Latest / Bible stories / Jesus Prepares for Death (Mark 14_32–52) Lesson Summary _biblestoriest6e

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Jesus Prepares for Death (Mark 14_32–52) Lesson Summary _biblestoriest6e · Bible stories

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Speaker 1: Picture something from the ancient world. In Israel, when olives
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Speaker 1: were harvested, they were taken to a large stone device
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Speaker 1: called an olive press. The olives were placed under a
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Speaker 1: heavy crushing wheel. As the wheel slowly turned, the olives
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Speaker 1: were crushed. Their hard skin would break open. And under
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Speaker 1: that pressure, the oil inside would begin to flow out.
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Speaker 1: That oil was valuable. Families used it for cooking, for
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Speaker 1: light in their lamps, for medicine, and even for worship
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Speaker 1: in the temple. But the oil could not be released
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Speaker 1: until the olives were pressed. Now here's something interesting. The
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Speaker 1: place where Jesus prayed the night before his arrest was
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Speaker 1: called the Garden of Gethsemane. The word Gethsemane literally means
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Speaker 1: olive press. So when the gospel writers tell us Jesus
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Speaker 1: went to the garden of Gethsemane, they're not just telling
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Speaker 1: us where he was. They are telling us what he
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Speaker 1: was about to experience. Because in that garden, Jesus was
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Speaker 1: about to be pressed. The weight of the cross was
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Speaker 1: pressing on him. The sin of the world was pressing
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Speaker 1: on him. The wrath of God that he would bear
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Speaker 1: for sinners was pressing on him. Luke tells us the
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Speaker 1: pressure was so intense that his sweat became like drops
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Speaker 1: of blood falling to the ground. Before Jesus was nailed
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Speaker 1: to the cross, he was already being crushed in the garden.
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Speaker 1: And just like olives release oil when they are crushed,
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Speaker 1: The pressure of Gethsemane revealed what was inside of Jesus.
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Speaker 1: Not fear, not rebellion, not even anger. What came out
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Speaker 1: of him was obedience. Not my will, but thy will
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Speaker 1: be done. Now, before we get into the text, I
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Speaker 1: want you to see where the garden fits into the
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Speaker 1: whole story of the Bible. Because it is not just
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Speaker 1: any garden. The Bible actually has three gardens. The first
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Speaker 1: garden is the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapters 2
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Speaker 1: and 3. That is where human history began, where God
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Speaker 1: gave man everything he needed, and where man chose his
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Speaker 1: own will over God's. Sin entered the world in a garden.
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Speaker 1: The last garden is the Garden of City of Revelation
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Speaker 1: 21 and 22. The new Jerusalem. Where God dwells with
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Speaker 1: his people. Where there is no more sin. No more tears.
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Speaker 1: No more death. That is where history is headed. But
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Speaker 1: between the garden of Eden. The garden where man fell.
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Speaker 1: And the garden where God reigns. In the book of Revelation.
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Speaker 1: There is Gethsemane. The garden in the middle. The garden
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Speaker 1: where the second Adam did what the first Adam refused
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Speaker 1: to do. The garden where Jesus took the cup from
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Speaker 1: his father's hand and said yes. So that you and
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Speaker 1: I could one day walk into that final garden and
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Speaker 1: be at home. Everything was riding on what happened in
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Speaker 1: that garden. The fate of every scattered sheep, every broken sinner,
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Speaker 1: every person who had ever failed God, all of it
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Speaker 1: was pressing down on one man. And that man is
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. And so when I think about pressure, it
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Speaker 1: actually reminds me of back in the day when I
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Speaker 1: played basketball in the hood, if you will. We played
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Speaker 1: basketball on the basketball court. We would talk a lot
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Speaker 1: of trash. One of the most common statements that we
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Speaker 1: would make is pressure will burst a pipe. Yeah, pressure
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Speaker 1: will burst a pipe. What that means is this. When
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Speaker 1: the pressure gets high, whoever is weak is going to break.
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Speaker 1: The pressure reveals what someone is really made of. And
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Speaker 1: so that's exactly what happens in this passage. In the garden,
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Speaker 1: the pressure rises. And the pressure rises. When it rises,
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Speaker 1: we see three different responses that will occur. We see,
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Speaker 1: first of all, the surrendered Savior. The surrendered Savior. And
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Speaker 1: then we see the stumbling saints. And then finally, I'm
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Speaker 1: so glad, that third point, we see the settled script.
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Speaker 1: The settled script. So our lesson summary is covering Mark 14,
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Speaker 1: verses 32 to through 52 mark 14 32 through 52
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Speaker 1: so the first thing we see is the surrendered savior
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Speaker 1: verses 32 through 36 the lord's response to pressure in
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Speaker 1: a nutshell was prayer and obedience jesus took peter james
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Speaker 1: and john further in right into the garden and then
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Speaker 1: still further alone by himself And this is the first
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Speaker 1: time in Mark's gospel that we see Jesus lying prostrate
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Speaker 1: on the ground. This is not a casual prayer before
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Speaker 1: a meal. This is a man on his face before God,
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Speaker 1: before his father, that is, the night before his death.
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Speaker 1: Even here, Jesus shows us that when pressure peaks in
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Speaker 1: our lives, The right response is not to run outwardly,
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Speaker 1: but to go deeper inwardly with the father. And so
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Speaker 1: the question we should ask ourselves is how often when
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Speaker 1: pressure builds in our lives, how often is prayer really
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Speaker 1: the last thing for that matter that we reach for?
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Speaker 1: It's not the first. Too often, it's not the first.
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Speaker 1: Often it's panic. It's what we're going to see right here,
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Speaker 1: what the disciples did. But the Lord, the first thing
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Speaker 1: he does in surrendering to his father is he separated
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Speaker 1: himself away from his disciples to pray. Not only did
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Speaker 1: he separate himself, but then he spoke honestly about his pain,
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Speaker 1: verses 33b through 35. Mark uses two of the strongest
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Speaker 1: words for emotional distress in the entire New Testament, greatly
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Speaker 1: distress and trouble. Jesus tells his disciples plainly, my soul
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Speaker 1: is very sorrowful, even unto death. He does not dress
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Speaker 1: it up. He does not pretend. As a matter of fact,
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Speaker 1: it's a good idea to always read Make sure you
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Speaker 1: read the parallel accounts in the Gospels whenever you're studying
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Speaker 1: the Gospels. So here, Luke 22, 44 helps us. It
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Speaker 1: tells us that his agony was so intense that his
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Speaker 1: sweat became like drops of blood, which was a real
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Speaker 1: physiological response to extreme psychological suffering. Jesus brought his real pain,
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Speaker 1: in other words, to the father. This should free us
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Speaker 1: up to do the same thing. In moments of pressure,
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Speaker 1: when it feels like the pipe is about to break,
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Speaker 1: God is not looking for a polished prayer. Oh no,
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Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I'm not praying no
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Speaker 1: polished prayer in a time of struggle, in a time
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Speaker 1: of a storm. When the rubber meets the road, he's
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Speaker 1: looking for honest prayers, honest and open. So Jesus, he
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Speaker 1: separated himself to pray. He spoke honestly about his pain.
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Speaker 1: But then he submitted his will to the Father. Verse 36.
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Speaker 1: This is really the hinge right here of this prayer.
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Speaker 1: The whole passage is Abba Father. It's the word a
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Speaker 1: child uses for their dad. It is an intimate and
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Speaker 1: real word. word that a child would use he asked
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Speaker 1: the father to remove the cup if possible that's an
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Speaker 1: honest petition but then it comes to a turn when
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Speaker 1: he says yet not what i will but what you
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Speaker 1: will father matthew 26 42 shows us that by his
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Speaker 1: second prayer the language has shifted by the third the
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Speaker 1: request has become a resolution He did not pretend the
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Speaker 1: cost was small. He counted the cost, brought it honestly
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Speaker 1: to his father, and then surrendered to the mission anyway.
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Speaker 1: And that is what mature, submitted faith looks like. Not
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Speaker 1: the absence of struggle, but the presence of surrender. Abba, Father.
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Speaker 1: So think about the hardest thing pressing on you right now.
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Speaker 1: maybe it's a failing marriage maybe it's a diagnosis from
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Speaker 1: the doctor you did not expect maybe it's a season
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Speaker 1: that will not let up maybe it's the foolishness that's
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Speaker 1: going on in this country right now the question is
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Speaker 1: not whether you feel pressure the question is What does
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Speaker 1: the pressure bring out of you? Jesus in Gethsemane shows
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Speaker 1: us that the honest prayer and submitted obedience are not
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Speaker 1: signs of weakness, as the world would say. They are
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Speaker 1: the most courageous things a person can do. Some of
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Speaker 1: us have been fighting for control of situations that were
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Speaker 1: never ours to control. Gethsemane is an invitation to to
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Speaker 1: lay them down. So the question I want to ask
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Speaker 1: is when life starts pressing in and the pressure builds,
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Speaker 1: is prayer the first thing you reach for or the last?
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Speaker 1: And what does your honest answer tell you about where
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Speaker 1: your real faith is? So while Jesus was pressing into
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Speaker 1: his father in prayer, he returns to his closest friends
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Speaker 1: and finds them doing something totally different. Now, what did
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Speaker 1: he tell them to do? Watch and pray. But he
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Speaker 1: finds them basically, in a nutshell, laying on pillows, asleep.
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Speaker 1: In other words, they were asleep. And so not only
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Speaker 1: do we see the surrendered Savior, but then we see
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Speaker 1: the stumbling saints. That's verses 37 through 42. And then
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Speaker 1: we have to jump all the way down We got
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Speaker 1: to include verses 50 through 52. So while Jesus is
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Speaker 1: pressing in on his father in prayer, his closest disciples,
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Speaker 1: they are failing him. And let's look at two distinct ways.
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Speaker 1: And we'll come back to this in the third point. Because, yes,
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Speaker 1: there's more than two things that they did wrong. But
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Speaker 1: two distinct ways. They did not fail all at once,
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Speaker 1: by the way. In one dramatic moment, they stumble progressively.
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Speaker 1: That's how sin is. It's like a slippery slope. First
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Speaker 1: in a quiet garden. Then, of course, there was this
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Speaker 1: time of, you know, the moment of arrest. And then
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Speaker 1: in the darkness as the crowd led Jesus away. Each
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Speaker 1: stumble reveals a different face of what the flesh does
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Speaker 1: when pressure rises. So let's just look at the first two.
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Speaker 1: Excuse me, the first two. First of all, first way
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Speaker 1: they stumble is they slept when he asked them to stand.
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Speaker 1: Verses 37 through 41. Jesus had asked three men, Peter, James,
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Speaker 1: and John, his inner circle, right, to stay awake and watch.
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Speaker 1: He comes back and finds all three of them asleep.
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Speaker 1: And notice, notice here, As we move to that next point,
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Speaker 1: notice here his inner circle. He told them again to
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Speaker 1: stay awake and watch. He comes back, he finds all
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Speaker 1: three asleep and notice who he singles out, Simon. Notice
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Speaker 1: he didn't call him Peter. He said, Simon, are you asleep?
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Speaker 1: He calls him by his old name, not Peter the rock,
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Speaker 1: but Simon the fisherman. Hours earlier, the same man, right? said,
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Speaker 1: even if everyone else falls away, I will not. But
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Speaker 1: when the moment came, he could not even stay awake
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Speaker 1: for one hour. As a matter of fact, Matthew 26,
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Speaker 1: 40 says, makes it even more plain or more clear.
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Speaker 1: Could you not watch with me one hour? What Jesus
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Speaker 1: wanted was not just duty. He wanted company. He wanted
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Speaker 1: them with him. And they were not there. He returns
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Speaker 1: a second time. What are they doing? They sleep. A
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Speaker 1: third time. What are they doing? They're asleep. Three failures
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Speaker 1: in the garden. As a matter of fact, the same night,
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Speaker 1: three denials from the same man, right? Peter, who said, Lord,
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Speaker 1: I'll never deny you. Yeah. Three times he denied later on.
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Speaker 1: It's not a coincidence. So Jesus gives them a diagnosis
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Speaker 1: rather than a rebuke. He says the spirit is willing,
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Speaker 1: but the flesh is weak. He's not excusing them, right?
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Speaker 1: Not excusing them. He is explaining to them and to us,
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Speaker 1: you can have a desire to pray. You want to
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Speaker 1: read your Bible, read through your Bible for that matter.
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Speaker 1: You long to serve in the church and still fall
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Speaker 1: asleep on the mission because you have not dealt with
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Speaker 1: your flesh. The remedy is not to try harder. It
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Speaker 1: is to watch and pray. You can't out-muscle the flesh
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Speaker 1: with willpower. You have to resist the flesh by way
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Speaker 1: of the spirit, that is, and then feed your spirit instead.
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Speaker 1: Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. They slept
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Speaker 1: when he asked them to stand, but then they struck
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Speaker 1: when he called them to submit. Now that's Peter, verse 47.
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Speaker 1: When the crowd seizes Jesus, One of his disciples does
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Speaker 1: not run, at least not yet. Peter draws his sword
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Speaker 1: and cuts off Malchus, the high priest's servant, cuts off
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Speaker 1: his ear. John 18.10. In one sense, I mean, it
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Speaker 1: sounds like, you know, this is something loyal. He's been
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Speaker 1: loyal to the master, but in another sense, it's wrong.
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Speaker 1: In his heart, even though he felt like his heart
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Speaker 1: was in the right place, his method was completely out
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Speaker 1: of step with the mission. Jesus rebukes him immediately, put
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Speaker 1: the sword away. All who take the sword will perish
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Speaker 1: by the sword. Do you not think I can call
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Speaker 1: my father and he will at once at my disposal, what?
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Speaker 1: Bring 12 legions of angels as Matthew 26, 52 through 53.
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Speaker 1: That's 72,000 angels. And Jesus chose not to use a
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Speaker 1: single one. Why? Because salvation is, It's not going to
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Speaker 1: happen by way of a sword, but by the shed
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Speaker 1: blood of the Savior on the cross. So the disciples
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Speaker 1: did not plan to abandon Jesus. In fact, all of them,
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Speaker 1: not just Peter, all of them followed Peter and said, Lord,
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Speaker 1: we're not going to abandon you. At least they said
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Speaker 1: it hours before. Peter pledged his life, but there is
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Speaker 1: a straight line or really a thin line between sleeping
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Speaker 1: in the garden and then scattering at the arrest. The
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Speaker 1: person who falls into serious sin on a Friday did
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Speaker 1: not stumble. It didn't just happen out of nowhere. For them, basically,
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Speaker 1: perhaps it was a week that was skipped from prayer,
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Speaker 1: ignored convictions, small compromises. We rarely crash without drifting firsts.
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Speaker 1: What is the first domino of sin in your life
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Speaker 1: right now? What small habit or missing habit is quietly
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Speaker 1: setting up a bigger failure down the road? Looking honestly
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Speaker 1: at your life right now, are you sleeping? Are you
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Speaker 1: in a sleeping stage for God, against God, the striking stage,
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Speaker 1: much like Peter? Or have you already scattered from something
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Speaker 1: God called you to? And what would it take to
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Speaker 1: stop the drift before it becomes a fall? So we
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Speaker 1: got two stumbles, two ways the flesh fell when the
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Speaker 1: pressure rose, right? But something else is happening in the
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Speaker 1: same scene as we look at this last point that
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Speaker 1: the disciples could not see. What looked like chaos was
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Speaker 1: actually a script running exactly on schedule this right here
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Speaker 1: blew me away in verses 43 through 42 i didn't
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Speaker 1: see this at first and i kept reading it too
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Speaker 1: fast and you cannot read it too fast because if
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Speaker 1: you read these verses too fast you will miss the
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Speaker 1: most important statement found in the b section of verse
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Speaker 1: 49 which is really our shout right here it starts
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Speaker 1: with the conjunction but but the scriptures must be fulfill
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Speaker 1: in other words no matter how bad things may be
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Speaker 1: in our lives no matter how much pressure we face
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Speaker 1: god can insert the conjunction but and it changes everything
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Speaker 1: we may have a bad doctor's report but god our
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Speaker 1: friends may desert us in our time of need but
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Speaker 1: god The conjunction but simply means no matter what happens
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Speaker 1: in our lives, God's will is going to be accomplished.
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Speaker 1: But the scriptures must be fulfilled. Five words. And in
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Speaker 1: those five words, Jesus tells us what looks like a
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Speaker 1: hostile takeover is actually a divine appointment. So let's review
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Speaker 1: these moments real quickly and I'll close. First of all,
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Speaker 1: the script was settled even though Judas had a scheme, right?
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Speaker 1: He had a scheme. He had a scheme. And so
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Speaker 1: Judas's betrayal is what I'm referring to in verses 43
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Speaker 1: through 46. Judas's scheme was in the script. Judas leads
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Speaker 1: this armed crowd into the garden, a crowd of temple police,
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Speaker 1: Roman soldiers who hated Jesus, right? And Judas kisses him
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Speaker 1: to identify him as the one that they needed to arrest.
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Speaker 1: It looks like the enemy's plan is working perfectly, but
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Speaker 1: Psalm 41 9 had already written it centuries before. And
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Speaker 1: that is when it says, even my close friend in
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Speaker 1: whom I trusted, who I ate my bread, has lifted
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Speaker 1: his heel against me. The betrayal by a trusted companion,
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Speaker 1: the specific act of intimacy weaponized against the son of God,
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Speaker 1: none of it caught heaven off guard. John 18, 4
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Speaker 1: also adds a detail Mark does not include. Before anyone
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Speaker 1: could lay a hand on him, Jesus stepped forward and
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Speaker 1: asked the crowd, whom do you seek? Because he knew.
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Speaker 1: He already knew. When he said, I am he, the
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Speaker 1: entire armed crowd drew back and fell to the ground.
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Speaker 1: He was not surprised. He was not caught off guard. Remember,
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Speaker 1: he's the God man. He knows all things equally well.
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Speaker 1: He knew this was going to happen. Therefore, he stepped
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Speaker 1: into the moment because it had been written in the
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Speaker 1: script and he was ready. Too often, we miss the
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Speaker 1: fact that the schemes of our enemies are allowed, are
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Speaker 1: actually written in the script of our lives in order
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Speaker 1: for God to fulfill his will. So the scheme was
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Speaker 1: in the script. The sword of Peter that we just
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Speaker 1: talked about, that was already in the script. Peter draws
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Speaker 1: his sword. Remember, he cuts off Malchus' ear, the high priest,
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Speaker 1: John 18.10. Yeah, it looked like a passionate act, but
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Speaker 1: it was a wrong act. Jesus rebuked him. We already know.
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Speaker 1: Matthew 26.54 records his answer. How then will the scriptures
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Speaker 1: be fulfilled that say it must happen this way? In
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Speaker 1: other words, Peter, you're trying to get in the way
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Speaker 1: of God's will. What you're trying to do, no, that's
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Speaker 1: not going to happen. What you're doing actually is in
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Speaker 1: the script. Then Luke records this moment, Luke 22, 51,
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Speaker 1: when Jesus reached out and healed again Malchus' ear. Now
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Speaker 1: think about that for a moment. He's on his way
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Speaker 1: to the cross and he's still healing an enemy that
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Speaker 1: healing the enemy's ear. It was in the script. The
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Speaker 1: script was not going to be rewritten by one fisherman
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Speaker 1: and a sword. And so not only was the scheme
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Speaker 1: in the script, the sword was in the script, but
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Speaker 1: the last thing, the scattering was in the script. The
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Speaker 1: scattering of the disciples. Jesus confronts the armed crowd. He
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Speaker 1: told them day after day, I sat in the temple
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Speaker 1: courts teaching and you did not arrest me But they
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Speaker 1: needed darkness, obviously, because they could not justify in the
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Speaker 1: light what they were doing in the dark. And then
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Speaker 1: he plainly says to them, but the scriptures must be fulfilled.
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Speaker 1: What happens next, again, looks like a total collapse. Verse 50,
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Speaker 1: they all fled, right? Every single one of them. And
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Speaker 1: even the young man following at a distance ran away
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Speaker 1: naked rather than being seized. Verses 51 and 52, many
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Speaker 1: scholars believe This is actually Mark himself quietly inserting his
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Speaker 1: own moment of flight into the account as an eyewitness
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Speaker 1: to this particular account. If so, it's probably one of
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Speaker 1: the most honest things we find in the gospel from
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Speaker 1: one of the disciples. But here is what we cannot miss.
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Speaker 1: Before the disciples scattered, Jesus stepped forward and told the
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Speaker 1: soldiers plainly. Don't miss this. In John 18, 8. If
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Speaker 1: you seek me, let these go away. Yeah, he did
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Speaker 1: not need them to stay, right? He cleared a path
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Speaker 1: for them to flee on purpose. John adds that Jesus
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Speaker 1: said this to fulfill his own words. I have not
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Speaker 1: lost one of these. You gave one of those you
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Speaker 1: gave me. The scattering was not a surprise to Jesus.
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Speaker 1: And it was not outside of God's control. He orchestrated it.
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Speaker 1: He protected them on the way out of the garden.
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Speaker 1: And Zechariah had already written about it 500 years earlier.
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Speaker 1: Jesus had quoted the prophecy himself at the Passover table
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Speaker 1: just hours earlier. I strike the shepherd and the sheep
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Speaker 1: will be scattered. Zechariah 13, 7. So what looked like
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Speaker 1: total abandonment Abandonment was actually the precise fulfillment of the
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Speaker 1: ancient scripture. It was an act of the good shepherd
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Speaker 1: keeping his sheep safe even as he walked toward the cross.
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Speaker 1: Not one detail in the garden of Gethsemane was outside
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Speaker 1: of God's plan. Not even the exit of every person
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Speaker 1: who loved him. There are seasons in our lives, as
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Speaker 1: I close, when everything looks like it's falling apart. When
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Speaker 1: someone you trusted betrays you. when the thing you feared
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Speaker 1: most actually happens, when everyone you counted on disappears, in
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Speaker 1: those moments, the natural tendency is panic and despair. But
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Speaker 1: in Gethsemane, Gethsemane tells us something totally different. The most
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Speaker 1: chaotic night in human history, a betrayal, a violent outburst,
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Speaker 1: an arrest, a full-scale scattering, was running inside the sovereign
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Speaker 1: plan of God, Down to the last detail. And so,
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Speaker 1: as I close, what does the Ali Press reveal about
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Speaker 1: our lives? When the pressure came down on Gethsemane, here's
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Speaker 1: what came out of each person in the garden. The
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Speaker 1: disciples' undisciplined flesh. Out came sleep, a reckless sword, and
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Speaker 1: the scattering. The crowd was afraid and had religious jealousy
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Speaker 1: inside them. Out came torches, clubs, and a midnight arrest.
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Speaker 1: And Jesus, what came out of him, under the greatest
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Speaker 1: pressure that any human being has ever faced, was not anger,
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Speaker 1: it was not bitterness, it was not despair. It was,
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Speaker 1: what came out of him was, obedience. Not my will.
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Speaker 1: but yours be done. And then in the middle of
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Speaker 1: the chaos, sovereignty, but the scriptures must be fulfilled. He
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Speaker 1: wasn't surprised by Judas. He wasn't undone by Peter. He
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Speaker 1: did not come unglued when his friends ran. He walked forward,
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Speaker 1: healing an enemy's ear on the way to the cross
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Speaker 1: because he knew the script. He followed the script and
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Speaker 1: he trusted the father completely. Gethsemane was a shadow of
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Speaker 1: what was coming at Calvary. What looked like defeat in
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Speaker 1: the garden was only a prelude to what looked like
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Speaker 1: defeat on the cross. And in both situations, God was
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Speaker 1: working his plan precisely on schedule. He turned what looked
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Speaker 1: like a bad Friday into a good Friday. The night
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Speaker 1: that looked like God had lost was the night that
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Speaker 1: God actually won. And the one who went forward into
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Speaker 1: the darkness Did it so that every scattered sheep, every
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Speaker 1: person who slept when they should have been watching and praying,
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Speaker 1: every person who ran from God, every person hearing my
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Speaker 1: voice right now would have a savior who never broke.
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Speaker 1: He never scattered and he never stopped moving toward the
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Speaker 1: cross on our behalf. Now, listen, the pressure is coming.
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Speaker 1: It may be here right now. The question Gethsemane leaves
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Speaker 1: us with is simple. Do you trust the author of
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Speaker 1: the script of your life? Do you trust him? That's
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Speaker 1: what it boils down to. To God be the glory
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Speaker 1: for the things he has done. Let's trust God no
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Speaker 1: matter what we're going through. Father, we thank you so
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Speaker 1: much for your word. We thank you for this lesson.
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Speaker 1: I pray, Father, that as it goes forth, that it
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Speaker 1: would not fall on stony ground. Lord, I pray for
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Speaker 1: all the teachers who will be under the sound of
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Speaker 1: my voice, for not just teachers, parishioners, members of of
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Speaker 1: my church, and for that matter, body of Christ around
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Speaker 1: the world, Lord. Lord, we just pray that you would
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Speaker 1: just teach us to trust you in moments of pressure.
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Speaker 1: We know that you're growing us. We know that you're
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Speaker 1: molding us more to the very likeness of Jesus Christ. Lord,
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Speaker 1: help us, I pray. in those moments, to be more
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Speaker 1: like Jesus, to pray, to be obedient, to trust you.
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Speaker 1: In your name we pray. Amen.