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Inside-Out

Inside-Out Luke 23:32-43

 — Dale Beaver

Message Notes

Luke 23:32-43
32Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him. 33When they came to a place called The Skull, they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified—one on his right and one on his left. 34Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice. 35The crowd watched and the leaders scoffed. “He saved others,” they said, “let him save himself if he is really God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” 36The soldiers mocked him, too, by offering him a drink of sour wine. 37They called out to him, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38A sign was fastened above him with these words: “This is the King of the Jews.” 39One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!” 40But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? 41We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” 42Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” 43And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

 

His disposition toward Jesus had changed.

 

Matthew 27:44 
Even the revolutionaries who were crucified with him ridiculed him in the same way.

 

Luke 23:34
Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.

 

Luke 23:41
“…..this man hasn’t done anything wrong.”

 

He recognized his accountability to the Creator.

 

Luke 23:40
“Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die?”

 

He confessed his own sinfulness.

 

Luke 23:41
“We deserve to die for our crimes.”

 

He looked to Christ for grace and mercy.

 

Luke 23:42
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”

 

Sanctified: To be made more like Jesus whereby we reflect the image of God we were originally created to represent.

 

In the last moments of his life he demonstrated that he was a justified believer who was already in the  process  of  being  sanctified  and  prepared  to  see  the Lord in Paradise. He was not justified on the basis of his sanctification but on the basis of God’s free grace. But neither was he justified without being sanctified.  
-Sinclair Ferguson, “Devoted to God”

 

Wear It!

 

Ephesians 4:24
Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

 

Colossians 3:10-11
10Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. 11In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

 

Why be baptized?
It is a very demonstrative act of obedience.
It is an act of Identification with Christ.
It is an outward sign of an inward change.