Word of Salvation – Vol. 50 No.34 – September 2005

 

The Last Word

Sermon by Rev John Haverland

on Luke 23:46; Heidelberg Catechism LD 16

Scripture Readings:  Luke 23:39-46; Psalm 31

 

Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

In central Dunedin in the South Island of New Zealand there is a cemetery. On one of the gravestones in that cemetery you can read this inscription:

Stop, traveler, stop, ere you go by;
As you are now, so once was I;
As I am now, so you must be,
Prepare yourself to follow me.

This is a striking little poem - it reminds every one of us that we will die and it urges us to face it, to think about it and to prepare for it.

Yet many people don't want to think about death. Our Western culture is fearful of ageing and death and dying. People want to live a long time, but no one wants to be old. They will do everything they can to live longer and at the same time look younger.

People don't even like to use the word 'death' or 'died'. So we have all these euphemisms for death - pleasant ways of describing death; we say, he passed away, he gave up the ghost, he departed this life, he is no more, he went to sleep.

This fear of death has been present in many societies.

Epicurus in Ancient Greece said that "Death is the most terrifying of all ills."

In China people were afraid of mentioning death in case they invited it.

Louis XV, king of France, forbade people to mention the word in his presence.

Christians, however, do not fear death like this. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the famous Baptist preacher of the 19th century said, "The best moment of a Christian's life is his last one, because it is the one which is nearest heaven." This is what we believe. And we believe this because of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Just as Jesus, when he died, committed his spirit to his Father, so too, we can do the same. We can die with peace, hope and even joy because we know where we are going.

This is the comfort and hope expressed in these last words of Jesus just before he died: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." Jesus called out these words "with a loud voice". It was an announcement, a declaration, an expression of a decisive victory and a confident hope.

As we consider the death of Jesus and his dying words we will see that he died:

1) Voluntarily,

2) Physically, and

3) Joyfully.

First of all, HE DIED VOLUNTARILY

Jesus died of his own free will. In John's gospel we read of Jesus talking to the Jews and explaining that he would lay down his life and take it up again. "No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from the Father" (John 10:18).

Jesus did not die because of the plots of the Jews or because of the might of the Roman Empire. No, he died out of his own free will - it was his choice, his decision.

We see that in the words he used. The word 'commit' means to hand over or to deliver. It describes the active choice Jesus made. He was in control of this situation. He had done all he had to do and now that his work was finished he was ready to die.

So "When he had said this, he breathed his last." The other gospel writers tell us that "he gave up his spirit" (Mt 27:50). None of the gospel writers say, "He died". Not because they want to avoid that truth - not at all - and the writers of the letters of the New Testament freely speak of the death of Jesus and tell us that he died.

Rather the gospel writers want us to see that the death of Jesus was unique, it was unusual. This was no ordinary death. There was something special going on here. Right to the very end Jesus retained consciousness and was in command of himself. He was in control and he died of his own choice, voluntarily. He "gave up" his spirit in an active decision.

This reminds us of the great love of Jesus for us his people. He chose to come into this world to die for his people. This is what we remember in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper and at Easter - that Jesus died in the place of all who believe. That he died as the ultimate sacrifice for sin. That his death atoned for the sin of all who believe in him - he paid for sin in full. "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8). For you, for me, for us who believe in him.

Charles Wesley responded:

Amazing love
How can it be that Thou, my God,
should'st die for me?!"

That must be our response, too. Jesus died voluntarily.

Secondly, we see that He died PHYSICALLY.

Jesus died - bodily and physically. He had to die to bear the full punishment of sin and to suffer all its terrible consequences.

The Heidelberg Catechism asks, "Why did Christ have to go all the way to death? Because God's justice and truth demand it: only the death of God's Son could pay for our sin."

To pay the full price for sin Jesus had to become a man, like us, with a full human nature, and he had to die as we will. He had to make a full payment for sin and follow it through to the very end. He left nothing out. He did everything that was necessary for our salvation. He died. His soul went to be with his Father in heaven while his body went into the tomb.

We should note that while physical death is one of the consequences of sin, not every believer has died or will die. For instance, Enoch walked with God and then he was no more because God had taken him. And Elijah did not die but was taken by the Lord in a fiery chariot. And the believers who are living when Jesus returns will be caught up to be with the Lord in the air and will be suddenly transformed. So, not every believer will experience physical death; most will, but not all.

We should also note that physical death is not the worst part of the punishment for sin. People today are being taught to die - how to cope with it, how to face death. But that is misleading in many ways because physical death is only part of dying. The real punishment for sin is eternal death - the punishment of hell - and no amount of tutoring from others can help you face this. The only way to escape this is to know and believe that Jesus went through hell for you - that he endured the torment of hell for his people.

Again, let's go back to the Catechism (Q.44) because that expresses this so well. "Why does the Creed add: 'He descended into hell'? To assure me in times of personal crisis and temptation that Christ my Lord, by suffering unspeakable anguish, pain and terror of soul, especi-ally on the cross but also earlier, has delivered me from the anguish and torment of hell." Jesus did this for all who believe. He went through the eternal death of hell and the physical death of his body. He left nothing out. He endured all the consequences of sin for us.

We will still have to die, but "our death does not pay the debt for our sins" (HC Q.42). Only the perfect sacrifice of Jesus could do that. Rather, our death is part of the consequence and punishment for sin (with the exceptions we mentioned earlier).

When God spoke to Adam in the Garden of Eden, he warned him that if he disobeyed he would die (Gen 2:17). And after he sinned God told him he would "return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return" (Gen 3:19).

So in a grave side service we commit the body of the loved one who has died "to be buried, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our earthly body that it may be like his glorious body."

So physical death is part of the consequence of sin. All of us will die, unless the Lord returns soon. But death is unnatural. It goes against the grain. It is a breaking of the unity of body and soul. It is a separation of the whole person.

But, despite all this, believers do not grieve as those who have no hope. The sting of death - sin and its punishment - has been removed. Our God has removed that sting through the death of Jesus on the cross. So we say, "Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" (1 Cor 15:56). All this is ours because of the death and resurrection of Jesus who died voluntarily and physically.

Thirdly, we see that Jesus died JOYFULLY.

Notice that Jesus addressed his Father, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." Luke records the first, second and seventh words of Jesus from the cross. The first words were a prayer: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

After that Jesus no longer addressed his Father in this way. In his darkest hours of suffering he cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" There was a distance there between Father and Son. But once the price had been paid, and he had been through hell, that closeness returned. Once again he could say, "Father".

Jesus addressed his Father using the words of the Psalms. He had lived with the words of the Scripture, now he died with these words. He had lived quoting the Scriptures, and now he died quoting them. They came naturally to him because he knew them so well. These words came from a psalm of David: "Into your hands I commit my spirit." That had been the motto of David's life; it now became the motto of Christ's death. These were his last words.

These words of Psalm 31 were well known by the people of Israel in Jesus day. They were the first prayer a Jewish mother taught her children. As the children of the family would prepare for bed they would lie down on their mats and pray, "Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O Lord, the God of truth." In this prayer they expressed their trust that the Lord their God would watch over them in their sleep through the night.

Jesus used these words to commit his soul into the care of his Father. He had finished his work. His humiliation was over. He could now hand over his life and work to his Father in heaven. He could give up his spirit knowing that all was completed.

He was going home! To his Father. To Paradise! He would enter his glory. After this "God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the Glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:9-11). He died joyfully with this confidence in his Father.

Jesus said these words for himself but also for us. All believers are united with him in his death and in his resurrection. His death is your death; his resurrection is your resurrection.

Death will always be the last enemy. It will also hold some fear, some anxiety. Think of Christian, described by John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress as he came to the river of death. He was anxious and fearful. But he held on to his faith and hope in God.

You need to do the same. If you put your faith in God then you know that death is not the end.

It is the portal to heaven!

It is the stepping stone to glory!

It is the gateway to life!

We know that we are following in the steps of Jesus. He has gone before us to prepare a place for us (John 14:2).

So you can die with faith in God, trust in your Lord, confidence in Jesus and his saving work. You can die knowing that your soul will go to be with the Lord Jesus in heaven.

This is why believers down through the ages, in their dying moments, have used similar words to commit their own spirits to the care of their Father in heaven.

Stephen, the first Christian martyr cried out as he died; "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." So, too, did Polycarp in the second century, Augustine in the 4th, John Hus in the 15th, and Luther and Melancthon in the Reformation period. If you trust in Christ you, too, can use these same words.

Everyone of us must die, as that inscription on that gravestone in Dunedin reminds us. The unbeliever fears death but the Christian does not.

The attitude of the Christian to death is beautifully expressed by Charles Haddon Spurgeon in words that were quoted earlier. He wrote: "The best moment of a Christian's life is his last one, because it is the one which is nearest heaven; and then it is that he begins to strike the keynote of the song which he shall sing to all eternity. O! what a song that will be!"

Brothers and sisters, it will be a song of praise and thankfulness to the Father and to the Lamb who was slain.

"To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, forever and ever!
Amen!"