MidTree Church
The sermon audio of MidTree Church in Harris County, Ga. BEHOLD // BELIEVE // BECOME
MidTree Church
The Darkness of Betrayal and Denial Meets the Light of Grace | Pastor Will Hawk | March 16th, 2025
The garden of Gethsemane reveals encouraging truths about suffering that can transform how Christians navigate their own pain. Two profound insights lie hidden in this familiar passage: Jesus knows the solution before we even encounter the problem, and God deliberately preserved the details of Jesus' suffering so we would know our pain is never foreign to him.
• Jesus went to pray "as was his custom" even facing his darkest hour
• An angel strengthened Jesus, yet he remained in agony
• Supernatural support from God doesn't always end our difficulties but enables us to endure them
• Five elements of a (non-exhaustive) Christian doctrine of suffering: it's promised, unites us with Christ, equips us to comfort others, deepens our dependence on God, and produces spiritual growth
• Suffering has purpose—it produces endurance, character, and hope
• Jesus moved from confidence to conflict and back to confidence again
• Peter's denial was met not with rejection but with Jesus' gaze of love
• God specially preserved the intimate details of Jesus' suffering that no disciple witnessed
• Jesus understands our suffering firsthand—he has carried every grief and sorrow
• Our Savior holds the fix before the failure ever occurs
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opening part of our text this morning.
Callie Wizieck:Good morning everybody. We will be in Luke 22: 39 - 34, which is on page 881 in the Pew Bibles. I'll give you a couple seconds. It's a good passage. Give you a couple seconds, it's a good passage.
Callie Wizieck:"And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them pray that you may not enter temptation. And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed, saying Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him and being in agony. He prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose from prayer he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow. And he said to them why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter temptation. And while he was still speaking, there came a crowd and the man called Judas one of the 12, was leading them. He drew near to Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said to him Judas, would you betray the son of man with a kiss? This is the word of the Lord.
Will Hawk:Amen. I think it's easy to look at this passage and to sort of assume man, this is gonna be a bit of a heavy Sunday. We've got Jesus in the garden. He's praying. He's asking the Father is there any way other than this that I am going to be able to accomplish this? God, is there any other way? Will you take this cup from me? But can I just tell you I think this is gonna be one of the most encouraging Sundays we spend together in a couple of weeks.
Will Hawk:As I've been spending time in this text and praying over it and thinking about us as a family, I feel like there are two Easter eggs hidden in the tall grass of suffering that we are about to walk through, and they're not hidden that hard, they're not that difficult to find. I think that Christians ought to be the best sufferers in the world, and I think we ought to be the best sufferers in the world and I think we ought to be the best celebrators in the world. But our celebration is a few weeks out, easter's coming, april the 20th, when we kind of hit the high watermark of the Christian season, celebrating the resurrection and the reality of the songs that we have already been singing this morning. So, as we sort of walk through the tall grass, I want to point out two eggs, two little Easter eggs, that I want you to be on the lookout for. One I want you to look for something that is promised, that you may not even realize is a promise that God has for you if you are a Christian. And the second thing that I want you to look for is something that God has specially preserved, almost like when I was in Mr Little's zoology class and we would sneak into the back hallways between the adjoining rooms. You could go through and he had all of these specimens in jars. You remember the smell of formaldehyde when you would like work on a frog or on a whatever. All of these like perfectly little preserved things that you can look in and study. There is something in this text that God has made sure never gets missed, but you're gonna have to keep your eyes open to see it. As we sort of look. Oh, that's a good start. There we go, as we sort of look at this text, let me point out a couple of things that Callie has already read for us.
Will Hawk:The Bible says and he, being Jesus, came out and, as was his custom. These four words tell us that Jesus is doing something he has always done. There's an entire sermon in those four words, because Jesus knows he is in the shadow of the cross and he might even hear a blacksmith sharpening a nail on a grindstone and know he may be walking past brambles of thorns and realize he is hours away from incredible pain and suffering, the kind of suffering that you go to God for and say is there any way? Is there any other way? Is there some way around this difficulty? But in these four words, jesus says me going and quietly, frequently spending time with the Father is something I do, whether I'm in the midst of suffering or in the midst of celebrating. This is just who Jesus always was. And he walks away a distance. We don't know exactly how far. The Bible just says a stone's throw. I don't know if Peter was throwing with his hardened fisherman net, throwing muscles, or if Matthew the tax collector just gave it his best. I have no idea.
Will Hawk:But Jesus goes off at a distance and he begins to pray, a kind of prayer that some of us struggle to pray, even though we know we ought to. Hey God, is there any other way than this? Do I really have to remain here? Does this big portion of my life have to be characterized by this teacher, or this season, or this marriage, or this loss, or this suffering, or this pain? God, is there any other way for me to still trust you, for me to still walk with you faithfully? And yet, god, not my will, but yours be done.
Will Hawk:And as Jesus is praying these things, an angel from heaven shows up to strengthen him. Do you realize? You have to read it slowly to appreciate it. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him In your lowest of low moments. How much of a difference would it have made if an angel visibly appeared to you, can I argue You'd have faith for a minute, wouldn't you? Right? It's like, okay, I can do this. Now, eight hours later, you might be struggling Like did I actually see that? Did that actually happen? The doubts will always creep in. Please don't miss this, because it will help you suffer. Well, christian. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, and the angel did his job fully, strengthening him and being in agony. Even after an angel appears, even after an angel strengthens Jesus, he remains in agony.
Will Hawk:Christians, supernatural support from God will not always end our difficulty. Rather, it will allow us to successfully endure it. And if you don't understand this, you're going to feel like God doesn't see you. If you don't understand this, you're going to feel like God doesn't love you, you're going to feel like he doesn't care, you're going to feel like he's not all powerful. Keep in mind all right eyes on me for a minute. This is not your world, Christian. This is not your life, this is not your kingdom, this is not your hope. This thread, that grass, this oxygen, is not enough for you. Never was intended to be, never will be on this side of eternity. And so what God will do, he will always, always give us the ability to endure.
Will Hawk:If you were here last week, logan was getting baptized and he was sharing struggles that he had had with lust for ages we're not talking about weeks or months for years, and he had this beautiful little piece in his testimony. He shared a scripture and he has said what is amazing to me is, over the past number of months, with a 100% success rate, when I have quoted this scripture to myself, when lust has threatened, I have always endured the temptation and made it through. What I want you to realize as an angel shows up to Jesus and yet he remains in agony. In fact, if you keep looking in the verse, it says he prayed all the more earnestly. He didn't even get the angel and say got what I needed, let's get back to it. He's strengthened by God and he says I gotta pray harder, I gotta lean into this more. Why? Because supernatural support from God is not always gonna end our difficulty, but rather it will allow us to endure it. God will always give you the ability to endure and he will sometimes give you a full-on escape. We all want the escape, but there's a reason he doesn't always give it. The reason that Christ, that God, that the Holy Spirit, does not always give it to us is because there is a robust theology of suffering for the Christian.
Will Hawk:Now let me hit pause for just a moment. I'm not going to say I'm going to go through this real quick and some of you note takers get very frustrated at me. I know that I talk fast. I can't do a thing about it, nothing. I've tried for years. This is who I am, who God made you to be. I'm sorry in advance for that. When you talk fast, you move fast, slides go fast and then you don't get them. I will never hold back any slides from you. If you come and ask me for them afterward, all right, I am going to fly through this. But I also wanted you to know this If you're a Christian, you need a doctrine of suffering.
Will Hawk:If you are a Christian, you need a little tablet, a living note, a postage stamp size, something in your world, a tattoo, a key chain. You need a doctrine of suffering because 99 times out of 100, you are going to be in some way, shape, form or fashion. It might be that you slit your hand open when you were trying to fix something and it might be that you get a cancer diagnosis. It could be anywhere in between, but 99.9% of the time there's going to be some level of suffering. You need a doctrine for it. So here is a non-exhaustive Christian doctrine.
Will Hawk:My assumption was y'all didn't want to stay until 9 pm tonight, so I'm just going to give you a few highlights. There are way more realities than just these. By the way, you should also have a doctrine of celebration. Some of you have this down pat and you don't know how to laugh or throw up a high five or celebrate. We'll work on that in the weeks to come. First thing that I would point to is this is a scriptural reality For this, and when the Bible says this it's referring to, for this life is a light, momentary affliction that prepares it, has a purpose for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all compare. So number one suffering is promised, christian. By the way, if you're not a Christian, if you're a seeker, if you're just trying to figure out the claims of Christ, if you're skeptical about the claims of Christ, it's still great for you to know, because this is going to show you the kind of Savior that Jesus claims to be. He never calls us to walk through stuff he hadn't walked through with deeper mud boots than we're going to go through.
Will Hawk:Number one suffering is promised. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. If you want an easy life, just don't try to live godly, okay. If you don't wanna be, I'll give you the key. Just don't try to live godly, okay. If you don't want to be, I'll give you the key. Just don't try to live godly. And all of a sudden, this world is going to lean itself to you. It will. The enemy would love nothing more than for you to traipse through life enjoying all of the little I don't know special things that this world can offer. It'll cost you your soul. It will never be fully satisfying. You will have an emptiness that you cannot explain. But oh, I've just screwed up my slide. There we go. But if you are going to live a godly life, step one, you ought to expect this Suffering is promised.
Will Hawk:Number two suffering unites us with Christ. When I was growing up in the church I never appreciated this. I don't know why, but maybe it's because when I was a kid I felt real buddy-buddy with Jesus anyway. And then I got older and my sin got older and I realized how gross and despicable I was. And the older and the more I recognized my own sin, the more surprised I was that Jesus would want to hang out with a guy like me. And so if you're like, well, of course Jesus wants to be close to me. Praise God for that. But for those of us who question why a holy God would want to be near us, our suffering unites us with Christ. Rejoice in so far as, in other words, as much as you share in Christ's sufferings, you will rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. There's this beautiful little promise in this. Those of us who suffer well for Jesus will appreciate Jesus more than those who do not, and this is what unites us with him.
Will Hawk:The world that we live in is constantly going to be fleeing suffering and trying to find comfort. When a Christian can build this kind of a theology, it allows you to use something suffering and difficulty that the world has no clue how to use. It's like a tool in granddad's shop that you have no idea what that thing does. And as soon as you figure it out all of a sudden what that thing does, and as soon as you figure it out all of a sudden, life changes. Number three I'm giving you five.
Will Hawk:Suffering equips us to comfort others. Blessed be the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction Christians. So I just want you to pick a difficulty that you have walked through in your life up to this point that God has stepped into. If you can't, you need to come and talk to us at the end of the service. Okay, if you can't come up with one time that God has stepped in to walk through difficulty with you, I wanna talk to you before the day is done. But for those of us who are walking with Christ and you have seen God step in I just wonder if you have believed that here Paul is blessing God, calling him the God of all comfort not some comfort even though Jesus remains in agony at the end of this prayer, even though he remains in agony after the angel shows up, that he's the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction.
Will Hawk:I love this verse. I love this verse so much. I'll tell you why I love this verse Because when people are suffering, the thing that I hear most from Christians is I don't know what to do. I feel like I'm gonna say the wrong thing. I feel like I'm not actually going to encourage them. I feel like I'm gonna make it worse if I'm quite honest. But do you notice this? What God is saying is you have walked through difficulty, being comforted by God so that you would be able to comfort those who are in any affliction. Now look, if you have walked through cancer, you're gonna be able to support those who get a cancer diagnosis better. Capital T, true, but do you know what this verse also tells me In some very real ways. Suffering is just suffering, and it doesn't matter if it's an eight-year-old who lost his favorite hat the day before the big dance, or if it's the three-year-old who can't find his teddy before the storm comes, or if it's the single who has been praying for a spouse, or if it's somebody who has lost their spouse, whom they love deeply. In some ways, that three-year-old can look into the eyes of a 78-year-old who is suffering with pain and meet them in it. Christians, that is so cool, so cool. But if you don't know this, you're not going to utilize the affliction that you have gone through as an opportunity to say I may not be walking through what you've walked through, but I've gone through my valleys. And can I tell you how God showed up? Can I tell you that I didn't expect God to show up? And here is what he showed me.
Will Hawk:Number four a non-exhaustive doctrine of Christian suffering. Suffering deepens our dependence on God, for we were so utterly burdened. Why To make us rely not on ourselves, but on God, who can raise even the dead? Why are you suffering, christian? One of the reasons may be you're really good at trusting in yourself, and God loves you too much to leave you that way. God doesn't want you to feel like you can figure life out. He don't want you to feel like you can figure business out marriage out, children out the neighborhood out. He don't want you to feel like you can figure business out marriage out, children out the neighborhood out. He don't want you to feel like you can figure your front yard out. He don't want you to believe that you can figure your transmission out. God wants you to constantly say, like Mr Incredible in the opening scene of Incredibles every time I fix this place, something breaks. And the Holy Spirit's like that is so good for you. Do you realize how great it is for you that you can't keep things fixed, that life constantly feels bigger than your arms can hold? Why, oh God, how am I gonna make it one more day so much better for you than a day where you don't need him? And finally, number five suffering produces spiritual growth.
Will Hawk:I would have you just notice two words out of this, though I'll. Suffering produces spiritual growth. I would have you just notice two words out of this, though. I'll read all of them. We rejoice in our sufferings. I told you there's more to it than just these five. But we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing. Bank on it, count on it. That suffering produces endurance, that's a good thing. Endurance produces character I'll take some of that and character produces hope. But what I would actually have you simply notice here is this Suffering produces. Suffering produces good things, and Jesus knows it. He knows that suffering produces good things and I promise you this too.
Will Hawk:Jesus is not down in the garden of Gethsemane, at the Mount, faking this prayer. He's not saying I want them to think I know what it's like, so I'm just gonna really lean in the way some of us lean in when we feel like we just need more faith to believe we have any at all. No, jesus is feeling every bit of this. This is not fake suffering. This is not robotic. This is not fatalistic. This is not Jesus just reading through the script. This is Jesus saying God, are you telling me there's no other way? I love every one of them created in my image, and Stokes is right when he says every one of our sins. When we look at it, we ought to look to Christ five times more than we look at our own sin. But Jesus looks at this. The creator of the universe, looks at the wood that he created, at the iron that he made, at the creature he made in his own image, and he says Father, is this really the only way Suffering produces things True suffering does? And this, in the case of Christ, produced confidence, incredible confidence.
Will Hawk:This is the next part of the text. Jesus has been praying, an angel has appeared and while he was still speaking, there came a crowd, and the man called Judas one of the twelve, don't forget, he's one of them was leading them. He drew near to Jesus to kiss him. I just want to stop at this, but for one moment I don't want to read any further. Judas has returned from exactly what Jesus said he was going to do. Here's what I want you to say. If you were here last week, I want you to remember the confidence that Jesus had. If you weren't, let me just give you high watermarks, because Jesus goes from incredible confidence to the kind of conflict that you and I understand so deeply, right back to incredible confidence. Confidence, conflict, confidence. What kind of confidence? Well, last week, judas is literally walking filled with Satan. The Bible says and Jesus says hey, go, do what you need to do, go. Confidence. Peter is looking at himself with the worst self-assessment you can probably have hey, I'll go to prison, I'll die for you, jesus. And Jesus is like no, you won't. I'm pretty sure before I hear that rooster three times, you're gonna say you don't even know who I am. And Jesus looks at him. He says hey, peter, when you have turned again. And Jesus looks at him. He says, hey, peter, when you have turned again. I want you to strengthen these guys' confidence.
Will Hawk:The disciples spend their time arguing in the last meal they have with Jesus about how great they are. And he looks at them and he says guys, we're about to go into a time that is different. I've been telling you to be generous. Store up a little bit of money. I've been telling you to give away your cloak. Hold on to it. There are gonna be some cold nights. I've told you not to get into fights. Let God fight your battles, but stick a couple of swords by the corner. I need people to know that you are protected, because I am not going to be here. This is how you are to operate confidence.
Will Hawk:And then, with the greatest amount of conflict we ever see, jesus have, maybe outside of my God, my God, why have you forsaken me God? Life maybe outside of my God, my God? Why have you forsaken me God? Is there any other way? And then he gets up from prayer and is already confident again. This is what intimacy with God does. This is what a theology of suffering does. This is what trusting that suffering produces something good does.
Will Hawk:And Judas draws near to kiss him. But Jesus said to him Judas, would you betray the son of man with a kiss Confidence? Jesus knows he's about to get dragged out and he looks Judas in the eye and he's like really, this is how you want this to go about. And when those who were around him saw what would follow everybody can see this coming they said Lord, shall we strike with the sword? And then one of them five dollars to the camp store. If you can guess which one of them did this? The yeah, yeah, the impulsive one. You gotta love the fact that one disciple's like Jesus is now the sword, time Is it, is it now? And Peter's like it must be right, like it's just how he plays it out Watch the confidence of Christ. Jesus says no more of this, cut it out. This is not what I want.
Will Hawk:The guy who's about to be dragged out, is telling both warring parties stop and they listen to the confidence of Christ. Not only that, he touched his ear and healed him. Jesus has to bend over near the same dirt that he just covered with his tears and pick up an ear and, using no command strips at all, nor an impressive surgeon, stitch, sticks the thing back on. How do you drag the guy off? After that? A lot of hate, a lot of sin, and it's in a lot of us.
Will Hawk:And Jesus said to the chief priests and the officers of the temple and the elders he says to every big, impressive person who had come out against him have you come out as against a robber? He gives them this incredible, logical statement You're coming out with swords and clubs. Don't you guys remember? I was with you day after day in the temple? You didn't lay hands on me. Confidence.
Will Hawk:Jesus looks at the most powerful people who were coming to him at night with clubs and torches and he says timeout, flag on the field. I've been doing this for three years. If you had a problem with me, why didn't you just come while I was in the midst of teaching? Confidence, do you not want your life to look like this? Confidence, honesty with your conflict and then bounce right back to confident. That's how I want to live. Is it just because it's Jesus? I don't think so. And Jesus turns at him and he says but this is your hour, this is the power of darkness. Look at, the confidence of Christ Speaks right to Judas, tells them no more of this warring, when Peter's little kerfuffle would have been the beautiful distraction for Jesus to sort of slip away into the darkness of the night. But he doesn't. He looks at those who were warring against him and he heals them.
Will Hawk:He has a theology of suffering and he looks at them and he says here's the deal, this is your hour. If I were going to give you a fifth theology of suffering for the Christian, it's temporary. Jesus says hey, this is your hour. If I were gonna give you a fifth theology of suffering for the Christian, it's temporary. Jesus says hey, this is your hour, this is your minute. Don't waste it. This is all you're gonna get, because ever since Genesis 3.15, we've been looking for this. Do y'all remember Genesis 3.15? Adam and Eve.
Will Hawk:The serpent is going to strike the heel of the Savior. He's going to bruise. So be it, strike away, give it your best shot. Bruise me as much as you can. This is the only chance you're going to get, and they do. Christians, this life is your hour to suffer. This life is your time to be bruised. Christians, this life is your time to be bruised. Christians, this life is your time to limp. There is an eternity where 10,000 years pass by. In a moment where you will not limp, there will be no splinter in your hand, there will be no painful thought in your mind. Limp well, christians, because suffering produces good stuff. Jesus went from conflict to confidence, and we can too. The most important thing is for you to make sure it's not your own doing. Scripture makes it very clear to us in 1 Peter. By the way, note takers, I'm now going to tell you how you can suffer. Well, all right, you need to first make sure it's not your own doing.
Will Hawk:It doesn't make sense for you to intentionally sabotage your life with sin and poor decisions and then say, oh, woe is me suffering for the Lord. The Bible has some thoughts about this as well. What credit is there if, when you do wrong and are beaten I know we don't like that, we'll just say the word punished for our sensibilities what credit is there if, when you do wrong and are punished, you endure it? What sense does that make? If my kids do not clean their room and I say no TV tonight, and then I walk past their bedroom, the door closed, hearing sobs from the other side. Oh Lord, see my suffering, see how I am laying down this time for you, how I am coming to you with lack of the beautiful electric glow that tends to comfort me in the eve of the night.
Will Hawk:No, that is not a prayer that God is taking very seriously. You should have cleaned your room, all right, you're being punished because you were a knucklehead. That's what's going on. Look, when you do wrong and you suffer, doesn't make sense for you to get credit for that. But hey, when you do what is good and you suffer, if you endure, and what percentage of time will God allow you to endure if you come to him 100% of the time. This brings favor with God. To put another way, let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer or a meddler. If you feel like meddling in the affairs of other is no big deal, sorry, little free sermon for you. Just know that God's word tucks it in with murder, thief and evildoer, all right. So maybe don't meddle in the plans. Encourage one another, shoot for unity. That's a freebie. But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed. Let him glorify God in having that name. I am suffering because I am a Christian. My knees are in the dirt because I'm trusting in Christ. My tears are falling because I am trusting in Christ. Do you feel yourself being aligned with your Savior? You ought to, because that's exactly what God wants. So if you have made sure that your suffering is not your own doing, here's how you can use it.
Will Hawk:Number one show the world that you expect it. This is toolkit type stuff. This is people saying hey, I really struggle with evangelism. I'm about to make it very easy for you. I do not know how to point my neighbors to Christ outside of inviting them to church on Easter and Christmas. Go for it. Let me give you another way. How am I supposed to live for Jesus on the soccer field? How am I supposed to live for Jesus around the water cooler? I'm about to show you Number one show the world that you expect suffering. Now there are a couple of different ways that you can do this. Let me tell you the wrong way to do this.
Will Hawk:Everything was going just fine. I knew this was going to happen, because everything was going good. I knew that something bad was going to come. Might I argue with you? This is not a very good witness for an onlooking world. I'll tell you what is what is.
Will Hawk:And, guys, again, it doesn't have to be the biggest stuff. It can be small. It can be your kid because of a storm getting rained out from going to the trampoline park and looking at him and saying, buddy, we knew this stuff was going to happen. God's not surprised by this. This world is not going to satisfy us, and that is okay. It is okay for us to be disappointed. It's okay for us to be let down, so long as, when we are, we realize God is not the one who is disappointing or letting us down. He's allowing us to say this world is never really going to satisfy me.
Will Hawk:And I now am going to read to you the longest quote I have ever read on a Sunday. Apologies in advance. Glasses on nerds. We're going to hit Spurgeon, by the way. We're just going to hang out with Spurgeon for the next 10 minutes while we close this puppy out.
Will Hawk:When you know difficulty by the way, my words are on the top, they're not nearly as good as the paragraph to follow when you know difficulty is coming, it is less likely to shake your confidence. When you know difficulty is coming, less likely to shake your confidence. But please don't be the, of course here. It is no duh. This world stinks. Be the. Hey. God's giving me some good stuff. I'm going to walk through difficulty too. This world is never going to satisfy me. Now know this. You Christian people especially know this. And then it will prevent disappointments.
Will Hawk:If you begin your Christian life imagining that, because you are a Christian, everything is to go smoothly with you and that you are henceforth never to have any more troubles, you will be bitterly disappointed when the thorns and thistles begin to spring up. But expect them, look forward to them. Why? Because suffering produces Christian. Squeeze the suffering until goodness comes out and then, when they do come, half of their sting will be gone. You will say well, when I took this farm, spurgeon is just imagining that he bought a farm. Sorry, I'm bringing you halfway into his sermon. Well, when I took this farm, I knew that thorns and thistles would spring up. I calculated upon seeing them Now that they have come up. To be forewarned is, in a great measure, to be forearmed. If I know disappointment is coming in this life, if I know this life cannot satisfy me, it takes half the sting away because I never expect it to be more than it can, I shall not sit down and weep with bitter disappointment, for what I suffer is no more than I expected.
Will Hawk:Christians, show the world that you expect it, but do so positively. Secondly, another way to use your suffering thank God for its absence. Thank God when you are in a season when you are not suffering. If this world was never actually made to satisfy us and we find ourselves in a satisfactory place, thank God for that moment. And if you are in that moment today, next week or a month from now, take a little of the extra full measure of the cup of how enjoyable your life is and share it with those who might not be in that place. Take that endurance, take that enthusiasm, take that expectation of God's goodness as the absence of suffering is around, and share the overflow with those who are in the midst of it. Additionally, thank God for the purposes of suffering.
Will Hawk:Charles Spurgeon quote number two. Significantly shorter Affliction is God's black dog that he sends after wandering sheep to bring them back to the fold. Oh, that's good stuff. Put a black dog on your key chain. It'll help you. It'll help you every time it comes. You're just bringing me back in. Now, listen, sheep. Let me tell you two ways to respond to a black dog. Fight it if you want. Push against it, show it your scary little sheep teeth and roar at it with your scary little sheep roar. Or just turn around so that your legs don't need to be nipped much and just walk in the way you knew you were supposed to in the first place. God sends difficulty because he loves you too much to allow difficulty to continue. This, by the way, is what many of us in the church are praying for in the life of someone who is walking through church discipline as a church right now, I am praying that the black dog of God's affliction and providence will nip at the heels of this man, whom I love, that he would turn and that he would walk toward the path of righteousness. Number three I'm only giving you four.
Will Hawk:Here's how to use your suffering. Add on to number one. Show the world that you expect it to end. Show the world that, no matter what suffering comes, this too shall pass. There is only one lifetime that I have to navigate this, and I fully expect that this will go to the wayside. This suffering may pass in a moment. This suffering may pass in a moment. This suffering may pass in a month, or this suffering may pass in this lifetime. Either way, it is minuscule in the light of the eternity that God has invited me into.
Will Hawk:And finally, if you want to use your suffering, look to Christ, not this world, and bring others along with you. If you're going to look to Christ in your suffering, grab somebody by the arm and drag them in. I'm not saying drag them in their suffering. I'm saying drag them into yours. Hey, I hadn't told you what's going on in my life. In a little while I've been embarrassed, ashamed, I haven't navigated this real well, but I just wanted you to know that I'm really suffering in fill in the blank and I'm only letting you know because I'm hoping that you will walk with me through it. I don't have high expectations, I don't expect you to fix this, but I'm looking to Christ and I would love to have a partner in that. But I'm looking to Christ and I would love to have a partner in that and maybe in a number of months, when I am alleviated of suffering and you are walking through it, we can, brother to brother or sister to sister, show the world that we fully expect this. To end, final Charles Spurgeon quote for the day the Lord does not mean believers to be satisfied with this world If you are his child, however fair your portion here. He means you to be always restless until you rest in him and never be fully satisfied until you wake up in his likeness.
Will Hawk:Now the two Easter eggs I wanted you to find in the tall grass of suffering as we close out our time in this text. Then they seized him. Let me explain a couple of pronouns. They would be the mob. They're gonna come up again here. This is the mob and him is Jesus. Then the mob seized him and led Jesus away, bringing him into the high priest house and Peter was following at a distance. And when they the mob kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, peter sat down among them. I just want you to realize, I want you to see where everybody is.
Will Hawk:Jesus has been taken at night. It's probably four or five o'clock in the morning, based on some historical markers that we can find in other corroborating scriptures Four to five o'clock in the morning, most likely. Jesus is now taken into somebody's private home to be put on trial in the most illegal court case that the world has probably ever seen, against the most innocent man that the world has ever seen. And Peter, who raised his hand to go to jail and to die for Jesus, is still walking that out to this point. He is with them. He is with the mob that dragged Jesus off, sitting around a campfire with their faces only partially seen in the darkness of a night that is not inhibited by electric light.
Will Hawk:Then a servant girl. All right, remember Jesus. Confidence conflict, confidence, peter, confidence conflict. Let's see anybody wanna guess where Peter's going. He's not getting more confident. Then a servant girl, a big, scary servant girl with immense amounts of power and prestige. No, it's a little kid who wandered out of the room looking for a donut that's what's happening here; Looked at Peter and says this man was also with him.
Will Hawk:I'm not sure about it, but I feel pretty confident. And Peter can't handle it. But he denied it, saying woman, he gave her a little more credit than it seems like the rest of the text does. I do not know him. Denial one, and a little later someone else saw him and said you also are one of them. But Peter said man, I am not with him. And after an interval of about an hour, still another insisted, saying they've been hanging out at the campfire for a couple of hours.
Will Hawk:At this point, certainly this man also is with him. He too is a Galilean. But Peter said man, I do not know what you are talking about. I don't know this guy. And immediately, while he was still speaking man, I do not know what you are talking about, the rooster crows. I didn't think that was going to be funny. That's like the reason I say that it says, as he was still talking, he can't even get the last sentence out of his mouth. To me, one of the biggest gut punches in all of scripture is what we're about to read this is a soccer ball hitting you in solar plexus whatever that's called your tum-tum and the wind is completely knocked out. You hit your knee and you can't breathe. Here it is Immediately while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed and the Lord turned and looked at Peter, and Peter remembered the saying of the Lord Jesus I'll go to prison and die for you.
Will Hawk:Not yet buddy One day, but not this day, not this night, how he had said to him before the rooster crows today you will deny me three times. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. What did the eyes of Christ look like to Peter in that moment? He wasn't angry, he wasn't full of rage or wrath. There certainly wasn't an, I told you. So he's looking at Peter and he's saying buddy, I've loved you. I've loved you before you were born. I've known every sin you'd commit. I've listened to every bit of your confidence and I have known you're going to turn away from me. And this moment is going to wound Peter. It is going to wound him greatly, but suffering for the Christian produces good things, and this very wound is going to be the thing that builds him back up Easter egg number one in the tall grass of suffering, something that was promised. I just want you to notice this. The Lord turned and looked at Peter and Peter remembered Simon. Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat. I've prayed for you. You know what my prayers look like that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned, jesus knew the fix before the failure ever happened. Jesus turns to Peter at the same moment Peter turns from Christ. He told him this was going to happen and he then told him something incredible. He told Peter not only that he would turn away from him, but that he would turn back as well. Which means this is the first Easter egg hidden in the tall grass of suffering, means this is the first Easter egg hidden in the tall grass of suffering. Jesus knows the fix before the failure ever occurs.
Will Hawk:We were playing soccer last weekend. Ames is wearing glasses. He's getting used to his new contacts. The kid's a rock star. He can put them in, doesn't need any help, never complains about it. I'm super impressed with it. I don't like touching my eyeball. He walked into the doctor and was like is it good that I can do this? And they're like you're going to be set kid Like awesome, but we ran out of contacts for his soccer game, so he's got this old pair of glasses on. He runs onto the field and within 45 seconds gets tackled by a bigger kid. His glasses fall to the ground. The soccer ball of all the places it could go, because suffering is used by God rolls right over his glasses and snaps the little thing off.
Will Hawk:What do we do? The kid literally can't play without him. Okay, like vision's not great. So what do we do? My wife, a mother of three boys, says there's super glue in the car and dad takes off and I run longer and faster than I've run in like years. And I get there and then I have to be steady and I'm like don't screw them up, these are expensive, don't want to wreck it, come on, you can do this. Dad, get them together, run back, run around to the sideline, give them to the coach. Coach calls the kid here you go, puts the band on and back into the game he goes. You know what that's being a good dad, that's being a good mom.
Will Hawk:But do you know what it would have looked like if Jesus was on the sideline? Amos would have run out onto the field, he would have been tackled, his glasses would have fallen, the soccer ball would have rolled right over, would have rolled right over. He would have looked up like what am I going to do? And Jesus would have been holding the super glue in his hand. This is why Christians Can suffer so well, because your savior, your savior, knows the fix Before the failure Ever happens.
Will Hawk:Hear me on this the failure you are in today, christ already holds the fix for, and the failure you don't see coming tomorrow is just as ready in his hands. Why fix yourself? Why run to the car? Why hope that the glue hasn't already dried out? Why get your fingerprints all over the glasses? Just turn to Jesus. Every time we fall, every time we scrape our knee in this world, every time splinters get pushed deep into our calloused skin, every time we wander around in the darkness and bump into things, jesus has the fix before the failure ever occurs. That is Easter egg number one. Jesus saw it coming before it ever happened. Easter egg number two, something specially preserved it was so important to God that we know that Jesus enters into our suffering. It is so important to God that you know that Jesus enters into our suffering. It is so important to God that you know that Jesus will not reject you because of your weakness or fear or failure that I want to ask you this oh, by the way, no, it's fine, bump it.
Will Hawk:All right.
Will Hawk:Here's my question how do you know Jesus prayed a prayer like this? How do you know that Jesus cried like this? I'm not being rhetorical. You're okay to get answers wrong in this place. Wrong people come in. They never stop coming in. The goal is not to have the right answers, it's to know the one who does. How do you actually know this? Happened Anybody? All right, well, let's go home, since you have nothing to bank on. How do we know that this happened? It's in Scripture. Who wrote it down? Who wrote this down? No trick questions. Come on Luke. What was Luke doing when this happened? So how does Luke know this happened? Okay, check this out, because it's beautiful.
Will Hawk:Who saw Jesus pray like this? Nobody. How far away? Were they? A stone's throw? Was it Peter? I don't know? Was it Matthew? But it was at distance. What time was it? It was the middle of the night. You can't see.
Will Hawk:Not only are they at distance, what are the disciples doing while Jesus is praying like this? Sleeping? How well are they sleeping? They miss an angel. That's a pretty deep sleep. Some of you guys woke up for a storm last night. They didn't wake up for an angel, you think. If they saw an angel 30 minutes before, they wouldn't have said, when people show up with clubs and torches, hey Jesus, how about some more of that angel action? Can we get one of those? That'd be pretty great.
Will Hawk:Right now, this exists. Put your eyes on the screen or in the book, or in your phone. The reason this exists is because God chose to preserve it for you. Nobody else saw this. Seemingly, the Holy Spirit, christ, after his resurrection, had to tell them I know what it's like to suffer. You never saw me suffer. You saw this, but you didn't know I was suffering before it even happened. This moment is specially preserved for us. Why? Because our struggle with suffering is not foreign to Jesus. It is familiar to him and God wants you to know it.
Will Hawk:How familiar Stokes or Bennett, whoever come on up, how familiar is it, this familiar? Surely, he, being Jesus, has borne our griefs, every grief you have ever felt Christ has carried. He has carried not only our grief but our sorrow as well. I don't know how many nights you have walked through the darkness, I don't know how many struggles you have been through, but Christ, christian, has carried them all. And yet we esteemed him, not impressive, not as a savior. Humanity looked at him with all of our brokenness and all of our sin. And do you know what we said? He's smitten by God and he's afflicted. This guy, just like the blind guy that I started our service with, must have done something wrong. If God really had this guy as his son, he would never end up here. Why? Because we, like sheep, have gone astray. Every one of us we have you ready to enter into this story Turned just like Peter did.
Will Hawk:Jesus told us about our sin. We knew it was going to happen. We thought we'd be able to manage it and just as Peter turned away, we turn away, every one of us. And instead we decided to do it our own way and even as we did the promise that was made before you realized you needed to fix, the Lord went ahead and laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all.
Will Hawk:As Peter turns from Jesus, jesus turns toward Peter, and as we turn from Jesus, jesus turns toward us. This is the beauty of the gospel, this is the good news of the invitation of Christ, and it has zero expiration date, so long as you are breathing. If you do not believe this, jesus is going to feel inaccessible or robotic. It's going to feel like a father that you can never please and a hamster wheel of attempts that seem endless, rather than a relationship of covenantal love.
Will Hawk:But if you do believe this, it's going to look not just like a model that Jesus sets for us. It's going to look not just like a model that Jesus sets for us. It's going to look like realizing that God knows that conflict is real and normal and that he expects you to walk through it, and that, while Jesus was walking through this something that no one could experience there are going to be times when your best friend and when your family will not be able to understand, they will not be able to step in and they will not be able to bring enough comfort, but Jesus can. There's not a soul who ever has suffered more than him, and if our theology of suffering tells us we suffer so that we can support those around us, you are never going to out. Suffer Christ, and there is no suffering that he will not be able to remedy because he is holding the fix in his hand.
Will Hawk:Every one of us has turned from Jesus, but what would it look like for you to turn toward him today? And this question is the same for the believer, the unbeliever, the skeptic and the seeker. What would it look like for you to turn back to Jesus today? Take a moment and think. Look over Isaiah 53. If you want a moment of silence to just pursue the Lord, please take the back porch. If you want to share, celebrate or receive prayer, we'll have folks on the side and we'll go to the back, or eventually, stokes will get us to stand up and sing songs to a Savior who deserves every one of them. Let's worship together.