Today I want to speak to you about the three crosses. Most of the time we only focus on the one cross and rightly so, because it is the cross that represents redemption, but we need to remember that there were three crosses. I want to remind you that there were three men hanging on crosses that day; there were three men that were naked and thirsty; there were three men who were suffering from the heat and having to listen to the sneers of the crowd. There were three men on the same kind of crosses who looked the same but their crosses were totally different. Three men dying the same way but totally different in their reaction to the cross they were bearing.
The man on the left of Jesus was in total rebellion on a cross of bitterness. The man in the center, the savior of the world, Jesus Christ was on the cross of redemption and sacrifice. The man on the right was on a cross of repentance. There is a lesson for us to learn today because each one of you will be on a cross at some point in your life. Each one of us will face these three crosses at some point in our lives. How will you and I react to the cross in our lives?
Let’s look at the first cross the cross on the left which is the cross of rebellion and bitterness. Why was this man so angry, why was he hurling insults at the Savior, why was he cursing the Savior with his final breath? Maybe he was raised in the slums of Jerusalem or maybe he was forced to steal food at a young age so he wouldn’t go hungry. We aren’t told why he became a harden criminal or a thief. Maybe he had godly parents and just started running with the wrong crowd and one thing led to another. What we do know is that he picked up a cross in life; what we do know is that he was on the left side of Jesus.
On that day he was very rude on that day he was very hateful. On that day sin had made him bitter and angry at life and even at God. Even in death vulgar words poured forth from his lips. He could see the bloody Christ; he could see the Savior bleeding and dying. We read about it and we sing about it but his eyes beheld His blood. He could hear the voice of the Savior as He prayed “Father forgive them.” He could see Mary the mother of Jesus standing at the foot of the cross. Yet the Scripture says that he was so hardened and calloused in his heart that not even the bleeding Savior; not even the broken twisted body of Christ; not even the prayers of Jesus could melt his cold, calloused heart. He made mockery of everything sacred and clean. His sneer will never be forgotten in heaven when he said “If you are the son of God save yourself and save us.” He was an angry and very bitter man. His cross was the cross of rebellion; his cross was the cross of bitterness. The greatest chance he ever had was at the end of his life. Just fifteen feet away was the Savior of the world. He had an opportunity to be forgiven but he was so full of anger and bitterness; for you see the cross does that to some people.
There are things in life that harden people. There are things in life that happen to us and we are forced to bear a cross that we didn’t choose. Sometimes when life throws a cross on our back it’s easy to become bitter. It’s easy to become like this man instead of bearing that cross with dignity you begin to bear it with bitterness. I have known people who have become bitter because of the cross they had to bear in life. Something happen in life and they didn’t know why it happened and instead of bearing that cross with faith and dignity they become bitter at the Savior. Do you know what this man was really saying, “I’m angry at you because I am hanging on this cross.” “I’m bitter at you and hateful toward you Jesus and I am cursing you with my dying breath because I’m carrying a cross and you could do something about it. Why has this happen to me, why am I having to deal with this, you are the Savior and you could get me off of this cross?” “Lord, why have you allowed this sickness in my life”; “Lord why have you allowed my finances to be like they are”; “Lord why have you allowed, etc.?”
Let me tell you what happens to a lot of people when they are forced to carry a cross, when trials come, when tragedy comes into their lives. I’ve watched people have to bear a cross. Suddenly when you pick up a cross; when it’s your x-ray that is showing cancer; when it’s your business that’s going under; when it’s one of your children on drugs; when it’s your marriage that falls to pieces while other people’s marriages were restored; when that person in church says or does something to you that hurts; suddenly you have a cross to bear in life and you have a choice at that point. You can allow that cross if you don’t watch it to turn you bitter at God. You can become the person that looks at Jesus and says “why don’t you do something about this? Why are you allowing this to happen? Are you God, are you the savior? Aren’t you the healer? Aren’t you the deliver? Aren’t you the one who makes a way? Why are you allowing this tragedy, this bad thing to happen in my life?
Here me today, bitterness is a bad thing.
Job 10:1 - "My soul loathes my life; I will give free course to my complaint, I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.”
Acts 8:23 - "For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity."
Ephesians 4:31 – “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.”
BITTERNESS. This points, not to mordant speech merely, but to a sour, irritable, splenetic temperament, which places a man in an attitude of constant antagonism with his fellow-men.
Hebrews 12:14-15 – “(14) Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: (15) looking diligently lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.”
A "bitter root." The expression is reminiscent of Deuteronomy 29:17. A "bitter root" is a root that bears bitter fruit. The metaphor is taken from the growth of plants. Such growth is slow, but what is in the plant will surely come out in time. So it is possible for a seed of bitterness to be sown in a community and, though nothing is immediately apparent, in due time the inevitable fruit appears. It will certainly "cause trouble." The effects of bitterness cannot be localized: it "can poison a whole community" (JB).
People can become bitter; people can become hateful; people can withdraw and become angry at God. Many of you have been carrying the cross of rebellion and bitterness. You have been abused as a child; some of you were sexually abused and it’s easy to say “why didn’t you do something God when he put his hand on me.” Sometimes things happen that we don’t understand. You can’t allow the crosses of life to turn you bitter. Sometimes you just have to know in life we are just going to have tribulation. I don’t care how saved you are; I don’t care how full of faith you are; I don’t care how much you pay your tithes and attend church there will always be crosses to bear and you and I must choose how we will allow them to affect us. Satan will use those crosses to turn you bitter against the man on the cross in the middle if you let him. Just because you live a holy separated life doesn’t mean that there want be crosses to bear. Sometimes life just comes and doesn’t care if you are a Christian or not and it puts a cross on your back. At that moment when tragedy comes to your life your can be bitter and resentful if you want to. You can become angry and furious at God if you want to. You can withdraw and say Lord you are unjust and mean or you can say “Lord I don’t understand it and when I get to heaven I will ask you about it but until then I will still praise you; I will still serve you; I will still love you; I will still say that the Lord He is good”
Let me tell you a little secret about being alive. Are you ready? Life is not fair. It never has been fair and never will be. Get used to it and get over it. We live in a fallen world, in a sinful society, with fallen people who act out their sinful state. Is it any wonder that life is so unfair?
The simple truth is this: the more you dwell on the unfairness of life, the more overwhelmed you will become and the more overwhelmed you get, the more miserable you become. Each day that you choose to dwell on the trivial irritations of this life is a day you waste.
Paul was not given a fair shake in life, life was not fair to him, and if anybody had a reason to be bitter it was him. Listen to him describe some of the events in his life: “Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches” ( 2 Corinthians 11:25-28).
Yet he writes to the church at Philippi boldly declaring, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4) That doesn’t sound like a bitter man.
One man allowed the cross that was put on him to turn him bitter and cynical and hateful and mad at God and the world.
But then there was another cross to the right of Jesus.
Another man was dying at the same time, he was just as guilty. He was going through the exact same thing that turned the other man bitter. He was going through the exact same crisis that made one man hard and angry, furious and mad. He is going through the exact same trial on the exact same kind of cross.
The last kind words that Jesus heard came from the lips of this dying thief. Years of sin had not hardened him; he still had a conscious. His heart was not so callous; he recognized that there is still good in the world even though he was on a cross. Somehow that man recognized who the man on the center cross was. He’s not from this world; He’s not an ordinary man. You remember, Jesus was crucified first. He watched as the blood squirted out of the hands and the feet that had nails driven through them. He heard the thud of the cross as they dropped it. He watched and saw the body of Jesus tear and twist in agony on that cross and he waited for the cursing; he waited for the man on the center cross to curse and blaspheme God, to curse the Romans; to curse those religious Jews for being the hypocrites that they were. But no bitter words came out of his mouth. He heard them say “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” He had never seen anybody like this man. Suddenly the man on the right side of the cross saw how wretched and wicked his life had been. Suddenly he realized how he had wasted his life. Suddenly he realized how he had become a harden criminal. He asked for mercy when he said “remember me.” “Life has dismembered me; sin has separated me from a loving God. Years of wicked living has dismembered my family, dismembered my life. Jesus would you remember me, would you put me back together. My life is torn to pieces, this cross is ripping me apart but would you please take the broken, shattered messed up fragments of my life and remember me, make me whole again.
It’s the cross of repentance. When life puts a cross on you, you can turn it into a cross of repentance. Maybe you have been through a divorce and you are shattered by it but you need not waste that cross of divorce. Jesus says turn it into a cross of repentance and watch me still bless you. Men may talk about your past but He will wipe your past away. He will say behold you are new again.
The cross of repentance, the cross of rebellion. Last is the middle cross; it is the holiest cross it’s the cross of sacrifice; it is the cross of redemption; it is a cross that says I will forsake all to follow you.
Matthew 16:24 – “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.’”
If a man follows Jesus, it must be by his own free will, and he must voluntarily renounce everything that might hinder his discipleship, denying himself even in things lawful that he may approach the likeness of his Master.
CHRISTIANITY IS FOLLOWING CHRIST. It is not merely receiving certain blessings from him. If we think we are to enjoy the fruits of his work while we remain just as we were, we are profoundly mistaken. He does give us grace, the result of his life work and atoning death. But the object of this grace is just that we may have strength to follow him. It is all wasted upon us and received quite in vain if we do not put it to this use.
Mark 8:34 – “When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, ‘Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.’”
Jesus laid down three conditions for true discipleship: (1) we must surrender ourselves completely to Him; (2) we must identify with Him in suffering and death; and (3) we must follow Him obediently, wherever He leads. If we live for ourselves, we will lose ourselves, but if we lose ourselves for His sake and the Gospel’s, we will find ourselves.
Denying self is not the same as self-denial. We practice self-denial when, for a good purpose, we occasionally give up things or activities. But we deny self when we surrender ourselves to Christ and determine to obey His will.
By denial of self, Jesus does not mean to deny oneself something. He means to renounce self—to cease to make self the object of one’s life and actions. This involves a fundamental reorientation of the principle of life. God, not self, must be at the center of life.
Mark 10:21 – “Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.’”
Luke 9:23 – “Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.’”
As Christians we will not set our desires and our will against the right Christ has to our lives.
We are to recognize that we now live for the sake of Christ, not for our own sake. The next words about the daily cross explain and intensify this principle. A condemned criminal was forced to carry one bar of his cross to the place of execution. He was "on a one-way journey. He would not be back" (Morris, Luke, p. 170). To take up the cross daily is to live each day, not for self, but for Christ.
Notice that Jesus takes up middle ground. In Genesis 15 God made the first blood covenant with man, specifically with Abraham. Take 5 animals; five is the number of grace. Split the animals down the middle and lay half of the animals on the right side and half of the animals on the left side and you wait on my and if anything comes and tries to steal the sacrifice
