Words from the Cross // Father, Into Your Hands I Commend My Spirit // Luke 23:46 // Pastor Josh Evans

See here today. Well, listen, it is good to see if you're excited to be at church. Can you say Amen today?

And listen, I recognize that you could be in a lot of different places. And you've chosen to worship with us here at Union Grove today. And we are so grateful for that.

In fact, look to your neighbor right now and say, I'm glad you made it. All right. And it is good to see everybody here today. And I get it, if you're an introvert, you're never coming back to our church after that. I understand that.

And we don't always do that. But it is good to see each and every one of you if we've not met before, maybe this is your first time or the first time in a long time. I want to echo what Pastor David said earlier. Just want to say thank you for being here. And I do want to encourage you at some point to take one of those new here cards that are in the seat back in front of you.

If you take one of those cards and fill it out, turn it in our Welcome Center, just so that we could have a record of your visit and also so that we can better connect with you and you get a free gift out of that we would love for you to be a part of that. Well, just before we dive into God's Word, I wanted to mention just a couple of things. First of all, for some of you who have just slipped in, I just wanted to say thank you if you didn't know that this even happened. This might be brand new information for you. But I did want to say thank you to our church.

Many of you participated during our, we call it Bible Fellowship, but our Sunday school program, you guys surprised me with a little bit of a birthday party today. And I just want to say thank you for that. If you did not know about that, don't worry about it. You didn't miss it and everything. But I did want to say thank you to those who participated in that. It was kind of a surprise.

And I don't know why they threw that up, but they did, you know, so and a lot of people dressed in Duke blue today just in support of me, just because I'm having a very difficult morning. Okay, so, but no, I just wanted to say thank you. But two things I wanted to mention to you just before we jump into God's Word. First of all, Pastor David mentioned our Leave Your Mark event that is happening this evening. If you're not familiar, right down the street about a half mile, we are in a building project.

We are in full blown construction. And we are doing an event this evening at 5pm. Everyone is invited.

Your kids are invited as well. It'll be something that they will not forget. And we get an opportunity to mark the building. So we are going to write different prayers that we have for the ministry that's going to happen there. We're going to write Bible verses, song lyrics, maybe your kids or grandkids names, people that will be impacted in that building by the power of the gospel.

And we're going to be able to write that all over the steel before they start to put the walls up and things like that just to leave our mark on the building. It'll be a special time. Everybody's invited at five. And I want to mention a couple of things to you about that because I love to know what the expectation is. And I know many of you in our church specifically like to dress up and stuff like that, which I appreciate. This is not a dress up occasion. And here's why this is a construction site.

Okay. And so I want you to know the reason why I want to be very specific in this is because at Union Grove, dressing casual means different things to different people. And so I remember when I came as a youth pastor here, years ago, we have a thing here every year where we celebrate our church's birthday. It's called homecoming. And so what we do is we do an evening meal with the church. And, and come back for an evening service and things like that. And we call it homecoming.

And I remember I was a youth pastor here. And so I asked Pastor Bailey and Pastor Harris, I said, Hey, you know, it's tonight, just like Sunday morning, kind of dress up occasion, kind of what does it look like? They said, Oh, man, no homecoming, super casual, super casual. So just come casual and everything.

And so I was like, Okay, awesome. I'll come casual. And so I came casual. And what casual meant to them was we take off our ties on Sunday evening.

And, and for casual for me, it meant way difference. I look completely out of place than I have during that event. Here's what I want you to know, just so that everybody understands it's a construction site, I'd encourage you to dress casual. And because we define what that means differently, I want you to know what I'm going to be wearing. I'll be in tennis shoes and shorts tonight. I and so don't feel like you can't wear shorts, wear them.

And it's fitting for the event five o'clock, have your kids there. If you're worried about standing for 20 to 30 minutes. During the signing and all that kind of stuff, you can bring a chair. But if you're good with standing, you can do that as well. If it's rainy, we do have a roof above us.

And so no guarantee you won't get wet from your car to the building. But don't let that stop you. So that'll be this evening 5pm Don't miss that. And then Easter Sunday is only a couple of weeks away. Can you believe it?

We're almost there. April the 20th is Easter Sunday. And we have three services, we have a 7am traditional sunrise service. And that's for all of you early risers, which I know I'm talking to the 11 o'clock crowd.

So that probably doesn't mean you all right. And so but 7am we'll do a special traditional sunrise service outside will be a different service. So if you think that one's going to look just like the 830 and the 1030 it will look a little bit different. So we got the 830 and the 1030 services happening as well right here with a full choir all that kind of stuff. And so I'd encourage you to be here and invite somebody to attend with you. In fact, on your way out today, we are going to be giving every person a couple of invite cards just for you. I'm assuming you're going to be here on Easter.

These invite cards are an opportunity for you to take and invite somebody maybe a neighbor, maybe somebody kids play ball, you know, somebody you sit with at games, somebody you work with somebody in your direct community, your family, whatever. But this is an opportunity for you to take a couple of those and invite people to join us on Easter Sunday. Everybody got that that was a lot of announcements.

All right. So let's dive into God's Word. If you have your Bible and I hope that you do join me in the Gospel of Luke. If you didn't bring your Bible today, it will be up on the screen to help you out.

But Luke chapter number 23. Today, we are continuing a series that we have been in for the last several weeks, called words from the cross words from the cross. And we've been looking and just so that you know, on the cross, Jesus, he made seven specific statements from the cross seven specific things Jesus told us. And we know, if you follow Scripture, you know, anything about about Scripture, you'll know that the number seven is very significant in the Bible. It is the number of completion. It's the number of perfection. And so for us, when we see this, there's seven sayings of Jesus, these seven sayings are super important to what Jesus has come and done and did in your in your life.

And so we've slowly worked through those. And so we saw in week number one, when Jesus cried out, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And then we know that Jesus on the cross looked to the thief. And he said, today, you will be with me in paradise. When Jesus looked down from the cross, he looked at his mother and Mary. And he said, Mary, or mother, behold thy son.

And then he looked at the disciple, John, and he entrusted Mary into John's care. And he said, john, behold, your, your mother, we saw on the cross, Jesus, he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Last week, we looked at the shortest phrase of Jesus from the cross, when he cried out, I thirst. And today, we're going to look at Luke chapter number 23. And we are going to see the next words from the cross.

Now, let me tell you this, because I want to be specific. And for any of you that just are going to judge this or critique this theologically, I wanted to say this up front, we're going to go out of order on the last two phrases of Jesus. So there's two more that we have not looked at, the one we're going to look at today is Father into your hands, I commend my spirit. And then next week, we are going to look at it is finished.

And so we're back, we're kind of mixing the order up just a little bit because I wanted to look at it is finished on Palm Sunday next week. So if you're going to judge that and critique that I wanted to be honest about it right from the jump, but Luke chapter number 23. It says this and when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said this father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit. And having said this, he gave up the ghost. Here, Jesus on the cross, cries out his final words, Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit.

Now, remember the setting, just so that we can fully understand and grasp the significance of what is happening here. This is at the very end of Jesus's life. He had been enduring crucifixion, which we know if you study crucifixion, crucifixion, it was invented by the Persians, but it was really they say, perfected by the Romans. So the Roman government would use this idea of crucifixion to really torture criminals.

They would torture them in this long drawn out process. In fact, that's exactly what crucifixion was. It was to put someone through the worst pain imaginable without killing them quickly. And so where we find our story here in these words from the cross, Jesus had already endured so much the night before. We know that while he was praying in the garden, the soldiers, the Roman government came into the garden, and they arrested him. And so we saw that he was betrayed by one of his own followers by Judas. And he was betrayed.

And that's where everything started. So we see that he was betrayed. He was taken before Pilate there in the middle of the night, taken before Pilate and had this such an unjust trial right in the middle of the night. After that, they stripped him of his garments, and they beat him and, and they scourged him and, and the terminology would say that they flogged him. That's the whipping that Jesus endured. And he would, he would be whipped with what they call the cat of nine tails, which had glass on the ends of it. And so as he was whipped, it would literally rip the flesh of Jesus right off of his, his body. After that, he was nailed to a cross, nailed to a cross.

And on that cross, he was, he hung there for six hours. And just before he took his last breath, he cries out and the word cried there is so important. It is a shrieking, terrifying cry.

If you look it up in the Greek, it has this idea that it is a terrifying, loud, shrieking scream. And from the cross, he cries out, Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit. Now on the cross, we know the story. It's the story of the human race.

Every single one of you, this matters to you. If you've ever wondered why there's three crosses, it's so significant for you. Jesus on the middle cross had two criminals who deserve to be there on both sides of them. You have thief number one on one side, and we call that the cross of rejection.

That thief rejected the free gift of salvation that Jesus was offering to him. So you have the cross of rejection. On the other side, you had what we call the cross of repentance.

That's the thief who cried out and asked God to save him and to remember him in paradise. So you have the cross of rejection, you have the cross of repentance, and on that middle cross, you have the cross of redemption. And what we do, you and I, what we do with the middle cross, the cross of redemption, will determine where we spend eternity one day.

What we do with the middle cross will determine where we spend eternity. And on the cross, Jesus cries out, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. For a few moments, I want to look at three specific things about these words of Jesus that are significant in the moment, but also significant for you and for me. The first thing we see, really, if you're taking notes about these words of Jesus is this. You see words of fellowship. Words of fellowship. What's interesting to me is these words of Jesus really start out with something so special and something so significant with the word Father.

The word Father. Now, here's why this is so significant. If you follow these words from the cross, and perhaps this is your first time or the first time in a while, so you might not have tuned in on each week of this series, but here's what I'll tell you. Up to this point, Jesus has been taking all of the wrath and all of the judgment and all of the darkness that you and I deserve. All of our sin was placed upon Jesus there on the cross. All of the shame, all of the brokenness, all of the mistakes, all of the failures, all of the poor decisions, all of the bad thoughts, all of that was placed on our Savior there on the cross. And on the cross, Jesus was experiencing something, honestly, that was found. And when Jesus cried out, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Jesus was experiencing what it was like to be forsaken by the Father so that we don't have to be forsaken by the Father.

And here's what's interesting, is all throughout this, Jesus, it's almost like He's forgotten on the cross. But as He cried out His final words, He cried out, Father, Father. You see, Father is so important, and Jesus regularly throughout the gospels called God His Father. In fact, you can see even in this, in our series, twice the words of Jesus start with Father. He addressed God as Father. Jesus, when He was 12 years old, He goes into the temple, and in Luke chapter 2, you can read this, in Luke 2 verse 49, Jesus as a young boy uttered these words. How is it, and He's talking to the religious leaders, how is it that ye sought me?

Wish ye not, or He's talking to His parents actually, He said, wish ye not that I be, 12 years old, that I be about my Father's business. In His most famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus, 17 different times, recognized God as His Father. You say, what's significant about that word, and what's significant for us about this about this phrase, Father, and this word, Father.

Well, here's the point, it's very significant for you because of this reason. His Father, the same Father that He cried out to in His final words from the cross, His Father, if you know Jesus, is our Father. Have you ever thought about that, when you see words like this, and you see that Jesus cried out, Father, I commend into your hands, I commend my spirit. Do you ever stop to think that if you know Jesus, and you've trusted in Him as your only way to God, is that His Father, the same Father He cried out to, is now our Father.

I love what the commentator A.W. Pink, in his book about these words from the cross, he said this, he said, remind, he says, we need to be reminded that He is our Father because, don't miss this, He was first Jesus' Father. He now can be your Father, your Heavenly Father, because He was first Jesus' Father.

And that's significant for you, and for me, and so He is our Father. Here's the point, is that for you and I, our hearts, whether you admit it or not, here's what I'll tell you about your heart, our hearts are longing for this type of relationship with a Father. We might not admit it, but that's what you're searching for. That's what every heart in this world wants.

You say, what is that? A relationship with a perfect, unconditional love, and to be perfectly cared for by a Father. To be perfectly cared for by a Father. That's what our longing is. Every single one of us have in our deep-seated root, that's what we're looking for. So a lot of times we look for that in other relationships. We look for that in other people. We look for those feelings that we need from a Heavenly Father.

We look for it in all of these wrong places. Now, let's just think about our earthly fathers. I don't know what your experience is with your earthly father, and I'll tell you this, that if your relationship with your earthly father wasn't good, or wasn't positive, or you have bad experiences about your childhood with your father, let me be the first to say that I'm deeply, deeply sorry.

And that's not my experience, and I can't empathize with where you're at, but I'll tell you this, there is hope in that, because you can find what you need in a Heavenly Father, even if your earthly father was not what you hoped he would be. But here's what I'll tell you. My dad, I have a great relationship with my dad, me and my family. We were on spring break with our kids this week, and so we went to my parents' house.

And so we were there, and we got a chance to hang out with them this week, and it was great. And here's what I'll tell you. My childhood, I have only fond memories of my dad. Like, I don't have any negative memories.

Here's what I'll tell you. He loved me. Was he perfect?

No. But he loved me. He took care of me. He provided for me. He made memories with me.

Everything like that. So my childhood is great. But here's what I'll tell you about our earthly fathers, is that no matter how good, no matter how good our earthly fathers are, they cannot perfectly fulfill what your heart is looking for in a Heavenly Father. They cannot perfectly fulfill what my heart has been longing for since I was born into this world.

My dad, as good as he was, he still falls short. He's still going to let me down, and so he falls short from what my heart is longing for. So you know what God did? God actually answered the longing of your heart. What God did was he answered the longing of your heart, that yearning and that desire to be unconditionally loved and perfectly cared for by a father.

What God did was he said, you know what? Josh, and put your name there, cannot find that relationship. He can't meet that longing, that need in his heart. He can't meet it with anybody here on this earth. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to send my son Jesus, my only begotten son Jesus Christ. I'm going to send the very Son of God from heaven to come to this evil, wicked earth. And he is going to live a perfect life, something that Josh could never do.

And by the way, that perfect life is the only life worthy of a relationship with a holy God. And so he said, you know what? I'm going to send Jesus, my only begotten son, to live a perfect life, something that Josh could never do. And then what he's going to do is something even better. He's going to take all of the shame that Josh has caused, all the brokenness that Josh has called, all of the mistakes that Josh has made, all of the bad decisions that Josh has made. He's going to take all of that upon himself.

Why? So that you and I could be adopted into the family of God, and so that you and I could experience and meet the needs of your longing heart, those needs that are looking to be unconditionally loved by a father. You see, that's what what he has done. And so when you see this, God answered that longing of your heart by sending his son Jesus so that you could experience what it is like to be loved by a father. So I'll tell you, if you had bad experiences with your father, there's good news for you. You can have a relationship with your perfect heavenly father this morning. If you came in here today and you don't know God as your father, listen, you can leave here having a relationship with your father. And no matter what your earthly dad is like, good or bad, understand this, they all fall short of meeting the need of your heart.

The only one that can perfectly fulfill that in your life is what Jesus has come to do to create a relationship with your father. So for us, here's the point is, his father is our father. Let me say this, if you're a Christian in here today, there's no better way to really talk to God than to be reminded that he's our father. That he's our father.

He's our heavenly father. The same father that Jesus cried out to is our father. You see these words of fellowship right there with the word father, but secondly, you see this, the words of surrender. You see the words of surrender. So you see these words of fellowship, father, and then you see into your hands.

Into your hands. Now the phrase into your hands, if you kind of follow it throughout scripture, it's so significant. And I'd encourage you, you can do this online or grab a Bible dictionary or something like that, follow the phrase the hand of God throughout scripture. It comes up throughout scripture. There's tons of verses in the Bible about the hand of God. And here on the cross, Jesus cries out, father, into your hands I commend my spirit. Now we don't have time to look at every single verse about the hand of God, but some of them so that you can understand what hands we are talking about.

I'll mention a few of them in Deuteronomy chapter 7 when Moses is actually talking to the children of Israel. He's reminding the children of Israel about how God had delivered them out of Egypt. And he actually says the mighty hand who has redeemed us and brought us out of the nation of Egypt. In Psalm 78, which the book of Psalms is where a lot of verses about the hand of God is mentioned, we see the psalmist in Psalm 78.

He actually talks about the skillfulness of the hand of God in guiding and leading us forward. In Psalm 98, we see that that victorious hand, it says that God's hand is what gives us the victory. In Psalm 136, we see as the psalmist is talking about the hand of God, he talks about the hand of God that delivers us, that delivers us. In John 10, one of the most famous verses about the hand of God, we see the hand of protection and the fact that once you know Jesus, you are firmly planted in the hand of God and no man can ever pluck you out of the father's hand.

In 1st Peter chapter 5 verse 6, we see that we are told to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. So here we see the mighty hand of God, we see the hand of protection, we see the hand of deliverance, we see the hand of victory, we see that guiding hand, we see the redemptive hand. All these words and all these verses are talking about the hands of God and sure God's hands are what redeemed us and sure God's hands are what guides us and sure God's hands are the hands that mold us and God's hands are the hands that lead us and God's hands are the hands that provides for us and God's hands are the hands that protect us and God's hands are the hands that give us victory and that have all power. But what's so interesting to me is all of those things are so true about God's hands but here's what I'll tell you, all of those things are also true about the Son of God's hands, aren't they? He's fully God and so all of those things are true about the Savior's hands but what's interesting to me is this, is that while the Son's hands, while the Son of God's hands are nailed to a cross, he's surrendering himself to the Father's hands. Think about that.

You ever thought about that? Like, he's surrendering into your hands. I'm surrendering into your hands. At the same time, his hands are nailed to a cross. You see, here's the point, is that here Jesus is placing himself, his life and his whole life into the mighty hands of God. There's two things about this that I want you to know.

The first one is it's a theological thing that is so important for us to understand because it's foundational to really the gospel and I want you to understand this. As Jesus laid on the cross, there's a lot of people that would, you know, argue or debate this idea of who in the world killed Jesus. Like, was it Rome? Was it the religious leaders? Was it the Jewish law?

Was it, you know, whatever? And spiritually, all of us had a part in this and I understand the spiritual connotation here but here's what I want you to understand is as Jesus was hung on the cross, what you see here is when he says, Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit. Here's what I want you to understand.

He was in full control in that moment. Don't ever do that. Don't ever don't ever think for a second that Jesus is on the cross and has lost all control. And here's the point that I want you to understand is this is in your conversation.

This maybe will come up one day. Here's the point. Jesus' life was not taken from him. Jesus' life was not taken from him.

He willingly laid it down and you have to understand this because it's foundational to the gospel. Don't ever read a story like this and think that Jesus has lost control. The enemy has won. Rome has won. You know, the Jewish religious leaders had won. No, in that moment, what you see when Jesus is hanging on a cross and he cries out, Father, into your hands, what you see is an incredible amount of surrendering his very life into his Father's hands, signifying that he was in full control.

Here's what I'll tell you. Jesus could have come down from the cross if he wanted to. Jesus had all power to come down from that cross. We had seen Jesus, the same Jesus, you know, do so many miracles. Raise the dead and heal, you know, the sick and those who couldn't walk.

We'd seen all this. He had proven himself time and time again that he had the power over life itself. And Jesus had all the right. He could have come down, but here's what I want you to understand.

There was no other way. There was no other way for you to be adopted into the family of God than what Jesus was doing on the cross. Which brings us to the second thing is that not only did Jesus lay his life down willingly, but number two, Jesus' death satisfied the wrath of God. Jesus' death satisfied the wrath of God.

Here's what I want you to understand. And here's the point is, you know, Jesus even talked about this. You can read about this in John chapter number 10. Jesus actually said that he is willingly laying his life down. Like he actually said this in his word.

He said, therefore, in John 10 17, therefore doth my father love me because I laid out my life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. Get this. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it in and take it again.

Here's the point. Jesus as he's hanging on the cross there in that moment, he willingly surrendered everything over into his father's hand. Why? Because this was the only way to forever satisfy the wrath of God.

This was the only way. And here's why is this. It's because our God is a just God. Our God is a just God.

And by the way, if he wasn't, you wouldn't want to serve him. Because nobody likes acts of injustice, right? Ever watch a show and the bad guy goes free? Did that make you mad?

Okay, let's bring it back. Shows are fake. You ever watch the news? And the bad guy somehow gets away? And you're thinking, how in the world? He did something so bad.

How in the world is he a free man? And the reason why we feel that way is this, is because in our hearts, here's what we want. Justice.

We want justice. And the point is this, because we want justice, we also want to serve a just God. And for God to be just, here's what you have to understand. He's perfectly holy. He's without sin. He's perfect. He's righteous. Never sinned.

He's never had a bad thought. And for him as a holy God to also be just, here's what has to happen. Your sin and my sin has to be paid for.

There is no other way. It has to be paid for. It has to be punished. We have to experience punishment in order to experience salvation. And so here's the point, is that, so God, you deserve to be punished. I deserve to be punished. And so what God did was he sent his only begotten son, Jesus, to do something you could never do.

You know what that was? Live a perfect life. The only way to a perfect God is through a perfect life.

And you know what the Bible says? None of us can do that. We all fall short, don't we? We all make mistakes. We all do things that are wrong. We always have bad thoughts, right?

We do things that are not right and bad. That's just a reminder that we're in need of the grace of God. And so what happens is, because of that, God knew that. And he said, man, Josh and all of you could never get to him on their own. They could never live the life they could never live the life that was required to have a relationship with a perfect father. So he's going to send Jesus, his only begotten son, to come to live a perfect life for you, something you could never do.

And then he's going to go even further. He's going to pay on the cross for all the sin and all the brokenness and all the shame that you caused. So on the cross, he hangs there willingly in full submission and full surrender to his father's will with all the power in the world to come down if he wanted to. But he hung there willingly so that you and I could experience salvation.

Here's the point. Jesus willingly became your substitute on your cross so that you could experience salvation. So that you could experience salvation. You see words of surrender, words of fellowship, and then number three, and very quickly you see words of comfort. You see words of comfort. Verse 46, you see this phrase, father into your hands.

We've seen that. Then he makes this statement, I commend my spirit. I commend my spirit. This is really where the phrase, you know, when we lose a loved one, you've heard this said, you've probably posted this or you say this, you'll say rest in what?

Peace, right? Rest in peace. That's what we say when we lose a loved one. That's what we say when somebody passes away. This is really where some of that was derived from, this idea of peace after this life.

And here's the point. When we say that, here's what that does. That gives us comfort. Because every single one of us, when we lose somebody that we love, we want them to experience a peaceful life, don't we? Like all of us do. Who doesn't, right?

You want that. And so when we say things like rest in peace, it encourages us and provides comfort for us when someone dies because peace is something that we all want. It's something that we're all looking forward to and it gives us comfort. Let me be very clear and I want to be so sensitive when I say this because I don't know what your stories are with your loved ones and things like this, but here's what we have to understand about what scripture is meaning by this and we got to understand. Here's the point. There is no rest in peace or peace in death for those who die without Jesus. Like I know that's a hard truth and honestly when you put that on a screen, that makes us feel a little uncomfortable, doesn't it? And it should.

It should. Why? Because we've all probably said goodbye to loved ones that didn't have a relationship with Christ. And so it's something I want you to understand that there's no rest in peace. There's no peace after death for those who do not know Jesus who died and have rejected Jesus's free offer of salvation of what he did on the cross for them. There is no rest in peace or peace in death for those who die without Christ. And so here we see this and we see this idea of peace and the comfort that it brings for each one of us. And here's what I'll tell you. If you got your problem just for a moment, join me in Ephesians chapter number two. We don't always do this.

It'll be up on the screen. But Ephesians chapter number two. Paul is writing to the church and he actually talks about this idea of peace. It actually applies perfectly to what is happening on the cross when Jesus says, you know, right here into your hands, Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit. In Ephesians chapter number two, verse number 11, here's what the Apostle Paul said.

This is so significant for you. He said this in verse 11. Wherefore remember that ye being in the past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision and the flesh made by hands. Now, let me say up front, if you've never read much of Paul's writings, he gets a little bit into this Jewish kind of language right here. And you might be like, what in the world is he trying to tell us?

It's very significant and it's very important because here's the point. Paul is just saying this, that we were once Gentiles, right? And for them, Gentiles during that day is they could not have a relationship with God because the only ones that could have a relationship with God were those that are Jewish.

You had to be born into a Jewish family in order to know God. And so he says that at one time you were without Christ in verse number 12. And by the way, all of us, why don't you, that at that time you were without Christ.

If at one time in your life you were without Christ, can you say, that's me right now, say that's me, right? Okay, that was all of us. And he says being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. In other words, we were foreigners. We didn't belong with the Jewish family.

We're strangers from the covenants of promise. We had no hope without God in the world. What he's saying is this, is that that was all true of all of us. Because in order to know God in the Old Testament, you had to be Jewish. And so there was no hope for the Gentiles.

They were without God. And so Paul is saying that that's how all of us were. And then he goes on in verse number 13 and he says this, but now, aren't you thankful for but now in scripture? It says, that was who we were before Christ, but now he says, but now in Christ Jesus, the same Jesus that's on the cross in our story in Luke, right? As he's on the cross, but now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, that's you, that's me, are now made near or nigh, how?

What's it say? Read it, by the blood of Jesus. In other words, there's a correlation to what's happening here with us and what is happening on the cross. As Jesus is hung there on the cross, it's saying that by his blood, you and I are being made close.

We're being made near. He goes on in verse number 14, for he is our peace. That's Jesus, the same man hanging on a cross who hath made both one and have broken down the middle wall of partition between us. Now that's very significant because for the Jewish people and for the Gentiles, when they read that, they would be like, wow, because they could look and actually see it. There was a literal wall around Jerusalem keeping all the Gentiles out. There was a sign on it that had an inscription that basically said no Gentiles allowed, if you would. Gentiles were not allowed in because Jerusalem was the place where God's presence dwelled. That's where the temple was.

That's where the Old Testament tabernacle was for a season. All of that happened there in Jerusalem and so no Gentile could come in because no Gentile could ever come into the presence of God. But now Paul is saying this, that through the blood of Jesus, even the Gentile, that's you and that's me, through the blood of Jesus have been made close. He goes on in verse 15, having abolished in his flesh, don't miss this, every word of God is important. Think about it, having abolished in the flesh the enemy or the enmity. Here's the point, is that through abolishing himself on the cross, he defeated the enemy. That's what Paul's saying. Paul is saying this, that on the cross, the same story that we've been looking at for the last several weeks, on the cross what is happening for you and for me is that the enemy is getting defeated. The enemy is getting abolished in this moment. Even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, everything that you have failed to do to keep the law and to live the right life, all of that is being abolished and defeated on the cross.

Why? For to make in himself of twain one new man, what does it say there? So making peace, making peace. He goes on in verse 16, and that ye or he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enemy thereby. Verse 17, and came and preached peace to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh. Verse 18, for through him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. Here's the point, very quickly, is that this should provide comfort into this idea where Jesus said, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. What is happening on the cross is this, you have to have to recognize that you and I, we couldn't find peace on our own. We were born into this world with a hostile relationship with God because of your sin, not because of anything he had done, but because we broke the commandments of God. We broke, we fell short, and so because of that, here's the point, we could not find a peaceful relationship with God.

There was no way. We couldn't find peace on our own. Peace, Jesus, had to come and find us. And by the way, Jesus not only came, I love what Paul says, he not only came to bring peace, the peace that passeth all understanding, he actually came to be our peace. And the point is, on the cross we find peace. On the cross we find comfort here, that we can die, but if we're in the hands of God, that is the safest place to be.

You see, right here, our peace, Jesus, made a way on the cross, and here's what I'll tell you, what he did on the cross is the only thing that can move you from being a foreigner to a child of God. That can move you from being an enemy to a friend of God. That can move you from being in a hostile relationship with God to a reconciled relationship with God.

That can move you from being separated to close. Only a perfect sacrifice can do that. You say, okay, wrap all this up, what does this mean for me? Here's the thing, the best thing that I can give you, and I hope this provides comfort and peace to you is this, is this, as Jesus is on the cross, his hands nailed to a tree to a cross, he cries out, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. Here's what this tells me is this, is that right here there is no safer place for you to be in life or in death than in the Father's hand. There's no place, like right now in life, there's no better and there's no safer place for you to be right now than in the hands of God. But you know what provides me comfort? Is that I don't have to fear death. I don't have to fear death, here's why, is because being in the Father's hands in life is the safest place to be, but also being in the Father's hands through death is the safest place through death, as bad as that is, as painful as that is, is also the safest place for you and I to ever be. That's what we learn with these words on the cross, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. So my question is for you, whose hands are you in right now?

That's a question that only you can answer. Whose hands are you resting in? Whose hands are you safely in? It's like what John says in his gospel that once we're in, it's like we're in the grip, right? You're safe in his grip and there's nothing that can pluck me out.

You know what gives me comfort? Is that today, by the way, I'm going to make mistakes, right? Raise your hand if you make a lot of mistakes in life, okay?

That's me. We're going to make mistakes. We're going to make bad decisions. We're going to sin. We're going to have bad thoughts. We're going to say mean things.

We're going to let words slip. We're going to watch things. We're going to do all this stuff.

We're going to do all that. You know what brings me so much peace today is this, is that I'm in the Father's hands and there's no amount of sin that can pluck me out. There's no person that can pluck me out. There's no failure that can pluck me out. There's no doubt that can pluck me There's no doubt that can pluck me out. There's no wrong thinking that could ever pluck me out I am firmly in the grip of grace God's Amazing marvelous grace and I am firmly in his hands and here's what I'll tell you That is the safest place for me to be in life or in death to be in the Father's Almighty hand So the question is what whose hands are you in if you're in here today and you say pastor Like maybe you slipped in whatever and and you don't know whose hands you are or you fear death You don't have that piece going to the grave and that piece that we kind of see from this passage or whatever Here's what I want you to know is that you say you might ask what I have to do Here's the beauty of the gospel is that the work has already been done for you That's the most marvelous thing about the gospel is that it takes you doing nothing. All you have to do is believe all you have to do is trust and say that he is the only way for me to be Reconciled to a god so that I can be adopted into God's family and call him father and I'm gonna start trusting in that I'm not trusting in my own works. I'm not gonna trust in my church attendance I'm not gonna trust in all the good things that I can do my morality and all that and those things are important But here's what I'll tell you every bit of the morality you can muster up still fall short of the grace of God And what I tell you this today you can leave here with a relationship with your heavenly father so that in life Or in death you can be gripped tightly in the mighty hands of God and no Man or wrong thing could ever pluck you out Father into your hands. I commend my Spirit, can we pray together?