May 7, 2017 PM Service Into You Hands by Pastor Josh Sheldon

The Seventh Word from the Cross in Luke 23

We will, with God's blessing, discuss the seventh of the seven sayings of the Lord Jesus Christ from the cross. And just as I was pondering what I'm going to preach to you, not that it's unplanned or I'm spontaneous in any way, but it did dawn on me that there's something I need to add to this message, which we're going to do in a moment by reading the scripture, and you'll understand in a moment what I mean by that.

The text this afternoon, this specific text, the seventh saying, is found in Luke chapter 23. And so beginning at verse 44, we read these words. It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sunlight 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. So it takes us through verse 46 and the seventh of the seven sayings.

But lest we forget, and I have a lot to say about this final saying, and we will come back and do that, but lest we leave this here, which the scripture does not do, I want to read further into Luke, and to remind us that this is not the end of the story.

The Resurrection and the Hope of Believers

Even before I discuss this one saying, and some of the comments I have on Father, into your hands I commit my spirit, let us remember that Jesus Christ did in fact, in time, in history, die. The man Jesus Christ died for our sins.

But the end of the story is that God raised him up. If all he had done is died, as Paul says, we are of all men most to be pitied. So let us, before we discuss this final of Jesus's words from the cross, discuss the rest of the story.

I'll read the first part of chapter 24, and then we will speak about this last saying. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared, and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

But when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel, and they were frightened, and bowed their faces to the ground.

And the men said to them, Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise.

And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all these things to the eleven, and to all the rest. That was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles.

But these words seemed to be to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose, and ran to the tomb, stooping, and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves, and he went home marveling at what had happened.

The Lord Jesus Christ had risen. He had risen indeed, and because he is risen, because he is the first fruit of that resurrection, on which we have based all our hope, the whole Christian faith, falling or rising on this one thing.

Let us remind ourselves, as I speak of Jesus Christ's final word before his death, that death is not the end of it. That God raised him up, and one day we too, who believe in him, will follow after him, he being the first fruit.

And we know that we shall follow in a resurrection like his. God will, as he did Jesus, raise us up in his own good time. For six hours, Jesus had hung there alone on the cross. He had quietly withstood everything that the hands of sinful men could impose upon him.

The Meaning of “Father, into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit”

The prophet had said of this time, this whole event of the cross, that he was oppressed, and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silenced.

So he opened not his mouth. Now when God forsook him, he did cry out. He said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Of course, that moment of God's turning from his son is because Christ had become sin for us, and God was at that time pouring out his fury at sin on the only one who never had sin, yet became sin for us.

And so it's that cup of God's wrath, the one that Jesus asked at Gethsemane to be taken away from him, that cup being poured out and being emptied by Jesus to the last dreg. At the sixth hour, God brings his judgment against the world by bringing darkness.

In Egypt, the Lord brought three days of darkness. Here is three hours of darkness. In Egypt, the Lord brought three days of darkness, and that's the final plague before the firstborn would die. Now again at Calvary after three hours, not three days, but three hours of darkness, the firstborn will again die.

Darkness, death of the firstborn in both cases. God's judgment against this world manifested and shown and made clear to men. And giving them what? But another chance to repent. As I see this unexplicable, this inexplicable darkness.

We've spoken of it before. This darkness that was so dark, that was so almost palpable. So men in Revelation gnashed their teeth, and in Egypt it says they could feel it. He says, Father into your hands, I commit my spirit.

Commit is a fairly important word. This word commit, worthy of a few moments consideration, is used in Matthew 13 24, another parable he put forth to them. He committed it to them. He didn't just tell it to them.

He entrusted them with this parable. And you know how in Matthew, Jesus talks about how important it is to understand the parables. How else are you going to understand the kingdom of heaven if you don't understand the parables?

How are you going to explain it to others if you don't understand these parables that Jesus was telling them? So he said, a parable he put forth, he committed, he entrusted them with that parable. Acts chapter 20 verse 32.

And Paul is saying goodbye to the Ephesian elders. He says, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace. I commit you, I trust you with it. A word that he explained to them as the apostle when he founded that church.

And he spent all that time in Ephesus. He taught them the truth. He gave them the gospel. He taught them the doctrines. He told them what the church was about. All these things. And he said, now I commit them to you.

I entrust you with them, to administer them to God's glory, to the good of the people who you will administer to. Paul told Timothy, this charge, I commit to you. Son Timothy, Peter writes that we should commit our souls to God in doing good and trust ourselves.

Does that mean that we do good to gain God's favor? No, it means that we trust God to work good in us as we do the good works that he has prepared for us in advance. Though that's Paul's, not Peter's terminology.

But Peter means much the same thing. Commit your souls to God. Trust him in doing good. The idea is one of trust. Jesus put forth parables, trusted the disciples to discern the meeting and to explain them.

Paul, trusting the Ephesian elders. Timothy, trusted to execute his duties in accordance with the word he had been taught. You see, Jesus didn't just give up his spirit. He didn't just die. He trustingly placed it in the hands of his father, the one who he trusted to the very end.

Now if it is finished, which we covered last week, if it is finished meant that the price for sin had been once and for all time paid, and those are important words, once for all time paid, then his final word was the offering of that completed sacrifice.

It's the seventh. It's the last thing that Jesus said from the cross. Arthur Pink goes so far as to say that as God rested from all his work on the seventh day, so Jesus rested from his work after the seventh saying.

I don't know if we want to make too much of that, but sevens do tend to be important in scripture. And God did rest on the seventh day and is well documented that Jesus spoke only seven times from the cross.

I wouldn't make too much of that, but I do like the parallel, that this work was finished, and that's when Jesus gave up his spirit. Notice who is in control. Notice who is in charge. Notice who is in sovereign, even there at Golgotha.

It's the Lord Jesus Christ, God his Father, God the Spirit are managing and superintending everything there. Jesus died with scripture on his lips. Matthew Henry, he borrowed these words from his father David.

Psalm 31 5, into your hand I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. Now not that he needed to have words put in his mouth, and he was, he is the Word of God, but he chose to make use of David's words to show that it was the Spirit of Christ that testified in the Old Testament prophets, and that he came to fulfill those scriptures.

Jesus Christ died in every sense of the word with scripture on his lips. You know, Psalmist tells us, I will meditate on your precepts. When we set our mind on God's Word, it becomes a quick response inwardly, and outwardly to whatever life brings us.

The more we ponder God's revelation of himself, the more we join in this, where he says, O precious, how precious are your all, excuse me, how precious also are your thoughts to me, O God. How great is the sum of them.

The more precious they are to us, the more often they will issue forth in every aspect of our lives, and everything that we do, everything we come across. And perhaps God will give us grace to have his word on our lips at our final breath, as Jesus did.

He was not looking back with regret. He wasn't wondering how it might have turned out if only he had done this or some other thing. He saw, again borrowing from the prophet Isaiah, he saw the labor of his soul, and was satisfied, satisfied, confident, his last breath speaking forth the Word of God.

The labor of his soul, he was finished when he said it is finished, and knowing all things were accomplished, nothing left to do, then he gave up his spirit. What was finished? What was over? Why was Jesus able to die and say, my work is now done, and give himself up, committed to God?

Well, the Father's will had been accomplished. And this is where he again calls him Father. He says, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Previously it was, my God, my God. It almost feels like, compared to this saying, like there's some distance.

My God, my God, as anybody might call out to God, and again, after the work of the cross has completed, he goes back to, Father, Father, into your hands. The judgment is over. The work is complete. Matthew Henry again, he says, in this address, he calls him Father.

When he complained of being forsaken, he cried, my God, my God. But to show that the dreadful agony is now over, he calls him Father. So now at last he could use this appellation again, Father. He told Mary Magdalene in John 20, 17, Go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and to my God and to your God.

God was once more our Father, and our Father was once more our God, because Jesus had satisfied his wrath. God had accepted his son's sacrifice, and so once again accepted his son. And Jesus acknowledged this when he once again called him Father.

Redemption, Ransom, and the Finished Work of Christ

So what was done at the cross? Well, the ransom had been paid. Christ's suffering was done. Redemption was accomplished. The ransom for our souls had been paid. He made his soul an offering for our sin, as Isaiah 53, 10 said he would.

He gave his life as a ransom for many, as the Lord himself said he would do, Matthew chapter 20, verse 28. And so the Lamb of God had taken away the sins of the world, and so could commit his soul finally back to his Father.

If you think back to the Old Testament types and figures and predictions, if you will, think of the animals that were led into the temple. A sheep, or a goat, or a bull doesn't commit itself to anyone.

When one of them died, it was symbolic of what we see on the cross now. It was symbolic of Jesus Christ's willing sacrifice. It was God who Jesus called to when he felt his Father's presence forsake him.

God, not Father. How could God be the father of sin? Sin is what Jesus had become, that's 2 Corinthians 5, 21. That's why God turned from him. But now the suffering is complete. And God's fury had been poured out and fully quenched in Jesus.

So the ransom, to ransom us from this world, to ransom us from the snare of the devil, the ransom had been paid. Only Jesus could have done this. And only to him can we flee to have our sins removed, and to find ourselves restored to God.

Like the hymn says, not the labor of my hands can fulfill thy laws demands. Could my zeal no respite know? Could my tears forever flow? All for sin could not atone. Thou must save, and thou alone. So again back to the Puritan, Matthew Henry, he says, Christ has hereby left us an example, has fitted those words of David to the purpose of dying saints, and has, as it were, sanctified them for their use.

We must show that we are freely willing to die, that we firmly believe in another life after this, and are desirous of it. By saying, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. I love the way the Puritans get at the uses of the scripture, as Conley was saying at the end of Sunday school this morning.

It's put forth scripture. Well, it has to have a use. It has to mean something to us as we go about our life at every moment. Would it not do us good to remember the gospel, to remember the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, the completed work that he accomplished on the cross, and at every crossroad we come to, to stop for a moment, say, Father, into your hands I commit now, this moment, for this decision, for this response, for this whatever it may be, I commit my spirit.

It's one thing to live well, and there's a great testimony to our faith. What a thing it would be to die well. What a glorious statement to say with Jesus, Father, into your hands I commit, and then with confidence and joy to slip from this world to the next, knowing that the next instant our vision will be filled with what?

Jesus. As he told the thief on the cross, which we handled a few weeks ago, tell you truly, today, this day, when this day is over, you will be with me in paradise. What an inheritance that we leave when others might see this and wonder amongst themselves how one could so calmly face down that which terrifies everyone else.

Well, we can't exactly follow Jesus' example and die as he did, especially if we were to die with regrets. The regrets of faith not followed, of good to do left undone, of wrong that could have been avoided but was gladly entered.

There are regrets of grudges, grudges we've nurtured against others, and grudges we've caused in others. And all this might make us want to say, Father, tomorrow is a better day to commit my spirit to you.

And there's so much. We have, of course, from Jesus a better example. And I would suggest from this, if we have a use of it, if we have an application to make, let us moment by moment die to self and commit ourselves to God in just this way.

The Torn Veil and Access to God Through Christ

We read that the veil that guarded the holy place was torn when Jesus died. You know, for centuries it had guarded the holiest place, the place where only the priests could go, and there they could only go once a year.

I read that it was 60 feet high, 30 feet wide, and several inches thick. So this is not like a cloth that you're just going to tear with two hands. And the Levites who guarded the temple, they certainly didn't tear it, nor would they have allowed anybody in there to do that.

And Matthew tells us in his account that it was torn, how? From top down to bottom. So man did not do this. Man did not do this. God did. God tore the veil. It was his veil. He had commanded it. It protected men from coming wrongly into his presence.

And God, when Jesus gave up his spirit, then he tore the veil because the work of redemption was completed. As long as Jesus lived, and up to the very last moment of his life, that curtain had to stand.

Because as long as Jesus lived, and until that final redemption was accomplished, and all God's wrath was satiated in Christ, until that was all done, that veil had to stand. Because no man can walk up to God.

Because we're all sinners. The high priest, before he could go in and make atonement for the children of Israel, do you remember what he had to do? He had to atone for his own sins. He had to atone for himself.

And then go into the veil. And then he could atone for the children of Israel. And tradition has it that there was always a rope tied to his ankle. So if he did anything wrong, if he was dressed wrong, if he said the wrong words, if he thought the wrong thought, if anything went wrong and he was killed, they could pull him out without themselves entering.

And they then themselves also dying. The curtain had stood as a barrier. Behind the curtain was the Ark of the Covenant. And the Ark had the cherubim looking down in the mercy seat. And this was the place where God would appear once his wrath had been assuaged by the blood sacrifices.

This barrier is gone. The curtain, when Jesus gave up his spirit, the curtain was torn. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 18 to 22. It says, when there is forgiveness of sins, there is no longer any offering for sin.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

What did that curtain represent? Well, it was one of those typological things that we have so often from Old Testament to New. It was the body of Jesus. And waiting for that curtain to come down is waiting for Jesus to accomplish our redemption, to atone for our sins.

And once done, access to God now freely gained by him for us whose faith is in him. The high priests went there carefully, following every prescription. If anything failed, they died. Tell Aaron, your brother, not to come at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die, for I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat.

You may recall Uzzah, when King David was bringing the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem, and when the oxen tripped, and Uzzah was afraid it was going to fall, so he reached out and he touched the ark, which sounds like a good thing to keep it from falling and touching the ground.

God killed him instantly. For his presumption. This is much what that veil represented. Any entrance into God that wasn't done correctly, because of the barrier of sin, and the unholiness of man, and the incompleteness of the redemption that the animals could ever accomplish, would result in this for us.

Well, there is still a high priest, is there not? And we still come into the presence of God, sort of through the high priest, in a manner similar to what the children of Israel did, when they went to the high priest and brought their sacrifice, and went through the process.

Our high priest, though, is sitting at the Father's right hand. Our high priest is our eternal high priest. Our high priest ever sits at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us. Who is our high priest?

It is Jesus. When we come to God, if we expect to be heard, we must appear before the Lord, as did the ancients in compliance with all his demands. Every jot and tittle. But now, we have this new and this living way, and it's all condensed down into one.

Faith in Jesus Christ, who accomplished it all on our behalf. So these then are the seven sayings of Jesus on the cross. And next week, we will begin something new for our afternoon preaching and service.

The Seven Sayings of Jesus on the Cross and the Meaning of the Lord's Supper

The seventh saying is, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. To the thief on the cross next to him, today you will be with me in paradise. Number three, woman, behold your son. And then to the disciple, behold your mother.

The fourth is that terrible cry, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The fifth was from the man, Jesus Christ, suffering on the cross. He said, I thirst. The next to the last one, it is finished.

And then as we looked at today, Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. That's why we come here to this table in the afternoon, is it not? To remember all of this, it reminds us of all that was done on our behalf.

It reminds us that none of us was worthy of this sacrifice. None of us were capable of doing it ourselves. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

How could such a thing as that be? What else are we reminded of in this table? The broken bread, speaking of his broken body, the wine, the grape juice, his blood, his life poured out on our behalf. What could do such a thing as this for such as you and me?

God demonstrates his own love. Love is why God, why Christ came. John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus himself said greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friend. Love is why he died. He accomplished his father's will. I've come, oh my God, to do your will. I delight to do your will as the author to the Hebrews says.

This table represents our friendship with God. Jesus makes that very clear in his high priestly prayer in John chapter 15 to 17, especially chapter 17. It's Jesus who makes this possible and he made this possible.

He did it all from love. God is love and that's why we're here to lovingly remember what he's done for us while we were helpless sinners and yet knowing that and seeing us for what we are in a way that we never shall.

Even so, Christ came to die for sinners. Our participation here in this memorial, it's a symbol. It's a symbol that we with Jesus have committed our souls into the hands of loving God and because of Jesus and the redemption he accomplished, we can call him father.

And let us recall even as we participate and Lord willing we will not fail because we haven't failed recently or in all the times we've been taking the table to end the table by reminding us that this is not the end.

That there's a resurrection to come. We proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. He's going to return and bring us to himself. All this represented at the table. All this accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ who in his last breath committed himself to God his father.

May we do the same. Amen.