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[00:00] - All right, well, today we're gonna be
[00:03] in Luke chapter 22, verse 39 through 53.
[00:06] Luke chapter 22, verse 39 through 53.
[00:09] Interesting that this account is found
[00:16] in basically all the Gospels, right?
[00:19] Matthew 26, Mark 14, John 18.
[00:22] John 18 gives us the least amount of detail,
[00:24] but it also gives us some new detail, right?
[00:28] I mean, in John 18, we find a fascinating,
[00:30] fascinating thing that no other gospel writer presents.
[00:35] And it's when they came to get Jesus after his prayer
[00:40] and after all that he had kind of gone through
[00:42] in the garden, the Jews and the Pharisees
[00:45] and some of their soldiers and some of the Romans
[00:48] came to come to get him.
[00:49] And he says, "Who are you looking for?"
[00:52] He knows who they're looking for,
[00:53] but he makes him say, and they're like,
[00:55] "Jesus is Nazareth," all this stuff.
[00:57] And he says, "I am he."
[00:58] And when he says, "I am he," they step back,
[01:01] it says, and they fall to the ground, right?
[01:05] Man, that would have been my first sign to say,
[01:07] "I'm out," right, if I was one of them.
[01:10] I'm out, you know?
[01:11] I don't know what just happened, but I'm out.
[01:15] And so, and then in Mark, you know, we see,
[01:20] and we studied this last year,
[01:21] we see that he says a little bit, Jesus,
[01:24] when he's in the garden or when he's with us,
[01:26] he says, "My soul is very sorrowful even to death."
[01:29] Matthew, you know, it says that he went a little farther
[01:34] and he fell on his face and prayed.
[01:36] And we don't find that phrase,
[01:38] he fell on his face in other gospels.
[01:39] That's just Matthew's account of that.
[01:42] Matthew and Mark say Gethsemane, John and Luke don't.
[01:50] They kind of more point to the Mount of Olives, Gethsemane.
[01:54] Interesting that Laurie and I were there last year
[01:56] in the Mount of Olives, Gethsemane,
[01:57] and now we don't obviously know
[01:59] if it's the true garden of Gethsemane.
[02:00] It's interesting 'cause all the sites that, you know,
[02:02] Jesus was at or did, most of them are adorned in Catholic,
[02:07] you know, gold, and you know, the Catholics like to do
[02:09] a lot of fancy stuff.
[02:10] And so they do that with most of that.
[02:11] But the garden is very interesting
[02:14] 'cause it's in the city, like, you know,
[02:17] it's very busy there, Mount of Olives is busy.
[02:19] The whole area between the Mount of Olives
[02:21] and the wall around Jerusalem is busy, everything is busy.
[02:25] And you walk into this garden area,
[02:27] whether it was that garden or not,
[02:29] it's crazy 'cause it's very serene, right?
[02:31] You walk in and you almost don't hear anything.
[02:34] And it looks like, you know,
[02:36] what you would picture in your mind as the garden.
[02:39] And just walking around it was just very interesting to me.
[02:42] And thinking that Jesus, whether it was that garden
[02:46] or whether it was another garden like that, you know,
[02:48] was literally agonizing as he poured out his soul
[02:53] in that spot.
[02:55] And so that's what we're gonna talk about today.
[02:57] And you know, this night for Jesus
[03:00] started with a Passover meal.
[03:02] Some regard to me, it started even before that,
[03:04] but it started with a Passover meal with his disciples.
[03:07] And even there, Jesus is feeling the weight of this night.
[03:11] And he says in verse 15,
[03:14] I'm gonna read the whole thing to you, but he says this,
[03:16] "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you
[03:19] "before I suffer."
[03:22] All right, not only that,
[03:27] but Jesus knows he's gonna be betrayed
[03:30] by somebody who has been with him
[03:33] for his entire earthly ministry,
[03:35] which is short, relatively three years.
[03:37] And he points to him basically, right?
[03:40] He calls him out there at that supper.
[03:42] But even so, even knowing doesn't, you know,
[03:45] remember he's fully human and we're gonna see that today
[03:47] and he's fully God.
[03:49] And so the fully human side has fully human emotions.
[03:53] And so being betrayed by your friend,
[03:55] you can think about that, is not an easy thing,
[03:59] even though he knew it was coming.
[04:02] He institutes the Lord's supper, right?
[04:05] Tells him that the bread represents his broken body
[04:08] and the wine represents the blood that he's gonna shed
[04:12] that is spilled for them.
[04:14] He tells Peter, "Hey Peter, you're gonna fall away.
[04:16] "You're gonna deny me."
[04:18] You know, we talked about this last year,
[04:20] Peter says, "Nah, I got this."
[04:23] Hey, never Lord.
[04:25] We know what happens.
[04:28] It was the night of intense prayer.
[04:30] If you read, and I encourage you this week,
[04:33] this is your homework assignment,
[04:36] just read John chapter 17.
[04:38] Read John chapter 17.
[04:39] It is probably the longest recorded prayer,
[04:45] I think, of Jesus and intercession,
[04:48] kind of this idea of like going before his father
[04:51] to pray for his disciples and us,
[04:54] those who are Christ followers.
[04:58] And it really is, I would just,
[04:59] it's the whole chapter and I would just read chapter 17.
[05:02] You wanna prepare yourself, read John chapter 17.
[05:05] Truly amazing, right?
[05:08] But he has that prayer
[05:11] and he also has the prayer in the garden.
[05:12] So he has 17, which is the longest intercessory
[05:15] kind of prayer that we're gonna find of Jesus.
[05:18] And then he has a very short intercessory prayer
[05:22] in the garden, and not for us,
[05:23] not for his disciples, but for himself, right?
[05:27] And so this night is painful for him.
[05:34] It is more suffering than any human before,
[05:40] and since then, any human after has gone through.
[05:45] Jesus is gonna feel the weight of things
[05:47] that no other person could possibly understand.
[05:50] Even though all of us suffer,
[05:54] all of us has gone through suffering.
[05:56] Some, even now, are going through great suffering
[06:00] here in this room.
[06:01] But our Savior has suffered even more.
[06:05] And so I wanna read this account in Luke chapter 22.
[06:10] And I was gonna read it out in my Bible,
[06:14] but since I didn't bring my glasses,
[06:15] I'm just gonna read it from my computer
[06:18] 'cause it's bigger words, right?
[06:20] Bigger font.
[06:21] And as we read, I just be praying, right, as we read,
[06:30] that God opens your heart and opens your eyes to what,
[06:34] because there's so much in here
[06:36] and we're only gonna get to this much, right?
[06:38] We're gonna talk about this much of it today.
[06:41] But I hope that as you dig into this
[06:43] and you look at this and you see
[06:46] and understand the suffering of your Savior, right?
[06:51] That it would change you, right?
[06:53] That you don't just go, wow, that's terrible, right?
[06:57] Man, wow, I can't believe it.
[07:00] But that it changes you to know that your Savior
[07:05] goes through this moment, right, for you and for me.
[07:12] And he has to go through this moment and we'll see that.
[07:15] So be praying that God opens your eyes
[07:18] to real change in your heart.
[07:21] So let's pray, let's read verse 39.
[07:24] Oh, no, sorry, verse, yeah, verse 39.
[07:27] Make sure I got this right, yep.
[07:31] And he, meaning Jesus, came out and went
[07:39] as was his custom to the Mount of Olives
[07:42] and the disciples followed him.
[07:44] And when he came to the place, he said to them,
[07:46] pray that you may not enter into temptation.
[07:49] And it withdrew from them about a stone's throw
[07:52] and knelt down and prayed.
[07:55] Remember we said, Matthew says, he fell down on his face.
[07:59] So he said, well, there's two different, not really,
[08:02] 'cause you would still, you would kneel
[08:04] and then probably fell on his face from that position, right?
[08:08] And knelt down and prayed saying, Father,
[08:12] if you are willing, remove this cup from me.
[08:16] Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.
[08:19] And there appeared to him an angel from heaven
[08:22] strengthening him.
[08:23] And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly
[08:28] and his sweat became like great drops of blood
[08:30] falling down to the ground.
[08:33] And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples
[08:37] and found them sleeping for sorrow.
[08:40] And he said to them, why are you sleeping?
[08:42] Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.
[08:45] And while he was still speaking, there came a crowd
[08:48] and the man called Judas, one of the 12 was leading them.
[08:51] And he drew near to Jesus to kiss him.
[08:54] But Jesus said to him, Judas,
[08:55] would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?
[08:58] And those who were around him saw what would follow.
[09:01] They said, Lord, shall we strike with the sword?
[09:03] And one of them struck the servant of the high priest
[09:07] and cut off his right ear.
[09:08] But Jesus said, no more of this.
[09:10] And he touched his ear and healed him.
[09:13] And then Jesus said to the chief priests
[09:14] and officers of the temple and the elders
[09:17] who had come out against him,
[09:18] have you come out against a robber with swords and clubs?
[09:22] When I was with you day after day in the temple,
[09:24] you did not lay hands on me.
[09:27] But this is your hour in the power of darkness.
[09:30] Man, not a lot of verses, but it is powerful.
[09:37] I could barely get through it.
[09:39] When I think about our savior and the suffering
[09:42] that he was going through.
[09:43] And so, as I was reading this and as I was studying this,
[09:51] one of the first things that came to mind for me
[09:54] was that even in this moment that Jesus is going through,
[10:04] he has great compassion for his friends, his disciples.
[10:09] He has great compassion even in the moment of his suffering.
[10:15] You said, well, okay, Ray, but where, how do I know this?
[10:19] How do I know that he has compassion?
[10:22] But look, I mean, think about this, right?
[10:26] Have you ever come to the place, wailed my head,
[10:31] where your soul has been sorrowful unto death almost?
[10:35] I don't know, right?
[10:37] I mean, I always think back to a couple moments in my life
[10:40] and many of you have these two, right?
[10:43] And usually it has to do with tragedy, somebody,
[10:48] a loved one passing.
[10:50] My mom died at 49, our mom died at 49.
[10:52] And I know that was a, right?
[10:54] I know Steve, how old were you when mom died?
[10:57] - 19. - 19, right.
[10:58] And we got, we had to watch her, right?
[11:01] She suffered, she had cancer and we watched,
[11:03] she was in our home and we just,
[11:05] we watched her go from a very vigorous young woman
[11:09] that was loved to be always on the go doing
[11:13] to this, whatever she died at probably less than a hundred
[11:16] pounds, just a frail skin and bones
[11:21] when she took her last breath.
[11:24] And I remember as we're in the room and our family
[11:26] was gathered around watching her, right?
[11:29] There was sorrow that felt like death to us,
[11:33] like sorrowful, so sorrowful that we couldn't even,
[11:35] like if somebody were asked to in that moment
[11:38] to describe what we're feeling, we couldn't.
[11:40] But it was so heavy, right?
[11:43] It was so painful.
[11:44] And I remember when my wife was sick, very sick
[11:48] and I told you the story so I won't go into great detail,
[11:50] much detail, but the doctors, you know,
[11:53] I went to, I was supposed to pick her up that day
[11:55] and she was supposed to, she had surgery and she was,
[11:58] you know, looking good and everything was good.
[12:00] And I was at home and I was getting showered,
[12:01] ready to pick up and Lori called me and she goes,
[12:03] something's wrong and I'm into so much pain.
[12:06] And so I rushed to the hospital and she just continued
[12:10] to get worse and worse that day.
[12:12] The most pain I've ever seen any human being ever be in.
[12:15] And by that night, I was eight in the morning.
[12:19] I think I got there about eight in the morning.
[12:21] By about midnight that night, she was gonna have surgery
[12:25] because they didn't know what had happened.
[12:28] And so they waited way too long, but you know, whatever.
[12:30] They finally got around to it and they had to,
[12:32] they had to open her up fully and see what happened.
[12:34] And her intestine had split apart and you know the story.
[12:37] And so she had gone into septic shock and all that stuff.
[12:41] The doctor said, you know, we have to do surgery.
[12:43] He said, but I'm gonna tell you that it doesn't,
[12:45] it doesn't look good.
[12:46] Like she may not make it through.
[12:51] My soul was sorrowful, even to death.
[12:53] I felt like it anyway.
[12:57] And so, you know, I prayed.
[13:00] I remember praying up and putting my hands
[13:02] on the operating door where they took her
[13:04] and crying out, just praying, right?
[13:09] But I know this, that during those times,
[13:17] whether it was my mom or it was my wife,
[13:21] I just wasn't really thinking about others during that time.
[13:24] I was thinking about the pain and suffering
[13:26] I was going through, right?
[13:29] And so I was having a hard time
[13:31] really focusing on anybody else.
[13:33] I know my brother was there when my wife was sick
[13:35] and he was trying to comfort me and I had friends there
[13:37] and they were trying to comfort me.
[13:38] And I was like, you know, leave me alone, you know?
[13:41] And yet Jesus was gonna suffer
[13:44] and he already had begun suffering, right?
[13:47] More than any human has before or will since then
[13:51] or has since then, his first action item here
[13:56] is to check in on his disciples and say,
[13:58] "Friends, pray that you may not enter into temptation."
[14:03] Is that not comforting?
[14:07] Is that not compassionate?
[14:10] That's my first point and it's very simple.
[14:13] That's the point, Jesus is oh, so compassionate.
[14:17] People can be compassionate when their lives are good
[14:21] and they see others struggling,
[14:22] but what about when your life has fallen apart
[14:24] and you see other people and you're compassionate then?
[14:27] And he prays for them not to enter in temptation.
[14:35] Temptation, and what temptation would that be, do you think?
[14:41] Maybe there's doubt of who Jesus is, right?
[14:44] They didn't quite understand.
[14:49] I mean, Peter kind of gives him the right answer
[14:52] at the time and he believes it.
[14:54] You are the Christ, the son of the living God.
[14:56] This is way earlier in the ministry.
[14:59] And he says, you know, who are people saying I am?
[15:01] Some say John the Baptist, some say, you know, a prophet.
[15:04] And he said, well, who do you say that I am?
[15:06] He asked his disciples and Peter speaks up and say,
[15:08] you are the Christ, the son of the living God, right?
[15:12] But they don't really understand all that that means.
[15:17] They still think he's gonna come in on a war horse
[15:20] and take over, right?
[15:21] He's a conquering savior, not a suffering savior
[15:24] in their mind.
[15:26] And so maybe doubt is gonna start creeping in
[15:28] when they see what Jesus is gonna go through, right?
[15:31] In the garden and beyond.
[15:33] And so he says, pray that you don't enter into temptation.
[15:36] (clears throat)
[15:39] Maybe it's the temptation to run from Jesus
[15:46] when things don't go well,
[15:48] when things don't go as expected.
[15:51] Maybe it's the temptation to say, we're out.
[16:03] Maybe that it was the temptation to deny
[16:07] they even know him, right?
[16:10] And in light of all that he is going through,
[16:17] his emotional pain, he stops and says to his friends,
[16:22] wait here, 'cause he brings the 11 with him at first.
[16:29] All right, there's only 11 now 'cause Judas has left,
[16:32] you know, he's gonna betray him, so there's 11.
[16:35] And then from those 11, he takes the three, right?
[16:39] Peter, James and John.
[16:40] He says, wait here, and while you're here, my friends,
[16:46] pray that you don't enter into temptation.
[16:48] Now he's gonna walk a little farther
[16:53] and then fall on his face, right?
[16:58] And I believe, and I don't like to conjecture scripture,
[17:00] what it says, it says, you know,
[17:02] but if you read the whole passage,
[17:03] you read all the passage, I believe it wasn't just,
[17:06] let me get on my knees and bow down.
[17:07] It was a falling of weight of just a few emotion
[17:12] of what he is gonna have to do and what he's,
[17:15] you know, not what he's gonna go through,
[17:16] what he's gonna have to do, and we're gonna get there.
[17:18] And he can't like, he falls literally on his face.
[17:22] And if you have experienced great sorrow,
[17:25] you understand even then, right?
[17:26] Sometimes your knees get weak.
[17:28] My dad, he had a business and it was,
[17:33] I won't even get into what a business,
[17:34] but he had a warehouse, kind of an old warehouse
[17:36] that he had set up in and, you know,
[17:37] and my friend called me one day and goes,
[17:39] hey, I heard your dad's warehouse is on fire.
[17:42] This was late at night and I was with a friend
[17:44] and I was going home and I got a call from another friend.
[17:47] And I said, really?
[17:48] So I called my dad.
[17:49] I said, dad, anything going on with your warehouse?
[17:51] And it was, he might've even been sleeping on, I remember.
[17:53] But he woke up, what?
[17:55] I said, yeah, I'm heading there now to see what's going on.
[17:57] He said, all right, I'll meet you there.
[17:58] I said, I hear there's a fire.
[17:59] I don't know anything about it.
[18:00] It's all I heard.
[18:01] So we get there and I meet him there
[18:03] and we walk up this hill kind of where there's, you know,
[18:06] there's tons of cars and fire trucks and everything.
[18:08] We get up and I'll never forget the scene.
[18:10] My dad, we get to the top of the hill
[18:12] and her thing is probably gone, right?
[18:15] It's in, you know, the fire I've never seen.
[18:18] I've never been that close to a huge warehouse fire, right?
[18:20] I mean, the fire was huge, not the warehouse.
[18:23] And he fell to his knees.
[18:26] Like he just couldn't even like,
[18:28] and you know, I was like, dad, you're all right.
[18:30] You know, you're okay.
[18:32] So yeah, I'm all right.
[18:33] I'll be okay.
[18:34] And like just the weight of it.
[18:36] He had poured his heart and soul into this thing,
[18:38] this business that he had.
[18:40] And to see it just, you know,
[18:41] it was too much for him to bear at that moment.
[18:44] And Jesus is even more so suffering.
[18:47] And so you can understand that he literally falls
[18:50] to his face, but before that, right before that.
[18:55] He says, pray that you may not enter into temptation.
[19:00] Why? Because he knows, right?
[19:04] He knows what it's going to mean for Peter to fall
[19:06] into temptation and deny him and go out and weep bitterly.
[19:11] And he knows the consequences and he cares for them.
[19:15] And he loves them.
[19:16] And he wants to save them from that.
[19:18] And he says, pray that you don't enter into temptation.
[19:21] And so we see a compassionate savior,
[19:26] but you would think at that moment,
[19:37] the disciples would be like, yeah, yeah, we gotta pray.
[19:40] Look at Jesus.
[19:41] Look at our, look at our Lord.
[19:43] Look at his state.
[19:44] I, we definitely gotta pray, right?
[19:46] And even after they see him go through what he's about
[19:49] to go through, they fail, they fail.
[19:54] You go to verse 45, go down to verse 45.
[19:57] Again, we're going to, we're going to read everything.
[19:59] But, and he says this, and when Jesus, he rose from prayer.
[20:02] He came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow.
[20:07] Oh, they failed, right?
[20:10] But what's he do?
[20:14] He says, why are you sleeping?
[20:16] Rise and pray that you may not enter temptation temptation.
[20:19] Now, I gotta be honest, right?
[20:22] We see this compassionate savior with them, right?
[20:26] Even after he just, he goes out and he sweats drops of blood
[20:31] and he stands up and he goes to check out his disciples
[20:33] and they're, they're sorrowful.
[20:35] And he knows something's off, right?
[20:38] Things are, things are not going good.
[20:39] And they're sorrowful and you know how you get exhaustion
[20:43] when you're sorrowful.
[20:44] I mean, man, you ever cry until you have no more tears
[20:46] to cry your tires, right?
[20:49] And they're sorrowful, but they fall asleep on them.
[20:53] They're watching, I mean, they're a stone throw away, right?
[20:55] Jesus, and there's no doubt that there is some,
[20:58] Jesus isn't praying in whispers.
[21:03] He's crying out to his God, the heavenly father, right?
[21:07] And he's crying out loudly.
[21:09] So they know they can hear, but yet they fall asleep anyway.
[21:11] And he says, why are you sleeping?
[21:13] Oh man, is he so compassionate?
[21:17] If it was me, I probably would have said something like,
[21:21] y'all are pathetic, right?
[21:23] Really?
[21:23] I'm over here literally sweating drops of blood.
[21:27] My face is probably covered in blood at this point.
[21:29] There's a good chance.
[21:29] Cause the capillaries in his forehead as he's praying
[21:32] could have burst and could have blood dripping down.
[21:35] I don't know.
[21:36] But all I'm saying, even then, even without all that,
[21:39] just the distress that he was in.
[21:41] And he comes back and they're sleeping.
[21:43] I would have said, seriously, I should have prayed.
[21:46] You can't even pray.
[21:47] I mean, it's not like he's over here giving the long prayer.
[21:51] Right?
[21:52] It looks like it's pretty short.
[21:53] I said, you know what?
[21:58] I asked you to pray, you're sleeping.
[21:59] You've been with me all this time.
[22:00] You hear my teaching.
[22:02] You've seen my miracles, but you can't pray.
[22:06] You can't do the one thing I've asked you to do in this time.
[22:09] Don't waste my time.
[22:10] This is ridiculous.
[22:14] Not our savior.
[22:17] He said, guys, rise and pray a second
[22:21] that you may not enter into temptation.
[22:24] So I say to you, do you know?
[22:28] Do you fully understand the compassion
[22:31] that Jesus has for you?
[22:33] Do you believe it?
[22:35] I was thinking, if you're struggling today,
[22:42] maybe your mind is struggling.
[22:44] Maybe you're struggling with whatever sin.
[22:46] Maybe you're struggling with relationships.
[22:48] And I hope you take comfort
[22:51] that this Jesus is compassionate.
[22:57] Failure is not final with Jesus.
[22:59] We serve a God of second chances, of third chances,
[23:06] of 10 chances, of a hundred chances
[23:08] because of what Jesus did.
[23:11] Second Corinthians 1.3 says this,
[23:14] "Praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
[23:19] the father of compassion and the God of all comfort."
[23:22] You get that? The father of compassion
[23:28] and the God of all comfort.
[23:32] My savior is oh so compassionate towards me.
[23:38] And I pray that you are encouraged by that today.
[23:44] We don't just let it lay out there.
[23:45] I want you to like really bring that to your heart.
[23:49] Like He is compassionate even, do you understand this?
[23:52] Even when we sin, right?
[23:56] We sometimes think, oh, I'd say loves to say,
[24:00] yep, you screwed up for the final time.
[24:03] That's it, it's over.
[24:06] Jesus has no need for you.
[24:09] You're worthless.
[24:10] Why even keep going?
[24:13] Give up and Jesus is now, rise.
[24:17] Pray that you don't enter into temptation.
[24:21] My savior is compassionate towards me.
[24:30] Father of all compassion, the God of all comfort.
[24:38] Amen to that.
[24:40] Let's read verse 41 through 44 if we will.
[24:45] 41 says it, well, let's start with 40 again.
[24:49] And when He came to the place, He said to them,
[24:50] "Pray that you may not enter into temptation."
[24:53] And He withdrew from them about a stone's throw
[24:55] and knelt down and prayed saying,
[24:58] "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me."
[25:04] Let's stop right there.
[25:06] Very fascinating statement, isn't it?
[25:09] Now, if you have studied Scripture,
[25:12] we studied Mark, so we should know this.
[25:14] But if you've studied the Gospels, if you've studied Scripture,
[25:16] you know that in the Gospels, Jesus and the Father are one.
[25:21] And their will always aligns.
[25:27] Jesus says, "I will do the will of my Father."
[25:29] And sometimes we forget because our minds can't even fully,
[25:35] I think, Stephen, I talked about this as well.
[25:37] We can't even fully comprehend, obviously,
[25:39] Jesus and God being one, right?
[25:42] But yet we can't understand Jesus' human side
[25:47] being 100% human, although we don't understand
[25:50] being 100% human and 100% God.
[25:53] But here He prays in His humanness
[26:06] because this is something that He did not want to do.
[26:10] You understand this?
[26:12] There was a conflict between His desire
[26:16] and the will of His Father.
[26:19] He asked permission to be relieved of this mission.
[26:26] Father, let this cup pass from me.
[26:30] He doesn't just pray for us like we do sometimes.
[26:35] (coughing)
[26:37] His prayer is painfully desperate.
[26:40] I know this is the plan, Father.
[26:44] I know this is what you want me to do,
[26:46] but I do not want to drink of this cup.
[26:48] Please let it pass from me.
[26:49] Father, there has to be another way.
[26:51] He's so burdened and heavy-hearted in this emotional pain.
[27:03] As He's praying, as He's asking God
[27:07] about letting this cup pass.
[27:10] It says, "And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly."
[27:20] Right, this idea that He just,
[27:23] everything that He is is pouring into this prayer
[27:27] and His sweat became like great drops of blood
[27:31] following to the ground.
[27:33] Let me picture that in the garden.
[27:38] And we know it's cold.
[27:41] Why do we know it's cold?
[27:42] 'Cause if we read the story of Peter, right?
[27:45] We know that He goes, right?
[27:46] He did not, He leaves Jesus when they come and get Him,
[27:48] and then He kind of hangs out in the courtyard,
[27:51] and He's hanging out by the fire, warming His hands,
[27:53] you know, He had to kind of keep them warm.
[27:55] So we know that it's not hot.
[27:59] So He's not just sweating because it's hot.
[28:02] He's sweating like great drops of blood
[28:07] falling down to the ground.
[28:09] And I, you know, you've probably heard it,
[28:11] and I've done the research and I've looked into it,
[28:12] even this, and I thought about having the whole,
[28:15] you know, dissertation on how that can happen.
[28:19] A capillary's break and burst.
[28:21] And I said, "You know what?
[28:24] "You either believe it or you don't."
[28:25] I believe it.
[28:28] I mean, there's some theologians who say it's metaphorical.
[28:31] I don't.
[28:32] Not when you read all the passages together.
[28:36] Here's Jesus, He's shown grief, but never like this.
[28:43] Nobody in the history of mankind has experienced
[28:48] or known this kind of pain, of grief, of sadness, of agony.
[28:57] And He's sweating drops of blood.
[28:59] Why?
[29:01] You ever ask yourself, why?
[29:04] Why is He so distressed?
[29:09] Why is the Savior just in pain?
[29:12] Was it 'cause He's afraid of what was to come?
[29:14] Was He afraid of the Roman soldiers?
[29:18] That doesn't seem likely because He never showed fear.
[29:25] Was it of the torture that He was gonna receive?
[29:28] The torturous beating of the thorns
[29:31] that were gonna be jammed into His head?
[29:34] Was He afraid of that?
[29:35] No, there's no indication
[29:38] that He was ever afraid of pain.
[29:40] Was it because of nails
[29:43] that would be driven into His hands, wrists, His feet?
[29:47] Was it because of the humiliation
[29:52] that He was about to face?
[29:55] People spitting on Him?
[29:56] Was it of dying naked in front of people?
[30:00] Was it because of Satan
[30:04] and what He was doing in the garden?
[30:06] Was it because of His ultimate death?
[30:10] You know, I started writing things down
[30:15] and then I started searching for something
[30:17] that could describe better than what I could write.
[30:21] I really wanted something that would just describe for us
[30:26] what Jesus was going through.
[30:29] Why did He want this cup to pass?
[30:32] Why was He saying, "Lord, God our Father,
[30:35] please take this from Me if there be another way?"
[30:38] And so I go to who I always go to.
[30:43] I go to Spurgeon.
[30:44] And Spurgeon says this, although he kinda says,
[30:50] it might've been Luther that said it,
[30:51] but I don't know, it's kind of a weird quote
[30:52] in the beginning.
[30:53] You know, Spurgeon says this,
[30:54] "And as Luther would have said it,
[30:57] "to be looked upon by God,
[31:01] "as if He were all He," being Jesus,
[31:03] "were all the sinners in the world,
[31:06] "and as if He had committed all the sin
[31:08] "that ever had been committed by His people.
[31:10] "For it was all laid on Him.
[31:13] "And on Him must the vengeance do for all be poured.
[31:17] "He must be the center of all the vengeance
[31:21] "and bear away upon Himself
[31:22] "what ought to have fallen upon the guilty sons of men,
[31:25] "to stand in such a position when once it was realized,
[31:32] "must have been a very terrible thing
[31:35] "for the redeemers, holy souls."
[31:37] You see what He's saying?
[31:40] Jesus knew no sin.
[31:43] He became sin, literally He became sin.
[31:48] And so because He became sin
[31:50] and He was about to become sin,
[31:52] He understood that the judgment and the wrath of God
[31:55] was being poured out on Him.
[31:57] And it wasn't the pain
[31:58] or that He was gonna know sin
[32:02] because of us.
[32:05] Because the wrath of God was gonna be poured out on Him.
[32:10] And what that also meant
[32:11] was that now there was gonna be,
[32:13] He was going to be forsaken by His heavenly Father
[32:18] for the first time.
[32:20] The cup was to take all the sins of the world upon Himself
[32:24] and become sin who no knew sin, knew no sin.
[32:29] The cup was to take the horror and evil upon Himself.
[32:32] The cup was to take the wrath of God
[32:33] upon Himself for those sins.
[32:35] The cup was being forsaken by God the Father
[32:38] as our Savior becomes sin, becomes a sin bearer.
[32:44] But all He had known was perfect communion
[32:48] from eternity past.
[32:49] And so He prays and He cries out with sweat,
[32:54] drops of blood as drops of blood.
[32:58] And He asked for that cup to pass.
[33:00] That is the cup that He has to drink.
[33:05] And it's not a sip, right?
[33:07] It's not just like a little, it's the full cup of wrath
[33:11] that He has to drink for us.
[33:14] He has to take all the sin
[33:15] that He has to take all of God's wrath.
[33:20] And it has to be separated from the Holy Father.
[33:25] It is interesting to me that He begins His prayer that way
[33:34] and barely without a breath.
[33:36] He says, but not my will.
[33:40] Nevertheless, not my will,
[33:45] but yours be done.
[33:47] Not my will, Lord, but yours be done.
[33:49] Where have we heard that before?
[33:50] Lord's Prayer.
[33:54] Disciples say, Jesus, teach us how to pray.
[33:58] I need to give them an example of what it looks like.
[34:04] Our Father, that one, our Father, which art in heaven.
[34:07] I would be thy name.
[34:08] And in that prayer, right?
[34:13] We are supposed to say, Lord, Your will be done.
[34:17] Jesus has always practiced what He preaches,
[34:22] even in His most desperate hour.
[34:25] And you say, well, He's already there.
[34:30] You know, what's He gonna do?
[34:31] What's He gonna do?
[34:32] What He could have done is called legions of angels.
[34:40] Jesus says this Himself in another gospel about this passage
[34:44] when they come in, you know, for Him.
[34:47] He can call legions of angels at any moment.
[34:51] It's like the angels are literally sitting there waiting
[34:55] to say the word of Jesus.
[34:56] And we'll wipe everybody out for you, for ours, right?
[34:59] For our Jesus.
[35:01] We'll do whatever to say the word.
[35:03] And He doesn't.
[35:06] Never the less, not my will, but yours.
[35:11] Can you understand that?
[35:22] I mean, even a little bit,
[35:23] we can't fully grasp 'cause we're not perfect.
[35:25] So to take the sins of somebody else is a painful for us.
[35:28] Like to think of taking somebody,
[35:30] even somebody who was on death row,
[35:32] and we're gonna take their sins and we'll say,
[35:34] well, we'll fill in for them.
[35:36] Right?
[35:37] We're like, I probably wouldn't do that.
[35:40] But even if you would, it's one person, then you're dead.
[35:44] But if you're a believer,
[35:45] you're like, oh, all right, wake up in heaven.
[35:47] Jesus has to suffer as somebody full of sin, right?
[35:53] Yeah.
[35:56] But He says, nevertheless, not my will, but yours.
[36:05] And we go back to verse 45, and it says this,
[36:09] and when He rose from the prayer,
[36:11] He came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow.
[36:13] And He said, why are you sleeping?
[36:14] Rise and pray that you may not enter temptation
[36:17] or why He was still speaking.
[36:18] There came a crowd, the man called Judas.
[36:20] One of the 12 was leading them.
[36:21] He drew near to Jesus to kiss Him.
[36:23] And Jesus said, Judas, would you betray
[36:25] the Son of Man with a kiss?
[36:26] And so it has begun.
[36:30] Right?
[36:34] He has steeled Himself to the will of God.
[36:37] And He says, I will drink this cup.
[36:41] Right?
[36:43] I will take their sin.
[36:46] And I would encourage you to say your own name.
[36:53] As we see Jesus then to the will of the Father and say,
[37:00] yes, I will drink this cup.
[37:04] I will take raised sin, every terrible thing He's done,
[37:08] and I will lay it upon myself.
[37:09] Yeah.
[37:20] Isaiah 53.4 says, I love because it's,
[37:26] you know, you're thinking prophecy.
[37:28] And as we go through this,
[37:29] there's just so much prophecy being fulfilled.
[37:33] Okay.
[37:34] It says this, surely He has borne our griefs
[37:36] and carried our sorrows.
[37:39] Yet we esteemed Him stricken and smitten by God
[37:44] and afflicted.
[37:45] There's lots of lessons here.
[37:49] But one of them is that our Savior went through great
[37:53] and agonizing pain and suffering in the garden.
[37:55] Do not think He grieves at your pain and your suffering.
[38:01] (crying)
[38:03] Do not think He grieves.
[38:08] And I know many of you in here have lost.
[38:11] I know many of you are going through it.
[38:16] Our compassionate Jesus
[38:20] also has gone through pain and suffering.
[38:25] He sympathizes with your pain and suffering.
[38:29] (crying)
[38:31] For we do not have a high priest
[38:35] who is unable to sympathize with our weakness,
[38:38] but one who in every aspect has been tempted
[38:41] as we are yet without sin.
[38:44] Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace.
[38:47] We have a high priest, who's a high priest
[38:51] that he's talking about there in Hebrews, Jesus.
[38:54] Jesus is our high priest.
[38:58] And He says, He is not, He is who is,
[39:00] we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize.
[39:03] What does that mean?
[39:04] That we have a high priest that is able to sympathize.
[39:08] But Jesus, God sympathizes with me?
[39:13] Yes, yes.
[39:16] And not only that, He says,
[39:20] come and receive mercy.
[39:26] Come boldly and receive mercy
[39:29] and find grace for you in your time of need.
[39:34] There is mercy and grace that He will pour out on you
[39:39] in your time of need.
[39:40] Can't wait to, right?
[39:43] I remember, and I'll go back to my wife when she was sick.
[39:47] We thought she was, this was, she went,
[39:49] made it through surgery and then, you know,
[39:51] she was in ICU and the doctor said, you know,
[39:53] we've tried everything, there's nothing we can do.
[39:55] She's not gonna make it.
[39:56] And at that moment, I remember praying, Lord,
[40:00] I don't, I don't have any words.
[40:03] I prayed and cried all night long.
[40:05] Now it was in the morning.
[40:07] But I knew I had kids, right?
[40:15] I said, God, please, all I ask is for the grace
[40:19] and mercy to help me carry on with my kids.
[40:23] And He gave me great peace in that moment.
[40:28] I didn't know what was gonna happen.
[40:33] I wasn't going, oh, she's gonna be healed.
[40:35] I believe it, no, I didn't, I didn't know.
[40:38] And He gave me great peace
[40:42] 'cause He allows us to boldly enter the throne
[40:46] of grace and mercy.
[40:51] And He can sympathize in those moments
[40:53] when we are at our lowest
[40:54] because He has gone through worse.
[40:57] That verse brings me to point number two on this section,
[41:05] third one overall, but, right.
[41:07] He, number one, it was, He understands our
[41:14] pain and suffering when we grieve, when we're sorrowful.
[41:21] Point two is this, that Jesus,
[41:22] in His most desperate hour, He prays, right?
[41:26] So in a desperate hour, He prays.
[41:28] You pray in your more desperate hours.
[41:31] And I mean, pray.
[41:37] Jesus fell on His face.
[41:39] And here's the kicker.
[41:47] When you pray in your suffering and in your sorrow,
[41:50] in your discouragement, you say,
[41:53] at the end, but not my will, for yours.
[41:59] That's a hard one, right?
[42:05] 'Cause what if His will is something other than our desire?
[42:09] It wasn't Christ's sake.
[42:12] His will, His human will didn't wanna drink the cup.
[42:15] God's will was, He didn't drink the cup.
[42:20] He didn't need to drink the cup.
[42:23] And He did.
[42:24] Do we say not my will, Jesus, but yours.
[42:29] When there's two good options, that's easy, right?
[42:33] Not my will, Lord, yours, 'cause it's a win-win.
[42:36] But when you're in your most desperate hour,
[42:40] can you pray that?
[42:41] Can I go one more time to Charles Spurgeon?
[42:46] He says, this is the object which I set before you,
[42:52] my brothers and sisters in Christ.
[42:54] That if you are expecting sickness,
[42:58] if you are fearing loss,
[43:01] if you are anticipating bereavement,
[43:04] if you are dreading death,
[43:06] let this be your great ultimatum.
[43:08] Go to God now in the time of your distress
[43:12] and by mighty prevailing prayer
[43:14] with such prayerful sympathy that others can give you,
[43:17] breathe out this one petition.
[43:18] I will be done, O my Father.
[43:22] Help me do it.
[43:26] Help me to bear it.
[43:28] Help me to go through with it all
[43:30] to Thy honor and glory, O Lord.
[43:38] The garden shows us that our King,
[43:40] our Savior is so compassionate towards us.
[43:45] It shows that He understands
[43:51] and sympathizes with our weakness.
[43:55] And it teaches us how to pray and suffering.
[44:02] Not my will for yours.
[44:07] When we think about Easter and we get to Good Friday,
[44:11] as we move to Good Friday,
[44:13] this week was a considered Thursday message, really, today.
[44:18] I hope that we all take inventory of our lives, of our heart
[44:27] and say, Jesus, I want to be more like you, right?
[44:35] Who gave it all right there in the garden.
[44:38] Who said, yes, even though this is not what I want,
[44:41] your will, O Lord, not mine.
[44:44] And He drinks the cup, all of it.
[44:47] Every last sip of wrath, of pain,
[44:50] of suffering, of sin upon Him.
[44:54] How can we not serve a Savior like that?
[45:05] I'm gonna pray and then we're gonna sing the song
[45:07] just called Not My Will.
[45:08] But as you're singing, maybe you're just in a place now,
[45:11] you just need to pray.
[45:13] And God give you that ability
[45:16] to help you see the Savior in a way that helps you say,
[45:19] yes, not my will for yours.
[45:21] Maybe you're going through it.
[45:26] Now, know that your Savior is compassionate
[45:35] towards you, know that He sympathizes with you
[45:38] in this moment.
[45:39] But more than anything, I pray that your prayer,
[45:44] even in your suffering, will say not my will for yours,
[45:49] O my Father.
[45:51] Father, what a hard passage,
[45:55] difficult passage to read and comprehend.
[46:03] And scarcely get through it.
[46:05] Thank you, Jesus, for drinking the cup.
[46:14] It was supposed to be on me.
[46:18] Thank you for taking my sin.
[46:21] All the evil that I have inside,
[46:25] you've taken it upon yourself, nailed it to the cross.
[46:27] We love and praise you for it, Father.
[46:33] And as we move forward today, as we sing this next song,
[46:37] not my will for yours, God,
[46:41] I just pray that you would help us in that.
[46:44] Help us to pray that we would not enter temptation.
[46:48] Help us to understand that you are a compassionate Father.
[46:51] Help us understand that you sympathize in our weaknesses,
[46:56] in our sorrow, in our pain.
[46:59] And help us to understand that we can
[47:01] enter boldly throne of grace and mercy
[47:06] that you pour out generously
[47:10] 'cause of your great love for us.
[47:14] We just love you.
[47:17] We love you.
[47:19] And we pray these things in the precious and holy
[47:23] and wonderful and beautiful and strong and kind
[47:30] compassionate name of Jesus. Amen.