Return to Sermons | Home

Seven Last Words:
Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit

Luke 23:46

 

Click for Audio


Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas

Lenten Vespers—April 9, 2014

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

In our Lent services this year we have meditated on the Seven Last Words spoken by Jesus from the cross:

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

“Today, you will be with me in paradise.”

“Dear woman, here is your son.”

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

“I thirst.”

Next week on Good Friday we will meditate on Jesus’ declaration, “It is finished.”  This evening we meditate on what is actually the final words from the cross, uttered by Jesus just moments before his death:  “Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ When he had said this, he breathed his last.”

Jesus not only shows us how to LIVE a Christian LIFE; in these final words just before the end of his earthly life, he also shows us how to DIE a Christian DEATH.

Paul says in Ephesians, “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as an offering and sacrifice to God.”  On the cross, Jesus sacrificed himself as a ransom to pay for the sins of the whole world.  Your punishment was upon him, and his blood shed on the cross cleanses you from every sin.

Jesus promises, “Everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life.”  For you, and all who trust in Jesus, death is no longer something to be afraid of.  Because for you, death is not the end but the beginning of eternal life.

Paul writes in 1st Thessalonians, “We do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.  We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.”  For you and all who trust in Jesus, death is like falling asleep.

So often when our children were little they would fall asleep in the car seat on the way home at night.  Terese and I would gently carry them into the house, and they woke up in the morning to find themselves in their own rooms.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus says.  “Trust in God ; trust also in me.  In my Father’s house are many rooms . . .  I am going there to prepare a place for you. . .  I will come again and take you to be with me so that where I am you also may be.  You know the way to the place where I am going. . . .  I am the way, the truth and the life.”

For the children of God death is like falling asleep on the journey home.  The angels of God will gently carry your soul into your heavenly home, and when you awaken from the sleep of death you will find yourself in the eternal dwelling where Christ has prepared a place for you.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians, “We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.  Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. . .  Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. . .  We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”

I saw those words of Paul in action about 25 years ago as a member of my congregation was entering surgery for a quintuple heart bypass.  As they rolled her out for surgery, I told her I would be back to visit her the next day, and she said, “If I don’t see you tomorrow, Pastor, I’ll see you in heaven.”  A few hours later her heart finally did give out and she went to be with Jesus in paradise. 

Like that woman, learn from Jesus not only how to live a Christian life, but also how to die a Christian death.  Committing yourself to your heavenly Father, with confident trust that he will take you home.  As Psalm 23 says, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. . . and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

Amen.

  Return to Top | Return to Sermons | Home | Email Church Office