The Three Prayers (Part 4) — Ron Bailey

Gethsemane and the Hour of Christ's Suffering

Good morning everyone. I am subdued this morning, I've spent the morning in Gethsemane and that's where I want to take you and that if there's any part of the scripture that really is a holy of holies I think it's Gethsemane.

I can tell you I don't actually like going to these passages of the scripture. It's almost as though the events that take place there are too intimate, too precious for human eyes to see and yet God has revealed these things for us and given us a record so that at least we can glimpse something that was taking place.

Sometimes we have to do that just to be witnesses. I can remember the first time I went to Auschwitz and I went because I felt I ought to witness it. Some people have said that that place was hell on earth.

Actually it wasn't, there's only ever been one hell on earth and we're heading towards it now in our story. If you'd like to turn with me to Mark's gospel which is Mark chapter 14. We're coming on to the second of the prayers prayed by the Lord Jesus in this period of time that we are calling the hour and that he said when the Greeks came to him the hour has come and he said when he prayed to his father in John chapter 17, Father the hour has come.

You'll see how that hour continues if I just read this passage first of all and then come back and pass some comments on it. Verse 26. And when they had sung a hymn they went out into the Mount of Olives and Jesus said unto them all of you shall be offended because of me this night for it is written I will smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered but after that I am risen I will go before you into Galilee.

And Peter said unto him although all shall be offended yet will not I. And Jesus said unto him verily I say unto thee that this day even in this night before the cock crow twice thou shalt deny me thrice and he spake the more vehemently if I should die with thee I will not deny thee in any wise.

Likewise also said they all and they came to a place which was named Gethsemane that means the place of the olive press and he says to his disciples sit ye here while I shall pray. And he takes with him Peter and James and John and began to be sore amazed and very heavy.

And he saith unto them my soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death. Tarry ye here and watch. And he went forward a little and fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible the hour might pass from him.

Can you see this hour again. And he said Abba father all things are possible unto thee take away this cup from me nevertheless not what I will but what thou wilt. He cometh and findeth them sleeping. And Peter Simon sleepest thou.

Could thou not watch one hour. Watch ye and pray lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready but the flesh is weak. And again he went away and prayed and spoke the same words. And when he returned he found them asleep again for their eyes were heavy.

Neither did they know what to answer him. And he comes the third time and says to them sleep on now take your rest. It is enough the hour has come. Behold the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

Mark's Emphasis on Abba Father

We'll we'll pause there. It is really such an amazing passage of scripture and it it's recorded in Matthew's gospel and then Mark and in Luke. And the reason I've come to Mark's gospel is because I just wanted to make a connection with what we've got in verse 36 can you see here.

And he said Abba father it's only Mark that records that little detail for us that when the Lord Jesus came to this this ultimate place of concentration of the distilling of all that he had come to do as he faced it and it comes into clear focus his instincts still from his are his Abba father it speaks of this abiding intimacy nothing between no barrier no cloud no hesitation.

But he must face up to things honestly realistically. And we'll see how this comes about now in this particular passage of scripture it begins in many ways in verse 27. If you look at verse 27 as they sing their hymn and leave the upper room and make their journey towards the house of the Mount of Olives.

Jesus says this to them all of you shall be offended this night because of me this night for it is written I will smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. Now I'd like you to turn with me back into your Old Testament to Zechariah chapter 13 because this is a quotation and so much of what the Lord Jesus was doing there was stepping into the footprints of prophecy things that God had said would be.

And he is conscious that as he takes each step in the will of God there is a constant fulfilling of the prophecy that God has spoken hundreds of years before in the case of someone like Zechariah. So this is Zechariah chapter 13 and I'm not going to read all of it but I want you to notice how we'll see something that happens that we saw last night.

I was saying last night that Solomon begins to write down or speak out to his secretary the words of the Proverbs and he's composing writing this hymn to wisdom. And suddenly wisdom answers him back and says I wisdom.

Now here's a prophet speaking and just listen for the testimony of Jesus which is the spirit of prophecy. As I read these words of a man who lived Zechariah where's that. That's um about 400 years before Christ.

Okay. Um I'm just going to read from. Don't worry if you don't understand it I just want you to catch feel catchy enough of the flavor of it. I'll read from uh verse four. And it shall come to pass in that day that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision when he is prophesied.

Now they shall they wear a rough garment to deceive. But he shall say I am no prophet. I have a husband for man taught me to keep careful from my youth. And one shall say unto him what are these wounds in thine hands.

Then he shall answer those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Can you hear the testimony of Jesus which is the spirit of prophecy. This isn't Zechariah's testimony. This is Zechariah hearing in his spirit the testimony of Jesus which is the spirit of prophecy.

What are these wounds in thine hands. Then he shall answer those which with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. We need sometimes to think a little bit about the culture in which Jesus lives in the east hospitality is of prime importance.

And you will know little bits of it from the scripture. If you've thought about it let me give you a really dark illustration. There are a couple of occasions in the scripture where people act as hosts for visitors.

So way back in the old testament. And when a threat comes to the visitor the hosts actually offer their daughters rather than risk the visitors being injured. Now that is just about as dark an illustration as I can find.

But it will give you an idea of how important hospitality is. If you move into someone's house you are their prime responsibility. You go to the top of their list of duties and responsibilities. This is the pattern of it.

It wasn't just that Jesus was wounded by his enemies. He was wounded in the house of his friends. He came to his own it says in john chapter one. But his own received him not. I'm not pointing a finger out to the jews primarily.

I'm talking about the human race. He came to his own and his own received him not. These wounds that we see in his hand he received in the house of his friends. That's horror enough. Read on. Listen to this.

Awake oh sword against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow says the lord of hosts. Now let's listen. Who's speaking here. Just oops. Frankly I've just lost one of the lenses my glasses. Okay.

That means there'll be a tiny screw somewhere. Um there'll be a tiny screw somewhere. Let's leave this. Let's leave this. I can see the spine. It's just I can't see you anymore. It might even be an improvement.

Um this is um I shall need it to drive home. That's the main thing. And this is verse seven. Awake oh sword against my shepherd. Against the man that is my fellow saith the lord of hosts. I want you to notice who it is.

That's speaking it is the lord of hosts. This is one of the titles of god himself. It is god supreme. It's actually the god of battle the god of all the armies of the lord the god of absolute power dominion and conquest.

And listen to what the lord of hosts says. He says awake. Verse seven. Awake oh sword against my shepherd. Against the man that is my companion. Isn't this staggering. Do you remember how a couple of times already we've seen that one of the things that comes out in jesus's prayer is his consciousness of his closeness to his father.

Father I want you to restore to me the glory that I had with you before the world was. I want you to restore to me the glory that I had with you by your side. And last night we looked at those verses in the book of proverbs where it speaks of the one who was daily his delight daily by his side.

These are amazing prophecies. The man who gave these prophecies could have had no full sense of what they were saying. This goes against everything that they had been taught. They'd been taught that there's no one by his side.

There's no one like him. He is unique. And yet when this prophetic word comes through they find them saying things that don't quite fit into their theology. Awake oh sword against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellows.

The reason I wanted to draw your attention to that verse in mark where it says abba father is because it speaks of the intimacy of the relationship between the father and the son. And now you must understand the horror that is about to dawn in gethsemane for the one who has been his companion from everlasting to everlasting in whom he had lived in with perfect harmony concord sweetness of fellowship is now going to unsheathe his sword and smite him.

This isn't just a wound that he receives in the house of his friends. This is a wound that he receives from god himself. There's another horrified glimpse in the book of isaiah we saw him smitten of god and afflicted.

This is isaiah trying to struggle with what he sees in his vision. This servant of god this one who who was daily his delight. This one of whom the father spoke in his first first public gesture. He's baptized in the river jordan.

And the father speaks and says this is my beloved son and whom i'm well pleased. And he carried that sense of the father's favor and approval through every part of his life. I only he said at one point of his testimony i only do those things that please the father.

What a clear conscience what a sweet relationship. And now he comes to this bit. And as they go out from the place of the upper room to the mount of olives and the the place of the garden of gethsemane the verse that comes to his mind.

And he quotes it here. Going back to verse. Going back to mark chapter 14. Verse 27. And jesus saith unto him. All of you shall be offended because of me this night. What is it written. I will smite the shepherd.

Who is i lord the lord of hosts. That is it i who is the shepherd. Can you see what a what a horrendous text this is to begin this journey with. You can see why the mood will change now. This is my father.

Charles spurgeon the um great victorian preacher once said something like this. He said on the cross it is as though god unsheathed the sword of his righteous anger against all sin and sheathed it once and forever in the body of his son.

Amazing. At this point jesus is thinking about the sword thinking about the hand that must wield it knows that this is his father. Abba. Let's go on a little bit. Verse 32. They came to a place which was called gethsemane the place of the olive press the place where all the pressure comes on the olive and drives from it.

Its golden life its juice its olive oil. There's no accident any part of this. It's all symbolic. And he takes he says sit here while i shall pray. And he takes with him peter and james and john. And then my old english version says.

And began to be sore amazed and very heavy. I was looking at some other some other versions this morning. I'd like to read you one or two of them. There's a version called young literal translation. He translates it like this.

He began to be much amazed and to be deeply troubled. Let's let's think a little bit. Being trouble is almost kind of the language sometimes in our fellowships. He's troubled. The person is troubled. He's almost as though they're haunted that there's something that is hanging on something that they can't shake off.

He began to be much amazed and to be deeply troubled. This is the new king james version. He began to be troubled and deeply distressed which is the rotherham emphasized version. He began to be exceedingly amazed and in deep distress.

This is weiner. He began to be full of terror and distress. There's a translation that's almost out of fashion now. But it was a paraphrase done by a man named jb phillips. And this is what he says. He began to be horror stricken and desperately depressed.

What's your reaction to that. No no. Well it just so happens that the words that are used here in the original greek are used in medical documents of this particular period of time to describe people in the extremities of mental breakdowns and disorders.

Our lord jesus was perfect man. And in his perfect manhood he was more sensitive than any of us have ever been of all kinds of things that were imperfect of all kinds of things that touched the heart and lives of men and women.

There's an amazing incident when it talks of when he was at the grave of lazarus and the av says something like he sighed deeply in his spirit or something like that. It's an amazing word. It's actually a word that's used of a horse snorting in distress.

I don't know whether you've ever i hope maybe it never happens to you. But if you've ever been in the presence of someone who is absolutely overwhelmed and beside themselves with grief and distress where they they can't think straight they can't do anything straight.

They are absolutely immersed into this thing where every breath is a labor where their whole body shakes. Which is what we're getting glimpses of here. It's horrible. And yet the scripture has this glimpse.

He came to the place he began to be sore amazed and very heavy. He says to them my soul is exceeding sorrowful and to death. Tarry ye here and watch. And he went forward a little and fell on the ground.

You notice that testimony comes through matthew too. He prays. He tells us that when he began to pray he knelt. It's almost as though he knelt at one person at one point and then got up and began to move forward and then overwhelmed.

And i'm using that word carefully. I'll come back to it in a minute overwhelmed by his distression by his distress by this vision of what's going to happen that's coming upon him. Overwhelmed by it he collapses in a heap his body wrapped with something that luke calls an agony of prayer.

He prayed. He prayed so says luke that his blood that fell from his head with his great gaps of blood his sweat this this is this is a human being in such an extremity of passion of pain of distress of fear of disorder.

He is beside himself. This is the one who was by the father's side through everlasting ages who daily delighted in him. And now the fear of all that he must go through comes upon him. And this is how he is.

The Cup, Baptism, and Christ's Identification with Humanity

Jesus used different pictures to describe this. We go a little bit farther here in verse 36 he calls it a cup. He calls it a cup and he says father all things are possible unto me. Take away this cup from me.

Can you see the picture of it. When i i read this i mean i'm not kind of too much into shakespeare. Um but i remember this kind of thing from macbeth that i had to learn. Is this a dagger i see before me handled towards my hand.

And you're supposed to in that can imagine a dagger that's appeared in front of macbeth. And it's within his reach. He uses the word this not that which usually means at a distance. This abba father take away this cup.

The father has presented it to him. It's within his reach. Now father take away this cup if it's possible take away this cup. There was a time a little bit later on when he was upon the cross itself and the people who were mocking him brought this strange accusation against him.

They said he saves others. He can't save himself. They were right. The two are mutually exclusive. You can't save others and yourself. If you've come to do this job you either save yourself and they're lost or you lose yourself and they're saved.

But the choice is here right up until the last moment. The choice is here. The father offers him the cup that there was a language that jesus used to describe this moment. It's strange unless you've come across it before.

It's in luke's gospel when he describes his death like this. And he said i have a baptism to be baptized with. The ancient greeks used the word baptism for when they were talking about a ship which had been absolutely deluged and stumped when he had been overwhelmed by storms when there was no survival possible and it was gone.

They said it was that time. It really just means immersed but not just dipped absolutely plunged in and kept under. In fact let me just lighten it just a little moment for you. There's um there are two greek words that are very close together.

One is bapto which means to dip and the other one is baptizo which actually means to immerse. And you can see what the difference is because there's actually a recipe from kind of first century equivalent of delia that tells you what to do with onions and it tells you that this is what you to do with them that first of all you are to bapto them in boiling water.

That's what you ladies call blanching isn't it. And then when you dip them when you've baptoed them in boiling water what you do is you baptizo them in vinegar. And that's what they call marinating isn't it.

And what happens in the marinade is that all that it's soaked that it's immersed into it remains in there until it's absorbed all the juices all the flavors. I'm making my mouth water. I like to think all right.

Jesus said i have a baptism to be baptized into. He wasn't just going to be dipped into it. There was something he was going to be marinated in until what he had been baptized into had so soaked into his being that it wasn't possible to separate one from the other.

He said i have a baptism to be baptized with and i am straightened i'm narrowed i am restricted until that. And i've always wondered why the av translators chose this word until that is accomplished. The reason i don't know why they chose the word is because it's the word finished.

The word he spoke on the cross at the end of his passion. It is finished he'd said in luke until it is finished on the cross he said it is finished. The cross was his baptism. He was immersed into something and became so completely one with it that it was impossible to say where the one ended and the other began.

What was he baptized into. He was baptized into the full condition of human beings. When he came in incarnation it was the first step of his identification with the human race. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh.

He was different to you and me in one very special particular thing. He did not have within him the tendency to sin. He did not have within him the spirit of the rebel which is manifested in our race usually at a time that we call the terrible twos.

And you begin to see it when the child understands that he has the power to say no. He has the power to set his will against somebody else. Now it sometimes it can be quite funny at two but it's not funnier to get older.

And all sin ultimately is a clash of wills. It's me saying no to god. But that's what every individual sin is. It comes from a root which the bible calls sin. You might almost call it sin with a capital s.

It's the rebel. It's the thing that says no to god. It's the thing that ultimately if god forces his way upon me i will say no whatever it costs. And there was a time in the history of the human race when the only way we could say no to god was to kill him and we didn't shrink from it.

We will not have this man to reign over us. And that leaves every human being with only two possible alternatives crucify him or crown him. There are no other options in the final analysis at the bottom line when it comes to the tape there are no other options.

You either crucify him or you crown him. And god had restrained this inherent wickedness in the human race we. You'd seen it you'd seen manifestations of it but you'd never seen it in all its full horror until you come to a time.

And it's amazing because in luke's gospel when it tells of jesus and his arrest in the garden of gethsemane it's in john and in the others you've seen this reference. The hour is coming my hour. He called it in luke's gospel when he's arrested in the garden of gethsemane he says to them this is your hour and the power of godless.

That was the human race script of all its culture of all its politeness of all its shame. That was the human race seen for what it was. We will not have this one to reign over us. If we have to crucify him we'll crucify him.

It's because we have within us an alien nature. Something came into the human race which wasn't originally part of us. And it came from someone that the jesus describes as someone who was a murderer from the beginning and that spurred his coming to the human race and done something to us.

And jesus was born without it. That's why he could say i always do those things that please him. Lo i come to do thy will. Oh god on the cross. He didn't only pay the penalty for our individual sins forensically in a legal sense he did something much more than that.

He was baptized into what the human race had become. He became the rebel. He said this this amazing statement that you get in paul's letters to the cryptids when he says he became sin for us. He who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of god in him.

Jesus refers to it in luke's gospel. And he says i have a baptism to be baptized with. I want you to turn back with me to um so isaiah i've often said and i often do say when i'm preaching that bible words don't have definitions.

They have histories. What i mean by that is that the way that the bible uses words means that you really need to continually read the whole bible so you can understand the way in which the bible uses.

It would only give you a very simple illustration um the word guilt. You'll often hear people talk about feeling guilty or not wanting other people to feel guilty. Now the bible never uses the word guilt as something you feel guilt the bible uses as a legal term.

In other words someone is tried and they are found guilty and the law isn't interested. One fits in how they feel about it. It is. It's a it's a legal decision this person is guilty or not guilty as the case may be and it has nothing at all to do with how a person feels.

Now we constantly use the word guilt as though it had some view of feelings. And because of that we actually undermine what the bible is trying to teach us that he has done something with us so that the guilt is removed.

Now you get your feelings into line with the truth. Never mind trying to grasp the truth from your feelings. If you are don't try to keep you just to kind of talking properly. Now i think you're praying properly.

Now we can go. No i'm only kidding. Please don't be inhibited by the things i say about you praying. Um but we do need to speak carefully when we speak things about god so that we don't dig a trap for ourselves.

But other words they won't go into them. But um this word baptism. The word baptism although you will only find it in your new testament. In fact it was a word that people knew very well because in the time of jesus most jews no longer were familiar with the hebrew language.

Most jews from about seven or about from about 600 bc most jews have always lived outside israel or palestine or the holy land whatever you want to call it. From that time this group of people that are known as the diaspora that have always been more people outside israel that were jews than inside israel.

And many of those lost their use of hebrew but they still wanted to know what god had said. So a translation of the bible was done that's usually called the septuagint and it's a it's a greek translation of the old hebrew and that really was the authorized version of the young church.

They didn't use the hebrew old testament. Mostly they used the greek old testament and in that greek old testament the word baptism is there said a couple of times. I'm not going to go to both of them but i just want you to turn with me to isaiah chapter 21 because this word baptism when jesus uses it it doesn't have a definition but it does have a history and i want to show you the bible history of the word.

Isaiah's Vision of Babylon's Judgment

This is isaiah chapter 21. This passage of isaiah is a fairly kind of dismal poem. It's all about judgments which are going to come upon the nations and they're usually introduced by the little phrase that this was the burden that came upon isaiah.

This was the burden isaiah the prophet sees things that are going to happen to different nations particularly in his own day. And as that settles upon him there's a there's a weight to it. It's heavy and he calls it a burden.

This is the burden that comes upon him. And you've got if you just kind of look back to the last chapters you've got verse 19. You've got a burden of egypt. And there's a lot of woe to this and woe to that.

And you've got the chapter 21 and this really is the burden that he has about babylon. And babylon has. Babylon has a special significance as well in the scripture that i can't kind of go into now otherwise i shall never get back onto the main track.

Um but he's this is what he says about this vision he has. He's had lots of visions about lots of places. But this vision he has about babylon is more intense than any of the others. There's something about this vision he has of babylon which puts it into another league as we've said one or two times.

Another thing chapter 21. The burden of the desert of the sea as whirlwinds in the south pass through. So it comes from the desert from a terrible land. A grievous vision is declared unto me. And these other visions are bad enough i'll tell you.

But this one there's something about it which in its intensity in its passion in the effect that it has upon isaiah while he sees it is more intense than any of the others goes on to do this. A grievous vision is declared unto me.

The treacherous dealer deals treacherously in the spoiler spoilers. Don't under worry about understanding too much of the detail. Just get the feel of it. Go up. Oh elam besiege. Oh me dad. All the time thereof have i made to cease.

Therefore are my loins fill the pain pangs have taken hold upon me as the pangs of a woman that traveler my old english says let's put the more modern word labors into it and we'll come back to that in a moment.

Therefore are my loins filled with pain. Pangs have taken hold upon me as the pangs of a woman that labors. I was bowed down at the hearing of it. I was dismayed at the seeing of it. Can you can you see what's happening here to isaiah.

He sees something he sees as a watchman some judgment that's going to come upon babylon. And law. Even though babylon is going to become an archenemy of the people of israel he is horrified with the judgment that's actually going to come upon babylon.

He's crushed with the burden it comes upon him with such an intensity that the only way he can describe it is the most intense thing he's ever seen in his life which is childbirth. I don't want to remind you ladies too much of kind of past times for some of you or frighten any of you who yet have it to come.

But as much as anything else it is a time of acute labor when the whole being is concentrated in one single thing. And once it's begun you're committed to see it through to the end. You can't get halfway through as they will adopt once.

Once this begins that's it. That's it. He's very there. The burden of this comes upon him. The only way he can describe it is with what he has seen probably with his wife when she's born their children.

He says that here it is. My loins were full of pain. Hands have taken hold upon me as the pains of a woman that travels. Do you know these pain these birth pains. When it speaks of the lord jesus. When peter speaks of the lord jesus in acts chapter 2 and he talks about jesus's death upon the cross.

And he says that it wasn't possible for the pains of death to hold him. Do you know he actually uses a word which means the birth pains. It was not possible for the birth pains of his death to hold him.

He goes on here. He's describing his his reaction to what he's saying. My heart panted. Now in my authorized version it now says fearfulness affrighted me. Maybe is there anyone who's got anything different to that to get a slightly different flavor.

Halfway through verse four. My heart panted. What's the next letter that you've got. My wandered my mind spinned. My head reels. It's much more intense than that. That's it. Horror has appalled me. In fact this is where the greek bible uses the word baptism.

It says terror baptized me. That's what it says in the old testament that most of the disciples would have grown up with that all the early christians read they would have read their. Terror baptized me.

Terror overwhelmed me. It unmanned me it crippled me it occupied me and consumed me so much and its entirety that i couldn't give my mind to anything else. Like a mother in travail can't give her mind to anything else.

Can't say think of something else. It's a focus. It's the whole being concentrated on this one thing. And it's happening to isaiah. He's only looking at babylon and the judgment that will fall upon it.

And terror overwhelms him the night of my pleasures. He's turned into fear. No no. You won't understand all the details. Just get the feeling of this. Prepare the table. Watch in the watchtower. Eat drink arise.

You princes anoint the shield. For thus hath the lord said to me go. Set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees. He saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen. A chariot of asses and a chariot of camels.

And he hearkened diligently with much hearing. He cried a lion my lord i stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime. And i am set in my ward whole nights. And behold here comes a chariot of men with a couple of horsemen.

And he answered me. Babylon is fallen. It's fallen. If you know the book of the revelation you'll hear that echo again later on. And all the graven images of her gods he's broken to the ground. Look at this language he uses oh my threshing and the corn of my floor.

The Gospel as Holy Spirit and Fire

Do you remember jesus. You're seeing this kind of language. Or john. Rather john the baptist. John spoke about a baptism. We we come with me just to um do we need to read any more of that. We'll. We'll leave that there having introduced the threshing floor and opinions within mark.

We'll go to mark's gospel. No we won't. We'll go to um because it's not in the bit i want to turn you to. We'll go to luke's gospel chapter 3. We'll go where di was yesterday. Yes this is um this is chapter 3.

And i'm going to read from verse 16 john the baptist speaking john answered and said unto them all i indeed baptize you with water. But one mightier than i comes the lackey to whose shoes i am not worthy to unloose he shall baptize you with the holy spirit and fire whose fan is in his hand.