MAY 04, 2024
Topic: FROM GETHSEMANE TO CALVARY: SOME COGENT LESSONS”
Text: Luke 22: 39-45; 23: 1-12 & 30-34
Memory Verse: “And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” – (Luke 22: 44 NKJV).
Your Redeemer paid a high price for your redemption (1 Peter 1:18-20) and so you cannot continue to be enslaved by the world system (1 Cor. 7:23). The journey to Calvary though foreordained by God; nevertheless, reveals deep lessons for us to learn from.
Mount Olivet, was a choice place for your Lord, a secret place to commune with His Father (Luke 21:37; 22:39). It was a quiet place chosen before the evil days came! Dear Christian, ought you not to withdraw from the boisterous events of the day, and find time for your quiet communion with your creator before the evil days come? Should you continue to “sleep”, when the devil like a roaring lion seeks whom to devour?
Your Redeemer was betrayed by the multitude who earlier hailed Him (Matt. 21:8-11), and later shouted “crucify Him” (John 23:21. The biggest betrayal came from one of the friends, who for “thirty pieces of silver”, betrayed a friend, Teacher, and Master (Matt. 26:14-16), teaching us the great lesson that ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household’ (Micah 7:6).
Your Redeemer was arrested, given a sham trial, falsely accused by many false witnesses; yet He said nothing (Matt 26:59-63a; Isa. 53:7-10. Should you then not learn that children of God are those who are led by His Spirit – when to speak and when not to? Would you not learn that after humiliation and persecution for His sake comes exaltation with God arising to divide you “a portion with the great”, and that you “divide the spoil with the strong”? (Isa. 53:12).
Dear Christian, will you not realize the deep darkness within three hours as your Redeemer hung in agony in Calvary? Do you not know that this was not a natural occurrence of eclipse of the sun? That your God, like in Egypt, wanted to manifest the eternal implications of this moment in the enactment of eternal redemption of man from sin on the cross; and for Him to draw attention of all to the event on the cross outside Jerusalem?
Now you know that your Redeemer faced temptations, trials, pains and agony, yet He did not sin. Go and do likewise (John 13:17)!
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, the events of the garden to the cross are not lost on me as I dwell on them anew. Engrave this in my heart to remember the painful sacrifice you paid to release me from the deep darkness of sin.