Luke 23:34 - Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do
10 Famous Last Words
10 This doesn't taste right.
9 "I can make this light before it changes.
8 Now watch this.
7 "Why yes honey, I do think you look fat in that dress.
6 Let it down slowly.
5 Nice doggie
4 It's probably just a rash
3 That's odd.
2 Which wire was I supposed to cut?
1 What does this button do?
When someone dies, a frequent question that people have is: Did he or she say anything at the end?
We want to know what the last words were.
We are hopeful that they understood how much we loved them.
We look for some word of insight, a wise truth, a word of hope.
- Here Christ’s first words was a prayer
❶ We Hear the Fulfillment of Prophecy (Isa. 53:12)
Isaiah foretold that the Messiah would "make intercession for the transgressors."
Isaiah 53:12 had to do with the Savior dying on the Cross between two common thieves and praying for those who put Him there!
Isa. 53 reveals at least 10 Prophecies of Christ’s Death:
- Despised and Rejected of men
- Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief
- Wounded, bruised, and chastised
- Led like a sheep to the slaughter
- Dumb before His shearers
- Suffer at the hands of men
- He should pour out His soul unto death
- Buried in a rich man’s tomb
- Numbered among the transgressors
- He should make intercession for the transgressors
In this 1st Saying on the Cross we see the prophetic fulfillment.
❷ We Hear Christ’s Identified with His People
- "FATHER, FORGIVE THEM."
- On no previous occasion did Christ ever make such a request of the Father because He Himself forgave others of sin.
- Mk. 9:2 Man sick of palsy "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee."
- Lk. 7:48 Woman at Simon’s House "Thy sins are forgiven."
- Why now did Jesus Christ ask the Father to forgive?
Forgiving Sins is a Divine prerogative.
- Mk. 2:7 "Who can forgive sins by God only?"
Jesus IS God, but at the time of His request, He was "lifted up from the earth" (Jn. 12:32) as the ultimate Substitutionary Sacrifice for SIN!
- At that moment, Jesus Christ was bearing the SINS of the entire world!
- As our Representative on the Cross, He was no longer in a position or place of authority to exercise His Divine prerogative because He was identified with sinful man!
❸ We Hear Of God’s View of Sin Ignorant or Not
"Father, forgive them FOR THEY KNOW NOT what they do."
- Mankind is guilty of sin regardless how much we plead ignorance.
Jesus clearly stated that "They KNOW NOT what they do!"
- SIN is always SIN to Almighty God and the "wages of sin is Death!"
Rom 3:23 & 6:23
- Today, we are far less ignorant than in the days of Jesus
Why? We have the Word of God revealed to us!!
❹ We Hear About the Blindness of the Human Heart
"Father, forgive them for they know not WHAT they do."
- They knew that they were crucifying Jesus,
- They did not know that they were crucifying CHRIST!
- Yet, they ought to have known!
- The O.T. revealed Who He was;
- His many miracles He performed revealed Himself
- His teaching revealed Who He was;
- Testimonies of others revealed Who He was;
- His very life revealed Who He was!
- Hasn’t the Lord REVEALED Himself to YOU on many occasions???
- Don’t YOU realize that YOU TOO are blinded Why not come to Jesus today and receive SIGHT!
❺ We Hear Him Putting His Preaching into Practice
- No doubt all of us would have been angry and wanted God to destroy the very ones who nailed us to a cross
Chris Carrier of Coral Gables, Florida,
He was abducted when he was 10 years old. His kidnapper, angry with the boy's family, burned him with cigarettes, stabbed him numerous times with an ice pick, then shot him in the head and left him to die in the Everglades. Remarkably, the boy survived, though he lost sight in one eye. No one was ever arrested.
Recently, a man confessed to the crime. Carrier, now a youth minister, went to see him.
He found David McAllister, a 77-year-old ex-convict, frail and blind, living in a North Miami Beach nursing home. Carrier began visiting often, reading to McAllister from the Bible and praying with him. His ministry opened the door for McAllister to make a profession of faith.
No arrest is forthcoming; after twenty-two years, the statute of limitations on the crime is long past. In Christian Reader (Jan/Feb 98), Carrier says, "While many people can't understand how I could forgive David McAllister, from my point of view I couldn't not forgive him. If I'd chosen to hate him all these years, or spent my life looking for revenge, then I wouldn't be the man I am today, the man my wife and children love, the man God has helped me to be."
David McAllister didn't deserve forgiveness. He beat and tortured a little, precious child. However, Chris Carrier had the Christ like heart to forgive him.
- We must likewise forgive people who don’t deserve it.
❻ We Hear Of Man's Greatest Need
"Father, FORGIVE THEM"
- The greatest need of mankind is Forgiveness of Sin!
- The Question of Forgiveness is the most basic, most fundamental, most vital question that needs to answered by ALL MEN!
- It Explains the Sinfulness of Man.
- It Explains the Wages of Sin.
- It Explains How Sins Can Be Forgiven.
❼ We Hear About God's Love & Provision for Man
"THEN said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
- Look at Lk. 23:33, we read, "And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left."
- That little four lettered word THEN speaks volumes.
- It is because of God's Love for mankind that Jesus Came to Die on the Cross of Calvary
- 1 Tim. 1:15;
- Lk. 24:46 47;
- Acts 13:38 39;
- Col. 1:14
