Joseph Wang's Message - Easter 2014: Redeemed

Jesus Prays at the Mount of Olives

Luke 22: 39-46
Key verse: 44

“And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground”

When I was younger, prayer was a song I would sing before meals. It went something like: nahl-mah-dah oo-ree eh-geh yang-shik-eul joo-shi-neun It was something I did without a second thought. Outside of meals, prayer also became habitual. I would have to think about what I had to say and talk about in my prayer but in the end I would be repeating the same things over and over again. But as I grew older I learned that prayer is something very meaningful and important. In our passage this morning, we will learn about the importance of prayer and how through earnest prayer we can submit our will to God’s will.

In verse 39, Jesus goes out as usual to the Mount of Olives with the twelve disciples. Prior to them going to the Mount of Olives, Jesus had eaten with the disciples for the Passover feast. But this was no longer a time of celebration, it was now time for prayer as this was the night before Jesus would be handed over to be crucified. When they arrived at the Mount of Olives, Jesus knew that he was going to be taken away soon and thus the temptation he faced was even greater. Let’s read verse 40 together. “On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” It almost sounds weird that this is the advice Jesus would be giving his disciples. Pray that you will not fall into temptation? Jesus was about to be nailed on the cross, yet he was still worrying about the spiritual condition of his disciples. Jesus knew that at this time, Satan was going to attack them. He was going to do his best to make Jesus’s road to the cross the most humiliating and painful process possible. Jesus would face the temptation of quitting and rejecting the divine plan God had sent out for him. The disciples would face the temptation of running way, of denying Jesus, and of losing all faith in him. As Esther mentioned last night, how can we have Jesus as the king of our heart when something else rules over it? We cannot let these temptations overcome us but instead, we must defeat them. It is only through prayer, and not our own ability, that we can defeat our temptations. Prayer is the ultimate weapon we have against the temptations we face on a daily basis. We know that Jesus is the perfect man. How much more should we be praying earnestly when even the son of God would turn to his father when he was tempted?

Verse 41 and 42 says “He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed. Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done.” He withdrew from the disciples to pray in solitude and he knelt down in prayer, a true form of humility and worship to God. He prayed, “Father, if YOU are willing, take this cup from me. Yet not my will, but yours be done.” Jesus walked among us on this earth as a humble man. Jesus was not unsusceptible to sin however what separates us from Jesus is that he never gave into the temptations he faced. At this time, Jesus knew that his spiritual purpose from God was to die. In the previous passage Jesus tells his disciples to drink from the cup which contained his blood, representing his sacrifice. In the Old Testament, the Lord made the wicked drink from the cup he had mixed. The cup of the Lord contained all the wickedness, pain, beatings, and sin in the world. Everything Jesus would have to face when being crucified. When Jesus was praying to his father, what he was most worried about wasn’t the fact that he would have to carry the cross. Previously he had told his disciples multiple times that he would die, he had never shied away from the fact that he would die. What Jesus did not want was the relationship between him and his father breaking away. They had a loving relationship but now he felt that God was abandoning him. It’s like our own relationships with our parents. We know our parents sincerely and dearly love us but sometimes they have to punish us and discipline us. But this punishment that Jesus would have to go through was unwarranted, Jesus had done nothing wrong and this punishment would be like none we will ever face in our lives. Zechariah 13:7a prophecies, “Awake, sword, against my shepherd, against the man that is close to me!” Declares the Lord Almighty. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.” God would strike his own shepherd, "the man who is close to me," and the sheep would be scattered. Now a sword is an instrument designed to cut, to separate. I think that explains why here, for the first time in the ministry of Jesus, we have a sense of division between Jesus and the Father. The sense of separation is manifested when Jesus says, "Not my will, but yours be done." He was battling between his human will and God’s will, but he never rejected God’s will. Instead he prayed to accept God’s will for him. Many times we say, “If it’s God’s will I’ll do such and such.” However, when God’s will is revealed we make excuses. “It’s not the right time or that’s not God’s will” and we reject his plan. However, Jesus’ act of prayer at the Mount of Olives clearly shows us that we must accept God’s plan for us in an act of submission. When we do so, it is not a defeated life, but a victorious life. When we live a life where we submit to God, it seems boring and hard. It may feel like we go through all these struggles and restrictions for no reason but in the end it’s a life where we can bear real fruit. In the end, this is the best life. The struggle to overcome our will is something we face every moment of everyday. So how can we live in complete submission to God? The key to Jesus’ victorious life was that he prayed, reverently, honestly and earnestly.

In verse 43 it says, “An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.” While Jesus was praying and struggling with the cup that was yet to come, an angel from heaven came and strengthened him. The angel was an act of encouragement from God and strengthened Jesus both mentally and physically in his time of struggle. God did not remove Jesus’s cup of suffering, instead he helped him and strengthened him to take the cup. He strengthened Jesus to endure the suffering. God purifies and strengthens our faith through struggles and suffering. If you’ve ever tutored someone, sometimes you want to do their homework for them because they just don’t understand it. You want to go straight to the answers and skip the question. But that doesn’t help the student. They must learn to struggle with the problems or concepts so that they will learn and grow. In the same way, any time we face struggles in life, when we pray, God does not necessarily take these struggles away. But he strengthens us so that we can overcome the struggles we face.

Let’s read verse 44 together. “And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” The verse here says that Jesus was in anguish. In anguish, Jesus prayed earnestly. Jesus prayed so earnestly that his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. Anguish is severe mental or physical pain, something that is deeply distressing. The cup was yet to come for Jesus, can you imagine walking to your own death? Take a minute and envision that in your head. You will be chained up, flogged, beaten and spit on every step you take, and in the end you will be crucified. There was the mental pain, of the division between him and his father, of Judas betraying him, and of his disciples denying him.This is why Jesus was in anguish. And so, he prayed earnestly, fervently. Jesus prayed so that he could accept the will of God absolutely and the struggle to do this resulted in drops of sweat rolling down his face like blood. Jesus was struggling so hard to do something impossible; to entirely subdue his human desire. But his earnest prayer to let go of his own desire and accept God’s desire for him is what won the battle.

From Jesus we learn how to pray. It begins with coming to God, alone and in humility, in order to present our requests to him. We see that Jesus knelt down before God in prayer, showing his reverence. When Jesus came to God in prayer, he was honest in his struggle. He shared what was on his heart to God in sincerity. Then it progresses to listening to God’s answer in submission. The essence of prayer is denying our own human desires by God’s help and that results in us obeying God’s will. Prayer also provides strength. Jesus prayed when the flesh was weak, and even through agony, through drops of sweat rolling down his face like blood, he stood firm and carried out the will of the Lord. He was completely transformed through prayer. In Jonathan’s message we’ll see that even in Jesus’s last breath he carries out his resolution to follow and obey God’s plan for him. He says, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” This was not a sudden shift of attitude from Jesus, it was the fruit of his earnest prayer on the mount of olives. Sometimes we make excuses to not pray because we’re too busy, or we have too much work.. But we see that Jesus’s earnest prayer led him to a firm resolution to follows God’s will to his final breath.

It’s always been a struggle for me to accept God’s will. Even in my senior year I tend to deviate towards thinking about myself. What college will I like the best? Where can I learn the most? I become fixated on my own desires and instead of praying I turn to other sources. I ask my friends or teachers advice. It’s not wrong to do that, but they can only give me so much advice or information. What I am reminded about in this passage is the importance of turning to God. I should pray to submit my own desires to God and accept his plan for me. The questions I should be asking are: what college does God want me to go to? Where can I learn about him and grow in him the most? The hardest part of prayer for me was to honestly submit to him and share my struggles. My own pride made it hard for me to admit that I did not know of my direction nor future. I pray that I can submit my will to God’s will in daily and earnest prayer.

Let’s read verse 45 and 46 together. “When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. “Why are you sleeping?” He asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.” When Jesus came back to the disciples, he found them sleeping. They were sleeping in defeat, because they could not overcome their sorrow. They had just learned there would be no kingdom on Earth, Jesus would be taken away from them and killed, and instead of praying like Jesus had told them to, they succumbed to their sorrow in sleep. Jesus woke them up and once again told them to pray so that they will not fall into temptation. When we follow Jesus, the temptations we face are very real. We are constantly tempted to turn away from the path of following Jesus and instead give in to the desires of the flesh. It comes in the form of entertainment, of laziness, anything that turns us away from the Lord.

When I first accepted Christ about a year and a half ago, I was transformed into someone who just went through the motions of church & prayer to sincerely wanting to know Christ more. But even now, it has not been easy. It has been a war between my human desires and God’s desire. There have been many times I have strayed from his path due to my fun-seeking desire and laziness. It’s so easy to skip HBF and hang out with friends or ignore our responsibility for our own pleasure. However, these temporary joys do nothing for us.  Jesus shows us that the path of the cross, the path of God is followed in earnest prayer. This was the key to Jesus’ victorious life on to the cross. Jesus shows us how to pray: to pray reverently and humbly, to pray honestly, and to pray submitting our will to God. It is only through prayer that we can resist our own desires.  Let’s come to Jesus humbly. Let’s pray in repentance, pray for forgiveness, and pray that we can fight the good fight and always accept God’s calling for us, just as Jesus did. Let’s read the key verse, verse 44 together. “And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”