The Obedient Son

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0:00The Lord is gracious and merciful, a new creation. His love is steadfast. It never fails. It's new every morning. It's good to be with you this morning. This is week three of a seven-week miniseries on the passion narrative of Jesus, the events that lead up to the cross. We're seeing the whole ordeal unfold before our eyes. It's getting a little darker with each passage that we turn to. And yet this series is titled No Greater Love because each one of these little episodes that happens teaches us something about Jesus, something that, honestly, I want you to hold on to.

0:49The first week we saw that Jesus is a faithful friend, that he will never leave us or forsake us. He perseveres in friendship the way that we do not, the way that we need. Week two was about his servant leadership. He is the leader but also the servant. He shows us how to marry those two things up, service and leadership. And today we see Jesus obeying his father, the obedience of the son. Now, when my parents talk about my teenage years, we oftentimes have different perspectives about that time.

1:26When my mom tells me, oh, you are always getting in trouble, I'm quick to remind her, it wasn't big trouble, mom. I mean, but I have to admit I was often disobedient, often. I was compliant with rules if I thought that they were reasonable, but it's just that I, many times I just didn't think that they were very reasonable. Is that really my fault? Answer, yes, it is. When I got a car, it came with a bunch of rules about how much I could drive. One of those rules was a mileage limit.

2:10Each month there was a mileage limit. When it reached that limit, the car sat in the driveway. Didn't matter what I wanted to do, didn't matter if I had to go to school, didn't matter anything. The car sat in the driveway until the month ended and the next month started. Oh, how I hated that rule. I hated it. I thought it was so ridiculous. They were trying to keep me safe. Fewer miles driven by a 16-year-old means fewer opportunities for an accident.

2:44They were putting a limit on there, right? But I thought I knew better than them. They kept track of the miles using the trip odometer. You know how there's a master odometer in the trip odometer? I remember sitting in the driver's seat sometimes, kind of hunched over the wheel, staring at the trip odometer, and just like, man, the number's about to be reached for the month. I can't believe it. This is so frustrating. Wishing, wishing that it was lower.

3:16But if I pushed the button, this was back when it was all manual. If I pushed the button and reset it, they would know that I had reset it. So that wouldn't be good. And then I learned that if I pushed it just a little, it would reset some of the numbers, but not all of them. So it didn't really look like I had reset it.

3:46So I got a few extra miles each month. Suspicious, but I got away with it for a couple months until they started recording each month the mileage on the master odometer, which I couldn't reset. I didn't think about that.

4:09And then I was busted. My parents had good in mind when they made that rule, but I rebelled. I was like, no, I really think I know better. All of my effort went into trying to find a way around that rule. That's me so often in my life, and that's so many of us in our lives. We are determined to disobey God. Now, the Son of God, on the other hand, is determined to obey his Father.

4:48And that's everything we're going to see today. He is determined to obey his Father, no matter what it costs him. For your sake and for my sake. That is good news for us, the obedience of the Son to the Father. Father, let's turn to Luke 22, to God's Holy Word. Let's have him impact us today. Let's have him work on our hearts, change us, make us more like him. Show us who he is and how much we need him.

5:27This is Luke 22, starting in verse 35, going through verse 46. It's in the bulletin. It's on the screen behind me. This is God's Word. It's completely free of error, and you can rely on it. Let's receive it as God speaking to us today. And he said to them, when I sent you out with no money bag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything? They said, nothing. He said to them, but now let the one who has a money bag take it, and likewise a knapsack.

6:04And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. For I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me. And he was numbered with the transgressors. For what is written about me has its fulfillment. And they said, look, Lord, here are two swords. And he said to them, it is enough. And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives. And the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, pray, that you may not enter into temptation.

6:41And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if you are willing, give this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. There appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. And his sweat became like great drops of blood, falling down to the ground. And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow.

7:21And he said to them, why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation. Pray with me. Lord Jesus, manifest your glory to us right now. So that we see you as being the wonderful savior that we needed, the obedient son who obeyed his father for the sake of others. Change us, Lord. Most of all, change us into worshipers who worship you in spirit and truth and who want to give our entire lives over to you. Or do this work among us for your glory.

8:16In Jesus' name we pray. Okay, so Jesus is the obedient son. Because Jesus persevered in his father's will, we can live with assurance. Because he persevered in his father's will, we can live with assurance. So the Last Supper is wrapping up. The Last Supper is where we've been for the past couple weeks. But it's wrapping up now. Jesus has covered a lot. He has changed Passover into the Lord's Supper, a new sacrament that we practice. He's taught about servant leadership.

8:54And he has showed servant leadership by washing their feet. He's predicted betrayal and denial. And now he tells them about the very near future of their lives. What's going to happen next? And he says this, Friends, it gets worse before it gets better. The passage starts off really strangely. It's like, is Jesus giving them a packing list? Let the one who has a money bag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.

9:27What is happening? Are they going on safari? Now, this is not a packing list. It's a wake-up call. That's what's happening. Things are changing, he says. So get ready. The money bag, the knapsack, the sword, these are all metaphors. Jesus is saying, hard times are coming, and you need to seek protection and provision. Now, you might hear me say that and say, Well, Pastor, isn't God our provider and our protector? And I would say, yes, of course he is.

10:07But in this situation, think about who he's talking to. Up till now, these disciples have been receiving everything that they need from Jesus directly. They were with him. They got fed because they were with him. Sometimes by miracles. Sometimes because they were going into towns and people were receiving them. They've had food and they've had hospitality. Even when they were sent out on mission away from him, they were received into people's homes.

10:37That's why Jesus says, when I sent you out, did you lack anything? And they say, nothing. So far, their whole time of following Jesus has been under his direct care.

10:49In a time when most people were in kind of like a wait-and-see time about Jesus. They were waiting. Is this guy for real? We'll listen to him a little bit. But, yeah, sure, you can come into our homes. But all of that is about to change.

11:07Hostility is going to be replacing hospitality for people who are friendly to Jesus. Hostility replaces hospitality. Hostility is ramping up quickly, and it's just about to burst into the open. In mere hours, he's going to be arrested.

11:27In the coming days, he will die. And then 40 days after that, the resurrected Jesus will ascend back to the Father and will not be on earth anymore physically. Things are never going to be the same as they have been for these disciples for the past three years. They were changing. He's going to be physically absent from them, and the surrounding world is not going to be neutral or curious about him. It's going to be against him and against them. There's going to be resistance and hostility and persecution towards him and towards those who follow him.

12:06It's coming. And he's saying to them, it's coming. You've got to get ready. You've got to be ready. Seek protection. Seek provision. You can't count on me being right there beside you physically. You've got to seek it from God. Hardship calls for preparedness. Hurricane tracking. Winter storm forecasts. Tornado warnings. They're all given not so that you'd be like, hmm, that's interesting. I wonder what else is on. They're given to you so that you'll get ready.

12:44So that you'll get prepared. Jesus is giving here the spiritual version of the Weather Channel storm tracker. Saying, look, it's coming right down your path. You've got to get ready.

12:59Opposition and suffering are in the forecast. This was an important wake-up call about their future, about following him. And it's an important wake-up call for us because we're living in that same time. Jesus is with us, but not physically, the way that he was for these three years with the disciples. We've got to wake up.

13:24But people don't like to hear things like this. Whether it's from a doctor or a counselor or a physical therapist, a pastor or a friend, or the Lord Jesus himself, no one wants to hear it's going to get worse before it gets better. We all shut our ears to that. We don't want to hear it.

13:45Now, this passage shows us three responses to that message. Three responses to hardship. The first is overconfidence. When Jesus mentions knapsacks, money bags, and swords, they scramble around. They start looking in the closet. And they say, look, Lord, here are two swords. He's using a metaphor to teach them that they take inventory of literal swords. Now, listen, if he were talking about, when he said, go and sell your stuff and buy a sword, if he were talking about literally swords, then he would have responded to these two swords and said, they are enough, right?

14:25Because there were two swords. But the Greek is singular, not plural. It is enough is the right way to translate that. Not they are enough. It is enough. Another way to translate this is enough. Now, hear that coming from a parent. And now you begin to get a sense of the meaning of the passage. He's like, you've clearly misunderstood me. I'm just going to put this conversation to rest for right now. Another way we know Jesus is not speaking literally about two swords is that two swords are nowhere near enough to face the armed soldiers that are coming for him in just a few hours.

15:07They're not enough for the mobs and the Roman authorities they're going to face later. So it doesn't make any sense for him to be talking about two swords being enough. And finally, Jesus never, ever taught violence as part of the mission of the kingdom. You read the whole book of Acts. You see a lot of persecution. You don't see ever a point where the church is arming itself.

15:37Either Jesus didn't mean literal swords or the whole church was disobeying him the whole time we read the book of Acts. I think the more likely explanation is the former. He was using a metaphor to teach them. And in fact, the very next passage, Jesus condemns the use of one of the two swords that they found. They use it. He says, no, don't do that. So he was using a metaphor, right, to teach them. But their response reveals how small they think the challenges are.

16:10And how big they think their own resources are. How big they see their own ability. They have the same swagger many of us have when a big challenge comes along. I got this. I got this. We quickly say that without sizing things up. Without thinking things through. Without asking for help. We're overconfident.

16:43I remember vividly some of the stupid, arrogant, embarrassing things I said about parenting before I was a parent. Things like, you know, I think I'm going to be good at disciplining my kids. What a stupid thing to say. Unlike my parents, I'm always going to patiently explain the reason for a decision. I'm never going to respond to the question why with just because.

17:17Listen, overconfidence is the affliction of those who lack humility. Overconfidence is the affliction of those who lack humility. It's also a sign of deep insecurity. I can't admit that I feel intimidated by this. That I feel overwhelmed. That I'm not up to the task. The other response from the disciples comes at the end. And that's detachment. While Jesus is going through his private agony in the garden, they are sleeping. His closest friends. His allies.

18:02His confidants. They're sleeping. Talk about being unprepared. He just told them, get ready. And they're sleeping. But they aren't lazy. They're sleeping from sorrow. It's been a really heavy day for them. Man, it's been a hard day. Sleep can be a trauma response. A response to stress. When pressures mount and problems feel overwhelming, you just want to sleep. There's a physiological side of this, but it's also a way to just disengage. To stop thinking about something confusing.

18:44To stop feeling the hurt about what's going on. There are other forms of detachment, of course. Overwork. Endless scrolling. Entertainment. Overeating. There are many good things. Things even that God gave to us or commanded us to do. That can easily become coping mechanisms. To deal with hardship. To stop feeling the pain. And we tell ourselves, look, I'm under a lot of stress. I'm just blowing off a little bit of steam here. But it's detachment.

19:28And we detach because we don't know what to do. But Jesus tells us what to do here. Twice he says, pray. Pray that you do not enter into temptation. And he doesn't just tell us to do that. He does it. He does it. It's engaging with God. It's practicing dependence. And that is the third response to hardship. The response that Jesus models for us here. Dependence.

20:02Jesus withdraws with the Father because he has to, church. He has to do it. He needs it. What lies ahead of him is nearly too much. And the only way to be ready is to lean into the Father who sent him.

20:22All we have of this time of prayer is just a few short sentences. Maybe it's all he said. Maybe he said more. But this is what we have. The first sentence tells us what he is struggling with. Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.

20:45We read this and we don't know what he's talking about. What cup? But if the disciples hadn't been sleeping and had heard him, they would know what he's talking about. Because the Old Testament speaks of a cup as a judgment against sin. God's judgment against sin. Look at Psalm 75. It says this, For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up. But it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.

21:22For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it. And all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs. The idea of God's wrath, of his righteous judgment against sin, is one of, if not the, most unpopular truths of all scripture. Indeed, it is one of the first doctrines that is thrown out when people are beginning a process of walking away from fidelity to scripture. Long before anything else, that's the one that they start reconsidering.

22:08We do not like talking about this. The wrath of God against sin. His righteous judgment. And so we quickly throw it out. We scan it away. And then it's like dominoes that fall from there. God is love. We modern people like to say. And so he cannot be wrathful. Church, tell that to Jesus.

22:48Tell it to the Son of God. Here he is agonizing. Agonizing over this cup with his Father. Sweating so profusely that it is like blood coming from an open wound. Even with an angel's help, he is suffering just thinking about drinking this cup. Is he wrong? Is he misinformed? Does he not recognize that God is love? Well, of course he does. But he also recognizes what natural man denies. That we are not love. We don't love our neighbor. We don't love God.

23:39Not even close. Rebels, like I said earlier, we are determined to disobey God. None is righteous. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. No one does good. Our mouths are full of curses and bitterness. Our feet are quick to shed blood. We leave a path of ruin and misery. That's all quoting from Romans.

24:15God is love, church, but God is not morally ambiguous. He is love, but he is not morally ambiguous. He is holy, and he is just. Wickedness and evil, no matter how big or small we think it is, it is all treason against a holy and infinitely holy God. And to be righteous, God must deal with it.

24:48The wages of sin is death. Jesus knows all of this. And that's why he's in agony. Drinking this cup is going to mean bearing that punishment for sin. God's righteous anger. Even though he's never done anything wrong, not even in his heart, not even in his mind. Drinking this cup will mean alienation from his father, whom he has been in perfect fellowship with for eternity. He asks if there can be some other way. Some other way to atone for sin. Some other way to defeat death.

25:36Some other way to heal creation. And yet, even as he asks his father, he knows the truth. That there is no other way. His submission, even in his ask, if you are willing, he says. This tells us he's already made up his mind. Even as he asks, he's already made up his mind. And this is good news for sinners like you and me, that Jesus obeys. He obeys. If there had been any other way to save, to forgive, to redeem, Jesus wouldn't have died. It doesn't make any sense that he did, except for the fact that it had to be done if God was going to save anyone.

26:27Salvation required the death of someone perfect. Someone who was fully human to take our place, and yet fully divine to bear the punishment of sin and overcome death.

26:40And Jesus, listen to this, Jesus wanted to obey his father and save people more than he wanted to escape from this suffering. Do you want to know how God is love? That Jesus was sweating in the garden, knowing what he would have to do, and he obeyed. That's how you know God is love. It's not by wiping away and turning away from the cup. It's from seeing that Jesus drank it. That's how we see God is love. He serves others instead of himself. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

27:23On the eve of his arrest, he faces temptation. And my friends, he overcomes it. Because we don't. He serves others instead of himself. And because of this, you can have assurance today. You can have assurance for three things. You can have assurance of your forgiveness. Listen, if you have put your faith in Jesus, the cup of wrath that was yours has been drained. There's nothing left in it. It's gone. And now God hands you a new cup. The cup of blessing.

28:03The cup of fellowship. The cup of the new covenant in his blood. You can have assurance. The forgiveness is yours because there's no more judgment. Jesus has taken it for you.

28:21But the good news gets even better because you have assurance of his care. When you're suffering, it just feels different to be cared for by someone who has been through something similar. Right? It just feels different. Other people can be genuinely kind and caring, and I'm sure you appreciate it. But when it comes from someone who's been there, there's just that something extra. Right? Your Savior has been there. Your Savior has been there. And not as some kind of stone-faced stoic.

29:02Not some cowboy that never struggles, never shows anything. He really felt it in his body, in his mind, in his heart. He agonized like you do. He sweat profusely under this turmoil trial like you do. He cried out for help like you do. And now he cares for you as someone who endured, who went through that trial and came out on the other side to sit down with you and be your Savior and your comforter and your strong right hand and your shelter in the storm.

29:54We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. But one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. That's your Savior.

30:12He's acquainted with sorrows and with grief. Not because he read it in a book. Because he lived through it. Far worse than you ever will. And I don't say that to minimize your suffering. I say that to comfort you. He went through something far worse to come around to you and comfort you in what you're going through. Finally, we have assurance of his Father's love. His Father becomes our Father. Jesus opened up the way to the Father through his sacrifice.

30:48We can talk to him any time. And we should. Pray that you may not enter into temptation. This is how we stay prepared. Be honest with God about what you're facing. About how you're struggling. About what you want. Tell him how you feel. Tell him how you feel. Ask him for help. But then also, like Jesus, be willing to submit to his will.

31:22He knows the plans he has for you. Plans for welfare and not for evil. To give you a future and a hope. And that's true even in the hardship you're facing now and in the future. Jesus is the obedient son for disobedient people like you and me. Rest in him by faith and be assured. Thank you. Thank you.