Gethsemane, Gabbatha & Golgotha - Mark 14:1-15:47

Gethsemane, Gabbatha & Golgotha

Mark 14:1-15:47

I.            Gethsemane, Mk 14:32-42; John 17:1-26

The Garden of Gethsemane, which was just east of Jerusalem on the hillside of the Mount of Olives, was a favorite retreat for Jesus, where He would go frequently for rest, prayer and fellowship with His Disciples. After Jesus had eaten the Passover meal with His disciples, they went out to the Garden of Gethsemane, where the Lord, as it were, surrounds Himself with two rings of prayer-supporters, as a king in battle might be surrounded by his bodyguards. As they enter, Jesus leaves eight of the disciples at the entrance and goes further within with the three, who were His closest companions. To these three, Peter, James and John, the Lord revealed something of the inner struggle that was His: this is one of the points of His life at which we see how real the temptations in the wilderness were. It is at this point when we see most dramatically the humanity of Jesus. For if, He were not fully human just as we are He could not have been the perfect sacrifice for sin and it’s because of His humanity and the experiences that He encountered, that He is able to be our great High Priest. This picture of our Lord gives added meaning to Hebrews 4:15, when it says:

“For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”

Now let us go to the garden and see our Savior!

A.       His Sorrow, Mk 14:33-34

Isa 53:3-4  “He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.  4  Surely our grief’s, He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried.”

Isaiah said the Messiah would be a man of sorrows and Mark graphically describes the characteristics of His sorrow in his gospel narrative. Jesus’ sorrow was characterized as follows:

1.      Astonishment, vs. 33

“And He took with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be very distressed.”

a.      The word’s “very distressed” or “sore amazed” is the translation of a Greek word that literally means, “To throw into amazement or terror.”

b.      Many times Jesus had talked of His passion with His disciples as He foresaw that event, but when it came clearly into view, its terror exceeded His human anticipations and He came overwhelmed by the stark reality of it.

c.      In the very shadow of the cross, as it loomed ever larger before Him, He poured out His inner most feelings to the Father.

2.      Apprehension

a.      To be apprehensive means to “have a fearful or uneasy anticipation of the future.

b.      Jesus was not looking forward to this moment even though it was for this very moment that He came.

3.      Anguish

a.      The word “troubled” in the NASB is also variously translated as “deeply grieved or exceedingly sorrowful and the Greek word describes an “agonizing physical or mental pain, torment or torture.”

b.      In Luke 22:44 he describes it like this, “And being in agony He was praying very fervently and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.”

c.      Jesus was under intense agonizing physical and emotional pain and we can well imagine that the forces of evil were tearing at Jesus’ soul and tempting Him to use His divine power to stop the crucifixion.

B.       His Submission, Mk 14:35-36

Philippians 2:8 “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

1.      The Hour had Finally Came, vs. 35

a.      Jesus falls to the ground and begins to pray to the Father, “that this hour might pass Him by.”

b.      Throughout His ministry Jesus had long looked forward to this “hour” and had often mentioned it (John 7:30; 8:20; 12:23, 27; 13:1), but now that it has finally arrived He is filled with dread.

c.      The phrase “the hour” simply refers to Christ’s ultimate end, the crucifixion and His death. There is more to Christ’s anguish than merely the thought of death, but rather His anguish is due to the kind of death that He would die, that death in which He was forsaken by God and in which God made Him to be sin for us.

2.      The Cup He Didn’t Want to Drink, vs. 36

a.      Then Jesus prays asking the Father “to remove this cup from Him.”

b.      Gloria Gather once described “the cup” quite graphically at a concert where she was introducing the song  “It is Finished”, in order to help the audience grasp what it signified and why at first Jesus’ natural response was to shrink away from it.

“If you could feel on your wrists and your ankles the chains

Of every slave in every dungeon in history.

“If you could feel on your chin the thud of the fist

Of every slave who’s ever taken a beating.

“If you could know the hell of every war.

“If you could know the guilt and shame of every husband

who’s ever cheated on his wife,

“Every wife who’s ever cheated on her husband,

“Every parent who’s ever abused a child,

“Every child who’s ever betrayed a parent.

“If you could kneel with every mother beside every little five year old

to whom she’s had to explain why daddy doesn’t love us any more.

“If you could know the guilt of every murderer, every liar,

every deceiver, every cheat who’s ever lived,

“Then maybe you would know a little bit about what was in the cup.

AND HE DRANK IT ALL!”

c.      But then after pouring out His inner most feelings Jesus ended His prayer by saying, “Yet not what I will, but what Thou wilt.”

d.      Yes, “I came to do thy will!” was the motto of His entire life.

C.       His Supplication: “The Lord’s Prayer”, John 17:1-26

1.      Prays for Himself, vs. 1-5

a.      Jesus starts His prayer with the only personal petition in the entire prayer; He asks, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You.”

b.      Yet even this small petition is not a selfish act, His only reason for asking to be glorified is so that the Father will be ultimately glorified through Him.

c.      The following is from William Barclay’s commentary on John 17, For Jesus life had a climax, and that was the Cross. To him the Cross was the glory of life and the way to the glory of eternity. What did Jesus mean when he repeatedly spoke of the Cross as his glory and his glorification? There is more than one answer to that question.

1)     It is one of the facts of history that again and again it was in death that the great ones found their glory.

(i)       It was when they died, and how they died, which showed people what and who they really were. They may have been misunderstood, undervalued, condemned as criminals in their lives, but their deaths showed their true place in the scheme of things.

(ii)      Abraham Lincoln had his enemies during his lifetime; but even those who had criticized him saw his greatness when he died. Someone came out of the room where Lincoln lay, after the assassin's shot had killed him, saying: "Now he belongs to the ages." Stanton, his war minister, who had always regarded Lincoln as crude and uncouth and who had taken no pains to conceal his contempt, looked down at his dead body with tears in his eyes. "There lies," he said, "the greatest ruler of men the world has ever seen."

(iii)    Joan of Arc was burned as a witch and a heretic by the English. Amidst the crowd there was an Englishman who had sworn to add a faggot to the fire. "Would that my soul," he said, "were where the soul of that woman is!" One of the secretaries of the King of England left the scene saying: "We are all lost because we have burned a saint."

(iv)   Again and again a martyr's majesty has appeared in death. It was so with Jesus, for even the centurion at the foot of the Cross was left saying: "Truly this was the Son of God" (Matt.27:54). The Cross was the glory of Jesus because he was never more majestic than in his death. The Cross was his glory because its magnet drew men to him in a way that even his life had never done--and it is so yet.

2)     Further, the Cross was the glory of Jesus because it was the completion of his work. "I have accomplished the work," he said, "which You gave me to do." For him to have stopped short of the Cross would have been to leave his task uncompleted.

3)     There is another question--how did the Cross glorify God?

(i)       The only way to glorify God is to obey him. A child brings honour to his parents when he brings them obedience. A citizen brings honour to his country when he obeys it. A scholar brings honour to his teacher when he obeys his master's teaching.

(ii)      Jesus brought glory and honour to God by his perfect obedience to him

(iii)    As we look at Jesus in the last days, we are bound to say: "See how he loved God! See to what lengths his obedience would go!" He glorified God on the Cross by rendering the perfect obedience of perfect love.

4)     But there is still more. Jesus prayed to God to glorify him and to glorify himself.

(i)       The Cross was not the end. There was the Resurrection to follow. This was the vindication of Jesus.

(ii)      It was the proof that men could do their worst, and that Jesus could still triumph.

(iii)    It was as if God pointed at the Cross and said: "That is what men think of my Son," and then pointed at the resurrection and said: "That is what I think of my Son."

(iv)   The Cross was the worst that men could do to Jesus; but not all their worst could conquer him. The glory of the resurrection obliterated the shame of the Cross.

5)     For Jesus the Cross was the way back.

(i)       "Glorify me," he prayed, "with the glory which I had before the world began."

(ii)      He was like a knight who left the king's court to perform some perilous and awful deed, and who, having performed it, came home in triumph to enjoy the victor's glory.

(iii)    Jesus came from God, and returned to him. The exploit between his coming forth and his going back was the Cross. For him, therefore, it was the gateway to glory; and, if he had refused to pass through it, there would have been no glory for him to enter into. For Jesus the Cross was his return to God.

2.      Prays for His Disciples, vs. 11-21

a.      For their protection, vs. 11-14

b.      For their sanctification, vs. 15-19

c.      For their unity, vs. 21

3.      Prays for You and Me, vs. 20-26

a.      Jesus did not pray for the apostles only, but for all who shall be converted under the preaching of the gospel.

b.      Jesus prayer for YOU that day.

c.      What was his prayer for the Church which was to be? It was that all its members would be one as he and his Father are one.

d.      What was that unity for which Jesus prayed?

1)     It was not a unity of administration or organization; it was not in any sense an ecclesiastical unity.

2)     It was a unity of personal relationship. We have already seen that the union between Jesus and God was one of love and obedience.

3)     It was a unity of love for which Jesus prayed, a unity in which men loved each other because they loved him, a unity based entirely on the relationship between heart and heart.

II.         Gabbatha, Matthew 26:57-68; 27:11-26; Mark 14:53-65; 15:1-15; Luke 22:66-23:25; John 18:12-24; 18:28-19:15

Gabbatha (John 19:13) is the Hebrew word, for the name of the place in Jerusalem where Jesus was officially sentenced to death. The word literally means “pavement”, it was a large paved area just outside the governor’s palace. Prior to this final sentencing however, Jesus had to undergo six different trial proceedings, as He was quickly and illegally, shuffled back and forth from one authority to the next. They at last had Jesus in their hands but no one person wanted to be solely responsible for His execution.

Two of the greatest champions of human rights, Jewish and Roman law, met in a most tragic injustice—the mistrial of Jesus of Nazareth. The Jewish leaders were blinded by their determination to be rid of Jesus and the Roman government yielded to fear of reprisals. Together they represent both the religious and secular worlds, which, too often have been plunged by selfish interests into rejection of their Lord.

There were two stages in Jesus’ trial, one before the Jewish court and the other before the Roman court. Each stage had three phases each, so that Jesus appeared before six hearings.

A.       The Jewish Trial

1.      Preliminary Examination before Annas, John 18:12-14, 19-24

a.      Annas, is referred to as the high priest in v. 19 and in vs. 13 he is referred to as the father-in-law of the high priest, which is Caiaphas.

b.      Annas was high priest from 6 to 15 AD, but as long as he lived he was the virtual head of the priestly party in Jerusalem. Five of his sons succeeded him to the office and also his son-in-law. During each of his sons tenure he shared in the dignity and power of that office.

c.      This gives us an idea of how powerful and influential this man was, for it was the Roman government that elected the high priest during Roman rule.

d.      It appears that during this preliminary hearing that Jesus was only interrogated concerning his followers and his teaching.

e.      The purpose was to gain evidence for the trial. Jesus insisted in effect in vs. 21 that the trial begin with examination of the witnesses, not with probing of the accused.

2.      The Night Trial before Caiaphas, Mat 26:57, 59-68; Mk 14:53, 55-65; Lk 22:54, 63-65; Jn 18:24

a.      With Caiaphas, proceeding the whole Jewish council or Sanhedrin assembled for an informal trial.

b.      The religious leaders at this point were breaking their own laws, as was their custom when it benefited them, for it was unlawful to hold a trial at night.

c.      Their motive for trying Jesus was not for justice, they were solely motivated by envy and hatred of him and plotted how they might destroy him.

d.      The Jewish leaders began to search frantically for witnesses who would bear false testimony against Jesus (vs. 59, Mk 14:56). Again the Jewish leaders were breaking their own laws (Dt 19:15-20).

e.      In a move of desperation, the high priest put Jesus under oath and Jesus freely admitted that he was the Messiah, the son of God.

f.       Upon this confession, the whole council condemned him to death by common consent, though he was not officially sentenced. The charge was blasphemy.

3.      The Morning Session before the Sanhedrin, Mt 27:1; Mk 15:1; Lk 22:66-71; 23:1

a.      The next morning the council convenes again probably for the sole purpose to give a semblance of legality to the decision of the night before.

b.      Here they formally charged him with blasphemy and prepared to hand him over to Pilate, whom they thought would carry out their demands with no questions asked.

B.       The Roman Trial

1.      Examination & Acquittal before Pilate, Mt 27:2, 11-14; Mk 15:1-5; Lk 23:1-4; Jn 18:28-28

a.      Attempted Evasion, Jn 18:29-32

1)     Pilate did not care to get mixed up in the Jews religious squabbles, the charge of blasphemy mattered none to him.

2)     The Jews hinted strongly that Pilate should yield to them the right of trial and exercise only his right of execution.

3)     Verse 32 refers to the fact that if the Jews killed Jesus it would have been by stoning not crucifixion.

b.      Accusations, Lk 23:1-3

1)     If Jesus was to be tried and sentenced by Rome then a new case had to be made, for Rome was not interested in charges of blasphemy.

2)     The Jewish leaders quickly came up with three false accusations, of which Pilate was only concerned with the last.

(i)       Misleading the nation

(ii)      Preventing the paying of tribute to Caesar

(iii)    He is a king, implying insurrection

c.      Pilate examines Jesus Concerning the charge of him being the King of the Jews, Jn 18:33-38.

1)     Pilate confronted Jesus with the charge and Jesus freely admitted the truth of the statement.

2)     Jesus now explains the nature of His kingship, that it is not physical but spiritual, otherwise his servants would fight.

3)     After convincing Pilate that he was no threat to Caesar, as far as a rival king, Pilate pronounces him innocent.

2.      Referred to Herod Antipas, Lk 23:5-11

a.      But the Jews would not hear of it and kept insisting of his guilt, then someone cried out that he was from Galilee, which gave Pilate and idea.

b.      If he was a Galilean then he was under Herod’s jurisdiction; Pilate was hoping to get out of an unpleasant situation.

c.      Jesus was then shuffled off before Herod, who really did not try Jesus, for he considered him no more than an entertainer or magician.

d.      Herod not wishing to get involved in a treason trial sends Jesus back to Pilate.

3.      The Final Appearance before Pilate, Mt 27:15-26; Mk 15:6-15; Lk 23:13-25; Jn 18:39-19:16

a.      Evasion of the issue did not solve Pilate’s problem, so he tried once more to release Jesus by appealing to a Passover custom, of releasing one prisoner.

b.      But the people cried out, “Give us Barabbas” and crucify Jesus.

c.      Pilate then had Jesus scourged in an attempt that this punishment might appease the crowd, but they were all the more insistent.

d.      Pilate releases Jesus to the Jews to be crucified and again states that he finds no guilt in him and that he is innocent of “this man’s blood.”

C.       What can be learned about facing Christian trials from Jesus’ example?

a.      First, Jesus recognized a higher authority than Pilate was in control, Jn 19:10-11. We may not always understand the reasons for a certain situation and many times may feel unjustly treated, but God is ultimately in control of all things.

b.      Secondly, Jesus did not let the hatred of the Jews incite Him to anger and to cry out against the injustices perpetuated against him.

c.      Thirdly, Jesus was keenly aware of the principle that King Solomon stated in Ecc. 3:1, 7b:

Ecc 3:1-7 “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven… a time to be silent and a time to speak.”

d.      Lastly, have you settled the question that Pilate put to the people in Mt 27:22, when he said, “What shall I do then with Jesus, who is called Christ?”

1)     Are you going to follow him no matter what?

2)     Or, are you going to reject his kingship over your life?

III.      Golgotha, Mk 15:22-40

Golgotha is the Hebrew name for the place where Jesus was crucified. The word means “skull”, which may have reference to the hill looking like a skull or because it was a common place of execution. The word we are most familiar with is “Calvary”, which is the Latin word for skull.

Golgotha was where our Lord was crucified and where he died on behalf of sinful man. While on the cross many different events took place. I want to concentrate on just one of these and examine the significance of it. Just before Jesus died, He said, “It Is Finished.” The Greek word translated “finish” literally means, “to bring to completion, or accomplishment; to bring to an end.”

A.       Accomplishments of Christ’s Death

1.      Salvation, Matthew 1:21

a.      In Luke 1:31 the angel Gabriel said to Mary, “and you shall call His name Jesus”.

b.      The name “Jesus” means “God is Salvation or simply “Savior”.

c.      Matthew 1:21 sums up Jesus’ primary mission when he says, “He will save his people from their sin”.

d.      In Matthew 1:23, when God appeared to Joseph in a dream, it says, “and they shall call his name Immanuel”.

e.      The word “Immanuel” means “God with us”. The big theological term is the “Incarnation”, meaning “God in the flesh”.

f.       Jesus, was to be His personal name, but Immanuel described who He was.

2.      Substitute, John 1:29

 “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

a.      Christ’s death was substitutionary.

b.      In other words, Christ died for me. Because of the love of God, God did not want to exact the penalty of death to all mankind, because of their sin.

c.      Instead, God became flesh, in order to take our place, and that believing in Him we would have the benefits of that sacrifice bestowed to us.

d.      John says, “Who takes away the sin of the world.”

e.      In the OT sacrificial system on the Day of Atonement, there were two lambs to be used. One was slain as the sacrifice.

f.       But the other one was called “a scapegoat”. The priest would place his hands on the top of the lamb and symbolically transfer the sins of the people to that lamb.

g.      Then the lamb was far driven into the wilderness, signifying the taking away of the people’s sins.

3.      Ransom, Matt. 20:28

“The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

a.      The word translated “ransom” is the one commonly employed in Roman culture as the price paid for a slave, who is then set free, by the one who bought him.

b.      The story of the Exodus is the OT equivalent, when God redeemed His people from Egyptian slavery. That’s when the Passover was instituted, as an everlasting memorial, so that the people would not forget what God had done.

c.      The story of Hosea and his wife Gomer is another great example.

4.      Propitiation, 1 John 2:2

“He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”

a.      The root meaning of the word is “to appease, make conciliation”. Meaning that because of sin we are estranged from God and His righteous anger must be appeased, which requires a sacrifice.

b.      Romans 5:10 says, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.”

c.      The word is synonymous with “atonement”, which primarily means “to cover”.

d.      The covering of the ark of the covenant was called the “mercy seat” or “covering”, the place of atonement.

e.      Psalm 32:1 says, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”

B.       Benefits of Christ’s Death

1.      Justification

a.      Galatians 2:21 says, “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”

b.      Justification is the judicial act of God, by which he pardons all the sins of those who believe in Christ.

c.      In addition to the pardon of sin, justification declares that all the claims of the law are satisfied in respect of the justified. It is the act of a judge and not of a sovereign. The law is not relaxed or set aside, but is declared to be fulfilled in the strictest sense; and so the person justified is declared to be entitled to all the advantages and rewards arising from perfect obedience to the law.

d.      Justification is synonymous with righteousness, to be declared right before God.

2.      Adoption, Gal. 4:4-6

“But, when the completion of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba, Father!"

a.      Paul is the only writer to use the metaphor “adoption” in describing our relationship to God. He only uses it on five occasions. Because it is a familiar word in Roman Law.

b.      The Roman concept of adoption is that the adoptee was taken out of his previous state and was placed in a new relationship of son to his new father.

c.      One of the results of adoption was that all the debts, obligations, and liabilities of the adoptee were extinguished by the adoption.

d.      And in effect the adoptee started a new life as part of his new family.

e.      In Roman law that person was legally considered a real son of the new father and as such he obtained a new birth right guaranteeing him of all the privileges of natural sons.

f.       He would share in the father’s inheritance. What ever the father had would be equally distributed among his sons, both natural and adopted.

g.      Example of Ben Hur movie.

3.      Sanctification, 1 Cor. 6:11

“Some of you were like this; but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

a.      Sanctification literally means “to make holy”, that is, to separate from the world and consecrate to God.

b.      The word “holy” has two distinct aspects to it.

1)     First it means to “set apart”. To be holy means you have given yourself to God you are set yourself apart totally to God.

(i)       I assume when you built this church building that you had a dedication, in which you were set aside the building for God’s use only, as a house of worship and as a place of ministry.

(ii)      Therefore, this church is Holy and that should be remembered whenever we walk into, that we are walking on holy ground.

2)     Secondly, it means to separate one’s self from all that is unholy.

(i)       We are no longer of the world, even though we still live in the world, but we are separated from the world and set apart to God.

(ii)      We are Holy, not in moral perfection, but by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

(iii)    But, that Spirit can be quenched whenever we participate in unholy conduct.

4.      Regeneration, 2 Cor. 5:17

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

a.      The word literally means “a new birth” and as Jesus told Nicodemus, “you must be born again.”

b.      Look at the word “new” in the Corinthian passage; there are two words in Greek for “new”:

1)     The first is “new in time”. I have a new car, well cars are not you, but the one you just bought has never been driven, so it is new in that sense.

2)     The second word for “new” is “new in kind”, something that has never existed before. The first automobile ever made was new in kind.

c.      In Christ we have be changed into something that has never existed before, our total being was transformed or regenerated into something new.

d.      And, because of that “the old things have passed away”. Our old person is dead in Christ.

e.      1 John gives four marks of regeneration:

1)     1 John 3:9 says, “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” Cannot sin, means a person can continue in constant state of sin.

2)     1 John 3:14 says, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.” Jesus said, “they will know you are Christians by your love.”

3)     1 John 5:1 says, “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.”

4)     1 John 5:4 “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith.”