April 2-Good Friday-St. Luke 23:46

‘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.’

‘Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.’ (Ps. 19:14) Amen.

‘Grace, mercy and peace will be with you, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love.’ (2 John 3) Amen.

On Good Friday, we commemorate the death of our Savior. So, we are likely to speak of death at such a service as this one. This is especially the case when our sermon text is the seventh and final word of Jesus spoken from the cross.

Are you afraid of death? Does attending a funeral give you an un-conscience shudder at the thought of attending? Why, you are a Christian! For the unconverted it is natural to be afraid of death. Natural man is afraid at such a thought. It is different though for you, or at least it should be. As a Christian, you and me, each of us, we are not afraid to die. Why is this so? What makes us different as Christians?

Well, we have the answer tonight. May the Lord Jesus, who Himself has taken the sting out of death, bless us as we study His final word from the cross. ‘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.’ (V. 46)

These words declare for you that death leads your soul back to the father. It is as simple as that.

All of us here, we live in a very disillusioned world. Some years back many people felt as if they knew it all. Everything was certain if you asked such a person. Now, these same people, many of those around us, feel that no one knows anything. So, when you or I come and tell them that there are certain truths about which there can be no doubt, for that matter if we simply declare that there is any absolute truth, they are stunned and shocked.

When we say that a Christian’s death leads his soul back to the Father, they reply: “How do you know?” Or they ask such foolish questions as: “Have you been there?” We have to answer that second question with a no. However there is one of these truths of which we are each sure. No we haven’t been there. But Jesus, the Son of God, who was in the bosom of the Father, came down from heaven and revealed this truth to you and to me.

When speaking of His death He said to His disciples: ‘“I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again I leave the world, and go to the Father.”’ (Saint John 16:28) Again He said, ‘“I go to prepare a place for you and I if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again to receive you unto Myself; that where I am you may be also.”’ (Saint John 14:2f.) Notice how Jesus words these statements. There are no “maybe’s”, there are no “if, then” portions. None of this is attached to these words of Christ. He simply states the way things are and will be.

When Jesus came to comfort Mary and Martha, whose brother had died, He said: ‘“I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.”’ (Saint John 11:25f.) To the penitent thief on the cross He gave the assurance: ‘“Today though shalt be with Me in Paradise.”’ Jesus taught that His death would lead Him back to the Father and that the death of every believer would lead back to the Father.

Jesus believed what He preached. There was no lack of confidence in our Savior. Even as He hung on the cross, He knew and proclaimed for sure the way it would be. Jesus told that thief that because of the faith created in that man’s heart, he would be in Paradise. This is important because there were many false prophets around at the time of Christ. It was the same as it is in our day. Many spread a false message about the Savior and how God has rescued us from sin. Those false preachers may not be sure themselves about what they preach. Jesus is different, even when it was darkest. Even when the Father had abandoned Him, Jesus was sure of what he preached and He believed what He preached.

Hear again that last word of Jesus from the cross. ‘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.’ They crucified Him at nine in the morning. Now it was almost three o’clock in the afternoon. Jesus had reached His hour of death … the hour which He told us “have no fear”. This is the hour that leads back to the Father. At this point, with the same confidence that our children say, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep,” Jesus in His dying hour confides: ‘“Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.”’

That is why you and I and all Christians are sure that death is not the end. That is the result of our confidence. Our trust in the salvation of our souls and the forgiveness of sins, which Jesus won for you on that cross this Good Friday. There are many things about which you or I may say; “It is my opinion”. This is not one of those times. We proclaim with the hymn: “Jesus is my confidence!” (TLH 201:5) Because of Jesus atoning death on the cross, you now have no doubt. Death is now no longer an end but rather a beginning. It is the beginning of that glorious life in heaven with our Father.

In Jesus’+ Name. Amen.

‘And the Peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’ (Phil. 4:7) Amen.