Welcome .......
As Christ our Lord hung there on the cross of Calvary, nails in his hands,
nails in his feet, blood gushing from his side, his body in agonzing pain, he
took those dying moments to speak with his Father. Four of our Lord’s seven
sayings was directed to his Father. Father forgive them, for they know not
what they do.........My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me.....It is
fnished. With a voice of triumph, with a voice of victory, the bible says with
a loud voice, Jesus once again spoke to his Father, Father, or we might say
Daddy, into thy hands, (not in John’s hands, not in Peter’s hands) but
into thy hands I commend, I commit, I entrust my spirit. Father in the
garden I was asking you if it was possible to remove this cup from me, but
today, I am placing my spirit into your hands. The cry with a loud voice is a
solemn dis-missal of his spirit when he com-men-ded it to his Father. This
commending his spirit to his Father has been accurately termed his entrance
greeting to heaven. This was our Lord’s farewell to earth.
I believe as Christ was leaving this earth to go to be with His Father in
heaven, to go back to enjoy the glory he had with the Father before the world
was. I believe as he was making his transition from earth to heaven, I
believe the angels were standing at attention to welcome home the King of
kings. I can hear an angel of God shouting out, "Lift up your heads, O ye
gates; and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors; and the king of glory shall
come in." An angel must have asked the question, by the way, "Who is this
king of glory?" The answer came back loud and clear, "He is the Lord
strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." Once again the call went
out, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye ever-lasting
doors; and the king of glory shall come in." Once again the question was
asked, "Who is this king of glory?" and the answer came back, "The Lord of
hosts, he is the king of glory." Je-sus Christ is indeed King of kings and Lord
of lords.
This verse talks about the dying of our Lord, and we distinguish between
death and dying. "All men die, but all men have not a dying experience. Those
who are killed in war or by accident, those who are brutally murdered, those
who are attacked by some dreadful disease that might render them helpless
does not have a dying experience." I believe it’s a wonderful thing to see a
saint leaving this world of trouble and sorrow and going to be with the Lord.
In Foxe’s Book of Martyr’s we read of the dying experience of Ridley and
Latimer while being burnt to the stake. As Ridley and Latimer were being
burnt at the stake because of their faith in God, Latimer said to Ridley, "Be
of good courage, brother Ridley, and play the man: for we shall this day
light such a candle by God’s grace in England, as I trust shall never be
put out." When Ridley saw the fire flaming up towards him, he cried with a
loud voice, "Lord, into thy hands I com-mend my spirit; Lord receive my
spirit!" Latimer prayed as earnestly on the other side, saying, "O Father of
heaven, receive my soul!" These two men Latimer and Ridley had a dying
experience..............elaborate...
The words our Lord uttered just as his end drew near, indicate a deep serenity of spirit. They show nothing of agitation or anxiety, but of peace and
tranquility. He started off by saying Father. The name Father all along had
been a name of strength and peace, and Jesus was resting on the assurance of
parental love. The words that follow shows entire spiritual composure. The
only begotten Son of God was resigning his spirit to God’s gracious charge,
"knowing that in his holy and mighty keeping it would be safe and
blessed."
In the hands of God we are safe, we are protected, we are secure. Jesus was
resigning his spirit into the hands of God. Jesus had done the will of the
Father; he had done everything the Father had asked him to do, and now he
is finally yielding himself to God, he bowed his head in
death........elaborate... he died that we might live.....
The death of Jesus Christ is the ground "for our pardon, our peace, our life
before God." We might never face a cruel cross and be crucified, but we can
have a dying experience. We don’t have to be terrified, alarmed, agitated,
but "our spirit will look calmly forward to the moment of departure from this
world and of entrance into another." As children of God we will be able to
face the future with a smile. We will be able to say like the apostle Paul, "O
death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" In our dying
experience "we shall feel that we are only going into the nearer presence
of our own Father, of him before whom we have been living and to whom
we have been rejoicing; only passing from one room to another in our
Father’s house."
Because of Christ’s death on the cross, because of Christ bearing your sins
and mine, he is our Divine Savior, in whom we hide; "and we shall die in the
calm assurance that we shall be found in him and accepted through him. As
the days go by, and the weeks and years go by, and our time draws near to
leave this old world of trouble and sorrow, let’s get ourselves ready to say
with a deeper and fuller meaning than the psalmist could in Psalm 31 verse 5,
"Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hadst redeemed me, O Lord
God of truth."
Since we don’t know when our time will be, let’s encourage ourselves with
these words, "But until then my heart will go on singing, Until then with
joy I’ll carry on, Until the day my eyes behold the city, Until the day God
calls me home........"
Amen
