The Divine Crash

Today’s sermon continued preaching through the Psalms in the gospel.  Enjoy the audio at the bottom, or on iTunes.  Feel free to leave a comment.

 

Psalm 31:5 “I entrust my spirit into your hands; you, Lord, God of faithfulness – You have saved me.

Luke 23:46 “Crying out in a loud voice, Jesus said, ‘Father, into your hands I entrust my life.’ After he said this, he breathed for the last time.”

Luke wrote these words of Jesus in Greek.

Jesus spoke Aramaic, a dialect of Hebrew.

- Hebrew would be like Shakespeare and Aramaic would be Pittsburgh-ese

- Hebrew woud say “Dost thou wisheth to eateth at thou brothers of Primanti?” Aramaic would say “yins wanna eat Primanti Brothers?”

Luke writes that Jesus gave up his Pneuma – Greek

Jesus probably said he gave up his Reuach – Hebrew and matches the quote in Psalm 31:5

Pneuma – Breath, Current of air, Breeze, The part of you that makes you, you. The part of you that gives you feelings emotions.

Reuach – Wind, Breath, what you feel on your upper lip when you exhale, the part of you that thinks, feels, and has emotions

- Both are immortal

This is different than Soul. which is given to you from God for a time and ends at a specific time but is what makes you alive.

- Often times the Spirit and the Soul are used interchangeably and get very confusing. And even in this sermon I may confuse the two.

- Thousands of pages have been written on this and people have been debating it back and forth for centuries, scholars even debate if Paul mixed them up. but the best I can figure out is that,

- Everything has Soul, Only God, and humans have spirit. Souls do not last, but the spirit lasts forever, somewhere.

Jesus says Spirit, David says Spirit.

- Jesus is giving the part of him that feels, thinks, and has emotions to God.

- David is giving the part of him that feels, thinks and has emotions to God.

Jesus is willingly giving up an offering of his Spirit to God the father.

- Calls God Father. Jesus adds this to the scripture. Jesus adds to the scripture. Why? and what does this mean in relation to Revelation where it says not to add to scripture.

- Psalm 31:5 is a traditional jewish prayer that mothers would teach their children at bedtime.

- Similar to Now I lay me down to sleep and I pray the lord my soul to keep.

- Before the darkness comes they trust their spirit to God.

- Perhaps Mary taught him that God is his father or perhaps he is simply trusting in God to be his daddy one more time.

- In the midst of an event that changes the whole world forever, Jesus remembers a prayer from his childhood.

- Which would indicate that in the midst of our hurt we go back to what we learned as small children, which is why children’s sermons and kid’s club and having kids in worship with us is so important because when they are in chaos they will remember the lessons they learned when they were younger.

- This should put an incredible amount of pressure on parents because what we teach our children will impact them up until the day they die. for the kids who were baptized here, you promised to teach them so then when it all hits the fan they remember god so what are you teaching your kids.

With all of this Jesus declares his complete trust in God, That God will still use all this pain and agony for good.

- This spirit is the payment for all the sins of the whole world.

- This spirit that is given to God is the sacrificed promised from the Old Testament prophets and is the ultimate offering to God.

- And so God receives the Spirit of Jesus. The spirit that is now blackened by sin, dirty and disgusting by all the things we have done.

And so, Jesus cries out a prayer he knew from Childhood.

- It was not a cry of defeat but a prayer of reliance as he fell asleep in his father’s arms.

- Maybe that is what death is supposed to be like, falling asleep in the father’s arms and waking up in the midst of the presence of God.

- Yet, Jesus stops before the last line. ” You, Lord, God of faithfulness,You have rescued me.” Why?

- I don’t know, but perhaps it was because Jesus wasn’t the one saved.  Jesus didn’t get saved. Jesus got sacrificed. Jesus got killed and the whole world is what was saved.

- Jesus understands what is so hard for us, sometimes we don’t get rescued.  Sometimes God’s plan is bigger than us and we only get to trust in what God is doing knowing that the whole thing works for good.

The question then becomes what do we do with all of this? How does all of this make us better followers of Jesus? How does it impact our job, family, friends, church, everything? No one wants a Jesus that is distant, vague, and far away that might be able to help us someday if we pray a right prayer and go to church on Sundays. What the whole world needs is a Jesus that is personal, invested, and cares about them right now, in the midst of their jobs, families, budgets, illnesses, hurts, pains, and celebrations. Oddly enough, if we are as the church are the body of Christ we should be doing the same thing and be near people too, right?

The answer is how much do we trust our life to God?

- Jesus gave the very part of him that makes him feel and think to God, what have you given to God?

- If we claim that we have given our spirit to God, like Jesus, then our lives should reflect it.

- What do you give to God? what do you hold back?

- We claim to give God our everything but do we really?

- Does your checkbook reflect that you have given God everything?

- Does your shopping habit reflect that you have given God everything?

- Fair Trade says we care about what God cares about, that more important than price is people.

- Does your calendar reflect that you have given God everything?

- Beyond Sunday morning for an hour have you worked God into your daily schedule?

- Do you read your Bible on a daily basis? Do you pray daily?

- Does our church reflect that we trust God with everything or have we forced our will onto the church in the form of rules, popularity contests, committees, sub-co motors, and programs?

- Do we trust God enough with our church to bring in drums? a guitar? Coffee, worship on Sunday at 8am?

- If you have not given God everything then you have to question if you have given god anything. do you trust God or you trust yourself?

But lets say you have all that.  You only buy fair trade coffee, chocolate and clothes.  You can give 10% of your income.  You can have accountability partners and read your bible every day. Be at the church everyday and twice on Sunday but if you do not love others then you have missed the whole point.

Worthless Video

If you have committed your life to Christ then youmare called to love god and love others. when you do that then the very way you see the world will change. you buy fair trade coffe not because it is the right thing but because you love the people who grow your coffee. you give your life to god because you love god, not because it is the right thing to do.

To commit your life to God above all else is the supreme choice in your life.

- You cannot make it half way, you cannot only do it in certain parts of your life.  God must be God of all parts of your life.

- If God is the God you say you have trusted your spirit to then it flows into everything you do.  You do not simply look like a christian you act, live, breath, and are defined as being a Christian.  Anything else is simply worthless.

If you are that guy in the video and you are sick of it, now is the time to change. to decide that People matter more than sayings or events and that God loves them as much as God loves you. Pray, ask God to forgive you of being like that and ask God to show you how to be more loving to those around you. Be like Jesus and commit your whole spirit to God’s hands and then see what happens.

on the cross Jesus died for that guy, the hypocrites, Pharisees, prostitutes, drug addicts, the lonely, and the hurting. on the night before he died he ate a last meal and took bread and wine and said this is my body and my blood for the forgiveness of hypocrisy, stealing, lying, cheating, and all sins. Jesus then said that every time you eat to remember me.

we are going to pray and then we will have some commuion and then we will pray and sing. the ushers will invite you up to the altar and the elements will be waiting for you. the only thing we ask is that you come with a willingness to seengod move in your life.

Closing prayer: “O hands of the Eternal God, who made and still preserve the heavens and earth for my sake, and who made me for yourselves, suffer me not ever to stray from you. In those hands I possess my Lamb, and all i love; in them therefore must I be also, together with him. Together with him, in these loving hands I shall sleep and rest in peace, since he in dying left me hope in them and in their infinite mercies, placed me within them, as my only and my special refuge. Since by these hands I live and am what I am, make me continually to live through them, and in them to die; in them to live in the love of our Lord, and from them only to desire and look for every good; that from them I may at last together with the Lord, receive the crown. – Father Thome de Jesu.

 

Sermon Audio

 

 

Filed under:
Sermon by RevBT