June 29 2025

Sunday June 29

Luke 22:40-46

Strengthened By An Angel

40 When He came to the place, He said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation." 41 And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done." 43 Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. 44 And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. 45 When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. 46 Then He said to them, "Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation."

Today, we're continuing to look at the mysteries of Gethsemane in Luke 22:40-46. Jesus is in the garden, He's praying, and there His disciples are sleeping. As we talked about yesterday, Jesus is preparing for that hour, the hour that He will lay down His life on the cross for the sins of the world. Literally, when Satan does everything he can to keep Him from the cross, Satan does everything he can to crucify Him and kill Him and put Him out. But what the devil means for bad and evil, the Bible tells us, God often means for good.

The tree of Calvary is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you look in the Old Testament, there in the garden, Jesus was actually typified in so many ways in that tree. The first Adam, who should never have sinned, sinned and brought sin into the world. But the second Adam, Jesus Christ, as 1 Corinthians chapter 15 tells us, is the only One who is able to take away the sins of the world, as John chapter 1 states.

Here Jesus is in the garden, and this passage, unique to Luke's gospel, says that an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. Jesus is praying, He's facing a tremendous trial—mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually—it's overwhelming. Yet Jesus, the Son of God, has an angel help Him, strengthen Him. I can't help but meditate and think about this but admit I don't understand it totally. Jesus was all God; yet at the same time, He was all human, and His humanity needed strengthening as He faced the cross, the cruelties, and the slander. He came to His own, but His own received Him not. He was rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He said already that He was overwhelmed with sorrow.

Tomorrow we are going to talk about the prayer where He prays and then the sweat and the blood seem to flow from Him. But today, Jesus is there at the cross, going through this ordeal of great sorrow. He's pouring out His soul to the Father, "Not My will, but Thy will be done. Take this cup from Me." He's facing that trial, that temptation that we face as human beings to do our will, to do what we want to do. But Jesus was committed to the will of God. He always was committed. "I came to do Thy will, O My Father." I love how even this prayer begins with "Father." Jesus often referred to God as Father, and you find that one of the most popular words in the gospel of John is "Father."

Interestingly, as a side note, John doesn't mention this prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. He mentions the high priestly prayer on the way to the garden somewhere. Maybe John chapter 17 is a prayer that Jesus prayed in the garden, but John doesn't tell us that because after that prayer, it says they left the upper room and went to the garden nearby, in John 18, and then he goes directly into Judas coming to betray Jesus.

Luke tells us that Jesus has an angel come and strengthen Him in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus needed that strengthening, and you and I need to be strengthened. God has many different ways to do this. We need the strength of other Christians praying for us. We need the strength, comfort, and encouragement of fellowship with other Christians in the church. We definitely do. But there are times that no one can help us but God Himself, and God can send ministering spirits, angels, that will take us through that trial, that hard suffering, whatever it is.

I'll never forget a time when I was in the depths of despair in my life, and I know that night I was strengthened by an angel. I don't want to go into the details of that, but it was definitely an angel who spoke to me, encouraged me, and I knew that I heard him say that there were more with me than there were against me. That's what he told me, and I'm telling you, my friend, God will strengthen you, and if He needs to do it miraculously with an angel, He will.

That's how He did it with Jesus, and I'm thinking if Jesus needed it, I need it too at times. I’ve learned by experience that whenever I am obedient to the will of the Father and yield my life to Him and the Holy Spirit, in some wonderful and miraculous way at the moment I receive His energy and grace for the challenge I’m facing!   

I trust you will continue to meditate on these things and be in awe of your great God and Savior Jesus Christ and Father in heaven.

God bless!