There is a vital distinction between the two situations of Christ’s anguish: His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane serves as a pattern for our own trials, demonstrating that the Father sends strength to endure, not necessarily escape. The suffering on the Cross, however, is unique to the Son. In that moment, He bore our sins alone, accomplishing a complete atonement to which we can add nothing.  So, we receive His forgiveness and cleansing by faith, receiving it with thankfulness.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:00] This is Good Friday, as we all know, and the events of the original Friday included not only Jesus’ final death, but was preceded by a trial and preceded by a time in the Garden of Gethsemane where he was captured by those who took him to trial. But before that moment of capture came, there was a fair bit of suffering that Jesus went through within himself. And that was in the Garden of Gethsemane. And today we’re going to look into what I’ve called the Garden of Suffering. Because there was suffering that Jesus endured in that Garden of Gethsemane as he contemplated what it was all about and where he was going. And so the Garden of Suffering and the experience that Jesus had is one that’s

[00:00:58] very interestingly provided in the scriptures for us so that we might be encouraged and that we might have resources for the times when we also go through sufferings. We know that Easter is about the suffering of Jesus on the cross. But it’s also about the fact that suffering is a very human thing. Many of us have various levels of suffering. There’s times when people have lost loved ones. There’s times when treasured hopes didn’t come about. There’s times when there’s sickness.

[00:01:38] Times of rejection or the sheer lack of happening something beautiful that we were hoping for. Many of these sufferings are ones which some people, some Christians call they have a cross to bear. And my first thing to say this morning is don’t call your sufferings a cross to bear. The Bible does call us as Christians to take up the cross but it doesn’t mean the things that may be your awkwardnesses or your difficulties. Your cross is not your sickness or the things that have gone wrong.

[00:02:21] But the cross that we’re called to participate in is the sacrifice that Jesus gave example about. It is being prepared to follow the will of God even though it was difficult. Now as we look at this time that Jesus spent in the Garden of Gethsemane and then as he went to the trial and to the crucifixion you could divide what Jesus went through into two sections. They’re all one actually because what he suffered in the Garden

[00:02:53] was through the anticipation of what he was going to suffer on the cross. And he called it my cup. And this is something that in his case was all one. But in terms of that which is given in the scriptures for us to recognise that we copy it is a very good thing to distinguish between the suffering that was prior to Jesus’ arrest to the suffering that he experienced later. And so when I talk this morning about the Garden of Suffering

[00:03:28] I’m talking about this first period of time from when Jesus in the Garden began to be in great distress. and that is what we’re talking about today. Now as we talk about this I think we need to recognise that the purpose of Jesus going through that difficulty in the garden was partially to be an example for us to be a pattern for us to be an encouragement for us

[00:03:55] that we can get God’s help in our sufferings because one of the big differences between this first period of time this suffering in the garden or the garden of suffering is that Jesus did get saved from that time of suffering in the garden. I’ll get onto that in a moment and explain. But the final suffering that he went to was the suffering by which he was abandoned

[00:04:23] by God the Father though God the Father was involved in the whole process as the Bible says that God meaning God the Father God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. It’s not as though the father was absent from what happened on the cross. In fact, the teaching of scripture is that the father was greatly invested

[00:04:46] in what was happening and he suffered in another way from what did his son. Because the scripture, that central gospel verse in John 3.16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only son. And the teaching from the Old Testament with Abraham having to almost offer Isaac was a picture of the fact

[00:05:12] that it was a very painful thing for a father to have to bring his son as a sacrifice. And that picture is telling us of some of the suffering of the father who, when the son was offered on the cross, was experiencing what it was to give his son to such a thing even though it was the son who bore our sins.

[00:05:35] Well, it’s quite a complicated thing that I’m talking about now. I’m just wanting us at the beginning to recognise that many of us have got reasons why we can learn from the first part of Jesus’ suffering that I’m asking you to distinguish from the later time when he bore our sins. That first part of suffering that Jesus had gives us much instruction as to how we can become victorious in it. And sometimes the things that we have as problems, which might be those things that go wrong in our lives,

[00:06:12] can be addressed by looking at Jesus as how he survived through the garden of suffering. And that’s what my sermon is about this morning. Well, as we talk about this, I’m wanting us to understand how the scriptures unload and show what I’m talking about is the case. And I’m trying to make the point of these two parts of Jesus’ suffering. The first part, big this one,

[00:06:40] when he’s in the garden, contemplating going to the cross. But when he wasn’t really wanting, or how better, I might better word it, Jesus wasn’t ready and up to taking on board what he knew he’d come to do. And in many cases with us, we have sufferings in our lives, whether it be a paralysis, or whether it be the sorrow of a lost loved one,

[00:07:06] or whether it be some long hope for things for your life that didn’t eventuate. And when you listen in to people’s lives, you discover that even though we’re Christians, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t sufferings that we’re called to bear. I’ve already said, don’t call them your cross, because that’s something different from what I’m talking about. And what’s more the case is

[00:07:33] that Jesus has given us a pattern in how he suffered in the garden as to how you can find God’s purpose in it for you when you have a suffering. But where’s the biblical evidence for what I’m talking about? We’ll go in the scriptures to John 18, verse 11. And what we have here actually is only the record in John’s gospel about the suffering Jesus did in this first part,

[00:08:04] where he went through something that gives us an example to follow. It’s only one verse in John’s gospel. And it’s the verse where Jesus has gotten over the whole time and where Peter gets into action when they come to arrest Jesus and Peter pulls out his sword and cuts off the ear of, is it Malchus, the servant of the high priest?

[00:08:27] And here in John, in chapter 18, verse 11, Jesus said to Peter, Put your sword into its sheaf. Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me? Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me? Now figurative language Jesus is using of his suffering yet to come. And that cup he has not yet drunk.

[00:08:55] This is my first little pointer to the fact that the suffering in the garden, I’m calling it the garden of suffering, is one that does not yet include the cup. Jesus, no doubt, was feeling it because he was anticipating that future cup. But I won’t take us through here this morning but another message I’ll point out about the Last Supper and how Jesus called it the cup of suffering,

[00:09:24] how Jesus called it the cup of the New Testament, how the book of Hebrews calls it the cup of the shedding of blood. And this is what Jesus had come to bear and it hadn’t yet started and here Jesus in his language says to Peter, shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me? And so this little word in John’s Gospel shows us that you can sort of draw a distinction between the suffering Jesus had been going through up till now

[00:09:56] and the suffering that he was going to go through in the trial and final crucifixion. Well, let’s go further. Why is it that John’s Gospel only has this one verse about the whole business of the suffering in the garden? That really struck me as I began to research for this morning and our Good Friday message. Why was John’s Gospel, which is usually the most spiritually deep of the Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, why does he only bother with one verse?

[00:10:29] And the verse is the culmination of Jesus praying it through and no longer being bothered. Well, that’s the question we’re answering this morning and we’ll go into the other Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and Luke all have about this first period of the suffering, which I’m distinguishing from his later suffering our sins. But Luke in chapter 22 and verses 41 through to 45 is where we’re looking. And this is a passage where you can see about Jesus really having a difficult time.

[00:11:08] He’s got his disciples and they’ve been with him in the garden and now three of them he takes to go a bit further, deeper in where they can perhaps overhear his praying. And he withdrew from them these three about a stone’s throw and knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if you’re willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done. Immediately we discover the people who think Jesus is just God and he’s put on a man look. No, Jesus has got a will

[00:11:47] and here we identify that his will and the Father’s at this moment is not the same. Father, if you’re willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done. You wanted evidence that Jesus is the person of the Trinity but he’s still not the Father. Not my will but yours be done. He’s struggling. And this is a bit of a culmination because earlier he was much more looking like

[00:12:21] he wanted not to have to go through with the cross. Now, he had come into the world for the purpose of dying for our sins. He lived a perfect life obeying the law to qualify to be a sacrifice that was sinless. And now at this last moment in the garden as he begins to get a sense of what it’s going to be like he’s shrinking from it. All of this tells me something about Jesus that he is an example in his humanity

[00:12:51] that many of us also have experienced similar. It tells me that he, the perfect one actually had things which he could hardly stand. And if you’re here this morning and God has somehow allowed you to have something happen in your life that you can’t explain that happens to us as Christians and it is a part of what us to be in a fallen world is a part of Jesus to come into this fallen world

[00:13:20] and to experience all sorts of things none of them, not all of them being good. And so Jesus prays like this. Now the very next verse is very fascinating and there appeared to him an angel from heaven God saw his suffering in the garden and that suffering of the garden that you might have God sees and just as Jesus is a

[00:13:52] as you were an example for us to follow just as Jesus is someone that gives us how it is to be a person before Father God. So we also have our sufferings and suddenly I notice something here that God the Father is not absent from your suffering. He’s not derelict in following you up. He understands what you’re going through

[00:14:20] and when you are praying to him and you say you can’t take it anymore that’s basically what Jesus was saying the Father sent an angel to strengthen him he didn’t take away the purpose why Jesus had come into the world he was in that garden because he was going to go eventually to trial and to death

[00:14:44] but the angel came to strengthen him that he could go through with it and you’ll find if there’s some sorrow in your life you’ll find if there’s something that is just so drastic that you can’t stand it, go and do what Jesus did and pray to him and tell him, I’m not sure I can take this. That’s what he’s saying. And God sent an angel to strengthen.

[00:15:11] Do you realise, of course, that there were several incidents where the Father helped Jesus out, but there’s two particular ones whereby there were angels involved and the other one that I’m thinking of is in the time when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness and he went for 40 days fasting, not eating. He walked out into the wilderness. He was spent. Then the devil came in the time of his weakness. Isn’t that how the devil works?

[00:15:39] Isn’t that how sometimes it happens and you find yourself pressed up against circumstances and you say to yourself, if only I had strength, I could go through this, but you haven’t. Well that was Jesus in the temptation and the Bible tells us that the angels came and ministered to him. I remember as a child reading that passage about the temptation of Jesus and the picture I got in my mind of this group of angels with hymn books.

[00:16:07] They stood around Jesus and flipped the pages to their favourite hymns and sang and that’s what it meant when it said the angels ministered to him. It’s not what it meant at all. It was ministering is when there’s a need and it’s met and when Jesus was at the end of what he had to offer he didn’t have the strength to walk out of the desert. The angels came and ministered to him and just in the parallel way now in the garden of suffering

[00:16:37] when Jesus is praying and he’s not really coming up with the strength to say, yeah, I’m going through to get crucified, give me a cheer. No, he’s not thinking that way at all. He’s saying, Father, if it’s possible, take it away. Are you here this morning and you’ve prayed like that to God? Look at Jesus. He represents you and me before the Father. He represents us as human, a better human than there’s never been. He’s a sinless human, yes, but he’s without strength.

[00:17:15] And the angel gets sent to strengthen him, not to get him out of the problem, but to give him the strength to go through. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground in a normal circumstance to have that much stress. And for you to bleed out of your forehead, big sweat drops, that’s the type of stress that kills people. The angel sent from God was because God the Father knew

[00:17:51] he needed to be strengthened to get through. And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and he found them sleeping. Sleeping for sorrow, a great lot of good they were, to help him. That often is the experience we have too, that if you look to just your human relationships that we have with each other, we can be let down. But I don’t blame the disciples.

[00:18:24] It says they were sleeping for sorrow because Jesus had been saying he was going to die. Jesus had been saying he was going to go away. They didn’t have a chance of standing without Jesus. And they’re sleeping for sorrow. Well, this is in the Gospels. You can find other aspects, reports of this Garden of Suffering Time. You can find it in Matthew, Mark and Luke, but not in John.

[00:18:58] Because John just sums up that there’s an end to it. And the Father provided the help. And that’s why Jesus, by the way, it’s fascinating that the final things that happen before Jesus gets taken away by the people that come to arrest him are two miracles. One’s the miracle of when they come and say we’re seeking for Jesus. And he says, I am he.

[00:19:25] But he words it in a way that means God. I am is the name of God. And they were coming to grab him. And they say, we’re seeking Jesus. And he says, I am he. And they fall back to the ground by the existential, if you like, or the spiritual hit from coming from Jesus as he says, I am. They fall to the ground.

[00:19:47] What a miracle that was. Then the second miracle that happens then is that Peter’s pulled out his sword and he’s slashed at Malthus and cut off his ear. and Jesus tells him to put it up and then Jesus touches the ear. It’s not here in John, I don’t think, but it is in some of the other spots and it’s healed. So the miracle of the power of Jesus

[00:20:09] when they can’t even walk up to him and arrest him and the miracle of the healing of the man in his ear, that happens. Wow, they never got away of arresting him without being confronted with the majesty of who he was. And the power that God the Father worked through him, the power that was his in the very person that he was. Well, what a fascinating story this is. So it is good to be able to distinguish between the suffering of the garden,

[00:20:43] or the garden of suffering I’m calling it, and the suffering that is going to come a little later. Well, let’s understand about that. The difference between the two is really spelled out by the fact that in the first Garden of Suffering, God the Father above saves Jesus from the suffering there. And in the second time when he goes on trial, all sorts of injustice occur to him. When finally he’s beaten up by the soldiers and whipped on the back and brought with it an inch of death

[00:21:29] and then given a cross to carry, there’s no stepping in at the Father. He’s not saved in the second part. I repeat again, it’s not because God’s not involved because the Bible tells us God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. So God the Father’s involved in it. But he’s sharing the suffering by the fact that he has to give his son to this. The son is the one who suffers our sins.

[00:22:01] He didn’t just suffer for our sins, though the Bible says he suffers for our sins, but the other spots make it clear he suffered our sin. And for his holy soul of eternity past, never to be a sinner, his holy soul ever to have relationship with his father, never shattered, never separated, for him to step into, that’s exactly what happened, was the worst suffering in eternity you could imagine. Jesus went to the cross.

[00:22:40] And in that cross, in the three hours of darkness, God allowed the darkness over the world. It wasn’t an eclipse, it was the wrong time of the year. It was a supernatural darkness because it was fitting in that moment when the Father turned his back upon his son, when the Father punished the son, where the wrath of God came upon him for your sins and mine. It was fitting for that moment

[00:23:07] that there should be darkness to signify what was happening to Jesus. He stepped into the greatest darkness there can be, the darkness of sins that are being punished by the Holy Father. This Jesus stepped into that and at the end of it, he cries at his finish, but he also cries, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

[00:23:33] How thou hast forsaken me. Because in that time on the cross, he bore something that none of us ever would bear. Don’t think that you ever get called to join Jesus on his cross. The Bible tells us that we’re called to the principle of the cross to do just as Jesus had to do in the garden earlier of coming to grips with the will of God and being prepared to step toward it. And every one of us has different things, which is our cross in that sense, but it’s not bearing your sins.

[00:24:07] And the wonderful news of the gospel is that what Jesus did on the cross, he alone has had to do. And when he did it, he did it so that we don’t have to. There’s nothing in Christianity that calls for you to have to atone for your own sins, the whole mention of the atonement is that God has done it and Jesus finished it and it’s not to be done by you and the difference between the earlier part in the garden is that the father was helping Jesus

[00:24:37] to go through that time of that suffering in the garden as he contemplated what was about to occur but in this time that it actually happens he does it alone that’s probably a part of what he dreaded the cutting off from his father and to have to cry, why have you forsaken me? For your sins he bore them on the cross. He didn’t just take a punishment for you, got a hand slap. No, he bore your sins and the wrath of God came on him

[00:25:15] and he being the infinite God man exhausted that wrath for your sins and made a complete atonement so you don’t have to do another thing about them. The gospel is this message that says that God has done it, God has finished it and God calls you to step into the benefit of it. That’s the call of the gospel. Come and be forgiven but do not try to offer him anything for it. You’ll have your crosses to bear but you don’t add to the payment it is complete and it’s the greatest insult in all of eternity that you think something that you do, being a nice Christian or going and doing church works or somehow helping the neighbour across the street

[00:26:04] or trying to do your best living though you’ve had a few failures you’d just rather not think of. All of that adds nothing to Jesus’ sacrifice. When he died for you on the cross, he finished all that was necessary for you’re forgiven, your atonement is total and complete and one of the signs of someone who’s actually understood that is that they just accept the forgiveness and say thank you. It’s one of the signs of people truly converted is for the rest of their lives they know that it’s just saying thank you

[00:26:43] just saying thank you because your atonement is something Jesus totally worked. He’s actually going to take the consequences of it take the fact that his blood was shed to heaven I want to talk one of these other services this weekend on why there’s a verse in Romans 4 that says that he was raised for our justification and to give you a little hint he was raised because he took the result of his successful death

[00:27:22] into heaven and secured the status of you being justified by so doing so his resurrection participated now I’ve given the sermon I don’t know whether I’ll have we’ll see what happens but it’s a fantastic thing that by his matchless death and by the fact that he was raised from the dead

[00:27:46] and went to heaven and took his victory into the very centre of the throne of God and made a place for you to sit down with him one of our home groups is going through the steps of how the first step is to sit with Christ because God has made us to sit as Christians if you’re a Christian you’d be made to sit with Jesus

[00:28:12] in heavenly places spiritually speaking that’s the starting point of your Christian walk the next spot is that you learn to walk and the walking is walking after the spirit allowing the spirit to help you one step after another and the third step is then to stand against the evil one who would knock you over and to use all the Ephesians list of weaponry that we’re given

[00:28:42] to stand, sit, walk, stand is what that home group is going through well all of that is because Jesus has done what’s necessary for him to go to heaven and get your, I was going to say ticket but it’s not like getting a qualification or something, Jesus’ death is your qualification and you don’t need to add anything to it what a relief, many of us when we come to Christ we get in the door that way but we don’t

[00:29:20] fully grasp that there’s nothing for us to add to his atonement, it’s been done and even if we slip up and sin that verse in 1 John as you’re often hearing me say 1 John 1.9, if we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin because he’s already atoned for it and he’s faithful to carry it through if you confess your sin

[00:29:52] he’s faithful and just to forgive you your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness and the cleansing of the outcome of his death is one that is never going to run out or become incapable of keeping you right with God what a fantastic message is the Easter message

[00:30:20] as to what Jesus has done I think that it’s wonderful when we learn to distinguish between the call that we have to be obedient and that suffering in the garden part gives us a model as to how you can overcome the horrors of your fear

[00:30:47] of not making true obedience because you see number one he has atoned for all your sins and number two he’s going to send his angel or send a friend or do you know

[00:31:02] something happens in the church for different ones of us who’ve got different gifts but there are amongst us some who have a gift that they just get sent to help people and Michelle and I have had times when overseas

[00:31:21] when we’ve been in desperate need and along came just a human person who was a Christian but God sent them and they did something or provided something or encouraged with something that was just from heaven

[00:31:39] and that sort of thing is what God does so don’t give up if you’re struggling and you feel as though you’ve somehow been defeated and you’ve found yourself retreating and you’ve made a

[00:31:54] Christian stand but you’ve sort of been going backwards because Jesus can help you and his example as he suffered in the garden the first part tells us how it comes

[00:32:09] it comes from God it might not necessarily be a supernatural angel it might be a human angel or it might be a turn of circumstances where you thought

[00:32:23] you were done and God says nobody’s done till I’m finished with it and that’s the lesson we learn from the garden of suffering it’s not a suffering

[00:32:38] whereby you get out of commitment to do the right thing but it’s a suffering whereby he comes and strengthens you I hope you find

[00:32:51] this detailing about the garden of suffering a great help and a great encouragement to know that God

[00:33:01] is with you and to keep it in your mind also that it’s not anything that you have to do to add to the atonement the death

[00:33:11] that Jesus died the sins he bore the opening with heaven that he made you don’t have to add anything to it just live in the light of what it is let’s pray

[00:33:23] Father I do pray if there’s anyone here who’s never really grasped either of these two things, one that you’re in the business of saving us from not being able to make it and someone

[00:33:43] here might have felt that they’ve let you down Lord would you send an angel to them whatever form that’s in Lord I thank you for the second type of suffering the one that Jesus did on his own and I thank you that we never have

[00:34:09] to repeat it, we never have to add anything to the atonement he has paid for our sins we don’t even have to bother writing up a history or anything we don’t have to bother whipping ourselves in the back

[00:34:29] like in that film the long fellow whips himself in the back as what his church connections told him to do Lord save us from misreading what Christianity is all about that we think

[00:34:45] it’s somehow being told to whip ourselves one way or another help us to live in the light of the finished atonement done by our Lord Jesus Christ and how he eventually takes that victory to heaven and has our status of being absolutely justified oh Father we praise you for the reality that is behind Easter in Jesus name Amen.