Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit (2)

Main Idea:

Big Idea: Surrendering to God allows us to experience His peace and strength, especially during the trials of life, reflecting Jesus' perfect example on the cross.

How do I see Jesus:

My friends say I am the cheapest person they know, but I’m not buying it.

This morning, as we celebrate the resurrection, we will be looking at the final words of Jesus on the cross as we complete the series Last Words. Next week, we will start a brand new series looking through one of my favorite books of the Bible, James. James is one of the places I always tell new believers to turn after they have read the Gospels, because James really doesn’t hold back. He just gets straight to the point of how we should live and act in the world around us, and I have always loved the straight forwardness of his letter.

We’ve been following Jesus as he has hung from the cross, and we have looked at some of the statements he made as he hung there. Its helpful to remember the scene, Jesus has been beaten within inches of his life we are told, and he is hanging between two thieves. As he has hung there people have hurled insults at him, they have mocked him, If you are the Son of God, come down from the Cross and He saved others, let him save himself.

Here are a few of the things we talked about in this series.

ME

Jesus said, Father Forgive Them…As they hurled insults, we looked at Jesus saying Father Forgive them, for they know not what they do. We spent some time talking about how amazing it was that in his greatest time of need, in the middle of his anguish he called upon the father to forgive these people who were inflicting this pain upon Him. We talked about how this act showed us not only do we need forgiveness for our sins, but we need to offer forgiveness to other people; our forgiveness for others is a choice we make. While the things people have done to us are real and hurt, our forgiveness from the Father hinges upon how we forgive those who have wronged us. So, knowing what Jesus has to offer us is greater than anything this world has to offer us, we must be willing to forgive those people who hurt us.

The first time I was planning to go to Haiti I went to meet with the man across town that was closely related to our church, he had been to haiti, and across the world doing many different things in missions work. He loves being the hands and feet of Jesus to the world and going to the places that some cannot make it to. And it was difficult first meeting, because before I left the house Josiah had told me he wanted to go, and I had made excuses and told him he wouldn’t be able to do much when it came to building houses because it was too heavy for him to do some of the things. Really just trying to find a way to keep him from the experience. I was afraid it was too much for him to bear at his age.

While we were in the meeting Jennifer sent me a text and said Josiah had told her he was going to practice carrying cinder blocks so he could go with me, and in that moment I knew that his heart was in a place where he wanted to help so I wanted to do all I could to make sure he could get to go. So I asked the guy we were meeting with if he could go and I would help him and get him ready and he wouldnt get in the way, but he let me know the missions organization wouldn’t allow you to go unless you were at least 15 years old. Which meant he was too young to go with me for a few years. And it kind of broke my heart, but I understood, the organization didn’t want to put too much on kids they didn’t think they could handle, its a heavy burden when you see some of those things, but I think it can make a positive impact as well.

And today we are going to look at a similar story, there is going to be a whole lot that he still has to tell them but in the moment he isn’t sure they can bear what he is about to tell them. And he is making sure they realize the only time they will finally be able to bear and grasp the truth he needs them to have is when the Holy Spirit comes to them and gives them the knowledge after he is gone.

And today what we are going to see is Jesus telling us what the work of the Holy Sprit will be in his church. The Holy Spirit actively works in and through believers to reveal truth, provide comfort, and call individuals to witness for Christ.

Today you will be with me in Paradise…The second week we dove into forgiveness a little bit more as we saw Jesus looking at thief on his right and say, Today you will be with me in Paradise. In this moment with the thief Jesus showed us it isn’t good people who go to Heaven, it is forgiven people who do. We rated our goodness on scale of 1-100 and noted it doesn’t matter what number we had given ourselves, the only thing that matters is what we have done with Jesus, have we accepted the gift he has to offer and allowed his forgiveness to wash us clean.

WE

EXPOSITION

My God, My God…Next we took a dive into what I said was some of the most misused scripture when it comes to this time of year, when Jesus cries into the Heavens, My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me? And realized this was Jesus quoting scripture to allow the people around the cross to know Jesus was about to win the battle. The mocking words of the people around the cross didn’t matter as they waited for Jesus to come down and setup this earthly Kingdom, Jesus was telling them the battle was being won right where he was and he wanted them to know what was playing out.

The Counselor's Comfort: Understanding the Role of the Holy Spirit

1. Spirit's Gentle Guidance

John 16:12 ESV

12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

I remember when I was in 3 or 4th grade and there was a teacher from the middle school who offered to come a couple days a week to teach us how to play violin, the cost was really steep, it would cost us 2 recesses a week… oh and the price to rent the instrument. But I wanted to learn, I loved music, I still do, and I wanted the ability to be able to play and do what would make a joyful noise. Did I know anything about classical music? Of course not, but I really wanted to learn to be able to play and I figured at the time I may be able to use the skills to be able to turn my violin into a fiddle and play along with Garth or some of his buddies.

So I talked my parents into shelling out the money to rent the violin and talked myself into missing lots and lots of recess and we signed up. And I will never forget, we spent the first few lessons learning how to read music, or at least learning notes when we looked at sheet music, I wouldn’t be able to do that well enough to play anything now, but I go the idea. Then the next week we learned that we were really going to begin the knowledge that would make everything possible… we learned how to hold the bow! And when I say we learned how to hold the bow I mean he gave us a pencil to practice using as our bow and we held it and he positioned our fingers and showed us how to use the pencil perfectly. I got that down pretty quickly. I had it that first week, and it was much to my chagrin the next week when we used the whole week to practice holding our bows again. By this point I am starting to get frustrated… well three more weeks later we are still learning to hold the pencil.. I mean bow… and I had about had enough… My parents as well… I was more frustrated I had missed so many recesses and not even touched my instrument… my parents were frustrated we had spent all the money for two and a half months to rent an instrument we hadn’t even touched yet. And so I did what any 4th grader would do… I quit…

And looking back I realize there is some things that I was needing to learn that everything we would learn after would come at the cost of holding that bow and if we didn’t get that down correctly then the rest would fall apart as he taught us how to play. Now did I really need that long to learn how to hold the bow? Who knows, but what we can realize is there are some things we have to learn gradually as we are growing in Christ Jesus… And we cannot just learn everything Jesus has for us over night it is a gradual process much like playing the violin..

We talked about this a few weeks ago when we were talking about abiding in the vine and how we must be growing fruit and how often times we expect new Christians to act like christians overnight but Jesus clearly shows us there are some things in our Christian walk we need the holy spirit to walk us through. We are not going to be exactly like him overnight. It will take time for us to grow and be more sancrtified and more like Jesus.

And remember this is not a license to say you can’t have any fruit in your life and Jesus is just working on you forever as an excuse to stay away from him, we have to continue to strive to do better, but this can also be a comfort for us.

I would say when we come to christ the life he is calling us to live can be overwhelming because it is contrary to the world around us and how it lives and acts. And when we feel the weight of that it can almost make us not want to move forward at all because there is so much, but I think what this is showing us is the Holy Spirit doesn’t leave us as orphans and he will walk us through it one step at a time if we follow him. He will spend two months showing you how to hold the bow until you get it if thats what he thinks you need and you can take comfort knowing that he is with you and not leaving you alone to do it all by yourself.

2. Spirit's Truthful Direction

John 16:13 ESV

13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

I’ll never forget when I was able to go on the cable news to share about our upcoming egg hunt while we were in Oklahoma and how cool the whole experience was. You had the little ear piece in so you could hear the director or producers, I don’t know the difference, and I was up after they were running this prerecorded story and I was sitting at the desk with the anchor and all of a sudden you hear in your ear… Live in 30 seconds…. Live in 15 seconds…. and he starts to countdown from 10… and it was this guy giving you direction and letting you know what was coming up and what to expect and where to look and how to be ready for what was next.

And this is what we see Jesus telling us here about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives… he is telling us the Holy Spirit guides us into truth in the same way. Instead of giving us cues on time before the camera comes live the Spirit gives us clues on living a Christ centered life in a world full of chaos and confusion. The Holy spirit directs and guides us to better living. Most of us as Christians would hear this voice and equate it to our conscience, those moments before we enter things and we know we shouldn’t and we know the spirit is trying to get us to not go into a place before it happens.

However, the spirit will also guides us in prayer when we seek him to show us the way we SHOULD go even before we can get ourselves into a position we need him to save us from. We just need to stop and seek God in all decisions and listen for the voice in our lives to tell us what we are supposed to do next.

And what Jesus is telling us here is that all that message that everything the Holy Spirit is declaring for us to do is from the mouth of God the Father, the HS isn’t speaking on just its own power but telling us what the Father wants us to know.

3. Spirit's Glorifying Presence

John 16:14 ESV

14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

And here Jesus is giving us some clear insight into the work of the Holy Spirit, the HS is working not to glorify himself, but to glorify Christ. All of the work of the Holy Spirit is never for us to see what the HS is doing and think about how great the HS is, but instead it is for us to see the work the HS is doing in the world and our lives and look at Jesus.

Here, the Spirit glorifies Christ by declaring what is His. You might suggest that understanding this role of the Holy Spirit helps believers focus on Christ's magnificence and mission. Perhaps encourage the congregation to see how the Spirit's work is Christ-exalting, calling us to live in ways that honor Him and reflect His glory.

I love what JI Packer says about this

“When flood lighting is done well, the floodlights are so placed that you do not see them; you are not in fact supposed to see where the light is coming from; what you are meant to see is the building on which the floodlights are focused. The intended effect is to make it visible when otherwise it would not be seen for darkness…It is as if the Spirit stands behind us, throwing light over our shoulder, on Jesus, who stands facing us. The Spirit’s message to us is never ‘Look at Me; listen to Me; come to Me; get to know Me.’ But always ‘Look at Him, see His glory; listen to Him, hear His Word, got to Him and have life, get to know Him and taste His gift of joy and peace.’”

And we can see in this illustration its not the floodlights that are important but what the flood lights are shining upon, and the same is true with the Holy Spirit, his work is just to point us to Christ. And this is true any time we see the HS working, just as the Sons work was to glorify the father the HS work is to glorify Jesus.

4. Spirit's Divine Declaration

John 16:15 ESV

15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

And as the disciples heard this, they may not have understood in the moment what he was telling them, just by nature of the words he is speaking here we can see that is probably true. But here after all the time of sitting in the upper room and telling them they wouldn’t be able to understand all of what he has told them, here he come in with a promise, all the truths I have tried to share with you, all the things you have been confused about, the HS will enlighten that to you and make sure you understand. He will declare the same truth to you that I already have. And if in that moment they had ben able to understand what he was saying clearly I can only think it must have been comforting to them in that moment, to know all their confusion would be gone. Imagine that, the one he called the comforter would comfort them.

And this promise is still true to us today, the holy spirit will point us to Jesus and will declare the truths of his word and help us to understand what we read and what we hear. The greatness of all of this is we see when we follow the leading of the HS we are getting the full council of God, he is pointing us to Jesus, who is speaking directly what he has heard from the father.

And as I say this there are some of you who are struggling with this concept because you know there are things you have read and don’t understand, and you think well I thought the HS was supposed to help us to understand all of this, so why don’t I. And what we have to realize is the HS walks us through truth as we have talked about over the past few weeks we aren’t just going to understand it all overnight, it will take some time for us to grow, but as we seek Jesus through the HS we will begin to understand the truth of his Word and what he is calling us to.

I am thirsty…Then we looked as Jesus said, I am Thirsty, and saw John tell us this was a fulfillment of scripture in Psalm 22. Not only that, when Jesus said I am, he was using the divine name, referring to himself as God. In those moments as he declared his thirst to fulfil scripture Jesus was pointing to our need for Him. Our thirst, hunger, sickness, pain, and so much more came from the moment Adam and Eve sinned in the garden and were separated from God, and those things are supposed to point us back to our need for him. Where in the Garden God was there to provide all those needs for his people; they didn’t have to look anywhere else to have all of those things fulfilled, God was the provider they needed. Much in the same Jesus provides all we really need and we need to return to Him as a supplier.

WE

It is finished…Last week, we looked as Jesus cried out, It is finished, signifying the end of all the connections with Psalm 22 and showing the completeness of the work the Father had sent him to do. In all the moments he had the opportunity to call upon angels to pull him from the cross and save Him in the moment, what this cry showed us is he didn’t stop half way - he finished the job. It is easy to start something, we can all start 4 or 5 things at once, as someone with ADHD ask me how I know, the hard thing is finishing it. Jesus, didn’t half do anything and we are still here because we still have work to do - to proclaim the Gospel to anyone who will listen, because there is nothing we have to offer anyone better than the Good news of Jesus.

And now in the midst of this darkness that had come over the land, after all of these statements we see Jesus’ final words.

Luke 23:46 ESV

46 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.

First, we see Jesus crying out with a loud voice, and if you know anything about crucifixion you would know how hard this is, after hours of hanging your lungs would be compressed making it hard to get a deep breath, making speaking at this volume even harder. In fact, crucifixions were known to take days for a person to die, and when they wanted to speed up the process they would break the legs of the person being crucified, this disabled them from being able to stretch their bodies upright and allow their lungs to get a full breath. So essentially they would suffocate as they hung there on the cross. Really, this is the cause of death of many on the cross, they got too tired to stretch themselves out and would eventually suffocate, the breaking of the legs just got the job done faster.

Next we see Jesus saying into YOUR hands I commit my spirit.

Are you letting the HS guide you? Do you need the HS to fill your life?

And there is so much goodness in this talking about how putting his spirit in the hands of the father. Jesus is in the middle of one of the most difficult and painful situations and to those standing around him it looks as if he is in the hands of his punishers. They have him right where they want him, he is hanging on a cross, he is caught, there is nothing he can do; they think their victory is won.

There is so much tension in the air, because they well know that Jesus has claimed the victory, and they are waiting to see it, and we have talked about the mocking words as he hung, and their thoughts would have been on just how big the battle was he had lost.

But in the middle of all of that, Jesus says I give my spirit to you.

And this is a direct quote from Psalm 31, and Psalm 31 is a psalm where we find David in the middle of struggles in life, dealing with lots of things coming against him and holding him down. However, let us look at where he starts

Psalm 31:1–5 ESV

1 In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me! 2 Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily! Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me! 3 For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me; 4 you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge. 5 Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.

David starts the Psalm Speaking of the greatness of God and all the things he has done, he tells God he will put his entire life into his hands and give it all to him, because he has redeemed him, He is faithful.

This verse reminds me of the Elevation song Do It Again,

 Your promise still stands

Great is Your faithfulness, faithfulness

I'm still in Your hands

This is my confidence, You've never failed me yet.

And I know some people who hate this line in the song, because they think its against God because it says you’ve never failed me yet. And they react and think, how could you say that, God cant fail us ever, even if we haven’t gotten what we want, we still get what we need, so he can’t fail us.

But I love this because in the middle of it all they are saying, look I can trust you, because as I look back on all of the hard times of my life, I realize you have never left me alone; you’ve always been there every single time, you have never failed me yet, and I can trust that you never will. And this is similar to what we see David saying, you’ve redeemed me, you’ve been faithful so I put my trust in you.

Look at what happens next Psalm 31:7-8

Psalm 31:7–8 ESV

7 I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul, 8 and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place.

And there are some of you you have some serious stuff in your life you are dealing with, you have some sickness you can’t seem to kick, you have some kids that you want to know the Lord, you have some relationships you need to have restored. You have prayed and It just feels like nothing is happening and we can take the same hope we see here in David’s words; You know my afflictions, you know the distress of my soul, and still you have not delivered me into the hand of my enemy.

How many of you actually believe that this morning? And I don’t mean just up here, in your head, but believe it with all of your heart. Its easy to say you believe it, but are you living like you believe it? And listen I know how hard it is, the pastor isn’t exempt from the trials in life, and we have just had a long season of dealing with hard things. But even in the middle of some really tough emotional moments I have had to know God has me, because there are so many things I know without him and Jennifer I would never have the strength to do. So are you living like you know he has heard you? Are you living like you believe he can never fail you?

When you think about that sickness, do you know he hears you and is holding you? Listen, that doesn’t mean he is giving you the answer you want, but do you know that you know that he is with you? The hard part often for us, is when we don’t get our medical answers in the way we think we should, so we start to fret and be angry with God, but can you see, how even when it may not look the way you desired he is still with you?

When you think about your wayward kids do you know he hears your prayers? Even when it seems they are getting further away from the Lord, do you know he is hearing you, are you living like he is hearing you? Need an example here of someoen coming back after years, a persons adult kid.

When you think about those relationships you need restored, are you trusting him and living like he will be with you through it? Like you know he will be with you, but are you taking steps toward restoration like he is right there with you? This is so hard, because it means putting our hearts in a vulnerable place and trusting he will be with us through it. Listen, I also want to put out there I am not telling you you have to go back to those abusive relationships, I do think you need to offer forgiveness in those situations, but I am talking about those relationships where something happened and it destroyed it, but you want nothing more than to have your best friend, or family member back in part of your life and someone, maybe you, just needs to apologize and get back to the place it was before.

I wonder how many of us have that same desire, have the same capacity in the middle of our toughest days to hand all we have over to Him. And remember that is the place David started. He didn’t just get himself there eventually, he started his heart there are the beginning of the Psalm, and for some of us we need to get to a place where we can do that as well. We need to start our day, our journey to work, our whatever with prayer, praising him for what he has given us and praying he keeps us through it. And when we start our day there and the bad news comes, or the hardships, or just the tough situations it is easier to prepare our hearts.

Back to todays scripture.

Luke 23:46 ESV

46 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.

The last thing we see in this scripture is he breathed his last. Jesus life wasn’t taken from Him. He gave it up, he chose the ending.

John 19:30 ESV

30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Jesus gave it up. And we know this goes along with what we read earlier in John John 10:17-18

John 10:17–18 ESV

17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Jesus gave everything to make us right with God once again. And he was in control the entire time.

And I love this scripture in Matthew as he gives us a little bit more information about what was going on here.

Matthew 27:50–51 ESV

50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. 51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.

To understand it all starts with the Garden….

Adam and Eve Walked with God

Sinned

Cherubim were guarding the entrance

Biblical Scholars believe the garden was covered in the flood

900 years later God gave Moses instructions on tabernacle

Veil separated the Holy Place from Holy of Holies where God resides.

The Curtain was to be embroidered with cherubim to show they were still protecting the place to God

Centuries later, when Solomon built the temple, and then the temple reconstructed by Herod during Jesus’ day, this veil was described by Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, as woven with strands of blue and purple and scarlet and patterned into the fabric hundreds and hundreds of cherubim.

Josephus said it was 3 inches thick 30 foot tall

One man entered. Tied a rope… he was scared

And in this moment it was ripped in half… some say you could have heard it all the way into the courtyard it would have been so loud.

And God was signifying something New. With Jesus we have new access to the Father… we don’t have access to him just through the temple but he is living with us

Hebrews 10:19–20 ESV

19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,

We can get to the Father through Jesus…and friends that is what we celebrate this morning… the curtain has ripped and Jesus gives us access…

There are some of you here this morning, and you have never given your life to Jesus as your Lord and savior. And what you need to realize is, much like Adam and Eve, your sin has separated you from God. We cannot be made right with him on our own, there is nothing we can do. However, because of the work of Jesus on the cross when God looks at us he sees Jesus righteousness and not our own. We just have to accept that we are sinners, and believe that he can restores us and confess our sins and call upon him as our savior and we can be saved.