Endurance

N.T.#648 "Endurance"

Oct. 9, 2025 

Luke 22-Part 5 

LET IT GLOW 

Do you need some endurance today? Are you suffering because others know you are a Christian, different? We are not alone, friend. Jesus needed it, too.

Shall we look closer into the Garden of Gethsemane? We will find Peter, James, and John inside with Jesus. The rest of the disciples were left outside the gate/entrance. Jesus had already warned His men, especially Peter, of the crazy trial awaiting Him. 

Sadly, that warning, as well as His imploring them to pray, went unheeded. (MacArthur)

The disciples needed to pray that they might not fold under the pressure of the temptation they were about to face. (verse 40) They would need strength and divine assistance. (Evans)

Jesus went a little farther away from the trio, knelt down, and prayed:

Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me: nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done. (verse 42)

It was His private time to pray. Jesus knew the suffering He was about to face. Humanly, He wanted to avoid it. Was there any other way to provide salvation for sinners? No, for He was the perfect Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. Jesus never sinned. He wasn't trying to get out of His mission, but Jesus expressed His true feelings to His Father. Don't you think He dreaded the upcoming beatings, trials, pain of it all? It would have been a terrible agony to know what was ahead of Him.

Maybe it is a good thing that we don't know the circumstances around our death.

LET IT GROW

What was this "cup" Jesus asked God to remove?

• It was a bitter cup. One of suffering and death, which was the Heavenly Father's will for Jesus. In His heart, Jesus knew what He had to do, yet He was humanly a man, too. 
• I think it was Christ's coming death. It was a painful 6 hours on the cross with His hands and feet supported by spikes while hanging there. He had physical agony to endure, knowing He had the power to kill the guys responsible.
• Separation from God as He bore all the sins of the world on Him, in order to be the adequate sacrifice. 
• It was a cup of divine wrath from which Jesus drank willingly. The Father's wrath was completely satisfied. I think all hell broke loose on Jesus.
• Jesus had to choose between obedience and self-preservation. Aren't we glad He chose not to say, "Forget it" and return to heaven?
• Jesus chose to endure whatever was the Father's will over His own will.

He was consciously, deliberately, and voluntarily subjugating all His human desires to the Father's perfect will. (MacArthur)

The Father sent an angel to minister to Jesus to strengthen Him. (verse 3)

That was what Jesus needed. He didn't get it from His disciples, but from His Heavenly Father.

I delight to do Thy will, O my God; Thy law is within my heart. (Psalm 40:8)

So, my friend, are we willing to suffer for standing up for Jesus?

Will we endure whatever so we glorify God and share the Gospel?

My husband and I have endured a lot of things because he preaches the Truth-a smashed in mailbox, hidden his Bible, broken in office, high hatted, a slapped hand, ugly words, a cold house, a jalopy car, family ignoring, children doing without, loneliness, illness, laughed at. The list could go on. Yet, all that was not a pin drop compared to what Jesus Christ endured to provide our salvation.

LET IT GO

Will you surrender to do God's will, no matter the cost?