He’s Not Here
Luke 23:39 -43 & 24: 6 - 8
Around the necks of hundreds of thousands in our society today are crosses of gold and silver. Many of them are beautifully decorated with precious stones – sapphires, rubies and diamonds. The people who wear them, in the majority, blissfully go on their way without even the vaguest understanding of the meaning of the true Cross. The Cross has merely become another item of jewelry. Yet, there were no jewels in the Cross which executed our Lord Jesus. Our culture has lost its understanding of the Cross. What about you? What does the Cross mean to you?
Travel with me back into the corridors of time and the pages of history more than 2000 years ago; to a dreadful dastardly time in the history of humankind. When man was lost, baffled and tossed by every new wind that blew. It was a time called the Intertestamental Period: the waning moments of the old standing on the precipice of the new. The law was about to bow subject to grace. The old dispensation was prepared to be succeeded by the new dispensation. Those who had been looking for a great and shinning knight in armor that would lead the people of Israel to a golden age were dismayed and distraught. For the only hope they had was now hanging on a tree; with spikes in His feet and with nails in His hands. It was a time in history when Satan almost became our savior. When we were lost without any hope of being found. When we were looking for the Lord to speak a word but it appeared that even silence came from heaven on high.
Travel with me to that period in history as we re-enact the most eventful weekend that humankind as ever experienced then or since. We gather here on Sunday morning but we cannot gather here in isolation of all that transpired during that dreadful weekend. This Sunday morning worship service doesn’t mean much if we don’t understand the crucifixion. And the celebration of this day will mean nothing if we have not entered into the suffering of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Look at the paradox of the weekend if you will; it was ugly but at the same time it was beautiful. It was ugly because evil had seemingly had won out. Satan appeared to be in charge and good appeared not to be able to stand on its own two feet. It was ugly because, as somebody said, the sun refused to shine. The earth began to quake and we are told that everything that had life became listless on that dreadful Friday afternoon. It was ugly because it appeared that the darkness would never be disbursed by light. And it appeared that humankind would be lost in the vast quagmires of a sin that would never loose them nor let them go.
But not only was it ugly but it was beautiful at the same time. It was beautiful because the Lord was teaching us what real celebration is all about. He wanted us to know that you can’t go up until you have first gone down. And He wanted us to know that you cannot really celebrate until you have first sorrowed. And that you cannot really understand living until you have determined what it means to die. And that the Resurrection means absolutely nothing if you have not determined what it means to go to Calvary’s awful hill. There were three cross there and I would like to use the dimension each cross to illustrate several points and then I will be done. Is that alright with you? Are you gonna pray with me?
I. The first dimension is the dimension of REJECTION. For there was an unpentative thief who absolutely said, “No!” to the “Yes!” of God. He was there just a stone’s throw away from your savior and mine but yet he determined that Jesus was not the god of his salvation. He looked about at the crowd, he looked at the Roman centurions…saw Herod and Pilate and all those with power and he made a conscious decision to say “No” to God and “yes” to the powers that be. He looked at Jesus in the center and said, “Why, I would follow you but it seems to me that you have no power. If you did have power it seems to me that even if you would not save us at least you would save yourself. And so my choice is that I choose Rome and I choose the government; they are killing me but at least I am dying with those who have the power.”
And you know my bothers and sisters many of us are still rejecting Jesus Christ. Many of us, perhaps not in words but in the demonstrative acts of our life have determined by the way we live and by the valued decisions that we make and by the values that guide us from the cradle to the grave that we have said “No!” to the Lord when the Lord has wanted us to say “Yes” to Him. Most of us will talk about how we want Him in our life but when it gets down to how we live we have demonstrated that we, like the thief on the cross, have said, “No” unto the Lord.
Oh, if there are those who could come back and get a second chance…if there are those who could be revived and have a second chance at life…if there are those who could be retrieved from their firry eternal estate, they would come here and say, “Preacher, I wanna testify! If I had a chance to do it over again I’d do it differently this time. If I had a chance to say ‘yes’ to the Lord I’d give Him all that I have. I’d give Him the strength of my youth. I’d give Him my values and my resources and I’d serve the Lord while I still had a chance.” This thief mad a tragic decision.
II. But thanks be unto God there is a second dimension; it is the dimension of REDEMPTION. Jesus in the center. Jesus on the cross. Has it been so long that we have forgotten what He did for us? Is a millennium such a long time? Are we so far removed from Golgotha that we have no real affinity to what the Lord has done for us in our lives? Sometimes I wonder if we, who call ourselves Christian, understand the essence of what the Lord through Jesus Christ has provided for us in our salvation. And perhaps the 20 centuries between that time and this time is such a long period of time that we have disassociated ourselves with Calvary. And now we have romantized the cross. We are looking for the kind of religion that does something for us instead of requiring us to do something for the Lord; who went down to the pit of death so that we might have right to the tree of life. But just allow my old-fashioned preacher self to remind you this morning, that if it had not been for the Lord who was on our side. . .that if it had not been for the blood of the Lamb Jesus Christ. . .
If you haven’t remembered; tip-toe with me back through the pages of time and across the annals of history and there we see Him as He is hung there on the cross. Don’t you hear the hammer ringing? Don’t you see the blood as it drops from His brow? The utter humiliation and the complete suffering of the Man of God. He declared it but they didn’t understand it: that the Son of Man must suffer many things; must die - be crucified but on the third day be raised. They didn’t understand it then and some of us have a hard time understanding it now. But I want you to go back to Calvary this morning and I want you to understand that He didn’t have any sin but He was holding in proxy our sins on His shoulders. Whatever it is that you did, or have done, or getting ready to do, or thinking about doing that was with the Lord on that day. And because you were not there HE WAS THERE TO DO IT FOR US! (pause)
And I’m glad that He was a king. He wasn’t Pilate’s king. He wasn’t Herod’s king. But I’m not ashamed to tell you this morning, He’s my king. Didn’t live a palace. I’ve even heard Him say, “Foxes…
Ah, but He’s still my king. He didn’t have a militia or an army. He didn’t men in uniforms with weapons in their hands. All He had for a weapon was His word but I heard that His word is like a two-edged sword; it cuts going and coming and it is a lamp unto our feet and light unto our path. Yes, He is a king all by Himself. He lived like a king. He was born like a king and He died like a king.
Oh, He didn’t have much. Everything He had somebody lent it to Him:
He had to borrow a lad’s lunch to feed 5,000 on a hillside.
He had to borrow somebody’s donkey to get into Jerusalem on …
He had to rent a room to have…
Even the few clothes that He had on His back they took and sold to them highest bidder. And after He died they had to borrow Joseph’s tomb in order to lay Him in. He didn’t have much but one thing He did have He had that cross and that cross belonged to Him and Him alone!
Oh, I know it was His cross because He was the only one good enough to get up on it. You see it was reserved for the only begotten Son of God that taketh away the sins of the world. And God stretched out His hands one day and spoke to John, as Jesus was being baptized in the Jordan and said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” It was His cross. Thanks be unto God that He provided for our salvation and the blood of Jesus has given right to the tree of life. And that redemption allows us to know that there is a final dimension and that is the dimension of RECONCILIATION.
III. You see, there was a penative thief. Who, in stark contrast to the unpentative thief says, “Lord, I see something in you. The proximity of our closeness has allowed me to feel something that I have never felt before. I’ve looked into your eyes and there is a gleam that has captured my spirit. There is something about you that makes me, even in this last moment want to cry out to you and say, ‘Lord, have mercy on me a sinner!’ You are here not because you belong here. I am here because I know that I have been adjudicated guilty and I deserve whatever they dish out to me. I understand that evil begets evil and that bread. . .”
And we need to hear that again don’t we? We don’t talk much about “what you sew. . .” When’s the last time you heard a preacher say, “that the wages of sin is death and that the gift of God is eternal life?”
This brother said, “I am here because I belong here. I understand the relationship between cause-and-effect; between sin-and-salvation. I am here because I’ve done wrong and deserve what I get but you have done nothing to be here! So I look to you and ask you, SAVIOR! When you come into your kingdom, can you stop dying just long enough to remember me?” And the Bible says that Jesus did that. That the words of the infidelmatas in the 23rd chapter of Luke the 42nd verse were, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” And Jesus said, “TODAY! Shalt thou be with me in paradise.”
Now a lot of us who are born and bred in the bureaucracy of religious tradition don’t have time for the penative thief. Because we think that he should have been “voted in” before he got paradise. We think that he should have at least been “voted on” by the deacons. And surely he should have been baptized by emersion…IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER…
Surely, the Lord must have been delirious in His suffering state to allow somebody to get saved and not come by the Sanhedrin and get the blessings of those who are high up in the church. But the Lord said, Nah! When I do it, it doesn’t matter what nobody else says because if I save you you’re just saved. And when I give it to you can’t nobody take it away!
And I’m glad that when I got saved that the First Baptist Church of South Richmond, VA didn’t give it to me. I’m glad that when I got saved that the salvation wasn’t in the water. And I’m glad that when I got save that the salvation wasn’t in the preacher’s hand who said, IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER…
But when I got saved it was because the Lord touched my life and gave me salvation full and free! And I don’t care what you say, I’m saved! Saved from the power and ravishes of sin, the Lord has leased and set us free and now we’re saved.
And that’s were the Lord saves you. He doesn’t save you in your whole condition. . . But if you “confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead. . . My Bible says, NOT MIGHT BE. . . NOT SUBJECT TO THE APPROVAL OF THE CHURCH. . . BUT YOU SHALL BE SAVED!
You see we’re not Catholic, therefore, we don’t have crucifixes; we have crosses. If we had a crucifix we would be worshiping the cross with Jesus still on it. But He’s not here! Thanks be unto God that our Christ is not still on the cross. They went to the grave that day and they looked for the Savior who had been crucified on Friday. Just 72 hours ago everything was wrong but now it appeared that everything was right. Just the other day they were there when He said, “Father, into thy hands…” But now they go and find that “He’s not here but. . .”
And because He has risen as He said, when I leave here I’ve got a better place. A building not made with hands; eternal in the Heavens; where I’m gonna just sit at His feet and I shall be blessed.
But right now all we know is that He bleed blood…blood dropped from His head like sweat-drops of tears. All we know is that He died all day Friday.
All we know now is that the sun refused to shine.
All we know is that the Lord dropped His head into His chest and said, “Father, Father, into thine hands I commend my spirit.”
They took Him down from the cross,
Put Him into a borrowed tomb.
The Bible says that we heard nothing all night Friday.
That there was silence all day Saturday.
God said, “I took you down so I could show you how bad it could be. I let you go down into the valley, so that you could feel what it means not to have My presence. But now that you’ve gone far enough I’m going to get my Son.” And He looked around and said I need two angels to accompany Me. My boy has just been crucified. I’m going down to a hill called Calvary and I’m going to invade the privacy of that borrowed tomb. He walked past the guards and moved the stone away, touched Him and said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Rise up! Oh Child of God.” He told the angels in Heaven, “I want you to sing a song that nobody has ever heard before.” And when they began to get close to the portals of Heaven somebody said, “Who is this that comes in the name of the Lord?” And I heard that somebody said, “Lift up your heads ol ye gates…be lifted up the everlasting doors and the King of Glory shall come in.” Who is the King of Glory? The Lord of Host. The Lord mighty in battle. He is Jesus. Jesus. Christ my Lord. Jesus. My rock in a weary land. Jesus. My elder brother. Jesus. My way out of no way.
He’s not here. But He has risen. As He said. And because. He is risen. When you need Him. You can call Him. And when you call Him. He’ll show up. Anybody here. Know He will show up? When bills are due. He’ll show up. When folk are lying on you. He’ll show up. When you get down to your last breathe. He’ll show up. In a hospital room. He’ll show up. In a courtroom. He’ll show up. And what does He do? He dries tears from your eyes. He lifts heavy burdens. He makes ways out of no way. He opens doors closed in your face. He turns your midnight into midday. He turns your gloom into joy.
Do you want joy? Then come to Jesus. Are you looking for an answer to the questions of your life? Then come to Jesus. Do you want to be lifted out of your sin? Then come to Jesus. Do you want to be lifted out of your situation? Then come to Jesus. Come to Jesus. Come to Jesus. Come to Jesus. Just now.
The doors of the church are opened. Every head bowed. Every eyed closed. Everyone standing. The doors of the church are opened. If you are here this morning and you know in your heart that you are without the Lord Jesus, we invite you to come. If you are here this morning and your facing your Calvary and your own cross, we invite you to just say yes to Jesus. And you will not have to face it alone. For you will discover that His grace is sufficient. Every head bowed. Every eye closed. While heads are bowed and eyes are closed, believers are praying. If you are here this morning and you know in your heart that you are not saved. That if the Lord was to call RIGHT now…before you could pray another prayer…utter another breathe; you know in your heart that you are not saved, you know in your heart that you are without the Lord Jesus, you know in your heart that Heaven would not be yours, I’m gonna ask you to just raise your hand right where you are. You don’t have anything to be ashamed about. Not trying to embarrass you. Trying as best we know how to help you. You need to raise it and you ought to raise it high (PAUSE). God bless you. Is there another who would be honest enough to raise their hand and say preacher, I know in my heart that I’m not saved? God bless you. Maybe you are here this morning and you’re saved but you are out of fellowship with the church, you don’t have a church home…if it is right to be in the church then it is wrong to be out. You need to be in a Bible believing, Christ-centered church. If you are here and you are without a church home; while heads are bowed and eyes are closed, believers are still praying. I’m gonna ask that you would raise your hand. Again, not trying to embarrass you. Trying to help you. Raise it high. Every head bowed. Every eyed closed.
Gracious God, our Father. We thank you for these who were honest enough to admit that they are not saved. That they are without You. Oh God, speak to their hearts right now. Give them the strength, the courage, the faith, whatever it is they need to move from where they are and move this way. Touch right now, oh God, we pray in the mighty name of Jesus. And then, oh Lord, if they fail to come create a restlessness down within their heart. That they may not know peace nor soul-satisfaction until they make peace with Thee. It is in your Son Jesus’ name we pray and ask it all. Amen.
You were honest enough to raise your hand, now I’m gonna invite you to come. It’ one thing to admit that something is wrong, it is another thing to do something about it. Why don’t you something about, why don’t you come this morning. Maybe you wanna come but you don’t know what to say. Just say, “I wanna be saved” and we’ll take it from there. You can know for sure that you’re saved, and heaven bound. You can know that your sins are forgiven and that you’re eternally secure. You can have peace with God. The door is open.
