The Plight of Jesus: The Battle of two Passions

Introduction

What keeps you up at night?

I went to the almighty source, Google, and found out the following:

Your environment

Your eating habits

Your exercise routine

Your mental state

What keeps you up at night

One person wrote:

The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 26: Luke Two Kinds of Passion

If you have an occasional sleepless night, you’re living in the real world. If you never have one, perhaps it’s because your life is too safe. It’s comforting to know that even Jesus had sleepless nights. We read about one here, one in which He is overwhelmed with all kinds of strong feelings.

This morning we are going to look at two different kinds of passion in the following passages.

One could say they are in all of us and for some of us it is a battle to which passion come forth.

let’s begin by reading a few of the verses of the passage.

Luke 22:39–46 ESV

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.”

Let’s Pray

Christ’s Passion to connect with His Father

It is somewhat hard to fully comprehend the relationship between Christ and His father as they are both God.

We read in Scripture

I and the father are one.

But we must understand that Christ has a passion to connect with His father while He was here on this earth as a God-Man.

Fully God and Fully Man’

As was His custom

Luke’s description of the coming event adds this phrase that seems to be only in his account.

I can image as Luke was investigating the claims and records of the people about the life of Christ, he noticed something and wanted to let us know through the illumination of God that a custom in the life of Christ was to spend time in conversation with His Father.

How is our passion to spend time with God?

Has it become a custom, ritual or fitting it into our busy lives.

let me say that again and let that sink in.

Has our time with God

become a custom, ritual or fitting it into our busy lives

As was His custom

Christ knew that this time with God was needed.

Luke 5:16 ESV

16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.

Luke noticed this earlier in his gospel that Jesus began a custom that would go with him to the cross.

As was his Custom

Jesus had a passion to bring His concerns before His Father and at the same time was modelling a custom for His followers.

coming to the place,

Jesus first draws his attention to his disciples.

The garden scene of Jesus’ most intimate conversation between Him and His father is first thought was guidance for his disciples.

Pray for your lives.

Pray that you would not be lead into temptation.

Pray that your personal passions would not get in the way of what will be asked of you as you follow me.

Pray.

Pray.

do you struggle with Prayer?

do you at times wonder if you are praying for the right things?

You believe in an almighty God that is all knowing and works all things together, so why pray?

Jesus asked his disciples at the moment to pray.

Pray for their lives. We too need to pray for our lives.

Luke 22:41 ESV

41 And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed,

Luke’s focus turned from the disciples to the life of our saviour.

He knelt down to pray.

I have a question for you.

Is a prayer posture important for our lives?

If you have ever visted a mainstream church with it’s ornate sanctuary and wooden pews?

One of my assignments in Bible College was to send us out on a mission to explore various forms of faith practices.

I had a great opportunity to explore a high Anglican church and was interested by the row of padded kneeling pads attached to the pews.

As a part of their worship, during a prayer, these pads would fold down and everyone who was able would kneel during the prayer.

Did you notice, Luke made mention of Jesus posture.

One commentary states,

Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 35C: Luke 18:35–24:53 Comment

Jesus is to pray and the disciples are to pray, but there is a clear distinction to be made. In Acts, kneeling is identified as the prayer posture only on occasions where the context suggests that there might be a particular intensity to the prayer.

If this is really true that posture and prayer’s intensity are combined.

Luke’s mention of Jesus kneeling is very important.

This intimate time when we see Jesus, our Lord in an intimate converstation with our Heavenly father.

He knew it was going to be hard.

He knew it would be a personal battle and would need all the strength that would be needed.

The text reminds us and shows us how important it was to come to God in Prayer.

In this moment in time of prayer, we see that Jesus as a God-man can identify with us.

The days coming were drawing heavily upon him and he brought them to God.

What weighs heavy on your heart.

Is there something today that has been burdening you when you come to prayer?

We see in this moment, that our Lord and soon to be saviour’s heart was heavy with the burden he was about to bear.

It seemed too hard at that moment and brought a simple request before God Almighty.

Luke 22:42 (ESV)

42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.

Jesus knew very well what the cup was.

Remember in Matt, as the disciples are discussing who owns the right to sit by Jesus’ side in Heaven, he points them to the cup. The cup of shed blood for the forgiveness of our sins.

Jesus cries out in a strong voice,

If you are willing, remove this task from my life.

Jesus understands the pain and trials of our lives that we are going through.

He sat in the garden, a stones through away from the men who had just claimed they would go to the moon for him.

The men that have now fallen asleep by the weight of the times.

Jesus knows our greatest need and understands that pain that we at times are going through.

He knows as he cries out, If you are willing remove this task from my life.

Is there something in your life that seems far too hard to handle today?

Have you been bringing this burden day after day into the presence of our God and crying out, please take this from my life.

In your crying out are you feeling that God hasn’t heard you or that He as a sovereign God has no understanding of what you are going through,

This passage brings you comfort.

If Christ can call out to God in his moment of despair,

He understands what we are going through

He understands the pain we feel.

God doesn’t mind if you bring this to his throne.

It’s all right to ask God to remove whatever is challenging you today.

In fact we should,

We should not be embarrassed, it should be natural.

God will hear us when we pray.

Christ said, if at all possible, take this cup..

Take notice of what comes next

Luke 22:42 ESV

42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

Nevertheless,

A logical contrast.

Jesus desire in the form of man was raging a battle of wills.

Not my will, but yours be done.

It was God’s will and plan all along that Jesus would have to go to the cross for you and me.

When we come to God with our cares and concerns, we must also leave them there known as Jesus did that God’s will is utmost.

God asks us to bring that prayer to him, then leave it there for Him to deal with it.

I once worked for a Christian buisness man that believed in the power of prayer and often asked pray for his new health issue.

He would bring that request to groups to pray as he deals with this new reality, then walked out of the room determined to find a cure.

When we leave the prayer request at the feet of God, it doesn’t mean that we have to sit idly by waiting for God, but we do need to trust him that he has all things under control.

Pray for the ailment in your life, but show to others God’s grace as he strenghthens you to deal with it day by day

Pray for the uncertainty of you life as you may have encountered a job loss, but trust his for his provisions.

Pray for the family members who have wondered away from God and trust God to draw them back to Him

As was His custom

Jesus called out to God, submitted to God almighty’s will,

look now to verse 43

Luke 22:43 ESV

43 And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.

Have you ever had that moment when you feel strengthened.

You are going about your business and you are able to face a circumstance like you have never done before.

I wonder if there is an angel there, summoned by God to come to your aid.

One of my dad’s favorite songs had a chorus,

He could have called ten thousand angels

To destory the world and set Him free.

He could have called ten thousand angels,

But He died alone for you and me.

This quiet prayer time became more intense as Christ wrestled in prayer over what was about to happen.

Luke gives us a clear picture of the length and depth of this prayer time.

Luke 22:44 ESV

44 And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

I wonder how our prayers might be if we were to take this prayer time as seriously as Jesus did,

I often feel ashamed that my prayer time seems so small compared to this intimate moment with our Saviour and our heavenly father.

I wonder what would happen in our world if we were to take this prayer action to the degree Christ did in the garden that night.

At the end of the service, I am going to challenge you to step a little out of your comfort zone in our closing prayer.

To take a step in a direction to follow in the example of Christ

To have the passion that Christ had with his prayer life.

But until then,

Let’s look back at the story.

Jesus arises from his intense prayer time only a stones through away and comes to the disciples who are,

well should be

as prayer warriors along side with him.

As prayer warriors who would be there by his side in Heaven,

As prayer warriors who have all the passion in the world to go to the moon for him

His disciples are what, asleep.

Luke 22:45–46 ESV

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.”

When we first look at this we once again rise to the occasion to bring condemnation upon the followers disciples of Christ.

They should have been awake.

Why are they sleeping?

We often don’t read Luke’s account when we read through the easter story.

We turn to look to read through what has come to be known as the Christmas Story,

But we often turn to the book of Mark as we look into this part of the story.

Mark’s description expands that prayer in the garden and gives us a better description while Luke summarizes the event.

You see in Mark, if you want to turn there,

Mark 14

starting at vs 32

Jesus goes and prays, returns to his disciples and repeats this process.

Each time returning they are asleep.

Every time I read these verses, I am reminded of an old gentlemen a man of many words who would pray around the world when it was his time to pray.

At one time in my youth, we decided to have a New Years Eve time and pray up to the new year.

AS with most youth, you want to exclaim at the 12th hour,

Happy new year.... But not that year, This man, of many words, decided to pray just before..... well, welll, it went on and on.

The disciples were not sleeping because Jesus was going on and on,

They were very burdened by the weight of the situation as well that it overcame them.

Luke uses the word, Sorrow

one person put it this way,

Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 35C: Luke 18:35–24:53 Comment

45 Jesus returns from prayer to find that the disciples are not at prayer but sleeping. Luke explains and, in part, excuses their sleep, by adding that it was “from grief” (cf. the end of 9:33): the sense of impending tragedy has brought them to emotional exhaustion.

46 The change of verb for “sleep” from v 45 to v 46 maybe an indication that Luke is drawing “why are you sleeping?” from his Markan source. Jesus renews his call of v 40 that his disciples should pray that they might not be called to enter into a sphere of such difficulty that it would prove a threatening trial to them.

I’m wondering at this point in the lives of the disciples that the upcoming events where also laying heavy on their hearts.

They were beginning to understand how much this would impact their lives.

It was becoming too much.

Afterall, they two were just a stone’s through away from their master as He is crying out to have the cup removed from His Hands.

The very cup that Christ had told them about.

To me it would be quite overwhelming.

Yet the Lord reminds them of what needs to be their passion

Pray for your lives. Pray that temptation will not overtake you.

Peter’s Passion to survive on his own strength

Remember I said at the beginning of the sermon there were two types of Passions.

In fact, we could say that there was a battle going on with the two types of passions.

The second type of passion was the passion, specifically for Peter, to survive on his own strength.

This is the type of passion we need to deal with on a daily, and for some of you like me, hourly basis.

If you read through vs 47-62 you see Luke’s narrative on passions striving on ones own strength.

First, you have Judas, for reasons laid out in other texts, he has chosen to betray and turn over his master to the ones hunting to kill Jesus.

Judas leading a band of people approaches Christ and leans into give a personal greeting.

Notice Luke's description

Luke 22:48 ESV

48 but Jesus said to him, “Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”

Although not mentioned directly, the passion charge to his disciples to pray for their lives. To pray against temptation, was directed at the 11 as Judas was already missing from the group.

And now we see him approach His Lord to betray Him.

Luke’s scene quickly turns to the 11.

Luke 22:49–50 ESV

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.

The temptation to jump up and do all that we can do, and even sometimes to defend God, can quite possibly be not what God is asking us to do.

Luke points out that all were thinking of rising up to fight for their Lord, but it was Peter, as mentioned in the other gospels, He was the one who was of quick action.

Temptation to have our passion our will over God’s plan for our lives is a common temptation.

Do you set out time, one on one with God and ask Him what He wants you to do with your life?

Maybe its to pull back, maybe its to move forward to take on something that requires you to rely totally upon Him for your strength.

Maybe your life has been running full steam for what you want, only to come to the realization as Peter did as the roaster crowed that your temptation to put yourself first was greater than listening to God.

Pray that you may not enter into temptation.

That was the passion that Jesus commanded His disciples to do.

Are we successful?

The good news is that even in those times that we fail, we have fallen into our temptation, It has gotten the better of us like that of Peter,

There is Hope

Christ will come, His Spirit will raise you up like Christ did to Peter and assure him that we are forgiven.

We are redeemed.

We will be restored.

No matter the fall being great or small, Christ reach is far beyond

He will come, reach down, and pull you back up as he has gone to the cross for our sins.

If you haven’t given you life over to God, Maybe you think your life is too much of a mess that God can’t or won’t.

Don’t be fooled.

Christ went to the cross for you and me.

We need to come to Him. Confess his as saviour and make Him the Lord of our life,

Then we listen to the words, the passion of one who cried out to God, but gave up his human will, to be obedient to fulfill God’s Plan of the cross.

Pray that we are not lead into temptation.

In Summary

In summary,

I warned you, I am going to ask you if you are able, as this may be hard for a few of us.

As the worship team comes up to lead us in song of response to worship, we are going to pray,

But I am asking you today, if you are able,

To kneel down for our closing prayer.

If you need to come to the front, the alter, Feel free to join me.

We are going to spend a few moments of silent prayer, then I will pray for us as we go forth with Christ’s Words on our hearts.

We a passion to bring all and everything to Him in prayer.

Response to Worship

Benediction