The Dreadful Will of God
Mark 14:32-52
How do you follow God when He is leading you where you don’t want to go?
A Peanuts cartoon shows Charlie Brown lying in bed, dreading another crisis that he knows has to be faced the next day. He offers a universal lament when he exclaims When something bad is going to happen, there shouldn’t be a night before!
Have you ever lay in bed, dreading something that you knew you was coming the next day? Sometimes dreadful things happen suddenly, with no warning. . But there are also times when you know it’s coming, and you know you can’t stop it, but it hasn’t happened yet. How do you handle those times?
Most of us ask God for help. Even when it seems certain what we dread will happen anyway, we still ask God to work it out somehow where it won’t be so bad. I can testify that when I’ve prayed, God has worked and eased my mind and made many of those “next days” a little easier.
But not always. There are days when you will echo the words of Job- another man who knew what it was to dread another dawn:
Job 3:25 For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, And what I dreaded has happened to me.
Have you ever been there? Your heart skips a beat when you hear things like:
- report cards come out tomorrow…
- your bill will be sent to a collection agency this week…
- it looks like you will have to have surgery…
- we’re just going to have to start letting some people go…
- she might not make it through the night…
Do you get the idea? Now add one more ingredient to the mix- whatever you are dreading is not an accident. It is on purpose. It is for God’s purpose. God has allowed something into your life as part of His will for you- something that you dread- somewhere you do not want to go. Something you do not want to do. Yet at the same time, something you cannot escape.
How do you handle it when God is leading you where you don’t want to go?
The best way would be to handle it like Jesus did. Did Jesus ever dread tomorrow? Yes, He did. Did God ever lead Him somewhere He did not want to go? Yes, He did. In fact, the Gospels tell us that Jesus’ suffering did not begin on the Cross, but in a garden, where He came face to face with the dreadful will of God. Yet He found the strength to follow God’s will,
Turn with me to Mark 14:32-52, where I pray you and I will see how we can face the dreadful will of God and know that in the end, it will still be OK.
I. IT’S OK TO BE SCARED (v. 32-34)
It’s not always easy to be brave when you face something dreadful. But Jesus demonstrates that it’s also not always possible to escape fear.
Mark sets the scene for us in vs. 22-31. Jesus and His disciples have just finished the Last Supper. On the way to the Mount of Olives, Jesus tells His followers what is about to happen, You will all forsake Me. They assure Him that what He says will never happen; they will die for Him first. His words will come back to haunt them.
Except for Judas, all of the apostles walk with Jesus to a Garden called Gethsemane at the foot of the mountain. John 18:2 tells us this was one of Jesus’ favorite places to come and pray. None of His men would think anything unusual about coming here. But tonight would not be business as usual. On this night before His most dreadful day, Jesus brings these disciples here to show them how to face the dreadful will of God. What happens to Him shows you and I at least two things about how we can handle our hour of fear:
a. It’s not a sin to be scared Jesus leaves 8 apostles in one spot with these instructions
Stay here while I pray. He takes Peter, James and John and goes a little further. But as He walks with three of His closest followers, they notice that something is wrong with Jesus. He is visibly upset. The phrase deeply distressed= “terrified surprise.”2 Jesus tells them His soul is so full of horror that it threatens to take His life. Hard as it is to fathom, Jesus is scared. He knows the plan of God, but now that this plan is about to become reality, it fills Him with terror. Perhaps nowhere is Jesus’ humanity more amazing than here, where the Son of God is terrified thinking about the Cross He must endure. Jesus was not a coward, but the things that would soon happen to Him was almost too much for Him. Jesus’ fear is not an act; it is meant to show you and I that in our hour of dread, it’s not a sin to be scared. Jesus was scared, but His fear did not paralyze Him; He did what you and I should do when we get scared:
b. Let your fear drive you to your Father. Where did Jesus go when He was scared? The
same place any child instinctively goes when they are frightened: to His Father. The reason Jesus came to this Garden was to seek His Father’s help to face His coming death. He needs His Father’s comfort, His Father’s guidance, and His Father’s assurance to strengthen Him to go through with His Father’s plan. He did not bring these disciples along to comfort Him- all they could do was sleep. But He went to the one Person in the universe Who had the answers and the power He needed as He faced the dreadful will of God- He went to His Father.
Sometimes it’s OK to be scared.
We try to be brave in the face of danger. Don’t be scared of the needle- this shot will make you better. Don’t be scared of the dark- there’s nothing there. No need to worry about these tests- they will probably come back negative. There’s been a wreck, but nobody seems hurt.
But you can’t always run from fear. You cannot predict the future with 100% accuracy, but there are some things you pretty much know will happen. In the back of your mind, you know that when what you dread happens, God has allowed it to come into your life. And some of those things, no matter how brave you are, are going to scare you. If it was OK for Jesus to see what was coming and be scared, it’s all right for you to be scared, too.
But don’t panic. Don’t let fear control you, and make you lose your grip on faith. Do like Jesus did when He faced the dreadful will of God- let your fear drive you to your Father. Come to Him, and let Him strengthen you, and comfort you.
One night, while my young son, Ryan, was sleeping, a storm began brewing outside. After a loud clap of thunder, I heard Ryan wake up and run to find me. When I tucked him back into bed, he asked me to stay with him until he fell asleep.
As I lay there with him, I realized Ryan hadn’t asked me to make the storm go away, but to stay with him. How many times, I wondered, have I asked God to take away the storms of life, when instead, I need to ask Him to stay with me and help me weather the storms more peacefully! - Kim Sherer, Ponca City, OK. Today’s Christian Woman, "Heart to Heart."
When God’s will leads you somewhere you don’t want to go, it’s OK to be scared, but it’s also OK for you to go running to your heavenly Father. Only He can help you weather the storm. When you come to Him, then you need to also know that
II. IT’S OK TO PRAY (v. 35-40)
It is instinctive to pray when we get into trouble. Even atheists sometimes catch themselves saying Oh God! When they are surprised by pain.
Prayer is the purpose for Jesus’ visit to Gethsemane. He tells 8 disciples to wait while He prays, but He tells Peter, James, and John to watch and pray. He wants them to be alert to what is going on around them, both physically and spiritually, because He is teaching them a very important lesson about what to do when God leads you where you don’t want to go. In between their naps, they hear Jesus pray, and pass on this lesson to you and I:
a. You can ask for deliverance. The book of Hebrews sheds some light on Jesus’ prayer in
Gethsemane:
Hebrews 5:7 who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear,
V. 35 sums up Jesus’ petition, while v. 36 quotes Jesus’ prayer. Our Lord falls on His face to the ground and asks His Father, Who can do all things, to save Him from what is about to happen. What exactly was Jesus asking for? Mark uses these two phrases to describe God’s will for Jesus: the hour and the cup. The hour speaks of an appointment- an event that has been preplanned. It is often used in the Gospel of John to speak of the time of His death.
John 7:30 Therefore they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.
John 8:20 These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come.
Mark says that now, as Jesus prays, His hour is about to come- the time that had been planned by God from eternity past, when Jesus would die for the sins of the world. Why would He ask for it to pass?
First, because of the suffering He knew was coming. The Cross was not something people
wore as jewelry in Jesus’ day. It was one of the most painful, humiliating deaths anyone
could endure. It was meant to strike fear into the hearts of anyone who even thought about disobeying the law. Jesus had not doubt seen crucifixions, and had seen the suffering of condemned criminals. Because Jesus knew all things, He also knew how He Himself would suffer as He was being scourged and nailed to the Cross. Yet there was a deeper suffering He would endure that troubled Him even more: the cup of God’s wrath.
Many good men and women have faced suffering and death for God’ sake, but no one has ever or will ever suffer what Jesus did on the Cross. Beyond the physical pain of crucifixion, the Bible says that He bore the sins of the world, as well as the wrath of God against every sinner that has ever been born.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Stop and think what that means. Think about how guilty you have felt when you’ve done something wrong. Remember how heavy that weighs on your heart? Now imagine the guilt of every sin that has ever been committed by every person who has ever lived being placed upon you. What would you feel? Now imagine that because of this huge mass of guilt laid on you, God forsakes you. From eternity past, God the Father and God the Son have enjoyed a perfect, loving relationship with one another, but for a brief moment in time that will seem like eternity, they will be separated. Jesus saw the horror of His suffering for sin, and separation from God, and because He was a man, He pleaded let this cup pass from Me.
But that is not all He prayed: His prayer contains another request that must be ours also when we face the dreadful will of God: Let your will be done.
b. You must desire His will. Jesus asks God the Father, for whom nothing is impossible if it
were possible…take this Cup from Me…nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will. There was a deeper, stronger desire in the heart of Jesus than escaping His suffering. He wanted God’s will done in His life. When He looked into future to the hour of His suffering, He was afraid. When He looked into the dark cup of God’s wrath He was to drink to the dregs, He was full of dread. But in spite of His fear and dread, there was one thing Jesus wanted more than anything else- He wanted His Father to be glorified, by either His life, or even by His death.
When God’s will for you seems dreadful, it’s OK to pray.
It’s OK to pray for deliverance. There is nothing wrong with asking God for a less painful path. You aren’t doing wrong when you ask God to make you, or someone you love, healthy instead of sick. It’s perfectly all right to pray that God would spare your life from death. It’s OK to pray that God will keep you and the people you love safe and sound.
At the same time, when we pray, there has to be a deeper, stronger desire for God’s will to be done in our lives- even when His will means suffering and pain for you or those you pray for. Every time you pray, for yourself or for others, there has to be the “nevertheless” that was a part of Jesus’ prayer. Just as Jesus knew that all things are possible for God to do, there are some prayers He does not answer, because they are not His will.
However much he may want to, I do not believe God will answer the prayer of the student who turned in his test and prayed, "O God, please let Paris be the capital of England!"
It’s always OK to pray, as long as whether it is spoken or unspoken, your heart prays “nevertheless, not my will, but yours.”
III. IT’S OK TO SURRENDER. (v. 41-52)
There’s something about surrender that goes against our grain. We want to win; we want to be in charge. I don’t like it much when I am forced to admit that I am not in control of my life. Yet when it comes to God’s will- even when He is calling me somewhere I don’t want to go- surrender is the only proper response.
Jesus not only prayed for God’s will- He surrendered to God’s will. When Judas and his cohorts came to arrest Jesus, He did not run, but faced them bravely, because He had already given Himself to do God’s will. That’s not easy, but if you look carefully, you can see how He did it- and how you can too.
a. Remember God has a plan. (v. 43-45, 49) From Judas wicked kiss of betrayal to the abandonment of His disciples, God had already revealed His plan for Jesus’ betrayal and arrest.
That does not relieve Judas nor anyone else involved here of their guilt. But it does demonstrate that God was in control of the situation. Jesus says in v. 49b The Scriptures must be fulfilled. He was reminding everybody that God’s Word in the OT has already laid out the map for what would happen here. Let me give you just a few examples:
The betrayer: Psalm 41:9 Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me.
The arrest: Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.
The disciples’ flight: Zechariah 13:7 … “Strike the Shepherd, And the sheep will be scattered…
Everything that was about to happened- from the betrayal to the Cross- had been foretold thousands of years before because that’s the way God planned it! Jesus’ surrender demonstrated His trust in God, Who had planned it all.
But not everyone was ready to give up so easily. When one of the disciples sprang into action, it was an example of how not to react to God’s plan:
b. Don’t fight it. (v. 46-48) When these men laid hands on Jesus, one of Jesus’ men put his hand on his sword. John tells us it was Peter who was probably aiming for Malchus’ neck, and missed, only getting his ear instead. Another Gospel tells us that Jesus rebukes Peter, heals the wounded servant, and explains that this is not the time to fight.
Matthew 26:53 Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?
John 18:11 So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?”
Jesus is saying that it is not the time for Him to destroy, but to save. There will come a day when He will return to bring judgment on the enemies of God. But now is the time to surrender, not fight.
c. Don’t run from it. (v. 51-52) Mark adds a detail no other Gospel records: an unnamed young man who flees the scene. Many scholars believe this young man was the author of this Gospel- John Mark. If he was, as some believe, a resident of the house where the Last Supper was held, it is thought that Judas may have gone there first seeking Jesus, and alarmed everyone in the house to his plan. Mark may have been asleep, and when he discovered the plot, ran to warn Jesus. In his haste, he may have wrapped himself up in some cloth, and when he tried to escape, had to run away naked.
But whoever he was, Mark wants us to see that running away was not the answer. Those who loved Jesus should have stood by Him, and trusted God the same way He did. This unfortunate young man is meant to remind us that you should not run away from God’s will, even when it seems dreadful to us.
When God leads you where you don’t want to go, it’s OK to surrender.
There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way."-C. S. Lewis
Giving up is not always bad, In fact, it is essential if you want to follow Jesus.
God has given us all a free will. Because you are made in the image of God, you can choose to follow God’s plan, or go your own way. When God speaks to your heart, you can respond in surrender, or you can fight it. You can say, “No.” You can run, and say, “Not right now.” But let me warn you—some of the most miserable, brokenhearted people you will ever meet are those who either are fighting or running from God’s will for their lives. Why are they so miserable? Because God’s will is what is best for you. His plan is always the plan that will lead to joy, peace, and life. Any other way is just a shortcut to misery.
You’ve met some of these kinds of people- they are ones who have felt the tug of the Holy Spirit during an invitation hymn, but refuse to commit themselves to Christ. They are the backslidden people who need to recommit their hearts to following the Lord, but resist His call.. They are the young men whom God is calling to preach, but they keep putting off their decision, hoping that God will change His mind. They are the young ladies God speaks to about becoming a missionary.
They are some of you today, sitting in this service, who know what God’s will is, but you have not surrendered your will to His. All I can tell you is this: God still has your number. You will never be happy- no matter how you fight or run- you will never be happy until you bow before Him, and surrender with all of your heart to God’s will for your life.
Will you do it? Will you do it today? Why don’t you come and find rest for your soul in His will?
Chuck Swindoll tells this story:
When our older daughter, Charissa, was in high school, she was on the cheerleading squad. One day at the church office I got an emergency call from her school. She had accidentally fallen from the top of a pyramid of the other cheerleaders during practice and landed on the back of her head. To her amazement and everyone else’s, she couldn’t move. It took me about fifteen minutes to drive from my study at the church to the school campus. I was praying all the way, “Lord, You are in charge of this situation. I have no idea what I’m going to face. You be the Lord and Master. I am trusting You in all this.”
When I got to the school, they already had Charissa immobilized on a wraparound stretcher. I slipped to my knees beside her.
“Daddy, I can’t move my fingers. My feet and legs are numb,” she said. “I can’t feel anything in my body very well. It’s kind of tingling.”
At that moment, I confess I had feelings of fear. But I leaned closer to Charissa and whispered in her ear, “Sweetheart, I will be with you through all of this. But more important, Jesus is here with you. He is Lord over this whole event.”
Her mother and I were totally helpless. We had no control over the situation or over the healing of our daughter’s body. She was at the mercy of God. I can still remember the deliberateness with which I acknowledged Christ as Lord in my heart and encouraged her to do the same. Cynthia and I waited for hours in the hospital hallway as extensive X-rays were taken and a team of physicians examined our daughter. We prayed fervently and confidently.
Today, Charissa is fine physically. She recovered with no lasting damage. She did have a fracture, but thankfully it wasn’t an injury that resulted in paralysis. Had she been permanently paralyzed, we would still believe that God was in sovereign control. He would still be Lord!
Today, Jesus is calling you to follow Him to the Garden. He calls you to follow God’s will, and come to Him, even if you are scared. He calls you to pray and surrender your life completely to God’s will. It won’t be easy, but you can do it- you must do it- if you want to find peace in your heart.
