This Is Jesus

Holy week — it's my favorite time of year. It's a time to celebrate and rejoice, but before we get to that day, there was a time of sadness and that's what I want to talk about today — Jesus' journey through the Garden of Gethsemane. 

Just before Jesus went to the cross, He gathered up His disciples. There were 11 present with Him at that time, and He asked eight of them to wait outside the garden and took the other three, Peter, James and John, with Him into the garden. He said, “Will you watch and pray with Me? Because My soul is distressed and grieving, even to the point of death.” This was Jesus. This was the Man that was calm in the middle of the storm. This was the Man that had no worries when they said, “We’ve got 5,000 folks here that are hungry,” and He replied, “No worries. We've got a couple of fish and some bread.” 

This was Jesus, and He was grieved and distressed to the point of sweating great drops of blood. 

This is Jesus, who came to give His life for us. 

This is the Jesus who knew that in three days He would be resurrected. He wanted His friends to watch and pray with Him, for their own well-being, but also I think He wanted support. 

So there are two things I would like us to think about today. One is, how can we be a friend to someone who's really, really grieving? Jesus didn't say, “Fix it.” He just said, “Would you watch and pray with Me?” 

Secondly, Jesus went to Father. He went to Father and said, “I know I came for this. Everything's possible with You, but is there any other way? Is there any other way for Us to accomplish this salvation redemption thing without this cross?” Scripture tells us He went and prayed three times. He went back to His friends and went back to God three times. Scripture doesn't record God saying anything back to Jesus, but at some point, Jesus stood up and said, 

“It's not my will but Yours, God.” 

He stood up and said to His disciples, “Let's go. The hour has come.” What we see in that is even Jesus knew this was going to happen. He knew God was going to raise Him from the dead. This was a grievous, horrific thing to go through, but Jesus accepted it. We see Him in the garden accepting the reality of His purpose and coming to redeem mankind.

He accepted the fact that He was going to go through a very, very painful time on the cross for us. Sometimes in our lives, we feel like, “Oh my goodness, Lord, I can't go through this. I just can't. I just can't. Is there another way? Is there another way?” And God may say, “No, there's not, but know that I will be with you through every bit of it and there will be a victory when we get through this.” I encourage you to not skip over the Gethsemane part. 

Go with Father into that Garden of Gethsemane and let Him minister to you there. 

And then you can celebrate the victory together because after all, resurrection and life are coming.

If you have questions about today’s message, are tangled up in the circumstances of life, or just need to talk, please reach out to the Life Untangled team here: www.lifeuntangled.com/contact-us. You are not alone!

The Big Lie

I want to talk about a lie that's been foisted on us for centuries - “foisted” is an old word, and it means that a lie has been sold to mankind, to you and me, and it has dominated how we live. 

It's the lie that says, “I'm not okay, but if I really work hard, I can become okay.” Or maybe it's a variation of it, “I'm not okay. And if I hide from that, I can at least avoid people realizing that I'm not okay.” 

This lie started way back in the Garden of Eden when Satan said to Eve, “You know, you're not quite like God enough, so if you just eat from this tree, you can become more like God.” And both Adam and Eve bought into it, and so they sinned.

This lie has gone on down through the centuries, and the Old Covenant was God's effort to show mankind, “You can't measure up by your own effort.” But we still try, and we try, and we try, thinking if we just work hard enough we will be okay. Maybe it's in a dating relationship, where if we could just do enough, this person will like us. Maybe girls are thinking, “This guy will like me if I have sex with him because I'm not okay just as myself.” And oftentimes the guys are thinking, “I don't really feel adequate. But if I can conquer this woman, then I can prove that I'm adequate, and that I'm manly enough.” This same lie, that we don’t measure up, goes on at work and in relationships and families.

We believe that we are not okay, but that we can do something about it. The Pharisees struggled with this. When we read the gospels, we see that the Pharisees thought if they measured up to the performance of the law, then they would be okay. Consider the Pharisee who prayed, “Lord, I thank you that I am not like the sinner over there.” He bought into the lie and believed that, “I'm not okay, but I can do something to make myself okay.” 

The truth is, if you don't know Christ as your Savior, you are not okay. 

I hate to tell you that, but you're not okay. Because it's only by receiving the work of Christ on the Cross that makes you okay. That's what gives you His righteousness and His acceptance - it's not based on your work. And the big lie says, “I'm not okay, but I can do something to be okay.” Or maybe for you, it's, “I am okay. Look at all that I have accomplished.” But this is still the same lie; you are still trying to make yourself okay by your own performance. 

Thankfully, God provides us with a whole different solution. It's in Christ that we become okay, so that we can begin to rest. Jesus said, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:29-30 (NASB) 

When we experience the sense of Jesus making us acceptable, then truly the yoke is easy and the burden is light.