#182 Lu. 22:39-46  JESUS IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMENE

Introduction:

	In earlier texts Jesus was trying to prepare His disciples
for His arrest, trial and crucifixion.  In our text today, He is
trying to prepare Himself.

I.  Putting the pieces together for a more complete story

	I remind you that none of the gospel writers recorded every
detail.  It is only when we combine the information from all four
gospel writers that we get a more complete picture.  Even then it
is difficult for us to determine the exact time order in which
some of the events took place.
	So again, let us make an effort to put some of the events
involving our text together, but I confess in advance that I am
not certain about all of the time sequence.
	Let us start with the Passover Supper.  At some point during
the later part of the Passover Supper, Judas Iscariot left the
table and went out to lead the chief priests and elders to arrest
Jesus away from the crowd.  After the Passover ended, Jesus
instituted the Lord's Supper.  After they dismissed and started
out toward the Mt. of Olives, Jesus informed the disciples that
they would all desert Him before the night was over.  He told the
Apostle Peter that before morning he would deny Him three times.
He also instructed them that from now on they should take with
them a purse, a scrip and a sword.
	The Brook Cedron lay between Jerusalem and the Mt.  of
Olives.  According to the Gospel of John, before they crossed the
Brook Cedron, Jesus prayed the prayer recorded in John chapter
17.  He began that prayer by saying, "Father, the time is come."
Then they proceeded toward Mt.  Olives.  Ever since they have
been in Jerusalem, at the close of each day, they would go out to
Mt. Olives to spend the night.  They would spend the night in the
village of Bethany in the home of disciples who lived there.
	At the foot of the mountain, there was an olive garden or
olive orchard which had made a good stopping place for them each
night before climbing the mountain.  It was not only a good place
to stop and rest physically, but it was a good place for Jesus to
pray in private.  So each evening they would stop at the Garden
of Gethsemene before climbing the mountain to the village of
Bethany.
	On this night, once they were inside the garden, Jesus left
most of His disciples near the gate to the garden and He took
Peter, James and John and went further into the garden.  When
they stopped He went still further so that He could be alone.
	Matthew and Mark tell us that He prayed three times.  After
the first prayer He came back to Peter, James and John and found
them asleep.  He rebuked them and went away again and prayed the
second time.  He prayed the very same prayer as the first.  For
the second time he returned to find Peter, James and John asleep.
He rebuked them again and went away the third time to pray.  When
He returned to the three He found them asleep again, but this
time He did not wake them nor rebuke them.  He let them sleep on
until He could see the lights of the arresting party coming in
their direction.

II.  Looking at our text to see how it fits into the story

	V. 39, "And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the
mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him." The word
"wont" means "that which is customary." When we compare this
verse with the other gospel writers, what it means is that they
not only went to Mt. Olives as was customary, but they stopped at
the Garden of Gethsemene as was customary.
	Luke says nothing about Jesus taking Peter, James and John to
take with Him and leaving the others at the gate.  As far as we
can tell from verse 40 He is speaking to all of the disciples,
but the other writers reveal that He is talking to Peter, James
and John.  V. 40, "And when he was at the place, he said unto
them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation." This, of course,
would be good advice for any Christian at any time.  We all need
to pray and we need to pray lest we enter into temptation.  But
in this particular instance Jesus is talking to the disciples
about the great ordeal which they would face as soon as the
arresting party arrives and would continue for the next several
days.  They would need spiritual strength from God and Jesus
advised them to pray that God would give them that strength.
	In addition, they were advised to watch for the lights of the
arresting party and notify Jesus when they see the lights coming.
    V. 41, "And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's
cast..." That is, He went on beyond with Peter, James and John
about a stone's throw.  This would be close enough that in the
moonlight they would be able to see Him kneeling and hear Him
talking to God in prayer.  This should have been enough to
encourage them to do the same thing, as He had instructed them to
do.
    (V. 41, "...and kneeled down, and prayed."  Both Matthew and
Mark said that He fell down on His face and prayed.  I am sure
that they are all right.  There were three such prayers.  He must
have kneeled down for at least one of those prayers and He must
have fallen down on His face for at least one.
	His prayer was virtually the same each time He prayed.  It is
likely that not any of the gospel writes recorded everything that
He said word for word.  But they do contain the essence of what
He said.
    V. 42, "Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup
from me..."  Jesus was not talking of a literal cup.  He was
using figurative language.  What He was asking was that if God
the Father be willing that He would be spared the suffering of
the cross.
	Keep in mind that Jesus was both God and man.  In His Spirit
He is Eternal Deity God.  He is one of the Godhead,  one of the
Holy Trinity.  In His Spirit He is not only eternal, but He is
all powerful.  Yet in His flesh, He was a mere human being.  He
was, indeed, a sinless human in the whole humanrace.  He was the
only sinless human being, but He was, never-the-less, fully
human.
	His humanity did not wish to go the cross.  He dreaded the
cross.  He feared the cross because He knew what great suffering
awaited Him there.  Therefore, Jesus was asking that if there was
some other way--- if there was any other way whereby sinful man c
could be saved--- that He be spared from the cross.  If there was
some other way whereby man could be saved, He was asking God the
Father to use that other way.  I am confident that if there had
been any other way whereby God could same lost souls that God
would have chosen that other way---especially after Jesus prayed
this prayer.
	But in spite of the dread and fear that He had of the cross,
Jesus was willing to go there in order for man to be saved.  (V.
42), "...nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done."  While
the humanity of Jesus dreaded the cross and did not wish to go to
the cross, yet His Spirit, which is Deity, was perfectly willing
to go to the cross and die for the souls of men. I mentioned to
you that there were three such prayers.  They were all three
essentially the same.  In all three, He asked to be spared if
there was any other way to save lost men.
    Luke tells us that God sent angel to strengthen Him.  In
fact, Luke is the only one who tells us about the angel.  V.  43,
"And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening
him."  We may wonder why would Jesus need an angel to strengthen.
As Deity God He is far more powerful than any angel.  Why would
He need a creature of inferior power to help Him?  The answer is
that even thought Jesus was all powerful, yet as a man He never
used His almighty power on His own behalf.  He depended fully on
God the Father to supply His need.  So, therefore, He stood in
need of the angel and God sent the angel to help Him.
    V. 44, "And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly..."
There is at least some indication in this statement that there
was more than one prayer.  One prayer was prayed more earnestly
than the others.  This is probably one of the times that He fell
on His face because He was praying more earnestly.  He was
praying more earnestly because He was now in agony.  He was in
great physical distress.
    (V. 44), "...and his sweat was as it were great drops of
blood falling down to the ground."  Jesus was sweating profusely.
But this was not a normal sweat.  He was sweating what appeared
to be blood.  One modern medical doctor says that it was blood.
He said that underneath the surface of the skin are small
capillaries through which blood flows.  He said that when the
blood pressure is excessively high that these little capillaries
will break and the blood will ooze out through the pores of the
skin as though it were sweat.  He said that literal blood was
oozing through the skin of Jesus.  He said that Jesus was in
grave danger of dieing before He ever reached the cross.  He was
in danger of dieing from a heart attack or stroke or shock to the
system.  Either one could kill Him.  It was for this reason that
God sent an angel from heaven to strengthen Him so that He could
live long enough to go to the cross.  It was on the cross that He
would pay the redemption price so that sinful man could be saved.
    V. 45, "And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his
disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow."  All of the gospel
writers tell us that He found them sleeping again.  Even on the
third time, He found them sleeping."  But Luke, the physician, is
the only one to give us a diagnosis as to why they were having so
much trouble staying awake.  It is true that the hour was late,
but Luke said that is not the reason they had somuch trouble
staying awake.  It is true that they were tired, but that is not
the reason they had so much trouble staying awake.  Luke said
that the reason they had so much trouble staying awake is because
of the great sorrow they were experiencing.  The great sorrow of
heart was affecting them physically and making it extremely
difficult to say awake.
    V. 46, "And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest
ye enter into temptation."  Regardless of why they were sleeping,
they still needed to awake and they needed to pray.

III.  Seeing how we fit into the story

	Listen!.  There is another Garden that I want to tell you
about.  I want to tell you about the Garden of Eden.  God created
Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden.  They were
completely innocent when God put then in the Garden of Eden.  But
Adam sinned and as a result all of his descendants have sinned.
I have sinned and you have sinned.  The end result is that unless
God could find some way to save lost sinners, we would all go to
hell and spend eternity in torment.
	But God didn't want us to go to hell and in the Gardenof
Gethsemene we can see this very clearly.  God wanted to save lost
sinners more than anything else in this world.  Even if it meant
sending His own Son, Jesus Christ to the cross God was willing to
do it.  Listen, if there had been any other way under the sun
whereby God save lost sinners, He would never have sent Jesus to
the cross.  But the fact is that there was no other way.  God
must either send His Son Jesus Christ to the cross or else every
lost sinner must go into the everlasting fires of hell.
    So God chose to send Jesus to the cross.  He sent Him there
to die for lost sinners so that lost sinners could be saved.  He
sent Him there so that every lost sinner in the world could be
saved.  He sent Him there so that every person here could be
saved.  He sent Him there so that I could be saved.  He sent Him
there so that you could be saved?
	Do you want to stay out of hell?  Do you want to go to
heaven?  Then call upon the Lord Jesus Christ and ask Him to save
your soul.