Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit Series

Happy Easter Sunday to everyone! Happy resurrection day to you all. Welcome to Easter Sunday including those of you online.

Why is Easter a Big Deal? Easter is a time when God's people celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As much as you may admire Abraham Lincoln, your parents, or MLK, JR., there are not even two people who gather every Sunday to celebrate him. But over hundreds of millions of people will gather together to celebrate Jesus today. No one but Jesus has this kind of effect on us today. In the moments to come, I hope to show you why so many of us worship Jesus Christ.

I invite you to turn to Luke 23 with me. If you didn't bring a copy of God's Word, turn to page 1051 in the Black Pew Bibles in front of you. Jesus hung on the cross for six agonizing hours before succumbing to the torture of crucifixion through asphyxiation. During that time, Jesus made seven statements on the cross that were recorded in the four gospels of the New Testament. These are famous last words.

Communication Card

At the end of today's message, I will invite you to commit your life to Jesus Christ. I want everyone to have the "Communication Card" near you. You'll find one in the pew in front of you. Please keep that handy. I'll share with you some instructions about this a little later in the service. Today we hear the very last recorded words of Jesus while on the cross.

Today's Scripture

"It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 while the sun's light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, 'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!' And having said this he breathed his last. 47 Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, 'Certainly this man was innocent!' 48 And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. 49 And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things" (Luke 23:44-49).

Luke is the only Gospel writer that records the very last words that Jesus ever spoke and you would expect that because Luke is a doctor. Doctors are intensely interested in death. As he investigated the life of Jesus, he wanted to know everything he could about the death of Jesus.

Sermon Preview

I want to answer three questions in the next few minutes:

"What can we learn from how Jesus died?"

What do we learn from modern theories on death?

"How can I benefit from Jesus' death?"

1. In His Final Moments, Jesus Trusted in God.

"Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, 'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!' And having said this he breathed his last" (Luke 23:46).

I want to answer this question, "What can we learn from how Jesus died?" In His final few minutes, Jesus mustered up enough strength to speak a few life-changing sentences. After three hours of darkness, Jesus' loud cry pierces this darkness with a loud cry.

1.1 Loud Cry

Jesus spoke twice in a loud voice on the cross. The first time He spoke loudly, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46b). Now, at the very end, Jesus cries out again in a loud voice, 'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!' And having said this he breathed his last" (Luke 23:46b). There is a distressing urgency to Jesus' words.

Now, crucifixion was an extremely cruel way to kill someone. It was common to hear screams of rage and pain from people hanging on a cross. People report hearing people wildly curse while on the cross. But Jesus did not raise His voice in a rage but in prayer. I suspect if had you been there to hear Jesus' cries, you would have remembered the urgency of His pleas for the rest of your life.

1.1.1 The Temple Curtain Torn

Just as Jesus cried out and breathed His last, the Bible tells us that curtain of the Temple was torn in two. Witnesses to the Temple tell us that this curtain was as thick as your hand. The curtain was more than sixty-five feet high and nearly fifty feet wide. So the tearing of something so thick and so large was supernatural. What did this mean? The Temple was no longer where God would meet with humans.

1.1.2 Rocks Were Split

And when Jesus cried out His last words, the Bible says there was an earthquake so that rocks were split. Tombs were open and the dead arose and appeared to many around Jerusalem (Matthew 27:52-53). When a hardened centurion and those around him witnessed all this, they said, "Truly this was the Son of God" (Matthew 27:54)! No, Jesus didn't slip off to death with noiseless prayer. This was His death cry. Instead, His prayer punctuated the night sky in the middle of the day for all to hear.