Communion Message
(The malefactor's soul)
January 27-28, 2001
Pastor Donald Sheley

For I have received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as oft as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

The reason why each Lord's Day we celebrate the communion is the reason given to us by Paul. He said that in so doing we tell again the story of our salvation. Luke records for us a beautiful insight in the story of the cross. He writes in his gospel, Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, "If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us." But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, "Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong." Then he said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." And Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise." It's always fascinating to me to observe the reticent terms of detail that the gospel writers give to many of the incidence of Scriptures. We preachers take the story of the cross and we magnify it with all of its pain, and with all of its agony, and all the dimensions of its torture. Not so. The gospel writers they just simply say that He was crucified. There is a reason for that reticence, and I believe it's this, that it's because of the intense absorption by the writers of the gospel in terms of setting Jesus and His purpose and His work before our eyes without the distraction of the details.

Now when it comes to this malefactor, history and tradition have been busy trying to write a history of this man. They will give us his birth. They will try to tell us his name, and they will reiterate for us some of the passages of his past. One legend is that this malefactor, this criminal, hanging there beside Jesus had seen Him before. And the legend goes like this: that when Mary and Joseph were escaping from Bethlehem to go to Egypt in fear of Herod's warnings, there was this band of robbers headed by this criminal's father, and somehow his father was so deeply impressed with this Jesus they let the family go on. It's just a story. But imaginations like that I believe God's Word rebukes. Because, again, what the Scriptures want us to do is see what is the primary purpose of the moment, and here this malefactor is set before us just for a few hours in the light and in the love of the dying Lord. And it fastens our eyes not upon the story of his past, but upon the experience of his soul. The one absorbing thought in the mind of this malefactor, as he is moved by the Holy Spirit, I believe this scripture is to show us the soul passing from darkness into the marvelous light of Christ. A soul passing from death unto life -- a soul passing from the power of Satan into the kingdom of God.

Now there are some things we do know about this malefactor. He was part of a gang and there were many in the times of Christ who had one goal, and nothing was spared to achieve it, and that was to overthrow the Roman yoke, and they would go so far as to kill. And as the result, they would be caught, the Romans would hang them on crosses to pay for their crime. But that boy hanging there one day, that day, was somebody's son. And when I study this brief text in Luke, you watch something very beautifully happening. You watch progress that I believe takes place in the soul of every person who becomes awake to spiritual reality. The first thing in this young lad, and I'm sure he wasn't too old, the first thing you observed is there awakens within him a fear of God. Probably never before, but now in the presence of Jesus there's something awesome, something profound about that moment and he cannot tolerate his friend on the other side of the cross hanging there too taunting Jesus. And he said, "Don't you fear God?" It's probably the first time ever in his life any fear of anything ever entered his soul. But I believe that's the first step of progressing towards God as coming to that awareness of His almightiness, and His awesomeness, and His sacredness. It's the first step of progress towards God.

Secondly, there's the awakening of his conscience. He answers back, he says we're hanging here because we deserve it. We indeed receive our due reward for our deeds. Maybe the first time ever in his life became consciousness of right and wrong, and his conscience now being awake he's saying to his critical friend, listen, we're here because we deserve it. We're sinners. We're paying the penalty for our sins -- an awakening of his conscience. And then the progress of revelation continues, there is the awareness of the beauty of Jesus, of His holiness. Don't criticize Him. He's done nothing wrong. Isn't that true that when we open our hearts and an awesome fear of God begins to settle upon us, and there becomes that sensitivity to our wrongs, and our sin, and our moral failure before God. We come to a moment we stand in His presence, and I think that takes place here at this service. Maybe you're here today and you're searching for God. Somehow the songs and the worship has made you to realize the blessedness of a Christ who loved us so much that He would die for us to take our penalty to. And I love of response of Jesus. The man turns and said, Jesus, will You remember me when You arrive in Your kingdom? He recognizes the kingship of Jesus. And Jesus turns to him and says, today thou shalt be with Me in Paradise. Now that is a fascinating statement.

The word Paradise is a Persian word and it means a walled garden. It was the description of the garden of a king, and the highest honor that an ancient king could award a subject was to invite him to go for a walk in his private walled garden. And here's what Jesus was saying to that old criminal sinner, today we'll go for a walk in the gardens of heaven together. Ah! He knew because he understood, and in that moment a sinner becomes a saint soon to walk the gardens of heaven. Isn't that fascinating? Maybe you're here today; salvation does not take anything but an admittance of the loveliness of Christ, and the meaning of the cross, the fact that we're sinners and we need His forgiveness. When you kneel with us today you can just simply say, Jesus, remember me I'm here at church today and I'm looking for You. And He'll commence a work in your heart that shall end in life eternal. I say this in the context because frequently as a pastor I'm confronted with persons whose heart is filled with tension and fear, and the reason is because someone very dear to them (snaps fingers) has immediately without announcement passed on into the other life. And they often come to me and they say, Pastor, do you think, do you think that person went to heaven? Where's his soul now? And in the context of the story of the cross I answer back, leave it to God because spiritual transactions (snaps fingers) take place that quick. It's the turning of a heart to God.

I often tell the story of my father-in-law during the World War I preaching in Richmond CA, and the sailors were coming in and getting their ships in Alameda and heading for war. One Sunday morning right in the middle of service this sailorboy got up and started running down the aisle and said, God! Save me now and I don't mean maybe! (Congregation chuckles) Do you think God heard his prayer? He got on that ship a saint. Your life can be dramatically changed today -- just recognize the kingship of Christ, repent and become a follower of Jesus. Let's kneel together, shall we? Lord Jesus we, Sunday after Sunday, seek to try to understand the story of the cross better. Today we paused to observe the transformation in a heart of a criminal hanging on that cross next to You, dear Jesus, and in that moment of time he became a companion that would soon walk with You in the gardens of heaven. Thank you for Your grace and Your mercy; that when we call You do hear us and You do forgiveness, and there are some of us kneeling here today we came to church, we didn't know why but there was something inside of us that brought us here and we're looking for You God. We ask that You reveal Yourself to us today because we're open. We really would like to know You and know that everything is right between our hearts and You. We know that's possible because of what Jesus did. We can be forgiven of our sins and we ask You for forgiveness today, for cleansing. We want to become Your follower dear Jesus. Thank you for answering our prayer. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. And everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?