Now in 2004, the Hollywood star Mel Gibson released the film, The Passion of the Christ, starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus. The movie opens in the Garden of Gethsemane and chronicles the final hours of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, followed by a very brief scene of the resurrection. Due to the controversial nature of the material and the graphic violence of it, no film studio wanted to touch the movie. Finally, a small independent studio released it, but with the Motion Picture Association giving it a rating of an R rating. Despite all the buzz and all the controversy, The Passion of the Christ portrays probably the most realistic cinematic portrayal of the passion and death of Jesus ever put on film. And it's not for the faint of heart. It's nothing short of watching a brutal murder on screen. And of course, that's exactly what it was. The horrific murder of the Son of God in the hands of sinful men. And yet, while the film is moving and eye-opening and soul-stirring and sometimes even devotional at times, it's also lacking. Why? Well, because for all of the accuracy of the sufferings and the crucifixion and the detail and the death that's portrayed, the film never really answers the question, why did Jesus die on the cross? Frankly, that's a limitation of all cinematic portrayals of the Gospels. It doesn't answer that question. There's no theological information given in just a scene of a death. Furthermore, our souls are left spiritually starving because despite the images of Jesus, we're unable to behold the glory of Christ. Puritan John Owen speaks of this in his book, The Glory of Christ, which I believe there's one more copy left on the book table if you want to grab it. It's a fantastic book. But he writes about this very issue. He says, we may behold it by faith in this world or by sight in the next world. He says, no man shall ever behold the glory of Christ by sight in heaven who does not in some measure behold it by faith in this world. This is why so many are deceived, because they delight in outward images of Christ depicting His sufferings, resurrection, and glory. But by these images, they think their love for Him and their delight in Him grows more and more strong. But then Owen says, but no man-made image can truly represent the person of Christ and His glory. Only the gospel can do that. So it is only as we behold the glory of Christ by faith here in this world that our hearts will be drawn more and more to Christ and to the full enjoyment of the sight of his glory hereafter. And so starting today and all throughout the next several weeks, all the way till Easter, we will be exploring the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Gospel of Matthew. And it's by God's grace we will grow in love, affection, and thankfulness for Christ. And so if you would turn to Matthew chapter 26 this morning, Matthew 26. We consider this word passion, passion. I think it's oftentimes misunderstood. It certainly is when we talk about the religious realm. I think it's oftentimes that we think about the word passion referring to emotion, sometimes maybe erotic love or enthusiasm or zeal. But the root, the Latin root of passion has actually more to do with suffering, suffering. And while we tend to think of the peak of Christ's sufferings as taking place on Golgotha, where he's crucified, in truth, it really begins in Gethsemane. In Gethsemane, after the Last Supper, Jesus and the disciples have made their way out of Jerusalem, across the Kidron Valley, and they begin to ascend the Mount of Olives in verse 30. At this point, they make their way to a place named Gethsemane, where Jesus will experience the greatest agony he has ever known up to that point. And so we pick it up here in Matthew 26, starting in verse 36. Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane. and said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be grieved and distressed. And he said to them, my soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and keep watch with me. And he went a little beyond them and fell on his face and prayed, saying, My father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not as I will, but as you will. And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping and said to Peter, So you men could not keep watch with me for one hour? Keep watching and praying so that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, My father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, your will be done. Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. He left them again and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us be going. Behold, the one who betrays me is at hand." One of the first things that we notice about the suffering of Christ in Gethsemane is when it takes place. The timing of it all. This is not accidental. If you read the gospel narratives all together in conclusion here, the fact is that this intense suffering bookends His ministry. He suffers in the wilderness at the hands of Satan at the very beginning of His ministry, and now at the end He is suffering not at the hands of Satan, but in the hands of His Father. Again, for all this grand and divine purpose. There's a purpose for this. Again, verse 36, Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to the disciples, sit here while I go over there to pray. So here is the scene, Jesus is there with the 11 disciples, not the 12, the 11, because the 12th one, Judas, has already left. He's gone to the Pharisees for the purpose of betraying him and turning him over to death. But the remainder of them, they arrive at this place called Gethsemane. Now traditionally, this is thought to have been some sort of a garden, maybe some sort of an olive grove. Well, why? Why do people think that traditionally? Well, because Gethsemane literally means oil press. Oil press, which is why many scholars and historians believe this might have been an olive orchard, a garden that was owned possibly by a ministry friend who would have let them go and pray and spend some time together. However, historians also think that maybe Gethsemane was a large cave or a cavern. There's actually a place in Jerusalem that's marked Gethsemane that's an entrance to a large cavern. That also could be where it is. Whatever it was, we don't know, but Luke tells us that it had been Jesus' custom to go there and to spend time in prayer and in reflection. And so they arrive at this place that they've been to many times, and Jesus tells the disciples to wait just outside, that is, with the exception of three of them. To the eight, he tells these brothers to sit there while he goes over there to pray. And so they stay behind, and then the four of them, Jesus and three of the disciples, move in a little bit further. And then verse 37, Jesus takes Peter, and then he also takes the sons of Zebedee. We know that's James and John. They've been called that many, many times throughout the course of the narrative here. And the four of them proceed a little bit further. Why does Jesus split up the disciples? Why does He take only those three with Him? Why does He take Peter and James and John? We don't know specifically, but we do know that it seems as though He's the closest to those three. He would oftentimes break off and meet only with those three. At the Mount of Transfiguration, it was Peter, James, and John who were with Him. They were with Him all the time. It seems as though He was desiring close fellowship in a time of great distress. Oftentimes when we're struggling, when we're suffering, we desire those who are closest to us to be with us, to comfort us. And that may have been what's going on here. And so once settled inside, Matthew records that Jesus began to be grieved and distressed. There are two words in the Greek here used, lupeo and adamoneo. The ESV and the NIV translations render this sorrowful and troubled. sorrowful and troubled. This is more than just pensive, morose, bothered, agitated. It's not that at all. Philippians 2.26 actually uses one of those words to describe deep distress, deep distress like life and death distress. And then Jesus speaks to the disciples and tells them, my soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. Not just lupeo, grieved, but perilupos, deeply, deeply grieved. The new King James, exceedingly sorrowful. NIV, overwhelmed with sorrow. The New Living Translation, which is more of a freer translation, but I think gets to the heart of this, where Jesus says in this translation, my soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. He's not saying, I would rather die than have to go through this. That's not the sense of it. Rather, he's saying something along the lines of, I feel like my soul is dying. Intense, intense sorrow and grief. And then he tells his friends, his dear friends, remain here and keep watch with me. Keep watch renders or translates this word Gregoreo, it's referring to vigilance, being mindful but being focused and vigilant. He's not asking them to guard the gate and sort of be a lookout for trouble, rather he's asking them to cover him in prayer, persevering prayer. To use this word Gregoreo, vigilance, this really is a prayer vigil of sorts. Stay behind and just pray for me. Be mindful, watch yourselves, pray, pray, pray. And then he leaves these three men behind to go and pray and wait and he gives them an opportunity to pray for him and then they give him the space to go and meet with his heavenly father. And then verse 39 says, he went a little bit beyond them. Luke records about a stone's throw away. So he goes off a little ways, not quite out of sight, but then it says he falls on his face, prostrate, he falls on his face and he begins to pray. And this is a remarkable occurrence. This is the Son of God praying to the Father. This is God the Son and God the Father in this intimate space together, sharing this moment. And we know that while Jesus is on earth, He's constantly going to the Father in prayer. We see this all throughout His ministry. Mark 1.35 records Jesus getting up early in the morning while it's still dark and going to a secluded place to pray. Luke 3.21 tells us that even at His baptism, He's praying to the Father. Luke 5.16 affirms that Jesus would often slip away to the wilderness and pray. So this is very normal for Him to go and commune with His Father in private, by Himself. And yes, while Jesus is God incarnate, as a man, He devoted Himself to prayer. This is one of the great mysteries of what we call the hypostatic union. The two natures of Christ in one. The fact that he's truly and fully divine and yet truly and fully human, how do we understand the convergence of these natures? It is a great mystery. And yet we see the convergence of these two expressed even here. On this night, the prayers were intimate and intense and urgent. And see this in your mind's eye by faith. The father is looking down and the son is prostrate on the ground and he's crying out, deeply distressed. My father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. He addresses God as my Father. Here's the thing, Old Testament Jews, they didn't see God as their personal Father. They rendered Him as Father sort of in general, the Father of the peoples. But it wasn't a personal address. He's not my Father. And it's interesting, because even Jesus in Matthew 6 teaches the disciples to pray, our Father, but here, He's addressing Him directly, my Father. My father. But this is more than just a term of endearment. It's more than just intimacy and closeness. John 5.18, if you remember the story in your mind, Jesus heals the man at the well, at the pool, and even at that time, the Jews have a problem with him. Well, why? Because he was calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. The address of my father is an address of equality with the son and the father. This is why the Jews wanted to kill him, for blasphemy, for calling God his personal father. But that's who he is. That's the connection that they have. That's the intimacy, familiarity, but also the equality of the father and the son. And we know by virtue also the spirit. So Jesus is communing with the very God that he has been united with for an eternity. They have never not been united, ever. And so here he is in a posture of submission and he's pleading, not as God to God, he's pleading as a son. And he says, my father, if it is possible, Let this cup pass from me. Mark records that Jesus is aware that all things are possible for God. That's not the issue. He doesn't doubt the Father's omnipotence. He's not saying, well, I wonder if you're powerful enough to stop all this from happening. That's not what's on his mind. This is a humble pleading from a troubled heart, from the depths of his divinely encased humanity, from the Father to remove the suffering of the Son. Again, He's crying out as the Son, as the God-man, to remove suffering. Again, He knows why this is happening. He knows that it must happen. He's been prophesying this for three years from the Scriptures. How many times did He tell the disciples, I'm going to go away, I'm going to be delivered over to the Jewish leaders, I'm going to be crucified, I'm going to be buried, I'm going to rise the third day. How many times did He say that? He knows. He knows full well what He's about to do. But here he's experiencing the absolute worst suffering that anyone has ever endured, and certainly everything the most he's ever endured, and his heart simply can't take it. Father, let this cup pass from me. What is he asking for? What does that mean? What is this cup that he's talking about? Generally, this kind of cup is a symbol in the scriptures. It's representation of suffering. It's a bitter cup. It's a dreadful cup. But it's even more than that. It's not just the cup of affliction, the cup of suffering. In the Old Testament, the cup is one of the fierce wrath of God. Isaiah 51-17 describes the act of drinking the cup of the Lord's anger, draining it to the dregs. It's where the chalice is full of the wrath of God, and the sufferer drinks it until every last drop of wrath is consumed and taken into oneself. Jeremiah 25-15 calls this the cup of the wine of wrath. We see similar images in Psalm 75, 8, Lamentations 4, 21, Habakkuk 2, 16. Ezekiel 23, 33 calls this the cup of horror and desolation. This isn't just an uncomfortable cup. This is a vile cup that is piercing the soul and ruining the body and ruining the heart. This is not pleasant at all. This is a horror for the person who has to endure it. And obviously we know that these verses are referring to different kinds of images of judgment throughout the course of history here, but the idea here that the cup that Christ is about to drink is the full cup of God's wrath poured out against sinners. And I want to ask you, can you imagine Just in your mind's eye, can you imagine being punished by a holy God for the sins of a murderer? Of having all that guilt and all that shame and all that vileness of murder placed not on the murderer, but on yourself. Can you fathom that? Can you imagine being punished by God for the sins of a serial rapist? or the sins of a genocidal dictator like Stalin or Hitler. What would that feel like? Would that terrify you? Now imagine being punished for every sin that has ever been committed. Not just the sins of the whole life of one person, every single person. Every sinner. And then add to that layer to the fact that Jesus Christ himself has never known sin. It's not as though he had it coming. He doesn't even know sin in and of himself experientially because he's perfectly righteous. He's innocent. Even the sight of sin hurts him and defiles him. He's never known it. See, for as excruciating as the execution on the cross would be, it is nothing in comparison to the pain and the suffering of the vengeful hand of Almighty God against him, crediting to him the sins of us all. I can't comprehend that. I've been wrestling with this all week. How does a person endure that? And yet the Bible says that Jesus would be pierced through for our transgressions. He would be crushed for our iniquities. He would become sin for us, even though he himself knew no sin. Why? So that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And so every time we confess our sins to God, when we go to Him in our private prayer closet and say, Lord, forgive me of this vile sin, He removes it from us, and we feel the relief. He places it on Jesus. And Jesus felt the weight of every one of those sins in the garden of Gethsemane, weighing down on Him and crushing Him into the ground. He felt the pain of it, He felt the guilt of it. It ruined Him. When he considered being punished for every single murder, every single blasphemy, every slander, every abuse, every adultery, every sexual assault, every rape, every injustice, every enslavement, every theft, what did it do to him? Luke records that being in agony, he was praying fervently and his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground. So intense was Jesus's agony that his capillaries under his skin literally began to burst and he began to sweat blood. This is a real medical condition, by the way. This actually can happen to a person. That was the intensity of his suffering. He'd never been through that before. He'd never seen that before. And yet, In the throes of intense human suffering, Jesus never lost sight of his perfect devotion to the will of the Father. All throughout his ministry, Jesus did not do what he wanted to do. but he submitted himself to the Heavenly Father. John 12, 49, Jesus declared of his preaching ministry, he says, for I did not speak on my own initiative, but the Father himself who has sent me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. Everything I say is from the Father in submission. John 14, 31, Jesus affirmed, so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly what the Father commanded me. I don't deviate one iota. I don't take a step off the Father's plan. Even in his high priestly prayer in John 17, which was just moments before Gethsemane, Jesus uttered, everything you have given me is from you, for the words which you gave me, I have given to them, to the disciples. And they have received them and truly understand that I came forth from you and they believe that you sent me. Over and over again, Jesus acted in perfect submission to the divine will. And even though in his humanness he desired to escape the suffering of incurring the full cup of God's wrath, he testified in verse 39, yet not as I will, but as you will. Beloved, behold the perfect obedience of the Son. Do you see it in your mind's eye? Do you see His obedience by faith? In the face of unimaginable agony, He displays impeccable righteousness. He never deviates even a hair off the path. Now at some point in the evening, He returned to the three disciples that He left behind. In verse 40 says that when he made his way over to them, he found them sleeping. They're sleeping. Why would these men be sleeping? Well, certainly it's late at night, yes. But Luke tells us that they become so overwhelmed with sorrow of the moment that they all passed out. This is not an uncommon coping mechanism for dealing with stress, to just become so overwhelmed that your body shuts down and you just pass out, you fall asleep. But Jesus rebukes them for this, and he addresses Peter, who only moments ago told Jesus, I'm gonna follow you to prison, I'll follow you to death. I'll lay down my life for you. But he can't even stay awake to pray for the Lord? Only moments later. So Jesus remarks, so you men could not keep watch of me even for one hour? I'm over there. Bearing the weight and the pain and the guilt of sin of the world and you can't even stay awake to pray for me And so he exhorts them in verse 41 Keep watching and praying so that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak he report he repeats the importance of vigilance the same word Greg oreo keep watching and Keep watching and praying. Why? Why must they keep watching and praying? So they do not enter into temptation. And what would be the temptation? Well, in this case, it is their temptation to fall away from faithfulness to Jesus and cowardice. But this exhortation is not only for the need of the moment. Yes, it certainly is for the need of the moment, but there's more there. He's seizing on this opportunity to instruct the disciples one more time. He's given them marching orders because it's about to be very intense. The next 12 hours are gonna be unlike anything they've ever seen before. It's nothing the world has ever seen. So he tells them, you guys need to keep your head on a swivel, watch out, keep watching and pray that you don't enter into temptation. Yes, your spirit might be willing, but your sinful flesh is very weak. Peter would have remembered this sentiment later on in 1 Peter 5, 8. He tells the church of the dispersion, be sober of spirit, be on alert, keep watching, stay awake. He says, because your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Well, what's the, The method of resisting him, what do you do? He says resist him, be firm in your faith. Be firm in your faith, resist the devil and he'll flee from you. That's even for us right now. What do you do when temptation comes on? What do you do when you're being led into sin? You resist. You resist, you keep watching and you pray. And again Jesus tells us the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. This sounds an awful lot like what Paul struggles with in Romans 7. Just listen to this. Paul, the apostle, he writes, For the good that I want I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I find the principle then that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good, the Spirit is willing. But I find a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. And then Paul says, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death? Well, who is it? It's the one who's suffering in the garden. The one who's bearing the weight of Paul's wretchedness. and bearing the weight of our wretchedness. That's who's the one who's gonna deliver us from this body of death. And so Paul understood this, this juxtaposition, and that's the constant struggle of the Christian life, isn't it? Don't you feel that? Oh Lord, I wanna do what's right. I wanna honor you. I wanna be faithful. I wanna be obedient. I wanna please you, oh Lord. And yet I'm encased in this rotten flesh that just keeps on leading me into sin. It's like there's this, there's another person inside of me. And my flesh wants to do what Satan wants, and I wanna do what you want. And I'm stuck in the middle of this battle and I feel so wretched. Who's gonna help me? Well guess what? You're not gonna pull yourself up for all your bootstraps. The struggle of the Christian life is not, well, just do better, be stronger, work harder. That's not how we grow. It's not how we're victorious in the Christian life. We can't rely on ourselves. I'm not a good enough Christian to be a Christian, and neither are you. We must stay vigilant, keep watching over our life, and then what do we do, beloved? We pray. We pray, what is prayer? It's pleading with the Father to help us. Lord, I know that you're able, you can do all things, help me. It's dependence on God, it's reliance on God. We think we're so great. Here's the problem, we think we're so great we can't even stop sinning. And yet we know that with God all things are possible. God is able to help you. God is able to free you. God is able to forgive you and save you and redeem you and restore you and use you for His glory. He does it all the time. But when we do things in our own power, we fall. When we lean and depend on Him, that's what's more useful to Him. And so that's what we do, we stay vigilant, we keep watch, we pray. After all, Jesus instructs us to pray, keep us from temptation and deliver us from evil. Our spirit may be willing, but our flesh is weak. At this point, Jesus goes back. He goes back away from the disciples and he goes back to his intense time of prayer. Verse 42. Verse 42. He went again a second time and prayed, saying, My father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, your will be done. This is much of the same prayer as he was praying before. Again, while he shudders at the idea of suffering to drink from this cup of wrath, he knows that it cannot pass away and will not pass away unless he drinks from it. He has to do it. There's no other way. Who else could do it? Who else is gonna go and drink the full cup of God's wrath on our behalf? Could anybody do it? Adam couldn't do it. Moses can't do it. Abraham can't do it. Paul can't do it, Peter certainly can't do it, you and I can't do it. Who else is gonna drink from the full cup of God's wrath to assuage the mighty hand of God against sinners? Hebrews 5, seven through eight tells us that in the days of his flesh, he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one who was able to save his soul from death and he was heard because of his piety. his righteousness, his holiness. And although he was a son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered. That's a question I've been asking for years. How, what does it mean for Jesus to learn obedience through what he suffers? How does he do that? Well, here's how I have it figured out in my head. When we do something we love, It is not out of obedience, it's out of joy. You don't have to obey if it's something you love to do, right? What is there to obey? You're just doing it. But what about when God calls you to do something you don't want to do? It is not pure joy at that point. You don't do it because you like it, it's pleasing to you, it's exciting to you. When God calls you to do something that every bone in your body does not want to do, that's when obedience is tested. This is where Jesus was tested. Because even though his divine mind, his divine heart, desired to obey the Father to the nth degree, nothing in his flesh, his humanness, desired to suffer being forsaken by the Father. I don't wanna be forsaken by you, I love you. I'm the only one, Jesus would say, who actually can say I love you. I don't want you to turn your back from me, nothing in me wants that. And yet, he submitted himself and he confessed to his father, your will be done. If you want me to suffer, and if you are gonna turn away from me and forsake me as your son, then your will be done and I will endure it. This is what it was doing to him. He had never, ever known a time, a microsecond where he was not in communion with the triune God. He had never known this. He didn't want this. And yet, the Bible says it pleased the Son to obey the Father. His desire to obey and submit was greater than any human feelings He would have had. Hebrews 12-2 says that Jesus, who is the author and perfecter of faith, for the joy set before Him, Listen to that word, for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now sat down at the right hand of the Father. It was Christ's joy to obey the Father. It was His joy to give His life for us. It was His joy to defeat the powers of hell and sin and death and reign victorious. That's the joy. The suffering's not the joy. What it accomplishes is the joy. That's why James says, consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials. Why? Knowing the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result that you might be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. It's not the pain that's good, it's the joy of knowing that you're growing in your faith, you're relying on God. He's using it for a purpose. And that is Jesus' trial. He sees the end. He sees what this is going to accomplish. He sees the millions and millions and millions of sinners saved because of his one act of obedience. He saw you and me in that garden and he looked at you dead in sin and your salvation brought him joy. It pleased him, not because of the pain, But because the joy set before him and he knew that joy would not come until he endured the cross and the wrath of the father. And so he declared, father, your will be done. I can't fathom. The love and devotion of the son of God. Do you love him more beloved? Does your heart understand what he's done for you? Do you see his glory? The perfect son of God to give his life as a ransom for you. Let it produce thankfulness in your heart. And yet he returns. Verse 43, again he came and found them sleeping because their eyes were heavy. And what did he do? He says, he left them again. And he went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing. Three times, Jesus entreats the Father. This reminds us of even the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, who entreats the Lord three times. And what is the divine response to Paul? My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. This is where Christ was at His most weakest point, pleading with the Father to spare Him. and yet wholeheartedly committed to obeying him to the very end. Verse 45, Jesus returned a third time and he found the disciples sleeping again, again. And he asked them, why are you still sleeping? Some translations render this almost a declaration, a statement. So you're sleeping again, so go ahead and sleep. My goodness, you're sleeping again. But here's the thing, before the disciples even fell away, they faded away. They were already falling away before they left him. But time is running short. And Jesus tells them, behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. The time for conflict is over. He is resolved. Gethsemane has done its job. He's learned the obedience by what he's suffered. He's ready to go. In only a matter of hours, Jesus is going to be nailed to a cross and he's going to suffer the full wrath of God meant for sinners. He's going to pay for the sins of his people. And with that, he rouses the disciples in verse 46. He tells them, get up. Get up, let us be going, behold, the one who is coming to betray me is at hand. And verse 47 tells us before he even finished speaking, Judas arrived with soldiers to arrest him. And so there was no stopping it now. Jesus is headed for the cross. Do you know who didn't have to go to the cross to pay for sin? Peter and James and John. The apostles didn't have to go to the cross to pay for sin. The church throughout history did not have to go to the cross to pay for sin. You and me, we did not have to go to the cross to pay for sin. Why? Because Jesus suffered in the place of sinners so that we could have eternal life. So what do we do? How do you repay that? How do you make that right? How do you say, oh Lord, it's okay, I'll do this for you. We can do nothing. So what must we do? The Bible says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. Repent of your sins. Turn away from your sins. It is not an act of works. It's an act of obedience to say, Lord, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight, forgive me. And when he forgives you, again, he removes the transgression from your back and places it onto the back of his beloved son. And on his back, that sin dies and is taken away from ever. For as far as the east is from the west, he has removed our transgressions from us. And so even though our hearts break to behold the sufferings of Christ, there is also with that heart brokenness over that, there is also a joy because beloved, you don't have to carry the guilt of your sin anymore. You will never have to go to Gethsemane to bear the weight of that. If you forsake Christ, then you will receive the full cup of God's wrath for your sins when you die. But if you come to Christ, and if you're in Christ by faith, if He's yours, beloved, then you'll never have to experience that. And as soon as you sin, you can confess, and you can be forgiven, and it can be removed, and you can praise and glorify the Lord and say, Lord, thank you. Thank you for alighting my burden. Thank you for removing transgression. Thank you for withholding and subsiding with your wrath against my sin. Thank you for loving me and treating me as a son or a daughter. Thank you for seating me in the heavenly places with Christ. Thank you for redeeming me and restoring me. Thank you for lifting me up with wings like eagles. Thank you for deliverance. Thank you for salvation. And what do you do in response? You worship him. You praise him. You thank him. You serve him with whatever you have. Not because it's a payment. It's a gift. It's an offering. Lord, I love you. I have nothing to bring. Nothing of value. And so everything I have is yours. You made me. You redeemed me. You're taking me home. all because of Christ. Let's pray. Oh Lord, even to read the scriptures and to interpret with our own thoughts and our own mind and my own words, it does not do justice to the reality of what took place on that night. Lord, we can only see you by faith. We can only see you in our mind's eye. We read your words. Your spirit bears witness to the truth of them. You impress them on our conscience. You stir us in our affections. And we behold you by faith. But Lord, we know that there is coming a day, one day, when we will see you not by faith alone, but we will see you by sight. Our renewed and glorified eyes will open one day in heaven and we will behold your countenance, your face, your beauty, your glory. We will see you with cleansed eyes and we will behold the one who saved us. We will behold the one who suffered for us and for the joy that was set before you Yes, you endured the cross. Yes, you despise the shame. But we will see you seated at the right hand of the Father in glory and power. And we will fall down on our face with tears of joy, praising you. And yet, Revelation says you will wipe every tear from our eye. And you will lift our gaze. And you will welcome us home. Oh Lord, help us to endure to the end. Help us to keep watch and to be prayerful and to be vigilant. Help us to crucify the flesh and help us in mind, body, and heart to follow after you. Not our will on this earth, but to open our eyes and our hearts to follow your will. We pray this, oh Lord, in earnestness. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.