9/24/12. Luke 22:39-53. GOD’S WILL, NOT OURS-devotional

Luke 22:39-53
Key Verse: 22:42

Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF   Monday, September 24,2012

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done”

Dear Lord, thank you so much for your love and your grace in our lives. You do not treat us as our sins deserve. Lord, please help me to live for your glory. Please help each of my kids to live for the glory of God. May their lives be an advertisement that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. I pray for the students of NIU. I pray that you help them to include Jesus in their busy schedule and may make Jesus a priority in their live. I pray for the First Nations of Canada. I pray that their housing crisis may be solved and that the truth and reconciliation process may be fruitful and healing. Please grant me one word of God to hold onto through this passage. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen!

Part 1: Submit to God In Prayer (39-46).

Verse 39-46, “Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. 40 On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” 41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. 45 When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 46 “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”

Jesus’ anguish in prayer shows how profound his suffering would be as he followed God’s will for his life. Movies have attempted to portray the excruciating pain of crucifixion, but man cannot fathom the agony Jesus experienced as he was separated from the Father and as he bore the punishment for the sin of the whole world. Even so, Jesus prayed, “Not my will, but yours be done.”

The will of God is never easy to embrace. When God opens our eyes to see the enormity of the task at hand it is not easy to embrace the will of God in our lives. For example, I have been doing research into being a missionary to the aboriginal people in Canada. I am discovering more and more that I think about the complexity of the task the more I realize that in order to embrace this mission a person must truly die themselves. They need to literally give it all up and become one with the people and suffer alongside them for decades. This can not be done with simple good human intentions. This must be done by the spirit of God through much prayer. Jesus in the garden showed us the way.

What does it take to embrace student ministry in America? To reach out to unsaved and non Christian students means to accept a lifetime of rejections…a lifetime of people not wanting to make time for you… a life time of sacrifices with very little recognition. It means having people come in and out of your life with no concern about your emotional needs. It means having your own kids not wanting to share in the mission with you. Can you accept this? Can you embrace this cross? If you are called then you can pray and find strength to embrace what God wants you to do.

But what about the disciples in this passage? They were very susceptible to temptation and faced turbulent days ahead. Confusion, fear, despair, and doubt would swirl all about them and they would be tempted to abandon their faith. Jesus told them to pray so that they would not fall into temptation. The only way to not fall into temptation is to following Jesus’ example, we must come to God in prayer and submit to his will.

How easy it is to sleep when we face struggles and hardships. We sleep when we despair. We sleep, many times, to forget about stress and issues that arise in our hearts. We would rather sleep than pray. But I learn here that I need to pray. My cross of mission now is to find my place in the Kishwaukee Bible Church and to also find myself in UBF. It means to be an information finder for a couple to go to Canada as missionaries to the First Nations people. I need to care for the five or so Bible students. I need to be a Christian Father to my kids. I need to be a Christian husband to my wife. It means to grow as a good nurse at Kishwaukee Hospital. There is a lot to picking up my cross. Sometimes I fall into deep despair and only want to sleep. But I don’t have to remain in a rut. I can pray and ask God, not to take away my cross. But to ask God for the strength to embrace my cross and follow Jesus in the way that he would have for me.

Part 2. The Effect Of Prayer (47-53).

Verses 47-53, “47 While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, 48 but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” 49 When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?” 50 And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. 51 But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him. 52 Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come for him, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs? 53 Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.”

This was truly an hour where darkness reigned. Judas betrayed his Master with a kiss and the crowd came with swords and clubs to arrest the Prince of Peace. The religious leaders worked in the dark, instead of in the light of God’s truth. Yet through it all, Jesus demonstrated composure and strength. It was the result of prayer.

I can see here the results of a person who did not pray. Judas was a disciple. He followed Jesus for 3 ½ years. He knew it all. But when the reality of following Jesus became clear and the suffering that God was calling all of the disciples became obvious, Judas probably slept a lot too, but he went a step further…he actually bailed out on Jesus and his friends and betrayed Jesus to death on the cross. This is the extreme example of what could happen when we reject the calling of God. The disciples’’ extreme example is responding with emotions and lashing out to defend themselves. Reacting without prayer is not good.

Jesus showed the strength and power that come from a person of faith who prays. They receive strength and power and composure and stability…like Jesus Christ. I want that. I no longer want to be a person who responds only to emotions. I want to be more like Jesus. This is the fruit of prayer.

Prayer: Father, give us the strength to do your will.

One Word: Pray, and submit to God’s will for your life