Introduction
Slide 1 (title of series) For those who missed it, last week we began a 12 week adventure in the life of Jesus as we study what are called “The 12 stations of the cross.” In the last few weeks of the life of Jesus on earth we will study significant places He stopped at and what we can learn from them. Roman Catholic tradition teaches about 14 Stations of the Cross, while Protestant tradition calls them the “Way of the Cross.” Catholics stop at the cross, while Protestants stop at the resurrection. I have begun our series at the Last Supper, we studied it last week, and we will end at the Ascension on the Mount of Olives.
The Title of this morning’s message is: Slide 2 (title of message) The Garden of Gethsemane – The vitality of Intercession. The Key People will be Jesus, by Himself. The Key Teaching: INTERCESSION/PRAYER. The Key Scriptures: Matthew 26:36-41; Luke 22:40-46. We will extrapolate teachings surrounding the events that took place at the Garden of Gethsemane.
If you remember last week’s message the text ended with these words: Slide 3 (verse) “When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives” (Matthew 26:30). For those of us who have been to Israel we have been to this Garden where Jesus prayed. It is one of those places that you literally sense “this is it. It was here. This is authentic.” I have had some of my most moving times of prayer in Israel in that garden. Our trip planned for October was cancelled, due to Coronavirus, but don’t lose hope, we will plan a trip for 2021, should Jesus tarry. Like me, you will be flooded with emotions when you get to this place. Here’s how Matthew describes what took place at the 2nd station of the cross. Slide 4 (verse) “36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.’ 39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, Slide 6 (verse) ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.’ 40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. ‘Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?’ he asked Peter. 41 ‘Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.’” (Matthew 26).
Luke 22 adds an interesting detail: Slide 7 (verse) “’41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 ‘Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.’ 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.’” With those words in mind please ponder the title of today’s message: The Vitality of Intercession.
What is Intercession? Slide 8 (sub-title)
Intercession is Prayer but it is a different kind of prayer. Prayer involves Petition, Praise, Thanksgiving, Scripture Reading, Meditation, Supplication, Adoration, Consecration and so much more. Most Christians rarely move beyond Petition, making their prayers dull, lifeless and ineffective. We need to learn how to pray with Jesus. On this occasion Jesus was in the Garden to Intercede. When you, like me, have a family member who is very ill and dying, you intercede. I am interceding daily for my 49 year-old cousin Rachel, who is dying of cancer. When you have friends, like I do, who need to find salvation, you intercede. When you go to hospitals, like I do, to visit victims of Coronavirus, you intercede. When your nation is under attack by a deadly enemy, such as this global pandemic, you intercede. It’s often the only thing you can do seeing you are powerless to do much else.
Whenever problems in this life are overwhelming and crippling, when the enemies we face are too big for us, we intercede. There are challenges in this life, no matter how much we try, we cannot solve them on our own. It’s in those times we turn to God in Intercessory Prayer! Intercession is a kind of prayer that pleads with God for your needs, for the needs of others and for the needs of the world. Intercession is that kind of prayer that takes hold of God and refuses to let go until His will comes to pass! Intercession is spiritual warfare. It is standing in the gap between heaven and earth and crying out on behalf of those we love and care about. The battleground is not of this earth. The Bible says, Slide 9 (verse) “We are not fighting against humans. We are fighting against forces and authorities and against rulers of darkness and spiritual powers in the heavens above” (Ephesians 6:12). Remember: In intercession you are intensely fighting ‘in the spirit’ mostly on behalf of others.
Intercessory Prayer takes place in this spiritual world where the battles for our own lives, our families, our friends and our nation, are either won or lost. They are often lost when we do not know how to Intercede!
Why did Jesus choose Gethsemane? Slide 10 (sub-title)
In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus won the victory. He did not overcome on Golgotha and on Calvary’s Cross; no He conquered on His knees in a Garden on the base of the Mount of Olives. Why did He choose that place over any other? All 4 Gospel writers mention this place and this night Jesus spent in agony and prayer just before He was arrested and crucified. It is also close to that Garden where Jesus ascended to heaven from the top of the Mount of Olives. The word “Gethsemane” is translated from the Greek and means “an olive or oil press.” The entire area is full of Olive trees. In fact, there is one olive tree in the middle of the garden today which dates back 2000 years! In that Garden we are told by historians and archeologists there was an Olive Press. The ancient ways of extracting oil can still be seen all over Portugal. The olives are cultivated and dumped into a mechanical press where they are then crushed to extract the oil used for cooking and dressing food. Jesus often passed by this place throughout His life and probably prayed there many times.
On the night he was betrayed by Judas He took three of His closest disciples — Peter, James, and John — to Gethsemane so He could pray. There He wrestled with God in prayer, in great sorrow and anguish -knowing full well that torture, humiliation and death were coming.
He prayed throughout the night, periodically returning to His disciples to find them sleeping. He was torn between frustration, over the fact that they could not even tarry with Him one hour. But probably more anguished that He was facing this crushing time on His own, all alone, let down even by those closest to Him. The Bible tells us that He prayed so intensely and was so spiritually overwhelmed that “His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” He was being crushed like the olives in the press for the sins of the world.
What can we learn from the Intercessory Prayer of Jesus? Slide 11 (sub-title)
There are many lessons, I will briefly touch on four that blessed my heart as I read.
1. It is a lonely prayer Slide 11 (sub-title and sub-point)
Intercession can be done in groups, but moreso than any other prayer, this is a time where you are on your own doing battle on behalf of others. I have no doubt Jesus was interceding not so much for Himself but for His beloved Disciples. He knew what was coming for them. I have no doubt He was interceding for the Church He had come to plant. I have no doubt Jesus was interceding for you and for me. In John 17 we read how Jesus interceded. Listen to some of His words: Slide 12 (verse) “9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours … 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one … 20 My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message … 24 Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory.” Read the whole of John 17 later and you will learn what it means to intercede. It was all about others. Jesus was standing in the gap and fighting for them in the Spirit. And He was all alone.
May I encourage you to take time to be alone with God when you intercede? Get away from distractions, away from the noise, even away from your closest friends. By and large, this is a special time between you and God Almighty nobody else.
2. It is praying according to the will of the Father Slide 13 (sub-title and sub-point)
Intercession is not about manipulating God, about getting God to change His mind, about you, as a mere mortal, attempting by your many words to get God to do what you want Him to do. Some people are fools. Others are misguided and deceived. They believe prayer and intercession is about changing God. NO and again NO. Prayer doesn’t change God, prayer changes me. It doesn’t get God to align with my plans, it gets me to come into alignment with His plan. It is not me using my super powers to bend God to my will, it is God’s power getting me to conform to His will. He is sovereign I am not. He is God and I am not. Please note who Jesus prayed: Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will. That’s how to pray powerfully and effectively. Jesus was asking God, “could there be another way? Do you have another plan? Is there another solution, an alternative? If so, please let it happen. If not then may your will, your plan, your purpose be done and never what I want or need.” Isn’t that different to what we are taught today by so many deluded preachers and teachers and super spiritual prayer warriors? God’s will for Jesus was the Via Dolorosa, the road of suffering, and finally death on the cross.
There have been many times in my life where God’s will was not to free me from the fire. It was not a pathway to avoid pain. It was not to heal my brother, my mother, my grandmother, my aunts and close friends. I buried them all. Could God have healed them? Sure, but His will was for them to be promoted to glory and for their suffering to end. When I accepted that I won the victory and I moved on in victory. Had I not accepted the will of God I would remain broken and depressed to this day. Intercession got me the victory. When my brother tony died at the age of 39 I prayed for over an hour in the morgue until I understood it was God’s will to take him home. Thy will be done!
3. It is to be prayed, when possible, in a special place Slide 14 (sub-title and sub-point)
When you intercede go find a special place. Get away from the rat race. Find a mountain top, a quiet valley, a beachside rock, a remote place or even the basement or attic in your house. Jesus loved this garden, it was His special place. It was a place in nature, close to the heart of His Father. Even as the first Adam met with the Father in the garden, Jesus the second Adam also chose a garden to meet with Dad. Where is your special place? Find it and don’t take your mobile phone or iPad or anything else except the Bible, God’s Word, so that He too can speak back to you. He will speak by His Word and by the inner voice of His Spirit. But you need to get away into the place of solitude and silence, the place of little or no distractions. I’ll tell you who will meet with you in that place as you intercede: God’s enemies, the demonic forces, doing their utmost to distract and disturb you; but also God’s messengers, His ministering angels. Luke tells us: An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. When you pray according to God’s will, His angels always triumph. When you pray your will, the Enemy and your own flesh will always win out!
4. It is the prayer that changes our hearts and grants us the victory Slide 15 (sub-title and sub-point)
And with that I come to the 4th lesson for today: intercession changes our hearts and grants us the victory. After one night in intercessory prayer Jesus went back to his dozy disciples and said: Slide 16 (verse) “Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes My betrayer!” (Mark 14:41b-42). He was equipped, strengthened, ready and resolute. Nothing could deter Him now. As He said those words, Judas, one of the 12, arrived with a large crowd armed with swords and clubs. With a kiss, Judas betrayed Jesus, and the Son of God was seized and arrested. Peter attempted to defend Jesus, drawing his sword and slicing off the ear of Malchus, the servant of the High Priest. Jesus rebuked Peter and healed the man’s severed ear. Peter was doing what we all attempt to do: resolve things our way. Pray according to our will. We don’t want Jesus to die so we will do what we need to.
Had Peter and the others known what Jesus now knew, they would have submitted to the will of God. Acting in the flesh and in typical carnal Christian mode they resisted the arrest. When they saw Jesus going willingly to His death the Bible says, “All the disciples deserted Him and fled.” The heart of Jesus had been changed, theirs had not. He had been strengthened and was ready, they were not. They remained weak and ineffective trying to work things out their way while Jesus was aligned with the Father. He had won the victory. Fear could not stop Him now, hell could not shake Him. The wrath of God for every human’s sin since Adam in the garden had been poured over him. That Garden was the perfect reminder that sin entered the world in a garden and sin’s power had also been destroyed in a garden. The Enemy came to Adam in the form of a deceiving serpent, yet He came to Jesus in his true form and nature and unleashed his fury and all hell against Him. Jesus was crushed in the place called the “olive press.”
600 years before Christ Isaiah wrote: Slide 17 (verse) “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4-6).
Conclusion: Slide 18 (sub-title)
In my imagination I can almost see the Disciples returning to the Mount of Olives 50 days after Resurrection Sunday, staring into the sky as their Lord ascended. Two angels appeared beside them, reproving them for standing and staring into the sky. Probably the same angels who appeared at the empty tomb and the ones who appeared to Jesus in the Garden. The angels told them that Jesus would come back in the very same way they’d seen Him depart. Then the disciples headed back to Jerusalem, ready to do the work Jesus had planned for them. On the day of Pentecost the Spirit came upon them and the world was forever changed. Yet, I am almost certain they never forgot that He won the victory in Intercession that night when He was crushed as He interceded for them. They learned to pray and it would be Intercession that would grant them strength and victory time and again.
May I ask all of us to intercede today? Let’s not pray for ourselves. Let us, like Jesus, pray for the Church worldwide. For the suffering Christians in places where persecution is real. Let’s intercede for those who are dying of Coronavirus. Let’s stand between heaven and earth and cry out for the salvation of our world. Let us echo the words of Jesus who said: I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.
