Comfort for Suffering Saints

I'd like to continue on with the theme of the comfort for God's people. John chapter 20, and we'll just take and read verse number 17. John 20 verse number 17, Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren, and say unto them, now this is the phrase I want, I ascend unto my Father, and to your Father, and to my God, and to your God.

Now go back to the Gospel of Luke please, and chapter 23. Luke in chapter 23, we'll read together verse 44. And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.

And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And having said thus, he gave up the ghost.

We'll look to some further scriptures further in the epistles in just a few moments. I'd like to try to share a little comforting word for suffering saints. When it comes to the Lord Jesus and the prayers that he makes and he prays out loud, communication between divine persons that's recorded for us is extremely rare, extremely special.

Divine persons do not need to talk in an audible voice to communicate. They're of one mind. They're of one spirit.

But when you come through the Gospels and you find the rare and the very precious times that the Lord Jesus prays out loud to his God or to his Father, it's worth taking note of. It's worth watching. It's worth looking at because it is for us to consider.

Having the same will, having the same mind, knowing each other's thoughts from eternity past, there is no need to write it down for us. And in fact, there are times when we read that the Lord Jesus went into the mountain to pray, and we had no idea what he said and no clue what was uttered. We didn't know the thoughts that were upon his mind.

But when it comes to John 11, at the grave of Lazarus, the Lord Jesus says, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me. And he says, I know that Thou hearest me always, but for the sake that stand by, I said it. And so what we're learning here is that when the Lord Jesus prays out loud to God, it's for those that are listening, for those that are there, for those to take note of what is really taking place.

And we learn from John 11 that God hears the prayers of the Lord Jesus. So now we come into the context of the cross. And we come into the context of the sufferings of Christ.

And really when you consider what took place that day, it was a full-out, a full-blown attack. It was the days of the hours of darkness. This is an hour in the hour of darkness, he would say to them, as he was arrested and led away.

And you'll remember in the wilderness where the Lord Jesus was tempted of the devil. And it says there that Satan departed from him for a little season. There at the place called Calvary there was the great attack of the devil.

You can hear it from the voices of the men that were there. The Pharisees and the scribes and even the malefactors and the Romans. If you be the Christ, if you be the Son of God, if you be the King, come down.

And all the power of darkness was there. If he could get just the Lord Jesus to slip. You have the reproaches of men at the cross.

The reproaches of them that reproach thee have fallen upon me. The reproaches of men. The words of men.

The heart of men against him was there. You have the judgment of God for sin that was there. Is it no wonder that he said, I look for some to take pity.

And there was none. And for comforters. And there was none.

And so there in the last moments of the life of Christ. Everything was present. Everything was there.

As far as suffering is concerned. Suffering of the body, yes. Brokenness of heart, yes.

And today in this audience, there are many of God's people that are experiencing at least one, if not all, of the same things. There are Christians that know exactly what it feels like right now to be under the attack of the devil. There are people in this audience today and you know exactly what it feels like when it comes to the reproaches of men and the suffering that it brings.

There may be some here and you're not under the judgment of God, but maybe you're under the chastisement of God. And you feel very keenly that the hand of God is upon you. And really you know why.

As it's the goodness of God that brings men to repentance. And it's a form of suffering, isn't it? With that as a background, you've got the Lord Jesus. The last cry from the cross.

The last prayer from the cross. And it says, we read together, He cried with a loud voice. Now you have divine persons and now you've got an elevated voice.

We were hearing about elevating our singing. You have a cry from the Savior with power. With volume.

With meaning. Projected over that audience for them to hear. This is the second of the loud cries of the Lord Jesus.

The first one was when He said with a loud voice, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? And there in that darkness, can you imagine there, you're sitting down and you're watching them there. And there's the darkness. And out of the darkness comes that blood-curdling cry, My God! My God.

And the question, why? Maybe that's you today. And in the darkness of the sufferings, that cry comes out. If it hasn't happened to you yet, it likely will.

In a great time of sorrow, in a great time of heartache, in a great time of suffering, you'll ask the question, why? The Savior asked why. It wasn't because He didn't know. It wasn't because God didn't know.

It was for the sake of those that stood by. For them to answer the question. For them to consider the suffering of Christ.

For them to consider Him being forsaken by God. And they could see it. Isaiah tells us, we esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

They knew He was suffering. At the hands of His God. But He says, Father, with a loud voice.

It wasn't a mere whimper from the cross. And so I want to look at this in three ways, this prayer from the cross. I want to look at it as the Lord Jesus, what it means between Him and God.

Then I would like to look just very briefly about what it meant to those that were listening. And then what it might mean for you and I today. As suffering Christians.

He says, Father. He doesn't say, God, my God. He addresses God as His Father.

Now you'll remember this is the reason that those that were there thought that He was suffering such, because He claimed to be the Son of God. And so as the Lord Jesus exhales in a strong, powerful voice, Father. He is reassuring the terms of the relationship between Him and God.

Nothing has changed. In His suffering, nothing has changed. In the agony of the cross, nothing has changed in the relationship between Him and His Father in heaven.

And so He's emphasizing the relationship of the suffering one with His Father in heaven. He is emphasizing the respect. He is giving the respect to His Father that the Father deserves.

It is really a cry of confidence, isn't it? Father, into Thy hands. So you see the relationship of the Lord Jesus. And you see the respect that the Lord Jesus is giving to His heavenly Father.

And you see the affection in the term. The Lord Jesus Himself taught that if we ask bread, will He give us a stone? Or if we ask for an egg, will He give a serpent? And the Lord Jesus knows that God hears Him. His Father hears Him.

And He knows that what He is going to ask, God will perform. It's a term of reliance. Reliance.

He is relying upon His Father for really what happens next. I was thinking of it a couple of months ago or a month ago. That when the Lord Jesus says, Father, into Thy hand, I commend my spirit.

He's committing it all to God. You do with it what's right. God, You do with me what's right.

Father, You do with me what is right. And in doing so, He was explaining the greatest reality of trust and independence and an appreciation of His Father. Into Thy hands.

Into Thy hands. He's committing Himself into the hands of the Father. What kind of places are the hands of the Father? When you were little, when you were a child and you came up to your dad, there was something about your dad's hands, wasn't there? You loved to hold your dad's hand.

Even as a little boy, I liked to hold my dad's hand. His fingers were thick and they were crusty. Mine were soft.

But there was safety there. You see, placing Himself into the hands of the Father, committing Himself to the hands of the Father, it's a place of power. Are you getting the connection now, dear Christian, that is suffering? The relationship with the Father.

The power of the hands. Nothing like dad's hands. The protection of those hands.

The tenderness. Even through the calluses of the Father's hands. Those hands were the hands that held the rod.

Those hands were the hands that caused the stripe. He still trusted those hands. He still loved those hands.

He knew the power of those hands. The hands of our Father. No hands like them.

No hands like them. So you've got the hands. Hebrews tells us it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

But that's exactly what the Lord Jesus wanted. Was to commend His Spirit into the hands of His Father. And then He says, I commend My Spirit.

It's everything. He's committing everything entirely to the goodness of the hands of His Father. And I believe really what He is doing here is He's praying this out loud.

You see, for them that day, just to touch those people. What would be going through their mind? They have seen the man suffer in silence. They have seen the man meticulously fulfill the Scriptures that were written of him one by one by one, all the way to I thirst.

They have sat there in the darkness. They have heard the cry, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? They watched Him in the beginning when He said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. They have watched the man continuously meet the needs of others.

Entirely on the cross. From the forgiveness of men, to the care of his mother, to the salvation of a malefactor, to the sins of the world. They didn't see it yet.

But that's what He was doing. It was for others. And now as they watched Him there, and they saw the agony of His affliction, and they saw the suffering of the man, and the thing that they assumed that He was under the judgment of God for, He declares it with power again.

Because He claimed to be the Son of God, they thought He was stricken, smitten, afflicted. And with power He says this, Father. It would almost have been defiance to them, wouldn't it? He never learned His lesson upon the cross.

He never learned His lesson under the judgment of God. God is His Father. And nothing has changed.

They're there that day and they're wondering how can this be? That this man who should be at the end of life, this man who should be suffering of asphyxiation, should be in weakness, at the loss of blood, this suffering, how is it that He speaks with power? How is it that He speaks with confidence? Can a Christian in affliction speak with power? Can they pray with confidence? They can. He did. And that's why I read John 20.

My Father. And Your Father. It would have been a confusing thing for those that day, as they would smite upon their breasts and they would return.

They had an awful lot to think about. And in the back of their mind is this, what about the resurrection that He talked about? So that's their view. What about our view? Let's look at a couple of Scriptures in the New Testament.

You see, the idea is suffering for righteousness sake. And you come to Acts. We'll go to Acts chapter 7. Acts chapter 7. And you know that the end is about Stephen.

We'll read together at verse 55. Now Stephen is already given faithful testimony to the Scriptures concerning the person of Christ and the history of Israel. It says, But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.

And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Then they crowded with a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon Him with one accord. And they cast Him out of the city and stoned Him.

Verse 59, And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God. Actually, the God is implied there. I like it without that in there.

And they stoned Stephen, calling upon and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Here's a man for the sake of testimony. He's going to die.

Where is his focus? His focus is on Christ. He sees Him in the glory. Now his suffering wasn't very long as far as moments were concerned.

The right rock at the right time and he would be unconscious. And there in that moment, as they rush upon Him and they got their stones and they start to pelt Him with these stones, he has already seen the glory of the Lord. And now he's speaking to the Lord.

Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Sounds awful similar to the cross, doesn't it? Where the Jesus says, Father, into Thy hand I commend my spirit. The Lord Jesus is now in the glory and Stephen, suffering for faithful testimony, asked the Lord to receive him.

Did the Lord receive him? He did. He did. Time is about gone.

Let's go to 2 Timothy. So you've got the man Stephen. 2 Timothy 1. 2 Timothy 1. You've got the Apostle Paul.

Verse 8 says, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord nor of me as prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the Gospel according to the power of God. Verse 11, Whereunto I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles, for because of the witch cause, I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.

The Apostle Paul and his many beatings and his stonings and the attempted murders of his life, for the testimony of Christ and for the sake of the Gospel and for the good of God's people, he suffered. But what is he relying upon? He is not ashamed because he knows whom I have believed. He is settled.

He is rock solid that no matter what happens in this life, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that whatever it might be, whether it is life, whether it is His calling, whether it is His work. Everything. He knows whom he has believed.

That God is able to keep that which He has committed unto Him against that day. Two minutes left. Let's go to Peter.

And you'll see the pattern. First Peter 2. For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving an example that we should follow His steps. Peter now refers back to the cross.

Peter now is referring back to the Lord Jesus, committing Himself to Him that judgeth righteously. But then chapter 4, verse 19. Skipping a fair bit here to get to the end.

It says, Wherefore, let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him and well-doing unto a faithful Creator. When the Lord Jesus was upon the cross, you remember what they said. He trusted in God.

Let Him deliver Him. Basically, if you'll have Him. That, dear Christians, is what they thought of that man.

Psalm 22 talks about it. The Lord Jesus is an example of it. Fulfills it really.

The Psalms. We have to trust Him to do what's right. We have to trust Him to do what's right.

And when we trust Him to do what's right, we have to trust Him to do what's loving. Because does He not always deal with His people in love? So we commit our souls to Him because He will do what's right. We can commit our souls unto Him because we know He'll do it in love.

We can commit our souls unto Him because He has the power. His hands. We can commit our souls unto Him because He has an everlasting purpose.

And time is gone. But I just trust these simple meditations will encourage us that in these times of suffering, His Father is our Father. And we can commit ourselves to Him just as He did.

Lord, bless us.