In 'Jesus Priestly Work in the Garden,' Peter Allison discusses the profound spiritual and emotional suffering Jesus experienced in the Garden of Gethsemane, as depicted in Luke 22. Unlike the common focus on the physical suffering Jesus endured on the cross, the sermon emphasizes the intense agony Jesus faced in anticipation of bearing the unmitigated wrath of God for humanity's sins. This suffering was unique to Jesus as the sinless God-man and high priest, who took on the legal liability for humanity's sins without becoming a sinner himself. The sermon explores how Jesus' agony was not just physical but deeply spiritual, involving a temporary separation from the intimate fellowship with God the Father. Despite this, Jesus' faith remained unshaken, and His experience highlights the importance of prayer in resisting temptation. Through His sacrifice, believers are reminded of the eternal weight of glory that follows the temporal suffering of this life.

Please turn in your scriptures to Luke chapter 22. I can begin reading at verse 39. Coming out, he went to the Mount of Olives as he was accustomed, and his disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw.

And he knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if it is your will, take this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done Then an angel appeared to him from heaven strengthening him and being in agony He prayed more earnestly Then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground and when he rose up from prayer and had come to his disciples he found them sleeping from sorrow and he said to them why do you sleep rise and pray lest you enter into temptation. Let us lift up our hands to His commandments which we love and meditate upon His statutes. Almighty Heavenly Father as we continue to worship this morning as we look to Your Word we ask that You might speak to us through it. That we might hear what Your Spirit says to Your church.

And pray that You might sanctify my sinful lips to proclaim these holy words. In Jesus' name, Amen. In Jesus' name, Amen. When we think of the death of Christ, We often, and we think of his suffering in that death, we often think first and probably foremost of his physical suffering. The suffering that he endured in his flesh, in the popular depictions of Christ's death.

The movies like The Passion of Christ, and I haven't seen that movie and I'm not recommending it in any way. But that's an example I understand of focusing upon the physical pain that Christ endured on the cross. For crucifixion was a horrific way to die, a horrifically slow and painful way to die. Not just in terms of the intensity of pain, but in terms of the emotional aspects of it as well. That of being able to, of suffocating, of being unable to breathe.

And there are many sermons, I'm sure you've heard too, that elaborate on the medical implications of death by crucifixion. They're horrifying. And yet, That is not the primary component of Christ's suffering as our mediator, as our great high priest, in offering himself a sacrifice to satisfy the wrath and the justice of God. But His suffering, the greater part of His suffering, we begin to see in this account of His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. After they were finished in the upper room, there was a lengthy discussion.

You remember all of John chapter 13 and 14 and 15 and 16 and 17 are all dealing with that discussion in the upper room. Jesus' great high priestly prayer there in John. This has all happened in the upper room. Luke doesn't give us that nearly as lengthy an account. He mentions a number of things, some of which aren't in any other Gospel.

But this was a lengthy time of instruction as they reclined at this table as the Apostle that Jesus loved is even reclining upon Jesus' breast. So this is an intimate time of Jesus teaching his disciples of he's talking about his death well when they had finished in That upper room Jesus went out to the Mount of Olives as it was his custom as he was a custom the text says He had been this is what he'd been doing every night this week. He had been publicly preaching and teaching in the temple. And then in the all day and in the evening, they had had this meal in this room, this upper room that was prepared and somewhere there in Jerusalem. And when that meal was concluded and their discussions, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

He had been going out each night, staying at night in the Mount of Olives and returning to Jerusalem in the day. So as it was his custom, he went out. And when he came to that place, he said to them, pray that you enter not into temptation. He counsels His disciples. Here He is about to enter into this time of great suffering where He would bear the wrath of God.

And nevertheless, He is still mindful of His disciples. And He's concerned for their souls. And He's reminding them to pray that they may not enter into temptation. But then He separates Himself from the first eight. And now, Luke doesn't give us again all the details, but we have from the other Gospels we can put together these four accounts, or all these accounts I should say, of this prayer.

And we know that he separated himself from his eight disciples and took Peter James and John with him and went a little bit farther. And. And then he left them there and went a stone's throw from them, leaving farther away. Where he then began to pray. So that he was a stone's throw away.

He wasn't out of their sight, but he was there where they could See they were witnesses to the fact that he was praying but may not have been able to hear probably not able to hear What he was praying? And so Jesus separates himself that allows a greater familiarity that might not be proper or appropriate in front of others. It might be considered ostentatious. So he goes away by himself. But his disciples are still witnesses to this part of His ministry, His high priestly ministry.

They see what He is doing. They see the intensity of this time. They see the duration. He comes back in Matthew and says, what could you not watch with me one hour? One of these times.

So this is not a short time of prayer. This period in the garden is at least an hour, and since there were three of these times, it could be as long as three hours, but certainly at least an hour that Jesus is spending here in prayer. And He kneels to pray. In another passage, it speaks about him falling upon his face because posture is something that's important. I hope that we will be able to kneel.

It's been my desire that we as a congregation would be able to kneel in prayer and Lord willing we'll be able to do that or have that ability option at some point. But Jesus is kneeling in prayer and falling upon his face in calling out to the Father and he is in agony. To the Father and and he is in agony. He's in agony. See, this is the beginning.

Of his suffering. As our high priest, as he offers himself as a sacrifice to satisfy the wrath of God for our sin. His agony is so great that he needs an angel to minister to him. Now that's an aspect of his humiliation that he, the creator of heaven and earth, the sovereign, should in His flesh, in the agony that He is suffering in His soul, as He begins to bear this wrath of God, that He should need an angel to come and minister to Him. And Luke says something that none of the other gospels record.

He says that his sweat became like drops of blood, Became like drops of blood falling to the ground. So great was the agony of his soul that the capillaries in his skin were bursting and the sweat is falling as it were drops of blood. Now, why is Jesus in such great agony and just anticipating His death? Jesus' suffering here is unique. It's unique in several ways.

It's unique to his office as our high priest and to his bearing our sin. Before before the wrath of God. Jesus had a unique mission, unlike the mission of any other men. Many other men, believers and even unbelievers, have faced death without great trembling. Those who were gladiators could stand there and say those about to die salute you.

Believers certainly have faced death with great calm and peace. But see, Jesus had a unique mission. He came to suffer the unmitigated wrath of God. You know, Anytime God expresses His wrath here in time, here on the earth, it's mitigated. It's not His full wrath.

But Jesus is preparing to suffer God's unmitigated wrath for all the sins of his people. And as so as God, he understands what that wrath of God is. Our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews tells us, for we know Him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord, and again the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing, Hebrews tells us, to fall into the hands of the living God, for our God is a consuming fire.

Jesus understood this. He was God. You know, we have no understanding and nothing by which we compare to this, to understand this unmitigated wrath of God. But Jesus knew what he would endure. As.

One writer said one would need to have been in hell for some time in order to understand what it was that was tearing Jesus apart in the garden. Jesus has a unique mission, but he also is a unique human unlike any other. Yes, he had a human nature just like we do and in many ways was similar, but as a As as the God man, he's a unique human. He was sinless. He was without sin.

Who likes to be confronted with their sin? Who likes to be reminded about the things that we have been done wrong? It's discomforting. It's humbling. It's painful to our flesh to be confronted with the things that we've done wrong.

And we're sinners. In a sense, we're used to that. It happens a lot. One study found that people wrongly accused of serious crimes experienced permanent changes to their personality such as becoming paranoid and anxious or hypervigilant or antagonistic or less confident. And most met the psychological criteria for enduring personality changes following catastrophic experiences.

And many of their family members described them as those who had been falsely accused as being like a different person. That's for sinners. How much more severe for one who knew no sin, who wasn't a sinner, to be falsely charged? Christ is a unique human. He's the only sinless man.

He hated sin. The mere identification with sin as the only sinless man would be a horror to him. Infinitely worse than for any sinner to be confronted with their own sin or to be falsely accused of sin. But there's another way, a third way that Jesus' death was entirely different than the death of believers in that is that as believers, we only experience the first death. Jesus suffered the first and the second death.

See, Christ's death was different. We know as believers that no one can kill our soul. Jesus said, don't fear men because they can only destroy the body, but fear God who can destroy body and soul in hell. And Jesus knows that he will experience the first and second death. The first death is that separation of the body and the soul.

And that's what we would call sometimes physical death. It's what we first think of when we think of death, the separation of our body and soul. So our body becomes inanimate, lifeless. Turns back into ashes. But this is actually the least calamitous part of an aspect of sin.

It's the second death. The separation and alienation of the soul from fellowship with God. And the cutting off Of any of the common graces that accompany this life that is far more horrific than the mirror separation of our body and soul as painful as that might be. The second death. The complete cutting off.

An alienation of all fellowship with God, the complete removal of any of the common graces we believers and unbelievers alike experience many common graces of God in our in our life. You see, Jesus was in agony in his soul. That's what Luke said in there in verse 44. Jesus. John records that Jesus' soul was troubled.

That word means to cause inward toil, to stir up, to disturb, to unsettle, to throw into confusion. Jesus' soul was unsettled. It was disturbed. It was troubled. Matthew records that Jesus began to be sorrowful and deeply distressing.

My soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death. That's to be very heavy, to be in anxiety, to be troubled. Mark says that he was troubled, which means to be moved into a into an intense emotional state because of something causing great surprise. Jesus was in agony in his soul. But see, our salvation requires him To suffer in his soul.

We have sinned. Body and soul. We are sinners. Body and soul. And Christ is our surety, had to suffer in body and soul for our redemption.

The penalty pronounced against sinners is not just physical. In fact, it's not primarily physical. Yes, there is a physical component. So We all experience that every day as our flesh decays as we die. And ultimately when our bodies are separated from our soul.

But that's not the primary component of the effect of sin. Christ who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might have the righteousness of Christ. That doesn't mean Christ became a sinner. It meant he took the legal liability for our sin so that we could have legally imputed to us his righteousness. He took the legal liability for it.

He didn't become a sinner, But he assumed the responsibility, the legal responsibility for payment of that debt. When Jesus cried out in agony on the cross, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? It wasn't because of the pain and humiliation of his body as it hung on the cross, but it was the death of his soul being forsaken by God. And when Jesus was forsaken by God, that didn't mean that God ignored him. It means that the Father with whom he'd had eternal intimate fellowship was now pouring out his wrath upon him and had cut off that fellowship, had removed that intimacy.

Now that separation this cutting off wasn't permanent it wasn't eternal it wasn't absolute but God suspended this favorable presence of grace of consolation of fellowship and of comfort as Jesus experienced the wrath of God. See, someone ten says the Lord is at your right hand, Jehovah. And John 16 says, Indeed, the hour is coming. Yes, is now come that you will be scattered each to his own and will leave me alone. And yet I am not alone because the father is with me.

So even in this, it was Jesus still. Jesus wasn't in any way expressing a loss of hope or a loss of faith. Or but rather he cries out on the cross, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Into your hands, I commit my spirit. So Jesus' faith never failed him, but God did forsake him for that time.

He was made a curse for us. Paul told the Galatians Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. So it was this agony, as he prepared to face this trial, that his soul is in great agony and he begins to sweat, so great that he begins to sweat these drops of blood. See, no martyr ever faced this separation from God Others only confront our own sins in our death But Jesus vicariously suffered the consequences of all the sins of all his people. We endure the pains of death a short while in the light or in the hope of eternal glory.

See, we can find comfort in our death in the knowledge that in life and in death we belong to our faithful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And we can take comfort in our suffering. We can remember the temporal aspect of our suffering followed by an eternal aspect of glory. Therefore, do not lose heart, Paul told the Corinthians. Even though the outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day for our light affliction, our light affliction, which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

See, we spend, we die, we face death knowing we must suffer a little while and then spend eternity in glory. So Paul could say, for I consider the sufferings of this present time not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us. But not so with Christ. He did suffer in time, yes, but in that time, he bore the eternal wrath of God. He bore eternal death.

And an infinite weight of misery. See the contrast here is between the eternal death and an infinite weight of misery packed into three days. What an unbeliever experiences throughout all eternity, Jesus experienced on the cross and in the grave compressed into three days. Because that's the penalty of our sin. That's what we would have faced apart from Christ's sacrifice for us.

See, in suffering and death, we belong to Jesus. We can cast our anchor in Him. In Christ's death, God forsook Him. And this descent here into his sorrow and his agony as the beginning of his suffering in his soul as our Savior, as our High Priest, who gives his life in place for us. Jesus said to His disciples when He came back again, why do you sleep?

Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The danger here of the disciples is to enter into a temptation is to be overcome by it. To be overwhelmed and to fall into it. He's saying that the remedy is to pray. This is what Jesus does.

This is an temptation for Jesus, right? That he is going to face the mocking and the of the people to save himself, to prove that he's God, to come down from the cross, which he could have done, but he didn't. For our sake, because he loved us. Yet Jesus needed to pray. Even Jesus prayed.

That was his strength to pray. How much more, how much more do we not need to pray lest we enter into temptation? Lest we enter into temptation. And to remember when we have sinned. Christ's sacrifice for our sin.

And the forgiveness that He gives to us in Christ. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You that You are our High Priest and that you have offered yourself as a sacrifice for us, and that you have suffered in your soul on the cross all of the agonies and pains of hell, of the wrath of God, for all eternity. Lord, may we be diligent to pray that we might not enter And we pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.