March 7, 2010

First Advent Christian Church, Hickory, NC, March 7, 2010

Life in the Garden Manuscript

Mark 14:32-41 NIV

Introduction:

Do you like gardens? It is probably fair to say that most people do. Some of us like flower gardens, some vegetable gardens, some other types perhaps. Gardens are places of relaxation or refreshment or enjoyment. I don’t know if you ever thought about it or not, but all of human life might be describes as a garden. There are cold times and warm times, barren times and                        productive times, brown times and green times.      

Throughout the scriptures gardens seem to have special significance. Man had his beginning in a garden—the Garden of Eden. It is the will of God for all of us that we spend our eternity in a city that Rev. 22:2 describes very much as a garden. “On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month.” And of course, a garden was very significant in the earthly life of Jesus. Jesus often went to the Garden of Gethsemane with His disciples. In the hours before His crucifixion Jesus spent some critical hours there.

This morning I invite you to look with me into the Garden of Gethsemane on the night that Jesus prayed there. The things we find in the Garden of Gethsemane that night are the same things we find in the “garden of life” still.

Message:

One of the things we find in the Garden of Gethsemane that night is Slight.  The disciples, namely Peter, James and John, slighted Jesus. They were indifferent to the request Jesus made of them. They were not willing to do what Jesus asked them to do. Jesus took all of the disciples with Him to the garden except Judas. He left eight of them near the entrance. He took Peter, James and John with Him on farther into the garden. Of those three, Jesus made a specific request, “stay here and keep watch.” Later he told them to pray.

Did Peter, James and John do what Jesus asked? No, they didn’t. Instead of watching and praying they slept. Jesus wanted these three disciples to share the deepest valley of His ministry with Him. Did they do it? No, they slighted their Lord. Something so simple, yet they could not or would not do it.

I wish I could say today that this was the last time Jesus was ever slighted. But, I can’t say that. Those same disciples, and the others as well, slighted Jesus again a little while later when they ran away. Peter even denied that he knew Jesus. And still today the Lord is slighted by His followers time and time again. And yes, sometimes we are the ones who do the slighting. The Lord has made the same request of us that He made of                                                                 Peter, James and John—Watch and Pray. Have we been any more faithful than they? Probably not. What about the call to faithfulness in worship? We are guilt of more slight, aren’t we? What about the other acts of service that we are invited to         render? We slighted Him again, didn’t we?

When Jesus returned and found His closest disciples asleep He asked them why. They didn’t have an answer. What will our answer be when the question is asked of us? Isn’t it amazing how much the Lord is willing to do for us, but yet we are willing to do so little for Him?

And if we slight Jesus Christ, how much more do we slight one another? As I said last Sunday, the Lord’s command is to love. Every one we don’t love we slight.

But, Slight is not the only thing we find in the Garden of Gethsemane that night. We also find Sorrow. Jesus said, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” Of course the approaching cross with its suffering contributed to that sorrow. Jesus knew that was coming. He knew the agony of a criminal’s death He faced.He knew pain of taking every person’s sin on Himself.That was enough to cause untold sorrow, but in addition there was the matter of the rejection He would experience. Jesus knew there would be those who would not believe. Jesus knew He would be alone. The sorrow of Jesus was so intense that Luke tell us that His “sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” Luke 22:44

And the sorrow goes on. The world seems to be filled with it. Natural disasters, War, Sickness, Crime, Old age, Unmet need. Sorrow is as big as the multitudes who die of starvation every year. It is as small was one child who cries at being mistreated. It is as obvious what we see in the 6:00 news. It is as hidden as our own struggle to escape the wages of sin. There is so much sorrow, yet the worst thing we could ever do is get used to it. We should never accept sorrow as inevitable. We should never resign ourselves to what will be will be. When there is sorrow we are called to minister in the name of Jesus.

Jesus experienced sorrow in the garden and suffering on the cross so that man might not have to.  No, that time is not yet. It is coming. See Rev. 21:3-4.

Thirdly, In the Garden of Gethsemane that night there was Submission. Jesus submitted to His Father’s will. Yes, Jesus prayed that the cup He was facing might be taken away. He prayed for another way. He prayed for a less painful way. But, in the end He prayed “Yet not what I will, but what you will”. Jesus didn’t want to suffer or die, but in the end He submitted to His Father’s will. In the Garden of Gethsemane there was submission. He faced the cross and all it brought. But, He also set an example of submission for us.

So, today, in the “garden of life” do we find submission? No, not nearly as much as we should. Even in the most simple matters of life a lot of us are not willing to say, “not what I will Lord, but what You will.” In the matter of how we use our time sometimes we are not willing to say, “Lord, not what I will, but what You will.” In the matter of how we use our money and worldly goods sometimes we are not willing to say, “Lord, not what I will, but what You will”. In the matter of Christian service sometimes we are not willing to say, “Lord, not what I will, but what You will.”

And even in the most important thing of all—our response to the Lord’s call to us to follow Him some of us are not willing to say, “Lord, not what I will, but what You will.” Wouldn’t a lot of us be guilty of too much selfishness and too little submission? Through submission the Lord Jesus offered the gift of salvation and eternal life to us. Only through submission can we received it.

Conclusion:

How much of what we find in the Garden of Gethsemane is found in your life today? Is there slight? Have you slighted God? Have you slighted others? Is there sorrow? Yes, a lot of that comes to us in ways we have no control over. But, some of it comes through our own poor decisions. Is there submission? Have you said and do you say, “Lord, not what I will, but     what You will?”

Don’t let what Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane that night be for no avail to you. Choose to be a Christian today.  Live for Christ today.