Well, good morning. Join me in
your Bibles to Luke chapter 22 this morning. We'll be looking, beginning in
verse 39, but kind of just to put things in context. They've left the upper room where
they observed the Lord's Supper and had observed the last Passover. The Lord gives some encouraging
words to His disciples. Much of the details of what goes
on is recorded in John chapter 14, 15, 16, and the Lord's high
priestly prayer there in John chapter 17. But in our account here in Luke, beginning
in verse 39, and went, as he was wont, to
the Mount of Olives. And his disciples also followed
him. And when he was at the place,
he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation.
And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast. And he kneeled down and prayed,
saying, Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from me, nevertheless
not my will, but Thine be done, And there appeared an angel unto
him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed
more earnestly, and his sweat was, as it were, great drops
of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose up from
prayer and was come to his disciples, He found them sleeping for sorrow
and said, why sleep ye? Rise and pray, lest ye enter
into temptation. And these were the last things
recorded in Luke before Judas and his henchmen show up to arrest
him there. So we're going to pay particular
attention today. We're going to kind of hop around
through this in a little bit. circle back on some other things
in our next lesson. Today's lesson, the title of
today's lesson is In the Garden Again. And it says, he went as
he was wont to do. And that means his custom, his
habit, and the determinate counsel of God would be the reasons why
Christ retreated to this Mount of Olives every evening after
teaching in the temple. And you know, Judas knew that
he did that. He could count on that. And we
find that in John chapter 18, verse 1 and 2. When Jesus had
spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook
Cedron, where was a garden into the which he entered and his
disciples. And Judas also, which betrayed
him, knew the place, for Jesus oft times resorted thither with
his disciples." So Judas had kind of bugged out before they
went over there, but he knew where they were going because
it says that he went there every day. He taught in the temple
by day and retreated to the Mount of Olives by night. In Matthew
26, verse 36, We have a little more detail
supplied because it says, Then cometh Jesus with him to a place
called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here
while I go and pray yonder. So the Mount of Olives is called
a Sabbath day's journey from Jerusalem. By the tradition of
the elders, this was the distance that they were allowed to walk
in a day without violating the Sabbath. So it was just not that
far. a little bit of a walk. The Mount
of Olives was noted for olive groves. On the west side facing Jerusalem,
it was like a big cemetery. I read yesterday there's about
150,000 graves and tombs there, if you can believe that. And
remember, when people came for the Passover, they would go out
and they would whitewash all those tombs, because if you touched
where a dead person was, you touched a tomb, you were unclean
for seven days, and you wouldn't be able to participate in any
of the festivities and the Passover
or any of the feasts that they were having. So they would they
would go out and whitewash those tombs so people would know where
they were. They wouldn't accidentally touch them or sit on one or come
in contact with them because it would make them ceremonially
unclean. And so there you have the whited
sepulchers connotation that you find Jesus is. You're like whited
sepulchers. You look pretty nice on the outside,
but you're full of dead men's bones within. John, again, he describes this,
on this Mount of Olives, there was a garden called Gethsemane. And since it was a place where
there was a lot of olive groves in this, the Gethsemane means
olive press. So there's so much things that
we find are significant here with just a little bit of digging
that it's just, there's nothing in there by accident. Everything
has a purpose. Everything has a quality to it
that speaks to the Lord and his redemption of the church. And
we find, it was just kind of came to me as interesting that
The second Adam, for the last time, enters into a garden to
undo all the grief caused. by the first Adam in the first
garden. Isn't that an interesting corollary
that we find there where Christ goes into this garden and it's
so fitting that as the fall had its origin in the Garden of Eden,
the cure, which is Christ, for that enormous calamity is found
at the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. where there
was an olive press used to crush the olives and extract from them
oil. And that olive oil was used ceremonially
for all the things that they did in the temple, anointing
oil and whatnot that they used through the Old Testament was
olive oil. So much that's presented as a
metaphor in the Old Testament is presented here as a fulfillment
of those types. Christ is about to be crushed,
just as those olives would be crushed. And here not too long ago in
Norm's Wednesday night teachings, he was in Zechariah 14, and he
read in Zechariah 14, 4, and his feet shall stand that day
upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall
cleave in the midst, therefore thereof toward the east and toward
the west, and there shall be a great a very great valley and
half the mountain shall remove to the north and half of it toward
the south. And the gist of that message
was that the gospel is just going to create a division. And some
are going to go this way and some are going to go that way.
And God is the determining factor in which which way they go there. So very significant that we find
him on the Mount of Olives fulfilling the very gospel that turns out
to be the big divider. Our last lesson was called The
Sword of Division and talked about that effect that the gospel
has on folks. And there he is in this garden
and this significant olive press there. And Isaiah 53.10 tells
us, yet it was the Lord's will to crush him. and cause him to
suffer." This is the NIV translation that I'm reading here. It says,
in the KJV, it says, bruise him, but if you look up bruise, it
means to crush. to pound, to crush. So it was
the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer. Though
the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring
and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper
in his hand. The very determinate will and
counsel of God was responsible for what was about to take place. And there's so much in the Old
Testament that talks about the things that happened to him.
In Isaiah 63, 1, who is this that cometh from Edom? Well,
remember that the temple had been revamped by an Edomite. Isn't that an interesting thing
that the ruler over Jerusalem was an Edomite, Herod, and he built the temple up to suit himself. He didn't get any instructions
from God to do that or what to do, but he gold-plated it and
fixed it all up and made it a tribute to himself. But who is this that
cometh from Edom with dyed garments from Basra, this that is glorious
in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength?
I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save, wherefore art
thou red in thine apparel and thy garments like him that treadeth
in the wine-fat? I have trodden the wine-press
alone, and of the people there was none with me. For I will
tread them in mine anger and trample them in my fury, and
their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments. and I will
stay in all my arraignment." You know, it's interesting that
we read this account in Luke, and he says, you guys stay here,
I'm going to go over here a stone's throw by myself and communicate. And we're going to just look
at this a little bit more here in depth. But he's going to communicate
with the one that he was one with from eternity. He's going
to talk to God the Father. So often we think, well, you
know, unless we dial one and then the number, we don't get
God. But his prayer was just instant
communication with him, and the things that were on his heart,
that's what he transmitted in his heart to God the Father,
and we have that example there. Again, in Genesis 49, 10, the
scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between
his feet until Shiloh come. And unto him shall the gathering
of the people be. Binding his fold to the vine
and his ass's colt unto the choice vine, he washed his garments
in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes. He said, I'll stay in all my
raiment. He was in such agony in prayer, and we're going to
look at what that really has to do with. But he was sweating
like great drops of blood to the ground. The text tells of
the agony that Jesus suffered there, and it's an agony that
we can never fully comprehend. Right off the bat, There's nobody
in this world that's not experienced sin, that's not a sinner. So
we all have that viewpoint. We have that nature. We have
that background, that context for everything that impacts us. But Jesus did not have that.
He who knew no sin. He who is holy and harmless.
And yet, we find Him taking on Himself the sins of all His people. Can you imagine? We just can't
fully comprehend what that would be like. We just don't have anything to
compare that to, that Him that was so holy, so pure, so righteous,
and yet taking on the sins of all His people from all time
and burying them. You know, in Matthew 26, 38,
it says He was sorrowful. even unto death." That's how
bad it was for him. In his human form, he was sorrowful
even unto death. And that's pretty serious. An agony and a sorrow for the
Holy One taking and bearing all the sins of all His people. Sin,
which was unbelievably opposite to His holy nature. And it must
have been so reprehensible to Him. But it says, yet for the
joy that was set before Him, He willingly did that. And because
of the love that He had for the people from before the foundation
of the world, the everlasting love that it talks about in Jeremiah. He made Him to be sin for us
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him." The great transaction of the Gospel. There was an agony
in which the work before Him was so intense as to cause Him
to sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground.
You can imagine what, you know, you go out and do a hard day's
work and you come home Your shirt is just sopping wet and it's
a darker color than it was when you put it on. It's all wet. It takes on a whole new appearance. He had an agony of taking on
the weight. In Hebrews chapter 12, 1 it says,
wherefore saying, we are also encompassed about with so great
a cloud of witness, let us lay aside every weight. and the sin
which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience
the race that is set before us." This weight means a burden that's
so big it's just bulging out. It's like a sack that's got so
much stuff in it that it's just bulging over and hanging over
the sides, and it's not manageable very good by a human. And He took all that on Him.
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who
for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising
the shame and the set down at the right hand of the throne
of God. And as we're reading this, if we were to say, okay,
here's the chronology of things, He's just hours away. Just hours
away. Just minutes away. the thing that he had been prepared
from eternity to accomplish. You know, he's only a little
time away from being smitten by God. Can you imagine? someone someone that you just
love unconditionally and who unconditionally loves you back
being having being that set aside for a time separated as it were
and then being smitten by that one that you were at unity with
and and were at one with and that you had an eternal love
with. So he's within a few hours of
being smitten by God. In Isaiah 53, he's despised and
rejected a man, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and we
hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows." That weight, that big bulging mass
of burden of sin that we could never take care of. And we did
esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. He knew
that was coming because He caused this to be written down in Isaiah
53. I don't want to go down too far
down a rabbit hole, but probably many of you have behaved badly
when you were a youngster and knew that you were going to get
whopped when your dad came home and made yourself scarce. Because
you knew it was coming and you dreaded it, you know. So I think
to a certain extent, He, for the joy that was set
before Him, endured all this. But it was a terrible agony to
Him to have that happen to Him by God
the Father. An agony of impending separation
from Him with whom He was at one. An agony in which we find
an angel coming down It says, an angel came and strengthened
him. And that word strengthened means to put strength into. He
put strength into him for the things that were about to happen.
And then we have a little bit about the prayer. And we're going
to stop there for today and kind of pick this up in our next lesson
when we have a little bit more time. the prayer. If thou be willing, remove this
cup from me nevertheless. Not my will, but thine be done."
Isn't that what he said when he, they said, teach us to pray.
And he says, That's what he said. Not my will,
but thine be done, as it is so in heaven, let it be on earth. So we'll stop there. And Lord
willing, next time we get together, we'll tackle more of this.