Preacher Unknown - Good Friday Service Part 1 (April 12, 1968)
MP3
Loading the media player...
Transcript
- Download transcript as:
-
Text
-
PDF
-
WebVTT (includes timecodes)
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
| - | All that he suffered in his betrayal, | 0:03 |
| his lonely agony, | 0:07 | |
| his false trial, | 0:09 | |
| his mocking and scourging | 0:10 | |
| and the torture of death upon the cross | 0:13 | |
| as thou has given thyself utterly for us, | 0:16 | |
| may we give ourselves entirely to thee, | 0:20 | |
| oh Jesus Christ, our only Lord and savior. Amen. | 0:24 | |
| (piano upbeat music) | 0:32 | |
| Let us pray. | 6:07 | |
| Oh, mighty God, | 6:12 | |
| we beseech thee graciously to behold, | 6:14 | |
| this thy family, | 6:17 | |
| for which our Lord Jesus Christ | 6:20 | |
| was content to be betrayed | 6:22 | |
| and given up into the hands of wicked men | 6:26 | |
| and to suffer death upon the cross. | 6:31 | |
| Forgive us our betrayal of him | 6:36 | |
| and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. | 6:40 | |
| Through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 6:44 | |
| Almighty God, whose most dear son went not up to joy, | 6:50 | |
| but first he suffered pain | 6:56 | |
| and entered not into glory | 7:00 | |
| before he was crucified, | 7:02 | |
| mercifully grant that we walking | 7:06 | |
| in the way of the cross | 7:09 | |
| may find none other than the way of life and peace | 7:11 | |
| through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. | 7:17 | |
| And now as our savior Christ has taught us, | 7:24 | |
| we humbly pray together saying, | 7:27 | |
| our Father who art in heaven, | 7:31 | |
| hallowed be thy name, | 7:35 | |
| thy kingdom come, | 7:37 | |
| thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 7:39 | |
| Give us this day, our daily bread | 7:44 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses | 7:47 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us | 7:50 | |
| and lead us not into temptation, | 7:54 | |
| but deliver us from evil | 7:56 | |
| for thine is the kingdom and the power | 7:58 | |
| and the glory forever. Amen. | 8:02 | |
| And the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ | 8:06 | |
| be with us all, Amen. | 8:10 | |
| (piano upbeat music) | 8:17 | |
| ♪ Make thee clean, my heart, from sin ♪ | 9:02 | |
| ♪ Make thee clean, my heart, from sin ♪ | 9:19 | |
| ♪ Unto Jesus, welcome giving ♪ | 9:26 | |
| ♪ Unto Jesus, welcome giving ♪ | 9:32 | |
| ♪ Make thee clean my heart, from sin ♪ | 9:43 | |
| ♪ Make thee clean, my heart, from sin ♪ | 9:55 | |
| ♪ Unto Jesus, welcome giving ♪ | 10:02 | |
| ♪ Unto Jesus, welcome giving ♪ | 10:08 | |
| ♪ Make thee clean, my heart, from sin ♪ | 10:26 | |
| ♪ Unto Jesus, welcome giving ♪ | 10:32 | |
| ♪ Make thee clean, my heart, from sin ♪ | 10:48 | |
| ♪ Unto Jesus, welcome giving ♪ | 10:53 | |
| ♪ Unto Jesus, welcome giving ♪ | 11:01 | |
| (piano upbeat music) | 11:09 | |
| And as they led him away, | 13:21 | |
| they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian | 13:23 | |
| coming out of the country. | 13:26 | |
| And on him they laid the cross | 13:28 | |
| that he might bear it after Jesus. | 13:30 | |
| And they followed him a great company of people | 13:34 | |
| and of women, which also be wailed and lamented him. | 13:37 | |
| But Jesus turning unto them said, | 13:42 | |
| "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, | 13:44 | |
| but we for yourselves and for your children. | 13:48 | |
| For behold, the days are coming | 13:52 | |
| in which they shall say, blessed are the barren, | 13:55 | |
| and the wombs that never bear | 14:00 | |
| and the paps which never gave suck. | 14:02 | |
| Then shall they began to say to the mountains, | 14:05 | |
| fall on us. | 14:08 | |
| And to the hills, cover us. | 14:09 | |
| For if they do these things in a green tree, | 14:12 | |
| what shall be done in the dry?" | 14:16 | |
| And there were also two other malefactors led with him | 14:20 | |
| to be put to death. | 14:23 | |
| And when they will come to the place, | 14:25 | |
| which is called Calvary, | 14:27 | |
| there, they crucified him. | 14:29 | |
| And the malefactors, one on the right hand | 14:32 | |
| and the other on the left. | 14:35 | |
| Then said Jesus, "Father, forgive them | 14:38 | |
| for they know not what they do." | 14:42 | |
| If Jesus on his cross had cried out for revenge, | 14:51 | |
| or even for justice, there might be no gospel, | 14:56 | |
| no new Testament, no Christian Church. | 15:00 | |
| We might never have heard his name. | 15:04 | |
| This is first and prayerful word from the cross | 15:08 | |
| was the true miracle that gave us a gospel. | 15:12 | |
| Martin Niemöller enlightened finally, | 15:17 | |
| by this prayer of Christ declared, | 15:20 | |
| "It took me a long time to learn | 15:23 | |
| that God is not the enemy of my enemies. | 15:26 | |
| He is not even the enemy of his enemies." | 15:29 | |
| Niemöller imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp | 15:34 | |
| had many occasions to ponder these words. | 15:38 | |
| Outside his cell window at the concentration camp | 15:42 | |
| stood the gallows and he watched with horror, | 15:45 | |
| the death of many of his fellow prisoners. | 15:49 | |
| The question that came to haunt him was this, | 15:53 | |
| if they put that rope around his neck, | 15:56 | |
| what would be his last words? | 15:59 | |
| Would he yell out defiantly and proudly, | 16:02 | |
| "You criminals, you scum. | 16:05 | |
| There's a God in heaven | 16:08 | |
| and you'll get what's coming to you." | 16:09 | |
| But Jesus had not used his last breath | 16:12 | |
| to bless the Roman soldiers and the Sanhedrin, | 16:15 | |
| nor to sail as criminals and scum | 16:19 | |
| and call down his father's vengeance on their heads. | 16:23 | |
| Thus, finally, Niemöller came to appreciate | 16:29 | |
| the full significance of Christ's prayer, | 16:31 | |
| his first word from the cross. | 16:34 | |
| In making his prayer, | 16:38 | |
| Jesus asks God to forget, | 16:40 | |
| to transcend another earlier attribute of the deity. | 16:43 | |
| Vengeance is mine and I will repay | 16:49 | |
| had said the Lord of the Old Testament, | 16:52 | |
| but Jesus beg for forgiveness | 16:56 | |
| because his crucifiers knew not what they did. | 16:58 | |
| That is, they were ignorant. | 17:02 | |
| Jesus' prayer, and despite the grim circumstances | 17:06 | |
| really can be no complete surprise, | 17:10 | |
| had he not said on an earlier sunnier occasion | 17:14 | |
| on a mountain side, | 17:18 | |
| "You have heard that it was said, | 17:20 | |
| you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. | 17:22 | |
| But I say to you, | 17:25 | |
| love your enemies and pray for those | 17:26 | |
| who persecute you, | 17:29 | |
| so that you may be sons of your father, | 17:30 | |
| who is in heaven." | 17:33 | |
| And Peter had once asked Jesus, | 17:35 | |
| if it would be sufficient to forgive, | 17:37 | |
| to forgive not an enemy, but a brother seven times. | 17:39 | |
| Jesus suggested that Peter make it 70 times seven. | 17:44 | |
| That is unlimited forgiveness. | 17:48 | |
| These were the teachings. | 17:51 | |
| And when the final cruel test came, | 17:54 | |
| Jesus demonstrated that they will not mere pious mouthings | 17:57 | |
| but the cornerstone of his belief | 18:02 | |
| and of his being, | 18:05 | |
| the ultimate expression of his love. | 18:06 | |
| The last outpost of love has been labeled, | 18:11 | |
| this willingness to forgive. | 18:14 | |
| Forgiveness is Love's own proclamation | 18:16 | |
| that its cause is not lost. | 18:20 | |
| Jesus' prayer is therefore mediatorial | 18:23 | |
| and the noblest sense of the word. | 18:26 | |
| We too, in our small and limited ways | 18:30 | |
| may pray to be mediators, go betweens, | 18:33 | |
| links in the chain of life. | 18:37 | |
| We who are parents serve as links between the generations | 18:40 | |
| and we must stand whether wisely or not, | 18:45 | |
| and for a while, at least, between our children | 18:47 | |
| and the impact of life. | 18:51 | |
| The joys, the confusions, the choices, | 18:54 | |
| the bewildering variety of life | 18:57 | |
| are partly mediated or filtered by | 18:59 | |
| and through parents to their children. | 19:02 | |
| Teachers strive to be mediators of truth | 19:05 | |
| and artists of beauty. | 19:08 | |
| Yet there are no more lovely and needed mediators | 19:10 | |
| than those whose mission is forgiveness. | 19:14 | |
| A recent movie, "The Graduate", intrigued many of us. | 19:17 | |
| Its portrayal of the vac vacuity | 19:23 | |
| and bareness of our lives struck home. | 19:25 | |
| And it dramatize the generational gap | 19:30 | |
| in superb fashion. | 19:32 | |
| Yet, if the parents and their stupidity and ignorance | 19:35 | |
| where modern day suburbanite crucifiers, | 19:40 | |
| the boy and the girl in their charming naivete | 19:44 | |
| were really little better. | 19:48 | |
| They portrayed scarcely, a trace of forgiveness | 19:50 | |
| or sympathy toward the misguided over 30 parents. | 19:54 | |
| They, the parents knew not love, | 19:59 | |
| only desire and wants. | 20:02 | |
| But alas, thus, it seemed also to be | 20:06 | |
| with their handsome, youthful offspring | 20:09 | |
| and the cycle of lovelessness appeared foreordained. | 20:12 | |
| Only Christ could love and forgive | 20:18 | |
| even to the ultimate endth degree. | 20:22 | |
| Only he could die as he has lived | 20:25 | |
| praying for the forgiveness of those who killed him. | 20:28 | |
| Borrowing the words from Dean Clallan, may we pray. | 20:33 | |
| Almighty and everlasting God | 20:39 | |
| slow to anger and of great mercy, | 20:41 | |
| hear the prayer which thy son has made on our behalf, | 20:44 | |
| that we may be forgiven our sins | 20:48 | |
| and that we like him, | 20:51 | |
| may ask thee to forgive those who have wronged us | 20:53 | |
| through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. | 20:57 | |
| (piano upbeat music) | 21:07 | |
| Let us pray. | 30:42 | |
| Father in heaven, | 30:45 | |
| why is it that the thief found salvation? | 30:47 | |
| Why did Jesus say to the chief priest in the ancients | 30:52 | |
| Amen, I say to you that the publicans | 30:57 | |
| and the harlots shall go | 31:00 | |
| into the kingdom of God before you? | 31:02 | |
| Why Father, did Jesus lash out with whips | 31:07 | |
| at the merchants? | 31:11 | |
| And with his tongue scourged the so-called "good people" | 31:13 | |
| calling them a brood of vipers | 31:18 | |
| and whitened sepulcher? | 31:21 | |
| And while speaking harshly to this group, | 31:24 | |
| why did Jesus speak so kindly | 31:28 | |
| to the woman with five husbands? | 31:30 | |
| So gently to the publican Matthew | 31:33 | |
| and so courteously to the good thief. | 31:36 | |
| Can it be that the capacity for conversion | 31:43 | |
| is greater in the really wicked man | 31:46 | |
| than in the self satisfied and complacent? | 31:49 | |
| Can it be that the very emptiness | 31:54 | |
| of soul of the sinner | 31:56 | |
| is in itself an occasion for receiving | 31:58 | |
| the compassion of God? | 32:01 | |
| Can it be that self disgust | 32:04 | |
| is the beginning of conversion? | 32:07 | |
| For, it means the death of pride? | 32:09 | |
| Father, our pride makes us look down on people | 32:14 | |
| so that we can never look up to you. | 32:20 | |
| Our pride makes us self complacent | 32:24 | |
| in spite of social injustices in our community. | 32:27 | |
| Our pride makes us self satisfied, | 32:32 | |
| if we support and pass a civil rights bill, | 32:35 | |
| even while we put conditions on our love | 32:39 | |
| for our black brothers. | 32:42 | |
| Lord, it is one thing for us | 32:45 | |
| to be blind to our self complacency | 32:47 | |
| and self satisfaction, | 32:49 | |
| and another thing to know it. | 32:52 | |
| Show us Lord, that there is hope | 32:56 | |
| for those who are deaf | 32:57 | |
| and who want to hear. | 32:59 | |
| For the lame, who wants to walk | 33:02 | |
| and that there is hope for the disease, | 33:04 | |
| who acknowledges the need of a physician. | 33:07 | |
| And the sinner who feels the need of a redeemer. | 33:11 | |
| Dismas the thief conquered in difference | 33:16 | |
| by admitting his infinite, emptiness of soul | 33:19 | |
| in calling up on you, oh Lord, | 33:22 | |
| let us not be unto ourselves a law. | 33:25 | |
| Let us not set our own standards. | 33:29 | |
| Let us not be our own god | 33:32 | |
| for then it would be nonsense to ask, | 33:34 | |
| to be reconciled to you. | 33:36 | |
| Wrong, to ask to be in paradise with you. | 33:39 | |
| Show us Lord, the way to paradise. | 33:44 | |
| Dismas the thief died a thief | 33:47 | |
| for he stole from you, paradise. | 33:51 | |
| If we win paradise, | 33:54 | |
| Lord, we will be thieves too. | 33:57 | |
| For we will never deserve what we got. | 33:59 | |
| Lord, remember me | 34:03 | |
| when you shall come into your kingdom. | 34:05 | |
| Lord grant that I might be in paradise with you. | 34:09 | |
| (piano music) | 34:19 | |
| ♪ Fanta Sarah ♪ | 34:40 | |
| ♪ Fanta Sarah ♪ | 34:43 | |
| ♪ Fanta Sarah ♪ | 34:47 | |
| ♪ Make thy spirit ♪ | 34:50 | |
| ♪ Never forsake me ♪ | 34:54 | |
| ♪ Never forsake me ♪ | 34:58 | |
| ♪ My soul shall fill ♪ | 35:03 | |
| ♪ Fill thy will ♪ | 35:09 | |
| ♪ Fill thy will ♪ | 35:12 | |
| ♪ Fanta Sarah ♪ | 35:29 | |
| ♪ Fanta Sarah ♪ | 35:33 | |
| ♪ Fanta Sarah ♪ | 35:37 | |
| ♪ Make thy spirit ♪ | 35:41 | |
| ♪ Never forsake me ♪ | 35:44 | |
| ♪ My soul shall fill ♪ | 35:49 | |
| ♪ Fill thy will ♪ | 35:57 | |
| ♪ My soul shall fill ♪ | 36:02 | |
| ♪ Fill thy will ♪ | 36:07 | |
| ♪ Fanta Sarah ♪ | 36:11 | |
| ♪ Fanta Sarah ♪ | 36:17 | |
| ♪ Let thy spirit ♪ | 36:23 | |
| ♪ Never forsake me ♪ | 36:28 | |
| ♪ Never forsake me ♪ | 36:33 | |
| ♪ My soul shall fill ♪ | 36:43 | |
| ♪ Fill thy will ♪ | 36:50 | |
| ♪ My soul shall fill ♪ | 36:56 | |
| ♪ Shall fill thy will ♪ | 37:00 | |
| ♪ Fill thy will ♪ | 37:05 | |
| (piano music) | 37:11 | |
| Sorry your disappointment that President Knight | 37:56 | |
| was unable to keep his assignment | 37:59 | |
| to give the meditation of the second word. | 38:02 | |
| Yesterday afternoon, I received word | 38:07 | |
| from the hospital that he would not be able | 38:09 | |
| to be here today, | 38:11 | |
| and that he will not be able to resume | 38:13 | |
| his responsibilities for some time. | 38:16 | |
| The gospel, according to Luke chapter 23, | 38:21 | |
| beginning with verse 39, | 38:24 | |
| gives the setting in which the second word | 38:27 | |
| from the cross was spoken. | 38:30 | |
| One of the criminals who were hanged | 38:33 | |
| railed at Jesus saying, | 38:35 | |
| "Are you not the Christ? | 38:38 | |
| Save yourself and us." | 38:41 | |
| But the other rebuked him saying, | 38:45 | |
| "Do you not fear God? | 38:47 | |
| Since you are under the same sentence of condemnation | 38:49 | |
| and we indeed justly. | 38:54 | |
| For we are receiving the due reward of our deeds, | 38:57 | |
| but this man has done nothing wrong." | 39:00 | |
| And he said, "Jesus, remember me | 39:05 | |
| when you come into your kingly power." | 39:08 | |
| And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, | 39:12 | |
| today, you shall be with me in paradise." | 39:17 | |
| The first word from the cross, | 39:26 | |
| as we have heard from Dr. Darden was a prayer. | 39:30 | |
| The second word from the cross | 39:36 | |
| was an answer to prayer. | 39:39 | |
| Two criminals who deserve to be hanging there | 39:43 | |
| by the laws of justice, | 39:47 | |
| had two attitudes. | 39:49 | |
| Apparently, in the beginning, | 39:52 | |
| their attitudes were the same. | 39:53 | |
| One of them kept his attitude of defiance, | 39:57 | |
| of selfishness, of self-centeredness. | 40:00 | |
| And when word was going around | 40:05 | |
| that Jesus was the Christ, | 40:08 | |
| he derisively said to him, | 40:11 | |
| if you have any power, | 40:12 | |
| now's the time to exercise it on our behalf. | 40:14 | |
| Get us down off of this cross. | 40:17 | |
| The other one apparently, | 40:22 | |
| had been changed by the first word from the cross. | 40:24 | |
| Realizing that Jesus, | 40:30 | |
| whatever he may have done, | 40:32 | |
| did not deserve to hang there, | 40:34 | |
| was nevertheless willing to ask for forgiveness | 40:37 | |
| for those who had put him there. | 40:40 | |
| The second criminal was changed by this. | 40:44 | |
| Realizing the state in which he had found himself justly | 40:52 | |
| and seeing what was on the middle cross, | 40:57 | |
| saw things in a completely new perspective. | 41:01 | |
| Robert Browning in "The Ring and the Book" | 41:05 | |
| tells about a very dark night in Naples | 41:07 | |
| when suddenly there was a great flash of lightening | 41:11 | |
| and the surrounding hills became plainly visible. | 41:15 | |
| And the spires of the churches in the city of Naples | 41:19 | |
| were completely clear. | 41:23 | |
| And the sea was white in the light of the lightening. | 41:26 | |
| Robert Browning said, | 41:33 | |
| "Sometimes people in a flash of truth | 41:36 | |
| will see truth and see it in perspective | 41:40 | |
| for the first time | 41:43 | |
| and see it all at once." | 41:46 | |
| And so it was with this second criminal. | 41:49 | |
| As he hung there on the cross | 41:53 | |
| and saw the son of God hanging there | 41:56 | |
| and saw him willing to forgive his enemies | 41:59 | |
| and to ask that God, forgive them, | 42:02 | |
| prayed a prayer to Jesus, | 42:07 | |
| which Jesus, in the second word answered. | 42:09 | |
| His prayer was one of faith in which he asked | 42:14 | |
| that when Jesus came into his kingdom, | 42:17 | |
| he would remember this poor thief. | 42:20 | |
| There's something about the answer | 42:27 | |
| which this thief got, | 42:30 | |
| which is particularly impressive to me, | 42:33 | |
| as I experience life from day to day. | 42:37 | |
| I am deeply impressed with Red Tape, | 42:41 | |
| with how long it takes to get | 42:45 | |
| even simple things done. | 42:46 | |
| Students at Duke are impressed with Red Tape. | 42:50 | |
| Faculty members at Duke are impressed with Red Tape. | 42:53 | |
| You make an appeal | 42:57 | |
| and it has to be submitted in quadruplicate. | 42:59 | |
| And it has to go before this faculty committee | 43:03 | |
| or that student committee | 43:06 | |
| and then it has to be checked by an advisor | 43:07 | |
| or by a Dean, | 43:10 | |
| and then it has to go before an administrative committee | 43:11 | |
| and then it has to be reviewed, | 43:14 | |
| and then perhaps you have to amend the forms | 43:16 | |
| that you have submitted. | 43:20 | |
| Find out the social security number | 43:21 | |
| of the individual involved, | 43:24 | |
| the middle initial, | 43:25 | |
| has the person filled out a tax card? | 43:27 | |
| Has this been done? | 43:29 | |
| Has that been done? | 43:30 | |
| Red Tape, endless procedures, reviews, committees, | 43:32 | |
| and I become impressed with how complicated | 43:40 | |
| even simple things can be much less important things. | 43:43 | |
| But on that black day, that good Friday | 43:48 | |
| when this thief, this brigham, this criminal | 43:51 | |
| at the end of a life | 43:56 | |
| of insurrection and violence criminality | 43:58 | |
| turned in repentance and faith | 44:03 | |
| and simply said to the son of God, | 44:06 | |
| "Remember me, when you come into your kingdom." | 44:10 | |
| He received instant answer, instant acceptance. | 44:14 | |
| And as Dean Clallan, said in his chapter on this, | 44:21 | |
| in his book, he died as he lived, | 44:24 | |
| this thief received more than he asked for. | 44:27 | |
| He only asks that Christ remember him. | 44:31 | |
| And in return, he got the promise | 44:35 | |
| that he would be with him in paradise, that day. | 44:38 | |
| There is something in my cramped and complicated life | 44:46 | |
| that cries out in admiration and in love | 44:51 | |
| for this way that God deals with repentant sinners. | 44:55 | |
| When a man comes to God with the right attitude | 44:59 | |
| and asks to be remembered, | 45:02 | |
| he doesn't have to stand around all day | 45:05 | |
| to get his answer. | 45:07 | |
| God accepts him fully. | 45:10 | |
| And I think that says something to us | 45:15 | |
| who call ourselves Christian in these days, | 45:18 | |
| for we sometimes like the ATM machine | 45:22 | |
| and the complications of officialdom | 45:26 | |
| are inclined to make things a good deal, more complicated | 45:30 | |
| than Jesus would make them in the church. | 45:33 | |
| When someone wishes really to be accepted | 45:37 | |
| in the Christian fellowship, | 45:40 | |
| we want to know if his theology is exactly enlightened. | 45:41 | |
| We want to know if the color of his skin | 45:46 | |
| is what it ought to be, to be in this church. | 45:49 | |
| We want to know if his liturgy | 45:53 | |
| is going to be comfortable with us. | 45:56 | |
| We want to know a great many things, | 45:58 | |
| but all Jesus wanted to know on this occasion was | 46:02 | |
| whether the man was a man of penitence and of faith | 46:05 | |
| and he was immediately accepted. | 46:10 | |
| This did not mean that there were things | 46:14 | |
| that did not need to be corrected. | 46:16 | |
| Surely there were many things | 46:18 | |
| and even the attitude of this penitent that day, | 46:19 | |
| that needed to be corrected, | 46:22 | |
| but this did not stand in the way | 46:24 | |
| of his full acceptance | 46:26 | |
| and the promise that he could look forward to | 46:28 | |
| that later that day, | 46:30 | |
| he would be with Christ in paradise. | 46:32 | |
| There is a message for all of us here. | 46:38 | |
| I am sure that if the assassin of Martin Luther King | 46:42 | |
| were to come forward now | 46:45 | |
| and identify himself | 46:48 | |
| and admit to the enormity of his crime | 46:51 | |
| and to acknowledge that he had done the great sin, | 46:55 | |
| which he has done, | 46:58 | |
| and beg for mercy, | 47:01 | |
| the person who among humans would insist the quickest | 47:04 | |
| and the most firm that he'd be forgiven | 47:09 | |
| would have been Martin Luther King. | 47:13 | |
| Jesus Christ himself would forgive | 47:17 | |
| even a person as sinful as that. | 47:21 | |
| Finally, I think there is something | 47:27 | |
| for us in this second word from the cross | 47:30 | |
| about the nature of the future life. | 47:33 | |
| For 25 years in the pastorate, | 47:37 | |
| people have asked me, | 47:40 | |
| what will heaven be like? | 47:41 | |
| What is the life beyond the grave? | 47:43 | |
| And uniformly I have, of course, | 47:47 | |
| been unable to give any description. | 47:50 | |
| And you are unable to give any description. | 47:53 | |
| Pearly gates, golden streets, mansions, | 47:58 | |
| all kinds of visual things, | 48:03 | |
| which at best are symbolic | 48:07 | |
| and at worst become very confusing. | 48:09 | |
| It seems to me | 48:14 | |
| that all we need to know, | 48:16 | |
| all we really should care to know, | 48:19 | |
| is what Jesus said | 48:21 | |
| in this second word from the cross, | 48:23 | |
| the person who is accepted by God, | 48:27 | |
| who throws himself upon the mercy of God, | 48:30 | |
| whether at the end of his life | 48:32 | |
| or at the beginning of his life, | 48:34 | |
| he is assured that in the life to come, | 48:36 | |
| he will be with Jesus Christ. | 48:38 | |
| Today, shalt thou be with me in paradise. | 48:41 | |
| No further description is given | 48:48 | |
| and no further description is needed. | 48:49 | |
| And actually I am sure | 48:52 | |
| that if we were to be offered | 48:53 | |
| some kind of detailed description, | 48:55 | |
| finite intelligence could not comprehend it. | 48:58 | |
| But finite intelligence can comprehend | 49:02 | |
| the significance of being with Christ | 49:04 | |
| wherever he is and whatever it may be, | 49:07 | |
| the description of the life to come. | 49:10 | |
| When you consider what life | 49:15 | |
| with certain people is like here on earth, | 49:17 | |
| you realize that there is a vast difference | 49:20 | |
| in the happiness you have in you, | 49:23 | |
| the state of your being. | 49:25 | |
| Whether you are in the presence of individual A, | 49:27 | |
| or individual B. | 49:30 | |
| But to look forward to the life to come, | 49:35 | |
| knowing that it will be an existence | 49:37 | |
| in the presence of Jesus Christ | 49:40 | |
| should be sufficient. | 49:44 | |
| We are given that hope. | 49:45 | |
| We are given indeed that promise | 49:47 | |
| when like that thief on the cross, | 49:50 | |
| we wholeheartedly and trustingly say, | 49:53 | |
| "Lord, remember me, when you come into your kingdom." | 49:57 | |
| Let us pray. | 50:03 | |
| Lord, remember us | 50:07 | |
| when you come into your kingdom. Amen. | 50:12 |