If you’ve been around Christian circles for any length of time, there is a considerable amount of frustration in trying to determine God’s will. For some, it’s because we love the Lord and want to please him, so we want to make sure we’re making right choices that would honor him. But for others, the reason we want to be in God’s will is probably a little less about pleasing the Lord and more about not wanting to step in the poo pile that comes from making a bad decision…am I not right?
• We want to want to know God’s will for our career path so that we don’t end up in debt for a degree we don’t use.
• We want to know God’s will in choosing our friends so that we don’t get down the road and get hurt by someone that turned out to be a not-so-great friend.
• And here’s the big one – we want to know the right person to marry because we don’t want to be miserable the rest of our lives. In fact, raise your hand if you’re here this morning and you are sitting beside a spouse that you shouldn’t have…I’M KIDDING—DO NOT RAISE YOUR HAND…that was a joke.
But I do often think that life would be so much easier if I just had a better idea of God’s will for my life. But can I be honest this morning? DISCERNING God’s will (which is really what we’re talking about) doesn’t always make PURSUING his will any easier. In fact, God has given us some very specific instructions in several areas of our lives concerning his will…and knowing his will in these areas doesn’t necessarily mean pursuing his will any easier.
For example:
• 1 Thessalonians 4:3 | For this is the will of God…that you abstain from sexual immorality.
• Ephesians 5:17-18 | Understand what the will of the Lord is...and do not get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.
Well, Pastor, I’m not really struggling in those areas. Okay then, what about these?
• 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 | Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Or how about this one?
• 1 Peter 3:17 | It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
Here’s my point – KNOWING God’s will doesn’t always make DOING his will any easier. The instructions in these verses concerning God’s will are still hard to DO. And so let’s look at this idea a little closer by turning this morning to Matthew 26 as we continue our series called Red Letter Prayers. This morning, we don’t want you to be discouraged by the difficulty of obeying God’s will. Instead we want to equip you by looking at the person of Jesus…and specifically his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. And what we’re going to see this morning is this…Jesus had the same struggle that we’re prone to. Even when he clearly knew God’s will, we’re going to see the angst and the deep feeling of despair that came from actually obeying God’s will. And in looking at this very well-known prayer, we hope to equip you for those moments where DOING God’s will, is really really hard.
Matthew 26:36-41
Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” 39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” 40 And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
We just read of one of the greatest moments of sorrow and anguish in Jesus’ ministry. For context here, Jesus has just spent a significant amount of time with his disciples and they just celebrated what we now call the Lord’s Supper together and Jesus has given them some final instructions before his death. And now after what would be their last supper together, Jesus and his three closest friends (Peter, James, and John) take a walk across a little valley outside of the city of Jerusalem to a park in the middle of an orchard of olive trees (Gethsemane literally means “oil press”). In fact, to this day, you can visit this site and see the ancient olive trees in this garden. And it’s here that Jesus retreats to an area where he can spend time with the Father prior to his arrest and crucifixion. And Jesus asks his friends to watch and pray for him as he goes a little further down the path to pray by himself.
But instead, his friends fall sound asleep. Now, to give these guys a little credit, it was late and they were exhausted…and let’s be honest, who in here HASN’T fallen asleep when your exhausted and trying to pray. And I’m sure they didn’t WANT to fail Jesus, but in the end, they did. In fact, it’s significant to note that Jesus asked them specifically THREE TIMES to “watch with me.” They knew what Jesus was asking them. Sometimes I wish God would just speak directly and audibly to me…but that’s exactly what Jesus did with Peter, James, and John. They knew that Jesus was God. And therefore, they knew what he was asking of them…in other words, in that moment, they knew God’s will for them. “To watch and to pray.” And yet verse 41 says that in Jesus’ greatest hour of need, their flesh failed them. It wasn’t that they didn’t know God’s will for them in that very moment, it’s that they didn’t OBEY God’s will there in the garden with Jesus.
And to some degree, I think in the disciples, we can see ourselves this morning. We are weak. And since we’re amongst friends this morning, let’s do something that nobody wants to admit…that we are weak. And so on the count of three, everyone say, “I am weak.” Say it again with some passion. “I am weak.”
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s focus on Jesus’ prayer this morning…because this passage is not so much about the disciples as it is about Jesus modeling for us how to OBEY the will of God, even when it’s hard. And so, I want you to see how Jesus modeled three things as he was praying and pursuing the will of his Father.
The first thing Jesus models is how to…
1. PRAY HONESTLY – vs 39a
Look at the first half of verse 39: And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me… Now, if I’m honest this morning, this is a little refreshing to read…because we see Jesus model for us that it’s okay to ask God to remove a painful situation from our lives. Think about this for a minute – I don’t know if the disciples really knew that tonight was the night. Jesus always talked in riddles and he was sometimes hard to understand. But do you know who DID know that tonight was the night? Jesus. And here’s why, Jesus was not only fully man, he was also fully God (the fancy seminary term for this is hypostatic union). Jesus knew that he was about to face death. And it wasn’t going to be a painless death by lethal injection. He knew the pain and suffering that was to come. He knew the sacrifice it would take to pay for the sins of the world. He knew he would be humiliated. He knew he would be falsely accused. He knew his family would stand and cringe as he was crucified.
And since he was both fully man AND fully God, it wasn’t just the physical torture that he despaired. When Jesus says, “Let this cup pass,” he’s referring to the cup of God’s wrath. He dreaded the wrath of God that would be poured out on him on behalf of humanity. Again, the fancy term for this is propitiation…that God’s demand on us for holiness would be appeased through the sacrifice of Jesus as the perfect lamb of God. Part of what’s so beautiful about the gospel is that Jesus, in his death, shields us from God’s wrath. To put it metaphorically, Jesus drinks the entire cup of God’s wrath so that there’s none left for us to drink.
But in that moment, we see his heart’s cry in his honest words when he asks if there’s another way. He KNOWS the game plan for salvation. He knows what it involves. But in his weakened flesh, he’s asking if there’s a last ditch, alternate method. I hope you find this refreshing – that it’s okay to ask God for another way. In fact, this is a model for how WE get to pray. We don’t have to be afraid to be honest with God. In fact, he ASKS us to pray like this:
• God, I’m tired of trying so hard in this marriage and I feel like giving up.
• God, why do I work so hard and have so little to show for it?
• God’s I’m mad at your for letting my loved one die.
• God, I don’t want to love my annoying neighbor.
• God, I’m depressed and alone.
• God, I really want to punch ____________ in the face.
God loves it when we’re honest with him and not trying to hide what we want or who we are. Now, I’m NOT saying we get to do whatever we want…but we DO get to cry out to him and express where we’re at. One thing I’ll mention briefly as we try to pray like Jesus is that we’re not to be led by our emotions. I know it’s nearly impossible to not factor in emotions to big moments in life (Jesus was certainly in a big moment here). But we have to be disciplined to not let our emotions lead us. Why? Because our emotions aren’t always holy. Our emotions are physical and are determined by whether or not we’re tired, whether or not we’re in a good place, even things like whether or not we’re hungry (that’s why we don’t go to the grocery store when we’re hungry).
And here’s what I’ve learned about my own emotions…they change regularly. And so when we make decisions based on our emotion, we often end up making the wrong decision…the ungodly decision. Why? Because just like the disciples, our flesh is weak. And so it’s okay to pray honestly, just like Jesus does. But it’s NOT okay to end up in a place where you actually carry out your fleshly desires. That’s sin. But it is perfectly expected for us to pour our hearts out in desperation and to pour our hearts out in confession that in fact, we sometimes want things or are feeling things that are not of God.
Now, please hear me loud and clear: I’m absolutely NOT saying that Jesus sinned. In a moment of honestly, Jesus was simply asking if there was any other way that God’s wrath could be satisfied. I hope you’re encouraged through the model of Jesus that we can pray honestly…that God wants us to express our wills and desires…that we can lament and cry out in the midst of our dread and anguish.
But we also see that Jesus’ prayer doesn’t end here – and neither should our prayers. Yes, we pray honestly, but then we also must…
2. PRAY SUBMISSIVELY – vs 39b
Look at verse 39 again: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
If I’m honest this morning, most, if not all, of my prayers are for positive things to happen. God, heal so-and-so. Lord, help my daughter get this job she’s worked so hard for. God, bless my mom and dad. Jesus, grow our church. If you’re like me, you probably pray for good outcomes. I want what I think is good and beneficial for myself and others, too.
But we have to be reminded that often, what’s best for us is not what’s easy. And the times that I’ve grown the most in my pursuit of personal holiness, is when times were tough. When things weren’t going my way. When it actually felt like God WASN’T answering my prayers…only to later discover that God really was working all things together for my spiritual good and for his glory. But does that mean that I need to pray for Pharaoh’s army to chase me down, or for a Goliath to come and challenge me every other day to a fight, or for God to find a fiery furnace to throw me in?
I’m not saying that we should necessarily pray for things, but maybe my prayer shouldn’t always be for God to remove something from my life. Maybe, instead of asking God to REMOVE the obstacle; it should be for God’s will to be accomplished THROUGH the obstacle. Sometimes God allows a bittersweet cup to be placed in our hands. And on these occasions, maybe the best encouragement I can give you is to DRINK UP. Walk through the challenging moments of life with one thought in mind: “God, what is your will? God, how can I see this situation rightly? God, how can I walk faithfully through this challenge with you as my guide? God, I don’t know what you want the outcome to be? I don’t know how you want to grow me through this, but no matter what, I want to do what YOU want. YOUR will be done.”
And when we pray this way, we are praying like Jesus. We are capturing the heart of Jesus’ prayer as he prayed on that day. Listen, did Jesus know he was going to die? Yes, he was fully God. Did Jesus know he was the only way to provide salvation to everyone? Yes, he was fully God. Was Jesus looking forward to the actual process of dying? No, he was fully man. And yet he modeled what it means to pray submissively.
While we’re talking about praying submissively, I want to point out one more thing that’s not explicitly stated in the text, but would still be a strong textual observation. Look back at verses 37 & 38: And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” Jesus was sorrowful and full of anguish because within a few hours, the full cup of divine fury would be his to drink. In the parallel account of this event recorded in Luke, listen to how it describes Jesus’ agony: “And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44).
One of the things we know about Luke the author is that he was a medical doctor. And what he’s referring to here medically is a condition call hematidrosis which is a rare condition in which a person is under such intense physical and emotional stress that tiny capillaries in the sweat glands rupture, mixing blood with their perspiration. It’s safe to conclude from both Matthew and Luke’s observations, that despite Jesus praying submissively, his body and soul found no peace.
I don’t have enough fingers to count the amount of times that someone made the following statement as they prayerfully tried to discern God’s will. "I know it’s God’s will because I have such peace." Friends, let me tell you this morning that submitting to God’s will does not always produce peace. It didn’t for our Savior there in the Garden…and so why should we expect something more than God gave Jesus?
You see, peace is an emotion that can be heavily influenced by sinful aspects of both our inner and outer man…and if we allow peace to be our controlling guide, then we MAY be allowing our sinful whims, associated with our deceitful hearts, to guide us into making bad decisions. Do you know one of the things I’ve discovered in my own spiritual journey? That I generally have peace about things I already want to do. And so we turn to the Word of God, the Spirit of God, and the people of God, to test any notions of peace that we may have in pursuing God’s will…because submitting to God’s will is not always peaceful.
And what we learn from Jesus is that it wasn’t about HIS will…it was about his FATHER’S will. And for Jesus then, and for us now, it’s about pursuing the will of God no matter the personal benefit OR cost to us, to the glory of God the Father. “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
There’s one more thing that we see modeled by Jesus in this morning’s text…
3. LIVE OBEDIENTLY – vs 45-46
Praying submissively doesn’t always equal easy…and obedience sometimes comes at a heavy price. Skip down to verse 45: “Then he came to the disciples and said to them, ‘Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.’”
So what does Jesus do after he prays three times in the Garden? He stands up to obediently carry out the will of the Father. It’s “go time.” He steps out onto the field all by himself. If you remember, his disciples fled the scene and denied him out of fear. One guy named Mark actually ran out of his clothes and scampered away totally naked…to scared too even take the time to find a blanket. But Jesus doesn’t flee…instead, he picks up the cup and begins to drink.
And let’s be crystal clear on what the will of the Father was that Jesus was carrying out – listen to these two verses:
• 1 Peter 3:18 | For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit…
• Isaiah 53:10 | Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him.
The will of God was for Jesus to die…and that’s exactly what Jesus did for us. Jesus had studied the Scriptures. He understood prophecy. He knew that the next few days would be marked by being mocked, abused, and eventually tortured to death by being crucified on a cross…”he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8).
Church, I’m guessing that ANYTHING that God asks us to do, will never rise to the same level of obedience…it will never rise to the same level of suffering. And the least that I can do is to trust his good will, and to pursue it even when the cost is high.
I love that God has invited us into this beautiful story. And he asks us to trust Jesus for salvation – and not only for salvation, but to trust him as Lord of our lives…which means we submit ourselves to him day in and day out as we pray “nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
I hope you are encouraged that Jesus knows what it’s like to WANT to do God’s will and yet NOT want to suffer in the midst of it. Jesus has felt your inner struggle. He knows the tension you are facing. He knows what it looks like to pray earnestly, to want to please God…and yet the realization that there will be much pain ahead. He knows what it’s like to want to obey when our flesh is screaming out against it.
Unlike the disciples who ended up abandoning Jesus in his moment of need, Jesus doesn’t abandon fulfilling God’s will. So Jesus is not only our perfect example to follow as we pray, Jesus is our perfect Savior who we get to trust, love, and abide in every second of every day. We’ve been talking about OBEYING God’s will, but do you know the best way to DISCERN his will? Follow Jesus as he prays. Learn from him. Sit with him. Ask of him. Worship him. And as you do these things, you’ll be start to know God’s will better and will be even MORE likely to carry it out.
Jesus told his disciples back in verse 41 to watch and pray so that they wouldn’t enter into temptation. And we too are confronted with temptation as WE watch and pray. So what temptations are in front of us:
• The temptation to not be honest with God in prayer?
• The temptation for our will and desires to be more important that God’s?
• The temptation to stop trusting when the outcome is not favorable.
And so church, let’s stop right here this morning, and let’s pray together that we would not allow these temptations to creep into our lives as we pray honestly and submissively, and as we live obediently…to the glory of God.
