What about the Thief on the Cross?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Luke 23, Acts 2, Luke 24, Acts 1, John 7, Luke 7, Acts 2:38, Acts 2:39, Acts 19

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--what-about-the-thief-on-the-cross
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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well to answer your question I think it's important to first of all understand when the new CH Testament Church was started it's clear that the thief on the cross was Bap not baptized in Jesus name and didn't receive the holy spirit with the initial sign of speaking in tongues as we find in the book of Acts of course that's true of Adam that's true of Noah that's true of Abraham so what we understand is the New Testament Church was started with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 and we find this from multiple references if you go back to the Great Commission in Luke's version Luke 24 Jesus said go back to Jerusalem and the gospel will be preached beginning at Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the father Acts chapter 1 Luke continues his narrative uh Jesus explicitly says wait until you receive the Holy Ghost be you'll be baptized with the Holy Ghost and then after that you'll be Witnesses unto me you'll go from Jerusalem uh Judea Samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth and then there are many other verses that of scripture that we could use John chapter 7 says the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified uh uh John 14 and you can continue reading through John chapter 16 Jesus explains I must go away if I don't go away the comforter which is the holy spirit will not come but after I depart then I'll send the spirit he will lead and guide you into all truth he'll bring all things to your remembrance whatever I told you U another example is Luke chapter 7 where Jesus commended John the Baptist um and said there's no no Prophet greater than John but the least in the kingdom of God is going to be greater than he so I'm just giving you just a few verses to support the understanding that the new T Testament Church began on the day of Pentecost in the city of Jerusalem after the Ascension of Jesus Christ as recorded in Acts chapter 2 so that's when we find uh the the message preached that the TW Apostles with Peter as a spokesman but all 12 Apostles endorse the message and when the question was asked what shall we do uh how shall we be saved how shall we be forgiven of our sin of murdering the Messiah how can we now accept Jesus as our personal savior the answer was given unequivocally in Acts chap 2:38 with all 12 Apostles at the same place the same time giving the same message how to be saved repent be baptize 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 ghost and then verse 39 explains the promises unto you your children are all that are far off even as many as the Lord Our God shall call so from that point onward we find the New Testament Church and we find this command in operation and so acts 238 and a nutshell describes our initial conversion experience our uh conversion initiation into the New Testament Church specifically now that does not mean no one was ever saved throughout history until the day of Pentecost but there was a change of the age uh where the New Covenant came into effect and this makes sense the book of Hebrews says that a covenant doesn't come into effect uh and it uses the testator or like a will um it combines those two elements until the death of the testator and so in order for the New Covenant to come into effect Jesus had to die and of course he had to be resurrected to turn defeat to Victory death to life so the New Covenant couldn't come into effect until after the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ so you really couldn't have a a new the the Church of the New Testament with the new birth experience as recorded in Acts two until after the resurrection of Jesus Christ so the thief on the cross then would have been saved under the old covenant not the New Covenant uh he was an Israelite he was a Jew uh presumably he had been circumcised presumably uh he had participated in the sacrificial system but somewhere along the way uh he fell away from truth he violated the teachings of the Old Testament uh he sinned and so normally uh when someone like that um God has always required repentance and Faith so someone like a thief when he recognizes his sin and he wants to make it right with God he would need to have a heart of repentance a heart of Faith but then he would uh uh obey uh whatever the Old Testament prescribed in his case so typically he would go to the temple he would offer a sacrifice uh through the high priest and uh as we see um in the Book of Psalms he would have a repentant heart uh but he uh faith is always shown to be real by obedience so he would have had to be obedient to the Covenant of his day the Old Testament well he's hanging on the cross obviously he has a repentant heart he has a changed heart a heart of Faith um and he believes in Jesus Christ as the Messiah how much he fully knew about the identity of Jesus we it' be impossible to say but in some sense he recognized Jesus as the Messiah uh of Israel the Lord and Savior uh who was to come and he put his trust in him well at that moment he couldn't get down from the cross and go to the temple offer a sacrifice and show his Contrition to the priest but Jesus Christ was the sacrificial lamb for the whole world and Jesus Christ was our high priest so I would argue that he was saved under the old Covenant with Jesus Christ being his sacrifice in high priest but now we're under the New Covenant and so the New Covenant is in effect we're still saved by grace through faith God still requires a repentant heart but today he doesn't require us to go to a temple and offer sacrifices through a priest instead we can go directly to God we can repent of our sins um we can be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and then we can personally individually receive the Holy Spirit and so that's what we're commanded to do and and it would be um wrong to try to use any one example from the old Covenant and and sometimes people misunderstand well well this is in the gospels this is the New Testament yes but if you look at the time frame since it's before the death burial resurrection and Ascension of Jesus into heaven you're still under the old Covenant you're still under the same teaching as the people the Saints of the Old Testament and so that's how we would view the thief on the cross now to the broader question well what about deathbed conversions what about you know a person's physically incapable of uh maybe you know being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and so on and so in a in a theological sense we have to Simply give the message of scripture we can't alter it we can't make exceptions that the Bible doesn't make uh for for instance you know people give hypothetical scenarios what if you're in the middle of the desert and you repent of your sins and you you're filled with the Holy Spirit and you there's no water so you're crawling in the middle of the desert to an oasis to get baptized and you collapse and you die so are you going to hell and that's not completely theoretical I have actual cases in the United Pentecostal Church um I had years ago a upci pastor tell me about his small son who had uh hereditary disease and but on his deathbed he received the Holy Spirit but but he died and he wasn't able to be baptized another UPC Pastor told me of a couple who had received the Holy Spirit in a trinitarian church he was giving them a Bible study and they called and they asked um you know we want to be baptized but on the way to being baptized they had a car wck and they died so you know the Roman Catholic church has uh a couple of doctrines one is called the baptism of Desire so if you desire to be baptized but you're physically prevented for reasons beyond your control before you die then God will count your desires fulfilled likewise they have what they call the baptism of blood so if you convert to Christ you're under persecution and you are martyred before you could actually be baptized then uh God will count your your your blood sacrifice as equivalent to baptism now these two doctrines are not mentioned in scripture so I mentioned them only to say while they may seem to be reasonable human uh conclusions or uh logical um deductions uh I think we should simply stick to the message of scripture so we preach the message of scripture we don't make exceptions or Provisions that the Bible doesn't teach however we do trust the justice and mercy of God so in the case of the small boy uh that received the Holy Spirit um in the case of the couple uh that was killed on the way to baptism I have confidence that God has a plan for them so if I were preaching their funeral I would say you know they're in God's hands we trust God and there have been other cases where I remember someone one of the men of our church when I was a pastor in Austin Texas he'd witnessed to his mother for years she never came to God but on her deathbed she made a change she repented by that time she was uh not really able to speak coherently but he spent the night in prayer with her and the spirit of God came and although she couldn't Artic articulate clearly he felt she'd receive the spirit and uh he performed uh he himself uh took a pan of water and tried to immerse her as much as possible in the bed because she couldn't be moved so he felt like she had had a True Heart of repentance and she had submitted to the new birth I could I verify that no but I could just simply say she's in the hands of God so when we're speaking teaching and preaching we've got to stick with the clear objective message of scripture we can't make exceptions that the Bible doesn't make but we can always say God is both just and merciful he will do what's right if there's an exceptional case uh we trust him to apply his word his way so I'm I'm the preacher I'm not the judge so I can tell you uh what the word says but God is the one one who will apply it to any individual case and so when I'm dealing pastorally as in a funeral or in counseling someone whose loved one has passed away I will just say you know they're in God's hands if there's some exceptional circumstances that we're not aware of and and that's not a compromise or a Dodge because when you hear about someone or maybe read someone's historical account you don't really know if they repented you don't know if they received the Holy Spirit you don't know if they spoke in tongu in private uh you may not even know when they were baptized they may have called on the name of Jesus and while we don't know the circumstances I'm content to just leave that in God's hands uh but I'm I don't think we can create a Doctrine and uh so if someone is living the the um the clear teaching is put your faith in Jesus if you haven't repented repent if you've repented be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ if you've been baptized some other way get baptized Acts 19 receive the Holy Spirit um with the expectation and keep pressing forward until there is the initial sign that we see in the New Testament of speaking in tongues so it's very clear for anyone who's alive we admonish them to complete that process um but if someone has passed away and we don't always know the circumstances even if we think we know the circumstances we may not and anyway God is the judge so I'm content to say you know if you think there's an exceptional case you know that's but that's your personal opinion uh but God is the one who will decide uh but to summarize no um the thief on the cross would not be an example of conversion in the New Testament Church so that story would not justify an exception that story would simply say here's a a man who truly repented who truly had Faith who trusted Jesus Christ as his Savior and he fulfilled the of his day as much as physically possible under his circumstances with Jesus Christ being his sacrificial lamb his Temple and his high priest and so to the the lesson would be we too today should put our faith in Jesus Christ we too should repent of our sins and we should we should follow the New Covenant uh and do everything that we can um to submit ourselves to water baptism in Jesus name and receiving the Holy Spirit which everyone can do and if there's some unusual circumstances that intervene we always trust that God is a merciful and and just judge and he will judge uh according to his word we can't change his word but we can simply preach teach believe and obey the word of God and so the Plan of Salvation in the New Testament Church is clearly stated in Acts 238