Reading: Luke chapter 23 verse 34.
Ill:
On the day that Karl Marx died, March 14, 1883:
• His housekeeper came to him and said,
• "Tell me your last words, and I'll write them down."
• Marx replied, "Go on, get out!
• Last words are for fools who haven't said enough!"
Ill:
Last words can be very revealing.
• Showman P. T. Barnum said, as he was dying, "What were today's receipts?"
• Elizabeth 1st; "All my possessions for a moment of time!"
• The great Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon, said as his last words, "Jesus died for me."
• And John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, said, "The best of all is, God is with us."
IN THIS NEW SERIES OF STUDIES:
• We are considering the seven statements of Jesus from the cross:
• These statements are very important to us:
• Not only because of the Person who spoke them;
• But, also because of the place where they were said.
• Remember the context that these great words were spoken in;
• It was when our Jesus was doing His greatest work on earth,
Quote:
“These seven last words from the cross are windows that enable us to look into eternity and see the heart of God.”
The first of these seven statements is found in Luke chapter 23 verses 32-34:
32”Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals–one on his right, the other on his left. 34Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots”.
(1). Completion - The Fulfilment OF prophecy.
Over the Christmas period:
• We thought about or had quoted to us many Old Testament prophecies;
• Concerning the first advent, the coming into the world of Jesus Christ.
e.g.
(a).
• We reminded ourselves of the prophecy of Isaiah;
• When he predicted a unique sign; “Behold a virgin will conceive”.
• And those verses were of course fulfilled 700 years later:
• When the angel announced to Mary the uniqueness of her conception.
(b).
• Again 700 years before the birth of Jesus there lived a man called Micah;
• He too prophesised in his book in the Old Testament.
• Telling us the very place where the baby would be born;
• Quote: Micah chapter 5 verse 2: ”Bethlehem Ephrathah”.
• Which means; ‘belonging to the tribe of Judah’.
• This is to distinguish it from the other Bethlehem which was in Galilee in the North,
• In the territory of Zebulon (12km from Nazareth).
Isaiah in his book made a number of prophecies:
• Concerning the whole person of Christ;
• Baby, Man and the eternal king, who will one day return to earth to reign.
• Perhaps the most well loved among Christians;
• Is found in chapter 53 of his prophetic book;
• A chapter Dr Kyle M. Yates referred to as;
• “The Mount Everest of messianic prophecy”.
• Because like Mount Everest that chapter stands out in beauty and grandeur;
• It is a chapter that pictures for us Jesus Christ and his death on a cross.
• Now remember this is a picture of the cross;
• 700 years before the Romans brought crucifixion came to this part of the world.
In the chapter Isaiah tells us at least ten things about the humiliation and suffering of the Messiah:
• (1). He informs us that He (the victim - Jesus) should be despised and rejected of men;
• (2). That He would be a Man of sorrows and familiar with suffering;
• (3). That He would be wounded, bruised and punished;
• (4). That He would be led to be slaughtered and that he would not resist.
• (5). That like a sheep before its sharers,
• He would remain silent,
• (6). That He would not only suffer at the hands of man;
• But He would also be stricken, smitten and afflicted by God;
• (7). That He would pour out His soul unto death;
• (8). That He would be buried in a rich man's tomb;
• (9). And then we come to our key phrase this morning (verse 12b):
• “That He would be numbered with transgressors”;
• (10). And finally (verse 12c):
• “That He should make intercession for the transgressors”.
That prophecy (Isaiah chapter 53 verse 12):
• Was fulfilled in Luke chapter 23 verses 32-34:
• "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."
• Remember the context; as Jesus was experiencing the incredible agony of crucifixion;
• Ill: We get our word ‘excruciating’ meaning ‘exceedingly painful’ from that word.
• He was not consumed with himself;
• Instead his thoughts were towards His murderers, those who had crucified him;
• And his thoughts were towards the dying thief who were crucified with him;
• He made intercession for their forgiveness.
(2). Identification:
• Here we see Christ identifying with his people;
• "Father, forgive THEM."
It is worth Noting:
• That on no previous occasion did Jesus Christ ever make such a request of the Father.
• Never before had He invoked the Father's forgiveness of others.
Up to this point Jesus always forgave people Himself:
• e.g. Matthew chapter 9 verse 2: To a man who was paralytic Jesus had said,
• "Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven".
• e.g. Luke chapter 7 verse 48:
• To a repentant sinful woman who washed His feet with her tears.
• Jesus himself declared: "Your sins are forgiven".
• He had the authority in himself to forgive sins and used that authority on a regular basis!
Question:
• Why then should He now ask the Father to forgive,
• Instead of directly pronouncing forgiveness Himself?
Answer:
TWO SUGGESTIONS:
(1). Some commentators suggest a possible answer is to note that his physical POSITION:
• Matthew, Mark and Luke in their gospels all carefully records the words of Jesus;
• To his critics when he healed the paralytic man (Luke chapter 5 verse 24):
“But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on EARTH to forgive sins....”
• They would point out that Jesus was no longer on earth!
• He had been to quote (John chapter 12 verse 32) "lifted up from the earth"
• And in this position, this new sphere;
• He required the authority of his father to forgive;
(2). Another possible answer is to remember his reason for coming, his PURPOSE:
• On the Cross He was acting as our Substitute:
• The Just was about to die for the unjust.
• He had no sin of his own and therefore need not die on that cross
• So he remained hanging on the cross as our Representative.
e.g. Isaiah chapter 53 verses 4-5:
Surely he took up OUR infirmities
and carried OUR sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for OUR transgressions,
he was crushed for OUR iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
Because he had taken the position of a suppliant, an intercessor before the Father.
• He was no longer in the place of authority;
• Where He might exercise His own Divine prerogatives,
• And so when we hear Jesus cry, "Father, forgive them,"
• We see Him absolutely identified with His people.
• He intercedes for sinners;
• In the same way you and I are expected to do!
(3). Corruption.
• Here we see the blindness of the human heart.
• "They know not what they do."
This of course does not mean:
• That the enemies of Christ were ignorant of the fact of His crucifixion.
• When they cried out "Crucify Him", they knew full well what they were doing.
• They asked Pilate to crucify him and Pilate granted their murderous request.
• They saw him nailed to the cross, they were eye-witnesses of the crime.
• Peter on the day of Pentecost declared them all guilty of this vile crime.
• Quote (Acts chapter 2 verse 22) “You took him and had evil men put him to death on a cross”.
Question:
• What then did our Lord mean when He said,
• "They know not what they do?"
Answer:
• He meant they were ignorant of the enormity of their crime.
• Quote Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 8:
8”None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory”.
• The emphasis in the verse from Luke’s gospel is NOT on "They do not know"
• But rather on "they know not WHAT THEY ARE DOING."
They could only see the smaller picture and not the greater:
• Their corrupt, sinful hearts had blinded their minds;
• Concerning the innocent one they were murdering.
• All they could see was a frail, weak victim before them;
• They were blind to the fact this was ‘The Lord of Glory’.
AND YET THEY OUGHT TO HAVE KNOWN, THEIR BLINDNESS REALLY WAS INEXCUSABLE.
(a).
• They had the Old Testament scriptures;
• The many prophecies which like sign posts repeatedly pointed out Jesus to the nation.
• These prophecies were so clearly fulfilled in Him; identify Him as the Holy One of God.
• Yet the corruption of their sinful hearts prevented them seeing this!
(b).
• They had the uniqueness of His teaching;
• In fact those very same critics were forced to admit
• John chapter 7 verse 46:
• "No one ever spoke like this man"
(c).
• They had the testimony of his miracles;
• Visible signs designed to authenticate his words.
• He performed miracles that only the Messiah would be able to do;
• And yet they still failed to see him!
(d).
• They had his perfect life.
• He had lived a life before people, which had never been lived on earth before.
• He pleased not Himself.
• He was ever at the disposal of others, meeting their physical & spiritual needs.
• There was no self-seeking about Him.
• He only ever did that which was pleasing to God the Father.
• His was a life on which was stamped Heaven's approval,
• Twice heaven declared: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
There really was no excuse for their ignorance.
• It only demonstrated the blindness of their hearts.
• Their rejection of the Son of God bore full witness of the corruption of the human heart.
(4). EXEMPLIFICATION
• In this statement of forgiveness spoken by Jesus on the cross;
• We see the visible demonstration of his own teaching.
Quote:
Forgiveness is a marvellous idea;
Until you are the one who has to do it.
• In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught His disciples
• Matthew chapter 5 verse 44:
“But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”.
• Here is the perfect example that Jesus Christ practised what He preached.
• He not only taught the truth but he lived the truth, he was Himself the truth incarnate.
• So here on the Cross He perfectly exemplified His teaching of the mount.
• In all things He has left us an example to "pray" for them who wrong us.
• Here is the va1ue of Christ's perfect examp1e.
• If we are struggling to forgive, we can continue pray for God to forgive him.
Ill:
• Corrie Ten Boom (who suffered terribly in a German Concentration Camp);
• Tells of not being able to forget a wrong that had been done to her.
• She had tried forgiving the person,
• But she kept rehashing the incident in her mind and so couldn’t sleep.
• Finally Corrie cried out to God for help in putting the problem to rest.
• And after failing to sleep for two weeks.
• Her prayer was answered and help came in the form of a Lutheran pastor,
• Corrie wrote:
• Looking out of the window, he said;
• “Up in the church tower is a bell which is rung by pulling on a rope. But you know what?
• After the sexton lets go of the rope, the bell keeps on swinging.
• First ding, then dong. Slower and slower until there’s a final dong and it stops.
• I believe the same thing is true of forgiveness.
• When we forgive, we take our hand off the rope.
• But if we’ve been tugging at our grievances for a long time,
• We mustn’t be surprised if the old angry thoughts keep coming for a while.
• They’re just the ding-dongs of the old bell slowing down.”
Corrie goes on to write:
“And so it proved to be. There were a few more midnight reverberations, a couple of dings when the subject came up in my conversations, but the force—which was my willingness in the matter—had gone out of them. They came less and less often and at the last stopped altogether: we can trust God not only above our emotions, but also above our thoughts.”
For us as Christians we have the perfect example Jesus Christ:
• On the Cross He perfectly exemplified His teaching.
• And in all things He has left us an example to "pray" for them who wrong us.
• Here is the va1ue of Christ's perfect examp1e.
• If we are struggling to forgive, we can continue pray for that person and situation.
(5). Salvation - Here we see mankind’s greatest and primary need.
Ill:
• A Sunday School teacher had just concluded her lesson;
• And wanted to make sure she had communicated her point.
• She said to her class,
• “Can anyone tell me what you must do before you can obtain forgiveness of sin?”
• There was a short pause and then, from the back of the room,
• A small boy spoke up. “Sin,” he said.
Mankind’s greatest and primary need is for forgiveness of their sins:
• At the cross we see God’s perfect solution in providing forgiveness.
• And this forgiveness is perfect!
Ill:
• As a general rule human forgive-ness is a matter of leniency, often of laxity.
• Which means we often show forgiveness at the expense of justice and righteousness.
• The guilty person, the offender seems to get away with it;
• While we, the offended, the victim, has to do the hard work of forgiving.
• We show mercy to our offender;
• At the expense of justice!
But at the cross we see God’s perfect forgiveness:
• Where both mercy and justice are satisfied.
• The justice of God was met when the offender experienced the appropriate punishment.
• The mercy of God was met;
• When he himself became the substitute for the guilty offender.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. “
In the death of his Son Jesus Christ;
• A righteous ground has been provided on which God can be just;
• And yet at the same time the justifier of al1 who believe.
(6). Champion - Here we see the triumph of redeeming love.
• I will let you into a secret;
• Just before verse 34 our key verse is verse 33!
• Now I state the obvious so that you don’t skip over it;
• Luke chapter 23 Verse 33 reads:
“When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals–one on his right, the other on his left.”
Crucifixion was so dreadful that the writer need not go into detail:
• His readers knew exactly horrendous and vulgar it was;
• That it needed no more explanation!
• The suffering and humiliation of a Roman crucifixion were unequalled.
Quote: klause-ner a Jewish historian says:
"Crucifixion is a most terrible and cruel death,
Which man has ever devised for taking vengeance on his Fellow country man".
Quote: Ci-cero the Roman historian called it:
"The most cruel and the most horrible torture".
• It was when mankind had done their worst to Jesus:
• That he prayed “Father, forgive them. “
Quote: A.W. Pink:
• "Then"- when the vileness of the human heart was displayed in climacteric devilry.
• "Then"-when with wicked hands the creature had dared to crucify the Lord of Glory.
• He might have uttered awful maledictions over them.
• He might have let loose the thunderbolts of righteous wrath and slain them.
• He might have caused the earth to open her mouth;
• So that they had gone down alive into the Pit.
• But no. Though subjected to unspeakable shame, though suffering excruciating pain,
• Though despised, rejected, hated, nevertheless, He cries, "Father, forgive them."
• That was the triumph of redeeming love. "Love suffereth long, and is kind. . .
• Beareth all things. . . endureth all things" (I Cor. 13). Thus it was shown at the Cross.”
Jesus truly is the Champion – in him we see the triumph of redeeming love.
Ill:
Old Testament (Judges chapter 16);
• When Samson came to his final hours;
• He used his great strength of body to destry his enemies.
• In contrast Jesus the Perfect One,
• Exhibited the strength of His love by praying for the forgiveness of His enemies.
Ill:
New Testament (Acts chapter 7 verses 59):
• We have the great example of Stephen the first Christian martyr;
• A man most of us would not be able to live up to (not trying to find fault)
• But he failed to FULLY follow out the example set by Jesus.
• If read Acts chapter seven you will discover;
• That Stephen’s first thought were of himself,
• And then he prayed for his enemies:
“While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.”
Notice that with Jesus Christ the order was reversed:
• He prayed first for His foes, his enemies;
• And then lastly for Himself.
• Stephen was a great man of God;
• But Jesus is always the more perfect example!
• In him we see not only grace;
• But matchless grace!
And finally:
Question: Was this prayer of Jesus answered?
Answer: Yes! The answer is found in Acts chapter 2.
• As Peter preaches he is able to speak to many who were present at the crucifixion events;
• All through his sermon it is “You, you, you!”
23This man was handed over to YOU by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and YOU, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.
And again in chapter 3 verse 17 the apostle Peter says,
Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders.
• It is to be noted that Peter uses the word "ignorance";
• Which corresponds with our Lord's "they do not know what they are doing."
Here then is the Divine explanation of the three thousand converted under a single sermon.
• It was not simply Peter's eloquence which was the cause;
• Or even the power of the Holy Spirit;
• Though both obviously played an important part!
• But the cause I believe was the answer to the Saviour's prayer.
• It has been pointed out that Jesus both started his ministry (Luke chapter 3 verse 21);
• With a prayer as he was being baptised.
• And he finished, concluded his ministry on earth with a prayer;
• Luke chapter 23 verse 46: “Father into your hands I commit my spirit”.
