The Man In The Middle — Redemption — Rich Wilkerson Jr

If you've got a Bible, Luke chapter 23 is where I want you to turn. Luke chapter 23. I got a message on my heart. The last few weeks here in our community, we have been teaching through the topic of redemption, and how many are grateful to a God who buys things back? He's a God who restores. He's a God who redeems. And today I want us to look at Calvary's Hill, and I want us to look to Luke chapter 23. We're gonna read a handful of verses here. This is starting in verse 32. It says, Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. And when they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals, one on his right and the other on his left. Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, He saved others. Let him save himself, if he is God's Messiah, the chosen one. The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was a written notice above him, which read, This is the king of the Jews. Now one of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him. Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us. But the other criminal rebuked him.

Don't you fear God, he said, since you are under the same sentence. We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. I like this. Jesus answered him. Truly, I tell you, today. I want to say today. Today you will be with me in paradise. That's a fire scripture right there. All throughout our lobbies and our courtyards last few weeks leading up to Easter, there has been a question that's been posed. Who is this man? And today I want to answer that question in the form of my title. Today I've titled this message, The Man in the Middle. The Man in the Middle. One great philosopher at one time in history said it this way. He said, I'm not a businessman. I'm a business man. The great philosopher known as Jay-Z, if you don't know. At the heart of what he's saying, I think it actually speaks to us on this Easter, because whether you know who Jesus is or not, whether you're a believer or a skeptic, there is no denying his impact on all of our lives. You can't even tell time without recognizing Jesus.

All of history is divided by his birth and even his death on the cross. John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, when he saw him, he said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Let's just be honest. The Lamb of God, Jesus Christ is the goat. He is the greatest of all time. There was one time an article in Newsweek that suggested to all of us that here in the West, there has never been anybody more influential than Jesus. I could prove it a lot of different ways. You could go to the Library of Congress, which is the world's largest library, and inside you will find there's 17,000 books written about Jesus. What a concept. A man who never ever wrote a song, yet there's more songs about him. A man who never wrote a book, yet there's more books about him. We know he was the son of a carpenter, but to our knowledge, he never painted anything, but there's more paintings about him. He never sculpted anything, yet there are more sculptures dedicated to him. He never built anything, yet even in 2026, even right here in Miami, Florida, even in Dade County, we are still building buildings to the man in the middle.

Come on, somebody. Can we just take five seconds, and can we just recognize he's different? He's different. And what I love about this day, especially if you're new to a faith community, especially if you've never heard the gospel, this man, Jesus, understands you. This man, Jesus, is different. Often when we see the crucifixion depicted, many times you will just see one cross, and I get it. It's because the whole message is about one man. His name is Jesus. Yet the Bible makes it very clear, especially right here in Luke chapter 23, that there wasn't just one cross on Calvary's Hill. There was three crosses. Jesus was crucified in the middle, a man on his left and a man on his right. Could it be that the very picture right there on Calvary's Hill is a message for all of us? Charles Spurgeon, the prince of preachers himself, he spoke about one time in a quote, what we call the hypostatic union. The idea that Jesus Christ is all God and all man, that he's in the middle of divinity and humanity. I like how he describes the man in the middle. He says it this way. He says, infinite and an infant,

eternal and yet born of a woman, almighty and yet hanging on a woman's breast, supporting a universe and yet needing to be carried in a mother's arms. King of angels and yet the reputed son of Joseph, heir of all things and yet the carpenter's despised son. I wanna let you know that Jesus has a lot of titles, but today the title I want us to lean into is that Jesus Christ, the son of God, he is the man in the middle. Can you clap your hands and thank God? He understands you. He gets you. And I think it's important today because once again, maybe we haven't seen you in a little while, maybe this is the only opportunity I get, not to explain Easter to you, but to proclaim Easter to you. Because let's be honest about the middle. Nobody likes the middle. The start is exciting. The end is satisfying. But the middle? The middle is messy. Where's all the middle children at? Where you at? Come on, yeah, these are my people right here. I love y'all. I feel your pain. You don't get first.

You don't even get saved for last. You get hand-me-downs. You get figure it out. It's like I fly a lot on airplanes. I have never in my life ever selected by choice the middle seat. Where are the people out there that you like the middle seat? Who are you? Who are you? Yeah, two people. God bless you. We'll see you in heaven. Wow. These are saints right here. No, nobody chooses the middle seat. You're assigned the middle seat. When you're in the middle, it's like so confusing. It's like, whose arm rest is it? I was flying the other day and my tray table was down. And the guy next to me said, can I use this for a moment? No. Use your tray table, bro. But that's what the middle feels like. Sometimes you feel like you're stuck and there is no doubt in my mind that many have walked into one of our locations today or you're watching online right now and you would say, Rich, I feel like I'm in a season that I am stuck.

This is what's so dangerous about the middle. It's that place that I'm not where I used to be but I'm certainly not where I wanna be. It's unclear, it's hazy, it seems dark. I'm in a trial, I'm in a valley. And what's so dangerous about the middle is if you're not careful, the middle is where people give up. Nobody quits at the start. And if you can see that finish line, you can run even faster. It's the middle that gets messy. And today I'm encouraged as we study Jesus because here Jesus on Calvary's Hill, He is paying the penalty and the price for all of humanity's sin. Yet we also know that this God-man is also a man, that He feels every bit of the pain, that He's experiencing everything that we would have experienced. How many of y'all know the middle is not just about what you're dealing with internally, it's also what you have to deal with externally. Like we already got enough pressure on ourselves but it's the voices around us. And whenever I think about the cross, I always think about the crowds at the cross, the mob that mocked Him, the critics that doubted Him. There was so much taking place. I mean, Jesus was betrayed by a friend in the garden,

then He's brought before Pilate and it's a fake scam of a trial. Even Pilate, the man who's judging Him, knows that He's innocent. But in order to please the people, He has Jesus crucified. But He wasn't just crucified in an instant, it was a terrible, gruesome way to die. They stripped Him naked, they beat Him with a cat of nine tails, they spit on Him, they put a crown of thorns on His head. It looks chaotic, it looks terrible. And even from the cross, people are mocking Him and hurling insults at Him. And even from that spot, as they're ridiculing Him, the Bible says He's thirsty and they offer Him vinegar to drink. I want you to stop right there because even that little detail, it seems so random, but it's not random, it's prophetic. For David wrote in Psalm. 69 they put gall in my food and they gave me vinegar for my thirst you say rich Why are you telling me that I'm telling that that right in the middle of his death in the most chaotic Moment, this wasn't random. This was prophetic. It tells me that God is still in Control. He's still writing a story and even in the difficult moments. He's fulfilling your story They put a notice above his head and said Jesus the king of the Jews They wrote it in Latin Greek and Hebrew three different languages Latin is the language of authority power and Rome Greek is the language of culture and philosophy Hebrew is the language of the law or the first covenant I like this moment because this looks like here they are and they're trying to label Jesus and mock Jesus

But God is revealing Jesus. I Want to make sure that every tongue hears it that Jesus Christ is not just the king of a few people He's the king of power. He's the king of authority. He's the king of all culture He's the king of all religion. Come on if he's not Lord of all He's not Lord at all and at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess He's Jesus King of Kings and Lord of Lords somebody give him some praise in this moment This is powerful and providential all at the same time Because here they are Crucifying Jesus, but no one recognizes that God is crowning Jesus Could it be the middle that you are in today? It has purpose to Could it be the mess that you are up against that God could redeem it and restore it and use it for his glory In the midst of all of this chaos It's not just one cross. It's three crosses And I think it's important because at some point you must realize that on Easter Sundays you come Thousands of people today at voo church thousands online watching but God did not come for crowds God came for people I Love the fact that we serve such a big God Yet, he's small enough to be intimately Acquainted with all of us if his eye is on the sparrow His eye is on you Because at some point you must realize that you are not just in the crowd you are on a cross And every one of us We must respond to the cross of Jesus Christ and because I might not see you again for a year I Love you, I Want to take the 25 minutes that I have and I want to try to be as crystal clear as I possibly can How will you respond to the cross of Jesus because there's only two responses You will either get right with God Or you'll be left

without him Either get right or Get left Someone say get right or get left. Well, that sounds kind of mean but it's true Let's begin with the cross on the left the cross on the left The Bible says that there's a criminal on the cross to Jesus's left side who begins to hurl insults at Jesus Just think about this for a moment. This man is bleeding. He's got nails in his flesh He is up on a cross and the little breath that he has left He is mocking Jesus if you are who you said that you are Why don't you save yourself and save us? this is a scary place to be because what you discover about the cross on the left the cross on the left is always the cross of rebellion and Rebellion who is a rough place to be because rebellion refuses to take responsibility What are we talking about this man is dying and he's still blaming Jesus Whenever you're caught in rebellion What begins to happen in your life is you will live your life saying it's easier to blame people Than allow life to break me The other day we came home from the house and you saw my kids up here amazing kids always serving God never sin And my boy Wyatt had a scratch on his face and we said Wyatt What happened to your face and he pointed at his brother the middle child? He said it was wild and we said wild Did you scratch your brother? You can't scratch your brother. He looks back at his mother. He says you should cut my fingernails Okay, this is creative. Somehow it's our fault that Wyatt has a scratch on his face. I wouldn't scratch him if you'd cut my fingernails, but this is humanity's story. This is what we love to do. We don't want to take responsibility. We would rather blame. We would rather point the finger. Go all the way back to the garden.

Rebellion's interesting, because it's not just about sin. Rebellion spins. It constructs a different story. Adam, why did you eat the fruit? The woman made me do it. Eve, why did you eat the fruit? The serpent made me do it. We love to play the blame game, but listen to me, the blame game will not get you to freedom. We're so good at concealing things, and whatever we begin to conceal, whatever we continue to hide, we will never get free from. It's amazing because Adam and Eve, they didn't confess their sin, and nor does this man on the cross. Instead, when you stop confessing, you start constructing. A lot of us, we know what our sin has done, but we're still constructing stories. We're spinning things. Well, technically, let me explain. I want to give you some context. I want to be bold today. I love you very, very much, but you have to be honest. Some of the crosses in your life, they were not put on you. They were produced by you. You went to jail because you broke the law. You lost your marriage because you broke trust. You don't see your kids now at 55 years of age because you were never with them then when you had time. You lost your job because you couldn't put the bottle down. You're facing heart failure because you could never get your physical body in check. I'm not trying to condemn people. I'm trying to bring clarity, because until you get clear, until you get honest, until

you get honest about what it is that's binding you up, you will never get free from it. Rebellion will have you spinning and spinning and spinning. Blaming is easier than breaking, but God is not after your constructed self. God is looking for the broken heart, the broken spirit to say, God, I need you. When you live in rebellion, you can hit rock bottom, and the only thing you learn how to do is blame the rocks at the bottom. I get scared because the dangerous part of living with a spirit of rebellion is that you can be right next to Jesus and still get left, left in your sin, left in your shame, left in your sorrow, suffering, but still stubborn. I don't know how you're going to hear it. I don't know what's going to get through to that hard heart, but that's what rebellion does. It creates a hard heart, and even right now, some of you are getting offended at my message. I'm just the messenger. Gets you saying all sorts of, God left me. God didn't leave you. You left God. Where is God? Where have you been? Proximity to Jesus will not save you. In the same way that you cannot go stand in your garage and say, now I'm a car. You can't stand in church and say, now I'm a Christian. You can be crucified on a cross next to Jesus and still get left. I'm trying to preach to someone today. You got to come out of your hiding. You got to come out of your rebellion. You got to recognize and take responsibility. I got some blame in all of this. It's not just the cross left. There's another response, and it's the cross on the right.

Someone say, get right. There's another criminal up on that cross, and in this moment, when he hears the man on the left saying these things, he silences him. He's like, yo, don't you fear God? Stop right there. This is a confession of faith. Something about this man in the middle ain't like you and me. This isn't just a man. This is God. This is God. fear God The fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom Let's flip the verse foolishness begins when the fear of God ends See if you do not fear God you'll start to live like you are a god and This man in a moment says don't you fear God this dude's different. Who is this man in the middle? We deserve this Whoa? He's not playing blame game. He recognizes his contribution to the moment It's my sin. It's my crime that put me on this cross. I am Guilty. So here it comes. He looks at Jesus and says remember me Which this is the most powerful prayer because the cross on the left is the cross of rebellion but the cross on the right is the cross of repentance and And repentance is not about being perfect Repentance is not about going to church and getting it All right repentance isn't about giving it an offering or going to the growth track or wearing your linen suit and saying I'm blessed and highly That's not repentance is Repentance is one more. Will you remember me? God I admit I'm not looking to be declared innocent. I'm not asking for a second chance I'm not even asking you to take away the consequence for my mistake

What I'm asking is that you would remember me Remember me I Repent Adam and Eve they sinned in the garden. I like it because they go and hide. What is God doing that story? He comes looking for them Which tells me even in our hiding he's looking for us Isn't this true though? Because as these crowds are mocking Jesus and as they're prophesying and as they're fulfilling prophecies the Bible says Jesus looks out and says father Forgive them for they do not know what they're doing Who is this man in the middle You don't even know what you're doing and I'm already forgiving you for it You ever do something like I don't know why I did that you ever send an email you like I wish I could take it Here's Jesus Forgiving humanity this ought to encourage you Because some of us are so convinced that we have to clean ourselves up that we have to play the game of religion to find forgiveness But Jesus is showing something for us on the cross at our worst moment. He's still at his best Who is this man who forgives before I ask before I apologize before I recognize before I realize We're mocking him. He's forgiving us. We're laughing at him. He's forgiving us Isn't that what the scripture says that while you were yet a sinner come on Christ forgave you This is not normal forgiveness. This is divine forgiveness. Somebody thank God for grace in this house Father forgive me. They don't know what they're doing Remember me Jesus. I like this Because I saw this earlier this week and I I know I got to say it to our church Some of y'all got to get right with God Get right with God Repent Come into relationship with him ask for forgiveness Let him redeem you because when you get right you get remembered Oh That'll preach right there

It's interesting tradition tells us that this man is not forgotten in fact, this man tradition will tell us his name is dismissed it means sunset and If you study this man on the right, what you'll discover is that this criminal was later Venerated by the Catholic Church and became a saint His Name means sunset dude woke up a criminal and when he died at sunset he became a saint We're still talking about the guy named dismissed. Did you know that in California they named a city San Dimas? After this man, I'm trying to tell some people that when you get right you can be remembered Because all it takes is one moment one life surrendered one honest moment of vulnerability Oscar Wilde was right when he said every saint has a past. Oh, but every sinner every repentant sinner Come on, they got a future in Christ Jesus, come on somebody give God praise all over this house today Lord Remember me the cross on the right repents and he looks towards the cross It's in the middle. And the cross in the middle changes everything. It changes everything because Jesus is the man in the middle. And I like it because Jesus looks back at Dismas and he says, today you will be with me in paradise. I love this. What a beautiful, beautiful picture of God's supernatural grace. The cross on the left is the cross of rebellion. The cross on the right is the cross of repentance, but the cross in the middle, Jesus, where he lives, where he stays, where he hangs, is always the cross of redemption. And in this moment, understand this cross is not just wood, this cross is behaving as a bridge.

Hebrews chapter four, verse 15, it says this way, as it's describing Jesus, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet he did not sin. This is echoing what Charles Spurgeon wrote hundreds of years ago, as it talks about the man in the middle. Jesus is not like any other high priest. In the Old Testament, a priest was the middleman. He would stand in between God and the people. He would offer sacrifice and atonement for sin. But Jesus is more than a middleman. He is the true high priest. Priest in Latin is the word pontifex. Pontifex by definition is bridge builder. Because the cross is more than wood, it's a bridge. It's bridging you from your past, come on somebody, into paradise. Paradise is a Persian word. It's more than a place, it speaks of a walled garden. And when a Persian king was offering a special offering, he would say, I wanna take you into paradise. It would mean I wanna walk with you in my walled garden. What type of gift is this? To walk with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords in his garden, in his paradise. But you can only get there not by your effort or not by your works,

but rather you need the bridge, you need the cross to bridge you from your past into your future, from your sin into God's story, from your shame into his sanctification, from your death into his life. Come on somebody. From hell into heaven. Let him build a bridge. The cross is a bridge. And notice what Jesus says today. Someone say today. Today. I like everything about God, it's so immediate, today. Today you're gonna be with me in paradise. Today. Right now. My man woke up a guilty criminal, but as he died on that cross, he woke up in paradise with Jesus. Not because of effort, not because of good deeds, but because of one moment of repentance and recognizing you are who you said that you are. Jesus foretold this moment in Matthew chapter 25, he teaches a parable, it's called the parable of the sheep and the goats. He says, one day we're gonna stand before God and God's gonna separate us. And the goats will go to his left and his sheep will go to his right. And to the goats he will say,

depart from me for I never knew you. See, this faith Christianity is different from every other religion because it's not about what you know, it's about who you know. Let me take it further. It's not about what you know, it's about who you know. It's not about who you know, it's about who knows you. Because to those who got left, the goats, depart, I never knew you. But what does he say? He says, my sheep know my voice and I know, not the crowd, I know their names. To those on my right, I know their name, I know their name, I know their name. He knows your name. It's one thing to know God, it's another thing when God knows you. But you gotta get right to get remembered. I was flying home a few weeks ago, I was in New York City and I was flying out of LaGuardia and with the TSA shutdowns, I got to the airport and when I got to the airport, the security line went all the way to the sidewalk outside at three hour wait. I said, the devil is a liar. I got in that line and I was like, this is okay, I guess I'm just gonna wait. I've been it's into that line. My phone began to ring. I picked up the phone. I said hello. They said mr. Wilkerson This is concierge key with American Airlines and we see that you are traveling today and you are one of our valued customers

We would like to take you from wherever you're at in line To the front of the line. I Said favors not fair. Okay Okay, if you insist And You ain't ever seen people so mad Hurl and insults, why does he get to go to the front? Who is he? What did he do? I Said I can't answer that. All I know is they called my name When this man got to paradise there was not a list of good deeds There wasn't a track record of church attendance. There wasn't a growth track report. There wasn't an offering report Why do you get to get in here? All I can say is the man in the middle said I can come in And This is grace, this is our gospel, this is the good news that we don't strive we surrender God doesn't need your strength. He needs your surrender God remember me God I want to get right with you You see everything about the gospel is not you being Qualified on your pedigree or your performance You are not qualified based upon what you have done. You're qualified based upon him declaring it is Finished I completed the assignment But when Jesus died and he hung his head and declared it is finished it looked like it was over We celebrated Good Friday But we can only call it good in retrospect For Saturday was the middle. We call it silent Saturday. It's where a lot of us are living today A lot of us are lingering in the middle Forgetting who our God is Forgetting that you have not a happily ever after but a heaven ever after waiting for you if you're in Christ Jesus That you've been redeemed and restored based upon his effort not yours You see when Jesus hung his head and declared it is finished some things were taking place

Sin was being destroyed The accuser of the brethren Satan himself. He was defeated Satan all he can do now is lie to you That's why next week. I'm starting a brand new series called heretics the lies listen the lies that we believe But the truth that sets us free He don't have power over you. All he can do is lie to you and accuse you. He's like a dog with no teeth He ain't got dentures, okay But something else was taking place the wages of sin, why did Jesus why the man in the middle died? Because he was paying the price the ransom For your sin and for my sin He didn't just die for you He died as you And Hebrews tells us that this sacrifice listen to me it was once and for all When I was a kid I was growing up in Washington State And we had a little fort in our front yard I must have been 11 12 years of age and I was playing in my fort And I ran out of the fort and when I ran out I ran right into a beehive That stung on my face My face swelled up I had to go to the doctor's I Remember a couple of days later I was going to a doctor appointment just to make sure we were okay and I was in the elevator and this man looked at me and said man Looks like you got into a pretty big brawl Looks like you got into a pretty big fight. I was all swollen. I Say yeah But you should see the other guy Yeah, you should see the other guy because when a bee stings you a bee dies That's why the Apostle Paul said Oh death. Where is your sting? Oh grave. Where is your victory? When death took its shot at Jesus, come on somebody death died on Easter when Jesus got up out of that grave

Resurrection life began. He conquered death, hell, and the grave. And the same power, the same power lives inside of you and lives inside of me. This is what separates Christianity from every other faith. Please understand today. I don't know who you are, what you came from. I might not get to see you again for a while, but you ought to understand this is not religion. This is not performance. This is a man that when you repent, he says, I'll remember you. And when he was crucified, he didn't stay in that grave. He got out of the grave. In every other religion, no disrespect. I don't use this pulpit to disrespect anybody, but I do use this pulpit to proclaim the truth. You could go out there to Hebron and you could find Abraham's bones as a Jewish person and be quiet. He's over there. You could make your way over to India and visit the tomb of Buddha. You could go and find the bones of Muhammad. These were supposedly men that lived a great life, that did something awesome. I don't know. That's not what I'm talking about. All I know is you can make your way to Jerusalem and you won't find any bones. You won't find a body. He's not there. He got up out of the grave. He resurrected. Who is this man who conquers even death? That's why I've decided that even when I'm in the middle, I can still shout. I can still celebrate because Easter Sunday is not a one-time event. Oh, come on. Where's the church at? Easter Sunday is a reality every day of the week. My Savior lives! The middle gets messy. The middle gets scary. But today you should praise God in the middle because the middle is where He does His best work. It's where faith is formed. I could show it to you so many ways. He's in the cocoon, man. This caterpillar goes in. But man, in the cocoon, He's not dying. He's developing. A baby in a womb, you can't see the progress every day. But cells are being formed. Life is taking place. The womb is creating growth. And even Jesus, they took Him off that cross and they put Him in a grave. And it looked like the story was over. But nobody knew the tomb was a womb because what they buried came back breathing. So I need you to take a moment today at every location and I need you to praise a God who takes cocoons and turns them into wings. He takes wombs and turns them into life. He takes tombs and He turns them into resurrection. Somebody give Jesus the praise and the glory that He deserves.