The Man In The Middle

The most honest question you can ask yourself on Good Friday is also the most uncomfortable: if you stood before God right now and He asked, “Why should I let you into heaven?” what would you say? If your answer starts with “I tried,” “I was better than,” or “I did my best,” you’re not alone. That instinct is the default setting of the human heart, and it’s exactly why the cross of Jesus can sound like foolishness until grace finally breaks through.  

Then we sit with the thief on the cross, the man who brought nothing to the table and still heard Jesus say, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” No baptism. No Bible. No time to fix his past. Just one qualification: the man in the middle cross said he could come. We also connect this truth to real life, especially marriage and family conflict, where blame and bitterness grow when everything stays in the first person. 

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Transcript

Welcome To Good Friday

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Well, hey, welcome. I am so grateful to be with you here on Good Friday. It's a great Friday for us, but not such a good Friday for Jesus. Been doing Good Friday services many, many years, and our team got together, and we thought, boy, this would be a great time to uh share just the incredible message of the cross of Jesus in a little bit short time. And today, the title of my message today is The Man in the Middle Said I Can Come. So we're going to talk about that and what that means. And but before we do, well, happy Good Friday. I'm so uh grateful that you're watching from wherever you are. Would love to find out where wherever you are. I'd love for you to throw some comments up there. And just welcome to the special service here that we have today. And I'm just really grateful to be here. To start, let's pray. Here we are. Here's my buddy Jesus with all of his friends out there. Uh, one of my favorite uh watercolors done years ago by a famous artist. And wouldn't you want to be sitting in the middle with Jesus there and listening to him? And then navigating this incredible thing called Easter that we are experiencing here back many years ago. So, Father, let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for my friends that are watching. I ask you you'd visit them and that you would take this incredible story in your word and make it alive. I'm so grateful for them. I'm so grateful that they're here. Whether they watch this message at another time, I pray, Lord, that you would bless our time together and the teaching of your word. And all God's people said, Amen. It's good to be with you. Gonna hydrate up here. We got a lot of desert winds blowing out here in California. I know, no whining allowed. Well, welcome to our friends around the world that are gonna be piping in here on this amazing day. And I can't wait to share this message with you. So let's just get right into this message today and open your Bible. If you got your Bible, turn to 1 Corinthians 1 20 through 21. We're gonna get started here and read this together. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning, I will thwart. Thwart means to separate it as far as east is from west. Where is the one who is wise? As Paul's writing these words, where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom. It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. What a great picture that is. A few of the different faiths of the world who, you know, they try to explain this, you know, this whole thing of the cross. It's it's rejected by other religions. Islam, there's uh no need for a sin bearer because, you know, uh, well, we we lost our slide there. Boom. There's no need for a sin savior. Each person reaps their own deeds. And a major prophet dying in shame is unthinkable. Unthinkable that the Son of God die in shame. It's up to everybody to pay for their own stuff. How about Hinduism? Accepts Jesus deaths historically, but rejects its saving power. Humanism or secularism rejects the cross as intellectually contemptible. That doesn't make sense. It's foolish and morally outrageous. Original sin plus vicarious atonement. To them, they don't accept that. Now, here's the other group. The cross is marginalized by liberal scholars, right? They focus on the Sermon of the Mount. Jesus as the moral example to live by, or Ephesus, right? Not, you know, so much the death and resurrection of Christ. It ignores the cross and atonement and reduces Christianity to Christmas Day without the cross, or sort of a faith or religious exercise where there's no conviction of sin. That's just the way you are. And here's the other one that the liberal scholarship, you know, incarnation without atonement says nothing to us. No hope for our brokenness. Because what does the Bible say? It's foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us, the Bible says, it is what? The power of God. So it goes on here. And finally, some of the contemporary evangelicalism, not all exclusives, but there's a it's kind of that there's a danger of turning the cross into cliches and mantras because they want everybody to feel good about themselves. They want, you know, everybody to, you know, have a great time at the service. We must recover a bold emphasis on the necessity, meaning, and offense of the cross of Jesus. Paul preached it unashamedly in the Bible. The message of a cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us, it's what the Bible says, the power of God. See, for the Jews, he goes on to write there in 1 Corinthians 18, they what they demand a sign, the Greeks seek wisdom. Same today, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both the Jews and the Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. And I just love this line, which is so true and nails me every single time. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. And so when you think about the why the cross of Jesus, and we're going to look at the cross and just the incredible saving power. You know, when you're stuck in a place where you've given yourself permission to that you're compared to other people, you're not so bad. But compared to Jesus, you know, people go, why should I repent? I was with somebody this past week, and in our conversation, I asked them if they felt like they were sinners. And their response was, no, not very much. I don't feel like I sin much. And I go, oh, really? Compared to who? Well, I'm not compared to my friend over here. I got these Christian friends in town, and you know, they're much worse than me. And so when you compare yourself by someone else, then the Bible actually says that you were a fool. We're we're foolish to do that. Because the cross, if you just think of the brutality of what Jesus went through many thousand years ago, that we celebrate here on this Good Friday, and he was beaten and scourged, and and all of the torture that he went through. Just think about the penalty that he paid for the sin of all mankind, and how brutal that was. How that how the cross was was, you know, people, it's interesting, people wear crosses around their necks, and sometimes they put diamonds on them, and they and they're great, they're great Christian signs, but imagine someone wearing a gas chamber around their neck. I mean, the cross was an immin, it was it was an article of death. It was Jesus actually died on the cross as the Passover lamb to pay for the sin that we do. So there's not some little things that we do compared to other people, but the the message of the cross, it's foolishness to people who think that they're not that bad, that they're comparing themselves to other people. Or even, you know, Jesus at one point, you know, said that some will say, Well, Lord, Lord, you know, you know, being rejected by Christ in heaven, they say, Well, didn't we do all these things in your name? And Jesus said, Depart from me, I'll I never knew you. And there's a measurement of why someone gets into heaven. We're going to talk about that in a minute. If I were to ask you a question of why should God let you into heaven, what would it be? What would be your criteria for the life that you live right now before Him? When you think about Easter and all that Christ has done, what what is the thing that you are embracing the most about your life and what you're doing? And as I was preparing this message, I was thinking about my own story and all the things that I've gotten to do and all the places I've gotten to go. And the truth of the matter is that my entire life is completely owed to this man Christ Jesus who died for me. Anything that I had that was any kind of ben benefit in my own life, it wasn't my breeding of where I came from, though I had some great family ancestors. Um I had to face I'll have to face the Lord one day just like you do. And when he asked that question, why should we let you in? What will you say? And so I've been, you know, thinking this this week about this Good Friday service and and something that I could say that you know would stir you and connect you to what's really behind this incredible time. That in some ways has been reduced to the Easter bunny and chocolate, and we all love chocolate and we all love bunnies and food, and you know, I I I think it's kind of comical that you know we're celebrating the the death of our savior, and people are having honey-baked hams. I wonder if that's why uh Jewish people don't receive Christ because they can't get into having a honey-baked ham on a Friday. But you know, the Bible says that for the Jews demand a sign and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. Paul was constantly bringing the the people back to this incredible truth that your salvation is not because of you, your salvation is because of the man in the on the middle cross on what he did for you. And it's it's so easy for us to get lost in to the church, you know. I meet people all the time who salvation experiences is in the church that they attend or the things that they've done. But look what he says here in Christ's crucified, it's a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles. But those who are being called both Jew and Greek, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. So the foolness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. How many would say amen to that? I would. That is so true. And so, what's the answer here? So I kind of tie up this short message here on this Good Friday message at the Father Difference. You're probably going, well, who the heck is this guy? Well, I'm Med 10 McLassan. We're part, you're you're watching a broadcast from the Father Difference Ministries, and and we're we're committed with all that we have to really equip men and women to become the husbands, fathers, grandmas, grandpas that our family needs. But the secret of becoming the father you need to be, or the mother you need to be, or the grandfather you need to be, or the grandmother you need to be for your family, to build a great family, to restore a broken family, to be a light in the world is all tied up into the message of the cross in your life, and what that message really means. And so Paul, you know, he goes on in verse 26, and and I love the way he he's speaking to these learned people who have prided themselves on their knowledge to the Jews, their knowledge of scripture and keeping the law, and to the Greeks, their the wisdom they want. For your for consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. I don't know you, but I I felt I felt like, hey, football players get in here. Not many were powerful, not many were noble birth. But God chose what's foolish in the world to shame the wise. He chose the weak in the world to shame the strong. He chose that which is loaded and despised in the world, even the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human being may boast in the presence of God.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

There it is right there.

A Personal Story Of Mercy

What The Cross Reveals About Us

SPEAKER_01 18:32

For the wisdom of God is wiser than this, even the weakness of God is wiser than the the wisest of all time in the world. So that no human being might boast before the presence of the Lord. And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us the wisdom of God, and let one who boasts it goes on right. So who became for us the wisdom of God. Let me make it bigger here on my screen. Righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. Well, that's what God's after. So powerful, so right, so true. That's what he's given. So let me ask you a question. When you stand before God in heaven one day and are asked, why should we let you in, what would you say? Well, I really tried to be a good person. I you know, I I I tried to do good. I I wasn't perfect, but I tried to to live up to your word. And when we speak to God, that the reason for our salvation and the reason that we should be led into heaven is because of the first person, us. Well, you know, Lord, I repented for that sin. I I was good, I was a good tither, I was a good giver, I I always tried to honor you. I, I, I, I. And when we you know, uh when we are are focused in on ourselves and our walk and our life, which is so easy to do, we lose fact for the real the real reason that that God lets us in, is when we learn this to speak in the third person, and we're able to say with absolute certainty, why should I let you in? And your response is because of the man on the middle cross, because of Christ and what he's done for my life, because of his atoning work and sacrifice and his blood that that covered me because of what he has done. My life in response is out of gratitude for the what he does in my life, but there is no way that we can save ourselves. And that that I was listened to a sermon by Alistair back 10 years ago this week, and it just struck me how easy it is for us to focus in on trying to be good enough. One of our listeners says, I, you know, I don't think we can ever be good enough. Well, we can't. But Christ is. And when our focus is on ourselves, because everything in our world shifts to ourselves, the original sin of Adam and Eve, the temptation was, and the day you eat of this fruit, your eyes will be opened up, and you're going to be just like God, knowing good and evil. In other words, you get to choose what is good for you and what is bad for you. You can even choose what's good for your neighbors and what's bad for your neighbors. Because the sinner then becomes on your ability to work out your own salvation, to work it out with your own abilities and your own intellect and your own works in your life, and miss the fact that the only reason that we get in, the only way you're going to arrive in the heaven and be let in is the answer to that question because of him, because of Christ. Because what he's done on the cross. And I remember in Kilcauley dormitory in room 603 back in 1984 when I prayed a simple prayer to a guy I didn't know really existed. It wasn't a church kid. And I called out to Jesus for mercy. And I asked him to forgive me. And I'll never forget the moment of where I made my entire life about what he did for me. It wasn't about Ed becoming a better guy or a nicer guy or better football player or better student. In that moment, it wasn't first person. There was nothing about me. I was broken. I had a torn, three torn ligaments on my knee. I was prepped for surgery the next day. And and I had nothing. I had nothing to give him. I just all I had to give him was my brokenness. That's the secret of salvation. You might feel really broken today. You might feel really separated today. Well, the secret of salvation is not getting better or getting more religious or doing more Bible studies or reading the Bible faithfully every day, which is a great way to learn to hear his voice. I'm not saying that, but if it's on you, if it's if you have a first person faith, you're in trouble, my friend. Because the only way we get into heaven is because of third person, because of Christ, because of what he has done. And when I received that, when I prayed a simple prayer from my friend Bill Romanowski, dear Jesus, forgive me of my sin. There is no trying to get better. Come into my life and be my savior. Those were simple words. And then the revelation of that prayer that hit me was his mercy poured over my heart like a waterfall. And I mean to tell you, in in back in 77, and I just I'll never forget what it felt like for me to feel absolutely loved. And I never experienced mercy before. I mean, as kids, we would play games and we'd cry uncle, we'd wrestle one another. Wasn't mercy. See, God gives us mercy because He took our sin to the cross, so that when we ask Him to forgive us, it's already been covered. Because He carried it for us way before we knew Him. And this this wash of the This waterfall of mercy went over my heart. And I was born again. My whole life changed. Literally overnight. I learned more. I got a Bible the next day. He actually prayed for my broken knee in preparation for my surgery the next morning. And if you've hung around me, you you heard the story. When I went in for the pre-op examination, the doctor came out and said that Dr. Vuxta, Youngstown State Hospital, somehow all three ligaments have been reattached, and there's nothing wrong with your knee. See, only the third person can change us. Jesus. Not the first person. So why should you be led in the heaven? And I love this next picture in scripture. You see, the cross, it establishes the great the gravity of our human condition. Our rebellion. I mean, as brutal as it was, it really is a picture of how broken we are. Our rebellion, our alienation, our sin. It took the death of God's perfect son to address what no human effort, no human philosophy, no self-improvement could possibly fix. The cross reveals the absolute necessity and the wonder of God's grace. We cannot reach God in our own terms because we would fashion him into our own image. He came down to us in Christ, crossing the boundary of our rebellion to rescue us. Because we were hopelessly lost.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

That's the cross.

The Thief Who Heard Yes

SPEAKER_01 28:40

It's not self-improvement. You know, some people say, well, didn't Jesus say that we're to take up our cross and follow him? Well, David Parker, who's an amazing preacher in the Vineyard Christian Fellowship, I'll never forget what he taught about this passage. He said, when we're asked by God to carry a cross, it's not carrying our own cross for our own sin. But we're supposed to carry the cross like Jesus carried it for everybody else. Jesus didn't carry the cross for his sin. He carried our cross. He carried the implement of death that we deserve because of our rebellion against God. And he wrote it all the way to his death and buried in the tomb. And so I remember Dave Parker saying, you know, you never really understand the cross of Jesus until you learn how to carry it for other people. So who are you carrying the cross for? Boy, I love that picture. You know the ones that are making you suffer the most. You think we make Jesus suffer at times because we reject what he's done for us. We turn our salvation into the first person. Sometimes, you know, I've I've been a pastor for a long time. Had a church for many, many years, over 30-some years. And I've watched some in the church that have kind of diluted the message of the cross and removed the sting of it. They've decorated it and don't preach it very often. And they just make the gospel about the person in the seat. Instead of making it about the third person, Jesus. And the problem with that kind of preaching, it might feel good, and it's a good word, brother. I I think when I hear that, I remember hearing that I I'd feel walking away as a preacher like I had just uh entertained them for that 42-minute sermon on Sunday morning. And it didn't have much value because they they had the first person takeaways instead of the ultimate third-person takeaway of what Christ is calling them to repent of, give to him, and realize he is the only reason. For the unbeliever, you know, this is urgent, this is like urgent good news. The world is full of people asking, where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? And they never find an answer. Just another social media deal. The cross declares that Jesus bore our sin and cursed so that rebels can be forgiven and brought near to God. That's me. I was a rebel. It calls us not to applause or self-effort, but to repentance and trust. This Easter. This is a great time. The unrepentant thief on one side hurled insults. He said, Hey, aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us. The repentant thief on the other side, who at first mocked Jesus, rebuked the first one on his other side and said, Don't you fear God since you're under the same sentence of death? We are punished justly for we're getting what our deeds deserve. But this man, this man has done nothing wrong. That's revelation. That repentant thief knew who Christ was. And then he turned to Jesus and said, Remember me when you come into your kingdom. I mean, here's a thief who understands about the kingdom of God. And I mean, just it just he got the message that the third person in your story, it's about him. It's not about what he did. In the life of crime. I just think that's just so profound. And yet the story goes on, and Jesus said to him, I tell you, today, you will be with me in paradise. Imagine that. Right? The thief's only qualification for heaven was the man on the middle cross said I can come. Imagine, I mean, you know, I well, I want to interview that guy. Alistair Ballard, uh, I mean, oh, just you know, when I think about you know, meeting people in heaven, I'm gonna talk to Moses. I want to talk to Elijah. I want to, we're gonna get to talk to all those who've gone before him. I'm gonna see my dad that I never got to know in life. But I I'd like to interview that guy, the cross who made it in. And imagine him just, I said, so what was it like for you? You know, he says, What are your your qualifications? Uh, how did you get in? He says, Well, I I I went to the I showed up at the Golden Gate. I didn't even know what a golden gate was. And I'm standing there in heaven, and uh and it was asked, uh, why should we let you in? And the the thief on the cross said, Well, the the man on the middle cross said I could come. Well, have you been baptized? No. What's that? Do you own a Bible? No, I don't own a Bible. Do you I mean, well, what qualifies you to get into heaven? Did you you live a good life? No, I didn't live a good life. I live a rotten life. I mean, why should you uh be led in? Well, it was a man on the middle cross that I could come. And you know, and it and then he he calls over maybe a senior angel over. He goes, What's going on? What's the problem? He said, Well, this guy, he, you know, he he wants to get into heaven, and he he said that the man on the middle cross uh said he could come.

SPEAKER_02 36:33

I mean, what was it like? I I can't wait to ask him.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

I said, What was it like when you were suffering a crucified death at the last minute, and and the man in the middle cross looked at you and said, Today you shall be with me in paradise.

SPEAKER_02 36:59

That's the gospel.

Healing Families By Centering Jesus

Prayer To Receive Christ

Easter Service And Fatherhood Academy

SPEAKER_01 37:04

The gospel is not about what we do, it's about what Christ does to us and through our lives. And when we are full when we're fully understanding, and we we work a lot with dads and moms and grandmas and grandpas and helping families repair marriage issues, the heal your marriage, it's it's interesting. A lot of marriage conflict is it's all in first person. You did this, you did this, you did this, you did this all the time. And so there's ways to bring the first person into complete alignment together to heal some of the deepest marriage problems. But the truth of the matter is the first step of being the kind of man, husband, father, grandfather you need to be, the first step is by what the man on the middle cross says about your life. And so many times with children and in marriage, there's a battle on who's less broken, don't I describe it? There's accusations back and forth at one another, and boy, it's just incredibly devastating to one another. Relationships are just broken up, and bitterness, the root of bitterness, is you live your life in the first person all the time. What if you could learn how to live your life through the third person of Jesus in your marriage? What would happen to bitterness you'd forgive? What would happen to lost to learning how to be a father and mother, and you start making it about Jesus in your life above all of the limitations you might feel as a mom or a dad? When we live through the third person of Jesus, marriages get healed, men discover who they've been called to be, women discover who God's made them to be, children discover who God's made them to be. Everything our life begins to be reset because of the man on the middle cross. How about your life? You're looking for a miracle in your story, maybe in your relationships, maybe in your future, and your answer is not gonna be in the first person. There's many great things you can do, which are all have weight, but the quicker you make a beeline to the man Christ Jesus, the more answers you're gonna find. And and here's the mind-blowing part. When you fully lean into Christ, your capacity to be who he's called you to be and do what he's called you to do goes up exponentially because you're not relying on your human power, but on the cross and the power of his resurrection. You want real power to change your family? It's through the cross. You want power to change your marriage, it's through the cross. You want power to help change your kids' lives. Maybe you got rebellious kids, it's a cross. Do you got children in your story, in your family, who are confused about their gender? It's the cross of Jesus. Because anytime mankind has focused in on first person, it's gotten in trouble. Is when we focus on the man in the middle cross, that we truly have Easter. And God wants to bring you Easter, my friend. Maybe you're gonna watch this after he wants to uh bring you Easter as well, because the man on the middle cross said I could come. Let me pray for you. Maybe you've been kind of stuck because you've been trying to figure out everything about who you are, what you're to do, etc., etc. And boy, I have all my family calling in on me. I will disconnect that. And I want to pray for you. And maybe you're in a place where you're just you could really use some prayer or you could use some coaching. You can connect with me at edtandy at thefatherdifference.com. I'd love to share with you. Matter of fact, we have a fatherhood academy that we built to teach you not only to live through the third person of Christ in your life, but how to really become the husband or father God's called you to be, and wife and mother, and grandfather, and grandmother that God's really called you to be. Our mission is to help to partner with God as He heals families. And we can't do it without Him. But I want to pray for those who feel like that you've been on the edge, you've been doing a lot of restarts with God, and you can't figure out what's wrong with you, how come you can't get there? Well, the issue is you got to move from first person to third person, and this is the way you do it. Pray this with me. Say, Father, right now, I just confess to you that my salvation and my life and changing my life, I can't do it in myself. Because the message of the cross is foolishness to the people that are perishing, but I accept it in my life. I accept what you did for me, Jesus, over 2,000 years ago. And I ask you to come into my life and to heal my life and to heal my story and to become the focus of my heart. I ask you to come and heal those things I've carried into the reason I watch this. to begin with and this message is so important for me. And so Lord, I thank you that uh though I deserve to be crucified right alongside with you for my own sin and brokenness in my life. Because I've asked you to come and and pay the price for me that you did thousands of years ago. You say the same thing to me that you said to that thief on the cross Today you will be with me in paradise. Lord I thank you for your amazing grace. And I ask you to heal my life I ask you to focus my life on the third person of view Jesus not on me. And use my life so that when people meet me they meet you in Jesus' holy name. Amen I'm so grateful that you joined us and you gave some time here I got another quick announcement if you want we have a special Easter Sunday morning resurrection service at 630 Pacific Standard Time. And that's going to be before all the churches start around here and some have early morning services but I thought I'd jump into the fray. I would love to be there for you and that'll be on April the 5th at 630 a.m Pacific Standard Time at a couple hours if you're back east or you're in Europe you're a you're actually it probably in Monday. So so grateful for you and make sure you send prayer requests and if you'd like to know more about the Fatherhood academy it's just it's something that we we're releasing a fresh it's a place of of connecting people to the third person of Jesus as being the message and the way in and real tools from scripture that he taught us to be the kind of husbands and fathers and grandfathers and grandmothers and moms and wives that God's called us to be. If you're interested check out this go to the to the fatherhood dotemy check that out love for you to sign up and it comes with a monthly coaching uh session with me to work through some of those things in your family that uh you need real wisdom and well and and pray that when you meet me that day that I I show up with the third person because he has all the answers. So grateful for you remember it's never too late for God to change your story and happy Easter my friends hope to see you on Sunday morning as well love for you to join us and so grateful for my friends that are online right now. God bless you it's never too late for God to do a miracle remember he is risen.

SPEAKER_00 47:34

He is risen indeed God bless you if you've enjoyed what you've seen and heard today and you want to know more about how to be the husband and father your family really needs please go to thefatherdifference.com and click on the Fatherhood academy and sign up today it only takes one loving father to change the course of generations and one perfectly heavenly father to begin the process. May God bless you and we look forward to seeing you in the Fatherhood Academy