Text: Luke 23:32-39
Title: The Cross is our place of forgiveness.
Introduction
I think we can all agree that we see Mankind at his worst at the Cross.
We see the worst of mankind in four ways in our text.
a.We see Jesus led out with the worst kind of people.
“Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him…”(V32)
b.We see Jesus led out to the worst kind of place
“When they came to the place called the Skull…”(V33)
c.We see Jesus led out to the worst kind of profanity.
“The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him…the soldiers also came up and mocked him…One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him…” (V35-39)
d.We see Jesus led out to the worst kind of punishment.
“There they crucified him…”
“Crucifixion is the act of nailing or binding a living victim to a cross or stake or a tree. Already a bleeding mess from the scourging the victim hung to die of hunger and thirst and exposure, unable even to defend himself from the torture of the
the gnats and flies, which settled on his naked body and on his bleeding wounds.
Klausner, the Jewish writer, says, “Crucifixion is the most terrible and cruel death which man has ever devised for taking vengeance on his fellow-men.”
William Barclay
Now if we look again at the four ways we see the worst of mankind we should also see a lot of ourselves. Some of us here will have no problem identifying with the actions of mankind around the cross and some of us will so let me explain.
Notice again in our passage that he was led out with the worst of people.
In the company of murderers and violent criminals you and I are very good people. But in the company of Jesus are we not all criminals? This is why we don’t often feel like very good people when we read how Jesus responded to something negative when we know we would respond differently. When Simon Peter saw Jesus perform one of his first miracles he “fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man! (Luke 5:8). I think we all want to get closer to Jesus because it has certain advantages but the truth is that the closer you get to Jesus the more you are conscience of how bad a person you are. Ever wondered why the Apostle Paul could call himself “the worst of sinners” and believe it? Is it not because he was very close to Jesus?
Some of us can really struggle with feelings of being far from perfect and I don’t have to tell you that if we struggle with feelings of being far from perfect the Devil will only make it worse.
Notice that Jesus was led out to the worst of places.
How many of us have gone to some really bad places in our past? Now I don’t mean some bad restaurant. I define bad places as places we don’t tell our parents about.Bad places don’t have the Ten Commandments posted on the wall.
Now if someone professes to be a Christian and still goes to bad places don’t we take Jesus with us? I think as we go places on the Internet or Cable T.V. we need to ask ourselves ” Would Jesus approve of this place I am going to? Would Jesus go see this movie?
Notice Jesus was led out to the worst kind of profanity.
How many of us have said some really bad things about Jesus in our past? How many of us grew up taking the name of Jesus in vain? How many of us joined in with others who sneered, mocked or insulted anything to do with Jesus?
Notice that Jesus was led out to the worst kind of punishment.
If we could be honest we would all say we have hurt Jesus in some way. We may not have physically put him on the Cross but from what we have already looked at we have often hurt his character and his cause.
Now if we agree that we see mankind at his worst at the Cross then we should also be certain to see God at his best.
For the next several weeks as we look at the words of Jesus on the Cross we’ll see God at his best. Hopefully by Easter you and I will have a greater appreciation for the Cross of Christ.
Here in our scripture passage we find the first word Jesus said on the Cross.
“Jesus said (continually prayed), Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (V34)
We see God at his best in the Cross of Christ because the cross is the place of forgiveness.
The Cross of Christ is the place of forgiveness because of three things we see in the words “Father forgive them because they know not what they do.” The Cross of Christ is the place of forgiveness because the will of Christ, the word of Christ and the work of Christ all want to forgive.
It’s the will of Christ that we are forgiven. In verse V34 we read “Jesus said, Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” The words “Jesus said” are better translated “Jesus continually prayed”. In other words no matter how much worse it got for Jesus he never changed his will that we be forgiven.
Looking again at the four ways we see mankind at our worst at the Cross we could insert after each of the four ways that the will of Jesus was “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
We are not like Jesus. We put limits on our forgiveness. There are certain things we will not forgive. We will go so far and then stop forgiving. By us limiting our forgiveness we naturally think God does the same with his forgiveness.
“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 18:21-22)
What is Peter saying to Jesus and what is Jesus saying to Peter? Peter is saying to Jesus that seven strikes is his limit and would Jesus approve. Jesus however is saying to Peter that we are to be like God and never limit our will concerning forgiveness?
Now we need to focus not on Peter’s words but on Jesus’ words. God forgives us every time we ask for forgiveness so we need to forgive others every time they ask for our forgiveness.
Not only is it the will of Jesus that we are forgiven but it is also the word of Jesus that we are forgiven. He said “Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing.” How many of us give our word to do something and later change it? Perhaps the # 1 reason we would change our word is because our circumstances change.
On our wedding day we say a lot of words we mean but change later.
Paul Harvey tells the story of a man named Carl Coleman who was driving to work one morning when he bumped fenders with another motorist.Both cars stopped, and the woman driving the other car got out to survey the damage.
She was distraught. It was her fault, she admitted, and hers was a new car, less than two days from the showroom. She dreaded facing her husband.
Coleman was sympathetic; but he had to pursue the exchange of license and registration data.
She reached into her glove compartment to retrieve the documents in an envelope.
On the first paper to tumble out, written in her husband’s distinctive hand, was these words:
“ In case of accident, remember, Honey, it’s you I love, not the car.”
Jesus never changes his word to forgive. No matter how bad the circumstances got he continued to pray, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”.
Today 2000 years later it is still his will and still his word to see us forgiven.
“My dear children, I write this to you that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense- Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole word.” (1 John 2:1-2)
It is the will of Jesus that we are forgiven. And his will never changes. It is the word of Jesus that we are forgiven. And his word never changes. But more importantly it is because of the work of Jesus on the Cross we can experience forgiveness from God.
We have already proven that we all need forgiveness from God. We may be either among those who already know what we have done needed forgiveness or we may be among those who only now see that what they have done or are still doing needs forgiveness.
We have forgiveness because of the work of Christ on the cross. We are saved from the punishment our sins deserve because Jesus took our punishment on the cross.
Listen to the words of Isaiah 53:4-6.
“Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
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.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
In conclusion
When dealing with the issue of our forgiveness we need to follow three steps.
Those three steps are firstly you and I believing the facts. We must believe that it is God’s will, God’s word and God’s work that we can be forgiven. Either this sermon is fact or fiction. Secondly we must believe the facts by faith. Faith is the only key that opens the door to forgiveness. It is not a blind faith but faith in the facts. We must exercise that faith by looking to what happened on the cross. Thirdly we must believe that we will feel forgiven only after believing the facts by faith. As we look at the facts and believe by faith we will eventually feel forgiven. It is great to feel forgiven and we need to experience it. But we cannot put feelings first. Remember that feelings come and go so we must stand on the fact of our forgiveness by faith.
