Jesus in Gethsemane (Part 1 of 2)

As you read through the Gospels, it's clear that Jesus placed a high priority on prayer.

But why? Why did he set aside time to pray? And why does he urge his followers to do the same thing? Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg helps us understand how an all-knowing, all-powerful God uses our prayers. Father, we pray that as we study the Bible together now, that you will help us, that you will come by the Holy Spirit and do for us what we are unable to do for ourselves. We pray that we may, beyond the voice of a mere man, hear your voice, and in hearing it, that we might obey. We look to you, Lord, in humble dependence, and we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. I invite you to turn again to Luke chapter 22, beginning with verse 39. And as you turn there, I want to read just three familiar verses from Hebrews chapter 12. The writer says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Now, for those of you who've been following along in our studies in Luke's Gospel, you may feel, and with some legitimacy, that we have got stuck here in this little section that begins at verse 39. Because it seems that we've been coming back to it again and again.

I feel a little bit as though I've been watching a video myself, and somebody hit the freeze frame button on the thing, and every time I look back, it's stuck on the same position. But in actual fact, I'm quite comfortable with that, because it appears to me that we've done this purposefully, that we've done it properly. And the reason is that our gaze is turned towards Christ, which is always important and which is, frankly, phenomenally helpful to us. If we do not believe, we need to look at the Lord Jesus and examine who he is and what he's said and what he's done. And if we do believe and profess to follow him, then we need to hear his voice and obey it, and make sure that we are in the company of those who love him and serve him.

So I'm not concerned about the fact that we're apparently stuck here. If there's anywhere that we want to get stuck or any place we may get stuck, then to be stuck on the Lord Jesus would be a fine place to be stuck for a while. Jesus, as Luke tells us, is in a familiar setting. The context of the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, is not a new area for them. They are in familiar geography. And he is in the company of his eleven followers.

They're down to eleven now. Judas is about to pop up again in verse 47. But here they are in Jerusalem. Some twenty-one years have elapsed since the Lord Jesus was up in Jerusalem with Mary and Joseph, was separated from them, as Luke records, causing Mary and Joseph to backtrack into Jerusalem and finally find Jesus in the temple precincts. Those of you who know the gospel will recall this fascinating incident. And speaking to Jesus about the fact that they had missed him, misplaced him, if you like, they receive a quite staggering response.

It comes across best, I think, in the King James Version rather than any of the modern translations. You know, Mary's just my background. But Mary says to him, essentially, Jesus, we've been looking everywhere for you, what do you think's going on? And he says, Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?

Don't you know that I need to be doing what my Father wants me to do? Now, the very natural response on the part of Mary would be to say, Well, maybe, but we've also been looking for you for ages, and it's time to get back down the road. In fact, she was fairly clueless as to what was going on. Luke says that his parents, neither Mary nor Joseph, understood what he was saying to them. In other words, when they went back down the road together, as he trotted on in front, as children usually do, Joseph turned to Mary and said, What do you think he meant by that? And Mary said, Search me.

I'm not sure. I really don't understand. Some of the things he says are mysterious things.

There's no question. You go fast-forward into the Gospels, and Jesus is now moving inexorably towards Jerusalem. He has his disciples with him, and he pauses every so often to tell them what is going to happen to him. For example, in Luke 18—we considered it last time—and Luke is honest enough to tell us that the disciples did not understand any of this. So Mary and Joseph do not understand when he says, I need to do what my Father says. He explains to the disciples, the disciples do not understand. So this should be an immediate encouragement to some of us who are not immediately grasping what we are studying here in these few days.

The hymn writer puts it in a prayer. Oh, make me understand it and help me to take it in, what it meant for you, the Holy One, to bear away my sin. Now, the reason that we've paused is because the events that are unfolding are awesome in the extreme.

The reason that we've paused is because we have recognized that if we fail to ask the question, What is happening here? and instead just allow ourselves to feel it or to experience it or to let it sort of ooze over us, then we may get ourselves in dreadful difficulty. And of course, that's the way many people study the Bible. They just read the Bible in the hope that it's going to hit them. And if it hits them, then they say, Whoa, that was terrific. And if it doesn't, they say, There was nothing in that at all. Or if it moves them or stirs them.

I'm not sure how that is actually supposed to happen. Because every other book that I read, I have to read it, I have to read the sentences, distinguish the verbs from the adjectives and the adverbs and so on, put all the pieces together, and then it actually goes through your mind, and then as a result of understanding, certain things happen physiologically and otherwise as a result of grasping information. Failure to grasp what is happening here may allow us to be sentimental about the scene without ever grappling with the implications of it. And that's why we have belabored the point—I think some may feel that way—but we paused last time to recognize, in the words of the prophecy of Isaiah, that it pleased the Lord to crush him and cause him to suffer. That when we look at Jesus here in the garden of Gethsemane, it pleased the Lord to crush him and cause him to suffer. Now, you see, it's for this reason that you need all of the Bible, and you need to read all of the Bible, from Genesis all the way through to Revelation. It's for this reason that we need the epistles, or the letters, in order that we can understand the Gospels. Every so often I have people come to me and say, Well, I like the Gospels, I like the Sermon on the Mount, but I don't really like the apostle Paul, and I'm not very keen on many of his letters.

Well, I say thank you for sharing that information with me, but you're really in great difficulty. Because the Bible, as we've been given it in its sixty-six books—a compendium, if you like—has been placed in its entirety for us in order that in reading it in its entirety, we might understand the message that it conveys. And so, for example, when you begin to read the letters, Galatians chapter 1, Paul, writing to the Galatians, says of Jesus, Jesus gave himself for our sins. The writer to the Hebrews, speaking of what Jesus has done on the cross, says in 2.17, Jesus was turning aside God's wrath and was taking away the sins of the people. Now, we'll return to what Jesus was accomplishing on the cross when we reach Golgotha, when we reach Calvary, but we're still here in Gethsemane, and we need to keep moving.

I think I've painted insufficient background for us to go back to the aborted outline of last Sunday. The first point you will all remember, I'm sure, was what compassion. I don't think any one of you remembers that.

That was just a marginal joke. What compassion. What compassion. Some of you are nudging one another, saying, What outline?

Not, What compassion? But anyway, that's fine. Some of you are nudging each other, saying, What Sunday? Some of you are nudging each other, saying, Where am I?

But anyway, that's by the way. Now, the compassion of Christ is conveyed here in a very simple way. It would have been understandable had he left the eleven on their own. If he'd said to them, You know, I've really given my best to you fellows. I've preached my sermons. I've done my miracles. I've lived with you now for the last three years.

I've loved you and lived with you, but as of now, I am focused on my own predicament, and therefore, you're on your own from here. But if you look, you will see that the picture is very different from that. You find that the gaze of Jesus is towards his followers. These individuals whom he had called and taught and lived with and loved. Look there, and you see him speaking to them.

I'm sure he's not talking into the air. He turns his gaze towards them. Look at him, and then listen to what he says. Pray that you will not fall into temptation. What he's doing there is he's making their concerns his own. He's urging them to maintain close communion with God so that they might not fall in the face of temptation. What kind of temptation would there be before them?

Well, all kinds, but perhaps these areas primarily. Tempted to doubt him. After all, he had said these remarkable things, and it appeared to be going dreadfully wrong. Tempted, then, to disown him. Tempted, perhaps, to deny that they ever knew him.

Jesus says, Now, fellows, I want you to pray so that you don't fall into temptation. Very practical stuff, isn't it? At least I find it incredibly practical. It was a concern in relationship to them, and it's certainly a concern in relationship to me. I don't know about you.

Have you ever tempted to doubt him? This week, in the early part of the week, I was at the Chautauqua Institute for about an hour. That was as much as I could stand. It is for me now a very sad and paralyzing place. It's hard for me to imagine that Martyn Lloyd-Jones once spoke there for a week to vast crowds.

Sebastian of liberalism and syncretism, both avowed, practiced, and encouraged. I walked around there. I felt a tiny bit like Paul must have felt on Mars Hill.

I looked at all of the people. And in my mind I could hear the word of Jesus, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by me. And in my mind I could hear the voice of the evil one saying, Do you really believe that, Alistair? Do you really believe that? I was sitting on a bench, and he was saying, Do you believe that? Do you realize, Alistair, that no one in here believes that?

Do you realize that if you stood up right now and said that, that is the most unbelievable notion in this place? Tempted to doubt him? Tempted to disown him? Tempted to just flat-out deny him? When you get with all your golf club buddies, and nobody believes, and nobody cares, and everybody swears, and everybody says, Jesus, but only when they miss a putt?

Well, you live there, don't you? That's tremendous compassion on the part of Christ. In light of all that he's about to walk through, he takes a moment and he says, Fellas, I need to say something to you. I want you to pray now. Pray so that you do not fall into temptation. Satan's plan was to put them through the grinder. He had already told them that back in 2231.

Satan has desired to sift you like wheat, put you in the grinder, but I've prayed for you. If you want to know how he prayed for them, read John 17 for your homework. You'll find that he prayed that the Father would protect them. You'll find that he prayed that they would have their joy full, his joy fully working through them.

You'll find that he prayed that they might be sanctified by the truth. What he's saying here is, Chaps, I want to make sure that you stay the course. I want to make sure that you run right to the end of the journey. I want you to make sure that you do not find yourself sidelined and taken out of the game.

Oh, but you say they couldn't be sidelined and taken out of the game. They're the followers of Jesus. We know that. I mean, why would he even say these things? Why would he say, Pray so that you will not fall into temptation? Because if they didn't pray, they would fall into temptation. And when you and I don't pray, we're susceptible to temptation as a far greater onslaught than when we do. In other words, he is urging them to keep themselves in the love of God. Keep yourselves in the love of God. Isn't that a Bible verse?

It is. Jude 21. Keep yourselves in the love of God. You mean we keep ourselves?

Yes. Oh, but I thought God kept us. I thought the benediction was verse 24 of Jude.

It is. Now unto him who is able to keep you from falling. It's a very comforting verse, and it's important, and it's good to use at the end of a service as we go out into the challenges of the week.

He's able to keep you. But three verses before he said, Keep yourselves. Then in verse 24, he says, God will keep you.

Do you see how these two things work together? God doesn't keep his children in a vacuum. He keeps his children by means. He keeps his followers from temptation by the means of prayer. By their prayers for themselves and by his prayers for them.

And the same is true for you and for me this morning. When you read old books, and I know some of you do, you'll discover every so often the phrase comes, the means of grace. And depending on your background, you may have difficulty with understanding what that's about. What those fellows are saying there is simply that God uses means in the lives of his children, which are graciously given so that in the exercise of these areas, his children may be strengthened and equipped and kept for every good work. Well, what kinds of things? Well, one of them is prayer. Prayer. For in prayer we commune with the Father, the Father communes with us. We talk to him, and he speaks into our lives. Preaching! Oh, you say, here we go.

This is just trying to keep a job for yourself. You say, well, preaching is a means of grace. Well, it is actually a means of grace. That's why I need to be preached to all the time. That's why I'm looking forward to this evening, to sitting with my wife and at least one of my children and having somebody preach the Bible to me.

I love that! I listen to preaching in my car all the time. I play CDs of people preaching, teaching the Bible. I need to be preached to. I actually listen to my own preaching. I don't like it much, but I hear it. It's a strange sensation to be preached to every single week by yourself.

I don't recommend it, but it comes to you depending on your circumstances. It is a fact, and it's marginally humorous, but it is actually distinctly true. I'm not here to give you a talk. I'm not here to disperse information.

I don't fully understand the mystery of what this is about. But I do know that part of the means of grace is not only prayer and the preaching of the Word, but also the fellowship of God's people. That's why Hebrews 10 says, Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together, as is the habit of some, but make sure that you hang tough together and all the more as you see the day of God's return coming back. Why is that?

It is because coals intermingled with one another stay hot, one coal taken out from all the other coals and put over on the hearth, and it goes out. So when I hear people say, Well, you know, I don't need to go to the services. I mean, I can meet God on my own. I don't need to go back again, you know.

I mean, once is enough. I'm fine on that. I don't really need any more preaching. I'd like a little less preaching. I don't want to be footering around with prayer. I would much rather I just say the Lord's prayer and so on. I don't want anyone asking how I'm doing, and I don't really want to do anything that I'm told. Then you're in grave difficulty.

Grave difficulty. Are you baptized? Have you professed faith in Christ and followed him in baptism? If the answer is no, then you're setting aside one of the means of grace in your life. If you love me, you will obey my commands. Not as a legalistic entity, but as a mechanism, as an expression of love and of devotion. And were you present for the Lord's Supper last Sunday evening?

Because Jesus said, Do this in remembrance of me, for as often as you eat and drink of this cup and of this bread, you proclaim my death until I come back. Now you say, Well, you're well off the point. Well, I may be off the point, but I'm on the point I want to be on for now. It struck me forcibly. Pray that you will not fall into temptation. He doesn't say, Hey, guys, relax.

You're not going to fall into temptation. He could have said that, and it would have been true. But he doesn't say that.

Why? Because God uses means. How does God evangelize the world? Through people. How is God going to reach your family with the gospel? Through you. How is God going to speak his Word into the lives of people?

Through the preaching and teaching of the Bible. You say, Well, it's not a very good you. It's not a very good mechanism. People don't like it. You know, they won't listen to those things and so on. It seems to be a very foolish way of trying to go things.

After all, we live in such a technological age, and people can't listen to any kind of dialogue or monologue for very long. Well, that'll be just all the more indication of the fact that God uses some of the strangest means in order to save and keep his kids. Well, that's enough on the compassion, at least for now. What commitment was my second point? What compassion that Christ, facing what he does, would take time to give them a word of exhortation?

What commitment? Compare the gospel records. You must do this at your leisure, and you'll find that Jesus apparently left eight of them about a stone's throw away. I was throwing a baseball this week.

I'm not very good at that at all. But I was staggered at how far some of my little friends could throw the thing. And so, it got me thinking about how far a stone's throw was. So, however far it was, that's how far it was.

And he was that far away from eight of them, and three of them were a little closer to him—close enough, presumably, to hear what he had to say. Otherwise, no one would have known and been able to write it down in the Gospels. Now, notice his posture. He withdrew about a stone's throw, and he knelt down. One of the other Gospel writers says that he prostrated himself in the ground. It's interesting, because the last picture we have of anybody praying is in chapter 18, at least from Luke. And the Pharisee and the publican were praying, remember?

And they were both standing. And one stood up and said, I thank you that I'm not as other men, and so on, and the other would not lift up his eyes to heaven. He said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. But here, in prayer, Jesus is kneeling.

He falls to his knees and apparently falls on his face. Do you kneel down sometimes when you pray? It's an expression of urgency, isn't it?

It's an expression of necessity. So Jesus says, I want you to pray. And then he practices what he preaches. You're listening to Truth for Life. That is Alistair Begg teaching us about the compassion and commitment of Jesus.

He has titled today's message, Jesus in Gethsemane, and we'll hear more on Monday. I hope you are benefiting from this study in chapters 22 and 23 from Luke's Gospel. If you missed any of this study, you can catch up online. All of Alistair's teaching can be heard or watched for free on our mobile app or on our website at truthforlife.org. You can find the series by using the search feature and keying in a study in Luke. We're currently in volume 13. If you'd prefer, you can purchase Alistair's teaching through the entire Gospel of Luke.

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You should know that it reaches far beyond where you might think, even to us halfway around the globe in Australia. If you'd like to give a donation to support the Bible Teaching Ministry of Truth for Life, visit truthforlife.org slash donate or call us at 888-588-7884. Thanks for joining us this week. Hope you have the opportunity to worship with your local church this weekend. And then join us again on Monday when we'll return to the Garden of Gethsemane to see if a fear of suffering reveals weak faith. The Bible Teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.