Today we come to our last message in our series titled "Days of Passion." This morning we end the series where we began--in the Garden of Gethsemane. For Jesus it is Thursday night inching closely toward Friday. The celebration of his entry into Jerusalem is now a distant memory. Those who shouted, ""Praise God for the Son of David! Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord!

Praise God in highest heaven!" (Matthew 21:9) will soon be those who would cry out, "Crucify him!"(Matt.27:23). Here in the Garden, when all hope of avoiding the results the cross would bring were gone, when his soul was in the depths of despair, he would chose to fully follow the will of God.

For Jesus the place of his despair came in a garden or we might think of it as a park. It’s called the Garden of Gethsemane. It’s located just outside modern Jerusalem on the east on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. If you go there today, it’s impossible to tell exactly where Jesus was in the garden but we are sure that it was near there where Jesus and the disciples spent their final hours together. Gethsemane means "olive press." Scholars believe that the Gethsemane Jesus visited was very likely a private olive grove that offered to Jesus a place of quite rest and reflection. It most likely was fenced by stone and was a place familiar to the disciples. (Luke 22:39-40…and Judas knew where to find him. John 18:2)

The text read earlier is interesting because it occurs before Jesus went into the garden. In John 17:4 he says, "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do." In those words he states that at that point he had done all God had asked him to do. Yet it was not until John 18:1 that we see where the real struggle takes place, "When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was an olive grove, and he and his disciples went into it" (John 18:1). That little phrase, "and he and his disciples went into it," doesn’t begin to describe what Jesus went into. For what Jesus entered into was a time of despair unlike any he had ever experienced. He knew the will of God was for him to go to the cross. Following the will of God when his soul cried out for another way would be his most difficult moment.

We have said that these days of Jesus passion and suffering remind us of our own times of suffering and pain, that we have our own days of passion. Days of trouble, crisis and failure are all difficult but days that we might call "despair" are beyond difficult. The reason is that when we are feeling despair we feel that circumstances are hopeless, that there is no place to go or turn to for relief and help. There may be many times when we feel despair but one of the most painful is when we know what God wants us to do and we struggle with following it. We know there is no other way out. We know like Jesus that we must enter "into it" but knowing what to do and having the will and courage to do it are two different things. G.K. Chesterson said, "The only courage worth calling courage must necessarily mean that the soul passes a breaking point-and does not break." It is our days of despair that we find whether or not we have courage to follow the will of God.

I believe that in the Garden of Gethsemane we are allowed to see the greatest struggle with human emotions that Jesus would have. I believe, like nowhere else in the New Testament, we see our Lord’s humanity exposed. Why do I say that? The words that the Gospel writers use to describe his reactions tell us clearly. They used words like, "grieved," "deeply grieved," "agonizing sorrow," "troubled," "a sinkhole of dreadful agony," as The Message translates it. The word literally means "to be alone or away from home." His pain was so great he felt that He was in another world.

Regardless of how uncomfortable it makes us Jesus knew that he was faced with the fact that following the will of God was his most painful choice. Erwin McManus has said that it is a contradiction to say that the "safest place we can be is in the will of God" because looking at the scriptures that is just not the case. Just ask the families of Larry and Jean Elliot, Karen Watson and David McDonnall. They were four Southern Baptist missionary aid workers serving in Iraq who were all killed in a drive by shooting March 15. Sometimes following the will of God is the most dangerous thing you can do and no place demonstrates this like Gethsemane.

What does this passage say about Jesus? It tells me that Gethsemane is the place where Jesus overcame the despair that accompanied knowing His Father’s will and following His Father’s will. What does this say to me today? It tells us that the deepest despair we will ever face is between knowing God’s will and following God’s will. How did Jesus overcome the hopelessness? The story of Gethsemane shows us that he prayed, depended on God as his Father, struggled and surrendered. It will be those same things that will help us as well.

Jesus entered the upper room with twelve disciples. During the meal Judas would leave to betray Him. Jesus then left the upper room with eleven. When he arrives at the garden He tells eight to stay by the gate and takes three, Peter, James and John, on farther with Him. He reaches the place and tells them to stay behind and goes about 50 yards farther. What Jesus does then shows us just how deeply he felt. Notice what he says: "Sit here while I go over there and pray" (v. 36) "And going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will’" (v. 39). He prayed. The agony he endured was done so with prayer.

Why was he so filled with sorrow? Because He knew what God’s will for him would be and the thought of it broke His heart. What was that will of God for Him? That he would bear our sins on the cross. But the thought of becoming sin, bearing sin, for one who had never known sin and the separation from His Father that the bearing of sin would bring was a sorrow and grief we can’t fully know. The only thing he could do is pour out His soul in prayer. The will of God for Jesus was to die on the cross bearing our sin for us. He knew it but following it was a battle. The only way he knew He could have the courage to not break was to pray.

It is no different for us. God reveals His will to us…It is not so much that we do not know what to do, it’s following what He wants that’s tough. You will not win the struggle by merely reading about it, listening to tapes, sermons, counselors and talking about it. The real way, the only way, to have the courage to not break is in prayer. What is it that is God’s will for you? Where does he want you to follow him? The despair inside is resolved only in prayer.

Following God’s will is dependent on the One who loves us (Matt. 26:39, Mk.14:36, Jn.17:1) Throughout Jesus’ prayers notice the words He uses over and over: "My Father…" Mark has it, "Abba, Father"—a very tender word meaning "Daddy." The relationship Jesus had with God was unique. It was that relationship that he depended on throughout His ministry. An unbroken fellowship with His Father causes Him in this crucial moment to go to His Father. He knew that the fellowship with the Father would be broken and He would cry out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Yet He was strengthened that God was still His Father and He was still His Son. He could follow the Father’s will because of the relationship with His Father.

The will of God for us is not often easy. It is painful. It is unclear what the outcome will always be. When it’s hard and when it’s tough we must remember whose child we are. God is our father. What He asks of us may be difficult beyond our imagination but we must remember He loves us! Mother Teresa has written a beautiful essay that describes God’s love for us. She writes, "I thirst for you. Yes, that is the only way to even begin to describe my love for you: I thirst for you. I thirst to love and to be loved by you – that is how precious you are to me. I thirst for you. Come to me, and fill your heart and heal your wounds.

"If you feel unimportant in the eyes of the world, that matters not at all. For me, there is no one any more important in the entire world than you. I thirst for you. Open to me, come to me, thirst for me, give me your life – and I will prove to you how important you are to my heart." (Bread and Wine, p. 187-188). That love will never be broken! That thirst will never be satisfied. The despair between knowing and following the will of God rests in a unique relationship – He is "my Father."

One unmistakable principle that comes out of this passage is that Jesus was being tempted to avoid the will of God by dying on the cross. Luke has Jesus saying at the first, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation." As Matthew records Jesus, he prays, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will" (v 39). "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak" (v. 41). "My Father, if it not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done" (v. 42). "When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing"(v. 43-44). Three times the same prayer. Woven into His own petition is a plea to the disciples to not even come close to temptation.

What was Jesus’ temptation? It was to go from the present to the kingdom without the cross, to gain the glory without the pain. Jesus was tempted to avoid the cross, its pain, its shame but most of all the bearing of sin. It was real, it was a place of pain but in prayer he overcame.

If you’ve never been tempted to avoid following the will of God, then you’ve never walked far in your relationship with Jesus. There are those moments when what is God’s will for you appears so painful, so hard, so overwhelming that you cry out, "Dear God, isn’t here a better, easier, quicker, painless way?" The answer, though, is clear—you must walk this path, do this task, go to this place, and experience this crisis for his will to ever be accomplished. And in prayer you know what it is to be tempted to gain the will of God some other way. The truth is the despair between knowing and following the will of God is a real struggle with temptation.

Jesus was struggling with knowing and following the will of God. To say that it wasn’t a real fight, a real temptation is to deny the true humanity of Jesus. Yet because Jesus was God there was a total commitment to doing the will of God! (v.39b, 42).

The storm in Jesus’ soul screamed and howled but each time he prayed it seems there was a lessening of its intensity so that finally he could return to his sleeping disciples and say with an overwhelming resolve, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners" (v. 45). You see, while the storm decreased his strength increased! So much so that when he said what he said in verse 45 I don’t think the disciples heard Him! They were asleep. In fact the commentators I read pointed out that there most likely was a lapse of time between His resolving the battle and the return of Judas. What did He do? He cared for his sleeping friends until the light of the torches was seen. Then with humble confidence he could say, "Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!" (v. 46).

Just because we decide to do the will of God doesn’t mean the storm will stop. That it will get easier. What we do find is that there is in us a resolve to go on regardless. The despair is resolved by a total devotion of life to follow the will of God. One writer said, "Beware of refusing to go to the funeral of your own independence." There may be many awards and comments that could be made about your life but there is no greater than to say, "I’ve followed the will of God". When the smoke has cleared and the guns are silent and the battlefield is quiet, the medal for you will be that you have said and done the will of God.

The story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane has reminded us of the despair and difficulty that comes when we know the will of God and must follow the will of God. The struggle is one that is resolved in prayer, rests in a relationship with the Father, will call for a resistance to temptation and will finally be overcome with a life devoted fully to Him.

I was reminded of another character who struggled with doing the will of God, Abraham. You recall the scene in Genesis 22 where Abraham is told to offer his son Isaac on the altar as a human sacrifice. The scripture tells us that it was a test to see if Abraham was fully devoted to God. At last when he was prepared to do what he knew God had asked him to do, God spared Isaac by sending a ram for the sacrifice. F. B. Meyer writes in his book on the life of Abraham of the application for a Christian, "Think not, O soul of man, that this is a unique and solitary experience. It is simply a specimen and pattern of God’s dealings with all souls who are prepared to obey Him at whatever cost. After thou hast patiently endured, thou shalt receive the promise. The moment of supreme sacrifice shall be the moment of supreme and rapturous blessing. God’s river, which is full of water, shall burst its banks, and pour upon thee a tide of wealth and grace. There is nothing, indeed, which God will not do for a man who dares to step out upon what seems to be the mist; though as he puts down his foot he finds it rock beneath him."

Take a look at the stained glass window to my left. It’s only colored glass and metal but it is a window to our heart and our life. If you look closely you may see your face instead of His.

Sunday, April 4, 2004

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org