AM Mark 14:32-42

[0:00] Good morning. No one, welcome to morning worship. I'm just sitting there thinking that practical theology, they never teach you how to deal with a baby with hiccups.

[0:15] These are the things. Anyway, it's a joy to have as it is all the children. Evening worship will be at 6 o'clock this evening, midweek, 7 o'clock on Wednesday, prayer meeting and Bible study led by Norman.

[0:36] Final reminder, I think, final, is that final reminder Norman about the home meals? Yeah, yeah. Final reminder about the home meals as Christmas presents for men and women who come to the Wednesday drop-in are to be received no later than today.

[0:54] Please leave any gifts in the collection box in an envelope marked drop-in. Envelope scheme for 2021 envelopes are now available from the Treasurer for all who are currently placed on the offering list. Additional envelopes are available for those who would like to go on to the offering scheme and it encourages a weekly pattern of giving and enables the administration of gift aid for those who are interested.

[1:27] More details of those are on the notice board. As I mentioned last week, the CIRC session, as announced, is looking to appoint additional elders.

[1:38] Ruling elders. Yeah, a voting form has been made available to communicant members. Completed voted form should be placed in the box at the side table.

[1:52] Again, just let me stress how vitally important this is. It's a very, very important thing for a church to do to see who God is raising up in their midst that might lead them and rule over them as members of the CIRC session.

[2:14] Especially in a fellowship as small as this one, that's a very important and prayerfully considered task that I would urge you to give your prayerful concern and attention to.

[2:26] Thank you. This will be my last Sunday here with you this side of Christmas and the new year. So I've really enjoyed coming down here.

[2:38] It's been a pleasure to get to know you. God willing, I will be back in the new year. But can I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

[2:51] The good news is that Kenny MacLeod, your intro moderator, will be with you next Sunday, God willing. That's good news because he doesn't preach as long as I do.

[3:04] But he'll be with you for the sacrament of baptism where Eleanor will hopefully this time be baptized. And I'm sure that will be a joy for all of you to celebrate and rejoice in God's covenant blessing to his people as we celebrate the sacrament of baptism next Sunday morning.

[3:31] These are all the intimations. Let us worship God. We sing to his praise and his glory from Psalm 43.

[3:46] We're singing verses 3 to 5 of Psalm 43 to God's praise and to his glory. hang it up to the woman to the baby and for he takes care of an enemy.

[4:06] He is the appearing of the食堂 Is it your man who pray your cause?

[4:19] You are my stronghold, oh my God Why don't you be gently? Why must I do a body and free Now cause it my way and free Oh, send your life forth and your truth Let them direct me in your grace And bring me to your holy air Into your sacred dwelling place Then to God's altar I will get joy To God my joy and my delight And I will praise you within the hour

[5:23] Oh, God, you are my God of might Why are you so disturbed in me Just for I will praise you in your light My Saviour and my God is me The psalmist in Psalm 136 declares this Give thanks to the Lord for he is good For his steadfast love endures forever Give thanks to the God of gods For his steadfast love endures forever Give thanks to the Lord of lords For his steadfast love endures forever

[6:25] Let us now unite our hearts in prayer As we come before that God Let us pray Almighty God, from generations past You have declared your love and your goodness and your grace And you have called men and women and children To respond to you in worship and in praise Your steadfast love endures forever The moon and the stars to rule over the night And you have given And these evidence of your steadfast love that endures forever You spread out the earth above the waters And that too is evidence of your steadfast love

[7:27] That endures forever You created all things And created man in your image And declared to him That your steadfast love endures forever And down through the ages You have called us To be your people In covenant love you call us Call us to declare our thanks and our worship And our praise And to proclaim to the world That your steadfast love Endures forever Father as we hear the words of Carol's song As we hear the reality of Emmanuel We stand back and wonder in amazement

[8:32] Why the world is not blown away By the full expression of your love in Jesus Christ That God That God The God whose hands flung stars into space Should come among us In the frailty and vulnerability of a little child Whose hand reaches out for his mother's breast To feed him and sustain him Whose little hands curled around her finger Your steadfast love Endures forever Father this is the season of miracle And of mystery

[9:34] And we fall down on our faces And worship and praise you For the great truth that God is with us And we thank you Heavenly Father For the precious gift of your Holy Spirit That in our day and in our generation We encounter the very living God Through that Holy Spirit Father bless us in that encounter Draw us close to you May we know something of the wonder Of the amazement Of the miracle Of the splendour Of that encounter with the living God And as that spirit of the living God

[10:38] Falls afresh on us This day We pray that it might indeed melt us Mould us and fill us As only the spirit of the living God can Father we bow before you Confessing our absolute And utter need Of Christ And his saving sacrifice Upon the cross On that cross Bearing shame And scoffing root In my place Condemned his good Stood Sealed my pardon With his blood By your spirit of grace We cry out Hallelujah What a saviour And Father As we come this day To contemplate Some of the very deep things Of the faith To consider What it meant For your son To pray

[11:38] In the garden Of Gethsemane And then To cry out On the cross That it is finished We pray Heavenly Father For a deeper Understanding And a greater Appreciation Of what it took To save our sins Father we confess Those sins We seek Your Holy Spirit So that we might Turn from them We pray For a true Repentance Of the heart And mind And ask you To hear us As in the Quietness Of this place We confess To you Our sins Not by my word

[12:38] But by the very word Of the Lord Jesus Christ And through the power Of his holy word If you confess Your sins And if you repent From them Through the shed Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ And through his resurrection Your sins Are forgiven And so Father We rise From this time Of prayer To continue Our worship With us Praying that you Might bless us And renew us To your glory And to the advancement Of your kingdom Through Jesus Christ The Lord We ask this Amen Well boys and girls Can you remember What disciple I spoke about Last week Peter What one Peter Peter That's right Well done Did you say

[13:40] Peter as well Yes Good man Well done So And I said to you I was going to tell you Another story About Peter Remember Remember We were We were thinking Last time About Peter When Jesus Called him To be a disciple To be a fisher Of men He was in his boat And he was fishing And Jesus Called him To be A fisher Of men Well there's Lots of stories In the Bible About Peter He had some Good days And some bad days And that's why I like Peter Because when I read About Peter And the good days I think well you know Sometimes I have Good days Good days When it's easy To follow Jesus Good days When I do Actually quite well In following Jesus When I remember To do all the things He tells me to do And when I remember To do all the things I should be doing As a Christian And thankfully There are days

[14:40] Like that In our lives When we can Follow Jesus And we make A pretty good job Of it But the real reason I like Peter Is that Peter Had lots of bad days And I have lots Of bad days I have lots of days When I don't trust God as much As I should When I don't Remember to Pray to him As much as I should When I don't Remember to do All the things That he's commanded Me to do When I don't Love him And I don't Love his people As much as I should And so that's Why I like Peter Because in his Bad days Jesus Still has a use And a purpose For him Now one of the Bad days That Peter Had was Just after Jesus Had been

[15:40] Taken away And arrested By the Roman Soldiers Peter and some Of the disciples Are following him And they're Round a campfire At night Have you ever Have you ever been Round a campfire Yeah It's good fun With your marshmallows No have you not Done that Oh there's something To think about Well he didn't Have marshmallows But he was Round a campfire And Jesus Was being Interrogated By the soldiers That had arrested Him And I think Peter Like some of The disciples Were a wee bit Afraid of what Was going on Jesus had been Arrested That wasn't Good news And one of the Girls who was Serving him Presumably he had Ordered something to Drink or something To eat Came up and said Do you know You're from Nazareth You're a friend

[16:41] Of Jesus And Peter said No I'm not I'm not a friend Of Jesus It was a Disappointing thing To do Because he should Have really said Yes I am a friend Of Jesus But you see He was afraid And while that Wasn't an excuse I can understand That Why if you're Afraid And very afraid Maybe even Afraid for your Life Why you might Be tempted to Say that you Didn't know Jesus And you know That girl came Back and said Look I know Your accent I know where You come from I'm sure you Must know Jesus And he denied Him And he did That Three times Just as Jesus Had predicted That he Would do Well the Good part Of this Story

[17:41] Because that's The bad Part of this Story The good Part of this Story Is After Jesus Had died On the cross And after He had risen From the dead He went Back And he Met with Peter Again Peter was Out fishing And Jesus Was on the Shore And he Called him Over And he Asked Peter Do you Love me How many Times do you Think he Asked him Three Times Now I don't Really know If that's Because Peter had Denied him Three times But It's Probably Right That that's Why he Asked him Three times He said Peter Do you Love me Do you Love me Do you Really love Me And Peter Got the Opportunity To say Three times That he Did love Jesus So there's Another story About Peter That I think

[18:42] Should be A great Encouragement To all of Us here Old people And young People That just Because sometimes We don't Manage to Shape up To all That God Wants us To be He's Still a God Who loves Us And cares For us And can Still use Us To his Purpose Now When I Come back I'm going To tell you Another story About Peter But that's a Few weeks Away So I hope You'll remember That story So we're Going to Pray We're going to Close our eyes And we're going To pray to God Father God Father God We thank you That you Love us And we Thank you That you Love us In the Good days But most Especially We thank you That you Love us In the Bad days The days When we Don't do All that Well The days When we Maybe let You down The days

[19:43] When we Sin Do wrong Things But we Thank you That you're A God Who cares For us And loves Us so Much That because Of your Love You keep Forgiving Us You keep Bringing us Back You keep Renewing Us And you Keep wanting To give us Purpose In our Christian life And service And so We thank you Heavenly Father For the Kind of God That you Are Peter's God And hopefully Our God A God Of salvation Of restoration Of grace And of love Bless each Of us Heavenly Father And watch Over us Through Jesus Christ Our Lord We ask This Amen

[20:44] Let's sing Together Again From Psalm 54 Psalm 54 To God's Praise Let's Do Somebody TELLS The Lord will remain with glory in the earth by me.

[21:16] Hear all thy thoughts, the words I see, and listen to thy plea.

[21:32] For strangers are the land in me, the Lord will see my light.

[21:50] All in the holy heart for your heart, and always will us cry.

[22:08] I bring the sacrifice to you, a feeling of love for me.

[22:27] Because you're in the Lord's word, your praises I will see.

[22:45] For you, O Lord, have rescued me from my distress and hope.

[23:04] My eyes have moved in victory upon my true hope.

[23:23] Well, I've often said that there are four places in the Bible that it's almost impossible for us to fully understand what is going on.

[23:44] The temptation of Jesus would be one of them. Jesus' prayer in John 17 would be another.

[23:55] Jesus' struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane would be a third. And Jesus' cry on the cross when he feels isolated from the Father would be the fourth of these, forsaken by the Father.

[24:18] Father. We're going to look at two of them today. So we've got quite a job ahead of us. And it's, I hope for you, this is going to be useful and helpful for you in your Christian lives.

[24:38] As we follow through our theme, where we began last Lord's Day with working out the necessity of the cross. And then we looked at the Egypt and the Passover, where we discovered a foreshadowing of the cross.

[25:03] And if these titles are helpful to you, then you may find it helpful to think of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane as a foretaste of the cross.

[25:21] So we're going to turn to Mark's account of this. We could, of course, turn to other Gospels, but I'm going to use Mark.

[25:34] We're going to be making reference to the other accounts of this. And we're going to go to Mark's Gospel, chapter 14.

[25:50] And we're going to read there from verse 32. Mark's Gospel, chapter 14.

[26:25] So we're kind of on the right track here, having looked last time at the Passover, because they have just left the upper room.

[26:38] And now they go down to the Garden of Gethsemane. Many folk have been in Jerusalem. So they're going to be walking out of the city down to just a tiny little patch of garden that Jesus often used as a place of rest and a place of prayer.

[27:12] I guess if we were to put it in modern terms, he went there quite often for his quiet times. And he goes this time to the place called Gethsemane.

[27:29] Let's hear the Word of God in verse 32. And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, sit here while I pray.

[27:47] And he took with them Peter. There we go. Remember Peter. And James and John. And began to be greatly distressed and troubled.

[27:58] And he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful, or overwhelmed or troubled, would be other translations of that.

[28:13] My soul is very sorrowful even to death. Remain here and watch. And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.

[28:39] And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.

[28:58] And he came and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray.

[29:12] That you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words.

[29:27] And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy. And he did not know what to answer him. And he came the third time.

[29:42] And said to them, are you still sleeping? And taking your rest? It is enough. The hour has come.

[29:57] The son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise.

[30:10] Let us be going. See. My betrayer is at hand. Amen. And may God bless to us and increase our understanding of this, his holy word.

[30:27] And to his name be praise and glory given. Let's again unite our hearts in prayer. Let us pray. Father, you are the God that created all things.

[30:46] And from your hands comes all good things. And yet, as we've been listening to our televisions and reading our newspapers over this last week, there has scarce been a mention in amidst all the celebrations of the vaccine of a God who provides every good thing.

[31:13] And we ask you of forgiveness. That we have not given you all the praise and the glory that you alone are due.

[31:24] We look at men and women who are able to grow in their understanding of how our bodies work and of the intricate mechanisms that are in there.

[31:42] And they cannot just take the final step that something, someone so amazing, so divine, must have created all these intricacies of systems and orders.

[31:59] There are none so blind as those who cannot see. So we thank you, the God of order and of design and of patterns.

[32:17] That men have been wise enough and careful enough and bright enough to see something of those patterns and to bring forth this vaccine.

[32:28] And we now pray, Heavenly Father, as that vaccine is rolled out, that this terrible time for our nation, indeed for our world, will now be coming to an end.

[32:43] But we do pray, Heavenly Father, that there may be something of a humility that will have been learned.

[32:58] Of a lowliness. Of how fragile we are as human beings. Father, we pray for our First Minister and for our Prime Minister and for the members of their respective governments as they seek to deal with the logistics of rolling out this and other vaccines.

[33:27] And we just pray, Heavenly Father, that that might go well and smoothly, that you might make them wise and considerate of all the choices and priorities that will have to be made and established.

[33:44] Guide them. Direct them. And guide and direct them. As we know, you in the past have guided and directed people that have absolutely no interest in you and no acknowledgement of even your existence.

[34:01] And yet you have guided them and used them mightily in your purposes over the years. And we pray for any who might have a Christian faith, who have an opportunity to speak to them and to witness to them and by prayer and by example to show them the Christian way.

[34:35] We pray for Jason Leach. We understand that he is someone who claims saving faith and who claims to belong to you and we pray that the access that he has to these higher echelons of what the world calls power.

[34:52] That he might exercise an influence for good and for God in these places. And Father, in this day and in this generation we have been reminded about how important it is that we recognise that we are all part of a wheel and part of a cog that all must work if we are going to act as a caring and loving society free from stress and illness.

[35:27] And we have learned the significance of the cleaner and now we will learn the significance of the man who packs the crates into these containers.

[35:41] and the man who drives the lorry and the man who keeps the streets clean and free of rubbish. And how we honour scientists and yet it's going to depend on the skill and ability of nurses and auxiliaries to keep everything clean and healthy.

[36:09] teach us what it means to respect people Heavenly Father to have a deep desire and appreciation for all that they do to keep us safe and well and living.

[36:26] and we pray for any that we know in our fellowship or in our family who are involved in this whole infrastructure of setting out these vaccines that you might keep them safe and well in these days.

[36:50] Father we live in a world that's afraid living in a world that has been made all too aware of how fragile they are we pray for the church the true church of Jesus Christ that it might find a boldness in proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ Christ that in Christ alone is the answer to fear to fragility that in Christ and in Christ alone men and women find equal value that they find true significance we pray for this fellowship we thank you for all that Norman does here and we pray as we move towards the election of new elders that you will direct and guide our fellowship and we again remember our young people particularly next week we thank you for them they are covenant children and we claim that promise for them heavenly father so father bless us uphold us and sustain us by your grace and through your mercy through Jesus

[38:29] Christ the Lord we ask this amen let's sing again to God's praise psalm number 71 psalm 71 71 oh lord i take him refuge close that he ever from his grace rescue and save me in your justice turn to me and I see your face be my sorrow and my sure refuge to which I always may resort in the command to help and save me because you are thy love and forth from wicked hands my

[39:51] God who'll save me from cruel hands of my all else for sovereign Lord you be my refuge and since my youth my confidence from from my life upon you you are the guide of all my grace out of my mother's womb you brought me to you I ever will give praise let's just pray again father may your word speak to us oh lord show us ourself show us yourself and show us the saviour and may your word speak to us oh lord amen so to remind you of

[41:19] Alistair's illustration about the link between the old and the new testament about the theatre and only going to the first half and leaving at the interval and not knowing what's the significance of some of the things that we see in the second half some of the people and the characters and the ideas and likewise if we come at the interval and we haven't found the first half we're not quite sure where all these things arrived from and so it's a good test when we're doing a series like what we're doing where we're doing a very very quick run through one of the central themes of the Bible the central theme being that theme of God's saving work and God's saving activity last time we looked at the fact that the consequences of the fall meant that there was enmity and if you remember

[42:24] I said that Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel and how that created an expectation that what will be a footnote to all this will be in fact conflict and battle and strife and then we followed that on by looking at what happened in Egypt and if we were correct that somehow this was light and that this whole thing held together then as we come into the New Testament our radars are up and we are looking for a lamb and we're looking for Passover and we're looking for blood and we're looking for a great struggle that will take place to bring these things about and as we made our way through we reminded ourselves that God was the

[43:48] God who was active in this salvation process right away back in Deuteronomy 7 verse 7 it was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers and we also noted how part of what the Old Testament was doing in relation to priesthood and kingship and prophets and the sacrificial system was creating a longing in the people of God for one who would perfectly fill all those longings one who would be the perfect word one who would fulfill all prophetic longings because he would be the great prophet one who would be the perfect king one who would be the perfect priest who would deliver the people by the perfect sacrifice that once and for all would take away the sins of the people and we saw how the New

[45:10] Testament John the Baptist Peter Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ himself clearly and simply identified Jesus as the prophet as the priest as the king and while we didn't have time to look at all these aspects as we go through Christmas as we see Christmas carols Christmas cards coming through our door we see these themes being echoed and affirmed that in his person as the lamb of the Passover as the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world we are directed to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and so as we move to these what we know now as these last days of Jesus life here on earth as we move from the upper room where they were celebrating the Passover we move to the garden of

[46:21] Gethsemane we need to move quietly and carefully a storm is brewing the atmosphere is increasingly darkening we should be very aware that something of unbelievable complexity and of unbelievable significance is taking place here we are not to put it too dramatically watching something that is really out of this world because as we read through the various gospel accounts of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane we are doing nothing less friends than eavesdropping on the conversations between the eternal trinity that's what we are doing we are listening in to conversations that are going on between

[47:38] God the father and between God the son it's perfectly obvious if you read this without me having to explain anything that Jesus is experiencing great torment he's going through a time of trouble he's going through difficulty and we have to struggle to find words when we talk about this perhaps he's even going through doubt and uncertainty Mark tells us in verse 33 that he's distressed that he's troubled that he's sorrowful in his soul

[48:40] Matthew picks up on that and he repeats that he is sorrowful of soul Dr.

[48:54] Luke coming at this you'll remember with the physician's eye describes an agony and a bloody struggle that even the teardrops dropped as blood the sweat drops dropped as blood from his head clearly there is the darkest of battles that is taking place here in the garden a battle for submission of the mind of the will of volition and all this is brought about because of the task of the eternal plan of the Godhead and I hope it will greatly assist us this morning to look at different aspects of this the first of these is the

[50:06] Lord's praying and his petition the second is the Lord's isolation and his hesitation and the third is the Lord's resolve and battle so much of the Lord's life experiences and activities his teaching his miracles his action were for the nurturing and building up and preparing for the future in particular the future as concerns the disciples and as he taught as he engaged in miracles as he did various things he did so in the context of seeking to teach his disciples and explain to his disciples and show his disciples what it was going to mean for them when he was no longer there contrary to that what is taking place in the garden is an experience peculiarly for

[51:18] Jesus as he experienced a foretaste of the cross so first of all his praying and his petition in his incarnation we understand Jesus Christ to be fully God the second person of the trinity but we also at the same time know him to be fully man man so it is fully God and fully man every time we talk about Jesus and to that end it's certainly very clear that there is evidence of both those in the New Testament Jesus performs miracles as we remembered last time when we were talking to the youngsters

[52:26] Jesus walks in water but also Jesus gets tired Jesus gets thirsty as we saw when he was there with the woman at the well but in the one person we have always got to remember what the reformers finally decided on that Jesus had two natures he had a human nature and a divine nature and those two natures were miraculously held together in the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ Christ became what he was not human without ceasing to be what he was divine and this came together in the one person Jesus

[53:27] Christ and that was all sorted out at the fourth ecumenical council at Chalcedon I don't know if many of you were there but you can take my word for it that that's what happened in fact you don't even need to take my word for it you can look it up and read about all that for yourself now that's going to be enormously helpful both this morning and particularly this evening part of our difficulty in understanding what Jesus is experiencing on the cross and in the garden is the conflict between these two natures now that harmony of those two natures up until this point was normative it was just there and they worked in perfect harmony together but here in the garden that harmony is being stretched to the limit and here we see

[54:45] Jesus' human emotion the temptability of his human nature and his human nature recoiling at the enormity of what was before him as any human being would and it is very indicative of the struggle of his human nature that we see our Lord praying that is by the account of the gospel writers a torturous experience that he goes through as he prays and speaks with the father and it is extraordinary this is also the second person of the trinity in his divinity he knows everything he is the lord creator his hands that now lay prostrate on the ground flung stars into space this was the great mediator our prince our king our champion the one who marched to the tomb of

[56:03] Lazarus and commanded death to release him now brought to his knees in the frailty of his humanity a man on his knees in prayer is very human and Jesus is seeking here nothing less than prayerful resolve and he comes to the father in the fullness of his humanity in human need bearing a human burden like none other before or after engaged in a human struggle like none other before or after this is a trial in his humanity as he contemplates the task before him his own task his unique task a task that he could not wish for or aspire to what is it going to mean to actually be the lamb that is slain what is actually going to mean to be the sin bearer here was the moment the time had come here was the eternal lamb of

[58:09] God about to face the reality the one who before the beginning of the world had given himself to the cross and to Calvary the one who in the eternal councils of the Trinity had conceived of the cross as a mechanism by which their just and perfect judgment on sin would be turned away the father the son and the holy spirit in their eternal discussions before the beginning of the world had come to this question who will do this and before the beginning of the world the Lord raises his hand and promises to the father and the holy spirit and to himself that he would go that he would be the lamb that he would be the saviour he knew he was destined to be slain before the foundation of the world he knew that from the moment he drew breath in that shed in Bethlehem he was ever closer to the cross and every day of his human life would bring him a day nearer he knew now it was very near so near he could taste its deadly cruel reality that for which he had waited for since the beginning of time was about to take place and make no mistake here friends this is a real struggle here a struggle of gigantean proportions a struggle with obedience that was unique to him in his role and unique to him in his dual nature in his full humanity and his full psychology his soul trembles his human nature is tempted with what does he turn to what does he take up what is it that the hymn writer captures put on your gospel armour each piece put on with prayer prayer that is always an acknowledgement of our creaturehood before the creator prayer that is seeking faith and the ministry of the holy spirit to submit our wills to the end to the sovereign will of the father his humanity faces notions inability inadequacy and frailty and his prayer and his prostate position before the father indicates this in this prayer fear is gripping him what an extraordinary saviour we have who is

[62:12] touched with our infirmities and with our frailties yet is without sin in the fullness of his humanity for the first time in his life he experiences the true reality of what it might be to be the lamb of God this is God entering every aspect of our humanity bearing shame and sorrow rude he bears our fear he bears our sorrow he bears our smallness he bears our darkness friends there is no human experience that our

[63:22] God does not know and fully understand and this not as some academic ethereal imagining but in the full reality of bloody sweat toil and tears our God the Lord knew what it is to be in circumstances that he would wish were otherwise to wish circumstances would be other than they are and he cries out to the father and this merely serves to add to the agony as the heavens seem silent do you notice that we don't have the answer to his prayer but we know what the answer is no my beloved son there is no other way this is the promised covenantal promise your promise to save sinful men and women very quickly notice his isolation and hesitation again we see evidence his human nature if you turn your bibles back to

[64:52] Mark 3 14 there is a beautiful little saying there that is so often just missed out or looked over Mark 3 14 this is when Jesus is appointing his apostles and he appointed 12 whom he also named as apostles so that they might be with him tiny little sectors so that they might be with him Jesus is going around picking them apostles he needs leaders for his church he needs people that will advance the gospel when he goes and he needs to pick men who can train and trust but there was another reason for having them so that they might be with him how very very human our all sufficient

[66:13] God in his humanity needed pals needed mates this was of the very essence of our created humanity Genesis 2 18 it is not good for man to be alone and now here in the garden we see not just the darkness increasing and surrounding we see isolation isolation that started some time ago as we see Jesus withdrawing from public ministry to be with his disciples and close friends and then in the upper room to the garden and some left at the entrance but his closest friends he wants them nearby and he leaves them and is now alone he alone must go through this struggle the cup of

[67:15] God's wrath and judgment that he prayed he might be spared was my cup take this cup from me and in his isolation he recoils but here we need to be clear and careful it is not crucifixion that he recoils from nor is it trial and scourging nor is it death to do so would make him less than many martyrs who would die to uphold his name and gospel who face death with courage what he recoils from is the cup what he recoils from is God's wrath and God's judgment it is the death of the sinner that he recoils from it is the death of one cursed of God it is the reality of his being the lamb he is about to be numbered with the damned of hell the benediction he was to hear in the garden is the opposite of what we hear at the end of the services the

[68:40] Lord curse you and hide his face from you and show his wrath towards you and give you judgment and he cries out if it is possible let this cup pass from me there is a breathtaking reality and immensity that we cannot truthfully avoid here that Jesus desire was that some other way might be found he is recoiling and hesitating his divine nature and desire sorry his human nature and desire is at odds with the requirement of God that's the only truthful understanding of this statement not my will but yours be done and we hold our breath here we gasp the whole of creation holds its breath the whole of heaven holds its breath and we realize that

[70:00] God's plan of salvation hangs in the balance by the thinnest of threads but and again it's an enormous one of transforming significance that is the most unimaginable trouble torment temptation conflict horror he comes forth the sublime act of obedience commitment and resolve and we undermine and undervalue all this is if we fail to understand all that has gone before he will do the father's will no matter how great his desire to be removed and released from it what brought him through this Luke tells us was an angel to strengthen him but it was him who had to find the resolve and we will see

[71:11] God willing more of this tonight but what brought him through this was his faith in God and in God's saving plan in God's salvation plan that remained sure for such was the purity of his nature that he endured all risks that he rose unshaken in the face of doubt fear and temptation there was no other way remember my son we promised together to do this and Jesus rises the word used is a military word here in the Greek he rises to battle to the great battle and with him we dare to go tonight to the scene of that battle to the cross at

[72:22] Calvary let's pray father we just pray that you will make make this our heart's desire to know more of what Jesus did and suffered for our sakes and then amongst the complexity of all that we are trying to understand we thank you that there was no other good enough to pay the price of sin he only could unlock the gate of heaven and led us in so father as we contemplate this today and as we come tonight to survey the wondrous cross we pray that you might be active and aware of all that we are thinking and doing so that we might grow in our understanding and love you more through

[73:24] Jesus Christ the Lord we ask this amen we close by singing the hymn we sing the praise of him who died we sing the praise of him who died of him who died of the cross we sing the praise and him we if He poured on the cross On the cross we see

[74:25] Shining measures of what is love In measures of sin is the Lord's dream In grace was blessing from the vine The cross we see is the hills away It was the fainting season This year is the dawn of the lonely day And season's every reason now

[75:35] This days my coward's spirit is great And slams the evil of the night He takes his servant from the grave And slams the light From a warm, warm, light The pure of woe The pleasure of the night The pleasure of all

[76:36] The sinner's refuge here below The grace of sin is the heaven of God I now be grace, mercy and peace Of the one true living God Father, Son and Holy Spirit Rest and abide with each and with every one of us This day and forevermore Amen When I was separated I crossed theㅎ The truth The name

[77:43] Oh steady! See if you go to Christie.