding to Jesus in different ways, but they are rejecting him just the same. And so different backgrounds, different mindsets, different, you know, things that are going through their minds are

And yet still they are rejecting Jesus. There are many ways to reject Jesus. You might remember in Matthew chapter 7 verse 13, Jesus encouraged us or commanded us to enter, that is to enter into heaven or enter into eternity by the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And there are many who go in by it.

So there's two options. The wide gate or the narrow gate. Reject Jesus or accept Jesus. And Jesus declares here that wide is the road of rejection. Wide is the road. Wide is the path for rejecting Jesus Christ. There's many who go that way. There's many ways to reject Jesus. But there's one who accepts Jesus in this passage.

And it illustrates here that Jesus says narrow is the gate that enters into eternity. And enter in by that gate because there's only one way of salvation. But we get to see a few examples of the ways that it's possible to reject Jesus by looking at these people who are there while Jesus is hanging upon the cross. And so the first one we see in verse 35. And here we see a sneering rejection.

Look with me again at verse 35. It says, And the people stood looking on, but even the rulers with them sneered, saying, He saved others. Let him save himself if he is the Christ, the chosen of God. So as Jesus is there hanging upon the cross, there's a group of people standing afar off and watching the events unfold. They're watching Christ.

This execution take place. And it tells us there that the rulers. So we're talking about the rulers amongst the Jewish people. They were there. They were watching what was happening. And they sneered. That is they had. I think of a sneer as a dark smile. There's this cynical. This sadistic. They're smiling. They're laughing. They're scorning. They're sneering and scoffing at Jesus. And.

saying, he saved others, let him save himself if he is the Christ, the chosen of God. Now these rulers who are sneering at Jesus are talking amongst themselves. In the next couple examples, we'll see they're talking directly to Jesus, but these guys, they're not talking to Jesus. They're talking amongst themselves and they're saying, hey,

We're going to find out if he really is who he claimed to be. If he is the Christ. If he is the Messiah. Or if he is that promised Savior. God has been promising a Savior throughout the whole Old Testament. If he really is that promised Savior, the Christ, well, let him save himself. And so they're standing there watching, scoffing. They've heard his claims to be the Messiah.

They know that he claimed to be the chosen one or the promised savior. But they've rejected that claim. They've rejected him. And so they stand there sneering, scoffing, laughing. Let's see what kind of Messiah he is if he can't even save himself. And so this first group, these rulers, are talking about Jesus.

saying, let him save himself. They're rejecting Jesus with a sneer. It's an attitude of the heart. But then as we go forward into verses 36 through 38, we see the next type of rejection, and that is a mocking rejection. Look at verse 36. It says, the soldiers also mocked him, coming and offering him sour wine and saying, if you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.

And an inscription was also written over him in the letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. This is the king of the Jews. So first we had the rulers who sneered at Jesus, talking about him. Now we have the Roman soldiers. And they're dealing directly with Jesus. They're talking to Jesus and they are mocking him.

Now this is not much different than what they did a few moments earlier where once he was scourged they mocked him and put on the crown of thorns and they put the robe on him and pretended to bow down to him and and pretend as if he was king and they're just laughing it up and having a good time mocking him because he claimed to be the king of the Jews. And so this

Mocking just continues now to where Jesus is hanging there on the cross and they're continuing to entertain themselves by playing with Jesus. They're trifling with Jesus. They're just messing around to have a good time. You have to remember that these are Roman soldiers. As we pictured the crucifixion a couple weeks ago,

There's a lot of those concepts in the crucifixion that are tough for us to even hear about and think about because they're so graphic and they're so gruesome and it's like we kind of cringe a little bit as we think about what Jesus went through. But these Roman soldiers saw this all the time. This wasn't their first crucifixion. They were part of crucifixions regularly. That was part of, you know, what they were called to do. That was their commission as a Roman soldier.

And so this isn't a big deal for them. This isn't like some like dramatic scene like I can't believe this is happening or this is the grossest thing I've ever seen before. No, they crucify people all the time. And so they're just entertaining themselves. They're just having a good time.

This is a little bit more entertaining than the average crucifixion because normally the guy doesn't claim to be the king of the Jews. And so, all right, now we get to have some fun because this guy that we're executing has this exceptional claim. And so we can have a little bit more fun than we normally do with our crucifixions. And so it says that they're mocking him and they offer to him sour wine.

Now there was a drink that was offered to Jesus earlier. It was a drink. It was sour wine mixed with gall or myrrh. And so it was a drug to deaden the pain. This is just a drink. And this is, remember Jesus said, I thirst. And they offered him this sour wine on a sponge later on while he was on the cross.

And so this isn't a drink that would numb the pain. It's just a drink to quench the thirst. This was a normal wine that the Roman soldiers would have on them. And it was also used by poor people as a very cheap drink that they could have because the water was not always safe. But here they offer this sour wine to Jesus.

And it's connected to this idea that they were mocking him. And so it doesn't say this, but in my mind, what I picture, I imagine the soldiers toying with Jesus. They're holding up the sponge of sour wine on a stick. And I kind of picture them like bringing it close to his face and he's thirsty. So he's kind of like reaching for it with his lips because he can't really move. He's nailed to the cross. And then they pull it away and then they bring it forward and pull it away like this.

Like that's the idea. They're playing with him. They're just messing around and laughing it up and having a good time at his expense while he hangs there on the cross. And so they reject Jesus with mocking. Now notice they say, if you are the king of the Jews, then save yourself. Notice they've heard his claim to be the king of the Jews. They know that he said, I'm the king of the Jews. And so they reject.

know it, but they reject it. They reject that Jesus is the king that he claimed to be. And so, instead of receiving Jesus as that king, they reject it and mock him, entertaining themselves in the process. There's this inscription that is placed over the head of Jesus. Now, this was pretty normal for a crucifixion, where

the criminal who is crucified would have their crime posted above them. The idea being what the Romans were intending is that you're walking by, you see a guy be crucified and you see above them it says, here's what this guy did. And you're like, okay, I don't ever want to do that because I don't want to end up like that. I don't want to be crucified. And that was the intention of Rome. But Jesus had no crime. And so Pilate instructed them to post this sign, this is the king of the Jews.

And so the Roman soldiers, they're just having fun with that. He's the king of the Jews. Look at the king of the Jews. We get to crucify him, beaten and bloodied. And so they mock him and use him as entertainment instead of accepting who he claimed to be.

Well, there's a third example of rejection here in this passage, and it's in verse 39. And here we get to see a blaspheming rejection. In verse 39 it says, Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed him, saying, If you are the Christ, save yourself and us. And so this last example is, well, one of the criminals who was with Jesus being crucified. Jesus was crucified today.

between two criminals or two thieves, one on each side. One of the criminals here blasphemes Jesus. That is, he's speaking against Jesus evilly. He's railing at Jesus. He's reviling Jesus. And he's saying, if you are the Christ, save yourself and us. Notice here that

As you look at these three examples, the rulers who looked off from afar and sneered at Jesus, the Roman soldiers who were right there mocking Jesus, and now the criminal who is being crucified with Jesus, all of them have essentially the same message. Different attitudes, their minds are in different places, but it's the same basic message that they are saying. All of them say, if you are, or if he is.

There's this idea that if he is the Messiah, well, let him save himself. If you are the king of the Jews, why don't you save yourself? And here the criminal says, if you are the Christ, the Messiah, save yourself. And so you have the, if you are, if you are, if you are. Then the, save yourself, save yourself, save yourself. The understanding here that we get from that is that all three groups...

have heard and acknowledge Jesus's claims. Jesus claimed to be the Christ, the Messiah, the promised Savior. He claimed to be the King of the Jews and he is the King of the Jews. He is the Messiah. And these people have heard that claim, but they have rejected that claim. They have rejected who Jesus declared himself to be. They say, no, we don't buy it. We don't believe you.

And so the criminal here says, if you are. Not expecting that Jesus really is, but just using it as an opportunity to blaspheme. And notice he says, save yourself and us. If you really are the Messiah, the rest of the people say, you know, save yourself. But this guy says, save me too. Get me off of this cross. This guy's being crucified and is in pain and agony just like Jesus is as far as the physical aspects are concerned.

The idea here is, as each of them say, if you are, if you are, if you are, the idea is not only are they rejecting the claims that they are acknowledging, but they're also saying, well, if you do this, then maybe we'll consider your claim to be valid. Maybe we'll think about, okay, you might be the Messiah, you might be the King of the Jews, if you do what I think you should do.

And again, this is where it becomes really appropriate for us to evaluate these things in our own hearts. Because there are many ways to reject Jesus. And sometimes we take this kind of approach where, well, if God is good, then here's what I think he should do.

Right? We hear this sometimes where someone will say, well, how could a God of love, and then that will be followed by, you know, how could he do this? Or how could he allow someone to do this? Or how could he allow this situation? How could a God of love do this or allow that? The idea behind that is, well, I understand and acknowledge that God claims to be a God of love. But he's not doing what I think a God of love should do. So,

Well, if God does these things, then maybe I'll consider his claim that he is a God of love. If he operates the way that I think he should operate, then maybe I'll believe him and acknowledge or accept that he is a God of love. That's kind of what these guys are saying. The criminal is saying, hey, if you get me off the cross, well, maybe then I'll believe that you are the Messiah.

If you do what I want you to do, if you do things my way, then maybe I'll believe that you're the Messiah. And that kind of mentality can creep into any of our hearts. I mean, yeah, you're at church, and so you might be thinking, hey, I haven't rejected Jesus, I'm at church. And yet sometimes these things, well, they begin to work into our hearts and into our minds. We begin to think, well, if God is good, then why would he allow this?

I've known many people throughout the years who've decided, I just, I can't walk with God anymore because this thing happened in my life and I just don't, it's just too much. I don't understand it and I can't continue with that. I can't continue to walk with God in the midst of all of this. Now listen, those are real questions. How could a God of love allow this? Or if God is good, why doesn't he do this? They're real questions and there are real answers and that's what we need to remember.

Just like there were real answers to why Jesus didn't remove himself from the cross. Jesus is the Messiah. He is the King of the Jews. So why didn't he come down off of the cross? Well, he didn't come down off of the cross because he was accomplishing a much greater work through the cross.

That is, by dying upon the cross and receiving the penalty for our sins, He enabled the way for you and I to have access to eternity, forgiveness, by faith in Him. And so Jesus could have got Himself off of the cross. He could have pulled that criminal off of the cross too. But He endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him. In the same way,

When we wrestle with those, if God is good or why does God do this or how could God do that? There are real answers. But we have to factor eternity into our perspective and consider and evaluate what is the best for us in eternity. And that is the way that God operates. And that's why Jesus died upon the cross.

And so here we see a few examples of rejecting Jesus. Sneering, mocking, blaspheming. There's a couple other I could throw in the mix here from this passage. In verse 35 you see that it says the people stood looking on. I think we could really, you know, take some time later on to consider this crowd that's just watching the crucifixion happen. Watching the execution take place. Not

Bold enough, not willing to stand up and cry out against the injustice that is going on. Not willing to risk themselves or to try to stop it. Maybe they're still curious. Maybe Jesus is going to get off. Maybe they're just kind of like undecided, unsure. Maybe he will take himself off of the cross. But they're just standing there, also rejecting Jesus.

You could also consider Pilate. Because in verse 38, when it talks about this inscription that was written over him, this is the king of the Jews, that was written at Pilate's command. And not nonchalantly either. Because in John chapter 19, you can check that out later on, John chapter 19 verses 19 through 22, there's a discussion that takes place. Pilate writes this, this is the king of the Jews, and

And then the religious leaders challenge it and say, Pilate, don't write that. That's not correct. That's not accurate. Instead, we think you should write, he said, I am the king of the Jews. So write down that he claimed to be the king of the Jews, but the way you put it just declares that he is the king of the Jews. And Pilate said, what I have written, I have written. Pilate recognized the difference between

It's not just that Jesus is claiming to be the king of the Jews, but Pilate recognized Jesus is the king of the Jews. And yet Pilate rejected Jesus. He knew the truth. He knew Jesus was innocent. And yet he sentenced him to be executed. There's many types of rejection. It could be those who know the truth like Pilate, but just simply don't want to stand up for it.

There could be, instead of pursuing Jesus, a pursuit of sin. And that is a rejecting of Jesus. No, I'd rather have my sinful lifestyle. I'm having lots of fun. I don't want to deal with Jesus. There could be intellectual pursuits in rejection of Jesus. Or philosophical thoughts or whatever. There's many ways to reject Jesus.

But as we go forward into verses 40 through 43, now we see the contrast to that. There's one way to accept Jesus. So you can go lots of different directions to reject Jesus, but there's only one way to accept Jesus. And again, remember what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7, narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it.

And so there's a wide gate, many ways to reject Jesus, but there's a narrow gate and one way to accept Jesus. And we get to see this displayed before us as we look at the other thief on the cross, the other criminal. And we'll see three different aspects to what it means to accept Jesus by this guy's example. First of all, it means to repent of sin.

To accept Jesus involves a repentance from sin. Check out verse 40 and 41. It says, But the other answering rebuked him saying, Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we received the due reward of our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong. Here...

The other criminal rebukes the criminal that was blaspheming Jesus. This is a pretty amazing scene as you picture it in your head, okay? You have the rulers sneering at Jesus, the soldiers mocking Jesus, this criminal blaspheming Jesus. Now the criminal on the other side rebukes him. He speaks out. There's all these voices in the air.

All railing against Jesus. Rejecting Jesus. But there's one voice that speaks up that is in defense of Jesus. And it's not from the source you would expect. It's the other guy on the cross. He's the only guy speaking up for Jesus. I imagine the people around were pretty shocked.

As he rebukes the other guy and says, Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? Now, we see a repentance take place here because we know from Matthew chapter 27 verse 44, it tells us even the robbers who were crucified with him reviled him with the same thing. So, in Matthew 27 you see,

There was a point where both criminals who were crucified with Jesus were reviling Jesus, were rejecting Jesus, were blaspheming Jesus. They were both involved. But now, here in Luke, we see there's a change that has taken place. So originally, both of them were involved. One of them continued, but the other one, something happened. Something changed. What changed? Well, Luke doesn't tell us exactly what it was, but...

Perhaps it was something that Jesus said as he was there upon the cross. We have recorded throughout the different gospels seven different statements that Jesus made from the cross. And one of them we looked at, it's a few verses earlier in verse 34, where Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing. And perhaps it was that statement.

As Jesus made that declaration and prayed to the Father for forgiveness to the people who were against Him and crucifying Him and reviling Him, perhaps it was that prayer of forgiveness that caused this man to reconsider, to reevaluate. His heart was changed somehow. Something happened. Something changed in him. Something he heard. Something he saw. And God spoke to him.

And so he stopped reviling Jesus and now he rebukes the one who continued to revile Jesus. That's called repentance. Repentance is not just ceasing some type of activity or sin. So stop that bad behavior. But it's then turning around and doing the opposite. Doing something.

What is good. And this is what the guy does. He stops blaspheming Jesus. And he turns around and he defends and he supports Jesus. And he rebukes this other guy who continues to blaspheme Jesus. And that's an essential part of repentance. You can see there's a real change that has taken place in his heart. As he does the opposite of what he was doing before. But notice also another element of repentance is confession. Confession.

acknowledging your sin. And this is what this criminal does. In verse 41 he says, We indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds. Here's the guy hanging on the cross. He was cursing Jesus and blaspheming Him. Something's changed. Now he's defending Jesus and he's saying, I deserve this.

These nails, this pain, this judgment, this execution, I deserve this. I'm getting the due reward for my deeds. I am sinful. I did commit these crimes. This isn't an unjust act. It's a righteous act for me to be crucified. This is repentance. The acknowledgement of our sin. The acknowledgement, yes, I deserve judgment.

And the stopping of the practice, the sin, and doing what is right. There's one way to accept Jesus. And it begins with repentance. Turning from sin. Acknowledging our sinfulness. But another aspect to this guy accepting Jesus that we see as we go on into verse 42 is that it involves recognizing who Jesus is.

This guy recognized who Jesus is. In verse 41, he says, this man has done nothing wrong. We deserve this penalty. This man does not. He does not deserve this. And then in verse 42, he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And so here he is recognizing who Jesus is. He's recognizing that Jesus is sinless. He's committed no crimes.

He's had no faults. He does not deserve this judgment. He's recognizing that Jesus is Lord. Now when we say that Jesus is Lord, we think of Lord and it's a title of deity for us. But they would use the word Lord for a master as well. It was a title of respect for someone in authority.

And that's appropriate. He's recognizing Jesus, you're the master. You have authority. He's recognizing who Jesus is. He's also recognizing that Jesus is king. Notice he says, when you come into your kingdom. You have a kingdom, Jesus, because you're a king. So when you enter into your kingdom, remember me.

You're a king. He recognizes that Jesus is the king of the Jews, just as he claims. And not just the king of the Jews, but the king of kings and lord of lords. But here also, he's recognizing that Jesus is the Messiah. As he talks about his kingdom, he's, in his mind, expecting what all the Jews expected.

They expected that the Messiah would come on the scene and throw out the Roman Empire, establish a kingdom right there in Israel with Jerusalem as the capital right then and there. That's what they were expecting of the Messiah. Now Jesus is the Messiah, but he didn't do that. Not yet. Jesus is coming back again, the second coming of Jesus Christ. And that's when he will establish that kingdom that they were expecting.

But they weren't expecting the Messiah to suffer and die and then return later to do that kingdom. They were expecting that that kingdom is going to happen immediately. And so this criminal, as he's on the cross, he had that same expectation. So when you come into your kingdom, he's thinking, Jesus, you're the Messiah. You're going to enter in. The dead are going to resurrect. And so when that happens, remember me. You can see here that he understood that

Jesus dying upon the cross, that wasn't the end of the story. There was still his kingdom that would be established. And so this criminal recognized who Jesus is. That he was sinless. That he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That he is that promised Savior who died upon the cross for us. But there's a final aspect to accepting Jesus. And it perhaps is the most important one. And that is...

To accept Jesus, you must request God's grace. Request God's grace. This is pretty radical when you consider verse 42 again. It says, he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Remember what this criminal just said. He said, hanging there on the cross, I deserve this execution. I deserve this judgment. I committed those crimes. I am guilty of

And then he turns around and says, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. When he makes this request, he's not in any way trying to say, Jesus, I deserve this. I deserve that you would remember me because I've been really good and I'm not supposed to be up here, but for some reason I am and I don't deserve to be up here.

I deserve for you to remember me. I deserve to be part of eternity with you. I've earned it. He's not trying to say anything like that. He's acknowledging, I'm getting the correct, appropriate judgment for my sinfulness. I deserve it. But even though that's true, Lord, will you remember me when you come into your kingdom? Now he's not just thinking like, remember me like every once in a while, think about me.

Like have a gravestone so you remember my name. Their expectation was that when the Messiah came into his kingdom. That the dead would be resurrected. That's why many people were buried on the Mount of Olives. Because they wanted to be resurrected right there in front row seats. As Jesus entered into the temple there in Jerusalem. So he's saying include me in that resurrection. Include me in that entrance into your kingdom. Include me as you take the throne for your kingdom. Include me.

This is a request that is based completely and totally upon the grace of God. Upon the grace of Jesus Christ. He's not saying I deserve it. He's not saying I've earned it. He's saying the opposite. I don't deserve it. I'm getting what I deserve right now, he says. But would you have grace on me? Would you be merciful towards me and remember me when you come into your kingdom?

It tells us in verse 43, Jesus said to him, Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. When you accept Jesus, it means you repent of sin, you recognize who Jesus is, and you request his grace. And the amazing thing that happens when you approach God in this way, Jesus says, Assuredly, I say to you,

today you will be with me in paradise. You can count on it, criminal. Yeah, you do deserve the judgment that you're getting, but I'm going to give you grace and today you're going to be with me in paradise. Now, normally it would take a person two to three days to die upon the cross. But because of the Passover feast that was taking place, the order was given for these criminals to have their legs broken, which would speed up

because they wouldn't be able to push themselves up to breathe. And so they didn't last two or three days as typical, but this guy would die today. And so Jesus says, today, as soon as you take your last breath, you're going to be with me in paradise. It's a subject for another day. Luke chapter 16, you have the bosom of Abraham and then the chasm and then the place of torment.

Before Jesus died upon the cross and then resurrected, those who died would go into this place, either on one side or the other. One side was called Abraham's bosom. It was a place of comfort. It was for those who had faith, those who were saved. And then there was the place for those who had rejected God. And Jesus is saying, I'm going to go be in Abraham's bosom today. You're going to be with me. And then when Jesus resurrected,

That was emptied out and those saints were taken into the presence of God. And that's why Paul says later on, when we die, to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord. Because we couldn't enter in. People could not enter in to the presence of God until the price for sin was paid in full by Jesus. But here Jesus is saying, you're going to be with me. That's the most important part of eternity anyways. Today you will be with me.

Jesus says, assuredly, you can count on it. You've requested my grace and I'm giving it to you. He accepted Jesus and Jesus promised him eternity. And so here is Jesus is hanging on the cross. There's these people around him that are responding

In various ways, but it's summed up in two ways. There were many who reject Jesus because there are many ways to reject Jesus. Whether with sneering or mocking or blaspheming or just watching passively or knowing but not willing to take a stand or go forward or whatever the case might be. There are many ways to reject Jesus, but there's one way to accept Jesus. Now, here's the thing.

And again, taking this and turning it to evaluate our own hearts. This is appropriate for us because the only way that I can be saved is to respond to Jesus in the exact same way as the thief on the cross did. That's the only way that I can be saved. If I behave like the thief on the cross. Now that offends my pride a little bit. Because in my pride I think I'm better than someone who's being executed for crimes that they committed.

But the reality is our hearts are the same. We could look down at those who are to be executed for their crimes. But our hearts are the same. Unless you become as this thief, you cannot be saved. We like to evaluate ourselves and put ourselves higher or lower than the people around us, you know, and try to come up with some degree, you know, well, I'm better by this degree or whatever. But God looks straight through all of the outward stuff. He sees our heart.

And he sees what's really going on inside. And he deals with us according to our heart. And so the only way that I can be saved, the only way that you can be saved, is to behave like this thief upon the cross. That is to accept Jesus. Repenting of sin. Now sometimes we kind of think about this as like a one-time thing. It was one day back in 1983. I was five years old. And I repented. No, no, no.

Repentance is something that you're going to be doing for the rest of your life if you're going to accept Jesus, if you're going to be walking with Him. Because, well yeah, there's that initial turning from sin to follow Jesus, but then as you follow Jesus, guess what? He's going to show you, you know, you haven't opened this door in a while, but I'm going to open it for you and you're going to see behind that there's some sin issues still going on in here.

And you've been practicing this for a long time and you didn't realize the motivations and the condition of your heart, but this is a sin issue. And he's going to be bringing to light for the rest of your life, he's going to be revealing sin in your heart. And as believers, we need to maintain our hearts to keep ourselves in a condition where as he reveals these conditions and issues of our hearts, that we repent, that we stop that sin, that we turn from that sin and we start doing what's right.

And once you do that, then he's going to open another door and he's going to show you, well, let me show you this other part of your heart you haven't been paying attention to. It's kind of like taking care of your yard. You know, you start on one side and you're working on the shrubs. You get the shrubs taken care of, then you start working on the lawn. Then you get the lawn taken care of, you get to the backyard. By the time you finish the backyard, you've got to come back and start with the shrubs again. God shows you this is what's going on in your heart. You're like, oh my goodness, I didn't even realize. Lord, forgive me. You repent. You go forward. You repent.

And then sometimes he brings you right back around and, hey, remember that thing I delivered you from? You haven't been paying attention and you've gotten caught up in that again. You need to let that bitterness go. You need to let that issue go. You need to deal with this again. It's going to be ongoing that we will need to repent of sin. And ongoing we need to recognize who Jesus is.

Now this isn't just about intellectually. Okay I understand Jesus said this. And here's where he is. And here's what he does. But this is about giving him his rightful place in our lives. That he's not just the king of the Jews. But that he's the king of me. He's the master. I'm the slave.

That we continually have to maintain ourselves, to keep ourselves, because we get caught up in religion. We get caught up and stir ourselves up towards rituals and things that take us away from accepting Jesus by recognizing who he is. And we start to rely upon the system that we've established. And so we need to remember who Jesus is. Not just...

Remember who he is intellectually, but checking our hearts. Is he my savior? Am I looking to him for salvation or am I relying upon myself? Am I looking to him for instructions because he's the king or am I doing what I want to do? I need to become like the thief on the cross and recognize who Jesus is. And then finally, I need to request God's grace.

I need to ask for God's grace. You know, as Christians, we never come to a point where we get to approach God and say, God, here's my request. Please grant it to me because I deserve it. We never get to that point. We never grow up that much. We are all, every one of us, in desperate need of the grace of God. And we forget that.

And that's why the Lord has us considering the thief on the cross today to help us remember that we need God's grace. We need God's goodness towards us that we don't deserve, can't deserve, and could never earn. And we're dead without it. It's only by God's grace. But notice, sometimes we know that. We know it's by God's grace. But we don't take that extra step and ask for it.

You know, it's kind of hard to ask for grace because you know you don't deserve it. How could I ask for grace? I don't deserve it. Right. That's why it's called grace. But this guy has the boldness to say, Lord, remember me. I don't deserve it. I'm completely unworthy. I deserve the judgment that I'm getting. But he asks for God to be gracious. And we have to do the same.

It's one thing to acknowledge that you're sinful and that God is gracious, but you also need to take that step to be bold. The author of Hebrews talks about that, how we have access to God, and Jesus is the one who grants us this access. And he went through life. He knows what we're going through. He has sympathy for us because he's experienced life as a man. And so it says that we can come to the throne of God boldly

To ask for grace and mercy. Now when do you need grace and mercy? Not when you've done things you are really proud of. It's when you're ashamed. It's when you're in need. It's when you're broken. And you can boldly ask for God's grace as you accept Jesus. Again, we think of accepting Jesus as a one-time event. Back in 19-whatever, I accepted Jesus. But I would encourage you this morning...

Think about it in a different term. Think about it as maintaining your heart to have the right approach to Jesus, to continue to accept Him by repenting of sin, recognizing who He is, and asking Him for grace. And with that in mind, we want to partake of communion together this morning. The worship team is going to come up and get ready and the ushers are going to make ready as well.

We've been partaking of communion as we've been going through the different elements of the crucifixion because Jesus gave us communion as a reminder. He gave us the bread. He said, this is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And he gave us the cup and he said, this is my blood of a new covenant. Do this in remembrance of me. As often as you drink this cup and eat this bread,

You proclaim my death until I come, Jesus said. And so he wanted us to remember what he did for us in giving himself to this crucifixion, to this execution. He voluntarily did it so that he could accomplish in us the opportunity of salvation, the opportunity of forgiveness and eternity with God. And so I would ask you to consider your heart, to check yourself this morning.

That you would prepare yourself to partake of communion. That you would prepare yourself to make a decision to reject or accept Jesus. Those are the only two options. To make sure that you are accepting Jesus on His terms and not saying, well, if you're really the Savior, then I'm going to approach you this way because I think this is what's best. But say, no, you're God, you're Lord, I'm the slave, I'm in desperate need of your grace.

And so I'm going to come to you the way that you prescribe. If you've not been born again, if you've not received this offer of forgiveness that Jesus offers in His death, then I would encourage you this morning, listen, today is the day of salvation and it's time to accept Jesus. And I would encourage you this morning as they hand out the bread and the cup, you grab those. And in a few moments when we partake, you do so as well saying, yes, I accept Jesus.

I receive what he did for me. And that's true for the rest of us as well. Let's prepare our hearts to accept Jesus. To partake saying, yes, I repent of those things that you're showing to me. I recognize who you are. And I am asking you to be gracious to me and receive me and bless me even though I don't deserve it.

So let's prepare our hearts to make that decision, to make that declaration to the Lord. They're going to lead us in worship. The ushers are going to pass out the bread and the cup. Hold on to those portions. And then after the song, we'll partake together as a family. Let's worship the Lord and prepare our hearts before Him.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.