Shane Kirkword - Class 4: Not My Will

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1. 0:00

   This is day four of the 2010 Idlewild Bible School. Our first period teacher is Brother Shane Kirkwood. His general subject is, Our Lord's Last Week. Today's topic is, Not My Will. Brother Shane. Thanks, Brother Eric. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Are we all feeling well rested? Sometimes as the week wears on, you feel a little bit rested than you were the day before. That's from my experience.

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   So we're coming to the most critical part of our Lord's Last Week. And it's only the Gospel of John that records some of the most sublime lessons that the Lord gave his disciples. And in John 15, 16, and 17, we have some beautiful scripture, very personal to the disciples in these last hours.

3. 1:21

   In John 15, we have the Lord calling himself the vine and his father the husbandman and telling his disciples this band of men that he loved so much that they had to abide in him, that their future could only be complete and guaranteed if they remained part of him. But part of that process was that the father, as the husbandman, would discipline them to bring forth more fruit to his glory, just as he does in our life today.

4. 2:02

   So the process of discipleship is the same for all of us. And there's something very comforting about that, that we share this process with these men who were so dear to the Lord, knowing that we ourselves, therefore, are dear to him as well. In John 16, he tells them he's only with them for a little while.

5. 2:28

   And he says, you won't see me again because I go to the father. And there again, we see in the Lord's mind that focus of going to the father, just as he'd said to them at the last supper. And it enabled him to serve completely the needs of others. And they, of course, would struggle with the things that the Lord was telling them.

6. 2:58

   It was confusing. And he says, you will have sorrow, but I will see you again. And your heart shall rejoice in your joy. No man will take from you. And just in that one verse, there's an enormous contrast of emotion. They would have incredible sorrow, but also overwhelming joy. And then at the end of John 16, verse 32, he says, Behold, the hour is coming.

7. 3:32

   Yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own. And you've got to try and imagine what it was like for the disciples to try and take this in. Every man to his own, and shall leave me alone.

8. 3:50

   And you're a disciple, and you're saying, I will never leave you. And there's almost a wall between what the Lord is saying and what's going on in your mind. The thought that you could ever leave him alone is not something you could ever contemplate.

9. 4:10

   But everything that Jesus said is true. And he says, and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you'll have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. And then John 17 is the Lord's Prayer.

10. 4:42

    A wonderful chapter. And he says in verse 20, Father, neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word. That includes us here, now, in 2010. Again, we're part of John 17, the Lord's Prayer.

11. 5:10

    And so, as those words of the Lord hung in their minds, we're told that Jesus said to them, that all of you shall be offended because of me this night. For it is written, So there's the sorrow and the joy. Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.

12. 5:52

    Jesus said to him, Verily I say unto you, that this night before the cock crow, you shall deny me thrice. Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples. It's often that we focus only on Peter as the one who was the spokesman.

13. 6:19

    But all of them said the same. They were all convinced that when the hour came, they could withstand the pressures that the Lord was telling them about.

14. 6:35

    And so, it says that they came to a place which was named Gethsemane. The word Gethsemane means oil press. It was a garden that the Lord had been to many times. And to get there, they had to cross over what was known as the Kidron Valley, the Kidron Brook. Just imagine, if you can for a moment, what's going through the Lord's mind.

15. 7:12

    It's Passover. There's a full moon. We know that. It was perhaps a cold, clear night. Later on, Peter would be warming himself by the fire in the courtyard of the high priest. So there's an element of chill in the air as they descend down to cross the Kidron Brook. Jesus and his little band of disciples.

16. 7:47

    Perhaps the Lord in his mind went back a thousand years when his great forebear, David, the king of Israel, was in desperate trouble. When the kingdom was being usurped by his own son, Absalom, and there was David crossing the Kidron Brook with a band of faithful followers.

17. 8:18

    For David, eventually, the kingdom was restored. For his greater son, there was to be on this night no restoration, no avoidance of what must come with the hours of darkness. And so they make their way to that garden, the garden of Gethsemane. And once again, the future of the world is to be decided in the garden.

18. 8:54

    And how fitting that is that it was in a garden that man lost the dominion. That Adam and Eve failed to have the dominion over themselves and that now, thousands of years later, would come the seed promised who had to have dominion over himself if the garden was to be extended to become the kingdom of God over all the earth.

19. 9:24

    And so as they enter the garden, we're told as Jesus came to the place of Gethsemane, he takes with him Peter and James and John. So all of them go into the garden and the garden had a wall around it and a gate through which they would enter and there in that garden were the olive trees, ancient trees, from which it drew its name as the olives were collected and they were pressed and the oil was produced which was so precious.

20. 10:02

    And there wasn't a sense this night to be enormous pressure applied to the Lord to produce something enormously precious. So leaving the eight disciples perhaps inside the gate near the wall of the garden, he takes with him Peter, James and John. On what other occasion are those men present? Well, there is a number.

21. 10:32

    But the one that perhaps figures most prominently is on the Mount of Transfiguration. And on the Mount of Transfiguration overcome with the glory that was revealed on that mount, the disciples didn't know what to say.

22. 10:53

    And Peter jumps in and says, let's make three tabernacles, Lord. One for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah. As though he was putting all of those on the same level and the voice from heaven came to say, this is my beloved son. Hear you think. And perhaps in their mind as they entered that garden, they were thinking about that occasion, not knowing that an enormous contrast would be played out this night between the glory of the Mount and the suffering in the garden of Gethsemane.

23. 11:34

    This was a place that Jesus went to. prayer. Do you have a place like that? Do you have a special place where when things get too much to bear, you go to your Father in prayer?

24. 11:58

    It's something we ought to have. Prayer, we know, is available to us at all times, but to build a place in our mind and in our heart where we have a special time with God is important. It was very important for the Lord. And the things we're going to look at now are things that the Lord would have done over and over again.

25. 12:28

    His was a life of prayer. And now as he takes with him Peter, James and John, it says that he began to be sore amazed. The word means to be astonished.

26. 12:51

    And it says he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast. And he kneeled down and prayed. So initially, the position we find the Lord in is one of kneeling. The other disciples, not far away about a stone's cast, at a distance, he wants them to watch, he says to them. Tarry here and watch.

27. 13:29

    Is that a difficult thing? It wouldn't appear so on the surface, would it? That if your best friend wants you to watch and you're beginning to see in him some signs that you've never seen before, you think you could watch.

28. 13:53

    As the Lord is astonished. You see, this is a man in whom they placed all their trust and who'd always been able to deliver them out of every circumstance that they'd found themselves in, which was difficult. And now he's saying to them, I need your help. And the idea that the Lord never needed support is ridiculous.

29. 14:19

    It's got no foundation in Scripture. You know, initially they did watch. Peter saw his master's distress to start with. Because many years later, when he wrote his first letter, he says to them in 1 Peter 1 verse 6, though you may be now in heaviness through manifold temptations, yet the trial of your faith worked something much more precious than that of God.

30. 14:55

    Where did that come from? Surely, initially, from those first few minutes in the Garden of Gethsemane, as he saw his Lord in manifold temptations, enormous heaviness of soul, in distress, and in deep anguish.

31. 15:18

    But before we focus on our Lord, sometimes we tend to be too critical of the disciples. I just want you to think for a moment of what it was like to be those disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane. Think of all the things that had happened in the last week. Think of the journeys from Bethany in and out of the city of Jerusalem, the hostility of the scribes and Pharisees, the parables that the Lord had told, the healings in the temple, the rejoicing of the children, the overturning of the tables of the money changers, the idea still in their head that the kingdom was coming just around the corner and then to be told that that temple will come down and there won't be one stone left upon another and that he's going to suffer the man that you love and that he will send you a comforter and that the father loves you just as he loves you and that you're tired, you're so tired, you're trying to take all that information in and it's totally overwhelming and you haven't slept well and on top of all that there is a sense of danger, a lurking present in your mind, an insecurity that plays at the edges of your mind as you're trying to take all this in.

32. 16:57

    I will smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered, he said. All of you will leave me alone, yet I won't be alone.

33. 17:07

    And underneath all that is a question. Where's Judas? Where is Judas? What happened at that supper? Why did Judas leave? Why hasn't he come back? he come again? When will he see you again? Perhaps the Lord sent him on another mission.

34. 17:36

    But surely there's an insecurity, a doubt. And by all of those things, they're overwhelmed. And now he's in distress and he wants us to watch. And we want to watch. But it's too hard. And I'm too tired. And I'm depressed. And I don't know what the answer is and I don't know what the future holds.

35. 18:07

    And I'm not even sure the kingdom is coming now. And I want to go to sleep. You ever been like that? You ever been so depressed about something and so confused about something and so unable to deal with it that all you want to do is sleep?

36. 18:28

    I have. I felt exactly like these disciples. Even when I know I should be holding on and I should be able to watch, I can't. have you ever been to a memorial meeting and gone to sleep? I have.

37. 18:53

    I've had people wake me up to give me the bread and wine. How embarrassing is that? Why? Because I've been sitting there perhaps depressed and feeling like I shouldn't be there and I shouldn't be taking it and I don't want to be there.

38. 19:12

    But I am there and so I drop off to sleep. We have to feel for these men. They represent us in our trials, in our weakness, in our inability to stay the course when the Lord has asked us to watch.

39. 19:33

    And so there they are as the Lord is in deep distress and it says they were sleeping for sorrow. They couldn't handle it. it was beyond them. And you know it says in the record of Matthew 26 that when he took Peter he took the two sons of Zebedee. Why does it say that?

40. 19:52

    Because they were the very ones whose mother asked Lord grant that these my two sons James and John will sit one on your right hand and the other on your left when you come in your kingdom. and he said are they able are you able to drink the cup that I must drink and be baptized with the baptism that I must have.

41. 20:13

    And they said we are able and there they were in the garden. This one. And so as the disciples slept it says the Lord kneeled and prayed I want you to notice that that he kneeled. So first of all he's like this.

42. 20:41

    We imagine him with his head to the ground in a position that he'd so often assumed in the garden of Gethsemane and he's praying desperately praying while those men slept.

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    But you know he never remained in a kneeled position. He eventually ended up it says he fell face forward on the ground. It was like that.

44. 21:12

    He's flat out on the ground. What's happening across the valley? Judas is making plans with the high priest and they're going to pilot to get a cohort of soldiers.

45. 21:37

    What position would you assume knowing that Judas was coming with a band of men? I would never be laying face down on the ground. Never. I'd be up a tree. True.

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    True. I would be. I'd be hiding. I wouldn't be able to cope. I'd be completely out of my mind over this. This is so close now. You feel the whole thing closing in and your best friends are asleep.

47. 22:16

    And he says to his father, if you be willing, remove this cup from me. And it means what it says. Father, take away the cup. He prayed that if it were possible, the father might take away the cup. Well, how would that work?

48. 22:44

    Well, perhaps at the last moment, Judas was having second thoughts. And maybe Judas wasn't now organizing at all. And maybe in the heart of Judas, there was something that would change.

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    Was there any avenue for that? No, Judas had chosen. He'd chosen the path that he would take. And so he asked his father to remove the cup, but he doesn't.

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    And the sweat is coming like great drops of blood. And if you saw a position, a person in that position, you would call for an embossed, you would say, there is something terribly wrong with this man. He needs urgent medical attention.

51. 23:49

    He goes back to the disciples. They're asleep. He says, you couldn't watch one hour? Surely, watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. and being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly as those drops of blood came.

52. 24:13

    And he says, Abba, Father. Dad. Daddy. He's really appealing to his father, to the relationship, to the closeness of that relationship. He's face down on the ground.

53. 24:37

    I want you to come with me just for a moment to Psalm 102. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee. Hide not thy faith from me in the day when I am in trouble. Incline on ear unto me in the day when I call, answer me. For my days are consumed like smoke and my bones are burned as a hearth.

54. 25:07

    My heart is smitten and withered like grass so that I forget to eat my bread. By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones cleave to my skin. I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I am like an owl of the desert. I watch and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.

55. 25:28

    My enemies reproach me all the day and they are mad and they that are mad against me are sworn against me. Verse 11, verse 24, I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days. Thy years are throughout all generations.

56. 26:15

    Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish but thou shall endure. Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment and as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed but thou art the same and thy years have no end.

57. 26:34

    Just feel that. What have we got in the garden of Gethsemane? We have a mortal son of an immortal father. The only one ever.

58. 26:52

    Do you know I watch my parents getting old and as they get old we know eventually mortality will take us. The only man ever that never had a father that got old was this man.

59. 27:13

    How is God feeling? When that psalm says Yahweh you have been through all generations think of that. This God has listened to the prayers of Abraham, of Noah, of Moses, of David, one after another, generation after generation. And now, thousands of years later, there's his only begotten son, who's appealing to him and saying, Father, don't cut me off in the midst of my days.

60. 27:59

    Take me not away in the midst of my years. I'm 33. You're forever, Father. You live forever. Did the father not hear? Of course he heard. the apostle Paul says, again as we quoted yesterday in Romans 8 verse 32, he who spared not his only son.

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    Does that give us some idea of how God loves us when we come to him, when we call upon him, when we reach out for him as his only son reached out for him?

62. 28:51

    There was nobody else there that he could appeal to. He tried to appeal to his disciples, his closest friends. Psalm 69 says, he looked for comforters and for those who could take pity, but he found none.

63. 29:09

    That's the garden of Gethsemane. He is looking. That's the part that really hurts. That he was looking. that he did need us. And we couldn't do it.

64. 29:26

    And so who is sent? An angel. Is there a scriptural parallel there? Daniel chapter 10. Just come for a moment to Daniel 10. Daniel chapter 10 verse 7. Daniel sees the vision. for the men that were with me saw not the vision, but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves.

65. 30:05

    Therefore I was left alone and saw this great vision and there remained no strength in me. For my comeliness was turned in me into corruption and I retained no strength. Yet heard I the voice of his words, And when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face and my face toward the ground.

66. 30:28

    And behold, a hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands. And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee and stand upright. For unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling.

67. 30:52

    Daniel set his heart to understand the words of God and God heard his words. So an angel was sent, someone of another race, not of our race. We weren't up to it.

68. 31:10

    And he comforts the Lord and strengthens him, we're told in the Gospel of Luke. What would he have said? We don't know. But I think he might have said something like the words of Psalm 16, where we're reminded in Psalm 16 of the future that the Lord had. Where he says in verse 8, Perhaps it was that.

69. 32:08

    The word that the angel strengthened him with. But it says again in Luke that he prayed. Face to the ground. I want us to think about this now. This is a man lying there who had raised the dead, who had given sight to the blind, hearing to the dead, legs to the lame.

70. 32:47

    And he's laying face down on the ground in agony. What is the lesson? What is the lesson? What is the power of the Garden of Gethsemane?

71. 33:02

    It's Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6. This is the key lesson of discipleship. I want you to come there. We know it well. We know it very well. But knowing it and living it are two enormously different things.

72. 33:28

    Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. And lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him. And he shall direct thy path.

73. 33:48

    I can say that. I can accept that in theory. But in practice, oh, that's a different thing. That's where my discipleship falls down. To trust in the Lord with all my heart. Are you serious? I've got to work things out for myself. I can't take the risk that God might do the wrong thing.

74. 34:21

    Well, that's ridiculous. But that's the way we think, isn't it? I can't give it all to God just in case God kind of doesn't know the circumstances. And he might send me in a direction that won't work out for the best. Am I exaggerating? No. That's how we behave.

75. 34:47

    What's the lesson? All right, I'm going to lie face down again. He's in the garden. He's praying with enormous intensity. His whole being. What can I do for myself here? Tell me. What can I do?

76. 35:20

    Nothing. Nothing. What could Jesus do? Face down in the garden of Gethsemane. Nothing. And he'd raised the dead. He'd given sight to the blind. Why did he assume that position? It was the position of greatest strength.

77. 35:50

    And until we find ourselves in that position, we will never understand. When he said, not my will, but thine be done, what he's showing us is that the very last vestige of his will had to be given to the Father. No. Completely. Utter. There was nothing left. There was no more I. Do we think the Lord never had a will?

78. 36:29

    Of course he did. Hebrews 5.7. You don't do that if you don't have your own will. And so when I've got a problem and I pace the floor back and forward and I don't want to give it to God and I'm confused and I don't know what to do with it. What is my position of greatest strength?

79. 37:03

    Have you ever done this? When you have no answer and all you want to do is go your own way and you read the book and it tells you you can't go your own way. But you think you can.

80. 37:23

    Jesus was our example in everything. When you're reduced to tears, lie face down on the ground. Don't worry who's coming with a band of soldiers.

81. 37:44

    Forget about it. It was his will that had to be given over to his father. It is our position of surrender. Philippians chapter 2 says, He made himself of no reputation and took upon himself the form of a servant. He's the greatest man that ever lived. If we don't get that out of the Garden of Gethsemane, we've misunderstood what the soldier should be.

82. 38:28

    And we'll struggle with this every day of our lives. And we will look for friends that will fail us. And we will feel alone and desperate and isolated.

83. 38:47

    I want to ask you this question. Who's in control of the angels now? Anyone know? Can you tell me? To whom are the angels subject now?

84. 39:07

    No one knows. 1 Peter 3 verse 22. They're in subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ. What is the role of the angels? Hebrews 1 verse 14. Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to those who shall be heirs of salvation? Do you think that when you've been reduced to the position of surrender, face down on the floor, and you've prayed, and you have no answer, do you think he doesn't know that?

85. 39:47

    Do you think when he said to his disciples, I will never leave you or forsake you, lo, I am with you to the end of the age? Do you think the Lord who lay face down in the Garden of Gethsemane doesn't understand when we can't cope and has never sent an angel to help you?

86. 40:09

    That's what the angels are there for. That's why they're there. They're ministering spirits for those who shall be heirs of salvation. The position of the Garden of Gethsemane is a position of absolute trust in his Father. It had to be that way.

87. 40:45

    He knew Judas was coming. And before Judas ever got there, he had resigned himself to what must take place. Peter, James and John, they really couldn't comprehend what was happening. Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. He finally came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy, like us.

88. 41:33

    He left them and went away again and prayed the third time, saying the same words, repeating over and over again, so that eventually all of those words would just resolve till his will became one with the Father. and as he finally gave the last vestige of his will,

89. 42:11

    there's some strange words in the Gospel of Matthew 26, verse 45. It says, he came to his disciples and said to them, sleep on now. And that seems to be completely out of context. When you read the Diaglott, it poses a question, are you sleeping now? What do you mean by sleeping now?

90. 42:33

    Behold, the hour is at hand. Having been strengthened, having given his will over, he now stood up, like Daniel did in Daniel 10, and he stands and he says, the hour is at hand and in the distance you can hear the soldiers. And he can see the flickering torchlight. And he gathers to him his disciples.

91. 43:07

    Rise, let us be going. So they get up, they shake themselves, they look at the Lord and they don't know what's happening. It's beyond them. The hand of him that betrays me is coming.

92. 43:33

    What does he mean? And they're like that when you're suddenly woken out of sleep. And so they follow him. And as they're about to leave the garden,

93. 43:55

    Judas arrives with swords and stones and a band of soldiers. and they're