SPEAKER_00: Good morning, First Baptist Wimberly.
SPEAKER_00: This is Mike Gibbons.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Friday.
SPEAKER_00: This week we're back in Luke in chapter 23, verses 26 through 56.
SPEAKER_00: And the focus in these verses is the crucifixion, death, and burial of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a very somber tone to this whole section.
SPEAKER_00: But despite the seriousness, I think Jesus encourages us through his prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Luke does share fewer prayers than other gospel writers do, but I think he does that on purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read the first prayer from verse 34, and then the last prayer from verse 36.
SPEAKER_00: First, verse 34.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
SPEAKER_00: Now, verse 46.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And having said this, he breathed his last.
SPEAKER_00: Important to see is that Jesus repeats the word Father in both those prayers.
SPEAKER_00: The last prayer is a quote from Psalm 31, 5.
SPEAKER_00: Into your hand I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_00: David is the one that wrote the Psalm, and he's asking to be preserved from death.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus, the ultimate son of David, used it as a prayer of trust in the Father at the moment of death.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus added the word Father.
SPEAKER_00: No one dared to use this word before Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But Father was used throughout the ministry of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It is the one recorded word of his youth.
SPEAKER_00: Did you not know that I must be in my father's house?
SPEAKER_00: It was the opening word of the prayer he taught his followers to pray, the Lord's prayer.
SPEAKER_00: It was the word he used when he took on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.
SPEAKER_00: And it was the first word he spoke from the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
SPEAKER_00: And it is part of the last prayer before his death.
SPEAKER_00: It should encourage us to see this relationship of Father and Son.
SPEAKER_00: But we also have to see this last prayer as a prayer of triumph.
SPEAKER_00: Luke says, Jesus calling out with a loud voice, this was a shout of victory.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was in control, unlike others who are crucified, until the very end.
SPEAKER_00: He knew he had taken the totality of sin on himself to give us righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: This is the great exchange that Pastor Aaron illustrated a couple of weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: His righteousness for our sin, our sin for his righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And how do we participate in this great exchange?
SPEAKER_00: By faith.
SPEAKER_00: By faith alone.
SPEAKER_00: So the question is: does your faith rest on Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Are you able to address God as Father, as Jesus does, because you have a relationship with him?
SPEAKER_00: The only way to do this is through repentance and faith.
SPEAKER_00: This is Mike Gibbons, and I love being your pastor.