Hebrews 5:7a
"Who in the days of his flesh, (in other words, His earthly ministry) when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him who was able to save him from death,…"
Boy have you ever read that before – carefully? What is it telling us? That here again, God the Son, in His humanity, there in Jerusalem after His three years of earthly ministry, as He had gone down into the Garden of Gethsemane knowing that in a short period of time the Temple guards and a few Roman soldiers would be coming to make their formal arrest. And He knew exactly what was coming. We like to let people understand that Christ knew the end from the beginning. We've heard it said that He knew nothing of His death. But that is not what it says, He knew all things as a Prophet and an Apostle by the Holy Spirit who dwelt within Him as He was the first, to be of many brethren.
Come back with us to Luke chapter 18 for a moment. Now, most of you are aware this is the way we teach. When a verse comes to mind, we feel it’s the unction of the Spirit and we’re going to go back and look at it, because even though He was in the flesh, He suffered in the flesh. Yet, He was God. He knew the end from the beginning. Absolutely nothing took Him by surprise. Now the setting is Northern Israel up there at the headwaters of the Jordan River and it’s just at the end of His three years of earthly ministry. They will soon be making their way up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover and His crucifixion. For us and Israel a critical turning point in world events and the ending of an economy in which Israel was the primary focus of which both Israel and the world at large makes light of.
Now continuing on in Hebrews picking up in Chapter 5 verse 7 and our thought on Luke 18 beginning in verse 31.
Luke 18:31-33
"Then he took unto him the twelve, and he said unto them, behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets (the Old Testament) concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, (the Romans) and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spit on: They shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again."
Did He know what was coming? Absolutely! Absolutely, every detail. He knew every Roman that would be a part of it. He knew every Jewish voice that would be coming up against Him. He knew it all! But how much did the Twelve know? We don’t dare go without reading the next verse.
Luke 18:34
"And they (the Twelve) understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken."
See that’s how God can keep things from people’s understanding. And so when they get to Jerusalem in a few days with all the hubbub of the Passover, did the Twelve have any idea of what was about to happen? No! They had no idea He was going to die. They thought He was still ready to bring in the Kingdom offered to Israel. But, the Lord knew.
Alright, now back to Hebrews chapter 5 and maybe that will help just a little. And so during the days of His flesh, while He’s there in Gethsemane when He had sweat drops of blood, and He asked the Twelve to pray with Him. And instead of praying what did they do? Hey, they slept. And He woke them up and He told them to pray with Him, and He went a little further distance from them, and again what did He find the Twelve doing? Sleeping! Does that speak volumes to us as we find the church sleeping still in our day. For sleeping speaks of spiritually not being awake to what God is about and the fact that like Lazarus their eyes and ears remain covered or veiled ( John 11:1-44) because of its lawlessness and crime which is the sin of what? Unbelief. The same veil that the Hebrews to this day have covering their hearts, or as Paul calls it a partial hardness of heart (Romans 11:7-12).
But oh, He was going through the agony knowing what was coming. Alright, and so He did, He prayed and made supplication to God the Father from His and our humanity. Now, we always have to stop and realize. By the same token, He wouldn’t have had to ask God to bring ten legions of angels, He could have commanded it Himself. And He said it in so many words. "If I wanted to be saved from this, God the Father would send those legions of angels." But, He never asked for that, see?
Hebrews 5:7
"Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared:"
Now the fear here is the beginning of wisdom. Godly fear is the beginning of wisdom. And so it wasn’t that He was afraid of what was coming, but in His respect for all that was involved in His death and He cries out to God the Father. In fact, you know what some of His prayer was. "If it be possible, Let this cup be taken from me." What cup was He talking about? The cup of suffering the wrath due us. But it wasn’t possible. It had to happen. And again this is beyond mere human understanding and we think it is so for any human. How that through all this suffering God was able to save/redeem, to the uttermost, those who believe. This means to simply to put our trust in Him, as we'll see later in chapter eleven. This is just beyond most of us. But, nevertheless, this was part and parcel of the suffering that He went through leading up to the Cross and even on through it. To get a deeper understanding see our note on the Lord Last Supper or Pascha [including the animals, young lambs of three years old without spot or blemish, all shadows of Christ].
Alright, let’s go back to Philippians chapter 2, we’ve used these verses before. And we don’t think there’s any way we can wear them out. But come back with me to Philippians chapter 2 verse 5 through 8. My, periodically, just in your own devotional time read these verses. Where Paul writes:
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