Welcome to the Mariners Church Life Group leader podcast. This weekly conversation is designed to equip and resource you to build a healthy life group community that studies God's word, practices spiritual rhythms, and changes the world together. Welcome back to the leader podcast. We are cruising along in our weekend teaching series called From the Cross, where we are looking at the seven sayings of Jesus as he was on the cross.
And as just a reminder, these are not his final words. We have a resurrected Jesus. That's what we get to celebrate just a few weeks here with Easter. And after his resurrection, Jesus had some interactions and some teachings.
And there's some powerful things to learn about Jesus' post-resurrection. But there is something to be said about what he says on the cross. And so theologians and scholars and pastors have spent a lot of years unpacking these seven phrases. And this week we're gonna look at the third one where Jesus says to one of the two criminals on either side of him, today you will be with me in Paradise.
And so Jeremy, what's our overarching goal for this week as our group discussion? So this week we're gonna see, we're gonna kind of answer the question, like how can a dying man who has nothing to offer God and no time left to live for God be given eternal paradise? And we're gonna see the scandalous promise of Jesus and how it reminds us that we're part of his kingdom only by his mercy and grace. And that as humans, really all we can do is respond to the love and the way that he's made available to us through Christ.
This is one of the contrasting passages where it is unbelievably beautiful, the grace that we see extended by Jesus. But the tension that comes with, but who else would then also be allowed into Paradise at their last moment of life? It is a tension filled kind of passage. So let's just jump right into maybe some pitfalls that we might fall into here as a group.
I think we can talk in a minute just about how we can prepare as leaders. But I'm really curious, what would you recommend for us about some things to avoid? Or maybe some ways to engage in the obvious without digging too deep into a rabbit hole? Sure.
Well, the first one you mentioned was this whole idea. I can't remember the quote verbatim. I wish I could, but someone the other day raised the point that one of the scandalous things about God's grace is that through Christ and the cross and resurrection, a way has been made for us to enjoy the abundant and eternal life with God, both now and forever. The flip side of that coin is that John 3 16 says who so ever would believe.
And we see that here in this passage with this guilty man being crucified next to Jesus, that in his final moments Christ saves and redeems his life. And so God's grace is not only made available to us, it's made available to whoever would believe. And so that's both a beautiful promise, but it offers attention that can be tough. And we don't wanna, now may not be the time or the place to kind of stir or poke at any wounds for people in our groups, but it is something that is important to wrestle with at some point the way we think about God's grace.
The grace that I see on the cross here is so similar to me of the parable of the workers in the field, where the, you know, every parable is a snapshot of illustration of the kingdom. It's putting into words what is really hard to put into words. And so when you get the parables of the worker in the field, you see that there's a, you know, a person who's gonna hire laborers throughout the day, you know, early in the morning, mid day, afternoon, and then even someone at the very end of the day, they get brought in and they clearly do not work in equal share, but when they're brought to the master, he pays them an equal share, which causes this uprising of people that are super frustrated. Similarly on the cross, we see that Jesus is given equal grace to someone who you could from an earthly perspective, from my own human perspective would say, does not deserve it, right?
And so it's a really challenging passage that we have to really wrestle with as followers of Jesus. What makes this life so worth it compared to just that kind of person's attempt on the cross, waiting to the last moment and gambling with your life? What would you even say to us as leaders, as we wrestle with that with our own life, but perhaps prepare for our groups as well? I would say, and we're gonna see a question at the end of the leader guide for this, that really it's a matter of a holistic view of discipleship that the gospel is not just about what do I need to do or say or believe in order to go to heaven.
And it's easy to do that with a passage like this. Like this, this man showed a degree of repentance by acknowledging his own sin, that he's getting what he deserves on the cross. He essentially asks for Christ to remember him. He does ask Christ to remember him in his kingdom, acknowledging kind of the truth of who Christ is and the authority that he has over his judgment and his eternity.
But the gospel is not just about our eternal life after we die, but that Christ says that he comes to give us abundant life, both here and now. And so the picture of the gospel and what it means to be a Christian, absolutely, it is restoring our relationship with God for all of eternity, but that starts now. And so trusting that God is our creator, that Christ is the one who became one of us and lived among us. And as Hebrews says, like knows how to perfectly identify with everything that it means to be human, that we believe that he knows what's best for our life, not just after our death.
Yeah, it's one of those things in a group that I would just as a leader say, the reason that we follow Jesus with our life now is that we wanna believe that it is actually the best thing we can do with our life today. That grace and salvation is not the insurance policy for hell, but instead it's the invitation to the greatest life, the life that God intended for us pre-fall, a life in communion with him. And then what we see postfall is the best thing that we could do is actually have the same relationship that Jesus had with his father. So becoming more like Jesus is really the ultimate goal for every single one of us.
And that's really hard to do today. That's hard enough, right? Not to mention, sometimes people will point out in this passage, well, Jesus, if Jesus is just offering grace that easily, everyone's gonna go to heaven. Well, actually in this story, it's only 50%.
Because in the midst of suffering and anguish, one cried out to Jesus and the other remained silent, right? So it's just a fascinating, contrasting kind of story. So Jeremy, inside the leader guide, are there any questions or sections that you wanna pull out for us as we are preparing? As we introduce this passage, there's a question upfront about what makes these two sayings of Jesus shocking and beautiful.
So I wanna remind leaders that we covered this first saying about Father forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. We covered that previously. And so we're backing up to revisit that passage to give us context for what Jesus is saying about today. You'll be with me in paradise.
So we, I wanna remind people, yes, those are the two sayings, one of which we've already covered. If those verses look familiar, good, they should. Hopefully you had meaningful conversation about, gosh, that Jesus is offering forgiveness. And then we see it carried out in this next saying to where the moment that he responds to Jesus, the moment that he acknowledges his sinfulness and puts his hope in Jesus, we see the fulfillment of that promise where Jesus is asking God to forgive.
And then we see someone immediately responded, Jesus says, truly I tell you today, you'll be with me in paradise. And that's amazing. So Jeremy, there's another element inside of the leader guide. It really shows up in the lookout section that I think we might wanna help our facilitators with our leaders with.
And it's this idea of today in paradise. How literal should we take this passage and how much time really should we be spending on this as a group? Yeah, what we want to recognize as a group is the fact that Jesus has the authority to respond to this man's confession, this man's posture and attitude, that even in the final moments of his life, he's receiving a penalty for his actions that he recognizes as just, but he's put his hope in Christ and cried out to God in Jesus. And Jesus says that based on this and based on the authority that he has as the King of the kingdom, that this man will be a part of his kingdom forever.
And so what we don't wanna get too hung up on is the literal use of today in paradise as far as scatologically, meaning like how does heaven and hell and all those things work. Like we see in the creeds about we believe that Jesus died and he entered into death and we see that even in Romans. And so what does that look like? We know when Jesus died, he didn't immediately go to what we think of as heaven.
It talks about him being dead for these three days, but not being at the father's side. And so we don't wanna go down the rabbit trail of kind of what does all this mean. What's important is that based on this moment, what happened today, this man will live in paradise. And like you said, kind of this design that God had for humanity and the relationship that we would have with him in this life and beyond based on this moment in this interaction with Jesus.
That's good. Well, this passage as we teach it in the weekend experiences, is gonna have an I believe moment with it as well. And these are, I mean, this is such a perfect text for it, isn't it? When you're talking about the grace and the saving ability of Jesus, and to be able to proclaim today, you'll be with me in paradise for any of those who stand and say, I believe that any of our locations are online, that is what we believe, that this is the same kind of salvation that was offered by Jesus on the cross.
We have that available to us today. And so, you know, leaders, I would imagine that probably most people in your group have given their life to Jesus. It's possible that maybe there's a couple just out of rooted or something like that haven't, that's okay. But it is also possible that they invited somebody from their friend group there, workplace or something like that.
You can even ask, is there anybody that has a story about an I believe from this past weekend? And use it as a place to celebrate and to pray for that individual. So Jeremy, with that being said, any kind of final notes or thoughts for us? Reminder to everyone that we are leading, this whole series leads towards Easter.
And so, along the lines of the I believe that we just celebrated the I believe and baptism rooted celebration, all that kind of good stuff, that ultimately we're headed towards the celebration of Christ's resurrection. And so to be thinking about and praying about who are those other people who have still yet to say, I believe, who have perhaps still like the two thieves on the cross have yet to recognize who Jesus is. And maybe this will be the moment that they turn from being the one who is kind of hardened and maybe disinterested in Christ and what he can do for their lives to that moment of having their hearts often and recognizing this man is who he says he is and putting their faith in Christ and experiencing paradise with him forever. So be thinking about and praying for who are those people in my life and can I invite them to join me this Easter as we celebrate this incredible reality.
Well, as always, thank you, Jeremy. And like your leaders, we are praying for you. We hope that you have a great discussion this week and we will see you next time.