Christ Church, please take your copy of God's Word and turn with me to Luke chapter 22 as we continue walking through this marvelous gospel. Please stand with me for the reading of God's Word. We will be in Luke 22 verses 39 through 53. Verses 39 through 53. Past Saturday, I was lecturing on preaching to a large group of Brazilians, and it was wonderful to be able to talk with them about our custom in this church, which is to walk through books of the Bible, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book. How better of a way than to have the whole council of God preach to our hearts? And so let us turn our attention now to the gospel of Luke as we continue our study of Luke. Luke 22, verse 39. 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. And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly 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. 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 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? And when those who were around him saw what would follow, they said, Lord, shall we strike with the sword? And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said, no more of this. And he touched his ear and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priests and the officers of the temple and elders who had come out against him, have you come out against a robber with swords and clubs? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour and the power of darkness. Here is the reading of God's word, let us pray. Our Father, as we come to this sobering passage, we ask that you would Help us to feel the weight and the gravity of it. Help us, Lord, to recognize what Christ did for us, that we would more earnestly seek to serve him by grace through faith. In Jesus we pray. Amen. You be seated. to see the king of heaven fall in anguish to his knees, the light and hope of all the world now overwhelmed with grief. What nameless horrors must he see to cry out in the garden, oh, take this cup away from me, yet not my will, but yours. to know each friend will fall away and heaven's voice be still, for hell to have its vengeful day upon Golgotha's hill. No words describe the Savior's plight to be by God forsaken till wrath and love are satisfied and every sin is paid. What took him to this wretched place, what kept him on this road, his love for Adam's cursed race, for every broken soul. No sin too slight to overlook, no crime too great to carry, all mingled in this poisoned cup, and yet he drank it all. Our Savior drank it all. These words written by Keith and Kristen Getty beautifully summarize this passage before us this morning. A powerful, rich, and weighty passage that highlights the depths of our Savior's anguish as the hour of His death approached. As a congregation, we've been walking through the Gospel of Luke for almost two years. And it began, of course, with those beautiful birth narratives in Luke chapters 1 and 2, where we have highlighted the prophecies of, the foretelling of, and then the birth of John the Baptist, as well as Jesus Christ, surrounding their births were miracles and angelic visits and prophecies told and fulfilled. In the next few chapters of Luke, Jesus begins his public ministry in Galilee. He chooses 12 disciples to follow him, for him to instruct and to disciple and to teach. During his public ministry in Galilee, he preached, he heralded the kingdom of God and the gospel, he healed, He did great miracles. He confronted the religious elite. He preached the kingdom of God with authority, and many were drawn to him. He was very popular. But then in chapter 9, in verse 51, we have this kind of, this pivot point in the Gospel of Luke, where Jesus turns, it says, Luke reports, He turns towards Jerusalem. He turns His face towards Jerusalem, as if to say, I must now head to Jerusalem and to the cross to carry out the main purpose of his mission, that is to lay his life down as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. After reporting on Jesus and the Twelve's journey to Jerusalem and all of the events surrounding that journey along the way, Luke does what the other three gospel writers do. The narrative slows down almost to a halt and everything becomes much more in detail, that the portrait is different, it's much more detailed as we come to the final week of Jesus' life. Why is this? Well, because the suffering, the death, and the resurrection of Christ are the main reason Jesus came from heaven to earth. Indeed, the heart of His mission was to purchase redemption for sinners with His innocent blood, and then to rise victoriously from the dead. This passage before us This morning is familiar to many, even many who are in church, they're familiar with this narrative, Jesus in Gethsemane, praying. And yet, I would venture to say that many, while they may be familiar with this text, even regular churchgoers, they may not understand the depths of meaning and application that are found in this text. And so, let us spend some time this morning meditating upon it. to help us to unpack this text. If you're taking notes this morning, there are four simple headings or divisions. We have the preparation, the prayer, the kiss, and the arrest. The preparation, verses 39 and 40, the prayer, verses 41 through 46, the kiss, verses 47 and 48, and the arrest, 49 to 53. First of all, the preparation. Look with me again in your Bibles at verses 39 and 40. 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. Do you have a favorite place that you like to pray? Perhaps a room. There may be a chair you like to sit in, where you do a lot of your praying. Perhaps it's a walk. Perhaps there's a walk in your neighborhood where you like to walk and to pray. We all have places that we enjoy praying. Jesus did as well, and this was where he loved to pray. It was the Garden of Gethsemane, the Mount of Olives. And this night would be no different, even though even though Jesus would know that Judas had left the upper room to do what Satan was leading him to do. And Jesus certainly would have known that this would have been the perfect opportunity to be given over to the enemy. Jesus goes to that same place. It's the perfect time for Jesus to betray him. It was late, probably midnight. There'd be no crowds around to question what was happening, or to stop them from taking him into custody. Remember, at the beginning of this chapter, in Luke 22, verse 2, it states that the religious leaders were seeking how to put him to death, but they feared the people. We read that several times in the narrative leading up to this. They feared the people. Jesus was popular. He was a popular rabbi. And so they're always looking for the opportune time to apprehend him without the crowds protesting. Judas knew where he would be and he would lead his enemies straight to him. So Jesus goes to a place that he's accustomed to going to pray, to bear his soul to his father, to cry out to him, to depend upon him, and prayer, we've all perhaps been in those places, particularly those who are older, where we sometimes don't know what to pray. We're so overwhelmed with sadness, we feel shut in, we feel closed in. This is a bit of what Jesus felt. We know from the other Gospels, the details, of this scene that Luke does not provide for us. Remember, in all the gospels, they describe this scene. We know that eight of Christ's disciples stayed somewhere near the gate, and Peter, James, and John went along with Jesus a little further. And did you notice what Jesus said to his disciples in verse 40? They are important words, not only for His disciples, but for us. He said, pray that you may not enter into temptation. Why does Jesus, in this moment, why does He exhort His disciples in this way? Well, it's because He loves His disciples. He loves us. He knows His disciples will be the target of persecution. Remember, this is a two-volume, Luke-Acts. Luke will have a two-volume Luke axe and an axe. We read all about the persecution that they will face by some of these same religious elite. And so he says this exhortation. He knows they will be tempted to turn away from following him in the face of danger or difficulty. He knows that things will not be easy for them. So he exhorts them to pray, to rely upon God, to trust in him through prayer. And this exhortation has broader application than just in the narrative before us. For those who were there that evening, we too must pray that we would not enter into temptation. That we would not give up. That we would not turn away from Christ and from his truth. That we would not be tempted to follow the trends and the idols of our culture. which have grown enormously just in the past decade to things a decade ago, which almost everyone in our culture would have said, no, that is not right. I'm not sure exactly why it's not right. I'm not going to pin it on some objective truth. But it's just not right now. It's being celebrated in the streets. And the church is now turning a blind eye to God's truth and saying, no more is this the norming norm. No more is the Bible the norming norm of all things. Now it's whatever the culture says, whoever the next person is that gets up and speaks and speaks against Christian truth. And so Jesus knows his disciples will be tempted to forsake Christ when there is social ostracism or difficulties that come as a result. Here, Jesus is reminding all of us of the importance of prayer in our Christian lives. Regular, ongoing, and earnest prayer is the rich soil in which our faith is strengthened for the Christian life. Because you do not know what's coming next, dear friend. You don't know what phone call's coming next. You don't know what trial you will face. You don't know what kind of persecution may come in this country. Things that we considered normal are now being challenged. Free speech, freedom of worship, freedom of religion, freedom of conscience. They're being challenged in the national stage. But be still my soul, be still. The Lord is on your side. We have been so blessed and we may continue to know great blessing in this nation and freedom, but we may not. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Christians around the world do not have what we have. And yet they are called to stand firm, even as we are. If we are going to be a godly people, we must be a prayerful people. A prayerless Christian is like a rudderless ship that wanders around the harbor and has no direction. It's tossed around by whatever direction the winds of culture are blowing. But the Christian who prays according to scripture is with God and led by God. And may we heed the words of Christ here. Pray that you would not enter into temptation. Beloved, perhaps some of you are being tempted right now in your life. Maybe it's in a relationship. Maybe it's at work. Maybe it's at school. Maybe it's in the home. Maybe it's in your parenting. Maybe it's in your finances. Perhaps it's the habits you're keeping when you're online on your computer. Pray that you would not enter into temptation, beloved. This is the exhortation by our Lord here. Yes, the primary application is for the disciples in that very hour, but it's broader. There are secondary and tertiary applications that come to all of us. that we would pray and not enter temptation, pray in your closet, pray on your walks, pray in your church. Our prayer meeting's growing at 9.50 on Sunday mornings. It's growing and I love that. I love that. It just means that we are becoming more. earnest and recognizing that we cannot do it on our own. We must pray. We must pray as a church. We must pray in our pastoral prayers. We must pray in our homes and family worship. We must pray throwing up Nehemiah prayers at work or with friends when there are difficult things going on. We must be a prayerful people. Prayer fosters zeal and encouragement in the Lord. It's a means of grace. It's a gift from God that we would walk strong with his son, how many sins would we be kept from if we just paused and prayed and asked the Lord, is this going to bring glory to you? Prayer is a gift and it doesn't change our sovereign immutable God, it changes us. Prayer changes us, it changes our perspective, it changes our approach, it changes our lives. as we are united to Christ. Jesus prayed and he taught his disciples that they should do the same. And this brings us to one of the most moving prayers in all of history. Look with me at the prayer and let's look at verses 41 and 42 together again. And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. First of all, let us not overlook the posture of Jesus's prayer. He falls to his knees. In the gospel of Mark, it says he threw himself to the ground. In Matthew, he describes it as he threw himself on his face. They're all true, he did all of them. Interestingly, in that day, it was normal for Jews to pray standing up. That was how people prayed. If we were living in that first century in Jerusalem, we would have all prayed for the whole pastoral prayer. Think how tired you'd get with that one. Jesus doesn't do the normal thing. He throws himself down to the ground on his face. This was no ordinary prayer, beloved. This was a prayer of agony. and bitterness of soul, a prayer for the ages by the eternal Son of God in the flesh. But what caused the agony? What caused the anguish and the depths of agony in his soul? What caused him to pray, Father, take this cup from me? At least two things. The first one is this, the thought of bearing our sin. It's the first thing that caused him agony and grief. Remember, Jesus was sinless. He was tempted in all things and yet without sin. He was the essence of purity and holiness. And he was, in the words of Paul, about to become sin for us. He was entering into an unknown place. A place where sin and corruption, the whole sin and corruption of the world would be heaped upon his shoulders. This was unknown territory for the Lord. Luther put it this way, quote, he bore the person of a sinner and of a thief, and not of one, but of all sinners and thieves. And all the prophets saw this, that Christ was to become the greatest thief, murderer, adulterer, robber, desecrator, blasphemer, et cetera, that has ever been anywhere in the world." End quote. Christ was about to become this for us. The object of the worship of the angels, the son of the father, the holy and pure eternal son of God was about to head into unknown territory. And in his humanity, he is overwhelmed with a thought. Secondly, there was the thought of bearing God's wrath and curse for our sin. All Jesus knew was the infinite love and bright countenance of His Father. From eternity past, He enjoyed perfect union and communion with His heavenly Father. But Jesus was about to face something that He had never faced before. Bearing our sins, He would become an object of God's awesome wrath and curse. This is what brought Him profound distress and anguish. He knew the cross would be much worse than physical suffering and torment. No, it would be the first time in all of eternity that the Father would turn His face away from the Son, causing Jesus on the cross, as you know, to say, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? His disciples forsook Him. Everyone forsook Him. He was being mocked and scorned. And even the Father would turn His face away. And Jesus would not enjoy the countenance, the warm and loving countenance of his father, which he knew for eternity, because our sins were upon him. As we considered a few weeks ago, this cup that Jesus requested to be taken from him is a symbol of God's wrath and judgment. We see it all over the Bible. If you're taking notes, we can see in Jeremiah 25, 15 through 17, and Jeremiah 51, seven, and Psalm 75, eight, and Revelation 14, 10. I could give you 10 more passages, which clearly point out that the Bible speaks of this cup of wrath being given as judgment. And Christ was about to drink this down. Not just the judgment for one sinner, but for more than we could count. Professor Donna McLeod, a professor in Edinburgh, Scotland, wrote a book called Christ Crucified, Understanding the Atonement. And in it, he considers why Jesus would have shrunk back in Gethsemane in this prayer. Quote, there will be pain indeed. And he shrinks from that. There will be an awful loneliness. and he shrinks from that. There will be the virulent hellish demonic, and he shrinks from that. And there will be dying and death and its taste, and he shrinks from that. But there will be more. And it doesn't help that he doesn't yet know what. The curse, what will it mean? The full ransom price, what will it mean? Forsaken by God. What will it mean? The thunder and lightning of unmitigated divine judgment condemning sin in his tiny, frail body. What will it mean? This is why Jesus cried out in anguish of soul, Father, would you take this cup from me? He is staring into the unknown. as one who will bear the sins of the world and the very wrath of God for them. And all this, all this for you, all this for me, all this because of your sins, All this because of my sins. He was numbered with the transgressors. All because of our guilt before the Holy God. All to pay the debt for all sins. All to satisfy the righteous requirements of God's holiness and justice. He would face God's curse in our place that we would be saved. Man of sorrows, what a name. For the son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah. What a savior. This is why in Hebrews 5, 7, it states that he, quote, offered up prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears. He prayed, Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me. Is there another way, Father? Is there some other way? And then those eight words. which speaks so powerfully to his loving sonship to his father, to his obedience to his father, to his love for us. He says, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. In the midst of his prayer, An angel was sent to comfort him and to strengthen him. Here we see that in the midst of this struggle, the father is sending him an angel to encourage him and strengthen him to carry out his mission. A beautiful demonstration of his father's love for him as he heads towards the cross. He then rises from this prayer of the ages. And what does he find his disciples doing? They're doing what we're often doing when we should be praying. They were sleeping. They were sleeping. How often do you fall asleep when you pray? You probably fell asleep during my pastoral prayer. I remember falling asleep, not here, thankfully, yet. But during an evening service at my previous church, I remember our assistant pastor was praying, and it was kind of a long prayer, and I just completely nodded off. I'm glad I didn't fall off of the platform. We often fall asleep when we pray, right? These disciples had been very busy. They'd just eaten, it was dark, it was late. It was a very emotional night and time and they nodded off. But they shouldn't have. And they awoke to the sound of Jesus's voice repeating himself, rise and pray that you may not enter temptation. And what happens next leads to the infamous kiss of betrayal. Look at verses 47 and 48 with me. While he was still speaking to his disciples, there came a crowd and the man called Jesus, one of the 12, called Judas rather, 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? Now this is sobering. Judas, walked with Jesus for three years. Judas heard the powerful teaching of Jesus, the authoritative teaching. Judas saw the miracles of the feeding of the 5,000, raising people from the dead, calming the storm. He saw it all, friends. And yet, the cost of discipleship was too much for Him. And the 30 pieces of silver were more important and valued by Him than the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ for eternity. And that is what sin does. That is what sin does. It is so deceitful. It makes us think that something like 30 pieces of silver could be more valuable than the Son of God and His truth and what He has done for us. And so what was normally a sign of friendship and affection, the kiss becomes the signal to identify Jesus in the dark garden, to the band of soldiers and religious leaders that were with Him. One of the 12, he is called by Luke. So as to emphasize, this man was in the inner ring for three years during Christ's public ministry, and yet he valued a little bit of money above the unsearchable riches of Christ. Two things we must recognize here. The first one is this, Judas was the secondary cause in Jesus' deliverance over to his enemies. Judas was a secondary cause. It wasn't as if God the Father was hands-off, sitting back, watching things unfold, as some processed theologians would teach today. Oh, God's just learning with us. He doesn't know what's gonna happen. Which, by the way, is not the God of the Bible. That's some other God. Feel free to worship him. That's not the God of scriptures. You see, Judas was a secondary cause. Yes, acting by his own free will, doing that which he wanted to do in his sin, yes, but behind it all, in a mysterious way, there's the sovereign God, delivering over his own son. Isaiah 53, Romans 8.32, he who did not spare his own son, but what? delivered Him over for us all. How will He not with Him give us all things? It was the Father who delivered over His Son. And so let us not forget that. Secondly, and this is a point I made a few weeks ago, being close to Jesus in some way, even in a way like Judas was, does not mean that you possess saving faith in Jesus. It doesn't mean you are safe. You see, the essence of faith or what constitutes true and saving faith are made up of three things. Are you ready? Knowledge of the truth, you must know the gospel to be saved. Belief that that gospel is true, right? Okay, by the way, those first two, Satan has. The demons have that. The demons know the gospel, and the demons believe it's true. They know it's true. The third one, though, the devil doesn't have, and unbelievers do not have, and Judas did not have, and that is commitment, devotion. And though faith is a gift from God, lest any man should boast, that faith that God gives by his grace is constituted of those three things. It's never without one of them, knowledge, Belief that that knowledge is true of the gospel and commitment. These constitute true and saving faith. And the question we must ask ourselves this morning is, do you? Do we possess this kind of faith? Are you a true follower of Christ? Or are 30 pieces of silver, or whatever that might look like in our day, worth more to you than Christ? Would you easily give up Christ and betray Him so that you can keep all the things that you have or that you want? Is social respectability more value to you than a dying and a bleeding Savior? That is the question that we must ask ourselves as we come to this text. Let Judas's treachery warn us of the deceitfulness of sin and idolatry. And may we here be warned once again, that being merely close to Jesus as Judas was, or perhaps as a covenant child is, or perhaps as a church member is, And yet, holding on to and valuing the things of this world much more than Christ, let us be reminded that this does not necessarily mean that we are united to Christ because we are close to Him in these superficial ways. True faith puts Jesus above all else. Amen? Does this mean that you are perfect, or that I am perfect, or we don't struggle against sin, or indwelling sin and corruption, or temptation and struggle? Of course we do! We will always struggle with those things, but in it all, we will always say, as Christ followers, He is of most importance to me. And there should be some evidence of that in our lives as well, should there not, by the grace of God. Finally, we witness the arrest. Verses 49 through 53, look there with me. And when those who were around him saw what would follow, they said, Lord, shall we strike with the sword? And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said, no more of this. And he touched his ear and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders who had come out against him, have you come out against a robber with swords and clubs? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me, but this is your hour and the power of darkness. We read earlier in the chapter, we studied earlier in the chapter, a couple of weeks ago, that the disciples had two swords. Obviously, Peter had one of them. And obviously, Peter either had bad vision or it was really dark. Because I don't know about you, but when enemies are coming at me, I'm not going for their right ear. So it must have been dark, chaotic. Peter just swings that sword, thinking, I'm going to rescue my savior. Think of how ridiculous this is. Peter, who earlier on in the gospel basically told Jesus, I don't want you to die. And what did Jesus say? Get behind me, what? Satan. So here's Peter, again, confused about the whole thing, and he pulls out a sword and he chops off the right ear of Malchus, the high priest's servant. Jesus says, stop that. Jesus, in Matthew 26, 53, in this parallel account, he says, I could call down six legions of angels in a moment if I wanted to. Put your sword away. Jesus said he could call down tens of thousands of angels in a moment. And Peter's got his little sword. He's cutting off people's ears. This is how ridiculous we are. We think we have a better plan than God's plan. We think, let's just change the theology of the Bible to make it a little more palatable to modern cultural ears and tastes. All the while, the eternal son of God comes down and dies for us. He sheds his blood for us and we wanna clean that up and sanitize the gospel and make it about, let's just all love each other and there are a million ways to heaven and this is whatever. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, was crucified for us. That's the gospel. That's the Christian message. And we are not to hold that Christian message with violence. We are not to be a violent people, looking to wage war against others who do not believe it. We love and we preach the truth, and we are kind and gentle. We are not harsh. And this is what Jesus is telling us. Jesus was headed to the cross to purchase our redemption, and for that reason, he would not resist arrest. And this is a powerful reminder to us that we as Christians, we serve a greater cause and a greater kingdom than the causes and kingdoms of this world. Amen? You watch the news, you read the newspapers, you listen to a lot of Christians speak, and it's as if the world is going to end on Tuesday, no matter what happens. I am here to tell you the only way the world will end on Tuesday is if Jesus comes back, not because of whoever gets elected. This coming week, beloved, let us respond to the results of the election with prayerfulness and peaceableness and meekness and love and godliness, not with vitriol and angst and irrationality and painting other people in a way that they would even describe themselves. Let us not be like the world. Let us not be filled with anger and bitterness and angst and worry and anxiety. Rather, may we foster the quiet confidence that our Lord remains on the throne and his son has died for us and secured our redemption and now we have the freedom to live a godly and a loving and a humble life in this present evil age, in the kingdom that we live in, namely America. But let us not forget that our citizenship ultimately is in heaven. Let us not forget that. Let us follow the example of our Savior. The disciples were still confused. They thought, we need to fight these people because we're trying to set up the kingdom of heaven here, now. And Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world. One day it will be of this world, when He comes back. But it wasn't then. Our primary citizenship is in heaven, and that's where our ultimate and secure future dwells." The preparation, the prayer, the kiss, the arrest. Next week we come to the trial. Beloved, my prayer for us as a congregation is that all of it would capture our hearts, our minds, our imaginations, that it would foster in us a deep love for our Savior, a deep humility, a love for the gospel and for His truth, a desire to honor Him and to glorify Him, a desire to be holy as He is holy, to pursue godliness and not worldliness, and that we would consider together the heights and the depths and the lengths and the breadth of the love of Christ. and all he was willing to do to purchase our redemption. No sin too slight to overlook, no crime too great to carry, all mingled in this poisoned cup, and yet he drank it all. The Savior drank it all for you. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for your word. Oh, to watch, to witness in this text, the anguish of our savior, who was headed into unknown territory, bearing our sin and bearing your judgment that we would go free. The righteous substitute, our propitiation, our expiation, our Lord. We pray this in Jesus' name.