Good morning. I invite you to
turn with me this morning to Luke chapter 23. Luke chapter
23. Luke 23, and I'd like to start
reading in verse 32. Luke 23, 32. And there were also two other
malefactors led with him, that is Christ, to be put to death. And when they were come to the
place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him and
the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left.
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do. And they parted his raiment and
castlets, and the people stood beholding. And the rulers also
with them derided him, saying, he saved others. Let him save
himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God. And the soldiers
also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar. and
saying, if thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. And a
superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek
and Latin and Hebrew. This is the king of the Jews. Now, for our message, I would
like to consider what our Lord prayed there in verse 34. He
said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Now, notice the setting. We're
at Calvary. Golgotha means the place of a
skull. Death was about to take place
for three men, and that man in the middle was God Almighty. God in human flesh was hanging
on a cross between two convicted criminals. Does that not just
astonish you? Now, the fact that our Lord was
there, that's the sovereign God of the universe, of heaven and
earth, on a cross. The fact that he hung there was
no accident. It was not a mass tragedy, a
tragedy of mass proportions that could have and should have been
avoided. Someone might think that, but
that's not what it was at all. You see, it had to happen. He
was there on purpose. This was the purpose of God coming
to pass. All the scriptures, all the Old
Testament scriptures Everything that had ever happened in this
world up until this point was leading to this moment. All the
scriptures pointed to that moment. You think of the ark, Noah's
ark, God's ark. When man had sinned so greatly
against God, God said, I'm going to wipe all flesh off the face
of the earth. And he did. It said all flesh died. And yet
eight souls remained alive. How? God put them in the ark.
He shut the door to that ark. He saved them in the ark. That
ark endured the wrath of God for them. And that ark is Christ. That brazen serpent, when the
children of Israel, when they were dying, they'd been bitten
and they were dying. What was the hope that God gave
them? He had Moses lift up a brazen serpent on a pole. Everyone that
beheld that serpent on a pole lived. We're told in John chapter
3 that that was Christ. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
I thought of Joseph. What a great picture of our Lord
Joseph was. The beloved son of his father. And yet what did
his brothers do? Well, first they hated him. Ripped his clothes up and covered
him in blood and made their father think he died. They left him
in a pit to die. He thirsted just like our Lord
thirsted. Picturing him. And then what happened? His brothers,
you know the story, don't you? Who'd they end up bowing to?
They bowed to him. Joseph was a picture of our Lord
Jesus Christ. There are many more stories.
I thought of the fiery furnace. Those men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
thrown in that furnace, surely to die, right? Well, who appeared
there walking in the midst of that furnace with them? Who endured
God's wrath for them? None other than our Lord Jesus
Christ. It all pointed to the cross. Everything that had ever
happened was leading to this moment. And then we read some
scriptures in the New Testament. pronouncing our Lord's birth.
You're going to have a son. Thou shalt call his name Jesus.
Why? For he shall save his people from their sins. Now how's he
going to save them? How's he going to save them?
Look right here at verse 35. The people stood beholden. The
rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others.
let him save himself if he be Christ the chosen of God. And
the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, offering him vinegar,
and saying, if thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. How's
he gonna save them? I'll tell you how. By not saving
himself. That's how he saved others. He didn't come to save himself. He was there on purpose. He didn't
come to live, he came to die. He lived for us and he died for
us. 1 Timothy 1.15, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to make it possible for everyone to be saved. Is that
what it says? No, it says, he came into the world to save sinners.
And Paul said, of whom I'm chief. You see right here, these men
that were mocking him, they said, well, if you're the Christ, come
down. Well, that'll prove you to be who men say you are, who
you say you are, if you come down. Coming down would not have
proved he's the Christ, but dying did. Because that's what the
scripture said he was gonna do. The fact that he stayed on the
cross, the fact that he bowed his head and gave up the ghost,
that proved he's the Christ. In order for his chosen people,
in order for those sinners whom he purposed to save, in order
for them to be saved, He must die in their place. Holy blood
must be shed for them. Without the shedding of blood,
there's not going to be remission. There's not going to be forgiveness
of sin. God's too holy. Too holy to behold
sin. He's not going to let it slide.
He will by no means clear the guilty. The soul that sinneth
it shall die. The wages of sin is death. My
brother just read for us Isaiah 53. Familiar passage. That passage is clearly about
this, is it not? Did you not picture our Lord
hanging there in your mind as he read that? If there's a message
of that chapter, it's this, substitution and satisfaction. That's what
happened on the cross of Calvary. The Lord our God hung there as
our substitute, the sinner's substitute, and he made eternal
satisfaction to holy God for us on our behalf. In verse 34
again, then said Jesus, Father, forgive them. For they know not
what they do. Why'd our Lord pray this? Why
did he pray this? I'll tell you why he didn't pray
this. He did not pray this in hopes that they would stop crucifying
him. It's obvious, isn't it? He hung
there on purpose. He did not pray this in order
to offer forgiveness and salvation to all men because, well, God
is love. He loves everyone. No? Now, you recall what our Lord
prayed in John 17, verse 9. Speaking of his people, he said,
I pray for them. That's the first thing. This
prayer was for a particular people. He said, I pray for them. I pray
not for the world. Well, God so loved the world,
he loved his people out of the world, absolutely. And so he
gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should
not perish, but have everlasting life. Those whom God chose unto
salvation before the foundation of the world. I pray for them.
That's who he's praying for. Those that thou hast given me,
that's what it says. He prayed for those whom the
Father gave him. Now what was the purpose of this
prayer? Well, he declared why he came,
didn't he? For our forgiveness. Father,
forgive That's why he came, to earn our forgiveness. Not to
make it possible, but to surely accomplish it for us. You remember what he cried before
he bowed his head and gave up the ghost? He just finished. That's
why he came. And I love this, we read it in
Isaiah 53, that he opened not his mouth. Why did our Lord open
not his mouth? Because as our substitute, he
became guilty. That's why. If you're guilty,
it shuts your mouth, doesn't it? You have nothing to say because
you're guilty. Our Lord opened not his mouth
because he took our place, he took our sin, he took our guilt
upon himself, made it his own. I thought about this too. As
our Lord hung there, there was just one thing on his mind. Do
you know what it was? His people. The one thing on
his mind as he's being brutally crucified, the one thing on his
mind was his people. And as men were driving nails
into his hands and feet, as they were placing that crown of thorns
on his head, and they stuck that spear in his side, and they spat
on him and hit him, what did he do? He said, Father, forgive
them. Forgive them. for they know not
what they do. Seemed to me like they knew what
they were doing, didn't it? What was the purpose of our Lord's
prayer? He prayed for their forgiveness. That was the purpose, all right?
Now, what about the power of this prayer? Upon first glance,
it didn't appear to be powerful. Look at verse 34 again. Then
said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,
and they parted his raiment, and cast lots, they proceeded
to strip him, mock him, and crucify him." Did the prayer work? Everything those men did to our
Lord happened precisely according to the scriptures. We're told
in 1 Corinthians 15, that Paul was preaching how that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures. You read it in
the Psalms, read Psalm 22, read Psalm 40, Isaiah 53, we just
read it. It all happened according to
the scriptures. We would be absolute fools to think that our Lord's
prayer right here was anything less than powerful. Oh, what
a powerful prayer it was. We're gonna see this. Turn to
James chapter five. James chapter five. between Hebrews and Peter. James
chapter 5. James 5, 16. James 5, 16. Says, confess your faults one
to another and pray one for another that you may be healed. The effectual,
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Do we know who the righteous
man is? Never was that verse more true than right here on
the cross when our Lord prayed, Father, forgive them. I love
a song we sing, Arise My Soul, Arise. It says, five bleeding
wounds he bears, received on Calvary, they poor effectual
prayers, they strongly plead for me. Forgive him, that's where the
Lord prayed, forgive him. Oh, forgive they cried, nor let
that ransom sinner die. All for whom he prayed, that's
it. Nor let that ransom sinner die. Then it says, the father
hears him pray. He always does. He's his dear
anointed one, and he cannot turn away, he cannot turn away the
presence of his son. No doubt, our Lord's prayer availed
much. Now, I'm gonna show you that
it did, all right? Way back in our text, Luke 23. We've read through verse 38,
let's pick up at verse 39, Luke 23, 39. And one of the malefactors, which
were hanged, railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself
and us. But the other, answering, rebuked
him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same
condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we
receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath done
nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord,
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said
unto him, verily I say unto thee today, shalt thou be with me
in paradise. As I studied this, I became more
and more convinced that our Lord's prayer in verse 34 pierced that
thief's heart. If you read Matthew and Mark's
account, they tell us that both thieves cast the same in his
teeth. Both thieves derided him. Both of them did. And yet, you
read Luke's account, it's a different story, isn't it? It's the same
account. No doubt the same thing happened.
But yet, Luke tells us something else happened, too. All of a
sudden, one thief is no longer railing on him. One thief, something
changed. He calls out the other thief.
I'm sure the other thief thought, what in the world happened to
you? Thought we were on the same page here. Saw his sin, didn't
he? We indeed justly, you know what
he said? Don't you see you're in the same
condemnation? What happened? I'll tell you
what happened. Faith came to that man. Faith to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ came to that man and how did it come
to him? How does God tell us faith comes? By hearing. What
did he hear? He heard the Lord. Who else? He heard the Lord's silence when
he opened out his mouth. He heard the Lord pray that sweet,
holy prayer, Father forgive me. You know, our Lord had seven
sayings from the cross. That thief heard every single
one of them. The Lord saved him as he hung there. We're talking
about power. That's the point right now, power. The power of
our Lord's prayer. What about the power of our Lord to save?
Is he not able to save to the uttermost? He saved one of those
thieves he was hanging between. Talk about power. Those men that
were crucifying him, they thought he was hanging there in weakness.
If you're the Christ, save yourself. Oh, he was there in power, was
he not? Behold the man. Behold your king. That thief did. I rejoice to
tell you that thief did, and not only him, many more very
soon are going to hear and believe on Christ. Turn to Acts chapter
2. Acts chapter 2, verse 14. But Peter, standing up with the
eleven, lifted up his voice and said unto them, Ye men of Judea,
and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken
to my words. For these are not drunken, as
ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. Look
down at verse 21. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Ye men of Israel, hear these
words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by
miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst
of you, as ye yourselves also know him, being delivered by
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken. and by
wicked hands have crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up,
having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible that
he should be holding of it." Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost,
he declared Jesus Christ and him crucified to these men. He
said, you did this. You by your wicked hands and
your wicked heart have crucified and slain him. But this was God's
doing. The determinant counsel and foreknowledge
of God. Yes, Pilate delivered him. It tells us this. Pilate delivered
him to the will of the people. But whose will was really being
done? First of all, you see what man's will does. Puts the Son
of God on a cross. Second, we see God's will. It
was God's will the whole time. God was using them to accomplish
His will. That was His purpose coming to
pass. Look right here at verse 32. This Jesus hath God raised
up, God put Him on the cross, and God raised Him up, whereof
we are all witnesses Verse 36, therefore let all the house of
Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom
ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now look at this. Now when they heard this, they
were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest
of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter
said unto them, repent and be baptized every one of you in
the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is
unto you and to your children and to all that are far off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call. These men who crucified the Lord
of glory, They heard the glorious message of Jesus Christ crucified
preached to them, and it pierced their heart. It just broke them. It laid them low, and they saw
him holy and lifted up. They heard, and they believed. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. They called. Wasn't long ago they were crucifying
him, now they're calling upon him. And again, the commentator
believed this happened just six weeks, just six weeks after they
crucified him. Now why did these men hear and
believe? Why did that happen? Told us in verse 39 that the
promise was unto them. The promise of what? The promise
of salvation. The promise of remission and
forgiveness of their sin. It was unto them. It was the
promise today is unto as many as the Lord our God shall call
all those whom he chose in purpose to save. Those for whom our Lord
prayed as he hung on the cross, that's who. Those for whom he
shed, poured out his precious holy blood and died shall be
saved. Look here at verse 41. Then they
that gladly received his word were baptized. And the same day
there were added to them about 3,000 souls. Is that not amazing? Was our
Lord's prayer effectual? Was that an effectual fervent
prayer of the righteous man himself? Of righteousness himself? No
doubt it was, was it not? And it continues to be today.
The purpose of our Lord's prayer that all for whom he died, all
for whom he prayed, shall be saved and forgiven of their sin.
The power of his prayer, we see it come to pass, don't we? And
it's still coming to pass to this day. The Lord is adding
to the church daily such as should be saved, all for whom he died,
all for whom he prayed. We were saved, we're being saved,
and we shall be saved. Now lastly, I'd like to consider
the glory of this prayer, the amazement of it, the wonder of
it. First, our Lord prayed this while being mocked in the most
humiliating way we could never imagine. Turn to Mark's account,
Mark chapter 15. Mark 15, look at verse 16. Mark 15, 16. And the soldiers led him away
into the hall called Praetorium, and they called together the
whole band, and they clothed him with purple, and plaited
a crown of thorns, and put it about his head, and began to
salute him, Hail, King of the Jews. And they smote him on the
head with a reed, a staff, and did spit upon him, and bowing
their knees, worshipped him. And when they had mocked him,
they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes
on him, and led him out to crucify him. And he didn't say a word. Does
that not break your heart? He let men do that to him. Not in weakness. Now he said,
I lay down my life of myself. This commandment I've received
of my father. He let them mock Him. You know, there's a verse
that tells us God is not mocked. And yet, as the God-man, our
Savior, our substitute, He was mocked beyond comprehension for
us. Oh, how He humbled Himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. I don't know anything about humility.
Not compared to him, I don't. He humbled himself. Is that not
glorious? Second, he prayed this while
enduring unfathomable pain and agony. I can't begin to imagine
just the physical pain. I am a wimp. When I get hurt, I'm glad you
don't see me. Hope you don't see me stub my
toe. But I can't imagine the physical
pain that our Lord, God, endured in the human body for you and
me. I just, I can't. I don't like to suffer. You know,
he suffered for the joy that was set before him. Delightfully
gave himself for us, for our sins, that he might deliver us. Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 52
that his visage, his appearance, was marred more than any man.
The word means disfigured. His appearance was disfigured,
more than any man. There have been a lot of people
disfigured, but not like him, not like he was. And again, it
wasn't just, well, these men, they crucified him while we crucified
him, okay? While we mocked him, like they
just did. While we spat on him, made a mockery out of worshiping
him, here the king, he's the king. While we were doing that, spitting
on him, hitting him across the face, he prayed, Father, forgive
them. Is that not glorious to you? Turn with me to Lamentations.
It's after Jeremiah. Lamentations chapter one. Lamentations 1 verse 12. And no doubt these are the words
of our Lord. Lamentations 1 verse 12. Is it nothing to you, all ye
that pass by, behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto
my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted
me in the day of his fierce anger. Never has there ever been any
pain and sorrow and suffering like what our Lord suffered and
endured for us. Never. There never has, and there
never will be. I realize people suffer great
pain. I realize people are tortured, brutally murdered, None of it compares to this.
This is God. As if the torture of men wasn't
enough. Notice what it said right there.
The Lord did this. The Lord afflicted him in the
day of his fierce anger. God's holy wrath against sin. We can only enter into that as
much as the Lord enables us to, just a small glimpse. But all
the wrath of God against all the sin that I am, not just the
sin that I do, the sin that I am that just runs through me that
is so easy and natural to me that God hates. His Son, the
Son of God, God Himself made Himself to be, and He hung on
the cross, He sweat as it were great drops of blood, then He
poured out all His blood to put away that very sin that He hates. He did that for us, brethren. Now here's the most glorious
part of all to me. considering those for whom he did this, those
for whom he prayed, Father, forgive them. They know not what they
do. Here's who it was for. Those who absolutely, utterly
hated him with every fiber of their being, without a cause. We were not right to hate God.
God is worthy to be praised. Let everything that hath breath
praise the Lord. Let God be magnified above everything. And we hated him. As Pilate was
there, and Pilate kind of pled for him, I find no fault in this
man. And he said, here's your king, behold your king. They
said, we have no king but Caesar. And even today, people say, well,
won't you make Christ king? Won't you make him Lord? Let
him in? I'll tell you what that's doing. That's making a mockery
of him. The king, the king eternal. Immutable. He hung on the cross,
having made himself the servant. The king made himself the servant,
the servant of God. Died in our place. So many people claim to love
Jesus. Oh, we didn't read it, but you know
it. You can go back and read it. When Pilate half-heartedly
pled for the Lord. You know what their response
was? When he said, well, I find no fault in him. I'm going to
release him and let him go. We're going to crucify Barabbas. They
said, give us Barabbas away with this man. We don't want him. That's what they're saying. Oh,
I love Jesus. We cried away with this man.
Crucify him. Crucify him. The people that were crying that,
they were in perfect unison. There was no dissension among
them. And then Pilate, well, okay, if that's what you want,
here you go. And yet those very people are
the ones for whom our Lord prayed, forgive them. Does that not pierce
our hearts? Honestly. He prayed for those who drove
the nails in his hands and feet. Stood there making a mockery,
laughing at him, laughing him to scorn. You know, everybody there, they
wanted nothing more than to put an end, to silence this man,
Jesus. That's all they wanted. I love
God, oh, I beg to differ. God begs to differ. Hated him
without a cause. But you know, here's something
glorious. At first, they appeared to be
successful, didn't they? I mentioned Joseph. When his
brothers, you know, they left him to die at first, and then
they're like, well, we'll just sell him for a little bit of
money. That's what Judas did, isn't it? Picture of our Lord. At first, his brothers seemed
to get away with it. They had their way. They delivered
Joseph the way they wanted to. And yet before they knew it,
they find themselves at His mercy. Have we found ourselves at His
mercy? We are. Whether we know it or
not, we're gonna make obeisance to Him. We shall. Either here
or then. But every knee's gonna bow, every
tongue's going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
of God the Father. The glory of what our Lord did,
the glory of His prayer, God's overruling grace to our
sin. In spite of our sin, look what
God has done for us. Again, like Joseph's brothers,
we meant it for evil. Those men at the day of Pentecost,
when they heard and their hearts were pricked, they meant it for
evil. You better believe they did.
But praise God, and God meant it for good. to save much people alive. That's
exactly what he did. Sovereign grace prevailed. It always does. Always does. I love this verse. Where sin
abounded, grace did much more abound. Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do. I'm so thankful that our Lord
hung on that cross in my place. And I'm so thankful that he prayed
those blessed, glorious words for us. May Lord bless his word
to our hearts. Amen.