WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000 Let's read from Scripture together from Mark chapter 14 verses 32 to 42. 00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:23.519 You'll see the text printed in your bulletin and it's also there in the 00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:30.960 Bibles if you'd like to turn there as well. This is the Word of the Lord. They 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:34.799 went to a place called Gethsemane and Jesus said to his disciples, 00:00:34.799 --> 00:00:41.280 Sit here while I pray. He took Peter, James and John along with him and he 00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:46.159 began to be deeply distressed and troubled. My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow 00:00:46.159 --> 00:00:51.399 to the point of death, he said to them, Stay here and keep watch. Going a little 00:00:51.399 --> 00:00:55.199 farther, he fell to the ground and he prayed that if possible the hour might 00:00:55.199 --> 00:01:00.399 pass from him. Abba, Father, he said, Everything is possible for you. Take this 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:05.599 cup from me. Yet not what I will but what you will. Then he returned to his 00:01:05.599 --> 00:01:10.480 disciples and found them sleeping. Simon, he said to Peter, Are you asleep? Couldn't 00:01:10.480 --> 00:01:14.799 you keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into 00:01:14.799 --> 00:01:19.719 temptation. The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Once more he went away 00:01:19.719 --> 00:01:24.760 and prayed the same thing. When he came back he again found them sleeping because 00:01:24.760 --> 00:01:28.760 their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him. And returning the 00:01:28.760 --> 00:01:33.000 third time he said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough. The hour has 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:38.519 come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us 00:01:38.519 --> 00:01:44.480 go. Here comes my betrayer. This is God's holy word. We are working our way 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:50.240 through a series on the Gospel of Mark and we're doing that up to Easter. 00:01:50.240 --> 00:01:57.560 The very last couple of days of Jesus' life in Mark 14 and here we're 00:01:57.560 --> 00:02:02.480 in the very last evening, even the last morning of Jesus' life. These are the 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:06.480 most important days in all of world history. They are full of meaning. 00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:11.599 They're full of the meaning that is salvation. There's never been, I think 00:02:11.599 --> 00:02:15.319 we could say there's never been a night as important as this night in all of 00:02:15.319 --> 00:02:21.319 human history. And if you've been with us we skipped verses 27 to 31 and we're 00:02:21.319 --> 00:02:25.240 gonna come back to that next week because before this and after, I guess so many, 00:02:25.240 --> 00:02:28.759 there's passages about both Peter and Judas so we'll look at them together 00:02:28.759 --> 00:02:34.319 next week. But tonight, this morning, we're gonna focus on Jesus and his emotions 00:02:34.319 --> 00:02:41.039 here that we just read about. They've eaten the Passover meal. The Passover meal 00:02:41.039 --> 00:02:46.000 was typically eaten from about sunset all the way to midnight and so they sang a 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:51.759 hymn and they went out to the Garden of Gesemini. So it's very late. It's at least 00:02:51.759 --> 00:02:56.039 midnight. It's probably in the early hours of Friday morning. Jesus is not 00:02:56.039 --> 00:03:01.199 gonna go to sleep before the crucifixion. He stays awake all night long and they 00:03:01.199 --> 00:03:06.719 walk about a mile or so east of Jerusalem as was his custom to leave 00:03:06.719 --> 00:03:11.719 Jerusalem every single night across the Kidron Valley up the slopes of the Mount 00:03:11.719 --> 00:03:14.919 of Olives and there on the side of the Mount of Olives there is a place called 00:03:14.919 --> 00:03:21.319 Gesemini. Gesemini means olive press. It's probably an olive garden and this 00:03:21.319 --> 00:03:25.199 we're told in Luke and Matthew's account of this it was his custom to come here so 00:03:25.199 --> 00:03:29.879 this is normal for him. He liked Gesemini. It was a park. It was a garden. He loved 00:03:29.879 --> 00:03:36.479 being there and so he comes here to pray and we have this amazing scene. What do 00:03:36.479 --> 00:03:39.840 we learn? What do we learn about the Garden of Gesemini? What do we learn from 00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:43.679 it? That's the question this morning. Four things. We learned three things. No, I 00:03:43.679 --> 00:03:49.479 changed it to three. There were four. It's gotta be three. One, the fact of 00:03:49.479 --> 00:03:53.639 Gesemini. We learn about the fact of Gesemini. Very important. We learn about 00:03:53.639 --> 00:03:58.799 the deeper meaning of Gesemini and then finally the model of Gesemini. Okay, so 00:03:58.799 --> 00:04:05.479 let's let's do that. First, the fact. Lots of people had pointed this out 00:04:05.479 --> 00:04:09.560 about the Garden of Gesemini. It's a routine argument when you read the 00:04:09.560 --> 00:04:13.399 commentators, when you listen to others who have taught on it and it's a routine 00:04:13.399 --> 00:04:16.800 argument what I'm about to give you for good reason and I really do hope that 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:25.399 this helps you today. Gesemini supports the historicity of Jesus. That he's real. 00:04:25.399 --> 00:04:30.120 That the gospel accounts are real. That what we're being told here actually 00:04:30.120 --> 00:04:35.159 happened. Gesemini is a real support for that. That it's not a mere myth and 00:04:35.160 --> 00:04:40.840 here's why. If you look down at verse 33 and 34, we are given three emotion 00:04:40.840 --> 00:04:47.200 words. In verse 33 it says that Jesus is greatly distressed and troubled and then 00:04:47.200 --> 00:04:52.840 in verse 34 it says also that he was grieving, that he was deeply sorrowful, 00:04:52.840 --> 00:04:57.920 even the point that his soul was overwhelmed with death itself. Alright, 00:04:57.920 --> 00:05:01.680 when you when you read the commentators on this, they will give you the synonyms 00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:07.639 for these words and they will go so far as to say when we read these emotion 00:05:07.639 --> 00:05:13.280 words, we're reading words like Jesus was in terror. There came a moment where 00:05:13.280 --> 00:05:19.960 terror struck him, where he was shaken to the soul down to the deepest core. We're 00:05:19.960 --> 00:05:25.759 given words like alarm and agonizing grief. These are the synonyms that we 00:05:25.759 --> 00:05:30.639 read about here in these emotion words. I don't know if you've faced emotional 00:05:30.639 --> 00:05:35.879 agony in your life. Emotional agony. The dark night of the soul. This is the 00:05:35.879 --> 00:05:39.879 dark night of the soul. This is the darkest night of the soul perhaps in 00:05:39.879 --> 00:05:45.800 human history and it's only paralleled I think in our lives by the worst phone 00:05:45.800 --> 00:05:51.279 call you've ever gotten. The worst bit of news you've ever received. It's the 00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:55.639 dark night of the soul. It's emotional agony. It says here that he was so 00:05:55.639 --> 00:05:59.199 distressed and soul that he felt like he was going to die. You know, have you ever 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:03.199 been in a place where your soul was in so much agony that it felt as if death was 00:06:03.199 --> 00:06:08.079 upon you and that's exactly what Jesus is experiencing here. Luke's account says 00:06:08.079 --> 00:06:13.599 that he was so distressed that he was sweating blood very, very literally. Now 00:06:13.599 --> 00:06:19.120 here's why this is so important for the historicity of the gospels. One commentator 00:06:19.120 --> 00:06:23.599 puts it like this, the grim realism of Gethsemane is a guarantee of its 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:30.560 historicity. Why? First, because there was no category in the ancient world, no 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:34.560 category in the first century, no category in the Jewish or Greco-Roman 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:42.000 mindset for God to express emotional agony like this. We don't see it 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:45.240 anywhere else. Did Hercules ever go through something like this? No. Does Zeus? 00:06:45.240 --> 00:06:50.280 No, never. We don't see it. It's not part of the Jewish or the Greco-Roman 00:06:50.279 --> 00:06:54.599 mindset. It's completely beyond expectation. And the second reason is 00:06:54.599 --> 00:06:58.839 that many heroes, if you think about it for just a second, many heroes 00:06:58.839 --> 00:07:03.479 throughout world history have faced their own execution. They've known about it. 00:07:03.479 --> 00:07:07.119 They knew it was coming. Many, many people, thousands of people, faced 00:07:07.119 --> 00:07:11.399 crucifixion in fact. And this is the morning that Jesus is facing his own 00:07:11.399 --> 00:07:16.279 execution, is facing crucifixion, and yet you can think of so many that have done 00:07:16.279 --> 00:07:21.000 that with serenity, with calmness, who have faced the firing squad, who have 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:29.279 faced the fires without tears. And Jesus here is so struck by terror and emotional 00:07:29.279 --> 00:07:34.159 agony that he breaks down, he falls upon his face, we're told. And here's how one 00:07:34.159 --> 00:07:39.919 writer puts it. He says, did not Socrates greet death as a friend and liberator to 00:07:39.919 --> 00:07:46.079 a better life? Did not the Stoics preach serene resignation to their fate? Why 00:07:46.079 --> 00:07:51.039 does Jesus who has foreseen his death and marched resolutely to Jerusalem to 00:07:51.039 --> 00:07:56.039 meet it now quail before it? There have been many Christian martyrs throughout 00:07:56.039 --> 00:08:00.719 history who have put their hands into the fire. And here is Jesus in emotional 00:08:00.719 --> 00:08:05.319 torment and agony. Now what I want to ask you is, have you really looked before at 00:08:05.319 --> 00:08:11.919 the extremity of Jesus's emotions here in this passage? And I think that when you 00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:18.280 do, it probably cuts through the expectation of most Christians for the 00:08:18.280 --> 00:08:27.000 way you expect Jesus to act. We are much more Stoic than he was. And because of our 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:30.560 expectation and because of the ancient Near Eastern expectation, the first 00:08:30.560 --> 00:08:34.800 century expectation, here's the point. If you are trying to create a following 00:08:34.800 --> 00:08:39.840 around Jesus Christ, this great leader, this Messiah, this hope for the world, you 00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:45.160 don't put this story, you don't write about these emotions. They're beyond the 00:08:45.160 --> 00:08:49.440 expectation. They do not fit what people were looking for. You don't write about it, 00:08:49.440 --> 00:08:55.120 except for one reason, that it really happened. That it's exactly what took 00:08:55.120 --> 00:09:02.440 place. It's too surprising to be false, is what the historians say. Now secondly, 00:09:02.440 --> 00:09:08.200 that's the fact of, I guess, so many, secondly, the deeper meaning. Therefore, 00:09:08.200 --> 00:09:15.000 why these emotions? Why verse 33 and 34? Why the terror? Why the alarm? What is it 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:19.680 that hit him in this moment that threw him to the ground before his father? 00:09:19.680 --> 00:09:23.800 That's the question. Now I think the answer is that it's got to be something 00:09:23.800 --> 00:09:27.680 more than just the execution, the crucifixion that he was about to face. 00:09:27.680 --> 00:09:32.360 Because many, many people have faced that. Many have. And two more would be 00:09:32.360 --> 00:09:39.480 alongside of them. I think the answer begins on Isaiah 53, because in the Old 00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:44.919 Testament you have a prophecy about this night. Isaiah 53 is part of the suffering 00:09:44.919 --> 00:09:49.960 servant prophecies of the Messiah. And in one of those sentences it says, 00:09:49.960 --> 00:09:56.960 surely the Messiah has borne our grief and carried our sorrow. Ah, there's the 00:09:56.960 --> 00:10:02.279 beginning of it. What is it that he's facing? And the prophecy said, he will be 00:10:02.279 --> 00:10:08.120 the one who will bear our grief and carry the sorrows of the world. You see, it's 00:10:08.120 --> 00:10:11.399 something more than physical death. It's something more than the brutality of the 00:10:11.399 --> 00:10:16.120 cross. It's more than that. I mean, he has said many times in Mark's Gospel, if 00:10:16.120 --> 00:10:19.919 you've been here for it, that he's going to the cross, he's going to face his own 00:10:19.919 --> 00:10:24.559 death. He knows that. He knows that he's come for that. What is it that he sees in 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:29.679 this moment, in this garden, in the early hours of Friday morning that strikes him 00:10:29.679 --> 00:10:33.759 with terror, that brings him to such tears and agony? What is it exactly? 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:39.120 And I think it's fair to say, it's probably fair to say, that there has 00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:44.359 never been a human being in all of human history that has faced the emotional 00:10:44.359 --> 00:10:49.199 agony that Jesus faces in this moment. And that's because there has never been a 00:10:49.199 --> 00:10:52.799 human being in all of human history that has faced the burden that he was 00:10:52.799 --> 00:10:56.839 actually carrying in this moment. What is it? That's the key. That's the 00:10:56.840 --> 00:11:01.720 deeper meaning. Where is it? It's in verse 35. And it's in verse 35, he 00:11:01.720 --> 00:11:08.639 prays to God and he says, Lord, my Father, let this hour pass from me. And in the 00:11:08.639 --> 00:11:12.960 very next phrase, he said, let this cup, we get the word cup in Luke and Matthew's 00:11:12.960 --> 00:11:18.240 account, let this cup pass by me. And that's the secret. That's the key. That's 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:23.639 where we learn about the deeper meaning. What is this cup? The hour in the 00:11:23.639 --> 00:11:29.360 Gospels is associated with this idea of the cup that Jesus was about to drink. 00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:35.399 And in the Old Testament, the cup, it can be one of two things. Sometimes the cup 00:11:35.399 --> 00:11:40.240 is positive. So people will talk about the cup, the cup of festival joy, the cup 00:11:40.240 --> 00:11:45.600 of wine, you know, the cup of salvation, the cup of greatness. In other times, the 00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:53.360 cup is the cup of God's wrath. And the metaphor, the image of the cup in the 00:11:53.360 --> 00:11:58.039 Old Testament is something like this, that every single time we sin against the 00:11:58.039 --> 00:12:02.560 Lord, every injustice and evil that gets committed in the world that we live in, 00:12:02.560 --> 00:12:10.600 by us and by others, is like a drip, drip, drip into this big old cup. Now God's cup 00:12:10.600 --> 00:12:16.519 is very big. It takes a long time to fill it because God is so patient with us. 00:12:16.519 --> 00:12:21.480 God is so patient with the world. And so over centuries and centuries and 00:12:21.480 --> 00:12:26.159 centuries, the cup is drip, drip, drip, every evil, every injustice coming in. 00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:30.960 And eventually, because God is just and righteous and cannot look past the evils 00:12:30.960 --> 00:12:36.000 of the world, eventually the cup pours over the edges. And his wrath and his 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:39.240 judgment come forth. And we see all these little moments of that throughout 00:12:39.240 --> 00:12:44.639 world history. But then here, what is Jesus staring at? What is it that brings 00:12:44.639 --> 00:12:49.720 him to such terror, such agony? And it is that he knows that he is just a few 00:12:49.720 --> 00:12:54.759 hours away from drinking the cup of the judgment of the living God. It's not the 00:12:54.759 --> 00:12:57.759 crucifixion, it's not the physicality, it's something much more than that. It's 00:12:57.759 --> 00:13:02.680 spiritual terror, it's spiritual agony. He's about to go through something that 00:13:02.680 --> 00:13:07.000 no human being in all of world history would ever face. And that is what brings 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:13.800 him to the point of such terror and such grief at the very same time. The depths, 00:13:13.800 --> 00:13:18.160 the depths of talking about this, alright, anytime the theologians, the 00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:23.559 preachers, Christians, we try to talk about what's going on with the wrath of 00:13:23.559 --> 00:13:29.199 God coming down on the soul of Jesus Christ, we have entered into a territory 00:13:29.199 --> 00:13:36.719 of deep mystery. And one that we can't really describe very well. And one that 00:13:36.719 --> 00:13:43.439 is beyond any imagination. What does it mean to say that the sins of the world 00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:49.440 were placed upon him? I don't know exactly. But let me go as far as the 00:13:49.440 --> 00:13:54.440 Bible goes and just give you three quick things that this has to mean. Okay, one is 00:13:54.440 --> 00:14:00.800 this. In this moment he is experiencing such terror because he is realizing what 00:14:00.800 --> 00:14:06.160 he's facing. And what is he facing? First, he is the Holy One of God. He is the 00:14:06.160 --> 00:14:12.600 righteous one. He is good. He is perfect. And the Holy One, the Lord of Creation, 00:14:12.600 --> 00:14:18.519 is about to become the unholy. The one that is ultimately pure in himself from 00:14:18.519 --> 00:14:24.000 top to bottom is about to become impure. What must that be like? I don't know. 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:28.680 I've never been pure. We've never been righteous. We don't know what it's like 00:14:28.680 --> 00:14:32.840 for the righteous to become unrighteous. But he, the Holy, is about to become 00:14:32.840 --> 00:14:38.920 unholy. What a great reversal. Paul goes so far as to say this is lawlessness. It 00:14:38.919 --> 00:14:44.120 shouldn't be this way. What does it mean? It's lawlessness this Greek word Paul 00:14:44.120 --> 00:14:50.240 uses. It's such a reversal of all things good and it's not necessary. Now I'm 00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:53.279 not saying that it's not necessary for our salvation. What I'm saying is it 00:14:53.279 --> 00:14:58.399 doesn't have to be the case that the Holy One would become unholy for us. And that 00:14:58.399 --> 00:15:01.919 means that what he's doing is he's stepping into something that's voluntary, 00:15:01.919 --> 00:15:07.719 that's a gift in becoming known, in becoming in the eyes of God for us 00:15:07.720 --> 00:15:12.000 evil even though he is righteous. That's the first thing he's facing. The second 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:18.720 thing he's facing is what Isaiah talked about. Isaiah talked about how he will 00:15:18.720 --> 00:15:23.759 carry our griefs and our sorrows. He will be the bearer of our guilt. He will 00:15:23.759 --> 00:15:30.080 become, as the theologians say, the sin bearer. Now I don't know if you've ever 00:15:30.080 --> 00:15:35.480 struggled with guilt. If you've ever struggled with the burden of guilt, have 00:15:35.480 --> 00:15:40.600 you ever carried a guilt around? Have you ever carried shame? Have you ever carried 00:15:40.600 --> 00:15:47.080 a sorrow, a grief of all kinds because of things you've done? I know that in my 00:15:47.080 --> 00:15:52.100 role and in anybody who does ministry or social work or anything, and many of you 00:15:52.100 --> 00:15:57.000 have this experience all the time, that you often do have to carry the guilt of 00:15:57.000 --> 00:16:00.800 another person, the burdens of another person, the sorrows of another person 00:16:00.799 --> 00:16:06.319 around with you, a few at a time maybe. And it's heavy. It's heavy. And it's 00:16:06.319 --> 00:16:09.679 part of the calling in ministry and in lots of other vocations or as a 00:16:09.679 --> 00:16:14.839 parent or anything like that. Modern people, we come, we have the 00:16:14.839 --> 00:16:19.000 people in our lives that overshare with us. The person at work that 00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:22.759 over shares, that tells you too much, that tells you everything going on in 00:16:22.759 --> 00:16:25.759 their lives. And eventually as a modern person, as an individual, you turn to that 00:16:25.759 --> 00:16:29.879 person and you say, you've got to stop. I can't carry all this. 00:16:29.879 --> 00:16:34.279 I've got my own stuff. I've got my own problems. I can't carry your 00:16:34.279 --> 00:16:40.720 problems. My guilt, my shame, my sorrows, my griefs are big enough weights on 00:16:40.720 --> 00:16:44.080 my shoulders right now that I can't come to work every day and have you 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:46.879 overshare with me. Your problems and your guilt and your shame and your griefs, 00:16:46.879 --> 00:16:53.080 that's what we think as modern people. And we understand that. Can you imagine 00:16:53.080 --> 00:16:58.279 Jesus Christ carried the sorrows, the griefs, the sin, the guilt of the whole 00:16:58.279 --> 00:17:04.799 world? All of us? What weight? What must it be like? I feel like I can't carry my 00:17:04.799 --> 00:17:08.759 own guilt and shames and burdens and those of the people around me. Yet he 00:17:08.759 --> 00:17:14.960 bore all of it. I don't know. I don't know what it means. The third thing that we 00:17:14.960 --> 00:17:19.960 see that happens here is not only does the Holy become unholy, does 00:17:19.960 --> 00:17:25.559 the Holy One be treated as if he's evil in our place? Does he become the sin 00:17:25.559 --> 00:17:28.879 bearer? But the third thing that he's facing that brings him to such agony is 00:17:28.879 --> 00:17:35.639 that he will bear God's judgment. He'll bear the wrath of the living God. He will 00:17:35.639 --> 00:17:41.960 take upon himself in a few hours from now at the cross that punishment that 00:17:41.960 --> 00:17:47.399 every injustice and every sin in all of world history deserves. How can we imagine 00:17:47.399 --> 00:17:52.559 that? All we can do I think is take all the images and descriptions of hell in 00:17:52.559 --> 00:18:00.359 the Bible and say it's more. Now this is where many people in our city and maybe 00:18:00.359 --> 00:18:05.639 even us today, some of you today as modern people will instinctively think, 00:18:05.639 --> 00:18:11.839 we will instinctively think, many people in our city will say, you know, I'm open 00:18:11.839 --> 00:18:18.599 to the God of love but I don't know about all this God of wrath stuff. I'm open 00:18:18.599 --> 00:18:22.399 to the God of love, the God who forgives. I'm open to the idea that Jesus is 00:18:22.400 --> 00:18:26.320 cross, his agony in this moment is an example of his love for us but I don't 00:18:26.320 --> 00:18:31.720 know that I'm open to the God of wrath, the God of judgment. I mean are we 00:18:31.720 --> 00:18:36.600 really saying that God the Father pours out the wrath of the sins of the world 00:18:36.600 --> 00:18:44.080 upon his only son? As a sacrifice, bloody sacrifice for sin. And modern people, 00:18:44.080 --> 00:18:49.480 we come, a place like Edinburgh comes and says I don't know if I can believe in 00:18:49.480 --> 00:18:52.360 that. I don't know if I can believe in the God of wrath. I really like the God of 00:18:52.359 --> 00:18:56.919 love, a God who is just love, a God who just forgives. Do we really have to say 00:18:56.919 --> 00:19:03.039 that God gets angry at sin and thereby pours wrath and agony upon his only son? 00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:10.799 Now hold on a minute, let me just read to you one quote from somebody who I 00:19:10.799 --> 00:19:14.599 found very helpful in this point and this is what he says, very, very important. 00:19:14.599 --> 00:19:24.159 If you want a loving God, you have to have an angry God because just 00:19:24.159 --> 00:19:29.480 think about it for a second. Loving people, loving people get angry. People who 00:19:29.480 --> 00:19:35.079 love people are people who get angry. Not in spite of the fact that you're 00:19:35.079 --> 00:19:41.399 loving but because they're loving. In fact the more people you love and the 00:19:41.400 --> 00:19:47.120 more deeply you love people, the angrier you're gonna get in this world. When you 00:19:47.120 --> 00:19:50.880 see people who are ravaged by something, in fact if you see people who are 00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:57.080 ravaging themselves, you get mad. You get mad because you love them. If you see 00:19:57.080 --> 00:20:01.240 people ravaging themselves, destroying themselves or destroying other people and 00:20:01.240 --> 00:20:07.720 you don't get mad, it is because you don't care. We're told in Psalm 145 that 00:20:07.720 --> 00:20:12.079 God loves everything he's made and the reason he's constantly angry is because 00:20:12.079 --> 00:20:16.120 of what's going on down here. Therefore with all due respect, it is foolish to 00:20:16.120 --> 00:20:20.319 say I don't want a wrathful God, an angry God, I just want a loving God. Look if 00:20:20.319 --> 00:20:26.519 he's loving, he has to be angry. He has to be very angry at evil. He has to be very 00:20:26.519 --> 00:20:31.360 angry at sin if he really is the God of love. You can never separate it. He's 00:20:31.360 --> 00:20:35.120 got to do something about it. If he really loves the world, he's got to be 00:20:35.119 --> 00:20:39.759 angry about what's going on here. If he's really full of love, that means he's got 00:20:39.759 --> 00:20:45.559 to be full of justice. He's got to be. There's no way to separate the two. What 00:20:45.559 --> 00:20:51.119 is this scene really saying to us? The agony of Jesus Christ in his emotions 00:20:51.119 --> 00:20:55.319 here that is pointing to the agony of Jesus that he's going to experience in 00:20:55.319 --> 00:21:00.279 the hell of the cross. What is it saying? It's saying this, that the injustices 00:21:00.279 --> 00:21:07.799 we've committed are really real. They're so real that it takes Jesus all the way 00:21:07.799 --> 00:21:15.160 to this point. And it also means that God's love for you and the fact that he 00:21:15.160 --> 00:21:21.319 values you to the point of the Son taking on hell itself is really real. What 00:21:21.319 --> 00:21:24.279 does this say? If you don't have a God of wrath, if you don't have a God of anger 00:21:24.279 --> 00:21:27.559 at what's going on in the world, you don't have a God of love. And if you don't 00:21:27.559 --> 00:21:32.440 have a God who's willing to pour his wrath upon his only Son, then you don't yet 00:21:32.440 --> 00:21:38.559 see how much God is saying, I love you and I think you're valuable. That's what 00:21:38.559 --> 00:21:42.399 this scene really says. Now before we move to the final point, let me show you 00:21:42.399 --> 00:21:49.000 this in the illustration of these disciples. Verse 34, he's in the Garden 00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:53.599 of Gethsemane, not by himself but with the disciples. And he says to them, 00:21:53.599 --> 00:22:01.240 watch and pray for me. And when he says watch, be watchful, he's saying I want 00:22:01.240 --> 00:22:04.799 you to pray for me because I'm experiencing torment. And I want you to 00:22:04.799 --> 00:22:10.119 pray for yourselves. And we learned from Matthew and Luke. He also says you are 00:22:10.119 --> 00:22:14.719 about to face great temptation. I need you tonight like me to pray and ask God 00:22:14.719 --> 00:22:19.399 for help. He had just told them in the previous story, all of you are going to 00:22:19.400 --> 00:22:24.560 fall away and betray me in some way, at some level. And so you need tonight to 00:22:24.560 --> 00:22:27.880 do what I'm doing. You need to get down on your knees, you need to get down on 00:22:27.880 --> 00:22:34.240 your face and pray that you wouldn't be tempted to run away. Now three different 00:22:34.240 --> 00:22:40.320 times while Jesus is praying, while he's in agony and getting help from God the 00:22:40.320 --> 00:22:45.240 Father, he stops three times and he comes to the disciples and every time he 00:22:45.240 --> 00:22:50.720 finds them sleeping, not praying, not fighting temptation. But do you see what 00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:57.319 that is? That is Jesus in the midst of utter terror before the cross, taking a 00:22:57.319 --> 00:23:02.599 break to go on a past world visit. That's what he's doing. He's taking a home visit, 00:23:02.599 --> 00:23:06.680 you know. He's going to see the congregation. He's going, he's traveling 00:23:06.680 --> 00:23:11.120 from his prayer times and his Bible study times and he's going and he's visiting 00:23:11.119 --> 00:23:15.719 these guys to check in on them and every single time they're not doing very 00:23:15.719 --> 00:23:21.359 well. They're not doing so great. And he even says that in that second visit, you 00:23:21.359 --> 00:23:25.159 know, he says, Simon. He talks to Peter specifically. What do you do when you're 00:23:25.159 --> 00:23:28.439 getting serious about something? You don't use the second name, you know, use the 00:23:28.439 --> 00:23:32.519 original name. You use this real first name. It's not Peter, right now it's 00:23:32.519 --> 00:23:39.639 Simon. Listen, Simon, I understand that you're sleepy, your spirit is there, 00:23:39.640 --> 00:23:44.480 your soul wants to be for me, but your flesh is weak. Now that's not a 00:23:44.480 --> 00:23:48.840 condemnation, that's not a judgment. That is Jesus Christ the pastor with the 00:23:48.840 --> 00:23:56.280 shepherd's heart looking and saying, I understand Peter's weak. Three times he 00:23:56.280 --> 00:23:59.960 goes on his past world visit and three times he finds disciples who are just 00:23:59.960 --> 00:24:04.800 sleeping on him, who can't, who cannot get it together, who really will fall away, 00:24:04.800 --> 00:24:09.040 who really will be tempted to the point of betrayal. And then at the very end in 00:24:09.039 --> 00:24:13.440 the third visit in verse 41, this is when he finally says, he gets up from his 00:24:13.440 --> 00:24:18.839 prayer, he sees them and he says, it is enough, the hours at hand. What is it that 00:24:18.839 --> 00:24:25.119 brings him to a place to say, I'm going to the cross? What is it? It's him coming 00:24:25.119 --> 00:24:29.480 and finding the disciples asleep. That brings him to the point where he's 00:24:29.480 --> 00:24:35.079 willing to say, enough, I'm going. I'm going to the cross. You see, the point he 00:24:35.079 --> 00:24:40.720 doesn't give up on them when they gave up on him. Three times over they gave up 00:24:40.720 --> 00:24:44.919 on him and he comes back in a pastoral visit and finds that and decides, 00:24:44.919 --> 00:24:49.519 therefore I will not give up on them. In other words, he sees how much they need 00:24:49.519 --> 00:24:54.480 him. He's trying to be encouraging, I know that your spirit wants. They're real 00:24:54.480 --> 00:24:59.319 and live in God, but your flesh is so weak, you can't do it. Therefore I'm going 00:24:59.319 --> 00:25:04.000 to the cross. Therefore my will is made up. The will of the Father for me, I'm 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:13.119 going to do it. It's love. Look, have you ever slept on him? Have you ever 00:25:13.119 --> 00:25:21.240 betrayed the live in God? Have you ever rejected him? Have you ever not cared? Have 00:25:21.240 --> 00:25:28.440 you ever been indifferent? Have you ever walked away? Have you ever sinned? We go 00:25:28.440 --> 00:25:32.119 to sleep on Jesus and he says, for that very reason I will never go to sleep on 00:25:32.119 --> 00:25:37.159 you. I will never give up. I will never abandon it. Not the mission. I'm going to 00:25:37.159 --> 00:25:42.199 go all the way. In the midst of a terror and an agony that we could never 00:25:42.199 --> 00:25:47.479 understand and explain, the reason that he goes is love. He says, 00:25:47.479 --> 00:25:51.479 you know, not my will, Father, but your will. What's the will of the Father? The 00:25:51.479 --> 00:25:57.079 will of the Father is that he would crush the Son out of love for us. That's 00:25:57.079 --> 00:26:02.599 the reason he goes. Now finally, let me say this before I go to the final point. 00:26:02.599 --> 00:26:11.679 Look, if you don't see the weight of God's wrath upon Jesus Christ, you don't 00:26:11.679 --> 00:26:18.720 yet know what your sleepiness costs the Savior and you don't know how much your 00:26:18.720 --> 00:26:24.759 value by the living God. If you don't see the heaviness of the wrath of God 00:26:24.759 --> 00:26:30.839 falling upon this man, you don't yet know the cost of your sleepiness and how 00:26:30.839 --> 00:26:36.079 much he loves you at the very same time. Lastly, that gives us then finally and 00:26:36.079 --> 00:26:41.680 briefly a model for dealing with our own emotional pain. All right? Look, if you've 00:26:41.680 --> 00:26:47.319 seen so far how much Jesus is for you, you can follow him and walk away and 00:26:47.319 --> 00:26:50.960 know that there really is a biblical treatment, a model for dealing with deep 00:26:50.960 --> 00:26:56.200 emotional pain and agony. The simple thing to say because we're running out of 00:26:56.200 --> 00:27:04.720 time is just this. You have a weeping, crying Savior and no other religion can 00:27:04.720 --> 00:27:09.799 say that. No other religion has that. The Greeks, the Romans, they never had that 00:27:09.799 --> 00:27:14.000 in their mythologies. No other world religion has a weeping, a crying Savior. 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:18.600 In other words, he knows what it's like to be human. He knows what it's like to 00:27:18.599 --> 00:27:23.079 grieve. He knows what it's like to be in utter agony. So let me close by just 00:27:23.079 --> 00:27:27.559 giving you four very quick things that Jesus, I think, gives you here in this 00:27:27.559 --> 00:27:32.679 passage to deal with emotional pain, to deal with disappointment, to deal with 00:27:32.679 --> 00:27:36.879 grief, to deal with your sorrows, to deal with the moments of emotional terror 00:27:36.879 --> 00:27:42.839 that might come upon you in life. And here they are. First, if you are reading 00:27:42.839 --> 00:27:46.199 this passage and reading about Jesus' emotions here and you are struck and 00:27:46.200 --> 00:27:52.039 surprised by his own emotional pain, something you didn't really expect, you 00:27:52.039 --> 00:27:56.240 expected more stoicism, then let me just say that that points out for all of us 00:27:56.240 --> 00:28:02.400 that our emotions, like the whole of who we are, are cultured. Now I don't mean 00:28:02.400 --> 00:28:06.240 cultured in the sense that our emotions go to symphonies and enjoy afternoon tea 00:28:06.240 --> 00:28:11.640 and things like that, visit the modern art museums. I mean cultured in the sense 00:28:11.640 --> 00:28:16.759 that all of who we are, including our emotions, are a product of the environment 00:28:16.759 --> 00:28:20.960 we grew up in, in the world we live in. And so if you come and say, I didn't 00:28:20.960 --> 00:28:24.360 expect, I thought he'd be more stoic, let me just say it points out to us that 00:28:24.360 --> 00:28:28.960 we're cultured people and even our emotional lives are trained by the world 00:28:28.960 --> 00:28:33.920 we live in. And that leads me to the question to ask, are your emotions, are 00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:40.560 your emotions being trained by the Bible rather than the culture? And even more 00:28:40.559 --> 00:28:43.879 than that, that also leads to the question of what else in my life am I 00:28:43.879 --> 00:28:48.240 shaped by? What other ways do I approach Christianity in which my culture is 00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:52.359 shaping me more than the Bible itself? Maybe today you're here and you're 00:28:52.359 --> 00:28:55.480 thinking, I don't know about the God of wrath, you know, I just want to believe in 00:28:55.480 --> 00:28:59.720 a God of love, but don't you know that's culture? Because almost every culture in 00:28:59.720 --> 00:29:02.799 all of human history has believed in a God of wrath. I said, of course there's a 00:29:02.799 --> 00:29:07.039 God of judgment, of course God has to get angry at sin. We're one of the first 00:29:07.039 --> 00:29:10.960 cultures in world history that have ever struggled with this, it's culture. What 00:29:10.960 --> 00:29:14.799 else about our culture is blocking us from seeing the fullness of the 00:29:14.799 --> 00:29:18.839 vision of the Bible? We've got to have a reference point outside of ourselves to 00:29:18.839 --> 00:29:23.960 find the truth and it's the holy scriptures. Number two, when you face 00:29:23.960 --> 00:29:28.000 emotional agony, when you face emotional pain weeping and grieving in your life, 00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:33.960 this is a big discussion, I can only say a little bit, but just remember that Jesus 00:29:33.960 --> 00:29:41.160 comes as the pastor, the shepherd, who says, I know your spirit is willing, but 00:29:41.160 --> 00:29:46.480 your flesh is weak. In other words, in that moment Jesus is saying, I know that 00:29:46.480 --> 00:29:53.039 deep down you do desire to walk in the path of the living God, you do desire to 00:29:53.039 --> 00:29:57.480 follow me, you do desire to put away sin, you do desire in the deepest places of 00:29:57.480 --> 00:30:03.360 your heart, you really do to not get so angry in those moments, to not express 00:30:03.359 --> 00:30:08.599 such annoyance, to not gossip so much. He says, I know that you want that, but 00:30:08.599 --> 00:30:13.359 that your flesh, your sin problem is overtaking you. Now that doesn't, he's not 00:30:13.359 --> 00:30:18.199 excusing the problem of the flesh, instead I just want to say, notice Jesus 00:30:18.199 --> 00:30:24.839 Christ, your pastor, who comes into this earth and says, I know your flesh is weak, 00:30:24.839 --> 00:30:30.240 I know your weakness. Remember that when you're struggling with things you can't 00:30:30.240 --> 00:30:34.000 shake, it's bringing you to a point of despair because you can't get over a 00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:39.440 certain sin issue or whatever it may be. Third, what can we do? What does he do? 00:30:39.440 --> 00:30:44.160 With his emotional pain, with his agony, with his terror, he goes to that place 00:30:44.160 --> 00:30:50.240 that was his custom. Interesting, Jesus in the night of his terror goes to a 00:30:50.240 --> 00:30:56.559 place where he loved to come and pray. Do you have a place? Do you have places in 00:30:56.559 --> 00:31:02.399 your life where you say, I go here and I pray? I run to this place, a location, a 00:31:02.399 --> 00:31:07.679 physical location, he had one. Do you? Have you ever thought about that? It can be 00:31:07.679 --> 00:31:11.440 really comforting, really reassuring to meet with God in a routine place and 00:31:11.440 --> 00:31:16.119 pray, maybe out in creation, maybe in the quiet place of your home, but Jesus had 00:31:16.119 --> 00:31:20.079 that. And then what else do we see? We see that he, in that moment, falls on his 00:31:20.079 --> 00:31:27.679 face to pray. He falls on his face, he has a posture. The Psalms tell us, kneel 00:31:27.679 --> 00:31:32.000 before the Lord your maker. Do you think much about your posture before the Lord 00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:36.079 and how that affects your prayer life? Have you ever tried kneeling, falling on 00:31:36.079 --> 00:31:40.079 your face in order to pray to the living God? It's exactly what Jesus does here. 00:31:40.079 --> 00:31:46.359 And maybe it's culture that's blocked us from that. But what else does he do? He 00:31:46.359 --> 00:31:50.679 pours out his soul. He's more honest, he's more open in his prayer, his emotions 00:31:50.679 --> 00:31:54.879 to God. He looks just like the Psalms here. The Psalms give us this huge range of 00:31:54.879 --> 00:32:00.439 emotion and it invites us, pour your soul, be honest, pour your emotions out to the 00:32:00.439 --> 00:32:04.439 living God. He wants to hear you. That's exactly what we see in Jesus here. 00:32:04.439 --> 00:32:09.639 Fourth and finally, ultimately, how do you deal with agony, emotional agony, 00:32:09.639 --> 00:32:15.919 terror, pain, grief? The last thing is this, you know, where do you go when you 00:32:15.920 --> 00:32:27.200 say why? Why me? Why now? Why this? And we have to be willing to say, I don't know 00:32:27.200 --> 00:32:32.800 all that God may be doing in the midst of this moment. I don't know all that God 00:32:32.800 --> 00:32:36.000 may be doing in the midst of my pain. But here's what I can say for sure. 00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:39.680 Here's what I do know for sure. Here's what you can know for sure. You can lift 00:32:39.680 --> 00:32:47.039 up your eyes and look at Jesus and know that He has experienced every emotional 00:32:47.039 --> 00:32:52.880 agony that you're facing in that moment, that He's gone through it. And Hebrews 00:32:52.880 --> 00:32:58.360 5 verse 7 is very helpful. It says, in the days of His flesh, Jesus offered prayer 00:32:58.360 --> 00:33:04.200 and supplications with cries and loud cries and with tears. Not just this 00:33:04.200 --> 00:33:09.600 moment, it's plural, more moments. Jesus experienced such emotional pain in His 00:33:09.599 --> 00:33:15.439 life that He prayed frequently with loud cries and tears. You can run to Jesus 00:33:15.439 --> 00:33:20.879 and know, I have a savior, a weeping savior who has gone through everything 00:33:20.879 --> 00:33:26.879 that I'm facing, who knows what it's like to be human. And when you can say that, 00:33:26.879 --> 00:33:32.559 you can say that the cup of wrath that He drank has become for me ultimately the 00:33:32.559 --> 00:33:37.559 cup of festival joy. You might be sad and you will be sad in that circumstance, 00:33:37.559 --> 00:33:43.599 but you can have joy at the very same time. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for 00:33:43.599 --> 00:33:48.839 the emotional life of Jesus and the range and the depth. We thank you that you tell 00:33:48.839 --> 00:33:56.000 us in the Bible of such alarm that He experiences as He faces the burden of the 00:33:56.000 --> 00:34:02.599 wrath of the living God. So Lord, use this passage to teach us, use this passage 00:34:02.599 --> 00:34:07.839 to reshape us and frame us towards an emotional life that actually mirrors the 00:34:07.839 --> 00:34:12.799 Bible itself. Lord, what would it be like if our emotions conformed to the image 00:34:12.799 --> 00:34:18.799 of the sun? We ask Lord, even more than that, that somebody today would experience 00:34:18.799 --> 00:34:24.199 the freshness, the beauty, and the goodness of the weight of that wrath 00:34:24.199 --> 00:34:29.920 poured upon the sun, the gospel itself, and that they would know your love for 00:34:29.920 --> 00:34:35.960 them. How much you love them. So we pray that now in Jesus' name. Amen.