(Note: to set up an illustration, I asked everyone in the congregation to write their name on a small slip of paper along with the name of an unsaved person they are praying for. Then I passed a large stemmed cup and had them all place the folded papers in the cup. Through the sermon the cup sat on a the communion table until I got to the illustration under point III)
Introduction How many of Jesus’ prayers were answered? All of them? That would only seem right. I mean, He was and is God’s only Son, He and the Father are one, and the Father is well pleased with Him. So one would think that every prayer Jesus uttered the Father answered. May I suggest to you that there is one prayer it appears Father did not respond to or, maybe said, "No."
Let’s look in Mark 14: 32Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33And He took Peter, James, and John with Him, and He began to be troubled and deeply distressed. 34Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch.” 35He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. 36And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.” 37Then He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour? 38Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 39Again He went away and prayed, and spoke the same words. 40And when He returned, He found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy; and they did not know what to answer Him. 41Then He came the third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough! The hour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.”
I believe this is Jesus’ last recorded prayer before the crucifixion. He just spent a pleasant evening with His closest followers, celebrated the Passover, and now, late in evening, under a full Passover moon leads them to the garden of Gethsemane, which means "olive press", a place where oil is squeezed from olives. You will see that name is appropriate. In this setting, Jesus suddenly becomes extremely agitated, the NKJV says, "Troubled and deeply distressed". That is translated "filled with horror and deep distress" in the NLT. Mark’s words suggest the greatest possible degree horror and suffering. The words are so strong it looks like Jesus is in the grip of a shuddering terror. He falls face down to pray, which doesn’t seem strange to us, but Jews normally prayed with hands lifted and standing. If one was in particular distress one might prostrate himself.
Why is Jesus suddenly so troubled? What causes such agony and passion that Luke says His sweat became great drops of blood? I believe the answer is in the cup. The subject of His impassioned cry is the cup: "Take this cup away from Me." What is in the cup that so horrifies the Son of God? Jesus is about to experience the full reason for His incarnation and the cup is why He came. In the cup He will face some things no other experience He had would supply. Let’s gaze into the cup to see what it meant to Jesus and what it can teach us.
What Jesus Found In The Cup
Note: "Cup" both in Bible and in secular writings signified the lot or destiny, whether good or evil, that God has appointed for a person. In the Psalms we see "the cup of salvation" and in Revelation we see "the cup of wrath"
I. In The Cup Jesus Found Suffering. (v. 33) He began to be troubled and deeply distressed.
A. Many Old Testament prophets describe Jesus as The Suffering Servant.
Mark 8:31 He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed...
This is the reason Jesus came – He would be the perfect sacrificial Lamb who would fulfill every sacrifice required in the Old Testament law. He would fulfill all the prophecies that foretold His coming.
1. Look at some examples of what Jesus suffered.
Isaiah 53:3 He is despised & rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted w/grief. (rejection, hated by His own people, humiliation, grief).
Mark 14:50 They all forsook Him and fled. (abandoned by His closest friends).
Isaiah 50:6 I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard... Isaiah 52:14 His visage was marred more than any man... Isaiah 53:5 He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. (physical torture). What would it feel like to have his beard pulled out of his face? It’s no wonder Mary did not recognize Him when He rose.
Isaiah 53:8 He was taken from prison and from judgment...for He was cut off from the land of the living: (death).
Illustration: Crucifixion was one of most terrifying methods of execution. It was not meant just to bring death but to bring death in the most excruciatingly painful and lengthy process imaginable. Victims often languished days before succumbing to death. Exposure, disease, hunger, shock, dehydration, and exhaustion were usually the immediate cause of death. The social stigma and disgrace associated with crucifixion can hardly be overstated. This method of execution was reserved for criminals of worst sort who were from the lowest levels of society. It was even more shameful for Jews, since Deuteronomy 21:23 says, He who is hanged is accursed of God.
2. But Jesus had to suffer. Look at Hebrews 2:9-10 We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. “Perfect” means complete or fulfilled. He had to suffer to fully complete or accomplish His purpose, which was to seek and save lost. On the cross the price was paid and in a legal sense the entire sentence has been served. He tasted death for all.
B. Lessons From A Cup. So what can we learn from Jesus suffering?
First, Jesus Christ was fully human & fully divine.
a. One must ask, if Jesus is the Son of God why would He demonstrate such mental anguish and anxiety? Couldn’t God go through any kind of physical and mental ordeal without flinching? Yes, if He is only God but here we see Jesus, Who is like any 100% human, He experiences the same emotions, anxiety, revulsion, fight or flight impulses we do. Jesus is wrestling here in this garden with the same powerful temptations which enticed Eve in the first garden. Isn’t it appropriate that life was lost in a garden and now life is being brought back in a garden?
Second, we can have confidence when we pray. Jesus modeled several important concepts that we should follow. He showed intimacy with the Father in addressing with the most endearing term a Jewish child used towards its father, Abba. He showed total confidence in God’s omnipotence when He said, All things possible for You. We can have the same confidence. He also demonstrated the very pattern He told us to follow when we pray. Remember the Lord’s prayer; Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil). Jesus shows us here that it’s OK to pray for deliverance and release from hardships we face. Though He didn’t get relief from the cup, He did get relief from the distress and anxiety. Notice that after praying Jesus exudes calm confidence and peace beyond understanding throughout His trial, torture, crucifixion, and death. We can pray with faith and receive peace even when our trials continue knowing that God’s will is always best.
II. In The Cup Jesus Found Obedience. (v. 36) Not what I will, but what You will.
A. Look at Hebrews 5:7-8 When He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. Jesus Learned Obedience.
1. He prayed with full confidence in God’s power saying All things are possible for you. He’s saying, I know you can do anything, so take this cup away. But the issue here is not can God do it, but what is God’s will. See, Jesus is not trying to change God’s purpose but to see if there is another way? He’s saying can we possibly accomplish salvation so that I don’t have to drink this horrifying cup?
a. Here’s where we ask did God answer? I suggest that this is the only prayer the Father did not answer. If He had said "No" the first time the Jesus, the obedient Son, would not have come back two more times! Perhaps there was no answer till third time? How strange that must have been for the Son of God to call on Father, with whom He had experienced unbroken fellowship through all eternity past to suddenly pray and experience silence! In John 11:42, He said, I know you always hear Me! Hebrews tell us the Father heard, yet it appears He did not respond.
2. It is important to note that Jesus obeyed from the start. In His prayer He says, "This is what I want, but that’s not as important as what you want." Your will comes first, above my comfort, popularity, health, and even my life. I want your will. Hebrews tells us that this is how Jesus came to understand what obedience is all about – obedience for Jesus is allowing His will to be directed by His Father’s will no matter what the end result will be.
B. Lessons From The Cup (2) What can we learn from Jesus’ obedience?
First, Jesus is a courageous hero.
NIV Application Commentary says, Seeing this great struggle, where Jesus is really grappling with God’s will shows that He’s not a joyful martyr bent on self-destruction nor is He an unwilling pawn in some cosmic chess game. He fully understands the dangers ahead and, though flesh shrinks from it, He resolves to do the will of God.
Second, Jesus is our living example. He not only tells us to take the cross and follow Him but then identifies with our struggle showing that He is not above temptation, and like us, is hardwired to preserve & protect His own life. We can face difficult situations and bring them to Jesus because whatever we go through – He’s been there, done that, He knows exactly what it is like. We can also be confident that there are times when tough situations are right in the center of God’s will. And it is better to obey and be in God’s will in a swamp full of alligators than to be out of God’s will and lounging in the lap of luxury, fame and comfort.
Transition: So Jesus found suffering and obedience in the cup but would those things alone cause Him to experience the abject terror that grips Him in the garden? I think there is one more ingredient in the cup that horrifies Jesus more than anything else.
III. In The Cup Jesus Found Sin. (v. 36) , “Abba, Father...Take this cup away from Me.
A. This is A Cup of Judgment. Psalm 11:6 Upon the wicked He will rain coals: fire and brimstone and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup.
In the Old Testament the "cup" was regularly used as metaphor of punishment and judgment (i.e. the cup of God’s wrath for sin).
1. Judgment for sin is death which means “separation”. Spiritual death is conscious existence in separation from God. Jesus said "my soul (spirit) is sorrowful unto death." But death is always viewed as the consequence of sin and only sinners are subject to death. How could Jesus, who was in all ways tempted as we are yet without sin experience death?
2. Here’s how -- when Jesus drank the cup He became sin!
II Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
a. Jesus did not sin Himself but Isaiah says, the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He took our sins upon Himself, from most the unintentional to most the most vile and despicable thing imaginable. What is the worst thing you can imagine
E.G. Is it genocide like Stalin, Hitler, and the things that are going on today in Africa and other places where literally millions of people have been or are being killed; is it men beating their defenseless wives; is it slavery which exists today more than in the days of John Newton and William Wilberforce; is it homosexuality; theft; hatred; self-destruction with drugs, alcohol, or suicide; blasphemy; idolatry; pedophilia, etc. What’s most vile thing you can think of?
Exercise: Everyone close your eyes. Now with no one looking but me, who here has done something at some time in your life that you would not want anyone to know about because it is so shameful? I’m raising my hand first, who else. (there should be hands going up all over). OK, you can put your hands down and look up here – Jesus became that for you!
b. The holy Son of God received in Himself the very thing that He most abhorred. His purity was defiled and violated in the most ghastly sense of the word!
c. Not only that but because of the sin He was abandoned. "Abba" is the most intimate term a Jewish child would use to address his/her father Jesus’ use of the term suggests His primary concern is the disruption of relationship with His Father that He would face because of taking our sin. His Father’s face would be withdrawn. He would face the cross completely alone unlike the martyrs who came after Him. They were fearless because God was with them right up until the end. Jesus went to the cross all alone and was completely forsaken. The darkness that fell during the crucifixion and the cry of Jesus (why have you forsaken Me?) express the fact that Jesus was left totally alone in universe!
Illus. The cup was full to the brim with sin. Pour the names collected in the cup on the altar – you were in the cup, I was in the cup, those you know who are unsaved were in the cup. Can you see why the cup was so terrifying?!
B. Lessons From The Cup (3)
1. Jesus’ cup of sin is our cup of salvation.
Psalm 116:13 I will take up the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD.
II Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
a. The substitution works two ways. Jesus became our sin, we become His righteousness. He didn’t deserve sin, we don’t deserve righteousness but that is God’s plan, that is why Jesus submitted to God’s will – for joy set before Him. In the cup Jesus saw your face with every sin attached. On the cross Jesus sees your face washed pure and holy by His blood!
2. He died so that we could live.
I Peter 2:24 Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.
a. Jesus took all of God’s wrath for all your sins. Sin no longer has power over you – you can live a righteous life!
3. Souls have immeasurable value. Think about the cost to Jesus, the weight of sin He carried, literally cut off from the Father. How valuable, then is every human being? Those we have been praying for were in cup, their sin was upon Jesus. He already paid for them. How can we not invite them to celebrate the life He has revealed by the resurrection? How could we waste the struggles Jesus endured to purchase their freedom by not giving them the opportunity to hear the good news? They are worth the life of the Son of God, they are worth His intimacy with the Father, aren’t they worth your effort to invite them, even if its uncomfortable or fearful?
Illus. Professor Bruce Riggins of McCormick Theological Seminary met a very dedicated Christian woman working with underprivileged people in London. He asked what it was that inspired her faith and action. She told him this story: she was a Jew fleeing the Gestapo in France during World War II. She knew she was close to being caught and wanted to give up. She was hiding in a home in France and a widow came and said it was time to flee. "It’s no use,” she said, “They’ll find me anyway. They are so close." This Christian widow replied, "Yes, they will find someone here, but it’s time for you to leave. Go with these people to safety. I will keep your identification and wait here." She then understood the plan; the Gestapo would find the widow and think she was the fleeing Jew. When she asked why, the widow responded, "It’s the least I can do, Christ has already done that and more for me." The widow was caught and imprisoned, allowing the Jewish lady to escape. Within six months she died in a concentration camp. The Jewish lady never forgot. She too became a follower of Jesus Christ and lived her life for others. She said she came to Christ through the greatest love a person can give – self-sacrifice. This is exactly how Jesus purchased salvation – He was caught in our sin so we could escape!
Conclusion: In the garden Jesus’ prayer was not answered. That happened so that our prayer could get a great big "Yes!" I believe God says yes, when we pray for souls: He is not willing that any should perish. It wasn’t His will to spare Jesus, but it is His will to spare whoever comes to Him for salvation. Let’s continue to pray but more, let’s resolve to invite those we’re praying for. Let’s put feet on our prayers and make this Resurrection Sunday the biggest, best celebration of the life of Christ we’ve ever experienced!
How can we pray for you today? (1) Are you struggling with or facing something very hard? Can we pray? (2) Is there somewhere you’re unsure of God’s will or you know His will but you are grappling with the obey part? (3) Do you need reassurance that "in Christ" you’re a new creation, the righteousness of God, and you have the power to live free of sin and holy? (4) Do you have a need that seems impossible? Remember: all things are possible with God.
