did Jesus really promise a dying thief a one-way ticket to heaven or a free
ticket to heaven did Jesus really promise a dying thief a free ticket to
heaven did he indeed when Jesus was executed and it's the time of year when
we do think about that he pant in history that Jesus was executed and I I
use that word especially you know not that he just died he was executed he was
put to death sacrificed for us but when that happened there were two other men
executed at the same time and my guess is they did that on purpose or maybe
they did it to save money but they wanted to the Romans who were putting in
pimp death he was no more than a common person to be put to death to them so he
was executed with two other men who were thieves criminals agitators they have
heard different interpretations of what their crimes might have been and so on
let's turn to that and Luke 23 if you would Luke 23 and verses 39 through 43
are the ones to really look at it's a short section of Scripture the one it
shoots off in all kinds of different directions everything Jesus said does
that doesn't it really I mean when you start analyzing what he really said and
what people say he said and what you think he said and what do you you know
it can just turn into a really interesting conversation hopefully that
will be what we've got today so if we if we just start off let's read that read
those verses I think I'm going to start actually back in verse 32 because we've
got a little bit of extra time to set the set the situation in our minds and
verse 32 two other men both criminals were also led out with him that's Jesus
to be executed and when they came to the place called the skull they crucified
Him there along with the criminals one on his right and the other
has left and Jesus said Father forgive them for they do not know what they are
doing and they divided up his clothes by casting Lots for them though these were
words directed towards his executioner's various soldiers in that that were
tasked with making this happen the people stood watching and the rulers
even sneered at him and they said he saved others let him save himself if he
is God's Messiah the chosen one and the soldiers also came up and they mocked
him and they offered him some wine vinegar which I believe is actually kind
of like a they put it in some kind of herb thing that dulls pain it kind of
makes people real loopy so the idea was that they're trying to offer him
something to make the pain go away turned it down but they offered him this
wine and vinegar and they said if you're the King of the Jews save yourself there
was a written notice above him which reads this is the King of the Jews I
think it was meant to be sarcastic kind of a slap in the face to both him and to
the Jewish people and one of the criminals who hung there hurled insults
Adam aren't you the Messiah save yourself and us so Wow pretty bold guy
but the other criminal rebuked him don't you fear God he said since you are under
the same sentence we are punished justly for we are getting what our deeds
deserve but this man has done nothing wrong then he said Jesus remember me
when you come into your kingdom and jesus answered him truly I tell you
today you will be with me in paradise and that's the phrase the linchpin
phrase we want to take some time to look at and we will but there was one of them
who started to rail at Jesus or any blaspheme DIF you look at the words
there in Greek as you know I like to do if you if you want to there's easy ways
to do it now with computers and all that but the word is he bless fiendin and he
was saying things that he should have been more cautious about
for certain and he was basically saying you know if you're the Messiah if you're
who you say you are if you're that we're all all powerful all important guy you
know once you save yourself and save me while you're at it the other guy you
know told him to stop you know we're up here because we deserve it and this guy
Jesus doesn't deserve what's happening to him and don't you have any respect or
fear of God considering that you are condemned to death right so then this
guy turns to Jesus and can you ask them the good question remember me when
you're coming into your kingdom and Jesus answer to him is very short but
it's full of meaning truly I tell you today you shall be with me in paradise
and according to the scripture if you you know you compare the Scriptures
that's the second last thing that Jesus ever said before he died so these are
some of his last words and like I said like I mentioned everything he said was
full of meaning and these words are full of meaning there's very much there's a
lot packed into this very very short exchange of words and Jesus is actually
saying something very very profound but what what exactly is he saying is he
promising this regretful fearful criminal that he will wake up in heaven
is that what Jesus is promising him is is it really and a lot of people will
take this verse and they'll throw it out there and say look the Bible says boom
people go to heaven he was promising this guy you're going to heaven and
actually there's more built in there because packed into that is also the
fact that this guy didn't have to he didn't have to repent he didn't get
baptized he didn't wasn't given the Holy Spirit he didn't have any good works
or kept the Sabbath I don't know he did nothing and Jesus is saying you're going
to have a baby that's where people take this first but there's a problem there
and it's a big one big big big problem so is Jesus really
promising this guy this regretful fearful desperate criminal that he's
going to wake up in heaven well the answer's no I'm not just going to say
that more but the answer is no and there's some reasons why and I have four
of them for reasons all right and the first one I call it the preponderance of
Scripture preponderance is a big word you know ponderous sounds it sounds
pretty highfalutin just on its own you know just listening to anything
preponderance well it just means that most of Scripture the vast majority of
scripture says otherwise okay the preponderance of Scripture the
overwhelming majority of Scripture indicates that when we die when this man
died that our spirits return to God and we are in a state that the Bible likens
to sleep and there are lots of places where I could point you to we've got a
couple last time I spoke I referenced a list like that then I made the list up
and then I published it on Facebook I don't know if anyone read those but
maybe I'll do it again here it's really easy I just you know go to my computer
and I whip them all up but I picked some real you know core ones but there are
places where you can read in your red letter Bible where Jesus talks about
death as sleep and in this state likened to sleep it's
not sleep because we all know that when we sleep we get up in the morning and
the birds are chirping and the sun is shining and oh good I woke up you know
good but in this state when a person dies there is no conscious thought turn
with me to Ecclesiastes 9 if you would please II ass T's tricky little book to
find tucked away there after Proverbs short excellent food for thought
especially for the young believe it or not these are the words I think of an
old person who's had a chance to look back on life but to me and the book of
Ecclesiastes an excellent reading for the young but here in Ecclesiastes 9
verses 5 through 6 yeah because again because we have a
little bit of extra time let me read more of the context backing up to verse
3 says this is the evil in everything that happens under the Sun the same
destiny overtakes our all the hearts of people moreover are full of evil and
there is madness in their hearts while they live some weeks it just really hits
home you think you have this world's a crazy place and afterwards they join the
dead so good or bad right or wrong everybody joins the dead anyone who is
among the living has hope even a live dog is better off than a dead lion for
the living know that they will die but the dead know nothing the dead know
nothing they have no further reward and even
their name is forgotten their love their hate their jealousy have long since
banished and never again will they have part in anything that happens under the
Sun but now lest I leave you to grim scriptures go on to say go eat your food
with gladness and drink your wine with a joyful heart for God has already
approved what you do you know you're born to live so live always be clothed
and wife anoint your head with oil enjoy your
life but the key is there in verses 5 through 6 the living have no thoughts no
plans no reward nothing it's just over so it's a state of sleep in which there
is no conscious thought turn with me to first Corinthians 15 verse 51 listen I
tell you a mystery something deep something profound we will not all sleep
but we shall all be changed in a flash in the twinkling of an eye at the last
trumpet for the trumpet will sound the dead will be raised imperishable and we
will be changed so from that state of sleep there is a promise and that's
something to focus on there is a positive promise awaiting all it's not
just grim gloom and doom which you could be kind of left with that after reading
Ecclesiastes but there is a hope 1st Thessalonians 4 because I preface this
saying that preponderance in Scripture I wanted to have a few at least but not
all I mean I would take I think an entire two hours to go through all those
but first Thessalonians 4 verse 13 through 18
let's read those together brothers and sisters we do not want you to be
uninformed about those who sleep in death so that you do not grieve like the
rest of all mankind who have no hope for we believe that Jesus died and rose
again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen
asleep in him according to the Lord's word we tell you that we who are still
alive and who are left until the coming of Lord will certainly not precede those
who have fallen asleep so the preponderance of Scripture points to
something that's a little different from what people can take away from Luke 23
right now the weakness of that argument is it
would be very easy for someone to come back and say oh so the Bible's
contradictory right so this little verse pops out there and it doesn't match the
rest of the Bible so the Bible's just brutal with this contradictory stuff one
more reason for me to write you off as a very silly non logical person not unwell
okay we have three more reasons we have total four we have three more so that's
number one just the preponderance description the
thing that I take from the preponderance of Scripture is when I approach it or
when we approach it from the viewpoint that you know Scriptures truth so there
must be something else in that verse I need to think about this I need to think
about what it's saying because the rest of the scriptures don't line up with
that so what's going on it's an opportunity for us to analyze what we're
taking out of those verses are we just walking away with something man without
thinking about it well the second point is this is pretty picky very picky in
fact the power of punctuation can you point to the power of punctuation you
might think wow that doesn't sound very deep no it's not not very deep at all
when the original scriptures were written out and when they were copied
and passed on they did not have punctuation writers did not use
punctuation until much later in history neither did they put spaces between the
words and if you've looked at old manuscripts they're just along it's like
looking at machine code you know one zero one zero one zero one zero it's all
just pulled out there I think that's the way people did it now if you're a teen
or a tween and you're stuck in English or grammar classes at school you might
think cool a world without punctuation only it was so easy that way you know
there'd be fewer things for the teacher to mark read on my essays and stuff like
that a world without punctuation yeah that'd be cool no not not so cool not so
cool back then like I said they didn't have
punctuation spaces between words this made life three
difficult it was difficult to read it was kind of like a it was a an art
shrouded in mystery with people with pointy hats running around the secret of
mystery and they knew how to read it was hard it was like a bar of entry that was
a little too high very few people actually knew how to read it wasn't
really something that was big deal so I guess there wasn't a lot of reason to
come up with punctuation or spacing and all that the punctuation that we have
today which I'm very grateful for I like punctuation the punctuation that we have
today was inserted probably around the time of the printing press it's a little
iffy you know because it sort of morphed its way into what we've got now but that
would be around 14 1500s and so forth so from our frame of reference about five
hundred years ago or so punctuation as we know it okay there were earlier
attempts at punctuation Julius Caesar was a big punctuation fan so I'm at
least I'm up there with Julius Caesar I like punctuation the King James
Version which was one of the first translations into English used
punctuation and if you look at that verse back in Luke you'll see there's a
comma in there right in a comma is a form of punctuation right so the King
James and my Bible which is an NIV does the same thing it puts the comma in the
same place okay and it makes Jesus words sound like this truly I tell you today
you shall be with me in paradise all because of a comma now if you remove
the comment if you think back when I when I said it I kind of used a robot
voice I truly tell you today you shall be wouldn't in heaven I tried to take
the comma not put any pauses in there all right so that's the way they would
have read it truly I tell you today you shall be with me in paradise
even now if I were going to put a comma in there I would put it after the word
today all right if I'm not going to use comma I'd use it after the word today so
in my world the verse would say truly I tell you today you shall be with me in
paradise all right now the people who translated
the Bible I'm not I don't really want to I don't want to give them a black eye
they don't deserve it they've done a good work and I'm glad that they've done
it and we've benefited greatly because of that people who translated the Bible
into English in particular if you will added punctuation based on their reading
of the context okay based on what they thought the verse should say and in
general they do a good job my opinion in reading the Bible you usually the
punctuation is helpful it you know makes it easier for me to read what's being
said there certainly wouldn't want to go through my Bible with just a string of
and the reason we used all caps they didn't have they didn't have lowercase
letters either but it would just be very difficult to read imagine all caps no
punctuation no spaces no paragraphs no nothing that would be really tough to
read I'm glad they did a good job thank you but not so with this first not so
with this first I think they did a poor job with this first and here's why all
right there's a reason why because you might say well you know you don't have
any proof you know why you should place a comma here or there all right and
definitely we don't want God's truth to hang on a comma but jesus replied truly
I tell you today or truly I say to you today was indeed a common Hebrew phrase
something that someone might say to add umph to what they were going to lay on
you all right it was a Hebrew Turner phrase they used kind of add a more
serious tone to what was being said and you can see a couple of examples for
example Deuteronomy 30 verse 18 we won't turn there but it says I announced to
you today that you shall surely perish all right acts 20 verse 26 the same sort
of idiom comes out therefore I declare to you today that I
am innocent of the blood of all men so it's a phrase so I believe there is a
precedent for the way the comma would you be used if I were going to move the
comma I think I've got a little bit to base it on all right yeah that's that's
how people talked okay I believe that the English translators put the comma
where they did to create a verse that seemed to back up beliefs that they
already had beliefs that people went to heaven but they had an immortal soul all
right a non biblical belief right just by a little comma which I think lends
weight to the first point the preponderance of scripture that
preponderance in Scripture points as else shows us otherwise okay so I point
you back to that previous argument the preponderance of Scripture which also
helps us I think understand that know that that comma not such a good job if
you know they did a really great job for the most part but there I think they let
us down NIV King James Revised Standard Version they're all the same
because the idea is we need a verse that backs this heaven thing up there's a
good place I don't know if they were that cavalier about it but I think it
was generally guided by that accepted notion that they already had point three
point three because you know we don't want to just base our beliefs on
punctuation right or what could be taken as a contradiction the point 3 is bad
punctuation leads to bad theology okay not that big a difference from the
previous point but it kind of helps develop the idea a little bit if you
accept the arbitrary placement of that comma
okay if you say yeah I like the comma there or even if you don't have a comma
either before or after I can read it both ways right truly I tell you today
you shall be with me in paradise take the comma out make it flat monotone
you can read it by the way if you want to okay
Butte accept the arbitrary placement of that comma and the emphases and the
pause there there brings out a totally different meaning to the verse if you
accept that and teach that Jesus words mean that by the end of the day the
criminal on the cross would go to heaven with Jesus all right she's going to go
to heaven with Jesus so today you'll be with me in heaven if you if you buy into
that reading of it then you would also be teaching that upon his death Jesus
didn't go to and stay in the grave for three days
so now you've got a logical conundrum that doesn't work something's wrong very
similar I know to the preponderance of Scripture idea but the internal logic of
Christ's death and sacrifice is it starts to it starts to fall apart you
just can't do that with a scripture you can't make this scripture say something
that it doesn't say you would be saying that when Jesus died he didn't go to and
stay in the grave for three days and three nights as other scriptures clearly
indicate and as his own words indicate let's go to Matthew 12 Matthew 12 verses
38 through 40 we covered these a couple of months ago Matthew 12 verse 38
through 40 then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him to
Jesus teacher we want to see a sign from you show us something cool something
powerful and he answered a wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign
but none will be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah for
as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish so the Son
of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth three
days and three nights I am going to be buried and dead if Jesus goes to heaven
by the end of the day then other questions come up not only does it fly
in the face of this sign as I mentioned the whole thing just starts to crumble
and fall apart you can't take one card out of a house of cards and I'm not
saying that the Bible is a house of cards I'm just saying you don't do that
with the scripture you can't change that scripture to mean something that it
doesn't mean or point people in a direction that the Bible doesn't point
you in just don't do that all right but if you had you know you're determined
okay no this is the way I want it to be if Jesus goes to heaven at the end of
the day then you have to question whether Jesus ever really died at all if
you look at the where they're coming from people who might want the comma
there well no man has an immortal soul so Jesus must have been saying today you
will be with me alright Jesus has an immortal soul you have an immortal soul
then you have to question whether Jesus ever really died now I know this is a
larger argument and I'm more than happy to go into it with you not not right
here right now but you have to ask whether Jesus ever really died or did he
just change locations all right did he just change his location from earth to
heaven boom look at him you know a mortal soul
and if you go there he and this thief just poof I mean this is at the end of
the day mind you I mean this is the evening was coming there wasn't a whole
lot of a day left so if they were going to do it today they had to do it right
away that's a minor point but if you buy into that idea
and you have to question whether Jesus really died at all or did he just get
whisked away to a different place and if you go there which I hope you don't then
Jesus didn't actually really technically die for your sins or it's all kind of
iffy and if the penalty for your sins isn't paid then you have no future so
it's just not a good place to go a very bad place to go non-biblical you would
also have to ask yourself another question minor but worthy of asking why
after his resurrection all right even after those three days and three nights
in the grave buried in the grave Jesus told Mary one of the the Mary's who were
there but he had not yet ascended to heaven that's in John 20 verse 17 John
20 verse 17 jesus said to her - Mary do not hold on to me for I have not yet
ascended to the Father go instead to my brothers and tell them you know I am
ascending to my father and your father to my god and your God so what happened
what happened the teaching that humans go to heaven upon death is like I said a
man-made non-biblical idea and you can try and force it into the scriptures but
you you turn them into a very contradictory collection of sayings
teachings and stuff like that it's not what they are it's the Word of God and
the truth of God but teaching that human beings go to have it upon death not as
man-made non biblical and people try to read that concept into God's Word they
want it to be there but it just isn't there it's not in there and adding a jot
or a tittle , trying to make scriptures say
something that it never intended is bad practice and it should not be the basis
for our belief it's not enough to hang your hat on that's for sure
now all this is focused on saying well if you know if that happens then the
Bible's contradictory which is exactly what some people say okay this is why
the last point to me is most important most important so commish mama right we
can't base this all on commas let's not let's not do that
let's not base our thinking and our understanding of God's truth and God's
promises on a mere comma let's not do that if we put aside the comma issue if
you will the comma issue you put that aside is there other stuff in this verse
that we can use to determine its real meaning yes there is yes there is
there's more in that verse that we can use to determine what it's really saying
read the verse again maybe I should do that Luke 23 Luke 23 where are you read
that verse again jesus answered him truly I tell you today you will be with
me in paradise I tried to read that with no commas if we read that verse again
notice something very important it should have been obvious right up front
Jesus does not use the word heaven it doesn't use the word heaven there's a
connection that people make but it isn't there he does not use the word heaven he
uses the word paradise alright and we've brought that word into our language
English language pretty much unscathed paradise owes the Greek Paradiso so he
used a different word he says Paradiso so you
will be with me in paradise O's or paradise
now the word Paradiso s' is like a middle-eastern word from that part of
the world and those language groups that are in that part of the world and they
mean a type of wonderful Park you know an idyllic utopia you'd hope you in park
you know and for everybody their idea of what's wonderful is a little different
some people might think yes you know that'll be a grove of oak and maple
trees and stuff like that someone might think Oh that'll be palm trees you know
someone like Michael Jackson might think that it's going to be a park full of
roller coasters and topiary bushes but everybody has their own view of this
wonderful idyllic place okay but for them back then it was an idyllic Park
and you actually still see this a lot in Islam it's kind of how they look at
things the afterlife and so on it's an idyllic Park we would look at that I
hope and we would say that's like the Garden of Eden it's like a Garden of
Eden getting back to the you know that Garden of Eden whatever it looked like I
don't know palm trees or oak trees I'm not quite sure a place of happiness on
earth all right so that's what people use the word for paradise this is a
paradise and we might use that you know going to the feast we might go to some
wonderful place some people that might be you know bend or again some people
that might be you know when you think of a nice place sri lanka hawaii you know
this is a paradise alright hope i spread it around enough now this word paradise
is important all right very important the word is only used in two other
places in the New Testament okay word paradise owes to other places let's look
at them revelation 2 verse 7 revelation 2
verse seven whoever has ears let them hear what the Spirit says to the
churches to the one who is victorious I will give the right to eat from the tree
of life which is in the paradise of God Paradiso so this word a beautiful
idyllic garden is what people wouldn't have in their minds alright and this
connects I believe if you look at it it connects the Tree of Life
alright The Tree of Life it speaks also the Tree of Life it is in the midst of
the paradise of God ring any bells yeah it sure does I think this is a pretty
obvious connection to of the word paradise to Eden that we would see in
Genesis 3 verse 22 alright not the most positive verse in the Bible but it is
one that says you know I'm going to have to kick these people out of the Garden
of Eden lest they put their hand forth and take from the tree of life get them
out of here can't have that they're not ready they
can't handle it the tree of life Genesis 3 verse 22 if you want to look it up
okay now you know notice that Eden is an earthly place alright it's a wonderful
place earthly place that is beautiful perfect
unspoiled where God and man God and His creation God and his children can dwell
together let's look at the end of place 2nd Corinthians 12 verse 4 this is Paul
he's right here kind of trying to establish his his cred with the people
in current Corinth you know hey I've got stuff here I've
got some credibility he's talking about visions let's read those well just read
verse 4 he speaks there and says that I was caught up into paradise speaking of
a vision that he had here caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible things
things that no one is permitted to tell it's part of a larger section I'm not
going to read the whole thing but he is talking about his personal
experience with God and I said the phrase caught up is interesting it's
kind of like he's grabbed by the scruff of his neck and you know okay I want you
to understand something and he's given this vision and he says elsewhere you
know he doesn't know whether it was in his mind or whether he actually went to
an actual place and that plays into a different argument but the idea here is
the word paradise iou's is here Nepal has this vision and he uses the word
paradise yes he speaks of a vision so real that if
you look at verse 3 he couldn't really tell whether it was a vision or an
actual occurrence in space and time and presumably why would God give a person
of vision who wants to make a point obviously right I'll read a little bit
of what I think in here I think that the vision for Paul would have been very
important to him and given him a lot of the encouragement that he needed to go
through some of the stuff that he had to go through give him that drive
presumably the vision of paradise paradise Yost's paradise this vision was
of the same paradise that God referred or that God's Word referred to in
revelation 2 verse 7 all right Paul got this vision and it must have given him
tremendous encouragement and a tremendous sense of the reality of God's
promises and his plan for a future time and a place where God and man could
dwell peaceably together something to get him going keep him going to the last
bitter end a future time in a place where God and man could dwell peaceably
together this is exactly what the criminal on the cross will experience at
the second resurrection described in Revelation 20 verse 5 that's what he's
going to get he is going to get exactly what Jesus
told him he was going to get you will be with me in paradise this wonderful place
wonderful place cool let's read that in Revelation 20 verse 5
I mean by that we'll read about the time when that would come just a short verse
revelation 20 verse 5 the rest of the Dead did not come to life until the
thousand years were ended so as I said this is exactly what the criminal on the
cross will experience as part of the second resurrection which revelation 20
verse 5 although I think verse 3 actually helped out a little bit he will
be resurrected to an earth that has been under the direct rule of Christ for
1,000 years okay the earth will be restored to a
state of incredible beauty and I talked about that a little bit last time now
the rivers of living water and storing the beauty of the earth and restoring it
to that wonderful idyllic State the earth will be restored to a state of
incredible beauty under Christ of course the firstfruits have a role to play in
that as well the criminal on the cross isn't really part of the firstfruits
he's being promised something a little different from Jesus you will be with me
in paradise so if you think about it knowing the
truth of God from elsewhere in scriptures knowing the truth of God from
what else you've read by reading what the Church teaches about the
resurrections and the fate of the Dead putting it all together it's actually a
really interesting verse that points towards the second resurrection
and what it really and truly is this man will be resurrected not to a spirit body
he will experience that same sort of resurrection that you are able to
experience through baptism resurrected unto you know life that you may live
before God but the hope of moving on into the family of God in a spiritual
body a little bit of a parallel there it's a different subject I'll get into
that some other time but he is being told of this wonderful promise which
really ought to be put together with revelation with the other use of the
word paradise to say yeah that's what God's promise for the great mass of
humanity out there everybody gets that same promise he could have said that to
everybody not just this guy on the cross dying next to him he probably could have
said it to the other guy he was giving him a hard time you you'll be with me in
paradise everybody out on the street everybody
driving by on the highway the same promises out for them truly I tell you
today you will be with me in paradise there's a wonderful hope for everybody
on the planet everybody who lives it's a great verse just got to get that comma
out of there but it means so much it means so much and it's a wonderful
promise and even it is dying words if you think about it even in his dying
words Jesus had something very positive to say to this man that made sense with
the rest of the Bible and made sense with the plan of God and it all works
together it's a cool verse as long as you don't try and take it to mean or try
to take it to me and something that it does not so there's this wonderful hope
a time when they will be resurrected to is earth with an incredible beauty and
under Christ but not only physical beauty is paradise is not only physical
beauty it is a wonderful time of social justice
an end to oppression and war and righteous judgment will rain turned wise
aa9 if you would Isaiah 9 verses 1 through 7 a prophecy of the Messiah and
all the great stuff that comes with it nevertheless in verse 1 nevertheless
there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress in the past he
humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of not fly but in the future he will
honor galilee of the nation's by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan so this in
itself there is a prophecy fulfilled prophecy of where Jesus would come from
and where he would do his main work in Galilee then in verse 2 the people
walking in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of
deep darkness a light has dawned you have enlarged the nation and increased
their joy they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest as
warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder for as in the day of midians
defeat you have shattered the yoke that burdens them the bar across their
shoulders and the rod of the oppressor every Warriors boot used in battle and
every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning there will be fuel
for the fire for unto us a child is born that's Jesus Christ and a son is given
and the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called
wonderful counselor mighty God everlasting father Prince of Peace of
the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end and he will
reign on David's throne over his kingdom establishing and upholding it with
justice and righteousness from that time on and forever
the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this I don't know what really
the thief did what that poor guy did maybe he was a real bad dude I don't
know maybe he just stole a loaf of bread to feed his kid I don't know maybe he
was a rabble rouser and he had been part of an insurrection and I've heard all
different background analyses on who what where
when why this guy could have been but I think he had a my guess is he had a
pretty stinky life didn't go well he ended up on a cross they ended up being
executed beside Jesus Christ and a promise to him is a wonderful promise
you will be with me in paradise we're going to deal with this stuff you're
going to have a fair shake it's going to be there for you it will be paradise but
there's more than just really nice trees and stuff it's going to be so much more
that leads into a whole different subject about when is the day of
salvation and stuff and I'll leave that for a future date we've talked about it
in the past and I know we talk about it a lot but Jesus had some great words for
this guy he told that wretched desperate dying man you will be with me in
paradise OHS okay and Jesus was not telling him a little white lie to make
him feel better while he was going through this horrible
experience Jesus was not telling him something to just Pat him on his pointy
little head and make sure that he didn't have you know the last half hour of his
life wasn't totally miserable Jesus words were not a promise to him both
their lives moving from their physical bodies to a place in heaven it just
wasn't it doesn't make sense it doesn't fly with the scriptures it just isn't
what he was promising him - my eyes - your eyes - our eyes what he was
promising him is way better way better and a lot more real not a promise that
you're going to heaven and a promise like that is contradictory to the Word
of God okay Jesus was giving him the truth
the truth of the Resurrection not the resurrection of Christ you know and not
the resurrection of the holy people unto spiritual bodies but flesh-and-blood
resurrection plans for all of those who have
ever lived and died and it is a wonderful time that is great hope is the
hope of the world if you want to broaden it out it's not just your hope or my
hope it's the hope of the world if only we could convince the world that that's
their hope so we've got four points the preponderance of Scripture the silliness
of punctuation these little things like bad punctuation can lead to bad theology
but then also the fourth point which is the true paradise is what he was
promising him so it's a small verse and I realized that I've spent a lot of time
talking about one verse I know we've gone elsewhere in the scriptures but it
means an awful lot because it points to something very important a final time a
resurrection when that man on the cross and the rest of humanity will truly be
with Christ in paradise
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