Luke's Gospel

And if you have a bible, please open it to Luke chapter 22. If you don't have a bible, that's fine. The the words are gonna come up on the screen. And we've been going through Luke now for a very long time. And we're coming towards the end of it now.

We're in Luke chapter 22. And I'm gonna be reading from verse 39 to 53. Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, pray that you will not fall into temptation. He withdrew about a stone story beyond them, knelt down and prayed.

Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done. An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. Why are you sleeping?

He asked them? Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. While he was still speaking, a crowd came up, And the man who was called Judas, 1 of the 12, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus asked him Judus.

Are you betraying the son of man with a kiss? When Jesus followers saw what was going to happen, they said, Lord, Should we strike with our swords, and 1 of them struck the servant of the high priest cutting off his right ear. But Jesus answered no more of this. And he touched the man's ear and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders who had come for him, Am I leading a rebellion that you have come with swords and clubs every day I was with you in the temple courts and you did not lay a hand on me?

But this is your hour when darkness rains. So don't know if all of you were alive in 2003. Maybe some of you were, some of you weren't, probably all were, 17 years ago. What a year that was? Because in December that year, the return of the king came out in the cinema.

I'm a big lord of the Rings fan as you will find out. And 13 year old, Ben, was super excited because I was completely taken up with the fellowship of the ring in the 2 towers. These were like the most amazing films I'd ever seen in my life. I was so excited that this third 1 was coming out. And in the autumn of that year, 2003, they launched the trailer for the return of the king.

And I don't know if I'm exaggerating, it's a bit embarrassing, to say that I must have watched that trailer hundreds of times. There was a period in my life where I come home from school. I'd boot the computer up, and it took about 20 minutes to load up. Then once it was loaded up, I went to a website which like movie trailers, and I found this trailer and I would watch it. But it was back in the day where videos had to buffer before you could watch them.

Yeah? So you would press play and the first 5 seconds would be available. So you'd watch that and it would get stuck. So what I would do is I would drag the thing back to the beginning and press play again. And then by that time, in another 5 seconds, I'd buffered.

So I'd watch 10 seconds. And then I'd drag it back to the beginning and another 20 seconds have been done. So I'd do that and I'd watch I would do this. It would I don't know how long it would take. It must take at least 10, 15 minutes to download this whole thing and watch it.

And then once it hit all done, I must have seen it. Like, 50 times by that point. But once it was fully done, I would sit back and I would enjoy it. I would go right. I would press play, and then I would just soak in the glory.

That was that trailer. I am very strange. But there is there is something there was something about that trailer that made me just go back and back and back and watch it again and again and again. And it was this sense of anticipation and preparation that something really big was coming and about to happen. There's a line in the trailer where Gandov says, the board is set.

The pieces are moving. We come to it at last, the great battle of our time. Then shivers down my spine. And I I'm just a sucker for stuff like that. I love sequences in films and stories where something is coming and the protagonists have got like a set amount of time to get stuff ready before it arrives.

And like the Lord of the Rings is just full of stuff like this. In the first 1, you got Moria. You know, they're trying to go through quietly. Pippin makes some noise, fool of a tuck. And then the the enemy comes and they can barricade themselves in.

Love that. In the 2 towers, you've got this magnificent piece of cinema history with the Helm's Deep. What an amazing 2 hour battle sequence that is I I sound like such a nerd. I've just heard myself. Anyway, Helm's Deep.

And then I couldn't think it could get any bigger than this epic battle in Helm's Deep. But here in this trailer, Gandov says, the great battle of our time has come. It's the same in other films as well if you like Harry Potter. In the last film, they've got that sequence where they prepare Hogwarts. For an attack, and the list could go, I could I could name loads of examples, but a confrontation is is coming.

Something is on its way, and people have got time to prepare for it. Well, that is what's happening in this passage that we just read tonight. So we've had the final passover in this gospel. Judus has agreed to betray Jesus, and now he's leading a crowd of people to come and arrest him. That's where we are in the story.

So the board is set The pieces are now moving, and we come to this great confrontation where Jesus is gonna drink the cup of God's wrath on the cross. The hour has finally come. But before that, there's still time for final preparations before this confrontation. That's what we're gonna look at tonight. We're gonna see How does Jesus prepare for this confrontation?

And then by extension, how do we prepare for stuff in this world? And also, how does Jesus deal with this confrontation? Those are the things we're gonna look at. First of all, the preparations, look at verse 39. Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives and his disciples followed him.

On reaching the place, he said to them, pray that you will not fall into temptation. He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed. So the first thing to notice here, is that Jesus is not running from this confrontation. If you if you read the gospel, you'll see that there are so many times time and time again, people want to seize Jesus and kill him. Like, since chapter 3 or something, ridiculously early, they almost from the word go, they wanna kill him.

And they've been trying to grab him, but they haven't been able to. Every time, Jesus had said something like my hour has not yet come. And then he snuck away, or he slipped away. There was this 1 time where this crowd wanted to kill him, and he just walked straight through the middle of them. You think what?

But that is not what is happening this time. Jesus doesn't say, come on, lads. Let's let's go to an unknown location. Let's slip away where Judas won't know where we are. Jesus is going to the place that he regularly goes to.

Verse 39 here says Jesus went out as usual to the mount of olives. This is something he normally does. He knows Judas will know where to find him. You can overlook that quite easily, but I think it's a little detail just to remind us that this arrest that's coming is actually part of Jesus' plan. This is his plan.

It's his timing. This is his hour. The events that are gonna unfold now Well, and all the events that unfolded before are unfolding exactly as he has ordained them to. He's in complete control. So Judith knows where they are, and he's coming.

But what does Jesus do with the time that he has? To prepare. That's the question I want us to look at. What is he gonna do with this time? And what does he want the disciples to do with the time that they have?

Because they haven't got long. Judus is on his way. Is it gonna be like every lord of the rings? You know, the enemy's coming, barricade the doors, sharpen the blades, put elves up on the wall, Is it that kind of stuff? Is it put a distress signal out, Caitlin, shaking her head?

Have you even seen all of the rings? Oh my goodness. Right. That's what that's what's gonna happen. Is Jesus gonna call for help?

Is he gonna come up with a battle plan to save himself from this moment? He's not gonna do that. Look at verse 40. He says, pray that you will not fall into temptation. He withdrew a stone's throw beyond the meltdown and prayed.

So what does Jesus do now that this hour has come? He prays. What does he want his disciples to do? He tells them to pray. I think this is a lesson for us today.

This lesson is that we should always go first to the throne of God I know in my life, I guess you're the same. Often, when something comes up, we have a go at doing it ourselves first, don't we? We don't always go to God first. We first go, I've got this. I'll have a go.

And then only when it messes up or it's too big for us to handle, then we go, oh, God help us. But the lesson here is that first we should go before the throne of God to help us. And it's an interesting prayer this that he tells them to pray because he's not saying, look, go to God and pray that nothing bad would happen. Pray that actually, this crowd that's coming would get confused and go the other way. Maybe they thought the mount of olives was that way instead.

Prey that you'll sleep peacefully tonight. He's not praying those kind of things. He's saying to them, look, given this is happening, given that evil will happen in this world, pray that you don't fall into temptation. Which again is another lesson for us. Because when we pray, when we eventually get around to praying, we often pray for bad things not to happen to us, don't we?

We pray that temptation wouldn't come our way or that if it. If bad times are on us, we pray, God, take them away. We rarely pray that we would not fall into temptation when it comes around. In other words, we pray we pray for deliverance. We don't really pray for endurance.

But this is a call for the disciples to be on their guard. Pray that you would not be overcome by what is about to happen. Pray that you would not slip up. Pray that you pay attention, and they definitely need to be praying for this. If you've been listening to the series we've been going through, you'll know that Chris preached not long before, only a few verses before, that Satan has asked to sift them.

Satan has said to him, I want to sift these these men. So sin is crouching at their door. It's really close. It wants to pounce on them. Satan wants to scatter them, so they absolutely need to be praying.

Don't bother sharpening your swords. Don't come up with an ambush plan. Get on your knees and pray for God's help. That's the best preparation for what's about to happen according to Jesus. But here we see Jesus also practicing what he preaches.

Verse 41, he withdrew about a stone story beyond them, knelt down and prayed. Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done. And again, in verse 44, and being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. This is an amazing moment in the gospel because I think here we see Jesus most clearly in his humanity, because he's an anguish. Have you ever been in anguish before?

He's frail. It's such a human way to describe the king of all kings, the creator of heaven and earth. Here he is in anguish. He's praying, if there's another way than for this cup to be taken from him. And again, it's interesting if you heard Chris' sermon a couple of weeks ago.

We were looking at another cup, which was the cup of the new covenant of Jesus' blood, which Jesus gives it the last supper. He says it's poured out for us for our cleansing and purification. That is a cup that we should want to be poured out on us. But The anguish of drinking this cup is the pouring out of God's wrath on Jesus. It's not really the agony of the cross that Jesus is shrinking from here.

Like, I don't wanna go to the cross. If you've read Dominion or if you've read any books describing what it was. It was an incredible awful punishment really made just for slaves and the criminals. And it was it was agony. But that's not what Jesus is shrinking from.

Jesus is shrinking because the cup of God's wrath for humanity is overflowing in full. We imagine God is infinite, isn't he? But his cup of wrath is full. Against us, against the sin and rebellion, against him. So Jesus is in anguish because this cup is about to be removed from us.

It's about to be given to him instead. On the cross, Jesus, he's the spotless, perfect, eternal son of the father. He is gonna face The wrath of the father, for sins that don't belong to him, the sins that we committed this morning, The sins that we committed this afternoon are gonna be put on him on the cross. He's gonna drink the cup for those things. Yeah?

The things that are fresh in your mind. Shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have been that way. He's gonna drink the cup for those things.

And and look, this is this is hard to get our heads around, but he He from everlasting in eternity that way, to everlasting in eternity that way, has only ever known perfect union with the father. He's only ever known joy. Love, peace, pleasure from the father. And now he's looking up and he's gonna face the full judgment of the father, the full anger and the full wrath of the father because of the sins that we've committed. He's gonna say for the first time, in eternity, why have you forsaken me?

He's like Isaac looking up at his father Abraham with the knife in his hand ready to bring it down on his only beloved son. That's why he's in anguish here. That's why he's sweating drops like blood because he's going to be pierced for our transgressions at the hand of his own father. But here's the difference between Jesus and every other man to ever live. Jesus is perfectly obedient to the father, even to this point of death.

Look at verse 42. Jesus says, father, if you're willing take this cup from me, Yet not my will, but yours be done. Jesus is in on this plan. It's not like he's got to this point and goes, is there another way? I don't know.

Perhaps there was something we hadn't thought of God. Maybe let's try and find another way. He knows this is the only way. And so he submits to the father's will. There's no other way to redeem us from our sins.

There's no other way to take the punishment. We can't kill a cow and that pay for the price of our sin. We can't kill 2 doves. And that pay for the price of our sin. He's got to do it.

There's a really lovely little detail here in verse 43. I've just really enjoyed noticing. An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. Jesus is the king of all angels. The angels are his to command.

They're like his soldiers. They're like his footmen. Yeah? This single angel could have taken out the whole mob that was coming to get Jesus. I don't know how strong angels really are, but I would guess that 1 angel can pretty comfortably deal with some angry men.

I'm pretty sure. But this is the thing, the strength that God has is used here not to destroy his enemies, but the strength of God is used to strengthen Jesus to die for his enemies. This angel could have come to have wiped out all of Jesus' enemies, but instead he comes to him to strengthen him to die for his enemies. And again, we often pray for bad things to be removed from us in this life. Don't we?

We've got pains in this life. We've got disappointments in this life. There's shame that can be like a cloud over us in this life. And we asked for God to take these things away. We even asked for God to take away difficult people.

We asked God to take away difficult circumstances that just sludge us down. And when they don't disappear easily, even after years of praying, we might be tempted to think that God has actually ignored our prayers. Like, what does God not care about me anymore? I'm still in this situation. This thing's still here.

But actually, sometimes we neglect that an answer to our prayers might be to strengthen us to be able to bear the weight of what is happening rather than to remove it completely. Again, in other words, we often pray for deliverance and not endurance. Matthew Henry, a Bible commentator, writes this. He says, if God makes the shoulders fit for the burden, we have no reason to complain. If God's gonna give us shoulders big enough to carry something, then we have no reason to complain that we're carrying it.

And here Jesus is heard by the father. Remember, he's on his knees. He's saying, if there's another way, take it away, But not being able to take this away because it's the only way, God makes his shoulders fit for the burden. And he gives him the strength that he needs it through. Verse 44, and being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

Here's another lesson for us. Greater anguish, greater problems, greater exhaustion with this world equals greater prayer for Jesus. Being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly. He has been strengthened for this task. But he's not been put under general anesthetic for it either.

He still has to go through this awful crushing experience or taking our sin, and we begin to see what it's gonna mean for him because his sweat resembles blood dropping to the floor. So, Judas is coming, the crowd's coming. This is the time of preparation. What has Jesus done? How is he used this time?

He's prayed. And he's been strengthened to bear the load as a result of that. In the next few verses though, we get to the disciples, and we see whether they've been using their time wisely. Actually see that they haven't been following Jesus' instruction. Because in verse 45, it says, when he rose from prayer, he went back to the disciples, he found them asleep.

Exhausted from sorrow. Why are you sleeping, he asked them? Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation, but too late because as he's saying this, the confrontation arrives. Verse 47, While he was still speaking, a crowd came up. This is the confrontation now.

And the man who was called Judus, 1 of the 12, was leading them. So this is another amazing scene here in the gospel, because we have Judas, who is 1 of the 12 remember, He should have been with Jesus in that garden praying for Jesus. But instead, he's leading this crowd to come and arrest. Them. He's on a mission to confront Jesus.

They didn't have Twitter, they didn't have Facebook, they didn't have profile pictures in those days. So not everyone would have known exactly what Jesus looked like. So the way Judus was gonna get around this, he said, the 1 that I go up and kiss, that's Jesus. In verse 3 of this chapter 22, we're told that Satan entered Judas. And this is surely his idea, isn't it?

That you would betray the great lover, the author of creation, the great I am with a token of love You would betray him with a kiss. Is there anything more twisted or mocking or evil than that in history? It's actually the very essence of sin that you would take something good and use it for evil. But before judas gets to him, Jesus, remember, knowing this is unfolding as he wants it to. He knows everything that's happening, he confronts Judas with a question.

It's brilliant. Judas has come in to confront him. Jesus confronts Judas. Before Judith has a chance, and you see who's really in control. If you look at the second half of verse 47, he approached Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus asked him, Judas, are you betraying the son of man with a kiss?

Look, he's not asking this question because he's forgotten the script. He's like, oh, god. What what scene are we in? What's happening next? Oh, Judith.

Are you gonna he's not asking him for that? And he's not shocked either like, oh, my goodness. Are you betray me with a kiss? I think he's asking this question for Judith to consider plainly what he's about to do. He's he's laying it out in front of Judus.

He's saying, Judus. Let's be clear. I'm speaking to you. Yeah? Satan might have entered you, but I'm saying your name, Judus.

You're in control. Secondly, this is a betrayal. Let's not beat around the bush. There's no uncertain terms here. You're betraying me.

And thirdly, this is not an average betrayal. You're betraying the son of man, fourthly, You're doing all of this with a kiss. When we meet Jesus, our sin is really clearly shown to us. This is an experience that we'll all have when we come to Jesus. When we come to him and our sin is presented in front of this in front of us, we've got 2 options.

We can look at it, and we can go, I'm so sorry. Thank you for showing me this. I had no idea really how bad I was. Please take this away from me. Thank you for the cross.

That's 1 way we can respond. Or we can harden our heart, come up with excuses and say, well, you misunderstood that Jesus. You haven't really represented me properly there, and we can go on sinning anyway. And this is what Judah did. And now we see the ill preparation of the disciples.

Where did falling asleep get them? Verse 49, when Jesus followers saw what was going to happen, they said, Lord, Should we strike with our swords? So Jesus had told them not long ago to be prepared with swords for a different reason, not to attack. But they didn't understand that. And so they go, let's attack.

And there's 1 guy who even attacks before Jesus says anything. They say, Lord, should we strike? And he strikes anyway. Doesn't even wait for the command. He's that like, passionate, that that kind of angry, that caught up in all of this.

But Jesus, verse 51 of them struck the servant of the high priest cutting off his ear. They should have been praying, but they were sleeping so that when this moment came, instead of being strengthened to bear with it, and to and to see the son of man go to the cross. They wanted to fight against it. It was exactly what Jesus warned them about. But Jesus answers in verse 51.

No more of this, and he touches this man's ear and he heals him. So this is a chaotic scene. This is a crazy scene. It's night time, it's dark. This crowd have come.

They've got pitchforks and and torches and weapons. Judus' armies betrayed the Savior with a kiss. The disciples are out of control, but here in the middle of it all. Stands Jesus. And he says, no more of this.

Instead of giving the command to attack the enemy, it's just like the angel thing will over again. Instead of using the people he had to attack and defend himself, Jesus does something completely unexpected here. He turns and he heals this man's ear. This is what God is like. God's enemies come to him, and and and wanna arrest him and kill him, and he reaches out and heals them.

That's a small picture of what he's about to do on the cross. He will die for his enemies. By his wounds, his enemies will be healed. And again, we see Jesus doing the confronting again. The crowd think they're here to confront Jesus.

Jesus confronts the crowd, verse 52. Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard and the elders who had come for him. Am I leading a rebellion that you have come with swords and clubs? Every day I was with you in the temple courts and yet you did not lay a hand on me, but this is your hour where darkness reigns. So he's doing this thing again, where he's presenting to people confronting him their sin.

He's laying a few things out for this crowd to consider. First of all, he's addressing each and every 1 of them. He says, he said to the chief priests, to the officers of the temple guard, and the elders. He's saying, look, all of you just because you're here in a crowd doesn't mean that you can excuse your actions. You're all personally responsible here.

That's the first thing. Secondly, your swords and your clubs are totally unnecessary. When has Jesus ever done anything violent against these people? Actually, bringing swords and club is just exposing their hearts. They've wanted to kill him from day 1, and they've been putting it under this, like, godly way, like, he breaks the rules of the sabbath, we want to put him to death for a godly reason.

But actually Jesus is just saying, you have murderous hearts and look at you. Just take a look at yourselves. You've come to arrest me, and you've brought weapons with you. Look at your own heart. Thirdly, they had every chance to arrest him in the courts, in open daylight, but they didn't because they were afraid of the people.

Again, they had this like, they thought they were on God's side, they thought they were passionately zealously against him because of the law, because of God, but actually here they're doing their God's dirty work in the middle of the night, in secrecy. And darkness like cowards. But as we've seen, Jesus is not slipping away from this because his time has come. The time for the cross has come, and he says it's a dark hour where darkness reigns, and he's arrested by the crowd, and then he's taken away. But I hope you can see from this passage and what we've been thinking about and looking at, that this arrest, this reign of darkness, the cross, These are all things that happened to him because he allowed them to.

In fact, more than that, he willed them to. This is this is his plan. This is not him in the garden going, oh, I'm at the end of the road here. I've been cornered. All my I've run out of ideas.

This is his plan that he would be slain and bear the cross for you. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2 says this, for the joy set before him he endured the cross. These things happened because of the joy that was set before him. He was doing them because of this joy. And you're like, well, what joy?

What on earth could possibly have outweighed the anguish of facing the wrath of the father. Well, let me tell you, it's the joy of having your sins washed away. That was the joy. That Jesus could be with you in eternity because he can forgive you, because he can take the punishment for your sin. That was the joy that was set before him.

In the garden, in anguish, he's thinking, father, your will be done. The reason he says that is because that's the plan to save you. And so in in the chaos of all these scenes, the preparations, the praying, the crowd coming, these confrontations, In all of these things, the reason Jesus presses on is because if you come to him, then you can be clean, and you can be saved. He's got you in mind as he does these things. You are the motivation for him going to the cross.

And so what that means is, I'm not just telling you about something in a book that happened 2000 years ago. That has nothing to do with you. If you come to Jesus, then he had you in mind in that moment. The reason it happened is because of you, not just Christians 2000 years ago or 300 years ago, or even Christians up the road, or even, you know, those Christians are a bit better off than us because they don't struggle with these things. He came for you, you are the motivation.

There was no other way to win you back. How amazing is that? So if you're not a Christian yet, then then I wanna ask why not? I said, come to him. Come to know him.

Look at the 1 who endured these things for you. What could be stopping you from coming to him? Let me ask you that. Is it your pride? Pry gets in the way, intellectual pride.

We think, well, I can come up with some arguments as to why this is not real. Do you fear losing stuff in this world? Or if I follow Jesus, then I'll have to give up all this stuff? Is satan maybe whispering in your ears? Lies over many years, telling you, don't do that.

Don't be stupid. Why would you become a Christian? There's no comparison with Jesus. Take it from me. Take it from any Christian here in this room.

There's no comparison. Everything is worth leaving behind for him. Absolutely everything. So come to him if you're not with him. And finally, for those of us who are Christians, what does this mean for us?

What can we learn? Well, now is the time to prepare now. Jesus says to us, pray not to fall into temptation. So have we been like the disciples? Are we asleep?

Has locked down, rocked us into sleep. This is the first time we've been to church in 6 months. Have we fallen asleep? Do we need to wake up? We got to remember that actually Satan is asked to sift us.

He wants us to fall away. Jesus says, pray that you will not fall into temptation. The other thing about that is do we only pray for deliverance? Or do we ask God to help us endure? That's the first thing?

Secondly, When Jesus confronts us with our sin, which he's going to do, if you confront him, what is your response to that? As you walk with Jesus as a Christian, you find out all these things that are in your heart, you're like, oh my goodness. This as well. Oh, man, I struggle with this too. What are you going to do every time those things come up?

Are you going to be like Judas, hard in your heart, or are you going to listen to him? He says, your name. Are you really gonna do this? Let's respond to him by asking for forgiveness, thanking him for the cross. And enduring it on our behalf.

And then thirdly, finally. It's a dark world out there. Even when it looks like the darkness is in control, When the darkness is raining, when it's the dark hour, remember who stands in the middle of it all and is in complete control. The things that happen in this world unfold exactly as God wants him to unfold. Everything is on a leash and Jesus is holding the reins.

So don't be discouraged Listen to Jesus, the 1 who is in control, and hear what he says, hear that we need to pray. Hear that we need to respond to him in repentance with soft hearts. And I'm gonna pray to finish and just take Jesus advice for us and finish with a prayer. Father, we thank you for this little picture, this little window into what happened 2000 years ago, the Garden of Yosemite. Thank you, Jesus, that though you were in anguish, you were obedient to the father so that you could take the cup on our behalf.

That we could be free from our sin, and we can know you and know life eternal with you. Jesus, when you reveal our sin to us, please would you help us to be sorry. Not to be hard hearted, come up with excuses. Please would you change us, soften us, cause us to come back to you, and to cling to you in the cross? Thank you for the cross.

In Jesus' name, amen.