32They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray." 33He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. 34"My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them. "Stay here and keep watch."
35Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. 36"Abba,Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."
Most Christians are very familiar very this particular part of the Bible, you hear it in your church's sermon probably once a year...
The most touching part of the sermon today is about the prayer of Jesus.
You can see two important things from the prayer (v 36)
1. "Abba, Father"-- you can see the love between Jesus and His Father, this is a very important point, coz without this, Jesus could never endure the sufferings he would go through.
2. "Everything is possible for you." -- Jesus knows His Father. He understand exactly what He's capable of.
His knowledge on God and their love between them explains the trust Jesus placed on His Father.
Just like another familiar story of Peter and Jesus. Jesus asked Peter three times, "Do you truly love me more than these?" Near the end of Gospel of John, Jesus told Peter he could go where he wanted when he was young, but when Peter grew old, he'd be led to where he would not want to go.
What enables one to walk in Jesus' way, not our own way? To bear Jesus' cross?
Not from our own determination. You'll get tired quickly.
From the knowledge of God, knowing that He loves us and He is able to do anything He wanted.
I guess the message (together with what I read from 2 Corinthians today) echoed each other.
2 Corinthians 1:8-10
8We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us.
And it really hits me, coz I'm forgetting the focus here and getting really tired. Focus on God.
Back to the sermon, the preacher ended by telling us, Adam and Eve tried to get control of their own life in Eden, while Jesus surrendered His control to God in Gethesmane. What was started by Adam and Eve, was ended by Jesus.
P.S. This is what I called a sermon with depth... when will I hear a sermon on suffering in my own church? Not just God will rescue you from your suffering, but how to endure suffering... read something unbelievable from the web last night, gonna talk about it in the next post...
No comments:
Post a Comment