Death at the Cross

We are the church and the church, if we are the church like the early church in the book of Acts, we gather together on occasions like this to devote ourselves to the apostles teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, to prayer, and then we move out into the community to affect our world for Christ and to do the work of God in our world all around us. So that balance is modeled by the early church and should be modeled by us as well. If this is the only thing you give yourself to as a believer, a Sunday morning worship experience, you're missing out on what all that God has for you. This is important. It's basic. It's foundational. But it's designed to build us up and encourage and strengthen us so that we can be thrust out to do the work of God in our community to spread the gospel to others around us. Well, people's last words are often very significant. Not everyone is either in physical or mental shape to be able to be coherent and really express what's on their heart in their last moments before death. But sometimes it happens. And those last words are usually very significant for a family to hear or for someone else to be able to jot down and understand what this person's heart was really like before they went out to meet God. The same thing is true of our Savior as he suffered on the cross. Jesus spoke seven times in the six hours that he suffered on the cross. I don't know if you picked up on this or not, but in the last seven years in our October communions, we have been looking at those seven sayings on the cross. I'm getting a lot of blank looks, which I'm accustomed to when I preach, but anyway, I'm getting a lot of blank looks right now. I would not expect you to have called that or even remember that. I can't remember what I did yesterday, much less a year ago. But we have indeed over the last seven years looked at those seven sayings on the cross. Today we come to the last one. And as we come to that last one, it is the culmination of all seven or all six that have preceded it. And so let me just remind you of what Jesus says from the cross because these are last words. These are words that we need to take heed to that we need to listen to because not only do they express what was on our Savior's heart and mind as he died, they also express the essence of what was happening on the cross. And so Jesus began his time on the cross by saying, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And thus he demonstrates that forgiveness was being offered at the cross. In a much broader sense than just the one, the ones there at the cross whom he was asking for the Father's forgiveness, but in a much broader sense forgiveness was being taken, was taking place at the cross and being made possible at the cross. And then secondly, Jesus said to one of the thieves by his side who had turned to him in believing faith, he said to him, today you will be with me in paradise. And thus he was exercising grace at the cross. This man could not do anything to save himself, could not do one thing to prove himself worthy of the gift of heaven. And so Jesus gives the example that what's happening at the cross is really grace, that God is giving to us what we could never earn on our own anyway. The third time that Jesus spoke, he looked down and saw his mother and said, woman, behold your son. And son behold your mother. He was speaking to the Apostle John, the only one of the disciples at the cross. And he was entrusting to him the care of his mother and demonstrating that one of the things that was happening at the cross was love, not only of the love of the son for a mother, but also the love of the Father for all of us, love was taking place there at the cross. And then Jesus cried out in those chilling words, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And in those words he demonstrated the fact that judgment was taking place at the cross. He indicated with those words that God had become his judge and was pouring out on him the wrath, the judgment, the punishment for all of our sin. And then the fifth saying on the cross was evidence of suffering on the cross when Jesus said, I thirst. He was expressing the fact that real suffering was taking place as he gave his life for us. And then the sixth saying on the cross was, it is finished. And with those words Jesus is summarizing the fact that what's happening at the cross is a great victory. Victory is taking place. Our sin has been completely paid for. The work has been done. It is finished. And right after he said it is finished, Luke chapter 23 and verse 46 records these words Jesus called out with a loud voice, father into your hands, I commit my spirit. And when he had said this, he breathed his last. Now Jesus' death was certainly unique, unlike any other death because he was dying as a substitute. He was taking the penalty, the punishment for our sin. And so no one else has ever died like that. But there is a sense in which the way Jesus died was a model for how we should and can approach death. So although Jesus' death is unique, he died as a model for how we can face death ourselves. I'm convinced that's the way the early disciples understood what happened at the cross because you remember if you had jumped ahead a few weeks, when Stephen, after preaching that amazing summary of the Old Testament in Acts chapter 7, as he is being stoned to death by the enraged Pharisees who heard him speak, he utters these words in Acts chapter 7 and verse 59. While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus received my spirit. In essence, praying the same prayer, Jesus prayed as he breathed his last. And so I believe that Stephen, at least in probably all the disciples, saw in these words of Jesus a model for us and how we should approach death. So this morning, as we come to the table to partake of these elements of communion that remind us of Jesus' death, I want these words to penetrate our hearts and remind us of the nature of his death, but also I want them to serve as a challenge for us as to how we can and should approach death ourselves. Death for Jesus was and death for us can be an act of communion, an act of communion, an act of fellowship, of communion, of close relationship with the Father. It's found in the very word that Jesus utters the very first word, Father, Father into your hands, I commit my spirit. Jesus utters this word of fellowship, this word of family communion with his Father. He had been in that fellowship and communion with his Father throughout eternity past, throughout the ages past, throughout eternity, he had had unbroken fellowship and communion with his Father. And that continued right on into his life and ministry when he came to this earth, the very first words we have recorded in the Gospels that he spoke. I'm sure it was not the first words he spoke, but the first recorded words he spoke came at age 12 when he's in the temple. And what he said to his earthly parents was this, did you not know that I must be about my Father's business? And so he was expressing even at age 12 that unique relationship with his Father, that communion and fellowship which caused him to know he was in his Father's will doing his Father's work. It continues on throughout his life and that's great sermon that he would preach which would lay the political platform for his earthly kingdom. The sermon on the Mount, we call it in Matthew 5 through 7. Jesus talked about his relationship with the Father in that sermon 17 times. In the great upper room discourse, what it's called John 13 through 17 when Jesus is speaking with his disciples on the evening before he will die, he references his relationship to his Father and amazing 47, 46 times. 46 times in those few chapters he talks about his Father and then he goes on to pray that amazing prayer in John 17 for his disciples and for us as well just before he dies. And he references his relationship with his Father six times in that prayer. So Jesus lived in communion with his Father in that close bond of fellowship with his Heavenly Father. The very first words he would utter from the cross would begin with the word Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And so it is fitting that these last words begin with Father into the hands I commit my Spirit. But in between those two sayings there are hours of suffering, particularly the last three hours where even nature hid its face and darkness covered the earth and the Father turned his back on his Son. And poured out all of his wrath and punishment for our sins on his sinless Son. And in those hours Jesus also addresses God, but this time he does not call him Father. He says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? For you see, he is not now in fellowship with his Father. He is not now enjoying that unbroken communion that he has had with his Father throughout eternity. Why? Because his Father is pouring out on him the penalty, the punishment for our sin. And so it is as though Jesus is in our hell. It is as though Jesus is suffering our judgment and he cannot call him Father because in those moments of our sin being poured out on him, God is not his Father anymore. He is only his God. And that comes down to you and me because you can die either with God as your Father or only as your God. And it all is determined by how you respond to what Jesus did for you at the cross. If you trust the Lord Jesus as your Savior, then you become a child of God, a part of the family of God. And thus he is your Father. We are not all children of God. Sometimes that expression is used of all humanity. That is not biblical. You only get into the family of God. He only becomes your Father through personal faith, commitment of your life to Jesus Christ as your Savior. Because if he has paid for your sin, if you have trusted that what he did on the cross was right for you and you've accepted him as your Savior, then God becomes your Father. If you've never done that, he is your God. But he is not your Father. How will you die? Will you die with an act of communion in relationship with your Heavenly Father through Christ? If you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, my friend, when you die, you will die to go out and meet your God in judgment. Not your Father. So death for Christ was an act of communion and it can be for us as well if we know Jesus as our Savior, an act of communion with our Father. That we simply go into our Father's presence to be at home with our Heavenly Father. That is what death can and should be for a believer. But death for Christ was also encountered with an attitude of confidence and it can be for us as well. Notice these words of confidence. Father, into your hands. I come at my Spirit. I am going to put those three words into your hands. Illustrate the fact that Jesus was dying with an attitude of confidence that he was in the hands of his Father. That his Father was totally in control of everything that was happening as he passed into his presence. Jesus had told his disciples earlier in his ministry these words. Look at them on the screen. I want you to see the contrast. In Matthew 17, Jesus had said when they came together in Galilee, he said to them, the Son of Man is going to be delivered into... Notice this. The hands of men. And what would they do to him when he is delivered into the hands of men? They will kill him, Jesus prophesied. They will kill him and on the third day he will be raised to life. And the disciples were filled with grief. Even hours before Jesus died in the Garden of Gethsemane, as he pours out his very blood there on the cross... Or there in the Garden and sweats as it were, great drops of blood. With that amount of stress and tension on him as he approaches the cross, he would come back to his disciples, find them sleeping in Matthew 26 and verse 45. He would say this. Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Jesus knew that in the Father's will, of course, he would be delivered into the hands of men. Yes, wicked men, sinners. And they would take him and while they had him in their hands, they would mock him and scoff at his claims to be the king of Israel. And they would scourge him and beat him and spit at him and force him to take a wooden cross to a hill to be crucified on. That's what the hands of men would do to him. But Jesus died with this sense of confidence. He was not a victim of the hands of men. He was dying in the hands of God, in the hands of his Father. And even what he had suffered at the hands of men, he knew to be the will and purpose of his Father. And so as he dies, he has this confidence as he approaches death. My death is not an accident. It is not the result of an unfortunate or horrible tragedy at the hands of men. I am dying in the hands of the Father. He is in control of the timing, even the method, the manner of my death. So into your hands, I commit my spirit. Did you know my friend, you can approach death with that same confidence? That death does not come because of some unfortunate incidents or circumstance or tragedy in your life. But death comes to you as a believer in the purpose and plan of God in his hands. And as you die, you can die with the confidence that you are in his hands as you die. Paul had that confidence. He expressed it several times throughout his ministry, writing to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Paul would say to them, we are confident, notice this, we are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. Paul approached death with the confidence that he would die in the hands of his Father. And he would just be leaving the body behind the old sinful mortal body behind and entering the presence of the Lord. Now it would be easy to say, but John, this was a long time before his death, he is not approaching death, he is not staring death in the face. Okay, let's jump ahead a couple years, at least, to the book of Philippians, where he is in a Roman prison with the distinct possibility of death, although he does not think it will happen at this time, notice what he says to the Philippians. For to me, to live as Christ, and to die is gain. If I'm to go on living in this body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet, what shall I choose? I do not know. I'm torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far, but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. So Paul has this sense that although he is in a Roman prison and could be executed, that this trial is going to result in him being released, and indeed it did. Somehow he just knew that was going to happen, and so he knew that he would have more ministry opportunity with the Philippians and others before he died. And so it would still be easy to say, okay, although he is in kind of difficult circumstances, potential death, he doesn't feel like he is ready to die, so it is still easy to have confidence when you are not really looking in the face. Okay, let's jump ahead, at least a couple more years, to when he writes Timothy. The last letter he will write to anyone before he indeed does die. This time he is in the Roman prison for a second time. He has probably already had a hearing before Caesar, and he knows how this is going to go down. He knows this is it, he knows this is the end. And notice how he approaches death now. For I am already being poured out like a drink offering. That is a beautiful old testament way of talking about his death. I am being offered on a sacrifice, not even as the main offering, a drink offering accompanied other offerings. So he said, you know, I am not so important to God that I should be considered the main martyr in this time of persecution. I am just being poured out as a drink offering, but I am already being poured out, it is happening. I know it is coming. And the time for my departure is near. I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness. See that confidence? There is in store for me. I know I am going, my race is over, my fight is finished, my work is done here. I have completed what God wanted me to do. And so I am looking forward now to what is ahead. There is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day, not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. Yes, even as Paul stares death in the face, and it could happen at any day, he will be released from that prison to be brought in to the executioner and be killed. He knows that is going to happen, but still he approaches death with this confidence that he is in the Father's hands. I have just finished my race. I have fought a good fight, I have run my course, I have kept the faith, I have done what God wanted me to do. I am ready to go. I have done a lot of times of my departures at hand. You can approach death with that kind of confidence if you know Jesus Christ as your Savior. So death for the believer can be an active communion, it can be encountered, entered into with an attitude of confidence, but death for our Savior and death for us too can be an active commitment. You see it in Jesus words, don't you? Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. All of Jesus life had been lived in commitment to the Father's will. He had always been perfectly yielded to the Father, perfectly submissive to the Father. He had always depended on the Word of God. He said over and over again, I come to do the Father's will. So he had been obedient to the Father's plan and purpose and his Word and all the prophecies about him in the Old Testament. He had been faithful to pray and express his dependence upon the Father. He had walked in the power of the Spirit so his whole life had been lived in dependence and commitment to the Father. This last act before he dies, I commit my spirit to you. So his death was in a sense a final act of commitment and yieldedness to the Father's plan and purpose. Literally in his dying breath, he expresses his yieldedness and commitment to the Father's plan. I commit, I yield with a sense of obedience to the fact that I finished your plan, I commit my spirit to you. Did you know that you and I can die with that same spirit and act of commitment? Paul said this in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 12. He said, that's why I'm suffering as I am. Again, he knows he's near death. Yet this is no cause for shame because I know whom I have believed. Now notice these next words. And I'm convinced that he is able to guard, to keep, to safeguard that what I have entrusted to him or committed to him until that day. What he's saying is a long time ago in the roads of Damascus, I committed my soul to him. I recognized that the only way I could get to heaven was not through my own righteousness and all of my good works and my religion, but through faith in the Christ who died for me. And so I committed my whole hope of heaven to him. I committed my soul to him and I'm convinced I'm confident that he is able to safeguard what I committed to him until that day when I see him. And my friend, if you have trusted your soul and your eternal hope of heaven in Christ, if you have entrusted that to him, then your soul is safe. Your eternal destiny is secure. And you can die with a final act of commitment. I commit my soul, my spirit to you. If as a believer you have lived the life of yieldedness to the Lord, then death is really just the final act of yielding to his purpose and plan, not fighting it anymore, but yielding to him and saying, I know it's time to go. And so here I am, Lord, I commit to you, my spirit. Paul would talk about that sense of dedication for the believer in Romans chapter 12 when he would say, therefore I urge you brothers and sisters and view of God's mercy and view of all his plan of salvation in the first 11 chapters and view of all of that. Now here's what we need to do. Offer your bodies a living sacrifice, holy pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. When you live your life in that kind of yieldedness, certainly none of us do it perfectly. We all slip up, stub our toe and fall flat in our face sometimes. We sin, we disobey, we're not yielded to the Lord sometimes. But when we get back up and say, Lord, that's not right. I know that's wrong. I confess it to you. I want to live for you. Put me back in the path of obedience and yieldedness to you. When we live that way, yielding to him, then when we come to death, death can simply be the final act of commitment. You can see death that way, the final act of yieldedness to his purpose, not fighting it anymore, realizing that he's through with you here. It's time to go on home. And in one final act of commitment and yieldedness, you say, Lord, into your hands, I commit my spirit. I'm ready to go. But death for the Savior and as a model for us was not only an act of communion, not only done with an attitude of confidence, not only was it an act of commitment, it was also for the Savior and can be for us. An act of completion. The Bible says that when he had said this, he breathed his last. He breathed his last. You see, Jesus voluntarily gave up his life for the Savior. And there is a sense of completion here. He is at the end of his suffering. He is at the end of doing the work God sent him to do. And he knows that he has been anticipating that in that prayer. I mentioned earlier in John 17, Jesus begins it this way in John 17 and verse four. He says, I brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. Jesus knew that as he approached the cross, that was the work God has sent him to do on this earth to become our Savior, to die for our sins, to be punished in our place. He knew that was his work. And he knows now as he approaches the cross, I've glorified you by finishing the work as he looks forward to the cross. He knows that's the finish line. And that's why just prior to this seventh statement on the cross, he had just said it is finished. The work you sent me to do here is finished. The full payment for sin is completed. And because it is finished, because my life's work and mission and purpose to be the Savior for mankind. And because of that, my work is done, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And he breathed his last. And he gave his life. You know the description of Jesus' death in the Gospels is absolutely amazing. Jesus himself would say in John chapter 10 that he had given his life voluntarily and nobody killed him. He used how he said it. He said the reason my father loves me is that I lay down my life only to take it up again. No one takes it from me. Jesus did not die in the hands of men. He had been delivered into the hands of men only to fulfill God's purpose. He says no one takes it from me. But I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. And sometimes it would be an interesting study for you to look at the way the Gospels word the death of Christ. None of them say he died. Matthew says he gave up his spirit. Literally he dismissed his spirit voluntarily knowing that he has finished the Father's plan. The Father's work for him is completed. He voluntarily dismisses his spirit. Mark and Luke say it the same way. He breathed his last after he says father into your hands. I commit my spirit. It's as though here it is, Father. He dismisses his spirit. John says it this way. He bowed his head and gave up his spirit. In control to the very end, not a victim of circumstances or the cruelty of man. In control to the very end, strong to the end, recognizing he has paid for sin in full. It is finished. Now he dismisses his spirit. And there is a sense for the believer in which when we come to death, we can say like our Savior. Lord, this is simply, this simply means that you finished your work with me here on this earth. Whatever purpose you had for me is now completed. And so now I'm ready to go. I my work is completed. It is done. You know, God never takes a child of his until he is done with him on this earth or her on this earth. And so there is a sense in which for every one of us there is also this recognition that I will live. I will serve. I hopefully will be obedient and yielded to the Lord until God says, okay, John, it's finished. It's finished. You've done what I sent you here to do. And I know when I stand before him, I will hear you didn't do it perfectly. John, you really made some messes of some things. But I want to reward you for what you did do that was glorifying to me. But there's a sense in which we only live until God says it is finished. And when that happens, it's time to say, I breathe my last. I'm done here. I'm ready to be with you in heaven. DL Moody was one of those who was in full command of his faculties when he died. And one of the last things he said to a friend that was standing around friends that were standing around his bedside family. He looked at one of his friends and he says, very soon you will read in the newspaper, DL Moody has died. He said, don't believe a word of it. I will be much more alive than I have ever been. How can you approach death with that confidence, with that spirit only if you know the Savior who gave his life in an act of communion with the Father in full fellowship with the Father? With an attitude of confidence that he was in the hands of the Father and was not dying at the hands of men. Only if you know the Savior who has a final act of commitment committed his spirit to the Lord. Only if you know the Savior who had finished the job he was sent to do and completed the work God sent him to do on this earth to die for your sins. Only if you trust him as your Savior can you die with that same spirit of everything is right between me and the Father. I'm not going up to meet God. I'm going to meet my family. I'm going home to my Father. I'm going to my home in heaven. Only then can you say, Lord, I'm in your hands as I die. I thank you that a long time ago committed my soul to you and you kept it, you kept it and you kept my home for me in heaven. I commit myself into your hands. Only then can you say, I commit myself to you. I yield. This is my final act of yieldedness and obedience to your purpose and plan. It's time to go. So I'm ready. Take me on, Lord. And only then can you breathe your last knowing that God has finished with you here. The question for you and for me, my friend is this, do you know Jesus as your Savior? Do you know Christ as your Savior? Have you trusted him, the one who died for you on the cross? As we go into this communion time this morning, we're going to remember in a very visible tangible way that Jesus died on that cross and breathed his last because the work of giving himself for us was finished. That's what we're remembering.