"Today Shalt Thou Be With Me in Paradise" (Luke 23:39-45)

"Today Shalt Thou Be With Me in Paradise" from Luke 23:39-45 was preached by Dr. Mark McElreath at the City Baptist Church of Atlanta on April 12, 2026. 

Find out more about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta at www.mycitybaptist.com.

Transcript

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Welcome to the City Pulpit. Bible messages from the pulpit ministry of the City Baptist Church in Atlanta.

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Please take your Bibles with me. Let's go to the book of Luke. Luke chapter 23. Luke chapter 23. And when we come to Luke chapter 23, we come to just a moment in the portrait of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, when we have these first four books of our New Testament, we have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we can think of these almost as small biographies of the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you say, well, each of them are a little different. Yes. Have you ever read a biography on Winston Churchill that read the same thing as the last biography? No, each of them give a different perspective. And because they're under the inspiration of Scripture, the way they're written, they've come from the Lord. They all back up each other. And they all fill in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ as God wants us to know about it. And we come to this part of it, Luke chapter 23, and we're given a saying of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, when Jesus is on the cross, there are seven recorded sayings of Christ. The first saying that he says is, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. He cries that out early on in his crucifixion. As Christ is going through this excruciating pain, crucifixion was something the Romans had perfected. They did it to their worst criminals. A criminal would be beaten as Christ was done with a cat of ninetails. His back was severely lacerated. Some criminals would die during that alone. And then they would carry a wooden cross that weighed several hundred pounds, carried it through the streets. It would be maligned and scoffed at, and carried it out to a place called Golgotha or Calvary, and they would set that up. They would nail the criminal to that cross, as the Lord Jesus Christ was, nails in his hands and nails through his feet. And then they would slowly die there. It was the worst type of death you could possibly imagine. They had centurions that the one thing they would do was to carry out the crucifixion event. That's what they were trained for. And here we find Jesus is hanging here, and here's what he says. I want you to look with me, Luke 23. We'll begin reading in verse number 39, because the Bible says, 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? We indeed justly, for we received 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 thou shalt be with me in paradise. And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour, and the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. I want you to mark this phrase, this statement from the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 43. He says, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. When we think about the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus was 100% man and 100% God. His death was a natural death. He died. His body died. He did not swoon, he did not pass out, he did not become overcome by pain. He died. It was a natural death, but also his death is a supernatural death. In that he is God, we find here, just like every part of his life, his birth was unlike any other. He's born of a virgin. His life was unlike any other. He lived a perfect life, no sin, never having done anything wrong. And so his death is unlike any other. Now, human beings, you and I, when we die, we're going to die because of the curse of sin. But Jesus Christ we find never sinned. He was not under the curse of sin. When Jesus Christ went to the cross, he did so willingly, and he gave his life for you and I to pay our sin debt. In fact, we find the Bible says about him in 1 Peter chapter 1 that he was without blemish and without spot. 1 John chapter 3 says that in him was no sin. Now that was all because only a perfect sacrifice could pay the price and the debt for my sin and for your sin. And when Jesus went to the cross, we find he's in full control of himself at all times. The Bible actually tells us in John 19, earlier in this book, it says, after this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. It says in John chapter 19 and verse 30, when Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. All through the crucifixion account, we find that Jesus is in full possession of his faculties. He knows exactly what he's doing. His life was not taken from him by the Jews or from the Roman government. He willingly gave his life. And he gave up the ghost in the end. In fact, when they come after just six hours on the cross, he's hung on the cross at 9 a.m. They come at 3 p.m. And they realize we need to get him down because the Sabbath is coming. You see, the crucifixion was designed so that someone would take at least two days to die. They come just six hours into the crucifixion. He should not be dead yet. They were going to come and break his legs. That way he could no longer push up and get a breath of air and stay alive any longer. But when they come to him, they realize he's already dead. It didn't make sense. That's because Christ gave his life. And here we find in this story, he's hanging between two thieves, one on one side, one on the other. And we find that the first one, well, both of them start railing on him and scoffing at him from the beginning. We find that earlier in the book. But we also find, look with me, at verse number 39, they've been hanging there for a while now. And one of them in verse 39, it says, He continued to rail on him. He continued to yell at Jesus. And he says, Look, if you're really God, then you get yourself down and you get us down. But we find the next man that's hanging on the side of Jesus, something has been happening in his heart while they've been hanging there. Because he says in verse number 40, he says to the man that's railing on him, don't you fear God? This man probably had no fear of God in his whole life, but as he hangs there on the cross and he sees Jesus hanging there with him, he starts to say, Don't you fear God? I'm starting to fear God because this man's not like any other man. He even says here, verse 41, we are in the same condemnation, and we indeed justly receive the due reward of our deeds. He says, Look, we're both hanging here, and we know that we should be hanging here, and we're getting exactly what we should get, but this man's unlike any other. Jesus doesn't deserve this. And by the way, you and I both deserve condemnation. You and I both deserve what those men got on the cross. And maybe you think, look, Pastor, I haven't done anything as bad as those people that need, that I should be crucified. I haven't done anything that bad. Let me ask you this: how much sin do you have to do to become a sinner? How many things do you have to steal to become a thief? How many lies do you have to tell to be a liar? The Bible tells us, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not lie. It goes on, the Ten Commandments are pointing back to us, and they all point to one thing. We're a sinner. It only takes one sin to be a sinner, and I don't think anyone in here would say they've never sinned. That's bad news. Because the Bible tells us in Romans chapter 6 and verse 23, it tells us that the wages or the price of that sin is death. Now we know that our bodies are dying, and that's because of the curse that came in Genesis chapter 3, because of sin. But our spirit will die if we do not get forgiveness of our sin. The wages, the price of that sin is death. That verse goes on to say, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. I'm thankful that there's not only bad news, there's also the good news. Amen? That that gift of God is from the Lord and it's eternal life. The Bible says in Romans chapter 10 and verse 13 that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And here's the amazing thing. This thief hangs on the cross. He'd never read any of those verses. You know why? They hadn't been written yet. But there came a point where he realized on the cross he was a whosoever. And if he believed in his heart and confessed with his mouth that he could be saved. Because you know what he says? Look at verse 42. He said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. That's a pretty short sinner's prayer. But you know what he realized? He couldn't get to heaven on his own. He's only going to get there because this was the Lord Jesus Christ and he was the only way to get there. And if he called on him and confessed him that he'd take him to heaven, we find here Jesus then turns, and with one of the last breaths that Jesus will take, moments before he's going to give up the ghost, he says in verse 43, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. And I want you to consider that phrase just for a few moments this morning. Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Would you make note of some things if you're writing things this morning? Would you write this down? Number one, the provision of this promise is immediate. The provision of this promise is immediate. What's the first word in this saying today? Jesus says, You want to accept me as the Messiah? You want to accept me as the promised one? You want to pray that you'll be with me in my kingdom? Well, that will be fulfilled, not next week, not next month, not in the next millennium. What? Today. The provisions immediate. So what do we find here? Christ knew this thief would die. Christ knew that they were trying to speed this up and get it done. Jesus knew he was going to give up the ghost that day. Jesus knew this thief would die today. And he says, Today you'll be with me in paradise. You know what that means? There was no baptism that was needed for this thief to go to heaven. He didn't get down and get dunked in the water. You realize there was no religious ceremony that this thief took part in. He was not a member of any church. He never took communion. He never took mass. He never read a Bible. He never got a gospel tract. But you know what? The gospel got to him soon enough. At just the moment before he dies, and he says, I believe the Lord Jesus Christ can save me from my sin. And you know what he says? You remember me when you go into your kingdom. No confession booth. Hardly a sinner's prayer. You know what it also means? No purgatory. There's an idea that the Catholic Church teaches that there's a slow conveyor belt to heaven. But the Bible doesn't teach that. I was actually reading this week and I read the Vatican's website, Catechism, Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 3, Article 12, Roman numeral 3, paragraph 1030. It says, quote, All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation. But after death they undergo purification. Now that's key. They say, after death, they undergo purification. You know what that means then? That they could not have purification in this life. That Jesus Christ's death was not sufficient. That Jesus Christ's payment was not enough. It goes on to say, undergo purification to as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. Paragraph 1031 says the church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect. They go on to say that this doctrine was formulated at the councils of Florence beginning in 1438 and the Council of Trent in 1545. You know what that means? Men came up with this. They quote no Bible verse. But here's the point. If you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone to take you to heaven, he will take you. If you add anything, Jesus plus anything is a works-based salvation. Jesus Christ alone is what the Bible teaches. This is about as close as you get to a deathbed confession. I've heard people ask, can people make a deathbed confession? Well, the thief on the cross made a cross confession. He's about to die. He has nowhere else to go. But where there is life, there is hope. You may have someone and you think they'll never be saved. Let me tell you this: where there is life, there is hope. And as long as there was breath in this man's body and he could cry out to the Lord, there was hope that he could be saved. And you know what the fulfillment of that was? It was immediate. He said, Today, when Stephen is being stoned as the first martyr, he says he calls upon God in Acts chapter 7. He said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. You know why? Because he knew I'm about to die. And as soon as I die, I'm going to be in the presence of the Lord. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 8, we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Absent from the body, present with the Lord. Not absent from the body, and I'll get there eventually. No. Present with the Lord. We were at a memorial service this week, for we went up on this Wednesday, and many of you have been praying for my sister-in-law, my wife's sister. She finished her chemotherapy treatment. We're thankful for that. She rang the bell. That's a wonderful thing. And that same day, there was a funeral service for a veteran missionary that we've known for many years. Served for 26 years on the mission field. She was 88 years old, surrendered to be a missionary when she was 48 and served on the field until she was 74. That's pretty amazing. And her and her husband were kneeling at their bedside Sunday night two weeks ago, saying their evening prayers. And he said, I noticed as she was praying, she stopped. And I looked over, and I realized she'd stopped breathing and she had had a heart attack right there, praying her evening prayers. Can you imagine? She's praying in the Lord's presence and she opens her eyes and she's in heaven with him. Absent from the body, present with the Lord. And look, Dr. Patton, her husband, he's a cardiac doctor. He said, There's nothing I could do. He said, She died in that moment and she was with the Lord. I told him, I said, that's the way I want to go. Praying with him, and he says, Why don't you just come on and be with me? Today. You know, that's also true about salvation. You may say, Pastor, there's some things I gotta get cleaned up first, and then I'll get saved another day. No, you know what the Bible says? Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day to deal with your sin and your soul. The provision of this promise is immediate. But I want you to make note of a second thing. The person of this promise is Jesus Christ. The person of this promise is Jesus Christ. Would you look with me at this phrase? He says in verse 43, Today shalt thou be with me. What's the most wonderful thing about salvation? Being with the Lord. What's the most wonderful thing that this thief got? You say, well, he got, you know, you know, he did not get any more relief while he was on the cross. But when he died, he was with Jesus. I heard a man preach many years ago, and he was preaching on heaven, and boy, I think he thought he had a great message. He talked about the wonderful streets of gold, and that's great. And the walls of Jasper, and that's a wonderful thing. And he talked about the tree of life, and he talked about all the people we're going to see that have died before us that we're going to see in heaven. And he preached and preached and preached about how great heaven was and all those things we're going to see. He forgot one thing about heaven. The best thing about heaven. He never talked about Jesus being there. That's the most wonderful thing about eternity, is that we're with Jesus forever. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have the Holy Spirit living within you. He's always with you, He's ever present with you. Do you think heaven's going to be any different? We're going to be in his very presence all the time. And he says here, thou shalt be with me. Would you hold your place here with me and go with me to the book of John? If you're in Luke, turn to the next book. The next book is John. We'll go to John chapter 14. Because Jesus is speaking to his disciples here in the book of John. And in this account, it is the night before he goes to the cross. He knows in just a few hours he'll be betrayed in the Garden of Gethsemane by Judas. And he's going to be taken to sham trials, and he's going to go to the cross. And he's teaching his disciples some final things. And he says in John chapter 14, they're seated at something called the Last Supper, we often refer to it as. He says in verse 1, Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. Some people sing songs about, you know, mansion over the hilltop, and I just want a little corner in heaven and things like that. Look at verse 3. Here's what he says. But if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again. And then here's what he says. I'm going to come again, and here's what I'm going to do. And receive you unto myself. He says, I'm going to come again and I'm going to put you in your mansion. That's not what he says. I'm going to come again and I'm going to introduce you to everybody there in heaven. No. I will come again and I'll receive you unto myself. That's the most wonderful thing. And then he says in verse 3, that where I am, there you may be also.

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Glory to God.

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That's a wonderful thing, isn't it? We can know him. We can know his presence in this life. And we're going to be with him for eternity. Look what he goes on to say. He says in verse 4, whether I go the way you know. Or whether I go, you know, and the way you know. Verse 5, Thomas said, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? And Jesus said in verse number 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. I am the way. I am the truth, and I am the life. And you know what he says? No man comes to the Father but by me. You know the only way you're going to get to heaven, the only way I'm going to get to heaven? It is through Jesus Christ alone. He is the way, he is the truth, he is the life. Paul said in Philippians chapter 1, thinking about being with Jesus, he said, I'm in a straight betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Paul, when he wrote Philippians chapter 1, he was in a jail cell. He's coming to the end of his ministry and he said, Boy, I'd like to be with Jesus. That gives us hope. That gives us hope that this life is not all there is. If you're here today and you're living your life as if the 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 years you live on this globe is all there is, it's a sad, pitiful existence. And it's not how it's not how God designed us. He designed us with a soul. And that soul, when we die, is going to go to one of two places for eternity. A soul lives on, a soul never dies. It's going to go to one of two places. We're either going to go to hell and be separated from God forever in a place of everlasting torment. Or we're going to go to heaven to be with him, in his presence. In fact, Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 4, he said, The dead in Christ shall rise first, and then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. The person of this promise is Jesus Christ. And here's the final part. Look back in our passage, Luke chapter 23. He says, Today shalt thou be with me where? In paradise. Where is that? That's heaven. If you're writing these things down, would you write down a third thing? The place of this promise is heaven. Paradise here is just a title used for heaven to speak of eternal bliss. One of the two places you and I can go to in eternity. There is no in-between. There is no option. Once we die, then I'm going to choose. That's not how it works. We make a decision in this life. In fact, you may say this morning, Well, I'm not going to make a decision. Then you've made a decision. The Bible tells us in John chapter 3 that those who believe not are condemned already. You do not have to do anything, you don't have to make any decision in this life to be on your way to death. Devil's hell for eternity. That's the worst part is Jesus, God didn't make hell for you and I. He made it for the devil and his angels. But those who do not accept him as their personal Savior, that is the place that you will spend eternity separated from him. The greatest thing about heaven is that we're with Jesus in the presence of God. The worst thing about hell, now it's an eternal torment of fire. The Bible says the worm dieth not. But the worst thing about hell is its separation from knowing Him, our Creator, our God, forever and ever and ever. I once heard someone say, it's hard to think about how long eternity is. We are finite beings, and so we can't really understand eternity. He said, but one way to think about it is, let's imagine the Artemis rocket was just took off, going to the moon. Let's say they took one grain of sand and put it on the Artemis rocket and they flew it to the moon and they dropped it on the moon and they flew back. And when they got back to Earth, they grabbed one more grain of sand, put it on the rocket, took it with them, took off to the moon, landed on the moon, dropped that grain of sand, and came back. And they continued doing that one grain of sand at a time. When all of the beaches on earth have no more sand on them, we've moved it all to the moon. Eternity has just begun. Forever and ever and ever and ever with Christ in heaven or separated from him in hell. Would you look with me? We're in the book of Luke. Would you go to a previous chapter in Luke chapter 16? Luke chapter 16. Jesus is teaching here in Luke chapter 16, just a few pages before this, before he goes to the cross. And in Luke chapter 16, he's giving a story here, and he says in Luke 16 and verse 19, there was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple in fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. Anything wrong with having riches and being clothed in fine linen and faring sumptuously? Nothing inherently wrong in that. But we find in verse number 20 there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores. Two people on entirely different rungs of the socioeconomic scale. And he says in verse 21, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table, moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died. There will come a day, verse 22 shows us, we're all going to die. We'll come to the end of this life. And he was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom, and the rich man also died and was buried. Doesn't matter how much money you have, doesn't matter how many goods you possess, we're all going to come to the end of this life one day. The beggar dies, and the rich man dies. And it says here that the beggar, Lazarus, is with Abraham. This is heaven. This is paradise. Suffered in this life greatly, but he put his faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, and now he is in heaven. And then it says in verse 23, speaking of the rich man, and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments. And seeing Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom, he separated from him. In fact, it says in verse 24, he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. I'm tormented here. He says in verse 25, But Abraham said, Son, remember thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things. And now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. It's one thing to have torment in this life, but eventually have comfort in eternity in heaven. It's another thing to have all the comforts of this life and reject Jesus Christ and be tormented for eternity. That's what's happening to this rich man. He says in verse 26, and beside all this, between us there is a great gulf fixed, so that they would that would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence. Those in heaven can't go to those in hell, those in hell can't go to those in heaven. He says in verse 27. Then he said, I pray thee, therefore, Father, the rich man is saying to Abraham, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house. He said, Would you send Lazarus to go to my father's house, to go to my family? Verse 28, for I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. He says, Would you send them to my family? Because I don't want my family to come here. He says in verse 29, Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. He said, Nay, Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they'll repent. And he said, Oh, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. He says, I'm not going to send Lazarus, because we've already given, I've already given the word of God. They have the word of God. They received enough warning to know this is not where they should go. This is not the place that I've intended for people to go. And I ask you this morning, do you know that your sins have been forgiven? Do you know that you've been born again and you're on your way to heaven when you die? Listen, listen. Jesus calls out and he says, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Do you know that you prayed to receive Christ as your Savior? Do you know that if you died today, you would go to heaven? Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, if you do not know that you died today, maybe you say, I'm unsure, I don't know. I've had spiritual experiences, I've been in churches, I'm not sure. Then let us take the Bible today and open the Bible and just show you what the Bible says about how you can know for sure that you're saved.

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