The Suffering Servant: In Gethsemane

The Suffering Servant: In Gethsemane

The Reading of the Word of God

Mark 14:32-42

 And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray."  And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch."  And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."  And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour?  Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."  And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer him. And he came the third time and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough; the hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand."

Let’s pray

Father we ask tonight, that your word would pierce our callous hearts. To have your very words, stir our inner beings. To have your Spirit bear witness to us the truth of the Gospel message. Let us not grow cold to the burden you bore, the beating you endured and the surrender you displayed. I cannot nor do I have the ability to preach with the passion you displayed that night so long ago. Set this message apart and myself as its deliverer, so that your work my be glorified… so that you may be exalted. In your holy name I pray, Amen.

Warm up

You may be seated.

PREACH

In the movie The Passion of the Christ, we see in much detail what Scripture only mentions in its accounts.

John 19:16-18

So he [the Roman official Pilate] delivered him over to them to be crucified.  So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side and Jesus between them

The Scriptures say that Christ was crucified. That’s it. They also say that he was flogged by Roman soldiers. And within this memorable movie millions of people were exposed to how Jesus died. It was a gruesome death. We don’t have to say as Christians that he suffered the worst of any body in all of time itself, for Scripture itself doesn’t say that.  Crucifixions were a common death sentence.  Mostly for men. When their were the rare times a woman was crucified, she was placed on the cross with their face away from the crowd so they would not see the agony of a woman’s face.

The images we saw in this movie moved many to tears. However, images cannot adequately convey the gospel’s content. They knew How he died, but ultimately not Why He died.
The gospel’s message isn’t visual IT      IS      TRUTH.  TRUTH TO BE BELIEVED, NOT JUST VIEWED.

To know what the gospel truth is and the very reason for the Servant Christ’s Suffering, I want us to camp in the  14^th chapter of Mark and understand  what is happening in this agonizing scene with Christ’s intimate prayer.

Let’s look at The Suffering Servant in Gethsemane. Within your notes

Introduction

“And they went to a place called Gethsemane.”   v32

• The word Gethsemane means “oil press. probably the place where the produce of the mount of Olives was prepared for use.

• John calls this "a garden." Now this garden was on the western side of the Mount of Olives, and a short distance from Jerusalem. This was not a garden for the cultivation of vegetables, but a place planted with the olive and other trees, perhaps with a fountain of water, and with walks and groves; a proper place of refreshment in a hot climate, and of retirement from the noise of the adjacent city.

• Luke had said in his account that it was a common place for Jesus to come and pray. (Luke 21:37; 22:39)

“And he took with him Peter and James and John”  v 33.

·         Why, Primarily for their benefit. They were privileged to be witnesses to Christ’s struggle in the darkest hour of His earthly life. From his example they would learn how to handle great affliction.

·         How ironic that the All Powerful,  Perfect Son of God felt great need to pray that evening- so vulnerably and honestly and so intimately  (note that only here do we see Jesus call the Father Abba my Father)- yet his weak, imperfect disciples felt no such need in that hour. They fell asleep.

Now we get into the outline of what Jesus Suffered in Gethsemane. Within your notes…

Jesus Suffered…

I. Emotional Distress Of Events To Come

“and began to be greatly distressed and troubled” v 33.

• B.B. Warfield wrote a study on The Emotional life of Our Lord. In quoting terms used in the gospels it reveals that…

1.      Luke says “being in agony, he prayed more earnestly” (v 44). That word agony is defined as “consternation (alarmed), appalled (or horrified) reluctance.

2.      Matthew and Mark’s accounts share the expression of the Lord being “troubled”.  That means their was a “loathing aversion (or a disgusting hatred) perhaps not unmixed with despondency. (or misery)”

3.      Jesus’ own description of being “very sorrowful” expresses a mental pain which is coming at him from all sides and  from which there is no escape.

4.      Also in Mark’s account he says the Lord Jesus was “greatly distressed.” Which is defined as horror struck, not exactly dread , yet alarmed dismay,.

5.      Altogether we see that Jesus was feeling an acute emotional pain,  as he looked at the events to come with uneasiness and  almost in terror.

• Luke reports in his account that Jesus “sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground”  That describes a rare condition known as hematidrosis. It can occur under heavy emotional distress. What happens is that capillaries under the skin burst under stress and the blood mingles with perspiration  and exits through the sweat glands.

Now, let me remind you that Jesus knew what he was going to face.  John 18:4 says he knew all that was going to happen to him.

·         He knew he was going to die : Matt 26:1-2 When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, 2  "You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified."           Note that: He knew the fact that he was going to die at Passover and how he would die!

·         He knew he was going to be betrayed: Matt 26:21,25 And as they were eating, he said, "Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me."  ... "  25 Judas, who would betray him, answered, "Is it I, Rabbi?" He said to him, "You have said so."   Note that: Jesus knew who

·         He knew what Scriptures had said about the suffering servant. Jesus even said at his arrest Matt 26:56 But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled."

In his divine nature Jesus the Christ understood and knew what was going to happen. It’s important to remember that

So what was this emotional distress over the events to come?

            Was it because he was going to face…

            The Bias Jewish Court?  

Who were trying to strum up charges that were hell bent on condemning him even though they were false

Or was it

The Beatings the Romans Guards were going to do?

They were going to   (1) Strip Him naked. (2) Tie his hands to a post and lift him high enough to be dangling. Then having (3) One or two scourge bearer skillfully lash his back 39 times with a short wooden handle with long pieces of leather attached to it. --Each leather strip having sharp pieces of glass, metal or bone on the end. Causing skin chunks to be torn and muscles deeply cut.

Or was it

The Brutal hanging on the Cross itself?

Where he would die a death of suffocation because they fastened His hands and feet to the beams, causing them to bear the weight of the body… pull his chest cavity upward and outward making it difficult to exhale and get a fresh breath, causing you chest muscles begin to paralyze. The only way to breath on the cross would be to lift himself up on his feet putting the weight on the nail sticking through them Causing excruciating pain, until he could gather a new breath of air.

Were any of these three reasons the very distressful and terrorizing focus of Christ's agony in the Garden that night?

The accounts of the life of Christ show us over and over again, Christ’s bravery and strength in the face to face conflicts with men. It would be hard to believe that the Son of God would be so terrorized to the point of sweating blood at the thought of what man could do to Him. Jesus said,

Matt 10:28

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Well if it is not the physical pain and the cruelty of mankind that he is distressed about, what is the agony in the Garden.

What Christ is praying about gives us some insight.

“And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me….”  V 35,36

The second thing we see in that

Jesus suffered…

II. Conflict With The Cup to Be Given

What is this “cup” Jesus is referring to?

• Jesus is not recoiling from the anticipation of the physical pain associated with crucifixion. It was just hours before when He and his disciples celebrated the Passover, that Christ said

"I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” Luke 22:15-16

• He understood that he was going to suffer. He was going to drink of this cup. The ‘cup’ was a well known Old Testament symbol of divine wrath against sin

Note these verses:

“Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord

the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering.”  Isa 51:17

“Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: "Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.”            Jer 25:15

Even in the New Testament…

“he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger,” Rev 14:10

The Conflict

{preach}

• The cup from which Christ is asking to be delivered from is the outpouring of divine wrath he would have to endure from His Holy Father. Now this prayer is not motivated from a sinful weakness. Rather it is from a normal human frailty. The very conflict Jesus has with the cup, is the same horrific  and terror any of us would be feeling if we knew we were going to undergo something extremely painful.

• Nowhere does the Bible ever declare that Jesus deity makes him something more than human or something other than human.  Christ was fully man.

“Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” Heb 2:17

Jesus was not merely playing human, he was in the fullest sense human! And at this moment in the garden, His humanity manifested itself as clearly as ever during His ministry. And in this manifestation, Christ’s conflict was  about the fully human reaction to fully divine understanding of what was to come

           

In The Murder of Jesus, John MacArthur says:

“We can certainly understand his emotions: horror at the prospect of what God wanted Him to do; consternation over the reality of what that would cost Him; and a very real desire to avoid God’s wrath if there was any possible way. All of that contributed to the overwhelming sense of sorrow He was feeling as He anticipated the cross.”

Think about what was going to happen

1. He was going to bear the guilt of sin.

Heb 9:28

so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many,

1 Peter 2:24

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree,

1 Peter 3:18

 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God

2 Cor 5:21

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Gal 3:13

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us

            Jesus was going to bear our sin, even actually become our sin. The man Christ was approaching the hour this was going to happen. He was beginning to feel the burden like he had never felt before.  His dread and sorrow was welling up and his intense prayer is an outpouring of these passions.

[slowly]

Now realize, that with Christ bearing our sin He was going to experience a greater abandonment than just the scattering of the disciples.  He would be facing the abandonment of the very presence of His Father. As Jesus bore our sins on the cross and the guilt of millions on him, he was alone without the very source of strength and joy. Why?  Because our holy Father cannot look upon evil.        

            The horror of being without the very grace and mercy of God that we experience everyday, would cause all of us to be troubled and distressed.

2. He was going to take the full weight of the wrath of God

            At the cross the full fury of God’s wrath was going to be unleashed against God’s own Son. Christ was our Substitution, he took the penalty that we deserved.

In doing that, he satisfied the righteous requirement for judgment.

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”                                                                                                                                     1 John 4:10

“Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”                                                                                                              Rom 5:9

{preach}Jesus was going to take the full, righteous anger and hatred of sin from the heavenly Father. He was going to feel it.  

[slowly]It was going to hurt him, torture him  ultimately it was going to kill Him.  Why? Because

God says

“For the wages of sin is death,” Rom 6:23.

[Breath]

 {Preach passionately}To be praying in this Garden with these fully human desires and feelings coming to the hour in which his burden is growing and knowing that he will be exchanging the sweet life abiding, love encompassing fellowship of the Godhead Trinity to bear the very punishment and divine hatred of sin in which he felt in judging Sodom and Gomorrah, in judging the wicked in times past, even the anger he displayed in the temple turning over the tables while using a whip.

           

• Now he was going to be on the receiving end of that judgment.

       

• He understood the abhorrence, the hatred of sin.   And in a few hours, he was going to abhorred, hated by the Father,  hated by the Spirit!

• No wonder he was sweating blood, and deeply troubled.

Which takes us to the third thing we see

Jesus suffered…

III. Yet Surrendered and Saved

           

SURRENDERED

“…Yet not what I will, but what you will” v 36

Even in the midst of battling the frailty of his own humanity he was able to suppress them to the divine will.

In fact the more he prayed you see this happen, in Matthew’s account we see him say

"My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done." Matt 26:42

·         He’s no longer asking. He’s accepting and embracing it. Let me say for clarity’s sake Of course he knew he was going to surrender.

·         When he prays this at the end of His petition, there is not shown here a difference between the will of the Father and the will of the Son. Instead we see Jesus the Son surrendering deliberately , consciously all of His natural human, feelings to the perfect will of the Father!

·         {PREACH} Now if Christ, who had no sinful feelings and desires surrendered really, he provides for you and I the example of how we with sinful feelings and desires are to surrender. HOW DID HE DO THAT? By precisely submitting in verbal agreement and a humble heart, “not what I will but what you will.”

As for the cup itself. Jesus understood there was no other way, even before this.  Look at this verse

Titus 1:1-2

“Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began”

·         God promised in eternity past that eternal life would be given to his elect. He made this  promise “before the ages began.”  

·         As God the Father and God the Son covenanted with God the Spirit to redeem the elect, it was agreed that Christ would become a man and die to satisfy the wrath of God.

·         For his part, Christ covenanted to die for them, to be the substitute for them.

But why did Jesus have to go through this?

Ok we see the emotional distress and we understand conflict he with the cup and the way in which he surrendered to the Father’s will.`    But why is all of this and the physical suffering on the cross necessary?

Pause

SAVED

When Christ institued the Lord’s Supper he said

 “for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

Matt. 26; 28

• It was for the forgiveness of our sins.
• DECLARE: Jesus suffered to save us from the consequences of our sin!  We deserved the wrath of God and eternal separation. Ye He was our substitute.

PREACH: Only God himself could save us from His wrath.

Problem of Forgiveness

• Now some people would say  “Why does God not simply forgive us without the necessity of the cross? After all nobody’s death is necessary before we humans forgive each other.

Really that question reveals a shallowness because it over looks the simple fact that we are not God. The truth is, you have not considered the seriousness of sin, nor the majesty of God.

J I Packer said, “Men are opposed to God in their sin and God is opposed to men in his holiness.”

The seriousness of sin

·         The word sin has fallen out of our vocabulary.  But the word sin means ultimately, to miss the mark. Either we fail to reach the standard which is righteous perfection or we deliberately cross a line to break the commands of God..

·         Every sin fails to love God with all our being, Yet when we sin we are refusing to acknowledge Him as Creator and Lord. We reject the position of dependence in which we are created to be in and strive to make a run at independence. Sin is a hostility to the Lord. It is a defiance and an arrogance of man that tries to replace man with God.

·         When we realize the seriousness of sin to our holy Creator. We have to wonder how God puts up with us at all  in our sin

The Majesty of God

 [PREACH]

·         The Bible says God is holy. That means he is separated from sin and evil. Because of that holiness, sin is incompatible with it. Habakkuk 1:13 describes God as one “who is of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong,”

·         God himself is the maker of the laws we break! He is not suffering  just personal injury. Sin is not just a misdemeanor. It is rebellion.  HE ISN’T INDIFFERENT TO IT. HE IS RIGHTEOUSLY FURIOUSLY OPPOSED TO EVERY BIT OF IT.      

·         The Word of God says:

“For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.” Ps 5:4-6

·         In light of his holiness and justice, He has no alternative but to punish sin and punish the sinner. God is a God of love. But He is also God who is Just and Holy.

·         Illus:

In our court system a judge who simply overlooked people’s offenses and ‘just forgave’ them would quickly be kicked off the bench.

·         God is righteous and must do what is right in punishing sin. That punishment of sin is called the wrath of God. God’s wrath means that he intensely hates all sin. In fact his wrath is his holy reaction to sin.

·         Considering how our sin must appear in the pure sight of the righteous and holy God who created us, why are we still here, alive and breathing!.        Praise God for His mercy!!!

In God’s love, he desires to save but how can he truly rescue anyone? He’s righteously opposed to sin, yet sin encompasses every human heart.

THIS IS THE VERY REASON JESUS CAME.

            “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." Luke 19:10

Preach:

Christ came to save us.  He came to show God’s love for his people. He came to show the world God’s glory. It has been expressed this way:

“Divine love triumphed over divine wrath by divine sacrifice”- John Stott

Conclusion

Turn with me to John18

John 18:1-5

When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.  Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples. So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, "Whom do you seek?"  They answered him, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus said to them, "I am he."

·         Knowing all these things Christ suffered to save us.

·         He was forsaken so that we might be forgiven.

·         He received what you and I should be receiving—his Father’s full and furious wrath.  All so that we might gain favor because of His Grace.

·         What is God’s Grace? It’s His favor that we can’t earn from being good people or even being good Christians. We can’t earn this salvation because of our intellect, looks or bank account. We can’t even earn it because we are victims of bad tidings and luck and impossible situations. Or even because we are the worst of all sinners.    

·         It’s God favor to give. It’s our gift to receive

Eph 2:1-9

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

·         If you realize that God is calling you to Himself at this moment and yet your sins have gone on and you have not asked Him to forgive you and you stand guilty before him… today is the day for your salvation. He is making a personal invitation for you to come  and to personally trust Him to save you. Agreeing and acknowledging the fact that you are a sinner is the start. But then you need  to depend on and declare that personal trust in Him to forgive you and save you. 

·         If you are a believer, this message should cause you to rejoice in His mercy and worship Him for his holiness. Your delight in worshipping Christ in a few minutes with the Lord’s table, should be one of humbled gratefulness.  That as we have sung What a Savior! We rejoice in Christ alone for our salvation!

Let’s pray as we  closes.

Take a moment and say something from your heart to God.

            If God’s calling you to himself, admit you’re a sinner.          Ask Him to forgive your sins              Tell Him that you receive His gift of salvation and trust Him to save you from your sins.      Make a commitment to turn away from sinfulness in your life and to begin walking in obedience to Christ.

            If you’ve already done that in your life, then tell him how much you love Him. Not just his word or songs about Him, tell Him you love Him, God himself.  For God is the gospel, the good news for us who believe. It isn’t the cross we love, its Christ Himself. Declare that.

Heavenly Father, you sent your Son, the Suffering Servant, to die on our behalf. And we are forever grateful. On this night we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we remember he was our ransom, our substitute, the lamb that was slain.            We remember he is our Deliverer, Redeemer, and Savior.  May we embrace him to be our Delight, Desire our Joy  and our All in All.           Thank you Father for saving us, for it was only you who could do it. And all god’s people aid Amen.