Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!”He said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.And he said, Jesus, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom.
13 sermons cite this verse
… remember the two thieves on the cross. Jesus was hanging there, and one of the thieves looked at Jesus and said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus looked on at the man who did nothing to deserve salvation, but his repentance heart, Jesus said, today you'll be with me in paradise. Not someday, but today. In other words, when you breathe your last breath here, the next moment you're with Jesus. So Paul calls it being home with the Lord. Jesus called it paradise. We call it heaven. Whatever you call it, death is not the end. When Jesus returns, those who are in Christ, your dead bodies, you'll be with the Lord, your dead bodies are resurrected, which is going to be really amazing if you're by a cemetery. Like, whoa, just saw that. And then they're not going to be like disembodied spirits. You're not going to be like naked baby angel bald playing a harp on a cloud. No, Paul says this. Paul says of those who are raised again, he says in 1 Corinthians 15, it is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, they're buried, but they will be raised to live forever. He says they're buried as natural human bodies, but they'll be raised as spiritual bodies. …
… weeping and repenting and asking for forgiveness. It's that thief on the cross who says, Lord, would you remember me when you come into your kingdom? That's what causes heaven to rejoice. Verse eight, or what woman, if she has 10 silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost. In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. And in the final story, Jesus tells a story about a father who has two sons. One rebels, but when he comes home, what's the father's attitude? Does he slam the door shut in the boy's face and say, You're dead to me? No, he rejoices when the son comes home. So it is with God. I want you to notice two truths about all three of these parables. …
… And then he turns to Jesus and says, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said, I assure you today, you will be with me in paradise. I'll stop there. So the Romans did not invent crucifixion, but they did take it to another level. Crucifixion has roots in the ancient Near East. The Persians and others used it centuries before it reached Rome. But we might say, in a way, Rome perfected it, in quotes, into a science of suffering. It was a punishment designed to bring a slow death. There were far more efficient ways to kill a man like Beheady. But crucifixion was designed to prolong the process of pain. And the Romans crucified thousands of people. There was the rebellion of a slave named Spartacus. And 6,000 slaves joined him. And Rome crucified all of them. 6,000 men were crucified along the Appian Way there in Rome. So you would walk down this Roman road, and on your right and on your left would be crucified man after crucified man. So people were very familiar with crucifixion in this time, in this area. And so Jesus now is laid down on the cross. And by the way, not every man who was crucified had been scourged first. …
… believed in Jesus and he turned to the Lord and said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in what? Paradise, that's the word. Boy, talk about being at the right place at the right time. That guy, huh? Deathbed conversion, for sure. He believed and joined Jesus in paradise. It's also used in the book of Revelation, chapter two, to describe our future dwelling place. But it can be translated, the royal garden of a king. It's hard for us to wrap our minds around. I don't think there's anything I could point to and say it's like this. but when we're talking about the royal garden of a king, think of a palatial, massive estate with a beautifully manicured garden. Paul says, it was like that. Incredible. And then he says in verse four, I heard things so astounding that cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell. …
… master remember me when you come into your kingdom. Poor man. Poor, poor man. who became rich quick when Jesus said to him, today, look, with all due respect, imagine this is Jesus and you are that man. And Jesus, I want to see how that happened. Did Jesus turn to him and say, with his finger. Remember, the nails are right here where my wristband is. This is the hand from the wristband to the tip of the finger. Not here. The word hand is this. You with me? From here back is the arm. Did Jesus go like this? did he go, today, today, you will be with me in paradise. You want to get rich quick? That's how you get rich quick. You give Jesus Christ your life today if you believe that he's the master, that he's coming into his kingdom because he's alive. On the third day, Christ rose again from the grave. Jesus Christ lives. You either believe that or you don't. If you don't, you don't own anything. …
… that was crucified next to Christ. And he says, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. John Bunyan, the writer, said, and I quote, death is but a passage out of a prison into a palace, end quote. When death strikes the Christian, they fall into heaven. God allowed Stephen's life to be taken because he had fulfilled his task. He had fulfilled his calling in his generation. Now here's the thing. None of us has a guarantee we will live a long life. Coming back to Jim Elliot. Another entry in his journal went as follows. and I quote, I seek not a long life, but a full one like you, Lord Jesus, end quote. That's what we want. We want a full life. God determines the length of our life. We don't. Oh, we think we do. Oh, yes, but I'm eating all the proper food, you know, and then there's some random dude who lives on hot dogs and makes it past 100. …
… When you say Jesus. He said, Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom. Jesus looked back and said, because you said then, I say to you, truly, I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise, and the Egyptians you see today, you will see no more because of this then. Now the word of the Lord has come with power and velocity and great personal application to you today. What will you do with this word? You are responsible for it, that in real time, the familiar sounds of Pharaoh behind you, that's the old life, the unfamiliar terrain of the life of faith that awaits you. This is a hinge moment. What then? I spent years away from God. Then one day I went to church, and the preacher was preaching, and it got to this moment, and I realized I need God. I lifted my hands to him, and I began to worship him, and I began to praise him. I said, God, I'm sorry for what I did. …
… But this man has done nothing wrong. And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he said to him, truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. The promise that Jesus makes to the thief is that this day you will be with me in paradise. And Jesus claims that same promise for himself in the following verses. Continue verse 34. It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. While the sun's light failed, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two, then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And having said this, he breathed his last. When Jesus is finally ready to give up his own life, where does he trust it to? Into the hands of his Father. Amazingly, that is the same place that you and I go to the moment that we die. …
… When the thief said, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said, I tell you the truth. Today you will be with me where? In paradise. So that's where the saints are. Now, those who die before the return of Christ, they enjoy conscious fellowship with those who have gone before and their loved ones. Their spirits are in paradise. Their bodies are still in the grave. But the day is coming in which the bodies and the spirits will be reunited. This will happen at the coming of Christ. Now, the Apostle Paul goes on to explain the return of Jesus. He gives us three phases of the return of Christ. One downward and two upward. One downward and two upward. Stage one, Jesus descends. Oh, you're going to love this. The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God. Command, voice of the archangel, and the trumpet call of God. …
… Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus replied to him, Amen, I say to you. Today, you will be with me in paradise. The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. May you have a seat. So I wonder, when was the moment? When was like the moment? When was the moment of victory? When was the moment Jesus won? Today is this incredible feast, Christ the King. And we'll talk about that in a second. But I first want to tell you a story about a queen. And the story happened around the year 480 BC. What happened was this was the Jews were exiled. about the Babylonians, right? The Babylonians came in, exiled the Jews, brought many of them to Babylon. At one point, though, the Persians defeated the Babylonians. And so the entire world, essentially, the Persian Empire, extended over everything. It extended from India to Ethiopia. And there was a king. He was not a good guy. …
And you remember that man says, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. and with his dying breath, Jesus says, today you will be with me in paradise, right? Jesus loved all of these people. And so he calls us to love as well. Jesus loved boldly. All right, so I think about Thomas Aquinas. He said, to love is to will the good of the other. To love is to will the good of the other. But you know what? It's not just to will the good of the other. To love is to will and to work towards bringing about the good of the other. This is what we're called to do for followers of Jesus. Now reading these comments last week on Facebook and the ones that came in during this present week as well, reading the comments of people talking about their experience of church and what it meant, there were dozens and dozens of them. But I just wanna share with you a couple of them. …
… but it's never too late to turn it over to Jesus nine words got him into heaven Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom and Jesus said this day you'll be the first one in turned all that didn't let all the religious people all the holy people he said come on Mr. Thief, my blood's enough. I took the curse and you get all the blessing. All you got to do is receive it. How many of you like that kind of deal? Just say this. Say it with meaning. If you mix faith with this prayer, your name will be written in the book of life. That's right. So say it with faith. Everybody, pray it out loud. In the prisons, pray it out loud. Wherever you're watching this around the world. He loves you. Pray this. Lord Jesus, I believe and I receive the blood that flowed from the King of Kings, that took my curse, that took my crown of thorns off of me and my family and put the crown of righteousness. …
… Just before he died, he turned to Jesus and said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Now, don't deliberately deny Christ and say, well, I'll get saved in the 11th hour, because you may never get to the 11th hour. But what is he saying? He's saying it is never too late to start. It is always too soon to quit. Now, these people came into the vineyard even in the 11th hour as soon as they were called. Now, what is the teaching here? It is better to start and to serve lovingly all day, but it is never too late to start. If there's some of you feel like, you know, I've wasted my life. I'm getting up in years. I'm 60, 70, 80, 90. It's the 11th hour for me. I've got wonderful, wonderful news for you. Our Lord is calling you into his vineyard. Listen, friend, it's always too soon to quit. Never too late to start. You've been sitting idle all of your spiritual life. …