WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 And in Mark 14, we're going to read from verse 32 to verse 42. 00:00:06.660 --> 00:00:10.140 Let's hear and read together in God's Word. 00:00:12.919 --> 00:00:15.660 And they went to a place called Gethsemane. 00:00:16.399 --> 00:00:20.580 And he said to his disciples, sit here while I pray. 00:00:21.400 --> 00:00:25.100 And he took with them Peter and James and John 00:00:25.100 --> 00:00:29.460 and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. 00:00:30.620 --> 00:00:35.280 And he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death. 00:00:36.480 --> 00:00:38.480 Remain here and watch. 00:00:39.939 --> 00:00:42.659 And going a little farther, he fell on the ground 00:00:42.659 --> 00:00:48.240 and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 00:00:49.299 --> 00:00:55.480 And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. 00:00:56.299 --> 00:00:58.600 Remove this cup from me. 00:00:58.600 --> 00:01:03.760 Yet not what I will, but what you will. 00:01:05.079 --> 00:01:07.159 And he came and found them sleeping. 00:01:07.939 --> 00:01:12.680 And he said to Peter, Simon, are you asleep? 00:01:13.659 --> 00:01:15.719 Could you not watch one hour? 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:20.560 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. 00:01:20.560 --> 00:01:26.719 The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. 00:01:26.719 --> 00:01:31.200 And again, he went away and prayed, saying the same words. 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:36.359 And again, he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy. 00:01:36.939 --> 00:01:39.379 And they did not know what to answer him. 00:01:39.379 --> 00:01:48.479 And he came the third time and said to them, are you still sleeping and taking your rest? 00:01:48.480 --> 00:01:50.840 It is enough. 00:01:50.840 --> 00:01:52.200 The hour has come. 00:01:52.920 --> 00:01:55.579 The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 00:01:56.480 --> 00:01:56.939 Rise. 00:01:56.939 --> 00:01:58.819 Let us be going. 00:01:58.819 --> 00:01:58.819 00:01:59.759 --> 00:02:03.039 See, my betrayer is at hand. 00:02:03.980 --> 00:02:06.879 Says the word of God. 00:02:07.099 --> 00:02:10.259 And to his name be the praise and the glory. 00:02:10.259 --> 00:02:13.419 All right. 00:02:13.479 --> 00:02:18.099 Well, the B team was chosen tonight after Ryan wasn't able to be here suddenly this evening. 00:02:18.819 --> 00:02:25.479 And I, as you well know, that well-prepared sermons are short and very unprepared sermons 00:02:25.479 --> 00:02:26.659 get quite long. 00:02:27.139 --> 00:02:31.340 So I'll try my best to stick to my notes so that it doesn't become unwieldy. 00:02:31.379 --> 00:02:34.139 And we're here an hour later, still trying to figure out Mark 14. 00:02:35.099 --> 00:02:37.959 I was thinking this afternoon, what am I going to preach on tonight? 00:02:37.959 --> 00:02:43.739 And I thought, let's look at questions Jesus asks, because that is the series we're doing. 00:02:44.479 --> 00:02:47.119 And Ryan had chosen one question in our passage tonight. 00:02:47.179 --> 00:02:51.060 There are three questions, which is a great passage to choose for that reason alone. 00:02:51.500 --> 00:02:55.019 But then also something that fit with preparing our hearts for the Lord's Supper, because 00:02:55.019 --> 00:02:56.659 we're about to partake in communion. 00:02:56.919 --> 00:03:02.099 And also, this text actually fits very well with what we saw this morning in Psalm 91 00:03:02.099 --> 00:03:07.340 and the emotions that we express in prayer, prayers of rest and deliverance, and how God 00:03:07.340 --> 00:03:08.799 provides us psalms to pray. 00:03:09.539 --> 00:03:14.159 And here in this passage, we've got a text about the emotional life of our Lord. 00:03:14.659 --> 00:03:18.019 And it is very parallel to what we saw in Psalm 91. 00:03:18.159 --> 00:03:20.400 So I chose it for that reason as well, on very short notice. 00:03:20.680 --> 00:03:21.539 So here we are. 00:03:21.620 --> 00:03:22.280 Let's think about it. 00:03:22.299 --> 00:03:27.539 This is the Garden of Gethsemane, very famous, probably one of the most, if not the most 00:03:27.539 --> 00:03:29.259 important night in world history. 00:03:30.060 --> 00:03:33.579 And Jesus is here in a garden he loved to visit. 00:03:33.699 --> 00:03:36.899 The text says it was his custom to come to this place regularly. 00:03:37.659 --> 00:03:43.560 And he has just come from partaking in the Lord's Supper, instituting the Lord's Supper 00:03:43.560 --> 00:03:44.780 in the upper room. 00:03:44.780 --> 00:03:49.799 And they probably ate that meal from sunset all the way to around midnight. 00:03:50.079 --> 00:03:53.099 So he's arriving at the Garden of Gethsemane very late. 00:03:53.560 --> 00:03:56.659 It's maybe even the start of the next day, the day he will be crucified. 00:03:56.659 --> 00:04:02.800 And so Jesus never goes to sleep from the Lord's, instituting the Lord's Supper to his 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:04.840 betrayal, to his execution and death. 00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:05.819 He stays up all night. 00:04:06.500 --> 00:04:12.359 And here they've walked about a mile away through the Kidron Valley, as was the normal 00:04:12.359 --> 00:04:12.840 custom. 00:04:12.979 --> 00:04:15.879 Every night in Jesus's Passion Week, he never stayed in the city. 00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:19.680 So instead he would leave, he would go up back about a mile away towards Bethany. 00:04:19.879 --> 00:04:24.680 And here he goes about a mile away through the Kidron Valley, up the Mount of Olives, 00:04:24.680 --> 00:04:25.519 east of Jerusalem. 00:04:26.199 --> 00:04:29.780 And somewhere on the slope of the Mount of Olives, there is a garden, and it's called 00:04:29.780 --> 00:04:30.280 Gethsemane. 00:04:31.019 --> 00:04:33.079 Gethsemane means house of olives. 00:04:33.900 --> 00:04:36.019 Sorry, excuse me, olive press, I should say. 00:04:36.519 --> 00:04:39.939 And that probably means that Gethsemane is an olive garden. 00:04:39.939 --> 00:04:43.319 So there's a lush olive garden all around him. 00:04:43.319 --> 00:04:51.079 And in this moment, we get the emotional life of our Lord, and we get the full meaning of 00:04:51.079 --> 00:04:51.560 salvation. 00:04:51.839 --> 00:04:59.560 I mean, this is a moment that is so important for all of world history and for us, of course, 00:04:59.620 --> 00:05:00.019 as well. 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:02.719 So what happens here? 00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:03.699 What happens in this place? 00:05:03.779 --> 00:05:06.259 Jesus normally loved to visit. 00:05:06.360 --> 00:05:07.740 It was his custom to come here and pray. 00:05:07.740 --> 00:05:13.280 But on this night, so let's think about first the fact of Gethsemane, secondly, the deeper 00:05:13.280 --> 00:05:18.960 meaning of Gethsemane, and then lastly, the model that Gethsemane shows us for what to 00:05:18.960 --> 00:05:19.780 do with our emotions. 00:05:20.740 --> 00:05:24.160 So first, the fact of Gethsemane. 00:05:24.879 --> 00:05:27.840 Now, tonight's question, there are three questions in the text. 00:05:28.079 --> 00:05:31.280 There's one in verse 37, sorry, two, I should say. 00:05:31.379 --> 00:05:32.240 Simon, are you asleep? 00:05:32.620 --> 00:05:34.400 Could you not watch just one hour? 00:05:34.839 --> 00:05:37.979 And then there's one in verse 41, are you still sleeping? 00:05:38.299 --> 00:05:39.479 Are you taking your rest? 00:05:39.519 --> 00:05:40.839 And so those are an anchor for us tonight. 00:05:40.899 --> 00:05:42.339 We'll come to those in just a minute. 00:05:42.599 --> 00:05:47.799 But just like we saw this morning, how God in the Psalms has given us a way to express 00:05:47.799 --> 00:05:53.179 our emotions back to him in prayer, tonight we see this passage is so famous and important, 00:05:53.599 --> 00:05:56.659 partly because of the emotions that Jesus expresses. 00:05:56.959 --> 00:05:59.679 And lots of people have pointed this out before me. 00:05:59.739 --> 00:06:00.699 There's nothing new here. 00:06:00.699 --> 00:06:06.319 It's a routine argument, but it's an argument for good reason to say that the Garden of Gethsemane 00:06:06.319 --> 00:06:10.399 first shows us the historicity of Jesus Christ. 00:06:11.060 --> 00:06:18.019 So the way that Jesus expresses emotion in this passage is an argument for why we must believe 00:06:18.019 --> 00:06:23.599 in the fact of Jesus Christ in history, that he's historically real, that this is true, 00:06:23.719 --> 00:06:25.240 that this ultimately really happened. 00:06:25.240 --> 00:06:31.319 And you can see that if you look down at verse 33 and 34, you get three emotion words that 00:06:31.319 --> 00:06:31.960 are expressed. 00:06:32.819 --> 00:06:35.840 He takes with him Peter, James, and John to the garden. 00:06:36.500 --> 00:06:38.939 And it says there are these emotional words. 00:06:39.079 --> 00:06:41.860 He was greatly distressed and then troubled. 00:06:42.199 --> 00:06:47.060 And then in verse 34, right after that, my soul is very sorrowful, even unto death. 00:06:47.060 --> 00:06:53.040 And then just after that, in verse 35, it says that he falls upon the ground in prayer. 00:06:53.220 --> 00:06:57.579 So he actually falls face first upon the ground in deep emotion. 00:06:57.699 --> 00:06:58.199 He's undone. 00:06:58.300 --> 00:06:58.839 He's spent. 00:06:59.060 --> 00:07:00.000 He's very sorrowful. 00:07:00.060 --> 00:07:00.819 He's greatly distressed. 00:07:00.879 --> 00:07:01.340 He's troubled. 00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:06.660 If you read the commentators, they'll take those Greek words, some of them nouns and verbs, 00:07:06.759 --> 00:07:12.279 and they'll say, here's some parallel words, some synonyms to help us really see and wrestle 00:07:12.279 --> 00:07:13.899 with the emotions he's expressing here. 00:07:13.899 --> 00:07:21.339 So the words that get used by the commentators are things like alarm, agonizing grief, and 00:07:21.339 --> 00:07:21.819 terror. 00:07:22.279 --> 00:07:27.699 So we saw this morning in Psalm 91, this promise, you will not fear the terrors of the night. 00:07:27.839 --> 00:07:31.439 And then when you come to the garden of Gethsemane, he is fearing the terrors of the night. 00:07:32.199 --> 00:07:35.819 He's experiencing terror in this great night. 00:07:36.799 --> 00:07:39.859 And this, I think it's hard to convey. 00:07:39.859 --> 00:07:43.399 It's impossible to convey the emotional pain that's being expressed here. 00:07:43.899 --> 00:07:49.719 So the only parallel we probably have to the way Christ's agony is being described here 00:07:49.719 --> 00:07:53.299 is when you think about the worst phone call you've ever received. 00:07:54.179 --> 00:07:59.599 And if you haven't had a tragedy yet in your life, a major tragedy, you won't yet know the 00:07:59.599 --> 00:08:01.279 emotional agony that's being expressed here. 00:08:01.339 --> 00:08:05.799 But if you think about the dark night of the soul, whatever that has been for you in your 00:08:05.799 --> 00:08:09.879 life, this is the emotional agony that's being expressed to us in these words. 00:08:09.879 --> 00:08:12.620 He's so distressed, it says he felt like he was going to die. 00:08:13.219 --> 00:08:19.259 And Luke, some of the earliest manuscripts we have of Luke's gospel tell us, you'll probably 00:08:19.259 --> 00:08:23.620 well know that he was in such agony in this moment that he sweated blood. 00:08:23.759 --> 00:08:25.759 Blood started dripping out from him. 00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:30.399 And so here's what one very helpful commentator, James Edwards, who's probably the best writer, 00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:31.639 I think, on Mark's gospel. 00:08:32.039 --> 00:08:32.939 This is what he says. 00:08:32.940 --> 00:08:39.380 Very short, very stark statement, but he says, the grim realism of Gethsemane is a guarantee 00:08:39.380 --> 00:08:40.660 of its historicity. 00:08:41.240 --> 00:08:46.420 The grim realism of Gethsemane is a guarantee of its historicity. 00:08:46.600 --> 00:08:46.860 Why? 00:08:47.860 --> 00:08:49.320 Let me give you just a couple reasons. 00:08:50.400 --> 00:08:58.320 Because the Jewish mind, Jewish theology at the time did not have any category for a God 00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:05.000 who could suffer, for a God who could express himself in emotional agony, for the Messiah, 00:09:05.460 --> 00:09:08.600 not even the Messiah, the hero of the faith. 00:09:09.620 --> 00:09:14.480 There was no expectation that the Messiah would come and face any emotional torment like this. 00:09:14.540 --> 00:09:16.120 So people certainly do in the Old Testament. 00:09:16.440 --> 00:09:17.420 They do in the Psalms. 00:09:17.520 --> 00:09:18.860 They experience emotional torment. 00:09:19.460 --> 00:09:24.280 But for Judaism in the first century, this was not true of the Messiah, certainly not true 00:09:24.279 --> 00:09:24.959 of God. 00:09:25.079 --> 00:09:30.919 And so you would never choose this to be persuasive to a Jewish audience if you were just trying 00:09:30.919 --> 00:09:31.759 to write a legend. 00:09:32.559 --> 00:09:33.600 It wouldn't work. 00:09:34.240 --> 00:09:39.360 The second reason is that the dominant philosophy of the day, and the Greek philosophy that had 00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:45.799 passed on in the Greco-Roman society that they lived in, was a Socratic, Platonic philosophy, 00:09:45.799 --> 00:09:47.860 but also that had given way to Stoicism. 00:09:48.559 --> 00:09:52.600 And Stoicism, many of us will know Stoicism because it's come back, famously. 00:09:52.600 --> 00:09:58.019 Um, Marcus Aurelius' meditations are selling like hotcakes apparently at Waterstones these 00:09:58.019 --> 00:09:58.300 days. 00:09:58.700 --> 00:10:02.580 And there's lots of people calling for a renewal of Stoicism. 00:10:02.700 --> 00:10:05.980 And Stoicism in this tradition, well, listen to what James Edwards says. 00:10:06.440 --> 00:10:11.259 Did not Socrates greet death as a friend and as a liberator to a better life? 00:10:11.320 --> 00:10:14.680 Did not the Stoics preach serene resignation to fate? 00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:20.300 Why does Jesus, who has foreseen his death and marched resolutely to Jerusalem to meet it, 00:10:20.300 --> 00:10:22.080 now quail before it? 00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:23.340 As it comes. 00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:29.500 And so in the day, the Greek philosophy, you were to face death with serenity, with peace, 00:10:29.560 --> 00:10:30.220 with calmness. 00:10:30.420 --> 00:10:33.899 And yet here is Jesus falling on his face in emotional agony. 00:10:34.620 --> 00:10:39.519 Now, one of the questions I have for you tonight is, have you ever really looked closely at the 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:40.840 emotional life of your Lord? 00:10:42.300 --> 00:10:47.360 Have you ever really considered in depth the agony that Jesus experienced on the night that 00:10:47.360 --> 00:10:47.980 he was betrayed? 00:10:48.840 --> 00:10:54.220 And I think it's side note, but we're far more stoic than he ever was. 00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:58.820 And when you look at this closely, one of the things that you realize is that if you 00:10:58.820 --> 00:11:04.620 were trying to create a following around this man in the first century, in the Jewish context, 00:11:04.700 --> 00:11:10.860 in the Greco-Roman context, you don't put the Garden of Gethsemane into the story unless it actually 00:11:10.860 --> 00:11:11.240 happened. 00:11:11.240 --> 00:11:14.360 That's the only reason you would do it, because it wouldn't be persuasive. 00:11:15.060 --> 00:11:20.560 It's not a category that the Jewish audience or the Greco-Roman audience ever expected. 00:11:20.740 --> 00:11:23.279 It's too surprising to be false, James Edwards says. 00:11:23.399 --> 00:11:28.779 And so even here in verse 37, when we do get to the question, when he comes back and says, 00:11:28.779 --> 00:11:30.419 Simon, are you asleep? 00:11:30.539 --> 00:11:32.399 Could you not even watch for one hour? 00:11:33.100 --> 00:11:34.720 See, it's not just rhetoric. 00:11:34.980 --> 00:11:42.959 He is turning to Simon, a man that he loves, and saying, I needed my friends in this hour. 00:11:44.319 --> 00:11:49.899 Jesus Christ is our Messiah and our Lord and our Savior, and a man who is in such agony in 00:11:49.899 --> 00:11:51.500 this moment, he needs his friends. 00:11:52.600 --> 00:11:55.360 And that beckons the very question that he asked them. 00:11:55.419 --> 00:11:56.039 It's real. 00:11:56.039 --> 00:12:01.439 Now, secondly, the deeper meaning of Gethsemane. 00:12:02.419 --> 00:12:06.019 Now, why is Gethsemane happening? 00:12:06.699 --> 00:12:10.419 Why is Jesus in such emotional agony in this story? 00:12:11.099 --> 00:12:16.259 And we see this, of course, in verse 33 and 34 and 5, the way he's expressing himself. 00:12:16.620 --> 00:12:21.120 But it's got to be something more than the execution of the cross. 00:12:21.179 --> 00:12:25.819 It's got to be something more than the physical suffering he's about to go through, which, of 00:12:25.820 --> 00:12:26.940 course, is going to be agony. 00:12:27.580 --> 00:12:32.360 But we know, we all know that thousands of people were crucified. 00:12:33.320 --> 00:12:36.280 The Romans crucified thousands upon thousands of people. 00:12:36.860 --> 00:12:40.100 Jesus was far from the first to be murdered in such a brutal way. 00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:44.840 And, of course, two other men will be crucified next to him. 00:12:45.280 --> 00:12:47.420 The agony he's experiencing in the garden. 00:12:47.419 --> 00:12:53.079 And, you know, James Edwards asked, in the face of Socrates, in the face of Stoicism, why 00:12:53.079 --> 00:12:54.659 does Jesus quail in this moment? 00:12:54.719 --> 00:12:59.559 It's got to be something more than the physical, mere physical agony of the cross. 00:12:59.599 --> 00:13:03.179 And I think the answer is found when we think about the fulfillment he's talked to us about 00:13:03.179 --> 00:13:07.779 as he's quoted throughout the gospel, places like Isaiah 53. 00:13:07.779 --> 00:13:15.240 And you remember in Isaiah 53 when it said, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our 00:13:15.240 --> 00:13:15.759 sorrows. 00:13:15.959 --> 00:13:16.600 Now, there it is. 00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:20.600 He came to carry our sorrows. 00:13:21.319 --> 00:13:24.480 And so the issue here is not so much the physical agony. 00:13:24.620 --> 00:13:28.000 It's not the brutality of crucifixion that he's about to face because, of course, so many 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:29.459 people have faced that. 00:13:29.460 --> 00:13:33.360 But it's something deeper than that. 00:13:33.500 --> 00:13:35.360 And I think it's fair to say it like this. 00:13:35.480 --> 00:13:42.860 There has never been a human being who has faced the emotional anguish that Jesus Christ 00:13:42.860 --> 00:13:49.139 faced on this night because there has never been a human being who has carried the burden 00:13:49.139 --> 00:13:51.740 that Jesus Christ carried this night. 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:54.780 And what is that burden? 00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:55.980 And here's the deeper meaning. 00:13:55.980 --> 00:13:57.460 It's found in verse 35. 00:13:57.460 --> 00:14:02.800 In verse 35, it says, when he falls on the ground and he prays, he says this, if it's 00:14:02.800 --> 00:14:07.160 possible, I pray that the hour might pass from me. 00:14:08.220 --> 00:14:12.980 So many of us will know that the word hour throughout the gospels is a reference that Jesus 00:14:12.980 --> 00:14:17.700 uses throughout his ministry for his crucifixion, his death that was to come. 00:14:17.800 --> 00:14:23.360 But in a couple of the other gospels, Luke, for example, in this statement, when he prays, 00:14:23.360 --> 00:14:26.360 we're also told he didn't just say, let this hour pass from me. 00:14:26.360 --> 00:14:29.039 He also said, let this cup pass from me. 00:14:29.899 --> 00:14:32.139 And so the hour, what is the hour? 00:14:32.220 --> 00:14:33.539 What is the hour of his agony? 00:14:33.700 --> 00:14:35.740 What is the hour of his crucifixion really about? 00:14:36.180 --> 00:14:41.320 It's the hour, the moment where the cup has filled up all the way. 00:14:41.500 --> 00:14:44.680 It's the moment where he has to drink from the cup fully. 00:14:44.759 --> 00:14:45.700 The cup has become full. 00:14:45.840 --> 00:14:50.460 You see, in the Old Testament, the cup is this metaphor for two different things. 00:14:50.460 --> 00:14:55.340 Sometimes in the Old Testament, the cup is used as a metaphor for festival joy. 00:14:56.320 --> 00:15:01.920 The cup of wine that gets passed around and festival joy, marriage suppers, wedding banquets, 00:15:02.920 --> 00:15:03.780 the great feast days. 00:15:04.200 --> 00:15:11.580 But in other times, the cup is used as a metaphor for the spilling over of God's wrath in the face 00:15:11.580 --> 00:15:12.780 of injustice in this world. 00:15:12.779 --> 00:15:17.720 And so you got this sense throughout the Old Testament that drip, drip, drip, drip, 00:15:17.839 --> 00:15:22.000 the cup is filling up in the midst of human injustice, human sin. 00:15:22.579 --> 00:15:27.199 And this moment, when he says the hour has come, the hour of the cup, 00:15:27.299 --> 00:15:30.860 Lord, if there's any way, let the cup, let the hour pass from me. 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:32.879 It's because the cup has been filled. 00:15:34.120 --> 00:15:35.120 And what is that cup? 00:15:35.220 --> 00:15:36.839 It's the cup of God's wrath. 00:15:36.919 --> 00:15:39.519 The cup of God's wrath is about to runneth over on him. 00:15:39.519 --> 00:15:43.500 You know, what happens to him in this moment is that terror strikes him, the terror of the night, 00:15:43.759 --> 00:15:48.059 because he knows that this is not about the agony of his physical pain on the cross. 00:15:48.159 --> 00:15:52.799 This is the agony of the spiritual pain, the cup of wrath that he's about to drink, 00:15:52.819 --> 00:15:56.500 because the judgment of God is very near unto him. 00:15:57.240 --> 00:15:57.980 It's time. 00:15:58.179 --> 00:16:00.679 The judgment of God is about to be unleashed on him. 00:16:00.740 --> 00:16:06.480 Now, how can we convey the depths of what he means when he says, 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:09.079 let the cup pass from me, let the hour pass from me. 00:16:09.080 --> 00:16:12.480 When he's wrestling with the judgment of God that's about to fall on him. 00:16:12.660 --> 00:16:17.820 Let me try in 90 seconds in just a couple of ways. 00:16:18.340 --> 00:16:22.940 What does it mean to say that he's going to bear the judgment of the sins of humanity? 00:16:23.180 --> 00:16:23.960 It's mysterious. 00:16:25.139 --> 00:16:27.400 There's so much we don't know about what it means. 00:16:27.820 --> 00:16:28.680 But what is this burden like? 00:16:28.720 --> 00:16:29.400 Think about it this way. 00:16:29.460 --> 00:16:34.400 Number one, he is holy and he is righteous and he is good fully. 00:16:34.399 --> 00:16:38.519 But he's about to become the sin bearer. 00:16:39.220 --> 00:16:42.539 So the righteous one is about to become the sin bearer. 00:16:42.840 --> 00:16:45.539 And so he's going, and here's the key little preposition. 00:16:45.699 --> 00:16:49.899 He's going to be treated as if he is most evil. 00:16:50.679 --> 00:16:56.879 As if the holy one is going to be treated as if he is most unholy, most unrighteous. 00:16:56.879 --> 00:17:00.700 And what do we say about that? 00:17:01.139 --> 00:17:03.679 We say what Paul said in his epistles. 00:17:04.299 --> 00:17:05.900 Paul didn't know what to say. 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:08.960 So he used this Greek word, anemia, lawlessness. 00:17:09.380 --> 00:17:10.160 That's what he called it. 00:17:10.460 --> 00:17:12.240 He said, it is lawlessness. 00:17:13.220 --> 00:17:19.200 It shouldn't be that the most holy would be treated as if he were the most unholy, 00:17:19.339 --> 00:17:21.299 as if he were the most evil. 00:17:21.299 --> 00:17:26.299 And here when he says, Father, let this cup pass from me, let this hour pass from me. 00:17:26.539 --> 00:17:30.460 You see, the reason that he can cry out that way, you say, is this prayer righteous? 00:17:30.599 --> 00:17:30.899 Yes. 00:17:31.259 --> 00:17:31.599 Why? 00:17:31.779 --> 00:17:33.819 Because he is innocent. 00:17:34.319 --> 00:17:36.220 He doesn't deserve to go to the cross. 00:17:36.319 --> 00:17:40.960 He can say, if there's any other way, let this cup pass from me because I don't deserve 00:17:40.960 --> 00:17:42.919 to be treated as the most evil. 00:17:42.920 --> 00:17:50.140 Now, the second thing to say is, have you, you know, have you ever had those moments where 00:17:50.140 --> 00:17:56.400 you say the wrong thing to somebody and you text the wrong thing to somebody? 00:17:56.560 --> 00:17:58.400 You do the wrong thing at the wrong time. 00:17:58.480 --> 00:18:00.720 You sin and it hurts somebody else. 00:18:00.860 --> 00:18:04.880 And you carry the weight of that and a little bit of guilt in that. 00:18:04.920 --> 00:18:06.539 And it kind of sticks with you all day long. 00:18:06.720 --> 00:18:10.900 And you're still laying in bed at night and you're thinking about it and thinking, if only 00:18:10.900 --> 00:18:12.380 I wouldn't have said that. 00:18:12.740 --> 00:18:14.940 I just wish I could go back and not have said that. 00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:20.540 So we all know what it's like to carry sorrows and to carry sorrows that are born by way of 00:18:20.540 --> 00:18:23.380 guilt that we feel in our lives. 00:18:25.540 --> 00:18:33.519 I'm a minister, as you know, and many of you minister to people all the time and I do too. 00:18:33.700 --> 00:18:37.100 And in different ways, all of us have felt this in different seasons of life. 00:18:37.099 --> 00:18:43.259 But sometimes you get called in to carry the weight of other people's burdens and other 00:18:43.259 --> 00:18:43.919 people's guilt. 00:18:44.619 --> 00:18:46.240 And it's not easy all the time. 00:18:46.299 --> 00:18:47.719 And all of you have experienced that. 00:18:47.899 --> 00:18:52.480 As modern people, sometimes maybe we go to work and our neighbor, our colleague at work is an 00:18:52.480 --> 00:18:53.139 overshare. 00:18:54.399 --> 00:18:59.559 And our colleague at work, you know, says everything and you think, you overshare. 00:18:59.799 --> 00:19:01.159 Eventually you get bold enough to say it. 00:19:01.199 --> 00:19:02.179 You know, you overshare. 00:19:02.279 --> 00:19:03.240 You tell me too much. 00:19:03.279 --> 00:19:04.259 I don't want to know all that. 00:19:04.259 --> 00:19:06.160 I've got my own problems. 00:19:06.379 --> 00:19:08.680 I can't carry all of your problems. 00:19:09.379 --> 00:19:09.839 I can't. 00:19:10.039 --> 00:19:10.379 I can't. 00:19:10.420 --> 00:19:12.220 I'm weighed down by my issues. 00:19:12.339 --> 00:19:13.720 I can't deal with your issues. 00:19:14.299 --> 00:19:20.079 And imagine when we as modern people say, you know, I can barely deal with my own guilt 00:19:20.079 --> 00:19:22.339 and my own problems and my own issues. 00:19:22.519 --> 00:19:29.200 What it means to say that in this moment, Jesus has realized he's carrying, he's about to carry 00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:32.500 the weight and shame of the sins of the whole world. 00:19:33.240 --> 00:19:34.100 What does it mean? 00:19:34.680 --> 00:19:35.620 I don't know what it means. 00:19:36.539 --> 00:19:37.500 I don't know what it means. 00:19:40.660 --> 00:19:45.539 Thirdly, because of that, he will bear the wrath of God fully. 00:19:46.500 --> 00:19:48.420 The punishment that we deserve. 00:19:48.420 --> 00:19:53.620 And so what he's agonizing over in the garden is that what every injustice in all of world 00:19:53.620 --> 00:19:59.400 history has ever deserved, whatever act of rebellion against God deserves, that will be 00:19:59.400 --> 00:20:02.500 his to bear in the early hours of the next morning. 00:20:03.779 --> 00:20:04.740 What does it mean? 00:20:04.960 --> 00:20:10.360 To say it in brief, I think you take all the descriptions of hell, all the descriptions of 00:20:10.360 --> 00:20:14.779 hell and different metaphors and different ways that the Bible uses phrases to describe 00:20:14.779 --> 00:20:19.339 what being separated from God is like, and that will come down upon Jesus and more. 00:20:19.460 --> 00:20:21.980 He will go to hell at the cross. 00:20:22.079 --> 00:20:24.579 He will bear the full agony of God's wrath. 00:20:24.859 --> 00:20:27.420 And the Bible doesn't tell us all it means. 00:20:29.160 --> 00:20:37.180 Now, this is where so many people in our city will say, you know, I, okay, I'm open to a God 00:20:37.180 --> 00:20:44.680 of love, but to talk about him saying, my father, would this cup of wrath, 00:20:44.779 --> 00:20:48.579 passed by me, but the God of wrath, you know, if you're, if you're saying tonight, theologically 00:20:48.579 --> 00:20:54.000 that Jesus is about to be in an agony, we cannot imagine because of the wrath of his father, 00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:55.799 that seems unnecessary. 00:20:56.700 --> 00:20:58.079 If God is love. 00:20:58.160 --> 00:21:01.200 And so, so many people in our city, and maybe some of us tonight will wrestle with that. 00:21:01.700 --> 00:21:04.700 If God is love, then why does it have to be this way? 00:21:05.220 --> 00:21:09.740 Why can't he just, why can't he just forgive us and not have the agony of the garden, the 00:21:09.740 --> 00:21:12.879 agony of the cross, the cup poured out upon him? 00:21:12.880 --> 00:21:18.440 Do we have to say that God gets angry over sin and pours out his cup of wrath on Jesus? 00:21:18.660 --> 00:21:26.240 Now, for lack of more time to prepare, let me quote for you from Tim Keller and what he 00:21:26.240 --> 00:21:29.140 says to help us, because this is such a helpful statement. 00:21:29.240 --> 00:21:32.260 He says, look, if you want, don't create a false dichotomy. 00:21:32.380 --> 00:21:35.280 If you want a loving God, you have to have an angry God. 00:21:35.279 --> 00:21:41.759 Because just think for a second, loving people, loving people, people who love people, they 00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:45.799 get angry, not in spite of the fact that they're loving, but because they're loving. 00:21:46.399 --> 00:21:51.379 In fact, the more people you love and the more deeply you love people, the angrier you 00:21:51.379 --> 00:21:52.220 will get in life. 00:21:53.399 --> 00:21:53.720 Why? 00:21:54.379 --> 00:21:57.139 When you see people who are ravaged by something. 00:21:57.279 --> 00:22:01.399 In fact, if you see people who are ravaging themselves, you get mad. 00:22:01.400 --> 00:22:03.500 You get mad because you love them. 00:22:04.040 --> 00:22:07.620 And we're told in Psalm 145 that God loves everything he's made. 00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:11.220 And the reason he is angry is because of what's going on down here. 00:22:12.160 --> 00:22:16.440 Therefore, with all due respect, Keller writes, it is foolish to say, I don't want a wrathful 00:22:16.440 --> 00:22:17.880 God or an angry God. 00:22:17.980 --> 00:22:19.160 I want a loving God. 00:22:19.560 --> 00:22:22.320 If he's loving, he has to be angry, very angry at evil. 00:22:22.600 --> 00:22:24.640 He has to do something about it. 00:22:25.100 --> 00:22:30.900 And so what we're seeing in this moment is Christ bowed over by the agony of facing 00:22:30.900 --> 00:22:33.259 what has to be done about it. 00:22:33.320 --> 00:22:36.460 And in this moment, he's realizing, I will do something about it. 00:22:36.500 --> 00:22:37.820 I must do something about it. 00:22:38.120 --> 00:22:43.080 You see what this means when he says this, the agony is because he wants to do something 00:22:43.080 --> 00:22:44.019 about it for you. 00:22:44.259 --> 00:22:50.680 And what it means is that injustice and sin against God is really real on the one hand. 00:22:50.840 --> 00:22:55.700 And on the other hand, what it means is that God's love for you is really real. 00:22:55.700 --> 00:23:00.120 And so in this moment, the reason that this has to take place, you see, it's because he's 00:23:00.119 --> 00:23:01.399 saying, I must be crushed. 00:23:01.500 --> 00:23:02.339 Thy will be done. 00:23:02.699 --> 00:23:07.159 Lord, if there's any other way, but thy will be done because he's saying, I find you that 00:23:07.159 --> 00:23:07.699 valuable. 00:23:09.519 --> 00:23:12.299 I will not let you die in the midst of your injustice. 00:23:12.500 --> 00:23:14.159 I will not let you go to hell. 00:23:14.359 --> 00:23:15.479 I will go to hell for you. 00:23:15.539 --> 00:23:16.479 You see what he's saying? 00:23:16.619 --> 00:23:19.339 And this moment is this is how valuable he finds you. 00:23:19.759 --> 00:23:21.319 This is how much he loves you. 00:23:21.319 --> 00:23:26.259 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that you would not perish, 00:23:26.259 --> 00:23:29.519 but instead that you could have everlasting life. 00:23:29.599 --> 00:23:30.500 And this is the moment. 00:23:30.599 --> 00:23:31.279 This is the cost. 00:23:31.379 --> 00:23:32.920 He must be crushed. 00:23:33.140 --> 00:23:39.019 And here in the garden, he's showing us by his emotional agony that he is to be crushed. 00:23:39.819 --> 00:23:44.980 Now, look, this is where the question, questions Jesus asked our series, where it really comes 00:23:44.980 --> 00:23:52.940 in because he turns then to the disciples because he had asked them to watch and pray with him. 00:23:52.940 --> 00:23:58.340 And so you'll see in verse 34, how he had said to them, my soul is so sorrowful to death. 00:23:58.460 --> 00:24:00.559 Remain here and watch. 00:24:01.320 --> 00:24:07.120 Now, in Luke's gospel and the synoptics, you have a little bit more text. 00:24:07.539 --> 00:24:14.920 And what he tells them is that in the passage just before this, especially you're going to face temptation like I am. 00:24:15.860 --> 00:24:19.000 So in other words, what he's, it's can be a little bit difficult to understand. 00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:27.039 But when he says to them in this short phrase, remain here and watch, he's saying, remain here and pray to watch yourself. 00:24:27.660 --> 00:24:30.500 Because you're about to face a temptation like I am. 00:24:30.559 --> 00:24:36.740 He was being tempted in this moment, the agony of facing God's wrath to forsake the mission. 00:24:36.740 --> 00:24:37.680 And he never would. 00:24:38.140 --> 00:24:40.940 But he's saying, you're also going to be tempted tonight. 00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:42.279 And what were they tempted to do? 00:24:42.359 --> 00:24:43.779 They were tempted to betray him. 00:24:43.779 --> 00:24:50.700 And so when he comes back and he finds them asleep, he finds Simon Peter asleep. 00:24:50.980 --> 00:24:55.420 What's happening here is that he gets off of his face in verse 35. 00:24:55.799 --> 00:24:58.879 He had been praying on his face in agony before his God. 00:24:58.920 --> 00:25:00.379 And all of a sudden he gets up. 00:25:00.700 --> 00:25:04.879 He goes over to where Simon Peter is and he's doing a pastoral check-in. 00:25:05.119 --> 00:25:06.359 You know, this is a pastoral visit. 00:25:06.359 --> 00:25:14.599 And he's saying, I left you here to watch and to pray for yourself because you're about to face a temptation to betray me. 00:25:15.339 --> 00:25:16.799 And so he goes and he checks in. 00:25:16.959 --> 00:25:22.939 He's, you see, he can't help but be Christ, the heart of mercy, the heart of the pastor for his people. 00:25:23.279 --> 00:25:25.659 And he comes here and he checks in on Simon Peter. 00:25:25.660 --> 00:25:33.000 And you know, you know, like when, when I want to really get the attention of my children, I don't just talk to them. 00:25:33.060 --> 00:25:33.820 I say their name. 00:25:34.019 --> 00:25:39.360 You remember that they, your parents, they don't just say, they don't just say some random old command. 00:25:39.519 --> 00:25:40.500 They say, Corey. 00:25:41.279 --> 00:25:45.820 And here Jesus turns to Simon Peter when he comes to the question in verse 37. 00:25:45.819 --> 00:25:50.279 And he says, Simon, are you sleeping? 00:25:51.960 --> 00:25:54.079 Could you not watch for me one hour? 00:25:54.159 --> 00:26:01.419 So in the two questions, you've got first the statement in plain fact and of his name, Simon, are you sleeping? 00:26:01.500 --> 00:26:03.679 Is this the fact I've left you here to pray? 00:26:04.139 --> 00:26:05.359 And then secondly, the failure. 00:26:06.139 --> 00:26:09.720 And you move down just a little bit longer. 00:26:09.720 --> 00:26:19.740 And we realize how this is sometimes veiled in the text and it's so important for us to see that when he says, watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. 00:26:20.360 --> 00:26:24.680 Then he says, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. 00:26:24.779 --> 00:26:25.480 And do you see what he's saying? 00:26:25.900 --> 00:26:26.519 You see what he's saying? 00:26:26.579 --> 00:26:28.740 He's saying, I've come back. 00:26:28.799 --> 00:26:29.539 He comes back twice. 00:26:29.640 --> 00:26:31.039 He asked them the question three times. 00:26:31.100 --> 00:26:31.799 Are you still sleeping? 00:26:31.880 --> 00:26:32.579 Are you still sleeping? 00:26:32.799 --> 00:26:33.480 Are you still sleeping? 00:26:33.579 --> 00:26:33.839 Why? 00:26:33.980 --> 00:26:39.240 Because he's saying, I want you to watch and pray for yourself because I know how weak you are. 00:26:39.240 --> 00:26:46.960 And when he comes back and he finds them sleeping again, he says, I know you want to want to pray, but you're weak. 00:26:49.160 --> 00:26:50.859 And then he says, it's enough. 00:26:51.700 --> 00:26:53.500 And he turns his face to the cross. 00:26:53.799 --> 00:26:57.980 Do you see what drove Jesus to say, I will go to the cross. 00:26:58.120 --> 00:27:00.980 I will bear the agony of the sins of the whole world. 00:27:01.099 --> 00:27:04.880 It's because he went and he found Simon Peter and the other disciples sleeping. 00:27:05.220 --> 00:27:07.759 And he said, look, I know you're trying, but you're so weak. 00:27:07.759 --> 00:27:09.839 I've got to do this for you. 00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:16.339 It's the shepherd's heart for you is to say, I know that you cannot help, but be indifferent. 00:27:17.940 --> 00:27:19.900 I know that your heart is so sinful. 00:27:21.420 --> 00:27:27.079 Can you imagine Jesus Christ asking you, can you just stay awake on the night of my crucifixion and pray for me? 00:27:27.119 --> 00:27:30.900 You think right now in this moment, boy, I would, I would do it. 00:27:30.900 --> 00:27:38.380 I would never let Jesus go into such agony, Jesus Christ, and not be for him and with him and pray for him. 00:27:38.800 --> 00:27:44.200 But he's saying, no, you're, you want to, you want to want to, you want to care. 00:27:44.580 --> 00:27:46.800 You want to fight your indifference as a Christian. 00:27:46.799 --> 00:27:49.079 You want to not be bored with the faith. 00:27:49.200 --> 00:27:50.500 You want to care about the gospel. 00:27:50.639 --> 00:27:51.779 You want to evangelize. 00:27:52.059 --> 00:27:53.720 You want all these things, but you're weak. 00:27:55.079 --> 00:27:56.399 Therefore, it's enough. 00:27:56.519 --> 00:27:57.240 I've seen enough. 00:27:57.659 --> 00:27:59.039 I must go to the cross. 00:27:59.440 --> 00:28:03.659 I must take the wrath of God for this one and for all of us. 00:28:03.720 --> 00:28:07.819 You see how much of a pastor's heart he has as he, this question, what it really means. 00:28:08.579 --> 00:28:10.740 He doesn't give up on them and he doesn't give up on you. 00:28:10.740 --> 00:28:15.160 And really, when he asked Simon Peter, could you not simply watch one single hour? 00:28:15.359 --> 00:28:18.079 He's not really asking about 60 minutes of prayer. 00:28:19.160 --> 00:28:23.839 He's asking you, do you struggle with sleeping on Christ? 00:28:24.819 --> 00:28:27.559 Do you struggle with indifference to him? 00:28:27.640 --> 00:28:32.819 Do you struggle with boredom with the gospel, with the fact of him? 00:28:33.259 --> 00:28:34.200 Have you abandoned him? 00:28:34.279 --> 00:28:35.180 Have you betrayed him? 00:28:35.259 --> 00:28:36.180 Have you sinned against him? 00:28:36.240 --> 00:28:37.000 Have you rejected him? 00:28:37.059 --> 00:28:38.700 Have you walked away from him? 00:28:38.700 --> 00:28:40.240 That's the question he was asking. 00:28:40.740 --> 00:28:46.259 And what was being said in this moment is, though I sleep on him, he does not sleep on us. 00:28:46.359 --> 00:28:46.880 He will not. 00:28:47.400 --> 00:28:51.099 He will go all the way for you in this moment. 00:28:51.099 --> 00:28:59.620 If you don't see the weight and the reality of God's wrath, the justice that had to be poured out upon him, 00:28:59.660 --> 00:29:03.940 on the one hand, you're not recognizing your own sleepiness and struggle with indifference. 00:29:04.019 --> 00:29:07.519 On the other hand, you're not recognizing how valuable he finds you. 00:29:07.519 --> 00:29:16.480 You're denying both those things if you don't see that God must be angry with sin and must pour wrath upon his only begotten son if we're ever to be forgiven. 00:29:16.579 --> 00:29:21.519 He carried our griefs and our sorrows and our sins into hell itself so that we would not have to. 00:29:22.160 --> 00:29:24.000 That's his pastor's heart for us in this question. 00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:29.559 So finally, this gives us, there's so much more in this passage we could look at, but let me finish with this. 00:29:29.619 --> 00:29:37.579 There's a model for dealing in this with our own emotional pain until we see our Lord, until Christ comes again. 00:29:38.579 --> 00:29:39.700 And so what is it? 00:29:39.700 --> 00:29:48.620 Look, you too, we saw in the Psalms this morning, and we can say tonight, we all have weeping and grieving and sorrow in our lives. 00:29:48.779 --> 00:29:51.140 You have a weeping and grieving Savior. 00:29:51.720 --> 00:30:00.779 No other religion can say that, that they have a weeping and grieving Savior, a Savior that would take the weight of such emotional agony for them. 00:30:01.059 --> 00:30:02.019 He knows what it's like. 00:30:02.660 --> 00:30:03.519 He knows what it's like. 00:30:03.579 --> 00:30:11.099 And even more than that, let me finish by asking, what do you do with your emotions, your terrors in the night, your grief, your sorrow, your agonies? 00:30:11.339 --> 00:30:22.240 How does Jesus here, after he goes to the cross for you, he faces such spiritual agony for you, how does he model for you what to do with the inevitable disappointments and pains of your life? 00:30:23.079 --> 00:30:24.059 That's a big discussion. 00:30:24.539 --> 00:30:26.200 Let me give you a few things to walk away with. 00:30:26.200 --> 00:30:37.920 First, if you are struck or surprised by Jesus's emotions in this passage, and we should be, we should be, it is because our emotions are cultured. 00:30:38.600 --> 00:30:45.920 Now, what I mean by that is not that our emotions, you know, go to the orchestra and go out to high afternoon tea. 00:30:46.120 --> 00:30:46.880 They're not cultured. 00:30:46.920 --> 00:30:48.680 They don't visit the modern art museum, our emotions. 00:30:48.840 --> 00:30:53.059 What I mean by cultured is all of our emotions are conditioned by our environment. 00:30:53.059 --> 00:30:56.859 So, our emotions in our lives are trained. 00:30:57.079 --> 00:30:58.960 They're conditioned by an environment. 00:30:59.319 --> 00:31:04.299 And typically, it's fair to say, I think, that we are more stoic than Jesus Christ ever was. 00:31:05.339 --> 00:31:09.159 And in Hebrews 5, 7, we have a parallel passage to this that says, 00:31:09.160 --> 00:31:17.779 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears. 00:31:18.580 --> 00:31:24.600 He wept and he cried out in prayer, not just in the Garden of Gethsemane, but throughout his life, throughout his ministry. 00:31:25.279 --> 00:31:27.140 And so, one of the questions we have to ask tonight is, 00:31:27.560 --> 00:31:32.080 In what ways does my culture and my experiences condition my emotions? 00:31:32.080 --> 00:31:33.240 That's not a bad thing. 00:31:33.400 --> 00:31:34.740 It's a necessary thing. 00:31:34.740 --> 00:31:37.019 But we have to ask the second question is, 00:31:37.440 --> 00:31:43.940 Do I allow the Bible to shape my emotional life as much as anything else? 00:31:43.960 --> 00:31:45.960 We say, I want the Bible to shape my ethical life. 00:31:46.019 --> 00:31:47.620 I want the Bible to shape my intellectual life. 00:31:47.779 --> 00:31:50.559 But does the Bible also shape your emotional life? 00:31:51.920 --> 00:31:57.099 And you can read the Psalms, Psalm 91, and you can come to the emotional life of our Lord and see the way that it drives us. 00:31:57.200 --> 00:32:03.339 We have a reference point for the truth of what our emotional life can and should look like all across the scriptures. 00:32:03.339 --> 00:32:12.659 Secondly, when you face emotional agony and pain, Jesus says, remember this, Jesus says with a pastoral heart tonight to you, 00:32:13.139 --> 00:32:16.319 Your soul is willing, but your flesh is weak. 00:32:16.899 --> 00:32:23.959 And so, I want my emotions and my desires to align with what the Bible teaches and align with my faith. 00:32:24.059 --> 00:32:25.480 I want to want Christ. 00:32:25.799 --> 00:32:28.759 I want to want an hour of prayer with him. 00:32:28.759 --> 00:32:37.319 I want to want, but when I sit down for the hour of prayer, I get distracted by the amount of dust that is sitting on the windowsill in the manse, you know? 00:32:37.440 --> 00:32:39.000 And so do all of us. 00:32:39.160 --> 00:32:41.519 We struggle like Simon Peter. 00:32:41.700 --> 00:32:48.079 And it's just important to hear tonight him say, I know that you want, because I've revealed myself to you. 00:32:48.079 --> 00:32:50.480 I know that you want to want me, but your flesh is weak. 00:32:50.559 --> 00:32:54.660 And Christ has a pastor's heart for you when he goes to the cross. 00:32:54.660 --> 00:32:56.920 Thirdly, what can we do? 00:32:57.240 --> 00:32:58.580 Very simple from this passage. 00:32:58.740 --> 00:32:59.720 He teaches us here. 00:32:59.820 --> 00:33:01.060 He shows the disciples here. 00:33:01.640 --> 00:33:04.540 He says, well, go and fall on your face and pray. 00:33:05.640 --> 00:33:09.140 So it says, as was his custom, he went to the Garden of Gethsemane. 00:33:09.540 --> 00:33:10.800 He had a place. 00:33:11.480 --> 00:33:13.700 He goes to his place to pray. 00:33:14.240 --> 00:33:17.259 He goes to pour out his soul to God on his face. 00:33:17.320 --> 00:33:18.820 And so he's got a place. 00:33:18.940 --> 00:33:20.660 He's got a set rhythm of prayer. 00:33:20.660 --> 00:33:23.480 And he wants the disciples to have that too. 00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:26.000 And he prays his emotions. 00:33:26.240 --> 00:33:28.300 He wears his emotions before the Lord. 00:33:29.040 --> 00:33:29.920 Do you do that? 00:33:30.019 --> 00:33:31.259 Do you pray with an honesty of soul? 00:33:31.360 --> 00:33:37.540 Do you use posture and prayer on your knees, before your face, before the Lord in the quiet place? 00:33:37.860 --> 00:33:42.259 And we see a model for that, that you can say in Psalm 42, with Psalm 42, 00:33:42.400 --> 00:33:45.400 my soul is downcast and dejected before thee, O God. 00:33:45.840 --> 00:33:47.440 People are saying to me, where is your God? 00:33:47.440 --> 00:33:50.799 So I come today to pour out my soul on my face before you. 00:33:50.880 --> 00:33:53.500 Have you practiced postures of prayer in the same way? 00:33:53.539 --> 00:33:54.480 We see a model here. 00:33:55.340 --> 00:33:57.539 And then lastly, ultimately, how do you face agony? 00:33:58.400 --> 00:33:59.240 Where do you go? 00:33:59.620 --> 00:34:02.519 Where do you go in the moments of your life, like we saw this morning, 00:34:02.519 --> 00:34:04.299 where you say, danger is all about me. 00:34:04.360 --> 00:34:06.980 The dark forest have come upon me. 00:34:07.039 --> 00:34:07.340 Why? 00:34:07.460 --> 00:34:07.860 Why me? 00:34:07.960 --> 00:34:08.500 Why this? 00:34:09.179 --> 00:34:10.059 And here's what you say. 00:34:10.340 --> 00:34:12.179 You look at the Garden of Gethsemane. 00:34:12.300 --> 00:34:13.440 You look at the Christ of the cross. 00:34:13.440 --> 00:34:18.960 And you say, I do not know all that God is doing in this world through the pain of suffering 00:34:18.960 --> 00:34:21.820 and the pain of the emotional agony that I've experienced in my life. 00:34:21.960 --> 00:34:23.000 But here's what I do know. 00:34:23.079 --> 00:34:28.840 My Savior faced an emotional, spiritual agony that became hell itself for me. 00:34:29.420 --> 00:34:35.579 I know my Savior has faced an emotional, spiritual, and physical agony that became hell itself for me. 00:34:35.840 --> 00:34:36.480 And so what do you do? 00:34:36.480 --> 00:34:37.340 You behold Him. 00:34:37.400 --> 00:34:38.240 You look at Him. 00:34:38.639 --> 00:34:40.960 And you say, I look at what He bore for me. 00:34:41.059 --> 00:34:44.400 I know that He knows what it's like, what I'm going through today. 00:34:44.519 --> 00:34:45.659 He's a man of sorrows. 00:34:46.039 --> 00:34:47.579 He's acquainted with so much grief. 00:34:47.579 --> 00:34:52.159 And you've got to allow that to lift up your soul and say, as we saw this morning, 00:34:52.260 --> 00:34:54.500 He covers me under His wings at the cross. 00:34:54.500 --> 00:35:05.260 The cup of wrath He drank on that morning has become for us and one day will fully become for us the cup of festival wine. 00:35:07.480 --> 00:35:08.420 That's our future. 00:35:08.920 --> 00:35:12.719 And so let's share in the sign of that cup, that feast now. 00:35:12.900 --> 00:35:13.239 Let's pray. 00:35:13.360 --> 00:35:16.659 Father, we thank You for the emotional life of our Lord. 00:35:16.780 --> 00:35:21.880 We thank You, Jesus, for the way You were willing to endure such agony for us. 00:35:21.880 --> 00:35:28.220 And we come now tonight in all sorts of emotional spaces and places in our lives. 00:35:28.539 --> 00:35:32.519 And we ask now that as we come to the table, come to the cup, come to the bread broken, 00:35:32.780 --> 00:35:35.579 that represents and signs forth Your body. 00:35:35.720 --> 00:35:39.240 We know that we dwell with You now by the presence of Christ through the Holy Spirit. 00:35:39.340 --> 00:35:42.700 So we ask that You would meet with us and condition our emotions. 00:35:42.960 --> 00:35:47.440 Teach us, Lord, how to bow ourselves fully unto You, 00:35:47.760 --> 00:35:51.360 all because You already have represented us at the cross. 00:35:51.360 --> 00:35:54.360 And so we pray that as we sing, and we pray it in Jesus' name. 00:35:54.620 --> 00:35:54.840 Amen.