Let the Shepherd Lead

Originally Proclaimed: 04/12/20

Intro:

• What is a good death?
• That question has been a major part of this series on the last words of Christ.
• Yet in our culture today we seem to be allergic to death, even its mention.
  • We avoid discussing death by using euphemisms like “passing on”, “dearly departed” and “resting peace”.
  • We refuse to meet with dying loved ones because we don’t want to remember them that way.
  • We keep children from seeing death because they are not mature enough for it.
  • We take pains to make the casket look comfortable, the body to look natural, and the whole affair to be as little an interruption to our lives as possible.
  • If nothing else COVID has taught us that we will do anything to avoid even an illness that might lead to death, from social distancing, to crazy masks and gloves, to stockpiling toilet paper.
• But friends, is that experiencing a good death?
  • Don’t we tell the world when we allergically avoid death that this life is far more important than eternal life?
  • Aren’t we twisting Scriptures Like Philippians 1:21 to make it say “For me to LIVE is Christ but to die is NO gain?”
  • Nietzsche the most famous atheist was right when he said of modern Christians, “I might believe in their redeemer if they were to look a little more redeemed.”
• When Elizabeth I, Queen of England died, she was surrounded by her courtiers.
  • She lay in a bed with all the earthly comfort possible. No care was denied her.
  • Yet they heard her say, “O my God! It is over. I have come to the end of it – the end, the end. To have only one life, and to have done with it! To have lived and loved and triumphed; and now to know it is over! One may defy everything else but this.”
  • It is safe to say friends this was not a good death, even with all its comfort.
• But do not mistake this friends, no matter how much we try to avoid death; none of us can defy death.

Hook:

• Pastor Erwin Lutzer reports that a missionary he knew told him of a tribe in Africa that prays to die “good deaths”.
  • By this they do not mean the avoidance of pain, dying with dignity, or passing away in their sleep at an old age.
  • Good deaths are ones surrounded by family so that there is the opportunity to give a final encouragement to live a godly life in preparation of a reunion in heaven.
  • If we were a part of that tribe, what would our words be when death came? What would we tell our family to make sure that it was a good death.
• Jesus’ Final Word from the cross is one that will help us all to prepare for death, and in a curious way to proclaim resurrection life!

Message Points:

• As we open our Bible’s to Luke 23 let’s briefly review and remember what Jesus has already spoken.
  • Before noon, when he first was being hung upon the cross Jesus spoke two words of pardon.
    • He began with a prayer for pardon saying, “Father forgive them” directed at those who hung him upon that tree, including us.
    • He then went on to promise pardon to the their who asked him for it.
  • Also as he saw his mother and John there with the others closest to him, Jesus spoke words of comfort when he asked them to care for one another as mother and son.
  • Then at the point of noon, when the darkness and judgement of sin covered the earth, Jesus spoke a word of assurance, quoting from Psalm 22 when he cried out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.”
  • And just before the events we read in verse 45 Jesus spoke two words of humility.
    • He cried out “I thirst” humbling himself so that the prophecies of God might be fulfilled.
    • And once he had his lips moistened, he cried out “It is finish” humbly submitting his work to God for approval.
• Αnd now, we come again to that final scene upon the cross.
  • We might say, why do we come back to this point of death.
  • Why do we focus morbidly on these horrific events on a day when we celebrate the resurrection?
  • Why did the cross become the symbol of Christianity and not the empty tomb?
• Friends, all of those are good questions, and ones we must answer.
  • But to do so, we must seriously look at what an empty tomb means.
  • The Jewish and Roman leaders wanted people to believe that an empty tomb meant that his disciples had stolen the body.
  • Some in church history have said that an empty tomb meant that Jesus swooned, or fainted so convincingly that he was buried and then got up rolled away his own stone and walked out of the guarded grave unscathed.
  • The 19th Century Liberal scholars wanted us to believe that an empty tomb was nothing more than a metaphor that was used to teach us to focus on Jesus in our hearts.
• We come back to the cross friends, because it is here that we see the true meaning of the empty tomb.
  • His body was stolen away, but it was not his followers, it was His father who resurrected it.
  • He did walk out of that grave, but it was not in the same beaten, bloodied, frail body from the cross.
  • His death is a metaphor, but it is far more because we serve a real, resurrected, ascended, and glorified living Lord day by day.
• At the cross we see the last words of Jesus teach us how to live and how to die so that death can be good.
  • After all we should note first that Jesus endured darkness for us so that we might never have to do that again.
    • We see this in Luke’s record of the crucifixion in verse 44-45.
    • God supernaturally plunged the entire earth, both day-side and night-side into darkness as it tells us that the sun stopped shining.
    • The darkness prophetically is a sign of God’s judgment.
    • We can see this over and over again in prophecy from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, all the way to Matthew 24 and Revelation.
    • For God to be a good judge he must punish all sin.
    • For God to be a good God he must provide a way for sinners to be saved.
    • So God as Jesus hung upon the cross became the Just and the Justifier according to Romans 3:26.
    • Jesus’ death glorified God by showing His goodness in paying humanity’s sin debt before God.
  • But we also should note that Luke relates to us that at the death of Jesus, God also miraculously tore the veil of the temple.
    • Three hours after the darkness fell, Jesus died.
    • This would have occurred as the priests in the temple were preparing for the evening sacrifices and rituals in the temple.
    • Therefore there were many who were there to see the curtain hanging inside the Temple’s Holy Place and the Holy of Holies be rent from top to bottom in two.
    • The veil hung according to the law in Exodus.
      • But in Herod’s temple the veil was a rich Babylonian curtain.
      • It was embroidered with blue, scarlet, purple, affixing fine  linen on top of the fabric.
      • The embroidery and linen formed the mystical signs of the zodiac.
      • And like a woven rug it would have been think and strong.
    • The veil was meant to be a sign of the separation of God from sin.
      • The high priest alone could enter past the veil but once a year to make atonement.
      • It tearing signified God’s good pleasure towards all of humanity.
      • No longer did sin stand between man and God.
      • At the cross Jesus glorified God by showing his goodness in paving the way for an unencumbered relationship with Him.
• This leads us to confess our first point. If we want a good death, we should give our lives for God’s glory and others good (23:44-45).
  • Jesus’ death mattered because He gave his life for something that mattered eternally.
    • Yes Jesus gave himself into the hands of cruel men.
    • Yes Jesus gave himself into the suffering of judgement.
    • But Jesus’ resurrection is important because it proves Jesus’ death was not in vain.
  • Friends to what do we give our lives?
    • Remember those words of Neitsche?
    • Can others look at our lives and tell that we are redeemed?
  • I must confess that if I were not a believer and looked at all the things we Christians give our lives to, I would understand their reluctance to trust in such a Savior.
    • We get all upset when our needs are not met and we look for other churches.
    • We must beg people to volunteer to do anything, even read the Bible or pray.
    • We act like serving Christ is a chore rather than a privilege.
  • Are the days really gone friends when Christians would understand the words of Dietrich Bonhoffer who died in Nazi Germany for opposing Hitler.
    • He said famously “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die… Only the man who is dead to his own will can follow Christ.” (quoted in Lutzer 129)
    • Friends, we will not truly appreciate the empty tomb unless we have first really appreciated the clarion call of the cross.
    • The cross says “DIE TO SELF, LIVE FOR GOD”.
    • Do we hear that call today? What must change in our lives for us to truly answer that call.
• Might I suggest to you we find the answer in Jesus’ final word from the cross?
• In verse 23:46 Jesus with a loud voice proclaims “Father into your hands I commit my spirit”.
  • There is so much for us to understand in just these few words.
  • We cannot ignore that Jesus, summoning every last ounce of his human strength, shouts these words.
    • Jesus’ joy in this renewed relationship could not be a whimper.
    • Jesus wanted all to be able to hear these words because they showed the way for us to follow.
  • We cannot ignore that Jesus here again quotes from Scripture.
    • His mind was laser focused, even when his humanity was at its most frail, upon the Word of God.
    • He now quotes from Psalm 31:5 knowing that his Father can deliver him, if He will just give himself fully to Him.
    • The text of this Psalm was a part of the evening prayers of a Jew. (Marshall 1153)
      • It would be prayed as a comfort for those who would be defenseless in sleep.
      • Just as we pray with our children, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep” so would an ancient Jew have prayed each evening.
    • Yet we must note the differences in David’s words from the Psalm.
      • David speaks of God, but not of His Father.
      • David speaks of his future death and giving of his spirit, not his immediate death.
      • David speaks amid his conflict, not when the conflict is over.
  • Thus we cannot ignore that Jesus fulfills this Scripture by giving himself into the care of His Father’s hands.
    • By again praying to God as Father, Jesus demonstrates that it is possible to have a restored relationship with God as Father.
    • Just as sin caused Jesus’ suffering, and he could only cry out “My God, my God why have you forsaken”; so to are we without Jesus in a broken relationship with the Father.
    • Yet Jesus, here in his final word addresses the Scripture to his Father, giving himself into the care of His father’s Hands.
    • We cannot mistake that Jesus said in John. 10 that not a single one in the care of the Father’s hands would every be lost.
    • Now that his work is finished, his relationship with the Father is restored and eternal.
    • And because of his work all of us may have a relationship with God as Father as well, if we turn to Christ.
  • Also note that Jesus does not commit his body to the Father.
    • That word commit could be translated as the word deposit.
      • That should bring to mind what we do when we deposit money in a bank.
      • We expect that it will be protected, preserved, and even increased by interest.
    • Jesus does not want this frail, weakened human body marred by sin to be preserved.
    • He wants it transformed and renewed.
    • So Jesus commit’s his spirit into the care of the Father.
    • The spirit is that part of us that animates us and makes us who we are.
    • It is the eternal part of us, and the portion that is judged immediately upon death according to Hebrews 9:27.
    • Jesus commits his Spirit into the care of His heavenly Father, trusting that at that judgement the Father would welcome Him into eternal life.
    • Jesus commits his Spirit into the care of His heavenly Father, trusting that he will resurrect Him a body fit for eternal life.
• This is what Jesus tells us all, at death we should give our future into the Father’s care (23:46).
  • Far different than avoiding death, we should proclaim with Jesus that we are confident to loudly confess that we give ourselves into the care of the father.
  • John Hus, an early martyr of the Reformation was burned at the stake in 1415.
    • Refusing to recant his belief in salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as revealed in the Scriptures alone, to the glory of God alone, Hus was condemned by men.
    • The catholic bishop who lit the fires to burn him said, “now we commit your soul to the devil.”
    • But Hus, inspired perhaps by generations of martyrs stretching back all the way to Stephen chose to reflect Jesus’ words at his death, not the condemnation of men.
    • With a loud voice cried out “I commit my spirit into thy hands, Lord Jesus Christ; unto thee I commend my spirit, which thou hast redeemed.”
  • Friends our lives and deaths matter only if we give ourselves into the care of a Father who has redeemed us and who will resurrect us!
  • Have we professed our trust in so great a God today?
• I ask because as the final verses of our passage tell us in our third point, All of us should be careful to give the right response to Jesus (23:47-49).
  • We see three responses to the death of Jesus in these verses.
    • First there is the response of the centurion.
      • His is the educated response.
      • After he has learned of Jesus and seen according to verse 47 all that has happened, he chooses to praise God.
      • But friends, note we do not read that he is saved.
      • Tradition tells us that this centurion Longinus became a believer, but in the moment, he was but a momentary celebrator of Christ.
      • After all, the centurion had a job to do and proceeded with the crucifixion of the other criminals.
    • Then we see the response of the crowds.
      • They left moved emotionally.
      • They had come for a show as evidenced by the word used in the original language.
      • This is the only place in the Scripture that we find the word also used for the theatre.
      • But they leave like the tax collector in Jesus’ parable, beating their breasts.
      • They are emotionally moved and broken over what has happened but we do not hear that they are saved.
      • No doubt many of them would have heard Peter’s sermon on Pentecost and become a part of the early church, but today they are nothing more than emotional.
    • We also see the response of his followers.
      • Unlike the crowds or the centurion, Jesus followers continued to follow him.
      • They stood at a distance expectantly watching for what would happen.
      • They saw the spear pierce his side and water flow out.
      • They saw them take down his body.
      • They saw Joseph carry him to a borrowed tomb.
      • They were expectant hoping for something more to happen, but the Scriptures do not say they were saved.

Conclusion:

• Friends we all have to respond to Jesus’ death, but there is really only one way to respond so that we will be able to enjoy a good death ourselves.
  • We Must give ourselves fully to the  Risen Lord.
    • The centurion if saved, came to give himself day by day to His risen Savior.
    • The crowds, if converted at the preaching of Peter were introduced to a relationship with Jesus, the risen Lord, and had to give themselves through repentance and faith.
    • And the followers, had their expectations confirmed when they again saw the Lord they loved so dearly, but they too had to give themselves to serve Him and feed his sheep
  • And today, we can be educated, emotional, or expectant but the only way to have a good death is to experience a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ.