July 17 2025

Thursday July 17

“Jesus in the Midst”

(John 19:18) 

Luke 23:32-43

32 There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. 33 And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. ….39 Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, "If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us." 40 But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, "Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong." 42 Then he said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." 43 And Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise."

We are continuing to look at Luke 23:32-43. These verses tell us about two thieves who were crucified with Jesus. My friend, when you look at the details of what happened on the cross and one of these thieves coming to faith in Jesus Christ and the promise He received from the mouth of the crucified Savior, you ought to have hope. There is no reason anyone, anytime, anywhere, in any condition should not receive Jesus Christ and have the hope of eternal life. It doesn't matter who you are, how far you've gone into sin, or what types of crimes you've committed. There's hope for you from this message in this passage of Scripture.

Please carefully read the above verses. "For there were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left." The next several verses through verse 38 describe how everyone mocked Him, saying, "You saved others, save Yourself." Even one of the thieves in verse 39, one of the criminals who was being executed with Jesus, blasphemed Him, saying, "If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us." So, he joined with the crowd.

If you study the other Gospels, you'll find that initially both thieves railed upon Him. As they're being crucified, hanging in tremendous suffering and pain, they both are crying out, saying, "If you are the Christ. Save us." But then something happened, and we can't explain it, but I believe it was a miracle of God. It was the grace of God, a message of God for the world.

Let’s go back to Genesis 3:19, when God created the Garden of Eden. It says that the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the old King James Version of this passage of Scripture, it says in the Gospel of John, that “Jesus was in the midst between these two thieves”. Jesus in the midst. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was in the midst of the garden.

When Jesus is crucified on the tree—that's often what the cross is called by the apostles in their epistles, the tree—the tree of life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Goodness of God and the evil of man and also eternal life are all displayed in the cross of Jesus Christ. Christ is in the midst. He's in the middle. My friend, He stands between you and heaven and hell. He stands between you and an eternity away from God.

There is no reason today, when you look to the cross and hear the words of the Savior that He gave to the thief, to lose hope. The one thief said, rebuking the other said, "Do you not even fear God, seeing that you're under the same condemnation, and we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds? But this Man has done nothing wrong." Then he said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." And Jesus said to him, "Assuredly I say to you today, you will be with Me in paradise."

We will talk about what paradise in another chat later. But my friend, this means Jesus went to paradise that day, and there this thief met Him when he died. Jesus was there and said, "Welcome home, son." The man found forgiveness of sins. He didn't have time to go to church, get baptized, or do any good deeds. He went to paradise, to heaven, simply because he put his faith and trust in Jesus Christ, recognizing Him as sinless and innocent. Jesus didn't deserve to die, but He died in the man's place. The man believed that Jesus was going to come into His kingdom. He believed in the hope of the future that Jesus had promised.

Maybe he had heard that message from someone, or maybe he was standing on the side of the crowd when Jesus preached somewhere. I don't know. But now he believed and put his faith in Christ, even as he was dying, and God promised him eternal life.

You can too. Whoever you are, wherever you're at, would you trust Jesus today? Jesus is in the midst. He stands between you and eternity. Would you trust Him today to be your Savior?

God bless!