THE WORD OF CONTENTMENT
"And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up his spirit."
Luke 23:46
These words set before us the last words of the Saviour before He died. It is words of contentment, of faith, and of confidence.
"Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." This was the last utterance of the Savior before He died. While he hung upon the cross, seven times his lips moved in speech. Seven is the number of completeness or perfection. Seven is also the number of rest in a finished work: in six days God made heaven and earth and in the seventh day He rested, contemplating with satisfaction that which he had pronounced "very good". So here with Christ: a work had been given him to do, and that work was now done. Just as the sixth day brought the work of creation to a completion, so the sixth utterance of the Saviour was "It is finished." And just as the seventh day was the day of rest and satisfaction, so the seventh utterance of the Saviour brings him to the place of rest - the Father’s hands.
I. I find in these last words His priority
As the Lord Jesus Christ hangs on that old rugged cross, He makes great use of the Scriptures. The scriptures were a priority in His life.
See Psalm 31:1-5. Psalm 31 formed a part of the evening devotions of pious Jews. It brought comfort to them before they closed their eyes in sleep. There is nothing like the words of the Bible to give comfort and confidence in the time of
There is no language like the language of the Bible, whether in life or . There are many good books in the world but they are irrelevant in the hour of . The Lord knew exactly where to go for words when He was about to pass over.
A. He’s Pondered The Scriptures!
The Scriptures were a great source of strength and satisfaction to the Son of God. He made continual reference to them in his life as well as his . The Word of God was food to him. The Word of God was weapon against the Devil. The eternal Son of God lived and died pondering the written Word of God. His speech was floured with the Word of God. He spent time pondering the Scriptures.
“I thrist” was said after He recognized that Psalm 69:21 was not fulfilled. The written word formed His thoughts, filled His heart, and fixed His ways.
The incarnate Word lived and died pondering the inspired Word of God. It was His constant practice to refer to the Scriptures. “Have ye not read” came from His lips so often why he walked upon this earth.
B. He’s Proved The Scriptures!
Do you know a book that you are willing to put under your head for a pillow when you are dying? That is the same book you want to study when you are living. There is only one such book in the world.
Jesus is proving the scriptures are worthy of our mediation even when comes
C. He’s Preached The Scriptures!
He is testifying to the truth and power of the Scriptures. What Jesus is doing here on that old rugged cross even at the moment of is upholding the Bible’s infallibility. He is in effect saying, listen, listen; the Bible is God’s infallible Word, the only rule of faith and practice.
Those who make the Word of God their strength and stay in life will find it so in .
Quote Psalm 1.
II. I find in these last words His singularity
There is none like Jesus. The Lord Jesus died as none other ever did. His life was not taken from him; he laid it down of himself. This was his claim: "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again" (John 10:17, 18).
The most convincing evidence of this was seen in the committal of His spirit into the hands of the Father. The Lord Jesus himself said, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit," but the Holy Spirit, in describing the actual laying down of his life, describes it differently in Matthew.
In Matthew 27:50 we read, "Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up his spirit." Jesus literally dismissed or sent away his spirit. This expression is very appropriate for Matthew, the kingly gospel, who presented our Lord as “The Son of David; the King of the Jews". For the Lord to yield, dismiss, or send away his spirit is beautifully suited in Matthew’s royal gospel, for the Lord’s dismissing and sending away denotes one of authority, as of a king dismissing a servant.
Now two things were necessary in order to for propitiation to be made. First, a complete satisfaction must be offered to God’s outraged holiness and offended justice and this, in the case of our substitute, could only be by Him suffering the outpoured wrath of God; this had been borne. Now there remained only the second thing, and that was for the Saviour to taste of .
"It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Heb. 9:27). With the sinner it is first, and then the judgment; with the Saviour the order was, of course, reversed. He endured the judgment of God against our sins, and then he died.
The end was now reached. Unconquered by , He cries with a loud voice of unexhausted strength and dismisses His spirit into the hands of his Father, and in this his uniqueness was manifested. None ever died as He died.
His birth was unique. His life was unique. His also was unique. In "laying down" his life, his was set apart from all other s. He died by an act of his own will! He was sovereignly in charge of the whole situation. He died not as an impotent sufferer.
See John 19:30. He bowed his head consciously, calmly, and confidently.
Who but a divine person could have done this? He died like the Prince of Life!
Death did not lay its cold clammy fingers on the Son of God until He Himself gave the word of permission. He died a victor and not a victim. He gave his life in complete submission to the plan of the Father. He gave up his life because he willed, when he willed, and as he willed it.
"Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit"
III. I find in these last words His security.
He was confident in the security of the Father’s hand. The Father’s hand is the place of eternal security. "My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all: and none is able to pluck out of my Father’s hand" (John 10:29). Here then is the ground of the believer’s confidence. Here is the basis of our assurance.
Just as nothing could harm Noah when Jehovah’s hand had secured the door of the ark, so nothing can touch the spirit of the saint which is grasped by the hand of omnipotence. None can pluck us from thence. We are weak in ourselves, but we are "kept by the power of God" is the sure declaration of holy writ: "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Pet. 1:5).
Every person that has been born again is eternally safe in the Father’s hand. You are in good hands with the Father. You might fall in God’s hand, but you will not fall out of God’s hand.
There was once a mother who had two sailor boys. She had often been taunted by infidel neighbors concerning the precarious life they were living. "You will lose them; they will drown like so many other sailor boys," they would say. "But they will still be safe," the mother would reply.
"What do you mean safe, if they are drowned?" "Have you never read what is under the sea?" the old lady explained, as she quoted Isaiah 40:12- “Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand.” If they drown, they’ll fall right into His hands."
A. He Was confident of the Father’s Promises
Jesus knew the promises of the Father, and he believed them with his whole heart. He knew without any fear that God was as good as His Word and would never break His good Word to Him.Standing on the promises of Christ our King,
Through eternal ages let His praises ring:
Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing,
Standing on the promises of God.
In the early days of the United States of America a weary traveler came to the banks of the Mississippi River for the first time. There was no bridge. It was early winter, and the surface of the mighty stream was covered with ice. Would he dare cross over? Would the uncertain ice be able to bear his weight?
Night was falling, and it was urgent that he reach the other side. Finally, after much hesitation and with many fears, he began to creep cautiously across the surface of the ice on his hands and knees. He thought that he might distribute his weight as much as possible and keep the ice from breaking beneath him.
About halfway over he heard the sound of singing behind him. Out of the dusk there came a man, driving a horse-drawn load of coal across the ice and singing merrily as he went his way.
Here he was--on his hands and knees, trembling lest the ice be not strong enough to bear him up! And there, as if whisked away by the winter’s wind, went the man, his horses, his sleigh, and his load of coal, upheld by the same ice on which he was creeping!
Like this weary traveler, some of us have learned only to creep upon the promises of God. Cautiously and timidly we venture forth upon His promises, as though the lightness of our step might make His promises more secure. Carefully we crawl as though we might contribute even in the slightest to the strength of His assurances!
Let us believe the promises of the Father! He has promised to uphold us and deliver us safely on the other side.
We are not to creep upon these promises as though they were too fragile to uphold us. We are to stand upon them--confident that God is as good as His word and that He will do what He has pledged.
B. He was confident in the Fathers Power
God was more than able to handle anything that came up.
Conclusion:
There is a refuge from the storms of life and from the tenors of - the Father’s hand - the heart’s true haven.
