Jesus, Teach Me To Pray, Your Will Be Done! Matthew 26:36-39 Lent February 21, 2018 Pastor Robert Hein Dear Children of God through faith in Christ, I want you to do some soul searching today concerning your prayer life. Do you view prayer like Aladdin viewed his magic lamp? Just rub the magic lamp a few times and a genie pops out to grant you three wishes. Anything your heart desires! Just name it, and it s yours! Or do you view prayer as asking God to bless you according to his good will for your life? In other words, when you pray, do you expect God to bend his will to your will, or are you learning to bend your will to his? Jesus is going to help us answer that question today as we focus on the model prayer he offered up to his heavenly Father on Maundy Thursday evening. We would do well to adopt Jesus prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane as a pattern for our own personal prayers. Through these words then the Holy Spirit leads us to pray, Jesus, teach me to pray, Your will be done! * First, let s set the scene for Jesus model prayer. Maundy Thursday evening was a very busy night for Jesus and his disciples. It began with the celebration of the Passover in the Upper Room, followed by the institution of the Lord s Supper. Then, later that evening, Jesus and his disciples headed out to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. Now you know what is coming next. Very soon, Judas will arrive, leading a band of armed men to arrest Jesus and carry him off to trial before the Jewish authorities. This event will set into motion a whole chain of events which will quickly lead Jesus to the cross, where he will endure the depth of his humiliation. Stricken, smitten, and afflicted, we will see him dying on the tree. If there is any turning back, it will have to be now. If there is any change in the works, this is the time to make it Jesus is aware that he is approaching the point of no return. And so, just before it all begins, he pours out his heart to his heavenly Father in prayer. 1
Remember Jesus is true God and true man in one person. In his state of humiliation, he can be tempted, and he can face anguish and heartache and suffering. Jesus knew what was about to happen to him, and he knew how much it was going to hurt. He would feel every crack of the whip, every blow to the head, every thorn piercing his brow, every nail smashing through his skin. But even more than the physical pain and emotional anguish Jesus would endure at the hands of his enemies, he would soon take upon his shoulders the dreadful weight and the oppressive guilt of all the sins of all the people in the world. Can you imagine how heavy that burden must have been? Many people have suffered physical pain in this world. Many people have endured betrayal and unjust punishment. But no one has ever endured what Jesus endured, the full weight of God s wrath upon sin. The prophet Isaiah writes, He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds, we are healed, for the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53: 5 Now do you understand why Jesus was sorrowful and troubled? Do you understand why he would cry out, My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death! Already now Jesus was beginning to feel the intense pressure of what it meant to be rejected by men and cursed by God, what it meant to suffer the agony of hell, and what it meant to stare death in the face, even death upon a shameful cross. You can be certain that Satan was there in the Garden of Gethsemane also, tempting Jesus to sin. Don t think the only tempting Jesus endured was those 40 days in the wilderness. No, the Bible tells us the devil only left him until a more opportune time. Well, what more opportune time to tempt Jesus than right now in the Garden of Gethsemane just before his arrest. I m sure Satan was throwing everything he could at Jesus trying to get him to turn aside from his mission and fail to follow his Father s will. And so, in his time of intense suffering and great anguish, Jesus prayed. He poured out his heart to his heavenly Father seeking his strength and asking him to bless his mission. Now Jesus prayer consisted of three key petitions. Mark tells us Jesus began, Abba, Father, Everything is possible for you. Mark 14:36 2
This was a beautiful way for Jesus to start. This was an expression of trust and praise and confidence in God s almighty power. Heavenly Father, I am confident that you can do anything. All things are possible with you. Then Jesus poured out his heart, My Father, it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. What was meant by this cup? Well it was filled with the suffering Jesus was about to endure; the torture, the condemnation, the cross, and the tomb all that Jesus was being asked to drink. Now, please don t think that Jesus was trying to get out of his mission. But in the midst of his anguish and in the depth of his humiliation, he had to ask his Father once more, Father, is it absolutely necessary that I drink this bitter cup? Is there any other way you can save these people from their sins other than for me to go to the cross as their substitute? If there is, Father, tell me now. If there is, Father, make it happen. Do you understand? Jesus was not a glutton for punishment. He didn t enjoy suffering. But he would endure, if it was absolutely necessary, if it was the only way, if God willed it. You don t hear the Father answer Jesus prayer in the garden. No, word is spoken from heaven. No change of plans is announced. Indeed, God s silence was the answer. God was telling his beloved Son, No Jesus, there is no other way. The only way you can save these people from their sins it to take their sins upon yourself. The only way you can redeem them from the curse of the law is to become a curse for them. The only way you can offer these sinful people eternal life with me in heaven is to drink that cup and walk to that cross and offer up your life as the atoning sacrifice for their sins. Jesus, it s the only way! And this teaches us something very important. We live in a very ecumenical world today. We are taught that all truth is relative, all religions are the same, and all paths to heaven are equally valid. So Jesus may offer one way to heaven, but they insist there are plenty of other ways to get there also. Buddhism offers a way, Islam offers a way, Hinduism offers a way, 3
Mormonism offers a way, hey, even just living a good life here on earth should earn you a ticket straight to heaven, they say. But Christian friends, this is lie which the devil loves to tell. Think about it. If there were many ways to get to heaven apart from the cross of Christ, why would a loving Father require his beloved Son to drink that dreadful cup of suffering? If there are alternate ways to be cleansed from sin and made heirs of heaven apart from the cross of Christ, why would Jesus go through all that? Why suffer if it wasn t absolutely necessary? Why die on a cross if that sacrifice wasn t truly needed. No, Jesus prayer in the Garden teaches us a vital truth. There was no other way to save the world except for Jesus to drink that cup and walk to the cross to suffer and bleed and die as our substitute, and that means there is no other way for you and me to enjoy a right standing with God and enter heaven apart from trusting in what Jesus accomplished for us on that cross. There is no other path. Jesus himself said it best, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6 Understanding that the cross was the only way to fulfill his Father s plan and redeem us from our sins, Jesus then humbly declared, Father, not my will, but your will be done. Yes, Father, whatever you ask of me, whatever is required, I am willing to do. As he had done throughout his entire life, so here again Jesus demonstrated his complete willingness to carry out the humble servant role assigned to him regardless of the cost or the consequence to him personally. Jesus was passionate about two things; bringing glory to his heavenly Father by completing his plan, and rescuing you and me from our sins. And if that meant drinking that cup and offering his life on the cross, Jesus was willing to do it. You know, we honor our military personnel and our first responders for being willing to risk their lives to save people in distress. Well, Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen to him if he continued down the path of the cross, and he did it anyway. He didn t just risk his life, he willingly gave his life! How dearly he must love us! Yes, 4
what wondrous love is, that that caused the Lord of bliss, to bear the dreadful curse, for my soul! Consider again the question I began with today - When you pray, do you expect God to bend his will to your will, or are you learning to bend your will to his? You know how Jesus answered that question He prayed, Father, not my will, but your will be done! Because we have come to know God s amazing love for us in Christ, we are now willing to adopt Jesus model prayer to be our very own. Whatever the situation may be, start like Jesus started, Father, Everything is possible for you. Mark 14:36 Lord, I am not going to question your wisdom or limit your power. Nothing is impossible with you. I trust that you can do immeasurably more than all we ever ask or even imagine. That is a fitting prayer of trust and praise and confidence. Then, pour out your heart to the Lord. Let him know your needs, your burdens, your plans, your hopes and your dreams. Ask for his help and seek his guidance. But we always do so with great humility and childlike trust. Lord, this is what I think is best, but I trust you to do what you know is best. You see, our wisdom is limited and our understanding of the future is clouded. We can make plans, but they don t always turn out the way we thought they would. We may think God should answer our prayer one way, and he may answer it an entirely different way. We can t always see the big picture, but God does. God has a good plan in mind for us, even when we face pain and suffering. Our loving Father in heaven promises to make all things work out for our good, even when all things would seem against us to drive us to despair. Do you have any doubt that God can do this, that he can work good even in times of evil? Just look at Christ and what he endured upon the cross. It may have seemed that evil men had their way with Jesus, that everything was spinning horribly out of control, but God worked through the suffering of Christ to accomplish his saving plan and redeem us from our sins. Certainly then God knows how to deliver his people in times of trouble. So here is a great way to pray, whether you say it out loud or just think it in your heart, always pray, Father, your will be done. This is what I think it best, but I trust you to 5
give me what you know is best. Yes, help me to trust that what God ordains for me is always good. This may seem simplistic, but when you get right down to it, every prayer we offer is simply a request that God would bless us. God bless my day. Bless my surgery. Bless my plans. Bless my marriage. Bless my job hunting. Bless my basketball game. Bless my time of worship. You can add the details of what you want, what you think is best, but finally, you are simply asking God to bless you according to his will, and trust that his plans are good and wise for you. If the surgery goes off without a hitch and you enjoy a clean bill of health, wonderful! Thank the Lord for his gracious healing. But if you suffer complications or the illness lingers, you can still be confident that God will answer your prayer, and he will bless you. Wasn t that even true of Jesus? He did have to drink that bitter cup and offer his life on the cross. But God did bless him didn t he? Jesus didn t falter. He walked resolutely to the cross as an obedient servant, fulfilled his Father s plan, and won the victory for us over sin, death and Satan. Yes, even through suffering, God the Father blessed the hearfelt prayer of his beloved Son. And brothers and sisters in Christ, you and I can be just confident that our dear Father in heaven will hear and answer every prayer we offer to him in Jesus name. He will most certainly bless us as he works his good plan for our life. No, prayer is not like rubbing a magic lamp to make a genie pop out and grant us three wishes. Prayer is learning to align our will to God s good will for us. And so, as we cherish his blessings and rest secure in his faithful love, we too can learn to humbly pray, Father, your will be done! Amen. 6