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We're turning today to Luke's gospel chapter 22 as we come to our message and we come to a close in the house of God this morning. Luke chapter 22, let me read a few verses with you and then we're going to especially consider the words of verse 44 in this text of scripture. Luke 22 in verse 39, I'll read from that verse. And we consider now the very agonies of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, as he enters the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke 22, verse 39. And he came out and went as he was wont to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples also followed him. And when he was at the place, he said unto them, pray that ye enter not into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly. And his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose up from prayer and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow and said unto them, why sleep ye? Rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. Amen. Finishing there at verse 46. We're turning to verse 44. Our message today is blood, toil, tears and sweat. It was during the three-year reign of the then British Prime Minister, Arthur Neville Chamberlain, when Britain declared war on Germany during the Second World War. As most of us I'm sure are aware, this was on the 3rd of September 1939, and it was two days after Germany had invaded Poland. However, Chamberlain's leadership from that point onwards would only go on to last less than a year. It was coming to a close, and he resigned on the following 10th of May, less than one year later after the Allies were forced to retreat from Norway. And as a result, and as many of us are aware of, this paved the way for Winston Churchill to forever, in his own unique manner, write his name in our history books. Winston Churchill took up office on the following 13th of May. And on that same day before the House, his speech was of a nature in which he declared and wished for the House to declare its confidence in his government. This was the first of three speeches he gave during the Battle of France. And in it he said these forever famous words, and I quote more of a larger quote at this stage of our service. I quote, we are in the preliminary stage of one of the greatest battles in history, that we are in action at many points in Norway and in Holland, Churchill observed, that we have to be prepared in the Mediterranean, that the air battle is continuous, and that many preparations have to be made here at home. And then Churchill turned to the house and he said, I would say to the house, as I have said to those who have joined this government, I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and suffering, and how true those words would prove to be. It is to that famous and timeless speech and phrase I draw those words, those individual words, blood, toil, tears, and sweat. Blood, toil, tears, and sweat. And beloved, as we turn to the Scriptures and to the Word of God this day, we turn to another scene, an altogether different occasion. We might say we turn ourselves to an altogether different war. And here is a battlefield which is laid before the horizon of our thoughts. We're not dealing with hundreds and thousands of soldiers. But beloved, we're dealing with one soldier. We're dealing with the captain of our salvation. The one who represents the many, the God-man, who in this stage of his life, he withdraws as he enters the Garden of Gethsemane. And there we see him for this time. And my, what a humbling occasion it really is. We see him alone before the Father's face. And we hear and we see the agonies of the Savior. As I was pondering there this morning, and the need as we have to remember all the things which have gone before us in the years of our history, and most importantly to draw our thoughts in the worship of God, my heart was instantly drawn to this occasion of our Savior's life, where we see his own scene, an unrivaled scene, an incomparable scene of blood and toil and tears and sweat. And I ask you the question as we come around the gospel this morning and throughout this day, what do these things mean? What do we learn from them? And may the Lord, through his goodness and his kindness, take up every thought that I seek to bring before you in the scriptures and write them upon our hearts. I want to leave three thoughts with you as we turn to the blood and the toil and the tears and the sweat of our Savior. And first of all, I want you to think about the placement of our Savior in this experience. Where was he, in other words? One time, many years ago, I think it was, I came across a comment and an observation by one who was commenting upon these words. Again, I can't remember exactly who it was, but that the word was along these lines that too little ought to be said than too much when you enter into the experiences and the agonies of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. Sometimes that's the right approach. Sometimes that's the wisest course of action we can take when you enter into the garden and you enter into the realms of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, because certainly none of us, not one single individual here in this church and throughout all of Christendom, will ever understand and ever enter into the fullness of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I say to you, the more that we search the scriptures and we turn to the portions that deal with his agony and his suffering and his bloodshed and the wrath of God that was poured upon his soul, the more we read, is it not the case, the less we have to say, because we are speechless. We are lost in wonder and love and praise. And sometimes that's been our reaction when we've looked over the annals of history and we see the individual accounts of soldiers and men and even women in their own respect and the acts which they did. And so remarkable are those individual acts that we have nothing to say. We are in awe. How much more when it comes to the scene of Gethsemane before us. However, with that said, we must not stray into another realm of thinking where we do not try to go as far as we can. In other words, the scripture reveals certain things and therefore we are warranted, with the help of God, to endeavour to understand what they mean. and to search them out as best as we can with God's help unto perfection. It is right, it is good that we, with the help of God, seek to understand what it meant when we are dealing with the agony of Christ in His obedience before the Father's face. But the first thing that we can do to help us is to pause and to ask a question. And the question, really, I've already mentioned in my first point, where is He? And immediately, I think everyone here that knows the Bible relatively well, you're going to say, well, that's an easy question to answer. I can give you the answer. He's in Gethsemane. But I'm asking you to think about it more carefully. Where is he? Where is he? He's in the garden. That's where you find the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you noticed that when you read Luke's account in chapter 22 and verse 39, that Luke mentions that he goes to the Mount of Olives, he doesn't make any mention of the garden. The garden is mentioned by name in the other gospel narratives. Now, some people think there's confusion here. Well, what is it? Is it the garden of Gethsemane, or is it the Mount of Olives? There isn't any confusion. If you read Matthew's account in chapter 26, You'll discover that after they sang, that they began to travel, and they made their way to the Mount of Olives. In other words, the Garden of Gethsemane, it was situated at the base, at the foot of the Mount, which was more of a hill of olives itself. So there's no contradiction. The Lord makes his way to the hill, or to the Mount of Olives, and first they come to the Garden of Gethsemane, and they enter in. Gethsemane, I believe, means oil press. They're suggesting a garden that was a grove of olive trees. Never was there a name more suited to an occasion. And there our Lord Jesus Christ, as he enters him, and as he, for a time, he distanced himself from his own disciples, and he urges them to watch and pray, lest they enter into temptation. He himself goes alone for a time, and as he seeks the Father's face, the agonies, the agonies are now poured into his very life. And as he was there in the garden of Gethsemane, the words which were rendered understood a place of a press, an oil press. Here was our Lord Jesus Christ being sorely pressed. The language throughout the gospel accounts is of this nature. He was exceeding sorrowful. He was heavy. He was agitated. He was in agony. This is the language that God brings to us. That's where this garden was located. But here's the question that I want to bring even more to your hearts. Why? We remember as we study the scriptures that the Lord records the details not by accident, but they're given to us for our understanding and they're given to us for reasons. And it should not be lost on us that our Lord Jesus was in the garden of all the places he could have been. and all the places he could have found himself. And as he sought to go to the Mount of Olives, he first enters a garden. And you say, well, why? What's the significance? I think most of us probably can make the connection already if we know our Bibles as well as we should do. And I want us to think about that for just a few moments. And when we think about where the Lord Jesus Christ was, we remind ourselves that when you look at the scriptures, and especially the writings of the Apostle Paul, for example, that Paul will always in his writing, he will draw and he will identify the relationship between the first Adam and between Christ, who is the last or the second Adam. examples that I could point you to, but I just remind you of what you read in 1 Corinthians 15, for example, verse 45. And I remind you of the relationship between the two Adams, and then we'll get to the garden and we'll see the application. First of all, verse 45 of 1 Corinthians 15, the first Adam Paul says, was made a living soul, and the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. And what is Paul doing there? He's directing our attention to everything that we are because of Adam and his representation of all of humanity, but all that everyone is in Jesus Christ. It is Christ who makes a soul a living child of God. Paul, in his writings, he's enthralled by this. He's captivated as he, in a sense, he connects all the dots and all of the lines of Scripture right there from Genesis. Adam, and all that we are because of him, and yet all that we can be in Jesus Christ. And remember one of the key words in this whole matter is the word representation. Adam, as he was created, was made our head. was made our representative. We are forever associated with Him. It is His, what we call Adamic, sinful nature that we inherit, beloved. It is His nature that we evidence every day of our lives. If we're outside of Christ, and even the times that we let the law down, a constant reminder, as the scripture says, that as in Adam, all die. That's the answer to our world, by the way. The great profound questions that people have no answers to in society are all found here in Scripture. But why do we die? You know, the question which many have been searching for, they've sought to explore through the course of human history, is the why, and the illnesses, and the symptoms, and what can we do to intervene and help? And all of those noble things, they're good and right in their own place, but never, never in human intellect alone can the question be answered, but why? Why do we all die? Why are we all alike in this manner? The scripture tells us in Adam. in Adam, there's no answer to that, no argument. And what you find as you read the scriptures and you read Genesis and you read the book of Paul or the letters of Paul is that the relationship is then filtered down on a number of levels. So let me try to give you an example. Think of what Adam lost. He lost paradise. He lost the Garden of Eden. He lost fellowship with God. He was alienated from God. And then we say, but what are we gaining in Christ? What is it the last Adam does for us if we lose Paradise and heaven and a relationship with God. And if we're lost in Adam, then we are found and we gain paradise and heaven and peace with God in Christ, don't we? If we are alienated because of Adam, we are united and reconciled because of Jesus Christ. That's the theology of Paul. That filters right throughout the word of God. And now we see it right before our very eyes. Where was Adam? Where was Adam? When Satan came to him through Eve, he was in the garden. And then we asked the question, Adam, what did you do when you fell? What did you do when you sinned against Almighty God? He tried to hide himself from God in the garden itself. But now we see Jesus. And remember that when the Lord records these words in Luke chapter 22, it is for our learning, it is for understanding. And there is our beloved Savior. He's in the garden and He's not hiding. He's not running. He's not concealing any of these ways. Is He being buffeted by Satan? You can believe it. Is He being tormented throughout the entirety of His own physical existence and soul? Yes. But thanks be to God, he's in the garden. He's in the place where we fell. He's in the place where salvation in that sense was lost. Where peace with God was forfeited. But we see him now in the garden and he's not hiding. And he's there for sinners. And he's there for us. So I say to you when we think about the blood and the toil and the tears and the sweat of our Lord Jesus Christ, We look over history. Many of you have interests in the wars and the history and all of the locations and the battlefields and the countries that all were involved, and rightly so. And it continues to revive our interest and remembrance of all that has happened in years which have gone by. But let us never forget where our Savior was in the scene of his suffering, in the scene of his agony. He's in the place where it was all lost. He's in the place so that he might find it again. This was the way to the cross, we might say. The forerunner to Calvary. So we see his placement. And then, beloved, we see his prayerfulness. Have you noticed what Luke says in verse 44? And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly. Let's pause with those words for a short time, Christian. Think about what the scripture is saying. Being in an agony, and we'll look at the agony a little bit more in a short while, but I'm just drawing attention to what he does in the midst of his agony. He prays, and he prays more earnestly. Let's think about the agony which drew his praying therefore. Now the insight we are given here to our Saviour's suffering is most humbling. Luke uses the idea of agony and that's the thought of struggles, it's the thought of deep, painful anguish. There are a number of things that we should factor in when we take time to consider the Saviour's agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. The first thing that we need to remember, and I want to stress this is one of the most important things that we should understand regarding our Lord Jesus Christ, that although our Lord Jesus prayed to the Father, and he sincerely prayed that the Father, if He would be willing, Lord, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from me. You need to remember one thing, that he was not speaking or praying in rebellion or disobedience. Possibly as hard as it may be to consider, this is Christ in His obedience. The Lord, if there was any disobedience, if there was any rebellion, if there was any sense in which he was saying, I don't want to die for sinners, then we don't have a savior. You understand that? And that means that when you consider the words of our Lord Jesus, and they are, of course, genuine, and he views the cup of the wrath of God and everything that he would go on to drink to satisfy God and save our precious souls, the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ is on show because now we are seeing the real agony which he endures and which he suffers. The human nature of our Lord Jesus Christ, while without sin and could not sin, and was without moral corruption, remember please, it was still a human nature. Yes, he's the God-man. Yes, it is the Son of God who takes to himself a human nature. It's not the deifying of humanity, it's not the humanizing of God. These are distinct natures. This is the mystery of godless. But remember, this is his humanity. And he's in agony. He's in agony. I came across one, I think it was David Murray, who said these words, and I like this description. It helped me with my own thinking, so I trust it will help you as well. And he made reference to what he called the sinless weaknesses of our Lord Jesus, as opposed to the sinful weaknesses, which were never his. There were no sinful weaknesses that we all suffer from, but there were sinless weaknesses. What were they? He slept. Remember when our Lord Jesus Christ rested, it wasn't out of pretense. He was physically tired. And I think every time I try to wrap my head around that, I'm absolutely astonished. Because then I read of the same savior who upholds all things by the word of his power, the eternal son of God, who neither slumbers nor sleeps. And yet he sleeps in his humanity. and he hungers, and he thirsts, and he cries, and he weeps, and he knew agony. He knew real pain and suffering. The question we must try to delve into here is what was this agony which drove him more to earn his prayer? I believe it was J.C. Ryle in his commentary on Luke who makes the point that the agony of our Lord Jesus was not merely, it's not excluding, but it's not merely requelling from the approach of physical death. Let me try to explain what that means. If the agony of our Lord Jesus Christ was simply this, Now we could detect the verse 44, he's in agony, he's praying more earnestly. Now if we and some take this line, and I completely disagree with that, I'm not saying those who take the line are orthodox, they're not, I don't think they are. But the thought is this, he's just anticipating death. And like all of us, when there is the approach of death, of course, there is the agonizing, there is the sorrow and all the natural things that come into our hearts. But listen, if we only say of Christ that the agony is because he's anticipating physically dying itself, then as Rael and many others have made the observation, he's not faring any better than others. I mean, even martyrs in years which have gone by have fared far better in the face of death. That they haven't agonized like this. They haven't lamented in such a manner as this. So do you see that there's more to the agony of our Lord Jesus Christ? And I believe the secret or really something of the help that we need is in Hebrews 5 and verse 7, where the apostle reminds us of the strong crying and tears which he offers up to his father. And when you look at when Jesus enters into the garden, he gives you the insight into what he's about to endure. My soul is exceedingly sorrowful. I have no doubt that when our Lord Jesus Christ was there, and he was on that dirt of the ground of Gethsemane, and here you have something of one of the final stages of the deep humiliation of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he was buffeted by Satan. I have no doubt of that. Some of the sorest trials and temptations. Remember when Satan first tempted him, he left him for a season, but he came back again. In the garden, at the cross. Accusations, temptations, they never left him. It's just that he never fell through them. and they're intensified here. But there's more than just a buffeting and the beatings and the temptations because now the Savior appears into the cup which is in the Father's hand and the cup signifying wrath and fury and the righteous judgment of God against our sins. And that's the agony, oh listen, that's the agony because he knows why he's going to die. He knows what he must become. And that tears his soul apart. And that buffets him. This was not agony because of approaching death alone, or even just a shame of the cross, and it was shameful. But primarily our Lord Jesus was staring into the cup of God's wrath, and he understood, I must drink this to save my people. There's no other way but this. There's no other hope for you. There was no other life than through his death. And so we see this agony which is given to us here in the language which drew his praying. But notice also there was an earnestness which described his praying. And we have to think about this. Luke says that when he prayed, he prayed more earnestly. Let's also remember that of all people, our Lord Jesus knew what it was to pray. He was the master of prayer, wasn't he? He was the great prayer warrior. And when you think about this, our Lord Jesus never knew the things that we know, and that's why he's qualified to be our sympathising saviour, because we all struggle in prayer, don't we? From preacher to pew, we're all the same. And we know times when we get alone with God, and very soon our thoughts evaporate, and the worries, they press themselves in, and before we know it, we're praying about something, and we're thinking about something. We're presenting a petition, and then we're worrying about a petition. But I look at the ministry and the prayer life of our Lord Jesus Christ, and everything that the Christ did was perfect. Every word was perfect. Every action was perfect. No sin, no default, no corruption. And yet, and yet, mystery of all mysteries, Luke says, he prays more earnestly. How can that be so? You know what, I really don't know. I just simply bow before the language of God's word here. He prayed more earnestly. Not because he lacked fervency at any time, but I believe the reason, if I give you a reason today, and again, it's subject to discussion and being refuted, but it's my reason I give to you. It's a way of God describing and illustrating the agony that attended or featured through his praying. He met, this is our Savior, listen to this, He met the sorest trial and agony with the purest and the most earnest prayer. Let me say that again. He met the sorest and the most difficult agony with the most purest and the most earnest prayer. And remember the cup was never taken away, was it? And yet the Lord answered, because the angel comes and strengthens and God, and Jesus Christ is enabled, we might say, with the help of Almighty God, there in the midst of the garden, that he might drink the cup at the cross. and go on to ride on in majesty, as the hymn writer says. But there are a number of precious thoughts that we can draw from this. And beloved Christian, what truth we have to learn today in God's house? I say to you, what love is this? What love is this? It tells me in his deepest agony, he prayed more earnestly because of it. The only way to secure our salvation require would require our Lord to endure such agony as this. But look at the triumph in it all. He prays more earnestly. For Adam, he couldn't do that in the garden. He fell when it comes to us. We cannot do it, but only of Him. And do you know what's the answer? What's the application? Let me try to mention it to you as simply as I can. You have one like no other in the glory. This is your sympathizing Savior. This is the one that is able to save you if you're not saved the uttermost. Maybe you are in the agony of your sin, the agony of your struggles and temptations in life, the agony of whatever it may be, but there's one who knows all of this and much more. And he prayed more earnestly. And I say, Christian, what agonies are you going through? What sufferings are you enduring? What buffetings are you experiencing? and we have him in glory, and he knows all the feelings, and he's touched by them, the feelings of your infirmities, and listen, if he prayed more earnestly in the garden as he anticipate, ensuring and drinking the anger and the fury of God, how much more earnestly does he pray at the right hand of God, having satisfied divine justice, and now a willing savior for you. I love that. I love it because when you're weak, He is strong. I love that truth because when you feel that you cannot pray, the Lord sends through His Spirit the intercessory work of the Spirit to attend your way and to help you because He prayed more earnestly in His agony. I believe there's a lesson here. I'm careful because I understand that when we are in our own agonies and struggles that sometimes prayer is hard. I get that. I think we all do and we all understand that today. But that doesn't mean that we should not, by the help of God, endeavor to meet some of the most difficult agonies with our most earnest praying. And that often is just the way it is. We pray more earnestly when we're suffering the most. That's a pattern of our Savior. And I'm encouraging you to do that very thing. There may be very little else that you feel you can do, where you are, what you're going through right now, but this is what you can do. You can pray more earnestly. You can bring it all before him. And like Hezekiah, spread every matter before our gracious God. And then lastly, we see his perspiration in this place. Luke's account in the garden records a couple of details that the other gospel writers do not record. The first one is in verse 43 where we have the appearance of an angel from heaven strengthening him. Matthew and Mark, for example, they don't record that particular detail. The other one that is not recorded across the other gospels is this very unique expression and sight of the sweating of our Lord Jesus Christ. I think we have a hymn, don't we, that speaks or sings along these words, or this line. I'm not going to sing it because I'd just horrify you with my singing, and I can't even recall the words, but you know what I'm talking about here. Here is the agony of our Lord Jesus, and the sweat, Luke says. Now, notice the terminology here. The sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground. Luke was a doctor, I think most of us know that anyway, and so you would expect him to record something of a medical feature to the agonies of Christ. There is a bit of discussion as to what the sweat actually was because of the phrase, as it were, so there are two options. Either we're dealing with literal drops of sweat that were either completely or entirely comprised of his blood, or mingled with blood and sweat, or else it's a comparison. Such was the agony, such was the pain that Christ was enduring as he anticipates all that he must do, that the pores were fully opened and unlike maybe smaller drops of sweat, larger drops began to cascade down his face and they were like thick drops of blood, such was the nature of them. And so that would give you the answer to the phrase, as it were. Really, it doesn't matter either way, there's no great theological bone of contention here. Because the reason why it doesn't take away from the clear fact that our Lord was in agony, and his agony was most real. When you see someone sweat, well, generally speaking, you know they're doing something, they're working, they're working hard, or they're running. for about three minutes, and the sweat begins to break out on their face. When someone's sweating, you know that there's activity. Our Lord Jesus Christ wasn't running. He wasn't walking. There was no physical manual labor which he was engaged in, but never a man sweated like him. Never was there a scene of blood and toil and tears and sweat than this moment. when there He is and sweat flows from His face and drops to enriching the ground beneath it. And we say, Lord Jesus, why would you sweat like this? As I gave thought to it, naturally my thoughts turned back to the garden of Eden once more and to Adam. The first time that you'll read of sweat, here's a strange fact for you, by the way, that maybe I'll bring up in a quiz one time near Christmas. Sweat's mentioned only three times in the Bible. The word sweat, that is, I haven't gone to the various tenses and endings of it, but the word sweat, three times. The first one is with reference to the fall of Adam and the curse. And the now fallen creation would bring forth thorns and thistles, and God spoke to Adam and said, Adam, you're going to eat in sorrow. All the days of your life you're going to bring forth bread in this manner. And Adam, who had always tended and tilled and looked after the ground, God says, now you're going to do this in the sweat of your face. You're going to eat your bread, you're going to labour for your bread, and it's going to be with this reminder that you're in a fallen world, you're a fallen creation, you have a fallen nature. And every day will be toil and labour, and the sweat reminds you of a broken law, and of a curse, and of a pending doom. It's no coincidence that God draws our attention to the sweat of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's toiling like no other. He's laboring like no other. This is a work to reverse the curse. And his sweat drops signify every single time. He's entering, we might say, the next phase of his obedience. He's willing to drink the cup of God's wrath to not only sweat in such a manner, but to become the curse. to drink the cup, to procure the blessing, to save countless souls. We thank God that many years ago, many men and many women in various ways, whether at home or in sea or land or through air, it was toil, it was blood, it was sweat, it was love. But there's no greater love than this. than our Christ in the garden and his own toil, his own blood, his own sweat, and his own tears. And you have to ask the question, why? Because it's for sinners. It's for your salvation. I'm asking you, dear friend, what will you do with this? What will you do with this Christ? Believe on him. Know him as Lord and Savior. Let's pray. Father, as we continue now before thy presence, how thankful we are that thou hast brought us to Christ, and into the garden, and before a scene like no other. And our prayer, gracious Lord, right now, is that if anyone is not yet saved, that Lord, immediately their hearts will be struck to consider, do I know him? Is this my Lord and Savior? And Lord, if that's not the case, whether through a child right through to an adult, cause them to see the infinite love of Christ and all that he gave for our salvation, and that precious souls will flee to him and be saved. Bless us now, Lord, as we part and go our separate ways. May the love of God our Father, the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all, we pray. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen, amen. God bless you.
Blood, Toil, Tears & Sweat
系列 Remembrance Day
讲道编号 | 1114211331312690 |
期间 | 38:13 |
日期 | |
类别 | 周日 - 上午 |
圣经文本 | 聖路加傳福音之書 22:44 |
语言 | 英语 |