I believe that ever since Cain killed Abel, men have wanted to conquer the world. In some way, men have wanted to have power over others, to control the things that often seem incontrollable, to have the world at its knees. Some might say that was even Satan’s lust, and it was, to have complete power and to lord it over others. Yet can one have power without lording it over others? Lord Acton made famous the statement, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely” and we have seen this in action in dictators throughout the world. Yet one person has had absolute power without lording it over others, although he has the right to do so, Christ. So often we fail to remember or fail to consider that with all that is going in the world, nothing is out of his control. Sometimes that is actually hard to swallow.
It is hard to say those words and to expect you to believe it when you see genocide happening in various parts of the globe, when you see sin abounding in our “Christian” culture, and you see poverty and sickness and evil all around, how could he still have power and not use it. That is a tough question. Yet, with all sincerity I can say, that is what makes him God. We know that Jesus was fully man; by his life, and death he has proven that, yet what makes him fully God is his ability not to do things as we would.
We know how we would handle it, don’t we. I mean we all have our plans of what we would do if we were ruler of the world, right. Oh we may never say them out loud, but surely we know how to handle these situations. Yet what does it mean to even thing such a thing. Does it mean that we know better than God? Does it mean that we think God could use some pointers from us, or better yet, move over so we can fix this thing!
Now I am not saying that God does not want us to work to improve the situation, I believe that he does, and I believe that he has given us a plan that can help us do it. That’s what this message is all about, but it is not the plan that we would think of. It is not the plan that we have dreamed up…because it is God’s plan. Remember in Isaiah 55:9 he declares that his ways and his thoughts are so much higher than ours, higher than the heavens from the earth. In other words, he sees things from a different perspective and knows far more and far better than we do. Does this mean he thinks all these other things are good? I don’t think so, and I think he will put a stop to all when he is ready, but his understanding of conquering the World is so much different than ours. And his way is so much different.
But before we discuss what it means to conquer the world and how it can be done, let us look at what the Apostle John has to say when he was writing to encourage some Christian brothers and sisters who were being fed a bunch of lies about Christianity and God. We pick up John’s writing in Chapter 5, after he has had much to say about the veracity of Christ, about the call to love, about guarding yourself from false teachers, how to recognize a true Christian and the nature of God himself. Now he addresses the subject of conquering the world. But he begins by talking about those who are from God.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child.
Did you realize that you were born of God? Most of us have considered ourselves children of God, but according to John, by our putting our trust in Jesus as God, we have been born of God. For as Jesus has said, no one comes to the son unless the father has drawn him. This is no accident. If you have believed in Jesus, you have been born anew as his child. And if you are his child, you love him; therefore, according to the prevailing logic of John’s time, you love the children as well.
You see there was something about a family that is considered a unit. You cannot love just a part of it, but must love the whole thing. Now we may quarrel with that, for we may know some people in a family that we like but perhaps not the others. Yet the truth is, if we really love any part of the family, we must love the whole thing, because it is all interrelated. If we understand love in this case to mean such that we desire the best for someone, how we can desire the best for part of a family and desire the worst for the rest of the family. Part of the family will affect the other part. It is inevitable. Therefore if we love part of the family, we must love the whole thing, or we really don’t love them at all. If we Love God, we must love his children. John says this very thing
[2] By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.
We are obedient to God because we love him, and if we are obedient to God, we love his children. We love each other. This may sound like a no-brainer, of course we love each other, but what does that mean? How does that show up? Do we recognize that each other not simply as fellow church member, but as brother or sister. What would you do for your brother or sister if they were in need? Would you give your resources, your time, your talents? Would you give everything you had? Would you put yourself out for your brother or sister? Sure you would, but would you for a member of the church? Well, we may from time to time help out as best we could, but would we put ourselves out for each other?
You know I think some of the Amish and Mennonite communities have this way better than we do. They understand that if a brother in the church needs something, the whole church will come together to make sure it gets taken care of. I heard of an Amish family that many of you know that had serious medical bills ranging close to a million dollars, and the Church just gathered together and paid it. That is what it means to love your brother and sister, to love your family of God.
I recognize the natural tendency to think of your naturally born family as closest, yet Jesus ostracized his to say, “Those who do the will of my father in heaven are my brothers and sisters.” These are the ones that I will give myself to, he said, not those who have some claim because we grew up in the same house, but those who will be living in the same house when it is all said and done. That is what it means to understand family.
[3] For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,
What are his commandments? Love God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Actually Jesus says, “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). His commandments are not about what we shall not do, but what we are to do is love. Sure there are some rules to help us understand what that looks like, but Jesus tells us the command is to love, and look what John says here, His commandments are not burdensome. They are not hard to do. Remember Jesus said, my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. He is not giving us a strict legalistic rigorous pharisaical list of commandments. He is simply saying “love!”
But this is not the Beatles “all you need is love” type of mantra, for love is not easy to the world, because the world does not understand what love is. For if they knew what Love was, they would recognize it in Jesus Christ. He is love and he showed us how to love. The world does not get it. They think love means accepting each other with all the foibles and faults and saying “I’m okay, you’re okay.” But Love is saying, “I’m not okay, and you’re not okay. Let’s look to Jesus to find out what okay is. Let’s let him fix us, because we can be okay!” Why is it so hard to keep Jesus commandments if it is supposed to be easy? Because the world and its ways run contrary to God. That is why John says in verse 4.
[4] for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.
Finally we get to conquer the world! But it doesn’t mean what we were hoping it means. It doesn’t mean we get to take over the Middle East or southern Asia. It means the world cannot conquer us. We have become the victors over the world and its ways. It’s kind of like the world is playing one giant game of tic-tac-toe and they never seem to make any head way, but we have found a way to opt out. We are no longer playing their games. AS they move tit for tat, we are seeing a better way …through our faith. Our faith has allowed us to conquer the ways of this world so that they no longer have power or dominion over us. Only Christ has power and dominion over us now.
You see the world and its ways have been against God, but we have become victorious by our faith in Christ. Christ has won the victory. The world and its ways are perishing. This earth will be destroyed, but we are victorious for we will not be destroyed. We will not be conquered, for we have conquered the world. Do not let the world have any hold on you, but let Christ have complete hold on you. Yes we may still be in the world, but we are not of it, for our citizenship is in heaven. We do not need to be bogged down with the ways of the world except for this, to show our love to our neighbor. But that is not the world’s way anyway. That only proves that we have overcome the world when our concern becomes showing people by our actions that God loves them.
Conquering the world does not mean having power over it, but it means not letting it have power over you.
[5] Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
As Christians, the world has no power over us. What can they do to us but hasten our reunion with our father? This was a real scenario for John’s audience, as it still is for many Christians around the world today. Belief in Jesus as the Christ is the only way to get free from this bondage that the world has on us. Conquering the world is getting free from bondage to its ways. It means getting free from hate and lust for power. It means being obedient through faith in Jesus Christ to love one another. We conquer the world when by our faith we love each other. Christ has won the victory, let us become conquerors, or more than conquerors, through faith in Christ. Amen
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Monday, May 15, 2006
Suffering Submission and Salvation
When we think of being a Christian what are the first three words that come to mind? For me it’s probably Salvation, holiness and heaven. What about you? I’m sure there are many words that come to mind, but I wonder how often the three S’s come up. Suffering, Submission and Salvation.
I am pretty confident salvation might be up there, but we try not to think too much about the other two, that’s for sure. Especially not in our contemporary American- greatest country in the world, technologically advanced society. We have invented things to make sure we eliminate suffering, we certainly don’t want to think that it is a part of our religion.
And submission has been fodder for tales of domination and brutality. Certainly this is not embodied in the service of the one true God. Certainly not. At least not this understanding of it. But as we will see, when we look at the life of Jesus, our example we see these traits as good and godly things that are not simply a part of our religion, but are the foundation for it.
As we look into the letter written to the Hebrews, we know that a substantial portion of this letter goes about setting forth proofs for the Israelites to except Jesus as God and Christ, and explaining what he accomplished on the cross. This brief section from Hebrews five is no exception and reveals quite plainly who Jesus is, and what he accomplished. Listen to what the writer says about Jesus and his priesthood.
Hebrews 5:5 So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him,
"You are my Son,
today I have begotten you";
Now priests were the intercessors between God and man. They were the ones who could speak on our behalf. They were responsible for taking care that worship was done properly and they were the ones considered closest to God. Of course you may recall that Peter declares all Christians to be priests, therefore this is the responsibility of everyone of us. Nevertheless, Jesus is referred to here as a high priest.
Now we know that in the eyes of the Jews of Jerusalem in 30 AD this was not the case. He was not a levite, which all priests had to be. However, he did get his priestly orders from his lineage, for as verse 5 says, he was begotten directly from God. Surely this superceded any Levitical claim of priesthood. But he continues in verse 6 to describe it even more.
[6] as he says also in another place,
"You are a priest forever,
according to the order of Melchizedek."
There are two important things to see in this. One Melchizedek was a mysterious figure in the Old Testament that appeared to Abraham whose priesthood had no beginning or end, at least in the eyes of the Jewish system. He transcended the Israelite system because he was before it and was not bound by it. Also of importance is that Melchizedek was a priest-king. He was not only priest, but king. That sure seems applicable to Jesus, doesn’t it?
So we have established Jesus as an unending high priest, ordained by God himself in the order of the king priestly line. Yet what does this great high priest and king do?
[7] In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.
It is believed that this is referring to the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus spent his last night before he died. But what does it say he did. He prayed… with loud cries and tears… Is this what we think of when we think of praying? He was emotional, gut wrenching, heartfelt, honest, transparent and real in his prayers. He wasn’t just saying the nice words, dear Lord please help me through this difficult time.. No! He was weeping and bawling and getting serious with God. We see David doing the same thing in Psalm 51, although under different circumstances. Yet both these men knew how to be serious in prayer. Now while Jesus was praying for himself, he was also praying for you, and for me. He was praying about what was going to happen and about God’s will. He was praying earnestly because he was in turmoil. AND HE WAS HEARD.
Have you ever been in turmoil and cried out to God. I mean spent hours or at least minutes crying before God, belieiving that he cared and that he would do something. Have you realized that he heard? Now I am not saying that he always answers our prayers the way we want him to. That would make him subject to our demands and we would be nothing more than selfish magicians. But looking back at Jesus, why did it say that he was heard? Because OF HIS REVERENT SUBMISSION.
There’s one of those S words. Submission. And what it really means in this case is what we need to learn from Jesus. It means gracefully submit to God’s will. Accept what God has deemed will happen. Remember Jesus was praying about his impending death. Did he still die? Yes. Did God hear his prayer? Yes. You may say, that doesn’t make sense. God is not bound by what makes sense to us. Jesus was praying, according to this verse that he be saved from death. Was he saved from death? Absolutely. God heard his prayer and answered it with resurrection. So the first S we learn from Jesus is to submit to God.
Now the second S
[8] Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered;
There it is suffering. And what is more, suffering is viewed as a good thing (can you believe it?) Why is suffering a good thing? Because we learn through suffering. What did Jesus learn? He learned obedience it says, but does this imply that Jesus wasn’t obedient? Of course not. But being obedient when it will cause you pain is a difficult thing. It was in this that he proved his humanity and was made perfect as the next verse says. Yet what does this suffering have to do with us?
Let me ask you, would you be willing to suffer for your faith? Would you be willing to suffer for Jesus? Part of the reason he shows us this suffering is because he knew that suffering would be the lot for those who followed him. Consider this.
In Indonesia hundreds of radical Muslims converged on the Church of Pentecost in Indonesia during a Sunday morning service. Indonesia does have a constitutional freedom of religion clause, but that didn’t stop the mob. The mob’s angry protest over the property being “misused” as a church building lasted five hours. By the way, this was a month ago.
Also consider the case of Abdul Rahman, a 41-year-old Afghan Christian. Rahman reportedly became a Christian 16 years ago while working with a Christian aid group in Pakistan. His conversion became public because of a custody dispute involving his two daughters. Now he faces a possible death sentence for converting to Christianity Imagine going to court to get custody and finding yourself looking at execution. The Voice of the Martyrs estimate that there are between 1,000 and 3,000 born-again Christians in Afghanistan, and say other Christians are watching Rahman’s case closely. There are reports that two more Christians have been arrested since Rahman’s story broke, and a third was beaten badly.
“The Afghan government recognizes that Afghans can be Hindus, and can be Sikhs, and in one case even recognizes they can be Jewish,” said Todd Nettleton of the voice of the martyrs. “But they do not recognize Afghan Christians. Our brothers and sisters there have no legal standing, and that has got to change. American soldiers didn’t go to Afghanistan and lay down their lives so that Christians could be persecuted; they fought and died so that Afghans could truly have freedom.”
Nevertheless, many realize when they convert, that suffering may come with it. Do we? Let’s continue.
[9] and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,
Finally, the last S.
This is the one we recognize, Salvation, but it didn’t come without submission and suffering. This is not to say that we must suffer to be Christian, yet I offer that we must submit to God, and be willing to suffer or we will never understand salvation. Salvation is not something that just comes in a box and we can unwrap when we are ready. Salvation comes by recognizing what Jesus has done for us and according to this verse, by obeying him. This is not a works rightousness, but an obedient submission.
Just because salvation is freely offered we need not think it to be cheap grace. Jesus said it himself, if you love me keep my commandments. You see, at the center of this submission, suffering and salvation, is not really suffering, it is obedience. That is the central truth that Jesus revealed, the way he showed us to live.
So often I hear people saying Jesus just wants us to treat people nice. That is not at all what Jesus wants. Jesus wants us to be obedient to him, to follow God’s words and his will, and in so doing, we will treat our neighbors as ourself. God desires obedience, which is evident in our submission, may allow us to suffer, and has awarded our salvation. Thanks be to God.
I am pretty confident salvation might be up there, but we try not to think too much about the other two, that’s for sure. Especially not in our contemporary American- greatest country in the world, technologically advanced society. We have invented things to make sure we eliminate suffering, we certainly don’t want to think that it is a part of our religion.
And submission has been fodder for tales of domination and brutality. Certainly this is not embodied in the service of the one true God. Certainly not. At least not this understanding of it. But as we will see, when we look at the life of Jesus, our example we see these traits as good and godly things that are not simply a part of our religion, but are the foundation for it.
As we look into the letter written to the Hebrews, we know that a substantial portion of this letter goes about setting forth proofs for the Israelites to except Jesus as God and Christ, and explaining what he accomplished on the cross. This brief section from Hebrews five is no exception and reveals quite plainly who Jesus is, and what he accomplished. Listen to what the writer says about Jesus and his priesthood.
Hebrews 5:5 So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him,
"You are my Son,
today I have begotten you";
Now priests were the intercessors between God and man. They were the ones who could speak on our behalf. They were responsible for taking care that worship was done properly and they were the ones considered closest to God. Of course you may recall that Peter declares all Christians to be priests, therefore this is the responsibility of everyone of us. Nevertheless, Jesus is referred to here as a high priest.
Now we know that in the eyes of the Jews of Jerusalem in 30 AD this was not the case. He was not a levite, which all priests had to be. However, he did get his priestly orders from his lineage, for as verse 5 says, he was begotten directly from God. Surely this superceded any Levitical claim of priesthood. But he continues in verse 6 to describe it even more.
[6] as he says also in another place,
"You are a priest forever,
according to the order of Melchizedek."
There are two important things to see in this. One Melchizedek was a mysterious figure in the Old Testament that appeared to Abraham whose priesthood had no beginning or end, at least in the eyes of the Jewish system. He transcended the Israelite system because he was before it and was not bound by it. Also of importance is that Melchizedek was a priest-king. He was not only priest, but king. That sure seems applicable to Jesus, doesn’t it?
So we have established Jesus as an unending high priest, ordained by God himself in the order of the king priestly line. Yet what does this great high priest and king do?
[7] In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.
It is believed that this is referring to the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus spent his last night before he died. But what does it say he did. He prayed… with loud cries and tears… Is this what we think of when we think of praying? He was emotional, gut wrenching, heartfelt, honest, transparent and real in his prayers. He wasn’t just saying the nice words, dear Lord please help me through this difficult time.. No! He was weeping and bawling and getting serious with God. We see David doing the same thing in Psalm 51, although under different circumstances. Yet both these men knew how to be serious in prayer. Now while Jesus was praying for himself, he was also praying for you, and for me. He was praying about what was going to happen and about God’s will. He was praying earnestly because he was in turmoil. AND HE WAS HEARD.
Have you ever been in turmoil and cried out to God. I mean spent hours or at least minutes crying before God, belieiving that he cared and that he would do something. Have you realized that he heard? Now I am not saying that he always answers our prayers the way we want him to. That would make him subject to our demands and we would be nothing more than selfish magicians. But looking back at Jesus, why did it say that he was heard? Because OF HIS REVERENT SUBMISSION.
There’s one of those S words. Submission. And what it really means in this case is what we need to learn from Jesus. It means gracefully submit to God’s will. Accept what God has deemed will happen. Remember Jesus was praying about his impending death. Did he still die? Yes. Did God hear his prayer? Yes. You may say, that doesn’t make sense. God is not bound by what makes sense to us. Jesus was praying, according to this verse that he be saved from death. Was he saved from death? Absolutely. God heard his prayer and answered it with resurrection. So the first S we learn from Jesus is to submit to God.
Now the second S
[8] Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered;
There it is suffering. And what is more, suffering is viewed as a good thing (can you believe it?) Why is suffering a good thing? Because we learn through suffering. What did Jesus learn? He learned obedience it says, but does this imply that Jesus wasn’t obedient? Of course not. But being obedient when it will cause you pain is a difficult thing. It was in this that he proved his humanity and was made perfect as the next verse says. Yet what does this suffering have to do with us?
Let me ask you, would you be willing to suffer for your faith? Would you be willing to suffer for Jesus? Part of the reason he shows us this suffering is because he knew that suffering would be the lot for those who followed him. Consider this.
In Indonesia hundreds of radical Muslims converged on the Church of Pentecost in Indonesia during a Sunday morning service. Indonesia does have a constitutional freedom of religion clause, but that didn’t stop the mob. The mob’s angry protest over the property being “misused” as a church building lasted five hours. By the way, this was a month ago.
Also consider the case of Abdul Rahman, a 41-year-old Afghan Christian. Rahman reportedly became a Christian 16 years ago while working with a Christian aid group in Pakistan. His conversion became public because of a custody dispute involving his two daughters. Now he faces a possible death sentence for converting to Christianity Imagine going to court to get custody and finding yourself looking at execution. The Voice of the Martyrs estimate that there are between 1,000 and 3,000 born-again Christians in Afghanistan, and say other Christians are watching Rahman’s case closely. There are reports that two more Christians have been arrested since Rahman’s story broke, and a third was beaten badly.
“The Afghan government recognizes that Afghans can be Hindus, and can be Sikhs, and in one case even recognizes they can be Jewish,” said Todd Nettleton of the voice of the martyrs. “But they do not recognize Afghan Christians. Our brothers and sisters there have no legal standing, and that has got to change. American soldiers didn’t go to Afghanistan and lay down their lives so that Christians could be persecuted; they fought and died so that Afghans could truly have freedom.”
Nevertheless, many realize when they convert, that suffering may come with it. Do we? Let’s continue.
[9] and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,
Finally, the last S.
This is the one we recognize, Salvation, but it didn’t come without submission and suffering. This is not to say that we must suffer to be Christian, yet I offer that we must submit to God, and be willing to suffer or we will never understand salvation. Salvation is not something that just comes in a box and we can unwrap when we are ready. Salvation comes by recognizing what Jesus has done for us and according to this verse, by obeying him. This is not a works rightousness, but an obedient submission.
Just because salvation is freely offered we need not think it to be cheap grace. Jesus said it himself, if you love me keep my commandments. You see, at the center of this submission, suffering and salvation, is not really suffering, it is obedience. That is the central truth that Jesus revealed, the way he showed us to live.
So often I hear people saying Jesus just wants us to treat people nice. That is not at all what Jesus wants. Jesus wants us to be obedient to him, to follow God’s words and his will, and in so doing, we will treat our neighbors as ourself. God desires obedience, which is evident in our submission, may allow us to suffer, and has awarded our salvation. Thanks be to God.
Monday, May 01, 2006
A Tale of Two Crises.
“IT was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,…” Thus begins Charles Dickens classic work, A tale of two cities. And although it may seem too familiar to repeat, just the sound of it immediately conjures up images in our minds of a time and a place where both the best and worst can coexist. Although Dickens was referring to London and Paris in 1775, the line lends itself to so many other comparisons where in one setting we have both the epitome of joy and depths of sorrow; where the sweet scent of peace abounds, mingled with the foul stench of desolation; the sunlight of hope shines, crowded by the shadows of despair. And often these are not two separate things, but two separate outcomes that could result from decisions and situations that we face. Often we call this moments of crisis, moments that define and shape our character.
Jesus went through just such an experience, a Crisis unlike any we could imagine when he spent his last night at the garden of Gethsemane. However, Jesus wasn’t the only one going through a crisis of faith, for it was a defining moment for Peter as well, only he didn’t even know it. Let’s look at how this event is recorded in Mark 14:32-43. We pick up the story after Jesus had shared his communion with his disciples and Peter had given his grandiose, “I will never deny you” speech. The text continues in verse 32.
They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray." [33] He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. [34] And he said to them, "I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake."
We see the stage being set. Of course Jesus knew what was ahead of him, he had been foretelling of this event before he even began heading for Jerusalem. Now that the time was close at hand, his spirit began to be distressed and agitated. It says, “he was grieved to the point of death.” So he brought his disciples out to this Garden, which was just outside the city on the mount of Olives where he could pray. He had eight of the twelve wait outside the garden, while he asked his inner circle to come in further. Then he gave them one simple task, stay here awake. He didn’t ask them to keep guard, he didn’t ask them to build an altar, he didn’t ask them to recite the shema, he simply said, stay here and stay awake. Then he continued on.
[35] And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. [36] He said, "Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want."
This is the first crisis. This is a defining moment for Jesus and it is the one we usually associate with the garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus came face to face with his humanity and the will of God. This is where he bore his soul and cried out to God. This is where his humanity was faced with the decision to resist God’s will or to submit to the suffering and pain that laid in front of him.
Oh, he knew what awaited him in just a few hours. He knew that if he submitted to God’s will he would be beaten beyond recognition, he knew that he would be spit on and cursed. He knew that he would have thorns crushed down into his skull and nails driven through his hands and feet as he was lifted up on the cross to hang there and die a slow agonizing death, struggling to get every breath. He knew that he would have every sin that he never committed but that was committed by every other human who ever lived and ever would live, placed upon him and he would take the penalty for all of it.
And worst of all he knew that he would be separated from God, from his father, who he had been with since before time began…and it destroyed him. Luke records that he was sweating blood because he was in so much anguish. Here he is crying out, “Daddy, father, you have the power to do anything… Don’t make me do this! I don’t want to! But I will, if that’s what you really want. It’s not about what I want. It’s all about your will, daddy. I know that.” After pouring his heart out to His father, he goes back to draw encouragement from his friends. But listen to what he found.
[37] He came and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep awake one hour?
Jesus comes back after this terribly draining ordeal and finds his best friends, his most ardent supporters sleeping. He tells Peter, “Wake up! Come on man. Can’t you even stay awake one hour with me?” Now remember, Peter had heard the speech that Jesus had given earlier, about someone betraying him. He had since Jesus give bread and say it was his body. He had heard Jesus talking about his blood being poured out. He witnessed Jesus being agitated and in great distress. It was just an hour or so earlier when Jesus had told Peter that he would deny Jesus three times before that very morning, and yet none of this seemed to trouble Peter enough to even keep him awake! So Jesus gives Peter a chance, and a little bit of encouragement. He says,
[38] Keep awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
How many times have we heard those words, “the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak?” And we understand that to mean you want to do the right thing but you just don’t have the discipline to do it. But listen, Jesus is offering these words to Peter as encouragement. When he says to Peter, “Pray that may not come into the time of trial,” He is telling Peter, “Look, you said you would die for me and never desert me. I told you that you would deny me, but if you are serious, then pray that the time never comes. Pray that you will never face that situation. Pray that you will not have to face this trial. "Lead me not into temptation." Look Peter, I know your spirit is willing to stand up for me, but you are not even able to stay awake and pray. If you really want to have victory with me, then you have to get serious about it!”
After giving Peter this pep talk, he went back to his own prayers, as it says in verse 39,[39] And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. [40] And once more he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to say to him.
What could they say? “Sorry Jesus, your despair isn’t important to us?” “We’ll do better next time?” You see they were going through their own crisis and they didn’t even know it. Especially Peter. You see, while Jesus was facing his Crisis by going three times and talking with his daddy about the events that faced him, Peter had three opportunities to get the strength he needed to face his upcoming trial. Although the denying would come later, this is where the battle was lost for Peter. While Jesus became victorious because he faced his crisis, Peter become despondant because he ignored it.
Dallas Willard explains this point well in The Spirit of the Disciplines (4-5). He remarks how young athletes will idolize a professional athlete and try to emulate them in the game. They try all the same mannerisms and techniques that the professional uses so that they can be just as successful, yet it never works. The reason it never works is because the professional athlete doesn’t just attempt these feats during game time, but they uphold a strict regimen of disciplined behavior, diet, exercise, and training that allows them to be prepared to do those amazing things when the time comes. They perform because they have disciplined themselves to perform. In a sense, they perform because they have trained their body not to be weak. Peter denied Jesus here in the Garden, he just didn’t say the words until later that morning. Did you notice that Jesus came back three times? Wasn’t it three times that Peter was to deny Jesus? Wasn’t he asleep all three times? Oh, I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s see what happens next.
[41] He came a third time and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Enough! The hour has come; the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. [42] Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand."
Indeed “Enough.” Jesus was ready, he had faced his crisis and was prepared for whatever lay ahead. He had his spirit built up through prayer. He had talked it over and talked it out with God. He was willing to submit to God’s plan for his victory. It had been enough for Peter too. His crisis lay there untouched. He had failed to be moved enough to pray. Even faced with the accusation of being a deserter was not enough to make him wrestle with his humanity. He simply succumbed to it.
It’s easy for me to be hard on Peter, because I am just like him. Perhaps some of you are as well. While I may never have said the words, “I don’t know the man,” I have expressed the same sentiment a time or too. How many times do I let my own human weakness interfere with my spiritual disciplines. How many times do I fall asleep when I should be awake praying. Times when I know I have serious things going on, crises that must be handled, circumstances beyond my control that I must call on God with tears and anguish. Yet instead I lay my head on my pillow and think God will take care of it. Oh wretched man that I am!
The thing is, Peter didn’t even know he had been through a crisis and failed, he simply knew he had a restless night sleep while Jesus stayed awake. He wouldn’t realize he had failed until several hours later, when the rooster crowed. Listen, we do not need to wait for a rooster to wake us up from our failures. We need to be attentive and prayerful, before we face the trials.
The garden of Gethsemane is a tale of two crises. For Jesus, it was the springboard for the best of times… For Peter it was the catalyst for the worst of times. We can learn to face our trials with prayer and honesty before God and come out victorious like Jesus, or we can ignore them and be caught off guard and face some of our darkest moments like Peter. Let’s let Jesus be our example.
Jesus went through just such an experience, a Crisis unlike any we could imagine when he spent his last night at the garden of Gethsemane. However, Jesus wasn’t the only one going through a crisis of faith, for it was a defining moment for Peter as well, only he didn’t even know it. Let’s look at how this event is recorded in Mark 14:32-43. We pick up the story after Jesus had shared his communion with his disciples and Peter had given his grandiose, “I will never deny you” speech. The text continues in verse 32.
They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray." [33] He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. [34] And he said to them, "I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake."
We see the stage being set. Of course Jesus knew what was ahead of him, he had been foretelling of this event before he even began heading for Jerusalem. Now that the time was close at hand, his spirit began to be distressed and agitated. It says, “he was grieved to the point of death.” So he brought his disciples out to this Garden, which was just outside the city on the mount of Olives where he could pray. He had eight of the twelve wait outside the garden, while he asked his inner circle to come in further. Then he gave them one simple task, stay here awake. He didn’t ask them to keep guard, he didn’t ask them to build an altar, he didn’t ask them to recite the shema, he simply said, stay here and stay awake. Then he continued on.
[35] And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. [36] He said, "Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want."
This is the first crisis. This is a defining moment for Jesus and it is the one we usually associate with the garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus came face to face with his humanity and the will of God. This is where he bore his soul and cried out to God. This is where his humanity was faced with the decision to resist God’s will or to submit to the suffering and pain that laid in front of him.
Oh, he knew what awaited him in just a few hours. He knew that if he submitted to God’s will he would be beaten beyond recognition, he knew that he would be spit on and cursed. He knew that he would have thorns crushed down into his skull and nails driven through his hands and feet as he was lifted up on the cross to hang there and die a slow agonizing death, struggling to get every breath. He knew that he would have every sin that he never committed but that was committed by every other human who ever lived and ever would live, placed upon him and he would take the penalty for all of it.
And worst of all he knew that he would be separated from God, from his father, who he had been with since before time began…and it destroyed him. Luke records that he was sweating blood because he was in so much anguish. Here he is crying out, “Daddy, father, you have the power to do anything… Don’t make me do this! I don’t want to! But I will, if that’s what you really want. It’s not about what I want. It’s all about your will, daddy. I know that.” After pouring his heart out to His father, he goes back to draw encouragement from his friends. But listen to what he found.
[37] He came and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep awake one hour?
Jesus comes back after this terribly draining ordeal and finds his best friends, his most ardent supporters sleeping. He tells Peter, “Wake up! Come on man. Can’t you even stay awake one hour with me?” Now remember, Peter had heard the speech that Jesus had given earlier, about someone betraying him. He had since Jesus give bread and say it was his body. He had heard Jesus talking about his blood being poured out. He witnessed Jesus being agitated and in great distress. It was just an hour or so earlier when Jesus had told Peter that he would deny Jesus three times before that very morning, and yet none of this seemed to trouble Peter enough to even keep him awake! So Jesus gives Peter a chance, and a little bit of encouragement. He says,
[38] Keep awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
How many times have we heard those words, “the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak?” And we understand that to mean you want to do the right thing but you just don’t have the discipline to do it. But listen, Jesus is offering these words to Peter as encouragement. When he says to Peter, “Pray that may not come into the time of trial,” He is telling Peter, “Look, you said you would die for me and never desert me. I told you that you would deny me, but if you are serious, then pray that the time never comes. Pray that you will never face that situation. Pray that you will not have to face this trial. "Lead me not into temptation." Look Peter, I know your spirit is willing to stand up for me, but you are not even able to stay awake and pray. If you really want to have victory with me, then you have to get serious about it!”
After giving Peter this pep talk, he went back to his own prayers, as it says in verse 39,[39] And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. [40] And once more he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to say to him.
What could they say? “Sorry Jesus, your despair isn’t important to us?” “We’ll do better next time?” You see they were going through their own crisis and they didn’t even know it. Especially Peter. You see, while Jesus was facing his Crisis by going three times and talking with his daddy about the events that faced him, Peter had three opportunities to get the strength he needed to face his upcoming trial. Although the denying would come later, this is where the battle was lost for Peter. While Jesus became victorious because he faced his crisis, Peter become despondant because he ignored it.
Dallas Willard explains this point well in The Spirit of the Disciplines (4-5). He remarks how young athletes will idolize a professional athlete and try to emulate them in the game. They try all the same mannerisms and techniques that the professional uses so that they can be just as successful, yet it never works. The reason it never works is because the professional athlete doesn’t just attempt these feats during game time, but they uphold a strict regimen of disciplined behavior, diet, exercise, and training that allows them to be prepared to do those amazing things when the time comes. They perform because they have disciplined themselves to perform. In a sense, they perform because they have trained their body not to be weak. Peter denied Jesus here in the Garden, he just didn’t say the words until later that morning. Did you notice that Jesus came back three times? Wasn’t it three times that Peter was to deny Jesus? Wasn’t he asleep all three times? Oh, I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s see what happens next.
[41] He came a third time and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Enough! The hour has come; the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. [42] Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand."
Indeed “Enough.” Jesus was ready, he had faced his crisis and was prepared for whatever lay ahead. He had his spirit built up through prayer. He had talked it over and talked it out with God. He was willing to submit to God’s plan for his victory. It had been enough for Peter too. His crisis lay there untouched. He had failed to be moved enough to pray. Even faced with the accusation of being a deserter was not enough to make him wrestle with his humanity. He simply succumbed to it.
It’s easy for me to be hard on Peter, because I am just like him. Perhaps some of you are as well. While I may never have said the words, “I don’t know the man,” I have expressed the same sentiment a time or too. How many times do I let my own human weakness interfere with my spiritual disciplines. How many times do I fall asleep when I should be awake praying. Times when I know I have serious things going on, crises that must be handled, circumstances beyond my control that I must call on God with tears and anguish. Yet instead I lay my head on my pillow and think God will take care of it. Oh wretched man that I am!
The thing is, Peter didn’t even know he had been through a crisis and failed, he simply knew he had a restless night sleep while Jesus stayed awake. He wouldn’t realize he had failed until several hours later, when the rooster crowed. Listen, we do not need to wait for a rooster to wake us up from our failures. We need to be attentive and prayerful, before we face the trials.
The garden of Gethsemane is a tale of two crises. For Jesus, it was the springboard for the best of times… For Peter it was the catalyst for the worst of times. We can learn to face our trials with prayer and honesty before God and come out victorious like Jesus, or we can ignore them and be caught off guard and face some of our darkest moments like Peter. Let’s let Jesus be our example.
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