Hope Has a Name: With Bible Study FellowshipSample

Audio Teaching

Listen to deeper insights and practical applications from days 5-10.

Passionate Prayer

From this point forward, we embark with Matthew on a holy, hallowed account. After the Passover meal, Jesus and His disciples walk to the garden of Gethsemane. There, the Son of God prays to His Father in all intimacy. We see Jesus, fully God and fully human, entrust Himself to His Father’s perfect will, knowing everything about the sacrificial suffering looming ahead.

Beginning with verse 36, our Savior Jesus prepares to die while His disciples sleep. Meanwhile, wicked men plot His arrest with the help of His betrayer Judas. Jesus’s faithful preparation for His death starkly contrasts the unfaithfulness of the people He came to redeem.

Matthew guides us as Jesus and His disciples walk through Jerusalem’s dark streets and up the Mount of Olives to a place called Gethsemane. At a stopping point, Jesus leaves most of His disciples to rest, while He, Peter, James, and John go further. As they continue walking, Jesus begins to be “sorrowful and troubled.” Jesus shares His heart and asks for help in verse 38: “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

Jesus moves a short distance away, falls with His face to the ground, and prays. “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” (1) Luke records Jesus’s physical trauma. His sweat fell to the ground “like drops of blood.” (2) Soon, He would lovingly and faithfully bear God’s righteous wrath against the sin of a rebellious world. The purest of all would “be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (3)

When Jesus first returns to His friends, they are sleeping. Hear Jesus’s question spoken in love, not judgment: “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” Jesus expresses His concern for them: “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.” Two more times, Jesus fervently prays, then finds His friends sleeping. Peter boasted of his loyalty unto death but failed to even stay awake and pray. Jesus roused them at last with a call to action, “Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer.”

Price of Sin

God the Son took on human form to pay the price of people’s sins with His own blood. This truth is the culmination of the Bible’s teaching (doctrine) of redemption. To redeem is to pay to gain something back. In biblical times, the term “redemption” was associated with buying and selling slaves. This context reminds us that every person is enslaved to sin. We owe a debt we cannot possibly pay. (4)

We desperately need a Redeemer. If we deny our own offenses against God, we remain chained to a dire destiny apart from Him. This is how sin kills and enslaves. However, in our hopelessness, Jesus came to pay sin’s debt and set His people free. 1 Peter 1:18-19 says:

For you know that it was not with perishable things

such as silver or gold that you were redeemed

from the empty way of life

handed down to you from your ancestors,

but with the precious blood of Christ,

a lamb without blemish or defect.

Redemption from sin’s slavery requires faith in Christ’s death on the cross in our place. Through Jesus Christ, God frees us to live the life He intends us to live. (5) Our Redeemer is faithful, and He will accomplish everything He has promised for His redeemed children.

Perfect Redeemer

In the chapters ahead, Matthew will describe how Jesus flawlessly completed His work. He fulfilled the symbolism of Passover as the perfect sacrifice. What stories can you tell of love and freedom through Him? How is Jesus’s faithfulness personal to you, and how will you respond?

Questions

12. Why is Jesus troubled as He faces “drinking the cup” (His death on the cross), and how does He respond?

INSIGHTS: Troubled: Jesus faced physical, emotional, and spiritual torment in our place that we cannot fully understand. Despite Satan’s forces and wicked human efforts to destroy Jesus. He unswervingly, sinlessly carried out God’s eternal plan to offer Himself as the perfect sacrifice for sin. Response: Jesus prayed the same prayer three times, “My Father if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Jesus expressed the desire not to have to endure what faced Him, but He also completely surrendered to His Father in full obedience.

13. What truths about Jesus are made clear through His struggle in the garden?

INSIGHTS: Sample responses include: In Jesus’s full humanity, He felt deep sorrow; in His full divinity, He knew everything that would follow; He confirmed through prayer that this is the only way for people to be saved; He remained sinless, never wavering from full obedience to His Father and the eternal plan of salvation; His closest friends failed Him by falling asleep instead of praying; He was burdened for them and their temptations; He faithfully embraced what was to come, trusting in His Father alone.

14. Write a sentence that expresses your response to Jesus’s unswerving commitment to go to the cross.

Related Verses

1 The Father’s will: John 6:38

2 Jesus’s physical struggle: Luke 22:40-45

3 Jesus became sin for us: 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24

4 Slaves to sin: John 8:34; Romans 6:6

5 Redemption in Christ: Romans 6:22-23; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Ephesians 1:7

Reflect

How has this study given you fresh understanding of the hope found in the faithful redeemer, Jesus Christ? If you want to continue learning how Jesus completed the work of salvation, including a deep dive into Scripture, questions, study notes, and audio teaching, download the WordGoapp and jump into week 3 of the Hope Has a Name course.