Sermon Tone Analysis

! Introduction

1.                  Misunderstanding 2: His cause (v.27-30)

!!!! a)                  His Troubled Soul (v.27a)

!!!!! (1)                 “Troubled” (tetaraktai) means agitated, pressured, heavy, weighed down, strained, stressed, disturbed.

In a few hours Jesus would bear the world’s sins and suffer separation from His Father.

The soul of the very God who holds the universe together was in turmoil because He would bear our sin *(2Cor.5:21)*.

His soul, which had never been tainted with sin, would in an instant have the sins of the universe poured upon it, enduring the wrath of God as he paid for our sins.

Galatians 3:13 puts it this way:

"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”)

!!!!! (2)                 That was the unbearably excruciating thing that made Him sweat great drops of blood, the thought of separation from His Father.

In the Garden He would pray, /“Abba Father”/, but on the cross he would cry, /“My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me”.  /Holiness is totally repulsed by sin.

The prophet Habakkuk revealed this when he wrote,

“Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You cannot look on wickedness with favor” (Hab.

1:13).

!!!!! (3)                 In that deep sorrow Jesus knew His only comfort was with His heavenly Father, and with each wave of temptation and anguish He retreated to a place of seclusion some distance away (Matt.26:36,

39, 42).

The intensity of temptation and of Jesus’ prayer response increased with each of the three sessions and is reflected in the positions the Lord took.

At first He knelt (Luke 22:41), but as the intensity escalated He fell prostrate on His face (Matt.

26:39).

The tenses mean He was repeatedly casting Himself to the ground as He asked God to deliver Him from the cross.

!!!! b)                  His Great Cause (v.27b)

!!!!! (1)                 /His supreme purpose /was to face the hour God had set for Him: He was to die.

He had come to die, and to die was the supreme cause of His life.

!!!!! (2)                 /His supreme obedience/.

Should He pray, “Father save me from this hour?”

He could not, for He had come to die.

Obedience was the supreme act of His life ( John 10:17-18).

!!!!! (3)                 When Jesus was arrested and standing before Pilate He said:  

"My kingdom is not of this world.

If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here… For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.

Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”"

(John 18:36-37, NKJV)

!!!!! (4)                 When we are afflicted and suffer tribulation, we say, “Father save me from this hour” but we need to remember that we have been appointed to this (1Thess.3:3)

!!!!!! (a)                 His death was the supreme act of obedience.

It was voluntary; He willingly died.

No man took His life; He sacrificed it Himself.

The power to take it was His and His alone.

!!!!!! (b)                Note the critical point: this “commandment” to die was of God.

This gives a higher meaning to the death of Jesus than just meeting man’s need.

It means that Jesus did not just die because of sin, but because He wished to glorify and honor God.

He wished above all else to show His love and adoration for God.

!!!!!! (c)                 This is an aspect of Jesus’ death that is often overlooked.

For in giving Himself as an “offering to God,” Christ was looking beyond our need to the responsibility of glorifying God.

This means that His first purpose was the glory of God.

He was concerned primarily with doing the will of God, with obeying God.

Jesus wished to show that God’s will meant more than any personal desire or ambition which He might have.

"So that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me.

Get up, let us go from here."

(John 14:31, NASB95)

*/"Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”"

(Luke 22:42, NASB95) /*

!!!! c)                  His Prayer (v.28a)

When His soul was troubled, Jesus prayed, & prayed for the glory of God.

He prayed for the Father to glorify His own name.

This is significant.

It shows a complete /selflessness/ on the part of Jesus.

It shows that the primary concern of Jesus was to complete His purpose and cause on earth, which was to glorify God by doing exactly what God wanted.

How was God glorified?

By Jesus’ obedience.

His Word was carried out and obeyed.

Note: the verb “/glorify/” is in the Greek aorist tense which points to a single act or event which would glorify God (John 12:28).

The single act concerned the cross.

!!!!! *The Glory Of Christ Is the Glory of the Cross*-Jesus was now ready to:

!!!!! (1)                 make the final sacrifice for man, and to pay the supreme price, His life (Phil.2:5-8).

!!!!! (2)                 secure an eternal righteousness for man by dying as God willed (Romans 5:1).

!!!!! (3)                 perfectly satisfy God’s justice, to be a propitiation for our sins (Romans 3:24)

!!!!! (4)                 triumph over Satan by breaking Satan’s power over death and over the souls of men.

(i)                                           Jesus spoiled principalities and power, triumphing over them in the cross (Col.2:13-15)

(ii)                                         Jesus destroyed the works of the devil (1 John 3:8)

(iii)                                        Jesus broke the power and fear of Satan over lives and death (Heb.2:14-15)

!!!!! (5)                 glorify God through His Obedience (John 13:31-32).

God was glorified by the supreme obedience of Jesus dying on the cross

/“For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again.

“No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative.

I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.

This commandment I received from My Father.”"

(John 10:17-18, NASB95) /

/"Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God" (Ephesians 5:2, NASB95) /

/"Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered."

(Hebrews 5:8, NASB95) /

!!!!! (6)                 to demonstrate God’s love toward sinful man (Romans 5:8).

!!!!!! (a)                 This should cause us to love Him (2Cor.5:14-15;

1Cor.6:20)

!!!! d)                  God’s Audible Approval (v.28b)

God accepted and approved Jesus’ prayer.

Note that the approval was audible.

God actually spoke from heaven, saying that He had glorified His name and that He would glorify it again.

Note three things.

!!!!! (1)                 Jesus prayed according to God’s will: “Glorify Your Name”

“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

‘Your kingdom come.

Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven."

(Matthew 6:9-10, NASB95)

!!!!!! (a)                 *Thought 1.* God will answer any prayer that is according to His will (1 John 5:14-15).

This stresses the importance of knowing God’s will.

Studying God’s Word is the only way to know the will of God.

!!!!! (2)                 God accepted Jesus’ prayer.

This means He accepted Jesus’ death in behalf of man.

We can rest assured that we are delivered from death if we believe on Jesus (John 5:24).

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life."

(John 5:24, NASB95)

!!!!! (3)                 God will glorify His name in the future.

He will keep His Word and fulfill all His promises.