152: Seth Thomas - Exhortation: Gethsemene

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   Welcome to Good Christadelphian Talks. I'm Levi. And I'm Chris. And I'm Brian. Thank you for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help us get the Bible in our daily news feed. We post a new episode at the start of each week, with a short intro beforehand to kind of set the stage for the talk you're about to listen to.

2. 0:33

   And now, let's talk more about this week's talk. This week's talk is by Brother Seth Thomas. It's an exhortation on Gethsemane that he gave on June 6th. To the Baltimore, Maryland Ecclesia, where he attends. You'll hear in the introduction, it seems like it's their first time gathering back together. The exhortation was recorded outdoors. I think it's their Sunday school picnic earlier this summer.

3. 1:11

   So it is a blessing that many of our ecclesias here in the States are meeting back together in person. This is a very emotional exhortation about the concept of Gethsemane. Brother Seth has a lot of kind of personal connection to it, and he quotes a song at the end, which has obviously been impactful in his life.

4. 1:32

   So this was a great exhortation. I really enjoyed it and was really uplifted by it, so I'm excited to share it. I wanted to thank James for stepping in for July. It was great to hear his thoughts on the talks that he shared. So thanks again to Brother James DiLiberto. I also had two other plugs I wanted to make.

5. 1:57

   One is for a new app on the App Store called Trove. It's released by a brother in New Zealand, and it's a really slick and handy way to listen to classes through an app specifically developed for that purpose. So he is working with Christophiantalks.com and has a lot of the content up there that you can access really easily on the app.

6. 2:26

   So definitely check out Trove. He also has another one, Daily, which I've been using as well. That's a really easy way to do the daily vibrating. So Trove and Daily are two apps I would definitely suggest. And then the other announcement we have, which I've been excited about and will mention it a few times, is I'm starting a new podcast called Good Christadelphian Music.

7. 2:46

   So similar to Good Christadelphian Talks, but Good Christadelphian Music. It'll be quarterly, so only four episodes a year, and we're going to be highlighting different Christadelphian music projects and where you can find them. So I'm excited to share that and get that off the ground. So the introduction episode is available to listen to, and we'll be having our first episode next month in September.

8. 3:07

   So here is Gethsemane by Brother Seth Thomas. It really is such a blessing to all be here together. I feel like I haven't seen this many of you together in over a year. And not only that, but to be outside in God's creation and to be giving hugs, it really is special. And even to be singing hymns.

9. 3:32

   Think about that. We haven't all in one place been able to sing hymns to God together in over a year. What a blessing that is and something I know that I definitely appreciate more. So this morning I'd like us to go with Christ to the Garden of Gethsemane. My hope is that we can really envision ourselves there just as he was.

10. 3:59

    To see and feel what it might have been like to be in his shoes. To experience what he experienced. Placing ourselves in his reality. We all want to follow Jesus' example in life. And this morning we're going to follow him to his special place. To the Garden of Gethsemane. Gethsemane has been something that has been readily on my mind for the last two and a half years or so.

11. 4:27

    It found a special place in my heart actually from just hearing a song. I was in Seattle, Washington in the winter of 2019. I was visiting the Shindano family who I had met at Texas Youth Conference the year before. And we were in the car driving back from going on a hike. And they were playing some music from their phone when this Christadelphian song came on.

12. 5:01

    It was beautiful and yet at the same time it was heartbreaking. It was powerful and yet I was there feeling weak. That song is called Gethsemane. And just a few weeks later, I remember listening to my music on shuffle as I was walking across the UMBC campus to my park car after class late one night.

13. 5:29

    When the song just happened to come on. I had downloaded it to my phone. They had sent it to me after hearing it. And I remember being brought to tears as I walked. And since then, I can't seem to listen to it without my eyes welling up. I sent the song to my mom who was living in New Hampshire at the time.

14. 5:53

    And she immediately replied. She said, oh my, send me the words in all caps ASAP, please. So I typed them out on my phone. I couldn't, you know, couldn't find the song lyrics anywhere. So I typed them out on my phone and I sent them to her. And they've been there on my phone ever since.

15. 6:15

    And I found myself going back to that song quite a bit. Over the past two years or so. The song paints a picture of what our Lord and Savior endured that night and the following day. It tells of pain, the loneliness, the sadness, the desperation, the heartbreak. It aids us in making the experiences of our Messiah come alive to truly seem real.

16. 6:43

    It enables us to take a step out of our own shoes. To put away our own cares and worries for a moment. To pause and put ourselves in his shoes. Or his sandal. To consider the situation that he faced. After giving his all to live a perfect life following his father's will. All was not done.

17. 7:07

    He knew what lay before him. A day of humiliation and pain. A day that culminated in him dying the death of a criminal. Hanging from a tree. A day of humiliation and pain. Defeating sin and giving up his life. So that we might have the hope of life eternal. But with faith. He was able to see beyond even that.

18. 7:32

    He saw the joy that was set before him. As we'll see this morning. So I didn't have it read for the reading. Just because it's a short passage in some big chapters in the gospel. But let's actually consider the actual passages in scripture that concern the garden of Gethsemane. The account of Christ in the garden is found in all four gospels.

19. 8:02

    With the gospel of John being the shortest by far. It only mentions Gethsemane in the first two verses of chapter 18. And each, you know, as the gospel does with, you know, all the things that happened in Christ's ministry. Each gospel account gives us a bit of insight into what went on in that garden that night.

20. 8:25

    And so although we'll predominantly focus on Luke's account and Mark's account, we'll reference the other two accounts as well to kind of fill in the picture. So if you will, turn with me to Luke chapter 22.

21. 8:41

    And I'll start reading at verse 39 where the account picks up about Gethsemane. Luke 22 starting at verse 39. It says, Pray that ye enter not into temptation. And when he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast and kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cut from me.

22. 9:18

    Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony, in an agony, he prayed more earnestly. And his sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose up from prayer and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping through sorrow.

23. 9:45

    And he said unto them, Why sleep ye? Rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. As many of us are familiar with, the night before Jesus was crucified, he shared his last supper with his dear disciples in the upper room. And after that meal, we find that Jesus and all of his disciples, except for Judas, went out of the city of Jerusalem.

24. 10:11

    It says that they went to the Mount of Olives, as we just read in Luke's account, in verse 39. Verse 39. But John 18, verse 1, says that Jesus, quote, Went over the brook Kidron, where there was a garden. And Matthew and Mark give the name of this garden, being Gethsemane.

25. 10:34

    So we know that the disciples followed Jesus down to the brook Kidron, the Kidron Valley. It would have descended. As I mentioned, it says in John.

26. 10:47

    The Kidron Valley is just east of Jerusalem. And it's where they would have crossed the brook. And the brook Kidron first occurs in Scripture all the way back in 2 Samuel 15, when David is fleeing Jerusalem as his son Absalom seizes power. It's a passage that contains some remarkable parallels to the account of Jesus in Gethsemane.

27. 11:13

    And I'll mention a few here and there, but hope to mention, go through them all. But I think for the sake of time, we won't be able to highlight all of them. But I would, however, encourage you to open up 2 Samuel 15 and the Gethsemane accounts at some point and go through the connection.

28. 11:35

    It's truly a testament to the beauty of Scripture. Turning our focus back to the brook Kidron, the word brook that's used in John 18, verse 1, that I read earlier, it literally means a winter torment.

29. 11:54

    As for most of the year, the stream would have been bone dry. And only occasionally in the winter, there would be flash floods as the water overflowed the bank. This is significant. I think there's something behind that. The experience of Jesus' suffering is alluded to in Psalms, where it's described in multiple instances as a flood.

30. 12:23

    Psalm 18, verse 4 reads, And in Psalm 69, in the first two verses, verses 1 and 2, it reads, Save me, God, for the waters have threatened my life. I have sunk in deep mud, and there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, and the flood overflows me. And in that same psalm, in verses 14 and 15, it reads, Rescue me from the mud, and do not let me sink.

31. 12:58

    May I be rescued from those who hate me, and from the depths of water. May the flood of water not overflow me, nor the deep swallow me up, nor the pit close its mouth on me. This torrential flood of mankind's sin, pride, anger, would overwhelm Christ as he led his disciples away from the city, away from Jerusalem.

32. 13:24

    And it's interesting to take note of how the brook Hebron is referred to in Scripture. Each time that the brook Hebron comes up in the Old Testament, it's referred to as a marker of the boundary of the city, the city of God, Jerusalem.

33. 13:42

    They were really going outside the city. The brook Hebron was the very place where many of the faithful kings of the Old Testament took all the idols and false gods out of the temple and dumped them.

34. 13:56

    The word Hebron is a Hebrew word, as it's the name of a place. And it means dirty, ashy, or murky. And the Hebrew word is actually mostly used in Scripture to describe mourning. That being with a U. And it's a fitting name for a place where idols were historically dumped.

35. 14:20

    As Christ crossed with His disciples, He was, in a sense, crossing this torrent of mankind's sins to mourn His impending death and defeat sin in the garden.

36. 14:36

    And so this garden, Gethsemane, means oil press. The oil press was used to crush the small, hard kernel of the olive to squeeze out the olive oil. It was a process that required extreme pressure. In the Old Testament, the olive tree served as a symbol of trusting in God. An example of this is found again in the Psalms.

37. 15:02

    Psalm 52, verse 8. Where the psalmist writes, But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the faithfulness of God forever and ever. The olive tree is connected with having a trust in the faithfulness of God. That all His promises will be fulfilled.

38. 15:24

    What a beautiful, fitting picture that is. Christ experienced the greatest trial of all and the most extreme mental pressure. And yet, amidst this intense pressure, Jesus never loosened His grip on His Heavenly Father. As the flesh pulled one way, He held tight to His Father, putting trust in God's faithfulness. So, looking at the passage that we read just earlier in Luke 22, we find in verse 39 that it says that Jesus went to the Mount of Olives as He was once there in verse 39.

39. 16:10

    And it's a bit of a peculiar phrase, or at least it was for me when I initially read it. But it basically means as He was accustomed to. So, He goes to the Mount of Olives as He was one, as He was accustomed to.

40. 16:35

    The NESV translates it as was His habit. The ESV as was His custom. and the NIV as usual. Basically, this was a place that Jesus would have visited very often. And also, if you take a look down at verse 40, it reads, and when He was at the place. The place.

41. 17:02

    Luke refers to Gethsemane as the place. The word place is used elsewhere in Scripture to describe a holy place or a sanctuary. This would have been Jesus' place, His special place. The place where He seems to feel closest to His Father. It's very likely that He would have spent many nights in Gethsemane, praying through the night as we know from the Gospel record that He did.

42. 17:38

    It mentions Him doing that. It was the very same place that David would have gone through as he left the city of Jerusalem weeping. As he crossed the brook Kidron, as it mentions in 2 Samuel 15, and goes up to the Mount of Olives. And as we might recall, Jesus would go on to ascend to heaven from this very same mountain.

43. 18:02

    We know that He will return in like manner, as it says in Acts 1, to that very same Mount of Olives. Turn with me, if you will, to John 18.

44. 18:17

    And we'll just read the first two verses. Reading from John 18, starting in verse 1. When Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth with His disciples over the brook Kidron, where was a garden into which He entered and His disciples. And Judas also, which betrayed Him, knew the place, for Jesus oft times resorted thither with His disciples.

45. 18:45

    When Judas would have brought the band of men to arrest Jesus, he would have, you know, likely taken them to the upper room where Jesus, and when he saw that Jesus wasn't there, you know, he knew where He would have gone. And it wasn't because Jesus had mentioned it or said that, you know, that was where He was going to go after the Last Supper.

46. 19:10

    but it was because, as we just read, Jesus oft times resorted thither, as it says there in verse 2. Jesus went there often, and the fact that Judas assumed that that was where He was going was a testament to how important this place was to Christ.

47. 19:33

    That was the only place He would have been, and Judas knew it. Do we have a special place of our own? A place that we can go to and connect with our Heavenly Father? I can't say I have a specific place that has been consistent in my life, but I would encourage you all to find your own special place.

48. 19:58

    A place where you can separate yourself from the world and really feel God's presence. You know, like our ecclesial hall in a sense. A special place where we take a step away from the world. We focus our minds on our Heavenly Father and we open our hearts to Him, just as Christ did in Gethsemane.

49. 20:20

    Turn with me, if you will, to Mark's account of Gethsemane. In Mark chapter 14, I'll start reading in verse 32. Mark 14, starting in verse 32. And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane. And He saith to His disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray. And He taketh with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy.

50. 20:52

    And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death. Tarry ye here, and walk. And He went forward a little, and 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 unto Thee. Take away this cup from me.

51. 21:19

    Nevertheless, not what I will, but what Thou wilt. Jesus takes Peter, James, and John, His three closest disciples, that He selectively brought with Him on two other occasions in the Gothic. That being the transfiguration and the healing of Jairus' daughter. And again, they come with Him here, going further into the garden with Him.

52. 21:44

    We see in verse 33, as we just read, that Jesus began to be sore amazed and very heavy. Sore amazed is from the Greek word meaning to be terrified or extremely afraid, distressed. In the very next verse, in verse 34, Jesus tells the three disciples that His soul was exceeding sorrowful unto death, or deeply grieved, as it's translated in the NASB.

53. 22:10

    Jesus was hurting. The burden of the flesh wore down on Him now more than ever. His heart would have felt as if it were splitting. He knew what was coming. He knew what God's will for Him was.

54. 22:27

    Turn with me to Isaiah 53, the reading that our brother John read for us today, where we find the familiar prophecy of what the Messiah would go through. The heart-wrenching pain that He would experience as He was rejected by His people. And as we read earlier, we sign in verse 3, He would be despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

55. 22:57

    In verse 4, He would bear the griefs and burdens of others. He carried our sorrows. He carried our sins. In verse 5, He would be wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, chastised and was whipped. with a Roman whip made by a string of metal shards, all so that we might be healed from sin and the flesh in the coming hope of God's kingdom.

56. 23:26

    In verse 6, we see that everyone would leave Him, even His disciples, His closest friends. He would be all alone, the weight of everyone's sin resting on His shoulders. He would be oppressed and afflicted in front of the Sanhedrin and Pontius Pilate. And yet, He didn't defend Himself or retaliate.

57. 23:52

    He was silent as the sheep brought before the slaughter. You see in verse 8 that He would be cut off from the land of the living and stricken for the sins of His people. Verse 9, even though He lived a life free from sin, without a single fault, He would die the death of a criminal, being hung on a tree.

58. 24:14

    In verse 10, He would be put to grief, offered as a sin offering, on our behalf, again bearing the iniquities of others. And in verse 12, we read that in bearing the sins of many, His soul, His life, would be poured out unto death. Jesus would have known this passage. I think He would have known it by heart.

59. 24:38

    He would have known what was coming. He knew what lay ahead. It would have been petrifying. Just try to imagine that. that you were about to endure all of that, all that we just read when the sun came up.

60. 25:01

    Imagine what that Passover night would have been like for you. How does one prepare for that? How can you prepare yourself to willingly die? How can you prepare for that? How can you prepare for that? How can you prepare for that? Returning back to Mark's account, Mark 14,

61. 25:22

    you recall that in verse 33, that Jesus took with Him as His three closest disciples, as I mentioned, Peter, James, and John. I think Jesus does so at least in part because He wanted comforters. He had God, and as we've seen this morning, He relied on His Father, but He was only human.

62. 25:47

    He needed the comfort of people, of His dearest friends. And then, if you go, just turn with me briefly to Psalm 69. We'll just read verse 20.

63. 26:13

    This is a psalm that we referenced earlier in relation to Christ's experience passage about the flood. Verse 20 of Psalm 69 reads, Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness, and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. This is all about Christ.

64. 26:44

    And just in case verse 20 wasn't clear enough, verse 21, make sure of it. As it mentions, the gall and vinegar that were the exact things given to Christ at His crucifixion.

65. 26:59

    Christ's heart was broken. He felt as if He could no longer continue on. He looked for someone, anyone, to lament with Him, as it says in the margin instead of the take pity there in verse 20. Anyone to lament with Him, to be with Him, to comfort Him, back in Mark 14 again, we see that Jesus turns to His three closest friends, Peter, James, and John.

66. 27:34

    the three people who He was closest to, the three people who knew Him more than any other, any other person, knit closer than everyone else. He turns to them and He tells them. He talks directly to them and He says to them in verse 34 of Mark 14, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death.

67. 28:02

    Tarry ye here and watch. Jesus is crying for help. I need help, brethren. Stay with me. And yet they couldn't. They didn't understand what Christ was really facing, what He was truly going through. And it's interesting to note that although the 12 disciples were there with Christ in the garden and His three closest disciples were there with Him, the account specifically separates Christ from everyone else.

68. 28:36

    Back in Luke 22, verse 39, as we read, it said, Notice the separation there. Christ went to the Mount of Olives and the disciples also followed after. And then once He's in the garden, He takes Peter, James, and John, leaving the other eight behind. And even then, it specifies that He went forward a little, as it says in Mark in verse 35 of chapter 14.

69. 29:17

    A stone's cast away, as it says in Luke. There's separation there. I think it's intentional. The disciples didn't understand. They were there, but they didn't get it. They weren't truly there. They didn't understand the mental and emotional pain Jesus was experiencing, how dearly their master needed help. They fell asleep. And Jesus, as we know, came back three times.

70. 29:46

    And there they were, sleeping. They had given up. The flesh was too strong. As I mentioned in verse 35 of Mark 14, it says that Jesus goes forward a little. He falls on the ground. He fell on the ground. In Matthew, it says, fell on His face. He could no longer continue. His struggle with the flesh seeming to be too much pleaded to His heavenly Father that there might be another way.

71. 30:21

    Abba, Father, You who can do all things, please, please let there be another way. His flesh was letting Him down just like His disciples. As we read earlier in Luke 22, Jesus' sweat blood. Blood was pouring from Him onto the ground as He knelt before His Father, His Abba, pouring Himself out in prayer.

72. 30:48

    The pressure of the garden was so great that He literally, that literally, it literally squeezed blood out of Him. and this was the very same night that you might recall that Peter was huddled around the fire when Jesus was in the house of the high priest. It would have been a cold night and there Jesus was with sweat pouring out and not just sweat but sweating blood.

73. 31:19

    The testament to the unimaginable stress that He was experiencing. Hebrews 5, verse 7, talking about Jesus, reads, Who in the days of His flesh when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death and was heard in that He feared.

74. 31:42

    Strong crying and tears. It was at this point that we can be sure that Jesus was weeping. Weeping like He had never done before. Tears of pure agony. Plenching His hands into the dirt floor of a garden, wailing. Jesus would have been in His flight, His fight or flight response at this point.

75. 32:04

    And there's actually a medical condition called hematidrosis in which under severe and extreme ultimate fear and terror sometimes at the face of death, torture or ongoing abuse. Capillaries, which are blood vessels, can burst causing blood to come out of the individual's sweat glands. It's true. If you Google it, that's what it says.

76. 32:32

    This was ultimate fear, true terror and is a testament to the intensity of Christ's struggle with the flesh. Jesus was there into the hours of the night in agony as He fought against His will, as His flesh pulled one way. His heart, His love for His Father, His love for His disciples, for His people, His clear vision of the joy of the kingdom that was just on the other side of this trial pulled the other way.

77. 33:06

    and He gave it to God. All that He was, He put His trust in His Father, in His will, His plan and purpose with God's help and the strength of the angel who Luke records as being there to comfort Him. When His dearest friends couldn't, He prevailed. He knew and had faith that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the call according to His purpose.

78. 33:34

    He clung to the joy that was set before Him, despising the flesh, committing that very night to endure the cross, saying, Not my will, but thine be done. And it was in a garden that human life began. It was in a garden that sin was introduced into the world. Fittingly, it was in a garden that sin was defeated.

79. 33:58

    I'd suggest that it was before Jesus was ever nailed to the tree, before He hung from the cross that He defeated the flesh, that He defeated sin in Gethsemane, the precipice of His life when He chose the will of God over His home.

80. 34:18

    And in our own lives, in some way or another, we will experience our own Gethsemane, just as Jesus did. Have you gone through trial in your life? Have you experienced pain, heartbreak, hardship, mourning, loss, loneliness, fear, anxiety, sorrow? We've all experienced these.

81. 34:44

    And we find ourselves asking God, why? Why are we put through these trials in our life? It's something that Christ had learned and something that we need to continue to learn over and over again in life. were put through trials in life that we might surrender our will to our Heavenly Father, that we might be brought to the experience of saying, not my will, but thine be done, just as Christ did.

82. 35:13

    That we might truly put our trust in God, putting our life in His hands. It's a lifelong lesson that we're learning. when I hear the song, Gethsemane, the song that I mentioned earlier that was the inspiration for this exhortation, I can't help but think of my mom. When I sent her the song in January of 2019, she had just recently been diagnosed with the stomach cancer, but I didn't know.

83. 35:44

    She hadn't told people yet. And I think the song was a comfort to her. I typed out and sent her the words of the song without having any idea what she was going through. And I can still picture it now.

84. 36:02

    Mom, all alone in her little house, on the lake in New Hampshire, with no one who understood that her got so many in her special little place on the water, a sea where she felt most connected to God.

85. 36:26

    Through all the trial that she endured in her life, she continually did her best to put God first, to put her trust in him and in him alone. Even when it didn't make sense, she trusted never letting go of God. God I can express it in words how grateful I am for her example of holding tight to the joy that lies beyond Gethsemane.

86. 36:59

    So, brothers and sisters, when we encounter the trials that come in our life, it's not our own suffering that we experience, but Christ's. suffering when we go through trial, actually participating in his suffering. 1 Peter 4 tells us this. One last passage to turn.

87. 37:25

    1 Peter 4 starting at verse 12. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happen unto you. But rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

88. 37:55

    Whatever happens to us in life is Christ's suffering in us. We are participating in the sufferings of Christ for the purpose that we might learn the same lesson that he learned, to submit our will to that of our heavenly fathers. These sufferings aren't necessarily the physical sufferings that Jesus and the early believers went through.

89. 38:19

    As we see in verse 1, it says, for as much of the same chapter, chapter 4, for as much then as Christ had suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind, for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.

90. 38:38

    Christ's suffering that is being referred to here is Christ's suffering in the flesh. Jesus put the flesh to death and we're called to do the same, having the same mind, as we just read in verse 1. God we can be sure that in our own lives, God will bring us into the garden of Gethsemane in his perfect timing, maybe not only once.

91. 39:04

    The beautiful thing is that we must make sure that we do not forget with all of this, that not only are we partakers of Christ's sufferings, but of his glory as well. We must remember that Gethsemane is not the end. Christ went on to rise from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father, awaiting the appointed time to set up God's kingdom on earth.

92. 39:28

    We have such a wonderful hope of eternal life in God's kingdom in that day of Christ's glory that is soon to come. May we envision the exceeding joy that we will experience when that day does come and cling to it as we fall down before our Father in our own Gethsemane.

93. 39:51

    And it's with this exceeding joy at the forefront of our minds that we turn our minds to the sacrifice of our Lord, our master, our example, our dear friend, a friend who loves so deeply that he was able to completely give up his own will, completely and totally trusting in God's will that we might have the hope.

94. 40:12

    We look forward to a time that we, just like the disciples did that night, will partake of bread and wine, the feast of the Lamb, when that day of exceeding joy is finally here. May we keep our eyes focused on the joy that lies beyond Gethsemane. What a blessing, what a blessing that is to be able to share that hope of the joy to come with our new sisters, Tina and Katie.

95. 40:40

    We love you both so very much and have been inspired and encouraged by your example of faith, your commitment to follow after Jesus' example in choosing to put our Heavenly Father's will above your own each day. As it reads in hymn 239 that we'll sing in just a moment, So may we, as we meet with thee, be sealed more surely thy, and see beyond Gethsemane, thy kingdom's glory shine.

96. 41:13

    And I'll just conclude by reading the lyrics to the song Gethsemane that I mentioned earlier. It's the very last stanza that gets me every time.

97. 41:24

    Go here to sad Gethsemane. Go here the Savior pleading. The passerby, they hear his cry, his sobs of grief unheeding. There on his knees our Lord perceives the burden of his sorrow. The marker scorned the skirt, the thorn, which weighed him on the morrow. Draw near in Gethsemane. Tread softly, mark his anguish.

98. 41:54

    We now can see the bloody tree on which he soon must languish. The last wind, the curse of sin, he on himself is taking. With fearful woes his cup o'erflows, his heart is nigh breaking. Yet near in Gethsemane, an angel is beside him. With bloody sweat the earth is wet, but love is not denied him.

99. 42:20

    The judgment hall, the sponge, the gall, the cross, O road and gory, the priestly jeer, the Roman spear, are waymarks of his glory. The scene in dark Gethsemane was Eden's recreation. By his distress, God's righteousness has now full vindication. When crucified for us, he died. From sin, our souls to sever. Our advocate at mercy's gate, he will abide forever.

100. 42:49

     We each in our Gethsemane must walk with him a while. The Father's will upon the hill, embracing in our trial. The Master's prayer we offer there, and drink the cup of sorrow. The broken flesh, the olive press, the promise of tomorrow. Apart from sin, we'll seek him in the garden of tomorrow. Thank you for listening to the Good Christadelphian Talks podcast.

101. 43:34

     We hope this talk helped you in your walk. If you would like to hear more, please subscribe for new episodes and leave a review in Apple Podcast or whichever service you are using to help more people find the show when they search for it. If you enjoyed this particular talk, please share it with someone who you think might enjoy it as well.

102. 43:51

     For show notes on the talk you just listened to, visit our show page at anchor.fm slash GCT or check the show notes section of your podcast player. Please share your thoughts on the talk from this week on our Facebook or Instagram pages, where we are at Good Christadelphian Talks, on Twitter, where we are at GCT underscore podcast, or leave a comment on our YouTube channel, where these talks are posted as well.

103. 44:15

     If you know of a great talk, we want to know about it too. Send a suggestion to our email at goodchristadelphiantalks at gmail.com or message us on any of our social media accounts. Thank you for listening, God bless, and talk to you next week.