A Real Man, Real Danger, and Real Courage

A wonder to behold and an example to follow. That’s a disciple! Believing that Jesus did what we could never do - lived a perfect life, bore the wrath of God, and rose from the dead. AND it’s committing our lives to imitating Him - loving God, loving truth, overcoming evil, and demonstrating God’s grace in word and deed.

A wonder to behold and an example to follow. That’s a disciple! Believing that Jesus did what we could never do - living a perfect life, bearing the wrath of God, and rising from the dead. AND it’s committing our lives to imitating Him - loving God, loving truth, overcoming evil, and demonstrating God’s grace in word and deed.

The true humanity of Christ is on display in the garden. As we consider this passage this morning, wonder at Christ and let’s purpose in our hearts to be like Him!

He Brought His Friends

There were times that Jesus went away by Himself to pray and prepare for the upcoming work.

- The night before he called His disciples to follow Him, says, “He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.”

- After an evening full of healing sick and demon-possessed people, says, “…in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.”

- After He had miraculously fed the multitude by multiplying the bread and fish He sent the crowd away and, “He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray.” ().

BUT NOT THIS TIME. Here, the disciples were present as witnesses of the last hours of Christ’s earthly life - but they were here for more than just that. These were also His friends.

They were all together as they entered the garden of Gethsemane - 11 disciples since Judas had already left to betray Him. Jesus had 8 of the disciples wait at a certain point and then He took the 3 a little farther along.

James, Peter, and John were the people closest to Him during His ministry. They shared an intimacy with Jesus that was unique. This is the third recorded instance in which Jesus took these three disciples with Him to witness something special.

- A synagogue ruler named Jairus asked Jesus to come heal his dying daughter. When Jesus arrived at the house says, “He permitted no one to follow Him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James.”

- says, “…Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them.”

He Experienced Great Emotional Pain

“He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed” (verse 37). This is Jesus under an immeasurable amount of stress. He was calm and composed through some of the tensest moments in His ministry. People accused Him of being a drunkard and a liar, crowds picked up stones to kill Him, Pharisees and lawyers publicly challenged Him with deceptive questions, people got offended and walked away from Him and His teachings - but none of these things shook Him. And yet, here we see that Jesus was entering into something that deeply distressed Him.

Luke adds graphic detail to the scene, “And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.” ()

The word is literally clots of blood oozing out of Him. This bloody sweat occurred during and in between His three rounds of prayer. It seems that this agony came on Him in waves.

Have you ever been under a lot of stress and experienced the ebb and flow of fear? In one moment you’re stable and resting and all of a sudden the anxiety swells up and your body reacts - muscles tighten, heart rate soars, breathing changes.

His posture throughout this ordeal is also revealing. Sometimes He’s kneeling in prayer and then He’s falling on the ground. This is the last calm before the storm and Jesus isn’t holding anything back as He pours His heart out to the Father in passionate prayer.

He Prayed

This is Jesus under an immeasurable amount of stress. He was calm and composed through some of the tensest moments in His ministry.

He’s Praying

The very fact that He’s praying is significant. Jesus, the eternal Son of God, never prayed to the Father until He took on flesh and walked among us as a man. As part of the Trinity, He’s always enjoyed perfect relationship with the Father and the Spirit - and Scripture shows instances of communication between Father, Son, and Spirit (“Let us make man in our image”, etc.). But it’s never referred to as “prayer” until after the Incarnation. God doesn’t pray - but men do and Christ had both natures. All throughout His life on earth Jesus constantly talked to the Father through prayer. He set us an example, that even in sinless perfection, communicating with God through prayer is a vital part of our relationship with Him.

He’s Praying

All throughout His life on earth Jesus constantly talked to the Father through prayer. He set us an example, that even in sinless perfection, communicating with God through prayer is a vital part of our relationship with Him.

And here, the night before His public execution, He’s praying. And as much as He desired to have His friends near Him - the 8 and then the 3 - notice also that He goes the final distance all by Himself and prays alone.

- They enter the garden and He leaves the 8 with instructions to watch and pray, then He takes the 3 and brings them a little farther.

- Then He leaves them with instructions to watch and pray and Luke says, “He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed.” ()

Jesus desired nothing more than to be alone with His Father in prayer. However calm and peaceful the garden was at night, whatever comfort His friends afforded Him, was nothing compared to the strength He received from spending time alone with the Father. The greatest man of all time, faced with the heaviest burden of all time, chose prayer as His means of fortifying Himself and receiving strength and comfort to overcome.

Real Danger

A Real Threat

What was it exactly that was looming over Him that night? What was it that caused such a strong reaction in the demeanor and behavior of our Savior?

Most of us can only imagine the dread that would fill a man’s heart on the eve of public torture and execution. There have been horrendous and unspeakable things done to Christians throughout history that are hard to even read about. Christians have been burned at the stake, frozen, boiled, impaled, fed to wild beasts, beaten to death, among dozens of other atrocities. Knowing that someone is about to inflict immense pain on you with the intention to make you die a feelingly awful death would be enough to shake most of us to the core.

The cross was a particularly awful and shameful method of execution. *read from gotquestions.com article*

Amazingly, this was NOT what Jesus was distressed over. He was fully aware of the physical suffering He was about to endure - BUT NOT EVEN THAT MADE HIM FLINCH!

The agony that swept over Jesus in the garden here had everything to do with what was about to happen between Him and His Father.

“O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me...”

The “cup” that Christ refers to is nothing less than the cup of God’s wrath against sin. Jesus was about to drink the full measure of God’s hatred for evil and absorb the full unleashing of God’s power to crush sin and sinners.

Here I could make reference to the way we all struggled as kids to drink some medicine that tasted really bad…but this isn’t a funny moment - and this isn’t bad tasting medicine. This is darkness and death like we can’t imagine. This is what took the perfect and glorious Son of God and made Him something so vile that His Father didn’t even want to look at Him.

This is what Jesus was up against. This is what He prayed about 3 times. Please understand, these are not expressions of Jesus’ unwillingness to suffer and die for us. He came into this world to accomplish the salvation of His people and He knew from the very beginning that the way prepared for Him was the way of the cross. This is not Jesus having to be convinced to die for us as if He was now considering calling the whole thing off.

Rather, this is Jesus expressing how unfathomably undesirable it was to Him to be separated from His Father even for a moment. As God, Jesus hated sin and despised everything that opposed the holiness and authority of God and His word - and now He was about to identify with all who had done just that. He was about to “be sin for us”, as puts it - becoming spiritually defiled with all the offensiveness and wickedness of man’s rebellion against God.

And it’s in the face of this unbelievable pain that Jesus demonstrated REAL COURAGE.

Real Courage

A Real Victory

"Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.” These are the last words of Jesus before Judas and the mob arrive. See how Christ rose from His agony and went to meet His attackers head on. This is just like David going toward Goliath. In it says that, “David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.”

Judas and the mob approached to apprehend Jesus - but it’s actually Jesus who goes to meet them. John writes:

having received a detachment of troops, and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. 4 Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them, “Whom are you seeking?”

“Then Judas, having received a detachment of troops, and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.

4 Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them, “Whom are you seeking?”

5 They answered Him, “Jesus of Nazareth.”

Jesus said to them, “I am He.” And Judas, who betrayed Him, also stood with them. 6 Now when He said to them, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground.

7 Then He asked them again, “Whom are you seeking?”

And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.”

8 Jesus answered, “I have told you that I am He. Therefore, if you seek Me, let these go their way,”

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