Into Your Hands

INTO YOUR HANDS

LUKE 23:44-46

WE HAVE HERE THE LAST WORDS OF JESUS, ACCORDING TO LUKE. MATTHEW, MARK, AND JOHN GIVE DIFFERENT LAST WORDS AS HE DIES. EVEN THOUGH THEY DIFFER, THE FACT THEY ALL AGREE ON IS, THAT AFTER THESE WORDS HE DIED. HIS DEATH HAD BEEN FORETOLD THROUGHOUT CHURCH HISTORY, AND THE GOSPELS, IN TOTAL AGREEMENT, FURNISHES US WITH PROOF OF THAT DEATH.

JESUS HAD TO DIE. MAN HAD BEEN SNATCHED FROM THE HAND’S OF GOD BY HIS OWN DISOBEDIENCE. GOD FORMULATED A PLAN TO BRING MAN BACK, AND IT INCLUDED THE DEATH OF HIS ONLY SON, JESUS. HERE WAS A GOD, WHICH LOVED US SO MUCH, HE WAS WILLING TO SACRIFICE HIS SON FOR OUR SALVATION.

TO SOME OF YOU TODAY, WHAT I WILL SAY RIGHT HERE, WILL SOUND FACETIOUS, AND EVEN FOOLISH, BUT I WILL SAY IT ANYWAY. FROM WHAT I READ OF GOD AND JESUS THROUGHOUT THE GOSPELS, IT IS APPARENT TO ME, THAT SINCE THEY WERE FATHER AND SON, I BELIEVE THEY HAD THE SAME TYPE OF RELATIONSHIP, BRANDON AND I WOULD HAVE, OR YOU AND YOUR SON. THE BIBLE SAYS, THAT JESUS WAS IN THE BEGINNING WITH THE FATHER. THE BIBLE SAYS THAT JESUS AND GOD WERE ONE. THE BIBLE SAYS, JESUS CALLED GOD FATHER; THE BIBLE SAYS, THE ONLY TIME JESUS DIDN’T REFER TO GOD AS FATHER WAS WHEN HE WAS ON THE CROSS, AND THEN HE REFERRED TO HIM AS, “MY GOD.” JESUS AND GOD HAD AN INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP. JESUS DEPENDED ON GOD THE FATHER, THROUHOUT HIS LIFE. WHEN HE WAS TWELVE, JESUS SAID TO HIS MOTHER, “WOMAN, DON’T YOU KNOW, I MUST BE ABOUT MY FATHER’S BUSINESS?” GOD CARRIED JESUS THROUGHOUT HIS LIFE IN HANDS THAT THAT WERE UNABLE TO LOOSE THEIR GRIP, HANDS THAT WERE UNABLE TO FAIL. WHEN JESUS WAS ACOSTED BY THE DEVIL IN THE WILDERNESS, IN MATTHEW 4:6, SATAN TOLD JESUS, THAT HIS FATHER HAD GIVEN ORDERS TO THE ANGELS, TO BEAR HIM IN THEIR HANDS, SO THAT HE WOULD NOT STRIKE HIS FOOT ON A STONE. JESUS KNEW THE PROTECTION OF HIS FATHERS HANDS.

I REMEMBER THE HANDS OF MY MOTHER AND FATHER. WHEN I WAS A CHILD, WHEN AT NIGHT, I WOULD HAVE THE BAD DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES, I WOULD CRY OUT , AND ONE OF THEM WOULD COME AND I WOULD FEEL THE SAFETY OF THEIR HANDS UPON ME. WHAT COMFORT IT WOULD BRING, AND BACK TO SLEEP I COULD GO. PLAYING SPORTS, WHENEVER I WOULD SCRAPE MY KNEW, OR BREAK SOMETHING, I WOULD LOOK FORWARD TO THE TOUCH OF MY MOTHER’S OR FATHER’S HANDS. IT SEEMED ALL I NEEDED WAS TO FEEL THEIR HANDS ON ME, AND I KNEW EVERYTHING WOULD BE ALRIGHT. SO TODAY, I BELIEVE JESUS, AS YOU AND I WOULD, THROUGH ALL OF HIS PAIN AND SUFFERING, THROUGH ALL OF THE HECKLING AND BRUTALITY FROM THE CROWD, KNEW THAT COMFORT AND LOVE COULD BE FOUND ONLY IN ONE PLACE, THAT DAY AT CALVARY, AND SO HE CRIED, “FATHER INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT.”

I JUST LOVE WALKING THROUGH WAL-MART WITH BRANDON, HOLDING HIS HAND AND PULLING HIM ALONG. THERE IS A CERTAIN TRUST THERE THAT ONLY HE AND I KNOW WITH ONE ANOTHER. WHEN I LIFT HIM ABOVE MY HEAD, PLAYING WITH HIM, THERE IS THE SECURITY IN KNOWING BETWEEN US, THAT I WILL NEVER LET HIM FALL. JESUS, WELCOMED THE SECURITY OF THOSE HANDS; JESUS WELCOMED THE COMFORT FOUND IN THOSE HANDS; JESUS WELCOMED THE ABILITY OF THOSE HANDS TO DO WHAT NO OTHER HANDS COULD DO; AND THAT WAS TO DELIVER HIM OUT OF THE HANDS OF MAN. WHEN WE ARE IN GOD’S HANDS, WE ARE ALWAYS SAFE.

LET ME END THIS FOR YOU BY TELLING YOU; YOU SEE WHEN JESUS WAS IN THE HANDS OF MAN, FOR THOSE LAST 18 HOURS OF HIS LIFE; WITH THEIR HANDS—THEY WHIPPED HIM, UNMERCIFULLY.

WITH THEIR HANDS—THEY BEAT HIM, UNTIL THE SKIN FELL FROM HIS BODY.

WITH THEIR HANDS—THERY SLAPPED HIM, ‘TIL HE WAS BLUE IN THE FACE.

WITH THEIR HANDS—THEY ABUSED HIM, FOR NO REASON AT ALL.

WITH THEIR HANDS—THEY JAMMED A CROWN OF THORNS DOWN ON HIS HEAD, UNTIL BLOOD RAN DOWN LIKE A RIVER.

WITH THEIR HANDS—THEY STRIPPED HIM NAKED, AND

WITH THEIR HANDS—THEY NAILED HIM TO A CROSS.

WICKED HANDS DID ALL THEY COULD TO DEFEAT JESUS, BUT NOW JESUS REMEMBERS WHOSE HANDS HE ACTUALLY WAS IN. HE KNOWS HE IS RETURNING TO THE TENDER HANDS OF HIS FATHER.

ARE YOU IN THE FATHER’S HANDS TODAY? ARE YOU SAFE IN HIS ARMS? DO YOU HAVE THE SECURITY IN KNOWING, THERE ARE NO BETTER HANDS TO BE IN? NOT MAMMA’S HANDS; NOT DADDY’S HANDS; BUT GOD’S HANDS…NOBODY’S HANDS CAN CARRY YOU ALL THE WAY…LIKE GOD’S HANDS. THE SONG SAYS, “I’M SAFE IN HIS ARMS.”

WHEN LIFE…HANDS YOU THE TRIALS AND TROUBLES THAT GO WITH LIVING—REMEMBER, YOU’RE SAFE IN HIS ARMS.