Evening Service, 08 Mar 2009
What’s next? We’ve all thought about that question at some time. Maybe in reading a novel with its twists and turns of action or unfolding mysteries, and you think what will the author put them through next. Many have been the times when we have completed a task, and then we look around and ask ourselves ‘What’s next?’
It may be a rest; it may be a new task. But there always seems to be something next. Life is not static. It is always moving on. Life is like a maze with many corners – corners which sometimes we face with excitement or with uncertainty and even at times fear. In going around life’s corners we find it very helpful to have others who can see ahead for us, and who lovingly guide and where necessary warn us of approaching dangers so that we might avoid or survive them somewhat unscathed. We would be fools not to listen to godly wisdom.
This is no clearer than when we face that last corner of life: the one that is marked death. When we die, then what? What’s next?
Here hangs a man on the cross – no I don’t mean Jesus but one beside him – who realises that he is facing that last corner. But here is one who also realises that here in Jesus he has finally found someone, the only one, who can guide him safely around that corner. So he cries out to Jesus “Remember me…”; to which Jesus replies in the midst of His own suffering, “Truly I say unto you, Today you shall be with Me in paradise.”
The first word of Christ from the cross gives us comfort in the face of our sin; the second brings comfort in the face of our sin’s ultimate consequence: death. “The wages of sin is death” we read in Rom 3:23. If ever you have stood looking into a grave after the coffin has been lowered you know how sobering this reality is. We are in moments like that confronted with our mortality, but also with questions: What next? Not just will there be more for me, but what will that more be like for me? Have I any hope? Or more importantly, do I have any legitimate ground for the hope that I have? I s there any comfort offered? Surely what makes this word so special to us is that it brings comfort in the face of our death.
Here is a man facing certain death, but he faces it with faith in Jesus Christ as the one who can make peace with God for him, a faith that Christ responds to with blessing, assuring him of what that death will immediately mean for Him, removing from him all grounds of fear and replacing it with every ground of expectation of joy. Jesus speaks of:
1. Heaven’s Elegance
You walk into expensive ‘Show Homes’ and you are taken back by the building itself, but also by the decor, by the over-all image of sumptuous elegance. If you remember back to John 14 you will recall that this was the imagery that Jesus used to help His disciples understand what awaited them having just sat as they had in a large upper room which itself would have spoken of some grandeur.
But that is not the word picture that Jesus uses here for this man to encourage and comfort him. He uses instead an image in the strongest of contrast to their present situation. The picture around them was of a marred and destroyed garden, where the dominant trees were instruments of death, and the inhabitants were given over to unbridled sinful anger. The picture assaulting their senses was of curse and judgement. So Jesus uses the biblical picture of the Garden of Eden, called “paradise” in the official Jewish Greek translation, which word comes from the Persian for a garden or royal park.
It is used in the NT to refer to heaven: “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” (2 Cor 12:2-4); “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” (Rev 2:7) A parallel passage would be Luke 16:22-23 where Jesus uses the picture of Abraham’s bosom: “So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.”
Jesus is using a deliberate Biblical image of a perfect place where God’s people made perfect live perfect lives – lives without sin or any of its consequences being felt within or in their environment, and free from its intrusion. Its inhabitants will be free from the struggle with internal sinful passions and struggles as well as from the impact of such in those with them, and they will be free from the seductions and temptations of satan from without. Free from the hazards and frustrations of living in an imperfect world – eg the extremes in weather, earthquakes, sickness, and of course death. Free from the possibility that it will ever change. Free from the presence of sin.
Jesus is clearly teaching the survival of the soul after the death of the body, that at the moment of death both the souls of He and this man would enter heaven (ie, even before His resurrection and ascension). In the clearest of terms Jesus asserts that there is a life beyond this life that surpasses even the very best in this life. ‘None who enter here will be disappointed’ is the clear claim of the Bible.
But it is also one in which there will be a continued existence of personhood for we note that Jesus uses the personal pronouns “you… Me”. The use of personal pronouns indicates consistency with present personhood; that is, we will be recognised as individuals even though it is merely our soul without our bodies for a season, until the resurrection in the final day. Though there is a change of place and circumstances as we lay aside our mortal bodies the person continues after death. The implication also being that it will not merely be some ethereal existence, there will be experiential reality. We will know and be known, we will be in fellowship (“with”) – to be with Jesus implies engaging with Jesus. Heaven is a place of engagement, of activity, of enjoyment as well as of peace. It is not a dream state. The soul may be the immaterial part of our being but it is not insubstantial.
The French humanist Rabelais with his last words said, ‘I am going to the great perhaps’. Jesus wanted to make it clear to this man that it was no great perhaps but a certain paradise that he like Jesus was going to.
2. Heaven’s Embrace
But even more than that Jesus goes onto assure this man that the moment he crosses over the divide into paradise then he will find himself still with Jesus, that Jesus will meet him there and that they will continue to have real fellowship together: “with Me in paradise”
It has been pointed out that when a Persian king wished to give one of his subjects a special honour, he made him a ‘companion of the garden’, chosen to walk in the king’s garden as a special friend and companion of the king. Thus, Jesus promised the thief that he would be a companion of the King of kings, walking with Christ in the garden of heaven.
Here is the distinctive and prime characteristic of life beyond this life in heaven: it is to be with Christ in all that that word “with” conveys. The man had only asked to be remembered, but Jesus responds saying he will be embraced. He doesn’t pray ‘Lord, prefer me!’, but the Lord assures him of close companionship which speaks of preferment.
By this Jesus makes it clear that life in heaven is not a meaningless existence, but a meaningful one of the highest order. It is Christ who makes it heaven. The happiness and purpose of heaven is to see Christ, to sit with Him, and to share in His glory (John 17:24). Heaven is not heaven without Christ. And amazingly, Christ feels the same way in that He longs to have His redeemed gathered around Him.
Think of it, you are to dwell with Christ forever. You are to be with Him in His glory and perfection, in His presence and fellowship. Where He is, and as He is, you shall be.
The last words of Robert Bruce, King of Scotland (1274-1329), were ‘Now, God be with you, my dear children. I have breakfasted with you and shall sup with my Lord Jesus Christ.’
3. Heaven’s Entrance
It is immediate – “Today…” This is where the stress of Jesus words lay, on the speed of this change. “Today.” You shall not lie in purgatory for ages, nor sleep in limbo for so many years; but you shall be ready for bliss at once, and at once you shall enjoy it. As Paul put it: “absent from the body… present with the Lord” (Phil 1:23). It is that simple … and yet that amazing!
The years leading up to World War II were very dangerous for missionaries to China. One of the missionaries, Jack Vinson, was seized by bandits and carried off in the night. He was eventually killed. A witness later described how earlier she had seen Vinson threatened by a bandit with a revolver who said, ‘I’m going to kill you! Aren’t you afraid?’ ‘No, I am not afraid,’ Vinson had replied. ‘If you kill me, I will go right to God.’
Such a portion will faith bring to each of us, not today it may be, but one day. If we believe in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, we shall be with Him in the delights and happiness of the paradise of everlasting glory.
It is secured – “Truly I say unto you…” This is a promise he could draw on at Heaven’s bank! It is a cheque or promissory note signed by Christ as King. Jesus speaks as the One who has the right and authority to make this promise – “I say”. The Lord’s word is power. What He says none can dispute. Though he must die, yet he would live and find himself in paradise with his Lord.
The lesson then is not merely that Christ can save in the last moment of our life if we turn to Christ in repentance and faith as did this man, though that is true, but that when Jesus saves us His salvation is an immediate and complete act, so that, come life or come death, we are perfectly saved. If you were to die in that moment or any other following you will be brought to glory. Nothing else needs to be done – by you, by others, or even by Christ. That is not to say that he was perfect in thought or deed, but it does mean that nothing he could do would alter or add to the fact that he was most certainly saved. There is no period of probation to go through, there are no attainments to be sought after, and no protracted efforts to be made in order to be saved.
Yet it is limited – notice this word was only given to this man. They were not given to the other. From this we learn that though this word was not intended for this man alone, it is not intended indiscriminately for all people.
We know it was not meant for this man alone for it was given publicly, and recorded in public Scripture. That it was public was meant to encourage all who come to Jesus as this man did. Jesus didn’t whisper quietly to him, “You are the only one I am going to treat in this way, but don’t tell others lest I get harassed”. No, our Lord spoke openly for all to hear – and we are meant to hear it also.
But that it was also personal to this man and not to the other warns us not to presume by thinking that all will automatically enter heaven once they leave this earthly life, no matter what that life was like or what you thought of Jesus Christ or God the Father. That is a presumptuous foolishness. What we need to do is to look at where Jesus was looking when He said it, and ask whether by God’s grace that is the position we are in, where this man came to. He wasn’t there initially but by grace he was brought there, and it was only when he was here that Jesus spoke to him this way. He spoke to a man who had repudiated sin and confessed guilt and cried out for mercy saying “remember me”. It was not death that transformed him, but grace that transformed death to him – as it does to all who come in repentance and faith to Christ before death. And though we cry for but a scrap of mercy knowing we deserve none we will find that the Lord in grace always responds to such a cry with a full and free salvation. If you would know Christ’s promise as personal to you then you must cry out for mercy as this man did. It is limited only to these.
A final caution: Satan may be tempting some today saying, ‘You see you can be saved at the very last. Put off repentance and faith; you may be forgiven on your death-bed.’ That is to turn the mercy of God into an argument for continuing in sin. Do not be ungrateful because God is kind! Do not provoke the Lord because He is patient! Yes the Lord will accept all who repent; but how do you know that you will repent? The other thief was lost – as someone said, ‘One is saved, and we may not despair; the other is lost, and we may not presume’.
A final encouragement: Let us also learn that it is not for all to enter heaven soon after coming to faith in Jesus. The reality is that when the Lord pardons most of His people He does not give us a place in Paradise that same day. That He didn’t surely indicate that there is something for us to do on earth. Are you doing it? Are you living for Jesus? Let us justify our Lord in keeping us waiting here by serving him to the utmost of our power!
Free from the pollution of sin (“Father, forgive them”); and now freedom from the presence of sin (“with Me in Paradise”). What glorious words are these from the cross!