Lesson Study

If You Are God...

Matthew 4:3 - 13

3 And the tempter came to Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones be turned into bread.”

6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written,

    ‘He shall give His angels charge concerning you,’ and
     ‘In their hands they shall lift you up,
    lest at any time you dash your foot against a stone.’[c]”

Matthew 27:38 - 43

38 Then two thieves were crucified with Him, one on the right and another on the left. 39 Those who passed by insulted Him, wagging their heads, 40 saying, “You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” 41 Likewise the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked Him, saying, 42 “He saved others. He cannot save Himself. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. 43 He trusted in God. Let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him. For He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ”

Luke 23:39 - 43

39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him,[a] saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Lessons Learned

Throughout history people have wanted to see a demonstration of God's power before becoming fully vested in serving Him. We want signs and wonders, but miss the greatest sign of all, God's love. The two thieves wanted to be free of their pain. One wanted the freedom to be released from the cross, probably so that he could go back to the life for which he was being punished. The other wanted to be released from the mindset that put him on the cross.

All of the people standing around the cross were in some type of pain. Some felt the social chains that enslaved them to the Romans. Some felt the marginalization of poverty, while others felt the sting of inequality. All of them wanted to be free from their chains, but they did not really want to be free from the belief systems or the habits that put them in the chains in the first place.

The penitent thief was different. He knew that he was on the cross because of a far deeper condition. Freedom from the cross would be convenient, but it would not be transforming. What would truly change him was found in the message for which Jesus was famous, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand". He wanted more than the life that resulted in his crucifixion. He wanted to be a citizen of the Kingdom.

THINK ABOUT IT

1. Which thief are you? (Do you want relief from pain or do you want a change of heart)

2. Though Jesus was badly beaten, weakened, and nailed to the cross, the penitent thief saw Him as a God with a kingdom. How does God show that He is God to you?

Chapter 10

Remember Me

The Ole' Rugged Cross

Deuteronomy 21:22 - 23

22"If a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance.

Galatians 3:13

Lessons Learned

Crucifixion is an ancient method of capital punishment in which the offender is nailed to a large wooden beam and left to hang for several days until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. This form of execution was designed to humiliate the condemned by making them as vulnerable as possible to the elements and to the crowds. Artists have traditionally depicted the condemned with a loin cloth or a covering of the genitals. However, the person being crucified was usually stripped naked and victims suffered a stick forced upwards through their groin. Cicero, the historian, described crucifixion as "a most cruel and disgusting punishment" and suggested that "the very mention of the cross should be far removed not only from a Roman citizen's body, but from his mind, his eyes, and his ears.

It is important to note who the condemned were at Calvary. Two of them were men who had been convicted of crimes against the state. These were crimes defined in a legal code and assigned punishments for those who committed them. The Bible calls them thieves. We know that one of these thieves seemed angry, especially at Jesus. He demanded that Jesus prove that He was the Messiah by saving himself and saving them. The other thief, often called the penitent thief, acknowledge where he was and why he was there and seemed to know what Jesus' purpose was.

Hanging between these two thieves was the Savior of the world. He was God. He was not on the cross because He broke a law. He was on the cross because He broke the system. He upset the social order by exposing the Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, Zealots, Essenes, and Romans for what they were, sin-sick people trying desperately to enslave other sin-sick people. He was about to upset the spiritual order by taking back from Satan what Satan had stolen from God, mankind.

THINK ABOUT IT

1. Why was such a horrible form of death, crucifixion, significant in this story?

2. How are these two thieves a metaphor for all humanity?

Introduction

This week, we celebrate the fact that the Creator of the universe gave up His eternal power and glory to become subject to persecution and rejection as a human being. We remember that the Source of all life somehow died so that all mankind would not have to suffer the finality of death, but would have access to eternal life. Our focus this week is not the Savior, but one of the saved. We focus on a powerful request from a man whose name has been lost to history, "Remember me when you come into your kingdom."

Paradise

Luke 23:43

43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Genesis 3:8-11

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool[a] of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”[b] 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

Isaiah 1:18

“Come now, let us reason[a] together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

Lessons Learned

The word "Paradise" is the English rendering of the Greek word paradeisos, which means “park” or “garden.” And the Persians had a similar word, pairidaeza, which meant literally “beyond the wall,” referring to a walled enclosure. There was a tradition among Persian kings, when they hosted an honored guest in their kingdom. They would take that guest to a special garden in their kingdom, called paradise. There, they would spend time, in this beautiful enclosure, discussing a variety of topics. What was special about this experience is that it was one-on-one, others were not allowed to participate.

When Jesus spoke of paradise, He was not referring to Heaven. He was referring to a place in Heaven. He was referring to at time in eternity when He and the penitent thief would spend time together engaged in conversation about any or all topics. Not only would this man be freed, transformed, and given entry into God's kingdom. At some point, he would have the opportunity to spend one-on-one time with the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and eternal God of the universe. He would sit with the same God to whom he made a simple plea in his dying moment, "Lord, please remember me..."

THINK ABOUT IT

1. Imagine you are that penitent thief. What is the cross you bear and from what do you desire to be released?

2. Imagine you are in paradise. What would you discuss with God?

Final Thought

Life is so fleeting. For many people the ultimate comfort in their death is that their life was meaningful enough for them to be remembered after they are gone. However, even memories fade with those who hold them. The request by the thief to be remembered is powerful because he is asking the one person who could never forget. God won't forget you. In fact, He came to this earth because He remembered you and wants to spend eternity with you.