Like Jesus: Betrayed Like Jesus

Last week, we left off with Jesus, Peter, James, and John in the garden of Gethsemane. We learned that Jesus was in agony over the events to come. He was in so much agony that He asked the Father to change His decision and remove the cup of coming wrath away from Him. Yet, Jesus was going to carryout the Father’s purposes for Him, because He cared for nothing more than pleasing the Father and, as we will see this morning, He trusted the Father’s promises.

READ Mark 14:37-42 (Ask everyone to stand)

I. Jesus’s Preparation for Temptation versus The Disciples’ Preparation

To be able to fully understand what Mark records in verses 37-42, we need to look back at Jesus’s command to Peter, James, and John in verse 34. “And he said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.”

Here’s what Jesus is saying to them, “Do not go anywhere and stay awake.” Whenever we tell someone to “stay here” what we’re saying to them is, don’t go anywhere else. Stay here. When translated back into its original Greek meaning, the word “watch” means “awake.” In the parallel telling of this same account in Matthew 26:38, Jesus says:

“I am deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me” (Matt. 26:38).

After giving the three disciples this command, Jesus goes a short distance away from them and as we talked about last week, He spends time alone in prayer with the Father.

Remember, He’s feeling the pressure of what’s coming and He’s saying to the Father, “If it pleases you, take this cup of wrath away from me. But it’s not about what I want, it’s about what you want me to do.” So, Jesus is preparing for what’s to come, by spending time alone with the Lord.

Now, let’s look at what the disciples are doing.

(Vs. 37) “Then he came and found them sleeping. He said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you sleeping? Couldn’t you stay awake one hour?”

After spending an hour in agonizing prayer, Jesus returns to the area where He left Peter, James, and John and finds them asleep.

Mark doesn’t tell us why they fell asleep, other than at some point during the hour that Jesus was away praying, they fell asleep. Luke, on the other hand, offers a little defense for the disciples. He says,

“And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow . . .” (Lk. 22:45, ESV).

So, according to Luke, these three men were overcome with such sorrow that it caused them to fall asleep.

It make sense in many ways. First, it’s most likely around midnight. Second, think about the night they’ve had. They’ve gone from thinking that Jesus was about to tear Rome to shreds and establish Israel as the great world power to having Jesus tell them that:

He’s leaving and they can’t go with Him (John 14:1-7, 18-31; 16:16-24, 32-33)

Jesus Washing Their Feet (John 13:1-20)

Jesus Telling Them that One of Them Would Betray Him (John 13:21-30)

Jesus Sharing in the Lord’s Supper (Mark 14:22-25)

Jesus Telling Them that They Will All Runaway from Him (Mark 14:26-27)

Jesus Telling Peter that He’s Going to Deny Him Three Times (John 13:36-38)

A Long Walk Up the Mount of Olive to Gethsemane (Mark 14:32-34)

They’ve experienced a long and emotional day, so they are obviously drained. But the greater point is this, they’ve disobeyed Jesus’s command to stay awake with Him.

Next, notice that Jesus speaks to Peter first. “He said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you sleeping? Couldn’t you stay awake one hour?”

I believe this is due to the conversation Jesus and Peter had earlier in the night.

Mark 14:26-31

Notice how passionate Peter is that he will not deny Jesus. Vs. 29, ‘Even though they all fall away, I will not.” I can imagine Peter standing there, pointing his finger at the other disciples and saying to Jesus, “The rest of these guys may run away, but I’m not. In fact, if it means I die with you, so be it!”

Of course, this is when Jesus tells him that he will deny him three times before the rooster crows twice.

Now, come back to the scene in Gethsemane. I believe, in a round about way, Jesus is saying to Peter, “you say you’re going to stay with me, even if it means you’ll die too. But you can’t stay awake for one hour to pray with me.”

But, I believe in verse 38, Jesus clears up why He’s telling them to pray.

(Vs. 38): “Watch and pray that you not enter into temptation. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.”

He’s not telling them to be on the look out for the enemy. He’s telling them to be alert about the temptation that is coming their way and pray that God will give them the strength to over come it.

You know, most of the time, when we think about being tempted, we think about giving into things that will cause us to sin.

Here, I think Jesus is telling these three to pray that God would give them the strength and courage to not runaway from their faith once they are no longer with Him. Some of them will hear about His death and some of them will see it happen. The point is this, Jesus knows that left on their own, they will scatter. So, He’s telling them to pray that God will give them the strength to refrain from giving into the temptation of denying Him and leaving the faith.

Think about it. Satan succeeded in using Judas’s anger over the fact that Jesus wasn’t going to set Israel up as the world power by tempting him to betray Jesus for money, and he gave in to it.

Also, remember Jesus’s words to all of the disciples in Mark 14:27, “You will fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’”

And again, Jesus has already told Peter that despite his promise to die along side Jesus, he will deny Him three times before the rooster crows two times.

What Jesus is telling them is this, without the strength of the Father, you will fall to temptation. He says as much in the second part of verse 38, “The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.” We may believe w’re willing to die for the sake of Christ, just as Peter was convinced he would, but when it comes down to it, our flesh is going to choose us over Him each time.

Paul talks about the weakness of the flesh in

Romans 7:21-25,

“So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”

Like Peter and the other disciples, our minds may want to do what is right, but our flesh is so weak that when we are left on our own, we are going to give in to temptation every time.

And we know that Peter learned this lesson because he went on to deny Jesus three times before the rooster crowed twice just as Jesus promised. It was that experience that allowed Peter to confidently write in 1 Peter 5:8,

“Be on the alert, because your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

He knew this to be the case, because he could look back at this moment when he and the other disciples were not ready for what was about to come their way.

Will you be ready to withstand Satan’s temptations when he comes looking to devour you?

He’s going to come looking, that is a guarantee! Are you going to be ready when he does? Because Peter and the other disciples believed they were ready to take on whatever came their way once Jesus was gone, but when the time came, they just ran away and hid because they were not ready.

There was a time in my life when I wasn’t prepared for Satan’s attack and for a time, he devoured me. As many of you know, before God brought me and Emily together, I was engaged to someone else. Fortunately, God spared both of us from making a major mistake by getting married to one another. But, what I didn’t know then that I know now, is that my faith in God wasn’t ready for the trial that came and the temptations that came with it.

Here’s what I mean. At this point in my life, I had been walking with the Lord for about 7 years. For 5 1/2 or six years of that time, all I focused on was the relationship with the girl and not my relationship with the Lord. So, when the time came and the relationship ended, I wasn’t ready for the trials and temptations. See, when we broke up, I had one fear and one fear only, being alone and never marrying. I was 25 years-old, most of my high school friends had married, some even had kids by this point. And Satan used that fear against me in a mighty way. The first year following our breakup, I was fine. I was in college, I was working for my brother doing landscaping. But as time went on, and the closer I got to being 26, then 27, I grew more and more fearful of being alone. So, I started going out with my friends and I began looking for someone to bring an end to that fear. The longer I looked without finding what I was looking for, the further down in the hole I went. All the while, I knew in my heart that I was sinning against God. But temptation after temptation came my way, and I gave in time after time. I was not ready and I failed.

Now, eventually and thankfully, the Lord used some ugly experiences to bring me out of the hole that I dug. But as I look back on it, I can see how I allowed Satan to devour me.

We cannot wait until the temptation comes for us to begin preparing for it. We must prepare for it everyday!

What should we do to make sure we don’t fall away from God by giving into temptation? Pray for and have faith in the power of His Holy Spirit to lead us away from it.

Paul says Galatians 5:16-17:

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” (Ga 5:16–17).

When Paul talks about walking in the Spirit, what he’s talking about is being led by God’s Holy Spirit. And when we are being led by God’s Holy Spirit, we will not give into the desires of our flesh. When we pray for it, God’s Holy Spirit will give us the power to do what we cannot do on our own, that is overcoming the desires of our flesh.

After this encounter with the three disciples, verse 39 tells us that Jesus leaves the them again to go off alone and pray. In verse 40, He returns to find Peter, James, and John once again, sleeping. This time, when He wakes them up, they have no idea what to say to Him.

I think it’s beneficial for us to stop here for a moment because there’s something happening here that I don’t want us to miss.

As we discussed last week and have briefly touched on this morning, here’s Jesus in the midst of the most agonizing time of His life. He is just hours away from taking on the sins of the world, He is gripped in grief to the point of sweating blood. Yet, three times He stops praying to come and check on the disciples. He didn’t have to care about them falling into temptation, yet He cared enough to come and check on them three times.

What does it say about the love of Jesus Christ for His followers, that despite what He’s about to endure, He still cares about them?

If you’ve ever wondered if Jesus truly loves you, then my prayer is that this scene in the garden of Gethsemane will end all doubt. If you’ve ever found yourself wondering if Jesus has forgotten about you, then my prayer is that this scene in the garden of Gethsemane will answer that question.

There’s one final thing we need to see this morning. That is . . .

II. Jesus Trusted the Father

Do not doubt for one moment whether or not Jesus was being tempted when He was in Gethsemane. Some say that this scene is the fourth and final temptation. And like we talked about last week, in the end, Jesus did what the Father told Him to do.

So, after spending time in agonizing prayer and twice coming back to check on Peter, James, and John, verse 41 says that “And he came the third time and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough; the hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.’”

As we are about to see, in contrast to Jesus, the disciples are not ready for the trials and temptations that are to come. They have failed to do what Jesus originally told them to do and time is up.

But, unlike the disciples, Jesus has spent time in prayer with the Father, and now He is ready to for what is coming.

After asking the three disciples is they were still sleeping and getting their rest, look at what Jesus says. He says “It is enough; the hour has come.” I don’t think He’s saying that the disciples have had enough time. I believe He’s saying that the time for His grief and agony over what He’s about to face is over. He’s accepted the Father’s will and He’s ready to go. I believe this is the case because when He sees Judas, the Jewish leaders, and the Roman officials coming to arrest Him, He says to the disciples in verse 42, “Rise, let us be going, my betrayer is at hand.” And we know that He wasn’t saying that it was time to run because once they met up with the mob, Jesus willingly hands Himself over to them.

“Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them” (Jn 18:4–5).

Here’s the question, what changed? How did Jesus go from asking God to change His mind to walking right into the hands of this mob.

I believe the answer is in

“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence” (Heb 5:7).

I believe the answer lies in the statement ... to him who was able to save him from death . . .

Jesus entrusted Himself to God the Father because He believed in the the promises of God.

David prophesied in Psalm 16:10,

“For you will not abandon me to Sheol; you will not allow your faithful one to see decay” (Psalm 16:10, CSB).

Jesus believed in the promise of resurrection. And His faith in the Father allowed Him to see past His present circumstances to His resurrection and eternal life.

Judas, and for a time the other disciples, could not see past their current circumstance. In Judas’s mind, Jesus had let all Jews down because He was not going to wipe out the Romans and establish Israel and the world power. I have to believe that the other disciples were disappointed too, until they saw that Jesus’s resurrected body with their own eyes, which changed everything. But I do believe there was a time when none of the disciples could see past their present circumstances and see what God was doing through Jesus.

How about you? Do you trust the Father with enough faith to know that whatever He calls you to do, you are willing to go and do it, even if it means death? Because when we are able to get to that point in our relationship with God, then nothing will be able to stop us. If we are not afraid of death because we entrust ourselves to God’s promise for resurrection, then walking across the hallway, cafeteria, ball field, house, or yard to share the gospel of Jesus with someone who needs to hear it, is nothing!

If we are unafraid of death because we entrust ourselves to God’s promise for resurrection, then like Jesus has He headed to the cross and the disciples after Jesus ascended into heaven, He can use us in ways that we’ve never imagined.

Let’s Pray