The Appointed Hour
Notes
Transcript
Subject: Hour
Theme: The Appointed Hour
Thesis: In the appointed hour of darkness, Jesus submits to the Father with obedient trust, exposing the limits of darkness under God’s sovereign rule.
Principle Statement: Jesus entered the appointed hour as a trusting and obedient Son, showing us that the way through our darkest hours is dependent trust in the sovereign Father.
Intro
Have you ever known something was coming… and you wished it would not?
Not a surprise.
Not something sudden.
But something you could see on the horizon.
A conversation that would change everything.
A diagnosis you feared.
A decision that would cost you deeply.
There is a unique weight to walking toward suffering you cannot avoid.
Most of us spend our lives trying to escape those hours.
We distract ourselves. We delay.
We pray that somehow they won’t come.
Luke 22 takes us into that exact moment for Jesus.
The cross is know longer distant.
Yet even the darkest moments unfold under the sovereign hand of God.
What happens here is so deep that one commentator put it this way:
“No man will ever be capable of sounding the depths of what the Savior experienced in Gethsemane when the full reality of His suffering in soul and body penetrated into His immaculate spirit.”
But Luke does not bring us into this garden merely to observe agony.
He brings us here to see something glorious.
In the appointed hour of darkness, Jesus submits to the Father with obedient trust, exposing the limits of darkness under God’s sovereign rule.
Jesus entered the appointed hour as a trusting and obedient Son, showing us that the way through our darkest hours is dependent trust in the sovereign Father.
We will all have difficult hours.
Not dark to the extent that Jesus faced here, but we will face moments that feel chaotic.
Moments when darkness seems loud.
Moments when obedience feels costly.
And when that hour comes, you will either grab a sword… or bow your knee.
39 And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. 40 And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” 41 And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” 43 And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. 44 And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. 45 And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, 46 and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.” 47 While he was still speaking, there came a crowd, and the man called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He drew near to Jesus to kiss him, 48 but Jesus said to him, “Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” 49 And when those who were around him saw what would follow, they said, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” 50 And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. 51 But Jesus said, “No more of this!” And he touched his ear and healed him. 52 Then Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders, who had come out against him, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs? 53 When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.”
I. Preparation for the Hour
I. Preparation for the Hour
Luke 22:39–40
We find ourselves this morning having left the upper room and now residing in a garden with Jesus and his disciples.
If you remember we were told in
37 And every day he was teaching in the temple, but at night he went out and lodged on the mount called Olivet.
Luke doesn’t give us the specific location, we have to look to other gospel accounts for that.
From those we know that this is the Garden of Gethsemane.
The word Gethsemane means oil press, and John specifically describes it as a garden.
I have a picture of an olive garden in Gethsemane today.
It may have been similar in Jesus day.
Jesus went to a place this this each evening that week.
Judas knew exactly where to find Him.
When they arrived at the place, Jesus makes a very intentional statement to his disciples.
40 And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
Luke tells us then that Jesus withdrew about a stone’s throw away, knelt down and prayed.
Matthew gives us a few other details .
In Matthew 26, he tells us that Jesus took Peter, James, and John a little further with him, then then he went a little further by himself to pray.
Jesus was far enough away that He was alone, but close enough they could hear His prayers.
Jesus instructions are very specific.
He tells his followers to pray that they would not enter into temptation.
Temptation being specifically enticement to sin.
He did not tell them to pray to not face trials, but to pray that they would not be enticed to sin.
This is the same word that Jesus used when he instructed them how to pray in the Lord’s prayer.
4 And lead us not into temptation.”
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Jesus instruction to them was to pray not that they would escape the ordeal of the night, but that they not fall from their faith in Him.
To not succumb to the idea that God had abandoned them.
That all they had done in the last three years had been in vain.
Jesus is asking them to prepare their hearts for the the time of testing that is coming.
I want to say this carefully, because there is something we need to understand.
There is a difference between being tempted and entering into temptation.
Jesus instruction here is for them to pray not to enter into temptation.
They are not the same thing.
To be tempted is to be assaulted.
It is something that comes at you.
You do not schedule it.
You do not invite it.
It shows up.
As long as there is a devil, and as long as we live in these weak human bodies, temptation will come knocking.
You cannot stop the knock.
But you are not required to open the door.
That is the difference.
Being tempted is painful.
It is a real trial.
It can feel overwhelming.
But entering into temptation —
stepping into it, entertaining it, yielding to it —
that is something different.
That is where sin takes root.
We should not be surprised that temptation comes.
It will come.
But what Jesus tells His disciples here is this: pray so that when it comes, you do not step into it.
That is the same prayer we need to make for ourselves as well.
We cannot avoid the assault.
But by God’s grace, you can refuse to surrender.
That is what our Lord is teaching them in this moment — and it is what He is teaching us.
Jesus continued with His own preparation as well.
II. Submission in the Hour
II. Submission in the Hour
Luke 22:41–46
As Jesus withdrew and prayed himself, He prayed
42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
I really appreciated what commentator Norval Geldenhuys had to say here.
Luke, Volumes 1 & 2 A Place of Hard Suffering
It is impossible for Him, in His perfect humanity, not to experience a feeling of opposition to the idea of impending humiliation, suffering and death. And all this is made the more intense through his knowledge that He is not only going to suffer and die, but that He will have to undergo this as the expiatory sacrifice for the sin of guilty mankind. The holy and just wrath of God against sin falls on Him in full measure, because He has put Himself unreservedly in the place of guilty mankind. The judgment pronounced on sin is death—spiritual as well as physical. And spiritual death means being utterly forsaken by God. How dreadful, then, must the idea have been to Christ, who had from eternity lived in the most intimate and unbroken communion with His Father, that He would have to endure all this.
We should not think for a moment that his was somehow easier for jesus because He was the son of God.
This was the hardest thing that any man had ever done, and ever will do.
It was as a man that Jesus suffered here in the Garden, alone.
He too was tempted.
John MacArthur makes an interesting comment on this that I had not thought about.
The temptation Jesus faced here was not like ours.
We struggle to let go of what is wrong and grow into holiness.
Satan tempts us to cling to sin and resist spiritual maturity.
But Jesus was perfectly holy.
Not that He wasn’t tempted to sin but every thought, every word, every action flowed from absolute righteousness.
MacArthur suggests that here in the Garden though he battled a different impulse.
While we struggle to abandon sin and embrace holiness, Jesus struggled to set aside His rightful holiness in order to bear sin for us.
Satan did not tempt Him to indulge evil desires.
He tempted Him to avoid becoming sin-bearer.
Just as he tempted Jesus in the wilderness to make His own way rather than submit to the Father’s plan.
He tempted Him to cling to His holiness rather than step into the role of substitute.
Satan tempts us to hold on to sin.
He tempted Jesus to hold on to holiness.
Jesus in His prayer is not a prayer to get out of the trial to come, but admission of the weight He had to bear.
But why would Jesus make this request when He knew He had been born to die?
Some have suggested that Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane — asking if the cup might pass from Him — was a moment of weakness.
But nothing could be further from the truth.
This was not weakness.
It was holiness.
It was the perfectly pure Son of God recoiling at the thought of becoming the bearer of sin — of carrying not only human guilt, but the full weight of God’s righteous wrath against it.
Pause for a moment and think with me.
Think of the worst sin you have ever committed.
The one that still makes you wince.
The one you hope no one ever finds out about.
Now consider this: that sin, in all its ugliness and rebellion, was laid upon the spotless Lamb of God.
Now multiply that by the thousands of sins you have committed in your lifetime.
And then add mine.
And then add millions more.
Only then do we begin to understand why Jesus trembled at the cup.
That sin had to be paid for!
Romans 5:8 tells us, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” He died in our place.
And when you begin to grasp even a fragment of that infinite love —
that the Immortal would step into mortality, that the Holy would become sin-bearer —
worship is the only fitting response.
Charles Wesley captured that wonder in his song
And Can it Be That I Should Gain?
And can it be that I should gain
An int’rest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Refrain:
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Jesus humbly and obediently submits to the Father.
English Standard Version Chapter 22
Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.
Jesus words and actions give us comfort.
God wants His children to pour out their hearts to Him in sincerity (Psalm 62:8).
He is our refuge, our safe haven. Like Jesus, we can reveal the deepest longings in our hearts to our loving heavenly Father.
He knows what we are feeling, and we can trust Him to carry the burdens of our souls.
There is some controversy surrounding verses 43-44.
Your Bible may have these verses in parentheses or include a footnote.
These verses are not found in the earliest Greek manuscripts of Luke, and this is the only Gospel that records these specific details.
Because of that, there has been debate among scholars about whether they were originally part of Luke’s Gospel.
Some believe they were an early addition meant to emphasize the intensity of Jesus’ anguish.
Others point out that these verses are cited by church fathers as early as the second century, which supports their authenticity.
The evidence on both sides is closely weighed.
From my study, I believe the evidence leans toward these verses being original and that they may have been removed at some point by someone who misunderstood their significance.
There is nothing heretical or objectionable in these verses.
We can rest in this: God has preserved His Word.
He is sovereign over the text of Scripture, and we have what we need.
When we look at these verses, we see as Jesus prayed, an angel appeared to him.
This moment shows us all the more Jesus humanity.
As Hebrews 2:9 says, for a little while He was made lower than the angels.
In His humanity, He entered into weakness.
In His humanity, He experienced anguish.
And in His humanity, He received strength from an angelic messenger.
The Gospel of Luke i. The Prayer of Jesus 22:39–46
The effect of the angelic help is that Jesus is enabled to pray more earnestly.
He did not receive supernatural strength, but rather his spirit was reinvigorated.
His prayer was even more fervent.
He prays more earnestly and is laboring so hard in his prayer that his sweat is like drops of blood falling to the ground.
Such sweating indicates the intensity of Jesus’ feelings and condition.
Some say that Luke’s mention here of Jesus sweat falling like great drops of blood to be a simile.
Jesus was sweating so profusely that his sweat feel like blood from an open wound.
There is a medical condition where blood does enter the sweat glands, it is caused by extreme anguish.
Simile or actual blood, the point to be made here is Jesus was deeply troubled by what was about to take place.
The point is, the anguish Jesus faces is great.
There is an important note that I need to make here, especially concerning the religious makeup of our valley.
This is one of many areas that Mormon doctrine veers from ours.
Most Mormons understand the atonement as including both Gethsemane and the cross, with Christ’s suffering beginning in the garden and reaching completion at Calvary.
Some Mormon leaders elevate Gethsemane’s significance, teaching that the atonement occurred primarily or entirely there rather than on the cross.
Official Mormon educational materials state that “in the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ took upon himself the sins of all mankind,” positioning this moment as the decisive point of atonement.
From a theological perspective, Mormon doctrine locates the atonement in Gethsemane when Jesus submitted to the Father’s will, emphasizing obedience rather than substitutionary sacrifice.
A distinctive LDS concept interprets Luke 22:44 (Christ’s bloody sweat) as evidence that the atonement commenced in the garden, with the Doctrine and Covenants teaching that Christ “bled from every pore” at this location.
Will your Mormon friend be able to make this distinction?
Possibly not, but this is what their doctrine says.
Historic Christian teaching does not deny the weight of Gethsemane.
The garden is crucial.
It reveals the depth of Christ’s anguish and the reality of His obedience.
Biblically, the atonement itself — the payment for sin — is tied explicitly to the cross.
Scripture repeatedly anchors our redemption in His death, His blood shed at Calvary, His bearing of sin on the tree.
Gethsemane shows us the obedient heart of the Son.
The cross shows us the substitutionary sacrifice of the Son.
Both matter deeply.
But they are not the same thing.
It was not the work of obedience in the garden that saves us Mormons believe.
Atonement did not take place in the garden, but the obedient Son resolved to drink the cup that would be poured out at the cross.
While all of this was taking place, what became of the disciples?
The other accounts say Jesus returned once urging His disciples to stay awake and pray, but the simply could not.
45 And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, 46 and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
While Jesus is laboring hard in prayer, the disciples are asleep from sorrow.
Perhaps it was a combination of the long week of events and full stomachs from their passover feast.
They had been so eager before they left the upper room to go to battle with their two swords, and now they can’t continue with the more important weapon - prayer
Yet, even when their prayer lives were a complete failure, Jesus did not stop telling his disciples to pray.
A fitting reminder for us to return to Jesus in prayer when we have failed.
“Thy will be done” is one of the main petitions in the daily prayer that Jesus taught us to pray
And it is in such a manner that we can pray our way through difficult situations in life.
All of this prayer and preparation is leading up to one of the most significant moments in scripture.
The betrayal and arrest of Jesus.
III. Chaos in the Hour
III. Chaos in the Hour
Luke 22:47–51
As Jesus is rousing his disciples from their slumber, imploring them to pray, a crowd approaches, led by Judas Iscariot.
Judas drew near to Jesus to kiss him.
Such a kiss was a common greeting in that community, even among men.
But it was more than a handshake; it was a gesture of intimate friendship.
This kiss though was a prearranged signal to identify Jesus.
And Jesus knew it.
48 but Jesus said to him, “Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”
This is where the chaos really begins.
Judas’s actions were hypocritical in the extreme—his actions said, “I respect and honor you,” at the exact time he was betraying Jesus to be murdered.
Judas’s actions illustrate Proverbs 27:6,
6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
Evil often wears a mask to conceal its true purpose.
When the kiss was given, the deed was done.
The disciples remembered what Jesus had just said about swords earlier in the chapter (Luke 22:35–38),
so when the crowd arrived in the garden, they asked, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?”
They thought maybe this was the moment Jesus had been talking about.
But they misunderstood Him.
And Peter, being Peter, did not wait for an answer.
Before Jesus could even respond, he drew one of the two swords and swung.
Acting first, thinking later.
Why did Peter resort to the sword?
Because he was unprepared.
He was unprepared in the garden because he slept when Jesus told him to pray.
He was unprepared earlier because when Jesus was warning him, he was speaking instead of listening.
He was unprepared spiritually, so when the pressure came, he responded physically.
He fought when he should have yielded.
He did not interpret the moment through Jesus’ words.
He did not discern what was really happening.
He was fighting the wrong enemy with the wrong weapons.
Peter thought the enemy was the arresting party in front of him.
But the real enemy was Satan.
And the real weapon was not steel — it was truth.
The Word of God.
Prayerful dependence on the Father.
That is not just Peter’s problem.
It is ours too.
Our real enemy is not the person in front of us.
It is not the circumstance pressing in on us.
It is not the crowd.
Our real enemy is Satan, and the most effective weapon we have against him —
and against our own sinful impulses — is the Word of God applied in prayerful dependence.
In Gethsemane, that severed ear becomes a picture of spiritual unpreparedness.
It shows
A lack of prayer.
A lack of patience.
A lack of peace.
A lack of perception.
A lack of wisdom.
How many times have we “cut off ears” — not literally, but with sharp words, harsh reactions, defensive outbursts —
because we were not prepared for the moment?
Because we had not prayed?
Because we lacked patience?
Because we did not slow down and discern what God was doing?
We have all been there.
Peter grabbed the sword because he had not been on his knees.
And when we neglect prayer and the Word, we tend to grab our own swords too —
anger, control, sarcasm, self-reliance — and we wound when we should be trusting.
That is why Jesus’ calm obedience stands in such contrast.
In the hour of darkness, Peter reacts.
Jesus trusts.
Even in chaos, Jesus’ obedience exposes that darkness cannot control Him.
Jesus cries out - No more of this!
Touched the servants ear and healed him.
IV. Interpretation of the Hour
IV. Interpretation of the Hour
Luke 22:52–53
Jesus ends this scene with a rebuke.
After he heals the servant’s ear, there is a brief stillness.
And into that silence, He speaks — not to the soldiers, but to the religious leaders who came with them.
He asks them a question that exposes them even further.
“Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs?”
In other words, You know I am not a criminal.
I have not been hiding.
I have been teaching openly in the temple courts every day.
If I were truly guilty, you could have arrested Me publicly.
You had opportunity after opportunity.
But they did not arrest Him in the daylight.
Why?
Because they knew He was innocent.
And because they feared the people.
So instead, they come at night.
Outside the city.
With weapons.
With soldiers to guard them.
Acting as though He were some violent insurgent.
Jesus’ words unmistakably expose their hypocrisy.
They claim to uphold justice, but they operate in secrecy.
They claim to defend righteousness, but they rely on underhanded tactics.
They cloak their motives in religion, but their hearts are dark.
And yet — they will succeed in arresting Him.
Not because they are stronger.
Not because they have outmaneuvered Him.
Not because He lacks the power to stop them.
But because this is the hour.
“This is your hour,” He says, “and the power of darkness.”
Natural darkness surrounds them — it is night.
But there is something deeper at work.
Evil is being permitted to act.
Satan and his agents, human and spiritual, are being allowed a window.
But only a window.
They are not seizing ultimate control.
They are operating within limits set by God Himself.
Jesus is not being overpowered.
He is voluntarily surrendering.
He is not being dragged unwillingly into humiliation, suffering, and death.
He is delivering Himself up.
Not because He is unable to prevent it — but because He intends to be the sacrifice for guilty sinners.
What looks like defeat is obedience.
What looks like triumph for darkness is actually the unfolding of redemption.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we step back from the garden scene, what do we see?
We see an appointed hour.
We see darkness permitted to act.
We see betrayal.
We see chaos.
We see weakness in the disciples.
We see hypocrisy in the leaders.
But above all of it, we see Jesus.
We see the obedient Son.
In the hour of darkness, He does not panic.
He does not retaliate.
He does not flee.
He does not surrender to despair.
He prays.
He submits.
He trusts.
“Not my will, but yours, be done.”
And when the chaos erupts — when Judas betrays with a kiss, when swords swing, when soldiers surround Him — Jesus remains governed by the Father’s will.
Darkness does not dictate His response.
Evil does not redirect His mission.
The hour belongs to darkness, but it is still only an hour.
Darkness has limits.
God does not.
This darkness is determined by God.
That is the glory of this passage.
Jesus entered the appointed hour as a trusting and obedient Son.
And because He did, the cross was not an accident.
It was not a tragedy.
It was not the triumph of evil.
It was the sovereign plan of God unfolding through the obedience of the Son.
And here is why that matters for us.
Because we will have our hours.
You may not face armed soldiers in a garden.
But you will face nights that feel dark.
You will face betrayal.
You will face suffering.
You will face moments when it seems as though darkness has authority.
In those moments, where can we look?
We can look to Jesus!
Look at the One who trusted the Father in His darkest hour.
Look at the One who bore your sin willingly.
Look at the One who exposed the limits of darkness by submitting to the Father’s will.
Jesus give us the ultimate hope in anything we face because He willingly faced the darkness and went to the cross for us.
Your hope in your dark hour is not your strength.
It is His obedience.
Your confidence when chaos erupts is not your control.
It is God’s sovereignty.
The same Father to whom Jesus prayed in the garden is your Father.
The same sovereign rule that bounded the authority of darkness then still governs now.
So when your hour comes — and it will — do not grab the sword.
Do not panic.
Do not assume darkness is winning.
Get on your knees.
Pour out your heart.
And entrust yourself to the sovereign Father, just as the Son did.
Because the garden teaches us this:
Darkness may have an hour.
But it never has the throne.
And the obedient Son has already secured the victory.
