SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
1/21/2013 2:18 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Jesus’ Last
Temptation
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Mark
14:32-42
Message
of the verses: When we look at Mark
14:32-42 one of the things we will see is that Jesus was being tempted by the
Devil, and we know that this is not the first time that Jesus has been tempted
by the Devil. In an earlier chapter of
Mark, chapter four along with the 4th chapter of Matthew we see that
Jesus went out into the wilderness to fast and to pray in order to be prepared
for His up-coming ministry. Satan
tempted Jesus in the wilderness at that time to try and stop Jesus from
completing His ministry, which meant going to the cross. We also see that when Jesus asked His
disciples who people though that He was and then who they thought He was that
Peter boldly announced that Jesus was the Son of God, the Savior of the
world. It was only moments later that
Jesus was teaching His disciples that He had to suffer and die on the cross and
after that Peter tells Him “Lord this shall not happen.” Imagine telling the One whom you just rightly
called God’s Son, the Savior of the World “NO!
This also was a temptation for Jesus tells Peter “Get behind me
Satan.” Now we come to the temptation in
the garden, in what some have called the “Last Temptation of Christ.” This temptation was so great and so powerful
that it almost killed Jesus, for Luke tells us that He sweat great drops of
blood and an angel had to come and minister to Him. Let us now look at these verses and talk
about them: “32 They came to a place
named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, "Sit here until I have
prayed." 33 And He took with Him
Peter and James and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled. 34 And He said to them, "My soul is deeply
grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch." 35 And He went a little beyond them, and fell to
the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him
by. 36 And He was saying, "Abba!
Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what
I will, but what You will." 37 And
He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "Simon, are you
asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? 38 "Keep watching and praying that you may
not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."
39 Again He went away and prayed, saying
the same words. 40 And again He came and
found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what
to answer Him. 41 And He came the third
time, and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough;
the hour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of
sinners. 42 "Get up, let us be
going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!’”
In verse thirty-two we see that
Jesus led His disciples, minus Judas, to a very familiar place that we know as
the “Garden of Gethsemane,” which means “Olive Press), and I suppose that that
is an appreciate place for Jesus to talk to His Father, for He surely would be
squeezed while there praying to His Father, but just as the oil that comes from
the olives is pure Jesus will come away in triumph, for in verse forty-two we
see that Jesus tells His disciples to get up and to get going. Jesus did not run from what was ahead of Him,
but went to meet it head on. He had been
assured by His Father that all would be well as He continued to do the will of
His Father and continued to trust His plan.
We see that Jesus took all of His
disciples with Him to the garden, but left eight of them further back than He
would take Peter, James, and John. And
then He would even go further into the garden to pray. Let us look at Luke 22:39-41, “39 ¶ And He came out and proceeded as was His
custom to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples also followed Him. 40 When He arrived at the place, He said to
them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation." 41 And He withdrew from them about a stone’s
throw, and He knelt down and began to pray.”
We see from these verses that Jesus tells His disciples to pray so that
they would not enter into temptation, and that He was not too far from them for
it was a stone’s throw away. Jesus had
told them earlier that the Shepherd would be struck and that the sheep would
scatter. We probably don’t realize that
it was dangerous there for His disciples, for the Jews would have killed them
too if not for the protection that was given to them by Christ, and yet they,
the ones who said that they would die with Christ could not pray with Him
during this great time of trouble that He was going through. The spirit is willing but the flesh is
weak! Paul understood the difference
between the flesh and the spirit for he wrote, “14 ¶ For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I
am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15
For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I
would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to
do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but
sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know
that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but
the doing of the good is not, (Romans 7:14-18).”
Jesus tells Peter,
James, and John that He was deeply grieved, even to the point of death. We have already spoken that if it were not
for the angel who came to minister to Him, He probably would have died. We see in verses 35-41 that three times Jesus
prayed to His Father, and three times He came back to find His disciples
sleeping. Luke says they slept because
of great sorrow, and they surely were sorrowful. In John MacArthur’s sermon on this section of
Scripture in which he calls it “The Agony of the Cup” he states why Jesus came
back to His disciples three times, “But what is the point of this? The point is
this, and this is such a profound thing to understand. In the middle of the
most consummate agony of His entire existence as an eternal being, He is
concerned about these guys. Now that’s the kind of High Priest you need, right?
A sympathetic, merciful, compassionate High Priest who in the middle of a
cosmic supernatural struggle of epic proportions, incomprehensible to us,
breaks his prayer off and goes out because he’s concerned about the spiritual
vulnerability of His friends, His disciples. That’s our great High Priest.
“So just in case you wondered whether in the
business of Jesus’ activities in life He forgets you? Don’t wonder anymore. No
matter how intense the struggle is, He has you in His heart. My name, said the
song we sang, is graven on His hands…My name is written on His heart and He
ever lives to make intercession for us. Beautiful.”
We see that Jesus was asking His Father if it was
His will to take away the cup of agony that He had to drink, but if He did not
take it away then Jesus would drink it.
We see from the very outset of sin when it came into our world through
the disobedience of Adam and Eve that God planned to send His Son into the world
to become a man and to be born of the seed of woman. (Gen. 3:15)
We see this progress throughout the entire Old Testament from Adam all
the way up to Mary and Joseph we see the Seed.
God had planned for salvation through the shedding of the blood of Jesus
Christ, for without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Now Jesus comes to the very point where He is
about to die and He asks His Father if there was not another way, but then says
not His will, but His Father’s will.
This whole thing revolves around the holiness of Jesus Christ, for He
was man and God in One Person. God hates
sin and yet Jesus knew that He had to become sin so that the righteousness of
God would be satisfied. This also meant
that Jesus would have to be separated from His Father, and that had never
happened. Jesus repeated the words of
Psalm 22:1 “ My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” It was all about the holiness of Jesus Christ
that caused this pain of suffering during His time in the garden. As human beings, and believers in Jesus
Christ we have to deal with temptation from a sinful position, but Jesus was
tempted from a Holy position, for it was impossible for Jesus to sin, and yet
He is our great High Priest who was tempted just as we are today and yet without
sin. We have a wonderful High Priest.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I can’t imagine what this temptation was like
that Jesus went through, and yet I know that it was so very real, and it was
done for me, and for all who claim the name of Jesus as their Lord and their
Savior. I am amazed that right to the
end and even while He was on the cross that He was concerned for His own. Jesus provided for His mother while on the
cross. Jesus was concerned for His
disciple’s right to the end and now He is concerned for me too.
My Steps of Faith for
Today:
Praise the Lord for His wonderful salvation. Continue to learn
contentment. Continue to study His Word
so that it will transform my mind.
Memory verses for the week:
Psalm 121:1-8
1 I will lift up my
eyes to the mountains; from where shall my hope come? 2 My hope comes from the LORD who made heaven
and earth. 3 He will not allow your foot
to sleep; He who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber, nor sleep. 5 The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your
shade on your right hand. 6 The sun will
not smite you by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will protect you from all evil; He will protect your
soul. 8 The LORD will guard your going
out and your coming in from this time forth and forever.
Turning Points Wisdom for Today:
“God regards the personal purity of the man more than he regards any
sacrifice or any ceremony.” (E. M.
Bounds) “The eyes of the LORD are in
every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” (Proverbs 15:3)
1/21/2013 3:40 PM
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