So a couple years ago, my wife and I, we got a mini fridge for
our house. We wanted to free up some space
on our, you know, actual fridge. So we set it up in the the
dining room. We have a dining room table with
some chairs and we have a little a little cabinet.
So we kind of squish that over and in the corner we put the
mini fridge and the thing was the weekend and my kids were
coming home different times. And Micah at the time he was
probably 9 and a nine year old comes, comes in and I say, hey,
Micah, do you notice anything different?
Within one second he goes cool new fridge and he opens the
fridge and you know, see it was empty, but he immediately
noticed it. And then my, at the time, my 11
year old or maybe 12, he comes in and I said, Maddie, do you
notice anything different? Hmm, no exaggeration.
He's looking around for maybe a minute or two and then he goes,
aha, is this a new picture? I said, Maddie, that picture has
been there for two years. What are you talking about?
And he just could not. He's like, I know something is
different. I just can't put my finger on
it. I said I you, you think it's
something's different because I told you something's different.
They're in the same room. How does one kid immediately
clearly see something new and the other totally miss it?
The answer to a question is not relevant to the sermon, so I
won't answer that. When In today's passage there's
about the two criminals who were hung next to Jesus.
In that passage, the author Luke is showing us how one was able
to see Jesus clearly and the other one completely misses him.
When you, when you see Jesus face to face, meaning when you
go to church, when you listen to sermons, when you read the
Bible, you're here today. You could see him clearly or you
could totally miss him. So that's what we're going to
find out today. That's the question of the day.
What keeps people from truly seeing Jesus?
What keeps people from truly seeing Jesus #1 You can't see
Jesus when you try to use him. You miss Jesus completely if you
try to use him. This passage is found in Luke
chapter 23. It's 32 to 43 before now we'll
read 32 to 39, 32 to 39. Oh, it's not coming up on mine.
I'll just excuse me, I'll just turn around and read it.
All right. Two other criminals were also
LED away to be executed with them.
When they arrived at the place called the Skull, they crucify
them there along with the criminals, one on the right and
one on the left. Then Jesus said, Father forgive
them because they do not know what they are doing.
And they divided his clothes and cast lots.
The people stood watching and even the leaders were scoffing.
He saved others, let him save himself.
If this is God's Messiah, the chosen One.
The soldiers also mocked him. They came offering him sour wine
and said, If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.
An inscription was above him. This is the king of the Jews.
Then one of the criminals hanging there began to yell
insults at him. Aren't you the Messiah?
Save yourself and us? One of the criminals asked
Jesus, aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us.
And the criminal's response is similar to pretty much everyone
else. In verse 35, it says the people
yell let him save himself. The next verse in 36, the
soldiers essentially say the same thing.
If you're the king of the Jews, save yourself.
This reminds us that this response is not the unusual
response. It is the usual normal.
The common response is to look at Jesus and say save yourself.
Aren't you the King? The criminal says, aren't you
Jesus? Save yourself and us.
See what he's doing is he's setting conditions for Jesus.
This is why he misses Jesus. He's saying if you're the
Christ, you got to save me. Prove yourself by fixing my
situation. If you are the Christ, indeed, I
will believe that you are Christ if you fix my circumstance.
Over the years I've been a pastor, a lot of people, I've
seen a lot of people give Jesus a try.
Plenty of people, even our church, have come and worshipped
and given Jesus a chance, but often they go away disappointed
because they come looking for ways how Jesus might benefit
them. God, if you fix this, I'll trust
you. God, if you're real, show me by
doing this. Jesus, if you're real, Get Me
Out of this situation. It's honestly not too different
from the criminal saying, if you are Jesus, save yourself and
save me. And when God doesn't solve your
problems, you feel like something's missing.
You come to church and you're like, oh, I don't know if God
made anything better in my life. People start questioning and
then people walk away. Here's a problem.
That's not faith, that's negotiation.
That's if you do this for me, then I will follow you.
You're not asking is Jesus who he says he is.
You're asking will Jesus do what I want him to do?
Will Jesus fix my problems? This is why many of us miss him
completely. We're in the room worshiping
God, talking about Christ our Savior and Lord, and we miss him
because we are not looking for a saviour.
You're looking for someone that will benefit you.
You're not going to find the Saviour if you're not looking
for one. All right?
So the question was what keeps people from truly seeing Jesus?
And I just said, well, you can't see Jesus if you're trying to
use him. If you're not looking for a
saviour, you're not going to find him.
And #2 you can't see Jesus until you surrender to him.
You can't see Jesus until you surrender to him.
Let's read the last four verses from 40 to 43.
Now we're going to look at the second criminal.
Same cross, same suffering. It's the same Jesus, just
opposite sides. Let's read, but we're going to
read how this guy does not miss Jesus.
He sees Jesus exactly for the person he is.
Let's read it verse 40 to 43. But the other answer, rebuking
him, making the other criminal. Don't you even fear God, since
you are undergoing the same punishment.
We are punished justly because we're getting back what we
deserve for the things we did. But this man has done nothing
wrong. Then he said, Jesus, Remember Me
when you come into your Kingdom. And he said to him, truly I tell
you today you will be with me in paradise.
Same cross, same pain, same distance to Jesus, but a
completely different outlook, completely different vision, a
different perspective. He doesn't give demands, but he
surrenders. What does he ask for?
What does he ask Jesus save me, save my situation?
No verse 42 he just says Remember Me.
No condition, no demands, no Get Me Out of this, Get Me Out of
that. He doesn't ask for a better
life. He doesn't ask for better things
in our in our life. Better marriage, fix my kids.
I want more money, I want a better status, I want less
problems. He just says Remember Me, I want
you. He's just asking for Jesus.
The first criminal says I'll believe in you if you fix my
life. The second criminal says, even
if my life doesn't change, I want you.
So how do we get this perspective?
How do we have the same perspective of the second
criminal? I think verse 41 is the key.
He omits what's true about himself.
He sees himself clearly and he's able to see Jesus clearly.
Verse 41 We are punished justly. We are getting back what we
deserve for the things that we did.
I've said this many times, the gospel starts with you saying I
am a Sinner. He doesn't blame, he doesn't
justify, he doesn't compare. He doesn't say, well that guy
was worse than me. He just says I deserve
punishment. See people whether they're
religious or anti religious or irreligious, unreligious, they
often reject guilt. People who embrace religion,
they're like, I'm not guilty, I've done all this good people
who reject religion, they also think, well, I don't, I'm not
guilty. I'm a good person.
I'm not bad as these people. It doesn't matter if you're good
or bad that you find some reason to avoid your guilt.
So either way, people think that God owes them a good life.
The heart the second criminal had his heart said I deserve
nothing for my good deeds. In fact, I'm a Sinner and I
deserve punishment. I need mercy, not repayment for
my good works. And Jesus offers him to the
thief who correctly saw him. Jesus offers him exactly what he
was asking for. Verse 42 Jesus says oh you want
me? That's what you get.
Truly, I tell you today you will be with me in paradise.
First thief says, what can you do for me?
Second thief says, how can I get more of you and Jesus give
exactly what he desires, You will be with me.
See that Thief was just looking for a savior to be with, and he
finds exactly what he's looking for.
You see this first guy is looking for the wrong thing.
He doesn't find it. He misses Jesus completely.
Second guy is looking for a savior because he knows he's a
Sinner. I need salvation.
I need rescuing. He's looking for a savior, and
he finds a savior. You know what else makes this
moment so powerful? I believe the stories truly
brings out the power of the gospel because this man, he says
Remember Me, but he had really nothing else to offer to Jesus.
No good works, no time to change his life, no chance to make it
up. All he had was that he knew he
was a Sinner and he wanted the Savior.
And the shocking thing about the gospel is that Jesus promises
him paradise. So it shows that there's no way
we could earn any of this. You cannot earn salvation.
Nobody deserves God's love. Nobody deserves to be God's
child. Jesus knew I'll give you
paradise because salvation is something I do anyway.
Jesus dying in his place is what was needed, not the the thief
doing good works. Jesus knew that he himself will
earn salvation for us. And this is the reason we still
celebrate Good Friday after 2000 years.
After 2000 years we still celebrate and we still worship
on the day that Jesus died because the invitation is still
true today. If we go to Jesus and ask Jesus
Remember Me, He will not give you what you deserve because
what we deserve is death and penalty, but He gives you
something better Himself. Good Friday for some people, for
some of us, can be a bad Friday because you could show up here
and you can still miss him. You can miss the point or Good
Friday can truly be a Good Friday because we can come with
nothing to the cross and walk away gaining everything.
Good Friday is indeed good main point.
We don't truly see Jesus until we stop using Him and surrender
to Him. Let's take time to pray.