Hands of the Father

 The Hands of the Father

First Series – Sermon Nine

Original by George MacDonald

Paraphrase by Dale R. Howie

 

Jesus came from the Father's hands and returned to His hands with the words, "It is finished!" Therefore, we are God's hands and feet, His words and His ways. Our participation becomes His light for the weary and evidence of His rest for those who suffer.

These are the questions we must ask:

• Will we surrender now into His hands?
• Will we become what we are?
• Will we take no cares but His?
• Can we allow His Life to flow through ours to others, as He did?

 

Outline

Sermon Question: What is the central message of "The Hands of the Father"?

P1 - All Healed – Jesus' final surrender reveals that the whole of His life was one continual offering to the Father, inviting us into the same life of joyful self-giving.

         T - Into Your Hands – The prayer, "Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit," is not only Christ's final prayer but the daily confession of every child who learns to trust the Father's care.

R1 - Fatherhood – We truly know the Father only as His love for all becomes our love for one another, for the Father's heart is revealed in the love of His children.

 

 Luke 23:46 KJV

 "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit."

 

The Gospel writers end their crucifixion stories with different statements. Each with something special to say. Matthew and Mark end with the "The Eloi." Luke alone records it with, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." John says none of these, only, "It is finished." All of them, after His final words, reveal Him as bowing His head and yielding! 

 

All Healed

Question: What was accomplished in Christ's final cry?

Will the Lord ever tell us the meaning in His cry? Was it a cry of relief at the moment of death? Was it a cry of victory and joy in enduring to the end? Whatever it was, now sonship and sacrifice are born in the hearts of men! The divine obedience of the Son was perfected in suffering. He assumed everything that we are and did for us what we are being drawn to do for our Father and our brothers and sisters. Jesus was from that moment beneath us and above us, around us and within us, suffering with us and for us, giving all that He had and all that He was—the best of His love, the best of Himself. God had been with us in Jesus, the Incarnation reaching its fulfillment in one mighty cry.

The cry meant, "It is finished... Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit." Every highest human act is simply the giving back to God of what He has first given to us. "Thou hast given me; here again is Thy gift. I send my spirit home." Every act of worship presents back to God what He has made us. "Here, Lord, is what You have given. Experience with me how I am made. In my very being this is Your blessing. I am Your child, and I thank You for Your overflowing life." Life is Yours; therefore, it is mine. I am Yours; therefore, I am mine. The great law of both the spiritual and physical worlds is the returning of everything to its Source.

The crucifixion, in the surrendering of His spirit, was only the summing up of what Jesus had lived His whole life. From the beginning He had been offering the same sacrifice—the sacrifice of Himself. Through His self-offering He lived the divine life. Morning and evening, alone and among others, He offered Himself to His Father in loving communion. Then He turned and gave Himself to us in the same loving words, deeds, and thoughts. His whole life was worship. His whole life was sacrifice. His whole life was the continual offering of Himself to the Father. While there is light, the way of worship is to work, for the true service of God is the helping of our brothers and sisters.

I do not want to speak of this offering of ourselves to the Father as duty, for that would turn the highest privilege we possess into a burden too grievous to bear. Instead, the giving of ourselves is the simplest and greatest blessing we have in the whole world. It is not the loss of ourselves, but the finding of ourselves in the One from whom life first came.

 

Answer: His entire life of obedience, sacrifice, and sonship reached its fulfillment, revealing the life into which humanity is being drawn.

 

Into Your Hands

Question: Why does Jesus' final prayer become our prayer?

"Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit."

Father, I give my spirit into your hands, for my life is your work, not mine. You know every degree of my suffering and care for me in your perfect Fatherhood. Your care embraces my sonship, surrounds and includes it. As your child, I can bear great pain knowing you watch over me and wrap your arms around me. You cannot get nearer to me than your caring hands already have. Yes, you comfort me with the comfort I could never imagine. I do not care about the pain so long as Your Spirit is strong in me. In your Love, which is better than life, receive my spirit. Then your tenderness will make my life great!

This is what we can confess to ourselves.

Answer: Because every child of God is invited to entrust every joy, sorrow, fear, and hope into the Father's hands.

 

Fatherhood

Question: What does it mean to live in the Father's heart?

Realize, brothers and sisters, that we walk in the breath of an eternal Fatherhood. Every lifting of our hearts turns toward the Father. Grace and truth are above us, beneath us, around us, and within us. Even when we are least worthy—when we are tempted, hard, selfish, or ashamed—let us still place our spirits into His hands. Where else would we send them? They came from Him in love, and only in His love can they find their rest.

Suppose a little child came to his father and quietly said, "I feel naughty, Papa, and I want to be good." Would any true father send the child away until he had first become worthy? Would he tell him to return only after he had made himself lovable? No. Every tenderness of a father's heart would awaken toward that child. If we, being evil, know how to receive our children, shall we imagine that our heavenly Father is less ready to receive His own? The very desire to come home is already the beginning of His work within us.

Nor is there anything we ask for ourselves that we may not also ask for another. What we long for in our own hearts we may confidently desire for every brother and sister. Sometimes there is no greater act of faith than quietly saying, "Father, they are Yours."

Nor shall we know the true rest of the Father's hands—that holy rest into which our Lord entered when His suffering was complete—until His Fatherhood has become as precious to us for others as it is for ourselves. There all that is not music becomes silence, for every discord is swallowed up in the harmony of His love.

He cannot be our Father unless He is their Father. We will not find rest in the Father’s heart until His Fatherhood fully embraces everyone. If we cannot see Him as their Father, we cannot know Him as ours!

As the Father's heart becomes our own, we begin to desire for others what we desire for ourselves. We no longer ask merely for our own peace, our own forgiveness, or our own joy. We long that every brother and sister should know the same embrace of the Father's love. This is the beginning of loving our neighbor—not as a command laid upon us, but as the natural fruit of sharing in the Father's own heart.

We can never know Him clearly until we rejoice and are glad for all of our race. Rejoice that He is the Father of all!

"He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?"

Answer: To rest in the assurance that His love continually surrounds His children and welcomes them home.

Sermon Answer: Jesus' final words reveal the heart of His entire life. He continually entrusted Himself to the Father, inviting us to live in the same confidence, surrender, and love.

 

 

_______________________________________________________

Continue your Quest . . .

Next Sermon - Love Your Neighbor

________________

 

CLIFF NOTES WITH MACDONALD’S ORIGINAL QUOTES

  

All Healed

 

“Now should inward sonship and the spirit of glad sacrifice be born in the hearts of men; for the divine obedience was perfected by suffering. He had been amongst his brethren what he would have his brethren be. He had done for them what he would have them do for God and for each other. God was henceforth inside and beneath them, as well as around and above them, suffering with them and for them, giving them all he had, his very life-being, his essence of existence, what best he loved, what best he was. He had been among them, their God-brother. And the mighty story ends with a cry.”

 “Every highest human act is just a giving back to God of that which he first gave to us.”

 “'It is thine: it is mine. I am thine, and therefore I am mine.'" The vast operations of the spiritual as of the physical world, are simply a turning again to the source.”

 “The last act of our Lord in thus commending his spirit at the close of his life, was only a summing up of what he had been doing all his life. He had been offering this sacrifice, the sacrifice of himself, all the years, and in thus sacrificing he had lived the divine life.”

 “The way to worship God while the daylight lasts is to work; the service of God, the only "divine service," is the helping of our fellows.”

 “I do not seek to point out this commending of our spirits to the Father as a duty: that is to turn the highest privilege we possess into a burden grievous to be borne. But I want to show that it is the simplest blessedest thing in the human world.”

 

Fatherhood

 

“Think, brothers, think, sisters, we walk in the air of an eternal fatherhood. Every uplifting of the heart is a looking up to The Father. Graciousness and truth are around, above, beneath us, yea, in us. When we are least worthy, then, most tempted, hardest, unkindest, let us yet commend our spirits into his hands. Whither else dare we send them? How the earthly father would love a child who would creep into his room with angry, troubled face, and sit down at his feet, saying when asked what he wanted: "I feel so naughty, papa, and I want to get good"! Would he say to his child: "How dare you! Go away, and be good, and then come to me?" Would we not let all the tenderness of our nature flow forth upon such a child? And shall we dare to think that if we being evil know how to give good gifts to our children, God will not give us his own spirit when we come to ask him?”

 “We shall never be able, I say, to rest in the bosom of the Father, till the fatherhood is fully revealed to us in the love of the brothers. For he cannot be our father save as he is their father; and if we do not see him and feel him as their father, we cannot know him as ours.” 

“Never shall we know him aright until we rejoice and exult for our race that he is the Father. He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? To rest, I say, at last, even in those hands into which the Lord commended his spirit, we must have learned already to love our neighbour as ourselves.”