April 5 sermon

 

 

 

Introduction

 

Was it only a week ago, Jesus entered Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover?

 

Matthew 21:6-9 (NASB)
⁶  The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them,
⁷  and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their coats on them; and He sat on the coats.
⁸  Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road.
⁹  The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David; BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Hosanna in the highest!"

 

 

How did we go from "Hosanna to the Son of David; BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Hosanna in the highest!"

 

To being nailed to a cross?

 

But even with that said Jesus found it difficult to trust any one

 

Already Satan through Peter tried to prevent Jesus from going to the cross in Mathew 16

 

This same Peter just last night denied that he even knew Jesus

 

Judas, once a trusted disciple had betrayed him

 

And the religious leaders who should have known He was Messiah actually led to Jesus being crucified

 

 

But even with all of this, Jesus found it in His heart to forgive them as He hung there

Was it appreciated?

Not in the least

They gambled for His clothes, mocked Him and even blasphemed

 

And when all He wanted a drink, they gave Him vinegar.

 

For a time even His father had forsaken Him

 

But we are close to the end and there is still only one Jesus can trust assuredly

For the past several weeks, we have been following a devotional series titled “It Is Finished.”

 

This series is designed to help us prepare our hearts to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection victory as we ponder each of the “last words” of Jesus, spoken from cross.

 

 

The final “word” we will consider is this: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46).

 

Would you agree that a relationship with a father is incredibly important?

 

 As humans, we are hardwired for this paternal relationship.

 

We all have an understanding of what good fathers do or at least should do.

 

A good father shows up for soccer games, tucks his child in at night, and provides for what his child needs.

 

We know what good dads do.

 

 But sadly, we all can think of instances in which a father is absent or even abusive.

 

One particular father walked out on his wife and four children.

 

He started a new life with a new woman in a different part of town.

 Over the years, he would send his kids birthday cards in the mail.

 

The cards would simply read “Love, Dad.”

 

Each also included a five-dollar bill.

 

This father’s four kids began to dread their birthdays because of the cards.

 

Year by year, the cards served as a reminder of their father’s absence, his abandonment.

 

Receiving a birthday card like that was worse than receiving nothing at all.

 

It was offensive to read the words “Love, Dad,” written by a father whose actions were the very opposite of love.

 

The cards destroyed any trust they might otherwise have placed in him.

 

 

Getting to the Heart

 

Today we hear Jesus’ words of trust in his heavenly Father.

 

 From the cross he cries out, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46).

 

Before we go on, I want to acknowledge that some of you might hear the word father and think of a parent who is unworthy of trust.

 

I know that’s my story

 

We know of fathers whose hands hurt or abuse their children.

 

We know of fathers who are lazy or apathetic.

 

These fathers are unwilling to help or care.

 

Such fathers have hands that aren’t there for their families at

all.

 

 Sometimes these fathers even abandon their children.

 

 We also know of fathers who squeeze too tightly with their unrealistic expectations and demands.

 

It’s very hard to trust fathers with hands (and hearts) like these.

 

 

But our heavenly Father is different.

 

Very, very different.

 

He is totally trustworthy.

 

He is the kind of Father you desperately want to have a relationship with.

How do we know that?

 

We all know the saying “Like father, like son.”

 

One way we know the heavenly Father is through his Son.

 

 By Knowing Jesus, we can commit ourselves into our heavenly Father’s hands.

 

 

Jesus used his hands to heal the sick and to give sight to the blind.

 

 Jesus used his hands to welcome little children.

 

 Jesus used his hands to wash his disciples’ feet in an act of humble service.

 

We can trust our heavenly Father’s hands because Jesus

allowed his hands to be nailed to a cross for us!

 

 

Fourteen-month-old Nicholas was in the hospital.

 

Nicholas had a very serious flesh-eating infection on his neck.

 

He had had chicken pox and the infection had attacked

one of the open sores on his skin.

 

The doctors had surgically removed the infection and the flesh around it.

Nicholas’s neck was very swollen.

 

The medical team worried the swelling could restrict

his breathing,

 

so, Nicholas was on a ventilator, paralyzed by drugs, and fighting this very serious infection.

 

 

As the pastor came to visit the family, he read Psalm 31 to Nicholas’s parents in the ICU.

 

 As he read verse 5, he paused.

 

The verse reads, “Into your hand I commit my spirit.”

 

Listen to the first 5 passages

 

Psalm 31:1-5 (NASB)
¹  In You, O LORD, I have taken refuge; Let me never be ashamed; In Your righteousness deliver me.
²  Incline Your ear to me, rescue me quickly; Be to me a rock of strength, A stronghold to save me.
³  For You are my rock and my fortress; For Your name's sake You will lead me and guide me.
⁴  You will pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, For You are my strength.
⁵  Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have ransomed me, O LORD, God of truth.

 

 

These words seemed so appropriate.

 

There were no better hands in which to entrust little Nicholas than the hands of our heavenly Father.

 

From the cross, Jesus echoed the words of Psalm 31.

 

 In doing so, he identified with our helplessness.

 

And he modeled for us a pattern we can follow.

 

 In times of absolute desperation, perhaps similar to what we are going through today,

 

 we can always entrust ourselves into the hands of our heavenly Father.

 

Those hands are totally trustworthy.

 

 

Taking It Home

 

Sometimes in life, we are left with no other options.

 

 I think of Nicholas in the ICU.

 

When a small child’s life is threatened, parents feel helpless.

 

When you see a child lying limp in a hospital bed, hooked up to tubes and cords, you wish you could take his place.

 

I will never forget when Jennifer was born there were complications

 

She was pre-mature and had to stay in the postnatal ICU for a month and a half

 

Marion and I were up there every day seeing those tubes and cords and it broke our hearts

 

But there was nothing we could do but put her in the hands of her heavenly father.

 

You’ve felt that way, haven’t you?

 

 Probably many times.

 

You were at your wits’ end.

 

At every turn, you ran into a wall.

 

You’d run out of options.

 

Was it a time of sickness or terrible injury?

 

Or was it at the funeral home as you mourned the death of a loved one?

 

Or maybe your family was experiencing overwhelming stress and turmoil.

 

We’ve all been in places where we realized we were in over our heads.

 

 We were powerless to change the situation.

 

 Even in times like that, it is hard for us to yield, to entrust ourselves to someone else’s care.

 

 But the Lord is worthy of our trust.

 

Even in the darkest night, he will not leave us.

 

His mercy will never cease.

 

As difficult as these times are, they are times for trust.

 

 Helpless situations invite us to pray, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

 

From the cross, Jesus showed us we can trust those hands.

 

I find it interesting that Jesus was first downtrodden and had to ask “My God, My God why have you forsaken Me”

 

This He said as all of our sins were placed upon Him

 

But then we have the words of a son who totally trusts His father, “Into your hands I commend my Spirit”

 

Even the apostle Peter made reference to this trust in 1 Peter 2:23 (NASB) ²³  and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;

 

 

We often do not realize how closely all of these statements followed one another

 

Luke 23:44-46 (NASB)
⁴⁴  It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour,
⁴⁵  because the sun was obscured; and the veil of the temple was torn in two.
⁴⁶  And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, "Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT."  

 

It was during this darkness that Jesus cried out asking why the father had abandoned Him

 

I can only assume that when Jesus said into your hand’s I commend my spirit that the sun had reappeared or broken through

 

It was a sign that Jesus’ mission or ministry was complete

 

As additional proof of this we have the temple veil being torn in two according to Luke’s account but Mathew goes a bit deeper

 

Matthew 27:50-53 (NASB)
⁵⁰  And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.
⁵¹  And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split.
⁵²  The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;
⁵³  and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.

 

Mathew says the veil was torn from top to bottom signifying that it was by Gods hand opening the way for all and not just the High Priest to now enter the Holy of holies.

 

This would not be possible unless the sacrifice for our sin was accepted

 

 

But as almost a frightening revelation there is a massive earthquake

 

Rocks are split, tombs are opened and many of the dead saints came forth and walked the earth and entered the Holy City

 

All a precursor of the end times to come and our own resurrection

 

Jesus trusted in His father and so can we.

 

 

In a world of people who all to often let us down, our heavenly Father proves himself trustworthy.

 Who better to trust than the One who brings resurrection?

 

What better hands than the hands that give new life?

 

What better words than the words given to us by our Savior, “Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit”?

 

 

 As we dismiss today, pray with and for one another.

 

Share personal prayer requests.

 

 Ask the Holy Spirit to draw each of you closer to Christ and to one another as you prepare to celebrate the Savior’s resurrection.

 

LET US PRAY