INTRODUCTION:

1. Our Lord’s words to His disciples, recorded in Luke 22:35-38, are not recorded by Matthew, Mark, or John.
2. Our Lord began His warning by contrasting what would soon happen with happier times in the earlier days of their ministry together (22:35-37).
3. Before they went out without purse (money bag), and without scrip (travel bag), and even without shoes, and yet they lacked nothing (22:35).
4. But now they would need a purse and scrip, “and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one” (22:36).  Our Lord was warning them to be prepared for trouble.
5. Albert Barnes said, “The Saviour says the times are changed. Before, he sent them out only for a little time. They were in their own country. Their journeys would be short, and there was no need that they should make preparation for a long absence, or for encountering great dangers. But now they were to go into the wide world, among strangers, trials, dangers, and wants. And as the time was near; as he was about to die; as these dangers pressed on, it was proper that they should make provision for what was before them.”
6. In verse 37, our Lord quoted Isaiah 53:12.
7. “Here are two swords” (22:38). Apparently only two of the disciples had swords with them. 
8. It is not clear what Jesus meant when He said, “It is enough” (22:38).  He did not say, “The two swords are enough," but "it is enough." Perhaps our Lord simply meant, “Enough has been said for now.”
9. Some Christians believe that is wrong for preachers or missionaries to carry weapons, but Jesus told His disciples to get a sword, even if it meant they had to sell their garments to buy one (22:36).

1. THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE
2. THE BETRAYAL
3. THE ARREST

 

I. THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE (22:39)

1. Luke 22:39 says, Jesus “went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him.”
2. Matthew 26:36 says, “Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane.”
3. Mark 14:32 says, “And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane.”
4. John 18:1 says, Jesus “went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.”
5. Luke 22:39 says our Lord prayed regularly at the garden called Gethsemane.
6. And because our Lord went there often, Judas knew where to find Him (22:47, 48).
7. John 18:2 says, “And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples.”
8. Our Lord told His disciples to pray, and then He Himself went off alone to pray (Luke 22:40, 41).
9. Luke’s account is condensed. Matthew and Mark say that our Lord prayed three times, and returned three times to the disciples, each time finding them asleep (cf. Matthew 26:39-46).
10. Luke’s account is shorter and he skips over some of that (22:42-46). However, even though Luke’s account is shorter, he is the only one who mentions the ministering angel who came down from heaven to strengthen Him (22:43).
11. Our Lord anticipated the awful suffering which He knew was soon to come. But our Lord was obedient and submissive to the will of God the Father (22:42).
12. Hebrews 5:7, 8 says, “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; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.”
13. The “cup” (22:42) in both the Old Testament and in the book of Revelation represents the wrath of God (cf. Psalm 11:6; Rev. 14:10; 16:19).
14. W.H. Griffith Thomas said, “His holy soul shrank from contact of sin and horror of being abandoned by God” (Outline Studies in Luke).
15. Here the “cup” (22:42) refers to our Lord’s intense suffering. 
16. Our Lord said to James and John and their mother, “Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” (Matthew 20:22).
17. By asking God to remove the cup – “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” – our Lord was asking God the Father if there were any other way to save sinners apart from going to the cross.
18. Heaven was silent because there was no other way for sinners to be saved.
19. W.H. Griffith Thomas said, as a man our Lord needed Divine help as we do.  “True answer to His prayer was not removal of load, but strength to bear it..”
20. We get some indication of the intensity of our Lord’s feelings when we read that, “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44).
21. Only Luke the physician mentions these sweat drops like blood.
22. We often sing:
    
    Lest I forget Gethsemane,
    Lest I forget Thine agony;
    Lest I forget Thy love for me,
    Lead me to Calvary. – Jennie E. Hus­sey
23. This is the only time we see the word “agony” in the Bible (22:44).

 

II. THE BETRAYAL (22:47, 48)

1. A few weeks ago, I preached a message entitled, “Satan Entered into Judas” (Luke 22:3), so I do not need to go over all of that again.
2. Judas’ kiss was a signal to the temple guards (22:47, 48).
3. Matthew 26:48, 49 says, “Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him.”
4. This tells us that in His humanity our Lord looked like an ordinary Galilean.
5. Now, in His exalted state, He looks different. The apostle John saw the resurrected Christ on the Isle of Patmos, and wrote, “His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters” (Revelation 1:14, 15).
6. Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss (Luke 22:48).  Proverbs 27:6 says, “the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”

 

III. THE ARREST

1. Apparently, the disciples misunderstood Jesus when He told them to get swords (22:36).  They thought the swords were to keep Him from being arrested (22:49-51).
2. But this was not the time to use the sword.  Our Lord was on His way to the cross, just as He had often told them (cf. 18:31-34).
3. Luke does not say which disciple cut off the servant’s ear (22:50), but John 18:10 says it was Peter.  He may have intended to cut off his head.
4. John 18:10 also says, “The servant's name was Malchus.”
5. A few minutes later, Peter would deny even knowing Jesus (22:54-57).
6. Later, one of Malchus’ relatives recognized Peter, and again Peter lied and denied Christ (John 18:26, 27).
7. Healing the servant’s ear is the last recorded miracle of Christ before the cross (Luke 22:51).
8. When we consider the events surrounding our Lord’s betrayal and arrest and trial and crucifixion, we emphasize that this was all part of God’s plan of salvation.
9. Romans 5:8 says, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
10. This was God’s plan. Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, “nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42).
11. And yet, sinful men (Judas Iscariot, the corrupt Jewish religious leaders, the howling mob, Pontius Pilate, Herod, and the Roman soldiers, etc.) were all responsible for what they did (cf. Acts 2:23; 3:13-19; 4:24-28).
12. In Luke 22:53, Jesus said to the men arresting Him, “But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.” 
13. The “power of darkness” is the power of Satan and his demons.
14. Only Luke records those words.

 

CONCLUSION:

1. J. Vernon McGee said, “Many people glibly sing, ‘I’ll go with Him through the garden.’ I cannot go with Him through the garden. The Lord Jesus left His disciples outside the garden. I will stay outside with them, and peer over the wall into the darkness and listen to the travail of His soul.”
2. Our Lord wanted His disciples to pray (Luke 22:40, 46). We must pray, because “the power of darkness” (22:53) is very fierce today.
3. News report: “Witches across the country gathered together at midnight on Friday to cast a spell on President Donald Trump seeking to remove him from office. The witches have pledged to cast a spell under each crescent moon until Trump is no longer president” (FOX News, Feb. 25, 2017).