Good morning. If you have your Bibles, let's turn to Matthew chapter 26. We're going to look at a few verses in Matthew 26 and also in Luke chapter 22. So let's turn to Matthew chapter 26 first and then some verses in Luke chapter 22. This is, I thought, an appropriate time for us to consider the passion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. So we're going to look at a few scriptures the next four weeks or so, Lord willing, in a mini-series entitled Gethsemane, Gabbatha, Golgotha, and Glory. We want to focus on the Lord Jesus' passion, His suffering unto death, His obedience unto the Father, And of course, his resurrection, his glorious resurrection on the third day and his enthronement in heaven. So this is God's word that we're opening up. So we'll begin in Matthew 26, verse 36, where we come to the scene of Gethsemane. Gethsemane means oil press. And there's a place of olive trees where olive oil was made. And it's there where the Lord Jesus spends some of his last few moments with his inner three disciples, Peter, John, and James, the first among the equals, as he is betrayed into the hands of sinners for us. Let's pray and ask for the Holy Spirit's help as we look at this passage. that we're about to look at together. Let's pray. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of your glory. We thank you that from you and through you and to you are all things, dear father. We thank you that you're the king, immortal, invisible, the only wise God be glory unto you forever and ever. Amen. And thank you for your glorious revelation in creation. in conscience and especially in Christ. We thank you for the salvation that you have wrought for us sinners in Jesus Christ. We thank you for the love that you've shown to the world, the demonstration of your condescending mercies to those who have transgressed and sinned against you in the sending of your beloved Son. We thank you, beloved Lord Jesus, great bridegroom of the bride. We thank you that you are the Lamb who was slain. You're the Lion of the tribe of Judah. You're the Alpha and the Omega, the firstborn among many brethren, the firstfruits of the resurrection, the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. We thank you, Son of David, Son of God we thank you seed of Abraham We're grateful Lord Jesus Christ that you are with us and you've promised to never leave us nor forsake us We rejoice to hear the bride grooms voice this morning So speak to us on Mount Zion from God's right hand enthroned on Yahweh's throne and here and then send your spirit Holy Spirit help us The spirit is willing, but the flesh... It's so weak. So we pray that you would send your spirit, help us, Holy Spirit, to understand this passage better, to understand more deeply the problem that we have before God apart from Christ and the glorious love that you have for us in Christ. We pray, Holy Spirit, that you would make our ears to hear, our hearts to receive and our minds to understand. And we pray that your servant would decrease that Christ may increase to the glory of God the Father. We pray in Jesus' name and all the church said Amen. So Matthew 26 beginning in verse 36 reading down to verse 46 and then we'll look at a few verses from Luke 22. Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray. And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch with me. And going a little further, he fell on his face and he prayed, saying, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, so could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, my father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done. And again, he came and found them sleeping for their eyes were heavy. And so leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, sleep. Take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand and the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand. Thus ends the reading of God's word. Now look over in Luke 22 for a few verses. Jesus is in Gethsemane, and Luke tells us a few more things. Verse 41, he actually withdrew from the disciples about a stone's throw away from them. He knelt down and prayed. Verse 42, saying, Father, if you're willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him. And being in agony, being in agony, he prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow. And he said to them, why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation. All right, returning back to Matthew 26, beginning. in verse 36, looking at verses 36 to 46 primarily, with the heart passage that I want us to focus on, beloved, with a proper sobriety, a proper reverence and awe, a proper knowing that we're coming into a place of holy ground and great mystery to some degree. And I want you to see the heart verse is verse 39. The main verse I want to show you today that I'll draw my outline from is where the Lord Jesus falls on his face and prays, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. You know, beloved, you think about the cup that Jesus was about to drink. that he was taken in his hand in Gethsemane. And you think deeply about the metaphor for a moment. You meditate on that. You think about what a cup is useful for. Most of the time in our lives, we think of the cup as something that when we're thirsty, we can drink. And it quenches our thirst. We think of a cup as something that is a blessing, a provision. We think of a cup oftentimes at a special celebration where there's fellowship and there's relationships and there's often family and friends and we raise glasses or we raise cups, we make toasts. You can imagine at the wedding at Cana in Galilee, how Jesus, when he raised his glass to toast with everyone else after his first miracle, that he was looking at the cup perhaps a little bit differently, with a little bit more insight. So for us, most of the time, a cup means a blessing. It means something that has been provided for us. It means fellowship. Gethsemane is about the cup, not a blessing for the precious and beautiful and glorious Lord Jesus, but the cup of wrath, the cup of poison, the cup of suffering. The cup that means not only a forsakenness of God, the Father's blessed favor upon him, but a forsakenness of even the common grace of having a few friends around to depend upon. One of our Dutch fathers said that you'd have to be in hell for some time to experience what Jesus is experiencing in Gethsemane. And I think that's true. I think sometimes we focus rightly on the cross. It is the cross and Christ crucified that we ultimately see the Christ ransoming sinners from sin, laying down his life, becoming a substitutionary atonement. But as one of our fathers put it, I think so well, it's not that Jesus dies so much of the cross as He dies on the cross, willingly. perhaps one of the emphasis of not having any of his bones broken. There was no man involved in the Lord Jesus' climactic suffering on the cross. It was that he willingly gave up his spirit and said, into your hands, Father, I commit my spirit. But that soul, that spirit of Christ was suffering long before the cross. I think it's easy for us to just see the outward appearance of the bodily suffering of Jesus and fail to get Gethsemane as the beginning of the flames of hell, licking upon the precious pure Son and feeling that He is in torment, He is in pain, He is feeling the very wrath of God, the beginnings of it. It's what Calvin called the exhortium to Christ's cross. That Christ is beginning to feel the weight and the burden of our sins, not His. And the weight and burden and agony of God's wrath. That it's not just first a bodily suffering that he'll experience. It is in his soul, the deepest part of his soul, so much so that Luke records for us that when he's praying, it's so intense that his sweat drops are like droplets of weighty blood matter to the ground. That's intense soul sorrowful. That's the point of Gethsemane. When we say that Jesus didn't just die of the cross, He died on the cross. The emphasis then is to emphasize that Jesus died in mental, soul, body anguish. He died of a broken heart. In being forsaken by His Father. Not just bodily death, it was indeed that. But the torment of his soul begins here in Gethsemane. And I think it's easy for us to forget that Gethsemane is part of the complex of events that make up the cross, that make up the cross and the suffering of Jesus Christ, because it's in Gethsemane when God begins to turn his fatherly favor away from his son and he begins to feel the beginnings of his wrath in his soul. Before the nails pierce his hand, he begins to be heartbroken. He begins to be mentally in the state that without the help of the Holy Spirit, he would go mad, raving mad as a real man. There's no way you can undergo this kind of intensity. as a man and live to tell about it and endure to the cross, except by that wonderful, glorious verse that we find in Hebrews 9.14 that says it's the spirit, the eternal spirit, helped Jesus, assisted Jesus so that he could get to the cross and lay down his life as a permanent, as a final sacrifice for sinners. But Jesus doesn't go mad. Jesus stays in complete control. Jesus does exactly what the Father has sent him to do, and he does it with the strength that the Spirit gives him, and he does it with love. There's three things I want us to focus on today. I want to focus on the cup. I want to focus on the one who gave the cup, and I want to focus you on the one who took the cup. What is the cup that he's talking about here? Well, we've already looked at some scripture. In the larger scripture revelation, the teaching, we find that the cup that Jesus is speaking of is a cup of God's fury. It's a cup of wrath. It's a cup that in Jeremiah 25, which we read, and Isaiah 51, particularly verse 17, is a cup that God gives as a punishment for sin, a just punishment, a wrathful response to sin against Himself. And it's a punishment that in the taking of this cup causes a dizziness, a drunkenness, a torment of one's soul, as if one has drunk to the dregs some kind of poison alcohol that is stirred up and mixed by God Almighty. There's all kinds of effects because of it. and no one wants to touch it, no one wants to take it. We're told of this cup of wrath at the end of history in the revelation of John in chapter 14. I think this is a helpful scripture that gives you a better understanding of Gethsemane. When you look ahead to this revealing of the last moments of history when God will poured out his wrath upon sinners. In Revelation 14, 9, this angel with a loud voice says, if anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on the forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger. And he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels. And in the presence of the lamb. So let's say it differently, what is this cup? It's what we call hell itself. Hell is not merely a place, it is that it's a state. And we often say that hell is the place where God is absent. No, that's not completely right. He's absent in his favor and blessing, but he is present in his fury and wrath. And the place that this cup symbolizes is Jesus is beginning what our forefathers say and what we confess with them in the Apostles Creed, rightly so. that Jesus descended into hell. This is the beginning of his descension into hell. The thing that causes him agony deep inside. And yet, it's the moment that Jesus came for in the context closer to this passage of the Gospels. Look, if you will, in John 12. In John 12, some of you remember looking at this in our sermon series in the evening. It's worth reminding ourselves again about today in John 12. This hour, this moment, Jesus has been living for, and we could say he has been joyous in one sense, because he'll glorify God and he'll redeem a people, but he's also in one sense dreading it. That's why you could imagine him at the wedding at Gaena, Galilee, and seeing that wine, that would be his blood. He says in John 12, 27, Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this purpose, I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it. I will glorify it again. And this is where Jesus says that the judgment now is beginning as it begins on him. So the judgment of the world is beginning in some sense. And then he says, but if I am lifted up, I will draw men to myself. I'll draw men to me. And then in John 18, he says something else more particularly about the cup. The hour is the time that Jesus has been waiting on. The hour has come when we come to Gethsemane. It is the hour, the great hour of dread, the great hour of joy. It is that paradox that only the God-man can relieve. The paradox, the mystery that only the God-man can help us make sense of in John 18, 11. Jesus says is one of his well-meaning disciples want to stop the troops from taking Jesus. And Jesus looks at him in verse 11. He says, Peter, put your sword into your sheath. Shall I not drink? The cop. That my father has given me. And so now with all that, you go into the Gethsemane, go back to Matthew 26, and you see that Jesus is taking his first among equals disciples, the ones who've been with him with a few private healings, the ones who were with him when they saw the height of his glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. And now they're going to see the depths of his agony. They've seen the height of his beauty and his glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. Now they're going to see the depths of his agony. And he talks with them. And he says to them, I'm sorrowful, I'm troubled. He's speaking the words of the psalmist. Why so downcast, oh, my soul? He's troubled in his soul. As we read in the scriptural reading today, Psalm 116, his soul is over sorrowed. Even here, he's referring, he's quoting scripture. He's fulfilling it, more importantly, as the psalm singer greater than David. Who is saying my sorrow is great, my trouble is great. And he says to them, my soul is very sorrowful, even unto death. Remain here. All Jesus wants at this point is just a little companionship. What this cup often symbolizes with us, a toast, family, friends, embrace, a good meal, a feast, a celebration. He's got a toast he must drink that only he can drink. And all he wants is a little common grace here. All he wants is for his disciples to pray with him. And he knows their weakness so that he addresses them and says, for your good too. Watch and pray. Behold the glory of the Lord Jesus, that even in the midst of this sorrow, in the midst of this deep trouble, he is concerned about his disciples' faith. He tells them, Look, I know you have a desire to watch and pray. I know your spirit is willing. But I also know your flesh is weak, I know what's in you. Watch and pray, because there'll be great temptation. Notice the glory of Jesus in ministering in the moment of his suffering. And so he says in verse 39, we're told he prays three times, my father, if it be possible, Let this cup pass from me. So the cup is God's wrath. The cup is hell itself. The cup is the beginning of his sufferings and torment from inside that will be fully manifested on the cross. Where until he's finished with his mission and says, Elie, Elie, lama sabachthani, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And then says, into your hands I commit my spirit, it is finished. He will experience a forsakenness of the Father's presence in favor. And here's the hard part, just as it is hard to think of one person with two natures, but I submit it to you. to consider, though he is truly experiencing the Father's wrath and his suffering, the Holy Spirit is strengthening him unto the end, as the Scriptures clearly tell us in Hebrews 9.14. Now what it seems to be that I am trying to understand in this mystery that is the Triune God, seems that the Father particularly is the one who is full of wrath upon the Son. The Son is particularly as mediator, receiving the Father's wrath and the suffering, and the Spirit is particularly ministering unto Christ. Though here's the caveat, the nuance I would make, is it appears as such that Jesus is not so aware of his presence. It appears as such, and I think we have to be very careful when we say this is a very unique event in the life of, in the history of mankind, in the life of Jesus Christ that we cannot get involved with in the same experiential way. But I would say that there's something like when we experience great trials or sadness or grief And we don't feel the presence of God, but the Spirit is upholding us and strengthening us and causing us to endure through it. And it's only after, it's only in the future, looking back, do we understand that it was by the Spirit's power and grace. I submit to you that that seems to be what's happening in the larger portion of Scripture. I think it makes sense of the revelation that we're given. At one point, the Lord actually allows an angel for a season to come and minister to uphold Jesus in his suffering. But it's important, though that is true, to emphasize the suffering and the torment that holy, pure Jesus is experiencing here. And that is the cup. Who gives the cup? Beloved, the Father gives the cup. Jesus is here to take the cup in our place, to take the wrath and the suffering that we deserve so that we could be redeemed from our sins, so that we could be forgiven, so that our guilt could be wiped away, so that we could be children of God. He loves us that much. O the breadth, O the length, O the height, O the depth of the love of God in Christ Jesus. So God so loved the world that He gave. It's the Father who's giving the cup. It's important that in this redemptive act, this ransom, this purchase of blood, this substitutionary atonement, this Lamb of God taking away the sins of the world, that this was not a ransom paid to anyone else but the Father. It was not a ransom, a redemption paid to the evil one or the devil. Yes, He's allowed to be involved, but this ransom, this redemption is from God the Father Himself. And it is because of a covenant pact, a binding covenant agreement that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit made with one another, the three persons of the triune God, before the foundation of the world, when God the Father chose people in Christ, predestined them from before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in Christ and through the redemption that comes through his blood and through the application of the Holy Spirit to the praise of his glorious grace, to the praise of his glorious grace, to the praise of his glorious grace from the father. The son is receiving this from the father and He's not receiving this wrath, this cup, because of his sins. Over and over, we must stress, he says he's receiving this cup gladly because of our sins. Because of every hateful glance. Because of every lie we've told. For every sin we've committed against an infinitely holy God. For every lustful thought. For every proud moment. for every careless word that every one of us could be held accountable for if it was not for the Lord Jesus. Every careless word will be a judgment for the whole world. I know the careless words I've had just in the last week. Oh, how I need a savior for every sin And beloved, you can imagine the torment and the pain of his soul. This is not just one man for one man's sins beginning to feel forsaken and rejected of God. This is not just one man for one man's sins beginning to feel the pains and torments of hell. This is one man Feeling the pain and the torment of the father, the infinitely holy almighty God for the sins of every person. That he said his affection and love upon. The father. Is handing him this cup, we hear this in Isaiah, in Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. We're told in verse three. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We begin to see this man of sorrows. Is this the beginning of the man of sorrows? No! The first phase of God's, the Son's sorrows began in a manger. The incarnation itself is in a state of humiliation. being raised by a loving mother and father, but in a backwoods place called Nazareth, in poverty, is a man describing a man of sorrows. And then beginning his ministry and having many that he has come for, reject him. He came to his own and his own received him not. That sorrow, man of sorrows, man of sorrows, man of sorrows, but never the sorrow he's getting now, because here is when the father is shutting the door on his son. Here, the beloved son becomes the lost son. A man between two worlds and neither world receives him. Jesus is finding the door is locked. Father. So that we could be welcomed. And that's why three times he says, Father. Is there any other way? I'm feeling the sorrow and torment. I'm feeling mental anguish. I'm beginning to feel disfavor from you. I don't know what that's like. He's rightly yet sinlessly fearful. He's rightly yet sinlessly anxious. His soul is distraught. It would be ripping him apart if it weren't for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. This is real man and real God. No man has ever come to face the wrath of Almighty God in all of his fullness for all of the sins of his people. And if you think about the levels of judgment for sin and sinners, he's getting the highest level of judgment from the father because he's taking all the sins. And so as sin-bearer, as substitutionary atonement, he's becoming, through imputation, the greatest sinner who ever lived. The most abominable thing in the Holy Father's sight. Wow! Paradoxically and sweetly, the Father still loves him. There's no way that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit were ever for a moment separated. But this man, Jesus Christ, as much as this is a mystery, this man, Jesus Christ, is God in the flesh. And in that person of Christ, in this office he holds, he's undergoing the disfavor of the Father, his most deepest, holy, just fury against sin. That will only get worse as he gets closer to the cross. The Bible says in Isaiah 53, 7, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that's led to the slaughter and like sheep that before it shears is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. He was stricken for the transgression of his people. And this is it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief or literally in Hebrew, he has he has made him sick. Why that language? Because of the cup of staggering and drunkenness mixed with wrath, that is like a man being sick. He's put him to grief or sickness when his soul makes an offering for guilt. He shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. Beloved, this is the depths of anguish mentally, solely, S-O-U-L-Y, deep within his soul, deep within his heart. as well as an embodied suffering. And Jesus says, my father, and this, beloved, note this, nothing can separate the father from the son ultimately. And Jesus knows in this great crisis, he can cry out, my father, and he does it three times, my father, my father, even in the midst of this horrendous suffering, even if we could say it this way, at the beginning of his descent into hell, He's crying out as the cords of she-hole are entangled around him, like Jonah in the belly of the whale, like Jonah in the depths of the sea, the seaweed wrapping itself around him. Deaths begin to take a hold and pulling holy Jesus down to hell. And he says, my father, by faith, And he prays because that's what he knows to do. And he trusts, though he doesn't feel it. And he surrenders himself to God. Some people say here, why is God so mad? Beloved, it's hard to answer that question, but suffice it to say Romans 3 tells us that an infinitely gracious and kind Creator has made us all, and from the very beginning we've done nothing but transgress His commandments and sin against Him with great violence and hatred from the heart. And God is just. He's not arbitrary in His judgments. Beloved, remember, when you think And the wrath of God seems so central and great. I want you to remember something. Jesus is taking a cup here because the Father so loved the world. I want you to see that though the Father's anger is just and pure and rightly angry at sin and what it does, you cannot be truly just and good if you see sin ripping apart your world and the people you love and you do nothing about it. And we're sinners. You can't love and not have a righteous indignation. How much more the infinitely holy, mighty God, who is goodness itself, beauty, truth. For him to just look aside, I'm not going to think about it. It's to sin against himself and the world. But in this, notice Romans 3, 24 and 26. that God had a great deal of forbearance in overlooking sins until the coming of Jesus. God could be just with regard to His wrath and the justifier of those who believe in Christ Jesus. Why? Because He offered up Jesus in place of sinners who was perfectly righteous. And He poured out our sins on Him, imputing them to Him so that He would suffer substitutionary, as substitute in our place, that He gave in types and shadows and pictures all through the Old Testament with the sacrifices. And so when we talk about God's wrath, remember this. Jesus is sitting here. He's praying here. He's in agony and suffering and torment here as the Lamb who can take away sin. Receive Him now. Run to Him. Flee from the coming wrath. But God must punish sin. It's either He will punish it on His Son or He will punish it on your head. As the Bible says it in John 3, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should never perish but have everlasting life. Jesus didn't come into the world to condemn men of sin, but that through grace they might be saved through him. But then he goes on to say, who is it that is under condemnation? Who is it that's under wrath? He who fails to receive God's beautiful, glorious gift in pure and holy Jesus in their place. That's who. The condemnation, the wrath of God abides on us if we deny the Savior. And that's not I have one other thing, but I'll have to leave it to another time. But just think about the patience of God, the kindness to you to provide for you every day, to give you life and breath, to give you anything at all when you don't deserve it. Think about it over and over and over. He's given you opportunities and you fail to receive them many times over and over and over. He's shown you kindness and has his kindness led you to repentance. And then we talk about His wrath when He's been so kind and patient. Not breaking out arbitrarily like we do, just mad because somebody crosses us. But He's angry because His world, His character, and His people are sinned against. You can't be a God of wrath without being a God of love. And you can't be a God of love who isn't a God of wrath. So the father gave this cup and Jesus says, this is the third point. Who will take this cup? Jesus says, I will. Now, in the midst of all this pain and this suffering, this torment and the beginning to feel the rejection of Almighty God, beginning to feel what it feels like to be sentenced to hell. beginning to feel the torment and weight of sin, Jesus says three times, if it's possible, if there's any other way, but not my will, it's yours to be done. Jesus surrenders himself completely through obedience that will culminate in a cross because he loves sinners. because he came to die for sinners. And Jesus, glorious, pure Jesus, sweet Jesus, calls out, my father, my father, my father. Not as I will it, but as you. We read as our opening call to worship Hebrews 5. When you read that carefully, You may think that something's wrong with it. You may be tempted to think something's wrong, that maybe you're not understanding it well. In Hebrews 5, 7 through 9, there's no better passage, really, in the New Testament that helps us to understand what's going on in Gethsemane. The one who took the cross was the Beloved Son. who had done no wrong, done no sin. And we're told in verse seven, in the days of his flesh, this is Hebrews five, seven in the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to God, to the father, to him who was able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverence. Have you ever read that and thought, well, now, how was he heard? He was asking to be saved from death. He was asking that the cup would pass. Let's think about it. I'll be back in a few minutes. He was heard. But because he said, not my will, but yours be done, the suffering that the father purposed and ordained and decreed for Christ, was with an eye to death and a resurrection on the third day. And he was heard, but his prayers weren't answered in the way that we might think they should have been. He goes on to say, with loud cries and tears to him who is able to save him from death, And he was heard because of his reverence. Everything was right about Jesus, pure Jesus. If anybody could have gotten their prayers answered that day, it would have been Jesus, holy Jesus. But Jesus said, not my will, but yours be done. And the Father gave him the cup. He was saved from eternal death, from an eternal sentence in hell. because he was vindicated, he was justified as one who perfectly kept the law of God, as one who perfectly laid down his life for sinners, as a perfect, pure, sinless lamb of God he was. On the third day, God vindicated him. He justified him. He raised him from the dead and gave him what we would call eternal life. He gave him glory. This man, Christ Jesus, the one united to deity, the one conceived by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, who was united in space and time and real history to the Son of God, the second person of the Triune God, this man was raised because he was perfect. He perfectly lived. a life that pleased God. He perfectly died in our place, on our behalf, as man, united in permanent hypostatic union with deity. And so that sacrifice was pleasing to God. It was righteous. It was that His prayers indeed were heard because of His reverence, just not in the way that He requested it initially. But it says in verse eight, although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And there's the man particularly being focused on and being made perfect. This is not from sinful to perfect, as it is with us, but this is indeed from sinless man to perfect glory, that is, through obedience, through suffering, through Gethsemane, he would see the results, the beauty, the glory of his work. And he would become the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. And that obedience begins with what, beloved? Faith. Faith. To repent and believe is an obedience that we are called to in light of Gethsemane. But here's another thing that I want you to note about this. We must, first of all, never say that we've had our own Gethsemane. That is a unique place to be. Now if you mean by that that you were there with Christ in union with him by the Spirit, I get that and I commend you for saying that. But if you are speaking of a very hard time and you use that language of Gethsemane, let me discourage you from using that language. But let me rather help you then to go to Gethsemane and see who was truly distraught, who was fearful, who was anxious, who was scared, who was frightened, who is heavy with torment, who is being torn apart as a man who felt like everyone had rejected him and forsaken him, and who can sympathize with you, and who not only sympathizes with you in your weakness, but who actually feels you. I don't want to be slang, but I do. We say sometimes I feel you. I feel your pain. We can't really mean that. Jesus can say it and mean it. I feel you. You don't understand the kind of torment and pain I underwent because I loved you so much. And I'm not going to leave you now. I promised you I'd never leave you nor forsake you. Look to Gethsemane and see God on your side. And see the forgiveness of God and the smile of God Because what you could never endure, I've done for you, Jesus says. I've been to hell and I live to tell you about it. And in reward, the Father has given me a cup of blessing full of the Holy Spirit. It's water, living water, taste it. It's water. It's also blood. It's my blood that brings life. But when I was pierced, blood and water came out of my side, testifying to you that the cup of blessing is given in my spirit to satisfy your deepest needs, your deepest longings, to comfort you when you're lonely, to take away your fears, to give you peace, shalom, whole-bodied shalom, peace, even now, until you get to heaven, when you get to heaven perfectly. But here is a cup for you. It's my cup. I pressed my cup to the Father's cup of torment and hell, so that I can now give you, as living man, as living king at God's right hand, With all authority in heaven and earth given to me, I now by my spirit can give you a drink of life, of my blood. And it will satisfy you to the deepest parts. And it is the life that will flow within you that will lead you to me, either through death or on the day I've returned, Jesus says. so that you can now say, my cup runneth over. My cup runneth over. You have given me the cup of salvation, Yahweh. Thank you. So no matter what you're struggling with this morning, remember Jesus' thrice prayed request, my Father, is there any other way? No. Here am I. I'll do it because I love you, Father, and I love them. Not my will, but yours be done. Let's pray. Our Father, our God, we're so grateful for your love for us in Christ. We know that Jesus knew better than any of us, more deeply and intimately, that you are a consuming fire. Jesus, more than any human who ever lived, who has had the fullness of your Holy Spirit, knew that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And yet he entrusted himself into those hands, the hands that loved him, and the hands that also, in some paradoxical, mysterious way we can understand, the hands that hated him. And Jesus said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? We see that not only was he crucified in his weakness, in pain, great pain and agony because of his body. You see that also it began in his soul when he thought about it, when he began this complex of events that would be centered in Christ crucified, this complex of events of his suffering and death that would culminate in the resurrection. Holy Spirit, help us to more deeply understand these things. And as Jesus said, thy will be done, help us that nothing would be too difficult for us to say, not my will, but yours be done. Give us grace to do that this day. In Jesus' name, amen.