Mock or Repent, What is your reaction to Jesus Today?
Minister Cedric A. Portis
4/20/03
Luke 23:35 And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.
Luke 23:36 And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar,
Luke 23:37 And saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself.
Luke 23:38 And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Luke 23:39 And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.
Luke 23:40 But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
Luke 23:41 And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.
Luke 23:42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy
kingdom.
Luke 23:43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with
me in paradise.
The way I see it is that you have two choices when you come into the knowledge of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. You will either mock or repent. Because this is not just regular knowledge, we are talking about eternal salvation. The people and religionists mocked His claim to be the Savior and Messiah.
Both the people and the religionists should have been above this kind of behavior. In addition, they had every opportunity to believe, for Jesus had not hid Himself or His message of salvation, yet there were those who did not believe, therefore mocked Jesus.
A side note here, “But being part of a sinful riotous crowd and others who just disbelieved, they led each other to do shameful things.” Watch the company you keep. Don’t be influenced by the crowd.
Leaders both civil and religious, are still human or in the flesh. It is not the position or profession that makes a man, but the heart. A heart of unbelief and hostility, a heart willing to become a participant with the sinful crowd, will stoop to do shameful things, no matter the position or profession.
Which lead is to the a question this morning, “Why would one mock the claim of Jesus?” Well one reason is that mocking keeps you in your pseudo state of comfort, unwilling to change.
By this time in our account, everyone knew who Jesus was, and who He claimed to be. They heard of the miracle feedings, and the miraculous healings. They were aware of the crowds he would draw where ever He went. They knew first hand or had heard of His claims to be the Messiah. And with that knowledge each person had a choice to make; either accept Him or reject Him.
Is that not true for today? Everyone here today is here because of some knowledge of Jesus Christ. This knowledge has come from someone introducing you to Christ, a friend, family member or total stranger. However you got here, the fact of the matter is that you are here and a choice will be made by you in response to what you hear today about Jesus Christ.
You will either continue in your relationship with him, you will repent of your sin and seek a relationship with Christ, or you will reject him by mocking.
And by rejecting Him, you have to mock Him because by mocking Him, what you are saying to yourself is, “Jesus and what He represents and claims to be, is beneath me, therefore I don’t have to change, this knowledge has no bearing on my life, I can just go on like I have never come into this knowledge.
Mocking Jesus keeps you from having to look into the light.
John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Let me make it plain to you, when you look at Jesus, I mean really look at Him with your heart, it will be the clearest mirror you will ever see.
You will see the real you, the real you that makeup can’t hide, that a new dress/suit can’t cover the real you, that a wig or weave can’t disguise what you see in that mirror called Jesus.
By seriously looking at Jesus, you will see yourself as a sinner. You will see the ugliness of sin that has been destroying your life and robbing you of joy and peace and keeping you from a saving covenant relationship with Jesus.
Many can’t stand the sight and turn away saying, “That can’t be me,” “I refuse to believe that is me.” And to make your refusal, your disbelieve valid, the only thing you can do is to mock the mirror become a mocker of Jesus. You convince yourself that you are above Jesus, you convince yourself that it’s not you in the mirror. You start to deceive yourself thinking that Christ is not the only way to heaven.
Let me tell you that is an eternal mistake, just like the religionist, and the crowd of mockers and one of the criminals on the cross made back then, some of us are making right now.
You have convinced yourself that you can be good enough to make it to heaven without accepting Christ as Lord and Savior.
So here we are in our passages of scripture today. Jesus is on the cross, he is being mocked by the religionist, the crowd, they have even placed a mocking inscription above Jesus’ head that reads “This is the King of the Jews.”
We have in verse 39, the Bible says two malefactors or criminals were being crucified with Jesus and one of the criminals also began to mock Jesus.
And for a moment I want to call your attention to something the Lord revealed to me while I was studying this passage. The last part of verse 39 says, if thou be Christ save thyself and us.
When I looked at this verse I though, something seemed strange about what this person just said. Then it hit me, even while mocking Christ, from his very own words the criminal himself is saying apart from Christ he can’t be saved, he is also saying that he can’t save himself.
If you don’t get anything else from this message hear this, apart from Christ, you can’t be saved, there is no heaven for you and the fact that you can’t save yourself.
But today if you are like the other criminal and you are tired of mocking, you see that there is no peace and no joy in mocking it is time to follow his lead.
What did he do, first he looked at his situation as hopeless. I don’t care what some of the mockers of our day tell you, if you are without Christ, you are without hope. You may be thinking that the situation you are living right now is not hopeless; you are not facing death like the criminal on the cross, but let me tell you, the Bible makes many promises, but the one promise not made in the Bible is time.
No man knows when he will die, man only knows that he will die. With that knowledge if you have not accepted Christ as Lord and Savior, you may as well be nailed to a cross today, because if you die unsaved by the blood of Christ, hell is your destination.
In verse 41, The criminal then admitted that he was a sinner, “And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds” He acknowledged the fact that what he did was wrong and that it deserved the punishment he was receiving.
Admitting one’s faults is very difficult for some, but there is no salvation without the recognition of sin. The criminal looked at Jesus and declared Jesus righteous (vs. 41 this man has done nothing amiss). And looking at Jesus he saw himself as a sinner, he looked at the light of the world and did not turn away.
He looked at the mirror called Jesus, saw his true self and he did what each and ever person must do if they have a desire to be with the Lord in Heaven, he cried Lord Save Me.
The text reads Lord remember me, but the man was asking Jesus with his heart to save him. It is important that we look at the request of the man. He said Lord.
Why is that so significant? Well by calling Jesus Lord, this means that he has humbled himself and given all authority for and of his life over to Jesus.
A Lord is responsible for the protection and provision of everyone under his lordship. And when you are under someone’s lordship, you work for and life in such a manner that is pleasing to your lord. Those of us who has called Jesus Lord, now work for and continuously strive to live in such a manner to please our Lord Jesus. And what does our Lord do for us:
He comforts - John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
He protects - Matthew 28:18 …All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Matthew 28:20 ….I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Hebrews 13:5…. I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
He provides – Malachi 3:10 will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
John 14:2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
I could go on and on about the greatness of my Lord Jesus, but let me just tell you this, you will not regret, be disappointed or be in need by declaring Jesus as Lord of your life.
Notice also that he did not ask Jesus to get him down from the cross, he understood what he was guilty of, and that it deserved physical death, but the request of the man was not for Jesus to save his flesh, but to save his soul.
What we all have to come to the point where we recognize that it is because of sin, this flesh deserves and will see death, but if your desire today is heaven, if your desire is to be with the Lord in paradise, if you are tired of running from the Lord, if you are through mocking the Lord, your statement today must be Lord save me,
I am a sinner, Lord save me,
I know I can’t get to heaven without you Jesus, Lord save me
I tired of living without hope, Lord save me
This addiction is killing me, Lord save me
I tired of living in the darkness and running from the light, Lord save me
Let me tell you, that I am not trying to hype you up this morning paint a false picture for you. But as real as I can be, If you come to Christ today it will be the biggest decision of your life. Living a life as a saved sanctified child of God is fulfilling, but as a child of God one of the things you will learn is to live on the promises of God.
For a moment lets look at just a couple of promises that Children of God live on.
John 15:20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
You will be persecuted, but you will be counted righteous being persecuted for righteousness.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Children of God have the hope of everlasting life. We know that our final destination is heaven and that give me peace.
(Phil. 2:8-11). “He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”
The day will come when the mocking will cease, when Christ returns for His Church, don’t be left mocking because hell will be your final destination.
Minister Cedric A. Portis
God First Church
cedque8@cs.com
