Subject – IN THE PRESENCE OF FAILURE, LOVE ALWAYS COMES THROUGH!
Text – Luke 23:39 (read vv. 39-46)
“And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. 40 But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. 42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord; remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. 43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. 44 And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. 45 And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. 46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.” Luke 23:39-46 (KJV)
“5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Matthew 4:5-7 (KJV)
INTRODUCTION –
What the opportunist! Once again the devil tried to tempt Jesus when he thought Jesus was weak. You know some might look at Jesus and label him “The World’s Greatest Failure!” There are a number of descriptions and definitions for failure; I think that this one fits right in line with our scripture:
Failure – nonperformance of something due, required, or EXPECTED.
We know that there were many occasions when Jesus did not do what was expected of Him, but we just singled out these two to show that Jesus did not only do what was expected of Him, but He did not do was expected even according to the laws of nature! (Expound). Having said that, this brings us to our subject for today:
IN THE PRESENCE OF FAILURE, LOVE ALWAYS COMES THROUGH!
POINTS –
- “If thou be Christ” (v. 39) – This malefactor was crooked even to the end. There he was hanging on a cross, going through a lot of pain, he had the Lord right there in speaking distance (he knew who Jesus was), but rather than acknowledge who Jesus was and ask Him to have mercy on him, his pride and crooked heart would rather have him think that he could taunt and tempt Jesus into doing what he wanted Jesus to do (expound).
- “save thyself and us.” (v. 39) – This statement puts me in mind of those people who spend so much time thinking and planning how they can steal something rather than use that intelligence to come up with a plan on how to legally obtain what they want. This man had no doubt that Jesus had the power to save them, but knowing who Jesus was, rather than ask Jesus to save his soul, all he could think of was his present situation (expound).
CONCLUSION –
Beloved, even though Jesus failed to do what was expected; even though He had fasted for forty days and nights, He failed to give in to His physical hunger and yield to Satan’s tempting. Even though He was in intense physical, mental, and maybe even spiritual, Jesus failed to give in to the malefactor’s taunting to save Himself and them from the pain of the cross (expound).
Beloved, in battle we are taught that “failure is not an option!” But in Believer’s battle for souls, we must fail to give in to the world’s expectations; we cannot respond to the world’s treatment of us with what they think is the way the average person is supposed to respond:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 (KJV)
Understand my sisters and brothers that as long as we remember what our assignment is; as long as we remember what we have been commissioned and commanded to do; as long as we remember who and whose we are, we will also remember that:
“Love never fails.” 1 Corinthians 13:8 (KJV)