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[0:00] How are we doing? Better than you deserve. Better than Midland. Blessed beyond measure. Hanging in there. Hanging on to the one that hung in there. Good. Take out your Bibles with me and turn to Luke chapter 22.

[0:27] ! I know, you say, wait, we've passed there. We're in 23. Well, we're doing, remember, a discussion review this week. Every six weeks or so, after we've spent some time in the gospel, we want to step back and look at the big picture and also discuss, see what you have learned.

[0:54] It's your turn to talk to me and learn from each other. I think we have found value in these times.

[1:05] It not only gives you the opportunity to express your own faith and understanding, but we hear from each other. I mean, I don't have all the insights by a long shot.

[1:17] And the Holy Spirit speaks through the congregation here as well. So this is a good time for us to do that. And it helps to solidify a lot of thoughts that we have that we've come to be learning.

[1:31] So we're looking at chapter 22 and the first 25 verses of 23.

[1:43] It covers about six weeks. I want to read selected portions here. I'm going to read in 22 the first six verses and then 14 to 22 and then 31 to 34 and then 39 to 48.

[1:57] Okay. Got it. All right. I'll remind you as we go. I'll remind you as we do. We are in Luke. Yeah. 22. Thank you. Yeah.

[2:09] Yeah. Where else would we be with Luke? Okay. If you're able, please stand as I read from the gospel of Luke chapter 22, starting with verses one through six.

[2:22] Now the feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is called the Passover. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death.

[2:40] For they feared the people. Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was one of the number of the 12.

[2:51] He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers, how he might betray him to them. And they were, they were glad and agreed to give him money.

[3:03] So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of the crowd. Down to verse 14. And when the hour came, he reclined at table and the apostles with him.

[3:20] And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again.

[3:30] I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took a cup. And when he had given thanks, he said, take this and divide it among yourselves.

[3:43] For I tell you that I, that from now on, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took bread.

[3:55] And when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body, which is given for you.

[4:06] Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise, the cup after they had eaten saying, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

[4:23] But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. For the son of man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed.

[4:39] Verse 31. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat.

[4:51] But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Peter said to him, Lord, I'm ready to go with you both to prison and to death.

[5:07] Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times. that you know me. Down to verse 39.

[5:19] And he came out and went as was his custom to the Mount of Olives. And the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation.

[5:36] And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, Father, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.

[5:50] Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And there appeared to him. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly.

[6:04] And his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground. And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow.

[6:19] And he said to them, why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation. While he was still speaking, there came a crowd.

[6:30] And the man called Judas, one of the 12, was leading them. He drew near to Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said to him, Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?

[6:47] So reads the word. Let us pray. Father, guide us this morning as we think through the things we have been learning the last several weeks as we try to connect some dots and put some things together about Jesus, about the disciples, about the enemy, about ourselves.

[7:13] So give us discernment, give us wisdom, give us insight through one another. Help us to speak the truth to one another. We ask in Christ's name.

[7:25] Amen. Amen. Please be seated. Let me just open our time. I've called this the Passion of Christ.

[7:38] What is the Passion of Christ? Passion comes from the Greek word pathos, and it also comes from the Hebrew word Paschka, which refers to the Passover.

[7:57] So it means to suffer, to undergo an experience of affliction, and we see Jesus use this very word in verse 15 when he said to them, I purposely desire to eat this Paschka, this Passover, with you before I pathos, before I suffer, before I experience the affliction.

[8:16] which is interesting. And then he refers to the Passover.

[8:30] Luke tells us verse 1, it's the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread, the slaying of the Passover lamb, and then Jesus, we see in the middle of that meal in verses 19 and 20, we transform that Passover meal into what has become known as the Lord's Table communion, the Eucharist, by taking the bread, the unleavened bread, and saying, this bread now is my body, which is given for you.

[9:05] We partake of that bread to have union with him. And then he takes the cup, which is the wine, which he says that is the new covenant, or the new testament, in my blood, which has been poured out for you.

[9:23] So he talks about his body and his blood, his body given as a substitute for us on the cross, and then his blood poured out, which inaugurates the new covenant, which replaces the old.

[9:37] So he brings that. I want you to notice that our subject is the passion of Christ, so verses 1 through 19, he's giving his body.

[9:53] Verse 20, he's pouring out his blood. That's his passion. And verses 21 to 34, his apostles are failing him, and so there he suffers he receives, he feels that, not his active passion, but the passion, the suffering that he feels as the others fail him.

[10:18] In the Garden of Gethsemane, verses 39 to 51, he's surrendering his will, asking as a man, pleading with the Father that he might remove this cup, but then surrendering to the Father's will.

[10:36] Then again, we have his own people denying him, Peter denying him, his own people, the leaders of Jerusalem rejecting him, and then we see what we looked at last week, chapter 23, 1 to 25, he substitutes himself for the guilty as the people asked for Barabbas, the rebel, the murderer, the insurrectionist, they want him to go free, who deserves to die, and they want Jesus to replace him, they want Jesus, who is innocent, proclaimed four times by Pilate as not guilty, not deserving death, to be switched, to be exchanged, and so we see that beautiful picture of the gospel of Jesus, Jesus taking the place of rebels, the innocent one, the righteous one taking the place of the guilty, the other theme I saw is

[11:37] Satan's working through this whole section, in 22, 3 he enters Judas, in 22, 31 he is sifting Peter, interesting, different, he's entering Judas, but he's only sifting Peter, which is still tough, but one is internal, one's external, Peter's protected by the Lord, the Lord praying for him, Judas is not, so you have Satan working through Judas and Peter, two key apostles, interesting, and then the Lord later revealing that these two, both that there is a betrayer among them, and that Peter will deny him, and then we have the fulfillment of that at the end of chapter 22, where Judas does betray him and leads the crowd made up of the chief priests and the elders of the people, as well as soldiers and officers of the temple, a Roman cohort we know from the gospel of

[12:50] John, 600 Roman soldiers as well, huge crowd coming to Jesus in the garden, and then Peter failing, Peter doing the very thing he could never imagine himself doing, he is so loyal, so loving, so faithful to Jesus, ready to take on the Roman army as they come, cutting off an ear, who's next, you know, and then in the darkness of the camp light, the little servant girl, not quite a Roman soldier, asked him if he's one of them and he denies it, right, so we see that, so, but see that Satan is working through Judas, he's working through, he's working on Peter, so that, that element is there, okay, so that's what's there, we have, you have an outline there with kind of, with basically the summary of what we discovered in each of those, we're not going to walk through all those, we'll go wherever you want, this is about hearing from you, what is God teaching you, what are you discovering, what are you discovering about

[14:07] Jesus, what are you discovering about faith, what are you discovering about following Christ, anything surprise you, any surprises in these chapters, has Jesus challenged you, has he, has he impacted you, what questions do you have, this is the time to discuss those things, okay, so, Bill, I have questions, okay, Susan, so, I'll be honest, I was a bit confused, because when you were reading Judas, Judas 22, it said, number three, then Satan entered Judas called Asgara, Asgara, and of the twelve, but when I went over to John 13, it also said there, having loved his own, who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love, and he says that evening meal was being served, the devil already prompted Judas, but then the

[15:08] Lord goes on and washes his disciples' feet, so I'm going under the assumption that he also washed Judas' feet, even though Satan had entered Judas at that time, and it just really, like the brother and sister was here last week that talked about forgiveness, I mean, I'm just overwhelmed with the amount of love that the Lord was showing Judas, even knowing that Satan had already entered him at that time.

[15:38] Had been working on him all along, obviously. Yeah. But yet at that time, where he gave Peter, and like you were talking about Simon, Simon, the same, has asked to sift you, but he didn't ask to sift Judas.

[15:54] Right, so you talk about internal and external, and yet the he has to demand of the Father to work on those that belong to the Father. Right. Wow.

[16:07] Satan does not have access without the Father's permission. Right. Remember that with Job as well, right? Yeah. We see that principle laid down early. So Judas then had already surrendered himself, hence the entering, whereas Simon was just in a challenge or a struggle?

[16:25] Yeah, John's gospel gives us more information about Judas, that Jesus chose Judas knowing from the very beginning that he would betray him, so he chose one who would betray him.

[16:38] Right? John tells us that Judas had been stealing all along. Yeah. He was the one that held the money to give to the poor, and he's the one that, you know, when the woman, you know, lavishly poured the expensive ointment, he was the one upset about that, probably not because it would be given to the poor, but because his cut.

[17:00] Yeah. So yeah, so he'd already been opening the door to Satan, clearly, however that works. He was both predestined to this as well as he freely chose.

[17:11] And yet the Lord continued to love on him equally. Yeah, the Lord loves, Jesus. Wow. Well, yeah, and there's people, remember, there's people that Jesus was constantly rescuing from Satan.

[17:26] He's certainly loving on them. Right? He was setting captives free all along. He didn't set Judas free. No. For goodness that he had.

[17:38] But I think, too, a major part of this also is God's will. And Jesus knew that. He's fulfilling the prophecies.

[17:49] He's fulfilling the law. There is that prophecy that someone will betray him. And Jesus knew it was. So that's a part of all God in him. But he can't go against God's will either.

[18:02] He doesn't want to go against God's will. Yeah, it's amazing that Jesus knew all this about Judas from the beginning. Right. And none of the other disciples had a clue.

[18:12] In other words, Jesus never gave away. Correct. He treated him as he treated everyone else. And he didn't send him away or exercise him. Well, in John 13, later, when he reveals the betrayer, he does tell Judas, go do what you gotta do.

[18:30] He kicks him out at one point in the meal. I don't know if he kicks him out, but he does know. I think he's putting it on the table, so to speak, on intent. He told him kindly to get out.

[18:43] Go. Go, do what you gotta do. Yeah. Because I also think he knew the timing. And that was the timing. Yeah, because he never revealed any part before that. Right? And he allowed him into his inner sanctuary.

[18:54] And I think about that in regards to ourselves and the walk and our forgiveness. Of, you know, individuals that have betrayed us. Oh, yeah. He knew that, and we know we give chances again and again, and our heart, and we get the words the whole time is heart.

[19:10] No, you just loved on it. Yeah. I mean, I'm just overwhelmed. Remember we saw the contrast between Judas and Peter. Yeah. Right? Both are influenced by Satan. Yeah.

[19:20] Both fail. The difference is Peter repents, we know. Yeah. And Judas does not. And we read the passage from 2 Corinthians 7 that talked about a godly grief, right, leads to repentance.

[19:38] to salvation without regret. Worldly grief leads to death. So, so we know that Judas had grief, you know, when he saw, you know, remember he was upset, he threw the money back, and then he went out and hung himself, right?

[19:58] He had regret, but it was a worldly regret that led to death, not to repentance. Peter had, right, he goes out and weeps bitterly, right? And well, he's, the Lord turns and looks at him, right?

[20:12] That would kill you right there. And then he remembers the word and then he goes out and weeps. And we know, but why did Peter do that? repent, because the Lord had already said, but I've already prayed for you.

[20:26] Not that you won't pass this test, but that your faith won't fail. Well, and then he says, and when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. Yeah. So he knows he's going to repent.

[20:37] Exactly. Because he's prayed for him. That his faith will stay, even though he fails miserably and he needed to, I think he needed to.

[20:48] He needed to be broken of his pride. So, but his success was based on the Lord, not on him. Well, and then the Lord used him for the church.

[20:59] Yeah. Oh. And I mean, isn't that the same for us in regards to we've all stumbled? Yeah. Remember when Peter, when Jesus was on the shore, this is John chapter 21, Jesus on the shore, this is his resurrect, he's resurrected and he's on the shore of Galilee, they're out fishing again and Jesus is cooking fish.

[21:22] Right? And they say, hey, I think it's the Lord. And Peter's the first one in the water. Right? He just dives and he swims and I don't know if he gets there first or not, but he's so anxious to get near Jesus.

[21:34] And remember, Jesus asked him the three questions. As he denied Jesus three times, Jesus gives him an opportunity to confess three times. Peter, do you love me?

[21:45] And remember, Peter was so bold, right? Lord, you know. He was humbled now. Lord, you know.

[21:57] I'm not going to, he's not going to, you know, you tell me, Lord. Right? And three times, do you love me? Do you love me?

[22:07] Do you love me? So he lets him kind of come back from that denial. What a gracious. And then re-commissions him. Feed my sheep.

[22:19] Tend my lambs. Right? Shepherd my flock. Okay, what else? We talked about Peter and Judas for a while.

[22:32] What else? It's a contrast of ourselves. Our personal lives. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm thankful that God doesn't leave me there.

[22:45] Amen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, just a couple of things.

[22:56] One, it's really telling, you know, I think a lot of times we say Judas is the bad guy, but the other 11 guys are really good guys. But these really good guys are sitting here going to dinner with Jesus, and he's telling them, I desire to eat this dinner with you before I suffer.

[23:17] And in their own little minds, and I do this a lot too, bad news that I don't want to accept, I just compartmentalize the side. And the next thing you know, we got these 11 guys, or at least some of the 11 guys, arguing about him as the greatest.

[23:31] It's like, come on, guys, haven't you heard anything? The other thing is, Dawn and I work with a group at the Academy called Officers Christian Fellowship, and we're going through 1 John, and 1 John 2, 19 states that they went out from us, but they were not of us, where if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that it might become plain that they are all not of us.

[23:59] And we had a cadet that renounced her Christian faith, which was kind of devastating to the group. And so how do you deal with that? Well, one way you can deal with it is just like these other knuckleheads that we read about here, you can compartmentalize that and say, well, I guess that's her choice, we're just going to let her go about her thing.

[24:20] then is that the right thing to do? And then we go back to Luke 22, when we talk about, I pray for you that your faith may not fail, and when you have turned again, which indicates he turned away.

[24:37] so he has to turn away to return again. So the comment that we made was, do we know that she's going to turn again?

[24:50] Do we need to continue to support this wonderful girl who has been through an absolutely terrible, terrible, terrible time grown up, can't she return again?

[25:04] And then the other thought that we have is there's this great guy called Paul. I think I would have included him as an antichrist at one point at his time because he was actively going after the church with God calling back to himself.

[25:20] So I think it's important for us not to turn our back on people because no one is here. Yeah, and we don't know. We don't know. Only the Lord knows, so we, yeah?

[25:33] Yeah. what else? He's afraid for both. He's afraid for everyone. Yes. He loved the whole world, right?

[25:46] That he sent his son. But isn't it easier to say than to walk? Oh, absolutely. When it becomes personal? I mean, I think it's simple. It's not easy, but it's simple.

[25:57] Thank you. I'm like, but when it becomes personal and I feel the pain, I'm like, oh. That's why, you know, as we watch Jesus walk through the passion here, both what he receives, right, what he does, it's just absolutely remarkable.

[26:19] I mean, he endures all that, all the scorn, the mocking, the taunting, right? Through the trial, he doesn't say, he doesn't defend himself. He could easily defend himself.

[26:31] He does not. It's just, and then Peter says, here's our, that's our example. When we suffer. When threatened, he honored no threats.

[26:45] That's our natural impulse to threaten right back. What else? Dan.

[26:57] Bill. I carry on what Rick said, I remember going through confirmation class, and I was probably about 13, in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, but, and to my knowledge, this had never happened in the church before, but there was a kid by the name of Kurt, who went through confirmation class, but right, I don't remember exactly the time frame, but right before confirmation Sunday, at some point, he just decided, I can't stand up in front of the whole congregation, I can't say that I believe in something that I don't believe in, and he stepped away, and I often think, especially when I read this, about Peter, I often wonder whatever happened with him, because Rick mentioned about the struggles that this gal went through, and things, and I just wonder in the back of my mind if he's still alive, if he's still around, what he's doing, right, so, and then I was kind of struck and reminded that after the

[28:03] Lord's Supper, that all of this happened in a very short amount of time, is that right, from the garden to being arrested, and the multiple trials, all one night, yes, and it just, yeah, Jesus, yeah, once he's arrested, he's, now Luke doesn't report all of the trial, he just summarizes the one in the morning, but all through the night, he was at Annas' house, and then Caiaphas' house, and being interrogated, all through the night, before, and then in the morning, that's when the Sanhedrin met and made the official vote to send him to his death, to seek Pilate to grant that.

[28:51] It just overwhelmed me that it was in that short amount of time, all the false accusations and everything, and that's what they were using to convict him, you know, and all that, and then, sorry, I'm going to jump ahead where you said, in agony, he prayed more fervently, response number two, Jesus willingly endured the deceitfulness of men, how do you respond when you are treated unjustly?

[29:16] I went through a period in my life where I was falsely accused of a bunch of stuff, and it had to do with the accusations for coming from family members, which makes it really hard, and I just remember at one point in time, I had just resubmitted my life to Jesus and all that he has done for me, and I just remember thinking, while I was being accused, I started praying, and I don't remember any of the things that were said against me, but I remember fervently praying, and just realizing, Jesus, you were accused of by a whole bunch of people in a very short amount of time, help me to endure this one person, and that's what got me through it, just that reminder right there.

[30:13] Yeah, Peter says when you do that, you're blessed, and the spirit of God rests upon you, and the whole first letter of Peter is suffering, suffering, suffering, wonder where he got that.

[30:30] Diane, so I have just an amazing, to me it's always amazing, and it's always like new amazing every time I read the gospel, how God uses different kinds of people as his instrument, and I'm thinking of the unusual characters in this, Pilate, Herod, even the Sanhedrin, because unbeknownst to them, they were all plotted into this script of God.

[31:16] God. So, we continue to have those forces in our lives as either individuals, a family, a community, a country, and I think picking up on what Dan and Rick have said is we don't abandon those people.

[31:40] I believe we do our best as Christ would have done, be Christ-like, and pray for those people. It's up to God. He's sovereign.

[31:50] But if we don't ask, we don't get it. So, we don't know. So, that's always amazing to me, are the players, so to speak, the characters that are being brought out that we want to assassinate people.

[32:06] Yeah, that's just desert. Judas deserved to kill himself. He should have killed himself. But, that's not how Jesus looks at things for God.

[32:17] For us, it's right for them to make those decisions. But for us, I think that's where we learn loving kindness, forgiveness, self-control of our emotions.

[32:36] Oh, and remember those figures, particularly Pilate and Herod, were a fulfillment of Psalm 2, right? Remember in Acts 4, the church is praying together and they say, Sovereign Lord who made heaven and earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples plot in vain?

[33:05] The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed. For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do, and here's the surprise, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

[33:33] So that was, you know, those players, as you say, were all part of the plan. And for our part, you know, we just, we don't, we keep praying for that.

[33:47] As we find ourselves today, even our authorities, whether you agree with what you're doing or not, it's, you lift them up. As Jesus lifted up Peter.

[33:59] Yeah. Because you don't know what the Lord's already doing in your life. You don't. You don't. You don't know who he's using. And I think it can come out of anger. Yeah. I think. If I just leave in it, invoking God and Jesus.

[34:17] So it's easy to look at the high standard that Jesus has laid out for us, high example, and feel like, oh my, how can we ever forgive like that?

[34:29] How can we ever endure like that? we can because he has given us his Holy Spirit and because he prays, he prays for us.

[34:41] He prays for us. He prays for us. He prays for us. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What else?

[34:54] Who else? Anybody else? So taking off of you, Diane, I was looking actually at a little, my 66 of 22. This is Jesus before Pilate and Aaron.

[35:05] And the one area that I was thinking of when you were talking is the Lord said to them, I will, if I tell you, you will not believe me. And if you ask, you would not answer. And if I ask you, you would not answer before.

[35:18] But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the Almighty God. And then they asked, are you the Son of God? And he replied, you are right to say I am. And I think what really, what was hitting my mind at that time was he still spoke the truth in love.

[35:34] He wasn't angry with them. He didn't really defend himself. He just spoke his deity. But he gave them what they needed to...

[35:45] Well, and I go back to what everybody has said, you know, what Rick has said, Dan, what you said, and Diane, where it's sometimes I've learned that I don't need to defend God.

[35:56] Right. God knows how to defend him, but I need to be available to be able to be used to speak his truth. And so that's my relationship with him, and I'm learning more about his word, but I think as believers, we want to defend God, and that's where I think sometimes a lot of anger can come, but God himself, I mean, Jesus, he didn't get, not that he didn't get righteously anger, but even in the moment where they're asking him, and he's like, I am, I'm just speaking it.

[36:27] And there's the truth of it, and then their hearts for preparation for the truth, but I think as believers, I know, even for myself sometimes, it's just easier not to say anything than it is to try and talk about who the Lord is, and just to speak his truth in a calm, loving, caring way with sincerity versus with anger and judgment and pride.

[36:47] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's hard to wait and trust.

[36:58] Yeah. It's easier to react. It's harder to wait on the Lord. What else? Who else?

[37:11] What are we learning? Rich? Richard? One quick thing. Being the slow kid in the class here, when you read through this in Luke 22, 54, and they seized him and led him away into the high priest's house.

[37:30] And my mindset has always been all the beatings and taunting and other mess that Jesus had to endure. Was it the hands of the Romans? No, no, no.

[37:42] It started out with a high priest's house. Yep. And that was kind of a revelation to me. Sorry to be spoken to the glass.

[37:54] No, yeah. It's interesting to kind of think back. We worship the God of relationships and how the relationships were torn apart from this whole thing.

[38:06] And I know if they would appreciate this Michael card, this song, Why Would Judas Use a Kiss? That's not what a kiss is for. And we have these folks that claim to be the ones that worship Almighty God, but when they're confronted with Almighty God, they pull him into his house and they beat him up.

[38:30] Yeah. It's just... He doesn't fit their mold. And what's amazing to me, and even the disciples, like I said, these knuckleheads are talking about who the greatest is.

[38:42] Why, Jesus is about to suffer all this stuff. And yet, he still loves us enough to want to sacrifice for him. Even when that is clearly our character.

[38:52] Well, and right before that, they were all questioning themselves. Is it I? Am I the one that betrayed him? Who are you talking about?

[39:03] Is it me? Which is even kind of pride-based. Christ. But it's also a reflection. Yeah.

[39:15] I'm sure some of the is it I questions were, I don't trust myself. Could I actually do this? Right. But then to go to degenerate into who's the greatest.

[39:30] Yeah, only we followers of Christ can take it from a holy moment to an holy moment. But they weren't really paying attention because he told them that the one that's dipping his hand into the bread the same time I am, he's the one.

[39:52] I think John caught it. He's the greatest. I think John caught it. Since he recorded that. Yeah. What else?

[40:04] I think the battle of the battle going on with Jesus being, you know, fully man and fully God. The fully man in him, you know, not wanting to go through what he was about to go through.

[40:24] And the battle inside of him, it had to be inside of himself. as he was praying three times.

[40:38] So what do we learn from that? So Jesus is in the garden, he's praying, right? Remove this cut. Right? And he's in agony.

[40:52] Sweating drops of blood. He's so in agony. He is fully human. Right? But what do we learn from the fact that he asks out?

[41:06] He does surrender, right? Matthew's the only one that tells us three times. He went back and asked for the cup to be removed, but not my will, but thine be done.

[41:17] Right? Same prayer three times. He seems to resolve it, comes and checked on his disciples who are sleeping, goes back, prays it again, comes in, right?

[41:29] Three times he goes through this. It takes a lot of prayer and agony for him to resolve it. But what do we learn from that?

[41:41] What do we learn? What applies to us? Okay? I mean, if he's struggling, in his humanity with the obedience of God through this, and I don't think it was the physical that scared him.

[42:02] I think it's that wrath of God that's going to abide on him. I think that he knows there's a separation.

[42:13] He knows that the wrath is going to be put on him. He knows Isaiah 53. He knows that he's going to bear the sins and the iniquities.

[42:25] And he knows better than anyone what the wrath of God is. Right? The wrath abides on all of us, right, until we're in Christ.

[42:38] Christ. So, I'm just saying, so we learn that it's normal to want out of trials and temptation?

[42:54] Is it okay to pray? Oh, yeah. Lead us not into temptation, right? Jesus taught us to pray that. Lead us not into temptation.

[43:05] It's okay to pray that. Of course it's okay to pray that. But we also pray thy will be done. And that's what he told the apostles. Pray that you will not fall into temptation.

[43:17] Yeah, pray that you will not enter into temptation. Got it, Lord. Temptation. And Luke tells us they're praying for sorrow.

[43:29] So, Luke gives us a clue about, okay, why are they falling asleep when Jesus needs them, right? They're overwhelmed. Yeah. They probably don't even know where to categorize all of this, right?

[43:41] They're probably compartmentalizing, but some of it's just, I'm sitting next to Jesus praying, and I see blood dripping down.

[43:55] What am I thinking then? This is the man that calms the storm and the sea, and he's sweating drops of blood. How do you compartmentalize that?

[44:12] Anyway, I love the Gethsemane scene because we see what it really meant for Jesus to take on flesh.

[44:24] He is fully man. He alone of the Trinity experiences what we experience.

[44:35] Only he of the Trinity knows how hard it is for us because he's experienced. Father knows, the Spirit knows, but only Jesus has gone through it.

[44:48] Does that make sense? that's why Hebrews 4 says that. He can sympathize because he's been there. Right?

[44:59] That's why we go to Jesus. Father loves us, but Jesus gets it. And that's what our confidence is, as Hebrews would speak.

[45:17] That's our assurance is that he can endure the suffering is that you have a Savior who's gone for it.

[45:28] He can sympathize with our weaknesses. understand. And the implication to me is that he will pray for us, help us. He comes to us. We find mercy and grace in our time of need because...

[45:42] Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, the thing that has always impressed me about this scene isn't... We focus on Jesus is about to be nailed to a cross.

[45:55] Physical pain. He's been beat up. He's got all these physical things because we're constantly looking at our physical world and we have these glasses on where we're mapping that.

[46:06] I think the real question is what would we have learned about Jesus if he had not reacted this way. If he says, I'm God, I know exactly what's going to happen.

[46:17] They're going to nail me to the cross for a little bit. Well, that's a big deal. It's a little bit of pain for a little while. And then I'm going to be raised from the dead after three days and everything's good because I'm God and that's my God view.

[46:31] I think this is showing us just the price that God paid to redeem us. And it's in the spiritual world, not in this world.

[46:42] The suffering that he did on the cross was just a little teeny tiny microscopic picture of the price that Jesus paid to redeem all of us so that we might have a relationship with God.

[46:58] And that was a real price. And that was a real struggle that he was having there that none of us can fully appreciate. Because really, I compartmentalize my sin too.

[47:13] I know I've done some bad things, but it's just that one thing and the other gazillion one things that I've done. And I can kind of rationalize that I'm okay.

[47:27] My penalty for that is eternal separation. God, have you repaid early? That's what we're seeing. Amen. Any other thoughts, questions, comments?

[47:48] Do you think at any time Jesus said, I don't want to do this? At any time he said, I don't want to do this? Yeah. Yeah, I think that's what he said in Gethsemane. I don't want to do this. Take it away.

[47:59] I don't want to do this. But do you think that causes then a human person to question that the Lord really was willing to walk through it? There's no question he's willing to walk through it.

[48:12] But what we're stunned with is that it was hard for him. We think of Jesus. I mean, that's easy.

[48:23] He doesn't have any sin. Right? I mean, he's throwing demons side to side. He's calming the waters. He's raising the dead. Right?

[48:34] I mean, he can do anything. And he gets to Gethsemane and he's on his face. Yeah.

[48:47] But at the end of the day, what does he do each time? Not my will. My will is out. I don't want to do it. That's my human will, but not mine.

[49:00] And at the end of the day, it's yours. That's all that matters. Oh, we can't imagine, I can't imagine how hard that was. But the way the gospel writers describe it gives me a little bit of, okay, this was hell.

[49:18] he meant something. And then next we'll see him on the cross and what's he going to be crying out, right?

[49:34] My God, my God, why? Why? And it's not a rational question.

[49:46] It's an emotional question. to take on the sins of all the people before, all the people during, and even now, including all the people now, and that are yet to come, all at that moment.

[50:08] And I think leading up to the cross, he knew in his human spirit it would be beyond comprehension. And as he's hanging on the cross, crying that out, I think it was beyond his comprehension in some sense, in his humanity.

[50:23] Yeah. Yeah. Not in his deity, but in his humanity, which he fully embraced. Right? He emptied himself, right?

[50:35] Took on flesh. He did not have his omniscience, omnipresence, right? He did everything in dependence on the Father.

[50:49] God. And yet, God turned his back at that moment. He had to. He had to. He had to. He had to. He had to. He had to be. Before the earth was created.

[51:02] I mean, to have that separation. That was his fear, I think, that Bill has been alluding to, is he isn't going to have that because God has to strike him down.

[51:15] He has to strike him down. Because God himself is holy. He's going to feel that spiritual death. Wow.

[51:26] But, not for long. Because God was merciful to him. He let him die. Yeah. We're getting into mysteries, I think.

[51:39] A little beyond what we can fully grasp. But, but it's good for us to do that a little bit because we can, okay, this is big. And, and God in his wisdom only explains it so far for us.

[51:56] And we have lots of questions, you know, when we get to heaven, we can ask all those questions, if we still have them, when we get there. Biggest question would be, why am I here? I don't deserve this.

[52:13] Okay, anything else? we're good, we know everything, we've done it all, figured it out.

[52:26] Yeah, sure. So, when Jesus died on the cross, he went to proclaim to those in the past, that have passed, is that correct? When he died on the cross, he went and proclaimed.

[52:39] Oh, oh, that strange verse in Peter. Yes. that he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, something like that? So, his love went even further, because, in my understanding, that he was given the opportunity to just let them know, is that correct?

[52:59] Yeah, it's unclear whether he's proclaiming goodness or bad news, or just proclaiming, I'm not ready for that question, and it's not an easy one, even if I am ready, but, because it's an obscure, because she had this a little bit ago, she had asked if, because Judas, he loved Judas, and he betrayed him, when he went to proclaim, if he was able to proclaim Judas, and that was like the hardest question.

[53:35] I was like, wow. Right? Yeah. Honest question, good question. Yeah, and the only way we can answer that is that only the father could tell us that, I suppose.

[53:50] I don't, we don't have enough there to make one of a single one. So it's unclear whether he was proclaiming to them to have forgiveness, or proclaiming that you really have to have.

[54:03] Right. Right. Just as he proclaimed to the spirits, didn't say what he proclaimed. It's to my knowledge, or to my recollection. Any 2 Peter scholars?

[54:15] scholars? It reminds me of that part in Colossians. Colossians where something about speed on disarm the powers.

[54:41] And it canceled out the certificate yet, yet, consisting of decrees against us in which the chancel to us he has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross.

[54:52] When he had disarmed the rulers and authorities he made a public display of them having trived over them. That could be a cross reference to that. I don't know, but it reminds me of that.

[55:05] I don't know if that's one of where that was what it was. I was talking about things that were happening in the spiritual realm.

[55:19] I don't have to get back to that. Don't want to try to figure it out.

[55:32] that. Okay. Thanks. Any other thoughts? Okay. Okay. Let me pray and we'll sing and we'll do the Lord.

[55:46] Thank you. Father, we thank you for this word that you've given us through your servant Luke who has recorded through his research, through his interviews that he had with many witnesses.

[56:04] Lord, he's given us and compiled for us the record of the gospel. And he wrote it, Lord, that we might have more certainty about the gospel, about the truth we've heard about Jesus.

[56:20] And so we know that he's written it, Lord, in a way that helps persuade us, that helps give us assurance that what we believe about Jesus is actually the truth.

[56:36] And so continue to confirm that for us by your spirit. Thank you for the dialogue that we've had today. May it be fruitful. May it, Lord, encourage us to continue to walk with you.

[56:48]  We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.