WWUTT 2498 Pray That You Not Fall Into Temptation (Luke 22:39-46)

Jesus went into the garden and prayed, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. What was the cup Jesus was praying about? When we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study in the word of Christ for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness. Find all our videos and other ministry resources at www .utt .com.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the gospel of Luke, we come back to chapter 22, and we move now from the upper room where Jesus has had the last supper with his disciples, and we go to the garden of Gethsemane where he prays immediately prior to his arrest.

So let me start reading here in verse 39. We'll go through verse 46. Hear the word of the Lord. And Jesus came out and went as was his custom to the Mount of Olives. And the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation.

And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed, saying, father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.

And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow.

And he said to them, why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation. And that imperative that he gives there to the disciples is at the beginning and the end of this time of prayer in the garden.

Before going off by himself, he says to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation. And then at the conclusion, before he is to be arrested, he says to them again, rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.

And so if there's any exhortation or application that we may take from the narrative that we read today, it would be that same imperative given to us. Pray that you may not enter into temptation. Let's look at this again together.

Verse 39, it says that he, and he came out and went. So he's coming out from that place where he's been with his disciples in the upper room for the last supper. Now, this is the first time in the gospels that it does not say that they sang a hymn and then went out to the garden of Gethsemane.

In fact, the very place itself, Gethsemane is not mentioned in Luke's gospel. It just says the Mount of Olives. Now, some have called this an inconsistency because the other gospels will talk about a garden, but Luke mentions the Mount of Olives.

That's quite a bit different than the garden, but the garden itself was right there at the base of the Mount of Olives. People would go through this garden to go up the Mount of Olives or come down into Jerusalem.

So that's where Jesus is with his disciples. According to Matthew 26, Mark 14, it is a place called Gethsemane, but it's right there at the base of the Mount of Olives. And so the disciples are with him, they follow him out.

And when he came to the place, it says, now Luke doesn't specify, but this is the place where Jesus would be and he would kneel down and pray. And it seems to be a place that people would have been familiar with at the time that Luke is writing this, hence why he's not very descriptive of that place.

He doesn't name the place like Matthew and Mark do, but he just says when he came to the place. Now, remember Luke is writing an orderly account of all of these things that have taken place. We read that at the very beginning of this gospel with him writing to Theophilus and saying, it was good to me to write an orderly account for you of all these things that have taken place, the gospel that has been proclaimed.

There are others that have written accounts, but none as orderly as what Luke is putting together here. So as he talks about the place, he is talking about that place that already would have been familiar to many people.

And again, as we know it to be the garden. And he said, Jesus said to his disciples, pray that you may not enter into temptation. This is their place of prayer. And Jesus already gives them something to pray for, not pray that this is not going to happen to me.

He doesn't tell them that. He says, pray that you may not enter into temptation. Jesus is going to be the only one in this scenario who's going to pray to the father and ask if there is any other way.

Lord, let it be that way, but not my will. Let it be your will that is done. To his disciples, what are they to be praying for? They are to be praying for themselves. That in this moment, in this hour of trial that is about to come upon them, that they would not fall into temptation.

And this is continuing on from something that Jesus said to Peter just a moment ago. They're in the upper room discourse, he says. Peter, I tell you that the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me.

Though Peter had spoken so boldly to say, even if you go to prison or you go to death, I am going to go with you. Jesus says, you're going to deny that you even know me. But when you have turned again, he told to Peter, strengthen your brothers.

I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. So now he says it to all the disciples. Pray that you may not enter into temptation. And I'm going to come back to this at the end because of course Jesus says it again.

But that's a prayer that we should be lifting up for ourselves all the time. I often pray to God, Lord, please don't let me lose my sense of conviction because the moment I become comfortable with my sin, maybe the very moment that I've been given over to it.

So may I continue to be convicted over my sin that I would not go back to it, that I would repent of it, that I would come before Christ and desire to be cleansed of it. So I pray often as well for me that I would not enter into temptation.

We were instructed to do that even in the Lord's prayer. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And so we regularly need to be taking those thoughts and committing them unto the Lord here in these moments with the disciples uncertain about even what's going to happen.

They still need to be earnest in prayer that they would remain steadfast in God. So Jesus withdraws from them about a stone's throw, it says, so he's still nearby. That's kind of an important point that Luke draws out there.

No one else, I think, even details how far Jesus goes. Let me come back to Matthew 26. Jesus simply says to them, sit here while I go over there and pray. And he takes with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee.

So Peter, James, and John go a short way with him. And then he goes a little farther. That's Matthew 26, 39. And falling on his face, he prayed and said, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. So there's nothing in there that says he just goes a stone's throw away. And according to Matthew's gospel, Jesus separates himself from the other disciples, taking Peter, James, and John, and then leaves them at a spot and goes a little further beyond them.

Luke doesn't get quite that detailed about it. But the fact that he includes that Jesus is just a stone's throw away, this is enough for us to know that the disciples would have been near enough to Jesus to hear what he was praying and even see what was going on.

I remember having an atheist say to me one time, when Jesus goes off by himself in the garden of praying, how would his disciples have even known what he was praying that it gets written down in the gospels?

So the position that he was taking was, Matthew was just making it up. Oh, this is probably what Jesus prayed, and he wrote it down. And I said to this guy, well, first of all, the Holy Spirit is guiding them into all truth, as Jesus said to them in the upper room in the gospel of John.

But when you read the details, Jesus was not that far away from them. They don't give every word that Jesus prayed, but they at least heard him say, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.

Matthew even records him saying it more than once. So if this was the nature of the prayer that he was praying, that's a very simple summary of what he was asking from his father. So Luke records it this way, verse 42.

Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. So what is this cup that's being referred to here? Most of the time, this cup is described as the cup of suffering that Jesus was about to undergo.

If you remember back to Matthew 20, the sons of Zebedee, their mother. So this is James and John. Their mother comes to Jesus and says to him, these two sons of mine, where are they to sit? Can you have them sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your kingdom?

And Jesus answered her and said, you do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? And they said to him, we are able. And then he said to them, you will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my father.

So taking that in Matthew, there are those who have said that this cup, because Jesus just said it right there. And he even says, you will drink the cup that I'm going to drink. So therefore this cup was the suffering that he was about to undergo, just as his disciples would share in his sufferings when they would be persecuted for the gospel.

So that's the most common explanation that you will hear for this cup that Jesus prays about in the garden. Lord, let this cup pass from me. But there is a cup that Jesus drinks from that no one else can drink from.

Yes, the disciples would share in his sufferings. They would be persecuted just as Jesus was persecuted, but there's an aspect to Jesus' suffering that they would not undergo. And there is a uniqueness about the cup that Jesus would drink that they wouldn't have to drink.

The disciples never pray and say, let this cup pass from me. In fact, when they are tortured and beaten because of the gospel that they proclaim in the book of Acts, it says they went out from that place rejoicing.

That's a completely different reaction to the suffering that they would undergo than what Jesus had. Jesus is not rejoicing here. He is in agony, in deep emotional distress, and asking the father, this is God the son asking God the father, let this cup pass from me.

So what cup is Jesus referring to? It's got to be something more serious than simply the sufferings that he was going to undergo with his death on the cross. Peter himself would be crucified. According to church tradition, he would be crucified upside down is the way that the legend goes.

So what is Jesus praying about regarding this cup? Well, in Psalm 75 verse eight, we read, in the hand of the Lord, in the hand of Yahweh, 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.

This is the cup of God's wrath that he would pour out on his son as he dies on the cross as an atoning sacrifice, taking the wrath of God upon himself for all who believe in him. We will not be under God's wrath for Christ has taken it on our behalf.

Remember that in the section we just finished yesterday, Jesus quoted from Isaiah 53 and said that it was a prophecy concerning him. Luke 22 verse 37, for I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me, and he was numbered with the transgressors.

That's a statement right out of Isaiah 53, for what is written about me has its fulfillment. And I remind you again of what we read there concerning Christ's sacrifice on our behalf. Isaiah 53 10, it was the will of the Lord to crush him.

He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand, but first he must undergo this.

What is said in Isaiah 53 6, the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. The cup of God's wrath is the cup that Christ would drink from when he dies, when he lays down his life hanging on that cross.

So he prays to the father knowing what he's about to undergo. The most devastating death that he could possibly endure is not because his hands and feet were nailed to a Roman torture instrument. The most terrifying thing about this death was that he was going to drink the wrath of God.

And so he says, father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And as Jesus would pray this, not my will, but yours be done. How much more should it be upon us that we would desire the same thing?

God, not my will, but yours be done. It's okay in the midst of your trials and the difficulty of your circumstances to say, God, please take this from me, but still to also have that spirit and that attitude of it's not my will, but it's yours be done.

And I'm gonna rejoice in whatever your will for me would be. And so we go on in verse 43, there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. We read also in Matthew's gospel that the angels came and ministered to him, even as he prayed there in that garden.

So the father is not far from him. He is there. And even the heavenly host comes and ministers to the son of God. And the disciples would have witnessed that. The disciples even saw this taking place.

Being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. Now this next part, this is unique only to Luke's gospel. We don't find this in Matthew or in Mark. Being in agony, he prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Now there's many different disputes about what this means. I've heard some say Jesus was an actually sweating blood because it only says that his sweat became like drops of blood. So it's not explicitly saying that he did sweat drops of blood.

Just like we have at Jesus' baptism that the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus like a dove. So it's not literally a dove, but something that's like a dove. So it would be the same with his sweat. But it's not too far from us to assume that indeed what Luke is describing here, remember he's Dr. Luke.

He's a physician. It's an interesting detail for Luke to include that his sweat became like drops of blood. For indeed there is a condition in which a person can be under such duress that blood becomes mixed in with their sweat.

Like their capillaries around their sweat glands would burst under the stress and agony that they are under. And so blood mixes in with the sweat. It's a condition that's called hematoidrosis. So it's not an unheard of phenomenon.

There are other people that have experienced it as well. So it's not beyond us to imagine this. We've even written about it in some of our hymns. You know the song, I Stand Amazed in the Presence. There's a verse in there that says, for me it was in the garden.

He prayed not my will, but thine. He had no tears for his own griefs, but sweat drops of blood for mine. Now there's nothing inherently wrong with that word, but it's important for us to recognize that this is not the atonement.

The Mormons will claim that Christ's atonement or that his atoning sacrifice for us begins in the garden with him sweating drops of blood. That's not what we're meant to understand here. Just simply that he was under great stress.

This is not the atonement. The atonement is the sacrifice itself. He's not sacrificing his life here in the garden. He's praying about that sacrifice that is to come. So this is not the atonement. Even though, you know, if Jesus were to get a paper cut, it doesn't mean that the blood that comes out due to his paper cut is therefore the blood of the atonement.

The blood of the atonement was the giving of his life. As said in the book of Leviticus, life is in the blood. So hence why every sacrifice is described as a blood sacrifice, or it's described as in the life of the animal being given, its blood is being shed.

If the blood is being shed, the life is being given. So those things are equated in the sacrificial system that we read about under the law. So this was not the beginning of Christ's atonement. He's just under great stress before going to the cross to accomplish the Father's will that he prays.

If it be your will, let this cup pass from me, but I am going to do what is pleasing to my Father who is in heaven. Verse 45 says, and when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow.

That's also a detail that only Luke includes that the disciples were under such great sorrow. And that's the reason why they fell asleep. I think when we read Matthew and Mark, we just assume they're lazy.

So then they go to sleep and they, because yeah, they just couldn't, they couldn't keep themselves awake, especially when Jesus describes this as the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. So we just think, ah, they just got lazy and fell asleep.

They couldn't keep praying. And we can relate to that. How could I pray for more than an hour? So I understand how the disciples just kind of fell asleep in the midst of all of that. But here Luke includes that they were sleeping for sorrow.

They were indeed sorrowful for their master. They did not know or understand why he was under great stress, but they felt this with him so that even they fell asleep in the midst of all this that's going on.

Surely when they woke up, they see his face and they could tell he's been sweating and blood is mixed in with his sweat. If indeed that's how we are to understand the description of his sweat becoming like great drops of blood falling to the ground.

But Jesus says to them in waking them, why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation. And once again, my friends, that's the exhortation that is given to us as well. We have two exhortations regarding prayer in this passage.

One is that we would pray, not my will, but yours be done. And also that we would pray that we may not enter into temptation. We recognize our weakness and we would not think too highly of ourselves to assume that we would not give in to those fleshly temptations when they come.

When stuff comes from outside of us, outside in the world or Satan schemes in some way, or when those temptations come from within us just because our flesh is still wicked and suddenly we have those desires.

When you have a desire like that, do you dwell on it? You like it and so I'm going to dwell on it. Or do you immediately seize that desire and you give it to God in prayer? That's especially one way that we would pray that we may not enter into temptation.

You may not be responsible for the first thought, but you are responsible for what you do with it. And so we pray, we ask that God would guard our hearts and our minds. And we would desire in all things that God's will would be done for us.

And whatever comes our way, we do not despair for we know it is good if it is from God. Remember the Apostle Paul prayed three times to the Lord that the messenger of Satan, the tormentor of Satan would be taken away from him.

God's response to him, Jesus' response to the Apostle Paul was, my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness. And so Paul says that I'm going to boast all the more in my weaknesses.

For where I am weak, there he is strong. And we continue capturing those thoughts, making them obedient to Christ in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read here. And I pray even in the words of Jesus and the exhortation he gives to his disciples, in the words that he prays to his father, we find in their lessons for us and how we must pray.

Lord, when we have those tempting thoughts, let us not have this wicked heart that loves the idea. Maybe we don't even play it out, but we love the thought, we love the fantasy and we dwell on it. We love the bitterness.

We love having anger toward a person that we might hold a grudge against or whatever else. Let us not love those things, but we take hold of it and we give it to the Lord that we would think things that are pleasing even unto our father who is in heaven.

We ask Lord that your will would be done in our lives, no matter what difficulty or trial comes our way, that we would give it unto the Lord and desire that your will be done, not ours. Even if you should carry us through this difficult thing, may we recognize it is for our benefit and ultimately for your glory that we would trust in the one who raises the dead.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.

Closing and Program Schedule

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.