The Two Battles. | Rev. Elisha Satvinder

This morning I want to continue. If you look at the trajectory that I’m going in, I just want to build layers in our life and our faith. This morning I want to talk about how to gain victory over internal and external struggles, the two battles. I’m going to read a very peculiar scripture. I want to take you to the Garden of Gethsemane, and I want to draw truths from there to understand some battles that we go through, what Jesus did, how he draws us into what’s happening, and gives us this amazing space to overcome. So, we’re going to look at Matthew Chap 26: 36-43, and we will go through quite a few scriptures today to frame where I want to go, and then we will do communion as well.

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane. This is after the upper room discourse, they’ve had the last supper, and we’ll be celebrating the table of the Lord. What has happened before this will manifest in the garden and beyond that. And he said to them, so I want you to just picture this, he said, “Sit here while I go over there to pray.” So, there are only eleven, remember Judas has disappeared, okay, so there are only eleven of them. And he says, “Stay here while I go over there.” So I want you to see this picture in your mind. Then he goes on, he says he took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him. So, eleven and he takes three more and goes a bit further and begins to be sorrowful and troubled. I want you to get the picture of what’s happening in Jesus. It wasn’t a walk in the park. He is going to his death right now. He is sorrowful and troubled, those are very strong words used in the original. 

Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” Hear what Jesus is saying. He said, “I’m with so much sorrow, I’ve got so much fear and anxiety, I could literally die.” Have you encountered something very fearful and your heart pounds so hard it’s as though your heart is going to pop out of your chest? Has anybody experienced that deep fear you feel a thud in your heart, isn’t it? A thud. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” and he says something interesting here. He’s talking about what’s happening with him and he says, “Stay here and keep watch with me.” Stay here, keep watch with me. Going a little further, takes the three, he goes a little further. He fell with his face to the ground. Again, you see all these pictures, just light shining, Jesus in the garden looking very calm, throw those pictures away. So far from the truth. He didn’t look at all so relaxed, hair all combed properly, no. He fell on his face to the ground and prayed, “This Jesus, my Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” It’s like he’s negotiating, isn’t it? Here, the whole of eternity hangs in balance. Our salvation, the deliverance of mankind hangs in a balance, and he says, “If it’s possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Then he returned to his disciples and found them praying. Come on, he found them what? Sleeping. I thought praying, okay, sleeping. He says, “Couldn’t you men, men, okay, sorry, couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” A bit of a clue into it, isn’t it? His whole agony, the whole place of wrestling with God is that long. He asked Peter, “Watch,” and now look at it, he adds something peculiar inside, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.” This is his last few hours on planet Earth, and he’s saying this. What has it got to do with them? What has it got to do with us? “Watch and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Jesus faces the most profound emotional, mental, all the mental health people would have wanted to study him, okay, the most profound emotional, mental, and spiritual struggle in the garden of Gethsemane. Again, like I said, it wasn’t a stroll in the park. It is so severe, what he’s feeling, what he’s sensing, all that he’s going through right now and his disciples. And he faces two battles here, an external battle and an internal battle. What could the external battle be? Very simple, it’s focusing on what? The imminent arrest because in less than two hours Judas is going to show up, okay, with the Temple Police and all the Pharisees, and he’s going to be arrested, he’s going to be tortured, whipped into pieces, and he’s going to be crucified. So, Jesus knew the spiritual agony and the emotional agony and the physical agony that he was going to go through. Again, I want us to understand this because many times we look at it, we

casual, we skim over it, and we don’t see a bit more because it’s supposed to impact us and influence us. So, he has this whole place. He knew what was going to happen to him, what awaited. So, his struggle isn’t with the Roman soldiers or the Pharisees, that’s not his battle per se, that’s not it. But it’s spiritual forces, and not just that, it is the burden of what he was going to go through, the burden to bear humanity’s redemption. That was the place where he was going to bear the whole sin. He’s going to take the sin of the world. He is going to experience the most excruciating death, rejection, he’s going to experience the judgment of God on his body. Don’t look at the garden as a walk in the park, but it very significantly impacts our daily life.

What is the internal battle? Again, it’s spiritual, it’s mental, it’s emotional, and it’s a turmoil in all these areas. Jesus is experiencing what, as we read, deep sorrow, deep distress. Have you ever experienced sorrow and distress? How did you behave? How did you react? What did you do? He contemplates the cup. He said take, it wasn’t Jesus and God having a cup of tea. That’s not the cup. The cup is just speaking allegorically and saying that is the life he is choosing to take, that is the path, that is the mission, what he, God, says. And he’s saying, “Can I walk this last 18 hours? Can I handle what’s going to happen?” He says, “If you can take this mission from me, take it away from me.” Hours before the cup, the bread, they were breaking and he says, “Take, eat my body, drink my blood poured out.” Internal, he’s saying, “Father, if it’s possible, let this cup, let this mission, let this very, please, pass away from me. But I’m struggling here because it’s not about me, it’s about you, what you want, and humanity.”

See, what does this highlight here for us is this, there is an internal conflict but also the place of Jesus submitting to the Father. This moment actually is, I would say, the best example, the most profound example of what battling through prayer and submission. You see, I can pray, but I may never submit to God. God, does that make sense? Battling through prayer and submission to God’s will. I pray, my will be done. God, answer my prayer. But the issue is through prayer and submission to God’s will, even in the face of overwhelming sorrow, anxiety, uncertainties, and daily struggle. It is so easy to walk away from God in trouble. It is so easy to walk away from people. It is so easy to shake our fist at God, drop the Bible, not be bothered because it is too much. I cannot, I must find solutions. God is not real. I am not going to bother about God. But the issue that Jesus is showing us is here, in the midst of the most intense challenge and change, the place of anxiety and sorrow, of uncertainty, facing everything chaotic. But he could see, we think of Hebrews, isn’t it? And he says, “For the, the, he set his face upon the very end goal, isn’t it? He saw the end, so he endured the cross.”

Many times we pray, but we never submit to God’s will. Could that be something that has an element of not experiencing breakthrough because I’m so bent on praying what I want rather than submitting to God’s will? And I fashion his will and I say, “God said so.” If we quiet ourselves and engage in that intense prayer, we may hear otherwise. Prayer and confidence in God is not an option. Jesus had confidence in the Father. When we pray, are we confident in God’s truth? Prayer and confidence in God is not an option but a necessity in the midst of our struggles. Jesus is the best example of how to engage our spiritual battles with earnest prayer and a heart that unites to God’s will. So, this morning, not only do I want to inspire you, I really want to challenge our hearts, minds, all of us, to what? To not passively surrender to challenges,

to not in our flesh react, not in arrogance feel that we have achieved, but prayerfully engage God, his truth, trusting in Him, in his sovereignty, in his goodness, in his faithfulness.

So, let’s look attentively to the word today as we should do all the time here for this truths on practical daily engagement because these scriptures remind us and draw us into the place of what? The need of spiritual warfare, reliance on God’s guidance, and what? That is this, the values of prayer, prayerful perseverance, and divine dependence. Because if I pause and I ask myself, do I really trust God? Can I trust God when it all looks chaotic? So, we need the courage, we need the boldness for what? In the times that we live in, not just politically, not just economically, but in our own lives. Jesus is returning. We read the Revelation, you know what it tells us, get ready. We must be ready here. So, we need the courage, the boldness to engage God in the times that we live in. Seek God earnestly, that not only just we seek God and turn to him, that others will turn to him. So, what is our confidence? Can I? Our confidence is in the death of Jesus. How can this be? Well, because he died, okay, can you follow with me please? Yeah, because he died, we can speak, I thought we can pray, we can trust. No, because of what Jesus did, because he died, we can tell others. It’s not because he had an uncertain death. It was very clear because he has died, because he rose again, not can we speak, we must speak. We can’t be quiet. And we’ll see this how he draws us because he died and rose again. I must speak. So, when you look at this whole narrative in Matthew 26 from verse 36 to 46, all the way, Jesus in Gethsemane, in the night before he’s crucified, where he dies, the battle that Jesus is fighting is the one battle that will make it possible for God to justify you and me, to turn our hearts to him from condemnation, from death to life, to freedom, to salvation.

He could purchase the life of humanity, turn humanity away from condemnation and guilt, and from death to bring them to life. The Garden of Gethsemane teaches us what? That this is not only how Jesus fought the battle to the cross, because we always think it’s the cross, no, it’s the battle at Gethsemane. The battle was won in Gethsemane, the cross sealed the victory. When he went, it was done. And that’s why he could say, “It is finished.” So, just not how Jesus fought to go to the cross, but how he set up this entire thing to show you and me and say, “Come on, there’s more to do.” So, God saved us from what? From judgment and condemnation. We must never forget that. We can live a life of demands every day as a believer. We can go around doing various things, but do we come with that reflection, I am saved not just to escape hell, but I am saved for a reason and a purpose. He has delivered us from darkness to light, from Satan to Christ, from blindness to seeing, we see that, from unbelief to faith. Not only did Jesus have to die for sinners, for you and me, but he also took up the cross, and now he opens up our, he challenges us to do what Christ has done and tell others of it and invite them. I cannot look at the cross and be quiet. I cannot come to church and be quiet. I cannot say I’m a believer and be quiet about my salvation. It is not an option. He purchased us. He turned our dead hearts to him by the death on the cross. He gave us his word, he gave us his promise, and the word he put in our mouth, right? We have to tell others. Somebody told you. When God turns hearts around, faith is triggered. Faith comes by hearing what? The word of the cross. Let’s look at Romans 10, it says, “For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified.” But you’re not doing it independently, right? “With your heart you believe and are justified,” but how do you, does it start with the heart? Actually, it starts with the ear, with somebody telling you, right? Yes, no? Right. “So it is with your heart that you believe and are justified. It is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” As scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” That’s great, that’s, that’s, wow, God, thank you. But let’s go on a bit more. “For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on one that they have not heard about?” Consequently, I jump to verse 17, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about,” please look at this, we like to quote this to gain prayer. God says, you know, faith comes by hearing, yes, without faith we cannot please God, we will look at that. “You know, faith comes with hearing the message.” What’s the message? That Jesus died for our sins. Jesus rose from the dead. And he says, “That is the message that is heard about Christ.” So, this is not so much claiming issues. This is about hearing it, responding to it, and telling others about it. That is what’s happening in Gethsemane. So, he purchased. Christ must die. He had to die in that same merit and virtue. We must speak. We can’t be quiet. We must speak. So, this is how God turns the hearts of people and gathers them from everywhere. Why? Because he’s asked us to do it. So, without the blood of Christ and the word of God, nobody is born again, isn’t it? We always say, hey, Christmas, invite people. Easter, hey, reach out, evangelism, pray for one person. We always think it’s a task. It is Jesus inviting us and saying, in the garden, I went through a really torturous moment. My heart, the Bible says that he perspired so badly, it was droplets of blood. Medically, they will tell you, when there’s deep sense of anxiety, deep anxiety, your pores open up so wide that literally it looks like blood coming out. That is the intensity of Jesus in the garden. In the garden, he won that battle there. He gives us an amazing example about winning the battle in the garden. Our casual lives are not going to bring miracles. Our casual lives are not going to turn things around because our casual lives become complaining lives, comparison lives. He turns it. Without Jesus, today we’re going to look at the blood. You know, yeah, we’re going to take this, and when we hold it, we say, “Lord, I must speak. I cannot be quiet.” So, hearts are turned from death to life. So, in Gethsemane, Jesus was doing two things. One, he’s fighting for the success of his death. Yes. Does it look like it was a casual tea time with God the Father? Man, he even rebukes and says, “Guys, come on, stand with me. This is a serious moment.” What is he praying? What is he fighting? That death will not overcome, but that he will overcome death, that death will be overcome by him and he will not be overcome by death. What else did he show us? That we must join him in the same fight. This is the mission for you and me for turning the hearts of men back from death to life, and that it will succeed to have eternal life. Remember, what is the point of the death, resurrection of Jesus if we don’t tell anyone? Church, did you hear me? What is the point of the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus if all we do is ask God to bless us? And we are so caught up with our own life and our opinions that we’ve forgotten because he died, I must speak. But we can speak about a lot of things, isn’t it? We have a lot of opinions. Opinion about, you have a lot of opinions. You may have an opinion about the sermon as well. But the issue is, we’re supposed to speak about him, and many times that’s the least we do. And yet, Gethsemane says you cannot be quiet. Jesus fights, he stood in the garden, he asks us to do the same thing. You see, the cup is a cup of conflict. That mission is a mission of conflict. It’s challenging, it’s emotional, it’s a very difficult mission. Matthew 26:38 says, “Then he said to them, ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,’ and he says this to them, ‘Stay here and keep watch with me.’” It’s a difficult mission. It’s possible to be very sad. Jesus can be so because he’s going to feel, he’s going to encounter rejection from the Father. Never before, we encounter a bit of negativity, a bit of rejection, we got to go and see the psychologist, go to take Prozac, calm our brains down and our emotions down. It’s heavy. Reality can be distorted. The future can seem so hopeless. Action seems to be impossible. Jesus is overwhelmed. Maybe you’ve been tested in a similar way, but this is not a small thing. Jesus has to fight against every feeling, thought, fear, emotion that could destroy God’s plan. I want us to pause. How often do your feelings and your emotions get in the way of honoring God and being obedient to him? How often? Jesus, very much man, very much God, he is looking at it and he says, I mean, look at the words, he said, “If you can take this cup, if there’s another way, Father, how am I going to go through this? How am I going to go through this?” He has to deal with every emotion, but it’s going to tell us our emotions and our feelings and our fear don’t have to have dominance over our life, that we have the ability to overcome. So he fights, he engages. How does he? He cries out to the Father in great cries, right? Matthew 26:39 says, “Going a little further, he fell on his face to the ground and prayed.” I tell you, the dynamics of this picture, sometimes I want to pray, you know, casual, I want to pray, lie on the bed, I want something to happen. Man, Jesus is the great example, isn’t it? Let’s drop on our knees and say, “God, we cry out, Lord, my healing, Lord, this breakthrough, Lord, the salvation of this person. Oh God, Father, God, awaken my heart. If it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. If it’s possible, Father, Peter’s got a big mouth, kill him.” But Peter is not the Son of God. He’s not going to factor. He can break the power of death and hell and sin. This cup would be the cup of great pain and horror. The next 18 hours of Jesus’ life, the next 18 hours is going to be all hell coming down on Jesus. Physical torture, abandoned by the Father, abandoned by the friends, abandoned by these people he took care of, turning away, Father turning away. Why? Because he was going to become sin for you and me. Becoming sin for you and me. So he asks, “Is there any other way to achieve this plan? Is there any other way to achieve this salvation for men? Please give me a way out here. Do I have to walk this path? Do I have to face death and hell? Do I have to go down to the depths of hell and face Satan? Do I have to do it?” Then he submits. He said, “God, Father, it’s not what I want.” So Jesus’ first response to that pain and sorrow is that if it’s possible, can I not drink? Can I not go through this agony? But in the midst of his agony, what are the disciples doing? I hope you’re not doing what the disciples are doing. Okay, yeah, what are the disciples doing? We may be asleep spiritually, but something changes here. How does Jesus draw them and how does Jesus draw us, you and me, into that purpose and mission? Verse 42 says that he went a second time and prayed, second time. “My Father,” now look at how, look at the language changing here, okay? I want you to notice this. “If it is not possible,” the first time was, “If it’s possible, take this cup,” right? Now he says, “If it’s not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” Did you see the shift? He says, “Look, it’s not possible. If it’s not possible, this whole place, he’s going to break the power of death and Satan, because Satan rebelled and that is inherent in all of our hearts. Take this cup? No, if it’s not, unless I drink it, nothing can happen, let’s do it.” Of course he didn’t talk that way, that one is in Hollywood. “I’ll do it,” you know? No, he’s trembling, and he says, “It cannot, I will still walk that path.” Everybody okay so far? Clear your throat a bit. You okay? Don’t vomit, don’t vomit, you know, don’t throw up, yeah. He says, “Your will be done.” We have the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on Earth.” But I look at it and I say, “Lord, most of the time it’s my will be done, and you please bless it. You please just put your stamp of approval and say, ‘Sign approved, Jalan.’” First prayer, verse 39, “If it’s possible, take this away from me.” Second prayer, “If it is not possible unless,” that’s verse 42. Meaning, Jesus no longer prayed to avoid it, but he prayed for the success of drinking the cup. He’s no longer saying, “I don’t want it.” Now he is saying, “Help me drink it.” He says, “As I take this cup, as I take the next step, please do not let me fail. Let me accomplish this mission.” How does it happen? What happens? Heaven intervenes. Where does it happen? Let’s look at Luke. “An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.” It’s not on his own. An angel appears and strengthens him. Strengthens him to do what? To drink the cup, to take the mission, to go to the cross, to defeat hell, death. So the angel probably came. This is a conversation I made up, it’s not in the Bible. So probably when the angel came down and he’s saying, “What is the Father saying?” You know, I mean, you know, “Hey, any way, any possibility, anybody else can die in my place?” Yeah, and the angel says, “The Father says this, ‘It’s only you who can make it happen. There’s no other way. This is the only way. Hey, but you know what? I am here to strengthen you. I’m here to encourage you, to infuse strength in you, to help you so that you would do what is needed, because the Father is going to uphold you with his amazing right hand and he’s going to give you victory. What seems to be a complete defeat when you come out in three days’ time, you would have broken the eternity of death.’” Are you with me? The battle was won in Gethsemane, the victory was sealed at the cross. So Jesus goes from, “God, oh dear, take this away from me,” to what? “Give me success to take this, to finish my mission, to submit myself to you, that all them after this will see this and know that they can do the same.” So what happened between the first prayer and the second prayer? Let’s look at Hebrews very quickly. He said, “While he lived, Jesus on Earth anticipating death, Jesus cried out in pain and wept in sorrow as he offered up priestly prayers to God.” We’ve read that in Matthew. “Because he honored God, God answered him, though he was God’s Son, his position, he learned trusting obedience by what he suffered just as we do.” Don’t miss that, don’t miss that, just as we do. He cried to be saved from death. God answered. Did Jesus die? Yes. Was he saved from death? Yes. Did death destroy him? No. He conquered death. The fear of death will not destroy him, will not destroy his place of obedience, nor did he experience anything after that. He defeated death. Death was defeated. Hell was defeated. Church, that’s our victory. Thank you for that underwhelming response, yeah. See, we don’t get excited about what Jesus has done, we get excited for prayers to be answered, for money to come in. So the sorrow of death was threatened, sorrow of death, this deep despondency will not turn around and take him away from his cause. God did not remove the cup of suffering, but God strengthened him to take the cup of suffering. What lesson can you and I learn from that? We want God to remove our problem. Many times the problem could be the one that is shaping our character. He gives us strength to go through our problem to come out victorious. The problem is we are lazy Christians, we are entitled Christians, we are commanding people. We do not want to, “Hey, if God is there, why should I go through?” Hey, which Jesus are we worshiping? One thing you know when you come here, it’s never a popular message, but the message is always to shape us and say, “When the Lord returns, let’s be ready for him.” Amen? Let’s be ready. When the challenges come, let us stand on that anchor of Christ. Alright, so God answered that prayer, which is why we are in this room today. Because God answered that prayer, because Jesus did what he did, you and I are sitting here today. We sat down worthy of everything. God, holy, you are holy. Why we are here? Because of that. And he says, “Don’t stop there now. Because of that, get more to come. I died so you can speak.” We are here because of this, because of what happened in Gethsemane. That’s the first battle. So what happens now? Now is the invitation for us to join the battle with Jesus. Just as he was strengthened by the Father, through the Spirit, through an angel, he says, “I will never, never, never leave you, never forsake you. I send you the Holy Spirit. You’re not by yourself. I will empower you. I will do all that is necessary. You are not alone.” That’s the encouragement and the promise he gives us. So how does Jesus draw us into this? Yeah, you see, we can get so familiar with Bible stories, we never pause to ask ourselves, “What is it requiring of me?” We never pause to ask that. Jesus took the eleven, took three up. Why? You know, they think it’s not too varied. He didn’t go and hide behind an olive tree, okay? Full view. Jesus was also showing them, “Guys, this is how we fight spiritual battles. This is how we win them. And now, after I resurrect and I bring you my Holy Spirit, you are going to tell others, because I’ve died and I’m going to rise and you are going to tell and you’re going to have the Spirit, but you’re going to tell people how to overcome.” I know long ago they had this song, “This is How We Overcome.” I’m thinking like, “Gila, you know that? No, that’s not how I overcome. I overcome in faith in the risen Christ, not by some drama, Christian gymnastics.” I’m sorry here, let me go, let me get out of this. So, but what is he saying? Matthew, look at verse 36-37, say, “Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane and he said to them, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ He took Peter and John, sorry, Peter and two sons of Zebedee along with him. He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.’” What is he saying to them? Jesus is saying very clear, “Keep watch with me.” Watch and pray. He’s saying very clearly, “Watch and pray.” Can I have that slide? Watch and pray. When he goes back, what does he see them? He finds them sleeping. The flesh is weak, but the Spirit is willing. One is willing, one is weak. Verse 37, verse 40, he took Peter and two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful. Next one, he returned and found them sleeping, and he says, “Can you not watch?” Church, I think the challenge is this, can we not watch with the Lord? Do we have to be coaxed and challenged and enticed to pray and stand in the gap for others? Jesus goes, he gets more specific with them with this place of what I would call wakefulness in prayer, wakefulness in our spirituality. Verse 41, he says this, “Watch and pray that you will not fall into temptation.” It’s when we compromise at the Spirit level, our flesh is not just weak, our flesh is strong. When it says flesh is weak, not the flesh is weak, you know, that means I have no will, my posture is too weak to defend the onslaught of temptation. Sounds funny, isn’t it? This word, like a contradiction, right? But the issue is this, when the flesh is weak, actually it’s very strong. But when the Spirit is willing, the Spirit gets stronger. It’s in the flesh that I compromise. And when I start compromising, I compromise with my eyes, with my ears, with my mouth, with my heart. Then I say, “It’s normal, everybody is doing it, why so religious?” Tell that to Jesus. Tell that to him in the garden. That was a price he paid for you and me. Do you think that will stand with his cries, his wail and cries in the garden and saying, “If you can take this away, take it away.” So, I want us to start thinking, and I’m going to close soon, and when we come to the table today, this is the second of June, this is like, hey, five months have gone. As we look ahead to the year, just saying, hey, am I getting fruitful? Am I moving the needle? Am I living like Jesus, sharing his love? But what am I doing, or is my daily life so consuming? Jesus was literally saying this to them, this is my sanctified imagination, “Tonight you’re going to face one of the biggest battles in your life. In fact, you are going to run away from me.” He said, “In a few hours, you’re going to face the biggest temptations of your life, and yet after three days, you are going to face the most ridiculous challenges for believing in me. But yet the world will have to hear from your mouth so that it will carry on and go down in eternity into the 21st century where they will hear of me in this garden, overcoming the cross, overcoming resurrected. But you are going to face challenges tonight. You’re going to face great temptations, and if you are drawn into this temptation and this fear, you will be defeated. And the only way you can stand it is to watch and pray. The only way you are going to overcome is to watch and pray. It’s not somebody laying hands on you, it is not somebody doing, it’s not reading, it’s you watching and praying.” Church, NCC, I’m saying we must watch and pray and stand in the gap and become strong Christians, overcomers, not letting our flesh dictate us and becoming all that God wants us to be, and for us to tell the story of Jesus, to be awakened in our hearts, in our minds. He says, “Because some of you have said, ‘Even if I have to die, Jesus, I will never deny you.’” But look at what chapter 26:35, Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same. See, when it’s good, all of us, in wedding, marriage, in good times and in bad times, in life and in death, you know, “Die? You die, I see you, I go.” You realize that the reflection, when it’s hard, we walk off in relationships, creating kids that you raise, people that you raise, hey, I tell you, where are they? They all can say the nicest things to you when all is good. We can say the nicest things to God when it’s all good. But when the rubber hits the road, it changes. See, even in church, when it’s all good, great. The moment there’s a push, demand, I’ve got to look for another church. “Oh, you know, hey, sorry, man, I think I’ll watch online,” you know? Or, “Hey, you know, I’m not called.” Hey, friend, the Garden of Gethsemane doesn’t say from age this to this, doesn’t say about your ethnicity, nothing. It says, all of you who believe, are you with me? What he said, “Are you with me, church? Look at the garden and look at what we say, the conflict, internal, external. We can overcome, God gives us the victory.” He says, “Your flesh will be weak, it will be vulnerable.” How did they respond? When he came back again, he found them sleeping. This is the third time. This is how they joined Jesus in the battle, they slept. Verse 56 says this, “But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled. So, like the Chinese, they all ran. How Jesus won the battle in Gethsemane. The only reason there is a Christian church in the world today, no matter how we are divided with ourselves, the only reason that we can say, “Oh, that’s a church,” or “This is a Christian,” the only reason that we can say, “There’s hope for our family, hope for our city, hope for the nation,” is that Jesus was not defeated at Gethsemane, but he did exactly what the Father wanted him to do. He laid down his life for the lost, for humanity, prayed that their faith will not falter, that it will not fail, that they will overcome. So Jesus comes the third time, one more scripture, verse 45-46, and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise.” He didn’t say, “Let me go,” he said, “Let us go. Here comes my betrayer.” In those next minutes, those next few minutes, Jesus defeated fear, he defeated death, he defeated hell, he defeated it. But the disciples were overcome by it. Jesus defeated, they overcame, he won the battle at Gethsemane, they lost it. I have a question for you, you can take your snapshots, whatever it is, where are you losing the battle each day? Where are you losing the battle each day? See, this story, the story confronts one thing here, that we can watch all this, we can listen to it, and that we may be ready for the battle of our Gethsemane every day, to be ready to move with Jesus into his saving work, join him in making the greatest difference in our world. Now, I want to read you a paragraph here, and then we are all going to stand together and look through some scriptures, and we’re going to pray, and then we’re going to take the communion. Jesus was making the greatest difference in history and eternity, not one of the, it is the greatest. He gave us Good Friday and Easter because of that. What would he do? I’m going to read you a paragraph here, and then I’m going to read all the scriptures together that coin it together. He would bear, he would take upon himself the wrath of God for all mankind because of our sin. He would become a curse for all of us. He would bear our sin on his body on that cross. He would give his life as a ransom for all of us, for all humanity, and die for the ungodly, die for the sinner. He would raise from the dead because he would never again die, neither would we. He would pour his Spirit upon us. He would justify us. He will call us his children. He will adopt us into his family. He would give us eternal life that death will never consume us. Death will never be able to consume us, that we will have eternity with him, that he will always have his presence with us. He will give us, he gives us his presence, and he assures us of what? Joy and pleasures forevermore. I want you to stand as I look at the scriptures with you. All that I’ve just said in this last 40 seconds is coined in this. I want you to just follow this. Galatians 3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole, on a tree.’” 1 Peter 2:24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed.” Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” I want you to look at the scripture. I want you to see what Jesus accomplished at the garden, at the cross. I want you to see what he draws you and me in and says, “It is not an option. It is what I expect you to do.” Romans 5:6, “You see, at just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” Romans 3:28, “For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.” Galatians 4:4-6, “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’” John 3:16, we all know this, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” 2 Corinthians 3:18, “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” Jude 1:24-25, “To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, be glory, majesty, power, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore. Amen.” Psalm 16:11, “You make known to me the path of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” The previous thing I read out to you, all the scriptures frame that in. By all this, Jesus made the greatest difference for all of mankind and for the glory of God more than any other person ever. We must join Jesus in this fight. It’s not an option. It’s not our opinions. John 20:21, he says, “Then Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace to you. As the Father has sent me,’” let’s read the last one together. Why so sad? The last part, read it again, come on, read the whole thing, come on, everybody, let’s read it together. “Then Jesus, as my representatives.” When Judas finally approached Jesus with swords and clubs, with all the so-called Temple Police, the Pharisees, what do you think? Jesus

could have never handled it if he didn’t deal with it on his knees. We cannot deal with our internal and external problems, church, if we don’t get on our knees. There is no option. If prayer is so casual, then no wonder we get swallowed up by emotions. If prayer is 10 minutes, 20 minutes is too long, pause, ask yourself, what’s happening to you? If prayer is once a week, once a month, pause. Is the flesh that weak and strong? Is the Spirit willing but unable? See, this is not to, hey, shame on, no, this is to say, come on, what are we doing? He’s won the victory for us. He invites us into it, and because he died and rose again, we must speak. Because he died and rose again, we can pray, we can trust. The battle of Gethsemane climaxes here. My last, Jesus did not say to Peter and the others, “Farewell, I go.” He said, “The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.” What did he say? What is the last part? “Rise, come on.” And they ran. They heard wrong. He said, “Rise.” They ran. When God says, “Rise,” what do we do? Do we run? Cannot. Man, I’m tired. Sunday, cannot come. Goodness me, go to the garden, visit it again. Wake up. What are we doing? This is how we make a difference in the world. Jesus taught us, Gethsemane, get on your knees, and you fight. He didn’t say goodbye, no, he tells us all what. Let’s read this all together aloud. “Rise, let us be going.” Don’t be spiritually asleep. Watch and pray. As the Father has sent me, I now send you. Internal conflicts, external conflicts, take hold of the victory in Gethsemane. We overcome. So, I want us to think about this as we take the communion this morning.