Podcast Summary: "CROSS TO COMMISSION | It Had to Happen"

Podcast: 2819 Church
Speaker: Lonnell Williams, Executive Pastor
Scripture: Matthew 26:47-56
Date: December 1, 2025

Overview

In this profound and heartfelt message, Executive Pastor Lonnell Williams explores the theme "It Had to Happen," focusing on Jesus’ arrest in Gethsemane as told in Matthew 26:47-56. Williams challenges listeners to consider how the painful, confusing, and even traumatic events of life can serve a redemptive purpose, forming Christlikeness, obedience, and dependence on God. Using personal anecdotes, scriptural insight, and raw honesty, Williams emphasizes that suffering, though not authored by God, is often used by Him for greater purposes in the believer’s life.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Personal Story: Jumping Off the Diving Board (00:30 – 05:30)

• Williams opens with a childhood story about refusing to jump off a diving board despite encouragement, until a gentle push forced him into the water. His mother’s words, “It had to happen,” become a metaphor for spiritual growth.
  • Quote: “God is trying to move you to a place in your Christian maturity. And some moments have to happen to ensure that you walk in your purpose.” (05:36)
• Purpose: Not all difficult events are caused by God, but God can use suffering to mature us.

2. Setting the Text: Jesus’ Arrest in the Garden (07:00 – 10:30)

• Williams sets the scene: Jesus, after praying "not my will, but thy will," faces betrayal, chaos, and arrest while remaining calm.
• Key Insight: The deepest wounds often come from those with closest access—Judas knew Jesus’ patterns.
  • Quote: “Your deepest wounds will always come from people who have had access to your patterns because they likely studied you before they stabbed you.” (10:35)
• The arresting party includes religious leaders misusing God’s name for their own agenda—a caution against spiritual manipulation.

3. Main Point 1: It Had to Happen to Reveal What’s Inside of You (12:45 – 19:30)

• Peter’s Reaction: Peter’s impulsive attack is less about bravery and more about emotional brokenness.
  • Quote: “Peter did not swing because he was brave. He swung because he was unhealed... Pressure will always reveal your reflex.” (14:45)
• Application: The “sword in your hand” represents your default emotional responses. Pressure exposes our unhealed wounds, not just in scripture but in our lives.
• Illustration: Williams compares emotional wounds to cooking burns that scar if not properly healed.
  • “The thing that you don’t deal with today will become the scar of the future.” (18:50)

4. Main Point 2: It Had to Happen so We’d Depend on Christ (19:40 – 28:05)

• Jesus tells Peter, “Put your sword back in its place.” Emotions aren’t bad—they just need to be managed.
  • Quote: “Your emotions aren’t the enemy. Your timing is. Your emotions were designed to inform you and not to control you.” (22:40)
• Challenge: Many mislabel fear as wisdom or self-protection as discernment, leading to self-sabotage.
  • “What impulses have you masqueraded as discernment? …That is just your faulty impulses getting you in seasons that you’re praying God to pull you out of.” (24:30)
• Jesus doesn’t remove emotions; He disciples them. Williams points to Hebrews 4:15—Jesus understands and overcomes emotions.

5. Main Point 3: It Had to Happen to Form Obedience (28:20 – 34:00)

• Jesus displays supreme restraint—He could call down legions of angels but chooses obedience for a greater purpose.
  • Quote: “Real authority is not doing what you have the power to do. It is resisting what you have the right to do.” (31:05)
• Healthy vs. Unhealthy Responses:
  • Unhealthy: “Do anything, just to feel better.”
  • Healthy: “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.”
• God’s purpose speaks louder than pain; shortcuts in suffering sabotage destiny.

6. Main Point 4: It Had to Happen to Fulfill Scripture (34:10 – 38:15)

• Jesus calmly explains that everything unfolds “that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.”
  • Quote: “What you have been calling confusion, heaven has been calling completion.” (35:45)
• The ultimate peace comes from knowing God has already written the ending.
  • “Purpose does not make pain painless. It gives pain purpose.” (36:40)
• Williams urges: Don’t waste your pain—let it be formative.

7. Closing Analogy & Call to Repentance (38:20 – 44:30)

• Williams returns to the diving board story: all along, the lifeguard was waiting to rescue—just as God is always present, even when we’re afraid to trust Him.
  • Quote: “The Savior was right there the whole time. …Some of us need to take a moment and say, ‘I’m sorry,’ because you were there the whole time.” (43:29)
• Pottery Analogy: God the potter shapes us gently; if we’re brittle, we break—not because of the potter, but our resistance.
• Response: A time of corporate and private repentance and a call to trust God’s process in pain.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Suffering and Obedience:

  “If obedience led Jesus into the garden of Gethsemane, why do you think obedience will always lead you into comfort?” (08:45)

• On Weaponized Religiosity:

  “They were religious folks, and they sat there to capture Jesus, all in the name of God. In other words, they misused the name of God for their own spiritual purpose.” (11:55)

• On Emotional Health:

  “You’re not reacting to what they did. You’re reacting to what you never dealt with.” (17:25)

• On Control vs. Trust:

  “You have made control your God and called it wisdom.” (23:42)

• On Divine Purpose:

  “Purpose will carry what comfort cannot cure.” (37:00)

• On Repentance:

  “I cursed you, and you were right there. I yelled in my prayer closet, but you were right there. …This is the moment where some of us have to say, ‘I’m sorry.’” (43:30)

Important Timestamps

• 00:30 – 05:30: Childhood swimming story ("it had to happen")
• 07:00 – 10:30: Setting of Gethsemane; betrayal by Judas
• 14:45 – 19:30: Pressure reveals our true reflexes and wounds
• 19:40 – 28:05: Disciplining emotions; trusting Christ over control
• 28:20 – 34:00: Choosing obedience over exercising power
• 34:10 – 38:15: Fulfillment of scripture; reframing pain as purposeful
• 38:20 – 44:30: Pottery & lifeguard analogies; call to repentance

Tone and Language

Williams preaches with humor, candor, and a pastoral heart. His language is conversational, full of analogies, personal confessions, and rhetorical questions aimed at connecting real-life struggles to biblical truths. The message is challenging, affirming, and filled with compassion for listeners wrestling with pain, control, and spiritual growth.

Final Reflection

Pastor Lonnell Williams guides listeners through a nuanced understanding of suffering in the Christian life—not as God’s punishment or neglect, but as potential preparation for purpose and fulfillment of God’s promises. The call: Don’t waste your pain, but permit God to form Christlike character in you, and trust that “it had to happen” for His glory and your good.