Jesus’ agony. Luke 22:38-53

Okay. Well, if you can uh open up your

Bibles to Luke chapter 22, it' be good

Luke 22 · chapter mention

to um follow along. It's always good to

make sure I'm not making it up. Holding

me to account, checking what I'm saying

makes sense.

Sounds like they're having a lot of fun

next door, doesn't it?

I don't know that we're going to have

fun in that sense. It's a very serious

and somber passage. Hopefully, we'll be

blessed, though.

You probably heard of the 80s song. I'm

not going to sing it for you, don't

worry. But, uh, I want to know what love

is by a group called Foreigner. Uh, it

was number one in the US and the UK in

about 1984.

And the chorus goes like this. I want to

know what love is. I want you to show

me. I want to feel what love is. I know

[snorts] you can show me. And as we

consider our passage this morning,

there's going to be many things that

emerge from it. Uh, probably more

questions than answers to be honest. But

one thing I don't think we'll be able to

miss is how deep

the sacrificial love of Jesus is.

Fore on we want to know what love is.

And the answer to that is to look to

Jesus and you will know

what love is.

The opening verse of that song says I

got to take a little time, a little time

to think things over.

Second verse starts like this. Now, this

mountain I must climb feels like a world

upon my shoulders.

Both things could well have been written

about Jesus, for there was a great

weight, a world of weight upon his

shoulders, and he needed to take a

little time.

And so after they had finished the

supper, Jesus takes his disciples to the

Mount of Olives and he takes some time

to prepare in prayer.

Before we look at Jesus's prayer, we'll

look at Jesus's call to prayer. And

that's our first point, Jesus call to

prayer.

I um suppose most of us have our own

little customs and habits. For me, uh, I

have set times in the day for when I'm

going to have my teas and coffees. Let

me bore you with that for 10 seconds.

So, it's tea at breakfast, coffee at 11,

tea with my lunch, and then coffee at 4,

and then a final decaf tea after dinner.

That is my custom. That is my habit. It

gives me structure and keeps things

under control. Uh, that's just what I

do. It's my habit. I'm sure you could

share your various habits and customs

and things that you do to give your day

structure and the rest of it your

routines and and most of us have

routines and Jesus had a custom oral

routine. In the evening they would

regularly go up to the garden of

Gethsemane in the region of the Mount of

Olives and we don't know precisely where

that garden was. There's different ideas

about where it was but doesn't matter

that we don't know precisely where it

was. Jesus knew where it was because he

used to regularly go out there and

that's that's fine. So that was what he

used to do because his custom to go to

the garden of Gethsemane. And remember

Jesus knew what was going to happen

there. He knows that when he goes there,

that is where he's going to be arrested.

He knows he's walking into a a trap. And

yet he still goes.

Just to note,

as we look at Luke's uh record of

events, we might spot there's a few

little differences in the details we

find in his record and in the other

gospels. And that's fine. Uh that's

often what what Luke does is he

condenses things. He summarizes what's

happening. So he'll condense a longer

conversation into a shorter one and just

give us the highlights. And that's fine.

And also with any genuine eyewitness

accounts, you expect there to be uh

minor differences. That's a a hallmark

of authenticity,

people speaking from their own different

viewpoints.

And that's what we have here, Luke's

version of things. So when they arrive,

Jesus tells the disciples to pray. And

then Jesus himself withdraws from them

and he leads by example and he prays.

Before we look at Jesus's prayer, as we

said, we're going to consider what he

tells the disciples, uh, verse 40. So,

if you've got your Bibles open, check

out verse 40. Pray that you may not

enter into temptation. And he repeats

this a little bit later on in verse 46.

Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that

you may not enter into temptation.

So, why were they sleeping?

Well, it was late at night. It's

possibly around midnight at this point.

Verse 45 tells us that they were

sleeping for sorrow.

They are emotionally and physically

exhausted.

Now, if someone is really tired, it's

usually good advice to say, "Look, why

don't you just go and get a good night's

sleep and we'll think about it in the

morning?" That's usually really good

advice, isn't it? But not at this point

[snorts] because the hour was upon them.

Judas and his co-conspirators were

already assembling,

but the disciples,

they haven't grasped the urgency of the

situation, and so they they sleep. Now,

I'm not going to suggest that we all do

without sleep. Um, but I do wonder if we

grasp the danger of the spiritual battle

in which we find ourselves, of our

dayto-day spiritual battle.

If we grasp the deadly nature of sin,

would we be more motivated

to pray?

If we understood, if we saw things as

they really were, would we be more

motivated to pray?

If we feel unmotivated to pray, it's

it's probably because we don't

appreciate the spiritual danger we and

the church and the world is in. We we're

blinkered. We don't see how things

really are.

But Jesus specifically encourages them

to pray that they might not enter into

temptation. It's such wonderfully

practical advice. Have you ever wondered

why sin can be so hard

to resist?

Have you ever wondered why you keep

falling into the same old sins? If you

do,

when you

sense you're about to have uh an

outburst of some sort or you're becoming

aware that perhaps there's some sinful

feeling towards another, maybe a lustful

thing, jealousy thing or strong dislike

or something, you know, in there. When

you have these things growing in you or

when you feel like you're pulled towards

that wrong thing and it's just so strong

but you you keep being pulled over

there. What is the answer to that

temptation?

What do we do?

Surely

the first port of call is God, isn't it?

In prayer,

Lord, I'm starting to get really angry

about this situation or this person.

Help me to react in a right and helpful

way.

Lord, I'm I'm feeling tempted to indulge

myself in in this thing. Father, help me

to dwell upon you and your love and your

goodness and to think about these these

good things.

Lord, I know that I had the opportunity

to witness

and I blew it. Lord, would you give me

the boldness that I don't have myself?

Help me. Help me to speak for you. Pray,

says Jesus,

but they fall asleep instead. So, what

happened? Did they hear the call to pray

and they just thought, "Well, blow that.

We're just going to sleep instead." Was

it complete disobedience? I don't I

don't get that impression.

They probably, okay, he's told us to

pray and Jesus heads off to go and pray

himself and okay, we better pray. They

put their heads down and um before long

the prayers start, but before long it's

all gone quiet

except for the rhythmic rasp of well-fed

dozing men. They fall asleep multiple

times.

But don't we know that to be our

experience too? Because it's really hard

to pray, isn't it? It's been said that

prayer is a battle. We fight for time.

We fight to concentrate. We fight for

the right words to say. We fight to

conform our prayers to the will of God.

If you go into prayer thinking it's a

light and an easy thing, you've probably

just been dipping your big toe into the

the sea of prayer.

If you give up after a few minutes, it's

probably because you've not realized you

are entering into the spiritual arena.

And it can be a struggle that requires

every ounce of you in your spiritual

strength.

Prayer can be a real struggle at times.

It can be hard work. They were to pray

to avoid temptation.

So what temptation was it in particular?

Well, given the circumstances, perhaps

it was a prayer they should be praying

that they wouldn't deny the Lord, that

they wouldn't fall away, that they

wouldn't fall short of their calling as

as disciples.

that they wouldn't through fear abandon

and deny their Lord. Sadly, the

disciples do fail in prayer. And as

Matthew's account tells us, when Jesus

was seized, they all flee. They all run

away. Next week, we'll see how Peter

failed and denied Jesus. But it seems

their failure to stand with Jesus had

its root in their failure to pray. Could

it be

that if we find ourselves constantly

defeated by sin

and temptation, could it be it's because

we haven't given ourselves to prayer? We

haven't prepared ourselves in prayer for

the battle. Could it be we feel so

powerless in our witness and and weak in

our zeal for the Lord because we're not

drawing close to him and drawing on his

strength to pray? Could it feel we we

feel so distant from the Lord because we

are distant from the Lord because we're

never

entering into that precious time of

fellowship or or when we do we kind of

we get two minutes into it and then

we're just distracted and we just we

give up. Could it could that be the root

of many of our spiritual problems?

Jesus called his disciples to pray. If

you are a disciple, you are called to be

in prayer. And we should take that

seriously because if Jesus needed to

pray,

then how much more do we need to pray?

Jesus did need to pray. And we'll see

that in our second point, Jesus's agony.

You can't really see those pictures. And

you know what? That's okay because

they're kind of almost a bit of a distra

distraction in something like this. Kind

of your mind's eye is is much better. So

don't worry if you can't see them.

So there we are. Jesus is on the cusp of

the the cross. Jesus needs to be alone

with his father. And as he prepares to

take the weight of our sin, he needs to

prepare himself. He does battle in

prayer. not battling God, but battling

his own human inclinations and fears.

Now, to be clear, I'm not saying Jesus

is Jesus's inclinations and fears were

sinful. Not saying that it is just part

and parcel of who he was, of being a

human being, a real human being. You

see, life has a drive to survive. There

is something in us that says, "I want to

live." Uh we see that from all all forms

of life. Your little plant that grows up

between the flag stones, it wants to

live. Humanity has that too. We want to

live. That's a a good and healthy thing.

There's nothing wrong with that.

And there's something within us that

looks at danger and says, "Well, I I

need to avoid that because that might

stop me living or that's going to

inflict some sort of pain on me. So, I

want to avoid uh danger." And that's a

good and and and normal and healthy

thing, too. It's not simple to want to

avoid danger or the end of life.

And Jesus is fully God, but is also

fully human. And no human

could look ahead and foresee being spat

upon, being punched, having your back

ripped open,

having a crown of thorns

crammed onto your head, being struck on

your head, being nailed to a cross, and

dying a slow, excruciating death. No

human could look forward to that and go,

"Yeah, I'm not bothered by that. That's

just not normal."

No human would look to that and go, "I'm

okay with that." That's not a sinful

reaction. That's a normal human

reaction. And so Jesus's human nature

naturally recoils from the physical

horror that was awaiting him.

But there's more.

Who of us

would relish the emotional suffering of

having one of our closest friends betray

us?

Who of us would take

no sadness in the fact that our closest

friends are all about to to leave in in

the moment of our need? They're all

about to run away.

Who of us wouldn't be affected by the

fact we know we're about to be publicly

humiliated?

Going to be hung naked on a cross.

We're going to be mocked, falsely

accused, going to have to entrust your

own mother to another.

No human would look at these things and

see them as easy or desirable.

There's good reason to not look forward

to the cross.

But there's more.

Jesus was the only perfect person, the

only perfectly holy person who ever

lived.

He spent his whole life trying to please

his father.

It was his delight, his great joy to do

what was good and right. It thrilled his

soul to live in a righteous way. He

loved it.

He He He did what was right. He upheld

justice. He taught the truth. And yet in

a few hours time, to quote 2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 5:21

5:21, "For our sake, he made him to be

sin,

who knew no sin, so that in him we might

become the righteousness of God. So the

pure and spotless one would be saturated

with our filth."

And when Jesus took our sin upon

himself, he became the object of

judgment.

He would be crushed under the righteous

wroth of God. So what man cannot pay off

in an eternity in hell, we just cannot

pay it even in an eternity of hell.

Jesus would take concentrated on

himself, fully focused upon him in our

place on the cross. He's going to take

that eternal punishment on the cross.

And on that cross, Jesus would know a

separation,

a forsakenness that he'd never known

before.

We cannot begin to appreciate the

terrible weight that was coming upon

Jesus as he came to pray. Humanly

speaking, there was every reason to

fear.

To fear something isn't wrong. I mean,

yes, we can have an a sinful fear. We

can have a irrational fear. We can have

a a not trusting God kind of fear.

But the process of fearing something in

itself isn't wrong.

Jesus trusted his father implicitly. And

so he knows that when he comes to pay

the price to achieve justice and

forgiveness and to redeem those from

eternal damnation, Jesus knows there

will be no shortcut.

There will be no skimping.

There was no going easy on Jesus. There

was going to be no special favor favors.

He will have to pay the price of our sin

in all its dreadful fullness every last

drop. And that was truly fearful.

So with all of this bearing down on him,

what did Jesus do?

He knelt in prayer. And that itself is

significant. The custom of the day would

be you would stand to pray your eyes

directed towards heaven. So Jesus is

kneeling. Why did he kneel? Was it the

weight of what he was feeling that

caused him to to to bow on his knees? Or

was it a physical act of submission

before God? Maybe both.

For although according to his human

nature, this this was not something he

wanted to endure. The whole approach to

God was one of submission, he kneels. He

calls his God his father. And he's not

demanding. He's he's humbly asking, "If

you are willing, remove this cup from

me." But the cup simply refers to his

calling, what he was about to do, uh his

what he's going to have to endure, his

mission. uh the sacrifice, the payment,

the justice, the wroth that it's all

included in that cup. It's the thing

before him, all that was waiting for

him. But Jesus is quick to follow up his

request by submitting his his human will

to that of his father. Nevertheless, not

my will, but yours be done.

So over and above his natural desire to

avoid pain and suffering is that

willingness

to do what needed to be done. Imagine

you have um chronic toothache. If you've

never had that, then be thankful because

it's one of those things that it's just

very unpleasant. Um so imagine you got

chronic toothache. You can't eat. You

know, even when you breathe in it hurts,

you know, it's like, whoa, this is

really miserable. And you know, you need

to go to the dentist and there's going

to be an injection. There's going to be

drilling. There's going to be a filling

or even worse and there's going to be to

end it all off a nice big fat bill at

the end. You think there's nothing about

that that I like. Nothing I really want

to makes me want to go to the dentist

for. So on one hand, you don't want to

go, do you? No, thank you. I do not want

to go there and have that done to me.

And yet

on the other hand, you know that

enduring

the pain will be worth it. You need this

sorted out. It will do something good.

So despite not wanting to go, you find

yourself going to the dentist. It needs

to happen. And in a much greater way,

Jesus is willing to give himself. And he

willingly went, but humanly speaking,

he didn't want to go.

If we're in any doubt as to the trauma

Jesus was going through, see how God

responds.

Jesus prays. God sends an angel to

strengthen him. That's that's how

serious this was. He needed an angel to

come and and and strengthen him. And

then we see in verse 44, he was in

agony.

Agony.

Jesus is close to the point of collapse.

And Luke says how at this point he he

prayed even more earnestly.

In Matthew's account in chapter 26, we

see how Jesus fell on his face.

And Mark tells us how Jesus was

sorrowful even to the point of death.

Do you see how Jesus was feeling at that

point? Sorrowful even to the point of

death. Luke records Jesus sweat was like

drops of bloods.

Now that could be Luke using blood as a

simile. He was sweating so much it was

just pouring off him like drops of

blood.

Or it's a case of the rare but

recognized condition of hermitrosis

where under great stress the capillaries

dilate and burst causing blood to mix

with your sweat.

That's recognized condition. But

whatever Luke is describing there, we

can see the impact that it's having on

Jesus as he approaches the cross. It's

clear, isn't it? What lay before Jesus

is is almost too much for him.

One theologian, it should appear on the

screen, called Donald McCloud said this,

"The wonder of the cross is not that for

their sake Jesus faced death without

fear,

but for their sake he faced it

terrified.

terrified by what he knew and terrified

by what he did not know, he took

damnation lovingly.

I think it's important to recognize the

real cost to Jesus for many reasons, but

here's just two reasons. So firstly, if

Jesus recoiled from

what our sin meant for him,

we should never take our sin lightly,

should we?

If Jesus recoiled from the wroth of God

or what that was going to be like, if

that thought nearly broke Jesus, let us

never see our forgiveness as cheap

so that we just go on sinning and

thinking it's all right. I'll just ask

for forgiveness again.

I mean, yeah, Jesus can forgive you

again and again and again.

But at what a heavy cost.

Also, let us never underestimate the

horror of hell.

If there's anyone that is sitting here

thinking, do you know, I I think I'll be

okay. I I I will be able to pay the

price myself. I I will just I'll I'll

take it. You are mistaken. Put your

faith in Jesus and ask him to bear that

awful cost for you whilst you still can.

Sin is more costly than any of us really

realize.

Someone has to pay.

A second um observation from Jesus's

suffering as he approaches the cross is

what love.

What love?

If Jesus had stood on the brink of hell

and shrugged his shoulders and and not

been bothered, if he'd called down some

divine um anesthetic and and and could

unplug and sort of watch it all

happening almost like he was watching a

video game or a movie or something and

just not be bothered by it all. What

kind of sacrifice would that be?

If someone says to you, "Look, I'm going

to give you a gift. It didn't cost me

anything. In fact, I've just found it.

It's no cost to me." There you go. You

might go, "Oh, well, thank you." Yeah.

But if someone says, "Look, he here's a

gift and it's cost me everything."

That is so much more meaningful, isn't

it? It cost me everything. And the gift

of salvation is free to us, but it costs

Jesus everything.

If, like the pop group foreigner, we

want to know what love is, is like this.

1 John 3:16, "By this we know love, that

1 John 3:16

he laid down his life for us, and we

ought to lay down our lives for the

brothers."

So this great cost speaks of the great

love

Jesus has for us. If you're ever in

doubt of God's love, then look on Jesus

face down, terrified in the mud for you.

What an amazing love our savior has for

us.

When Jesus had battled in prayer, he'd

faced his fear. He had submitted himself

to his father's will. He arose and he

went to his disciples for the time of

his cup was beginning. And we'll look at

that in our final point, Jesus's arrest.

After

his intense time of prayer, Jesus finds

the disciples sleeping once again. He

tells them that they need to be praying.

And as he's still speaking, it's at this

point that Judas and the mob uh

approach, Judas goes in to kiss Jesus.

It was the pre-arranged signal uh to

mark Jesus out for arrest. And in those

days, a kiss was a relatively normal

form of greeting. Uh but it was more

than a handshake. It was an expression

of close friendship, of esteem, of

brotherly love. Uh so to betray Jesus

with a kiss was grotesque.

An act of friendship became an act of

betrayal.

But isn't this what sin

always does? It masquerades as one

thing, but in reality is another. Sin

comes along in the clothing of love and

compassion and tolerance and mercy and

choice and pleasure and [clears throat]

freedom

comes along in those clothes that look

so good and yet behind the kiss is

anything but love.

We are to watch out because not

everything that initially looks good or

loving is good or loving. And the kiss

of Judas was far from good or loving. So

Judas uh Jesus calls Judas out on this

verse 48. Judas, would you betray the

son of man with a kiss?

Stop pretending, Judas,

who do you think you're fooling?

If you're going to betray Jesus, at

least be honest about it. Perhaps this

was Jesus giving Judas one last chance

to see what he's doing. one last chance

to come to his senses and repent. Jesus

is so gracious even at that point of

betrayal.

Says, "Judas,

have you really thought about what

you're doing?

You really going to do this?"

Luke doesn't give us the details, but

from the other gospels, we see Judas

Judas goes ahead and kisses Jesus, still

seemingly making pretensions of

friendship.

It's hard to imagine what Judas was

thinking at this point, isn't it? Can

you Can you I I suppose it's hard to get

your head inside his head, but as he

approached Jesus as he hears these

things, as he goes in, I mean, what was

he thinking?

Had he really thought about this, what

he was doing, was he being honest with

himself as he did this?

And yet, as I say those things, don't we

know how blind to our own sin we can be?

Perhaps that's why Jesus has been

repeatingly telling the disciples to

pray lest they fall into temptation.

Jeremiah 17:9 says this, "The heart is

Jeremiah 17:9

deceitful above all things and

desperately sick. Who can understand it?

I the Lord search the heart and test the

mind to give every man according to his

ways according to the fruit of his

deeds. And we need the Lord to open the

eyes of our hearts to open our

understanding and our eyes because we

can spend we can deceive ourselves. We

can be so alert to other people's sin

but we can be blind to our own.

Perhaps that's what's happening with

Judas. is blind to the reality of what

he's doing.

And we need to be praying, Lord, open my

eyes. Help me to see my blind spots.

Help me to see where I'm going wrong.

The disciples see how things are

unfolding. And they think this must be

the reason why Jesus spoke the words

about getting swords back in verse 38.

We read read it last week, didn't do it

this week. Um it's it's difficult to

know exactly what Jesus means there

about you now. You need to sell your

cloak and buy your swords. Um, lots of

thoughts about that, but it's probably

not much more than you need to be

careful and take the proper precautions

because you're going to be living in a

dangerous age in a difficult time. Jesus

didn't intend them to fight their way

out of this. For a start, they were

seriously outnumbered. Uh, so a straight

fight wouldn't have ended well for the

disciples. Uh, but equally, Jesus didn't

need them to fight for him. Uh he could

have just demolished his opponents with

with a word, with his breath. He didn't

even need to do that. He could have

called uh a uh legions of angels down

from heaven and they could have flattens

the whole area just like that. Jesus

didn't need people to fight this for

him.

But fighting and escaping, that wasn't

the plan. Jesus has already prepared for

this in prayer. He's already been

victorious in prayer. And he will go to

the cross. he will drink the cup.

So he doesn't want to fight. But without

waiting, Peter, bless him, always the

one to take the lead there. He he he

gets the sword and he swipes at the

servant. Thankfully, the servant seems

to see it coming and he dodges out the

way. I was trying to picture how this

happened. Maybe maybe the sword's coming

over and the servant sort of does that

and that the sword kind of goes and

just, you know, nips his ear off or

severs his ear. It's not a very pleasant

thought, is it? But one centimeter lower

and it could have been a very different

injury, perhaps life-changing or fatal.

But Jesus stops everyone in their

tracks. This was not the way. And in his

last recorded miracle, he heals this

severed ear. Now, apart from being a

great great relief for that servant

who'd lost his ear, this also shows the

kind of man that Jesus was. his enemies

are out to arrest him and and there he

is. He's reaching out and healing them.

Isn't this such a powerful and and

beautiful picture? Really, he heals one

of the very ones who have come to arrest

him.

This shows us Jesus's attitude to his

enemies,

to people like us.

He doesn't owe us any kindness.

And yet he reaches out offering to to

heal us, offering to restore us and to

to forgive us.

Do you know I was thinking about this in

the week? What how how did that servant

react to that throughout the rest of his

life? Every time he pulled on his tunic

and it got stuck on his ear and he go,

I'm thankful that's still there. you

know, if he ever caught a glimpse of his

reflection in the water and sort, yeah,

did he think back and remember?

I wonder what he thought of Jesus after

that point. I wonder how that personal

encounter with Jesus changed his life,

if it did. And I wonder if you've had a

personal encounter with Jesus,

you know, where Jesus

convicts you, expose exposes your sin in

some way and you go, "Oh man." And you

come to that realization that I am a

sinner.

And then he brings healing and he brings

forgiveness

and you enter into this friendship and

this this fellowship with the Lord from

that point on.

If you have had a saving encounter with

Jesus, you will never be the same again.

There will always be this ongoing

connection, this ongoing fellowship,

this yeah, I remember the Lord. I know

the Lord.

I wonder if you're connected to the Lord

in that way. If you have had that

encounter with the Lord in in some way

so that you know now

I'm different.

He's touched my life and I'm different.

It's hard to imagine that the servant

would be very enthusiastic about Jesus's

arrest after what Jesus has just done

for him. But there were plenty of others

who could take care of business. This,

as Jesus says, is your hour when

darkness reigns. It's the hour when

Jesus would give himself in the into the

hands of of man. It's the hour when

Jesus would give himself into the hands

of uh Satan when Satan appears to

triumph. This hour wasn't a literal 60

minutes. Jesus means at this moment, at

this time, this this little short period

of time um that's now following this

this hour. Uh perhaps

perhaps we know times like this in our

lives. Times of darkness,

times of difficulty when everything

seems seems to be going wrong.

Times an hour of severe temptation, an

hour time, a season of pain,

a particular struggle in your life.

Well, we can be encouraged that if God

was achieving something so wonderful

through something so bad,

then as those who are in Christ, our

story, no matter how dark it might seem,

it doesn't end in darkness.

For the combined might of humankind and

all the powers of Satan and even death

itself could not stand in the way of our

savior.

He prayed.

He submitted.

He warned. He healed. He gave himself.

He paid the terrible price so that we

can be set free. So that we can have a

future.

so that we can have an encounter with

him. So that we can know him. So that we

can be with him forever.

So yes, there is a day of darkness.

The darkness may have its hour. It may

have its hour in your life, but soon the

darkness will give way to light. Defeat

will give way to victory. Death will

give way to life. But now, now the hour

is darkness.

You want to know what love is?

Then let Jesus show you. Look at what

he's done for you. Look at the price he

paid. Look at the life you can now have

in him. Look at Jesus and fall down in

adoration

and in worship.

Let's be quiet before the Lord for a few

moments.

Father, forgive us for we

often do not recognize

how deep, how awful our sin is.

We we don't comprehend how

how separating it is and how evil it is.

And Father, forgive us. We don't even

see our own hearts properly. We have

this strange idea that we're not really

that bad. And everyone's just everyone

else is that bad, but we're not. And

Lord, we recognize we put our hands up

that our hearts, even ours, are

deceitful. And Lord, forgive us. We We

just don't see things as they really

are.

And yet Lord, we thank you for your word

that shines a light into our lives,

that exposes us.

And Father, we thank you that we're just

not left there exposed

and

and uncomfortable

with no hope.

You shine your light into our lives

and then you show us Jesus.

And Lord, we are so thankful that Jesus

came

to take our sin

and to take the punishment that our sin

deserves and must have.

And and on the cross, Jesus pays the

price completely. He drinks the cup

completely

so that there's nothing left for us to

pay.

so that we are washed clean and we are

forgiven and so that we can come into

your presence not not hiding and ashamed

and trying to pretend but we can come

there confessing our sin and being so

thankful because Jesus has washed us

clean.

What a wonderful gospel.

Lord, we pray that you'd help us to

grasp these things and have hearts that

respond in adoration and praise. We pray

this in Jesus name. Amen.