Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Thank you, Ken. Good morning, church.
[00:00:04] I like that shirt Ken has. Ladies, if you want to get all the gentlemen shirts like that for Easter, I think you have all of our permission. What do you wear?
[00:00:17] It's amazing. It's amazing.
[00:00:22] If it's that shirt, we do. I like that shirt, guys. Good morning. For those of you who may not know who I am, my name is Craig and I'm one of the pastors here in Emmanuel Fellowship. And it is, it is my honor and privilege to be here this morning, this morning to bring the word of God to you. I'm going to take a drink first.
[00:00:45] Open your Bibles or turn on your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark. We're going to be in chapter 14 this morning in verses 32 through 42.
[00:00:54] In those verses, as Sam said, today is Palm Sunday and it's a traditional opening of Holy Week, or Passion Week is also called.
[00:01:06] And I hope that you come into this morning with a great deal of anticipation and hearts prepared for this day. For Palm Sunday.
[00:01:17] We have been a season of lent now for 40 days, the season of Lent, which is a season of prayer and fasting, a season of repentance, of sin, a time where we try to live more simply, to spend more intentional time in reflection with a heart posture before a holy God. It's intended. Lent is this 40 days is intended to prepare us for the celebration that we will celebrate next Sunday, Resurrection Sunday, where we celebrate the light that comes after the darkness.
[00:01:51] But it's okay if you haven't spent the last 40 days in that kind of deep reflection, because you still have time. We still have this week to be intentional about our own condition of our own sin.
[00:02:07] That actually drives us to celebrate on Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday, the truth of the Gospel and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If we do not understand and spend some time understanding the darkness in which we lived and once lived, it's hard for us, I think, to celebrate the like that comes after in a really God honoring way. So there is still time. You may be wondering why we're not in a traditional Palm Sunday passage this morning. If you've gotten to Mark, you'll notice this is not a Palm Sunday message. And nor are we in the Gospel of Matthew, which is where we've been for some time.
[00:02:42] The reason is because Sam already preached on this passage Palm Sunday back in February, when we were in the Gospel of Matthew.
[00:02:50] The text at that time in February was the triumphal entry into Jerusalem by Jesus. And so Sam preached that Palm Sunday message. It wasn't Really a Palm Sunday message. It was the text where Jesus goes into Jerusalem that we call Palm Sunday. If you're disappointed and you want to hear a Palm Sunday message, when you go home today, just go to the website and look up sand sermon and read, read or listen to that sermon. It was a really good sermon. But what I want us to remember and realize that since Sam preached that message eight, nine weeks ago, the seven sermons that we have had since then have been messages that Jesus has preached on Palm Sunday or the Monday and Tuesday after.
[00:03:36] So as we enter into Passion Week, Holy Week, these messages that we have had our hearts marinating in for the last seven, eight, nine weeks, Jesus preached today, tomorrow and Tuesday. And the reason I say that is because our hearts have been marinating, perhaps unknowingly for the last seven weeks or so on what Jesus was teaching the last week of his earthly life.
[00:04:01] And if you recall the title of that sermon series that ended last week, it was Jesus versus Religion.
[00:04:08] These first few days of Jerusalem. Most of what Matthew records that we have been preaching on are, are Jesus's public confrontations with the religious leaders of the day, specifically with their practices of Judaism of the day. Which is to say he was confronting hypocrisy, which came to a head in last Sunday's message with the seven woes.
[00:04:33] And I think I know that messages on hypocrisy are timely in our context because I think that the primary issue today in the American church is hypocrisy. I think that it does great damage to the name of Jesus and to the church. And so I think those are messages that we need to hear as modern day Christians about the hypocrisy in our own hearts. So I hope that the Holy Spirit has been working in all of our hearts, stirring our affections for Christ, convicting us and rooting out the hypocrisy in our own lives.
[00:05:10] But only as Jesus can do. He comforts us, he shepherds us, and he draws us closer to himself.
[00:05:18] But never forget that sanctification is rarely without discomfort and it's to be embraced and not neglected or ignored. And before we leap from one Sunday to the next Sunday to praise and worship the risen Jesus, we must do the work this week in our hearts to reflect on the truth of our own hearts that caused Jesus, the Son of God, to come to live, to suffer, to die, and to raise on our behalf, putting the final stamp on Satan, sin and death.
[00:05:53] Let me pray for our time and then I'm going to read our text. This Morning in Mark Again, Mark, chapter 14, verses 32 to 42. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for the worship that we have already experienced. Thank you for the gospel that has been preached to our hearts through a call to worship, through a confession of faith, through the worship, through song, through a testimony of mission from Ken.
[00:06:22] Father, all of this is intended to prepare our hearts to receive your word. And I pray that you would help me to faithfully preach your word and that you would prepare all of our hearts and our minds to receive your word through the power of your spirit. In Jesus name, Amen.
[00:06:38] In Mark, chapter 14, verses 32 through 42, it says this.
[00:06:45] They then came to a place named Gethsemane. And he told his disciples, sit here while I pray.
[00:06:52] He took Peter, James and John with him. And he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. He said to them, I am deeply grieved to the point of death.
[00:07:04] Remain here and stay awake.
[00:07:07] He went a little farther, fell to the ground and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.
[00:07:24] And then he came and he found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, simon, are you sleeping? Couldn't you stay awake one hour?
[00:07:34] Stay awake and pray so that you won't enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
[00:07:44] Once again he went away and prayed, saying the same thing. And again he came and he found them sleeping because they could not keep their eyes open.
[00:07:53] They did not know what to say to him.
[00:07:56] Then he came a third time. And he said to them, are you still sleeping and resting? Enough. The time has come. See, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hand of sinners. Get up. Let's go. See, my betrayer is near.
[00:08:12] This is the word of God.
[00:08:16] The point of my message today, right up front, is this, that Jesus we see in this scene submits to the Father's will to drink the cup. And the process of submission was a simultaneous action, an agonizing struggle wrapped in a shepherd's heart. I want us to see that this morning. Now, the immediate context of this garden scene is familiar to us, the scene itself. But it comes after Jesus and his disciples celebrate the Passover meal. By the way, Passover began last night, sundown last night, and will end Saturday when the sun goes down. So we are in Passover right now.
[00:08:56] But they celebrated the Seder meal in a small room in Jerusalem. And it was there where they Celebrate the deliverance as Jews all over the land last night and during this, this week, we'll celebrate their deliverance from Egyptian bondage. And Jesus reveals to them through the Seder meal the mystery of God's plan and redemption. He speaks to them of his body and his blood, and he explains to them that he will have to die. And they finish the meal and they sing a hymn. And together they go to the Mount of Olives, a place called Gethsemane, I believe. There is a map on the screen that will come up in just here in a second. There it is. Visual aids are wonderful. Let's talk a little bit about the location. We don't know the exact location of the garden. The blue bubble or the red bubble you see there indicates the Mount of Olives. There are several locations of the Garden of Gethsemane that they think might be today in places where you can make a pilgrimage to. But at the end of the day, they don't know exactly where the location of the garden is. More importantly, I think, is that the garden was on the Mount of Olives, which is named for olive groves that covered that mountain.
[00:10:08] It was covered in olive trees. And the Mount of Olives is a peak of a mountain ridge that separates the city of Jerusalem to its west, as you'll see on the map, from the Judean desert to the east.
[00:10:22] Beyond the mountain ridge to the east, the land drastically falls off away towards the Jordan River Valley and Jericho and the Dead Sea.
[00:10:32] Now, why is this important to our discussion today? I think it's important because for centuries that area beyond the ridge headed down to the Jordan river into the Dead Sea, was a place where bandits and refugees would hide from authorities. Which means that Jesus, in this scene that we read of today, is literally in a place where he could have walked less than an hour and disappeared, as he did many times, where it was not yet his time. And he would disappear into the crowds and away from the crowds. But now it was the Father's time. He was at the door of escape. And should he desire, he could have escaped yet. Not his will, but the Father's will. And the meaning of the word Gethsemane is from the Hebrew word gat shamin, which means a press of oil.
[00:11:24] Again, an image of visual aid will show up on our screen here in just a second. It will show you an olive mill. This is the process where they would. They would grind the olive, they would crush the olives, and then they would eventually press the olives. But in this first step, olives would be crushed pit and all in a very dramatic fashion. They put in that pit and perhaps a donkey or a person would most likely donkey would be strapped to that horizontal arm and it would run that wheel around and it would, it would grind and crush the olive pits and all to a fine paste. And that paste would then be placed inside of a basket that had deep pockets in the side and a hole in the bottom. I don't have an image of that, but it would be smeared to the inside of that basket. Those baskets would be stacked on top of each other, maybe seven, eight, nine baskets stacked on top of each other. And they would be placed into the olive press, which you will see here in just a second. The olive press. There you see where it says basket of olives. Those are baskets that are stacked up. You will see the counterweight on the left hand side. It was a system of levers and pulleys that would crush those baskets and it would extract oil from those olives.
[00:12:43] Intense pressure would go into creating the olive oil.
[00:12:49] Now why is this important? I struggled with showing this and talking about it in any depth, because when you study the Word and you study the historical context and you study things like Allah press, it has an immense impact on you as someone who is studying to preach the word of God. And it's really hard to really grasp what you learn and communicate it to folks and. But I think it's important. I think it's important for a couple of reasons. One is the symbolism.
[00:13:19] It's likely that in the garden of Gethsemane, presses like this were existing when Jesus was praying and when his disciples were in the garden. They likely saw these types of apparatuses in the garden, at least one, if not more. And so the imagery of the pressing and the crushing and the pressure that Jesus was physically under, that we read of would be exemplified by this image in the garden. Something that they would have seen a lot of as modern day Jews at the time. They would have seen this process many times and understood what was going on.
[00:13:56] I think the second thing we learn is that these olives were pressed three times, which is interesting, giving that Jesus prayed three times and he went to visit his disciples three times.
[00:14:09] Olives are pressed three times for three purposes. They are pressed. The first pressing is pressed to be used in the temple. It's the best olive oil that is pressed. The second is good oil and it's used for perfume and medicines and things like that, for food. And then the final pressing, which is not. Which is the worst of the Bunch. The worst of the three, pressing is used for soap and for lamps, oil lamps.
[00:14:35] And the third thing I think that it's appropriate to talk about this is the usage of the oil would be to anoint kings and priests.
[00:14:45] And what we're talking about today is our King Jesus and our high priest.
[00:14:49] So there's a lot of symbolism with regard to oil pressing and olive groves. Excuse me, olive pressing and olive groves. And I want us just to kind of keep this image in the back of our minds when we think about what Christ went through during the garden while he was praying. And under this intense, immense pressure to accept, to receive the cup from God after the Passover, he takes all of his disciples with him and he tells them to sit here while I pray. Then he takes Peter, James and John a little bit farther. One of the other gospel writers said it was a stone's throw away. Why those three? Why Peter, James and John? Well, they were his closest friends.
[00:15:36] Jesus had them with him on several occasions. As we read in Scripture, one being during the. The transfiguration. We know a little bit about these three, don't we? We know that Peter was the rock who would tell Jesus. He would never deny him. We know that James and John, who were. Who were brothers, were the sons of thunder, as Jesus called them. And they asked Jesus if he would grant them favored seats on his left and their right side, prompted, by the way, by their mother.
[00:16:06] And they said to Jesus they could drink the cup that he was about to experience.
[00:16:13] Peter was the one whom Jesus would build his church on. And James was the first martyr. John, of course, the only disciple not martyred, but kept alive to witness and vision the events of the end times. The writer of Revelation, the Gospel of John, first, second and third John.
[00:16:31] These were type A guys, Type A personality, guys. Competitive, ambitious, A sense of urgency in all that comes with the Type A good and bad. We all know Type A people.
[00:16:46] They're not always the most pleasant people to be around.
[00:16:50] But Jesus never doubted their love.
[00:16:57] He never doubted their devotion. And he wanted these passionate leaders with him during this most stressful hour.
[00:17:05] But at the end of the day, we don't know exactly why he chose those three. But I'd like for us to consider this morning that there were two different experiences in the garden.
[00:17:15] Obviously, one experience was Jesus experience.
[00:17:18] And the second experience in gethsemane were the three disciples experience.
[00:17:24] And so in verses 32, 36, we see the experience of our Lord Jesus in the garden. This is what scripture first describes to us. He Enters the garden with his disciples. He tells all but Peter, James and John to stay put and pray. And he goes a little bit farther with his three closest disciples. And while he was with the three, he begins. Scripture tells us to be deeply distressed and troubled.
[00:17:54] And he tells them, I'm deeply grieved to the point of death.
[00:18:00] Remain here and stay awake.
[00:18:04] I am deeply grieved to the point of death. He tells him, Jesus knew that ultimately what he was about to face, he had to face it alone.
[00:18:17] But it was natural for him to want those that were closest to him nearby and praying.
[00:18:25] It's interesting, I think, to note that there are several Greek words that are used to describe what Jesus was going through. The Gospel of Mark, the word we're in today, uses a Greek word, eknathambio, that means deeply distressed and troubled. It's the greatest possible degree of horror and suffering.
[00:18:46] Luke uses the word agonia, intense sorrow, anguish, anxiety. It's likely where we get our word agony. And Matthew uses the word paralupus, overwhelmingly sorrowful, greatly distressed, perilous.
[00:19:02] Various adjectives to describe Jesus in this faithful hour. It's as if words can't describe what he's going through. And in fact, they really can't.
[00:19:14] Luke's Gospel is the only gospel writer to include the details that Jesus was in such anguish that he prayed even more fervently. And his sweat became like drops of. Of blood which came after the angel came and strengthened him.
[00:19:32] After the angel came and strengthened him, he prayed more fervently. And sweat drops of blood, which is an actual condition called hematidrosis, causes you to ooze or sweat blood from your skin, even if you're not cut or injured. The blessed, the tiny blood vessels in your skin break open and the blood inside them get squeezed out through the sweat glands. Doctors don't know what triggers it, but because there's been so few cases. But they think it might have something to do with the body's response to fight or flight, to fight or fight, fight or flight response, which is interesting.
[00:20:19] This was an intense scene, as evidenced by the metaphor of the olive press. Nothing in all of human history or in the Bible compares with the agony Jesus experiences in the garden. Except, of course, for the cross. We see here the utter humanity of Jesus. Remember, he is fully God, yet fully man. Something we do not totally grasp, but perhaps for the first time, for the only time in his human lifetime, that we can actually relate to Jesus on some level.
[00:20:58] Could it be that the reason the angel came, to strengthen Jesus That Luke records wasn't because the answer from the Father was no.
[00:21:08] But could it be that there was just silence, that Jesus wasn't hearing anything from the Father?
[00:21:15] In the midst of that silence, Jesus prayed more fervently, more continuously, more earnestly. Could that be while on the cross Jesus cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Could this time in the garden have been the beginning of Jesus experiencing the forsakeness of the Father?
[00:21:35] Have you been there?
[00:21:38] Have you poured out your prayers to God asking for change, asking for resolution, asking, beseeching him, begging him for clarity in the midst of confusion, for relief, for healing, for some great pressure to be relieved? And the response from God was silence. Had you been there?
[00:22:04] Does your prayer end? Not my will, Father, but yours be done.
[00:22:11] Friends, Jesus understands us in his humanity.
[00:22:16] He understands you and he understands me. And we should not forget that when it feels like God's not answering our prayers, he was forsaken by God so that we would not be forsaken by God.
[00:22:35] What was the content and the posture of his prayer?
[00:22:39] Apparently the three disciples were close enough and awake enough at times to hear at least part of his prayer. All three gospels record that he fell to the ground, that he prayed that if it was possible, the hour would pass from him.
[00:22:54] He says, abba, father, all things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.
[00:23:07] Like King David in the Old Testament, Jesus is praying, or like King David, was praying for his sick child. Jesus lay on the ground in deep lament. Perhaps he prayed one of David's psalms. My heart shudders within me. Terrors of death sweep over me. Fears and trembling grip me. Horror has overwhelmed me. I said, if only I had wings like a dove, I would fly away and find rest. How far away I would flee. I would stay in the wilderness.
[00:23:39] Jesus in his fully human being implores the Father that if there was any other way for redemption to take place, that he would choose a different way, that the hour would pass from him. Yet he ends the prayer, not my will, but yours, just as Psalm 55 that I just quoted ends, I will trust in the Lord. I don't think it's far fetched to think that he may have prayed prayers like that. Prayers of lament from King David.
[00:24:11] What about the cup?
[00:24:14] What is the cup Jesus asks the Father to take away?
[00:24:19] It's the cup of God's wrath, of course. Symbolic language for the wrath of God. That because God is a just God, wrath must be poured out on sinners in God's righteous judgment. It's a cup that caused the prophet Jeremiah to weep because of his deep grief and his lament over the impending destruction of Judah, the southern kingdom. God had him preach Jeremiah to them because of their sin and rebellion. Jeremiah says, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel said to me. Take this cup of wine of wrath from my hand and make all the nations to whom I am sending you drink from it. They will stagger. They will drink and stagger and go out of their minds because of the sword I am sending among them.
[00:25:09] Unless we forget that the God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. Romans says, but wrath and anger to those her self seeking and disobeying and disobey the truth while obeying unrighteousness. This is the cup James and John said they could drink.
[00:25:31] Jesus said, you don't know what you're asking, boys.
[00:25:34] This is why I came.
[00:25:37] Have you not been paying attention?
[00:25:39] The Son of Man came to serve, not to be served.
[00:25:46] In the garden, Jesus was facing so much more than his own death.
[00:25:51] He was facing the very purpose that he came, the very reason he became incarnate. That little baby Jesus that we just celebrated not too long ago came to drink the cup of God's wrath.
[00:26:08] It was necessary for Jesus to take on the wrath of God because no one else could.
[00:26:13] Only the Lamb of God could take the wrath of God on our behalf.
[00:26:21] What he was facing wasn't just his own death, it was the forsaking of the Father. But it was done because of our sin, because of your sin, because of my sin. He was taking the sin of the world on his own shoulders, in his own being and accepting the cup of God's wrath. I have always found it helpful, John Piper's comment on this. He says, Jesus did not deflect the wrath of God on the cross. He absorbed it. He absorbed it.
[00:26:55] We don't talk about the wrath of God much. We prefer to sing of his mercy and his love. But you cannot have one without the other. Without his wrath towards sin, we would have no justice. And without his love, we couldn't bear his wrath.
[00:27:10] The love of God is exemplified, magnified and personified in Christ Jesus, who submitted to and drank the cup of God's wrath on our behalf. This was Jesus's experience in the garden. To accept that cup, it was excruciating. The pressure was so immense that it caused him to sweat drops of blood. Yes, he was prostrate on the Ground praying and lamenting to God. I'm sure he was also in a. In a period of agitation, who would stand up and circle back around to his disciples. We read three times. And so the experience of the disciples that we read about in verses 37 through 42 are these times when Jesus came back to his 3.
[00:27:57] Now, we don't know definitively what their experience was because Mark and the other Gospel writers, they only mentioned two things. They were sleepy, and they didn't know what to say to Jesus when he confronted them. They just ate a big meal. The seder meal was a big meal they had just had. Wine probably made them a little bit sleepy. It was very, very late, if not early the next morning, after midnight. But have you ever been so grief stricken? Have you ever been so sad, perhaps even depressed, that all you could do in the moment was sleep? You ever been there?
[00:28:33] Well, Luke says in his Gospel that Jesus found them sleeping, exhausted from their grief.
[00:28:41] These men weren't just lazy and tired, and perhaps they were that too. But they were exhausted from the grief, from the. Perhaps the awakening, the understanding of what was about to happen, that Jesus had been trying to get them to understand for some time now that at times they just didn't quite grasp what he was saying. But they had grief in their souls because they knew something was about to happen. And when Jesus confronts them, they were speechless. I think it's safe to say that they were likely a little embarrassed, a little ashamed. Wasn't their best moment, but it would get worse for them.
[00:29:18] I think there's perhaps two ways the disciples experienced the garden themselves. I think one was a negative experience. I think one was a positive experience.
[00:29:27] When we read this account, though, I think it's natural for us to think of it in more of a negative aspect, that Jesus circling back to his disciples three different times and telling them to wake up, that he's probably a little perturbed with them, rightfully so.
[00:29:45] I think one of the ways that the disciples experience the garden is feeling the displeasure of Jesus at the climactic scene that we read. We read in verse 41 where Jesus says enough.
[00:29:58] And we assume that when he says those words that he's throwing up his hands in exasperation. He's like, enough, let's go. Let's get out of here.
[00:30:07] However, the word there and the structure of the sentence there, scholars don't believe necessarily mean that there's a little bit of debate. A lot of scholars believe that that interpretation of that word that means enough is paid in full. It's more of a financial term, more of an interaction.
[00:30:26] In other words, it might be to suggest that Jesus has accepted the cup, that his interaction with God has been settled. Other scholars believe that he might be alluding to Judas coming and after Judas having his exchange of money taken place. But that seems a little bit far fetched since the disciples would really have had no context for that taking place.
[00:30:50] But the first visit that Jesus gives to the makes to the disciples. He addresses Peter not as Peter, he addresses him as Simon, his given name. Jesus had not used that name since he renamed Peter or renamed Simon Peter. I'm quite sure Peter noticed this. Maybe he recoiled a little bit. Maybe he was a little grief stricken himself knowing the significance of that because he wasn't being very rock like in this moment.
[00:31:20] And the admonition that the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. While in all likelihood is cliche ish to us today, it would have been received by them as a piercing truth that it was.
[00:31:35] Here were his three closest friends. The teaching and the works of Jesus as the Messiah were locked into their minds as they were the other disciples. But they struggled with them in their hearts.
[00:31:49] During Jesus time with his disciples, there were clear times of frustration with them because of their lack of understanding.
[00:31:58] He has told them to be alert and watchful because no one knows the day or the hour when the end will come. He tells them that just days prior to be on guard because they will be handed over to local courts and flogged. They will be hated by everyone. Because of the name of Jesus.
[00:32:16] He redefines Passover. He says, this is my body that will soon be broken, my blood that will be shed. He tells them that he will be betrayed by one of them, Judas, that one of them will deny him three times, but that all of them will fall away. He's communicating these things to them. Are they understanding this? There's a stark contrast between Jesus's agonizing lament and and submission to God and the obvious stupor of his disciples. There's such a dissimilarity there.
[00:32:50] Jesus demeanor and tone in his words to them, I'm sure were deeply felt by these men. But I don't think they were meant and received as condemnation, but conviction and a stern exhortation. To be sure, yes, embarrassed. But I don't think Jesus made them feel like they were condemned because they were not condemned men. They were to be set free.
[00:33:18] But the unspoken truth of this event, I think is this, that watching and praying lies beyond their strength. The Disciples, like all of us, require redemption and liberation from our sin.
[00:33:33] This was the heart of Jesus. I think in this moment, in his acceptance of the cup, there was redemption and salvation for us. So the positive experience, one that I think that we might miss in this scene, shows us the heart of Jesus.
[00:33:51] I think this scene shows us the character and the nature of God. Again, Jesus submits to the Father to drink the cup. And the process of submission was simultaneously this agonizing struggle by Jesus.
[00:34:05] But it was wrapped ultimately in a shepherd's heart, the heart of Jesus. Even in the midst of his worst hour, until the cross. Of course, Jesus has a heart of compassion. Even during his great struggle to humanly understand what, what the Father's will is and to submit to that will. Even in the midst of perhaps silence from the Father and being forsaken by the Father, even in this moment, Jesus still, still tends his flock.
[00:34:38] John says in his gospel, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
[00:34:46] These were his friends, these were his chosen disciples. These were those that were closest to him.
[00:34:55] And he doesn't ask them to pray for him. You notice that while he goes off to be with the Father, he tells them to pray that they would not enter into temptation. He's looking after their hearts.
[00:35:09] You would think he'd be asking them to pray for him for what he's about to go through. He's asking them to guard their hearts.
[00:35:18] I think here in the garden, Jesus looks on his disciples, these three in particular, with great compassion. Just as he looked on the crowds and looked on them as with compassion, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Because very soon the disciples would scatter and they would feel as though they were without their shepherd, their rabbi, their Lord.
[00:35:40] Prayer would be crucial to their way of living as disciples. Because prayer is meant to connect our hearts to the heart of God. And it is through our high priest, Jesus, that the Father hears our prayer through the forsaking of the Son, that he will not forsake you and I in our prayers.
[00:36:01] And Jesus last interpersonal interaction with his people, with his guys before his arrest, his trial and his crucifixion, was in spite of, of this crushing, agonizing grief and deep wrestling with the will of God. His last interpersonal relation with these folks was to shepherd them.
[00:36:22] This is who Jesus is to the very end.
[00:36:27] And I think there are a few takeaways for us.
[00:36:31] Obviously, only Jesus can drink the cup of God's wrath.
[00:36:36] But church, there's another cup.
[00:36:38] There's no other way for salvation to be purchased other than through Jesus acceptance and submission to God's will to suffer and die for mankind to drink the cup of God's wrath.
[00:36:53] But the other cup is a cup of redemption. This is the cup Jesus takes after the Passover meal during the Seder. And he says, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
[00:37:10] On the night of Passover with his disciples, Jesus declares that his blood would seal that covenant. In other words, the cup of God's wrath for the judgment of sin that Jesus accepted would be poured out literally through his own blood on the cross.
[00:37:28] The cup of God's wrath becomes the cup of God's redemption. For those who believe, the cup of blessing, the cup of judgment, becomes the cup of salvation, the cup of blessing.
[00:37:41] And what we need here to hear first today is that because there's no other way for the broken relationship between us and a holy God to be restored but by Jesus Christ, our own personal sin, not the idea of sin, not the theory of sin, but the reality of our individual sin problem. It is the only way to recognize, to reconcile us to God. And that is through the work of Jesus, through his acceptance of the cup church, you cannot atone for your own sins.
[00:38:21] The events of this Passion Week are a reminder of the gravity in the weight of our sin and the consequences of our sin problem.
[00:38:30] But with that reminder comes the good news that the solution to our problem, the solution to mankind's problem, the very issue that mankind struggles with today and all of the ensuing issues that come out of that, all of those struggles is the result of sin.
[00:38:51] But only Jesus saves us from that. I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine who had a stroke. He's 70 year old man in December, last December, and he had a stroke. And before that he had suffered some physical maladies that he had not had before. And I was talking to him one day and he was talking about a conversation he was having with another person at his church. And in tears, he looks at me and he says, am I atoning for my sins?
[00:39:26] And I said, mike, no, you can't do that. Jesus atoned you for your sins. There's nothing you can do to atone for your sins.
[00:39:35] Jesus must drink the cup. We cannot drink the cup.
[00:39:39] The second thing I think we need to hear is the shepherd's exhortation to us all to stay alert.
[00:39:47] Just before this scene, maybe a day or two earlier, actually it was before they entered back into Jerusalem, they were on the Mount of Olives once again, again. And Jesus was with Peter and John and James and with with Peter's brother Andrew. And this is what he tells them. He says, concerning the day or the hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven or the Son, but only the Father. Watch and be alert, for you don't know when the time is coming. It's like a man on a journey who left his house, gave authority to his servants, gave each one his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to be alert. Therefore, be alert, since you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening or at midnight, or at the crowing of the rooster or early in the morning. Otherwise when he comes suddenly, he might find you sleeping.
[00:40:41] What I say to you, I say to everyone, be alert.
[00:40:46] We're going to come back to this in just a second in our ministry time, but I think that is a message we need to hear, is to be alert. But before we get there, the third thing I want to say, guys, you can go ahead and come on up.
[00:40:59] As we begin Passion Week this week, remember that what ultimately compelled Jesus to willfully submit to the Father and this is the mindset that we are to live our Christian lives by, is this.
[00:41:18] This is what compels Jesus to submit to the Father. Hebrews says, let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that was lay before him. He endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. What was that joy before Jesus? What was it in the very garden he could look past this pressure that was on them, the ultimate forsakeness of God, the excruciating pain of the cross, the physical pain, the emotional anguish, the forsakeness of the Father. What was it that he could look past? What was that joy that he could look past? It was to be seated at the right hand of God. But where is that? It's in the assembly of the Redeemed. You and I, we are in the assembly, and we will one day be in the assembly of the Redeemed. And this brings Jesus great joy. And the good news today is it continues to bring him great joy. And his joy is our redemption and that to the glory of the Father. And this is why we rejoice on Resurrection Sunday that he is risen indeed. But it's also why we can rejoice every day because of the joy set before Jesus, who sits at the Right hand of the Father in the assembly of the redeemed, which is you and I. If we have submitted our will to the Father because of Christ's sacrifice.
[00:42:55] Father, thank you for this time. And thank you for your word, and thank you for Jesus, our Savior.
[00:43:01] Lord, words cannot adequately, I think, describe what our Savior went through in the garden.
[00:43:08] So I would just pray that you would impress these things onto our hearts. And as we read scripture and as we ponder and meditate the human reality of Jesus, fully God, yet fully man, the experience that he had to take on as a human being, the pain, the forsakenness, sweating blood, the emotions that came with being perhaps a little angry with his disciples, and yet his ability to look past all of that for our joy.
[00:43:44] Help us to understand this, Lord.
[00:43:47] Help us to internalize this in our own lives this week, help us to do the work, to confess our sin, maybe for the first time to submit our will to the Father because of Jesus. Submission to you, who was forsaken on our behalf. For some of us, maybe that's the first time we've ever considered it, that this man who was God, came and died for us, for me, for you.
[00:44:25] Help us to understand this, Lord, through your spirit. I pray in Jesus name during our time, our ministry time. I want to go back for just a second and talk about what it looks like for us to be alerts.
[00:44:40] What do you need to hear from Jesus today about being alert?
[00:44:46] Whatever you hear, know this.
[00:44:50] We should contemplate and consider the reality of our sin and its consequences. We should do the work.
[00:44:57] But Jesus is not satisfied with us wallowing in that reality. Because there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
[00:45:05] He is your good shepherd. And our good shepherd wants us to wake up and be alert. Our spiritual sleep reveals our very humanity.
[00:45:17] Watching and praying at the end of the day lays beyond our ability and our strength. Just like the disciples.
[00:45:25] And like the disciples, we too require redemptions and liberation from our sin and from our flesh. But in the midst of our apathy, in the midst of our laziness, Jesus is faithful. He is still our shepherd.
[00:45:41] He loves us to the end. So spend a few moments in time quietly before the Lord and ask him how it is that you need to be alert.
[00:45:51] What is it you need to wake us? Ye Are you prepared?
[00:45:57] Are you prepared for the eventual return of Christ, of which we do not know the hour?
[00:46:02] Are you prepared to let what Jesus pours into you, then pour out of you as you rid your wheat? This church do that work listen to the spirit.
[00:46:14] What does a uni do to be alert?
