Gethsemane: The Night of Agony and the Cup of Suffering

I've asked Sharon to read our passage this morning, Luke 22, verse 39 through 71.

Luke 22:39–71

In the company by the disciples, Jesus left the upstairs room and went,

as usual, to the Mount of Olives.

There he told them, Pray that you will not give in to temptation.

He walked away, by a stone strobe, and knelt down and prayed,

Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me.

Yet I want your will to be done, not lying. Amen. Then an angel from heaven

appeared and strengthened him.

He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat

fell to the ground when great drops of blood.

At last he stood up again and returned to the disciples, only to find him asleep, exhausted from grief.

Why aren't you sleepy? he asked them. Get up and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation.

But even as Jesus said this, a crowd approached Philip and Judas,

one of the twelve disciples. Judas walked over to Jesus to greet him with a kiss.

But Jesus said, Judas, would you betray the son of man with a kiss?

When the other disciples saw what was about to happen, they explained,

Lord, should we fight? We brought the swords.

And one of them struck the high priest's slave, slashing off his right ear.

But Jesus said, no more of this. And he touched the man's ear and healed him.

Then Jesus spoke to the leading priests, the captains of the temple guard,

and the elders who had come for him.

Am I some dangerous revolutionary? He asked.

Did you come with swords and clubs to arrest me why didn't you arrest me in

the temple i was there every day but this is your moment the time when the power of darkness reigns.

So they arrested him and led him to the high priest, and Peter followed at a distance.

The guards lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat around it,

and Peter joined them there.

The servant girl noticed him and the firelight began staring at him.

Finally she said, This man was one of Jesus' followers.

But Peter denied it. Woman, he said, I don't even know him.

After a while, someone else looked at him and said, You must be one of them.

No, man, I'm not, Peter retorted.

About an hour later, someone else insisted, this must be one of them,

because he's a Galilean too.

But Peter said, man, I don't know what you're talking about.

And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed.

At that moment, the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Suddenly,

the Lord's words flashed through Peter's mind. Before the rooster crows tomorrow

morning, you'll deny three times that you even gnomied.

And Peter left the courtyard, weeping bitterly.

The guards in charge of Jesus began mocking and beating him.

They blindfolded him and said, prophesy to us, who hit you that time?

And they hurled all sorts of terrible insults, saying, at daybreak,

all the elders of the people assembled, including the leading priests and the

teachers of the religious law.

Jesus was led before this high council, and they said, tell us, are you the Messiah?

But he replied, if I tell you, you won't believe me and if i ask you a question you won't answer,

but from now on the son of man will be seated in the place of power at god's room and

they all shouted so were you claiming to be the son of god and he replied you

say that i am why do we need other witnesses they said we ourselves heard him say it hmm.

Thank you, Sharon. Well, as you know, we're in the Gospel of Luke,

and we're getting close to finishing Luke, but today we're actually looking

at the agony of the Son of God to start with. We're talking about this night of trials.

This is the second part of this message from the last time we were preaching

on this particular area.

But after leaving the Passover meal, y'all, Jesus went with his disciples to

the Mount of Olives, and a place where he went frequently, by the way.

And when he reached the place, it says here in scripture, identified here by

other gospel writers as the garden of Gethsemane, and we see that,

for example, in Matthew 26, verse 36,

Matthew 26:36

he twice instructed them that they should use the time to what? Do you remember?

Pray that they would not enter into temptation.

But instead of praying, what happened?

Anybody feel drowsy today out there? You know, think about it.

They were tired. Think about all they had been through, all the things that were happening.

And instead of praying, they fell asleep, exhausted by their sorrow, talks about in verse 45.

And it's clear that whatever Jesus was about to experience, he would go through it completely alone.

And Jesus himself, it says in verse 41, went a little way.

To pray. Went a little way away to pray in verse 41.

But instead of finding comfort and peace in his communion with his heavenly

father, if you look at the text, Jesus began to experience something terrible, right?

So much so, don't miss this, this is important today, that an angel had to be

sent, verse 43, to strengthen Jesus right here.

And Luke actually tells us that he was in agony, experiencing such anguish here

that his sweat was like blood as he prayed even more earnestly in verse 44.

And so if we look at this church, the picture painted for us is one of a person

that's in total system overload.

Jesus' physical body, in other words, and human nature could barely endure what

was happening to him at this moment.

And what could possibly cause this kind of agony? What could cause this?

Well, certainly it could not be the mere fear of pain or death.

I mean, that's enough for a lot of us, right? But after all,

Jesus had been speaking.

If we look back in Luke, he'd been speaking about his upcoming crucifixion,

you know, for some time without any of this kind of anguish.

But we see the reason, church, in verse 42, where Jesus identified the source

of his turmoil, and he actually referred to it as this cup, this cup.

And in fact, Mark's and Matthew's gospels tell us that Jesus cried out three

separate times for relief from this cup.

We see it in Matthew 26, Mark 14. In the Old Testament, I want y'all to get

this today, the prophets of Israel, sometimes spoke of God's wrath and judgment against sin,

as a cup that the wicked were required to drink.

You can see that all the way back in Isaiah 51. You can see it in Jeremiah 25.

That's just two examples.

But this cup, this cup is symbolic. It's representing, y'all,

the fury, the anger, and punishment of God on sin.

To put it simply, let me put it just straightforward with you.

The cup that Jesus prays about is full of God's perfect and holy hatred for sin.

And here on the Mount of Olives in this passage, Jesus begins to taste a little

bit about what is in that cup, unmingled, by the way, and undiluted by God's mercy. It's all wrath.

And he begins here to experience what will be required of him,

church, on the cross if he's to save his people.

We're going to see this more, but don't miss this, y'all. Jesus drank the full

cup of God's wrath for you and for me.

This is what had him at this point, this cup.

For those of us who've received forgiveness through Jesus' blood,

we have here in the Garden of Gethsemane a beautiful picture,

right, of our Lord's love for us. I mean, we cannot imagine what it was like,

for Jesus to endure the cross, can we?

If just a taste, get this, y'all, if just a taste, just the anticipation of

that wrath was enough to make Jesus fall to the ground, how much worse was his

actual experience on the cross going to be?

And I also thought of this, y'all. If it made him fall to the ground,

think about the kind of wrath that's coming for you if you don't turn to Jesus

in faith and repentance.

If it made Jesus like this, think about what your fate's going to be.

But so great was Jesus's love for his father and for us, by the way,

that he went willingly church to the cross, knowing what he would experience.

Jesus prayed here. Look, you

see it in verse 42. Jesus prayed that the cup might be removed from him.

And understandably so, if there's any other way that this could happen,

if there were any other way for God's people to be saved.

It had to be preferable to experiencing the wrath-filled cup of God.

But ultimately, what do we see in this passage?

Jesus's highest priority was doing God's will, even if it cost him everything.

And that brief, I think, but dramatic episode in this passage,

y'all, it teaches us something important about what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

Are you a disciple of Jesus? Are you a follower of Jesus? His highest priority

was the will of his heavenly father.

Y'all, even when it was costly and dangerous, by the way.

And so even as Jesus here in this text taught us to pray, your will be done.

We see that in Matthew 6, 10 as well.

We have to recognize, church, that obedience to God's will may often be difficult.

In fact, most of the time I think it is. And painful.

It's not enough to merely pray that prayer.

We also have to be willing y'all to obey. And if necessary, what?

Suffer the loss of our convenience, our reputation, even our lives.

Well, we see here in this passage that we go on the road here with Jesus,

that he has betrayed and denied as well, is he not?

When a crowd, look at verse 47, Luke 22, 47, including the chief priests,

the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, by the way,

it says in verse 52, they came up the mountainside with who?

Old Judas, right? At the head. His enemies finally had the opportunity that

they had sought for so long.

Jesus' followers could see that his arrest was inevitable. They knew it was here.

And one disciple identified as old Peter, You know, you got to like Peter, right?

He lashed out with what? What did he do?

That sword, right? And cutting off the ear of the high priest servant.

Now, there are some people who speculate, you know, he was going for the head,

right? He was going to cut his head off and he might have ducked and got the ear.

All I know is what the text says. He got the ear. He cut the ear off.

And what happened? How did Jesus respond? Woo! Way to go, Peter. What did he do? He did.

He put it back on. He literally healed the guy. How would you like to have been

that guy? I mean, think about it for a minute.

You just had this traumatic experience and you got your ear whacked off.

And the son of God standing right before you puts it back on and heals it completely.

How do you think you'd feel? You ever thought about putting yourself in this

guy's shoes? I mean, wow.

And he actually healed him and he rebuked his disciple in verse 51.

You know why? Because Jesus' victory church would not be won with swords and

his kingdom would not be opened with violence, would it?

And from this point on here, in Luke's narrative, Jesus will be in the custody

of his enemies and on his way to the cross for you and me.

And while he does not approve of violent resistance, that doesn't mean that

he's going to go silently, does it?

Instead, he confronts Judas, start with, about his treachery.

Do you see that in verse 48?

Will he really betray the son of man with a kiss?

Y'all, I think this is one last act of kindness and an opportunity from Jesus for Judas to repent.

One last act of kindness by the Lord. And surely the intention of his question

was not to gain information, but to give Judas this one last opportunity to

reconsider what he was about to do.

He has no such tenderness, by the way, toward those cowardly religious leaders.

You're going to see in the text, okay?

But instead, you know what he does? He draws attention, church,

to the fact that they have come against him in the darkness with swords and

clubs instead of choosing an honest, open confrontation at the temple courts.

We see that in that passage in verse 52 and 53 this morning.

After the arrest get this church the mob took jesus away to be interrogated

at the home of who do you remember the high priest and luke notes here in verse

54 that peter followed how,

at a distance right at a distance and eventually you know what happened with

peter right you heard it earlier he sat down near a fire that had been lit in

the courtyard in verse 55,

surely hoping that he would not be noticed he would been following at a distance after all,

what follows though are three acts of betrayal,

that while not as malicious as that of judas were certainly every bit as shocking,

first what happens look at it when a servant girl recognized him as one of jesus

compatriots what did he do.

He denied even knowing Jesus. And next, an unidentified person suggested that

Peter was one of Jesus' disciples. But what happened again?

He denied it. And then an hour later, yet another person, most likely identifying

Peter by his Galilean accent, right, figured out that he was really one of Jesus' disciples.

But Peter disavowed here any knowledge of Jesus and his followers in verse 59 and 60.

It really seems that it had finally sunk in for Peter.

Jesus was really going to die. He wasn't going to fight back.

There would be no revolution right now, no glory, no victory,

so to speak, on this planet at this point.

So he might as well save his own skin, right?

And just in case he was ever someday tempted to think that he was not a liar

and a coward, Peter could look back, church, at this moment and remember the truth.

For all his bluster, all his, you know, just big hot air, so to speak,

about how he would die for Jesus back in verse 33,

how he would never betray him or deny him, Peter totally, look at this,

he totally crumbled in the face of a slave girl and two strangers.

And so at that very moment of Peter's third denial, what happened in verse 60?

Rooster crowed, calling to mind, you know, Jesus' earlier prediction to that effect.

When Jesus turned and looked at Peter, what did Peter do?

He went out and he wept bitterly, verse 62. Man, can you imagine? Wow, like a ton of rocks.

He wept at his own weakness and sorrow over what was happening to Jesus.

Though it seems like just merely a record of terrible failure here.

In fact, I want y'all to get this today. The story of Peter's denial is good

news for us. Did you know that?

In the end, Peter was restored, just as Jesus had predicted as well back in verse 32.

And at that restoration, that could only take place because why?

Jesus willingly died for Peter's sin, including the sin of denying Jesus three

times in his moment of greatest distress.

And that means, come on, let me get excited.

That means, church, that there is forgiveness and hope for all of us who,

like Peter, we have ever, if we've ever had found our courage and love lacking, and I know we have.

I have at times in my life, and I'm sure you have, but there is hope.

If you've ever remained silent when you should have spoken up for Jesus,

or if you've ever hidden what you really believe so that people will not reject you.

Then you're not so different from Peter. And so the great thing about Jesus

is that his love covers even sins like these. Come on, woo, can I get a hallelujah?

I mean, it does. The truth, that truth, church, should lead us to heartfelt repentance when we sin.

That's the difference between Peter and Judas. Did you know it?

Both sinned against their master in terrible ways, But Judas's remorse never led him back to Jesus.

Peter, on the other hand, repented and returned to being a disciple.

Y'all, because Jesus died for his people's sins. I want y'all to know this today.

There is mercy. There is forgiveness for everyone who falls and fails.

When you sin, do not run from Jesus. Run to him.

He is there, ready to receive you with open arms. Repent.

Put your faith in him. Repent. Turn your back on your sin. Turn to Jesus.

Well, we see an interesting part here as we move along, the mockery of our Savior.

Because the decision to arrest Jesus at night presented the religious leaders

with a problem, didn't it?

Jewish law, if you didn't know this, Jewish law required that any capital charge

be heard by an official meeting of the Sanhedrin.

A group, you know how many men consisted? 71 men that included respected leaders,

teachers of the religious law, and prominent priests.

Luke actually refers to this group as the council.

The Jewish custom also required that such a meeting had to take place when?

During daylight hours.

We can easily understand why the law would forbid trials and judgments under

the cover of darkness, right?

But Jesus's popularity with the crowds, think about it for a moment.

There was pressure on his enemies to have him condemned to death before word

spread that he'd even been arrested.

So when the leaders here finally arrest Jesus, they face what we call a conundrum, right?

They finally captured this guy that they've been trying to outfox for all this

time, but they can't afford to sit on him for very long.

The crowds, why? They seem to love Jesus, and the leaders don't dare wait and

let the word get out that he's been arrested.

So they want to get this case wrapped up quick, y'all, so that Jesus can be

condemned and put to death as soon as possible.

But in the meantime, think about this. The guards who were watching Jesus,

they began to have a little fun with him. We see this in the text.

They beat Jesus. See it, verse 63?

The Greek word that Luke uses seems to indicate that the beating went on for some period of time.

But they not only beat him, what else did they do?

Mocked him, made fun of him, hurled insults at him, verse 65.

And they also struck him.

And since Jesus had a reputation as a prophet, you know what else they did?

They also decided to put his skills to the test. So they blindfolded him.

They punched him. They taunted him.

They challenged him to guess who it was that hit him. Verse 64.

Can y'all imagine almighty God in the flesh allowing us to treat him this way?

You just to fathom that for a moment? All of this was to fulfill the words of

the prophets, church, but it also means that we as followers of Christ don't miss this today.

We'll never endure any kind of suffering or humiliation that Jesus doesn't understand.

When other people are unkind to you, when they abuse you in small ways or big

ways, when we're mocked or we're shut out because we love Jesus,

it can make us really weary and tired, can't it?

It can tempt us to give up and wonder if God really cares, but you'll not find

him distant, church, or unconcerned, but you know what?

Able to sympathize with all of your weakness and pain.

You know, that's why Hebrews chapter 12, verse 3, instructs us to look at Jesus

Hebrews 12:3

and consider something.

You know what it says? He says, consider him who endured such opposition from

sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

The trial of Jesus, we come to that, the trial of Jesus and of his accusers.

Let's continue on in the text. We'll see it in verse 66.

When the council can finally be convened at daybreak, Jesus is led before them

to stand trial, is he not?

And when they try to get him to go on the record as claiming to be the Messiah,

Jesus refuses to answer directly.

We heard that earlier, knowing that a conversation here about a topic is wasted,

about that particular topic is going to be wasted on those who've already made up their minds.

But what he says next is even more shocking, I think, than a claim to be the Messiah.

He's not only the Messiah, look at it but he is the divine son of man capital,

from daniel chapter 7 verses 13 and 14.

Daniel 7:13

After his crucifixion church, his resurrection, his ascension,

Luke 22, verse 69 here says, he will be seated where?

Luke 22:69

At the right hand of the mighty God. Claiming to be the Messiah was not technically

blasphemy, but claiming to be the son of God.

If in fact you were not, most certainly was.

The leaders understand here the significance of what Jesus is saying,

And they ask him to confirm that he believes himself to be the son of God. We see that in verse 70.

Jesus' response, though, look at it.

It's not an open affirmation or a flat denial. You know what he said?

Look at it. You say that I am.

Might see a similar expression that we use, you said it, I didn't, right?

Where one wants to affirm a truth while making somebody else responsible for saying it.

The council's angry, yet delighted

as well, response here shows us that they understand it that way.

They finally have what they need to see Jesus executed, don't they?

There is, of course, think about it today, church, a great irony in the fact

that Jesus is standing trial before the religious leaders of the people.

How far astray these leaders, church, have gone that they have put the Son of

Man on trial, that they dare to sit in judgment over him.

And not only that, but they actually find him guilty of blasphemy, of lying about God.

Do you see it? But y'all, this miscarriage of justice, I want y'all to get this today.

It's also a perfect picture of the humility and love of Jesus.

How incredible, y'all, is the Son of God, by whom all things were created,

would stoop down again to allow his creatures to treat him this way.

In a sense, God condescends to allow every single one of us to pass judgment on him.

Of course, He is God, and Jesus is the Son of Man, whether or not we choose

to acknowledge that reality.

God permits us to decide what we will make of his son, Jesus.

Whether he's worthy of our exclusive love and worship and devotion as he claimed,

or whether he's a blasphemer, a liar, as his enemies believed.

You know, someone might say, you got to choose who Jesus is.

You've probably heard this one before. He's either Lord, he's a liar, possibly a lunatic.

In that sense, y'all, every person who hears the message about Jesus must put

themselves in the place of the religious leaders we see here in this text and

decide what they believe Jesus to be.

But don't be deceived here by God's kindness here.

Jesus stands before these men absorbing their scorn and their abuse,

but he is promised to do what? To return, to come again.

And you know what? This time, not to suffer when he comes back, but to what?

To execute terrible judgment on all those who have rejected him.

And right now, I want y'all to know, right now, you have, I have the life and

breath to decide whether you will willingly worship God's son or not.

But know for sure that a day will come, as scripture says, that at the name

of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And guess what else?

Every tongue will confess or

acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of who? God the Father.

Right now, church, how will you acknowledge the awfulness and weep at the reality of your sin?

Have you come to that place in your life where you have repented and placed,

your faith in Jesus alone for your salvation?

Y'all, I think back of what Jesus endured for us. We talked about that cup of

God's wrath that he willingly took upon himself, not just of your sin and mine alone, but whose?

The entire world in a sense of all those who would believe, right?

Do you feel when you sin, you break God's law, you do something you know you

shouldn't have done as a Christian? How does it make you feel?

Are y'all happy and gleeful? What happens? Hurts your heart,

breaks fellowship with God, right?

And what else? You start feeling conviction if you know. That's a good way to

know. Do you know Jesus? Are you his child?

Do you feel the Holy Spirit convict in your heart when you sin because if you

don't feel nothing like that great sign you don't know him,

but think about the weight has anybody ever hear you saying you felt the weight

of your sin before just for you the guilt the weight think about that Jesus,

took upon himself the weight the guilt the wrath of God against everyone's sin all at once on the cross.

Don't know how we can turn away from that kind of love if we see it.

Someone who, God Almighty, who willingly took our place. Y'all,

you do realize Jesus could have wiped them all out.

He could have called those angels, even on the cross.

He could have chosen to not drink the cup of God's wrath for us,

but he did it for us anyway.

Y'all, I can't promise you when we walk out these doors today that you'll ever

have another opportunity to repent and put your faith in Jesus if you never have.

But I can tell you this, that today as the Holy Spirit moves in this place,

you've heard the gospel. You've heard the truth.

You've heard how Jesus came. He was born of a virgin. He lived the life we couldn't

live, a perfect holy life.

And he took God's wrath upon himself. He bore all the scorn,

all the abuse, everything for you and me.

I'm telling you, brother. And y'all, that should, just as that song we sang

earlier at the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light.

You remember that verse? It talks

about, thus I hide my blushing face till Calvary's cross appears, right?

It talks about that our hearts are melted with thankfulness and our eyes with tears.

Y'all, knowing what Jesus did for me and for you, Man, that should be the kind

of love and motivation, y'all.

Just say, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, for saving a sinner like me,

making me a brand new creation.

Man, we serve an awesome God. I'm going to encourage you this morning to stand

to your feet for just a moment, if you would, to bow your head for just a moment.

It's so easy sometimes, y'all. We come to church and we celebrate,

we sing, we praise the Lord.

But y'all don't miss the fact that this same Lord who laid down his life for you and me,

We're going to be his disciple. Come on, let's follow him.

Some of you here today may know Jesus. I hope most of you, I hope all of you do.

But there may be some here today, you know him, but you're not following him the way you should.

You're following at a distance like old Peter, but there's hope for you.

Because just like Peter, all you got to do is just come and turn back to Jesus.

To say, Lord, forgive me, restore me.

Lord, forgive me. Change my life, Lord. Change my trajectory.

That's your opportunity today. I want you to obey God this morning.

Let His Holy Spirit speak to your heart.

Do business with Him, whether it's where you stand or if you need to come up

here at the altar and pray or you need to go to somebody.

Or maybe today, if you've made the decision, you realize today that you put

your faith and trust in Christ and you want to walk down this aisle and let

us celebrate with you that you've been born again.

You do that today. Father God, now as we come before you in this moment,

help us to listen to the voice of your spirit.