And please turn now in the Bible to the Gospel according to Mark chapter 14. You can find Mark 14 on page 851. Mark chapter 14. Let's read from verse 32 to verse 42. Mark chapter 14 on page 851. I'm going to read from verse 32 to 42. Let's give your attention to the word of God. And they, Jesus and the apostles, they went to a place called Gethsemane. And Jesus 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's be going. See, my betrayer is at hand. We'll stop our reading at that point. In some church circles, you hear a lot about Christ's passion. You might know that over in Germany, there is a little town that every 10 years does a passion play. And they've been doing it every 10 years since 1400 or something. You might know that Mel Gibson did a movie called The Passion of the Christ. So the question is, what does the word passion mean in that setting? Because normally in the English language, when we say passion, I have a passion for something, we mean a strong love, strong feeling for something, perhaps a strong lust for something or for someone. But when you talk about Christ's passion, the word passion is being taken over from the Greek through the Latin into English, it has a different meaning. It means His suffering. All Jesus' life was suffering for our sake, but especially the end of it was suffering. So here what we see is the beginning of Christ's sufferings in earnest. We see Him suffering. And I want you to see the anguish of the soul and to know this. that he suffered this agony in your place." Notice that it says that he began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And then we have himself speaking to his apostles saying, I am very sorrowful even to death. Now why was he in such agony? Remember please that he was a carpenter and his apostles, at least four of them, all three of these guys, were fishermen. And such hard-working, physical labor men are not typically prone to acting out great acts of drama. It's incumbent on the job to endure a certain amount of pain and toil and stick to it to the end. You don't usually get drama queens among this population. So why is there so much distress? It's an odd sort of thing for such a man. And someone might say, Come on. He was betrayed by one apostle whom he taught for three years. He was abandoned by the rest. He knows that he's going to suffer an injustice at the Supreme Court of his people. And by the way, that really beats a guy down when his case goes to the top court it can go to and he is mistreated there. And he's going to be beaten with rods and he's going to be spat on, stripped naked, nailed up and left to die. Surely he's entitled to a little nervousness. And yes, that is certainly the case. Certainly he has reason enough to be greatly distressed. And yet, you can read a little bit later in the Bible, the martyr Stephen, facing a pretty horrible death, was what you might say heroic. You can read church history, and you can go to martyrs from Polycarp all the way back towards the beginning up till today. Some Christian martyrs seem quite heroic. So why did Jesus seem so troubled? Well, this was to make it clear to us that Jesus here was not only facing a horrible death, but that he was in fact facing even more than that. He was facing the whole wrath of God against sin. And to understand that, It helps to consider that prophecy of Isaiah that we read from chapter 53. And it's a marvelous, amazing thing that you can read something written before the event to understand the event better. But that's the power of God in the Scripture. Jesus suffered to fulfill that prophecy. He had to be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, because that's what it says in the prophecy. The Word of God had to be fulfilled. After all, Jesus had already taught us that when he said to the apostles, you will all fall away tonight because it's written. Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. They said, no, no, not us. He said, no, it's going to happen because it's written. The Word of God must be fulfilled. And yet we need more meaning than that because God is not only an artist who fits together his redemptive plan like a jigsaw puzzle. There's much more to it than that. It's not just, well, this piece has to fit into this piece because that's how it's cut out. No, God has a deep moral, theological reason, several, for why Jesus was suffering so much here. It wasn't just to fulfill the prophecy. Why was the prophecy there? Well, we can go on and say Jesus suffered as the obedient servants of the Lord. Unlike Adam and Eve and you and me, He did not do His own will He did exactly what God called him to do. He did the will of the Father. He did not sin. Adam and Eve were not willing to enjoy the pleasure of the Garden of Eden and obey God. But Jesus was willing to suffer greatly and yet to still obey God. And yet even that, you might say, is not quite enough reason for why Jesus had to die. Because if Adam and Eve had done everything God had said, if they had kept the covenants, they would not have died. And so here we see Jesus, he's doing every command. He alone can stand before God on his own and say, I am righteous. There is no reason for me to die, and yet he died. What is the reason for this? We can go back to Isaiah and say Jesus suffered not only because he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, but because he had to bear our griefs and carry our sorrows. And so we said, I am very sorrowful, even to death. And so we know that he's sympathetic with us, as we're often driven nearly mad with anxiety or fear or anguish or sadness. And so we see in him that he has suffered as much or beyond any. But still there's something else that we see in Isaiah 53. He did not only carry our sorrows. Jesus suffered because he was wounded for our transgressions. What's a transgression? It's a sin. It's when you disobey God. He was wounded for our iniquities. And the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. Every religion that sacrifices for sin shows that they understand that there must be atonement for sin and that God accepts the substitutes. They show the atonement, the sacrifice. Something is being sacrificed. Sins must be paid for by blood. The substitute, they're not sacrificing themselves, they're sacrificing a chicken, a lamb, a goat, something else. They show that they understand substitutionary atonement. But all these other religions are groping by an intuition, a correct intuition. But they're groping after God, or maybe there's a faint memory. But the prophet Isaiah showed that the servant of the Lord would be crushed for our iniquities. He would pay the price for our sins. Because that covenant of works with Adam and Eve, it said, perfect obedience leads to eternal life, but disobedience leads to death. And Jesus perfectly obeyed. And so he had no need to die, but he died to take on the penalty for us. He suffered death, not for his sins, but for ours, as Isaiah said, centuries before. And so Jesus was so sorrowful because he saw God coming on him in wrath. And this was different. All through eternity past, God the Father and God the Son had known and loved one another and shared the divine glory. And all through Jesus's earthly career, he is the God-man who would often go away by himself to pray and to commune with the Father. But now, he goes to pray, and he sees God coming against him in wrath. And it's staggering to him. And so I warn you not to think that God is weak, or that sin is a trifling matter. See how Jesus faggers at the beginning of seeing God's wrath coming on him. He's God Almighty. He's not mocked. And don't think that sin is trifling. You may want to excuse this and that and the other thing, but your opinion doesn't matter. God is the judge and has the right to judge. And he tells us that he hates sin and will judge it. And so we are to tremble at God's wrath and then look and see Jesus, Son of God, and understand that he suffered this anguish in our place according to the will of the Father. So we are to love Father and Son. Now there are some philosophies, and they kind of appeal to me, well, a certain aspect of it. There are some philosophies that hate whatever is emotional, whatever is physical, whatever is fleshly. Some philosophies say don't be moved by circumstances, be unmoved, be detached, don't get too high, don't get too low, be the same no matter the circumstances, despite circumstances. Be strong, be stoical. I remember a point in my life when I said, yeah, that's great. I was in eighth grade, and I was on the math team, and we went to this big meet, and we came in third. We had no idea at Drexel Hill Middle School that we were going to be third. And so we went up front, and two of the four students were jumping up and down, yes! And the teacher was bouncing up and down, and my friend Andreas, he was cool. And I said, that's the way to be. Yeah, I expected to do this. So I was cool. I'm not going to get too excited about a team coming in third out of the 20 some schools here at Math House. It's that stoical thing. It can appeal to many, maybe especially to men who want to seem tough. But the Bible not only commands us to rejoice with those who rejoice, and to mourn with those who mourn. It also more memorably gives us this picture of Jesus, distressed and troubled and sorrowful to death. And so as a secondary point, don't despise emotions. Don't assume if you see a distressed or discouraged or an angry person that they must be sinning. No, don't assume that. Let me find out why they are distressed or discouraged. And as with everything else, we need to bring our emotions to God, seeking His will in the midst of our upsets, even as we have to bring everything to God. But today, our main point is to consider Christ's suffering. Listen to the early church father, Ambrose, the teacher of Augustine. Ambrose wrote, I most admire Christ when I contemplate Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. He's writing this in the face of the Stoic philosophy that says, what is this guy doing? No, he says, I most admire Christ when I contemplate Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. He took on my feelings. He experienced the affliction of my weakness. Those who are stupefied and don't feel anything, they're not praised for their fortitude. But those who endure despite the affliction, those are praised for their fortitude. And we see here the reality of the Incarnation, that Jesus truly became man. It was not a show, he was not God only, but he was the God-man. And so what we see next, beyond his great distress and trouble, we see that he prayed. Now why did he pray? He prayed both as God and as man. He prayed because he is the God-man. Because for eternity past he enjoyed unbroken fellowship with God the Father. So he continued in that on earth, going to often pray, even all nights. rising early in the morning at other times. And as man, he took on our place, he did our job, he fulfilled all that we are supposed to do. We're to pray always, and Jesus did. We're to not lose heart. Jesus continued to pray. He told us to ask and seek and knock, and so he did. And so as he saw God's wrath reaching towards him, he prayed. And his prayer was close to the Lord's prayer. Jesus is consistent. He doesn't teach us to do one thing and do something else, no. His prayer is very similar to the Lord's prayer. He taught us to pray, Our Father in Heaven, and he prayed, Abba, Father. Abba, that's from his own language of Aramaic. It's the language of respectful intimacy. It's not daddy, but it might be dad. Certainly it might be my father. And to address God in that way, only Jesus could. could authorize us to do that. And yet he does authorize us to do that. As it says in Romans 8 and Galatians 4, we also, by the Holy Spirit, can cry out, Abba, Father. The language is respectful intimacy with the Creator of all things. That word Abba, why is it left in there? It's not a reference to a band. What is it doing there? No. Yes, there are certain words that are not translated even into Greek in the New Testament. Jesus spoke Aramaic, the Holy Testament's in Greek, so most of Jesus' words that we have, they're given to us in Greek, but there's a few things that the apostles remembered so vividly that they didn't want to translate them. They just gave us the Aramaic and explained it if they had to. This was one of those times. So even in the English, we still have the Aramaic word popping up there, Abba, Father. So if you want to film it, if you want to imagine it precisely, that is precisely what Jesus would have said. Jesus taught us to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done. He himself said, all things are possible for you. That's why we pray, because all things are possible for God. And that's why we pray to God. You can pray to anyone else, but they can't hear you, and if they could hear you, they couldn't deliver on it for you. You don't become God when you die. No. Only God is God. And so we pray to God alone. Because He can deliver. And so Jesus prayed, all things are possible for you. And so on the basis of this, He went on to make His request. Remove this cup from me. That was the petition of the moment. Our petition of the moment may be give me my daily bread or forgive my sins. His petition for the moment was remove this cup from me. And he prays for what he knows is not possible because he's been talking about this, that this has to happen. And so he's praying not out of disobedience, he goes on to say, not my will but yours, but from the vehemence of the trial and the strength of his distress, Because it's not wrong to pray for afflictions to be lifted or for the church to be at peace. It's not unlawful to pray for any good thing. He prays, let this cup pass from me. We see that a jumbled emotional prayer is acceptable to God, so long as we remember who God is. So he prays, let this cup pass from me, yet not my will, but yours be done. Even as he taught us to pray, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is the other pillar of prayer. First, that God is almighty and all things are possible for him, so that's why he's the one to go to with your request. But then secondly, we must always remember that God is the one who knows how best to use his power. We honestly pray. When you pray, Lord, give me something, you're not just praying to get yourself behind God's program, although there can be an aspect to that, something of that. But we also pray because God has willed not only the ends, but also the means, and so He's often willed that He will give us something because we ask Him. And so we pray honestly, Lord, give us the thing, whatever it is that we are crying out for. May it be that you will to respond to me. Hear me as your child crying out to you. But we say we are your servants, we are your children, we submit to you. Not our will, but yours, be done. Now, someone might ask, if Jesus is God, how can He and God the Father have different wills? As in, not my will, but yours. That makes two wills. How can they have different wills? Jesus Himself is truly God as well as truly man. And the interaction of the human and the divine in Jesus is mysterious. But being truly man meant that Jesus was not just a human body with God on the inside. No. He had a human mind and a human will and human emotions. And so this is the human will speaking. It is not my human desire to go and be nailed to a cross to die. It is not my human wish to face your wrath. It's not my will in the moment. But ultimately, his human will was to win our salvation. His human will, ultimately, was to do all that God required of him. And so, sustained by his divinity, his humanity endured the trial without sin. So then, how can Jesus pray, not my will but yours? Well, he himself had two wills, the divine and the human. We've seen that the human speaks here recoiling from the horror of God's wrath, and yet, ultimately committed to obeying God the Father, to being the sinless and obedient servants of the Lord. Let us mainly focus on Christ, but as a secondary point, when you are suffering, or when you are enjoying strong emotion, this is a good time to cry out to God, and call on Him and pray, as the psalmist did, and as Job did, and as Jesus did. And don't think that prayer has to be equated with folded hands and closed eyes and whispering or thinking in your mind. No, prayer is speaking to God with reverence, speaking Abba Father when you're in trouble. And knowing that Jesus your priest understands, as it says in Hebrews chapter 5, in the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears. to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obeyed him. We see third, that the hour came. Now we covered the Apostle's failure last week. Let's keep the main focus on Jesus, but I think I must address the village atheist's objection to this passage. The village atheist's objection. Well, if they fell asleep, how did they hear what he was praying? You say, that's a silly objection. You can't fall asleep all in an instant when you want to. And so they did not all fall asleep as soon as he turned his back. This is not a cartoon, no. He went at some distance, they stayed awake a little while, they heard the beginning of his prayer, they heard the gist of his prayer, and then to their great shame they fell asleep on him anyway, which is worse than if they hadn't heard. But that is a far more plausible scenario than that they all went out like a light as soon as his back was turned. So there's no problem here with how did they hear. They were awake for a little while first. And after three times of praying and returning and waking them up, and going and praying and returning and waking them up, and going and praying and returning and waking them up, then he said, the hour has come. I'm betrayed. And they go back to the rest of the apostles just as Judas gets there with overwhelming force. He says, the hour has come. The hour it was the Father's will to crush him. That's from Isaiah. But it was God's will to crush him. That's Isaiah 53.10. It's the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. Why? Verse 6. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And so the hour came and we see that Jesus' death is absolutely necessary for your salvation. Had it been possible for the cup to pass from Jesus, That prayer would have been answered. Jesus did not die this agonizing death so that you, the human being, can have a fifth option on a menu of salvation options. If you want to go to heaven, A, B, C, D, or now Jesus gives you E, that's absurd. How would he suffer such things? So that you could pick another option off a menu of options. No, Jesus' death is absolutely necessary. It's incomprehensible and insulting. to think that it's just another option on a menu of saving options. He died because it was necessary. He died because there was no other way for our iniquities to be paid for. Either Jesus suffered these things, or all of us suffered them for eternity. And so it's by the grace of God that Jesus suffered in our place, and that he did so willingly. Not my will, but yours be done. And so even as his work is necessary, for us to be saved, so also is accepting his work. You can't know Jesus and turn your back on him and have his suffering applied to you. He preached and he said, repent and believe the gospel, and this is the gospel, that Christ died for sinners. We're to believe it and see the anguish of the soul. He suffered for believers. Believe and he suffered for you. Now remember that this was not the end for Jesus. He had just said, after I'm raised, I'll go before you to Galilee. And you see that in Isaiah 53 verse 11. After he's cut off, after his grave is made with the wicked, after he's buried with the rich man in his death, then it says, he shall see his offspring, when his soul makes an offering for sin. He shall prolong his days. It's right there in Isaiah 53. He died in the middle of the chapter, and then he's alive at the end of the chapter. This was not where he was yet. Now we see him in his anguish. And see this as well. Psalm 41 speaks of betrayal. Jesus applied Psalm 41 to Judas. He who ate my bread has lifted up his heel against me. This is that of Judas in John 13. So, an hour after quoting Psalm 41 and applying it to Judas, Now he quotes Psalm 42 and 43. We don't quite get this in the English. But in the Greek, when he says, my soul is very sorrowful, in Greek it's perilupos estin isuchimou. In Psalm 42 and 43, that refrain in the Greek is perilupos isuchimou, my soul is very sorrowful. There he is. He's using lots of words for sorrow. He uses the words from Psalm 42, Perilupos, Yisukemu. But of course, the psalm is actually part of a question. Why, my soul, are you very sorrowful? Hope now in God. And so just with the Psalm 22, Jesus quotes a totally mournful section. Later he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But the psalm ends in triumph. And here he quotes, he's in anguish, Perilupo Sisukimu, my soul is very sorrowful. But the psalm ends with hope, hope now in God. Commentator R.T. France says, it may be that Jesus' eventual acceptance of the will of his father owed something to his acquaintance with Psalm 42, where a mood of despair eventually gives way to calm trust in God, from which we see Both prayer and the word of God are a means of grace, the ordinary ways that God gives us the benefits of Jesus' suffering. In his hour of need, he himself relied on prayer and the word of God. So see and love your Savior, that he suffered this anguish in his soul for your sake. He suffered the pains of hell, the wrath of God against sin, for your sake. As the prophet said centuries before, he was crushed for our iniquities. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. So therefore he shall and is dividing the spoiled with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Let's join together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you that it was your will that we should be saved. We thank you that you so loved the world, that you gave your only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but shall have eternal life. And so we thank you, God the Father, for this great and deep love that you have for us. And we thank you, Lord Jesus, that you did every command of God for our sake. We thank you that you as the God-man fulfilled fulfilled the covenant of works for us. We thank you that you both kept all of God's commands actively. And we thank you that you also suffered all of its penalties, not for your sake, but for all those who believe in you. And so we pray, Lord, that you would deepen and strengthen our faith and our obedience to you. We praise you, knowing that there is no God like you, and that there is no salvation like that that comes through Jesus Christ, by whom our sins are paid for. And so the enmity between us and you is done away, and we have peace with you. Help us, Lord, to know this peace. And we pray, Lord, that as we see our Savior suffering, that we would see him and love him, and understand that he also sympathizes with us and our weakness, so we can always go to Jesus in prayer. And we thank you, Lord Jesus, that you live to intercede for us. So help us now and encourage us. to have much greater love for you. Help us to grow in our hope in you. Help us always to hope in God, for you are our rock and our salvation. We are eternally secure with you. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Let's turn to Psalm 43. This is the other song that has that refrain, that refrain, why are you cast down, Perilupo Sisukimu, hope now in God. So please turn to Psalm 43 and please stand to sing.