8. THE ANSWER

8. THE ANSWER

Today we join Christ’s disciples on the Mount of Olives. We can only go so far on this journey. We will watch Christ proceed to a place He had to go alone.

Luke 22:39-46.

1. The Difficult Grasp: At closest proximity, what occurred in that garden will probably remain “about a stone’s throw beyond, beyond us.”

We don’t really know the fullness of what is happening in these passages. What happened in the intimacy of those moments was a God-thing. When Jesus came to the Garden of Gethsemane, he bore the cross privately before His Father. In our own Gethsemanes, we experience the nakedness of soul. Our Gethsemanes are times when that which is in us presses forth.

2. The Deliberate Location: “Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives.” Two reasons why Christ’s return to His “usual” place was significant:

• Because nothing was “usual” about the moment.

Even for Christ’s unusual experience, this was an extraordinary moment. God can come into your usual place and do unusual things. That is what happened in this usual place.

• See John 18:2-4. Because Judas knew where He was going.”

There was no hiding. Christ never makes Himself hard to find for those who are seeking Him.

3. The Disciple’s Position: They were there to learn. The original Greek word for “disciples” is “mathetes,” meaning “a learner, pupil.”

There were there to learn to pray in the places of that kind of pressure. If we are going to be disciples of Jesus Christ, we are going to stay teachable. Christ was teaching them how to deal with the difficult matters of the will.

The original Greek for “followed” is “akoloutheo,” meaning “to attend, to accompany, to go with or follow a teacher.” The point? Every true disciple of Jesus Christ will know their own Gethsemane.

Gethsemane is when we come to the place where we decide whether we are going to go on living under our own authority, or if we are going to lay down our right to be crucified with Christ; pick up that cross, and follow Him in the crucified life. It is a place where serious decisions are made that impact the rest of our walk on this earth with Jesus Christ.

4. The Determined Submission: “He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed.”

Romans 8:22 - For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

The knees of God – Christ Jesus, the King of all creation, knelt in submission.

Some of our brokenness is because of our own rebelliousness. There is another option – bend the knee to God. He is listening in His lampstands for the sound of knees hitting the ground.

Don’t miss two crucial elements involved in His submission:

• The war of the will. More than any other place in Scripture, we see Christ at the full crisis of His dual role as God-man.

This was the full crisis of being completely God and completely man. At that point, in that garden, they were at war; with a pure heart and a complete perfection.

Philippians 2:5-8. The original Greek word for “servant” is “doulos,” meaning “a slave, one who is in permanent relation of servitude to another, his will being altogether consumed in the will of the other.”

“Christ said “I came that my will would be totally swallowed up in the will of my Father.” That was His entire purpose for being there. Christ was the bondslave.

Luke 22:44. The original Greek word for “anguish” is “agonia,” meaning “combat, from which the English agony is derived.” In the New Testament, it is used for denoting not the fear that draws back and flees, but the fear that trembles in the face of the issue yet continues on to the end.

Tremble right there in the garden with Him, but do not run from it. The greatest works God will ever do in our lives will follow our Gethsemanes. If Christ had stopped at that place we would be lost. We may tremble in fear when it comes to the matter of releasing our will to be absorbed into the Father; but trembling in the garden with everything it takes, kneel, go to our face, and stay there as long as it takes.

• The dread of the cup. The four cups of wine taken at the Passover meal represent the four “I wills” of God in Exodus 6:6-7.

Luke 14:23 – He is the Word, the Logos. He chooses His words very carefully. Christ is our Passover

“I will bring you out.”

CUP 1 (Cup of Sanctification)

It was the first cup poured at the Jewish Passover. Christ is the One acting in the father role at that particular supper, and then He would rise to give the blessing.

“I will rescue you from their bondage.”

CUP 2 (Cup of Plagues)

The Passover Meal is celebrated.

The second cup is poured as the story is told. Christ is telling them His own story.

“I will redeem you with an outstretched arm.”

CUP 3 (Cup of Redemption)

“I will take you as my people

CUP 4 (Cup of Ingathering)

Luke 22:20 – CUP 3 (Cup of Redemption) is the very same cup He is talking about in the Garden of Gethsemane.

CUP 4 (Cup of Ingathering) is the fruit of the vine.

Matthew 26:27-30 – The passages that they were singing were “The Hallel – Psalms 115-118, and they were said through the course of the meal. At this point, they would have been at the last half of the Hallel (Psalm 118:22-29).  Christ said “God planted my feet on this planet for this day. I am the Lamb of God.”

The theme of the evening was the will of God!

5. The Depth of Anguish: Christ knew looking forward what we still don’t comprehend looking back (John 18:4).

The medical journals tell us that there is a very rare condition, when literally such stress goes upon the body; that there is somewhat a hemorrhage into the pores from which the sweat comes. It could be very well that is what was happening. Christ was the Son of God, and he was going through something in that place that we know nothing about.

6. The Divine Decision: Through Jesus Christ, God said “Yes!” (2 Corinthians 1:20).

John 18:2-6; Hebrews 5:7-10 –Jesus stayed in that place called Gethsemane, which is called the “olive press.”When we are pressed, what is inside surfaces. When Christ got up, He had a made-up mind.

The word “He” is not in the original Hebrew text, so when Christ said “I AM” (Exodus 3), they went tumbling down that hill in a compulsory bending of the knee, on their faces before the great I AM. When Jesus came out of the garden, He came out to do the will of the Father.