WWUTT 2517 Jesus' Last Words (Luke 23:46-49)

As Jesus died on the cross, he said these words, Father, into your hands

I commit my spirit. The work needed for us to be forgiven our sins was accomplished when we understand the text.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the gospel of Luke, we come back to chapter 23.

We've been reading here of the death of Jesus, him yielding up his spirit to his father in heaven as he hung on the cross.

And we'll pick up where we left off yesterday. So let me read again verses 44 to 49.

Here are the word of the Lord. It was now about the sixth hour and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour while the sun's light failed.

And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus calling out with a loud voice said,

Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And having said this, he breathed his last.

Now, when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God saying, certainly this man was innocent.

And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts.

And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.

Now let's say you and I were playing some Bible trivia and I were to ask you this question, name a

Psalm that Jesus quoted as he was hanging on the cross, dying for our sins.

What Psalm are you most likely to reference? Do you know the number? Do you remember this?

You might be able to quote part of it even if you don't know exactly which Psalm it is. But remember that Matthew quoted it in his gospel.

When Jesus said in Aramaic, Eli, Eli, lemme subachthanai, that is in English, my

God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Which Psalm is that?

Do you happen to know? It is Psalm 22. My God, my

God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning?

Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer and by night, but I find no rest.

And then as you go on in that Psalm, you see other aspects of what happened there at the cross fulfilled, the

Psalm being fulfilled in those things that were taking place there as Jesus hung there dying. Verse seven, all who see me mock me.

They make mouths at me. They wag their heads. He trusts in the Lord. Let him deliver him.

Let him rescue him for he delights in him. We saw that same mockery even here in Luke 23.

Furthermore, you have the statement that comes up with my strength is dried up like a pot shirt.

My tongue sticks to my jaws. You lay me in the dust of death. Jesus crying out from the cross,

I thirst. That's recorded in John's gospel. That's fulfilling. Psalm 22, you keep going for dogs encompass me.

A company of evil doers encircles me. They have pierced my hands and my feet.

They divide my garments among them and for my clothing, they cast lots. It's like the entire crucifixion narrative is right there in Psalm 22.

So you would be right to reference that Jesus quoted this Psalm and we even see this Psalm fulfilled in everything that is taking place.

It's almost as if when Jesus cries out the words of Psalm 22, he's telling everybody.

I mean, he's praying unto God, but it's like he's saying to everybody, look what you're doing is exactly what was prophesied and it's being fulfilled right before your very eyes.

But I bring that up. The reason why I asked that question is because Psalm 22 is not the only

Psalm that is recorded Jesus saying from the cross. There's also

Psalm 31. Verse five says, into your hand,

I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me, oh Lord, faithful God.

And those are the words that Jesus proclaims when he yields his spirit into the hands of his father.

Father into your hands, I commit my spirit, Luke 23, 46. And having said this, he breathed his last.

So let's consider those words and then also the reaction of the crowd we'll consider today as well in verses 47 to 49.

So yesterday we looked at 44 to 45, where we read about the darkness coming over the land from the sixth hour to the ninth hour, the curtain in the temple was torn into.

And then in verse 46, Jesus calls out with a loud voice. Over the course of Luke's crucifixion narrative, what

Luke records for us, the things that Jesus says from the cross are unique to Luke's gospel.

So Matthew and Mark are largely the same. John is gonna record some things that Matthew, Mark and Luke do not record.

But what Luke records Jesus saying is unique to this gospel. And we've considered some of those things even last week when we were reading about the criminals that were hung there with Jesus and Jesus saying to the criminal on one side of him who believed in him truly,

I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise. That's unique to Luke, doesn't appear in any of the other gospels.

And so here we have these last words of Jesus in verse 46. Again, a quotation that comes even from Psalm 31 verse five, father into your hands,

I commit my spirit. Now, as I said yesterday, there are some who have taken this phrase in this verse and they have said, well, now we've got a contradiction because Luke records these as being

Jesus' last words, whereas John records a different last word.

In fact, John records one last word, to telestai in the

Greek, which in English we translate as it is finished, paid in full, the debt has been covered.

And so we have in John 19 .30, after Jesus has said, I thirst, and someone brought a jar full of sour wine and put it on a sponge and lifted it up to his mouth.

And after all of this verse 30, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished.

And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Now we don't have a contradiction here.

We just have that Luke records one set of last words that Jesus said, and John records another last word.

They could still be last words. I mean, neither text even says this was his last word.

You know, we're just seeing the last words that he said before giving up his spirit. So the way that this lays out between John 19 and Luke 23, it looks as if Jesus would have said, it is finished first.

So that would have been the first phrase, because again, as it's recorded, he said, it is finished.

Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Well, what does he say in Luke 23, 46, father into your hands,

I commit my spirit. And having said this, he breathed his last.

So it looks like that was the last word. So first of all, Jesus says, it is finished.

And then he says to the father, into your hands, I commit my spirit.

And again, quoting from Psalm 31, that Psalm begins like this. In you, oh

Lord, do I take refuge. Let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness, deliver me.

Incline your ear to me, rescue me speedily. Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me.

For you are my rock and my fortress. And for your name's sake, you lead me and guide me.

You take me out of the net they have hidden for me. For you are my refuge. Into your hand,

I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me, oh Lord, faithful God.

I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the

Lord. I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love because you have seen my affliction.

You have known the distress of my soul and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy.

You have set my feet in a broad place. And we know that the father did deliver

Jesus' soul and even brought him back from the dead. He was not delivered into the hand of the enemy.

Jesus had previously said to the Pharisees, I have authority to lay down my life and I have authority to take it up again.

And I believe that the centurion even saw that fulfilled when he witnessed what was happening there at the cross.

It was one of those things that prompted him to say, certainly this man was innocent. We'll get to that here in a moment.

But looking again at verse 46, the very end of it now, Jesus has said, father, into your hands,

I commit my spirit. He has done everything to the will of the father. He has been in submission to the father's will this entire time.

When we get to the gospel of John, you see that come up over and over again. My will is to do my father's desires.

What I have seen the father do, that is what I am doing. So Jesus continually pointing back to the father's will, especially in John's gospel.

So he does everything to the glory of the father and having done everything that the father has intended.

He says, into your hands, I commit my spirit. He has committed himself to his father all this while, his whole life, his whole earthly ministry, even unto his death, he was praying to his father in the garden of Gethsemane.

I mean, I don't know how anybody reads these things and doesn't understand the Trinity. I just don't get that.

You have so many people that will argue about it. Trinity was a made up doctrine, came about in the fourth century.

It's not found in the Bible. The Jews didn't even believe it. You'll find all these different kinds of arguments.

But who was Jesus praying to? The father. And is the son not God? Yes, John says that he is in John chapter one.

The father saying of the son, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. When we got to the end of Matthew's gospel,

Jesus saying all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. And then saying to the disciples, therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the

Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. The father, son, and Holy Spirit are given equal authority there at the end of Matthew.

An equally great name. When one is baptized, they're not baptized into the father or into the son or into the

Holy Spirit, but all three persons into God, the father,

God, the father, God, the son, God, the Holy Spirit. They all share the same name.

They share the same seat, the same rule and authority. And so Jesus is praying to his father.

He's been praying to his father, his whole earthly ministry. He prays to his father now as he dies, he has done and accomplished everything that the father has sent him to do.

And having entrusted himself to the father to his very last breath, he yields even his spirit to the father's hand.

Even though Jesus has said, not in Luke's gospel, we have it in John's, but even though Jesus has said,

I have authority to lay down my life and I have authority to take it up again. He doesn't exercise that authority here in the sense that he doesn't take matters into his own hands.

He still submits himself to the father. Even though he has that authority, he gives his spirit into the hand of the father.

Remember when we were reading about Jesus' trial before Pilate, I have referenced back to 1

Peter 2, where it said that though he was reviled, he did not revile in return, but Jesus continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

And that is what Jesus is doing here. We've previously heard Jesus say, father, forgive them for they know not what they do as he was being hung on the cross.

That was back in verse 34. And here praying all the more to his father into your hands,

I commit my spirit. I commit all of this to you. And so as Jesus committed himself to the will of the father, so must we even to our very last breath in trusting our souls to God who paid for us with the death of his son through the precious blood of Jesus.

You've been bought with a price as the apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 6.

So honor God in your bodies. And that's something that is good for us to remember as well.

We've been bought with a price. We've been bought with the son of God, the greatest gift that God could have given to us, his son, his son's life for ours.

And so Jesus breathes his last. You know, the very statement that Jesus makes here into your hands,

I commit my spirit. That's a testimony to his incarnation that he was human in the sense that he had not only a human body, but even a human soul.

Every aspect of him in his humanity was fully human. He was not in any way, not human.

He was very man and very God, vera homo vera deus as it said in Latin, very man and very

God. He was every bit human and every bit God. There wasn't his humanity ends here.

And then the God part of himself took over. Now, this is the mystery of the incarnation. This is why even the incarnation itself can be so puzzling.

We puzzle over the Trinity and we talk about how much of a mystery that is. Well, the incarnation is a mystery.

Jesus being very man and very God, or as we sometimes say, fully man and fully God, though that can be kind of confusing.

But I mean, yeah, anytime you delve into the mystery of what is called the hypostatic union, it is beyond our comprehension.

We trust it because it's in the Bible, but we won't even fully understand it until we see him as he is.

As the apostle John talks about in 1 John 3, we will see him as he is because we will be made to be like him.

So our questions about the Trinity and the incarnation will all be answered there. But again, this being a testimony to Jesus even having a human soul as he yields himself into the hand of the father.

And having said this, he breathed his last. And again, verse 47, when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised

God saying, certainly this man was innocent. Now, why the centurion?

It's recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke. Why is it that these gospel writers were sure to mention that this man was the centurion?

Well, a centurion, in case you are unfamiliar with that rank exactly, it means that he has a hundred soldiers under him.

So he is in charge of a hundred men. And those hundred men that he is in charge of included those men who were appointed to crucify the criminals.

And so the centurion is there overseeing this crucifixion exactly. The death of Jesus and the two other thieves that are hanging on either side of him.

And the centurion has been instructed by Pilate about what is to be carried out.

Jesus being given into the hands of the chief priests and the scribes to do what they want to do with him and crucifying him is what they've called for.

And so the Romans put him to death. They've hung him on the cross. And as the centurion has observed all of this from the trial with Pilate to Jesus being beaten and scourged to him carrying his cross, to him being hung and having everybody mock at him and then three hours of darkness coming over the land and the temple curtain being torn in two, which

Matthew says was accompanied by an earthquake. Even witnessing what has happened with the two thieves on either side of Jesus and the conversation that's taken place there.

Jesus praying and what he has said. Father forgive them for they know not what they do.

Praying the Psalms as he died there and hung there for those six hours. All these things that centurion observed and led him at the conclusion of this to say, this was the son of God.

And now that's what Matthew and Mark record. Luke says, certainly this man was innocent, but this is not merely a statement of, oh man, we crucified the wrong guy.

It's not like the centurion standing there going, we had put a man on this cross that didn't deserve to be here.

We should have taken him down and let him go. That's not the way the centurion was. This was a profound experience.

It was a profound statement of him to say, certainly this man was innocent. Not just that he was innocent of the crime he was being committed of or being killed for.

He was innocent altogether. Who could find anything wrong in this man so that even when he was hung there, falsely accused, he did not accuse anyone else.

And as Jesus prayed and what he said and did, those things became a testament, a testimony to this man, that he would even come to see who

Jesus really is. And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, it says in verse 48, excuse me, when they saw what had taken place, they returned home beating their breasts.

You know, we had read previously in Luke's gospel, that exact phrase, beating the breast.

You remember where that was? It was the parable that Jesus told of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

The Pharisee was boasting in himself as he prayed in the temple, but the tax collector stood far off, beating his breast, would not even lift his eyes to heaven and said,

God have mercy on me, a sinner. And so it's the same kind of posture that's going on here with these crowds that have been there.

The crowds have seen, they've seen the rulers falsely accuse

Jesus and crucify him. They mocked along with everybody else. And now having seen everything that has taken place, they go home beating their breasts.

They now feel a party to this. And they believe God's judgment is gonna come upon us because of what's just happened here.

And so they too are walking away saying, God have mercy on me, a sinner.

And verse 49, all his acquaintances, those who personally knew Jesus and the women who had followed him from Galilee, Luke had recorded for us previously in chapter eight, the women who had accompanied

Jesus in some of the ministry that he was doing around Galilee. Some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities,

Mary called Magdalene from whom seven spirits had gone out. And Joanna, the wife of Chuzza, Herod's household manager and Susanna and many others who provided for them out of their means.

Some of those women were there at the cross as Jesus died. And it says other acquaintances,

Luke doesn't record John being there, John the apostle, who was also Jesus' first cousin. But of course we know he was there because of what's recorded for us in the gospel of John.

John being among those acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee, they stood at a distance watching these things.

Luke puts a large number of people there at the cross, talking about the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle.

There were many hundreds who had seen exactly this historic event take place.

Most important event in the history of the world. It is the most important event in all of human and cosmic history.

Everything revolves around what happened at the cross. You just consider the world calendar and the way that we chart years.

All centers around the cross, doesn't it? We're in the year 2025. And that year has been calculated from the time that Jesus was born.

Everything revolving around these events that we've been reading about here, you've heard it so many times.

And of course it's the foundation of our faith, but how much are you awed by these things when we read them?

Jesus, the son of God, put on flesh and dwelt among us, lived a perfect life for us, died for us, was buried for us.

God who created the universe. And he rose again from the dead for us so that all who believe in him will not perish, but have eternal life.

And I hope coming back to this and reminding you of this brings back to your remembrance these things, that you would praise

God again and again for all the wonderful things that he has done for us in Christ Jesus.

Heavenly father, we thank you for your goodness and grace. And I pray that we would demonstrate that kind of grace and love with others.

If we know that we've been saved, we are followers of Jesus Christ, we have your Holy Spirit dwelling within us.

May that be seen in our lives and the way that we live, a reflection of Christ who saved us.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog, sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues.

You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .tt .com. Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word, when we understand the text.