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An archive of Jacob Nannie's Sermons & Lectures
Good morning, my name is Pam and our scripture reading today is from Mark chapter 14, verse 32
to verse 52. Hear now the word of the Lord. Then they came to a place named Gethsemane and he told
his disciples, sit here while I pray. He told Peter, James and John, took Peter, James and John
with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. He said to them, I am deeply grieved to
the point of death. Remain here and stay awake. He went a little farther, fell to the ground, and
prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba, Father, all things
are possible for you. Take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.
Then he came and found them sleeping. He said to Peter, Simon, are you sleeping? Couldn't you stay
awake one hour? Stay awake and pray so that you won't enter into temptation. The spirit is willing
but the flesh is weak. Once again he went away and prayed, saying the same thing. And again he came
and found them sleeping because they could not keep their eyes open. They did not know what to
say to him. Then he came a third time and said to them, are you still sleeping and resting? Enough.
The time has come. See, the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up. Let's go.
See, my betrayer is near. While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the 12, suddenly arrived.
With him was a mob with swords and clubs from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders.
His betrayer had given them a signal, the one I kiss, he said, he's the one, arrest him and take
him away under guard. So when he came, immediately he went up to Jesus and said, rabbi, and kissed
him. They took hold of him and arrested him. One of those who stood by drew his sword, struck the
high priest's servant, and cut off his ear. Jesus said to them, have you come out with swords and
clubs as if I were a criminal to capture me? Every day I was among you, teaching in the temple,
and you didn't arrest me, but the scriptures must be fulfilled.
Then they all deserted him and ran away.
Now a certain young man wearing nothing but a linen cloth was following him.
They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth behind and ran away naked.
This is the word of the Lord.
You may be seated.
Thank you Pam, good morning everybody. You know I'm curious to know if you've all
felt this this thing I feel sometime which is a battle of motivation. You ever
felt a battle between different motivations? Like for me sometimes usually
it's I really want to go running today but I also want to go to the movies and
do nothing all day too. It's a battle of motivations. I usually opt for the movies
and not running. We've all experienced that right? It can be light-hearted
oftentimes it is light-hearted ways. We also experience that in serious ways as
well. The tension of these battles, these battles of motivations. And that
tension comes into really sharp focus for us when it's a battle between my
motivation, our motivation, and God's. A battle between our motivation and God's.
And I experienced this a few years back when I was at a local coffee shop doing
some homework during college. And there was a certain regular there, and I felt God prompting
me to pray for this man. And it wasn't a strong prompting, it was a light prompting. I kind of
dismissed it. Went about my day. And the next week I was there again, and so was this man sitting
there, and so was God, prompting me to pray. However, this time I felt a much stronger prompting
to interact with him and pray for him, and not just pray for him, but pray that God might heal
him because he was deaf. And that's where the battle for me began. I was battling
between my will, which meant listening to my fears and trying to maintain control
over a situation, maintain my emotions, maintain my reputation, maintain my
theology even. It was a battle between my will and God's will, which would
mean, trusting in him and obeying his voice. And that day I chose my will.
And as time passed, I gained the courage, thought about this instance, and I went back a few weeks
later excited. I'm going to see him again probably. He's there all the time, and I'm going to do what
God wanted me to do a week or two before. But when I got to the coffee shop, excited to see this man,
I had learned that he had recently passed away. When it mattered most, I said no to God. When it
mattered most, I was scared to obey God. When it mattered most, I chose myself in that battle of
motivations and wills. Why? Because following God and his promptings is scary, right? It's terrifying.
Obedience, choosing God's will over our own will.
It's like a drop on a roller coaster, right?
Even those who love roller coasters, drops are terrifying if you're not sure who built
the track or if it's an unsteady track, right?
But when you do trust the one who built that track, it might be terrifying, but it's also
exhilarating and exciting.
But it takes time to get there.
Life with God is not a boring life.
If you follow God's prompting and God's will, it is a journey, an exciting journey.
But it takes time to get excited about that.
It takes time to learn to trust in God.
And in that coffee shop, I felt that pull between my will, my motivations, and God's.
And I still honestly feel that pull between those two things today.
Because this is the battle of discipleship.
This battle of motivations and will is the battle of discipleship.
It's a battle that every Christian goes through and will go through.
Because we all want to be faithful to Jesus, don't we?
We believe in Jesus, we trust in him for salvation, we want to be faithful to him.
But in moments like this in the coffee shop years ago, it makes faithfulness really hard.
Moments like that revealed how hard faithfulness is.
And friends, in order to be faithful to Jesus, we must be faithful like Jesus.
In order to be faithful to Jesus we must be faithful like Jesus. In this
morning's text we see the faithfulness of Jesus even in the middle of this
intense battle that Jesus himself is having between his will, his desires, and
God's. He does not want to experience the agony of the cross. Yet even though
that's his motivation and will to not experience the agony, he wants his
Father's will far more than he wants his own will. And it's in this battle that
Jesus is having with his motivation and God's that we see his humanity and we
also see what it means to be faithful to God even in our own human weakness. We've
been journeying through the book of Mark together, we've been journeying with
Jesus through this gospel, and we're seeing this thing precisely, what it means
to be faithful to Jesus, what it means to be a faithful disciple. We've seen it,
Mark has shown us through both positive and negative examples all throughout
this gospel. What does it mean to be a faithful disciple of Christ? And it means
bearing the cross before bearing the crown. Again, negative examples of that
and also positive ones, and we see a positive one today. Here we see the Son
of God succeeding and bearing his cross before he receives the crown. If you have your Bible,
turn to Mark 14. This is where we're at this morning. Jesus is getting closer and closer to
the cross, closer to his death. In chapter 13, he talks about how the disciples are going to have
some troubling times coming up, and he encourages them, he urges them to watch out and be alert.
And the first half of chapter 14, again, he's getting closer and closer to his death.
And he tells his disciples what is to come next.
In the next days, even hours of his life.
He says people are going to plot to kill him.
Someone among the 12 is going to betray him.
And one of them is going to deny him three times.
These are troubling times for Jesus.
And he's getting closer and closer and closer to death.
And here we find him in this intense moment in the garden of Gethsemane.
Verse 32.
Then they came to a place named Gethsemane,
and he told his disciples, sit here while I pray.
He took Peter, James, and John with him,
and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled.
In this deeply distressing and troubling time,
Jesus wants space, right?
He leaves most of the twelve, but he also doesn't want to be totally alone.
And he brings Peter, James, and John with him.
These are the three men that have witnessed all the highlights of Jesus' ministry.
They've witnessed Jesus' unique relationship with his Father.
They've witnessed his power to resurrect the dead.
That was in Mark chapter 5.
They witnessed his transfiguration.
That was in Mark chapter 9.
They witnessed Jesus teaching about the end times,
the times that are to come back in Mark chapter 13.
They have been with Jesus at every pivotal moment,
every point in his ministry, including this one.
And it's here that he gives them the same command
that he gave back in Mark 13.
Come with me, I'm going to pray.
I'm deeply grieved at the point of death.
Remain here and stay awake.
He wants some solitude, but he wants to not be alone.
And he wants them to remain and stay awake,
be present with him in this troubling, troubling time.
That's sort of relatable, isn't it?
I mean, who wants to go through hard times alone?
In fact, going through hard times alone only makes the hard times harder.
Who wants to do that?
Not even Jesus, the Son of God, God in flesh.
Not even he wants to be alone in his most troubling and agonizing time.
Friends, we have to take after Jesus here for our own good
and be people that do not suffer alone.
If you're suffering, you shouldn't suffer alone,
but if there are people in your community,
they shouldn't suffer alone either.
We should be a people that moves towards the pain of others,
not around it, not avoiding it.
And if you're suffering, maybe even suffering right now in your life,
do what Jesus did and seek out, brothers and sisters,
to be around you, be in your community, to be with you,
the middle of that pain. That's what Jesus did. He brought friends with him. So with
the security of the presence of his friends, Jesus dives into this tension,
this distress and agony, this pain that he feels in the garden. And it's here that
Jesus is being pushed to his full human limit. Our text says that he's deeply
distressed and troubled deeply distressed and troubled it says that he
was deeply grieved and that he fell to the ground if you had a moment like that
where life just makes you fall to your knees or even just laying flat on the
ground have you ever been deeply distressed or troubled have you ever
deeply grieved something has life ever brought you to the ground I felt those
things before. And the amazing thing is that Jesus has, too. Jesus has felt these things, too. When we
feel deeply distressed, troubled, grieved, crushed, we can know that God in human flesh, Jesus,
can sympathize with us. We have a Savior who can sympathize with us. Hebrews 4, verse 15 and 16
tell us this. For we do not have a high priest who is unable, unable to sympathize with our
weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. Therefore,
because we have a high priest like that, because we have a Savior who knows us that intimately,
we should approach the throne of grace with boldness so that we may receive mercy and find
grace to help us in our time of need. Jesus knows pain. He knows the pain of the cross, yes. He knows
the pain of torture and death, but he also knows deep emotional, spiritual anguish as well.
I mean, he's on the edge, about to experience, again, the pain of physical torture and death.
He's about to experience the pain of rejection and abandonment from those closest to him.
He's about to experience abandonment and rejection from his father.
And he's about to experience not only all those things,
but the pain of the weight of the world's sin on his shoulders.
Friends, Jesus knows pain.
And the question is, in this garden scene,
and he's feeling this pain when he's praying,
the question is, will he be up to the task?
Who will win this battle of motivations and will?
And the answer is Jesus.
Jesus is up to the task.
Jesus, in the face of agonizing pain,
in the face of death,
in the midst of all those things,
he is faithfully obedient to God.
And it's highlighted in his prayer.
Verse 35 says,
He went a little farther, fell to the ground,
and prayed that if it were possible,
the hour might pass from him.
This is time of death that's coming,
that it might pass from him.
And so he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you.
Take this cup away from me.
And here's the key.
Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.
Jesus is being faithful to God by praying an honest prayer.
He's praying honestly.
He intimately addresses God as his Father by calling him Abba.
Abba is a respectful and intimate way to address one's father.
And so he addressed him as father.
And he recognizes and calls out that intimate relationship with his father.
And he also recognizes the greatness of God, the greatness of what his father is able to do.
All things are possible for you, Jesus says.
And it's in that intimacy and knowledge of his father that he's able to be honest with his request.
Take this cup away from me.
Jesus knew from before the creation of the world
that this very moment was coming.
But he does not want to experience, in this moment, the cross.
He does not want to experience the agonizing pain of abandonment
and rejection and betrayal.
And so he's honest, again, with his Father.
Father, take this cup from me.
Jesus prays honestly, but what makes this prayer so powerful is that he prays with and for endurance
when he says, nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.
He prays for the endurance to endure what God's will is over and against his own will.
He prioritizes his Father's will over his own, and he prays an obedient request to endure in pain,
to endure in faithfulness.
Nevertheless, not what I want,
not what I will,
but what you will.
It's in this garden,
in the garden of Gethsemane,
that Jesus demonstrates
his human faithfulness.
We see the weakness of humanity
and that Jesus is struggling
with all this pain,
but we also see
what human faithfulness looks like
and obedience looks like.
But, between his prayers, he comes to find his friends failing to be faithfully obedient to him.
Three times Jesus prays. Three times.
And three times he finds his disciples, Peter, James, and John, asleep.
And three times he encourages them, stay awake and pray.
Three times Jesus experiences the depths of human emotion and is faithfully obedient to God.
and three times the disciples and their human weakness
cannot remain faithful to Jesus.
And that's not even the worst part of that.
The climax of this faithlessness and disobedience
comes at the end of our passage.
The climax of discipleship failure
is revealed when Judas enters the scene.
He comes with the temple brigade to take Jesus captive
and he betrays Jesus with a kiss.
And that might not even be the worst part.
The worst part yet is in verse 50,
where it says,
then they all deserted him and ran away.
The disciples in their human weakness,
they chose their own will,
their own fear over the will of God
who was with them in the person of Jesus.
They chose fear instead of faithfulness.
They chose fear instead of obedience.
Friends, if we want to be faithful to Jesus, we must be faithful like Jesus.
In order to be faithful to Jesus, we must be faithful like Jesus.
We have to remember that Jesus is not asking us to do anything that he hasn't done himself or gone through.
Maybe these disciples are going to experience abandonment.
Well, Jesus experienced that too, and he's asking them to remain faithful.
Maybe they're going to experience rejection in a lifetime.
Well, Jesus experienced that too, and he's asking them to remain faithful.
Maybe it's betrayal that they'll experience.
Jesus experienced that too, and he wants them to remain faithful.
Maybe they will experience torture and death.
Jesus experienced that too.
And maybe you and I are going to experience all those things.
Maybe you and I in our obedience and faithfulness will experience death, abandonment, rejection, betrayal.
And we have to know that Jesus experienced all these things too.
And he's not asking you and I to be faithful in ways that he himself was not faithful to his father.
Jesus wants all of his disciples, the ones in this passage and those of us today,
he wants them to have the same faithfulness that he has to his father.
And so how do we stay with Jesus? How do we remain faithful to him? How do we not end up
like the disciples who three times are found disobeying Jesus? Well, first we have to know
that Jesus truly knows us. Friends, one of the greatest comforts of this world is knowing that
Jesus, the Son of God, has felt the same things that you and I feel, and he knows. He knows us.
He's experienced the deepest depths of human weakness in that garden. And as the doctor and
gospel writer Luke says, he felt it to the point of sweating blood. That's how anguished he was.
So we have to know first that Jesus knows our deepest pain.
Jesus knows our deepest pain.
Remember that. Know that.
I know all of us have felt pain on some level or another.
We've all experienced pain, and pain takes many different forms.
Sometimes pain is physical.
The constant throb that never quite fades,
the illness that changes what you can do,
the body that no longer feels like your own
because it's just constantly in pain.
For some, it's the pain of loss that hits us when we see maybe an empty chair at the table.
We think of a message that we've been waiting for that we know is not going to come anymore.
We think of future plans that aren't going to come to fruition because someone's missing now.
That's pain.
For others, pain unfolds in loneliness, and it lingers even when there's crowded rooms around.
We feel loneliness.
For some, pain is the sting of betrayal of someone close to you.
Or maybe it's shame.
Maybe you feel the pain of shame that won't let you go.
The exhaustion of carrying a burden that you can't let go of.
Pain has a way of isolating us, convincing us that no one could possibly understand what it feels like to know this pain.
But friends, that's not true. That's a lie.
Because whatever pain you felt, whatever pain you feel, even currently,
Jesus has been through as well.
He's felt those same emotions, and you are fully known by Jesus in that pain.
Jesus knows what it feels like to feel deep pain, the same pain that you might feel.
We have to know that Jesus knows our deepest pain.
He can sympathize with us.
And sometimes that pain is the pain of unanswered prayers.
Well, Jesus knows what that pain is, too.
Second thing we have to remember is that Jesus knows our unanswered prayers.
And notice I put unanswered in quotes there.
That's because prayers are never actually unanswered.
They just feel that way when God tells us no.
And Jesus knows what it's like to have God answer no to his prayers.
Remember, he prays three times.
Three times that God would take this cup of torture and death and judgment away from him.
And three times he's met with silence from God.
A silence that screams no.
Three times he prays.
Three times there's silence.
His request is not answered.
Is this because that Jesus, the Son of God, didn't have enough faith to have his prayer answered?
That's how we kind of solve unanswered prayers sometimes, right?
You don't have enough faith, or maybe I don't have enough faith for that prayer to be answered.
We get caught in that trap of thinking, you need to have enough faith to have your prayer answered.
That might make sense, except for the fact that Jesus, the Son of God, has perfect faith in his Father.
he also has prayers unanswered. Unanswered prayer is not a lack of faith in God, but
a misalignment with God's will. Unanswered prayer is not a lack of faith
in God, but a misalignment with God's will, whether in your life or in the
prayer you are giving. And when we are living in prayer and living in God's
will, then our prayers are answered. We have to desire God's will and surrender
to God's will. And sometimes that's scary, isn't it? And I was terrified to do
something as simple as pray for someone in a coffee shop. And there are life
circumstances that might be way more terrifying than that. But even in those
circumstances, we have to desire God's will over our own. We have to pray for
for his will over our own.
And if you're scared to do that,
know that Jesus was scared as well.
And he was so scared
that he prayed for God
to save him from death.
But if we want to be faithful to Jesus,
we must be faithful like him.
We must remain in that will
even when it's scary
and recognize that God's will
is the safest place for us to be.
It was the will of God
to offer Jesus as a sacrifice.
It was the will of God that Jesus see through
his journey to the cross.
But it's also the will of God
that he would rise three days later in glory.
The will of God is the safest place you can be.
Jesus knows what it's like to have that prayer unanswered.
And so he must do as he did in remaining in that will,
despite those unanswered requests,
despite the silence, despite the no's.
And even if the will of God is that you experience
abandonment and betrayal,
know that Jesus experienced that as well.
We have to know that Jesus knows
our abandonment and betrayal.
Again, three times he prays.
Three times he asks his friends to join him in prayer,
be present with him, but they abandon him. Only those closest to you can abandon you,
and Jesus knows what that's like. But again, as we know, it gets worse. Not only do those close
friends abandon him, but one of the twelve betrays him. Only someone close to you can really betray
you, and Jesus knows what that is like. Being abandoned and betrayed is one of the worst pains
that we can experience as humans. It's a terrible thing. In fact, in Dante's Inferno, he says that
betrayal is the lowest pit of hell. It's the deepest. I don't know if he's right or wrong
about that, but he is right about the fact that betrayal and abandonment are awful.
But Jesus knows that, too, because it happened to him. And Mark says that after Jesus was arrested,
They all deserted him and ran away.
That is deep abandonment and betrayal.
Jesus knows that.
Friends, Jesus knows the pain of that abandonment,
the pain of that betrayal you might face.
Jesus knows us.
Some of us might be familiar with the He Gets Us ad campaign.
These are ads that seek to display Jesus, not just as a religious figure, but as someone who understands what it means to be human.
They're quite interesting ads, and these ads are often criticized, though.
They're criticized and accused of making Jesus too human.
And I have to wonder, have these critics and accusers ever read this passage?
Or have they read the gospel accounts?
Because if they're making Jesus too human, then Jesus in the garden is making Jesus too human.
if jesus feels too human it's because he is human he is fully human and fully god
so what do we do about that what do we do with this what do we do with the knowledge
and information that jesus knows us and gets us what we do is we pray to the one who knows us
pray to the one who knows you.
If Jesus knows us and gets us,
then we have to pray to him, don't we?
We should pray to him, shouldn't we?
And there's nothing more human than prayer.
Prayer is the ultimate recognition
that we are not God and that we need God's help.
Prayer is fundamental to our humanity.
It's so fundamental, in fact,
that even the non-religious pray to God
in the most dire circumstances.
For example, in 2009, there was a US Airways flight that was struck by a flock of geese
and lost both engines.
And as a plane descended towards the Hudson River, the cabin was, you can imagine, filled
with fear.
And one survivor later said, I had never prayed in my life.
But in that moment, I said, God, please, please just let me see my family again.
When everything else is stripped away, status, control, reason, we tend towards
prayer. Human instinct leads us to recognize that there is someone who is
beyond us that has all control and that person is God. Even the non-religious in
their most dire circumstances recognize this. And Jesus in his humanity recognized
this as well. When he was faced with a dire circumstance, crushed to the ground, and what did
he do? He prayed, and we ought to do the same. We ought to pray to the one who knows us, and Jesus
teaches us to pray. He teaches us to pray in the Lord's Prayer, yes, but he also teaches us to pray
in this Lord's Prayer, in the Garden of Gethsemane.
We have to be like Jesus in praying these prayers,
praying this prayer, praying prayers of intimacy,
calling out to our Father who is in heaven,
prayers that are affectionate, they're tenderhearted,
they're respectful.
Jesus teaches us to pray that way in this prayer.
Prayers that help us recognize that we are not alone,
That we have a God who sees us,
he knows us, and he gets us.
Pray intimate prayers.
We must also be like Jesus in praying prayers of trust.
Prayers that recognize there's nothing God can't do.
We have to be like Jesus in praying prayers of pleading.
Jesus wants relief.
He knew what was coming, but even in that moment,
he wants relief, and so he asked.
You know, you can do that with your Heavenly Father.
You can ask Him for things.
Plead with God.
Cry to God.
Be honest with God.
You don't have to hide your requests from God, whatever they are.
And finally, we have to be like Jesus in praying prayers of surrender.
Jesus prays, nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.
We have to have that same type of surrender.
Prayers that say, yes, God, I want this thing,
and I want it so badly,
and I'm pleading with you, God, for this thing,
but ultimately I surrender to you.
God, I want you more than what I want.
I want what you want more than what I want.
I surrender.
Pray those types of prayers.
Pray to the one who knows you.
And we're able to do this,
to be known and to pray to the one who knows us
because of what Hebrews 4, 15 through 16, again, says.
We do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.
Jesus is able to sympathize with your deepest pain,
your deepest emotions, your humanity.
We have a high priest who's been tempted in every way
as we are, yet without sin.
Therefore, let us approach
the throne of grace with boldness
so that we may receive mercy
and find grace to help us
in our time of need.
Jesus can help us in our time of need
because he's God,
but also because he knows us,
because he's experienced
the same things that we have experienced.
And he surrendered.
He surrendered his will to God.
Jesus surrendered to the point of death on a cross.
He doesn't just get us, he knows us and loves us
because that death wasn't for him, it was for us.
He experienced the worst of the worst
and because of his faithful obedience to God,
all things one day will be restored and made new.
Jesus knows you, Jesus loves you,
and if you want to be faithful to Jesus,
you have to be faithful like Jesus
by remembering that he knows you
and praying like he does.
So I want us to pray to him now.
I want us to pray together.
We're going to pray this Lord's Prayer in the garden.
It's going to be on the screen.
And as we pray this prayer,
I want you to think of your cup.
What pain are you experiencing right now?
Physical pain, emotional pain,
the pain of loss, the pain of shame.
What pain are you bringing in right now?
What agony are you feeling?
What distress are you feeling?
How are you troubled right now?
Whatever that cup is, I want you to think of that as we pray this prayer.
And we're going to take that to God.
So pray with me with this prayer on the screen.
Abba, Father, all things are possible for you.
Take this cup away from me.
Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.
Again, with that cup in mind, let's pray this again.
Abba, Father, all things are possible for you.
Take this cup away from me.
Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.
And one more time, taking that cup to God.
Abba, Father, all things are possible for you.
Take this cup away from me.
Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.
Amen.