This morning, turn with me to Luke 23. Luke 23, as we read once again the account of the crucifixion, verses 33 to 49, our text being verse 46, specifically the seventh and final word of our Lord from the cross, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Luke chapter 23, beginning at verse 33, as we give our attention to the Word of God. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified Him along with the criminals, one on His right and the other on His left. Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. And they divided up His clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at Him. They said, He saved others. Let Him save Himself if He is the Christ of God, the Chosen One. The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was a written notice above him which read, This is the king of the Jews. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him, Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other criminal rebuked him. Don't you fear God, he said, Since you are under the same sentence, We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus answered him, I tell you the truth. Today you will be with me in paradise. It was now about the sixth hour. And darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining, and the curtain of the temple was torn into, Jesus called out with a loud voice, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. When he had said this, he breathed his last. The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, Surely this was a righteous man. When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, over the past number of weeks we have considered together the crucifixion of our Lord as we anticipate, as we approach the day that we call Good Friday. Where we consider in a particular way the saving sacrifice, the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we have considered this by looking at the words which our Savior spoke from the cross. And this morning, of course, we come to the seventh word which Holy Scripture records for us. As the perfect substitute for His people, Jesus delivered us from the total abandonment of God by taking upon Himself, by suffering that total abandonment of Himself. As well, He delivered us from the agony and torment of hell itself as He also took that upon Himself. And in doing this, He delivered His people unto eternal life. Yes, as we commemorate the saving sacrifice of Christ, we remember that on the cross, redemption was accomplished. And with this last word of the cross which Christ spoke, His word of confidence, we are given the assurance and the certainty that the same redemption which He accomplished would also be applied to God's people. That as believers, we would enjoy the results of His perfect work. There was only one thing left for Jesus to do on the cross, and that was to give Himself over to death to destroy that last enemy. And as He says, Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit, it is clear that our Savior approached death not as the conquered one, not as the one who had been beaten, but He approached death as the conqueror, the very victor. He had just spoken His word of triumph, it is finished. Father, I have paid every last price for sin. I have removed Your wrath. It is finished. And then with this word, our Lord, as the Son of God, confidently displays His security, His dependency, and His authority. And with this word of confidence, Jesus Christ tells and demonstrates how each and every one of those who take up their cross and follow Him, how each and every Christian is to live, but also how each one is to die. Jesus, first of all, expresses His confident security in His address to Him whom He calls on. He says, Father, Father. Now just to recap again, Jesus came to do that which only He could do. He came to make atonement for His people. Now, boys and girls, when we talk about that word atonement, we're talking about the whole of salvation. All that salvation means. Again, that He paid the price for sin. That He satisfied God's wrath. That He is victor over Satan. But also that He has reserved for you and me a place in heaven, eternal life. Atonement. The completeness of salvation. And the reason that he was able to do this, of course, was because of who he is. The Son of God himself, very God of very God. Jesus testified to his identity. In fact, his claim of being the Son of God led to his crucifixion and death. In Matthew chapter 26, the high priest said to him, Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. And Jesus said to him, It is as you said. And when Pilate said, I find no fault in Him, the Jews answered in John chapter 19, we have a law. And according to our law, He ought to die because He made Himself the Son of God. Jesus suffered the wrath and punishment of God against sin and He was forsaken by God in the place of His people because He was the Son of God. That's the only way He could do it. The Heidelberg Catechism is correct when it says that he must be true and complete God because that's the only way he could bear the wrath and punishment of God in his human nature. A mere human being couldn't do it. He went through the agonies of hell itself and he knew by experience what it meant to suffer the Father's wrath against sin. He knew the total and utter abandonment of the Father so that he cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Yet having endured all of that, He could still say, Father. Father. Even though Christ had gone through hell and suffered greatly and became sin and a curse for us, He never stopped being one with the Father. He never stopped being the Son of God. Yes, fellowship. The fellowship between God the Father and God the Son was broken for a time, but the relationship between the Father and the Son stayed the same. You see, that could not be severed. Jesus Christ suffered an eternity's worth of broken fellowship for every last one of His people. He suffered that during that deep darkness and He suffered that, beloved, so that we won't have to. Yet, He confidently lays claim to the fact that He was eternally secure because God is His Father. Now, we know that children often feel safe and secure when they are in the presence of their fathers. Children enjoy that childlike trust in their dads, knowing that dad will watch out for them and provide protection for all of their bodily needs. And when children are secure, then it has shown to be true that they are also more confident. And although this is imperfect for you and me, and although there are exceptions to this rule, we still enjoy a sense of this. But Jesus enjoyed perfect security with His Father. You see, the darkness was gone now. And His word of triumph, it is finished, echoed through the air. And Jesus confesses that the abandonment that He had experienced in relationship to His Father was now gone and had been replaced with a fellowship in favor of His Father. He had that confident security congregation that not only was His work of redemption finished, but His work was acceptable to His Father and He would be received once again into His Father's favor. No longer were God's fists of wrath pounding down on Him, but Jesus knew that the arms of His Father with His hands open wide were stretched out to Him with His invitation of favor, with His well done, my Son. You see, the eternal relationship between God the Father and God the Son held fast. And that must be comforting to you and me because if it hadn't, we would have no security. We would have no confidence because His work would not then be complete. He would not then have been received of His Father again. We would still be just as lost as ever before. But it held fast. And Jesus died as He lived and that is in confident security so that John could say, And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. And in Him, congregation, His people also enjoy confident security in the Father. You see, John 1 verse 12 says, But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name. Christ's triumph, you see, earned adoption into the family of God for His people. And He gives us the security of our position in that family. As Paul says, the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. God Himself tells His children that. You are my children. Beloved, once we are brought into the family of God by the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit, there is nothing that can sever that relationship with our God. not in hell, not on earth, not in heaven above. As Paul says, not angels, nor demons, nor any created thing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Yes, it's true that you and I may very well go through times when sin breaks that fellowship with God the Father for a time. Or when trials and testing from our perspective seem to break that fellowship yet for the child of God. The relationship between Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, and His adopted children is always there. It's always intact. It's never severed. The cross points to that. The cross teaches that. The cross guarantees that. And God is always faithful, and as the Bible says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Why? Because of Christ's cross. at His perfect work accomplished there. And the Spirit lifts our eyes to the throne once again where we can say in confidence, Father, our Father. Is this the confident security in the Heavenly Father that you have? Do you own this? Is it yours? As God's children, by His grace, we are to live in the security of our Heavenly Father day by day in all of life. As we go to school, as we make friends, as we choose careers, as we date, as we marry, as we raise children, as we remain single, as we conduct business, all things are to be done in the security that God is our Father who is both able and willing to give His children that which we need. And beloved, that confidence, security in the Father is ours not only in life, but also in death, because it was also our Savior's in death. And in his death, he demonstrated his confident dependence as the Son upon the Father. He says, Father, into your hands. Into your hands. Now when Scripture speaks of the hand of God, it's referring to the power and strength and the care and the authority of God. David prayed in 1 Chronicles 29 verse 12, In your hand is power and might. In your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. Now, no doubt it may seem strange to each one of us here to speak of our Lord being dependent. We don't think of Him that way. It would seem to us that if anyone could be His own man and stand on his own and be independent, it would be Jesus. Yet the truth is, beloved, He lived His life in dependence upon His Father with whom He was one. Jesus committed His whole being into His Father's care and keeping constantly. It was a habit of life for Him. John 14, verse 10 says, Jesus says, Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you, I do not speak on My own authority, but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Christ depended upon His Heavenly Father, for example, in His teaching ministry. He prays in Matthew 11, I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. You have revealed them to babes. In Mark 6, Jesus, after looking up to heaven, healed the deaf-mute, thereby demonstrating His dependence upon His Heavenly Father in His healing ministry. And the same thing was true when He raised His friend Lazarus from the dead. In His feeding ministry, feeding the multitudes, we read that He also would look up to heaven and give thanks. In His teaching ministry, in His healing ministry, and in His feeding ministry, He demonstrated completely upon His heavenly Father. And here on the cross, Jesus demonstrates His dependence as the Son upon His Father in His death. Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit. You see, he gives a beautiful testimony here that God is the faithful guardian of His soul. When those who crucified Him thought that He was lost forever, He had confidence that His soul would not be injured in death, but it would be safe in death. This was prophesied in Psalm 16 where the psalmist says, I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore, my heart is glad and my glory rejoices. My flesh also will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. Earlier that day on the cross, Jesus promised to the criminal beside Him that that very day He would be with Jesus in paradise. And therefore, Jesus, it's clear that He had the confidence that His Spirit would be safe in His Father's hands in heaven. not doomed to hell for three days. The work was accomplished. His spirit would be safe. For the unbeliever, as Hebrews 10 verse 31 says, it is a fearful thing, a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But for the child of God to confidently depend upon the hands of the Heavenly Father is the height of blessedness. Congregation, there's nothing greater Jesus knew that his spirit his soul would be safe in death and beloved this word of confidence listen up points forward to the safe keeping of the souls of all believers this is the heavenly comfort for the child of God again is this your comfort parents is this the truth that you pray for for your children Is this the truth that you are teaching to your children so that by God's grace they might also have this eternal comfort? Christ's word of comfort, as many of you may well know, is a quote taken from Psalm 31, verse 5, which says, Into your hand I commit my spirit. And it is said that this was the first prayer that every godly Jewish mother taught to her children to pray the first thing in the morning as they look forward to the day ahead. I'm not sure if that's actually true or not, but it really sounds good. Kind of like we teach our children to pray at night. Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Teaching our children through that simple little prayer. What is most important? Who alone we are to depend upon. Who alone is able to care for us in life and in death. We are to commit our spirits to God day and night. This was a prayer to live by. And our Savior had the confidence as He depended upon His Father's hands that He would soon be alive forevermore. He knew He would rise again. And if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ by grace through faith, He says to you in John 11, and this is a guarantee that you will never die. Of course, we know that that's not talking about physical death. As long as Jesus Christ tarries until He comes again, we will all face physical death. But He's talking there about that second death, about eternal death. Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit. Jesus finishes His life on earth by addressing His Father with the first words His mother may very well have taught Him. Take heart, parents. Take heart. Are you, are we teaching our children the things that will live through eternity? Is that the highest on our list of priorities, to teach our children? More than any scholarship they might qualify for, Are we teaching them the things that will live through eternity? The most important thing that godly parents can teach their children is to depend upon the Lord God in life and in death for all things. Is this something that we have to worry about today in our affluent society? Do we forget where our dependence lies? You see, it's no secret today that even the poorest among us have much more than we truly need. It may only be our daily bread, but isn't that what Christ taught us to pray for? Our daily bread? Some of you, of course, remember all too well the depression years when food and clothing was scarce, even to the point of death. On what or whom do we truly depend today? Who really gets the credit for our prosperity in this life? who should get the credit. Scripture proves, as we have seen, that Jesus depended completely upon His Father. How then should we live? How then should we live who by nature are children of wrath, but by grace have been redeemed by the Father's only begotten Son and now are adopted into His family? How then should we live? You see, we who have been miraculously grafted into the vine depend upon Him completely whether we will admit it or not. We depend upon Him completely for all things, for body and soul. And therefore, all that we plan, all that we do, all that we say is to be committed to God daily. The writer of Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths. Congregation, it ought to be absolutely no mystery to us that our lives are so powerless and purposeless when we try to live in our own strength, when we try to depend upon ourselves, because there's absolutely no security in that. But our comfort is that Christ's Spirit, the very same Spirit He committed to His Father's care, is the believer's Spirit. The same Spirit that empowered Him empowers those who call upon Him by grace through faith. And in the power of His Spirit, not only can we depend fully upon God and commit ourselves to Him in this life, but we can also enjoy confident dependence upon Him in the hour of death. Even in the hour of death. Because we know that He keeps our souls safe. And finally, congregation, with His word of confidence, Christ expresses His authority. This is the One to whom all authority would soon be given in heaven and on earth, which His resurrection and ascension demonstrates. But He displays that authority already on the cross. He had authority over His death. Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit. Christ had absolute authority and control over the circumstances of His death, over the kind of death He died, over how He died and when He died. And this is true because He is the Son of God. Now some say that can't be true. They came to arrest Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. He couldn't resist them. He had to go with them. He didn't have a choice. He was tried in human courts. He didn't have a choice in that either. He had to walk the Via Dolorosa to Calvary. They nailed Him to the cross. He didn't have a choice. He wasn't in control. Sure He was. Think about this. During his ministry, Christ's enemies tried to put him to death by stoning him, lynching him, or throwing him to his death. Maybe you remember that episode in Scripture at the very edge of a cliff. They're about to throw him over, and what does he do? Scripture tells us he simply walked right through the angry crowd. He walked right through. In confidence, he told his disciples the kind of death he would die as the angel reminded the disciples at the empty tomb. The angel quotes our Lord as saying, the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again. He told you that, the angel said. Don't you remember? Death had no victory or sting over Jesus. He determined how and when He died. Ordinarily, when we die, the body is overcome with weakness and finally there is a last gasp and the physical body collapses, but not Jesus. In John 19, verse 30, we read, And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. And beloved, we are to understand the bowing of His head as an intentional act. He did it. His head didn't just collapse forward. Jesus, by his own decision, bowed his head and died. Death didn't come to get him. He went out to greet death on your behalf and my behalf to conquer it so that we might have life and have it abundantly. St. Augustine wrote, He gave up His life because He willed it, when He willed it, and as He willed it. He bowed His head with confident authority and this was a pledge that He would overcome death. He who committed His Spirit into His Father's hands for safekeeping would indeed overcome death because with this very same authority, He would take up His life again. As He said in John 10, Therefore my Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down Myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again. That means, beloved, that we did not nail Him to the cross. We didn't even voluntarily put our sins on Him. He took them upon Himself. Christ's word of confidence. Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit is a wonderful prelude to His overcoming the grave. He had spoken His word of triumph, it is finished, but this was another word of triumph even before He entered the grave. And by the grace of God, He gives His people the assurance that we too can live and die in His confidence. Because when Jesus laid His Spirit into the Father's hands, in essence, He laid the souls of all of God's children in the same hands. And His pledge to overcome death was a guarantee that we too as believers would overcome death by Him, with Him, in Him, and through Him. And only those who are a part of Christ's body, the church, by faith, with Christ, can look through the gloom and see the glory. Look through death and see life. And look through the apparent tragedy into absolute victory. Beloved Jesus Christ faced death as the Son of God with confident security, confident dependence, and confident authority for His people and only His people. He suffered and died only for those who put their full confident trust in Him by grace through faith. He has taken the victory and the sting out of death for you and me who believe. And only in Him, beloved, are the children of God able to live and die confidently because only in Christ are believers fully committed to the Father. Have you committed your all to Him by grace through faith? Those who do not commit their lives to Jesus Christ in the firm confidence of His saving sacrifice will face death alone and will not overcome. Apart from Him, one is only powerless and purposeless in life and in death and will suffer the second death, that eternal death. Beloved, do you enjoy Christ's imputed confidence? His confidence. As we consider Christ's word of confidence, consider these questions. How do you face life? How do you face life today? Well, then how will you face death? You see, Jesus Christ faced death as the conqueror, confidently resting in the loving hands of His Father so that His people might live in the confidence of the Father's hands as more than conquerors through Him who loved us. We are called to live in the joy of the cross. And congregation, that joy includes not only, It includes this, but not only God's grace of being delivered unto eternal life. We speak of that so often, of the salvation that we have now through Jesus Christ. But it also includes God's mercy of being delivered from eternal death. I think many don't like to speak about that as much because we don't like to admit that which we truly deserve. But only when we have joy in God's mercy of being delivered from eternal death can we truly enjoy in greater measure being delivered unto eternal life. And only then can we confess in the Spirit, I'll love thee in life, I will love thee in death, and praise thee as long as thou lendest me breath, and say when the death dew lies cold on my brow, If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, tis now. Amen. Shall we pray? Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, indeed with hearts filled with joy, we give You thanksgiving and praise that You have accomplished all that we have stood in need of, that we might have eternal life, never to end, forevermore. And Father, indeed, we pray that every day more and more we might glory in that which you have delivered us from. That we might be lifted to greater heights of joy than that which we have been delivered unto for the sake of Jesus Christ. May that joy guard us, guide us and direct us throughout this life. May that joy be visibly evident in our lives as the world looks upon Your people. And Father, may we give to You all glory and honor and praise for Jesus' sake and in His name, Amen.