Matthew 26:36-46
I have often asked myself this question. What do you do when there is no other way but to do it God’s way?
That is an overwhelming duh!!!!! You submit to God and you do it His way.
I got to thinking about this one night and I started thinking about the time that Jesus was in the Garden just before He was betrayed by Judas and arrested, which led to His crucifixion and death on the cross. I have often wondered what was Jesus thinking about? If you read the encounter in the Gospel of Matthew you can clearly see that Jesus was in agony about what was going to happen and He was in this state because He knew that there was no other way to redeem mankind accept through His death on the cross.
This is the story of when Jesus was about to be crucified for the sin of the whole world. The man who He appointed to be one of His disciples was about to betray him. Jesus knew was about to happen and knew there was nothing that could prevent it from happening. He went off to pray and began to inquire of His Father, if there was another way, but there was no answer. He prayed some more and told His Father to the point of begging to let this cup pass from him. But there was no answer. Finally a third time Jesus said to His Father “If it is not possible for this cup to pass from me, lest I drink it, may your will be done.”
If Jesus knew that this was the only way that man could be redeemed, why did He ask the Father to take all this from Him and find another way? God’s wrath, His Father was going to be poured out on Him. Jesus was going to bear the punishment of the sin of all mankind and he felt the weight of that condition on Him. Jesus being both God and man had two sides and they were in constant conflict. Jesus felt the condition of man’s separation from God.
All of us at some time have been confronted with a similar situation that Jesus was in where we needed the Lord to intervene or we needed God’s help in something and the Lord shows us a way, but we don’t like the way he is telling us to do something.
So we begin to do the same thing that Jesus did we begin to seek and pray and ask the Lord for another way. We also try to find another way ourselves. Sometimes we think we got all the answers. Why do we do that? Because what God is asking is to do is going to require us to make some sacrifices, it’s going to be something that is going to make us uncomfortable and it might hurt.
But there was one thing that Jesus did every time He prayed to His Father. He not only prayed to see if there was another way to accomplish God’s will, but He submitted to the known will of His Father. Jesus knew He was the lamb that was sent to take away the sin of the world. Jesus makes several references throughout the gospels that He knew why He came into this world, Jesus knew that there was no other way
But when Jesus went to the cross he didn’t go with bitterness and contempt in his heart for man or for His Father, he did it with joy. Hebrews 12:3 “Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame.” The experience of a crucifixion was not a joyful experience for Jesus, but what was going to be accomplished through his willingness and obedience that was the joy that was set before him.
It was all about redemption. That’s why Jesus endured the cross, that why Jesus despised the shame that he went through. That is why Jesus submitted to God’s will. There was no other way.
Matthew 6:33 “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness…”,
Think about this. The reason why Christians are divided in their faith, and why there are so many different doctrines, and Christian denominations is because many believers are searching for another way. They don’t like what the bible tells them to do so they don’t accept it and they start trying to create a new way of doing things
When Jesus was saying, there is a certain way that God does things, we are to seek after His way of doing things. A kingdom is nothing more than a realm of ruler-ship where things are done a certain way. In a kingdom things are done the way the king wants them done. People of the kingdom are those who do things by the way of the king. So, that means that the Kingdom of God is GOD’S WAY OF DOING THINGS. That is what we are supposed to be seeking after.
When we start doing things God’s way that is when all the stuff the Jesus was talking about before that is going to happen. When you do things God’s way then you don’t have anything to worry about. When you do things God’s way then the consequences are Him and not you. Someone once told me this, “If you want what God wants for the same reason God wants it, YOU ARE INVINCIBLE.”
John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father except through me.”
I once heard someone say “There are many paths that lead us to God, but there is only door that we can go through and that is Jesus Christ.”
The reason why there are so many religions out there is because of what Jesus said in this verse. All the different religions of the world are simply a means for man to find another way. But the TRUTH is it will not lead anyone to God, there is no LIFE in any other religion. If you want to know the way of the Father, you have to come through Jesus. If you want to know the truth, you have to come through Jesus, if you want to have the life of God, you have to come through Jesus. There is no other way.
Philippians 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Even though Jesus was the Son of God, He was also the Son of Man. When Jesus went to the cross to He did not die as the Son of God, but as the Son of Man. So this is what Jesus did as the Son of Man, “…He humbled Himself and became obedient…”
So what do you do when there is no other way, but God’s way. Well again… DUH!!!!! But, the one thing we are supposed to do is the hardest thing to do and that is becoming obedient.
Everything that you have read in this article or sermon comes down to this one point. Is there something in your life that you are struggling with and you cannot seem to find an answer to? Is there something that you need to let go of that God is telling you to let go of so that you can find true freedom and you just cannot seem to let it go.
What do you do when there is no other way? The answer is simple. Obey God – Do it God’s way.
