Thanksgiving 2025
Text: Luke 22:39-46
On Thursday we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, and I love Thanksgiving…
I love that it’s right before the Advent Season, because it helps us order our hearts towards Jesus. We should be thankful people – always, but especially as we approach Advent.
Now I say, “We should be thankful…” but let’s be honest, sometimes its not always easy right?
If you look around at the world today, and you have any knowledge about world events today, you’ll actually be tempted to give up and become discouraged. Looking at the things around us can lead you to feel overwhelmed. But in one very real sense, we should even be thankful for that. Because what takes place during those times is like a test. It’s when the knowledge you have in your head is actually put to the test in real life. Those hard times, and dark times are the tests that show us whether our faith is superficial or if its genuine. And it’s not that the trials and hardships aren’t real – it’s our reaction to them that shows us the genuineness of our faith.
David went through those tests… Psalm 55:4-8 is a good example of that. Let me just read it to you, “My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen upon me, and horror overwhelms me. And I say, ‘Oh that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest; yes, I would wander far away; I would lodge in the wilderness; I would hurry to find a shelter from the raging wind and tempest.”
Have you ever been there? You want to just fly away and get some peace and quiet and rest.
“Calgon take me away!”
How can we be thankful in times like that?
Well let’s go to our text this morning – it’s in Luke 22:39-46, and we’ll see how Jesus handles a time like this, and I think it will help us be thankful as we see what the Lord has done. (READ TEXT).
So Jesus is under extreme pressure – He knows what’s coming… and soon enough, His disciples will also feel intense pressure – for three years they’ve followed Him, and now they’re going to be tested. They’re going to fail, but Jesus doesn’t. He doesn’t fail. And so what we see in the betrayal, the prayer of Jesus in the garden, the arrest and trial and eventual execution of Jesus, is a huge contrast between Jesus and His disciples… They fail – just like us – we fail from time to time… but Jesus doesn’t.
So, look again at verse 39… Jesus went out to the Mount of Olives and Luke tells us something really important here – THIS WAS HIS CUTSOM! It’s a small, but important detail. The end result of this moment in Jesus’ life – His submission to the Father – was built on a lifetime of consistent, habitual communion with the Father. All through the Gospels we see Jesus draw away and get alone with the Father. He was given to prayer.
Church understand this – when the trials and tests come, we won’t suddenly develop a new spiritual discipline – we will default to the ones we’ve already cultivated. I go over this same sort of thing when I do active shooter trainings – you don’t all of a sudden transform into Bruce Willis in Die Hard – you default to the level of training you’ve put into application… not even the level you’ve received, but to the level you’ve put into application.
In-fact; that’s why the Great Commission is worded the way it is… Jesus says, “Go into all the world and MAKE DISCIPLES – teaching them to OBSERVE all that I have commanded you.” We must share the Gospel – but it doesn’t stop there – you’ve got to get plugged in to Church, you’ve got to make those spiritual disciplines your custom. Amen!
So Jesus goes out and He prays – as was His custom… and look at how He prays, and what He says, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me…”
Now some people are thinking that Jesus is saying that He doesn’t want to endure the physical pain of being nailed to the cross, and the emotional pain of being publicly mocked.
But that’s not really what this request is.
Throughout the Bible, the “cup” is a symbol of God’s holy wrath against sin. Psalm 75:8, “For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and He pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.”
Isaiah 51:17, “Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord, the cup of His wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering.”
Those are just a couple… but over-all the cup is the full measure of divine judgment. It is the full wrath of a perfectly Holy and Just God, against sin, collected and concentrated into one vessel. That’s why, when James and John said that they wanted to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand, He says, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” (That’s found in Mark 10:38) .
In other words Jesus was saying to them, “Boy’s you don’t know what you’re talking about. You think you want to endure the full wrath of God against sin, and die and be raised up for sin? I don’t think so.”
And so, you have Jesus, and this cup is being presented to Him at this time… and in His perfect, sinless humanity, He recoils from it… not because He’s unwilling to die for sinners, but because He knows that it means a separation between Himself and the Father… This is the reaction of the Holy Son, who has known nothing but perfect, unbroken, eternal fellowship with the Father. But He’s about to take our sin upon Himself, be separated from the Father, and bear the curse on our behalf.
It's the cost of our redemption. And Jesus is aware of what’s about to happen… and He’s looking at this, knowing that the wrath of the Father is going to be poured out on Him as He makes atonement and propitiation for our sin.
So understand – it’s not a sign of weakness – it’s a sign of holy and moral perfection being repulsed by the understanding that our sin is going to be placed upon Him.
And please take a minute and think about that – and see – just how different we are than Jesus… we sin without a second thought. We don’t even consider – “Oh this will break my fellowship with the Father… this will grieve my Heavenly Father… this will seriously damage my walk with Him…” Instead we believe the lie that the brief moment of joy, or excitement, or pleasure that we think sin brings is more satisfying and fulfilling than the daily walk with God.
But not Jesus, Jesus understood that fellowship with the Father, union and communion with the Father is the greatest thing ever – nothing can compare with that… but for Him that’s about to come to an end on the cross. He’s going to take our sin upon Himself, and endure the punishment for them. He’s going to even cry out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
And that’s why, here in the Garden, He says, “If it be possible, let this cup pass.”
But there’s no other way, and that brings us to His willful submission to the plan of redemption. “Never-the-less, not My will, but Thy will be done.”
In the first Garden, Adam stood and made his choice – He was given a clear command from God, and he rebelled against that command. He said “Not God’s will, but my will be done.” And in that act of rebellion and defiance, he plunged all of creation into sin. But here’s Jesus, thousands of years later, and He’s also in a Garden – facing a choice a million times more difficult than what Adam faced, and in an act of perfectly trusting obedience He says, “Father, my human nature recoils at the thought of this horror, but even so, I desire to do Your will.”
Perfect love casts out fear.
Now let’s look again at the disciples - they fail. And it starts with a failure to watch and pray. Jesus told them “Pay that you do not enter into temptation.” He knows what’s coming, and He knows the pressure they’re about to face, and He gives them the only means that will protect them from the hour of darkness that’s coming. And He Himself goes and prays, and comes back and finds them asleep.
And it’ interesting, because Luke says Jesus found them sleeping for sorrow… that’s verse 45. That’s the Greek word lype (pronounced le-oo-pay). It means distress, anxiety, due to sadness. In other words, Luke is saying here that the disciples knew something was really troubling Jesus, and it distressed them, and caused them to be sad and anxious… but instead of taking that to Jesus, they gave into their physical exhaustion and fell asleep.
There’s a great lesson here for us – When stress and anxiety comes, does it drive us to prayer and cause us to seek the Lord, or do we allow ourselves to be exhausted by it, and overcome by it?
To be completely honest with you, I’ve found myself at times exactly where the disciples were at. Your brain just shuts down, and you feel totally wiped out, and it’s not from physical exhaustion it’s just from the knowledge of what’s going on in the world, and in lives, and in homes, and communities… but it’s at those times especially when we need to go to God in prayer, and cast our cares upon Jesus, and really seek His face, and His will, and His direction.
So, their first failure was a failure to go to God in prayer, but then, when the mob arrives, and they are woken up, their failure to go to God in prayer, results in a failure to trust, and it leads to violence.
Jesus doesn’t need to be “saved” by us! He’s the Savior!
The disciples are trying to fight a spiritual battle with physical weapons.
Now let’s go back to Jesus. He says, “Stop this! No more of this! Peter, put away your sword.” This isn’t how the kingdom advances. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. And He heals the ear of one of the guys who has come to arrest Him.
And again, Jesus’ time in prayer, and His understanding of the sovereign will of God led to His response, just like the disciples lack of prayer, and misunderstanding of God’s will and plan led to theirs.
And Church, here’s the thing… we mirror the disciples in this… Their failures are our failures. We are the ones who fail and falter, and get into the flesh. We’re the ones who, when our world feels threatened, want to take up the sword and do battle.
And that’s exactly why we need a Savior – a Savior who didn’t fail… and Who NEVER fails!
The Gospel is the Good News that Jesus was strong for you. He prayed for you. He submitted to the will of the Father, for you. He faced the cup of God’s wrath that you deserved, and He didn’t flinch. The Gospel is not a call for us to “try harder”. The Gospel is the Good News that Jesus did it already. He bore the wrath of God on our behalf, and died on the cross for our sin… But He also rose from the dead on the third day to show us all that we have been justified by His blood, and made right with God because of His propitiating sacrifice for sin.
And now… He says, “Follow Me.”
And that is why… You and I… should give thanks. Not just on Thanksgiving Day, but EVERY DAY!
Throughout the day.
LET’S PRAY
CLOSING
