In the Garden of Gethsemane: Luke 22:35-62

We study the books of the Bible here at the village chapel.

If you'd like a paper copy, just lift up your hand and uh one of our folks will bring one along to you.

If you don't have a paper copy, you're welcome to take one home as our gift here this morning.

And please do if you don't have one yet.

It'd be good to have the text in front of us, whether it's on a device or a paper copy.

Also, want to welcome all those who are worshiping with us online.

Last week we had folks from Mumbai, India, San Carlos Park, Florida, and Los Angeles, California.

May the Spirit of our Lord move among you today, even if you're a Dodgers fan.

I'm so sorry.

Even worse, Murph was wearing a New York Yankees t-shirt today.

Well, this morning, our study of the gospel according to Luke brings us to the late evening of Thursday in our Lord's Passion Week.

The night is dark.

The city of Jerusalem has been swollen to a million, perhaps two million people because of Passover.

But on this night, this Thursday, late evening, it's likely quiet at that hour.

Earlier in the evening, Jesus and his disciples had celebrated the Passover meal together in what we call the upper room.

And Jesus breaks the bread and he says, This is my body given for you.

And he takes the cup, and he says, This is the new covenant in my blood for you.

Take and eat and drink.

So the evening begins with a feast.

It begins with a celebration.

And then Judas Iscariot slinks off into the night, making preparations to betray our Lord.

He had made a treasonous deal with the religious leaders, cooperating with the schemes of the evil one.

So the night becomes darker and darker in more ways than one.

Later, Jesus speaks to Peter and the disciples, and he foretells what is to come in but a few hours.

And we studied it last week, but I thought it'd be good for us to read it again.

I'll put it up on the screen.

Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, plural, that's all the disciples, that he might sift you like wheat.

But I've prayed for you that your faith, Peter, may not fail.

And when you have turned again, Peter, strengthen your brothers.

And Peter said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.

And Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me.

So the evening began with a feast.

Now Judas has left with the intent to betray.

Simon will deny knowing Jesus, and all the other disciples will flee.

As Jesus enters this unimaginable next few hours of suffering, physically and emotionally, yes, but even more, spiritually being pressed in ways that we can't even comprehend.

So as we peer into this Thursday evening, I'd invite us to be attentive in at least three different ways as we read the text.

One, I want us to see Jesus.

Two, I want us to hear Jesus, and three, I want us to receive from him.

I want us to see him.

Number one, I want us to place ourselves at the scene.

Luke is a very good writer, and he vividly describes for us what happens in the garden we call Gethsemane.

He kneels in prayer, he cries in agony, and I want us to see Jesus.

I want us to imagine him there.

But I also want us to listen to him, to hear Jesus.

What does he say?

Keep that in the back of your mind.

What questions does he ask?

What words of comfort and challenge does he bring the disciples in this dark hour?

And lastly, I want us to receive from him.

There's something for us to learn in the garden.

There's grace for us to receive.

We're given a big window into the heart of our Savior Jesus, a heart full of mercy and compassion, truth and comfort.

I pray we see him hear and receive from him this morning by the power of the Spirit that's already at work in this room.

You see, God is not cold, nor is he distant.

God in Jesus stepped down into our world, a world full of sorrow and injustice, disease and unspeakable evil like we witnessed this week.

He came down and he dwelt among us to rid from my heart, to rid from your heart and this world the horrors of sin and evil, and to make good on his promise to make all things new.

And we should cling to that hope.

He's a God of love, and thus he must also be a God of justice.

Sin and evil won't simply be swept under the rug, but Jesus comes to deal with it decisively, justly, fully, by bearing upon himself all of it on the cross.

But first, before he gets to the cross, his path goes through a garden.

There's a hymn we often sing on Holy Week, and it expresses the weight of this Thursday night.

I'll put it up on the screen.

What took him to this wretched place, the garden?

What kept him on this road, the path to the cross?

His love for Adam's cursed race for every broken soul.

No sin too slight to overlook, no crime too great to carry, all mingled in this poisoned cup.

Yet he drank it all.

The Savior drank it all.

The Savior indeed drank it all.

So turn with me, if you would, to Luke 22, verse 35, as we stand in awe together at our Lord Jesus and what he did for us on that dark Thursday night.

Luke 22:35

And if you would allow me, I'll pray for us before we get started.

Heavenly Father, we bow before your presence.

And with our Bibles open, we ask that you'd open your word to us and open us to your word.

May your spirit convict and comfort and point us to your Son Jesus, in whose name we all said this morning.

Amen.

Luke 22, starting with verse 35.

And he, Jesus, said to them, the disciples, When I sent you out with no money bag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?

And they said, Nothing.

And he said to them, But now, let the one who has a money bag take it, and likewise a knapsack, and let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.

What Jesus is referring to here is what we call Luke chapter 10, when he sent out the 72 on mission, without a knapsack, without a bag.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

And here, with those two words in verse 36, but now, there's a strong contrast going on.

We are entering into a new season of ministry where your friends, you'll have less friends and you'll have more enemies because of what I'm about to do on the cross.

And he's basically here teaching them about preparedness, spiritual preparedness for the days ahead.

It's a teaching to watch.

Verse 37.

For I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me.

And he was numbered with the transgressors, for what is written about me has its fulfillment.

And they said, Look, Lord, here are two swords.

And he said to them, It is enough.

So here the disciples are preoccupied now with the sword comment.

And I take this to mean the sword is a metaphor for preparedness in general.

It could be also that the knapsack and the bag and a sword, which would be something that any traveler would carry in just a few, um, in just a few moments, Jesus is actually gonna send them out again, a great commission.

Go out into all the world, Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and all the ends of the earth.

So he is gonna send them out.

But as we see in a moment, Jesus is gonna tell Peter to put the sword away.

So I think the emphasis is being missed here by the disciples, and what Jesus is saying here at verse 38, it is enough.

It's basically, look, that's enough talk about the swords.

You're missing the greater point.

Be prepared for the season that is to come.

Verse 39.

And he, Jesus, came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives.

And the disciples followed him.

And I'll put up a map here on the screen just so we get a sense of the geography of this moment.

So we see there in the upper room, that's where that teaching on the knapsack and the swords and all that, that all happened there.

And then Jesus going down from Jerusalem, east over the Khedron Valley, with his disciples, and you can see the red arrow pointing up the Mount of Olives on the western slope there to the Garden of Gethsemane, or where we think it likely would have been.

Verse 40.

And when he came to the place, he said to them, Pray that you may not enter into temptation.

Here Jesus is teaching them again.

The spirit is willing, the flesh is weak, it says in other gospels.

We live by the grace of God alone.

We must come to him in our hour of need.

And then he demonstrates it himself, verse 41, and he withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down.

Underline that.

And he prayed, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

Five words that would change everything for us.

Not my will, but yours.

Highlight it, circle it.

43.

And there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him, and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

And when he arose from prayer, he came to the disciples and he found them sleeping for sorrow.

And he said to them, Why are you sleeping?

Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.

Again, he's telling them, Be prepared.

And the first place of preparation spiritually is to come before the Lord.

Prayer is not a magic tool.

It's not some magic device that we can use for health and wellness.

Prayer on its own is actually not, it doesn't have any power.

It's the one to whom we pray.

The Father who invites us to come to him, to bring our supplications to him.

Hear the grace of our Lord here this morning.

We don't know exactly why the disciples were sorrowful.

Perhaps they are starting to really fully understand that Jesus would no longer be with them.

But he says, Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.

So as he's teaching, verse 47, while he was still speaking, there came a crowd.

And the man called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them.

And he drew near to Jesus to kiss him.

And Jesus said to him, Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?

And when those who were around him saw what would follow, they said, Lord, shall we strike with the sword?

There we go again, their preoccupation with the sword.

Fifty.

And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear.

But Jesus said, No more of this.

And he touched his ear and he healed him.

Then Jesus said to the chief priest and the officers of the temple and the elders who had come out against him, Have you come out as against a robber?

With swords and clubs?

When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me, but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.

Satan, the prince of darkness, was at work, but was not in charge.

It's important to note that.

54, then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house, and that's Caiaphas and Annas at this point.

And Peter was following at a distance.

Now, Peter gets some flack, but let's actually give him some credit here.

He followed Jesus while the other disciples left, and one betrayed.

But it does say he followed at a distance.

And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them.

Then a servant girl seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, awkward, she said, This man also was with him.

But he denied it, saying, Woman, I do not know him.

And a little later someone else saw him and said, You also are one of them.

But Peter said, Man, I am not.

And after an interval of about an hour, still another insisted, saying, Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.

But Peter said, Man, I do not know what you are talking about.

And immediately while he was speaking, the rooster crowed.

61.

And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.

And the word look there, emblepo, means to look intently.

To look intimately.

And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.

And he, Peter, went out and wept bitterly.

Well, this is the reading of God's word from the Gospel of Luke.

We all said, thanks be to God.

So what did you see of Jesus in this text?

What did you hear from him?

Was it surprising?

Was there something unusual or perplexing?

Well, Luke divides this late Thursday night into three different sections.

One, the agony of Jesus, two, the arrest of Jesus, and three, the denial of Jesus by Peter.

And I'd love for us to briefly consider together each of these three sections to look at our Lord, to listen to him, and to receive from him here this morning.

So, number one, the agony of Jesus.

What do we see when we look at him, our Lord on the Mount of Olives in this garden called Gethsemane?

The word Gethsemane means a place of pressing oil.

It means an oil press.

Aptly named.

Here are a couple of photos we'll put up on the screen of a garden on the Mount of Olives today.

We don't know if this is the precise location of our text, but it certainly would have been nearby.

And these beautiful photos were taken by Chris Parker on our last trip to Israel.

Some of these olive trees and root systems can be dated near a thousand to two thousand years old.

And they help give us a sense of the real place where our Lord was with his disciples that night.

So let's look at verse 39 together.

In verse 39, it says, He came and went as was his custom.

The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus often met there with his disciples.

There was a pattern in the life of Jesus, a pulling away to be with and to hear from God the Father, and to be with his disciples and to pray together.

And he demonstrates this pattern.

He models this kind of intentional discipline, if you will, not as an end goal, but as a way to cultivate a life of intimacy with God the Father.

What is prayer?

I thought this would be helpful for us here.

It could be defined in many different ways, but one, it's listening to God, it's speaking to God, it's adoring God, it's acknowledging our need for God, it's enjoying his presence.

It's bringing our needs to him, it's submitting our wills to God, and we see that here.

So as Luke describes this particular moment, he shows us Jesus kneeling in prayer, a posture of dependence, of humility, of reverence, of submission.

And the word kneel could actually be more precisely translated.

He was burdened in that moment.

We must not forget that our Lord was fully divine and fully human, a mystery we can't fully understand.

But he was fully divine and fully human, and Jesus was in anguish, he was in agony, and his body language shows it.

Luke is the gospel writer, a doctor that tells us sweat poured out of him like drops of blood as an angel ministered to him.

It was cold outside.

He wasn't sweating because he was warm.

He was sweating because of what he knew he would have to bear in just a few hours.

Mark 14 tells us a bit more.

Jesus cries, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful unto death.

Meaning in this moment, Jesus was in such anguish he thought he could die even in the garden.

That was the kind of weight that he was feeling in that moment.

So what do we see?

Well, earlier, Jesus had quoted from Isaiah 53, written about 700 years prior, about the suffering servant, about the Messiah, Jesus.

And here in Gethsemane, in our text today, a place of oil pressing, we see these words coming to fulfillment also from Isaiah 53.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.

So what do we see when we look at Jesus on this dark night?

We see our Lord staggering, struggling under the weight of the horrific reality of sin and evil in our world.

And the cup of wrath that he alone must drink.

This wasn't a surprise to him, but as he neared the cross, it seems that God the Father was revealing to him in a fresh and a vivid way what it would mean to be crushed for our iniquities.

What do we hear when we listen to the voice of Jesus in the garden?

Look at 42.

Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.

Here is another Lord's prayer.

Staggering under the weight of what he will bear, he pleads with the Father to take away the cup.

And this account of Jesus is a testimony, I think, to the reliability of the scriptures.

What we are reading here actually took place on a chilly night on the Mount of Olives that week.

If an ancient writer wanted to craft a story to boost Jesus as a conquering hero like the ancient Greeks, they wouldn't dare lay bare his full humanity.

Yet Luke, the doctor, researched and he wrote an account so that we might know with certainty the things that were accomplished by the Lord.

Listen to Jesus as he says these five words that change everything for you and for me, not my will, but yours.

He was practicing what he preached when he taught his disciples the prayer that we pray every week.

Your kingdom come, your will be done, and on this night, not my will, but yours.

Here we see the humanity and the divinity of Jesus fully on display.

An extraordinary act of submission to God the Father, a submission that you and I could never, could never do on our own, and an extravagant act of love that you and I do not deserve.

He is giving himself for us.

The old hymn says it well, Man of Sorrows, what a name.

I love that first line, what a name.

For the Son of God who came, ruined sinners, that's me, to reclaim when we say, Hallelujah, what a Savior.

What is this cup that he asked the Father to remove?

What does he mean when he says this cup?

In the Old Testament, the cup was a symbol of the just wrath of God.

Not a temper tantrum, not a cranky explosion of anger, but God's wrath is a settled opposition to all that sin and evil has wrought on his people and the world.

He has committed himself to decisively rooting it out.

God loves his people, and his mission is to seek and to save the lost.

I hope you see the grace in this this morning.

And Jesus knows that it is for him to drink the cup of wrath that God the Father has given him on behalf of you and I, ruined sinners, that we might receive mercy and forgiveness, reconciled to a holy God, brought near to him as his children.

Now, other martyrs, and you might think about this, other martyrs, other historical figures throughout the ages, have faced death with relative calm and composure.

Seneca, the great philosopher in Rome, was put to death by Nero, and as he was dying, he quoted philosophy.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer faced death with a quiet serenity as he neared execution.

Stephen the martyr prayed as he was being put to death for Jesus.

Yet Jesus seems to be overwhelmed.

Have you thought about that?

Why?

Why was Jesus overwhelmed, struggling or staggering?

Why was he?

He was facing something no other human would face.

This was not primarily about physical and emotional suffering, although it would be unimaginable in just a few hours.

He was staring squarely at the rebellion of humanity from every age, past, present, and future, that he would take upon himself, and he knew the face of God would turn away from him.

In this moment, he had more than this, but he had adulterers and thieves and murderers and tyrants in mind.

He had you and he had me in mind.

For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God.

William Lane, commenting on this hour, says, the dreadful sorrow and anxiety, then, out of which the prayer for the passing of the cup springs, is not an expression of fear before a dark destiny, nor a shrinking from the prospect of physical suffering and death.

No, it's rather the horror of the one who lives wholly for the Father.

He was perfect.

At the prospect of the alienation from God, Jesus came to be with the Father in Gethsemane for an interlude before his betrayal, but found hell rather than heaven open before him.

And he staggered.

Not everyone, but I see it all the time.

You do too.

Our modern sophisticated view of reality suggests there's no objective evil, certainly no sin to be atoned for, but the Bible has an altogether different view.

Sin is real, it's a heart set against God.

Evil is real, it's found in the crevices of my heart.

In the schemes of the evil one and his devices, it's seen in the news like we saw this week.

And Jesus is becoming more and more acquainted with the horrors of what he alone will have to bear on the cross for you and for me on Calvary.

On the cross, Rebecca McLaughlin says, the most powerful man who ever lived submitted to the most brutal death ever died to save the powerless.

That's me and you.

Christianity does not glorify violence, it humiliates it.

When we see and we hear Jesus in the garden, we are given a window into the heart of Jesus who loved us to the end.

He was given the cup of wrath by God the Father, and he takes it voluntarily.

The evil one is not in charge here.

Judas and his mob is not in charge here.

The man of sorrows lays down his life by his wounds.

We are healed, and we say, Hallelujah, what a savior.

Look with me at verse 47, verse 47, as we turn our eyes to the moments of the arrest of Jesus.

It says, while he was still speaking, there came a crowd.

And the Gospel of John tells us, along with the religious leaders, Judas had procured a Roman cohort.

Likely would have been three to six hundred men.

Can you imagine?

Three to six hundred men to get Jesus and his ragtag disciples.

Not only was Judas betraying his Lord, he was doing so with a mix of people who would be enemies in any other context.

But here they're unified in this evening, in the shadow of the evening, so that they wouldn't be seen by the people.

It was treachery.

And as the mob approaches, the Gospel of John tells us Simon Peter is the one who takes out his sword.

Surprised.

He cuts off the right ear of the servant, the high priest, we know is called Malchus.

It was Peter against the world on that Thursday night.

But perhaps to Peter's disappointment, Jesus does not rise up in revolt, he surrenders himself.

He has no intention of crushing this small band of soldiers.

He has his eyes set towards the cross, where he would decisively crush sin, death, and the power of darkness that seem to be advancing in this moment.

Again, it's Luke, Dr.

Luke, who describes for us the final miracle of Jesus before the cross.

In an extraordinary act of mercy, he heals Malchus, puts his ear back on.

How did he do it?

Did he just pop it back on?

I don't know.

Did it just grow?

Actually, the question I want to explore for a minute is what was it like to walk down, back down the garden or the Mount of Olives?

Did Malchus turn around as Jesus was in chains and say, as he's touching his right ear?

Who is this man?

That act of compassion anticipates the cross of Jesus, where he bears shame and scoffing.

And he takes the wounds meant for me so that we might be healed.

Meant for you so that we might be healed.

There's a big window into the heart of Jesus.

Don't miss it.

What do we hear Jesus saying in this scene of his arrest?

Well, verse 48, if we look there, Jesus said to Judas, Would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?

The Son of Man being his favorite title for himself from Daniel.

It's a messianic title.

And Luke records for us, I think, one of the most sorrowful questions in the Bible, at least in the New Testament.

I think it's likely that Jesus is giving this betrayer, Judas, one more opportunity for repentance.

To turn around from the evil course that he's chosen.

I can imagine I'm speculating here, but Jesus saying, Judas, you've seen me work miracles.

I just worked one in front of you.

You've seen me calm storms, you've seen me raise the dead, we've preached the kingdom of God together, we've wept together, and you're going to betray me with a symbol of love and affection?

Do we see how twisted the heart of Judas is in this moment?

Jesus asks a question that it should have exposed the heart of Judas and left him in repentance and weeping, but it didn't.

And I think there's a lesson here for us.

Be careful, friends, that a heart continually and willfully turned away from the Lord Jesus can become calloused, hardened, in a way that you can't see the things of God.

And in parallel, a calloused heart can become open to the things of this world, to the evil one.

It told us earlier that Satan had entered into Judas.

He left the door open.

So don't miss this warning here.

Now the grace of God can pierce even the most callous of hearts.

And anyone in here who has been saved by the grace of Jesus can tell you that.

But don't miss the warning.

We see the reality of someone deceived to the point where they cannot and they will not recognize the Savior in front of them, the one who can meet their deepest need and their greatest longing.

Judas misses it.

The writer of Hebrews talks about this.

Hebrews 3, 12 to 13 says, Take care, brothers and sisters, that there will not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God, but encourage one another every day as long as it's called today, meaning there's still time to turn.

So that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

And if we pull that out a little bit, this is a progression towards a hardened heart that Hebrews talks about.

And we can see it in Judas, unbelief.

It doesn't begin with behavior, it begins with unbelief.

And Judas long before had turned away, is a falling away from the living God.

It's an isolation from community.

Judas had left the group, and finally a heart that's hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

But even in the question that Jesus asks Judas, he invites him to think and to consider his ways.

And I pray no one within the sound of my voice would leave here today with a heart calloused like that.

But if your heart has grown cold, and you recognize that this morning, I pray you see and you hear the mercy of Jesus in Gethsemane as grace for you today.

I don't know where you are, but invite the Spirit of God to soften your heart.

Now let's turn together verse 54 as we consider the denial of Jesus by Peter.

Just a few hours prior, Peter was confident that he was ready to go to prison, ready to go to death for his Lord.

And we have to remember Peter, Simon Peter was the one who made the great confession.

He was the first one to say that Jesus was the Son of God.

He had been bold and courageous throughout the entirety of the ministry of Jesus.

Sometimes that boldness and courage got him into trouble.

He had foot and mouth disease.

But here, Peter wavers.

Seeds of doubt are growing.

But perhaps the reason why, we don't know all the reasons, but he's witnessed Jesus willingly offering himself to Judas and his band without a fight.

Perhaps it's because the other disciples had fled.

Whatever the reasons, fear had gripped Peter and led him to do something he never imagined that he would do.

He denies even knowing Jesus, his friend, his Lord, his savior.

And then he denies him again.

And he denies him again.

And Matthew and Mark tell us even more that Peter called down curses and oaths.

There was a spiritual battle going on in the garden.

There was a spiritual battle in the courtyard, and there was a spiritual battle going on in the heart of Peter.

And then the rooster crows.

And Luke is the only gospel writer that gives us this intimate detail of Jesus turning to lock eyes with Peter.

A look of intent, a look of intimacy.

I think a look to maintain relationship.

And this look is what reminded Peter of what Jesus had told him hours earlier, for telling his denial.

But look, those were not the only words of Jesus that night.

Let's listen to the voice again of Jesus back at 32.

But I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail.

And when you have turned again, that's repentance, strengthen your brothers.

The Son of God prayed for Peter, knowing that he would deny.

I believe that we can say with confidence that the look from Jesus was a look of compassion.

It was a look of grace.

I think even a look that gave Peter hope that Jesus was actually in charge of all that was going on.

Peter was known by Jesus in that moment.

Hear the words of grace from Jesus to Peter.

Receive them as your own.

And as Peter recalled those words, it tells us that he wept bitterly, or you could say wept violently.

That godly remorse turned into godly repentance and later on into restoration.

Spurgeon says, No eye is quicker to see the mercy of God than an eye washed with the tears of repentance.

About 30 years after Peter denies Jesus, Peter writes his first letter, or what we call his first letter, 1 Peter, to a place in modern-day Turkey.

And towards the end of that letter, I think he's reflecting on this restoring grace of Jesus as he encourages the believers with these words.

1 Peter 5.10, and after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself, see the personal language there?

Will himself restore and confirm and strengthen and establish you.

Peter knew the restoring grace of Jesus personally.

He knew the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to forgive and transform a heart.

Peter denied Jesus around a campfire, and Jesus restores him around another campfire.

The power of the gospel of Jesus is for those who have denied, those who have walked away, those who have turned away, those who have ignored, those who are sorrowful and doubting.

And in this account of the final hours of Jesus before the cross, it should pierce our hearts when we see his mercy and hear the grace of our Lord.

Perhaps that's why you're here this morning.

I don't know.

Perhaps that's why you're here this morning, so that you might receive that restoring grace of Jesus personally today.

I pray that's the case.

In a thousand different ways, I have denied Christ.

I have betrayed him.

And if you're honest, you have too.

But our Lord will never betray those who belong to him.

Hold fast to that.

If you've walked away, if you're walking away, maybe that's where you are walking away.

May his kindness and mercy lead you back to him today.

If you are confused, you're doubting in a week like this.

I don't, I think there are a lot of folks who are full of sorrow.

May his kindness and mercy lead you back to him today.

Dane Ortland said, We love until we're betrayed.

Jesus continued to the cross despite betrayal.

We love until we're forsaken.

Jesus loved through forsakenness.

We love up to a limit, and Jesus loves to the end.

Church, say amen to that if you believe it.

Why would he do this?

Luke tells us he came to seek and to save the lost, the prodigal and the entitled, the arrogant and the foolish, the adulterer and the murderer alike.

This kind of unrelenting love in Christ Jesus is the deepest longing of every heart, and it can only be satisfied in him, the suffering servant that Isaiah speaks of, acquainted with grief for our sakes.

He wasn't a reluctant victim, he was a willing savior.

And the agony that Jesus went through in the garden and the cross that he must bear, that we'll study later, is what gives strength to believers to face whatever the world throws at us, even to face death with certain hope.

It's what strengthened Paul and Silas to sing in a prison cell.

It's what prompts Peter to preach the gospel.

In just a few months, he's going to preach the gospel on Pentecost.

And it's what gives us the audacity this morning.

The first song that we sing gives us the audacity to sing, in every season, I am sure, we have every reason to praise the Lord.

In these times we live in, we will praise the Lord.

The only reason we can say that is because what our Lord has done for us on our behalf.

Through a garden leading to a cross.

The power of darkness was at work there, but there is one greater that we can run to this morning who has defeated darkness.

Do you long for that kind of joy, that kind of assurance and confidence in life?

Our Lord is eager for you to turn to Him.

And I pray you do.

Let's pray together.

Just a few moments of reflective prayer and silence as we consider the great love of God in Christ.

Father, this morning we give you thanks.

And we indeed say, Hallelujah, we praise you because of the eternal hope we have in your Son Jesus Christ.

Hallelujah to the Lamb.

And we pray for the day when you will fully make all things new.

We know that day is not yet, but we hold to our hope in Christ Jesus.

May your spirit continue to open your word to us this week as we consider the self-giving love of your Son.

And for those among us who don't yet know you, may your spirit move here, soften hearts.

May we see and hear and experience your love in a fresh way here today.

For those who have walked away who are walking away, may your grace be unusually present this morning.

In the name of our Lord Jesus, we all said.

Amen.