Most Significant Prayer • Luke 22:21-38
1:05:26 Teaching begins
Notes
Jesus is about to give Himself to die for the sins of the world. You would think that alone is the conflict, all the opposition and mocking and beatings, and the crucifixion that He must overcome by the resurrection.
But before the crucifixion we see Him fight another fight. It’s the spiritual fight to give Himself completely to do the will of God. Man looks on the outside; the Lord looks on the heart. Will Jesus completely surrender to the Father, to do all His will? Or will He think about Himself and try to preserve Himself? He can’t save Himself and save others.
Jesus overcomes this spiritual fight by praying the most significant prayer, “Not My will, but Yours be done.”
We’re reading Luke 22 from verse 39.
1. Jesus commands His disciples to pray.
A. This is after the Passover meal they’ve just eaten in the large, furnished upper room in Jerusalem.
B. Now they head out to the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke 21:37 says He would teach during the days in the temple and spend the night on the Mount of Olives. Gethsemane is at the foot of the Mount of Olives, and it means Olive Press. You put olives in the press and crush them to release the olive oil. Jesus has been doing this every night so that Judas would know where to find Him tonight.
C. Jesus commands the disciples, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” You can see in verse 45 they didn’t pray. They slept. They probably thought, “Temptation? To do what? What’s prayer got to do with anything?”
2. But you notice Jesus Himself prays with all that He has.
A. He goes off a stone’s throw, maybe 30 or 40 yards, and kneels, and prays.
B. We know from other gospels that He prayed for about three hours. There’s a reason for that. The first thing that the high priest does on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is he burns two handfuls of incense in a censer that he holds through the curtain into the Holy of Holies, the very presence of God, and he is commanded to cover the mercy seat of God with the smoke of the incense, lest he die. He is to approach the presence of God through much prayer. His life and the sacrifice he offers depends on praying so that God accepts him.
C. What Jesus prays is absolutely acceptable to the Father: “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” He prays for three hours that God’s will and purpose would be accomplished in His life perfectly and completely.
D. God’s purpose is that Jesus suffer.
1. Jesus knows that He will be arrested, tried, and condemned to death, being completely innocent, not having committed any crime. It’s unjust, unfair, it’s wicked.
2. But it’s worse than that. While being executed in the most disgusting way, Jesus will undergo God’s punishment for all sin, for all time. All the wrath of God against all wickedness and sin will fall on Jesus. Psalm 90:11 Who understands the power of Your anger and Your fury, according to the fear that is due You? Jesus is going to experience that anger and fury, so that God can save sinners.
E. No sane person would want to suffer, and especially endure the eternal wrath of God. So it’s understandable that Jesus prays, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup from Me.” He’s expressing His desire for the Father to save Him. He is the only sinless person who has ever lived. He does not deserve to die.
F. But He follows that up with His prayer, “Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.”
1. If the Father saves Jesus from dying, then His righteous wrath against sin has to fall on every single person, and no sinner can be saved. Justice must be carried out, judgment against sin must fall, or else the Judge of all the earth isn’t just. Every single person is going to get what they deserve, eternal punishment, separated from God forever.
2. Therefore, in order to fulfil God’s will, Jesus prays for God’s will above His own will. May Your will be established above all. May Your good, acceptable, and perfect will to save sinners be done.
3. Jesus can’t save Himself and sinners at the same time. The chief priests mocked Him for this: “He saved others but He can’t save Himself!” That’s the conflict. To save others, He must give up Himself to the will of God.
G. Remember, Jesus commanded His disciples to pray lest they enter temptation. The temptation is to preserve self and not fulfil the will of God.
H. Jesus struggles in prayer.
1. He is surrounded with agony. He is wrestling, skin on skin, muscles straining, you grapple and strive to trip or throw your opponent down or off balance. You shift balance, try tricks to throw off your opponent.
2. The tricks in prayer are to make you think about yourself and how bad your situation is. No one is going to help you, especially God. Then the temptation is to move you to preserve yourself. Save yourself. No one else will, and then you’re gone. You aren’t going to accomplish anything. You are fruitless, you haven’t done anything. The devil knows every trick there is to make you focus on yourself.
3. An angel appears to Him from heaven, strengthening Him, because He needs strength. He doesn’t have enough on His own. Part of His prayer is for the strength to pray rightly.
4. He’s sweating drops like blood. I’ve never prayed like this. You haven’t either. He did.
I. At a certain point, He’s done. He prayed until He received everything He cried out for: the strength and wisdom and patience and enabling, and presence of God, so that God’s perfect will would be established through Him. He has committed all that He is to God. It’s going to happen. Now all He has to do is go out and do it. But He will do it, because He asked and the Father answered.
3. The disciples disobey Jesus. They didn’t pray when He told them to.
A. They were sleeping from sorrow.
1. Sorrow is deep distress, sadness, or regret especially for the loss of someone loved.
2. They heard Jesus speak about going to the Father. He spoke about things hard to understand and said the Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth, but at that moment they didn’t understand what was going on even though Jesus told them many times. This bread is His body? This cup is His blood? What?
3. Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat? But I’ve prayed for you, that your faith may not fail? What’s going to happen?
4. They can’t figure it out, so they’re sleeping. It’s night, it’s late, there’s nothing else to do. At least when you’re asleep you’re not thinking about things you don’t understand. So the disciples deal with this by not dealing with it. They disengage. They sleep.
B. When Jesus is ready, they’re sleeping.
C. He says, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.” It’s the same command. There is no higher priority at a time like this.
4. But it’s too late. The crisis breaks: Judas betrays Jesus. Jesus stands in the crisis, and the disciples fall.
A. It’s a letdown to be betrayed. There’s no reason for this. It doesn’t make it feel any better that Jesus knew he was going to do it. He even tried to tell Judas, I know you’re thinking of it, it’s not good, don’t do it.
B. Jesus could have lost control here and sinned, become outraged or indignant, and say something nasty because He’s focused on Himself, but He doesn’t sin. He remains in control and continues to treat someone who became His enemy with love and truth.
C. The disciples react in a natural way, guaranteed to get them killed.
1. Jesus told us to take swords, this must be why, want us to fight? Don’t wait for an answer, whack! Cut off an ear!
2. This is natural self-preservation. Preserve one’s existence, defend yourself.
D. Jesus has the presence of mind to stop the resistance before it gets out of hand. He heals the slave’s ear. There’s nothing to fight about, let these go.
E. He also has the presence of mind to reprove the crowd for arresting Him and not sin. I was in the temple and you didn’t dare touch Me. This is about the power of darkness, and you’re involved in it.
5. Peter has the best intentions but no preparation from God, no presence of mind to do anything beyond preserving his own life.
A. He follows Jesus at a distance because he told Him, I’m ready to go to prison and to death with You. So he’s following as close as he dares but this is scary and a guy could get killed, so it’s not that close.
B. Then people start figuring he’s been with Jesus.
1. A little serving girl scares him to death, coming up to him and looking right in his face and saying to everyone else, “This guy was also with Him.” Self-preservation makes him say, “I don’t know Him!”
2. The next guy says right to Peter, “You’re one of them,” and Peter says, “No! I’m not!”
3. An hour later Peter is still sweating bullets and someone else confidently affirms, “Surely this fellow also was with Him, for he is a Galilean.” Self-preservation kicks in, Peter denies Jesus a third time, a rooster crows, Jesus looks at Peter. Eye-contact. Remembering in a flash: before the rooster crows you will deny Me three times.
C. Peter goes out and weeps bitterly.
1. Now he’s reproaching himself and beating himself up for being stupid, for denying Jesus, for being scared by a little girl, how could I have done that? Do I even believe in Jesus? What’s going to happen? Satan is right there, sifting Peter like wheat.
2. What got Peter there to that place? Pray that you may not enter temptation, the temptation to think about yourself, rely on yourself, and not commit your way to the Lord and let Him establish it.
6. So what?
A. The most significant prayer you can pray at any time, in any situation, is, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” Then you are trusting God to work out His good, acceptable, and perfect will. You are living for God’s purpose and not your own.
B. The difficulty is, doing the will of God means denying yourself, suffering in order to help others. And no one in their right mind volunteers to suffer. It goes against human nature. By default you think about yourself. You will naturally preserve your life and not do the will of God.
C. You need Jesus’ help to pray because only He has the heart to pray, “Not My will, but Yours be done.” He has done it and He can do it in you.
1. Have you received Jesus? Are you born again of God’s Holy Spirit? Then you have a new nature that can obey God.
2. Then you can pray, “Not my will, but Yours be done,” because Jesus is helping you. Jesus prayed with help from God. You pray with help from Jesus.
D. You start now and keep going. This wasn’t the first time Jesus prayed this prayer. It was the prayer of His life. So start praying for God’s will in every part of your life. My life is Yours. You are in control. You have prepared for this situation. What do You want, Heavenly Father?
E. When you pray this way, when you surrender, God gives you peace. You have that calm just like Jesus. You’re not fighting to get your way. It’s not about you, it’s about what God wants. You are committed to God getting His way, which is better.
Let’s pray.