THE LAST WORDS OF JESUS ON THE CROSS
LUKE 23:46
Last words are important, especially of the dying. Last words usually indicate the kind of life you live. Someone said, said, you die as you lived.
There was a tour group that was going to the top of the Empire State Building. At about the 102nd floor, a woman asked the tour guide, “If the cables on this elevator break, do we go up or down? ”The tour guide answered, “Well, that depends on how you are living.”
"I read of a man who became famous through his restaurant business. He established eating places for thousands of miles from New York to California and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. When at last he was dying and on his deathbed, his family gathered about his bed to hear his final words. And while his last words may seem humorous, they were really tragic. As he lay dying he was heard to whisper over and over, cut the ham thin, cut the ham thin!"
Hobbs said, I shall take a leap into the dark, P. T. Barnum, “How were the receipts today at Madison Square Garden?”, Humphrey Bogart, actor, “I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis.”, Voltaire, I am burning up, Moody, This is my coronation day, and Fanny Crosby, I am going to Heaven. When Billy Graham’s maternal grandmother died, he said the room seemed to fill with a heavenly light. "She sat up in bed and almost laughingly said, " I see Jesus. He has His arms outstretched toward me. I see Ben (her husband who had died some years earlier) and I see the angels." She slumped over, absent from the body but present with the Lord.
Jesus last words were, Father into thy hand. He lived in the Father’s hands, now he dies in the Father’s hands.
Before Jesus can arise out of the tomb, He has to die and be laid in the tomb.
I-NOTICE THE PRAYER HE OFFERED:
A-These Words Are A Prayer:
Jesus began His ministry with prayer, now he ends it with prayer.
He prayed rather than retaliation, rather than condemning, rather quitting , He prayed in his darkest hour.
Early African converts to Christianity were earnest and regular in private devotions. Each one reportedly had a separate spot in the thicket where he would pour out his heart to God. Over time the paths to these places became well worn. As a result, if one of these believers began to neglect prayer, it was soon apparent to the others. They would kindly remind the negligent one, "Brother, the grass grows on your path."
What the Church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use--men of prayer, men mighty in prayer.(E.M.Bounds)
A man told his preacher, "I need a $100 desperately to pay a bill that is way past due. I’ll be in real trouble if I don’t get the money. I keep praying to God for help but He doesn’t seem to help me." The preacher said, "Don’t lose faith. Just keep on praying."
Well, the preacher thought about the man’s situation and decided he would help him out, so he decided to give him $50 of his own money. He met the man a few days later and said, "Here, God sent this to you." When the man got home, he prayed, "Thank you, Lord, for the money. But the next time you send money, please don’t send it through the preacher because he kept half of it."
AREN’T YOU GLAD THAT GOD DOESN’T HOLD ANYTHING BACK
Morning Prayer
Dear God,
So far today I’ve done all right. I haven’t gossiped, I haven’t lost my temper, I haven’t been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish or over-indulgent. I’m very thankful for that. But in a few minutes, God, I’m going to get out of bed, and from then on, I’m probably going to need a lot of help.
Amen
B-These Words Are A Prophecy: Psalms 31:5
The "loud voice" cry is not the screaming of despair; rather it is the cry of unshakeable confidence.
His mind is saturated with the Hebrew Scriptures, His cry rings out through all Heaven, all Hell, and all Humanity, "Father, into they hands I commend my Spirit."
You see the Scriptures have been His great source of strength and satisfaction, who knows how many times He had repeated Psalm 31:5
HE WAS FULL OF THE WORD OF GOD, ARE YOU?
John Underhill -In January, 1984, I was painting the home of an 89-year-old lady in Spokane. She had a large family Bible prominently displayed on the coffee table and remarked that it was 116 years old and a priceless heirloom. I commented on how remarkable that was, and added, “It doesn’t matter how old the Bible might be, what’s on the inside is what matters.” She immediately replied, “Oh, I know. That sure is the truth. Why, we have family records and births and marriages and deaths that go so far back, all recorded in that Bible; we could never replace them.”
THE BIBLE IS NOT A RECORDS HOLDER, BUT A TRUTH HOLDER. THE TRUTHS OF GOD.
The great preacher Alexander White, when he was too old to mount the pulpit, would rise every morning to prepare a sermon, even though he never preached them. He did so until the day he died. He was convinced that study of the Word was essential
C-These Words Are A Parallel:
FROM THE HANDS OF MEN INTO THE HANDS OF GOD
Once they cried “away with him.” And one day, “He will cry out depart from me”
On one occasion Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, the agnostic lecturer of the last century, was announced to give an address on hell. He declared he would prove conclusively that hell was a wild dream of some scheming theologians who invented it to terrify credulous people. As he was launching into his subject, a half-drunken man arose in the audience and exclaimed, “Make it strong, Bob. There’s a lot of us poor fellows depending on you. If you are wrong, we are all lost. So be sure you prove it clear and plain.”
No amount of reasoning can nullify God’s sure Word. He has spoken as plainly of a hell for the finally impenitent as of a heaven for those who are saved.
D-These Words Are A Profession :
It was a profession of His trust in His Father.
Every night, the Jewish child prayed this prayer as they were going to bed. The were asking the Lord to take care of them during the night.
It is a word of deposit, to turn over for safe keeping. (ex- a bank) A word of trust.
Bob Vernon, formerly with the Los Angeles Police Department, tells of how the Department would test bullet-proof vests—and demonstrate to rookie officers their value—by placing them on mannequins and then shooting round after round at them. They’d then check to see if any of the rounds penetrated the vests. Invariably the vests would pass the test with flying colors. Vernon would then turn to the rookie officers and ask, “So who wants to wear it now instead of the mannequin?”
HE WAS TESTING THEIR TRUST
John Wesley wrote, “Among the many difficulties of our early ministry, my brother Charles often said, ‘If the Lord would give me wings, I’d fly.’ I used to answer, ‘If God bids me fly, I will trust Him for the wings.’”
II-NOTICE THE PEACE HE EXPRESSED:
A-A Peace Based On Communion With God:
He had peace because He had fellowship with God at death. Before it had been broken because of the sins Jesus was bearing for you and I. But now, He speaks loudly, “Father”, loud enough so that his enemies and the demons of hell knew he was back in fellowship with His Father.
In his book The Crisis Of Christ, Dr. G. Campbell Morgan points out that there are seven major crises in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. At each one of these crises the Lord can be seen at prayer.
One of the keys to fellowship with God is Obedience. Many Christians go through the motions with lip service and body attendance but never obey or heed to the voice of the Lord and the Word of God.
I read about a person whose friend often told him about the problems he had getting his son to clean his room. The son would always agree to tidy up, but then wouldn’t follow through. After high school the young man joined the Marine Corps. When he came home for leave after basic training, his father asked him what he had learned in the service. “Dad,” he said. “I learned what ‘now’ means.”
If we want to be successful and increase in our fellowship with God we must be obedient now not later, not partial, but now.
B-Peace Based On Completeness:
John 19:30 says, “So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!”
He had completed the Father’s will thus He had peace.
In Dr. Paul Brand’s book, "In His Image," he writes about his mother. She was seventy-five years old and still walking miles every day, visiting the villages in the southern part of India, teaching the people about Jesus. At seventy-five, she fell & broke her hip. After two days of just lying there in pain, some workers found her & put her on a makeshift cot & loaded her into their jeep & drove one hundred and fifty miles over deep rutted roads to find a doctor who could set the broken bones. But the very bumpy ride damaged her bones so badly that her hip never completely healed. He said, "I visited my mother in her mud-covered hut. At age seventy-five, with a broken hip, unable to stand on her own two legs, I suggested that she retire … She turned around & looked at me & said, `What value is that? If we try to preserve this body just a few more years & it is not being used for God, of what value is that?’" So she kept on working. She kept on riding her donkey to villages until she was ninety-three years old. At age ninety-three she couldn’t stay on her donkey anymore. She kept falling off. But she didn’t stop preaching. Indian men would carry her in hammocks from one village to another. And she continued to tell people about Jesus Christ until she died at age ninety-five.
III-NOTICE THE PATTERN HE SET:
A-It Was A Pattern For Surrender:
When we die, we are to do like Jesus, just surrender ourselves to our Heavenly Father. He has cleaned out the grave so death is gateway to the Father.
Pastor and author Joseph Parker (1830-1902) commented about the closing words of Isaiah 35:10, "Sorrow and sighing shall flee away." He said, "Looking through the dictionary, you will occasionally come across a word marked ’obsolete.’ The time is coming when the two words sorrow and sighing shall be obsolete. The things which mar life here and now will then belong to the past."
Human existence has been marked by tragedy, heartache, disappointment, and evil. It’s comforting to know that the time is coming when sorrow and death will pass away, and God Himself will wipe all tears from our eyes. Then we will experience the truth that "the former things have passed away" (Revelation 21:4).
B-It Was A Pattern For Service
Jesus in committing Himself into the hands of the Father tells us we can commit our life fully into Him for service.
Mother Teresa visited Phoenix in 1989 to open a home for the poor. During that brief visit, she was interviewed by KTAR, the largest radio station in town. In a private moment, the announcer asked Mother Teresa if there was anything he could do for her. He was expecting her to request a contribution or media attention to help to raise money for the new home for the needy in Phoenix. Instead, she replied, "Yes, there is. Find somebody nobody else loves, and love them."
Serving others, demonstrating our love in tangible ways is of first importance. Jesus considered it a priority.
Hours behind the runner in front of him, the last marathoner finally entered the Olympic stadium. By that time, the drama of the day’s events was almost over and most of the spectators had gone home. This athlete’s story, however, was still being played out.
Limping into the arena, the Tanzanian runner grimaced with every step, his knee bleeding and bandaged from an earlier fall. His ragged appearance immediately caught the attention of the remaining crowd, who cheered him on to the finish line.
Why did he stay in the race? What made him endure his injuries to the end? When asked these questions later, he replied, "My country did not send me 7,000 miles away to start the race. They sent me 7,000 miles to finish it."
THE LORD WANT US TO FINISH OUR RACE IN SERVICE FOR HIM AS WE ARE COMMITTED TO HIM
CONCLUSION:
On March 5, 1994, Deputy Sheriff Lloyd Prescott was teaching a class for police officers in the Salt Lake City Library. As he stepped into the hallway he noticed a gunman herding 18 hostages into the next room. With a flash of insight, Prescott (dressed in street clothes) joined the group as the nineteenth hostage, followed them into the room, and shut the door. But when the gunman announced the order in which hostages would be executed, Prescott identified himself as a cop. In the scuffle that followed, Prescott, in self-defense, fatally shot the armed man. The hostages were released unharmed.
Likewise, Jesus, dressed himself in street clothes, entered into our world, and freed us from our captor, On the cross, Jesus died, and delivered us from our hostage taker…Satan.
