Jesus is on a journey 🚶🏿♂️. He left heaven on a journey, a mission. A mission of mercy and salvation, to rescue me and you from the burden of sin, the miseries of this life. In the gospel we find Jesus having different encounters with people from all walks of life. Jesus had encounters with religious leaders, from the conservative pharisees to the liberal sadducees . Jesus had encounters with Roman soldiers, other pagan people. Jesus had encounters with the sick, the grieving, the rich publicans( tax collectors), the prostitutes, the adulterers etc.. Jesus was on journey to save people from all walks of life because we are all in need of salvation.
These encounters of Jesus with people from different walks of life is called Divine encounters. Every encounter of Jesus with someone is for the purpose of rescuing, of healing and saving. Today we will focus on Jesus' final encounter. His encounter with two thieves on the cross. Two wicked men who have commited murders and robbery met with Jesus moments before death. Jesus walked with them from Pilate's hall of judgment to Golgotha. He took the journey with them to cross, the place of execution and throughout the whole process, they were beholding Jesus, looking at His life, His example and were conviced that He was the Savior of the world but they had two different reactions.
One Savior, two reactions. Jesus was crucified in the middle with one thief on His right and the other on His left. He was the center of attention and both thieves were looking at Him, contemplating. The hour of decisions had come, they were in the midst of Divine encounter and they had to decide what to do with Jesus. What will they do ? One thief wanted to be rescued from his present pain and say to Jesus if you are the Christ, save me from the consequences of my sin, not necessarily my sins, but the consequences. His prayers were not answered.
The other thief didn't ask to be saved fron the consequences of his sins. He acknowledged he was on that cross because he deserved it, he was guilty, he recognized Jesus was the Messiah, the only One who is able to save and he put his trust in Jesus, saying "Lord remember me in you come in your kingdom." Luke 23:42 . The second thief prayed to Jesus to save Him. He put His trust in Jesus, He called Him the Lord of His life and His prayer was granted.
This is the reality of this life. No matter where you are in life. Religious or non religious, conservative or liberal, good girl or bad girl, faithful, unfaithful, a proper woman or a harlot woman, rich or poor, a law abiding citizen or a thief, a corrupt politician or an honest man, with a bad past or a good past, no matter who you are or what you have done , you will not be condemned because of them. At some point you will have a Divine encounter with Jesus and what you decide to do with Jesus will determine your destiny.
Jesus will journey to wherever you are to reach you. He will journey to the nightclub to find you, He will journey to your sick bed to find you, He will even journey to your cross to find you. Jesus will spare no expense to Himself to find you and rescue you. But He will not force you to accept Him as your Lord and Savior. No human being will be lost because of the evil we have committed, if we are lost we are lost because we rejected Jesus when He journeyed to our hearts ❤, we refused to open the door 🚪 of our hearts when the lovely Savior came knocking .
Friends, as we have seen, Jesus is in journey to find and rescue you. Your past will not prevent Jesus from finding you. I don't how bad your past was, Jesus loves you and He is looking for you. There is moment in our lives when we realise I have to make a decision about Jesus, its either I put my trust in Him and accept Him like the thief on the cross or just want Him to take me out of the consequences of my sin. There is a time in our lives when we have to make a decision for or against Jesus. Today Jesus is joyrneying to you, He is speaking to your heart, I hope you make the right decision and give your life to Him. Lord help us to choose you daily. " Remember us when you come in your kingdom."
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