Running To Win

Dave McAllister: Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Prayer is designed to draw us close to God, whether or not the answers we seek ever come. Nowhere is this more clearly seen than when Jesus agonized in prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. Today, how our Savior handled unanswered prayer. Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line.

Pastor Lutzer, I have been with you in this very garden and have seen you weep in prayer, remembering what Jesus went through for each of us.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Dave, I remember that so well. I remember telling all those who were on the tour, find a tree that you can sit under and tell Jesus why you love him. Sometimes I'm asked the question, what place in Israel do you love the most? Some people say the Sea of Galilee, and I can understand that. But for me, it's always Gethsemane.

Now, one of the most surprising things is this, that Jesus prayed there three times, remove this cup. What if God had answered that prayer? You and I would not be redeemed. I've written a book entitled Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayers? and at the end of this message, I'm going to be giving you some contact info as to how this resource can be yours. For now, let us listen carefully.

Thank you. Thank you. The Miller family has always been very welcoming to me and my lovely wife, Rebecca. We appreciate them. We appreciate the pastoral staff. What a marvelous opportunity, and I have to tell you this, that I know we don't look that old, but my lovely wife Rebecca and I, at the end of this month, will have been married for 56 years. And she told someone the other day that the first 50 were the most difficult. So be encouraged on your journey.

My topic today is God in the Garden. God in the Garden, Jesus and the Agony of Unanswered Prayer. Now, I have to tell you that there are many people who deconstruct from the Christian faith because of unanswered prayer. They say to themselves, if God didn't answer this prayer, I'm out of here.

I remember the words of a woman who prayed for a certain man. It was a young pastor, this was many years ago. She prayed that he would be healed. In fact, the whole church had all-night prayer meetings for his healing. And when he died, this woman said, I'm never going to bother God with another request again. Why should I? Because after all, I don't want to be hurt again.

And so we all wrestle with the issue of unanswered prayer, but Jesus as well wrestled with it. I want you to take your Bibles now and turn to the 14th chapter, the 14th chapter of the Gospel of Mark. Mark chapter 14. We're going to be reading it in a moment. Jesus left Jerusalem and then he went over to the garden of Gethsemane. Now you must recognize that the word Gethsemane means wine press, and it is there where Jesus was pressed and a sweet aroma went out to God the Father and to us as well.

As we open the text to the 14th chapter of Mark, I'm going to pick it up at verse 32. It says, and they went out to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, sit here while I pray. And he took with him Peter and James and John and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful even unto death. Remain here and watch.

And again, going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will. And he came and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch with me for an hour?

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. And then he goes back two other times and they have fallen asleep, and he prays the same prayer. We must understand, of course, that Jesus Christ was both God and man. He had a divine nature and a human nature. But in this text, we see the human nature with all of its clarity.

In this text, we see Jesus here was agonizing as a man. Look at his humanness. He says, I am distressed. I am troubled. I am sorrowful. He says my soul is so troubled even unto death. This is a death kind of sorrow that I am dealing with. And in the book of Matthew, we read that he fell on his face to the ground. On his face. He was in a sinkhole of despair and fear. Primarily, I believe, fear.

Not only that, but we can see his humanness because he said to the disciples, three of them especially, all 12 were there, but he said to the three, come and watch with me for an hour. Can't you watch with me? Jesus lived with them and he helped them, and now he wanted their help. Just like you and I need our help as well. We need help from others when we're going through the tunnel of depression and sorrow without an end. We need those who are around us uplifting us in prayer, but it wasn't to be.

Now, as we look at this text, and I want you to keep your Bibles open to it, we're going to ask and answer four questions. We'll give brief answers to these questions and then we'll ask this question, why should our prayer lives be changed forever because of this text and because of the experience of Jesus? What is there here for us? That's the agenda. Thank you so much for being with me on this journey.

Well, you know, as we come to Gethsemane, I almost feel as if we should take the shoes from off our feet because here you have God the Son praying to God the Father. But what are the questions? The first question I want to answer is this: after all, what was the cup? When Jesus said, take this cup from me, what was the cup?

Well, there are those who say, of course, being crucified. I mean, that is a terrible cup, and indeed it would be if I were to be crucified. If that were on my agenda, you know, it comes to mind, Samuel Johnson says, nothing focuses the mind like the knowledge that one is to be hanged in a fortnight. Nothing would focus your mind then than nails going through your wrists and your feet and the agony of crucifixion.

But, of course, the Romans crucified a lot of people. Terrible though this was, that was not the cup that Jesus was dealing with. As a matter of fact, we find in the Old Testament in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 51, it speaks about the cup of God's wrath. The cup of my anger, it says in Revelation chapter 14. I want us to visualize this. Here is Jesus absolutely pure and perfect. Pure and perfect. And there is no sin in him, but sin is going to be laid on him.

The wrath of God against sin is going to be put upon him. All right, now think about that. If you consider the fact that hell is eternal, what Jesus was doing is taking an eternity of hell, and it would be compressed into three hours as he writhed on the cross. The world became dark. He cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And we cannot understand the depth of what that meant to him. The fact that purity coming in touch with impurity.

No sin in him, but sin laid on him. He became sin for us. And that was the cup that he feared. If I might use somewhat of a homely illustration. A number of years ago, Rebecca and I were eating lunch with some friends in their home and there was a little dog running around whose name was Annie. Annie was lame. She had been lame, and they told us they spent $7,000 for surgery so that Annie could walk and run.

Now, whether or not you should spend that much on a dog, that's a separate issue. But here's the point. As little Annie scamperered around, she had no idea of how much was paid that she might be able to walk. All that Annie knows is I was lame and now I can walk. And all that you and I know is that we were blind, but now we see. We were overloaded with guilt, but now we have been forgiven. But we cannot understand the depths that was paid, but we do the best we can, that we might wonder and enter into the wonders of the cross of Jesus Christ, which Jesus was anticipating here in Gethsemane.

Now, there's a second question that immediately comes up, and that is this: who gave Jesus this cup? Later on, Jesus clarifies in the 18th chapter of John who gave it to him. But Jesus didn't say, the cup that Judas has given me, shall I not drink it? The cup that the Sanhedrin gave me, shall I not drink it? The cup that Herod gave me, shall I not drink it? The cup that Pilate gave me, shall I not drink it?

No. In a clarification statement when Peter was trying to defend Jesus with the sword, Jesus said, put up your sword. The cup which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it? My Father. Jesus looked past all of the instruments that God used. Jesus looked past all the evil that had been directed against him and says, despite all this, this is the cup that my Father has handed me. Shall I not drink it?

Jonathan Edwards, the great theologian, says that Jesus looked into the furnace of God's wrath and he knew that he would very soon be cast into that terrible, terrible, unimaginable furnace. Now, of course, we should remember that God loved the world. It's not as if God is the angry one. This was the plan of redemption planned before creation. And so Jesus says, I receive this cup, Father. You have given me this cup and I receive it.

There's a third question, and that is this: what was the request? Well, obviously, the request was three times, remove this cup. Father, all things are possible to you. Remove this cup. So Jesus makes the request. Isn't there some other way? Maybe the blood of a human being. Maybe the blood of animals. Maybe, God, Father, why don't you just let bygones be bygones? Get me out of this predicament. You can do everything, Lord.

And, of course, we know that there was no other way. Your students, your university students that you send to university, if they take a class in religion, will be taught things like this. They will be taught that all religions have a sacrifice. Virtually all religions demand some blood. Yeah, but only in Christianity does God become the sacrifice. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.

God demanded a tremendous payment for our sin, and then God supplied what he demanded. And because of the Trinity, he's the only God who can do that and says, I demand absolute perfection for you to go to heaven, and I will supply the perfection and the forgiveness that you need. And so we find in scripture that the request was, remove this cup.

Now, the fourth question is, what was the response? Jesus is kneeling there and saying, Father, if it is possible, let there be some other way, Lord. But, nevertheless, it's not up to me. It is thy will, O God, I will drink the cup. I'll drink the cup. I wish there were a different way, but there isn't. I'll drink the cup.

Oh Christ, what burdens bowed thy head. Our load was laid on thee. Thou stoodest in the sinner's stead, didst bear all ill for me. Death and the curse were in our cup. Oh Christ, was full for thee. But thou hast drained the last dark drop. Tis empty now for me.

Wow. I want to ask now some questions. Some questions. What does this have to do with our prayer life? What should this change about us? Why should we look at prayer differently? How should we handle circumstances? And so I'm going to give you lessons, and these are going to be in the order that I have here in my notes.

First of all, simply this: that today's prayerless, sleeping Christians become tomorrow's backsliders. Can you imagine that? Peter, James, and John were on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus. They were there when he preached the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus is saying, look, you've always needed me, but I'd really like to have your support in this hour of need. And what are they doing? They are sleeping. They are sleeping.

Jesus said, watch and pray. This, of course, is in verse 38. Watch. What are you watching for? You're watching for the enemy. That's what you're watching for. Because if we do not watch for the enemy, we will walk into Satan's territory and feel comfortable about it and won't even know about it. Because Satan has a wonderful act of comfort for us that makes us avoiding watching and praying.

And in our homes today, oftentimes parents are not watching. They're not watching what their kids are watching. They have no idea how satanic influences are influencing the home, and they go along with the culture whether or not it has to do with the media or other ways in our school system. Jesus said, watch and pray.

Now, many people use prayer like, you know, the oxygen masks on an airplane. You're glad that they're there. But as long as the flight is smooth, life is going reasonably well, everybody seems to be healthy, it's not needed. But oh, when tragedy comes. Oh God, now please help. God, here's my list of requests now, and some Christians never get beyond the requests to God himself.

When they have given all of their requests to God, their prayer is over. Thank you very much. So they say, well, how can I watch and pray? I mean, watching and praying for an hour? What in the world would I say? They've never entered into the mystery, the beauty, and the satisfaction of worshipping God and to know that the real purpose of prayer, ultimately, is to get us beyond our requests, although it's perfectly fine and scriptural to ask those requests.

But the real issue of prayer is to get us to the Father. The enjoyment of God. Fellowship with the Father. But we are so distracted in this world. I wouldn't doubt but that some of you are on your cell phones now, not because you have the passage of scripture before you, but you're just waiting for some tweet, some message, because you can multitask. And we're living in a world, and I find this in my own life, so distracted we can't even concentrate on God and honor him in our worship and our devotion.

And so what happens to these disciples? Big surprise. Peter, Jesus speaks directly to him. A few verses before the passage I just read, Peter says, Oh, you know, Jesus said all of you are going to leave me. Oh, no. Though all men forsake you, I will never forsake you. You can count on me. Later on, he denies Jesus three times, and by the time you get into verse 50 in this chapter, all the disciples have left him and fled. Prayerless, watchless disciples become backsliders who have no witness for Christ. They never think of talking to their neighbor or anyone else. They don't want to be identified with Jesus. What a lesson, because Christians today are sleeping through a tremendous revolution, and they are fast asleep, comfortable sleeping.

I don't know about you, my friend, but I am rebuked by those words because so often we become comfortable within our particular circle. We never get out of that circle to witness for Jesus Christ outside of that circle, and like the disciples, we fall asleep. I can't tell you how deeply this message touched my own heart when I began to think of the fact that Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, was the one who was willing to submit to God, praying three times, remove this cup. God doesn't do it, thankfully God doesn't do it, and yet Jesus bows and says, thy will be done. May he be our example.

That's actually why I've written a brand new book entitled Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayers? The subtitle is A Biblical Guide to God's Hidden Purposes. What you and I need to do is to recognize that oftentimes God has hidden purposes, and we may not know what those purposes are. But it's so important to recognize the fact that God may be doing more through unanswered prayer than he does through answered prayer.

I believe that this resource will be a tremendous blessing to you. I want to give you some contact info as to how it can be yours. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com, or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. Once again, go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Let me close in prayer.

Father, I ask that you might birth within us a desire to seek you. May we not deny you, but consider it a privilege to be able to represent you, no matter how much hostility there may be as a result of that. And yet may we carry the cross of Christ as a badge of honor. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Dave McAllister: You can write to us at Running To Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Erwin Lutzer with part one of Jesus and the Agony of Unanswered Prayer, another message in a series on the Triumph of Unanswered Prayer. Next time on Running to Win, more on the cup Jesus accepted, which made our salvation possible. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running To Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.