Last Steps to Paradise
Footprints of Jesus During His Last Days • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Today is Palm Sunday. It commemorates the day Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, fulfilling Zechariah’s ancient prophecy, also leading to what is often called “The Passion Week.” During these days leading up to Resurrection Sunday, we are challenged to stop and think about the sufferings and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have followed in Jesus’ footsteps the last few weeks to the cross; today, we are looking at His last steps to the cross that leads to paradise.
So far, we have witnessed Jesus being arrested and convicted. Now, He has been sentenced to death and is on His way to Golgotha to be crucified. He is in the process of dying for our sins as our Redeemer and Savior.
As Jesus is crucified, He is not alone. There is a small group of supporters at His feet. They include His mother, Mary, John the Beloved Disciple, Mary Magdalene, and His mother’s sister. A great crowd is also there that day. The religious elite have gathered to watch Jesus as He dies. Roman soldiers are there to make sure the execution goes forth unhindered. Common people mill about watching Jesus and the others die.
There was another group there that day. I want to bring to your attention this group of people today. You see, Jesus wasn’t the only one dying that awful day. We are told that two other men died with Him there at Calvary.
Jesus’ death had a purpose. He died that day to open a road to Heaven for all who would receive Him as their Savior. I want to preach about The Last Steps to Paradise and show you the connection each of the three men who died that day had to this road.
The first one we will look at rejects the road to paradise. We know that two of the three were criminals. The first criminal is going to die the same way he has lived, without God. While hanging on the cross, this criminal criticized Jesus, saying if you are the Christ, then save us all. He even questions Jesus’ identity when he uses the word “if.”
He lived a wicked life but is headed to a lost eternity! Any life lived without God is a tragic life. Then, to have that life end and for that person to die without God is a tragedy beyond words!
He doesn’t believe Jesus’ testimony. He doesn’t believe the sign hanging over the head of Jesus that proclaims Him to be the King of the Jews. He is dying, and in that moment of anger, pain, and torment, he lashes out at the very One Who could have made a difference in his eternity. This man tells us where his heart is through his words and actions. It is still lost and blinded in the darkness of sin.
This man is a perfect picture of the majority of people in our world today. Many might never mock the name of Jesus out loud. Yet, they do it every day by denying Him. They say they believe in God, but they are “practical atheists.” They live as though God was dead. Others treat the name Jesus as a byword. They use His name as other men would use a curse word. He is ridiculed, hated, ignored, and vilified.
Those who deny Him with their lips and lives tell us all we need to know about them. Their reaction to Jesus and His Gospel proves they are lost in sin (Rom. 3:23; Eph. 2:1).
Now, if you are here today and identify with this thief, then friend, I plead that you don’t have to stay that way. Jesus has made a way for you to be saved. Jesus died to make a road of escape from the power and penalty of your sins! Listen on!
Let us move on to the thief who embraces the road to paradise. We do not know a lot about this man. We know that he was also a thief and a wrongdoer and had been condemned to die for his crimes. But there is a marked difference between this man and the other thief. At first, they had both mocked Jesus.
Now, this man has changed his mind and rebukes the other thief mocking Jesus. That day, he saw or heard something that touched his heart, and the Spirit of God used it to open his eyes to Who Jesus really was. What did he see that made the difference?
Maybe it was how Jesus was silent as they nailed Him to the cross. It could be the way Jesus responded to the mockery of His enemies. Perhaps the sign over the cross of Jesus proclaimed His title. Maybe this man had heard the stories about Jesus. Possibly, he had heard about His preaching or His miracles. Perhaps he had even heard Him preach with his ears. It could have been any number of things that spoke to his heart. But whatever it was told him that Jesus was no ordinary man! Whatever was said, this dying man believed that Jesus was the Messiah and that Jesus was his only hope!
As he hangs there in the presence of Jesus, this man confesses himself to be a sinner. He declares his guilt for all to hear! He says, “I am the man! I am guilty, and I deserve everything I am receiving and am about to receive.”
Can you hear in his words the sorrow of a wasted life? I can hear the sorrow over wrong deeds, wasted opportunities, and shattered dreams. I can hear a man who is sorry for what he has done and what He has become. He is a repentant sinner!
There has always been a tendency for sinners to pass the blame. Adam and Eve tried that tactic. Everyone wants to pass the buck. They want to blame their parents for their upbringing. They want to blame the hard knocks of life. They want to blame their rowdy friends, etc. But until people get honest about their sins and repent before God, they can never receive the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ!
Sin is still sin! Man has tried to redefine sin, but God has never changed His mind about what it is and what it can and will do in the life of the sinner. Until a person comes to the place where they can see their sins as God sees them, they will never be saved! The first step in salvation is repentance!
This man sees himself as he is and sees Jesus as he is! He recognizes that Jesus is no ordinary man. You have to come to the place where you trust Jesus and Jesus alone to save your soul. It is not Jesus plus anything. It is just Jesus and Jesus alone!
This man was able to look beyond the present. With eyes of faith, he saw Jesus dying, resurrecting, and reigning someday. With a tiny bit of faith in his heart, he cries out to the Lord and is heard and received by the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew Jesus was who Jesus had claimed to be. This poor, dying man yielded all to the Son of God and embraced Jesus as his Savior!
Let us now move to the one who made a way for this thief to find salvation. The man on the middle cross is named Jesus.
As Jesus hung there in agony and shame, dying for the sins of humanity, He reached out in love and compassion to this poor, lost thief. Jesus saw this moment as the perfect opportunity to save a soul. Jesus saved this man just because he called on Him. He would have saved the other thief if he had called out in faith, and He will save you if you call on Him right now.
By doing this, Jesus demonstrated exactly why He died. It was all “for you”! The cross was not about the pain; it was about the payment of sins! Jesus died to satisfy God’s just demands for our sins. He died to pay the penalty sinners could never pay. He died to take our place, pay for our sins, and set us free.
Jesus accepted the simple, childlike faith of that dying thief. Jesus told this man that he did not have to wait for a future time to be with the Lord; he would be with the Lord that day in paradise. Praise God, there is hope beyond the grave! The soul lives on in the presence of the Lord and enjoys sweet fellowship with Him in glory! What a hope and what a promise!
You may think you will go to the grave when you die, but in truth, your soul will live on forever in either Heaven or hell, depending on what you did with Jesus. Because what you do with Him will determine what He will do with you!
There were two dying men; one cried out to the other and received the promise of salvation. Even when things looked hopeless for Jesus, He was still just as much God as He had ever been! He had just as much power as He had ever possessed! He was just as able to save as always! When that poor, dying thief cried out in simple, childlike faith. Jesus responded by saving his soul! That is what He did for me when I called on Him and what He will do for you if you, too, call on Jesus to be saved.
It doesn’t matter how far into sin you have traveled or what kind of wickedness you have gotten into. If you come to Jesus and call on His name for forgiveness, He will receive you and save you. He will not turn you away! What He did for that thief, what He did for me, and what He has done for others, He will do for you if you come to Him.
In Jesus’ last steps to the cross, he makes a way for us to enter into paradise. There are only two roads that we can travel on through this life. Jesus makes this crystal clear in Matthew 7:13-14. In those verses, He says, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in there at Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
Which road are you on today? If you are on the wrong road, changing directions is still possible. Come to Jesus, be saved, then follow in his steps.