This lesson and some of the following lessons may challenge the teacher and the students to consider Jesus from perspectives and vantage points that are new to them [but not new to scripture]. Remember the objective of studying scripture is to think. As you lead these lessons, encourage your class to think.
Jesus was God's perfect human representative. Though he was completely human (Philippians 2:5-8), there was no evil in him (1 Peter 2:21-24). Though he was temptable (Matthew 4:1-11; 16:21-23), he never rebelled against God (Hebrews 4:14,15).
Scripture states Jesus truly was human. It is essential that our faith in God's gift of Jesus to us accepts the fact that Jesus was human. When a person rejects Jesus' humanity, he or she rejects his or her ability to relate Jesus' choices, values, priorities, and behaviors to his or her humanity. Jesus is God's real Savior to us who relates to us as he mediates and advocates for us before God. We can trust his ability to represent us before God because he, too, experienced the struggle of human existence in an evil world.
Jesus knew he was God's representative. He knew representing God was fundamental to his mission as a man on earth (John 6:38; 8:42). Are we searching for God's heart? Look at Jesus. Are we searching for God's priorities? Listen to Jesus. Are we searching for God's values? Understand Jesus' teachings. Do we want to see the importance God places on people? Watch Jesus. Do we want to learn God's definition of humility? surrender? love? forgiveness? repentance? Allow Jesus to teach us.
Jesus was (is) God's perfect representative in human form. All other human's whom God used to lead, speak, or write had to deal with personal evil mistakes. Jesus made no evil mistakes. In all of life, in every situation, God's will totally controlled him. Since he was God's perfect representative in human form, Christians need to give great care to understanding Jesus' definitions and concepts of every spiritual quality including humility, surrender, love, forgiveness, and repentance.
Jesus significantly emphasized this fact: God was in total charge of his human existence. Jesus declared this to be the reason Israel should listen to his teachings and carefully observe his actions: his teachings and actions accurately declared God's intentions and purposes. Jesus knew he was God's representative in human form. God's will, not Jesus' human will, determined all Jesus said and did. In Jesus' human existence, God was unquestionably sovereign. Consider these statements from Jesus:
Jesus teaches us the full scope and meaning of trusting God. A perfect understanding of God's will and purposes determined everything Jesus said and did. All people should seek to understand Jesus' teachings and actions because they declare in human terms and experiences God's intentions and purposes. Jesus' life and behavior reveals in human terms the significance and meaning of human surrender to God's sovereignty.
John 4:34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work."
Jesus was nourished by accomplishing God's purposes.
John 5:19 Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner."
Jesus totally depended on God for his message and behavior.
John 5:30 "I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me."
Jesus refused to substitute his initiative for God's will. He could distinguish between the two.
John 6:38-40 "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."
Jesus understood that his reason for being a human in this world was to do God's will. Jesus would care for every believing person God entrusted to him to the point of resurrecting that person on the last day.
John 8:28 So Jesus said, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me."
For those open to a "new" understanding, the people who observed his life and heard his teachings would realize God was working in him when he was crucified.
John 12:48,49 "He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak."
Because Jesus in no way misrepresented God, rejection of his teachings was (is) a rejection of God.
John 14:10 "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works."
God existed in Jesus and determined what he said and did.
John 14:23,24 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me."
God will live in the person who loves Jesus because Jesus represented God completely and perfectly.
No incident in Jesus' human existence so clearly and definitely demonstrates God's sovereignty in Jesus' life as did his Gethsemane prayers. His Gethsemane experience surrounding and involving those prayers is recorded in Matthew 26:36-46, Mark 14:32-42, and Luke 22:39-46. These accounts document Jesus' emotional mindset during his prayers prior to his betrayal. Depending on the translation read, these words and phrases are used: "exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death"; "crushed with horror and sadness to the point of death"; "terrible pain and agony"; "...heart ready to break with grief"; "sadness and distress came over him"; "soul overwhelmed with sorrow"; "grief and anguish came over him."
In Gethsemane, Jesus revealed the full meaning of a human accepting God's sovereignty. Even though surrendering his human will to God's will produced enormous grief and agony, he still yielded to God's will. God was sovereign even if it cost Jesus his life in a painful death.
There was no joy in his experiences from his betray to his death. While many forces worked in Jesus producing agony and grief, clearly one of those forces was a human existence that desired to avoid death. From the human perspective, Jesus wanted to live. He knew God's power: "...all things are possible for You; remove this cup from me..." (Mark 14:36). An only son sent by his heavenly Father prayed, "Do not let this happen to me!" A son [who did precisely what his heavenly Father willed in his human life] prayed, "Remove me from this death experience!"
Two points to see clearly: (1) Jesus' desire was in conflict with God's desire. (2) Jesus did not want to die.
The "many forces" producing Jesus' agony included his knowledge of his death burden. God worked through thousands of years of human history for that moment and that sacrifice. God's new creation purposes and redemption purposes rested on Jesus as he surrendered to death. Jesus' death experience combined the demands of enormous responsibility, enormous pain, and enormous trust.
Never had surrendering to God's will grieved Jesus as did dying. Previously he wanted to do the things God wanted done, but he did not want to die. Obviously his human will and God's divine will were in conflict. The critical issue: whose will was dominate? Was God truly sovereign over Jesus? Years later, referring to this experience, the person who wrote Hebrews noted, "Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation..." (Hebrews 5:8,9). It was critical that Jesus surrender himself to God's sovereignty in death.
Jesus' death demanded he make an irrevocable decision concerning the role of God's sovereignty over him.
We have no trouble relating to his grief and agony in his Gethsemane experience. We have trouble relating to his surrender to God's sovereignty. Though he asked for the removal of "the cup" more than once, he ended each prayer in the same way: "Nevertheless not as I will, but as You will" (Matthew 26:29). Even though it caused Jesus enormous grief and agony, God's will was sovereign in his life--even if God's will meant his death!
Our challenge is to relate to his surrender to God's sovereignty. Without problem, we can relate to his struggle, his pain, and his prospect of dying.
God's will was absolutely sovereign in Jesus. Jesus trusted God's sovereignty enough to die. Jesus trusted God's sovereignty enough to enter the realm of the dead. Jesus trusted God's sovereignty enough to trust God to resurrect him from the realm of the dead. Jesus trusted God's sovereignty enough to trust God to return him to his heavenly place. Jesus trusted God's sovereignty enough to trust God to enthrone him as Lord and Christ [our mediator] at God's right hand. Our acceptance and confidence in God's sovereignty cannot require the level of trust in us it required in Jesus! As a man, His faith in God's will was enormous!
Regarding Jesus' death, too often Christians consider only the element of trusting God enough to endure the pain of physical death. Jesus also had to trust God to resurrect him from the realm of the dead, trust God to allow him to ascend back into heaven, and trust God to enthrone him as our mediator in heaven. Those are enormous levels of trust!
Thought and Discussion Question: Focus on Jesus' prayers in Gethsemane. With that focus, discuss this statement: "our test in accepting God's sovereignty is not found in personal desire or agreement. Our test in God's sovereignty is found in surrendering our human will to God's divine will, or surrendering our human concerns to God's divine purposes."
At the core of this discussion should be this understanding: at the heart of surrendering to God's sovereignty is surrendering a person's human concerns to God's divine purposes. That requires each person to mature [continually] in identifying and understanding God's purposes rather than substituting "my" human concerns for God's purposes.
Link to Student Guide
Lesson 7