There is NOTHING Like Being Remembered.
Text: Luke 23:32-33, 39-43
I grew up on a farm—and was the third of three boys and I quickly learned the importance of being at the meal table when food was served. Because if you didn’t get to the table when you were called, part of the lesson learned was momma turned loose those two other “ugly dogs” –much older and much hungrier ugly dogs, who didn’t mind helping themselves to YOUR portion of the food. So you learned that if you didn’t come and took your time—that’s all the excuse that was needed for those “ugly dogs” to burn through their first plate and engage in 2nd plate eating. So you learned that being at the table when you were called was important…to your SURVIVAL!
And my brothers could be mean too. Sometimes they’d tell jokes about me. “Hey Kent, do you know that when mom and dad brought home from the hospital the day you were born—that you were so ugly that momma said, “Look, what a treasure!” And dad said, “Yeah, let’s bury it!”
And I’d say something back to my ugly brothers like, “You just don’t know how FAT you are do yah—well the other day I saw it when you were walking down the sidewalk and the policeman blew his whistle at you and told you to BREAK IT UP!”
And they say something back like, “You are so ugly when YOU walk in public everyone points at you and shouts, “Terrorist attack!!”
And I, being the younger one would say something back like, “Yeah!? Well… same to ya!”
Anyways, my momma was a good momma and she’d save some back for you. Another thing momma always did was make your favorite meal when you came back home from college. She’d remember what your favorite meal was and if you were really blessed—your favorite dessert too! It feels good to be remembered doesn’t it.
I can remember being away from home for college and needing money and praying about that and wondering what I was going to do. I can’t tell you how many times I went to the mailbox and found a letter from home and wrapped in the note was a check—and no kidding, it was always the amount I needed…and sometimes more. There’s nothing like being remembered.
There’s nothing like NOT being remembered too. I was home from college on break and my mother and I went out to eat at Holiday Inn Restaurant in Napoleon, Ohio. When we were finished and I was paying I noticed the clerk had a been girl I went on a couple of dates with so I asked her how she was doing…and after a few interchanges and called her by name she gave me a strange look and asked, “Do I know you from somewhere?” And I said, “Yeah, we went out a couple of times.” She said, “Oh yeah! But I can’t remember your name.” Talk about eating a bite of humble pie.
Jesus knows it feels good to be remembered…and there’s just something RIGHT about it.
Perhaps that’s why He tells us at communion that as often as we eat the bread and drink the cup—to do it…in remembrance of Him. There’s nothing like being remembered.
And isn’t that our hope when we die and we come to those heavenly gates—don’t we want to be remembered? It reminds me of that children’s song: “Do Lord, Oh Do Lord, Oh DO remember me!”
“Jesus, remember me…” It is what the ONE criminal said on the cross. There was another criminal on the other side of Jesus who didn’t say those words, do you remember what HE said?
LUKE says one of the criminals HURLED INSULTS at Jesus and said, “Aren’t you the MESSIAH? Well? DO something! Get to SAVING! Now would be a pret-ty good time Jesus to do some SAVING! Save yourSELF! And US TOO while you’re at it! Ah-HAHAHAhahahahaaaaa!”
He probably wasn’t a very good joke teller. Most thieves aren’t very intelligent. Did you hear about the guy who ran away from the police after robbing a 7/11 one night. The police chased him and caught him rather easily. The robber asked them how they did it. It wasn’t very hard. The thief had tennis shoes with heels that lit up when you ran. The police just followed the lights.
People are just like that today about our Lord. With all of their questions and doubts it leads them to become moronic about their comments about Jesus. They accuse him of being a fraud, of being untrue, of being illegitimate and a fairytale. They ask his followers to PROVE that God exists and say that if God really cared HE wouldn’t have let the evil happen to them that did. Therefore NO God, NO Jesus and NO SALVATION—end of story.
But there was this other side of the cross where another thief hung. His comments were different. I don’t know why there was a change. Maybe he could see Jesus hanging and he didn’t look like a thief. Maybe he overheard what people were saying about him and knew himself what that felt like and those things weren’t true. MAYBE he saw Jesus’ mother, Mary and it made him think of his own mother. Or maybe he saw in John a friend like he used to have. Or maybe he heard the seven short statements from the Cross Jesus had made and it made him think… for the first time… about God in a real and personal way.
Here is what THAT criminal said:
1) “Don’t you fear God SINCE you are under the same sentence?
Wise Solomon said that the wisdom begins with the FEAR of the LORD. This man was given grace to have wisdom to see who he was UNDER God! And he was afraid for his life…because HIS life was about to end. He knew he would live for eternity. And he had fear…fear for himself. Fear for what he had done. Fear that he would give an account of all he had done on this earth and it made him fear God!
2) We are punished justly for we are getting what our deeds deserve BUT this man has done nothing wrong.”
He saw that what was happening wasn’t a mistake or some kind of false justice but that what he done DESERVED what he was getting! He wasn’t making excuses anymore!
Having placed himself UNDER GOD and then coming to a place of making no more excuses, he turned his voice to the other man on a cross, the one in the middle, and he spoke--
3) Then he said, “Jesus…
You can’t have the middle road—there is no staying in the middle –no riding on the fence in between two choices—the middle is taken up by one man who bridged the two sides together as no one else could and that job is taken because he is the only one who could it—JESUS bridged the gap between God and you! The middle is unavailable!
There is only one side or the other!
Peter said there is no other name given under heaven by which we can be saved! JESUS is the only name. Who else did that criminal have to call on that day? And who else are you going to call on?
What did the criminal ask for? What would you ask for?
4) remember me
There is NOTHING like being remembered! But Jesus only knew that criminal right then and right there! When did he want to be remembered?
5) when you come into your kingdom.”
Jesus was different. The criminal knew him to be a king…it was written above his head “Jesus Christ, King of the Jews”—that was Christ’s crime! But by grace and through FAITH this man saw Jesus to be the truth as to who he was and so the criminal spoke to him as A KING… HIS KING!
Remember ME… remember ME… remember ME when you come into your Kingdom!
Which criminal do you identify most with today? Which one do you want to identify with? The first one who remained a disbeliever and followed his destiny? Or the second criminal who had a change of heart and that changed his destiny too.
I was 8 years old and I was at a camp for 9-11 year olds…
I knelt at the altar and thought, “So this is what happens…”
But when Ken spoke with me afterwards, I felt the touch of grace and God’s love upon my heart in a way I never did before. My heart was tenderized towards God and He began to do a work in me! I was saved that day. I knew God and I knew God knew me. But it wasn’t until my Sophomore year in HS did I learn that God loved me too.
Jesus’ promise is still being spoken through the church to you today!
If you look at Jesus and see him plainly for the first time, open up your heart! If by faith you can respond to the grace He has given you to accept the salvation that he gives, then SAY along with the other criminal, “Jesus, remember me!”
If you can say that in true faith believing in the Christ who died for your sins on the cross so you didn’t have to—and if you would have been the only one alive, Jesus would still have died for you—then if by you faith you respond to Jesus, then the promise he spoke to the criminal is also spoke to you—“I tell you the truth, a day is coming when you will be with me!”
The way of grace is free. The way to salvation is open. The chance to change your destiny is here! And you don’t need to become something other than what you are—God wants you and He will take you JUST the way you are! He will do the cleaning up inside and out for you later. All that is needed is for you to respond to Him.
“Behold I stand at the door of your heart and I am knocking! If you hear my voice, and if you open the door, I will come in, and you and I will meet and you will never be alone again.”
Your heart can be healed…your heart can be at home…and your heart can be remembered if you respond to the Christ of the cross today.
Will you come? Will you stay with the thief who stayed where he was and died outside of Christ’s grace. Or will you turn to the Christ—if you hear Him speaking to you today, do not turn your heart away! Bring him your heart! And He will give you a new one!
Your response today is to come and kneel at this ALTAR. Let your first step OUT from where you sit be the first step in faith today in saying NO to the devil and to thief who was too stubborn to turn to Jesus, and let your second step out be YES to the Christ who saved you, who loves you, who gave his life for you so you could be saved and have eternal life today and live a life of peace and hope and joy and love and one day to be with the Christ who graced your heart FOREVER!
If you need salvation today—COME!
If you need to know you are loved today—COME!
If you need a Savior and to find forgiveness COME!
If you need Jesus in your heart—COME!
There’s nothing like being remembered! But if you never come, you won’t be remembered by the Christ. –COME, if you hear His voice today. Won’t you COME.
Illustration: The Bridge.
One more chance—is there anyone who needs to come today?
