Thursday-Gethsemane-The Prayer and the Arrest

Well, we are in a marathon study of the life of Christ. As you well know, if you've been here a while, we are edging up on your number three. Actually, if we make it to this summer, which I think we probably will, we will have been in the life of Christ on Wednesday nights for three years. What I anticipated being about a six month survey has turned into a little bit more. And I am grateful for that because God just seemed to impress a little different direction that we needed to pause and take time to reflect on the life of our Lord. And it has been very enriching for me. I know. We are nearing the end of his life. Actually, we were within a few hours of his death. So we are in Mark 14, the night in the Garden of Gethsemiti. We are talking about two events that happen in the garden, the prayer and the arrest. We will certainly finish covering the prayer tonight. Hopefully we will get into the arrest. Not sure how far we will get. But that is the fun thing about these times. If you have questions and comments, we do operate this kind of like a classroom. Even though we are impused and many of you are so far away, it still has worked pretty well to do that. And certainly want to invite that kind of discussion. What we are looking at is how Jesus prepared himself for the battle that lay ahead on Friday. On Thursday night, he has been in the upper room with his disciples. He is facing the most crucial physical battle of his life. And he is facing the most intense spiritual battle in all of the universe, in all of human history. And so as he faces that battle, he moves with his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemiti. And we find that it is there that he prepares himself for the battle that he will face. We have seen as we started into this last week that it is a very intense and personal time. It is really somewhat amazing that God saw fit to include this in the Scriptures. Because it is such an intensely personal time for our Lord. And yet I believe God wanted that there so that we would understand how to approach and prepare ourselves for the battles in life that we face. It is the example of our Lord that teaches us how that is to be done. We are going to scroll through the pictures that we showed last week to remind you of what we are doing, where we are. This is the temple complex in the city of Jerusalem. Jesus has been in the upper room with his disciples, has made his way across the Kidren Valley up to the Garden of Gethsemiti. On the side of the Mount of Olives, the next picture shows us the Mount of Olives looking from the temple area across the Kidren Valley right here and across to the Mount of Olives. And we have saw that this right here, this area is the area that would have been the Garden of Gethsemiti. The Olives Grove, still an Olives Grove there today, it has been maintained. In fact, church has been built over part of it, the Church of all nations. And we saw a little bit about that last week. Let's take another look at the Garden itself. This is the Garden of Gethsemiti of Olives trees, a little closer look at some of the trees. That's what an Olives tree that has been around for a while would look like. I mentioned last week that sometimes you will hear people say, well, there's those trees last couple thousand years. These trees may have been there when Christ was there, but we know from Roman history that they burned all the trees on the Mount of Olives in 70 AD. So the trees that were there in Christ life, even though they may have been able to exist till today, probably not the same ones. But still, these are very old. Okay, let's scroll ahead. This is just an artist rendition of Jesus entering the Garden of Gethsemiti with the disciples. When he says, sit here while I go further into the Garden and pray. And then the next slide gives us a look at one of the entrances to the Church of all nations. Built over a rock, over a rocky area, and the Bible talks about Jesus praying there. We saw last week that in the side of the rock, there has been carved this sculpture of Jesus kneeling and praying. And inside the Church of all nations, there is a place that is commemorated. The next slide will show us the actual rocky surface inside an area where tradition, church tradition tells us who knows if it's exactly right. May have been the area where Jesus prayed. But Jesus is in the Garden with his disciples. Let's begin in verse 32 and summarize a little bit about what we talked about last week. The reality of the battle is very intense for Jesus. And I want us to emphasize and see the reality of this battle. It is very real. It is very intense. Verse 32, they went to a place called Gethsemiti. Jesus said to his disciples, sit here while I pray. He took Peter, James, and John along with him and began to be deeply distressed and troubled. And by remember what we talked about last week that word deeply distressed really means. What does that mean? Do you remember? Well, if it's any consolation, I had to look it up too. Yeah, terrified, horrified. The word literally means to be struck with terror. And again, this is so intensely personal for our Lord. He is going through the deepest, darkest time of his life as he prepares for the cross. There was something as he looks death in the face, the death he's going to die, and as he looks into that cup that he will speak of in just a moment that actually terrifies him, astonishes him. Even though we have already seen that he knows what's happening, and we'll see it again in John 18 to 9. He knows everything that's going to happen, and he is prepared to follow the Father's will. Still, it is terrifying. It is alarming, astonishing, what he is about to do, and he knows that, and he feels that very deeply in his humanity. He feels that astonishment and terror. Verse 33, or 34, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death, an amazing statement, overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. It is that heavy and intense on our Lord that he feels this could overwhelm him to the point of actually dying there in the garden. So he's going to pray, and that's one of the reasons. As he faces the crucifixion, he will need, as we said last week, steal in his soul, and this is the way to get it. And so he's going to pray. Notice he says to his disciples there in 34, stay here and keep watch. Going a little farther, he fell to the ground. Remember we saw that Matthew's gospel tells us he fell to his knees. Luke says then he fell all the way to his face. He falls to the ground and prayed that if possible, the hour might pass from him. Abba, that's the air make word for father, but it's a very emotional, very familiar term. There are those who say the best English word to translate it today would be Papa or Daddy. It's the more familiar term for father. Abba, father, he said, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will. Jesus falling prostrate on the ground. The Bible says, begin to pray this prayer. Now he will come back to his disciples in a moment and say, couldn't you watch with me for an hour? The implication is, I think it's more than an implication, this kind of praying went on for an hour. Look at this verse in Hebrews 5-7. It's on the screen for you. During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions. Now notice the intensity of this with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverence submission. Most Bible scholars and commentators believe this verse is referring to the praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, because he is praying to the one who could save him from death. And he's praying with fervent cries and tears. And the words there are the strongest words for weeping and praying. It is literally sobbing with loud cries. He is sobbing out to his father in the Garden. Now this goes on for an hour. This is very intense. Repeatedly, he is praying with these loud cries and tears, convulsing with sobs, weeping, crying out to God. So intense that he is sweating. His sweat is falling to the ground. The Bible says in Luke chapter 22, like drops of blood. And again, a couple of different ways to look at that, either that he was sweating and it was dripping from him to the ground like drops of blood, or many believe that Jesus actually was, there was blood mingled with his sweat. And that can happen medically if the small capillaries near the surface burst. That can happen under great stress. And there are many who believe, in fact, I remember Dr. Dehan, Imard Dehan, who was a medical doctor who became a Bible teacher. You may remember back to the Bible broadcast. No, no, I'm sorry. Radio Bible class is the one he started. And he wrote a book and described the medical phenomenon that could be happening here with Jesus actually blood mixing with his sweat and falling to the ground under the immense stress and pressure that he was under. And what is he praying? He's praying that the hour would pass and more specifically that the cup would be taken from him. Okay? That's the reality of the battle. The scriptures paint it in very intense terms. The reason for the battle is whatever he sees in this cup. That's what he's praying. He's praying for the hour to pass from him. But specifically, what he means by that is take this cup from me. What do you think the cup is? What is it as he looks into that cup, astonishes him, terrifies him. All the sin. Okay? Pardon me? Separation from God, from his father. Okay? He could be seeing what they're going to be putting him through. No doubt, in fact the scriptures will literally say that in John 18. He knew what was going to happen to him. So he does know what he's facing and that is horrifying. We look back on it, we understand we see what happened to him. He knew what was going to happen before it happened. That would be astonishing. Anything else come to mind that might be he might be thinking about it as he looks at this cup. Pardon me? How much blood? Yes. He will literally shed his blood on the cross and he will lose a lot of blood. Obviously he will die. He will lose a lot of blood before he gets to the cross. Let's see. Yeah. Just the pain, knowing what was going to happen and what that would mean. Jesus' human body was like ours. It was a normal human body. He would feel every bit of that pain. Well, I think all of us being three years younger than three years in death, you got three years in death, three years in death. Yeah. That's an amazing thought really. The one who had lived forever in eternity past, who had always existed, is now going to face death. The wrath of God. Yes. I think as Jesus looked at that cup, all of the things you've mentioned are a part of it. I think Jesus saw a cup full of the sin of mankind. Think about it. The one who has never sinned, who has been perfectly holy, who has never had one sinful thought, one sinful attitude, one sinful word, one sinful act, never. Is now going to take on him every murder, every act of immorality, every act of deceit, every act of hypocrisy and pride, he's going to take that on him. And I think that was a horrifying thought for the holy Son of God. No question. But I think maybe more than anything else, all of the things you've mentioned I think are involved, but maybe more than anything else is the one that was mentioned very last, the wrath of God. In the Old Testament, the psalmist speaks of several times of the cup of God's wrath being poured out. It's a symbol of God's judgment. God's wrath is seen as being in a cup and it is poured out. Isn't it interesting that in the Tribulation time, seven of the twenty-one specific judgments that are put upon the earth in the Tribulation time are the bold judgments, bulls or cups literally poured out on the earth, the wrath of God. And so that's a picturesque concept. It's a word picture, a metaphor for the judgment of God. And I think the whole idea of the cup, in addition to all these things that have been talked about, the real core of it is that Jesus knew He was going to be bearing the wrath of His Father against man's sin. Now, there's no way we can fully grasp what that would mean to Him because none of us have lived without sin. And so we don't understand what it's like to have been in perfect fellowship with your Father throughout a whole eternity. We can't even grasp that we can't even begin to imagine that. And now He is going to face the wrath of God, His Father poured out on Him for our sin. And I think more than anything else, that is what horrified Him, what terrified Him, what alarmed Him, astonished Him, anything you can ring out of that word, deeply distressed, sorrow even to the point of death. I think that's what it was, more than anything else. A couple of verses that help us grasp the theological import of this, 2 Corinthians 5, 21. God made Him who had no sin to be sinned for us, literally to be a sin offering for us. In other words, He would take the whole wrath of God, He would be the one punished so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. There is a transfer of His sin, or our sin to us, His righteousness then becomes ours. Our sin is transferred to Him, His righteousness then transferred us. Galatians 3, 13 also emphasizes that idea of substitution at the cross. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, the curse, meaning the judgment that is due, the person who has broken God's law. We are cursed, we are under God's judgment and wrath because of our sin. Well Christ redeemed us from that curse, how by becoming a curse for us in our place instead of us, He became a curse. He took God's curse for our sin, for it is written, curse is everyone who is hung on a pole. So in ways that we can only begin to imagine and just chip away at the edges of, Christ is horrified as He thinks of the prospect of the wrath of His father for all of man's sin poured out on Him, directed at Him. And it was that cup of the outpouring of God's wrath and all of the sin of mankind included that I think Jesus shrank back from as He prayed. But notice the resolve for this battle. Notice what He says, verse 36. Daddy, father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Now notice these next words, yet not what I will, but what you will. It's difficult to even put this into words in all of the anguish and the horror that Jesus is feeling. There is an underlying deeper resolve to go through with the father's will. That's what He came for. That was His whole purpose for coming to earth, wasn't it? And He knows He spoke on throughout His ministry, His hour which had not come. And then in the upper room, He says for the first time, my hour has come. And He prays it again in the prayer in John 17, as we saw a couple of weeks ago. The hour has come. Glorify me as with the glory I had before the world began. So Jesus is committed to doing the will of the father in spite of the horror of it and the anguish and the terror of it to Him as a man. He is still committed to doing the will of the father. And that was like steel in His soul. He submits, and I believe the greatest act of submission to the father in all of human history. He submits to the father's will to go through with the cross. If there's any way for man's sin to be taken care of without him having to drink that cup and be separated from his father and bear the wrath of his father, there's any way for it to happen. He's asking for deliver me from that, but not my will. Your will be done. And I know what your will is. He has already talked about it. He knows it is the father's will for him to go to the cross and he's committed to doing that. There's this terrible internal struggle going on. But the bottom line is this. I don't want us to miss it. Jesus took the cup full of man's sin and full of the wrath of God. And with that steely determination in his soul, he drank every drop of it. He would go through with it. And he did that for you and he did it for me. I appreciate so much the song Jim had a sing tonight. Lest I forget Gethsemane. Lord, take me back to Calvary. Lest I forget Gethsemane. It's not only not forget what he did on Golgotha, the place of the skull. Let's also remember what he did in Gethsemane. Because it was there that he faced the battle as a real man and the horror of it, the terrible nature of it. And with steel in his soul, he went through with it. He faced it any one. And what was it that enabled him to go through with it? I would suggest to you it was prayer. It was prayer. It was that time in the garden of intense crying out to his father with loud cries and intense, intense prayer. That's the battle. And that's the battle he faced. Okay, now there's another battle going on in the same garden that evening. It's the battle of the disciples. Okay, they've got a battle too. They're going to face a huge battle themselves in just a few moments and throughout these coming days. And notice Jesus gives them the called battle twice, he says it, in verses 34 and 38. Notice what he says in verse 34. My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow after the point of death. He said to them, here's the called battle for them. Stay here and keep watch. Now skip down to verse 38. Here's another called battle. Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing to flesh as weak. Okay, Jesus issued a twofold called battle for them. The first one was to watch. Second is to pray. What does it mean to watch? What is he asking them to do? Stay awake. Yeah, for sure. Be alert. Stay awake. Be alert. Anything else in the word watch here? I would think about what it is that you need to help him. Okay. Stay with me through this. Yeah. That's the reason he took Peter, James and John further into the garden with him. The three who were closest to him throughout his ministry, and there were a couple of other occasions where they only were allowed to see things or enter into things. And he takes these three with him. And so, yeah, I think that's included. I think that's involved. Anything else? Exactly, Michael. I think that's exactly what he's saying is the word watch is used throughout the New Testament of alertness, staying alert. But I think there's also in this idea, okay, we're all preparing for battle tonight. I'm facing a battle, but you are too. Now watch how I prepare. Watch how I prepare for battle. And I think there was something in that of being alert to what's going on, but keying in on the Savior and learning from him how he faced his battle, how he's preparing himself for battle. And so, he tells him to watch. And then he tells him to pray, doesn't it? Notice, again, verse 38, watch and pray. And why does he tell him they should pray? Watch and pray. Why? Okay, temptation to avoid temptation. And the flesh is weak. Spirit's willing. In other words, you know, I know how much on the inside you want to help. You know, if you really understood what was going on, you would be willing to stick with me to watch. But the flesh is weak. And that's not just the simple nature. It's just the body, the body, which is the house for our simple nature, obviously. But fleshly, we're weak. Okay, now what kind of temptation is he talking to them about? What's the temptation they're going to face? Okay. That's certainly going to be Peter's battle. That night is the denial of Christ. Pardon me? They're going to flee. They're going to run, aren't they? They all ran away that night from the garden. Okay, they're going to face temptation. And the temptation, I think, specifically in this instance, does have to do with the very things they're going to face that night. Will you stick with me? Will you stay with me? Will you go with me? Will you stand up for me? Or are you going to be cowards? Are you going to deny me? Are you going to run temptation? Pardon me? I'm going to go with you. Yeah. I'll be with you for that night. What I'm going to do is to say, I'm going to go with you for that night. Right. Right. That night. I don't know if you're going to walk in the building. So, I'm going to go with you. Yeah. Jesus, again, is that issue of watch how I prepare for battle. You don't pray as the battle is starting. You pray before you get into the battle. And Jesus is praying before the battle starts. So, he knows that once they get into the battle, the temptation is going to be strong. To run, to fear, to give up, to deny. All of those things that we'll be tempted with. And let's face it, come on, all of us, the flesh is weak. All of us who want to turn and run. But there's something you can do to prepare yourself for those kind of battles. And Jesus is doing it. And the disciples don't. Okay. Look at what happens. The weakness, their weakness in the battle. Let's go back to verse 37. He returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. And notice, he had first addresses Peter. Of course, he would first come to Peter, James and John. They were the ones closest to him. So, he addresses Peter first. Simon, he said to Peter, are you asleep? Couldn't you keep watch for one hour? So, there's a bit of a rebuke there and a challenge. But there's also understanding, verse 38, we've already seen this. Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. So, he challenges them again. Watch, pray. I've spent an hour in prayer. I come back here asleep. Couldn't you stay awake for one hour? Couldn't you stick with me that long? Now, watch and pray. He challenges them again. And verse 39. Once more, he went away and prayed the same thing. When he came back, he found them sleeping. Because their eyes were heavy, flesh is weak. They did not know what to say to him. Can you imagine? I mean, put yourself in the disciples shoes. These have been intense days in Jerusalem. It's late in the evening. Yes, they're tired. It's dark. It's night. And he wakes them up again. They realize they can tell by looking at him that he's been an agony in prayer. And they must be utterly ashamed. They don't even know what to say. They can't respond. Verse 41. Returning the third time he said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting? And then all of a sudden the tone changes. It becomes more urgent. Enough. The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise. Let us go. Here comes my betrayer. And I'm sure they're all awake now. Okay. Well, three times he finds them asleep. Think about it. They will all miserably fail him that night. And Peter will deny him how many times? Three times. Just like he fell asleep three times. And what Peter will find is that because he did not pray to prepare himself for the battle, he will fail to the extent that he did not pray. Jesus found him sleeping three times. He will deny Jesus three times. I don't think that's just a coincidence. But do you think the disciples would learn from this? Is there any evidence that they would learn from this? Sorry, I didn't catch that. Okay. They certainly didn't learn very quickly that night. They would still flee and deny and run and all. But is there any evidence that a little later, maybe they did learn something? I know I'm kind of leading you on here. Peter does show evidence later of having learned from this. I'm thinking specifically about would they learn the lesson of prayer? And how that prepares you for battle? Fast? Go ahead. Go ahead. They gathered together. Yeah. Fast forward six weeks about Acts chapter one. They are in the upper room. Jesus has just ascended. He's told them to stay in Jerusalem until the promise of the Father comes. What are they doing in the upper room? They're praying. While they wait, they pray. They are watching and praying. Watching, waiting for the Spirit to come and praying. Acts chapter two. They have been a cost. Three thousand people get saved. And the Bible says they continued in the apostles' doctrine and prayer, breaking a bread and fellowship. Acts chapter four. They get arrested, taken before the council, warned, and let go. Warden never to teach again in the name of Jesus and let go. Where do they go when they're let go? Remember Acts four? They go back. They go back to preaching. Yes. Before they go back to preaching, there's one other thing that happens. Acts four. Somewhere around verse 31. It's the left hand page right in column lower, right down at the bottom. They go back to a prayer meeting. And they're meeting in the upper room. The other disciples are praying and they go back and they pray together. And the Bible says they prayed and ask God for boldness to proclaim His word. And the Bible says the Holy Spirit shook the place where they were praying. And they were all filled with boldness to proclaim the Word of God. You think they learned how to get ready for battle? I think they did. I think they learned that prayer was the key. I'm sure they were so ashamed after what happened that night. And it was not just Peter's shame at denying Christ. I think they made the connection. The reason all that happened is because we did not watch and pray with Him like He told us to in the garden. We failed. And that's where our failure was. And I think they learned that very deeply. I think they were impressed very deeply about what was the result of their or what was the cause of their failure. And it was the lack of prayer. So I believe they would learn that lesson. And it's a lesson that we need to learn. Let me just quickly say this. The battle for us, we all face battles. We all face our own personal geth simmities. They may not be as intense. They may not be of the same nature as what Jesus faced. But we all face battles in life. We all face difficult struggles. It may be sin. It may be family problems. It may be physical illness. It may be a lost job. It may be a terrible disappointment. It may be a divorce. It may be whatever we all face huge dark times in our lives. And what we have to learn from what Jesus did here is the way you prepare yourself and make it through those hard times is prayer. That is what puts the steel in our soul to be able to make it through and be able to do the father's will as hard as it may be. Jesus did it. The disciples didn't. Jesus succeeded. One victory, the disciples failed. It's that simple. It was the preparation for battle. It was in prayer. Watching and praying. That's the lesson we have to learn. Any comments or questions before we move on to the next event in the garden? Yes, Robin? I'm good insight. Robin is saying, thinking back to the passage earlier in the life of Christ where the disciples asked Jesus to pray. This is really the culmination of that lesson. They would learn by their failure what they had asked him before. It was interesting. They asked him that question, Luke 11, verse 1. They asked him that question as they were watching him pray. They were watching him that time. As they saw him praying, they realized we got a lot to learn about prayer. So they asked him to teach us to pray. That's when he gave them the disciples prayer. Our father, Jarton heaven, how it would be that name. That pattern for prayer. Interesting parallel there. Very much so. Let's look over at John chapter 18. The next event in the garden is covered by all four of the gospels. We're going to look at John's account. The amazing thing is there is another, can I say, transformation? Remember we emphasized in the upper room that Jesus was fully in control of the events. New exactly what was happening. New that it was the time and was preparing his disciples in the upper room, doing the Lord's sufferer, talking about what would happen, trying to prepare them for it, for his leaving and he's complete control. Then we get to the garden of Gethsemane and we see this intense struggle that is so intense and so deep that he feels like he might even die there in the garden and it is prayer which brings him through. But immediately following that, he has just told the disciples that we saw him mark four. To get up, come on, get up. It's time. The betrayer is coming. I'm going to be arrested. And what happens next? We see him once again in complete control. Which again emphasizes, I think, the power of prayer, to bring those normal human emotions, agony, horror, terror, under control again. He has spent time with his father and now he is ready for what will happen. He's ready for the arrest. And the amazing thing about it, people that are being arrested are not typically in control of the situation. And what we're going to see is that Jesus is completely in control of this situation. He's the one calling the shots, not the people who are there to arrest him. This is an absolutely amazing scene in John chapter 18. And the first thing we see about it, that indicates his control of the situation is knowledge. Christ's knowledge. Let's look at the first four verses. When he had finished praying, this is not the Garden of Gethsemane now. John 18.1 has talked about when he finished the high priestly prayer in John 17. Okay, he just had that prayer. When he finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples, left the upper room, and crossed the Kid Run Valley. On the other side, there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it. Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. So Judas came to the garden guiding a detachment of soldiers, a cohort, a Roman cohort, which we know was 600 soldiers, probably of the temple guard. Detachment or cohort of soldiers, and some officials from the chief priests in the Pharisees, they were carrying torches, lanterns, and weapons. Jesus, I noticed this, knowing all that was going to happen. Went out and asked them, who is it you want? Now, I know we're not going to get very far into this tonight, but we cannot skip through this. There's so much here that we need to see. Obviously, as John describes this, there's a gap between verses 1 and 2. Verse 1 describes him leaving the upper room, going into the garden, and verse 2 is the arrest. The gap in John's gospel is what we just covered in Mark's gospel, the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. John doesn't cover that. But after this time of prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus wakes up the disciples, after the third time coming back and finally asleep, and he says, okay, the time has come, enough sleep. The betrayer is here. It's time. Okay, now John picks it up in verse 2 with Judas, who knew the place, and knew that's where Jesus would be. Goes to Gethsemane with Roman cohort of soldiers, and officials, chief priests, officials from the Pharisees, the religious leaders that had been looking for a chance to get him. Remember Judas had gone to them and offered his services to betray him. Okay, now this looks like the perfect setup. The time is right, the place is right. Remember we've seen in this last week that the Pharisees, religious leaders, wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid to why? Because of the people, because of the crowd. They didn't want to do it in public. They didn't want to do it in the temple. Judas, when we find out that Judas after Mary had washed Jesus' feet, remember, John 12, Judas, because of Jesus' stinging rebuke about Judas' objection, about how the money could be used. Remember that? Bible says that Judas determined in his heart right then he was going to betray him, and he was seeking an opportunity to do it secretly. Wow, this is the place, this is the time. This fits Judas' bill perfectly. It fits the bill, the religious leaders perfectly. So it looks like they've got him trapped. They are in control, right? Wrong. Wrong. All of this is happening according to the Father's plan, according to what Jesus knows is going to happen. The arrest is completely under the control of Jesus, not the 600 Roman soldiers, not the chief priests and leaders of the Pharisees, not Judas, completely under Jesus' control. First thing about his knowledge is he knew where he was going. We'll just touch on this and then we'll come back next week for the rest of him. He knew where he was going. He went to a garden in verse 1 and went into it. I think it is very telling that Jesus would go to the garden, to a garden. Remember some of these nights in the first week the Gospels have been very plain that he went back to Bethany, evidently St. Mary and Martha and Lazarus, but on this night he goes back to the garden. This is where the battle starts. This is where the intense battle leading up to the cross will begin. I think Jesus knew exactly what he was doing because as Paul refers to him in 1 Corinthians 15, he calls him the second Adam or the last Adam. Adam lost it all in a garden. Jesus is going to get it all back in a garden. At least that's where the battle is going to start. Adam faces tremendous pressure in a garden. Jesus will face intense pressure in a garden. Adam will sin and fall in the garden. Jesus will come out victorious and will begin the battle that will pay for our sin. There are too many parallels here for this to be just a consequence or a coincidence. Adam will hide in the garden. Jesus will boldly come out and present himself to be arrested in a garden. Jesus knew exactly what he was doing. There is in the very place the undueing, the redemption of what Adam had done in the garden, what Adam had lost, Jesus will redeem and regain. It all begins in a garden. To get to that garden, he crosses the brethren, the Brooke, that narrow ravine that has a little Brooke in it. During Passover, that Brooke would become the emptying trough for the blood of all the lambs that have been slaughtered in the temple. It's right outside the temple. I wish I had thought to include a picture. The southeast corner of the temple is right on the edge of the Kidren Valley. It drops off right into the Kidren Valley. The Kidren Valley, the Brooke Kidren, was actually used as a channel through which the blood of all these sacrificial animals would flow. Josephus estimates 200,000 lambs would be slaughtered on the Passover and during this feast. Jesus walks across a place that is stained with the blood of sacrificial lambs into a garden where he will begin the battle, culminating in him as the Lamb of God shedding his blood for our sins. He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew where he was going, he knew exactly what he was doing. He's absolutely in control of every event of that evening. Next time we'll come back or time has passed on. We'll come back and we'll talk more about how he's in control in the garden at his arrest. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the magnificence of our Savior. Thank you for the magnificence struggle in the garden. And then the awesome power and control in the garden. Lord, take us back there, lest we forget Gethsemane, lest we forget the beginning of the battle that would provide for us our salvation. Help us never forget what Jesus did for us there. Thank you. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.