Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit
Words from the Cross • Sermon • Submitted
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Transcript
Handout
Liturgy
Liturgy
Use the story of Lazarus death to illustrate Jesus’ setting his mind towards his own death as a sleep—already thinking about the bedtime ritual of committing his spirit into God’s hands.
Into my hands… comes from .
Jewish families would teach their children to pray this prayer before they went to sleep at night.
On the cross people were taunting Jesus and telling him to save himself. To save himself would have been to abandon our salvation.
The opposite of commiting our spirit to god’s care is to Take our security into our own hands. Pursuing security leads to idolatry. For Israel it was trusting in horses and fortresses and armed might. Or it was trusting in an alliance with another country to keep her secure from attack. Or it was adopting the gods of the nations around them, hoping that those gods would keep them from being overcome by their enemies, or their affinity for those gods would align them with the interests of Their enemies. None of these strategies ever worked. No local gods, no chariots and horses, and no alliance would keep Israel safe. Their security was only found in God.
Guitar and singing to open (Jason)
Earlier, Jesus had promised paradise to a criminal, and that he would meet him in paradise. The only way that would be possible is if Jesus defeated sin and death—the two great enemies of humanity. When Jesus committed his spirit to Jesus, he entrusted the results of his sacrifice to the father And waited for the Father to make the next move.
It is because Jesus wasn’t afraid of death—because He trusted his father—that he could stand up against evil in all its forms—idolatry and false teachinags about God, abuse and dominance, selfish pride and materialism.
What did God do next? He raised Him from the dead. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead now allows us to gain victory over sin and death, and to confront the evil in our world.
Into your hand I commit my spirit means:
I give my life back to you
I open myself to your spirits leading
Give me strength to overcome temptation
Help me be an ambassador to reconcile people to you wherever I go
Announcements (Jason)
Hope Awakens begins April 17 at 7:00 pm. discoverhopeawakens.com
Offering emphasis
Opening Prayer (Jason)
Children’s story (Joelle)
Bible Reading (Brittany, )
Special Music (Birgitta)
Message (Jason)
Big idea
Big idea
Big idea
Big idea
My physical and spiritual security has been purchased by the blood of Jesus so I can lay my whole self at God’s feet and trust Him with my future.
Introduction
Introduction
Security is one of those subjects we keep bumping into now days.
Around Christmas time last year, the news was reporting on home security cameras that had been compromised by the user’s login information being leaked online. One young girl heard a man’s voice in her bedroom coming out of the camera her parent’s had installed to keep an eye on her. He told her that he was Santa Clause and that she could tear up her room if she wanted to. Another couple installed a camera in their room to watch their dog when they were at work, but heard a stranger talking out of it when they were heading to bed one night.
We expect that certain things in our life are secure. We put passwords on our online accounts. We lock our physical doors. And we want to believe that our privacy is intact.
Security matters to us because we base our future plans on the security of our situation.
Most of us make plans as if our regular paycheck will be there every month. We anticipate that little will change with our homes or our vehicles from month to month.
When a catastrophe strikes, it demonstrates how little we have control over.
A flood can wash down a hill and sweep a home off its foundation.
A gasket can break and cause an engine to seize, requiring thousands to repair.
A company can go under, laying off its workers and upsetting their expected income.
Someone you love can make a choice that really hurts you and damages your trust.
A virus can fly around the world and bring uncertainty to your wellbeing.
We make plans with the expectation that certain things are secure; but we don’t really have control over these things, do we?
What aspect of security matters to you right now? Is there something that you feel insecure about?
Tell us on our chat or on facebook.
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The Israelites faced a similar struggle with security.
As they looked at their fields that were sometimes overrun by canaanites, and their cities which were sometimes raided by philistines, they were faced with a choice. Should they go to God and trust Him to figure out a solution, or should they form a standing army, build up their military equipment (like horses and chariots), and take these nations to the battlefield?
Should they go to the God of their fathers, or should they adopt the social practices of the nations around them who seemed to be doing better than them economically?
These questions were repeated over and over again in every generation.
God assured them that He would be responsible for their future. That if they just rested in the covenant that He made with them, then their future would be bright.
But they began to ignore the temple services. They kept back their tithe. They ignored God’s guidance on circumcision. They violate the Sabbath. They started charging large interest rates on loans, and ignore the laws to give back the land to its original owners every 50 years.
The predictable results were that they became a fractured nation with internal strife and bitterness. Their people started worshiping other Gods. Their financial situation declined. In short, every aspect of their security was compromised. Their personal, financial, relational, physical, spiritual and national security were all at risk at one time or another, and often all at once.
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In those vulnerable times they had a choice to make. Do they trust God with their future? Do they realign their lives with God’s covenant? Or do they make an alliance with Egypt, or purchase horses from Syria?
Do they trust God and worship Him? Or do they turn to the more sensual and exciting worship of the local Baals who seem to be protecting their nearby enemies?
The question of security is an important one because it touches the core of our being. If we trust our security to God, then our lives will be fundamentally different than if we try to make ourselves secure on our own.
Think about that question and write some ideas down in our chat or on facebook. What does it look like when we try to make our lives secure on our own?
In what ways do we seek to provide security for ourselves?
to provide security for
Think about that question and write some ideas down in our chat or on facebook.
ourselves?
Think about that question and write some ideas down in our chat or on facebook.
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We’re nearing the end of our series called Words from the Cross. Today is the last of Jesus’ words while on the cross, but it’s not the end of the story. Next week we’re going to finish the story with a sermon I’m calling “Arise!” But today we’re looking at the last words Jesus said before He died, and they happen to face this question of security straight on.
[into your hands slide]
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.
:
And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
“Into your hands I commit my spirit.”
When Jesus said, “Into your hands I commit my spirit,” everyone that heard him would have connected it to a bedtime prayer. Much like you and I know the prayer,
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep:
Watch and guard me through the night,
Until You bring the morning light.
Amen.
Like our modern prayer, the prayer of committing one’s life into God’s hands was something a Jewish parent would use to teach their children to not worry at night.
Let’s go back to the psalm the Jews got that from and I think we’ll learn something about what Jesus was going through when he made that statement on the cross.
We can start reading at the beginning of the Psalm. Go ahead and pull out your Bibles, you’ll need it for this. ’m going to read the first four verses from the Common English Bible:
I take refuge in you, Lord.
Please never let me be put to shame.
Rescue me by your righteousness!
Listen closely to me!
Deliver me quickly;
be a rock that protects me;
be a strong fortress that saves me!
You are definitely my rock
and my fortress.
Guide me and lead me
for the sake of your good name!
Get me out of this net
that’s been set for me
because you are my protective fortress.
Psalm 31:1-
Do you hear his tone in these first verses. There’s a confidence in God — “you are definitely my rock and my fortress.” Yet there is an intensity too—”listen closely to me!” he says.
What might be going on in this author’s life?
When have you needed help and cried out for Him to listen to you?
That’s what the author of was feeling like. Urgency. Hope in God, but urgency for a response.
Then the poet makes this powerful and confident statement of faith in verse 5:
Into your hand I commit my spirit;
you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.
The Common English Bible says it this way,
I entrust my spirit into your hands;
you, Lord, God of faithfulness—
you have saved me.
“
Notice the change in tone in verse five. He commits his life to God, entrusts everything he is into God’s hands, and then says, “you have saved me; God of faithfulness.”
Is the poet saved?
No, not yet.
Verse 9 says, “have mercy on me, Lord, because I’m depressed. My vision fails because of my grief.” The poet is crying so hard he can’t see. He’s bent over in grief. He’s depressed in body and spirit. He even says, “my life is consumed with sadness.” Looking into the past he says, “My years are consumed with groaning.”
This is not a man who’s thinking about a past time of salvation, or a present reality. This is a man who is saying that no matter how he feels, he trusts God with his future. And so with confident faith, he looks forward to God’s salvation as if it had already happened. “You have saved me.” “You have redeemed me.”
He goes on in to praise the Lord for his abundant goodness, for his steadfast love, for hearing his voice and for preserving the faithful. In the end he looks to his readers and says,
Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the Lord!
Jewish mothers would sit beside the beds of their children and pray with them, “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” teaching them to be strong and courageous, and go to sleep, waiting for the Lord to wake them up in the morning.
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep:
Watch and guard me through the night,
Until You bring the morning light.
Amen.
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Jesus must have been thinking about that prayer for quite some time before the cross.
He could have been examining the idea of death and thinking about what His death might be like when he told the disciples in John 11,
He could have been examining the idea of death and thinking about what His death might be like when he told the disciples,
After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.”
John
I wonder if Jesus talked with Lazarus about what it felt like to be dead and come back to life. Did they talk about how dark the tomb was or how Lazarus bumped his head trying to come out of the short cave opening? Did they talk about what the resurrection would be like at Jesus’ 2nd coming? The Bible doesn’t tell us anything about those interactions. It doesn’t reveal the thoughts in Jesus’ head. But the clues from and help us see that death and its consequences were something Jesus was thinking about. And maybe that he was thinking about this bedtime prayer—entrusting his life into God’s hands while he slept.
Jesus was raised up on the cross, and the priests shouted out insults, telling him that if he were really the Christ he should prove it by saving himself. What they didn’t realize was that they were tempting him to do exactly what their people had done for years. They had repeatedly turned away from God and His covenant to try and save themselves. They had not trusted their security to God. They took matters into their own hands.
Jesus faced that same internal struggle when before the cross he prayed on the mount of olives:
“Father, if it’s your will, take this cup of suffering away from me. However, not my will but your will must be done.” (, CEB)
Common English Bible. (2011). (). Nashville, TN: Common English Bible.
Instead of trying to take matters into his own hands, Jesus was putting the problem in the lap of the Father and entrusting Him with His future. And so, when the priests came with the temple guards, Jesus knew that this was the Father’s plan, so he went along with it. When he was beaten, he didn’t lash out because he trusted God with the plan. When everyone was shouting with demonic zeal, “crucify him!” He didn’t try to run away because he trusted that the Father knew this was going to happen, and that He had a plan. When they told him to come down off the cross, he trusted God that if He wanted him to come down from the cross that He would do it himself. Jesus didn’t have a need to take things into his own hands because he trusted the Father with His future.
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Darkness descended on the mountain like the darkness of midnight. Jesus thought about the plan—save mankind from their sins. He felt the oppressive guilt of all the sins of humanity. He looked out for a sign of the Father’s presence and couldn’t sense Him close. He wondered if the plan was working, or if he would be separated from the Father and mankind would still be lost.
His emotions swung from, “You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel,” to “I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.” (, )
He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ()
But he took courage too. He remembered how the poet in was surrounded by wild bulls and lions, and how he said, “save me from the mouth of the Lion!: but immediately followed up with “You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!” () He took courage in when the poet said, without any evidence to back his faith, “you have saved me.”
Hours had passed with Jesus on the cross. A bright spot had shone when the criminal had asked to be saved. But that was three hours ago and the darkness was oppressive. The cross remained shrouded in darkness, but the darkness around the hill seemed to move down to the city and cover the temple.
As Jesus went back and forth in his heart, he finally came to the point where he had drunk the depths of human depravity and born the weight of all our sins.
He had relied on the evidence of His Father’s acceptance that He had seen before—the voice at his baptism in the Jordan, the presence of Moses and Elijah and the voice of approval on the mount of transfiguration. He was acquainted with the character of His Father; He understood His justice, His mercy, and His great love. By faith he rested in Him. He committed Himself to God and the sense of the loss of His father went away. Christ had won the victory by faith, and by trusting in the Father’s plan.
Lifting himself up to fill his lungs he nearly shouted those last words of , “He has done it!” salvation is won. and those confident words from :5, “Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit!” That was the last of his breath, and he didn’t breath another.
At that moment of his victory, the darkness parted and the light of heaven made Jesus’ face brilliant. At the same time that Jesus was making this proclamation of victory—stating that the sacrifice had been made—the priests were down in the temple performing their ritual sacrifice for the passover.
Picture the priest grasping the knife, ready to cut through the throat of that innocent lamb, completely ignoring the lamb of God that had taken its place. Darkness had descended and the only light was from the torches burning around the courtyard and in the sanctuary. As Jesus breathed his last a deep rumbling of the earth tore rocks from their places on the mountains and hurled them into the valleys. The priests fell down on their faces, fearing that they would die that day. They heard a great tearing, and looking up they saw through the holy place that the thick tapestry that hid the most holy place from view was being ripped apart from the top to bottom. And that perfect lamb that they were going to offer… it ran away.
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Conclusion
Conclusion
In the face of loosing everything dear—his mother, his relationship with the Father and Spirit, his very life—Jesus entrusted his future to the Father. Since you already know the next part of the story—how Jesus lay in the grave and then raised to life again—you know that he did the right thing.
What would have happened if Jesus didn’t trust the Father? He could have come down from the cross, but would you and I be saved if he had? No. He would have been saved, but we would be lost.
That’s usually what happens when we take things into our own hands. We might get temporary relief, but God’s purposes are short-circuited and He isn’t able to do what He had originally planned.
Fortunately, because of Jesus’ great sacrifice, because He entrusted His EVERYTHING to the Father, you and I get a second chance... and a third chance... and a fourth chance… and a 490th chance. Sure, things won’t be what they could have been if we had trusted God to begin with, but when we trust God today, he can take our brokenness and make a work of art.
Let’s lay our future at God’s feet and say, “into your hands I commit my life.”
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make plans for the future, or organize ourselves, or budget our money, or have expectations for what might be next. God loves it when we make plans. The problem is when we reject the changes God makes.
God needs flexible people who will make plans, submit them for His approval, and then adapt when he sends them back with corrections.
There’s a great prayer in the middle of the book Steps to Christ that goes like this:
Steps to Christ Chapter 8—Growing up into Christ
Consecrate yourself to God in the morning; make this your very first work. Let your prayer be, “Take me, O Lord, as wholly Thine. I lay all my plans at Thy feet. Use me today in Thy service. Abide with me, and let all my work be wrought in Thee.” This is a daily matter. Each morning consecrate yourself to God for that day. Surrender all your plans to Him, to be carried out or given up as His providence shall indicate. Thus day by day you may be giving your life into the hands of God, and thus your life will be molded more and more after the life of Christ.
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Right now our days may be a little different as we face the impact of a viral pandemic. We may be worried about our health, our finances, our government, or any number of other concerns. What will we do with them? Will we take matters into our own hands and bind up our worries into tight little wads? Or will we release our worries to the God of all goodness, and say, “into your hands I entrust my life?”