Luke 22, verses 30 through 46. And my voice is a little bit shot, so hopefully I can say everything I'd like to say today. Luke 22, 39 to 46. This is God's Word. And he came out and proceeded, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives. And the disciples also followed him. When he arrived at the place, he said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation. And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and he knelt down and began to pray, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done. Now an angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him, and being in agony, he was praying very fervently, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling down upon the ground. When he arose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow and said to them, why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not enter into temptation. May God bless the reading of his holy word. Shortly after I was married in 1997, a campaign of billboards with messages from God was started. At first, I didn't think much of it, but eventually, some of the words being put directly into God's holy mouth were simply false. A few examples I was able to dig up online are the following, and keep in mind, each of these was simply attributed to God. I loved the wedding, why don't you invite me to the marriage? If you must curse, use your own name. Let's meet at my house before the game. I miss how you used to talk to me when you were a kid. Have you read my number one bestseller? Lean on me when you're not strong. I'm gonna start singing the rest of it. Don't worry, be happy. Will the road you're on get you to my place? And so forth. It's always soul-stirring to put words into the mouth of God he has not spoken. The prophets wrote about this quite a bit to Israel because they had lots of people that did that. Jeremiah 14, 15, therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the prophets, who prophesy in my name, whom I did not send, and who say, sword and famine shall not be in this land. By sword and famine, those prophets shall be consumed. Many find Jesus' agony, his intensity, his prayers in Gethsemane, along with his bloody sweat, to be a bit perplexing. Most attribute this bitterness of soul to the crucifixion that he would have happened to him the following day. As far as deaths devised by the depravity of man's imagination, scourging and crucifixion are certainly at the top of the list in terms of brutality and physical pain. That part of our Lord's suffering was without a doubt a terrifying and awful prospect. But there's something far greater that is unseen to our eyes. We know what it is only by its descriptions in scripture. And that reality is the wrath of God. People today don't believe in the wrath of God anymore. But dear congregation, that's the problem that Jesus came to solve. The wrath of God against humanity. There was a bumper sticker campaign Christians came out with years ago. It was in the 1980s and 90s. It just said, Jesus is the answer. And I thought the atheist bumper sticker response was good. They said, if Jesus is the answer, what's the question? The question is, how can a sinner be delivered from the righteous wrath of God against them? I wish one of those God billboards had put a couple of verses from scripture on them instead. What if the God billboards, what if every one of them said this? But God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Or 1 Thessalonians 1, 9. For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for a son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. Or Ephesians 2, that describes all humanity as children of wrath. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even while we were dead in trespasses, even while we were under his righteous wrath, made us alive together with Christ. In the early centuries after the resurrection of Jesus and the sending out of the apostles to preach the gospel, the church had to constantly face, just as it does today, and refute with creeds and confessions, many heresies about who Jesus was and what he did. And when those false teachings arose in the early church, just as when they arise today, God's people, when they hear those false teachings, they know instinctively that there's something wrong with them, but they're often not exactly sure how to positively state the truth. For example, when Arius. Arius was a pastor. He was a pastor in the early church who denied the deity of Jesus Christ. When he described Jesus as a created creature who had a beginning and was created by God the Father, the Christian people knew that that was wrong. And the struggle that ensued was, how do we put into words a biblical summary that could be a test for future generations to use to know if someone was biblically correct or an error? There were many theological and Christological heresies that arose in those early centuries, and thankfully, by the mercy of God, the Christians met, they got their Bibles, and they worked through the scriptures, and they put down into creeds condemnations of those false teachings. They put down summaries of who Jesus is, and who God is. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God and man, and two distinct natures in one person forever, says our shorter catechism. My favorite ancient Christological heresy, the one that initially made no sense to me at all, was monothelitism. Monothelitism, and I remember reading it, and it's the heresy that Jesus only had one will. And I remember reading that and listening to the lectures and thinking, why would that be a heresy to say that Jesus only has one will? Well, here's the reason. Because God the Son, as a person, has a will. A fully human nature also has a will. So if God the Son added a full human nature to himself in the incarnation, and there are two full natures in the one person, how many wills does Jesus have to have? Two. He has two wills. Because if you say he has one will, you've compromised the integrity either of his deity or his humanity. The human will will always exist and is always there, but it's always in perfect subjection to and submission to the divine will. But that's why it's so serious, because I as a person have a will, God the Son has a will, and the incarnation Jesus, the person, has two wills. And his will is always in subjection to his Father's will. Jesus said in John 5, 19, most assuredly, I say to you, the son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the father do. For whatever he does, the son also does in like manner. John 4, 34, Jesus said, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Before time began and the decree and plan of the triune God to glorify himself, that glorious inter-Trinitarian covenant that we call the covenant of redemption, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, covenanted together to create the universe, to create man, that man would fall and that each person in the Godhead would do their part in perfect harmony with one another to save a vast multitude of fallen humanity to glorify the grace of God. It is never the case that one divine person has one intention, one mission, and another divine person has a slightly different intention or purpose. The Son of God never goes rogue to do his own thing. This is one of many biblical reasons that we believe Jesus died specifically by divine design only for his elect people. Think about this. If God the Father has elected some and given them to Christ and commissioned him to go save them, and the Son actually comes into the world and dies, not just for them, but for every human being in the entire race of man, then there's a conflict of intention between the co-powerful, co-equal, co-eternal persons of the Godhead. So question, who wins? The Father or the Son? You have what theologians would call a divine stalemate. What makes Gethsemane, this passage we just read in Luke 22, what makes Gethsemane and Jesus's prayer and this whole situation so moving to consider is that we're now watching what appears to be the first ever conflict in wills between two persons of the triune God. Now, I just say that it appears to be a conflict of desire. Now don't misunderstand me, Jesus is not having second thoughts. He's not actually considering trying some other way. Every bit of his suffering in these moments was itself decreed by God. Every word that he prayed here was decreed by God, the Father, Son, and Spirit before the world began. Everything transpiring here, including every bit of heartache and agony, was predestined by God, the Holy Trinity, to happen exactly as it is here. The Lord Jesus, God the Son who added a true body and a reasonable soul to that divine nature in the womb of the Virgin Mary, who was in fact a virgin when that happened, agreed to this from eternity past and Jesus not only knew that this would happen, but planned every bit of it. But is this not perplexing to look at? Jesus presents a simple request to God his Father in prayer, expressing the unspeakable agony and anticipation of what's coming. He simply asks, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Now think with me for a moment here. Not too long ago, we walked through Isaiah 53. The description of Isaiah 53, 700 years before Jesus's birth of the sufferings of Jesus. Remember, Jesus had just told his disciples in the previous passage in Luke's gospel here, that after he leaves, they will no longer be supernaturally provided for or protected. He told them, you're gonna have to assume responsibility to take care of yourselves. To a certain extent, you guys are gonna be without me. in the main verse in that previous passage. Look at verse 37 there in your Bible, verse 37. For I tell you that this which is written must be fulfilled in me, and he was numbered with the transgressors, for that which refers to me has its fulfillment. Now, what's he citing from there? He's quoting Isaiah 53. The whole of Isaiah 53, according to Jesus' own words, refers to him. That glorious prophecy says that the Messiah, the suffering servant of the Lord, will be cut off from the land of the living for the transgressions of my people. And they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death. You see what that's saying? He's going to be cut off, his grave at death. That prophecy is saying, I'm going to die. He's telling his disciples that, I'm about to be killed. Jesus just cited that passage. Jesus knows exactly what is coming. He has no doubts about it. He already knows the answer to his request from the Father. The answer is there is no other way. And he's been telling his disciples about this ever since Peter first confessed him to be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus told his disciples again and again beginning at Mark 8 31 and in Matthew 16 that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and After three days rise again Remember what happened when Peter pulled him aside said Jesus you're being too much of a downer here Jesus this will never happen to you and Jesus said to him get behind me Satan and For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. The prophet Daniel also prophesied, Daniel 9, 26, after the 62 weeks, the Messiah will be cut off. He will be killed and have nothing. The promised seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head and would also be bruised in the process. Jesus knows he's going to be killed. He knows he's going to be killed in the worst way possible. And in that doing this, he would become the focal point of the righteous wrath and just anger of his father against the transgressions of his sheep. Jesus will die. He knows this. He foretold it. He announced it. He rebuked Peter for not believing it. This prayer that he gives here in Gethsemane, let this cup pass from me. It's not a real request to sidestep the plan. It is a real expression of the horror of soul, the anguish of spirit, and the awful prospect of what was soon to come. Jesus will be treated legally by his all holy, righteous, and just father as if he were actually guilty of all our sins and transgressions. The thought and anticipation of this is more than his physical constitution can handle. And so he falls on his face. He knows he's gonna die. The Holy One of God would be killed, he'd be entombed, but he would not see decay. Psalm 16 says that. The entire sacrificial system and the Passover lamb and all of that bloodshed and death of lambs and bulls and goats that would culminate and be fulfilled and done away with in the cross of Jesus. And he knows it. in the death of the true Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Remember the final Old Testament prophet, John the Baptist? He twice identified Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Everything planned by this triune God, every event in time and space, every movement of every atom in the entire universe culminates in these moments. And in the crucifixion and death of the Son of God on the cross to save his people from their sins, Jesus already knows the answer. Matthew's account and Mark's account of this sad moment in the Garden of Gethsemane, they're a little bit longer than Luke's. But only Luke records the bloody sweat from our Lord. Why do you think that was? Well, Luke was a doctor. Luke was a doctor. He's giving a more medical analysis of what's going on here. The intensity of his agony and the anguish he experienced while praying so fervently caused the bursting of blood vessels in his forehead. And we'll talk about that more in a little bit. Matthew and Mark tell us that Jesus took Peter, James, and John with Him into the garden in order to pray. And Matthew and Mark tell us that Jesus fell to the ground in Mark 15, 35. And Matthew 26, 39 says He fell on His face. Now, you need to understand that was not taking a knee. He's not thinking, I need to be in a posture of reverence to God and get down on my face. He fell. It wasn't taking a knee. It was a collapse. This is Jesus falling to the ground. What is making this so terrible, so agonizing, so awful to the Lord? It is what is in that cup. The wrath of Almighty God against all the sins of His elect people. You know, the normal posture of prayer. Back then, at this time, was standing, not on the ground. People stood to pray. Even in Jesus's parables, he says in Luke 18, 11, the Pharisees stood and prayed thus. And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat on his chest saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. But they were both standing. People at this time did not kneel. They didn't get down on their faces to pray. They stood for prayer. But Jesus is in such anguish and is in such a mental and physical state that he can't stand up. He falls to the ground, falls on his face. Remember, Jesus is not Superman. Physically, he has his limitations, just as we do as physical human beings. Remember the Gospels record that a man, Simon of Cyrene, was compelled to carry Jesus' cross. Why did that man have to be grabbed out of the crowd? Hey, you carry it. Because Jesus couldn't. He was physically wrecked too much to carry that cross. It was impossible for him to do it. And so someone else had to carry it the rest of the way up the hill. Mark 14, 35 says, he went a little further and fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. Now, knowing that one was going to be scourged and crucified would certainly make for a sleepless night for anyone. But it was the coming wrath of his father that is at the heart of his inability to stand. And the bursting of the capillaries in his body mingled with the sweat that became great drops of blood falling to the ground. The holy and righteous wrath of God against sin is the reason why it suddenly seems that for the first and only time in all of history, there's an apparent conflict in the wills of God the Son and God the Father here. You see why these God billboards were so trivial? You know, that's one of the great sins of modern American Christianity. We have trivialized God, trivialized judgment, turned God into a mascot. rather than the righteous judge of the world, before whom all must tremble." Jesus looks into that cup that is going to be given to him. And what is in it is so vile, so distasteful, so contrary to everything that is definitional of the eternal love and joy and peace that the triune God, the persons of the Godhead had always enjoyed in their infinite bliss and fellowship with one another. Jesus looks into that cup and everything in him is saying, no, no, no. Jesus sees this coming upon him in his fullness. Revelation 14 describes it, another angel came out from the altar who had power over fire and he cried with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle saying, thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vines of the earth for her grapes are fully ripe. So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth and threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trampled outside the city and blood came out of the winepress. Notice, it's not grape juice coming out of the winepress or wine, it's blood. These are people. Unto the horses' bridles for 1,600 furlongs. Is God really angry at sin? Is God angry at humanity for our wickedness? Yes, he is. And so, what we see in Jesus, he's not having second thoughts here. This is not cowardice. There's no hesitation. It is a prayer from the heart of our Lord as he contemplates the terrible work that he has to do. It was predestined before the foundation of the world, planned by the triune God in every detail. Every capillary that burst in his body and was mingled with sweat that fell to the ground was irreversibly decreed by God to take place. Why? Because of his love for his people. His love for his sheep. It was Jesus' very food, he said, to do his Father's will and to accomplish that divinely assigned mission, that of all the people that he had been given before the foundation of the world, he would not lose a single one. But here he prays while sweating great drops of blood because of the anguish of his soul. Matthew records this. My father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not as I will, but as you will. And Mark's account. Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will. There is not a real collision in wills between the Father and the Son, but we can see our Lord's anguish of soul. Dear congregation, please don't ever let this get old to you. You see the anguish of his soul as he anticipates the unspeakable horror that is awaiting him the next day. When you consider what Jesus actually did to save us, I hope you recognize how foolish it is to try to include your own works in what saves us. For those who think they don't need Jesus, do you really wanna drink that cup yourself? If you die outside of Christ, it's gonna be handed to you, and whether you like it or not, you're gonna drink it. When the Holy God looks at our lives, there's a very large cup of wrath. Somebody's gonna drink it. That cup is a cup of death and damnation. Jesus will drink it and die, but then rise again, conquering death, because he's the infinite God-man who rendered full satisfaction to his Father's justice, but then destroyed death completely by rising. If we drink that cup, we die forever. We die forever. No finite being can pay an eternal debt load. That's why hell never ends. Every person who dies without explicit faith in Christ alone is gonna be handed that terrible cup of God's justice when they die. But for those that know Christ and those that believe in him alone for their salvation, it's already been drunk, every last drop of it. Trust that Jesus drank it for you, that he drank it in your place instead. Now let's walk through this brief passage. Look at verse 39 there. Luke 22, verse 39. And he came out and proceeded, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives. And the disciples also followed him. When he arrived at that place, he said to them, Pray that you may not enter into temptation. Okay, stop there. As was already stated, Luke's account of this is the shortest in all of the Gospels. Jesus goes away and prays alone several times with Peter, James, and John nearby. It is certainly instructive that Jesus told them, pray, that you may not enter into temptation. Now, what temptations were they soon going to face here? The temptation to deny Jesus? The temptation to return to their former lives? The temptation to cease from following their Lord and Master? The temptation to disbelieve Jesus' promise that he would rise again from the dead? I mean, were any of them waiting for him to rise from the dead after this? In Matthew's account, after Jesus prays the first time, he comes back and finds his disciples asleep. And his words are memorable and convicting in Matthew 26, 40. Then he came to the disciples and found them asleep and said to Peter, what, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Is that not a description of your entire Christian life? Jesus taught them and us pray pray that you don't enter into temptation when Jesus gives the outline for all prayer He says you got to pray every time and Lord deliver me from my temptations lead me not into temptation But deliver me from evil We must ask God, Lord, help me be strong this day against temptation to sin this day. Help me love holiness and despise wickedness. And if you're thinking, well, there's some people this is just really natural to. There's some people this is just flows out of them and there's no struggle. That is not the case. Prayer is hard work for everyone. But we got to pray every day, Lord, help me stand my ground against my sins. Our flesh, our sinful nature that yet remains in us, even as born again believers, our flesh is weak, Jesus said. Pray so you don't enter into temptation. You think you can stand up against the temptations of the day, you are wrong about this. I am wrong about this. We are weak and frail and easily ensnared by our thoughts and our wicked desires. Pray, said Jesus, pray lest you enter into temptation when you're in difficult situations. Jesus commanded it, watch and pray. Every day we watch and pray, guard and pray. Keep your eyes from looking at things you shouldn't look at. Pray that you wouldn't. Fill your mind with God's word so the light of God's word will shine on the path of your feet before you. And you can avoid the pits and the obstacles that you're going to see. Jesus, the sinless Son of God, prayed and prayed and prayed, sometimes all night. Why did he do that? Well, first prayer is an act of worship. And Jesus, as our covenant head and representative, like the first Adam, He needed to love and worship God perfectly in our behalf, in our place, and in our stead. Aren't you thankful that Jesus's prayer life will be accepted by the Father in the place of our pathetic prayer life? But also Jesus, like us, was dependent on His Father, just like we are. But alas, in this situation, His disciples are too tired. They're too sleepy. But if ever Jesus needed some friends to help him, this is that moment. He was left to contemplate the cup of his father's wrath alone. The men that he had poured into for three years are too sleepy, too tired. Look at verse 41 and 42. And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and he knelt down and began to pray, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done. Jesus's desire was to do the will of his father, to love his church, every precious sheep given to him by his father in eternity past. And in these moments, he is expressing what even a perfectly righteous man, which he always was, would express, revulsion at what is to come. He is expressing his heart here. He who had never known anything but perfect communion with God, his father, and God, the Holy Spirit, would in those moments on the cross be the object of his father's contempt and judgment. He would be forsaken. As the opening lines of Psalm 22 say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me? Folks, I want you to think about why. Why is he forsaken in that moment? Because every sin, small and great, every lustful look, every careless curse, every act of adultery, every act of hatred without cause, every murder, every act of grumbling and complaining, every disrespectful word uttered against a parent, every lie, every act of selfishness, every insult, every failure on the part of husbands toward their wives, every act of disrespect shown by wives to their husband, every act of bullying, every act of sinful pride, every act of cruelty, every action to cover one's sinful tracks, every vainglorious thought, every self-righteous fantasy, every act of fornication, every unchaste thought, look, and act, every failure to speak up when God's truth has demanded it, every outburst of anger, Every temper tantrum. Every time we loved family or anything in our lives more than Christ and His glorious truth. Every time we took God's name in vain. Every time we forgot the Sabbath day. Every half-effort act of laziness and sloth. Every time our souls were lifted up to idols. Every time there was any deceit in our mouths. and an infinite number more of sins we could name, was about to receive from the hand of the thrice holy God, perfect justice and punishment and retribution to satisfy divine justice. That's why he's sweating blood. You know, the great Athanasius, the defender of the deity of Christ, he understood why Jesus died. And he wrote this back in the fourth century, On Psalm 22, speaking in the Lord's own person, tell us further that he suffered these things, not for his own sake, but for ours. Thou hast made thy wrath to rest upon me, say the one. And the other adds, I paid them things I never took. For he did not die as being himself liable to death. He suffered for us and bore in himself the wrath that was the penalty of our transgression." How could we expect Jesus to pray anything other than this? Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. And thankfully, he adds there, yet not my will, but yours be done. This is not Jesus speaking of his divine intention or mission here. It is only an expression of the horror of his soul as he sees this terrible cup inching ever closer to him moment by moment. Think of this description of the wrath of God from Isaiah 13, six through nine. What if we could get this on a billboard? Maybe we can get this on a billboard here in Kingsport. Isaiah 13, six, wail for the day of the Lord is at hand. It will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore, all hands will be limp, and every man's heart will melt, and they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them. They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth. They will be amazed at one another. Their faces will be like flames. Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate, and he will destroy its sinners from it." How would people react to that? That's true. The flaming fire of the vengeance. That's what Jesus sees in this cup. He's got a drink. You all know I love Charles Spurgeon. He understood grace and mercy in a way very few ever have. He led a lot of souls to Jesus Christ by his preaching of the gospel. Spurgeon said this, too many think lightly of sin and therefore think lightly of the Savior. He who has stood before his God convicted and condemned, with the rope around his neck, is the man to weep for joy when he's pardoned, to hate the evil which has been forgiven him, and to live to the honor of the Redeemer by whose blood he has been cleansed. Now think about that. If you're standing on the block of wood, and you've got the rope around your neck, and the hangman is behind you, reading out the sentence, about to kick the chair out from under you, wouldn't you be a lot more thankful if someone suddenly said, no, you're pardoned? And Spurgeon says, people don't see it that way. They don't see themselves on the edge of a precipice of eternity. They don't see themselves under the avenging wrath of God. And therefore, it's not a big deal. This Jesus stuff, it doesn't matter to them. But I say to you, what good is the good news without the badness of the bad news? Hell is serious. It is real. Every human being alive needs to see they are liable to it and flee from the wrath to come to the refuge of Christ and His cross. John 3, 36, he who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. What a great promise. Jesus said, he who believes in the Son has everlasting life. But if you don't, the wrath of God abides on you. Why is Jesus praying so fervently in anguish and sweating blood? Because the wrath of God is about to abide on him. Look at verse 43. I love verse 43. Now an angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him. This is a mysterious verse. It raises many questions for sure. What did this angel actually do? At the end of Jesus's wilderness temptations, where he achieved a righteous standing in the face of all the temptations that we face and fail, and we're told in Matthew 4, 11, after the devil fled, behold, angels came and ministered to him. What were they doing? One commentator said this, in this dark hour, the ministry of an angel must also have reconfirmed him in the belief that at this moment, the father had not completely forsaken him. Was it not after all, the father who sent the angel? The father sent the angel to Jesus. Jesus made no request for an angel here. Since my friends are asleep, could you send me someone who will encourage me? Someone who will minister to me? Jesus didn't request it, and yet we know that he could have. Not only request an angel, he could get a whole legion of angels, 12 legions of angels, to deliver him out of the hands of his enemies. But God in his grace and his mercy, kindness, sends him an angel. Since his friends aren't awake to pray for him, the angel comes and keeps him company there, ministers to him. And that brings us to verse 44, look at verse 44. In being in agony, as he was praying very fervently, And his sweat became like drops of blood falling down upon the ground. Remember, Luke is a physician. He's a doctor. This is a real condition. It's called hematidrosis. It's important to observe here that Jesus is not walking. He's not running or moving. People in the cool of the evening do not typically sit still and sweat. I mean, I don't. I don't sweat unless I'm moving or running or doing something like that. Of course, if I'm running, that probably means something's chasing me. But if we're worked up enough or experiencing horror in our thoughts and hearts and consciences, we might sweat sitting still. Sometimes we might sweat because we're fervently in prayer. But this condition, where blood vessels are breaking and mixing with sweat and looking like drops of blood are coming out of our pores, that's very rare. Intense sneezing fits can cause hematidrosis, but all Jesus is doing is praying. He's not moving around, he's not sneezing, he's just praying. Look at the opening phrase of verse 44, you see it? And being in agony. Being in agony. That Greek verb agonia. He was praying very fervently. And sometimes we pray when we're sleepy, we fall asleep talking to God. Sometimes we pray while we're walking. Sometimes we pray over a meal or before family worship and devotions and our Bible reading. But usually prayer isn't done by us while we're in agony. Praying very fervently. Sometimes it is, for sure. Most of us have likely never prayed like this, where we're not only sweating profusely, but we're also praying so hard and are in such agony that our blood vessels are breaking in our foreheads and in our arms and our backs, mingling with our sweat, and then our clothes are getting soaked with drops of blood. Look at verse 45 and 46. When he arose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow and said to them, why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not enter into temptation. Okay, stop there. Why were they sorrowful? You see that at the end of verse 45? They were sleeping from sorrow. Well, they were just told that Jesus is leaving. They were told by him, I'm leaving. You guys can't come with me either. I mean, they'd been with him for three years. And now he's saying, I'm going and you can't follow me. Jesus told them, you're not going to be supernaturally protected. You're going to be in danger now. Jesus told them in John 15, the world's going to hate you. And the time is coming when people that kill you are going to think they're worshiping God by doing it. Peter had been told, before that night is over, you're going to deny me three times. And Peter assured Jesus, even if they all do that, I'll never do that. Judas has left them to betray Jesus to his death. Mostly though I think they were sorrowful they were troubled because Jesus told them I'm leaving and you can't come with me You're not gonna be able to follow me in this world anymore Because the thing is as flawed as they all were as deeply flawed as they all were They really did love him They loved him. They loved Jesus You know if you're a father when your children reach a certain age they can sense when you're about to leave They all do it When they sense you're about to leave, they'll come and jump on you. They'll wrap their arms around your legs and try to stop you from going. I was the exact same way with my dad. I hated it when he left for work, when he left for a meeting. And when he got home, I would run and jump into his arms, and he'd rub that five o'clock shadow on my face and throw me up in the air. The affection that these men had for Jesus was very deep. And they sensed that he was leaving. He told them he was leaving, and they're sad. They really did love him and they wanted to be with him. They wanted his rebukes. They wanted his care for them. They wanted his wise words. They wanted to grow. They want to be with him. They felt safe and protected and loved near him. They had lived with him for three years. They ate with him. He just told them he's gonna be brutally beaten, crucified and killed. and that you can't follow me here. And then after that, I'm gonna rise again, but then I'm gonna be gone for good, but I'm gonna send the spirit. And they don't know what that means. What does that mean? The comforter, the helper, who's that? Even so afterwards, he also just informed them, I'm gonna be leaving for the rest of your earthly lives. You guys aren't gonna see me again physically. And they're confused by this, they're sad. They're physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally exhausted. but they still need to pray so they may not enter into temptation. Sadly, not only would they enter into temptation, but they would enter into grievous sin as they would abandon the Lord. In how many ways do we abandon Christ? Jesus was in agony in anticipation of the supreme agony that awaited him the next day. The mental anguish, while staring into the abysmal cup of divine wrath against all his people's sin, it brought our almighty Savior to the ground in agony, praying fervently and sweating blood. What kind of love does he really have for his people? Why do we doubt it? There's no split in the divine will here when Jesus asks in prayer, let this cup pass from me, yet not my will but yours be done. The cross of Christ is never in doubt here. Anticipation of its horror is what provoked this cry and this prayer from our Lord. God's wrath is real and anticipation of falling under its infinitely heavy curse is what provoked this collapse, this fervent prayer, the bloody sweat of our Lord. The following day, when Jesus died, He redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse on our behalf. That's why He's sweating. That's why He's praying so fervently here. That's why He's having such agony, to be cursed of God, so that we never would be. That's the good news. We who once were cursed are forever blessed of the Father, because Christ would be cursed on our behalf, on account of our sins. Why did Jesus fall to the ground and pray in agony so fervently, his sweat becoming bloody? Because he was about to be forsaken of God. He was about to have all the sins of his people legally put into his account on the cross. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? One good Reformed theologian wrote this about those words, Jesus' words from the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Quote, the atonement means that Christ bore our sins and in bearing sin bore its judgment. Death itself is the judgment of God upon sin and Christ died for no other reason than that death is the wages of sin. But the epitome of the judgment of God upon sin is his wrath. If Jesus in our place met the whole judgment of God upon our sin, he must have endured that which constitutes the essence of this judgment. Love and wrath are not contradictory, love and hatred are. It is only because Jesus was the Son, loved unchangeably as such, and loved increasingly in his messianic capacity as he progressively fulfilled the demands of the Father's commission that he could bear the full stroke of judicial wrath. This is inscribed on the most mysterious utterance that ever ascended from earth to heaven. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? God in our nature, forsaken of God. Here is the wonder of the Father's love and of the Son's love too. Eternity will not scale its heights or fathom its depths. How pitiable is the short-sightedness that blinds us to its grandeur and that fails to see the necessity and glory of the propitiation. Herein is love, John wrote in 1 John 4 10. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son, a propitiation for our sins. Christ is truly the propitiation for our sins because he propitiated the wrath, which was our damnation. The language of propitiation may not be diluted. It bespeaks the essence of Calvary." End quote. You know, many translations, many English Bibles have gotten rid of that word propitiation. They render it as sacrifice of atonement or expiation, things like that. The word hilasterion in Greek means a sacrifice which turns aside divine wrath. People don't like that concept, that God has wrath against sin. But I say to you, you can't make heads or tails or sense out of anything in the Bible without it. Why did Jesus die if it wasn't to take the wrath of God? The hammer stroke of divine justice fell upon our Passover lamb, If you believe in Jesus as your savior and you're trusting only in him for your eternal life, you get to spend your days in this life under the sunshine of his fatherly gracious smile. And God's fatherly heart is always yours. God will never be a wrathful judge to you. I don't care what you've done. God's grace is greater than all your sin. I don't care how badly you failed. I don't care what you've been up to. If you trust in the finished work of Christ, God will never be a wrathful judge to you, but a loving, devoted father. Yes, he will break out the whip and will chasten us, but always as a loving father. The scripture says, behold what manner of love the father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God. Jesus is gone, gone back to heavenly glory. But we know from John 14, he's gone to do what? To prepare a place for us. A house made without hands, eternal in the heavens. Jesus will not leave us orphans. He promised his disciples that. I will not leave you orphans, I will come and get you. You know, we also prayed one of the most precious things that Jesus ever prayed. In John 17, 24, he prayed this. And you need not have any doubt this will happen. He said, Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me, for you love me before the foundation of the world. It was worth the agony. It was worth the pain. It was worth the unspeakable horror that he endured to take the wrath of God away so he could fulfill that promise and bring all of his people into heavenly glory. Please don't doubt him. I don't care what you got going on or how life's been going, whether it's good or bad lately, this is the anchor that always holds. Jesus said it. He prayed to his father, I want them to be with me where I am. and to be able to behold my glory. And one day, if you trust in Jesus, you will. Let's pray. Father, we bless your name for the work of Jesus, for his finished work. And we bless your name. We receive its benefits by faith alone, completely apart from our sanctification, apart from our obedience, apart from our works, those things being the fruit that grows on the tree and not the cause in any way of our salvation from sins, wrath and guilt. So Lord, help us to have a strong faith in the finished work of Christ, and we pray that those that know him would have their faith strengthened through the Lord's Supper. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.