Reasoning Through the Bible
Taking a cue from Paul, Reasoning Through the Bible is an expository style walk through the Scriptures that tells you what the Bible says. Reviewing both Old and New Testament books, as well as topical subjects, we methodically teach verse by verse, even phrase by phrase.
We have completed many books of the Bible and offer free lesson plans for teachers. If you want to browse our entire library by book or topic, see our website www.ReasoningThroughTheBible.com.
We primarily do expository teaching but also include a good bit of theology and apologetics. Just like Paul on Mars Hill, Christianity must address both the ancient truths and the questions of the people today. Join Glenn and Steve every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as they reason with you through the Bible.
Reasoning Through the Bible
S55 || When Divine Will Meets Human Weakness || Mark 14:32-41 || Session 55 || Verse by Verse Bible Study
The Garden of Gethsemane stands as one of Christianity's most profound moments – the final hours before Jesus faced his destiny on the cross. In this deeply moving exploration of Mark 14:32-41, we unpack the raw humanity and divine purpose revealed as Christ approaches his darkest hour.
From the symbolic setting of Gethsemane (which literally means "oil press") to Jesus sweating drops of blood under immense pressure, this passage offers extraordinary insight into Christ's experience. We examine how Jesus, despite knowing what awaited him, still brought his closest disciples for support – modeling the importance of spiritual community during life's most challenging moments.
The tender moment when Jesus addresses God as "Abba Father" (similar to saying "Daddy") reveals the intimate relationship between Son and Father even as the cross loomed. His prayer – "Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will" – perfectly demonstrates how to balance honest human desire with ultimate submission to God's perfect plan.
Meanwhile, the sleeping disciples provide a sobering counterpoint to Jesus' vigilance. Their failure to "watch and pray" offers powerful lessons about spiritual alertness and the reality that "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." When Jesus addresses Peter by his old name "Simon," we see how our unregenerate nature tends toward spiritual slumber while our new nature desires faithfulness.
Whether you're facing overwhelming circumstances or simply seeking deeper understanding of Christ's sacrifice, this episode provides practical application for staying spiritually alert through prayer, community, and submission to God's will. Join us as we witness Jesus at his most vulnerable, yet most triumphant moment – teaching us how to face our own Gethsemane experiences with faith and courage.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
Welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible, where we go verse by verse and sometimes phrase by phrase, through the Word of God. My name's Glenn. I'm here with Steve. We are in the Gospel of Mark. We've just seen Jesus leaving the upper room and going out to the Garden of Gethsemane. It's a very dramatic time and Jesus is under a great deal of stress and pressure. He knows what's coming and he knows what he's about to have to do. Disciples are a little sleepy and we're going to see how they fail the Lord by not staying awake, but nevertheless, let's go ahead and jump right in. Open your Bibles to Mark, chapter 14, starting in verse 32. Steve, can you read down to verse 42?
Speaker 2:They came to a place named Gethsemane and he said to his disciples Sit here until I have prayed. He took with him Peter and James and John and began to be very distressed and troubled and he said to them my soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and keep watch. He went a little bit beyond them and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass him by. And he was saying Abba, father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet, not what I will, but you will.
Speaker 2:And he came and found them sleeping and said to Peter Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again he went away and prayed, saying the same words, and again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy and they did not know what to answer him. 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. Get up, let us be going. Behold, the one who betrays me is at hand.
Speaker 1:With this, jesus has left the upper room, they sing a hymn and they go out to the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus knows what's about to happen. He knows this is the final moments before he gets arrested and he will be crucified in a matter of hours. He was under tremendous stress and pressure because he understood very well, more than anyone, what was going to happen to him in the coming hours. So much so that Dr Luke says that Jesus was under so much stress and pressure that he started sweating. Drops of blood Tells us that in Luke 22, 44.
Speaker 1:Remember, jesus was human as well as divine, so he was under tremendous amount of pressure here, more so than we will ever know. And it's quite interesting where they went? They went to Gethsemane, and the word Gethsemane means oil press. It was the place where they would take the olives in the olive grove, take them out, and nearby there they would have a press where they squeezed the olives to get the olive oil. So, right near where the olives would get squeezed to the breaking point, jesus is being spiritually squeezed up to his limits. He says I am to the point of death. He says so, steve, what comes to mind when you read this section about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when he's under so much of the stress and pressure.
Speaker 2:It shows his human side and it shows that he does know what's going to happen to him. Crucifixion was a very cruel death. It was a cruel way for capital punishment. The person really more or less bled to death and also was asphyxiated. Because they had to raise themselves up on the cross in order to breathe Just through sheer lack of strength they would sink back down again and then have to pull themselves back up to catch a breath. They would just really die in tremendous agony. It was a cruel, cruel way to die.
Speaker 2:So everybody knew that Nobody wanted to be crucified. Jesus knew what was going to happen and what was going to take place. I do find it interesting, though, that, as he's asking for this cup to be taken from him, we use that specific language in the other Gospels that it's really not Jesus doubting, I don't think, glenn on what he's going to do, because he then here says but not my will be done, but your will be done. So I think that part of the agony that he's experiencing is not only the type of death that he's going to have, but the actual separation that he's going to experience on the cross as he takes on this bearing of the sin of the world to pay the debt that we have and that the debt that he paid for us.
Speaker 1:He brings his disciples, they go out to the Garden of Gethsemane and he says, sit here until I have prayed. Then he takes a smaller group Peter James and John his inner circle. He goes a little further away and asks them to stay while he prays. Now I submit this can give us a bit of a support for a church leadership model, in the sense that Jesus had a group of disciples Smaller than that. He had a group of 12 that would ultimately become his apostles, the specific 12 that were chosen by him. Then a smaller group of those was the three Peter James and John. If you remember, those were the ones he took with him on several occasions when he wanted a little more privacy With this.
Speaker 1:Our churches should take this to heart. We need a group of leaders that are wise, that are chosen. We should also get smaller groups than that to help lead the core of the core, so to speak, and our pastors, our church leaders, should have a small group of men that can come alongside them and look them in the eye and tell them the truth and can be there for support when they need be. Our pastors need that support. So we should take this to heart, because Jesus no less than our Lord had an inner circle, a group that he used for his personal support. We should take that as well in our churches. In verse 35, he falls on the ground and prays. If you want to see this prayer, just read John chapter 17. The entire chapter is this prayer that he prays right here in the Garden of Gethsemane. With this, jesus is being led through difficult circumstances and he says my soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death. Steve, will God lead us through difficult circumstances that try us, sometimes even to the point of death? Yeah, he does.
Speaker 2:Part of it, I think, Glenn, is our bodies begin to break down and we get different types of maladies that our body can't handle. There's many of those situations that have to do with the different types of diseases and things that we contract. But through all of that, we know that Jesus is with us. As Jesus says here in verse 36, all things are possible for you. We have a model here that Jesus says remove this cup if you can, but if not, my will be done, but yours. I think that that's kind of the attitude that we most often need to have. We want to be healed from the different things that we have.
Speaker 2:Many times Well, not many times, all the time but we should also say but not our will, but your will. God knows what's best for us, and many times what's best is to take some of us over to the other side, where we're going to have a new body there and of course we're all going to have a glorified body at some point in time that's not going to get sick at anything else. But there are times when it comes to us that are very, very stressful, that happen to us and happen to loved ones, and it's not pleasant, but it is a time that we can get encouragement of knowing that we are a believer and that, as it talks about in Philippians worry about nothing, pray about everything, and God will give us the peace beyond all understanding.
Speaker 1:What do you think was Jesus' emotional state?
Speaker 2:at this point, I think his state was that now it's coming to fruition. Everything that he has been working up to is now coming to the point. The sin debt is going to be paid and he is the one that is going to be the sacrifice, the propitiation, the satisfactory sacrifice for that sin debt. All of his teaching, everything that he's done, it's all now coming to the point of why he's done. It's all now coming to the point of why he actually came. And John 3.16 says For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. This is it, this is the culmination of that verse that Jesus is fixing to go through.
Speaker 1:It must have been extremely stressful and none of us can sit here and pretend to know what was going through his mind because it was unique to him. But we know he was very distressed at this point, to the point of death, it says. I think that sometimes happens to us, sometimes happens to people in churches, where God leads us in a path where we really can't see past where we are now, can't see getting beyond that. I wonder what practical things we can say to people, because there's people that have had just one thing after another hitting them from all sides. There's so much emotional and spiritual stress that it does, as you alluded, to start to affect our physical bodies. Sometimes we can't see a way out. What practical things can we do to realize, hey, our Lord went through a time even greater than us. How can we take that and make it real and get through these really hard emotional times that we sometimes go through have?
Speaker 2:a close tie to Jesus, meaning have a relationship with him. That's what salvation is. It's a relationship with Jesus Christ, believing on him and trusting on him. That way, whenever we get to these type of situations that are stressful situations, we are prepared to handle them better. I think Jesus obviously is prepared to handle this because he says, not my will but your will, so he's obedient, even unto death. But that's for us to also model. If we don't have that ongoing relationship sometimes whenever these stressful situations hit us, then we're taken off guard and we then have to scramble to get back into a relationship with Jesus Christ. We should do that on a daily basis so that whenever it does hit us that we can just and always go to church hang around other Christians.
Speaker 1:The issues of life will get to the point where you won't feel like doing any of those things. But I submit that going off by yourself and just living in misery is not a way to improve things. The only hope in this life is the path of following Jesus Christ. Sometimes we may not feel like getting up and reading our Bible or listening to a sermon, or going to a pastor and speaking with them, or just going and finding a good Christian friend and sitting around the table with them, but those things are really what's needed because our Lord table with them. But those things are really what's needed because our Lord example. He took friends with him. Now they fell asleep, but he took them with him because he needed people at that time and we need people. Going off by ourself in a time of stress is really a very unhealthy thing. It's unhealthy physically, it's unhealthy spiritually. That's what pastors are for is to be a friend, find a good local church, plug into a Bible study and be regular with your Bible study and your prayer, even if you don't really feel like them.
Speaker 1:Then, in verse 36, we see a very tender personal thing. He refers to the father as Abba, abba, father. Now, abba is a term of endearment. It's something that a child would say to their father, like Daddy. It's this common term within a loving relationship you would have. This is really the only place in the Scripture where Jesus says this word, and he says it at a time where he most needs the Father to comfort him. He is in great distress. Such a phrase is showing us that even Jesus needed this very tender, loving relationship. This is very close, very personal. We almost feel like we're reading somebody else's mail here, listening to somebody else's private prayer, when we shouldn't have. But Jesus is in a very emotional state and he's saying things here that he wouldn't normally pray. I just find this to be a very tender, loving moment. Then, in verse 36, he also says all things are possible for the Father and asks the Father to remove this, remove this cup. He's saying remove the cross. That's what he's asking for. But then he submits. He submits to the Father's will. So we have to struggle with this because, on one hand, we have a divine person here. Jesus is God.
Speaker 1:We've shown that several places and we're told that the cross was predetermined from eternity. It tells us that in Acts 2.23. The cross was not plan B, the cross was plan A. Jesus came here to die and he knew it would happen. He's been telling his disciples that for quite a while now. His purpose was to come for this. But now we have this prayer Lord, father, abba, take this cup from me. It means, if you can take this cross from me.
Speaker 1:How do we explain this? Well, I don't know if we ever really could, because, again, we don't know his relationship or how it relates with the Father. But we know this he is human and he's fully human and his human will. Christianity has always taught, from day one, that he had a fully human nature that was distinct but unified with his divine nature. So he had two natures. They were not commingled into a third thing. He had two natures, one that was fully God and one that was fully and entirely human. Two natures, one that was fully God and one that was fully and entirely human. So he would feel everything a human would feel and he would as a human will. He would be stretched to the point of death. His human will always is in accord with the divine will. The human Jesus would struggle and say, lord, is there another way? But he would always submit because of the divine will. Steve, I don't know if there's any way to add more to it than that, but what's your thoughts on this idea of take this from me?
Speaker 2:I think that we can take encouragement from it.
Speaker 2:I know I say that quite often in this session, but what was it that Jesus told Peter and the disciples in our last session? He said when I'm raised up again, go to Galilee and meet me there. Jesus knows, yes, that he's going to die, but he also knows that he's going to raise himself up. We can take encouragement from that. On our side, whenever we face death, we know also that we are going to have life on the other side. Just like Jesus here is saying all things are possible. If it's possible, remove it, but not my will, but yours. It's an encouragement to us that we know that we will have a life after this physical life here and then later we will have a glorified body and have things to do in that kingdom. That is going to be established. That is going to be established. While it's a very dire situation, jesus does know that he's going to be resurrected again when it gets to us. And those dire, dire situations when we face death, we can still take pleasure in knowing that we have life on the other side.
Speaker 1:Again. He says in verse 46, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet, not what I will, but what you will, At a minimum. This is Jesus to his death, giving himself as an example for us. What should we do when we are stretched to our limits in trials or temptations? We should do the same, Lord, I want out of this, but not what I will, but what you will. To the very end, Jesus did his role as the Son. He submitted to the Father. He submitted to the cross. He voluntarily gave himself for me and for you.
Speaker 1:Jesus' human will is always in accord with his divine will, and we need to be the same way. Our human will needs to be in accord with the divine spirit that's been given in us in the Holy Spirit. We should take his example. He was stretched to the limits, but he submitted to the Father's will. We can too. At a minimum, it's his example.
Speaker 1:Also, what's going on here? Jesus' question when he asked this reflects number one his confidence in the Father. To the very end, he had confidence in the Father your will, not mine. And two, the pain of a righteous Messiah taking on the sin of the world. We can describe the physical pain of a raw, open, bleeding back, rubbing against a rough cross and being whipped and having nails driven through your hands and your feet. We can come to some idea of the level of pain of all of that.
Speaker 1:But on top of that, Jesus had the pain of a perfectly righteous, heavenly being taking on the sin of the world. That's a pain that we really have trouble fathoming. He was perfectly holy and perfectly good and he's feeling the weight of the sin of you and of me. That's one of the reasons he's screaming out here in agony. This verse is an example to submit to the Lord, even when we're in pain and agony. It's not a question of doubt, Steve. Then, in verse 38, he asked his friends to stay awake and pray. Why would he ask his friends to stay awake and pray? Why would he want people praying for him at this time?
Speaker 2:Well, as we've been talking about. I believe that this is a model for us all, the activity that's taking place here with him and he's giving us an example. Gather our fellow believers around us, ask them to pray for us as we go through these difficult times. I think that's why the more people that you have praying for you and interceding for you, I think the better. It also gives them something to do. They're not just wandering around wondering what to do or what's going on Now. Of course, they fall asleep because it's been a long day for them, but he's giving them something to do so that they could help and participate in this situation that he's about to go through.
Speaker 1:And all that's true, but there's a very interesting little teaching hidden in this verse. Not hidden, it's right here. Look at verse 38 again. He tells to Peter and James and John keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. He's telling them stay awake and pray so that you don't fall into temptation.
Speaker 1:I find this interesting One, even to the very end. He's about to be arrested, he's still giving spiritual advice to his disciples and the advice is keep praying so you're not tempted. Well, tempted to what? Well, tempted to sin. The sin was coming. The temptation to fall away, the temptation to curse and deny Christ, the temptation to go back to fishing instead of following Jesus All those things were there and Jesus knew they were coming. What happens when we get to the point where we're alone and we're not praying? Well, we get tempted. We get tempted to sin, we get tempted to fall away, we get tempted to fall off track. Steve, don't you think that's true? Whenever we get to the point where we're spiritually weak, then what happens to our walk in Christ?
Speaker 2:Prayer is that conduit of that relationship that we have with Jesus Christ and God the Father. Yeah, we should make sure that we are constantly praying, as he just said here, because the spirit's willing, but the flesh is weak. It is sometimes a battle. I find myself sometimes, glenn, forgetting to pray. I want to pray and it falls out of my routine, and then I have to get back into the routine of it doing it as well, not because I don't want to do it, but the flesh is weak. Prayer is our conduit of the relationship that we have with Jesus Christ and if we abandon it then we don't have that relationship on a daily basis that we need through prayer.
Speaker 1:Notice here what Jesus does. He is at the point of great stress and pressure and he asked his friends to go with him and pray with him. What should we do when we get into a low spot in our life? We should do the same. We should go to our friends and ask them to pray for us. One thing we should not do, that's very unhealthy to do, is go off by ourselves.
Speaker 1:If you're in a low point in life, then going off by yourself is really unhealthy. It's unhealthy spiritually, it's unhealthy physically, simply because that's when the temptation comes. The temptation is to fall away to sin, to be discouraged. We really need our friends around us. We need friends that we can go to and say I'm at a really low point, Can you just come and sit with me and have a silent prayer or whatever? Right, let's just go have lunch or take a walk and Christian friends around you is really the way to keep from falling into temptation, Really helpful. There's very little else on this earth that can comfort the way a good Christian friend can. We need to be aware of that and not go off by ourselves. So in the passage obviously we've talked about this Jesus asked his friends to be there with him and pray. What are they doing?
Speaker 2:They're falling asleep, which really kind of leads to that they don't, I think, know the gravity of the situation, even though Jesus has been telling them and been preparing them that he's going to be betrayed and that he's going to be turned over and be beaten by the Gentiles and then he's going to die.
Speaker 2:Actually, he's told him he's going to be crucified and then also raised on the third day. But they still don't realize that because if I think if they did realize it, they would be very vigilant to stay awake. Jesus is aware that Judas has gone out and plotted with the leadership and secured guards to come and arrest him. He knows that that's coming, but his disciples don't and they're falling asleep. That's an indication of that. They don't know what's going to happen, so it's going to be a surprise to them whenever it comes. But sometimes it's like us, glenn, maybe we don't know what's going to happen in the future, but Jesus does. We can learn from this. We need to be always watchful and we need to always be praying, especially for those friends, like you say, that have asked us to pray for them.
Speaker 1:Remember the parable that he told not long ago in the timeline here. He talked about a landowner that went away and was going to come back and he said the servants were supposed to be watchful. It might come at midnight, might come at dawn, might come anytime, but the job of the servants was to be awake, be sober, be diligent, be watchful. So what did Peter do here? He fell asleep and the rest of the disciples fell asleep as well. The message that Jesus gives us is be awake, be sober, be watchful.
Speaker 1:Don't fall asleep in your Christian life and then wake up one day and you've missed anful. Don't fall asleep in your Christian life and then wake up one day and you've missed an opportunity. Don't fall asleep in the Christian life and then let good Christian service opportunities pass you by. Don't fall asleep in the Christian life and then wake up and you're dead, or wake up and you're suddenly tempted by sin that you weren't ready for. Be awake, be diligent, be doing His business. We want, when he comes back, for Him to find us awake and diligent in doing the task that he asked us to do. So here's a question, steve how do we keep from falling asleep in the Christian life, Steve McLaughlin, Just all by the ways that we've been talking about.
Speaker 2:As I've said before, prayer is our conduit. Also reading the Scripture, studying the Scripture that's how we can know who God is and what His characteristics are and how he operates, what he has planned in the future for us and also, in general, how we can take encouragement to live our lives and have the assurance that we have salvation. And on and on and on Studying God's Word, meeting with fellow believers and fellowshipping with them, praying those are all ways that we can stay spiritually awake.
Speaker 1:Notice again here in verse 37,. He came and found them sleeping and said to Peter when he speaks to Peter, he calls him by his old name, simon. Are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? He calls Peter by the old name, simon. Remember Jesus had changed his name from Simon to Peter. Peter was the new name, peter was the rock. Peter was the one who's going to stand up in the temple in Acts, chapter 2 and 3, and be bold, simon.
Speaker 1:The old nature fell asleep. So I think we can draw a lesson there. The old nature wants to be lazy. The old nature wants to fall asleep in the Lord. The old nature doesn't want to do the Lord's work Peter does. Peter was passionate and diligent. I will never fall away. Simon falls asleep. I think the old nature is in us and the new nature if you're a born-again Christian. Because the new nature wants to do the will of God, because the new nature wants to do the will of God. The old nature wants to fall asleep, and I think that's what we need to focus on is focus on the new nature. Feed the new nature, feed the Spirit, feed the regenerated you and the regenerated me with the Word of God and it will tame the old nature.
Speaker 1:What did Jesus say? What did Paul say? He said I buffet my body, I beat it into submission because I don't want it to fail me. He prayed that, if possible, the cup would pass from him. And he goes and finds his disciples asleep. He says to them in verse 38, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Three times they fell asleep and disappointed the Lord. And I think this is true for all of us in the Christian life. We have a regenerated nature that wants to please the Lord, that wants to desire the high, spiritual, lofty things of Christ and to do his will. And we also have an old nature. We have an old fleshly nature that's weak and wants to sleep All of us. We need a movement of the Holy Spirit power to our flesh to help it submit to God. That's what I think, steve, is one of the greatest things in this passage. Steve.
Speaker 2:McLaughlin. I agree with you, Glenn, and once again, there's a lot of information that we can find in these eight or ten verses that we spent here Going through slowly and deliberately. You can pick out so many things through Scripture.
Speaker 1:Glenn. We'll pull it to the curb, therefore, today, but we got still more to do. There's so much wonderful things in the Word of God, so we'll be back next time, reasoning through the Bible.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.
