Losing Control to Gain Stability

Introduction

We are kicking off a new series today entitled, "The Last Words of Jesus." This series will lead us right up to Palm and Resurrection Sundays.

Life has a way of reminding us of one reality no one likes to admit:  we aren't in control. We live in an almost delusional state of thinking we are in control. And in those moments when reality crashes, what happens? We pout, stress, cope by overeating, say regrettable things, judge, worry, and maybe even manipulate others, hoping to scrape together the control we fictionally envisioned we had. Time after time, when we sense losing control, we fall into the same thoughts, attitudes, and actions. Its a facsad we spend out lives trying to build and rebuild.

What if I told you though that in reality that's what God wants in your life? In fact thats what the Bible teaches: You and I have to lose control so our lives can gain stability. Matthew 26:36-46

Matthew 26:36–46 ESV

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”

Scriptural Analysis Chapters 26–28 form the heart of Matthew’s story of Jesus Messiah. Jesus is tried, crucified, and buried, but also raised from the dead. He then sends out his disciples on their worldwide commission. Dale Bruner calls these chapters “The Church’s Passion” because “the suffering, death, resurrection, and sole universal Lordship of Jesus are what the church has always suffered most for proclaiming and yet has been most ‘passionate’ to proclaim.” The hand of history is evident in these chapters.

Verse 36-38 On their way out of Jerusalem, Jesus and his disciples stop at a place called Gethsemane, which John calls a “garden." This word most likely means “oil press.”  Jesus and his disciples often frequented the place, according to John 18. Putting all the accounts together suggests that Gethsemane was a garden area among the olive tree groves on the Mount of Olives that had a place for the preparation of olive oil. Its a sort of workstation cave like area with a beautiful garden.

Once at Gethsemane, Jesus directs the larger group of disciples to stay in the cave, but he asks the inner group of three disciples, Peter, James, and John, to stay awake with him while he prays. Jesus does not ask them to pray but to watch. Jesus wants them to share with him this overwhelming time of sorrow and trouble as he faces the cross.

Verse 39 This verse is a deep theological well. As Jesus grievously anticipates his looming death, his overwhelming sorrow reveals a heart broken almost to the point of death itself, because he knows that he will experience his Father’s forsakenness. Jesus lays the human temptation out to his Father, but he does not ask to shirk his destiny. He wants only to obey his Father’s will. This is a landmark example of honesty and trustfulness in prayer. The Father will not respond to the prayer in the way requested, but it does not reflect any fault in the One requesting. The Father does hear the Son’s plea, but the Son’s obedience to the Father’s answer will bring salvation to humanity.

It is not death itself that evokes this plea from Jesus but the kind of death. Jesus faces the most intense suffering imaginable as he endures not simply a physical death but an almost spiritual death, in which he suffers punishment for the sins of humanity. The “cup” points to his suffering as he endures God’s full wrath for the sins of humanity. His overwhelming sorrow comes from the grievous anticipation of separation from his Father that he will experience in his human consciousness as “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us." Although dreading the prospect of physical pain and death on the cross, the prospect of separation from the Father is a greater horror and a greater sorrow. But doing the will of the Father is Jesus’ only motivation because he knows that humanity, after his triumph over sin at the cross, can be reconciled to the Father through his death.

One interesting note: The verb pass used here by Jesus when He says, "Let this cup pass from me," is the same word used to describe the Lord passing by (or over) the doors of the houses in Egypt marked with the blood of the Passover lamb and refusing to permit the Destroyer to enter the home to strike down the first-born sons. Jesus prayed that he might experience this same “Passover” and that God would protect him from the destruction he faced.

At the Last Supper, Jesus taught that his blood must be poured out to accomplish the forgiveness of sins. His death would be far more agonizing than the quick slaughter of an animal sacrifice. Jesus was asking if there was another way for the plan of salvation to be accomplished other than He being forsaken by God for the sins of humanity.

For those of you who are interested in prayer and faith, note that the key to prayer here is not to “name it and claim it.” Rather, the key to prayer is “request and rest.” That’s the way Jesus prayed. “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. That’s My request. Nevertheless, not My will, but Thy will be done. That’s where I will rest.” Request and rest.

Verses 40-41 Returning to the three disciples, Jesus found them sleeping. The disciples’ sleeping showed that they were unaware of the spiritual danger and that their guard was down. This time, when Jesus commanded them to watch and pray, he was referring to more than staying awake physically. They were on the verge of entering into the temptation to deny and abandon him, and they needed God’s help to stand fast.

Jesus acknowledged their uninformed willingness to remain loyal when he said, The spirit is willing. But they were unaware of how weak their flesh was. Without prayerful dependence on God and continual spiritual watchfulness, the flesh would win at the first moment of weakness. “Flesh” here refers to the human body that is characterized by an intense drive for self-preservation. This “flesh” prompted them to “fear those who kill the body." That desire to protect themselves at all costs would prompt them to abandon Jesus and deny even knowing him, just as Jesus had predicted.

Verse 42 Jesus goes away to pray again, and he prays the same thing. However, there is a slight but significant variation: “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” Now, there is the conscious recognition that it is not possible for the cup to be taken away and that Jesus must drink its wrathful onslaught. He consciously submits to that destiny in the words, “May your will be done.”

Verses 43-46 As he goes away to pray again a third time, Jesus prays the same thing. Although there may be some development in Jesus’ understanding of the nature of the temptation and the Father’s will for him, Matthew allows us to see that even from the start, there is no deficiency in Jesus’ prayer. He continues only to seek the Father’s will. After the third time of intense prayer, Jesus returns to the trio to find them still sleeping. He corrects them for dozing when they could have supported him, and they will also find themselves asleep spiritually when the time for alertness finds them denying their Master. But it is too late to get ready now.

The time for Jesus to accomplish his mission of salvation through the cross has arrived. Jesus has perhaps watched the troop of temple police being led by Judas cross the Kidron Valley, coming to the garden with torches. Instead of fleeing, he calls his disciples to meet this challenge head-on. TODAY'S KEY TRUTH "In His Will is Our Peace."

Application We have to keep in mind that Jesus is not actually surprised at the idea that he’s going to die. He has been telling people this over and over. Go into the earlier part of the book of Matthew or Luke or Mark or John. He’s always saying, “I’m going to die. I’m going to die.” So it’s not like suddenly he says, “Oh my word! I am going to die.” Of course, he knew that. Something else came down on him, so amazing and powerful that it pushed him into the dirt. What’s going on? The judicial wrath of God on human evil is beginning to come down on him now. It’s beginning to come down on him, which means he’s beginning to experience what he was going to experience fully on the cross, which was abandonment, rejection, and God withdrawing his presence.

Jesus was beginning to experience and see the wrath that awaited Him. As a scary moments awaits us we become apprehensive and nervous. The closer we get to a moment, the more we feel its approach, the more real it becomes. Jesus sees and feels the wrath of sin just a few hours away. It's a moment of dread that we cannot imagine. The sins of all humanity and the wrath of God are about to rest on the shoulders of Jesus.

The more you understand the wrath of God, the more you understand the love of God. According to the Bible, Jesus came and took that wrath himself. Jesus is free to leave. The disciples are asleep. He could slip away. The guards aren’t there. This is God’s way of making sure that what Jesus Christ does is absolutely voluntary, is absolutely his own action, and is an absolute act of love, not an act of compulsion. You know how Jesus says in John, Chapter 15, “No man takes my life from me; I lay it down of my own accord”? Well, this is that moment. Jesus, in the dark, when no one is looking but God, is told, “This is the furnace into which you will be cast if they are to be saved. There is no other way. Either they perish, or you perish. Here’s what you have to do,” and He does it.

Let me give you some high theology for a second, yet it’s so moving. The Bible talks about there being two Adams. Jesus Christ is the second Adam. Paul likes to talk about Jesus as the second Adam in 1 Corinthians and Romans. Why? Well, both Adams are our representatives, and the things the Adams did fell on us.

In Genesis, the first Adam was put into a garden, and God said, “Obey me about a tree.” He says, “Don’t eat of the Tree of Knowledge.” Remember that? Notice God said to Adam, “Obey me, and you will live,” and he still didn’t. So the first Adam is put into a garden and God says, “Obey me about this tree and you will live, and I’ll be with you,” and he didn’t, and we still don't.

The second Adam is also put into a garden, this garden, a dark garden, and God is also telling this second Adam, “Obey me about the tree,” only this time the tree is the cross. So, the first Adam is told, “Obey me about the tree, and I’ll be with you.” The second Adam is told, “Obey me about the tree, and I will abandon you. I will cast you out. You have no idea the agony you’re going to experience when I completely withdraw from you, and everything is taken from you.” No one has ever been asked that in the history of the world. Whenever God says, “Obey me,” he says, “No matter what happens, I’ll be with you. If you obey me, I’ll be with you.” He doesn’t abandon people who are obeying him. Bad things can happen, but he’s still with you.

Here’s the only person in the history of the world who was told, “Obey me, and I will abandon you.” And yet he followed God's will. Jesus' love for us was infinitely the more wonderful and his obedience to God infinitely the more perfect than anyone else’s love and anyone else’s obedience ever in the history of the world. He did it for us. No one has ever been asked such a thing, and no one has ever done such a thing. Jesus did it for us.

The more you understand the wrath of God, the more you understand the love of God. Jesus came to take the wrath of God earned by us. The deeper your grasp of God’s wrath on sin, the more wondrous is the cost he bore in order to forgive us and save us and, therefore, the more wondrous his love. The more angry a God you have at sin, the more loving and gracious a God you have as you stand at the foot of the cross. This is the magnitude of what Jesus did by following the will of the Father.

"In His Will is Our Peace."

Conclusion “In His will is our peace” is not a 'Pastor Dennis original.' It is a quote from the medieval poet Dante. Dante, the great Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker, is best known for his monumental epic, The Divine Comedy. He lived at a time when religious and political turmoil tore apart much of the Italian landscape and caused Dante himself to be exiled by the Pope. The plot of The Divine Comedy finds a man, generally believed to be Dante himself, miraculously journeying from Good Friday evening through Easter Sunday to visit the souls in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. He has two guides: Virgil, who leads him through the Inferno and Purgatorio, and Beatrice, who introduces him to Paradiso.

The Paradiso is a profound contemplation of spiritual realities that Dante fictionally experiences as he journeys through Paradise. The souls he encounters hint at the joy and peace of the future kingdom.  The first soul he encounters is a relative of his. At first, Dante does not recognize her because of her new vivid beauty. The beauty comes from the glow of “the first fire of love” that she now experiences in the recesses of experiencing God’s will. She reveals to Dante her complete joy in the statement, “In His will is our peace.” This is the compass that Dante finds that will help him navigate the treachery of men and women who betray, deceive, deny, and destroy in the real world. It is a reflection of Proverbs 3:5–6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” This is also one of the most important themes in all of Matthew’s story. In spite of the duplicity of Judas and the disciples, the dark political maneuvering, and the insidious betrayal of the religious establishment, Matthew declares, “In His will is our peace.”

"In His Will is Our Peace."

Perhaps the most important lesson that we can learn from this section of Matthew’s Passion Narrative is that God is in control. Despite the downward spiral of events and his disappointment in the people around him, Jesus resolutely goes forward. He trusts the Father’s will even when everything looks bleak. The sure lesson for us is that we must continue to follow God’s known will when we cannot see what is unknown. Peace is found in trusting God and His will for our lives. We have to give up our will and follow His will. We have to lose control to gain stability.

"In His Will is Our Peace."

Like the ancient patriarch Job, we may not always have the privilege of knowing the reason or the good that results from particular events in our lives. However, when we rest in God’s will, we can find our peace. God is ultimately in control of all events around us, including our lives. No matter how powerful they look, human power structures are not powerful enough to thwart God’s intention to fulfill his ultimate desires and plans. Our suffering is not foreign to God. Jesus’ suffering in his humanity enables him to empathize with us directly in the midst of our pain. In that empathy, we can affirm God’s love for us. Jesus willingly went to the cross to meet our deepest need of forgiveness of sin, so that we can enter the blessed existence of the kingdom of God, true paradise. It is there that we enter into the peace of God’s will. We have to lose control to gain stability.

"In His Will is Our Peace."