April 8, 2025 • 25 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, this is Rick Warren, Bible teacher of the Daily
Hope Broadcast. Did you know that because of Easter, your
past can be forgiven, you get a purpose for living,
and you can have a home in heaven. That's good news.
Where else can you get that kind of news? Nowhere else?
And did you know that at Easter, studies have shown
people are more open to an invitation to go to
church than at any other time of the year. Don't
(00:22):
go to church by yourself, but bring somebody who doesn't
know Jesus Christ, a family member, a friend, a coworker,
a neighbor, a relative. And if you bring them to
that church service and they come to know Christ, You're
going to be making a friend for eternity. It'll be
the most important investment you can ever make in their lives.
And by the way, if they come to Christ, would
(00:43):
you let me know about it. I'd love to hear
that story that you brought somebody to Easter and they
found Jesus. You can write to me Rick at Pastorrick
dot com. That's rickat Pastorrick dot com. I would love
to hear from you. God bless you and Happy Easter.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Thanks for joining us here today. On Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,
the Audio Broadcast Ministry of Pastor Rick Warren.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Today we continue in.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
A series called the Seven Greatest Words of Love.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
There are seven.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Words in particular that Jesus spoke during his final hours
on the Cross that hold the keys for finding fulfillment
in your life, relationships, and even your career. Right now,
here's Pastor Rick with part one of a message called
the Word of Trust.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Some of you know that growing up, my mother was
both a librarian and a Christian bookstore manager. So I
learned from an early age to really love books. I
began to read them voraciously, began to collect them. Today,
my library, my personal library, has over twenty five thousand
volumes in hardback paperback, and I have another thirty thousand
(01:58):
volumes in ebooks, so I've got about a fifty five
thousand volume library. In some periods of my life, I
was reading the book a day. He said, how do
you do that? You read big print in big pictures, Okay,
really tiny, tiny books.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
And in my.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Library of about fifty five thousand books, as I said,
I have several volumes that are interesting that are collections
of the last words of people of famous people.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
They're dying words, and I read them in.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
While the books are supposed to be serious, some of
them are actually kind of funny.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I thought i'd share a couple with you.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
The last words of a guy named James Rogers. He
was a criminal and he was about to be executed
by a firing squad, and they asked, right before they
shot him, do you have any final requests? He said, yes,
a bulletproof vest. Famous last words. General John Sedwick was
a Union commander in the Civil War. He was killed
(02:56):
on the battlefield looking at the enemy while saying, quote,
those freedericks couldn't hit an elephant at this day. Another
famous quote Pancho Villa. Everybody knows who he is, you know,
famous Mexican leader Pancho Villa's last words were, don't let it.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
End like this. Tell people I said something, all right.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Today we look at the most famous last words ever,
the last words of Jesus Christ on the cross. Now
we have been for seven weeks looking at the seven
statements that Jesus made on the cross while he was
being crucified. And as I've told you that as a pastor,
I have stood at the bedside of many, many people
(03:44):
as they said their final words. Last words are important.
And when it comes to Jesus Christ, the last words
of Jesus Christ are extremely important. And today we come
to the last word of the last words, the very
last thing before Jesus died on the cross. The Bible
says it like this in Luke chapter twenty three. If
(04:05):
you are new here today, you can take the message
notes outside of you in your program and take them out.
All the verses in the Bible are there on this text.
It says this, Luke twenty three. By this time it
was noon. Now Jesus has been on the cross for
six hours. It says, by this time it was noon.
(04:26):
But darkness fell across the whole land until three o'clock.
Now circle the word darkness. We'll come back to that
in a minute, because this is the word of trust,
and you really need to learn to trust in the
darkest hours of your life. When darkness fell across the
whole land until three o'clock. Now, we don't know why
it got dark. Maybe just God brought cloud cover over,
(04:49):
maybe a storm.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
It just got dark.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
It's not normally dark in the middle of the day,
that's usually the brightest time. But the light from the
sun was gone, and suddenly the thick veil hanging in
the temple was torn a part. There's a symbolism behind
that we're not going to get into about making God
accessible to us. But it says then Jesus shouted. So
the final words that Jesus says, he shouts out, Father,
(05:15):
I entrust my spirit into your hands. This is what
he shouted. I entrust my spirit, Father, into your hands.
And with those words he breathed his last breath. Now,
when the captain of the Roman soldiers that would have
been a centurion, a captain of a captain, was overseeing
(05:36):
a hundred soldiers. When the centurion, the captain of the
Roman soldiers handling the execution, saw what had happened, he
praised God. This guy is in no way a believer,
but he praised God and said, surely, surely this man
was innocent. And in the Book of Matthew and in
(05:57):
the Book of Luke it adds, surely this man was
innocent and the son of God. Now, as a Roman centurion,
this is pretty amazing that a hardened soldier would look
up and say, the guy we just crucified, surely he
was innocent.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Something's different here.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
As a centurion, he would have already have seen literally
hundreds and hundreds of crucifixions.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
This is not a new thing.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
One of the tasks of Roman soldiers was to crucified people,
and literally, in those days of the Roman Empire, they
were crucifying hundreds a day.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
This is not a novel thing.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
They crucified criminals, they crucified political you know, figures and
things like that.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
So he had certainly.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Seen hundreds of crucifixions, but this one evidently is unlike
any crucifixion he's ever seen. And this hard bitten, hardened
Roman centurion, when he hears Jesus say the last of
the seven phrases, he says, he must have been innocent,
he must have been the son of God.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Something's different here, something's unique.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Well, what made this crucifixion so different from all the
other ones? He had seen the seven things that Jesus
had said on the cross that we've been looking at
now for seven weeks. Nobody ever spoke like Jesus spoke
when they were being murdered, when they were being crucified.
This Roman centurion had heard Jesus say, Father, forgive them.
(07:28):
They don't know what they're doing. He's never heard anybody
being hung on a cross forgiving the executioners who are
crucifying him. And yet he heard that he had never
seen anybody refuse the painkiller that Jesus was offered, which
Jesus refused. He heard Jesus say the word of assurance
to the repentant thief on the cross, dying by him,
(07:49):
say today, you'll be with me in paradise. Nobody had
ever said that on a cross. Nobody has ever said, Father,
forgive them. Nobody has ever said the word of assurance,
the word of love, the word of substitution, the word
of victory, all the things we've been looking at.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Now for seven weeks.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
And certainly nobody had ever shouted in his last breath
on the cross, Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands.
Nobody had ever said that before. This is very different, folks.
People don't die like this. Normal people don't die this way.
(08:27):
And Jesus actually gave us a model of how to die.
I wrote it there on your outline. I don't want
to cover it in detail. He was at peace that
it was his time to die. He was at peace.
He wasn't afraid to die. He died with no unreconciled relationships,
which a lot of people do. He wasn't angry, he
(08:50):
wasn't bitter. He knew where he was going. He's confident
of heaven, and he trusted God with his future. I
entrust my spirit into your hands. So, actually, there are
three characteristics of jesus death.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Why don't you write these down?
Speaker 1 (09:07):
First, Jesus Christ gave up his life voluntarily. Voluntarily. You know,
when the movie The Passion came out, there was a
big debate who killed Jesus.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Was it the Roman soldiers who killed Jesus?
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Was it the temple religious leaders who killed Jesus? Was
it the crowd who killed Jesus? The fact is who
took Jesus' life? The answer is Jesus gave his life.
He gave it up. He came for the purpose of dying.
He had said that from the very beginning. In fact,
he said, nobody can take my life from me. He
(09:41):
gave it willingly for you believe me. If Jesus had
not wanted to die on the cross, because he was
God in human form, he would not have happened. In fact,
there's what he said. Look, up here on the screen.
John chapter ten, verse eighteen. Jesus said, no one can
take my life from me. He'd done all kinds miracles.
He could certainly do a miracle to come down off
(10:02):
the cross. I lay down my life voluntarily, for I
have the authority to lay it down when I want to,
and also the power to take it back again. So
the death on the cross is not a tragedy. It
was Jesus' choice. He did it voluntarily. If he hadn't
wanted to die on the cross, he would not have
(10:23):
died on the cross. And we talked the last few
weeks why he had to do that. But it was
a voluntary decision. Jesus was in no way a victim,
and he was not being victimized. He was in complete
control of the situation. And nobody could do anything to
Jesus without his permission. Literally, he had the last word,
(10:45):
with his last word and the things that he said
on the cross. So Jesus gave up his life voluntarily.
The second thing write this down. He gave up his
life confidently, confidently. In other words, he shot, who did
the word Father? I entrust my life. I entrust my
(11:06):
spirit into your hands. Now he shouts. Now, let me
say this to you. I have been around, as I said,
a lot of people as a pastor in for forty years.
I have been at the bedside of many people as
they took their last breath. And I will tell you this,
dying people don't shout. I've never ever heard one dying
(11:29):
person shout.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
They whisper. Not one in my entire life have I
ever heard shout.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Because in their dying moments they don't have the strength,
and usually they whisper out a few words at the
very end. And normally, certainly in this crucifixion, where you're
having extreme torture and extreme punishment, and in the last
as of crucifixion, a normal person wouldn't have had the
strength to even shout out beyond a weak grown Now,
(11:58):
when Jesus shouts out the final word on the cross,
he's not shouting out in anger. He's not shouting out
in bitterness. He's not shouting out in fear. He's not
shouting out in despair. He's not shouting out in defeat.
He is shouting out in victory. It is a shout
of confident, convinced.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Rock solid trust.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands, and he
says it at the top of his voice. It's a
shout of victory, and it's a shout of trust. He
gave his life up voluntarily. He gave his life up confidently.
And the third thing, Jesus gave up his life trusting God.
Trusting God. Now, when Jesus says this phrase, the very
(12:46):
last of the seven things, he says on the cross, Father,
into your hands, I commit my spirit.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
I entrust my spirit.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
This is actually a quote from the Old Testament. In fact,
it's a quote from Psalm chapter thirty one, verse five.
And not only is it a quote from thirty one,
verse five, it's a phrase that every single Jew would
know by heart, because this is the bedtime prayer of
(13:15):
every Jewish child. You know, we teach our children. Now
I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord
my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take. That is
taken from this phrase that's taken from Psalm thirty one.
(13:36):
Now I lay me down to sleep is actually just
a paraphrase of Psalm thirty one. Without a doubt, Mary
probably taught this to Jesus as a little baby boy,
every Jewish child, in fact, Jews would regularly pray this
as the evening prayer at the end of the day.
You say, Father, I am intrusting my life. I'm entrusting
my spirit. I'm committing myself into your hands, and I'm
(14:00):
going to bed. It's a common Jewish prayer. And Jesus
uses what he has been saying every night since as
a little boy as his last words on the cross. Now,
what's going on here? I want you to write this down.
He focused on the Father, not his pain. And in
(14:21):
a minute, when we get into what to do in
your dark days, that's one of the things you need
to learn how to do that when you are in
pain and when you're in your darkest days. Jesus is
in his darkest days. He's in the on the cross.
It is literally physically dark. He focuses not on his pain,
but he focuses on the Father. And he has no fear,
(14:44):
and he has no regrets. He has just trust into
thy hands. I commit my spirit into your hands. I
entrust my life. Now, this phrase that we're looking at
today has been said by Christians ever since, for two
thousand years.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
It's very very common.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
A lot of Christians throughout history have phrased used this
phrase when they're facing danger, when they're facing persecution, when
they're facing discouragement and death. The Latinists in manus tuus,
in manus tuus domine commendo spirit unum into your hands.
(15:25):
I commit my spirit Father, and that is that's a
phrase that has been used for literally thousands of years.
In fact, the very first Christian martyr, the guy named Stephen,
who was stoned to death in Jerusalem for following Jesus,
he says a version of what Jesus just said here,
and he says, as they were as they were killing him. Uh,
(15:45):
Stephen says, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
And that's the last thing he prayed.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
By the way, while I'm talking about this, Uh, the
idea of last rites, that's not in the Bible.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
It's not in the Bible.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
It's a tradition added many many years later. Nobody in
the Bible received last rites, none of the apostles, none
of the disciples, nobody received life.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
You don't need last rights to get into heaven.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
It's a tradition that was added hundreds and hundreds of
years later. It's not in the Bible, but Jesus says
that's his last words. I'm committing into your hands, God,
my spirit. Now what do we learn from this last
statement of Jesus. Well, every single word has an important truth.
(16:33):
And that's what I want us to look at right
now when you are going through your darkest day. There
are four truths you need to remember. Write these down.
Number one first thing to remember is I have a
father in heaven who loves me. I have a father
in heaven who loves me. This is the first thing
(16:56):
you need to remember when you're going through a dark day.
And that's why Jesus starts his last statement on the
cross with the word father. With the word father. Now,
remember a couple of weeks ago we talked about that.
When Jesus was taking the punishment for every sin of
mankind on himself, he cries out, my God, my God,
(17:19):
remember that, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.
It's the only time in the Bible when he doesn't
call God father, and that was because he was separated
taking all of our sins on himself. When Jesus taught
us to pray, he said, you're to pray like this,
our Father who art in heaven. That blew everybody's mind,
(17:43):
because up to this point, every faith, every religion, taught
that God is distant. God is big, he's powerful, he's cosmic,
he's mighty. He may be merciful, but you certainly don't
call him father.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Jesus changed it all.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
He blew the stereotypes, and he said, when you talk
to God, you talk to him like he's your daddy.
In fact, the word he used in Aramic abba literally
means daddy, papa. It's the first word every Middle East
child learns, Abba, Dad, dad, papa.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
It's easy to say.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
And so Jesus told us, when you pray, start with
praying Father. And when Jesus is dying on the cross,
his last words there he starts with the word Father.
Now the judgment period for sin is all over. He's
now reconciled to God. He's not talking some impersonal force,
some uninterested, distant deity.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
He's talking to Father.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
The Bible says this John sixteen twenty eight. Jesus said,
I came from the Father, and I entered the world,
and now I'm leaving the world and I'm going back
to the Father. So what do we know about God
since he wants us to call him father. A lot
of people have a problem with this because they had
(19:08):
bad dads and their dad was distant, Their dad was demeaning,
their dad was destructive, their dad was, you know, detached.
Is that the way our father in heaven is No.
The Bible tells us that God is a caring father.
He's a consistent father. He's a close father, and he's
(19:30):
a capable father, and he loves you more than you
can even possibly imagine. The Bible says in Psalm one three,
verse thirteen, as a father has compassion on his children,
So the Lord that's God has compassion on those who
(19:50):
honor him. I don't know what you're going through today.
You may be having a financial crisis, a physical crisis,
a conflict in your your marriage.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
I don't care.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Well, I do care, but I mean, I don't know
what you're going through. But I would say this, you
have a heavenly father in heaven who is close, caring, competent, capable,
and consistent, and he cares. And if you're going through
the dark days, you need to get your eyes off
the pain and onto the Father Father, that God who
(20:23):
knows everything. That's gone in your life, sees everything that's
going on in your life, cares about everything that's going
on in your life, has the power to change everything
in your life and will help you if you will
trust him. I want you to write this down in
your line. God loves me more than I do. That's
probably a shock to some of you. God loves me
(20:46):
more than I do. Did you know that you don't
love yourself as much as God loves you. God loves
you more than you love you because God is love.
God is the essence of all love. It all came
from Him, and no matter what you are facing right now,
need to say I have a father in heaven who
loves me. That's how he starts. But he doesn't just
(21:07):
love you. And here's the second thing you need to remember.
It's in this sentence. Not only do I have a
father in heaven who loves me. Number two, my father
can be trusted. My father talking about in heaven, the
God of Heaven, he can be trusted. Now, you may
have had a physical father who couldn't be trusted, and
(21:28):
inconsistent fathers produce insecure children. I talked to guy one
time and said, I didn't know from week to week
whether my dad was gonna slug me or gonna hug me.
I didn't know, just whether he was drunk or not
or whatever whatever mood he was in. Inconsistent fathers produced
insecure children. But your heavenly father is not only one
(21:52):
who loves you. He's one you can trust. You can
trust him. And this is the word of the trust.
And Jesus says, Father, I entrust my spirit. I entrust
my life into your care. That's why I call this
the word trust.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
That was such an encouraging message from Pastor Rick. And
now to encourage us more, here's Rick with a letter
from one of our listeners.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Hi, everybody, today, I'm going to share with you a
special testimony from Delia. Delia says that Daily Hope has
helped her with deep anxiety. But then she also shared
about what happened as she began to share Daily Hope
with her parents, and she writes this, Pastor Rick, a
couple of years ago, I found myself pretty lost. My
(22:42):
company had a merger and all the senior management were
changed overnight, and I was among them. At the same time,
my long term relationship ended. Then a couple months later,
my father was diagnosed with colon cancer. I was in shock,
and I fell into a deep depression from all these changes.
(23:02):
In fact, every day I experienced a panic attack. But
then I found your teaching on Daily Hope, and it
just seemed that you understood every emotion that I was
going through, emotions that I didn't even know how to
verbalize to other people. But it was Daily Hope that
helped me get out of bed every morning and gave
me the strength to get through each day. Through your
(23:26):
teaching on Daily Hope pastorrect, I was able to experience
God's love and power like never before.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
You know.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
I even translated the Daily Hope devotional for my parents
who don't speak English, and they accepted Jesus too. That's amazing, Delia.
I am so grateful for you and the team at
Daily Hope because it has become the morning routine that
I can't live without. Now, Delia, you have been through
(23:54):
more pain than I can possibly imagine, some very very
challenging times that I'm sorry, I really I'm sorry. Sometimes
we experience multiple traumas at the same time, and when
that happens, that's when we really need the hope of
Jesus Christ. And I'm so glad you experienced that, that
(24:15):
you found God's love and found God's power. And what
a blessing that you translated the Daily Hope devotionals for
your parents and then they accepted Christ. What that's amazing.
I am celebrating with you that they are now in
the family of God.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Did you know that you can start every day with
hope and encouragement from Pastor Rick, Well, you can when
you sign up to receive his life changing Bible study
teaching delivered directly to your inbox. Just go to Dailyhope
Radio dot com and sign up for this free Daily
Hope devotional. Be sure to join us next time as
we look into God's Word for our daily hope. This
(24:52):
program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your
generous financial support.
Hi, this is Rick Warren, Bible teacher of the Daily
Hope Broadcast. Did you know that because of Easter, your
past can be forgiven, you get a purpose for living,
and you can have a home in heaven. That's good news.
Where else can you get that kind of news? Nowhere else?
And did you know that at Easter, studies have shown
people are more open to an invitation to go to
church than at any other time of the year. Don't
(00:22):
go to church by yourself, but bring somebody who doesn't
know Jesus Christ, a family member, a friend, a coworker,
a neighbor, a relative. And if you bring them to
that church service and they come to know Christ, You're
going to be making a friend for eternity. It'll be
the most important investment you can ever make in their lives.
And by the way, if they come to Christ, would
(00:43):
you let me know about it. I'd love to hear
that story that you brought somebody to Easter and they
found Jesus. You can write to me Rick at Pastorrick
dot com. That's rickat Pastorrick dot com. I would love
to hear from you. God bless you and Happy Easter.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Thanks for joining us here today. On Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,
the Audio Broadcast Ministry of Pastor Rick Warren.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Today we continue in.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
A series called the Seven Greatest Words of Love.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
There are seven.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Words in particular that Jesus spoke during his final hours
on the Cross that hold the keys for finding fulfillment
in your life, relationships, and even your career. Right now,
here's Pastor Rick with part one of a message called
the Word of Trust.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Some of you know that growing up, my mother was
both a librarian and a Christian bookstore manager. So I
learned from an early age to really love books. I
began to read them voraciously, began to collect them. Today,
my library, my personal library, has over twenty five thousand
volumes in hardback paperback, and I have another thirty thousand
(01:58):
volumes in ebooks, so I've got about a fifty five
thousand volume library. In some periods of my life, I
was reading the book a day. He said, how do
you do that? You read big print in big pictures, Okay,
really tiny, tiny books.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
And in my.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Library of about fifty five thousand books, as I said,
I have several volumes that are interesting that are collections
of the last words of people of famous people.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
They're dying words, and I read them in.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
While the books are supposed to be serious, some of
them are actually kind of funny.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I thought i'd share a couple with you.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
The last words of a guy named James Rogers. He
was a criminal and he was about to be executed
by a firing squad, and they asked, right before they
shot him, do you have any final requests? He said, yes,
a bulletproof vest. Famous last words. General John Sedwick was
a Union commander in the Civil War. He was killed
(02:56):
on the battlefield looking at the enemy while saying, quote,
those freedericks couldn't hit an elephant at this day. Another
famous quote Pancho Villa. Everybody knows who he is, you know,
famous Mexican leader Pancho Villa's last words were, don't let it.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
End like this. Tell people I said something, all right.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Today we look at the most famous last words ever,
the last words of Jesus Christ on the cross. Now
we have been for seven weeks looking at the seven
statements that Jesus made on the cross while he was
being crucified. And as I've told you that as a pastor,
I have stood at the bedside of many, many people
(03:44):
as they said their final words. Last words are important.
And when it comes to Jesus Christ, the last words
of Jesus Christ are extremely important. And today we come
to the last word of the last words, the very
last thing before Jesus died on the cross. The Bible
says it like this in Luke chapter twenty three. If
(04:05):
you are new here today, you can take the message
notes outside of you in your program and take them out.
All the verses in the Bible are there on this text.
It says this, Luke twenty three. By this time it
was noon. Now Jesus has been on the cross for
six hours. It says, by this time it was noon.
(04:26):
But darkness fell across the whole land until three o'clock.
Now circle the word darkness. We'll come back to that
in a minute, because this is the word of trust,
and you really need to learn to trust in the
darkest hours of your life. When darkness fell across the
whole land until three o'clock. Now, we don't know why
it got dark. Maybe just God brought cloud cover over,
(04:49):
maybe a storm.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
It just got dark.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
It's not normally dark in the middle of the day,
that's usually the brightest time. But the light from the
sun was gone, and suddenly the thick veil hanging in
the temple was torn a part. There's a symbolism behind
that we're not going to get into about making God
accessible to us. But it says then Jesus shouted. So
the final words that Jesus says, he shouts out, Father,
(05:15):
I entrust my spirit into your hands. This is what
he shouted. I entrust my spirit, Father, into your hands.
And with those words he breathed his last breath. Now,
when the captain of the Roman soldiers that would have
been a centurion, a captain of a captain, was overseeing
(05:36):
a hundred soldiers. When the centurion, the captain of the
Roman soldiers handling the execution, saw what had happened, he
praised God. This guy is in no way a believer,
but he praised God and said, surely, surely this man
was innocent. And in the Book of Matthew and in
(05:57):
the Book of Luke it adds, surely this man was
innocent and the son of God. Now, as a Roman centurion,
this is pretty amazing that a hardened soldier would look
up and say, the guy we just crucified, surely he
was innocent.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Something's different here.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
As a centurion, he would have already have seen literally
hundreds and hundreds of crucifixions.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
This is not a new thing.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
One of the tasks of Roman soldiers was to crucified people,
and literally, in those days of the Roman Empire, they
were crucifying hundreds a day.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
This is not a novel thing.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
They crucified criminals, they crucified political you know, figures and
things like that.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
So he had certainly.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Seen hundreds of crucifixions, but this one evidently is unlike
any crucifixion he's ever seen. And this hard bitten, hardened
Roman centurion, when he hears Jesus say the last of
the seven phrases, he says, he must have been innocent,
he must have been the son of God.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Something's different here, something's unique.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Well, what made this crucifixion so different from all the
other ones? He had seen the seven things that Jesus
had said on the cross that we've been looking at
now for seven weeks. Nobody ever spoke like Jesus spoke
when they were being murdered, when they were being crucified.
This Roman centurion had heard Jesus say, Father, forgive them.
(07:28):
They don't know what they're doing. He's never heard anybody
being hung on a cross forgiving the executioners who are
crucifying him. And yet he heard that he had never
seen anybody refuse the painkiller that Jesus was offered, which
Jesus refused. He heard Jesus say the word of assurance
to the repentant thief on the cross, dying by him,
(07:49):
say today, you'll be with me in paradise. Nobody had
ever said that on a cross. Nobody has ever said, Father,
forgive them. Nobody has ever said the word of assurance,
the word of love, the word of substitution, the word
of victory, all the things we've been looking at.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Now for seven weeks.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
And certainly nobody had ever shouted in his last breath
on the cross, Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands.
Nobody had ever said that before. This is very different, folks.
People don't die like this. Normal people don't die this way.
(08:27):
And Jesus actually gave us a model of how to die.
I wrote it there on your outline. I don't want
to cover it in detail. He was at peace that
it was his time to die. He was at peace.
He wasn't afraid to die. He died with no unreconciled relationships,
which a lot of people do. He wasn't angry, he
(08:50):
wasn't bitter. He knew where he was going. He's confident
of heaven, and he trusted God with his future. I
entrust my spirit into your hands. So, actually, there are
three characteristics of jesus death.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Why don't you write these down?
Speaker 1 (09:07):
First, Jesus Christ gave up his life voluntarily. Voluntarily. You know,
when the movie The Passion came out, there was a
big debate who killed Jesus.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Was it the Roman soldiers who killed Jesus?
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Was it the temple religious leaders who killed Jesus? Was
it the crowd who killed Jesus? The fact is who
took Jesus' life? The answer is Jesus gave his life.
He gave it up. He came for the purpose of dying.
He had said that from the very beginning. In fact,
he said, nobody can take my life from me. He
(09:41):
gave it willingly for you believe me. If Jesus had
not wanted to die on the cross, because he was
God in human form, he would not have happened. In fact,
there's what he said. Look, up here on the screen.
John chapter ten, verse eighteen. Jesus said, no one can
take my life from me. He'd done all kinds miracles.
He could certainly do a miracle to come down off
(10:02):
the cross. I lay down my life voluntarily, for I
have the authority to lay it down when I want to,
and also the power to take it back again. So
the death on the cross is not a tragedy. It
was Jesus' choice. He did it voluntarily. If he hadn't
wanted to die on the cross, he would not have
(10:23):
died on the cross. And we talked the last few
weeks why he had to do that. But it was
a voluntary decision. Jesus was in no way a victim,
and he was not being victimized. He was in complete
control of the situation. And nobody could do anything to
Jesus without his permission. Literally, he had the last word,
(10:45):
with his last word and the things that he said
on the cross. So Jesus gave up his life voluntarily.
The second thing write this down. He gave up his
life confidently, confidently. In other words, he shot, who did
the word Father? I entrust my life. I entrust my
(11:06):
spirit into your hands. Now he shouts. Now, let me
say this to you. I have been around, as I said,
a lot of people as a pastor in for forty years.
I have been at the bedside of many people as
they took their last breath. And I will tell you this,
dying people don't shout. I've never ever heard one dying
(11:29):
person shout.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
They whisper. Not one in my entire life have I
ever heard shout.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Because in their dying moments they don't have the strength,
and usually they whisper out a few words at the
very end. And normally, certainly in this crucifixion, where you're
having extreme torture and extreme punishment, and in the last
as of crucifixion, a normal person wouldn't have had the
strength to even shout out beyond a weak grown Now,
(11:58):
when Jesus shouts out the final word on the cross,
he's not shouting out in anger. He's not shouting out
in bitterness. He's not shouting out in fear. He's not
shouting out in despair. He's not shouting out in defeat.
He is shouting out in victory. It is a shout
of confident, convinced.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Rock solid trust.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands, and he
says it at the top of his voice. It's a
shout of victory, and it's a shout of trust. He
gave his life up voluntarily. He gave his life up confidently.
And the third thing, Jesus gave up his life trusting God.
Trusting God. Now, when Jesus says this phrase, the very
(12:46):
last of the seven things, he says on the cross, Father,
into your hands, I commit my spirit.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
I entrust my spirit.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
This is actually a quote from the Old Testament. In fact,
it's a quote from Psalm chapter thirty one, verse five.
And not only is it a quote from thirty one,
verse five, it's a phrase that every single Jew would
know by heart, because this is the bedtime prayer of
(13:15):
every Jewish child. You know, we teach our children. Now
I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord
my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take. That is
taken from this phrase that's taken from Psalm thirty one.
(13:36):
Now I lay me down to sleep is actually just
a paraphrase of Psalm thirty one. Without a doubt, Mary
probably taught this to Jesus as a little baby boy,
every Jewish child, in fact, Jews would regularly pray this
as the evening prayer at the end of the day.
You say, Father, I am intrusting my life. I'm entrusting
my spirit. I'm committing myself into your hands, and I'm
(14:00):
going to bed. It's a common Jewish prayer. And Jesus
uses what he has been saying every night since as
a little boy as his last words on the cross. Now,
what's going on here? I want you to write this down.
He focused on the Father, not his pain. And in
(14:21):
a minute, when we get into what to do in
your dark days, that's one of the things you need
to learn how to do that when you are in
pain and when you're in your darkest days. Jesus is
in his darkest days. He's in the on the cross.
It is literally physically dark. He focuses not on his pain,
but he focuses on the Father. And he has no fear,
(14:44):
and he has no regrets. He has just trust into
thy hands. I commit my spirit into your hands. I
entrust my life. Now, this phrase that we're looking at
today has been said by Christians ever since, for two
thousand years.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
It's very very common.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
A lot of Christians throughout history have phrased used this
phrase when they're facing danger, when they're facing persecution, when
they're facing discouragement and death. The Latinists in manus tuus,
in manus tuus domine commendo spirit unum into your hands.
(15:25):
I commit my spirit Father, and that is that's a
phrase that has been used for literally thousands of years.
In fact, the very first Christian martyr, the guy named Stephen,
who was stoned to death in Jerusalem for following Jesus,
he says a version of what Jesus just said here,
and he says, as they were as they were killing him. Uh,
(15:45):
Stephen says, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
And that's the last thing he prayed.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
By the way, while I'm talking about this, Uh, the
idea of last rites, that's not in the Bible.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
It's not in the Bible.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
It's a tradition added many many years later. Nobody in
the Bible received last rites, none of the apostles, none
of the disciples, nobody received life.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
You don't need last rights to get into heaven.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
It's a tradition that was added hundreds and hundreds of
years later. It's not in the Bible, but Jesus says
that's his last words. I'm committing into your hands, God,
my spirit. Now what do we learn from this last
statement of Jesus. Well, every single word has an important truth.
(16:33):
And that's what I want us to look at right
now when you are going through your darkest day. There
are four truths you need to remember. Write these down.
Number one first thing to remember is I have a
father in heaven who loves me. I have a father
in heaven who loves me. This is the first thing
(16:56):
you need to remember when you're going through a dark day.
And that's why Jesus starts his last statement on the
cross with the word father. With the word father. Now,
remember a couple of weeks ago we talked about that.
When Jesus was taking the punishment for every sin of
mankind on himself, he cries out, my God, my God,
(17:19):
remember that, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.
It's the only time in the Bible when he doesn't
call God father, and that was because he was separated
taking all of our sins on himself. When Jesus taught
us to pray, he said, you're to pray like this,
our Father who art in heaven. That blew everybody's mind,
(17:43):
because up to this point, every faith, every religion, taught
that God is distant. God is big, he's powerful, he's cosmic,
he's mighty. He may be merciful, but you certainly don't
call him father.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Jesus changed it all.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
He blew the stereotypes, and he said, when you talk
to God, you talk to him like he's your daddy.
In fact, the word he used in Aramic abba literally
means daddy, papa. It's the first word every Middle East
child learns, Abba, Dad, dad, papa.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
It's easy to say.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
And so Jesus told us, when you pray, start with
praying Father. And when Jesus is dying on the cross,
his last words there he starts with the word Father.
Now the judgment period for sin is all over. He's
now reconciled to God. He's not talking some impersonal force,
some uninterested, distant deity.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
He's talking to Father.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
The Bible says this John sixteen twenty eight. Jesus said,
I came from the Father, and I entered the world,
and now I'm leaving the world and I'm going back
to the Father. So what do we know about God
since he wants us to call him father. A lot
of people have a problem with this because they had
(19:08):
bad dads and their dad was distant, Their dad was demeaning,
their dad was destructive, their dad was, you know, detached.
Is that the way our father in heaven is No.
The Bible tells us that God is a caring father.
He's a consistent father. He's a close father, and he's
(19:30):
a capable father, and he loves you more than you
can even possibly imagine. The Bible says in Psalm one three,
verse thirteen, as a father has compassion on his children,
So the Lord that's God has compassion on those who
(19:50):
honor him. I don't know what you're going through today.
You may be having a financial crisis, a physical crisis,
a conflict in your your marriage.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
I don't care.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Well, I do care, but I mean, I don't know
what you're going through. But I would say this, you
have a heavenly father in heaven who is close, caring, competent, capable,
and consistent, and he cares. And if you're going through
the dark days, you need to get your eyes off
the pain and onto the Father Father, that God who
(20:23):
knows everything. That's gone in your life, sees everything that's
going on in your life, cares about everything that's going
on in your life, has the power to change everything
in your life and will help you if you will
trust him. I want you to write this down in
your line. God loves me more than I do. That's
probably a shock to some of you. God loves me
(20:46):
more than I do. Did you know that you don't
love yourself as much as God loves you. God loves
you more than you love you because God is love.
God is the essence of all love. It all came
from Him, and no matter what you are facing right now,
need to say I have a father in heaven who
loves me. That's how he starts. But he doesn't just
(21:07):
love you. And here's the second thing you need to remember.
It's in this sentence. Not only do I have a
father in heaven who loves me. Number two, my father
can be trusted. My father talking about in heaven, the
God of Heaven, he can be trusted. Now, you may
have had a physical father who couldn't be trusted, and
(21:28):
inconsistent fathers produce insecure children. I talked to guy one
time and said, I didn't know from week to week
whether my dad was gonna slug me or gonna hug me.
I didn't know, just whether he was drunk or not
or whatever whatever mood he was in. Inconsistent fathers produced
insecure children. But your heavenly father is not only one
(21:52):
who loves you. He's one you can trust. You can
trust him. And this is the word of the trust.
And Jesus says, Father, I entrust my spirit. I entrust
my life into your care. That's why I call this
the word trust.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
That was such an encouraging message from Pastor Rick. And
now to encourage us more, here's Rick with a letter
from one of our listeners.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Hi, everybody, today, I'm going to share with you a
special testimony from Delia. Delia says that Daily Hope has
helped her with deep anxiety. But then she also shared
about what happened as she began to share Daily Hope
with her parents, and she writes this, Pastor Rick, a
couple of years ago, I found myself pretty lost. My
(22:42):
company had a merger and all the senior management were
changed overnight, and I was among them. At the same time,
my long term relationship ended. Then a couple months later,
my father was diagnosed with colon cancer. I was in shock,
and I fell into a deep depression from all these changes.
(23:02):
In fact, every day I experienced a panic attack. But
then I found your teaching on Daily Hope, and it
just seemed that you understood every emotion that I was
going through, emotions that I didn't even know how to
verbalize to other people. But it was Daily Hope that
helped me get out of bed every morning and gave
me the strength to get through each day. Through your
(23:26):
teaching on Daily Hope pastorrect, I was able to experience
God's love and power like never before.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
You know.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
I even translated the Daily Hope devotional for my parents
who don't speak English, and they accepted Jesus too. That's amazing, Delia.
I am so grateful for you and the team at
Daily Hope because it has become the morning routine that
I can't live without. Now, Delia, you have been through
(23:54):
more pain than I can possibly imagine, some very very
challenging times that I'm sorry, I really I'm sorry. Sometimes
we experience multiple traumas at the same time, and when
that happens, that's when we really need the hope of
Jesus Christ. And I'm so glad you experienced that, that
(24:15):
you found God's love and found God's power. And what
a blessing that you translated the Daily Hope devotionals for
your parents and then they accepted Christ. What that's amazing.
I am celebrating with you that they are now in
the family of God.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Did you know that you can start every day with
hope and encouragement from Pastor Rick, Well, you can when
you sign up to receive his life changing Bible study
teaching delivered directly to your inbox. Just go to Dailyhope
Radio dot com and sign up for this free Daily
Hope devotional. Be sure to join us next time as
we look into God's Word for our daily hope. This
(24:52):
program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your
generous financial support.
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