back to index2019-09-01 Jesus Our Suffering Savior
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Okay, Hebrews chapter 5 verses 1 through 10, reading out of the NASB. 00:00:10.120 |
For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining 00:00:14.360 |
to God in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. 00:00:18.880 |
He can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided since he himself also is beset with weakness. 00:00:24.060 |
And because of it, he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins as for the people, so 00:00:29.720 |
And no one takes honor to himself but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron 00:00:34.960 |
So also Christ did not glorify himself so as to become a high priest, but he who said 00:00:39.180 |
to him, "You are my son; today I have begotten you." 00:00:42.760 |
Just as he says also in another passage, "You are a priest forever according to the order 00:00:47.380 |
And again, 7 through 10 is where we're going to be focused this morning. 00:00:51.040 |
In the days of his flesh, he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying 00:00:55.340 |
and tears to the one able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his piety. 00:01:01.600 |
Although he was a son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered. 00:01:05.060 |
And having been made perfect, he became to all those who obey him the source of eternal 00:01:09.260 |
salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. 00:01:17.780 |
Father, we've gathered here together to honor you, to worship you, to hear from you. 00:01:26.420 |
Help us, Lord God, to have open ears, softened hearts, to listen, to understand, and to obey. 00:01:34.020 |
May Christ and his suffering bear fruit, Lord God, even today. 00:01:43.460 |
If I was to ask you, if you were to think back in your Christian life, whether you've 00:01:47.840 |
been a Christian for a year or 10 years or longer than that, 20, 30 years, what has made 00:01:57.820 |
Was it some particular person who invested their time into your life? 00:02:04.360 |
You know, when I think about out of the years that I've been a Christian, what image do 00:02:10.300 |
I have in my head that has made the biggest impact that I remember? 00:02:15.380 |
And if I tell you what made the biggest impact, you're going to think it's kind of trivial, 00:02:20.540 |
you know, because even as I tell it, it's going to sound trivial. 00:02:24.580 |
But the image that I have in my head that made the biggest impact or made a deep impact 00:02:29.480 |
in my life was when I was 19 years old, my former youth pastor, who used to be my youth 00:02:35.220 |
pastor when I was in high school, you know, I met him in college and then he asked if 00:02:42.820 |
And of course, I was hungry at that time and said, "Yes, I mean, if you're willing to meet 00:02:47.620 |
But he was a man who didn't necessarily have obvious gifts. 00:02:53.280 |
In fact, as a youth pastor, he was not liked by the youth at all. 00:02:57.660 |
You know, he had broken English and he tried too hard. 00:03:03.980 |
He had a bunch of teenagers, you know, who were like hormones going crazy. 00:03:08.740 |
And he would come and he would try too hard to kind of like be one of us and be cool and 00:03:15.100 |
And so every time he tried to meet up with the students and the students just like, "Oh, 00:03:18.460 |
that guy," you know, and so he basically just kind of lost control of the group. 00:03:26.400 |
And so by the time I came to college, when he asked to meet up, he's like, "Yeah, I mean, 00:03:33.260 |
I would say he probably made the biggest impact in my life, but I can't remember a single 00:03:39.660 |
I can't remember a single thing that he said to me that I remember today. 00:03:45.500 |
You know, I don't remember because that's not what impacted me. 00:03:50.260 |
And when I think of how he impacted me, it was more from just watching him. 00:03:59.860 |
He wasn't a type of guy that can stand in front of a large crowd and gather attention. 00:04:03.780 |
But I remember specifically this one retreat that we went to when I was 19 years old, and 00:04:10.380 |
there was a bunch of people who gathered and waiting for the, you know, the head leaders 00:04:18.580 |
And I forget, it was 100 or 200 people, we're sitting around, and something needed to be 00:04:23.300 |
done, but nobody wanted to, you know, everybody was kind of awkward and didn't know what to 00:04:28.140 |
And so my discipler, he kind of stepped up and because there was a need, it was chaotic, 00:04:34.140 |
and he tried to organize people, and he was trying to be silly and playing games and asking 00:04:41.660 |
He made an awkward situation much more awkward. 00:04:44.820 |
And I remember sitting watching that, you know, just kind of feeling uncomfortable. 00:04:49.620 |
And I think you guys have all been in similar situation, and we were all just like, "What 00:04:55.700 |
But again, the reason why that made such an impact on me was because as I was observing 00:05:01.500 |
him, the only reason why he was doing that, and I think he was very aware that it wasn't 00:05:07.780 |
And I think he was very aware that people were snickering and kind of like, "What is 00:05:14.340 |
But I remember sitting there watching him thinking, "Man, the only reason why he's doing 00:05:19.140 |
that is because there was a need," and he just kind of stepped up. 00:05:22.940 |
And again, like I said, even as I tell it, he's like, "You got impacted by that?" 00:05:28.100 |
But the reason why it made such a deep impression in me is it was just purely out of...there 00:05:39.660 |
It was just...he was just a man who was faithful, who was just serving and doing his job. 00:05:43.960 |
And I remember thinking to myself, "That's the kind of man I want to be. 00:05:47.740 |
I want to be somebody who just serves because I love Christ." 00:05:52.000 |
You know, our natural tendency, even in the context of serving Christ, our natural tendency 00:06:01.740 |
That's every single one of us because that's at the root of our rebellion. 00:06:05.500 |
Our root of our rebellion is to idolize mankind, idolize ourselves, wanting to be recognized. 00:06:14.980 |
That's why we want to make more money because our natural inclination is to get recognition, 00:06:24.960 |
Remember, when Jesus was going to the cross, he was telling his disciples he's going to 00:06:31.560 |
And the only thing that the disciples were thinking is, "Who's going to sit to the left 00:06:37.420 |
So it was by no accident that the very last image that Jesus left to his disciples before 00:06:43.480 |
he went to the cross was him on his knees serving them. 00:06:48.360 |
He was washing their feet and he said, "Not only am I doing this," he says, "if you want 00:06:52.520 |
to be my disciples, you will need to do this for each other." 00:06:55.560 |
So that was not by accident that Jesus did that. 00:07:00.720 |
He left that impression upon them as their Lord, as their Messiah, to humble ourselves 00:07:07.680 |
because he knows that our natural inclination is to magnify ourselves. 00:07:14.920 |
Now the text that we're looking at this morning is talking about Jesus' suffering. 00:07:20.720 |
We're going to get back to verse 7 because verse 8 kind of summarizes what Jesus did 00:07:28.480 |
We talked about last week how a high priest needed to be a man. 00:07:33.300 |
And as a result of that, he needed to be a gentle. 00:07:36.480 |
He neither...it was apathetic towards sin, nor was he harsh towards sinners. 00:07:43.200 |
So this week, we're looking at verse 8, 7, 8, 9, and 10 to describe in detail what does 00:07:54.880 |
Well, it says in verse 5, 8, "Although he was a son, he learned obedience from the things 00:08:07.160 |
That phrase, you probably have read it many times, maybe you have even memorized it. 00:08:13.920 |
Think about what this is a description of, who this description is. 00:08:19.000 |
Though he was a son, we're not talking about just any son, he's the son of the living God. 00:08:23.680 |
In other words, Christ is God himself, is described as a man who is learning to obey 00:08:36.560 |
Every single one of those words does not fit the son of God. 00:08:51.160 |
In Psalm 147, verse 5, it describes the God that you and I worship, the son of God. 00:09:03.040 |
If you want to find passages in the Old Testament about the omniscience of God, I mean, you'll 00:09:07.880 |
find tons and tons because there's passage after passage. 00:09:12.480 |
There's event after event to describe our God as being omniscient, knowing all things, 00:09:16.760 |
and yet he said, "Jesus humbled himself and he learned." 00:09:24.520 |
In Colossians 1:16-18, Jesus Christ is the creator and he is completely omnipotent. 00:09:31.720 |
For by him all things were created, both in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, 00:09:35.920 |
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. 00:09:42.360 |
All things have been created through him and for him. 00:09:46.000 |
He is before all things and in him all things hold together. 00:09:53.000 |
All things were created by him and all things are for him and all rulers and all authorities 00:10:04.760 |
And yet, it says, not only did he learn, he learned obedience. 00:10:13.160 |
How can a God who has all kings, all rulers subjected under him have to obey? 00:10:23.480 |
Isaiah 40, 28-29, he says, "Do you not know, have you not heard, the everlasting God, the 00:10:29.880 |
Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, does not become weary or tired. 00:10:37.220 |
He gives strength to the weary and to him who lacks might, he increases power. 00:10:45.480 |
He's the one that people run to when they need power." 00:10:53.100 |
So this statement that although he was son, Jesus, he learned obedience from the things 00:11:05.400 |
How can that be a description of the same person? 00:11:08.680 |
How can an omniscient, omnipotent, immutable God learn obedience through suffering? 00:11:14.200 |
I mean, I think the perfect example of that is we find in Luke 2, 45-47. 00:11:22.400 |
The backdrop behind this is Jesus' mother and father, Joseph and Mary, they, being a 00:11:29.360 |
good Jew, decided to go down and make a journey to Jerusalem to practice one of their festivals. 00:11:35.360 |
And while they're there, you know, they do their thing and then they go back. 00:11:39.340 |
And on their way back home, after a couple of days on the way back home, they realize 00:11:44.780 |
So just in case we think like, "Well, that's a really bad mother," you know what I mean? 00:11:48.020 |
How do you lose your son for two days and not recognize that, right? 00:11:50.860 |
You have to understand that when they probably made that journey, they did it with probably 00:11:54.760 |
their whole clan, maybe their grandfather, grandmother, aunt, uncle, cousins, and I don't 00:11:58.860 |
know exactly how many people were with them, but my guess is it was a huge caravan, right? 00:12:03.860 |
Maybe 20, maybe 30, maybe 50 of them, I don't know. 00:12:06.400 |
But they went together and it was a large enough group where they didn't recognize him. 00:12:12.180 |
So he was probably a preteen, about 11 or 12 by the time that this is written. 00:12:18.400 |
So when they recognize that he is not there, they go back to Jerusalem and it takes them 00:12:22.440 |
three days to find him because they didn't know where he was. 00:12:26.760 |
In verse 45, it says, "When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem looking for 00:12:32.400 |
And in those days, they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both 00:12:39.140 |
And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers." 00:12:44.320 |
This is omniscient, omnipotent, immutable God sitting under the teaching of the very 00:12:48.280 |
teachers that in his ministry he's going to rebuke. 00:12:52.800 |
He said all of these Pharisees, all of these scribes, all of these supposed teachers of 00:12:58.920 |
He says of them, "They sit in the seat of Moses." 00:13:02.200 |
So listen to what they have to say, but do not do what they do because they're hypocrites. 00:13:09.040 |
Everything that they do, they do for men to see. 00:13:12.720 |
And it is these same people that he subjects himself under and he's listening, asking questions 00:13:21.680 |
Some of these people are going to be the same people who are going to crucify him. 00:13:26.100 |
In about 20 years' time, Jesus knowing this, as a young man, he subjects himself to learn 00:13:35.840 |
Verse 51, "And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and he continued in subjection 00:13:44.200 |
And his mother treasured all these things in his heart and Jesus kept increasing in 00:13:47.200 |
wisdom and stature in favor with God and men." 00:13:52.680 |
That picture alone, I mean, you know, we have so many things about Christianity that, you 00:13:59.280 |
know, sometimes we have and it's like, "Oh, I can't understand why there's hell. 00:14:06.360 |
To me, all of those things have obvious answers, you know, and I don't think it's that difficult, 00:14:17.720 |
The God of the universe, who is perfect in nature, is offended and angry with sinners 00:14:23.440 |
who are rebelling against him and so he's bringing judgment. 00:14:32.480 |
But the real question behind the gospel is not why is there judgment because that's pretty 00:14:37.320 |
clear if we understand who he is and understand who we are. 00:14:41.120 |
The real question is, why would the King of Kings and Lord of Lords submit himself to 00:14:49.240 |
Why would he be in a position where he needs to learn and to obey and to suffer? 00:14:56.220 |
When he says he learned obedience through suffering, I think the obvious application 00:15:01.540 |
of that or illustration of that is at Gethsemane. 00:15:05.960 |
You know, the word Gethsemane, the title, literally means "olive press" because that's 00:15:12.800 |
where they collected olives and then they pressed it to make oil. 00:15:16.880 |
And that's exactly what happens to Jesus at Gethsemane, where he gets pressured and by 00:15:27.780 |
In Matthew chapter 26, 38-39, we have a description of what takes place. 00:15:34.760 |
Jesus says to them, the disciples, "My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. 00:15:42.600 |
And if you don't know the background, Jesus is about to go to the cross that very morning 00:15:48.080 |
and he is in anguish and he's asking his disciples to join him in prayer. 00:15:51.840 |
And when he went a little beyond them, fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My Father, 00:15:55.880 |
if it is possible, let this cup pass from me." 00:16:00.320 |
The cup he is referring to, the cup he is asking the Lord to may it pass. 00:16:07.400 |
This is the same cup that was prepared and prophesied from Genesis. 00:16:14.320 |
As soon as Adam and Eve fell, there was a prophecy that the seed of the woman is going 00:16:18.840 |
to come and he is going to crush the head of the serpent. 00:16:27.640 |
It is that cup he is praying and saying, "Is it possible for this to pass?" 00:16:33.560 |
Jesus has been telling his disciples that he's going to come and drink this cup. 00:16:37.680 |
His whole purpose of his existence, why he came and why he was born, why he lived, why 00:16:42.160 |
he called his disciples, was to drink this cup. 00:16:46.480 |
But as he is in anguish about the suffering about to come, he is pleading with his Father, 00:16:56.920 |
When the Bible talks about how he suffered, he learned obedience. 00:17:00.560 |
I mean, this is the extent of his suffering that everything that he came to do, but as 00:17:05.960 |
a human being, as a man, just like any one of us, faced with suffering, he was asking 00:17:16.760 |
He says, "Let this cup pass from me, yet not as I will, but as you will." 00:17:25.060 |
At that moment, in his weakness, in his flesh, it was not his will to go to the cross. 00:17:31.860 |
At that moment, I mean, you want to see his weakness. 00:17:38.340 |
God ordained, God prepared, deliberately has come, prophesied, telling his disciples, preparing 00:17:44.220 |
to go to the cross, and in his weakness, he's crying out, "Is there a way for this cup to 00:18:02.740 |
Why would a God of the universe put him in that situation? 00:18:07.060 |
Isaiah 53, 5, "But he was pierced through for our transgressions. 00:18:12.480 |
The chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging, we are healed." 00:18:19.060 |
This is what makes us Christian, that we see his suffering, that he didn't just suffer 00:18:28.100 |
He put himself in that situation because of me, because of my sin. 00:18:32.140 |
My sin made it necessary for him to learn obedience through his suffering. 00:18:37.580 |
Every child who's born in this world is born with an instinct to live. 00:18:44.620 |
Anybody who has children, you know what I'm talking about. 00:18:46.220 |
As soon as they're born, you don't sit there in the delivery room teaching them how to 00:18:57.100 |
There is a natural instinct to survive, and that instinct to survive never dies. 00:19:04.060 |
Until the day that we have our last breath, we have instinctively a desire to live. 00:19:09.880 |
And this instinct to live is what causes us to stay away from danger. 00:19:15.300 |
If suffering is coming, we do at all costs try to avoid that. 00:19:19.660 |
So when we buy a house, if the neighborhood is not safe, that's not where we go. 00:19:23.900 |
If we go to a certain part of the country where there's danger of certain kind of measles 00:19:33.060 |
We buy insurance just in case something tragic happens and that we can't control to minimize 00:19:39.880 |
So every instinct that we have, we want to avoid suffering. 00:19:44.340 |
Jesus did not get here because He made some poor choices. 00:19:48.500 |
Jesus did not get here because He didn't have the wisdom to avoid it. 00:19:57.500 |
And yet, as He was facing the cross in His flesh, He cried out to His Father, "Is this 00:20:06.980 |
Isaiah 53, 7, "He was oppressed and He was afflicted, and yet He did not open His mouth 00:20:11.420 |
like a lamb that is led to a slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before His shearers, 00:20:20.580 |
He volunteered for this, even in His anguish, even as He was crying out to His Father. 00:20:27.740 |
And that's what it means when it says that He learned obedience in His suffering. 00:20:33.260 |
As He was suffering in His weakness of His flesh, just like any other human being would 00:20:37.020 |
cry out and look for an escape, Jesus was like any of us. 00:20:44.060 |
Yet His prayer didn't end with, "Lord, save me from this." 00:20:47.980 |
Though that was in His heart, though that was His instinct, just like any one of us, 00:20:51.860 |
it ended with, "But not My will, but let Your will be done." 00:20:56.840 |
That's what it means when the Scripture says He was tempted in every way, yet without sin, 00:21:01.080 |
that even in His temptation, even in His intense anguish, He never gave into His flesh, He 00:21:10.380 |
In verse 7, it describes His anguish to another level. 00:21:14.380 |
Verse 7, "In the days of His flesh, as a human being, He offered up both prayers and supplication." 00:21:22.940 |
For any other human being, a prophet, even angels, to pray and to offer supplication 00:21:41.020 |
And yet, the reason why He prays, the word supplication basically means to plead, to 00:21:46.540 |
plead for God to answer, for God to intervene. 00:21:51.500 |
So what would be obvious, what would be noble for any other human being, but for Jesus to 00:22:00.860 |
In Psalm 23, one of churches, Christians' favorite verses, "The Lord is my shepherd, 00:22:09.540 |
In other words, I have no other need but Him. 00:22:18.420 |
In the presence of my enemies, He prepares a banquet for me. 00:22:22.200 |
But the reason why we're able to say that is because there is nothing that He cannot 00:22:26.240 |
provide because He's the omnipotent, omniscient, all-powerful, immutable God. 00:22:40.340 |
It's not like we go through Him to get something else. 00:22:44.020 |
And the reason we love that passage is because if we have Him, we have everything. 00:22:49.140 |
And the reason why if we have Him, we have everything is because He lacks nothing. 00:23:02.940 |
And for that omnipotent, omniscient, immutable, all-powerful God, in His flesh, He offered 00:23:12.300 |
He puts Himself in a place where He was in need. 00:23:20.860 |
And every once in a while, it makes news when somebody who's famous and who's multimillionaire, 00:23:26.300 |
with all the money in the world, that we expect them to be flying out and flying around in 00:23:30.060 |
private jets or limousine with chauffeurs, and then we catch a glimpse of them on a subway, 00:23:42.260 |
They got a video of him in the New York subway, and this guy's been a big movie star for, 00:23:53.740 |
And they catch a glimpse of him on the subway, riding like everybody else. 00:23:59.820 |
And the only difference between him and us is he's better looking. 00:24:02.340 |
I'm not going to say anything about his acting. 00:24:10.060 |
A great guy, nice guy, you know, it's not to knock him, but the world is just flipping 00:24:17.060 |
over over this guy because you don't expect him to be riding a subway. 00:24:23.620 |
You don't expect him to be nice like everybody else. 00:24:26.700 |
He's a multimillionaire adored by the world because he's good looking. 00:24:34.860 |
We as a world fawn over people for being a bit humble, and yet when we think about our 00:24:46.540 |
Lord, God of the universe, who humbled himself, became a man. 00:24:52.500 |
And not just a man, but humbled himself to the point of being ridiculed and suffered 00:24:56.700 |
on the cross, crying out in tears, it says, to the one who was able to save him from death. 00:25:08.300 |
Why does he even pray to God to save him from death? 00:25:23.140 |
He says he has come to give life and give this life abundantly, and yet in Gethsemane 00:25:27.140 |
he is praying with supplication, pleading with God, crying out with tears. 00:25:37.100 |
Those tears wasn't because he made bad choices. 00:25:41.780 |
Those tears wasn't because he made the wrong turn somewhere or something tragic happened 00:25:57.500 |
Only time that we've seen Jesus weep like that in the Bible is two other places. 00:26:06.220 |
Jesus comes and he tells them that he's going to bring him back from the dead, and people 00:26:10.380 |
are weeping, and before he calls him out, he weeps. 00:26:19.820 |
He already told them that this is not going to lead to death. 00:26:23.380 |
He's about to bring him from the tomb, but why is he weeping? 00:26:29.780 |
In all three instances of his weeping, it's the same. 00:26:32.780 |
He's standing before the tomb because the death of man is the most tangible evidence 00:26:38.460 |
of the curse of man, because God said, "If you break this command, if you do not obey," 00:26:47.460 |
And death has reigned over mankind from then on until now. 00:26:52.460 |
And so in the presence of death, not specifically Lazarus' death, Jesus is weeping over mankind, 00:26:59.620 |
The second time we see him weeping is as he is riding his donkey into Jerusalem, and as 00:27:04.460 |
people are parting, saying, "Oh, we're going to be delivered. 00:27:06.460 |
Finally, the Messiah is going to come, overthrow the Roman government." 00:27:13.540 |
If you only knew what would bring you true peace. 00:27:18.820 |
The peace you were referring to was not an overthrow of Roman government or easier life, 00:27:23.620 |
or establish Israel as the greatest kingdom, because that's what they were looking for, 00:27:30.620 |
Only if you really knew what would bring you peace. 00:27:34.300 |
But because you did not recognize the coming of Christ, and why he came, he said, "Judgment 00:27:42.580 |
And it is over this judgment and destruction of Jerusalem that he was weeping over them. 00:27:50.360 |
And so here, when Jesus is crying out with tears, those tears wasn't simply because he 00:27:59.000 |
He was crying out and tearing, praying, and offering supplication because he put himself 00:28:11.560 |
As I was preparing for this sermon, I was meditating and thinking about this. 00:28:23.320 |
It's a strange thing to see somebody whose object of honor and worship to be in that 00:28:31.160 |
You remember years ago when Kobe Bryant messed up his Achilles? 00:28:38.640 |
Some of you guys who are Lakers fans may remember. 00:28:41.320 |
Because Kobe Bryant came into the league as a 17-year-old, cocky as ever. 00:28:50.560 |
He was…17-year-old Kobe was unbearable because they were comparing him to Michael Jordan, 00:29:06.560 |
And they were saying, "Kobe Bryant is the next Michael Jordan." 00:29:11.320 |
And so he's coming around 17 years old and, you know, people are trying to contain him 00:29:15.480 |
and they wouldn't give him, you know, playing time, you know, early on because he was too 00:29:20.680 |
But eventually he got to playing time and then, yeah, he became a superstar almost immediately. 00:29:25.640 |
And all we've known of Kobe is making spectacular shots. 00:29:30.280 |
And as the years went by, even the unbelievers were beginning to say, it's like, "Maybe 00:29:42.720 |
And then all of a sudden, he breaks his Achilles and he's in that locker room, humbled. 00:29:51.480 |
He's at the end of his career and there's nothing he can do to work himself, to will 00:29:57.760 |
There's no mamba mentality that was going to save him from his broken Achilles. 00:30:02.080 |
And it was a very, very strange scene because we've never seen that in Kobe because he was 00:30:09.680 |
As long as we've known him, he was always on a pedestal. 00:30:11.800 |
He was the one bailing, you know, Lakers out. 00:30:15.320 |
He was one on the table, you know, flashing his jersey number. 00:30:21.360 |
But as strange as that scene was, the son of God crying out in tears, pleading to save 00:30:35.160 |
him from death, is a mystery that will take eternity for us to realize. 00:30:51.080 |
And that mystery should keep us asking and in wonder and worship for all eternity. 00:30:59.320 |
That is a love that you and I cannot possibly begin to comprehend. 00:31:04.300 |
We can say it's like this, it's like my mother's, it's like my grandfather's, it was like this. 00:31:09.680 |
But all of that are grossly, grossly imperfect in comparison to what Christ has done. 00:31:16.720 |
He says, "Jesus prayed to God who was able to save him from death." 00:31:21.560 |
He prayed to God in Mark chapter 14, 37 to 38. 00:31:26.320 |
In his humanity, just like any of us, when we are suffering, we are looking for partners 00:31:30.620 |
and other people to suffer with us or at least sympathize with us. 00:31:40.260 |
Could you not keep watch for me for one hour?" 00:31:43.840 |
You know, I don't believe Jesus was trying to disciple them at this moment. 00:31:47.560 |
I think Jesus, in his suffering, genuinely wanted the support and sympathy of his friends. 00:31:56.920 |
And as he was crying out to God, he wanted his friends to join him. 00:32:11.260 |
The very people that I came to love are going to whip me and beat me, and they're going 00:32:17.780 |
Could you not pray with me for one minute, for one hour?" 00:32:21.640 |
He says, "Your spirit is willing, but your flesh is weak." 00:32:33.260 |
We may have desire, but we will always fall short in our flesh. 00:32:44.660 |
We may have every intention to be a better father, to be a better son, to be a better 00:32:53.420 |
And we may have that intention, but only God could save us from our own sins. 00:32:59.640 |
And he says, "Because of his piety, he heard him." 00:33:07.340 |
What does it mean, "he heard him because of his piety"? 00:33:09.980 |
The word for piety literally means, and the NIV is the only one who translated it this 00:33:17.060 |
In the NASB, it says "piety," in the King James, it says "fear," but literally, it means 00:33:26.860 |
Instead of demanding security, demanding, and Jesus, if anybody was justified to demand 00:33:33.960 |
that he be delivered, it would have been Christ. 00:33:37.500 |
None of us, no matter what we had, there is no way we can ever come to a holy God, demand 00:33:48.100 |
Don't ever come to a holy God and say, "God, you're unfair." 00:33:54.460 |
My children ever say, "It's unfair, okay, let's be fair from now on." 00:33:57.500 |
This is how much it's going to cost to live in my house. 00:34:12.020 |
You definitely don't want that when you come before God. 00:34:21.980 |
If there's one person who could have asked and demanded justice was Christ. 00:34:29.140 |
Yet as he came before God, he humbled himself in reverent submission. 00:34:37.460 |
Clearly it wasn't that he saved him from the cross because it was the Lord's will. 00:34:46.740 |
Our problem of mankind, even though so much of our prayer is to make this life better, 00:34:55.540 |
Whether you die when you're 80 years old or 90 years old, whether you die when you're 00:35:04.020 |
Whether you live a healthy life or a difficult life, whether you live nicely in a nice home 00:35:08.180 |
or whether you're homeless, because all of this is temporary, that is not the problem 00:35:14.660 |
The quality of life, the length of life is not our greatest problem. 00:35:20.140 |
It's the second death that the Bible describes. 00:35:23.320 |
In as much as it is appointed for all men to die once, after this comes judgment. 00:35:27.360 |
So when Jesus pled with his Father to save him from death, he's not simply talking about 00:35:34.500 |
It's the effect of every sinner who dies with sin. 00:35:38.920 |
And when he says he was answered because of his reverent submission, he's talking about 00:35:47.380 |
He was resurrected and his name was exalted high above every other name. 00:35:57.340 |
When we recognize that, when we recognize our greatest problem is our sin, our prayers 00:36:12.740 |
Now we may struggle with these trivial things, that in the path of eternal life, I want to 00:36:21.100 |
It's like somebody who's been saved from Titanic and you get on this boat to get to safety 00:36:26.380 |
and then you're wrestling with who gets to have the nice window view as you're headed 00:36:33.140 |
That's how our prayers are sometimes so trivial. 00:36:38.020 |
Because sometimes we're fighting to see who gets to sit in the captain's seat, who gets 00:36:42.420 |
the window seat, who gets to get the better snacks, all on the way to safety. 00:36:50.460 |
When we recognize that our greatest problem is not the length or the quality of this life, 00:37:03.100 |
Why we see this strange scene of our Savior humbled, crying out in tears, pleading for 00:37:14.180 |
Hebrews chapter 5, 9 through 10, it says, "And having been made perfect, he became to 00:37:17.540 |
all those who obey him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as high 00:37:22.580 |
priest according to the order of Melchizedek." 00:37:25.060 |
Now we'll get a bit more deeper into Melchizedek when we get to chapter 7. 00:37:30.860 |
But here when it says, "He was made perfect," he wasn't made perfect because he was imperfect. 00:37:35.460 |
The word perfect, "Heleos," basically means God's appointed purpose to be brought to completion. 00:37:42.620 |
Christ humbled himself, emptied himself, became nothing, and through his suffering, obedience, 00:37:52.700 |
There's only one person that qualifies to be our Savior. 00:38:00.820 |
And if we look anywhere else for refuge, anywhere else for rest, anywhere else for help, it 00:38:06.460 |
is no different than Jesus going to his friends. 00:38:12.860 |
They may have good intentions, they may be loving and gentle, they may be kind, but they 00:38:26.260 |
All of his suffering, all of his humiliation, all of it was ordained for this purpose. 00:38:33.060 |
As Christ learned obedience through suffering, he became the source of salvation for those 00:38:40.500 |
He learned what obedience looked like in the flesh, made weak. 00:38:56.780 |
We could look at that and say, "Jesus, how can you pray that prayer? 00:39:02.060 |
You volunteered, you prophesied, you've been preparing your disciples for this, and yet 00:39:06.100 |
in his flesh, just like any of us, can this cup pass from me? 00:39:16.560 |
In his flesh, he experienced temptation to the point where he made no sense. 00:39:22.660 |
That prayer made no sense to everything that he did up to this point, but that's how tempted 00:39:34.820 |
Yet without sin, not my will, your will be done. 00:39:39.340 |
All for the purpose to be able to say to us, "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden. 00:39:50.300 |
Come to me," because he is gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your 00:40:04.300 |
You know, restlessness is revealed in all kinds of ways. 00:40:14.620 |
Restlessness is found and expressed in all kinds of ways. 00:40:19.500 |
But in the end, it's because there is no rest in Christ. 00:40:29.420 |
Let us draw near to the throne of grace so that we may find help in times of need. 00:40:44.580 |
And as our worship team leads us, let's take some time to pray and come before the Lord 00:40:49.080 |
in honest prayer and honest confession of where we are. 00:40:54.720 |
If our hearts have become hardened and the revelation of his suffering for us doesn't 00:41:00.860 |
sound any different than hearing bad news on the news. 00:41:08.500 |
That already shows that we've drifted away from God. 00:41:10.980 |
And if that's where we are, ask the Lord, soften our hearts. 00:41:16.140 |
What has caused our hearts to be callous when we hear the suffering of Christ and it does 00:41:21.300 |
nothing other than to add more information, to plug up holes that you didn't understand 00:41:27.940 |
And it doesn't cause you to have affection for him. 00:41:32.700 |
That already is a revelation that our hearts have drifted so far from God. 00:41:36.900 |
Let's be honest before the Lord in honest prayer and ask the Lord, "Lord, soften my 00:41:41.740 |
Not only that I may understand, but that I may be impacted, that the revelation of Christ's 00:41:46.740 |
suffering would cause me to desire to offer my body as a living sacrifice." 00:41:52.940 |
So again, as our worship team leads us, let's take some time to pray.