Luke 23:46
And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ ” Having said this, He breathed His last.
At that moment the entire city stood still in darkness and anguish. They knew that there Messiah that they had grew to love and they had seen heal and feed them was no more.
When I was praying about this message I thought about the special day that this was and how we need Christ in our lives.
I want to take you back to September 11, 2001. I remember at that time I was working on a fuel truck and we were on our way to fuel some heavy equipment. It was a normal day of work and we were listing to the radio and as we were flipping channels we heard about the twin towers that had been hit by a plane. Then we began to hear about other plans hitting building in different parts of the country. We though the radio station was playing some kind of joke, you know like Orson Wells did back in 1938.
As we changed our radio station and got to the next one we started hearing it again. We kept changing and by this time we had pulled into our work sight and parked thinking there is no way this is real. We were so quiet and finally we rolled down the windows and started to listen outside. At that moment this eerie feeling came over us as to the fact that it was so quit outside. We did not even hear the plans coming overhead and it seemed at that moment it was the day that the earth stood still.
It almost seemed like it would get that quit a few years ago when COVID hit us. At my job it got so quit in the building as hundreds of people left the building to work from home.
I could not imagine the day the Jesus was hung on the cross and died. How day became night and everything got so quit other than the cries of the people.
However, there was a new day coming.
I want to talk for a few minutes about that hour and that moment it all happened.
It was a long path of dragging a heavy cross up a full, but lonely path to the top of that hill. Weak and bleeding and barely being able to stay on His 2 feet. As He reached the top of Calvary's Hill He must have looked at the people around him and thought I am dying for you.
The Book of Numbers records his grim fate. He, his followers, and their families and possessions were swallowed by the ground in a judgment by God. But in a marvelous picture of grace, a few of his surviving descendants nearly 400 years later wrote some of the Psalms.
Psalm 49
6 Those who trust in their wealth
And boast in the multitude of their riches,
7 None of them can by any means redeem his brother,
Nor give to God a ransom for him—
8 For the redemption of their souls is costly,
And it shall cease forever—
9 That he should continue to live eternally,
And not see the Pit.
As we look on into Luke 22:31-34 we will see where Peter is told that he will Deny that he know Jesus 3 times.
Luke 22:31-34
31 And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”
33 But he said to Him, “Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death.”
34 Then He said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me.”
This was someone that was one of Jesus' disciples. That had traveled with him and helped him preach God's glory. But, wait that was not all.
Then you have Judas who agreed to betray Jesus in Matthew 26:14-16 and he does just that by betraying him with a kiss in Luke 22:48
Jesus was betrayed, denied, beaten and hung on a cross for redemption of you and I and our sins. Then as we read earlier in Luke 23:46 that Jesus breathed His last breath. However that was not the end.
You see Jesus with His redeeming power through the blood that was shed upon that cross, He would pay the ultimate price that you are I could never pay and that was to die so that we may be redeemed.
Luke 24:6-7
6 He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, 7 saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ ”
Today is a new day and can be a new beginning for you. There is no need to carry on in your life being miserable, in darkness, or in bondage to sin because, you have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and that is Jesus.
Just like that day that the earth seem to stand still on September 11th it also seem to stand still more than 2000 years ago when Jesus breathed is last breath upon that cross. This difference is a lot more than we could ever imagine. On the day that Jesus died it may have been quit, however the day was coming that He would rise up and the tomb would be empty.
And all of this was so you and I could have an eternal life in Heaven instead of Hell.