Well, Matthew 26 and verse 36. Verse 36, Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and said unto the disciples, Sit ye here while I go and pray under. And he took with them Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Tevye ye here and watch with me. And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, couldst thou not watch with me one hour? Watch, and pray, that ye enter not into temptation, The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. He went away again the second time and prayed, saying, O my father, if this cup may not pass away from me except I drink it, thy will be done. And he came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. And he left them and went away again and prayed the third time, saying the same words, that cometh he to his disciples and saith unto them, sleep on now and take your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. Behold, He is at hand that doth betray me." Customary in the month of December to preach on the birth of Christ because that is what we are celebrating this Christmas season. But we're in the Gospel of Matthew in an ongoing series on Sunday morning. It started several years ago. We've been preaching section by section through the book. I have personally loved preaching through the book of Matthew, and here's the reason why. It's because for several years now, every Sunday we have come to church and our subject has been Jesus Christ. That's what the gospel is about. So we've looked at his birth, we've looked at his baptism, we've looked at his temptation, we've looked at his preaching, his miracles, his authority. We've looked at the opposition to the King, we have looked at His disciples, every aspect of His life that is covered in the Gospels. And I honestly don't believe that it's a bad thing for every Sunday to come in and just preach about Jesus again. Because truth be told, most preaching today is man-centric. It is all focused on man. Most preaching today is how to help you to be a better man, how to solve your problems, how to deal with your emotions, how to answer your questions, how to boost your self-esteem. And there's nothing wrong with preaching to the needs and the problems of mankind, but it's not about you. It's not about me. I believe that our preaching ought to be Christ-centric, more focused on Him than upon you. Besides, the only way to be a better man is to meet the greatest man who ever lived. If you want to solve man's problems, if you want to answer man's questions, if you want to meet life's, man's needs, then introduce him to Jesus Christ and that'll take care of it. So we're in the Gospel of Matthew. We're at the end of the book, not the beginning of the book. And we're looking at the scenes that are commonly called the Passion of Christ. We looked last week at in the upper room, that upper room scene, where the Lord shares that Passover meal with his disciples. This morning we are in the garden. This is the night before the crucifixion. It is right after Jesus has eaten that Passover meal with the disciples. They have left the upper room. They've gone through the streets of Jerusalem. They have gone out what is called the eastern gate of the city. You go out that eastern gate, you go down a slope across the Temple Mount, you cross a brook called Kidron, you go back up what is called the Mount of Olives. Somewhere on the Mount of Olives there is a garden called Gethsemane. I will tell you that there is something mysterious, there is something private about Gethsemane. We understand more about Calvary than we do the anguish of Gethsemane. And what you see in Gethsemane is the humanity of Christ on full display. And sometimes we struggle with that. Oftentimes in our preaching we bypass Gethsemane and we get to Calvary, and there's nothing wrong with that, but there is something deeper, there is something spiritual, and there is something great that happens that night in Gethsemane before we get to Golgotha. Golgotha is the place of Christ's sufferings. Gethsemane is the place of Christ's sorrows. In Isaiah 53 and verse 6, the prophet wrote, he is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Interesting thing, did you know that in the Bible there is no record of Jesus ever laughing? I'm sure that he did. But there's no record of our Lord ever laughing. Do you know what the Bible tells you about the emotions of Christ? The Bible says that he sighed in his spirit, that he knew grief, that he was grieved, that he was, that he wept. He is a man of sorrows. He is acquainted with grief. And never was that sorrow more intense than in Gethsemane. Nothing can match the sorrow that surrounds him in this text. The word Gethsemane, it means olive press. The Mount of Olives was just a hillside right outside, as I said, the east side of Jerusalem. And today there is a road that goes up to it. You can drive up to the Mount of Olives and there is a scenic overlook that you can look down over Jerusalem. I have stood there. If you've been to the Holy Land, then surely you have visited there. And because land is at such a premium in Israel, they put vineyards, they put gardens everywhere. And as you drive through Israel, you will see vineyards and gardens on the hillsides, on the sides of all of these hills. Gethsemane was one of those gardens. John 18 and verse 2 tells us that our Lord Jesus went there frequently with his disciples. It's not the first time that he was there. And in verse number 36, it says that then cometh Jesus with him unto a place called Gethsemane. And he saith unto the disciples, sit ye here while I pray, go and pray yonder. He enters into the garden. There may be a gate there perhaps. He goes into the garden. He leaves his disciples behind. He says, I want you to stay here. I'm going to go and pray. And Matthew doesn't tell us at this point that the Lord told them to pray. He said, I'm going to go pray while you wait, but I think that they should have prayed anyway. The disciples were slow in recognizing that Jesus was going to die. They should have known it by now. He has told them on a number of occasions that the Son of God is going to die. And just as recently as in the upper room, He has said that I am going to die. If you'll back up to verse number 2 of the same chapter, He know that after two days is the feast of the Passover and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified. Look at verse number 31. Then said Jesus unto them, O ye shall be offended because of me this night, for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad." This is Christ's time. He has said over and over and over that I'm going to be delivered to die, and when He said that I'm going to go pray, they should have realized the seriousness of what is about to happen, and they should have been doing some praying themselves. He does tell Peter a little later to watch and pray, but he shouldn't have to tell them. Here's the thing about it, there's no indication that they did. There's no indication that they prayed any that night. So in verse number 37, He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. This is Peter, James, and John. This is the inner three. There are three times in the Gospels where the Lord takes just those three. Just those three, Mount of Transfiguration, into the house of Jairus' daughter, raised from the dead, now into Gethsemane. And oftentimes we ask questions of the Bible, which there's not supposed to be a question, there's no answer. And so the question is, why did he take just these three? And it could have been something as just as simple as he wanted companionship. Somebody suggested that he wanted their sympathy, their pity. There's no indication of that. He doesn't need their support. He would be more of a help to them than they are to Him. He takes these three into Gethsemane. So we come to this scene this morning. It's not a Christmas scene, but it is connected to Christmas. What is Gethsemane about? I'll give you three thoughts this morning, very simple. First of all, I'm going to say that it is a place of sorrow. It is a place sorrow if you look at verse number 38 or verse 37 he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and Began to be sorrowful and very heavy Then saith he unto them my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death Now I believe I believe that the Bible that I have with me this morning a King James Bible I believe that my Bible is perfect I don't believe there's any mistakes, but our church believes that. Way back in the early 1900s, there was a man that put out a study Bible, C.I. Schofield, the Schofield Study Bible. Some of you may be holding a Schofield Study Bible. King James Bible, and then a lot of study notes, excellent study Bible. I don't know, 30 or 40 years ago, they revised that study Bible, the new Schofield Study Bible, and changed some of the notes. But they did a little switcheroo when they did that. They also changed some of the text. In the New Scofield Bible, it has Jesus as, instead of exceeding sorrowful, it has Jesus as very depressed. Very depressed. Now sorrow is a natural human emotion. Depression is an emotional problem. Depression can come for no reason at all. Depression can make you feel hopeless. It can make you will feel worthless all kinds of reactions that are sinful Jesus was not depressed. He was in sorrow great sorrow Back in the early 1900s. There was a there was a a preacher named Clarence McCartney pastored the first Presbyterian Church in in Pittsburgh It was a very prolific author And Clarence McCartney, I've got a lot of his books in my library, he said that the phrase, sorrowful even unto death, was literally true. He said that one more pang of sorrow and his physical life would have given away. I don't know, I don't know if that's what it means, I don't know. But it's a very strong statement to tell you that he sorrowed as no man ever sorrowed. Some of you heard about a couple of years ago there was a Christian family in the Carolinas in a great tragedy. They had a house fire and they lost all three of their children in the fire. Some of you will remember that story. A Christian family going to church every Sunday in a tragedy and lost all three children. I can't imagine the sorrow of losing all of your children in that manner at one time. She leaned on God in that sorrow, the father became bitter. To add sorrow to sorrow, he has separated from her. I can't imagine more sorrow that that lady is going through. But no sorrow ever felt like what Jesus experienced. He's called the man of sorrows because his entire life is characterized by sorrow. It's not that just occasionally he knew sorrow, but his life, the prevailing emotion of his life was sorrow. That was the prevailing theme of his life. He's acquainted with grief as a rule of life. Sometimes that sorrow bursts forth in tears, and sometimes it comes out in sighs, and sometimes it stays hidden in the anguish of his heart, but sorrow is always there. What I want you to understand is that Jesus didn't face this as some superhero character that calmly and coolly made His way to the cross. He's the very Son of God, but what you're seeing here, He's the very Son of Man. And sometimes the humanity of Jesus is harder for us to understand than the deity of Christ. But He entered into that garden as just as much a man as you are. His deity is not diminished by His humanity, but He is fully man, fully God. He knew what He was doing. He knew what was ahead, and He anguished in His Spirit over the fact that He is about to die. In fact, I believe that his sorrow is intensified. What he felt in his humanity is intensified because of his deity. Let me explain it this way. Suppose that I was omniscient and I had knowledge of my death. Suppose that I knew that in three years, four months, and 23 days was the day I was going to die. Do you think that would be very comforting to me? I don't want to know. And the closer that I got to it, don't you know I'm counting down the days? And then the hours? Who wants to know that? That's not comforting. To have that always before you every day is one less day to always know that. But that's what he knew. He knew, he knew that he would die on a cross and he knew when it would happen. And it never left his mind. It is ever before him. And the closer that he got to it, the more sorrow and the more grief that it brought to his heart. Why was Jesus so sorrowful? Write this down if you think it's thought-worthy. Why did He sorrow? I think the defection of Judas Iscariot. One of His disciples has just defected, probably just an hour or so ago. He is betraying Him at this very moment. And Jesus, the One who is altogether lovely, who knew only goodness and righteousness and grace and mercy, is being sold out right now by a wretched traitor. The defection of Judas. Why was he sorrowful? The desertion of the leaven. He had taught them. He had comforted them. He had been with them. He had encouraged them. He had been their teacher. He had been their master. He had been their leader. He had been their friend. And by the night, by the time the night is over, every one of them will desert him. His closest companions will forsake him that very night. The desertion of the leaven. Why was he sorrowful? The denial of Peter. He's called Peter friend. He's appointed Peter. He has made Peter the leader of the disciples. He has brought Peter in more than any of the others. And before the night is over, Peter will curse three times and deny that he knows him three times. The denial of Peter. Why was he sorrowful? The disdain of men. He's getting ready to be cursed and mocked. And for all of eternity he has known nothing but the adoration of angels. He's been praised by holy creatures. He has been the exalted one, but now he will become the humiliated one. He's going to be spat upon. He's going to be made a public spectacle. He's going to be made a comedy for the Roman soldiers. He's going to be profaned by wicked men. And I wish I knew how to paint the picture, and I wish that we could sense the sorrow of the Savior. Luke adds an interesting note that says that an angel came and strengthened him. And I've often wondered, how did the angel strengthen him? He created the angel. So what did the angel do? Did the angel come and give him a message from the Father? Did the angel come and remind him of the end result? Did the angel come and talk to him about the kingdom or the glory that he had? Did the angel come and tell him about the resurrection? I don't know. It is a great sorrow. It's a place of sorrow. Secondly, it is a place of struggling. Look at verse 39. He says, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt. Verse 42, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, Thy will be done. Verse 44, he says the same word. Three times Jesus goes into the garden alone to pray. Three times he comes back to find the disciples asleep. Three times he retreats alone to pray. Some commentators say that Jesus was being tempted by Satan in the garden. that this was Satan's last stand to get to stop him before he gets to the cross. I have some verses that give me pause on that, but I do believe that Satan is there in some way. Satan is not mentioned in the passage, but I believe that he is behind the scenes. There is spiritual combat here. There may be parallel, I'll not deal with it, there may be parallel between the three temptations in Matthew 4 at the temptation and the three times that he goes into the garden to pray, and it could have been that as there were three waves of temptation there in the wilderness, that there were three waves of temptation in the garden. You'll have to figure all of that out, but there's combat here. Notice what he prays. In verse 39, Oh my Father, if it be possible but let this cup pass from me, If it is possible to redeem mankind any other way, then let it be. But if not, then let it be. This cup, not just any cup, this cup, this cup that has been given me by the hand that is extended from the heels of eternity, this cup, This cup of the everlasting covenant that was made between the persons of the triune God, this cup, this cup that the Godhead has spoken and has discussed and has planned throughout the centuries of time, this cup, this cup, this cup. What is our Lord praying? If it be possible that this cup pass from me. There was a Dutch theologian who wrote many years ago, He said that what the Lord was praying was that he would not die prematurely under the assault of Satan in the garden. Don't say Amen. He said, and for all of you preacher boys, be careful of Dutch theologians, alright? I just threw that out there. He said that if the Lord died in the garden, it would be too soon. He would not make it to the cross to purchase our redemption. And so this Dutch theologian said that Jesus suffered from Satan in the garden, but he must suffer from the hand of God on Calvary. And the essence of the prayer was that he make it to Calvary before Satan finished him off in the garden. What foolish blasphemy! There have been other commentators that said that Jesus actually accomplished redemption for all intents and purposes in the garden rather than on the cross. They say that Jesus was in great distress in the garden, but He was actually in control on the cross. As a commentator, some of you preachers will recognize Adam Clarke. Adam Clarke literally said that Jesus paid for more in the garden than in the cross. I have a verse. It's Colossians 1 and verse 20. And having made peace through the blood of His cross. His cross. He says, let this cup pass from me. That cup is a symbol of what he is to experience. When he looked into that cup, he said, oh my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. What did he see in that cup? I believe he saw sin. As Jesus is moving toward the cross, he realizes that the punishment for all the sins of the world is about to be poured out on him. And Isaiah 53 says that He, the Lord, has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. And 2 Corinthians 5 says that God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us. He will be so identified with sin that He is called sin. We have spent our entire life in this environment of sin and wickedness. We don't know anything but a sinful environment. So it doesn't shock you. It's not repulsive to you. You're not alarmed at it. But Christ came down into our midst as the sinless Son of God. Never had contact with sin. But now He's going to be made sin. He looked in that cup and He saw sin. I think He looked in that cup and He saw suffering. He knew that he was going to suffer, but then the guardian becomes very real. He knew what was coming, but the anticipation of the physical and the emotional and the spiritual pain is almost unbearable. He knows exactly what lays ahead in the hours ahead. What did he see in the cup? He saw sacrifice. As he looks into that cup, he sees the sin and the suffering. He recognizes his role as the final sacrifice. I told you last week that this is Passover. Tens of thousands of lambs are being slaughtered in Jerusalem at this very moment, this night. If you look at Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, it goes down a slope, and it slopes down to the Kidron, Brook Kidron. And historians say that all of that blood from those tens and tens of thousands of animals would seep down the hillside, and it would get into the brook, Brook Kedron, and it would make its way to the Jordan River, and that brook would literally become red with the blood of all those lambs. And Jesus Christ that night comes down and He crosses that brook, that if historians are right, it is red with the blood of all of those sacrificial lambs, polluted with all the blood of the lambs. And He knows that in a few hours, He, He is going to be the sacrificial lamb with His blood satisfying the righteous demands of God's justice. He saw sacrifice. When He looked in the cup, what did He see? He saw separation. He saw something that he had never experienced before. He would face separation from the Father when all the sins of the world are heaped upon him. He is about to experience the judgment of God. He is about to be judged for breaking the law when he has not broken any law. And he cries on that cross, my God, my God, not Father, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? God forsaken of God. He sees separation. There is a struggle. I want you to notice the third thing. It is a place of sorrow. It is a place of struggle. It is a place of surrender. Would you look at verse 39? Oh, my Father, if it be possible for this cup to pass from me, Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." There is no cowardice in those words. There is no fear. There is no regret in those words. The only thing that you read there is commitment to the will of the Father. If it is possible for there to be another way, if it is possible for there to be another way, then let it be. But if not, Your will be done. Three times He says that. There's a struggle, but there is surrender to the will. You know, I was thinking about this this morning. And I hesitate using the sufferings of Christ as an example. And I know that they are an example, but He's dying as an atonement for our sins. But I thought about that struggle that He has. Father, if it be possible, nevertheless, Thy will be done. And there's probably somebody in here tonight, this morning, and you have the same struggle, same struggle with the will of God. If it be possible, if it be possible to live another way, but here's the difference. His struggle, if it be possible another way, nevertheless, Thy will. And it could be that your struggle is if it would be possible another way, nevertheless, my will. How unlike Christ. If I could live another way, if I could do this another way, that's what I want. But if it's your will, I'm going with my will. He said, nevertheless, thy will be done. I want to do your will. If there's any other way, but this way. He says in verse number 42, all my fathers, this cup may not pass away from me except I drink it. Thy will be done. Verse 44, saying the same words. The agony was great, the sorrow was great, the dread was great, but He never said anything except, Thy will. He is not the reluctant Savior. He is not begging God to let Him out of the covenant. He is saying that for this reason I came, but if it is possible to save mankind any other way, then let it be. But if this way, if this is the only way, if this is Your will, then I am willing. I've never been satisfied with my understanding of Gethsemane. I understand it theologically. I understand it doctrinally. If you want to talk about the ransom theory or him becoming humanity, I can talk about all of that. But to experience it, to appreciate it, for it to grab your heart, there is something about Gethsemane that surpasses our understanding. There is a depth to the sufferings of Christ that you and I cannot know. We can only wonder at. There was a price paid for your sins that goes beyond anything you or I have ever realized. It's a place of surrender. I want to mention one phrase to you. I can't pass the passage without mentioning this phrase, and I've preached on it before. But I want you to look at verse 39. The Bible says, and he went a little further. He goes into the garden of Gethsemane. He leaves his disciples behind. He comes back. He gets the three disciples. He takes them a little bit farther. And then the Bible says that he went a little farther. You'll find that phrase two times in your Bible. When they've gone as far as they can, he went a little farther. Farther than anybody else. When they stopped, Well, this is as far as they can go. He went a little farther. And the thought that has grabbed my heart this week is that he's gone farther than anybody else has ever gone. For me, nobody, nobody ever went as far for me, for me, than he did. I'm almost done. How far did he go? All the way from glory. to the globe. Ain't nobody ever left heaven for me. Nobody ever took on flesh and became a form of servant for me. That's farther than anybody ever went. But I'm going to tell you something. The Incarnation alone doesn't save you. If all that you have is Him becoming a man and living as an example of being a great man, you'll die and go to hell. You're not saved by His living, you're saved by His dying. So I'm glad you went a little How far did he go? All the way from the globe to Gethsemane. Sweat as it were, great drops of blood. Agonized as no man has ever agonized. Great sorrow. Nobody has ever wept tears for me like that. Nobody has ever been in such anguish of heart. Even under death, the pangs of death, nobody has ever sorrowed for me like that. But that's as far as he goes. He'll die and go to hell. Somebody went a little farther. How far did he go? From Gethsemane to Gabbatha Pilate's Hall. The mocking and the beating and the plucking of the beard and the scourging. Nobody's ever been beaten like that for my sins. Nobody's ever suffered like that for my sins. Nobody's ever gone that far from Isis. But if that's as far as he goes, if the angels come and get him now, he'll die and go to hell. So I'm glad he went a little farther. How far did he go? From Gabbatha to Gagatha. Stretched his arms out on that cross. Gave up the ghost. surrendered his spirit to the Father and died. Hey, nobody ever died for me. Nobody's ever gone that far. But I'm going to tell you that a dead Savior can't save anybody. And if the cross is the end, you'll die and go to hell. So glad he went a little farther. How far did he go? Well, there and all the way from Golgotha to the grave. Three days, three nights. But he didn't stay there. He went a little farther. Early one Sunday morning, verse 4th came out, and today, from the grave, back to glory, sitting at the right hand of the Father, from glory to glory, interceding for me, praying for me. Nobody has ever gone that far. Sat down at the right hand of the Father, and the Father said, that's far enough. That's far enough. He did that for you. He did that for me. There is a depth, there is a richness this morning to what it took to purchase your salvation. Don't go through Christmas thinking about just a manger. Go through Christmas thinking about a cross and an empty tomb when you bow your heads for this morning. You ought to come this morning, gather around this altar and say, Lord, thank you for going that far for me, going farther than anybody else ever went for me. The great price that you paid for my sins. My sins. Thank you. She comes this morning. Folks coming around the altar. She's playing very softly. Thank you for the price. Thank you for the cross. Thank you. Thank you for the blood. Thank you for the empty tomb. Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed. Folks are praying all around the altar this morning. Have me if you can say, seated in your seat, have me if you can say, Preacher, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I'm saved. If I should die today, Heaven's my home. I know that. If you testify by raising your hand all over the building, I know I'm saved. Thank you. You can put your hands down. With nobody looking this morning, I wonder if there's somebody here that says, Preacher, I don't know that. Never trusted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. If I was to die today, I do not know that heaven is my home. But I want to know, would you pray for me? Anybody like that, would you slip your hand? I'm the only one looking. Preacher, pray for me. I'm not saved. I'm not saved. Is anybody here at this point? Anybody here? We're standing at our feet all over the building. Heaven and Father, Thank you for the sacrifice. Thank you for the price that you paid for my sins. For going all of the way. We understand the theology. We can't enter into the experience of Gethsemane. We just sit back and we marvel. We wonder at it. But it was for me. It was for me. And I thank you for it. Oh, I pray that you would help us in these weeks ahead. For our hearts every day to be filled with wonder and with worship of you. Do you realize it? It's not just a babe in a manger. It's a Savior on a cross. It's a risen Lord is what it is. Thank you for it. Thank you for it.