Sermon given at Beecher Island Sunday School
Luke 23:35-43
+ Open in prayer.
Being insulted! As Jesus is suffering on the cross, He is getting insulted by many people. They are being sarcastic about Him being the Christ. They do not think He is, or they refuse to consider that He is the Christ.
The “rulers” are insulting Him, which included priests and teachers of the law. Roman soldiers are mocking Him. And a “criminal” is insulting Him. Other “gospels” show the crime committed by the two criminals was robbery, and at one point, both men were insulting Jesus. Yet then one of them had a change of heart, which I will get to in a bit.
Christ is the Anointed One! Christ is from the Greek language, the same word as Messiah which is from the Hebrew, and both mean Anointed One. So what does being the Anointed One entail?
Christ is the High Priest and King of Kings!!
Who were anointed under the Mosaic Law? Priests and kings!
As we discussed in Sunday School, priests were anointed with the special “sacred” oil mandated in Exodus 30:22-33, which had an olive oil base with perfumes and such. And kings were anointed with olive oil.
Being the Anointed One, Jesus is the High Priest of Heaven, and He is the King of Kings. He is anointed with the Holy Spirit!
As High Priest, Jesus sacrificed Himself. He was the Lamb of God, dying in our place. The book of Hebrews explains how Jesus as the High Priest was the One offering the sacrifice, and the Sacrifice, being the Lamb of God.
Many missed this fact about the Christ. They expected the Messiah to establish His kingdom at that time in Israel by overthrowing the Roman Empire. They did not understand the role of the Messiah as High Priest there on the cross, physically and spiritually dying in the place of people.
As King - The sign in four languages! Above Jesus was a sign. Luke states it said, “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS”
But Matthew, Mark, and John all state what was put on the sign a little differently, though all have "King of the Jews" as part of the phrase.
If the Bible is accurate, how can all four of the “gospel” writers record something different? This was a question which bothered me when I studied the issue when living in Grand Junction, Colorado, and it was an issue I handed over to the Lord in trust. Several years later He answered my question from a chapter in a book I read in a Christian bookstore here in Lakewood, Colorado.
John 19 gives the answer, since it states the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. Thus the person who wrote the phrases on the sign surely wrote each phrase a bit differently when writing in the three different languages. And Mark just wrote an abbreviated part of one of the phrases. So there is no contradiction!
Change of heart: The other gospels show both criminals were robbers, and they show that at one point, both criminals were hurling insults at Jesus. Yet then the one criminal has a change of heart and indirectly asks Jesus for mercy.
~ The main point of this passage is that Jesus offers paradise to the one criminal.
+ The message for us is Jesus offers paradise to us.
None of us are criminals. But we all have sinned, and we all need forgiveness. And Jesus offers forgiveness!
+ Here I am today in the great eastern plains of Colorado. My grandma was born on a homestead outside of Prospect Valley, and she attended Keenesburg High School.
Jumping ahead, after my grandpa died, Grandma soon moved into Windsor Gardens Retirement Community. She never had a driver’s license, and she became a “shut-in.” I would take her out on drives, and I would take her out to eat. This was always her best day of the week.
And Grandma liked football. We watched much college football, and we watched the Super Bowl together for a number of years.
I rarely watch pro-football, but I consider Super Bowl Sunday to be like an American holiday. I have only missed a few Super Bowls ever since Super Bowl 11.
One of the few I missed was in 2003. I was not into the game that year.
When I proposed going out to dinner that night instead, Grandma reluctantly agreed to skip it, but I think she would have rather watched the game.
We drove around the beautiful country that afternoon. Then that late afternoon we ate a nice dinner in Bennett.
Driving back to Denver, there were few cars on I 70, and it was a reminder we were missing the Super Bowl. Unusual for me, I felt loneliness, right there driving down the highway. Yet I considered how the fulfillment found in this world is temporary. I considered what seems so glamorous and exciting in this world will one day end.
As I continued driving, there was a magnificent orange sunset in the west. It was a reminder to me that God offers heaven. It is everlasting! Heaven is fulfilling and is better than I can even start to imagine.
I know this from Biblical revelations, including this promise recorded in Luke by Jesus on the cross of true paradise.
Jesus Christ died on a cross for the forgiveness of sins of anyone. He was the atoning sacrifice for the wages of sins. As High Priest, He sacrificed Himself. Then He was resurrected. If you believe in Jesus as your Savior and Lord, you will have everlasting life in paradise with Jesus! Jesus truly loves you.
+ Invitation!
