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Watch 2022-2023 online sermons » Robert Morris » Robert Morris - From Galilee to Gethsemane - Part 1

Robert Morris - From Galilee to Gethsemane - Part 1


Robert Morris - From Galilee to Gethsemane - Part 1

Hey, everyone. We have a very special show for you today because just a while back some friends and I went to Israel. We went to the Sea if Galilee, we went to the Southern Steps, to the Garden of Gethsemane, and at every place I share with them what God did at that place and some insights that the Lord showed me through Scripture and today I'm going to take you to the land Israel. I'll see you there.

This is like a little tunnel that you don't realize that when the wind comes from the north, and comes through here, this can get very, very, they say sometimes at least three to four foot waves, and of course, the captain, here would help? Ten-feet waves. And they weren't in this boat, they weren't in that, and they didn't have a motor. They were in a boat like you saw in the museum. You know, a very small boat. And they didn't have life jackets. They didn't go swimming. They didn't have swimming pools in their backyards. They didn't grow up on the water like we did. None of that. Every time you went on the water, it was a scary thing, and when a storm came, it was very scary. So they were scared.

Here's the great thing about that story. It's a storm, and Jesus is sleeping. He's sleeping. You're talking about no fear, and why would He have fear? He's the Son of God. But here's the other thing you got to think about. Why would the disciples have fear with Jesus is in the boat? He wakes up, He rebukes the wind and the waves, and immediately, it's still. Immediately. That is the first time, some of you may not realize this theologically, That's the first time that the disciples said, "Truly, You are the Son of God". They didn't say that when He fed the 5.000. They didn't say that when He healed the sick, or even when He raised the dead. The first time they ever said it was, "Nature obeys You". Nature obeys You. Truly, You're the Son of God. That happened right here on this water, in a boat.

And here we are, set in this water. This is the lake, the sea, where Jesus walked on. Think about that. I mean, think about being in a boat, in a storm, and Jesus coming. One of the statements that I make when I preach on Matthew 14, is the same waves that were over the disciple's heads were under the Master's feet. So no matter what you're going through, if you just think about it, the same waves that are coming against your business, or your family, that seems to be over your head, they're still under His feet. And the same wind that's coming against you is still obedient to His voice. So even if there's a storm, and He hasn't stopped it yet, He hasn't taught you what He needs to teach you in that storm, but He's going to.

The other thing that I like about this area is after the crucifixion, Peter says, "I'm going back to what I know I can do". And let's not talk about business, or vocational ministry, or things like that. Let's just think about how many times we all say, "I'm going back to how I know to run things". I've been trying to run it this way, been trying to do the Christian thing, it's not working, but I know how to build a company, I know how to do this, I'm going back to what I know, how to do it. That's basically what Peter said, "I'm going back to doing it the way I know how to do it". And then, they fish all night, they don't catch anything, and then Jesus, standing on the shore, says, "Have you caught anything"? You know? And they say, "No". And He says, "Throw your net on the other side of the boat". Well, come on, you know? And then, they catch 153 fish, you know? And John, then, says, "It's the Lord".

Peter, I mean, recognized that. And Peter jumps in the water, and swims to the shore. Here's the other thing that I like. Jesus already had fish on a fire. I mean, so many things you just don't think about, but if you think about it, where did He get the fish? I mean, you know? He's already got provision, that's the point. He's already got it, it's all taken care of. So when we come to a place like this, I just want it to kind of sink into us, that our Lord was here. Our Lord became a human being, and He was on this water, He walked on this land, He cast right over here at Gadara, you know, this man, the Gadarene Demoniac, Gadara is one of the ten Greek cities, that's not a Jewish city. Greek city, that's why they had pigs.

Some creatures you'll hear will say, you know, "They shouldn't have had pigs, 'cause they were Jews". They weren't Jews, so. They were Greeks, and they were from Decapolis, deka, meaning ten, polis, meaning city. Ten cities, you know. So, anyway. And that man lived in a cemetery, unclothed. He had been bound with chains, he broke the chains. We're talking about a man bound by demons. I forget right now the exact number, but I think it's around 6.000. A legion was a Roman word that referred to 6.400-and-something soldiers. And so, 6.000 demons, and Jesus cast 'em out just like that. And one of the things I love about that story is it says when he saw Jesus, he ran and worshiped Him. The word worship there, 'proskyneo' in the Greek, means he prostrated himself.

But here's the amazing thing, he had all these demons, and yet, those demons could not stop him from worshiping Jesus. That's just such a great truth, no matter how bound you are by something, Satan could never stop you coming to Jesus. And Satan can never stop you getting free, if you just come and prostrate yourself at the feet of Jesus. And Jesus casts those demons out immediately. But I just get excited, and we're seeing things, and I just want to just remind you that our Lord, the Son of God, was here, when He came to earth, this is where He came to earth. This is where He walked, this is where He did the majority of His ministry. This is the sea where He said, "Cast your net on the other side". This is the sea He walked on. This is the sea He calmed. It all happened right here.

These are not redone. These were excavated. These were the steps that Jesus walked on when He was here. Now, a couple of things to know about this site. There are three arches over here, you can see in the wall. They're closed now. That was the entrance to the temple. Then an arch over here would have been the exit from the temple. And, Jesus was brought here. This is where Anna prophesied over Him, where Simeon prophesied over Him. He was brought here on the 40th day. If you read, it will say, "When the days of her purification were over, then they took Him to Jerusalem to the holy city to dedicate Him".

Think about when we dedicate our children to the Lord. Okay, that comes from the Bible, and he was dedicated because He was a firstborn male. Firstborn males were dedicated to the Lord. Now, we understand that represents something spiritually, so we would dedicate all of our children to the Lord. But, Joseph and Mary brought Him here, so they're bringing Him up these steps to the temple. And Simeon, this older man, comes up to them, and the Lord had revealed to him he would not die until he saw the consolation of Israel. And he prophesies over a 40-day old baby, that this is the Messiah, this is the One. It's just amazing! He also prophesies over Mary, which a lot of people don't realize. He says that, "This child is destined for the rise and fall of many," prophesying over the nations, but then he turns to Mary - this just kind of breaks my heart to think about it, and says, "A sword is going to pierce your soul," telling her, you know, you're going to be standing one day at the cross of your son.

You don't realize that. Joseph and Mary, I just, I don't think they realized, obviously, all of the things. They were normal, regular people from Bethlehem. Joseph wore a tool belt to work, you know. Mary was a teenager, married to an older man. We know, we're pretty sure - the Bible doesn't tell us, but that Joseph died during Jesus' teenage years. One of the reasons for that is at the cross, Jesus turns to Mary and says about John, "Behold, your son," and says to John, "Behold, your mother". Okay, and it says Mary went home with John and lived until the day of her death with John. Well, she wouldn't have done that if she'd still been married, you know.

So, Joseph was dead. So, it makes me also think about all of the things that Jesus experienced on this earth that we just don't think of the experience, being a human. He experienced, think about this, He experienced putting His arm around His mother and walking away from the grave of her high school sweetheart. He experienced that. He knows, He understands. It's like when Jesus wept when Lazarus died. And so many times we think, well, why would He weep? He's gonna raise him from the dead. I think He wept because He experienced what a human experiences at the loss of a person, a friend, someone they love. And, think about this. He's going to raise him from the dead, yes, but He still experienced death. He experienced Mary and Martha, how they felt. He experienced that. Even then we could say, well, you know, if we lose someone, they're gonna be raised from the dead, too, you know? But still, we experience that loss, so our Lord experienced that.

So, then after Simeon prophesies over him, then Anna comes up, who is a widow. She was married for seven years, and then her husband died. Now, this happens when she's 84 years old, and it says she's been at the temple since she was a widow. She's been at the temple all those years, praying and fasting for all those years, and then she prophesies over Jesus as well, and He's 40-days old. I want it to hit you! I want it to just blow you away! You're touching the steps where Jesus was brought, where these prophecies were.

Now again, 40 days old. We don't hear again of Jesus coming to Jerusalem until He was 12 years old. And when He was 12 years old then, those rabbis you saw, they're, you know, studying the scrolls. Jesus is teaching them the Bible. They've been studying the Bible their whole life, and here this 12 year old boy is teaching them. No, this is what this means. This is what this means. And then when they left, it shows you also kind of the family unit, that when they left, you wonder how did they go days before they noticed Jesus wasn't with them? You would think, any of you would think, well, how would that happen? It's because they just thought He was in the family. There were uncles, and aunts, and cousins, and you know, and possibly John, one of His cousins.

They just figure He's in the family. And then when they come back, and you can just hear them saying - now this again is not in the text, but you can hear them saying, don't do that, don't stray from us, you know? Don't, don't, do... And then He makes one of the most incredible statements in the Bible. He said, "Didn't you know I would be about My Father's business"? "That why would you not know that I would be doing My Father's business"? And He's 12 years old. But, all of that happened. These are the steps. These are the steps that Jesus would go in and out when He would go into the temple, and you're sitting... and these aren't replicas. These are the actual steps that our Lord and Savior walked on.

So, let me share something with you about Jesus that you may never have thought of before, and it goes back to the Garden of Gethsemane, which is where we are right now. God is a triune god, we know that; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three in one. He created us as triune beings. In other words, you have three parts: spirit, soul, and body. Here's what many people have never thought about. God also is spirit, soul, and body. I want you to think about this. "God is Spirit," John 4 says, "and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth". So, God is Spirit. God also has a body. It is a heavenly body that Jesus walked in after the resurrection. He walked through walls, yet He ate. He had a body. They could see Him. He said, "Touch Me".

Yet in the same way they could touch His resurrected body, He was able to walk through a wall. We're going to have resurrected bodies one day. Jesus, when He came to this earth, had a natural body, like we have a natural body - same thing. But, God also has a soul. Your soul is your mind, your will, and your emotions. Think about all of the Scriptures that talk about, "My thoughts toward you are good, not evil". So, God has thoughts, so He has a mind. God has emotions. He talks about, you know, being angry, being grieved. "Don't grieve the Holy Spirit," that's an emotion. Joy - God has all of those emotions.

So, He has a mind, His emotions, but He has a will. And again, we don't think about this, but it's so clear. How many times do we talk about the will of God? The will of God. Now, let me remind you what the word "will" means. The word "will" means desire. That's all it means. As a matter of fact, will is a verb. Someone says, hey, would you like to go to dinner with us next Thursday night? And you say, we will. We will be there at 7:00 at Olive Garden, okay? What you're saying is we desire to be there, 'cause you might not. You might have something come up, you know? So, your will is simply your desire. So, God has a mind, He has thoughts, He has emotions, and He has a desire. That is the only way you'll ever understand the prayer in the garden. Jesus said, "Not My will, but Yours be done".

Now, when I was young, I can remember even as a young Bible student, that Scripture so confused me, because wouldn't you think that the Son's will and the Father's will would be the same? And yet, Jesus has a will. All that means is He had desires. So, He was saying in the garden, not My desire, but Your desire. Why would He say that?

Here's the reason - He was about to go to the cross. I don't think He was thinking about the thorns. I don't think He was thinking about the nails. I don't think He was thinking about the scourging. I don't think that. I'm sure He had some feelings about the physical torture He was gonna go through, but the main torture He was going to go through, for the first time in all eternity - all eternity, God has always existed. For the first time ever, the Father and the Son were going to be separated, and that is when Jesus cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me"? Remember, He says to us, "I will never forsake you. I'll never leave you". So, the word "forsake" means leave. Some people say God turned His back on Him and that's when He saw it. It wasn't that He turned His back on Him, it was that Jesus became a sin offering for us. And when He became sin for us - if you read it in 2 Corinthians, He actually became sin for us. When He became sin, the Father and the Son were separated.

I think the reason Jesus cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?," is not because He didn't know what was going to happen, but because He didn't know how it would feel when it happened. He, for the first time ever, was separated from the Father, but He was separated so that we would never be separated. The reason God can say, "I will never forsake you," is because He forsook His Son, that's the reason. So, we are in such an eternal covenant, and that eternal covenant, by the way, was patterned after the Abrahamic Covenant and not the Mosaic Covenant. The Mosaic Covenant was I'll do My part, if you do your part. The Abrahamic Covenant was God put Abraham to sleep.

This is just... boy, if you don't understand grace, please catch this. This is phenomenal. God did not even need Abraham to make the covenant. He puts Abraham asleep and a smoking oven, representing the Father, the birth of all life, and a burning torch, representing the Son, the light of the world, passed through the pieces. And what He did was he had Abraham cut the pieces of animals and divide them, and this is what people do when they make a covenant. James, come here and let me... we'll show that, okay. And what we'll do, let's use this. Let's say these are the pieces of the animal. So, there's one half of an animal there, one half there.

So, what James and I would do is we'd walk through the pieces together, then you'd go that way, I would go this way. We'd come back around to here. That's how you made a covenant. What you were saying is, is that you and I are being joined now by blood, and we're going to walk together, but if your way ever takes you one way and my way takes me another way, because we are now joined by blood, we will always come back together. Follow me? That's the covenant God made with Abraham. So, but here's what happened. Abraham was asleep. So, the Father and the Son show up, and they walk through the pieces. It says the smoking oven and the burning torch passed through the pieces. So, the Father and the Son make the covenant and they come back together. Abraham believes and gets in on the covenant. You follow me?

So, what many people don't realize is God really didn't make a covenant with you, He made a covenant with His Son. The Father made a covenant with the Son. That's why it says even if we deny Him, He won't deny us because He can't deny Himself. So, the Father makes a covenant with the Son. I believe, I get graphed in. Actually, in Colossians, says, "I'm in Christ". So, I'm in Christ. So, it's phenomenal! And I'm also... Jesus said you're in My hand and You're in the Father's hand, and nobody can get you out of Our hands, you know? You're safe, you're secure. Just because it's grace! If it had to do with works at all, we would have all lost our salvation already. Every one of us would have already lost our salvation. And Romans says "If it's grace," which grace is a gift, "then it cannot be works". Works are earned. So, if it's a gift, it cannot be earned. And he says, but now if it's earned, it can't be a gift. But, obviously the whole content there is it's a gift.

Remember, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God," and that word, "gift," in some versions will even say "free gift," because it implies it's free. Otherwise, it's not a gift if it's not free. So, Jesus purchased this for us, so we come in. So, in the garden, Jesus prays this prayer: "Not My will, but Yours be done". In other words, not My desire, now here's what I think He was saying. My desire is if there's any other way that mankind could be reunited to You than for You and I to be separated, please let it happen. But if not, and here's the way He said it, "Let this cup pass from Me". In that cup, in my opinion, were not the thorns, the spikes, not that. In that cup were the sins of the world.

And Jesus knew, when I drink this cup... you know, He even said before, are you willing to drink? Are you able to drink the cup that I'm gonna drink, to James and John, you know. And in essence then, it's a rhetorical question. He said, "You're not gonna be able to do that. You can't do that; only I can do that. Because I'm sinless, I'm the only One that can take the sin of mankind on Me". So, I think in the garden when He said, "If there's any other way, then let this cup, which are the sins of the world, pass from me. But if not, not My will, not My desire. My desire, Father, is that You and I never be separated". It's hard for us to imagine what the Son and the Father went through when for the first time, in all of eternity, they were separated. But they were separated so we would never be separated, see? So, that prayer happened right here, and He prayed it three times.

In the Bible, one of the rules of hermeneutics is repetition. When you see something repeated... let me give some Scriptures on it. "In the mouth of two or three witnesses". So, when something's repeated twice, it basically means it's confirmed. When it's repeated three times, it means it's eternal. If you remember, you'll read the angels and the 24 elders fall down before Him and say, "Holy, holy, holy". If you are holy, it is confirmed, and it is confirmed for all eternity. So, Jesus prayed three times, if there's any other way than for you and I to be separated, please let this cup pass from me. But if not, not My desire, but Yours be done - not My will. Okay.

Now, one other thing about the three parts. His body went to the tomb. His Spirit, remember what He said on the cross? "Into Your hands I commend My Spirit". His Spirit went to be with the Father. His soul went to Hades, went to the lower parts of the earth, so that we, our soul, would not have to be separated from God. Do you follow me? So, His soul, His personhood, then went to Hades. That's also where you had the Old Testament saints in a place of waiting, and then those who had not followed God in a place of torment, and that's where He goes in, He walks in. He says to Satan, give me the keys, and He takes the Old Testament saints, He leads them into heaven. This is where the psalmist says, "Open up you everlasting doors," and he says, "that the King of Glory may come in," and they said, "Who is this King"? The angelic protectors, "Who is this King"? And they said, "He is the Lord, strong and mighty. He is the Lord, strong in battle".

And the gates open up and He leads the Old Testament saints into heaven. The whole Bible just so fits together. But there again are the three parts - Jesus praying in the garden, and then giving up His will, which is what all of us have to do to come to Christ, and then His body going to the tomb, and it was in the tomb for those three days - His Spirit going then to the Father, but His soul going to Hades so that we wouldn't have to. So, just a little bit. That's what happened in that prayer here in the garden. "Father, not My will, but Yours be done". If there's any other way than for You and I to be separated, please tell Me now. If there's not, if that's the only way that Our people can be redeemed to Us, then not My will, but Yours be done.

"Not my will, but Yours be done". Jesus Christ himself prays the prayer. So, since Jesus is our Lord, our Savior, our master, the one we follow, doesn't it make sense that we would pray that prayer also? That we would say to God, "Not my will, but Yours be done". I want to encourage you to say that to the Lord today. It might be the first time you've ever said it or it might be the 1000 time, but let's say to Jesus, today, not my will, but Yours be done.
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