You may be seated. To the glory of God. Now, the Bible contains several passages that people usually handle very lightly. They read over them very quickly thinking they're not of first importance. But the passage that Brother Andy read to you this morning is not one of those. This passage is of great importance. Infinite importance. In fact, this passage is of such great importance that it cries out to us today, remove your sandals from your feet for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. This passage silences us. It makes us grimace. There is no laughter, no shallowness, no foolishness here. The endless pandering of the modern prima donna pied pipers toward the baseness of human fallenness dies in this passage. The carnality of such popular teachings like our rights in Christ and material prosperity and physical healing that is mesmerized so many in the modern church ends. right here, with this agony, with this prayer, with this man in this garden. It is important because I say to you that without this prayer and this agony of Jesus here at this moment in this garden, there would have been no cross. And that means there would have been no propitiation for the wrath of God that burns hot against us. And that means there would have been no salvation for our wicked souls. That is how important this passage is. We find this account is in each of the first three Gospels, Matthew 26, Mark 14, and Luke 22, which indicates that both God the Holy Spirit and the human writers understood that this event was of great importance. no less than the prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon, wrote of this passage, quote, Here we come to the holy of holies of our Lord's life on earth. This is a mystery like that which Moses saw when the bush burned with fire and was not consumed. No man can rightly expound such a passage as this. It is a subject for prayerful, heartbroken meditation more than for human language. William Barclay said, surely this is a passage we must approach on our knees. And D.A. Carson said, as his death was unique, so also was his anguish. And our best response to it is hushed worship. I found myself several times this week on my face in my study as I was preparing this. I went down one time I have a study that's over the garage and I went down and had my wife pray for me. I wanted to preach this rightly. And so we are to look at this passage and we are to behold it in awed respect so that we may be moved to prayerful awe and bow before God in hushed worship. Now the scene here in the garden really began back in John chapter 13. I wish you would go there with me. John chapter 13 beginning with verse 25. John chapter 13 beginning with verse 25. The Gospel of John chapter 13 beginning with verse 25. The Word of God said, He leaning back thus on Jesus, His bosom said to Him, Lord, who is it? Jesus then answered, that is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him. So when he had dipped the morsel, he took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus said to him, what you do, do quickly. Now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose he had said this to him, for some were supposing because Judas had the money box that Jesus was saying to him, buy the things we have need of for the feast, or else that he should give something to the poor. So after receiving the morsel, he went out immediately, and it was night. Therefore, when he had gone out, Jesus said, Now! is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself and will glorify Him immediately. So while reclining at the table as Satan was entering into Judas' heart to betray Jesus, Jesus said, now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in Him. Now I've got a question. Why does Jesus say that He is glorified and that God is glorified in Him at the very moment when Satan is at his highest and most effective attack against Him? Wouldn't it have been better if Judas had not betrayed the Lord? Wouldn't it have been better if Jesus had been received and worshipped and adored and exalted and loved by the people rather than rejected and hated and despised and murdered? What is going on here? Why is both God and Jesus glorified when Jesus is just about to go into the hardest agony that He had while on the earth? This is strange, but it's very similar to what God Himself said in the book of Revelation 12, verse 10, when he said, Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come. Now the kingdom has come. Now the authority has come. Now the power has come. Well, that's a good thing, right? Well, when is it going to come? Because or for? The accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. Wait a minute. The Apostle John writes here that the very moment when the devil has been thrown down to the earth, angry, which is what begins all of our troubles and temptations and the very fall itself in the Garden of Eden. All the evil and all the wickedness and all the crime and all the poverty and all the war and all the injustice and all the rebellion that flowed out from that. It was at that moment that God would say, now the salvation and the power and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come. Seriously? At our worst moment? At the very moment of the beginning of all of our troubles, that is the time for God to celebrate? Yes. Because God's ways are not like our ways. Because God is wiser and infinitely gracious. So what appears to be the single worst thing that could happen to us is actually the beginning of our eternal redemption and everlasting joy. And this horrific scene here in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus is literally collapsing on the ground in agonizing prayer is actually the beginning of the most vivid display of the glory of the grace of God that the world has ever or will ever see. Now the Apostle John calls the location of this amazing scene a garden. In fact, John says that this garden was over the ravine of the Kidron, which was just outside the city limits of Jerusalem. Now, both the Apostle Levi and John Mark tell us that this garden was called Gethsemane. And that name actually comes from an Aramaic word, gad smaneh, which means oil press. So there were olive trees there and it was a place where men took the olives and crushed them to get the oil. In fact there are still olive trees in this garden to this day and one of those olive trees is about a thousand years old. Now there is an extra biblical legend that suggests that the Garden of Gethsemane and the oil business that was in it was owned by a believer of Jesus who allowed Jesus to go into his garden at night during the evening of the last week of his life so he could rest and hide from the religious authorities who by this time were actively looking to have Jesus murdered. But Dr. Luke simply calls the Garden of Gethsemane the place. Probably because his gospel record was written after both Matthew and Mark. And so he had no need to identify it. Now even though Jesus has been retreating to this garden all week by himself, Luke tells us that on this late Thursday evening or early Friday morning, Jesus takes the remaining eleven disciples with him. And Jesus leaves eight of the eleven at the entrance of the garden. And there's all kinds of suggestions as to why he did this. Some suggest that Jesus left eight at the garden, that there was actually a fence around the garden, and that there was a gate there, and perhaps Jesus left the eight to watch, to see if the authorities were coming. to warn Jesus. I'm not sure about that. I think that this was more of a spiritual reason than it was a danger reason, but there's a lot of conjecture about this. But he left aid at the entrance to the garden, and he tells these men, pray that you may not enter into temptation. And we went over this last week. What was he asking them to pray? What kind of temptation? Adultery? Covetousness? Dishonoring your parents? No. No. That was not the temptation here. But then he takes Peter, James, and John further into the garden with him. And he initially confides in them and gives them a charge. He says, My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and keep watch with me. Now, other English translators use terms like terrible distress and misery, or crushed with anguish, which gives us further insight into this scene. And this is similar to the language used by King David in Psalm 22, verse 14, when he prophesied concerning Jesus and said, I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me. So the very essence of Jesus' life is being poured out like water here in this garden, and His heart is melted within Him. Now, keeping watch was a military term that was used for men who were tasked with the responsibility of watching for the enemy during the night, usually along the walls of a city. And these men would stand on the walls and not sleep all night long, and would look out to see if the enemy was approaching. And there are two things that make this statement by Jesus unique. First of all, this is the first time that the incarnate God is actually asking sinful human beings to pray with Him. And if you put this request alongside of what it says, he was in an anguish. He was grieved to the point of death. Jesus is not standing erect and calm with a calm expression on His face. He is bowed over. The burden of this is really hitting Him, and He's pleading with these men, Watch with Me! My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. Pray for me. Pray with me. Don't sleep. Don't get distracted. Don't let your mind wander. Don't get diverted. Pray! Now this is the single most important moment that these men have ever experienced in their entire lives. And keep in mind that Jesus did not bring these three men here for his benefit. He brought them here for their benefit. Jesus already knows that every single one of these men will fail this night in what he commands them to do. But he also knows that in their failure, a great victory will come forth. And so at the single most important and critical juncture of His earthly ministry, what is Jesus telling these men to do? Pray. And secondly, by combining the military term, watch, in conjunction with prayer, tells us that Jesus is telling these men to be alert, and to be fervent, and to be earnest in praying for Him. Now John Mark tells us that Jesus went a little beyond them. Dr. Luke says He withdrew from them about a stone's throw, which is about 50 or 60 feet, the distance that an average man could throw an average rock. So Jesus brought all 11 disciples with Him to the garden. He left 8 at the edge of the garden, told them to pray so they would not enter into temptation. There's no record that He told them My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. He tells that to Peter, James, and John. And then He took three of His closest men some distance into the garden with Him, confided to them the grief that was on Him was so great that He was near death, and gave these trusted men the earnest command to pray hard and not sleep. And then Jesus Himself left them and went to the center of the garden alone. Now I want to make sure that you understand what's going on here. It's not like Jesus had never experienced grief or distress before over sin and death and over the isolation from His heavenly Father they would bring. Jesus always knew that He had come to the earth to suffer and die for the sins of the world. But the climax of His anguish is now beginning to intensify as never before. As Jesus is actually becoming sin in our place, and His consequent separation from His Father draws near. Jesus' very soul was both grieved and repulsed by the fact that He had to be made sin. So, Jesus was not grieving because of the physical pain He would have to endure, but rather because of having to take upon Himself the full magnitude and defilement of all the iniquity of all of God's elect, and that prospect was beyond description or understanding. Now there is a very deep and desolate kind of loneliness that began to sweep over Jesus at this point that caused Him to be severely distressed. A loneliness that no other human could ever experience. The Son of God who eternally communed with the Father and with the Holy Spirit and with all of the holy angels of heaven would find Himself utterly forsaken by His Father as He became sin. He would be so identified with iniquity that the host of heaven would have to turn their backs on Him. And the same sin that repulsed them repulsed Him. The sinless, holy, pure and undefiled Son of Righteousness. And as the mortal Son of Man, the immortal Son of God had to also take death itself upon Himself. And that too was grievous and depressing beyond measure. And this caused the Savior inexpressible torment. And so Jesus' prayer here is a desperate cry. He is trying to find a way to fulfill His Father's plan without having to become sin and without being separated from God. And so Dr. Luke describes His prayer like this, Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done. Now we must remember that before Jesus, nobody called God Father. Abraham didn't call God Father, Moses didn't call God Father, David didn't call God Father. In Jewish understanding, to call someone your father meant that you proceeded or came forth from that one. That meant that you were of the same substance, the same essence as the one from whom you had proceeded. So for Jesus to call the one true living God, Father, meant that He came forth or proceeded from God. And that He was of the very same substance, the very same essence of God the Father, making Jesus to be fully deity. Evidently they had tearaway jerseys back then and you know the the outward sign of of blasphemy was they would take their garments and rip them and so Jesus is walking around saying father father father and their rip rip rip rip rip every time he said father they're ripping their garments all over the place because they think this they consider this to be blasphemy that Jesus is equating himself to be equal with God that's blasphemy to these Jews. But that's exactly what Jesus said about Himself in John 8 verse 42. If God were your Father, you would love Me. That's a profound statement that's true today. Anybody who correctly reads the Old Testament will love Jesus. They will worship Jesus. I saw a 28-minute video last night of a street interview in Jerusalem about two weeks ago where a reporter is asking Jews on the street what they think about Jesus. And just like I've told you, they came to the Orthodox guy. Most of them didn't care. He was great. He's the founder of Christianity. He's the Christian prophet. All these other things. They say, good man, a great teacher. And the guy, is he God? No, he's not God. He's a man. And they came to the Orthodox, the guy with the black hat and the curly Q on the side. What do you think about Jesus? An imposter, a fraud. That's exactly what Orthodox Jews say about Jesus today. They will spit at his name because they consider him to be a fraud and an imposter. That's going on right now. This video was two weeks old. But Jesus said, if God were your Father, you would love Me. So any reading of the Old Testament that does not cause you to come to Jesus for salvation is an incorrect reading of the Old Testament. If you understand the Old Testament, you will come to Jesus. Because the Old Testament talks about Jesus, doesn't it? Amen. For I proceeded forth and have come from God, He said. For I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me. And that is exactly what the Christian church has confessed for 2,000 consecutive years. One of the ancient written summary statements of the Christian faith, the Nicene Creed, states that Jesus is God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made. So Jesus confounded the religious hypocrites of His day by calling God Father all the time, which showed His unique relationship with Him. Now the Apostle Levi says that in the intense, agonizing prayer that Jesus cried out, My Father! While John Mark says that Jesus cried out, Abba, Father! Which shows an even deeper and more intimate relationship that Jesus had with His Father. So Jesus tells these three men that He is deeply grieved to the point of death. Now the Greek word here is where we get our English word, periphery, from. And so the grief and anguish that Jesus is experiencing here is completely surrounding Him. There's no escape. There's no reprieve. There's no ease. It's getting worse and worse and worse and worse on Him. In fact, it is consuming Him. So Jesus' solitary prayer is a groan and an agony and a desperate cry to His Father. Look again at Luke 22, verses 43 and 44. Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. This also is the first time this has ever happened. An angel strengthening the incarnate God. Huh? Verse 44, And being in agony, He was praying very fervently. And His sweat became like drops of blood falling down upon the ground. Now the English word agony here had to literally be created to describe the intense pressure and grief and distress that Jesus was going through right here. The King James says that Jesus was in an agony, in a particular agony that was associated only with Him. And the Greek word has to do with inner tension indicating the supreme concentration of powers. in face of imminent decisions or disasters. This is not the fear of death, but an overwhelming concern for victory in the face of the approaching decisive battle on which the fate of the world depends. Hence, it is not to be compared with other more common types of agony. And this is why God dispatched an angel to Jesus to strengthen Him. Nobody had ever prayed like this before. Luke tells us that Jesus prayed so intently, so earnestly, so fervently, in such an agony that His sweat became like drops of blood falling down upon the ground. Now for many years of my Christian experience, I was saved in 1971 by God's grace, and until 1985, so what's that, 14 years, I didn't understand this. How is this possible that someone could pray so hard, so earnestly, that he would sweat blood? Now, I, along with many, many, many, many, many other people, have prayed so long and so hard that my clothes were literally dripping with sweat. But I have never sweat blood. But in the mid-1980s, as my daughter Joy was dying with leukemia, I saw it myself. Part of the procedure that my sweet little girl went through was when they had to periodically take bone marrow samples. And the only way to do that was to drive a very large needle into her hip bone so they could test it. Now, in addition to having non-lymphocytic leukemia, my baby was mentally impaired and didn't understand what they were doing, and so she resisted. So they had to strap her to a plastic board in order to perform the test. And of course, that only made her resist all the more. And I would try to whisper and sing in her ear and stroke her head to comfort her, but the pain was great. And she screamed so loud and was in such pain that she actually ruptured the tiny surface blood vessels in her face. And she literally sweated blood. It is a phenomenon called hematidrosis. And I can tell you that her pain and the fact that I could not help her was an agony beyond words to my soul. Many times I would fall to my knees in anguish. So Dr. Luke tells us that Jesus was praying so intently and was in such an agony that He literally sweated blood. Now the huge difference between what my child went through and what Jesus went through is that my child's blood sweat was very tiny and very minimal. But Jesus' sweating of His blood was so much that Dr. Luke said it was literally dropping on the ground. The King James phrased it as great drops of blood. Also, my child was dying with a vicious disease and it was the treatment itself that was designed to help her, that was causing her the physical pain. But Jesus was not dying of a disease. He was not being treated by doctors. Jesus' agony had nothing to do with suffering from a disease. Jesus was agonizing in prayer over the fact that the only way He could fulfill His Father's plan of redemption was to be made sin and have His Father abandon Him. Jesus was going to die to save our souls from the wrath of God. Now we need to stop here and consider something very important. God never forced Jesus to die on the cross. Jesus knew God's will and He willingly submitted to it. So in every phase of His earthly ministry, Jesus would understand God's will, and then gladly, joyfully, fully, without any hesitation, yield Himself to do God's will. Jesus was yielded to the Holy Spirit, led of the Holy Spirit perfectly, without any flaw. He loved His Father perfectly. He obeyed His Father perfectly. But in order for God's plan here to be fulfilled meant two unthinkable things to Jesus. Number one, Jesus had to become pure sin. And number two, God the Father and God the Spirit had to separate themselves from Jesus. Two things that had never happened before. And that is why Jesus is agonizing in prayer here. We need to remember that Jesus was totally sinless. Totally. It is important to understand that the only reason we can enter into heaven and stand in God's presence without being eviscerated is because we go there in Jesus' name, in His reputation. We stand there covered in Jesus' blood, draped with Jesus' righteousness. And Jesus has both blood and righteousness to give to us. because He fulfilled His Father's law perfectly and continuously, 24 hours every day and 7 days every week, and because He willingly, joyfully submitted to God's will right here in this garden as a result of this prayer. And Jesus became sin for us and died with our sins upon Himself. So while it was His death on the cross and His shed blood that forgives our sins, it is His righteous life that provides us with righteousness. And so while we marvel at His death, we must also stand amazed over the fact that Jesus never lusted. We should gape over the reality that Jesus never coveted. We should fall before our King and worship Him because Jesus never lied. We should marvel because Jesus never said or did anything wrong, ever. Jesus' name should be admired and honored and adored and exalted through our words and our songs and our thoughts and our actions because Jesus never had a bad attitude, not even for a millisecond. Jesus loved His Father perfectly. Jesus loved His chosen followers perfectly. Jesus never had a sinful impulse. He had no fallen nature. Jesus had no inclination to love darkness rather than light. And the only way that Jesus could fulfill His Father's plan was by becoming pure sin and have God the Father separate from Him. And that had never happened before. John's Gospel record tells us this in John 1, 1 and 2. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. So from eternity past, Jesus has always been in God's presence. He is God. He was always with God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, enjoy perfect harmony, perfect unity, perfect love, perfect joy in the inter-Trinitarian glory 24 hours every day and 7 days every week. So don't you dare say Jesus saved you because He was lonely. He's never known loneliness except in this garden. He saved you because He loved you. And He loved you for no other reason than He loves you. And your salvation displays the glory of God's grace throughout the universe. Hallelujah. There is never a moment when the three persons of the one biblical God are not with one another until this moment. Now we struggle to get into God's presence. And we struggle because of what the prophet said in Isaiah 59 verse 2. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. So for any fallen and sinful human being to be in God's presence at all in any aspect is a wonder that is almost unthinkable. For any of us to stand in the same proximity of God, who is infinite glory, and infinite beauty, and infinite righteousness, and infinite majesty, and infinite power, and infinite goodness, requires a dead and a risen Savior. Nobody stands in God's presence because of their own merit or their own purity. For any of us to be in God's presence, uncovered by both the shed blood of Jesus and His pristine righteousness, would require God the Father to annihilate us in a moment. We also know what Jesus Himself said about the relationship that He and the Father have from what He said in John 17, verse 5, 21 and 24. He said, Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself. With what? The glory which I had with You before the world was. Hallelujah. That they all may be one, even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am so that they may see my glory which you have given me for what you loved me before the foundation of the world. So Jesus and the Father and the Spirit enjoy perfect glory, perfect singleness, perfect love. And yet the only way that Jesus can fulfill His Father's will here is to become what the Father hates the most. Sin. Now even though it only takes a few seconds to read through this passage, Jesus' prayer was quite lengthy. And even though I think it was here in this garden that Jesus prayed His high priestly prayer of John 17 at this time, even that doesn't take long to read through. The few words that are given to us simply to help us get the impact of His prayer and do not constitute His full time with God. I personally believe that Jesus' time in prayer in this garden lasted for several hours. But at some point during this amazing prayer, probably after the first hour, because of what he said, Jesus manages to get up and stagger toward these three closest men who He had strictly told not to fall asleep, but to pray earnestly or to keep watch. And even though these rugged fishermen were used to fishing all night long, even though they made their living by staying up all night pulling their nets through the waters of the Sea of Galilee, even though sleep had never been an issue with them before, This night, on the only night that Jesus called on them to pray with Him, they picked this night to fail in their mission and go to sleep. This is incredible. And even though many commentators go to great lengths to say how tired these men must have been due to all the energy they had spent on that particular day and how normal it is to be sleepy that time of the night. Give me a break. I won't buy that for a second. And I don't accept that for four huge reasons. Number one, they were used to staying up all night long. Number two, this was not a normal night. How many times does the Son of God come and say, Pray with me! Jesus had specifically told them not to fall asleep. Keep watch. But the main reason I don't buy this is because Dr. Luke told us why they went to sleep. Luke 22.45 says, when He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow. Oh! Well, now it's clear. What? He says they failed at the most crucial moment in Jesus' entire earthly ministry because of sorrow. Okay. What is that supposed to mean? Luke tells us that these men did not fall asleep because they were tired, or because they had a long day, or because they were exhausted over everything that had transpired that day. No, no, no. The infallible Word of the living God tells us these men fell asleep from sorrow. So it was sorrow that caused their eyes to be heavy. Now, that doesn't make any sense to me. I've had sorrow I've had profound sorrow and the only thing I didn't do was sleep I called myself praying all night because I'm you know I'm saved so I spent the night in prayer well I spent the night worrying is what I did now and so I've struggled with this and so in order to figure this out I consulted with a very good Greek dictionary I recommend you get this. Now, right off Jump Street, you need to know that all dictionaries are not created equal. You can buy a dictionary at Walmart for about five bucks that is about three inches thick and has some pretty good definitions in it. It's made out of paper. It's real flimsy. But if you buy the full Oxford Dictionary, it's about $500. and it's about four foot thick. And the difference is not that the cheap dictionary from Walmart's wrong. It's just woefully inadequate. The editor simply eliminated all but the most common definitions. And so the cheap dictionary doesn't give you the fullest or even the best information. So there's a great dictionary out there that's very good. And it's good because it isn't cheap. And it isn't cheap because it's full. It's the ten volume Kittles Greek Dictionary. And this dictionary not only gives you the meaning of the words as they appear in the Bible but it also goes outside the Bible to other literature that was published in the first century to give you the best and the fullest meaning of what the average person who lived in the first century would think when he heard that particular word used. And it is from that Greek Dictionary that we see that some of the deeper meanings of the word sorrow would be things like sadness, unhappiness, misery, despondency, regret, depression and despair, dejection and gloom, woe, heartache, even grief. So what was going on with these men that they were sad and unhappy? Why were they miserable and despondent? Why were Jesus' closest men in despair and gloom? Why were they experiencing heartache and grief? Why was Peter, James, and John sorrowful? Was it because Jesus was about to die? Were they sleeping because they were depressed? And if so, what were they depressed about? Was it some great regret that was causing them to disobey Jesus' command here to pray? I think that in order to understand this we need to try to get into the minds of these men. Every single one of these men had been taught from their childhood that the Jews were God's chosen people. And they were looking for a Messiah to come one day to save them. But the salvation that these men were initially looking for was not to be saved from the wrath of God. No, the Jews believed that they were in right standing with God by birth through their physical lineage to Father Abraham. And so to them being saved was to be physically and militarily delivered from the pagans who were occupying their land and brutalizing them every day. And so they were looking for a warrior messiah, a conquering military commander who would mobilize a great following of Jewish warriors who would vanquish the Roman army and restore Israel to its former glory. This Messiah would then enter into Jerusalem as the conquering hero and march down Main Street on a white stallion and enter into the palace and sit down on the throne of King David and rule the world with a rod of iron. And Peter, James and John had been with Jesus now from the very beginning of His earthly ministry and they had seen Jesus perform countless miracles and speak amazing words. They had watched Jesus raise the dead and cast out demons and even be transfigured before Him, but they had never seen Jesus like this. They had never seen their Savior overwhelmed with grief and anguish. They had never seen Him bent over with a burden so heavy it was literally killing Him. They had heard Jesus pray a thousand times before, but never pray like this. And this shook these men to the core of their being. Up until now, Jesus had always had all the answers. He was always strong, always on top of everything. Jesus had never wilted, even in the face of intense persecution. He had stared down the most powerful men in the entire nation. They heard Him speak amazing truth. They had even seen Him shine with the glory of God with their own eyes. But now just 50 feet away, their king had fallen on his face to the dust. And he was crying out to God, My Father, let this cup pass from me. And this strong, wise, glorious master was now weak and vulnerable. Seemingly at the point of backing up on everything he had told them. And I really think that this scene offended these men. and it offended them to the point where they were really wondering what they had gotten themselves into. Now I think it's very important to understand the mindset of these men. Not only was Jesus not afraid of dying, these men weren't afraid either. They were absolutely willing to stand with Jesus up to this point because they honestly believed in who He was and what He was teaching. And so they were willing to go all the way, including dying for this man, at least they thought they were. And in the back of their minds, if not in the very forefront, these men realized that by hitching their wagon to Jesus meant they were getting into very serious trouble with the powers that be. They knew that by bucking tradition they were angering a whole lot of important people. And they didn't mind doing that because they had an ace in the hole. These men were perfectly willing to go all the way with Jesus because they knew that Jesus had great supernatural power and authority. And then when things got real tough, they knew that Jesus could just speak the Word and all their enemies would be destroyed. One time Peter panicked and said, we've got to pay our taxes! And Jesus said, go down and catch a fish and take the gold coin out and pay your taxes and mine. And so they were used to this. They needed food. So Jesus multiplies fish and loaves. Right before this, if you remember several weeks ago, Jesus turned to speech a little bit and he said. Take take a money bag with you. And if you if you if you need to sell something, go buy, go buy a sword. Things are going to change now because I'm leaving. You're going to be persecuted like I've been persecuted. So when things got real tough they knew Jesus could just speak the word and all their enemies would be destroyed. Mortal men were no match for Jesus because they had watched him for over three years tie the most learned lawyers in knots and get out of one jam right after another. But now They sense a real weakness in their leader that they've never seen before. They see Jesus that night in a completely different light. They see Him bent over with a pain expression on His face. They can literally see the burden on His shoulders. And they hear a man that they consider to be the incarnate God beg for them to pray for Him. And the last straw was when they saw their invincible king fall on his face and cry out to God in desperation just 50 feet away. And these men began to wonder. And their confidence that Jesus was actually going to be able to pull all this off and establish His kingdom began to falter. Their faith that Jesus was able to protect them from all the enemies they had made during the last three and a half years began to slip. Their belief that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, began to be challenged like never before. And this was the temptation that Jesus told them to pray against. Everybody celebrates Jesus when He is healing them and feeding them and blessing them. The crowds are large when Jesus is handing out all of His spiritual candy. But when things go south, who will believe? When things are not working at all like you think they should, who will remain faithful? When everything seems to fall apart, who will continue to trust? And so I think a couple of things are going on here in the Garden. First, there was a tremendous foreboding that began to set in upon these men. They began to see Jesus as weak and unable to actually do what they thought Messiah was supposed to do, overcome the pagan Romans and bring the glory back to Israel that they had enjoyed under King David. And as they watched Jesus agonizing in prayer, they had no clue that Jesus' concern was about becoming sin and of being separated from His Father. All they saw was weakness. And a man who was, at that moment, completely unable to establish anything. And so they began to think to themselves, uh-oh, what have we gotten ourselves into? We spent the last three years making enemies out of the most powerful people in the country, and now this guy is going to falter? What are we going to do now? I didn't sign up for this. I thought this was going to get better and better, not end like this. Now one hint that this is exactly what these men were thinking is found over in the book of Acts, chapter 1, verse 6. When after the crucifixion, after the resurrection, after Jesus had spent 40 days speaking to them of things pertaining to the kingdom of God, just minutes before Jesus is going to literally and bodily ascend into heaven, here's the only question they had on their mind. Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel? And I told you this before, his answer is more poetic than what I'm fixing to tell you. But it's basically none of your business. And he never answered their question, did he? Which shows that even at this moment, after the resurrection, after the crucifixion, after the resurrection, after 40 days of him telling them about the kingdom of God, they still don't get it. These men who would go on to change the world still did not have a clue about how all this was going to pan out. What changed them? A prayer meeting in the upper room. A ten day prayer meeting in the upper room. And they never faltered again. Hallelujah. And so as they saw Jesus agonizing in prayer and misunderstanding what it was all about, these men entered into deep depression and had serious second thoughts about the whole thing. And it was almost a fatal resignation that came over them. A depressed realization that they had traveled three years and hitched their wagon on the wrong star and now they were stuck. And I think they just basically gave up at this point. And their profound disappointment with Jesus at this moment caused this sorrow which fueled their inability and really their unwillingness to obey Jesus and stay awake and pray. And each of these three men said to themselves, what's the use? What's the sense in continuing to believe at this point? I mean, our leader is over there with his face in the dust. Obviously, he's afraid of what's coming. And if he's like that, we have no hope. As soon as the authorities see him like this, they're going to kill us all. And so in this deep disillusionment and sorrow, He laid down and went to sleep. But I do think something else is going on here as well. This moment had never happened before and would never happen again. The spiritual darkness and the intense spiritual pressure in this garden must have been intense. It must have been overwhelming. In fact, it was stifling and so thick you could feel it and cut it with a knife. And I really don't think these men understood what was going on and so it overwhelmed them. And I think that was also part of the picture as well. Now Jesus found all three of them disobedient and sleeping, but He only rebukes Peter. Once again, showing that Peter was the leader among the apostles. And He says to Peter, Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. And John Mark tells us, again He went away and prayed, saying the same words. And again He came and found them sleeping. For their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer Him. And He came the third time and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting? And then suddenly it changes. It is enough. The hour has come. Behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Three times Jesus came to these men and found them his closest man sleeping after he had specifically told them not to sleep but to watch and pray with him two times he rebukes them and reinforces his call for them to pray and not enter into the very temptation that they were experiencing right then to doubt him and to give up hope and Dr. Luke tells us that the second time Jesus told them why are you sleeping. Get up and pray that you may not enter into temptation. What do you do when things get hard? The only right thing to do is to get up and pray. But the third time John Mark tells us that Jesus said, it is enough. Now the King James says, sleep on. Which is frightening. And this phrase shows us that Jesus had regained his composure. and was now fully submitted to carrying out his father's will, including the unthinkable, to literally become sin and be separated from his father. In my background, we call that praying through. You don't just pray, you pray through. Huh? Some of y'all know what I'm talking about. Now what we can learn from this amazing scene, what is it that we can get out of this? I think several things. We must also understand that our weak flesh is very powerful in opposing our willing spirit's intentions and resolve to follow Jesus in the obedience of faith. And fighting those inclinations is a deadly, is a daily struggle isn't it? So what exactly do we prayerfully watch for? To escape the power of our weak flesh. It is a great paradox that we often experience the weakness of our flesh in the strength of its sinful cravings and compulsions. It's maddening because our flesh frequently demands to think or do things other than what we should be thinking or should be doing at that very moment. These range from mildly distracting to disturbingly dark. Like, when like the disciples we should be watching and praying, our flesh really wants to go to sleep. When we should be sleeping, our flesh finds Facebook browsing fascinating. When we should be diligently teaching our children, our flesh would just love to watch a relaxing movie, but make sure it's a family-friendly movie. When we should be meditating on Scripture, our flesh becomes a fountain of ideas for reorganizing the room, improving the yard, or critiquing the political candidate. When my oldest son was very young, we moved into our new house and I'd put a sewage treatment plant on the side of my house and it had pea gravel all in it and the gravel was all over the yard. And so my oldest son Joseph's assignment was to rake up the gravel and put it in the wheelbarrow so the lawnmower wouldn't be destroyed from mowing the yard. And so I told him to pick up the rocks and I came home the first night and he said, Dad, I cleaned my room up today. And I said, wonderful. Did you pick up the rocks? Well, no, no. I'll get that tomorrow. So the next day I came home, he said, Dad, I cleaned the garage. I'm beginning to sense a pattern. And I said, did you pick the rocks up? No. This went on for four days. And he was so encouraged. I came home, he was smiling ear to ear. He told me this great thing that he had done that he'd never done before. And the only thing he hadn't done is the only thing I asked him to do. And I told him, obedience don't count unless it's commanded. You don't get any points for doing what I don't want you to do. You've got to please the Father to get praise. The only thing I want you to do is pick the rocks up. And that's the only thing you didn't want to do. Aren't you glad we've all elevated beyond all that? Yeah. And that's why God tells you to do something. It's the only thing you don't want to do. And it's so hard. And you say, well, Satan fights me so much about this. Well, duh! He's only going to fight what God told you to do. He'd be glad for you to do anything else. When we should be focusing on our work, our flesh brings up that focus-dominating fear. When we should be cutting our calories, our flesh demands a sugar snack. When we should be eating because we become undernourished due to believing lies about how our weight relates to our value, our flesh screams shamed, filled things to stop us. When we should be relishing the joy and freedom of sexual purity and fidelity, our flesh desires to imagine or look at defiling, lewd images. when we should be humbly resisting premature conclusions regarding a potentially offensive concern or comment, our flesh immediately turns defensive and suspicious, proposing fantasy scenarios that will indulge sinful anger with a feeling of righteous indignation. I usually do that when I'm alone and I'm in my car and I speak to my steering wheel. The exasperation of this experience made Paul cry out in Romans 7.24, Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? And if it weren't for God's grace toward us, our flesh would hold us completely enslaved. But in Christ, God sets us free not only from the penalty of our sin, dear friends, but also from the power of our sin that remains very active in our flesh. Romans 8, 3 and 4 says, For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. The Word became flesh in order to be condemned in our place for our sin. And in so doing, Jesus paid the full penalty of our guilt. And then Jesus gives us His Spirit to empower us to walk in the newness of life so that we no longer are enslaved to the cravings and compulsions of our flesh. sin, penalty paid, spirit, power imparted, and the kingdom inherited, all because our King is so gracious and lavishly generous. What a gospel! But because our weak, sin-infected flesh still seeks to powerfully influence us away from the gospel, Jesus commands you and me now to watch and pray Watch and pray for what? We watch and pray for the Holy Spirit. We are not to be filled with the Spirit every day in the sense that a glass is filled with water. No, no. We are to be filled every day in the sense of being empowered and enabled and controlled. The New Covenant is all about redeemed souls no longer being driven by our carnal, fleshly lusts, but being led by God's Spirit. And the Spirit leads us into truth by speaking to us the words of Jesus Christ. The flesh drives us by carnal and selfish desires, and only Jesus has the words of eternal life. And that's why it is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. And that's why also Paul tells us, But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. Because, or for, the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. And that's why also Paul says, For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. for all who are being led by the Spirit of God. These are sons of God. So God's children are those who follow the leading of God's Spirit by heeding Jesus' living Word. They do not sleep, but they stay on the alert, praying in the Holy Spirit, watching for the Spirit. Now, we certainly don't do all that perfectly yet. But though stumbling at times, we walk by faith in Jesus' words and not by the sight of our fleshly cravings. So when it comes to resisting the powerful demands of our weak flesh, the Bible describes it as a kind of dying. That's because our deceived, corrupt flesh believes that our lives will be happier if we only would gratify it. And so by denying it, it can feel like dying to something life-giving. So we must be reminded every day that nothing good dwells in us that is in our flesh. When we, in following the Spirit's direction, die to our flesh, we are dying only to what would destroy us. Things like sexual immorality, impurity, passions, evil desires, and covetousness. So all we are really dying to is death. And that kind of dying is worth dying every day. For in such dying, we choose life. So when our weak flesh seems to wield great power through its sinful cravings and compulsions, especially during very serious and important times, you and I must watch and pray that we enter not into temptation. For greater is He that is in us than He that is in the world. All that our sinful flesh will manifest is death. But if by the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh, we will live. So beginning this very day, when you struggle with your own unruly flesh, remember this. You will never die when you die to your flesh. So when you die to your flesh, you are actually choosing life. So choose life and live. Let's pray.