A brief overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Mark 14:32-42 for Sunday, Nov. 12, 2023. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO: ??? Ask your group:  What is something that you KNOW is God’s will, but is hard for you to do???

(There could be all kinds of answers: tithe; witness; forgive someone when they’ve hurt you, etc. 

Then say something like: in today’s lesson we see that even Jesus struggled with God’s will, but a crucial time of prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane helped Him do it.

CONTEXT

Continuing our study in the Book of Mark, we come to Chapter 14. Jesus has just had the Last Supper with His disciples in :12-31. After the Supper, they came to the Garden of Gethsemane. This is a garden of Olive Trees on the Mount of Olives. 

I’d use a MAP of Jerusalem, including the Mount of Olives, to show about where Gethsemane was so they can picture it. 

OUTLINE

I. The Garden of Gethsemane (:32)

II. The Agonizing Prayer (:33-36)

III. The Failing Disciples (:37-42)

I. THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE (:32)

:32 “They came to a place called ‘Gethsemane’; and He said to His disciples, ‘Sit here until I have prayed.’”

A couple of things here:

— This was a very climactic moment. Jesus was now on His way to the cross. But the battle wasn’t won yet. This was a crucial time. So what was He going to do? PRAY! This battle would be won in prayer. 

This is a lesson that many of US need to learn too. Our battles are won in prayer.

Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is a famous book by a Chinese General who lived many years ago.

One of the most famous quotes in his book is:  “Every battle is won before it is ever fought.” 

There’s a lot of truth in that; it’s not just what happens on the actual battlefield, but the preparation that goes into it beforehand. So much is won or lost before the actual “battle” takes place.

And that is certainly true spiritually as well. Our spiritual battles are often won or lost beforehand, in prayer — or our lack of it!

Here in Gethsemane, Jesus knew how important prayer was, and in this crucial time, He would spend the night in prayer. One might have thought, Man, with all that is going on tomorrow, I need to rest up! But no, Jesus knew how important prayer was, that the battle would be won or lost there, so He spent the whole night in prayer.   It’s a good lesson for US to remember too!

Secondly, what He would face there would not be easy. And we get a hint of that from the name of the place itself: “Gethsemane”

In Hebrew is “Gat Shemanei”, literally, “olive press”. This is very meaningful, especially when you think about the process of making olive oil:

From the “Bible Walks .com” website:

“The olive oil production process was based on two major steps:

— The first step requires crushing the olives using a crushing stone, and collecting them into a basket.

— The second step is done on another installation: the basket is pressed with force, extracting the oil out of the crushed olives and collecting the juice into a storing vat.”

PICTURE:

the handle was pushed by an animal or human, and the stone rolled along a cavity, and crushed the olives. 

You get the idea: to get the oil, the olive has to be CRUSHED (Actually in this process, DOUBLE crushed!) 

This is so significant: here on Mount of Olives, Jesus has come to be CRUSHED, so that we might receive the blessed “oil” of His life. (Indeed, if you want to press the analogy even more, “oil” often represents the Holy Spirit. He had to be crushed, that we might receive the oil of the Spirit!)

We see this prophesied in Isaiah 53:10,  “But the LORD was pleased to CRUSH Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.” 

Jesus came to Gethsemane to be “crushed” in this grinding experience, so that He might win the battle on the cross for our salvation. But there was no oil, no victory, without the “crushing.”

That’s a good lesson for US too: often it is in “crushing” times in our own lives, that the “oil” of God is produced in us.

??? Can you share a difficult time God used for good in your life/ministry???

(# times in my life: 

— After seminary we experienced that “dark year” in which we felt “crushed” spiritually, almost abandoned by God, while we experienced want, and waited for a call to a church. Yet it was such a time of lasting spiritual growth. But we had to be “crushed” to get the oil!

— Same again in 2012, when I got sick, and eventually had to sell our home and leave the ministry. We grew so much in that time, but it was “crushing” in many ways. 

You/your group can share similar times like that in their lives.

So it was with Jesus here, and so it will be for us — AND our loved ones. We often pray for them NOT to have to go through hard times, but just like in our lives, it is often necessary for them to go through some “crushing”, for God’s purposes to be fulfilled in them! They have to be “crushed” to get the oil! So this should guide our prayers for our loved one too. And remember that the battle for those loved ones (as well as your own life/ministry) are won in prayer, like Jesus did at Gethsemane.

II. THE AGONIZING PRAYER (:33-36)

:33-34 “And He took with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled. (:34) And He said to them, ‘My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.’”

Here we see just how strong this spiritual battle was. Look at the words used here to describe how Jesus felt:

— “very distressed and troubled”

— “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death”

Did you catch that? Don’t miss these words. It was not just that the Jews or Romans were about to kill Jesus, His soul was “deeply grieved to the point of death” even BEFORE the physical death came upon Him! That is how powerful this spiritual battle was! Just the battle in His SOUL was about to kill Him! 

And make no mistake; this was NOT just about the impending physical death of the cross. Many men have faced arduous death with great bravery. It is not that Jesus was “so afraid” of the crucifixion itself. Rather it was the SPIRITUAL battle He was facing: the Perfect Son of God, who had always enjoyed perfect fellowship with the Father, and whom John 17 says shared glory with Him before the world was; who perfectly resisted every temptation; who had never even harbored an evil thought; totally pure — was about to have all the guilt of all the filthy sins of the whole world poured out on HIM, and the wrath of God would be poured out on Him for those sins. THAT spiritual battle is what caused Him to be “deeply grieved to the point of death.” It is rightly said, Jesus did not die of a Roman crucifixion; He died of a broken heart. He was grieved to the point of death. 

And of course, He did it for US. It was the price of our salvation. I Peter 2:24 says “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross.” 

So this was the agonizing scenario He faced, that He brought before the Father in prayer.  

:35 “And He went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by.”

??? What do you think is the significance that He “fell to the ground”?

— it indicates HUMILITY

— it indicates DESPERATION

+x the Syrophoenician Woman of Mark 7:25; it says she came and “fell at His feet.” It showed her humility, and it showed her desperation.

This ought to make some of us think: When is the last time I got down on my knees before the Lord, or fell to the ground before the Lord?  When was the last time I was that HUMBLE, or that DESPERATE?

If you have something in your life that is really worth it, you might consider humbling yourself before the Lord like that. James 4:6, 10 says: “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble … Humble yourself in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”

:36 “And He was saying, ‘Abba, Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.”

“Abba” is the Hebrew word for “Daddy.” Like “Papa,” or a familiar term like that. Very personal. 

??? Anyone share a special name like that you had/have for your dad???
(Then say: this was like that … a special, personal name.)

So Jesus had this special, personal relationship with the Father.

GOSPEL:  We all need to make sure that we have a personal relationship with God through Christ; that we can call Him “Father”!

Now the spiritual struggle expressed itself in prayer: Jesus asked the Father: “remove this cup from Me.” He did not WANT to endure what He was about to go through. He had spent all eternity in perfect fellowship with the Father; He didn’t want that to end for a moment; He had spent His whole life resisting every temptation; He didn’t want to be contaminated with sin. He asked the Father to “remove this cup” if possible. 

But there is a “big, little word” there: “YET.” “YET not what I will, but what You will.” It was like, Father, I don’t “want” to do this; but if it is Your will, if it must be done, I will.” 

This is another great model prayer by Jesus that we can imitate.

— He gave us the “Model Prayer” of Matthew 6, a great outline of the things God wants us to pray for daily

— A couple of weeks ago we saw the prayer of the man who told Him, “I believe, help my unbelief.” That’s a great model prayer for us when we are praying through doubts.

— And now here Jesus shows us how to pray through excruciating times in our lives: ask God to take it away, YET not what I will, but what YOU will.” That is a great model for us now.

Maybe you’re in a situation where you really don’t want to go through something — or maybe even for someone else to go through something — but perhaps you sense God may be using it, even if it’s hard. This is a great prayer to pray: Lord, take this away if possible; but if not, Thy will be done.

It’s always good to take refuge in God’s will. When you don’t know what else to pray, pray for His will. And truly be willing to do it, whatever it is.

Alexander Whyte was a preacher who lived in England in the late 1800s & early 1900s. He had been interceding for a friend who was ill “nigh unto death.” He said that God seemed to say to him, “If you are sincere in your prayers, will You agree to transfer to Your friend half of your remaining years?” Whyte said “I sprang to my feet in a torrent of sweat … It was a kind of Garden of Gethsemane to me. But, like Gethsemane, I got strength to say, Let it be as Thou hast said. Thy will be done.””  (Warren Wiersbe, Walking With The Giants, p. 283)

That would really be a “Gethsemane moment,” wouldn’t it? Are you willing to give him half of YOUR years? What do you do? Pray, “Thy will be done”!  Whatever YOU want, Lord. That’s a good prayer for us at all times. Be willing for God’s will to be done, whatever it is.

But Jesus is a great example to us here: we often need to surrender our will to God’s. That’s really THE basic struggle of life: we want to do what WE want, instead of what God wants. And it can be hard to reverse that — but that is what we MUST do if God is going to work in us. We have to be willing to give up our will, and submit to His.

This is why Jesus put that 3rd request in the Model Prayer for us to pray every day: “THY WILL be done.” In a sense, He is directing us to have what we might call a “daily Gethsemane,” where we daily commit to give up our will, and are willing to do His instead.  

That’s what Jesus did here in this agonizing prayer — and that is what we need to learn to do as well.

III. THE FAILING DISCIPLES  :37-42

:37 “And He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour?’”

??? Can anybody share a time when you fell asleep during something important???

(A test, a lecture, a service …

??? How many have ever fallen asleep during your prayer/Bible reading time???

(Who HASN’T??!!  Is why I started prayer walking, to keep from falling asleep!!)

That’s what the disciples did here. The Bible doesn’t show them as “stained glass saints” who never mess up. It shows them with all of their weaknesses — which is one of the marks of it authenticity! These are real people, and these things really happened. If you were trying to make yourself look good, you don’t share how you fell asleep 3 times in the most crucial moment in all history! But they did. This is real life. 

And we’ve all been there. We’ve all “fallen asleep,” literally or allegorically, at some point in our lives, just like they did. 

So after Jesus found them sleeping, He says to them in:

:38 “Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

??? What does He tell them to pray for: 

(“THAT you may not come into temptation”

This is a present imperative verb: you need to do it, and you need to keep doing it. I like the NASB translation: “Keep watching and praying.” Keep praying that you won’t come into temptation.

Here is another line, basically right out of the Model Prayer: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

One thing we learn from this, is that there are evidently sins we can avoid by praying in advance against them! 

This placement of this phrase in the Model Prayer is significant: He has just told us to pray “Forgive us our debts,” and now immediately after, He tells us to pray, “And lead us not INTO temptation, but deliver us from evil.” So it’s like, we just prayed for forgiveness, NOW pray not to be led back into those same sins again. Pray to AVOID them. It’s like the old expression, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
I believe if we would spend more time praying this 6th & last request of the Model Prayer, we wouldn’t need to spend as much time on the 5th request, asking forgiveness — because it would protect us from getting into sin the first place.  “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” “Pray that you may not come into temptation.” 

:39 tells us “Again He went away and prayed, saying the same words.” (About wanting the cup to pass, but God’s will be done)

:40 “And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to answer Him.”

:41 “And He came to them 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.

:42 ‘Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand.’”

??? Why do you think did they “not know what to answer Him” in :40???

— because they had no excuse

— this was now the 2nd time, and in the end He had admonished them THREE TIMES! It was a huge, inexcusable failure on their part. There was just no excuse for it.

??? Anybody ever fail something three times? A driving test, something else??? 

(British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote a great history of England. In it he wrote about British Admiral Sir John Jellicoe’s three lost opportunities to destroy the German fleet at Jutland (in World War I.  Churchill wrote: “Three times is a lot.” (Author William Manchester also commented:) That is equally true of (Churchill’s!) three lost elections.” (William Manchester, The Last Lion: Visions of Glory, p. 753)

“Three times is a lot”! That’s a pretty poignant saying. If someone’s give you three tries, at a job, or an assignment, or to get something corrected, or whatever — if they gave you three tries and you didn’t get it, “that’s a lot”!  You know the old saying, “Three strikes and you’re OUT!” And that’s true in a lot of things!

And THAT is exactly the position the 3 disciples found themselves in here: they fell asleep THREE TIMES after Jesus told them not to. So there was nothing they could say. 

This is the worst; when you don’t have any excuses; when you don’t have anything to say. You’d been given three tries; there weren’t any excuses left! “They did not know what to answer Him.” 

Need we say here, that this is a picture of us ALL before God?

How many times have WE — who have all the hindsight of the New Testament to warn and guide us — also failed Him? I think we can safely say “more than three”, right?!  

And this is just what Romans 3:19 tells us:  “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that EVERY MOUTH MAY BE CLOSED and all the world may become accountable to God.” 

“Every mouth may be closed” — this is the same picture of the disciples here. The Law, which has God’s basic commands for us in it, serves the purpose of “closing all our mouths” before God.

It just makes it clear to us that we have ALL failed God — and more than the 3 times the disciples here did! “Our mouths are closed” before God — we have no arguments, no excuses. We have to admit we are all “poor in spirit,” miserable sinners, whose only hope is the grace of God.  

But thank God He DOES have grace for us! Was this “the end” for the 3 disciples? Did Jesus say “Ok, I gave you three chances, that’s it!” NO! He forgave them, and they became the men who changed the world after Jesus rose from the dead. 

And thank God He has that kind of “more than 3 chances” forgiving grace for US too!  

It’s so ironic; what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane is exactly WHY Jesus came in the first place: because we had all failed. Even after training with Jesus for three years, they STILL failed Him. Showing that there truly was NO other way — just like He had prayed, if there was some other way, let this pass. But there was no other way. We couldn’t do it ourselves. Jesus had to go to the cross. And this was just the perfect example of WHY!

And we are totally missing it if we don’t see that WE are perfect examples of why He had to go to the cross too! Because we’ve all failed just like they did. That’s why Jesus came — and why He went to the cross from Gethsemane!  

_________________________________________________________

— If you’ll type your email in the “follow blog via email” blank, WordPress will automatically send you next week’s overview and you won’t have to search for it.

— And if you write something in the Comments below, I’ll be sure to pray for your and your group by name this week.

Per my licensing agreement with Lifeway:

– These weekly lessons are based on content from Explore the Bible Adult Resources. The presentation is my own and has not been reviewed by Lifeway.

– Lifeway resources are available at: goExploretheBible.com  and: goexplorethebible.com/adults-training

– If you have questions about Explore the Bible resources you may send emails to explorethebible@lifeway.com