Jesus in the Garden

[00:00:00] For the next five weeks, we're going to be focusing on Luke's account of Jesus' trial and his crucifixion before we then come to Easter Sunday, five weeks from today. Now, we don't always make it our focus, you know, coming up to Easter to look at the suffering and the death of Jesus. I, I felt that God has called me to do it this year.

There are some churches that do that, that's part of their annual, um, calendar in a sense that they will intentionally focus on Jesus' suffering in the weeks leading up to to Easter. Often some churches will talk about the idea of observing Lent. And, uh, now some of you maybe come from churches where, you know, observing what was something that you did, others have never heard of that, you know, you said, what in the world is that?

And, uh, what l when they speak of that is talking about the 40 day smash, Wednesday to the Saturday to before Easter. And it's often described as a time that we focus on Jesus' sacrifice and, and, and preparing our own hearts. For Good Friday and for the Easter season. Oftentimes you'll even hear people talk [00:01:00] about giving something up for Lent.

And that really comes from the idea that historically the church has emphasized this as a time of fasting. That's why it's actually 40 days looking back at the fasting of Jesus at 40 days from the wilderness. And so people will choose to fast from or give up something that's a regular part of their lives, uh, to remind them not only of Jesus' sacrifice, but a lot of people choose to say, okay, instead of doing this, I'm gonna focus that time on replacing it with prayer.

And, and so this idea of focusing on Jesus' death and on, on his suffering, uh, is a good thing to do leading up to Easter, even if we don't do it every year, that periodically and this year, I, I, I hope it's gonna be something that we not only gain from our own study, even this more, more minute ago, you know, Stevie was up here and singing, you know, that, you know, we'll never know how much it costs to see our sins on the cross, on the cross.

Today, even in our own study, hopefully we'll learn a little bit more of what it costs. Because that's part of the beauty of what we're studying in [00:02:00] these passages today. And um, and so this morning we're gonna be looking at Luke chapter 22 verses 39 through 46. If you have a Bible, I would en encourage you to open it up and to leave it open to Luke, because we're gonna constantly be referring back to these verses throughout our message this morning.

But let me begin by reading these verses as a way of, of preparing our hearts. Luke 22, starting in verse 39. And he came out and went as was his custom to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation. And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and he knelt down and prayed saying, father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him and being in agony. He prayed more earnestly and a sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground. And when he rose from prayer, he came to the [00:03:00] disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow and said to them, why are you sleeping?

Rise and prayed that you may not enter into temptation. Hey, God bless the reading of his word. Let me open a prayer. Father, I thank you for the privilege that we have to worship you this morning, father, to celebrate the incredible grace that is offered through Jesus Christ. I thank you for the privilege that we have to come and now dive into this passage, this incredible story that tells us something of what it costs to see our sins up on the cross.

Father, I pray that you would speak through me, father, that, that you'd, that you'd get me out of the way that your truth would be, would ring forth. Father, that these would be your words, your truth, father, and help each one of us to have hearts that are open to hear, to understand, and to apply whatever you would have for us this morning.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Now, as we read this passage in Luke 22, I want to start by acknowledging, you know, it's a heavy passage, powerful, beautiful story, but in its in its heaviness and its seriousness. It's [00:04:00] not something I'm gonna be creative with. It's not gonna be, you know, fun and crazy illustrations or.

It's an important passage that we need to look at. There's incredible truths here, but even as I spent time over these last couple weeks looking at it, preparing for it, I kind of came across two big questions, two questions that as I reflected on it, kind of stood out to me. Is kind of unexpected, you know, things that, it was like, what's that mean?

The first is that the passage is clearly about Jesus, you know, going before the Father, he prepares to face the cross. He, he, he prays and, uh, you know, father, not my will. You'll be, you know, you'll be done. You know, he's sweating and blood and, but what's really interesting is that whole section about the prayer begins actually with him telling his disciples and ends with him, tell, telling his disciples.

That they need to pray, that you don't enter in temptation. So for example, we see in verse 40, he said to them, pray that you may not enter temptation at the end. Rise and pray that you may not [00:05:00] enter temptation. And, and I've gotta look at it and say, okay, if this is seemingly all about Jesus prayer, why does the whole passage begin and end with Jesus telling the disciples to pray that they don't fall into temptation.

Clearly if it's repeated at the beginning and the end, it's something that is to be highlighted. It actually is a point of application Jesus clearly wants us to see. But what is he trying to teach us? What is the temptation that we are susceptible to, that he's warning us against? Now that we're gonna come back to this question at the end of the message, but the second question is where I wanna start, and that is, why does it appear that Jesus, he shows such anxiety and fear?

And he doesn't show the kind of courage and resolve that many of his followers faced when they face death. Now, this might seem an inappropriate, inappropriate question at first. You know, you might look at that and say, he's facing the cross. He's about to be executed. It's terrible. We should expect him to be overwhelmed.[00:06:00]

But stick with me on this and struggle with me as we reflect on this passage and all that it says. Because I think there's more here than might meet the eye at at first. So I think that we've really gotta look at this and we've gotta realize there is actually a challenge in this passage of understanding the agony of Jesus.

So many of us are familiar with the passage we've read this morning, and it is an incredible passage that it talks about Jesus love and his compassion, his sacrifice, his submission to the will of the Father. And we see this incredible image of him praying before the father in agony, sweating with drops of blood as he cries out.

Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. What an incredible image. But let me point out something that at first might almost sound sacrilegious. There's something that really doesn't seem to fit here. And here's what I mean. If what doesn't seem to fit is if what you believe is going on here.

Is that Jesus knows that he's about to face the [00:07:00] incredible painful death of the cross, and what's happening is in anticipation of the betrayal and the torture that he's about to face, he now breaks down in anxiety and plays with with the father. Father. If there's any other way, take this cup from me, and then in dread and anxiety over what he's about to face, it's so great that he physically breaks down so that he sweats these drops of blood.

Now, here's why I say that doesn't seem to fit. Number one is up till now, Jesus has been a rock. I mean, Jesus has known what is coming. He's been talking about it. He's repeatedly talked to his disciples about the cross, but he's never shown this kind of fear and or anxiety in fact, stood in front of people that, you know, the, the, uh, the Pharisees people that wanted to kill him.

And he's always shown this unflinching courage in the face of danger. I. But even more than that, for me at least, a bigger problem is that when we look at history of the Bible and of [00:08:00] church history, one of the strongest testimonies for believers is how they were able to face death, how they had courage, unwavering courage in the midst of torture and execution.

See, the Bible and and church history are replete with stories. Uh, people who had faith in God and had great courage. Take for example, the book of Daniel. You have Daniel who continued to pray, knowing that he was going to face the lions, who would probably tear him apart, or Shadrach, Meshach and Abend. Ab Bendigo, or for those who, veggie Tails, rack Shack and Benny.

You know, I mean, they, they, they've refused to bow facing the fires of the furnace. Or we look at, even in church history, you know, you look at Stephen who refused to, you know, bow and was stoned or, or we look at Hebrews 11 where we hear these great heroes of the faith and, and look what it says about them.

Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and [00:09:00] flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sown in two, they were killed with a sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats.

Destitute, afflicted, mistreated. Of whom the world was not worthy wandering about in deserts and mountains and then dens and caves of the earth. And so here we have this incredible statement of, these were heroes who stood strong or then you have church history. And again, there are countless stories and church history of, of people who stood strong, you know, starting with the, uh, early Christians and going to the coliseums and facing the lions and all the way throughout church history, even till today.

I mean, there was a, um, you know, something about, there's just a, a movie that was released about, you know, these, these men that were killed on the beach back several years ago by the ISIS fighters. And they were beheaded and all of them were told re you know, uh, you know, we're just told they're beheaded, but, and in reality they were told re you know, renounce Jesus or die.

And they all stood there with incredible faith and they were all beheaded. So that's [00:10:00] happening till today, or, or I think of one story, one of the best known stories in church history is a guy named Polycarp. Actually there's a book The Marty of Polycarp was written. It was probably one of the best read, best known books of the early church.

I mean, this was a very, very popular book in the, in the early centuries of the church. Polycarp was discipled by the Apostle John and then later in life he became the leader in the church of an A city called Smyrna, which was in modern Turkey in the mid one fifties ad he was in his mid eighties at that point.

And there was a fierce new round of persecution against Christians in the area, and since he was a well-known leader of the Christian Church in the area, they sent soldiers to arrest him and bring him to the local coliseum to be put to death. Now, some people were hungry for his blood and, and other people looked at this guy who's 86 at the time and said he's known for his kindness and, and they didn't feel comfortable with that.

And so even as they brought him into the arena, the governor, the proco [00:11:00] per tried to persuade him to renounce Jesus. He called him to swear on the, the deity of Caesar and repent and, and to say away with the atheists. Now, when they said atheists, they were saying, you know, the atheists are the people that said that Caesar isn't God.

So he's saying, I reject the atheist, meaning I'm claiming that Caesar is God, but he purposely reinterpreted this. And looked at the congregate at the people, the crowd there, and it said away with the atheist pointing at them saying, you guys are wrong because you don't recognize the true God. So then the pro councils urged him promising freedom if he simply renounced Christ and and, and death if he did not.

And Polycarp responded with words that have gone on through history. He said, I have served Christ 86 years and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my king now? And the co-counsel continued to try to persuade him and you know, saying that he could just pretend to renounce Jesus and pretend that Caesar was God.

[00:12:00] And I love what he said. He said, if you are so vain as to think that I should swear by the deity of Caesar, as you say, pretending to not know who I am here, my free confession, I am a Christian, and then he continued. But if you wish to learn the doctrine of Christianity, give me a day and I will explain it to you.

Now that's courage. But you look at that and you say, man, that's wonderful. And, and we look at that and we celebrate, you know, this great bravery. And but why did they do that? Why? Because they're heroes of the faith. Because they had faith in Jesus Christ. They, it allowed them to be able to stand with courage in the midst of facing death.

You don't see them falling to the ground and saying, God, do I really have to do this? They're not sweating blood. So then why is it that Jesus. Is on the ground. Why is he sweating blood? W would you know the thou thousands of and hundreds of thousands of followers after Jesus who died with courage? Did they have more bravery than Jesus?

No, I don't think so. You see, but [00:13:00] there's a problem here, and let me suggest that the real issue is that there is something more going on in the garden than just Jesus' anticipation of his death. There's something much deeper, much more meaningful. And if we slow down and look closely, the Bible tells what's what it is.

So let's slow down. Let's look at the picture of Jesus' distress here in Luke 22. See, what we see is that he comes and he's in incredible distress when he comes to pray to the father in the garden. But this isn't something that came upon him over time. It's something that the Bible tells us happened suddenly.

Right before going to the garden, he's celebrating with his followers the the Last Supper Passover meal in the room. And you don't see anything of this kind of struggle, but it seems to come on instantly. It seems that there's a sudden onset onset here. And then think about this picture. Okay, here you have Jesus, and he's with the disciples at the Last Supper.

Then he walks with them, all of them, except for Judas to the Garden of Gethsemane. [00:14:00] Matthew and Mark tell us that he left eight of them at the, at the entrance, and he took Peter and James and John into the garden. And when he comes there, something begins. Look what it says in Matthew. After taking with him, Peter and the two sons of Zee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.

So something happened that had, it wouldn't happen before. And what begins, look at verse 38. And then he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful even to death. Remain here and watch with me. See, when Matthew, mark, and Luke all described this, he said that he comes into this time of prayer and suddenly he becomes to experience this overwhelming sorrow.

It's not a progressive experience. It's not that he begins to think about what's gonna happen and, and suddenly it impacts him more than it, than it did before. It's something that seems to happen very suddenly and, and to understand this, we've gotta now look at what happens. Look at the scope of his anguish.

What does it, what did it say there in Matthew, my [00:15:00] soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. You see, when Jesus says this, I don't think that he was speaking in hyperbole. I, he's speaking seriously when he's saying this. I think he's saying something has come upon me that I feel like it's gonna kill me even before I go to the cross.

Something is happening right now. I'm not sure I'm going to survive. I might die under this. When we look at Luke's account, we see this physically illustrated. In verse 44 of Luke 22, it tells us when Jesus came back from praying, the disciples saw him not just filled with sweat, but with blood. Look at verse 44, it says, and after and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly and a sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.

Now what Luke is describing here is a medical condition that is very unusual, but it's known and it's possible. It, it's known by modern medicine as, uh, hemo Detroiters. And it's a rare condition of extreme stress that usually causes shock. But what [00:16:00] happens is the person, there's such great stress that the capillaries near the skin burst open, causing the blood to mix with sweat.

And so therefore the sweat, you know, looks like blood. And so this passage is teaching us that Jesus, who's the eternal word of God, the creator of all things. Who walked on on angry waves, who calmed the fierceness of storms, who cast out demons, who heal diseases, who raised the dead back to life. This same, Jesus is now under such great strain, such great stress.

He's so horrified at something that his capillary's burst and that he's saying, this is bringing me near to death. And so we have to ask, what, what was this? What came upon Jesus? Again, it's not that he got new information. It's not that he suddenly realized, I'm gonna die, or, this is getting close. No, he's been talking about this.

See what happened again, here's what we've gotta look at the Bible. And because it tells us what happened, the source of [00:17:00] Jesus suffering, he wasn't just overwhelmed by the anticipation of the cross. Um, what it tells us is, is if you look at the, at actually all the gospels. When they talk about this prayer, he talks about the cup.

Look at 4 42. Father, if you're willing, take this cup from me. So what is this cup? You see, it's not only his impending death. If you wanna understand what the cup is, we've gotta go back to the first rule of interpreting the Bible, which, which if any of you're around for any while, you know, you know, the first rule is use scripture to interpret scripture.

You look at the Bible and you let it interpret. So when the, when we look in the Bible, does it speak of a cup in this way? Yes, it does. And when it speaks of the cup, the Bible is speaking about the judicial wrath of God on sin, on God's punishment for sin. Let me show you a few of many passages that talk about this.

Let's say for example, Jeremiah 25. Thus says the Lord, the [00:18:00] God of Israel, say to me, uh, or said to me, take away or take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath and make all the nations to him, ascend. You, drink it and they shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I'm ascending amongst you.

You see, this is the a, a cup of wrath. It's a God cup of God's punishment. Ezekiel is another passage. Uh, you will be filled with the drunkenness and sorrow, a cup of horror and horror and desolation. A cup of your sister Samaria, you shall drink it and drain it out and, and gnaw its shards, and you tear your breasts.

This is God's punishment upon sin, and it's a horrific description. And so when you look at what's going on here, and so when Jesus talks about the cup, he's talking about taking God's wrath for sin. Do you wanna know why the countless martyrs didn't sweat blood in the face of death like Jesus did? It's because they didn't face the cup of God's wrath.

They didn't face the justice of God against the sin of all [00:19:00] humanity. So we have, we have still have to ask, and why when Jesus entered this garden, does it become suddenly so overwhelming? Didn't he know about the cup before? Well, certainly he did. Not only about the cross, but he would repeatedly talk about that he came on the cross to die for the, for the sins of the world.

So what's going on here? See what the, I believe the Bible is teaching is he begins to pray. He begins to literally experience the wrath of God. He begins to experience God turning his presence away from him. You could say he begins to taste the cup that he would soon have to drink. He gets a sip of it, and that's why he suddenly is so overwhelmed.

You see, he's not just expressing his fear before his sacrifice or, or nor is he shrinking from the prospect of physical suffering and death. His agony is in the spiritual wrath of God that he's experiencing Jesus, who lived for the Father, who now run turns to the Father before his trial only [00:20:00] defined his father's rejection and wrath.

There's a, a, a preacher from a couple hundred years ago who preached a, a famous sermon on this, and, and I'm gonna quote from him a few times because he just said it so well. This is a guy, guy named Jonathan Edwards. He said, the agony that Jesus experienced in the garden was caused by a vivid, bright, full immediate view of the wrath of God.

God, the father, as it were, set the cup down before him, which was vastly more terrible than Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. He now had a near view of the furnace into which he was about to be cast. He stood and viewed the raging flames and the glowing of its heat that he might know where he was going and what he was about to suffer.

See, what happened is that Jesus tasted the agony. He tasted the agony of God's wrath of, of God's punishment upon the sin, and it staggered him. And, and here's what's really amazing, if the taste of that. With [00:21:00] so much that it sent the son of God into shock causing him to sweat blood, then what? We can only imagine what it would be like for him to drink it to the bottom.

So we have to ask, so what's going on? Why does this happen? Why is it that the father is giving him this taste? Why it it again, it, it just seems so unusual. And here's what I believe. It was necessary for Jesus to experience the wrath of God so that he would fully understand what he's taking upon himself in the cross.

Not only it helps us to know how much it cost to see our sins on the cross, but, but Jesus knew that before he got on the cross, we may again quote from Jonathan Edwards. He said Jesus Christ was going to be cast in the dreadful furnace of wrath, and it was not proper that he should plunge himself into it blindfolded.

Not knowing how dreadful the furnace was, therefore God brought him and set him at the mouth of the furnace that he might look in and stand and view its fierce and ranging flames that he [00:22:00] might see where he is going and might then voluntarily enter into it to bear for, uh, for the sinners knowing what it was.

And so what he's saying is that if Jesus didn't get a taste of the cup, then he really wouldn't have been able to make a fully informed choice to make take God's wrath. If he only did anticipating it and suddenly he gets there and he said, this is worse than I thought. I don't want this, but gee, God said, okay, I'm gonna give you a taste so that you know what it is, so that you choose that you're gonna take this suffering.

Let me give the best illustration I can think of this. Okay? I remember, um, when our first child, we were preparing for a first child. And, and, and Sandy had read all this thing about natural childbirth and, and you know, it's, you know, we shouldn't take, uh, epidurals or drugs because it's healthier for the child.

And so we committed to studying natural childbirth to go to these classes. And for six weeks we go every week and we're learning, breathing, and we're learning all this stuff. And I'm the coach and we're working on it. Um, let, let me even ask for women if who are mothers. [00:23:00] How many of you thought about natural childbirth?

Okay, A good number of you. How many of you actually did natural childbirth? Okay. Out of those who did natural childbirth, how many of it was because it was too late and you couldn't get the epidural? You know? Yeah. See, and, and that's I think what even happened with Sandy. It's kinda like, oh, we're there, we're natural childbirth.

And, and you know, I'm, I'm like, she suddenly the real, uh, labor pains hit. She's call the, you know, call the, you know, the, I want the epidural, and I'm like, Sandy, we did all the work we gotta do natural childbirth we're doing. And she gave me a look and it was like, okay, I'm, you know, I'm not giving birth.

Okay. I'm not gonna argue with you on this one. And and then it became, when's he coming? Which I don't want him be too late. I want him to, you know, it's one thing to anticipate, it's another thing to experience the pains, and suddenly you're like, I don't wanna do this. And that's what Jesus experienced. It was a pain far worse than anything we could imagine.

It's one thing to anticipate, it's another thing to get the full labor pains and then say, I'm still choosing to do this. [00:24:00] And that's what was happening with Jesus. But in that, we also have to realize that, that this is also giving a picture of what it costs to see my sins on the cross. You see, when I was younger, I would always think that, you know, the real, the real thing that made Jesus' death so bad was the horrors of the, of the cross.

And, and they were terrible, the physical horrors. And we could spend a lot of time. And the ancient, uh, Roman historian Cicero, said that the Roman's goal was to invent some kind of death that was so humiliating, so horrific. And they did it publicly so that it would scare everyone away from a life of crime.

That was the whole goal. I mean, it started even before you got to the cross with the scorching and the whipping, and they would put pieces of metal and glass and bone into the whips, and so every time they hit it would dig into the skin and rip skin away. So by the time you got to the 40 lashes, I mean literally the, you know, the, the back was hamburger meat.

Sometimes they said that literally bone would come off in the whipping. And then they [00:25:00] marched him and they put these nine inch nails into his hands and dropped him and nine into his feet. They, they took inch and a half, uh, thorns, pushed him into his brow. Isaiah talked about that, that he was so beaten that you couldn't even recognize him as a man anymore.

He's nailed on the cross naked in a public place in the full light of day. And, and, and we could talk about that. And as horrific as all that was. What you need to realize is it was only a shadow of the true agony that Jesus experienced on the cross. You see, there were many people, many followers of Jesus who were whipped in a similar way, who were crucified in a similar way.

And Jesus at the cross took not only the physical suffering, but drank from the cup of God's wrath for the sins of, of humanity. And no one else in history has ever experienced anything close to that. That's why just a sip of the cup. Was, was almost enough to kill Jesus. And, and so when we look at that, the cross is a shadow.[00:26:00]

The reality is something that is far worse and it tells us something of, of what our, what we deserve of God. That apart from God, that's the, that's a punishment that I deserve. That Jesus Christ came to take God's wrath for my sins upon myself, and just the taste was almost enough to kill him. And so he cries out, father, if there's no other way, take this cup from me.

And, but the father didn't remove the cup. And, and why not? When he cried out, father, if there's any other way. Because there was no other way. There was no other way to save us. There was no other way for the forgiveness of sin. And I wanna tell you, I've heard countless people over the years say something along the lines of, you know, well there's many ways to God.

There's many ways to get to heaven. There's many ways to be saved. I. Sometimes there's people who claim to be Christians and and often I believe that they wanna be loving, they wanna be open-minded. They think they are. But you, if you think about it, you [00:27:00] can imagine how insulting that is to Jesus. Think about what this is suggesting.

In light of these verses, it's suggesting that Jesus is looking to the Father and saying, father, if there is any other way, this is horrific and it's almost killing me. If there's any other way and. And then the father looks down and said, well, actually, there are a bunch of other ways. You know, if someone's just sincere enough, if they, if they act in a loving way, if they do more good things than bad, they'll get to heaven.

But Jesus, even though there are many other ways, I'm still gonna make you go through this hor horrific torture just for the fun of it. That's terrible. No, no. The Bible is clear. There is no salvation in anyone else. There is no other name in heaven given amongst men, which, which men may be. It must be saved.

It is only through faith in Jesus Christ. There was no other way, and I know it may feel and seem, hope and minded and loving to say that there are other ways. But, but it's insulting to Jesus. It's not loving. Stop pretending that you are more loving than Jesus, that [00:28:00] you, well, if it were up to me, this is the way it would.

No. The fact is that our sin deserves God's wrath, and this is the only way for our sins to be forgiven. Only through Jesus Christ can we be saved. And the passage shows us the incredible love that Jesus had for you and for me, and for the incredible judgment that awaits us if we reject him. But even after he tasted that cup, he said, father, if you're willing to remove this cup from me, and, and he said, there is no other way.

And then Jesus said, but nevertheless, not my will, but yours, what? Great God's love that He has shown for us. What incredible love for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting eternal life. What an overwhelming picture of God's love for us, for you.

For me. And I hope that that picture of God's love was something that will just strike you through this Easter season. And if you're here and you're thinking, well, I'm trying harder, I'm trying to different ways, there is no other way, [00:29:00] but Jesus Christ died for you so that you can know him through faith in Jesus Christ.

And if you're here and you're saying, well, I'm not really sure, and I've been bad at, no, Jesus loved you so much that he died for you, and Well, I'm too bad. Well, yes, your sins deserve God's wrath, but Jesus Christ took that wrath upon himself so that all who believe in him would be saved if you believe.

Are you willing to come and to embrace him? Now, obviously that's the main part here, but let me go back to the first question that I asked. If you remember in the very beginning we said there's two questions that seemed to kind of not fit. And, and, and clearly the main point is Jesus here praying in, in the, in the, uh, garden.

But then at the same point, there's also a sense that, that he tells in the beginning and the end, you know, pray that you don't enter a temptation. And, and so the fact that it's be, that it's at the very beginning of the passage and at the very end is clearly God's way of saying this is a point that he wants us to see.

And it's not just about Jesus and his [00:30:00] suffering, but he's warning the disciples that that, okay, not only you need to watch out, but all of us, we need to watch out again in the very beginning, in verse 40, pray that you don't enter temptation 46. Pray, rise, and pray that you don't enter temptation. What is the temptation he's talking about here?

What is the threat to us? Again, let's go back to the first rule of interpreting the Bible. Use scripture to interpret scripture. Look at the context. You know, it's interesting, if you go to the beginning of chapter 22, it's about Jesus warning, Judas and who's preparing to now betray Jesus, and Jesus is trying to reach out to him.

And then right before you know, before this, Peter's now speaking to Peter and warning Peter. Peter, you're about to betray me. Pray that you don't, I'm praying that you don't enter temptation. And then if you go right after this passage, we see Judas come into the garden who actually then betrays Jesus.

And right after that you have Peter then denying Jesus. So what you see here is the temptation is illustrated by the [00:31:00] actions of the disciples. Actually, Judas and Peter are very, very different, but there's a root similarity in. And their temptations and what drove their actions. Both were overwhelmed by a sense that Jesus wasn't acting in the way they expected.

Both were disappointed in Jesus, and that led to a temptation. Let's think about Judas. First of all, he had been a disciple of Jesus for three years, and he expected Jesus to be a great political messiah and he hoped he was gonna be a political messiah and then put, put his followers in charge and he was gonna gain from that.

He was gonna have position and. But over time, it became one and more clear that Jesus wasn't going to be a political messiah. Not only that, but the political leaders were aligned against Jesus and, and that means that the followers of Jesus might actually get caught up in the backwash, and so he decided to betray Jesus.

He could say that he sold Jesus, not only in the sense of it, he literally betrayed him for 30 pieces of silver, but there was a sense that he was saying when it looked like Jesus had [00:32:00] something to offer me, I'm buying. I'm, I'm following, I'm gonna be with him, but when it looks like Judas wasn't gonna get what he wanted, what he expected, when it looked like it might even cost him something, well, he's selling Jesus.

You see, I have no countless people who say, you know, I used to be a Christian when I was younger, but I don't have enough faith. And usually when I dig down, you know what, what I usually find, it's not a matter of faith. People will say, here's something that happened. And God didn't answer my prayer the way I expected him to.

He didn't give me what I wanted. How can I believe in him when he didn't deliver? And here's what you need to realize. That's exactly what the sin of Judas was. That's the temptation of Judas. See, it wasn't a matter of faith. See, Judas always had faith, but it was faith that God would, Jesus would serve him.

You know, Jesus, if I follow you, then you will do this for me. And when people say, I walked away, I don't believe it's usually, God, I did this, but then I expected you to do this for me. And when [00:33:00] I needed you, when I prayed, when I wanted something, you didn't deliver. And so when you don't deliver, I'm selling.

See, that's the sin of Judas. And there may be some here that you've walked away from your faith and it's because God didn't deliver. See? And it wasn't, it wasn't. You were, you were really never a follower of Jesus. You see, he wanted a business relationship where you did something and he did something back and, and when he didn't serve you, why should you follow him?

Well, can also look at the temptation of Peter, and it's similar, but it's also different in some ways. The thing about the scene in the garden and Jesus is calling out to the father and the Father seems to not be there, and then think about what Peter was experiencing. His perspective on what was happening.

He sees Jesus being betrayed. He believed in Jesus, but suddenly he's betrayed. He's, he's put on trial, he is put on the cross, and, and it looks like Jesus isn't there. It looks like Jesus is defeated. It [00:34:00] looks like God's not in control. Is God in control when that scene is God in control at the, at the trial, at the cross?

Yeah. Did it look like God was in control of Peter? Okay. Let me ask you, have you ever faced a situation where it looked like God was not in control when you cried out to God and it seemed like evil was winning and God wasn't hearing? How many of us have faced that? Has it ever been as extreme as what Peter faced when he was there at the trial seeing Jesus beaten?

See, we will all go through times when we don't feel God's presence, when we don't see his plan, when it feels like evil is winning, and the temptation in that time is to deny, is to walk away. How can I believe God? God, if you can't take care of yourself, how can you take care of me? See, God gives us these warnings because it's saying we will go through these times and we will be tempted when we don't see God working when [00:35:00] it seems like evil is winning.

But how in those times do we find hope in the midst of darkness? See, again, so often we can almost, you know, things are going well, just cheer up. It's gonna be okay. God work all things. No. There are times that we go through crises and we're on the ground and we're crying and God, where are you? And it seems like we're sweating blood.

We don't wave. We're, we're so overwhelmed with grief. We'd almost think that it's unlivable. And here's what we need to realize is that we see Jesus in that scene. Jesus in the garden, he's standing beside those of us who are emotionally overwhelmed. Those of us who have lost a loved one, those who have, who are, are over overwhelmed with grief that we don't know if we can make it through.

He's saying, no, I'm there with you. And he calls us to look back outta the garden and say, these kind of things happen in my plan. There will be times that it doesn't make sense. Trust me. Trust me. Not only that, and I love even in this passage in verse 43, it says, they're [00:36:00] pure to Jesus, an angel from heaven strengthening him.

See, when we come and we say, God, where are you? It's not only an angel that will be with us. We have a savior who will be with us. We have Jesus Christ who says, I will never leave you or forsake you. We have the always spirit living in us. We have one who identifies with our weakness, who really not, not only there from a distance who understands.

So it says in Hebrews chapter two. Therefore, he had been made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become merciful and faithful, high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people, for because he himself has suffered when tempted, he's able to help those who are being tempted.

He understands our suffering. He understands our temptation. Hebrews four. We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin, God understands he's there with you, and so I encourage you to call out.

Understand there is a temptation, but we need to fund towards God. [00:37:00] There we need to find in him are security and hope. And whereas Jesus called out to God and God wasn't there because he was experiencing the wrath of God. That will never happen to those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ because the wrath of God has been taken from us and been paid in Jesus Christ.

And so now we relate to Him as, as his child, he's our father. And let me just challenge you in closing that. If in those times when you don't see God's love, when you don't feel his plan, where it doesn't make sense. Remember the scene. Remember the cross. Remember, remember what he did, how he showed his love towards us.

Because here's the picture. If while we were still God's enemies, while we were sinners, while were we rejecting him, if God showed such great love towards us that Jesus knowing the full weight of God's wrath tasting it, it almost killed him. And said, nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. I will [00:38:00] take it upon myself because I wanna save those who I'm go dying for.

If he loved you that much, don't you think that he's trustworthy? Do you see how he's loved you? That's what Romans says in Romans eight. What shall we say that he things, if God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him for us all, how will he not also along with him, graciously give us all things he's given his son.

He's, he's, he's paid the price. He's, but that on the cross, he's taken the wrath of God upon himself. Do you know he loves you, Don. He cares for you. And we may not always see it. We may not always feel it. We may feel like Peter and Judas and we don't understand. But look at the garden. Look at the cross. Be overwhelmed by Jesus'.

Love by a sacrifice. Let us know how much it costs to see our sins upon that cross, and let's let, let us respond and worship, let us [00:39:00] respond and surrender as we seek to follow him. If you have a question about the Message, community Church or Jesus Christ, send us a text to 3 3 0. 432 42. You can learn more about our events and community groups at CCP Life slash Connect There you can also send in a prayer request.

We would love to pray for you. Have a blessed Lord's Day, and we'll see you on Sunday.