I ask if you would please to take your Bibles and turn with me to the Gospel of Luke in chapter 23 and verse 46. We're looking at Jesus's prayer of commitment as we've been studying the seven sayings of Jesus from the cross. We've come to the final words of Jesus from the cross. Next week, we skip one of the utterances because it will be more appropriate for a Mother's Day service. But this week, we're looking at the very last one that Jesus made. And we'll start at Luke chapter 23. We'll begin in verse 44 to give some context, but we find the saying in verse 46, It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light 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. Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God saying, certainly this man was innocent. This is the last of Jesus's words, seven sayings from the cross. Three of the utterances were made to people. To the thief, he said, today you will be with me in paradise. To Mary, he said, woman, behold your son. And John, behold your mother. To anyone who would listen, he would say, I thirst. And to three, he would speak to God. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do, he'd say. Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And then now, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And one, one of the seven, he spoke in great triumph to all of the universe, it is finished. None of the gospel writers mention all seven of the utterances in their gospel. None of them mention all seven. Nevertheless, I do not think that it is arbitrary or mere coincidence that there are exactly seven. Seven, as you probably know, is the number of perfection. It is the number of completion. In six days, God created the heavens and the earth. And on the seventh day, he rested. Creation was complete and then closed in rest. Likewise, the sixth utterance of Jesus from the cross is, it is finished. And the seventh is a prayer of rest. Into thy hands I commit my spirit. It is rest safely and securely in the hands of the Father. Redemption is now complete and it is time for him to bow in rest. The expositor's commentary says, normally someone in the last stages of crucifixion would not have the strength to speak beyond a weak groan. But George Bliss comments, Jesus could not have expected long to survive the accumulation of sufferings, but as is often seen, that just before a lingering death, the remnant of life blazes forth in one supreme effort So Jesus, with a full and distinct voice, uttered these last words. In a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. What does Jesus' statement mean? What does it reveal to us and indicate and imply for us to take? First of all, I want you to see that Jesus's prayer indicates the unique quality of Jesus's death. That Jesus's prayer indicates the unique quality of Jesus's death. A.W. Pink argues that Jesus's death could be described in four words. that first of all, it was a natural death. In saying that Jesus' death was a natural death, we mean it's a real death, that Jesus was killed, that his heart stopped beating, was burst open, blood and water flew, that his brain no longer functioned. that they put him in a grave for three days to indicate the reality of his death and that in many ways he died in the same way that all humans die. It was a natural death. But secondly, Jesus' death was an unnatural death. That is to say that death had no claim upon him. That he was completely and utterly perfect without sin. That he had no need for the wages of sin and death to claim him. And that Jesus had life within himself. That they killed the author of life and as such it is a grotesque thing, an unnatural thing. That thirdly, Pink argues that it is a preternatural death. A preternatural death meaning that it was a death that was predetermined even before creation itself. That Jesus, as Revelation 13 says, is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. But lastly, and the point that I want to make, is that Jesus's death is a supernatural death. That just as we argued in one sense, Jesus's birth was like every other birth, and his life was like every other life, and his death is like every other death, there is also a very real sense in which Jesus's birth is unlike any other birth. For the angels come and sing, and it was a virgin birth. And Jesus' life is like no other life before it, in that he was completely and utterly without sin. And likewise, in the same way, Jesus' death is completely and utterly unique. Consider the fact that before Jesus died, there was darkness for three hours. That the curtain within the temple that separated the holy place from the holy of holies was torn in two from top to bottom. That the earth quaked at the death of Jesus. There are supernatural signs to this death. Jesus' death was voluntary. And by that, I don't just mean that Jesus volunteered to be the substitutionary sacrifice for sins. He certainly did that. But I mean that the actual timing and the moment that Jesus' life was exhausted, the actual timing and moment that Jesus' life was ended. was an act of His will, an act of His volition, that He was sovereignly in control of when He died. Jesus told us in John chapter 10, verses 17 and 18, For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 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. So Jesus is sovereignly in control of his life and his death. He's not a victim, but he volunteers to lay down his life for them. I want to go through some evidence to show how this is the case. First of all, at Jesus's arrest, when they came into the Mount of Olives, into the Garden of Gethsemane with Judas and the rest, the mob of soldiers, it said that Jesus, knowing that all would happen to him, came forward and said to them, whom do you seek? They answered to him, Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus said to them, I am he. And Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. And when Jesus said, I am, they drew back and fell to the ground. Now, they're dispersing. I want you to see Jesus' power comes back, comes out of him, and they fall back and fall to the ground. At that point, if Jesus wanted it to, he could have just left. He could have just gone. He could have at any point called upon legions of angels to come and rescue him from the cross, but he didn't. He was in control of these things. They led him like a lamb to the slaughter, and he allowed that. He said on the cross, I thirst, and he said this in fulfillment of Scripture. that they gave him poison for his food and sour wine for his drink. In order to invoke this, he said, I thirst. Also, we see on the cross, Jesus' legs are not broken. In order to fulfill what was said of the Passover lamb, that he would be without spot or blemish and he would not be broken, and that none of Jesus' bones, likewise, would be broken. They wanted Pilate to get the Roman soldiers to get the thieves and Jesus down from the cross before the Sabbath happened. In order to speed up the process, they would often break their legs. But when they came to Jesus' legs, they didn't break them because he was already dead. He died at the time that he needed to die. the time that he could die. And so this prophecy was fulfilled. His legs were not broken. In fact, when Pilate heard that Jesus was already dead, he was surprised to find out. For normally it takes several days to die as a result of crucifixion. Also, we see this supernatural death in that when John 19, 30, what we looked at last week, it said when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said it is finished and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. A.W. Pink says previous to this, our Lord's head had been held erect. It was no impotent sufferer that hung there in a swoon. Had that been the case, his head would have lulled helplessly on his chest, and it would have been impossible for him to bow it. And mark attentively the verb used here. It is not his head fell, but he consciously, calmly, reverently bowed his head. And then our passage today, Father, into my into thy hands, I commit my spirit. This last cry indicates that he was not conquered by death, but that he yielded himself up to him. He gave up his spirit. In Matthew, it is literally he dismissed dismisses his subject. Mark tells us he breathed out his last. And John tells us he delivered up his spirit. And then there is the remarks of the centurion. In Luke, our passage, it says, surely this man was innocent. But in other places, he says, surely this man was the son of God. The centurion had seen many men die, but none quite like Jesus. Jesus' death was unique. Secondly, I want you to see that Jesus' prayer marks the wickedness of His crucifixion by the hands of sinful men. Jesus' prayer marks the wickedness of His crucifixion by the hands of sinful men. Jesus is praying, Father, into thy hands, into your hands, I commit my spirit. But for the last little while, in many respects, he had been in the hands of wicked men. Matthew chapter 17 and verses 22 through 23, As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day. Matthew 26, 45. Then He came to the disciples and said to them, Sleep, and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand. son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Luke 24, 6 and 7. 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 Acts 2.23, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. Jesus had been in the hands of men, but no more. No more again would they ever be able to touch Him. No again would they ever be able to do their worst to Him. When given the opportunity, men took the Son of God and they killed Him and they crucified Him. Even in the Father's hands, facing the judgment, the wrath of God was poured out. But now He is going to commit himself into the hands of the Father. Thirdly, Jesus's prayer conveys the perfect submission of the Savior. Jesus's prayer conveys the perfect submission of the Savior. This statement is utterly consistent with all of At His baptism, it must be permitted for now in order to fulfill all righteousness. In the wilderness, He was committed to only perform and live by the Word of God alone, not by bread. Before choosing the disciples, He got up early to fellowship and pray with God. In the garden, He would pray, Father, not my will, but Thine be done. The point is that Jesus' death is just like His life. It is a complete and total and perfect submission to the Father. Have you surrendered yourself? Is your life surrendered to the Lord? Submitted to Him? Many desire to commit themselves to the Father in death, but have you committed yourself to the Father in life? Romans 12, when I appealed to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. That verse is saying not that you would be willing to die for Jesus necessarily, but are you willing to live for him, sacrificially for him? Jesus said, I am the vine, you are the branches. Apart from me, you can do nothing. Have you connected yourself to the vine? Do you rely upon Him? Have you surrendered to Him? Timothy would say, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed. This is Paul to Timothy. For I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. That He's able to guard that which has been entrusted. Jesus' prayer conveys the perfect submission of the Savior. Fourthly, Jesus' prayer signifies a restoration to His former communion and eventual glory with the Father. Jesus' prayer signifies a restoration of His former communion and eventual glory with the Father. We see this in His prayers. In the very first utterance from the cross, He says, Father, forgive them. And then we recognize that as darkness fell over the land, Jesus was in utter distress as the wrath of God was poured out upon him. And then he does not pray, Father, but he prays, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This forsakenness, this brokenness of communion and fellowship that was only temporary has now been restored. restored as the darkness has gone. And he prays once again, Father, into thy hands, I commit my spirit. Up until the cross, Jesus had enjoyed perfect communion with the Father and the communion was temporarily broken for three hours when darkness fell over the earth and God's wrath because He was bearing our sins upon the tree. But now the wrath is finished, the darkness is gone, and the relationship is completely restored. Communion is there again between Father and Son. In the high priestly prayer of Jesus in John 17, looking forward to the cross, Jesus prayed, Father, I glorify You on earth, having accomplished the work that You gave Me to do, And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. Not just with this communion restored, but this glory that he had experienced before he became incarnate was going to be his again. That he was going to be glorified, risen, ascended, and sitting at the right hand of the Father. That he was going to experience the glory and the communion within the presence of the Father that He had experienced before. He was completely and utterly accepted, vindicated by the Father. I want you to see something that is remarkable when you think about it. That even in the anguish of the cross, as He is suffering, as He is dying, that Jesus is able in these horrific circumstances to have communion with the Father. And He's able to do so by faith. Is there any circumstances which you could be going through in which you cannot commune with God and talk with God? By faith, you can have this same communion. Fifthly, Jesus's prayer finalized the sacrifice that Jesus made. Jesus's prayer finalized the sacrifice that Jesus made. For an atoning sacrifice to be made, two things had to happen. The first is that God's wrath had to be satisfied. We've already argued that Jesus was making a propitiatory sacrifice, that Jesus is a propitiation. That is, that He's making a sacrifice, a blood atonement, which satisfies the wrath of the Father. No longer is the Father's justice demand condemnation towards those people. He is satisfied. He is propitiated. But the second thing is that not only does God's wrath need to be satisfied, but the sacrifice has to die. It's not enough that Jesus just bleed. It's not enough that Jesus just stand in for the wrath of God. He must also finish this by dying. The sacrifice had to die. So you have this darkness in the three hours where Jesus is undergoing the wrath of God, And then you have the death. Darkness to death. That's a reversal of the way that wicked men experienced the wrath of God. They experienced once comes death and then comes judgment. They experienced death and then darkness. But Jesus reversed this. He had darkness and then death. It was necessary that he die. Without death, the sacrifice is incomplete. That's why he doesn't say it is finished until that moment when he is right about to die, because it's not really finished until he is dead. He'd have said it afterwards if he could have. Sixthly, Jesus's prayer reveals His trust in the Father's deliverance and vindication. It's indicated by the phrase, I commend, I commit. It's indicated by the importance of that which He is committing, His Spirit. His Spirit. What is more valuable than a person's spirit, a person's soul? And He's indicated by the hands into which He is yielding His Spirit. He's handing His Spirit over to the Father, allowing Him. He's trusting Him. It's an act of faith. It's important that we understand it refers back to David's prophecy that we read earlier. Psalm 31, 1 through 5. In you, O Lord, do I take refuge. Let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness, deliver me. You see the trust that David has. Incline your ear to me, rescue me speedily, be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me. You are my rock and my fortress. For your name's sake, you lead me and guide me. You take me out of the net they have hidden from me, for you are my refuge. Into your hand I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me, O Lord, God of the faithful. The Jewish person would have used Psalm 31 as an evening prayer, just reminding them trust in the Lord. George Bliss says it is the language now of a calm and filial trust and a father consciously present. And William Manson says it is the supreme surrender is taken on the side, not of the anguish and desolation which the vicarious suffer endured, but of the faith and submission with which he bore his suffering to the end. That he's trusting that his death will be accepted. He's trusting that his death will be vindicated. He's trusting that the father will not only hold and keep his spirit, but also that he will redeem him and rescue him and be restored to life. Lastly, Jesus's prayer teaches us how to die. Jesus's prayer teaches us how to die and die well. As such, it comforts the believer of his eternal security. For Jesus is not just committing his spirit to the Father, but all of Jesus's activity was done on our behalf. He lived for us, He died for us, and He committed Himself into the Father's hands. He committed His Spirit into the Father's hands for us, on our behalf, so that we could be committed and protected by the Father, that He would lose none of those whom the Father had given to Him. Pink says, on the cross, Christ hung as the representative of His people, and therefore we view His last act as a representative one. When the Lord Jesus commended His spirit into the hands of the Father, He also presented our spirits along with His to the Father's acceptance. Jesus Christ neither lived nor died for Himself, but for believers. What he did in his last act referred to them as much as to himself. We must look then on Christ as here gathering all the souls of the elect together and making a solemn tender of them with his own spirit to God. Earlier, as Jesus talks about Himself being the Good Shepherd, in John chapter 10, He says, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one. Jesus has protected all of those whom the Father has given to Him. No one can snatch them out of His hand. And the Father, with omnipotent hands, is guarding us as well. And now, Jesus, as He is dying, as He is being the representative for all of those whom the Father has given to Him, Jesus is saying, Lord, into Thy hands I commit my spirit. And as such, He's also praying, all those whom You've given to me, keep them, that I may lose none of them. Keep them as I die, that I may lose none of them. It teaches us to die well, to die securely, and that encourages the believer to suffer and die well, even in the face of persecution. When Stephen was going to be stoned in Acts 7, he called out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Where did he learn to say that? Where did he learn to pray such a prayer as he was dying? Peter, as told us in 1 Peter 4, verses 16-19, Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God. And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome of those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? And then it says in verse 19, Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. He encourages us to entrust our souls to the Creator. The believer's comfort contrasts, however, with the dread of sinners. The believer who dies is dying in the hands of the Father because his spirit has been surrendered to the Father. But the unbeliever, the unregenerate, the one who has run from the Father and rejected Jesus all of their life, when they die, they too will fall into the hands of God. But it will not be a comforting thing. It will be a terrifying thing. Hebrews 10, verses 29-31, how much worse What punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which He was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge His people. And then it says, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. As comforting it is for the believer to entrust their soul as they die into the hands of a loving God is a fearful thing for an unbeliever, ungodly person to fall into the hands of a living God. During the first great awakening, at the very beginning of the first great awakening, Jonathan Edwards wrote Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Perhaps you learned it in 11th grade English class. But it's far more than just a literary work, but it is a sermon from God. And Edward says in part of it that you have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince. And yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from failing. falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else that you do not go to hell last night and that you were suffered to awake again in this world. After you close your eyes to sleep, there is no other reason to be given why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held you up. If you're out there today listening to this, do not fear the one who can throw your body and soul into hell. Fear him. I mean, do not fear him who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Fear him who can throw both body and soul into hell. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and yet forfeits his soul? If you're not a believer, I encourage you to see Jesus' example, that He commits Himself, as He always had, to the Father. In life and in death, He completely surrendered and committed Himself into the hands of the Father. Won't you follow His example? But more than following Jesus' example, won't you take Him as your Savior? that Jesus is the One who can save you and deliver you and give you this fellowship with the Father, that through Jesus you're adopted into the family of God and that you are given the rights and privileges of a child of God and that you can die in comfort and in peace and that you can live even now committed to the eternal life and to the glory of living as a child of God in the hands of the Father. Live a life of trust, a life of obedience in Him. Would you pray with me?