R537 What Happened When Jesus Prayed

God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton about what happens when Jesus prays.

Yes, when Jesus prays. That's today's topic on the encouraging word. Know that we're here to pray with you and for you as well. Our phone number is 866-899-WORD.

Jot it down, 866-899-9673. Now today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. I want us to pray especially for moms and dads, for grandparents, members of staff and others who have spouses singing in the choir or ministering. Perhaps parents who are divided today, some in the nursery and some here, some working on our media ministries. And you're there, you're watching the children and that's your responsibility and it's a tough assignment.

But God gives you grace and we love you and we support you and we're there with you. Lord Jesus, thank you for every parent and everyone who fulfills that role today. Thank you for people in our church who are the guardians of little ones so that others can sing in the choir and can minister today. Father, thank you for our parents. Give to them just a wonderful gift of your grace. Assure their hearts. Let them just know that the investment that they make Sunday by Sunday and day by day, that when that little one goes on to Keith Nicholson's department with the children and goes off to Camp Voyager with grades four through six in June, and goes off on youth choir tour and ends up in Seth Buckley's department and goes on and becomes a young adult and goes to college and eventually sits here and serves tables and become deacons and Sunday school teachers and leaders, that we go right back to those times when, Lord, we sat with them in big church and we taught them.

Bless our little ones and bless those who care for them. In Jesus' name, Amen. But I want us to think about the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. I've entitled my message this morning, What Happened When Jesus Prayed Before He Died? I want you to think about something. Turn with me in your Bibles to John's Gospel in chapter 17. I want everyone here this morning to turn in your Bibles for this Bible study.

What happened when Jesus prayed before He died? I want you to think about it for a moment. I'm so looking forward to going back to Israel again. It's one of the most incredible places to be. Right on the Mount of Olives, which looks over the city of Jerusalem, you come down the side of the hill into the Kidron Valley, and before you get into the Kidron Valley, which goes back up into Jerusalem, and you've probably seen pictures with the Dome of the Mosque, the big golden-looking dome that has become a hallmark of Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, right as you go down into the valley, you'll pass through a place called the Garden of Gethsemane. And we've heard about Gethsemane so much. It's a special place and I love to be there.

And I'm going back there again this year with groups of our people. It just does something in my heart when we go to the Garden of Gethsemane. I want you to think about the Garden of Gethsemane and how that, and I believe right here in John chapter 17, that Jesus found himself in the Garden of Gethsemane, a place where he prayed and where he met with God in a very special time. And I want you to think about the cross and I want you to think about what was about to happen to the Lord Jesus Christ. I really think that many of us in our human condition, we've become rather blase about what Jesus went through, don't you think? I mean, we've come to imagine within ourselves that the Lord Jesus Christ, because he was God and he is God and because he was and is the Son of God, that this was just a breeze for him.

This was a walk in the park. But I think sometimes, my friends, we need to be reminded of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, of the God-man, of his incarnation. The Bible says that he was tempted in all points, just as we are, yet without sin. And in order for Jesus Christ to pay the full price for the pardon of mankind, he had to experience the whole gamut of everything that we as human beings experience.

And he did. The Bible tells us that he wept. The Bible tells us that he became hungry. The Bible tells us that he talked and walked. The Bible tells us so much about the Son of the living God. And I can just imagine Jesus coming into the garden of Gethsemane and the Word even tells us that he began to sweat great drops of blood, so deep was the anguish of the Son of God.

Think about it. He had just arrived in Jerusalem. There was all the fanfare. Many of the believers were saying, Hail King of the Jews! The disciples understood most clearly that he was indeed the Messiah. Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, fell down upon his knees and he began to pray.

And I believe he began to pray because he understood within the depths of his heart that he wanted desperately for this cup to be taken from him. What lay ahead of Jesus Christ on the Sunday before Good Friday? Oh, it was good for us.

Thank you very much. Yes, it's Good Friday. Why don't we go out and have a good picnic? Why don't we go out and buy ourselves a new dress? Why don't we go out and have a celebration? It's Good Friday. But I'm going to submit to you that this Jesus upon his knees in the garden of Gethsemane began to pour out his heart to his Father in heaven because of the agony of his heart related to the impending road he was about to march upon.

Just think about it. You don't think for one moment that Jesus knew that in just a few days a group of angry people were going to come marching down that little dirty pathway and were going to seize him? You don't think he knew in his heart that his disciples were going to be so frustrated that one of them would even chop the ear off one of those who came to arrest him? You don't think he knew that he was going to be betrayed by a kiss by Judas Iscariot? You don't think that Jesus knew he was going to be taken and manhandled and pushed and shoved, that he was going to be put up in a mock trial in front of a renegade Pontius Pilate and that Barabbas, that dirty scoundrel guilty of those crimes was going to be set free in favor of the Son of God? You don't think Jesus didn't know that? You don't think Jesus could see that crown of thorns? Oh yes, he was in a beautiful garden, surrounded by those that loved him and protected him.

Oh yes, he was the Son of God. Don't you think that the Lord Jesus Christ could feel the human pain of those thorns being pushed into his skull and the blood running down his face? You don't think Jesus could feel the cat and lion tails on his back, literally ripping out chunks of flesh from him as he was flogged time without number by the Roman oppressors who were putting on the best show they possibly could for everyone to see? You don't think he could feel the scorn and the blasphemies of the Sadducees and the Pharisees who shouted until they were hoarse, Crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify him!

Who does he think he is? You don't think that Jesus saw the Via della Rosso, the way of the cross? You don't think that while Jesus was in the beauty of the garden of Gethsemane that he knew what it was going to be like for those mean-spirited people to take a huge Roman cross and thump it onto his back, already beaten and bruised? You don't think that he could see from the garden of Gethsemane looking to his right side down all the way to the place of the skull, to Golgotha, to Mount Calvary? You don't think he could see that Roman cross and the two who hung beside him, one of whom would mock him and the other of whom would be found in his presence shortly after death? You don't think the Lord Jesus could see them laying that cross down on the ground and those Roman soldiers taking off their jackets and saying, You take this! And you take this! I'll tell you what I'm going to do!

Let's get this man! You don't think that they threw him down upon that cross and they pulled out those spikes and they picked him up and they rammed him down on that cross? And so many of us today, all we can think of is ace hardware stores. You don't think that as they threw him down upon that cross they made mockery out of him, that they took what was a Roman spike. It wasn't a nail, folks.

Don't kid yourselves. It wasn't a wonderful nail that had been sanitized and had been molded in every kind of imaginable stuff that you and I could ever think about. They took a cruel old Roman spike and they put his hands and stretched him out and got a big old hammer and they began to hammer away and hammer away and hit that spike right through the palms of his hands and all the pictures, they showed just one little nail neatly put into the middle of his hand.

The Romans tell us it wasn't one. In order to support a man on a cross they would put five and six and seven and eight and they would even put spikes through their wrists in order to nail them to the cross. You don't think in the Garden of Gethsemane that the Lord Jesus Christ when he fell upon his knees could see the way they took his legs and they put both legs on top of each other and put one foot upon another and forced his foot down into an unnatural position even though there was a slight little platform put on the cross usually at about the height of the feet and they would put just a little platform out there so that he wouldn't altogether rip out of the spikes that nailed him to the cross when they thumped him into the ground and they put that there and they bent his feet over and they got another spike and one said, you hold this man's feet while I hit the spike through his feet and they hit that spike and hit that spike and hit that spike and not one but two and probably one said, why don't you put one in the ankle just to make sure that he stays where we want him to stay? You don't think Jesus knew how thirsty he was going to be when they hung him on that cross and that they'd come and mock him with vinegar they'd intensify his thirst. You don't think our Lord Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb of God who had done nothing to hurt anybody as he was there on that Sunday before Good Friday fell upon his face in the presence of God and he would say, oh God, if it be your will please just take this cup from me.

You don't think that Jesus in all of his human weakness cried out to the Father. Forgive the interruption. You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton, our teacher here on The Encouraging Word. We'll be back with the rest of today's message but I want to remind you that if you just tuned in or have missed portions of this, even portions we weren't able to present today, you'll find it all on our website, www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org, a great place to sign up for the daily devotional from Dr. Don and more.

That's www.tewonline.org. Now back to today's teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. What happened when Jesus prayed before he died? I'm reading in John chapter 17 and verse 1. After Jesus said this, he looked up toward heaven and prayed, Father, the time has come. Glorify your son that your son may glorify you. For you, Father, granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to those you have given him. Now, Father, this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth, my Father, by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, please glorify me in your presence. With the glory I had with you even before the world began. This is the Lord's Prayer. What happened when Jesus prayed before he died?

What do you suppose happened on those days before the cross? Preparation often tells us much about the future, doesn't it? One of the times I love to prepare is for vacation. Now, my wife will tell you that I'm not a very good packer. I'm one of those that come in at the last minute and I pack, but I trust that at least I pack most things, and I get a suitcase and we all get suitcases.

If you want to know what a person is expecting for the future, what a person believes they're going to do before they get there, just go and have a peek in their suitcase. And we all have problems with that, don't we? I know when I pack for vacation, the first thing that goes into the trunk are my golf clubs. My wife says to me, Well, don't you need clothes?

I said, Man, listen, I'll play naked if I have to as long as I got my golf clubs. See, priorities. You want to see what a college student thinks they're going to be doing when they get to college?

Now, I don't recommend this, but go and have a peek in their suitcase before they leave. Very often, what we do in order to prepare for what we're going to do tells us our values, our priorities, where our mind is, what we anticipate, what we expect, even though we haven't been there, we've got no guarantee of it. We just don't know, but we prepare to get there. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, surrounded by those that He loves, and Jesus Christ is about to prepare, not that this is His first step of preparation, He's been preparing from before the foundation of the world. Not that this is the first time He's actually thought about it, but the water's about to hit the wheel, if you'll beg my pardon.

I mean, this is the big one. It's one thing to talk about it and to know it's going to happen, but it's another thing to actually get there. And so Jesus finds Himself upon His knees. And friends, this prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ is one of the most magnificent statements about the cross. I believe that this doctrinal statement of our Lord Jesus Christ puts the very foundation of the world into its proper perspective. I believe that when Jesus Christ fell upon His knees, that that connectedness between God the Father and God the Son, and the oneness of I and the Father are one, came to all of its brilliant glory at this very moment when Jesus knelt and prayed before He died.

I think we need to unpack this suitcase. I think what Jesus was doing here, He was trying to tell us what it was about the cross. I believe that Jesus was opening the eternal books of the heavens. I believe that God was invoking in Jesus Christ by His Spirit everything that God has in store for all people at all times through this monumental climactic expression called the cross.

There is nothing to compare with it. Here we find our Lord Jesus Christ upon His knees. It's interesting to note here that He began by praying, first of all, for Himself.

In John chapter 17, can I just give a little aside here? Friends, it's quite okay to pray for yourself. Some of you today worshiping the Lord, and you have needs of every kind. You talk to the Lord about yourself.

That's not being selfish. God expects it, and Jesus demonstrated it. It seems to me rather interesting that in John chapter 17, He prayed for Himself, then He prayed for His disciples, then He prayed for all believers all over the world. Is there anything more precious than praying for yourself, praying for your children and your grandchildren, talking to the Lord about the things that concern you? And today you're worshiping the Lord.

I want to simply submit to you as you look ahead into a future that you've never been to, whatever it is that is in your heart. Watch what Jesus did. Watch what He packed in His suitcase. So what did happen before, when Jesus prayed before He died? Well, in this prayer, this magnificent statement of the doctrine of God in Christ Jesus, I believe that Jesus was reminding Himself and all of us, number one, that God's timing is perfect.

Now I want you to think about this for a moment. In verse 1, the Bible says Jesus, upon His knees, He looks up toward heaven and He says, Father, the time has come. Time. What was time to God? God is eternal. God transcends the clocks that we wear on our arms and on our walls. God knows no semblance of time, but here Jesus Christ is expressing the very essence of His incarnation. Here Jesus Christ is expressing the finality of the curtain call of the time of God upon the hand of mankind through His Son. The time has come. Remember the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee?

What a social stigma. How positively awful to be at a wedding of this caliber and yet run out of the very best that they had to offer. And so panic-stricken, Jesus' mother turns to her son and He turns the water into wine and immediately this happens. The servants and those who dispense this good stuff for people and people are saying, this is amazing. They've saved the best for last and they immediately begin to beg Jesus to become involved in their social circumstances and Jesus looks at them with compassion and He says, my time has not yet come. Right throughout John's Gospel and all the Gospel He finds Himself going head to head with His enemies and He escapes death. Why were they unable to get Jesus and to kill Him?

Well, it's quite simple. His time had not yet come. God's time and eternal time. In other words, when Jesus gets upon His knees, if you'll beg my pardon, there is a sense in which the Lord Jesus Christ looks up to heaven and He says, oh God, I don't know if I can take all the agony of the cross, but I want you to know this is the moment we've all been waiting for.

This is it. This is a God moment. The time has come. God's perfect moment. See friends, when I read this and when I begin to try to understand and to grapple with what God is teaching me just in that one statement prior to the cross, I come to a fresh understanding that Jesus' announcement concerning the time of the Father becomes a timeless, eternal statement from the heart of God concerning the purpose of life, concerning the purpose of His life, concerning the purpose of His death, concerning the purpose of His resurrection, concerning the purpose of His ascension. And so it is that when Jesus Christ is upon His knees and He looks to the Father within the context of the agony of His soul, sweating drops of blood, He says, oh God, I have to cast myself upon You because this is the moment that we've been waiting for.

Without this moment, the world has nothing. Therefore, I submit myself in absolute obedience to the will of God. You've been listening to Dr. Don Wilton as he speaks of this submission, complete submission to the will of God. As he's been preaching and teaching from the book of John 17 today, I pray that you would open your heart to these final thoughts from Dr. Wilton about how we apply what we have learned and studying God's Word. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin, and by faith, I receive You into my heart. In Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God. This is exciting news. Perhaps in these last few moments, you were praying along with Dr. Don Wilton in giving your life to Christ, perhaps for the first time or rededicating your life.

Dr. Wilton wants to celebrate with you. We'd love to hear about it. You can call us right now at 866-899-WORD, and we'll send you absolutely free some resources that'll help you jumpstart your faith, whether you're rededicating your life or giving your life to Christ for the first time. Our number's 866-899-9673, or meet us online. We'd love to connect with you there as well, keyboard to keyboard, at T-E-W online.org.

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