“The Man on the Middle Cross” – Grace That Needs No Resume

Have you ever read a scripture a hundred times…
 and then one day, it hits you like you’ve never seen it before?

That’s what happened to me with the thief on the cross.

I’ve read Luke 23 so many times.
 But I never really saw him…
until I heard Alistair Begg say:

“The man on the middle cross said I could come.”

No baptism.
 No church attendance.
 No Bible studies.
 No good works.
 No altar call.

Just grace.

And suddenly I realized…
 This story messes up everything we think about “earning” salvation.

So today we’re talking about the thief.
 The criminal.
 The undeserving.
 The last-minute believer.

And maybe…
 we’re talking about ourselves too.

Thank you,  Alistair Begg 

 (Luke 23:39–43)

“One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him:
 ‘Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’

But the other criminal rebuked him.
 ‘Don’t you fear God,’ he said,
 ‘since you are under the same sentence?
 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve.
 But this man has done nothing wrong.’

Then he said,
 ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’

Jesus answered him,
 ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.’”

The thief simply says:

“Jesus… remember me.”

That’s faith.

Not polished.
 Not religious.
 Not rehearsed.

Just raw desperation.

And Jesus doesn’t hesitate.

No interview.
 No checklist.
 No probation period.

“Today.
 With Me.
 In paradise.”

Immediate grace.

 WHAT THIS TEACHES US ABOUT SALVATION 

1️⃣ “I have to clean myself up first”

No.
 He came dirty.
 Bloody.
 Broken.

Grace met him right there.

2️⃣ “I’ve messed up too much”

He was literally a criminal.
 And Jesus still said:
 “Come.”

3️⃣ “I need more time”

He had minutes left.
 And it was enough.

Ephesians 2:8–9:

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—
 and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
 not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Father God,
Thank You for grace that doesn’t require a résumé.
 Thank You that we don’t have to earn Your love.
 Thank You that You meet us right where we are.
Lord, for the ones listening who feel unworthy,
 remind them today:
They don’t get in because of what they’ve done…
 They get in because of what You did.
Jesus, thank You for the cross.
 Thank You for forgiveness.
 Thank You for mercy that meets us in our last breath
 and in our first step.
Help us stop striving
 and start trusting.
We believe.
 Remember us.
In Jesus’ name,
 Amen.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Dear Lord Jesus, I come to you tonight with a heavy heart, with a lot going on. Uh, Lord Jesus. Um, I've been working on this this new episode for for several weeks now, and I still don't think it's ready, but you're telling me to go with it. So here we go. Um we're gonna do it. Uh, one of my goals this year is to listen more and obey instead of questioning so much. So here we go. Um I hope that as we go over Luke 23 and we go over the crucifixion of God and we see it in a different view in a way that just made me sit back and be like, wow, that the audience hears it, that they see it and that they understand it, Lord Jesus, and that they are as in awe of you as I am as as we go through this episode tonight, Lord Jesus. Please let them hear it in the way that you want them to hear it. Please let me deliver it in the way that you want me to deliver it, Lord Jesus. Please take over my words and let them flow from you, Lord Jesus. I praise you tonight and I thank you for this opportunity. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Welcome back uh to Unrelated Sisters Truth and Grace Conversations. Um, this is Shannon, and here we go again. Um, I know I didn't post on Friday, and and I apologize. I've just been, I've rewrote this thing four times. Um, and it all came from, you know, something that I seen on the internet, and when I see stuff on the internet and it and it grabs a hold of me like this does, you know, it makes me question, you know, is it God or is it something else? Um, but I truly believe that this is a message that the world needs to hear. Uh, the people that aren't followers of Jesus or believers of Jesus, um, I hope you listen to this episode tonight with an open, open mind and an open heart. Um, you know, I've read the scripture, Luke 23, a thousand times. You know, I we grew up listening to to the to the to the verses, you know, of God and the and the two thiefs on the cross and the story of how it goes, but I've never heard it this way. I've never thought about it this way. I've never done it's just it just blowed my mind. And um, there is a Scottish preacher. His name is, and I'm probably gonna butcher this, and I do apologize, Alistair Beggs, A-L-I-S-T-A-R Beggs. And um, and he does a this is three minutes, this is just a clip of one of his services, and it's about three minutes long, and I'm gonna play it for y'all tonight um as part of this episode because I truly believe the world should hear this. I think everybody that listens to me should download this and share it with everybody they know. Um, so without further ado, I'm gonna play this three minutes and then we're gonna talk about it for a minute.

SPEAKER_00: 3:34

Preaching of the cross.

SPEAKER_02: 3:36

Without preaching the cross to ourselves all day and every day, we will very, very quickly revert to faith plus works as the ground of our salvation, so that to go to the old uh Fort Lauderdale question, if you were to die tonight and you were giving entry into heaven, what would you say? If you answer that, and if I answer it in the first person, we've immediately gone wrong. Because I because I believe, because I have faith, because I am this, because I am continuing. Loved ones, the only proper answers in the third person, because e because e think about the thief on the cross. I I I can't wait to find that fellow one day to ask him. How did that be out for you? Because you are you are you are you are constantly dying out for your friend, you've never been in a Bible study, you've never got baptized, you never you didn't know a thing about George Burger. And and yet, and yet, you didn't do it. How did you get it? What do you mean you want to put it in? I don't know, like what are you doing here? What do you mean you don't know? No, I don't I don't know! You know what I'm saying? First of all, I are you are you are you are you clear on the doctor of justification by guys that I've never heard of it in my life? And what about let's just go to the doctor of scripture reaching? Guys just there. And if that's what we have frustrated, is that on what basis do you? And he's the man on the middle. And if I don't preach the gospel to myself all day and every day, then I will find myself beginning to trust myself, trust my experience, which is part of my fallenness as a man. If I take my eyes off the cross, I can then give only lip service to its efficacy while at the same time living as if my salvation depends upon.

SPEAKER_01: 6:23

Did y'all hear what he said? Did you did you did you anyone did y'all hear what he said? So, you know, the man on the middle cross gets to heaven, and I mean, the the thief gets to heaven, and they're like, well, you know, why do you get to come? You know, I mean, and of course, we don't know if this is how it really happened, but I could imagine it happening that way, right? I think about work and people coming up and, you know, at the service desk and demanding this or demanding that or not really knowing what they need and and and those kind of things, you know. But the his answer was, the man on the middle cross said I could. You know, the thief was never baptized, he never went to church, he never read a Bible, never did a Bible study. He was a thief, so he didn't do good works. He never been to an altar. He just had grace. You know, and we talk a lot about grace. You know, the story messed up everything that we think about when we think about earning salvation. You know, so today we're gonna talk about the thief, the criminal, the underserving, the last minute believer. And maybe we're gonna talk about ourselves. I don't I don't know. But let's read Luke 23 through 30 uh 23, 39 through 43. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him. Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us. But the other criminal rebuked him. Don't you fear God, he said? Since you are under the same sentence, we are punished justly, for we are getting what we, our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus answered, Truly, I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise. You know, two men with the same cross, two different hearts. What does that sound like? Sounds like the world today, doesn't it? You know, there were two criminals, both were very guilty, both were gonna die, both were suffering. But only one of us saw Jesus, only one of them seen the man hanging on the cross, seen the salvation that the man on the cross could give him. You know, one mocked him. If you're really God, save yourself, save us. The other said, we deserve this, and he does not. You know, to me that sounds like repentance. To me, that sounds like somebody realizing that their only hope is Jesus Christ. Their only hope is the savior hanging on the cross in the middle of them, you know, and um it sounds like to me that's that's what he did. He repented, you know, and it doesn't look like sitting in a church on a bench. It doesn't look like running to the altar and praying for forgiveness. And you know, not everybody's salvation looks like that. You know, some are in a car, some are on the side of the road, some is in their bathtub, in their bedroom, some is in a homeless shelter, some is in church, some is not. You know, you can't excuse, there's not an excuse, there's no excuses, not excuses, there's no blaming, there's no minimizing, just truth. I'm guilty. That's all that's all the the you know the thief said. But the man on the middle cross is innocent. And then he does something shocking. He doesn't ask for a miracle, he doesn't ask to come down, he doesn't ask to bargain, he simply says, Jesus, remember me. And that's faith. That is raw, true faith. It's not polished, it's not religious, it wasn't rehearsed, it was just raw desperation. And with the way the world is today, we as Christians should be teaching this raw desperation to the world. We should be talking about Jesus in every conversation that we had. You know, Jesus doesn't hesitate, he doesn't wait. He has the perfect timing for you, for me, and for everyone around us. You know, um being a Christian, being saved, having salvation, being a member, you know, having the Holy Spirit, there's no interview, there's no checklist, there's not a probation period, you know, there's not there's not a, well, you know, maybe it's not like you're your interview, it's not like you're waiting for a job, right? There's no drug test, there's no, you know, there's no second interview. Um He just says, Today you will be with me in paradise. Jesus, just give him immediate grace. Yet we want to question our grace. We want to question God when he tells us to give grace. Um two days ago at work, um, one of my coaches came up to me and he said, Hey, he said, Have you seen the boy walking around with the blanket around him? And I said, Yeah, shouldn't he be in school? My coach goes, I don't know, but he's been here for a couple days. Um, and I think he's stealing. Uh, I'm gonna ask him to leave. I was like, okay, you know, because you know, we can't have that in the store. We can't be having that, you know, in our business and stuff like that. And when as my coach walked away, I felt I felt like something grabbed my shirt and was like tugging me to go to. So I walked in front of my coach and I walked up to the to the young boy and and um, you know, and I introduced myself and asked him what his name was, and you know, he started explaining what was going on. And um, he was homeless. Um, he had uh lost his job and he was living in his truck. Um, but he had had an interview with Dollar General and he was waiting on a phone call. He was hoping to get that job, you know, and and you know, he's he knew he was about to get kicked out. Nobody allows loitering, right? And uh I looked at him and I said, Are you hungry? And he kind of giggled and he's like, I'm always hungry. I'm an 18-year-old boy. So come on, let's go, let's let's go down here and get you something to eat. So I took him down there and I bought him a plate of food. And, you know, I was like, Look, I can't let you hang out in here. I was like, but let me at least feed you. And he's like, Thank you, you know, thank you, thank you. And um, so I I got his plate of food and God's like, You're not done. Like, what are you doing? Like, make a phone call and um help this boy find somewhere to stay. And I'm like, Okay. So I make a phone call and and to one of the nonprofits that we work with closely, and he's like, he's like, Yeah, I'll give you my number. We do work with an organization, we'll we're gonna help him. We can help him, you know. So I did. Um, I hadn't seen or heard from him, right? He's not in the parking lot, so he's at least not living in the parking lot. Um, but I pray that the grace that I showed him, you know, and he the first thing he asked, he says, What do you want in return? And I said, Someday when you're on your ch standing on your own two feet, I want you to pay it forward to somebody. And he's like, Yes, ma'am. Um, he was very polite and very nice, but it was the immediate grace that I showed him. And, you know, I didn't everybody in the store was, you know, of course you can't there's no secrets in our store. Uh, you know, everybody started coming up and all I said was, yeah, you know, he just needed a little help. He needed a little grace. And and and it and it was amazing, right? Um, I'd been praying for about a week now for, you know, uh let me let me bless somebody, the Lord Jesus, let me be your hands and feet, let me show your love to somebody. Uh, you know, let me this, let me that. When I should have been saying, Lord Jesus, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? What would you have me do? Not Lord, let me. Uh, so as we as we move on, um I'll um Alistair said, you know, hey, I can't wait to meet this guy in heaven. You know, he he imagines angels stopping him and asking him what he's doing here, you know, and the thief doesn't know, and and he's so excited, right? And you know what? We should be excited. We should be excited to meet this guy too. Like, how did this work for you? Like, you went from here to here next to Jesus at his feet. You you have you know, you you had no idea what they were talking about. You had never been baptized, you never was a member of a church, you know. You you came, and the reason you got in is because the man on the middle cross said you could. You know, I don't it just blows my mind, you know. Um there was no excuses. I tried my best. I'm a good person. I went to church. No, Jesus said I could come. I should give you cold chills. It gives me cold chills every time I listen to Alistair speak about it. Because if we're honest, some of us are still standing at the gate holding our spirit spiritual resume, you know, and and there many days, many days, I feel as though I fell. I fell as a human, I fell as a mother, I fell as a wife. You know, I fell as a Christian, I fell, you know, I fell. I feel like it. But you know what? Jesus Jesus said I could come.

SPEAKER_00: 17:39

Jesus said I could come.

SPEAKER_01: 17:45

You know, Jesus tells us to put it down and don't get it, get in because of what we did, but you get in because of what he did. Not because of what we did, but because of what he did. This thief destroys three lies in this um when you break it down like this, you know, and often we read stories in the Bible or we read verses in the Bible, and we don't you know, it's made me sit and wonder how many more voice how many more is there, right? I mean, um there's three verses that talk about Mary. Three. That's it. Three verses that talk about Mary. It doesn't break into or go into the fact that she was a teenager, unwed. Um you know, it doesn't go into all of that. But what does this teach us about salvation? I have to clean myself up first. Isn't that what a lot of people think? Isn't that kind of what the church the church teaches us? Is you know, um, you know, fix yourself before you come. Don't ain't that why when you're broken and you go to church, you feel judged, you feel looked at and stared at. But no. No. The thief hanging next to Jesus, he was dirty and he was bloody and he was broken. But Grace met him right where he was at. I've messed up too much. He was literally a criminal, right? We don't know what all he did. It doesn't go into, you know, it's not like it gives us his background tug. But Jesus still said he could come. I need more time. He had minutes left, and it was enough time. You know, in Ephesians 2 8 through 9. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourself. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. No one brags in heaven because nobody earned it. We all walk in something and we all walk in saying the same thing. The man on the middle cross said I could come. For the ones who feel unworthy, and like I just said, sometimes that's me. If you feel too broken, too messy or too late, too inconsistent or too ashamed, Josh, Jesus is still saying, come. Not when you get better, not when you stop struggling, and not when you prove it. Right now. He wants you to come right now. It doesn't matter how many times you have slipped. It doesn't matter how many times you've turned around. It doesn't matter how many times you've made the wrong choice. He wants you to come right now. The thief didn't promise change. He didn't vow to serve. He couldn't even do anything. All he had was faith. And that was enough. Have faith. Have faith in your God. God is so much bigger than anything we can throw at him. You know, I don't know if this is what I was supposed to do tonight. I really don't. But I am at peace with it. And that's all that matters. You know, if you've if you've been trying to earn God, trying to earn his love, trying to earn his grace, stop. If you've been carrying guilt, no matter what the guilt's for, drop it. Just get rid of it. If you've been afraid, you're not good enough. You're as good as he needs you to be. Because grace is for people who know they're not. Grace is for people who know they're not good enough. Grace is for people who are trying to be better. The cross reminds us Jesus didn't die for the worthy. He died for the willing, willing to believe, willing to surrender, willing to say, Remember me. And he always does. Father God, thank you for grace that doesn't require resume. Thank you that we don't have to earn your love. Thank you that you've meet us right where we are. Lord, for the ones listening who feel unworthy, remind them today they don't get in because of what they've done. They get in because of what you did. Thank you, Jesus, for the cross. Thank you for your forgiveness, for your mercy that meets us in our last breaths and in our first steps. Help us stop striving for perfection and start trusting in you. We believe in your grace, we believe in your faith. Remember us because the man on the middle cross said I could come. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Friends, when you get to heaven and someone asks, How did you make it? you already know the answer. The man on the middle cross said I could come.