From the Garden to the Cross

Dylan Westbrook

Easter 2026 • Sermon • Submitted 7 months ago • Presented 7 months ago

Luke 22:39–46

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Introduction

Have you ever had to clean up someone else’s mess?

What about when someone enlists you to help them solve a problem, but they won’t let you help, they just keep holding onto the mess they’ve made?

Hoarders the TV Show

Have you ever seen the show hoarders?

It’s a show where people have some kind of mental block where they can’t get rid of stuff and they’re just living in filth. There is garbage everywhere. It’s hard to watch.

But the thing about this show is that they’ll get these people some help, and they’ll make them realize that they need to clean up their mess.

When it comes times to start cleaning, what do the people do? They start saying, “Oh! I can’t get rid of that paper plate! I might need it. Just leave it here.”

They’ll go and pick up a dirty sock that looks like it’s been run through the sewer and they’ll run over to that sock and say, “Oh! Not my sock! I love that sock! I might need it. Just leave it there!”

It’s a sad reality show that depicts how some people choose to live.

And when I think about those people on that show, it pictures for me people who are living in sin when Jesus has offered to clean it all up.

Sin is filthy! Sin is what causes death, disease, and disaster. Everything painful that you’ve ever experienced comes from sin…yet when Jesus steps in to deal with our sin we say, “Oh! Don’t throw that away! I might need that!”

Here we are approaching Easter…the day that Jesus raises from the dead and declares victory over all sin!

Before we ever get to Easter, we find ourselves in the garden, and then at the cross.

When I talk about the garden and the Easter story, you may be thinking of the Garden of Gethsemane! But the Garden of Gethsemane is not where the story of the cross began. The story of the cross began in the Garden of Eden.

When we think about the Garden of Eden and the Garden of Gethsemane, we can easily see a comparison.

In the Garden of Eden, there was a man named Adam. Adam chose to rebel against God and plunge the entire world into darkness!

I. The Garden

In the Garden of Gethsemane, we see a “second Adam”, we see the Lord Jesus choose to submit to God and to save the world from what the first Adam caused.

Why is Jesus called the Second Adam?

1 Corinthians 15:45–49 NKJV

And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.

The Bible says that all who are born a natural birth will die just as Adam died. But then it says that everyone who is born of the Spirit will live just as Jesus lives!

John 3:16 NKJV

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

So, for us to have true life and to get to Heaven, we must be born again. To be born again means to trust in the Lord Jesus.

Because of what happened in the Garden of Eden, we find ourselves in the Garden of Gethsemane.

In the Garden of Eden and Gethsemane we see..

A. Perfection in Eden, Perfection in Gethsemane

Adam’s Perfection in Eden

Genesis 1:27 NKJV

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

And when God created Adam, He made Him perfect. He made a perfect man for a perfect world! He made Eden a place where there was no pain, where there was no suffering, and where there was no sin.

Christ’s Perfection in Gethsemane

Luke 22:39 NKJV

Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, we see a perfect man. His name is Jesus Christ. There He is on the Mount of Olives and He has gone there to pray as He regularly did. This Garden, at the end of all time, is where Jesus will come again. When His feet touch the ground here on this Mount of Olives, the Bible says that the mountains will split in two.

This place of betrayal and agony will become a place of triumphant return for the Lord Jesus.

Our ultimate hope is in the perfection of Jesus Christ, His resurrection from the dead, the rapture of His saints, and His second coming to this mount of Olives.

Here in this Garden, we see the perfect savior, ready to be betrayed, ready to make His triumphant return.

B. Rebellion in Eden, Submission in Gethsemane

Luke 22:40 NKJV

When He came to the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

Adam’s Rebellion in Eden

When Adam was supposed to be working, watching, and praying, he found himself standing by while that serpent of old deceive his wife.

Once the serpent told his lies, once he convinced Eve to rebel against the commands of God, the Bible says that Adam also took part and ate the fruit.

Genesis 3:6 NKJV

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

This was rebellion against God! God gave Adam the world to work on and care for. God gave Adam on instruction and that was to abstain from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and he actively chose to rebel against God.

The disciples were the same way. While they were supposed to be working, watching, and praying…they were sleeping.

Matthew 26:40–41 NKJV

Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

We saw there in the Garden of Eden just how weak the flesh is!

And now, Peter, the man who the very same night said that he would die for the Lord Jesus would not even stay with Him one night in prayer.

Christ’s Submission in Gethsemane

Luke 22:41–42 NKJV

And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”

While Adam and the disciples were concerned about the flesh, Jesus Christ was concerned about obedience to God.

He prays to God and says, “take this cup Lord! But if not…I will drink it..”

In the land of perfection Adam failed, but in the face of sin and destruction, Jesus would drink the cup of sin as the savior of the world.

C. Slavery in Eden, Redemption in Gethsemane

Eden

And whenever Adam sinned, the Bible says that Adam was driven from the presence of God and that the rest of the world was from then on in slavery to sin and to darkness.

Genesis 3:23–24 NKJV

therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

They were banished from the presence of God because now they were tainted and scarred by sin.

And the Bible says that everyone in that would ever live would tainted by sin because of what Adam did.

Romans 5:12 NKJV

Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, death spread to all men, because all sinned.

What is it that sin brings?

Well, we just read where sin brings death…but it also enslaves people.

John 8:34 NKJV

Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.

This means that we are helpless against sin.

God created the earth in freedom and in perfection. Adam chose to rebel against God in the Garden of Eden. Because Adam is now a vessel of sin and not a vessel of perfection, he cannot dwell with God.

Adam and Eve, and everyone that has ever been born is now a vessel and a slave of sin, separated from God.

Gethsemane

We get to the Garden of Gethsemane, and we see a Man who didn’t rebel, but we see a man that submitted to God in perfection.

And because of His righteousness (perfection) all men every where now have a chance to be brought back to life.

Where we saw a separation take place in Eden, we are seeing restoration take place in Gethsemane!

How did this restoration take place?

It took place through the precious blood of Jesus Christ!

Luke 22:44 NKJV

And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

From the Garden to the Cross, blood spilled out of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Blood of Jesus

Worth His Salt

Have you ever heard of the phrase, “Is he worth his salt?”

Salt, at one time, was one of the most valuable resources on the planet. We have it in abundance today, but there was a time when salt was widely traded, used for currency, and tightly controlled by governments.

The word salt in our language is directly tied to value. Think of the word “salary”. The word salary comes from a latin word salarium. The root word of salarium is the Latin term for salt, thus we have salary.

How is our salary determined? Our salaries are given to us based on what we are able to produce.

How was the value of salt determined?

People didn’t desire salt because it was flashy! Salt was so valuable because it was necessary for life.

It’s the same way when it comes to the blood of Jesus

The blood that began to flow from His head in the garden was the salvation of man.

The blood of Jesus is so valuable because it necessary for life.

Where Adam’s disobedience and rebellion caused death, the blood of Jesus gives us life!

The Ransom Payment

Sin is our master, and in order to be set free from our master, we have to be purchased.

The only substance that is valuable enough to buy us back from sin is the blood of Jesus.

1 Peter 1:18 NKJV

knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers,

Redemption means to be purchased or to buy back.

So when we say that we were redeemed, we are saying that we were purchased. And we can not be purchased with things like silver or gold or from our good conduct.

1 Peter 1:18–19 NKJV

You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

In the Garden of Eden, we were sold by Adam into slavery. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the redemption that Jesus offered through His blood began to flow!

II. The Cross

It’s not so obvious to us in this passage, but as Jesus is there in the garden praying, He knows the cross is coming.

John 12:27 NKJV

“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.

He knew His purpose. He knew that He was coming to earth to be offered as a sacrifice for the sins of all men. He knew that His life was going to serve as the redemption for the world that was sold to the slavery of sin. Yet He chose it anyway.

A. A Choice to Be Made

Luke 22:42 NKJV

“Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”

This is the only time in Scripture we see Jesus wrestling with the will of God. The man of righteousness is wrestling with the reality that He is about to become sin.

This is so different than our fight with sin.

Jesus was wrestling from a point of righteousness. Jesus was disgusted and grieved at the thought of vacating His righteousness for the depth and the perversion of sin.

We wrestle from a point of sin. We are fearful of giving up our sin, we are fearful of stepping into the light, we are fearful of admitting that we have committed an offense against a Holy God.

John 3:19 NKJV

And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Jesus did not want to give up His righteousness, and we don’t want to give up our sin!

What is the choice of the cross?

The choice for us is this, will we accept the cross? Just as Jesus accepted the cross, allowed Himself to be crucified, and became sin…we must choose the cross. We must be crucified, so that we can become the righteousness of God.

Galatians 2:20 NKJV

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

What does it mean to be crucified with Christ?

It means to submit. It means to submit to God the very same way that Jesus submitted to God. To say to God, “God, I don’t want to do my will any longer! I am giving you my life! I am laying it down! I surrender to you Lord. Will you save me? Will you redeem me? Will you pay my payment for sin? I’m yours.”

This is what baptism pictures. That we were in slavery to sin. That we were crucified with the Lord Jesus, buried with Him, and now we have been raised to walk in the newness of life.

The choice to be made is, “will you accept the cross?”

B. A Cost to Be Paid

Luke 22:44 NKJV

And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Lord Jesus has paid our debt. He has made God accessible to us even though Adam got us banned from His presence. It is a free gift.

Ephesians 2:8–9 NKJV

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Romans 6:23 NKJV

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Salvation is free. Jesus has paid it all! Discipleship costs.

1. Life

For us to be saved, we have already seen that we have to be crucified with Jesus.

When a man is crucified with Jesus (1) He has no where else to go! A man that is hanging on a cross cannot get down, and cannot turn around, they are there for good! (2) Because he has no where else to go, that means he cannot make his own plans. God will be One making the plans from here on out, you’re a dead man!

2. Relationships

When we are saved, there is no one that comes between us and the Lord. No spouse, no child, no mother no father. Nobody.

Luke 14:26 NKJV

“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.

This doesn’t mean that we have to hate our family. I cannot even begin to truly love the Lord until I truly love my family. What Jesus is saying that when it comes to choosing between Him and my family or friends, that I ought to choose Him with such discrimination that my family might think I hate them. It’s not that I’m against anyone! I’m simply for the Lord Jesus.

3. Status

The Bible says that the world will consider the people of the cross as fools!

1 Corinthians 1:26–29 NKJV

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.

The death of the cross is a death of shame!

To identify with the Lord means to stop caring about your identity with the world.

As Jesus hung on that cross, the world mocked Him, they looked at His beaten and marred body and they despised Him. When we follow Jesus Christ, it costs our status and our reputation.

4. Ambition

The Bible says that God is the potter and that we are the clay.

That when we enter into the death of the Lord Jesus, whatever we do and wherever we go is determined by Him and Him alone!

The Lord Jesus was seated in glory, clothed in righteousness, and yet He became sin for us.

We cannot tell the Lord what we will do with our life, our family, or our church, that’s His business. We are His and all of our ambition is to be surrendered to Him.