Today we come to the last statement of our series on the Seven Statements from the Cross. We’ve seen a wide array of theological truths that have the power to transform our lives. We’ve seen Christ asking the Father to forgive the very people who at the time were mocking him and had beat and mistreat him. A forgiveness that wasn’t dependant upon the remorse of others. We’ve seen Jesus give the gift of eternal life to a thief on the cross as in the last hours of his life he turned to Christ and asked him to remember him. Christ said, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” It shows us that no matter what you’ve done and no matter what hour if you turn to Christ with true repentance in your heart it’s never too late. We’ve seen Jesus in the pain and agony of the cross take time to entrust his mother to his beloved friend and disciple John. We’ve heard the agony in the voice of Christ at the moment that He took the sins of the world upon himself and was separated from his Father. He said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He endured that separation from His Father so we wouldn’t have to. I won’t go through them all, but all of them have brought tremendous truths to our lives. Talk about a person who made every word count. Jesus surely did! Today as we come to the close of our series, it’s not exactly a typical Easter passage. But I do believe there are tremendous lessons in it for us, and I do believe there is a Easter message with it as well.
Luke 23:46
“That is Psalm 31:5 with one word added--Father. That verse was the prayer every Jewish mother taught her child to say last thing at night. Just as we were taught maybe to say, ‘This night I lay me down to sleep,’ so the Jewish mother taught her child to say, before the threatening dark came down, ’Into thy hands I commit my spirit.’ Jesus made it even more lovely for he began it with the word Father. Even on the cross Jesus died like a child falling asleep in His father’s arms.” (The Gospel of Luke, The Daily Bible Studies Series, Westminister John Knox Press, William Barclay, pp.288) Now I want you to notice something. Once again in this passage, Christ goes back to saying, Father. It was no longer, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” You see when Christ said “it was finished“, it was finished, the price had been paid and I truly believe that at this point fellowship with His Father had been restored. And in that fellowship we see Christ entrusting his spirit into his father’s hands as he gives it up. I believe the first thing that this message teaches us is: The Father’s hands are trustworthy. Christ had no problem putting his spirit into his Father’s hands because He knew there were no better hands than His Father’s and He knew that He could totally trust His Father. Like we said it was just like a child falling asleep in his Father’s arms, total trust. We need to know that we can entrust our spirit, we can entrust every part of our lives into God’s hands because there is no one more trustworthy. When you truly entrust your spirit to God you will entrust all of you to Him. You may remember the Allstate commercials from years ago. They encouraged people to put their trust in them, the good hands people. The good hands people became their motto. But I’m here to tell you that their hands do not come anywhere near being as trustworthy as the hands of our Father. There are people who are afraid to put their spirit, afraid to put their life in the hands of God. Some are scared because their not sure what God might have them do or what He might have them give up. Others won’t put their hands in the life of God because their not ready to take their hands off the stirring wheel. They want to be in charge of the direction of their life. And here is an opportunity to bring in my favorite scripture. It’s been a few months since I’ve used it. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.” That scripture isn’t just for Jeremiah it’s for each one of us. He has a plan for our lives that will benefit us. He has a plan that will bring hope to our lives. Yet some of us are so set in charting our own course that we refuse to put our lives in God’s hands and see what He has for us. It reminded me about what I was reading in my devotions the other morning. The Israelites wanted a king. All of the other nations around them had a king. That is not the course that God wanted for them. He knew what an earthly king would do to them. He knew how they tended to get caught up in their pride and how they tended to treat people. And he wanted them to be satisfied with him being their only king. So God warned the people through Samuel about all the different things a king would do to them like drafting their men into an army and making slave laborers and taking the best of their crops for themselves or giving it to his friends and even taking a tenth of their harvest and flocks. God wanted Israel to be different than any other country. He wanted them to be a shining example to the other countries about what He could do for a people who put themselves totally in His hands. He wanted them to be the one country that had him as the King of their life. He wanted them to entrust all of themselves to him and what he could do for them. But Israel refused to listen, they wanted what they wanted and they turned a deaf ear to all of the negatives and demanded a king so God gave them what they asked for. And they found out that the course they chose for themselves would cause a lot of unnecessary problems that they wouldn’t have had to deal with if they had just totally put themselves into the hands of God and let him be their guide. Listen to what God would say to the Israelites later in Isaiah 65:2 “All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations.” That happens today, God is holding out his hand saying put your life in my hands. You can trust me. But instead people continue to pursue their own desires and wants and imaginations. Some of you out here this morning may say, “I’ve seen people who have entrusted their life in the hands of God and bad things happen to them just like they do anyone else.” That’s true when we entrust our lives into the hands of God it doesn’t mean that we won’t have bad things that happen to us. This world is full of tragedy and Christians aren‘t exempt. But we have a God who gives us the strength we need and a God who promises us in Romans 8:28 that he works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. That means even when we have tragedy that strikes our life that God can take that tragedy and bring about good for us. It maybe that through the tragedy that God takes it and uses it to shape us more like His son. We don’t know what He may do to use that tragedy for good but we have that promise that He will work it to our good. Just like David said, “Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust.” This morning would be a great morning for you to say, “Father into your hands I commit my spirit.” If you say it and really mean it, I guarantee that you won’t be sorry.
I believe that it also teaches us that when we trust him with our spirit, He takes us from spiritual death to a resurrection of a new life. Paul describes our life perfectly before we entrusted our spirit to him when he wrote this to the church at Ephesus. “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of the world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” When we were living life the way that we wanted to live it and when we were steering our own ship, we were dead in our transgressions. Spiritually we were dead. That means spiritually that there was no pulse in our relationship with God. When you are spiritually dead you can have no fellowship with God. But just like Christ was raised from the dead we can be made alive in Christ. We can be resurrected from our spiritual death. Like the scriptures said and like we talked about last week, it is only by grace that you can be saved, you can’t earn it, the work Christ did on the cross paid the price. But you have to trust the work of Christ and the provision the Father made for us. God wants to bring that spiritual resurrection to our lives so that He can lavish His love upon us. But when God brings that spiritual resurrection to our lives, we are resurrected to a new person. We are no longer the same person we used to be. Just like Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” Sure we look like the same person. It’s not that people won’t recognize us when they see us out on the street. It’s just that they won’t recognize our actions anymore. Through the Holy Spirit God begins to change your heart and when your heart is changed so will your actions be. Praise God that you can be raised from the dead this morning. Trust him in what He said we must do, accept his gift of salvation through His son, and put your spirit in his hands and you will have new life.
I believe the other lesson that this statement teaches us is this: When we entrust our spirit to God we know with confidence that physical death is not the end. Jesus knew that when he gave up his spirit that it wasn’t over. He had complete trust that this wasn’t the end. He knew that He would continue to have life. He knew that once again in the future He would be in the presence of his Father. And because of that day when the Angel of the Lord said to the women at the tomb, “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.” We too can have victory over death and we can have confidence that our physical death isn’t the end. Paul experienced that confidence when he said in Philippians 1:22,23, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far…” Paul knew that for him to depart this world he would be in the presence of Christ. We can know just like Paul and countless others, that God indeed has prepared something for us that is so good that we can’t even begin to imagine or conceive just how great it will be.
“Once upon a time, twin boys were conceived in the womb. Seconds, minutes, hours passed as the two embryonic lives developed. The spark of life grew and each tiny brain began to take shape and form. With the development of their brain came feeling, and with feeling, perception--a perception of surroundings, of each other, and their own lives. They discovered that life was good, and they laughed and rejoiced in their hearts.
One said to the other, ‘We are lucky to have been conceived and to have this wonderful world.’
The other chimed in, ‘Yes, blessed be our mother who gave us life and each other.’
Each of the twins continued to grow and soon their arms and fingers, legs and toes began to take shape. They stretched their bodies and churned and turned in their little world. They explored it and found the life cord which gave them life from their mother’s blood. They were grateful for this new discovery and sang, ‘How great is the love of our mother--that she shares all she has with us!’
Weeks passed into months and with the advent of each new month, they noticed a change in each other and themselves.
‘We are changing,’ one said. ‘What can it mean?’
‘It means,’ said the other, ‘that we are drawing near to birth.’
An unsettling chill crept over the two. They were afraid of birth, for they knew that it meant leaving their wonderful world behind.
Said the one, ‘Were it up to me, I would live here forever.’
‘But we must be born, said the other. ‘It has happened to all the others.’ Indeed, there was evidence inside the womb that the mother had carried life before theirs. ‘And I believe that there is life after birth, don’t you?’
‘How can their be life after birth?’ cried the one. ‘Do we not shed our life cord and also the blood tissue when we are born? And have you ever talked to anyone that has been born? Has anyone ever re-entered the womb after birth to describe what birth is like? NO!’ As he spoke, he fell into despair, and in his despair he moaned, ‘If the purpose of conception and our growth inside the womb is to end in birth, then truly our life is senseless.’ He clutched his precious life cord to his breast and said, ‘And if this is so, and life is absurd, then there really can be no mother!’
‘But there is a mother,’ protested the other. ‘Who else gave us nourishment? Who else created this world for us?’
‘We get our nourishment from this cord--and our world has always been here! Said the one. ‘And if there is a mother--where is she? Have you ever seen her? Does she ever talk to you? NO! We invented the mother when we were young because it satisfied a need in us. It made us feel secure and happy.’
Thus while the one raved and despaired, the other reigned himself to birth and placed his trust in the hands of his mother. Hours turned into days, and days into weeks. And soon it was time. They both knew their birth was at hand, and they both feared what they did not know. As the one was first to be conceived, so he was the first to be born, the other following.
They cried as they were born into the light. They coughed out fluid and gasped the dry air. And when they were sure they had been born, they opened their eyes--seeing life after birth for the very first time. What they saw was the beautiful eyes of their mother, as they were cradled lovingly in her arms. They were home.” (More Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks, Zondervan Publishing, Wayne Rice, p105,106)
When this world is all you know it’s very easy to fear what happens at death. But there is no reason for us to fear. Like Jesus saying that Jewish children’s prayer. “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” Christ, with a faith even stronger than a child, willingly closed his eyes and gave up his spirit knowing that a better life waited. When that day comes upon you, I pray that you entrust your spirit to the hands of God with a confidence knowing that when you awake you will see the eyes of your Father welling up with love saying, “Welcome my child!” Thanks to an empty tomb today, we can experience that if we just trust and believe.
