Let's open our Bibles this evening
to Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22 and reading verses
39 through 46. And he came out 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 you enter not into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them
about a stone's cast, and 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 an 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 unto them, why sleep
ye? Rise and pray, lest ye enter
into temptation. In the book of Ezekiel, and also
in the Revelation, we read of four living creatures. Four living
creatures, and the vision that Ezekiel had, these four living
creatures, and then when John was caught up into heaven, and
the throne room there, he also saw four living creatures. John
Gill, he was convinced that these four living creatures represent
the preachers of the gospel, those men that God calls and
puts into the ministry, proclaim the gospel of the grace of God. But there have been others, and
I knew a Bible teacher that was teaching in this Bible Institute
that I attended, who believed that these four living creatures,
their faces, they had four faces. Each one of these living creatures
had four different faces. And they have taught that these
represent the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The face
of a lion, represents the Gospel of Matthew, where he is especially
presented as the king. Remember those wise men, when
they first came following the star, they asked that question,
where is he that is born king of the Jews? And then one face
was that of an ox, And they believe that represents the gospel of
Matthew. And these are gospel narratives,
I should say that. There's only one gospel, right?
But we have these four gospel narratives. And the ox represented
the gospel narrative of Mark, which especially shows him as
a servant. Now, ox is used to plow and work
in the fields. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
is especially presented in the gospel according to Mark as a
servant. Remember, he said that he came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life
a ransom for many. And then, of course, the gospel
of John, they say, is represented by the eagle, because the eagle
soars so high. And John's gospel, we have those
those sayings of our Lord so many times there, I am in his
gospel. And then the gospel according
to Luke represents the face of the man or the face of the man
represents this gospel, the face of a man. And I do know this
that in the two genealogies that we are given in Matthew's gospel,
his genealogy is traced up And I believe it's traced up through
Joseph, his supposed father, but only as far as Abraham. But the genealogy that's given
in the gospel according to Luke, which I believe is the genealogy
of Mary, it is traced all the way back to Adam. Adam, the son
of God, the scripture says. He is the son of man. And I bring
this to us tonight just to cause us to think about there are things
recorded in this gospel that we don't read in any of the other
gospels. And the coming of Gabriel to
Mary, telling her that she would be the mother of him who would
be the king who'd sit on the throne of his father David and
reign forever and ever. That's only recorded in this
Gospel of Luke. And two of our Lord's best-known
parables. I mean, no matter where you would
go, people are aware of the Good Samaritan, the parable of the
Good Samaritan. And what a lesson, what a lesson
that is, isn't it? And I know most people don't
realize The teaching of that parable really is showing us
that we cannot be saved by our own works. That's what it's declaring
unto us, that man cannot keep the law of God to obtain his
salvation. And then, of course, the parable
of the prodigal son is only given to us here in the gospel according
to Luke. And also, what we have just read,
we only find, there's two things we only find here in the Gospel
of Luke. And this is what I come to tonight
in verse 43. And there appeared an angel unto
him from heaven, strengthening him. Now I want us to look at
the passage that we read First of all, and then a couple of
things about that particular verse. First, the Lord Jesus,
in great trouble, prayed. Notice in verse 42, or in verse
41 and 42, and he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast
and kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing,
remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thine, be done. We should take his example when
we are brought or when we come into trouble. Our Lord, what
did he do? He prayed. He went in trouble,
he prayed. And we see here he was in great
trouble at this time. And no child of God should think
that He's going to escape or she's going to escape trouble
in this world because that's just not going to happen. Our
Lord has told us too many times what we may expect in this world. But what are we to do when we
find ourselves in trouble? Well, we're to pray, just like
our Lord did here when he was in trouble. You know, we're given
example after example in the scriptures. I think of David.
And what he wrote in one of the Psalms, he said, this poor man
cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his
troubles. David certainly experienced trouble
in this world. And then we have another example,
many examples in the Word of God of men while in trouble prayed,
just like the Lord Jesus Christ here, in great trouble prayed. Jacob. He's a good example. When he was coming back into
the land of Canaan, you know, he had his four wives and 12
sons and at least one daughter, probably more. And he got word
that his brother Esau was coming to meet him with 300 men. Well, the last word I think he
had heard from Esau was he was going to kill him when he saw
him the next time. Jacob was in trouble. Now he
tried to, no doubt, endear himself to Esau by sending those gifts
ahead of him. You know, so many different types
of animals he sent ahead, and the servants, and gave them to
Esau. And then he sent his wives, his
four wives and their children, and sent them ahead. But what
did he do? in trouble. He prayed. He prayed. That's when, of course, we know
the angel of the Lord wrestled with him as he was praying. And Jacob, of course, he's the
one who said, I will not let thee go lest thou bless me. And we also learn here from our
Lord's example how we are to pray. We are to pray in submission
to his will, God's will. just like our Lord did. Not my
will, but thy will be done. If thou be willing, remove this
cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will be
done, but thine. Now that's not always easy to
do, is it? Think about it. Not always easy
to pray. When you're in trouble, maybe
you're at the hospital and someone you love is in, in intensive
care or something. Not always easy, is it, to pray? Not my will, but thine be done. Our Lord prayed in submission.
But you know, the Holy Spirit is given unto us, and that's
one of the reasons we read that he is given unto us, is to help
our infirmities. For we know not what we should
pray for as we ought. We need to pray like our Lord
did when in trouble. I put this article on the back
of our bulletin today. It was a special blessing to
me. It's by Octavius Winslow, a pastor who lived in England
in the 1800s. But what was really a special
blessing to me, he asked this question, but why these doubts,
these tremblings, these fears? Can you relate to that? I can. And what went before that is
he was talking about in our pilgrimage through this world, over every
new path is written, you have not passed this way before. And
we certainly go down those roads, don't we? You've not passed this
way before. A new bend in our life transpires. A new path in our pilgrimage
is presented, involving new duties and new responsibilities, new
cares and new trials, and with fear and trembling. We gird ourselves
for a new cloud, veiled pilgrimage, which God in his goodness has
appointed us. But why these doubts? Why these
doubts? Why these tremblings? Why these
fears? Can you relate to that? I can. Something new, something different
in our life comes along and why these doubts? Why these fears? Why these tremblings? Jesus, he went on to say, Jesus
is our leader. Sounds so simple, doesn't it?
Why these doubts? Why these tremblings? Why these
fears? You may be facing something right
now in your future, maybe this week or next week, or maybe something
is going to happen you haven't even heard about. Some of you
I know are facing surgery. Why these fears? Why these tremblings? Why these doubts? Jesus is our
leader. Do we believe that? I hope we
do. Lord, I believe, help thou mine
unbelief. Jesus is our leader. He knows
all the way we take. Now listen. has mapped every
road and has appointed every path. We're not going to take
a step today, tomorrow, or next week that the Lord Jesus Christ
has not ordained that we take. We're not going down a path that
he has not designed that we go down that path. And he, as the
man went on to say, as a teacher, he leads us into all truth. As a captain, he leads us from
victory to victory. As a shepherd. He leads us into
green pastures. As a guide, he leads us along
our difficult path skillfully, gently, and safely. And his text for that article
is that verse in Isaiah 40 and verse 11, where he said, he will
feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom. and shall gently lead
those with young. And what I came to see from that
verse is no matter, we're not going to have any young that
we're carrying, but anyone with any burden, with any load, the
Lord Jesus Christ as our shepherd, as our kind and tender shepherd,
he's going to gently lead those with young, those that have a
burden, those who are carrying a burden. Well, when we are in
trouble, and surely we're going to meet trouble, we should do
as our Lord did, we should pray, we should pray, and we should
submit to the Lord's will, not my will, but thy will be done. Our second thought is the Lord
Jesus in great agony, first in great trouble, but now in great
agony, prayed more earnestly. Notice that in verses 43 and
44. And there appeared an angel unto
him from heaven, strengthening him and being in an agony. He prayed more earnestly. And
his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to
the ground. Now, I believe that the verse
in Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 7 complement those two verses
that I've just read here. Being in great agony, he prayed
more earnestly and his sweat was, as it were, great drops
of blood falling down to the ground. A verse in Hebrews tells
us this, who in the days of his flesh, speaking about Christ,
when he was here in the flesh, who in the days of his flesh,
when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong
crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death
and was heard in that he feared. When we read that he offered
up his prayers and supplications with strong crying, now that
may refer to when he was on the cross because we are there told
that he cried with a loud voice And that's what that verse says,
with prayers and supplications, with a loud, strong crying, a
loud voice from the cross. And then with the tears, not
only the strong crying, but also with tears may refer to these
verses here that we're looking at tonight. His offering up prayers
with tears may well have been here in the garden of Gethsemane
when his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling
down to the ground. Now, I said Luke is the only
one who recorded this. Luke was a physician. Medicine
certainly wasn't what it is today, but Many people believe this
would have been something that would have really interested
Luke being a physician. And there may be, I don't know,
there may be a medical explanation for the body and such agony for
instead of sweat, as we normally sweat blood, to sweat great drops
of blood. I know this, there is a medical
explanation, I've read it, you have too. I'm sure when we read
in John's gospel that when that Roman soldier took that spear
and plunged it into the chest of the Lord Jesus Christ, there
flowed out blood and water. And we've read, you've read,
I'm sure that around the heart there's that sack that contains
water. I forget the name of that sack,
that this was something that would happen. Blood and water
would come out. But you and I know that it has
a spiritual meaning, don't we? The blood represents justification,
being justified by his blood. And the water, of course, represents
sanctification, the cleansing. And these two always go together,
always. If a person's justified, he's
sanctified. If a person's sanctified, he's
justified. You can't separate these two
works of grace. I think about what the Apostle
Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, and some of those people, they
had lived a very wicked life, you know, and he said, and such
were some of you. He named a whole list of things
that nobody would be proud of, that's for sure. Such were some
of you, but you're sanctified, you're washed,
you're sanctified, you're justified. And all three
of those things, washing, sanctification, justification, how? In the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God. He is our righteousness
for justification, and He is our sanctification. The spiritual
meaning here when we read that His sweat was as great drops
of blood, His great agony, His great agony that He was in. Have you ever done something
that caused you grief? I know we probably all have.
Maybe we hurt somebody, hurt somebody's feelings, and it just
caused us such great grief. Or any number of things. We've all experienced that, haven't
we? Grief. You know the Lord Jesus Christ,
he took all the griefs of all of his people and bore them in
his own body. He did. No wonder he was in such
great agony. The sins of all his people, your
sins, my sins tonight, if we know him, they were all imputed
unto him, transferred unto him. In fact, Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians,
for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. All the griefs
for the sins of his people. He was bearing no doubt there. Charles Spurgeon, if you read
much of his writings, his messages he preached, you're going to
run into this saying. He said, in the Greek church's
eulogy, you find these words, his untold agonies. His untold agonies. We can't even begin. When we
read here, he was in great agony. I don't know that we can even
begin to understand the agony the Lord Jesus Christ was in.
And because of our sins, of our griefs that he bore in his own
body on the tree. Untold agonies. Well, let me say just a few words
about this text tonight. There appeared an angel unto
him, strengthening him, an angel from heaven. There's three things
I want to bring out. Number one, this refutes those
who deny his humanity. You know, Paul said it ever so
clear in verse Timothy two and verse five when he said, for
there's one God, And one mediator between God and man, the man. He didn't say the God, he said
the man, Christ Jesus. One mediator. You know, over
the history of the church, there's been many heresies that the church
has had to fight off, and most of them have been around the
person of Jesus Christ. Because it is such a mystery,
isn't it? how that he has two natures,
and yet he's only one person. Not two persons, but one person
with two natures. And one of those natures was
that he was a man, humanity. Most of the heresies that we're
familiar with, of course, deal with his deity. The Jehovah's
Witnesses, for instance. They're one of the major cults
today that teach that the Lord Jesus Christ was not really God. A God, yes, a God, but not the
God. Well, that's a denial of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Great is the mystery of godliness,
Paul wrote. God was manifest in the flesh. Not a God, but the God. There's
only one God, but we know that He exists in a trinity of persons,
and the second person in the trinity, the eternal Son of God,
was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as
of the only begotten of the Father. Full of grace and truth, John
tells us. His humanity, no one can deny
his humanity when we read here that he was in such agony that
an angel came and strengthened him. Even me saying this, it's still
a mystery to me. Because we emphasize and rightly
so his lordship so often. Because we live in a world where
people talk, poor little Jesus, we know that's not the Jesus
of the Bible. He's the King of kings and Lord
of lords. But he still was a man who could
experience this great agony, so much so that one of his angels,
one of his angels came to strengthen him. How does the God-man need strengthening? Well, how did the God-man increase
in stature and wisdom? As we read in Luke, I believe
chapter two, when he was subject to Mary and Joseph after he went
home. He was in the temple there at
the age of 12, remember? And then scripture tells us when
they came back and then they went to Nazareth, that he was
subject to them, and he increased, increased in wisdom and stature. Now, we can understand, right?
Increase in stature, right? Yes, a 12-year-old grows taller.
But for the God-man to increase in wisdom, what do we see? We see his humanity, don't we? We see his humanity. No wonder he can identify with
us because he knew by experience what it was to be a man. Yes. A second thing that comes
to my mind is this enforces how he is our kinsman redeemer. You know, the Apostle Paul in
Ephesians speaks about we are members of his body, of his flesh,
and of his bones. How did he become our kinsman-redeemer? And according to the law of the
kinsman-redeemer, that's the Hebrew word gol, G-O-L, the way
it's written in English, that's what Job said in the passage
I read at the beginning. I know that my gol, my redeemer,
liveth But to be our Redeemer, he had
to be our kinsman. An angel could not have redeemed
us. He had to be a man. Had to be
a man that he could suffer, that he could bleed, that he could
die. Yes, had to be God that that sacrifice would be sufficient. Yes, he's our kinsman, Redeemer. He has the right of redemption. And a third and last thing, this
reminds us of the ministry of angels to all of God's sons. In Hebrews chapter one, the apostle
is showing how the Lord Jesus Christ is above the angels, his
superiority to the angels, and he does so by stating two facts. He said, first of all, God never
said to an angel, set thou at my right hand while I make thine
enemies a footstool. God never said to any created
being, set thou at my right hand. The right hand is a place of
power, a place of glory. He never said that to any angel.
Don't confuse, don't say that Jesus Christ was merely an angel
in other words. He's showing the deity of Christ
there, isn't he? But the second thing he said
about the angels is they're all ministering spirits. That's what
they are. They're ministering spirits,
and they're sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of
salvation. That's you, if you're saved tonight,
an heir of salvation. That word heir, you know what
it means. Of course, a person receives
an inheritance. It's a gift. And the Lord Jesus
Christ, we know, willed, we talk about a man's will, his last
will and testament, and he has his heirs named in his will,
his children or whoever. And that's what the scripture
here says about those of us who are saved, who shall be heirs
of salvation. Again, we see that salvation,
the salvation of God's elect through the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ is a gift. We didn't earn it. We don't deserve
it. It's a gift. Salvation is. Well, I pray the Lord would bless. Remember a few weeks ago a message
I preached on Sunday night and I ended with this verse and I
made the statement at that time, I said, that verse deserves a message all its own. There appeared an angel unto
him from heaven, strengthening him. That's amazing, isn't it? Who he is? And an angel strengthened
him. And only Luke tells us that.
Not Matthew, Mark, or John, but Luke alone tells us this. Well, I'm thankful for each one
of the four gospel narratives, aren't you? Each one. And each one tells us about our
Savior, about the Lord Jesus Christ.