We come today to the last in this series on prayer, and we've been looking at the prayers of various individuals in the scriptures, and we began back in the book of Genesis, and today, of course, it seems most appropriate that the prayer that we would be considering today is the prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane, since this is Easter week. So read with me in Mark 14 and verses 32 to 42. And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, sit here while I pray. And he took with him Peter and James and John and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch. And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba, Father, things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me, yet not what I will but what you will." And he came and found them sleeping and he said to Peter, Simon are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy and they did not know what to answer him. And he came the third time and said to them, are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough. The hour has come. The son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand. Well, these are of course very familiar words and they recount one of the most graphic and sublime moments in the entire life and ministry of our Lord Jesus. Other Gospels will tell you that Jesus and the disciples in this final week that led to his crucifixion on the Friday, that during this final week they went to the Mount of Olives every evening. So there was a pattern now that had developed perhaps over the course of a number of days allowing perhaps Judas, as Jesus' betrayer, an opportunity to locate the geographical area where Jesus might be found and arrested. Now, I want us to think about this prayer, and I want us to think about four things that are in this passage. The first thing in verse 32, they went to a place called Gethsemane and he said to his disciples, sit here while I pray. So the first word is intercession. That Jesus prays And who is it exactly who is praying here? Well, it is Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, but it is Jesus incarnate in his humanity. The humanity of Jesus begins in the womb of the Virgin Mary. His humanity is not eternal. It has a It has a starting point, it is a created thing in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the Apostle John would say. That Jesus prays. What is prayer? Well, prayer is an expression of our weakness. Prayer is an expression of our dependence. Prayer is an expression of the fact that we are in need, that we cannot accomplish what it is that we desire by our own strength or by our own desire or by our own scheme. We need another, one more sovereign, one more powerful to do for us what we cannot do ourselves. So prayer has as its very definition a sense of frailty, a sense of weakness. And Jesus is praying. This is a testimony to the fact that Jesus really is incarnate. He's praying as a human being, he's praying as God's representative man, as the second Adam, as the last man in our room and in our stead, but he's in a place here in Gethsemane where he is in need and he prays. You notice a little further In verse 36 he refers to God, God the Father, he refers to Him as Abba, Father. This is the Son speaking to His Father, and He calls Him Abba. You remember when He taught the disciples to pray, He taught them to pray, saying, Our Father who art in heaven. And there is a sense here in which Jesus is coming before the Heavenly Father in precisely the same way as you and I might come before our Heavenly Father in our need. And Jesus is coming as the sinless one. Because he has never sinned. He has never fallen short of God's glory. He has never broken any of God's commandments. He does not have original sin, and he has not committed any sin, but he is in a relationship of dependence, and he comes before his Heavenly Father and calls him Abba, Father, like you do, like I do on a daily basis. We do not have an high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. but was in all points tempted like us we are, yet without sin? Do you have needs? Do you feel something that weighs down upon you like a great burden? And you must, well, you must express it, you must release it, you must say to yourself, I need to talk to my heavenly Father about this. Well, so does Jesus. He is our sympathizing high priest. He is our elder brother who draws near to us. The intercession of Jesus. And then secondly, and let's look at verse 35. We'll come back to verse 34 in a second and verse 33, but let's drop down to verse 35 I want to see a second thing going a little farther He fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible and so on and and you notice what he has done in verse 33 He took with him Peter and James and John and then verse 35 and going a little farther. So there were 11 disciples Judas isn't there Judas is left. Remember he left in the upper room and So Judas isn't there, so there are 11 disciples, and now three of them are separated, these three in the inner circle of the disciples, Peter and James and John, and then as almost as though Jesus is stationing his troops. It almost has that quality about it. And the eight disciples are here, and the three disciples are here, and Jesus isolates himself. He goes a little further. If the first word was intercession, the second word is isolation. Because visually, it's almost as though, as Mark relates this account, there is something about what Jesus is doing that only Jesus can do. There is none other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved. I am the way and the truth and the life, and no man comes unto the Father but by me. So what is taking place here is not some cooperative venture on the part of Jesus and his disciples. His disciples are there, and he needs them there, and he needs them there almost as though Jesus needs the fellowship and friendship of companions. Indeed, Mark, when he first introduces The section in which Jesus calls the disciples to himself at the very beginning of the Gospels, Mark tells us that Jesus chose these disciples in order that they might be with him. And that's all he says. suggesting that Jesus needed social companionship. He needed friendship. It is not good for man to be alone. And I don't want to tread on toes and emotions, but the pain bereavement and the sense of loneliness that often accompanies it, and here is a testimony that even Jesus himself needed friends and companions. Even in his hour of need, and perhaps especially in his hour of need, he needed the companionship of three particular friends, Peter, James, and John. And yet, and yet, There is something about what he has to do that only he can do. And so physically he isolates himself a little farther from these three and from the other eight. If the first word is intercession and the second word is isolation, the third word is anticipation. Let's pick it up in verse 33. He took with him Peter and James and John and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. He began to be greatly distressed and troubled. These words, distressed and troubled, they're strong words in Greek. They're saying that there is something that is happening to Jesus in anticipation of what events are now unfolding and the consequences of these events that cause him to be distressed and troubled. And there are words that speak of his emotional makeup. There are words that address almost the faculty of his psyche. It's almost as though Mark is saying he's at the point of becoming unhinged. This is Jesus we're talking about. Now don't address, don't come to this passage with a preconceived sort of idea. Jesus is the Son of God. He's the second person of the Trinity. All is safe and secure. He knows the end from the beginning. This is a statement about the incarnate Jesus. With a human mind and a human psychology and human affections and a human body. that is frail and capable of pain and suffering and death and within a few short hours that trajectory that will lead to his death and crucifixion will transpire and Jesus is anticipating it here. Now my understanding here of the human mind and affections of Jesus is that he grew. Remember Luke tells us very clearly on two occasions in the Gospel of Luke that he grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and with men. And Luke makes that statement about Jesus as a little child and it's just before they went into Egypt and he's probably older than you think he is. He's probably two or two and a half when that event takes place. Christmas cards and stuff have confused all of that. But the Magi and the fleeing to Egypt was at a later stage than the birth in Bethlehem. He was probably two. And then when he was 12, when you remember Joseph and Mary are on their way home and they can't find him and they have to go back to Jerusalem. And on that occasion, Luke says, he grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and with men. And therefore, I understand here that as Jesus thought about his identity, as he thought about what it is that he was to accomplish on behalf of his heavenly father, as he read and memorized the scriptures, as he meditated on passages like the suffering servant passages in Isaiah 53, for example, that he has just quoted in the upper room when he had distributed the cup and said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for many. And that term, for many, is a term that comes right out of that fourth servant song in Isaiah 53. As Jesus thinks about these things, there is a growth and an accumulation. And perhaps there's an awareness of the consequences of what it means to be the Savior that is altogether new. to him here in Gethsemane. And as he anticipates it, as he thinks about it, as he meditates on it, he almost becomes unhinged. He is greatly distressed and troubled. And what does he say? He said, my soul is very sorrowful, even unto death. And then later, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Now the Gospels put it in a slightly different way. And it's, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. But in Mark's Gospel, it's more of a command. Remove this cup from me. I think we're meant to read that as a genuine statement of the incarnate Jesus in the face of the horror of what lies before him. And it's not just that he's going to die. After all, We know of Christians who have died with total equanimity, with a total sense of peace. They've gone to their deaths proclaiming with absolute assurance the love of the Father for them and their willingness to yield to whatever God's will was without ever saying, Lord, I don't want to die. So why is Jesus saying, remove this cup from me? Because this is a unique death. It's not just dying. It's the cup. What does the cup mean? In Old Testament prophecy, the cup. The cup in the Old Testament was always the cup of God's wrath, God's anger. God's anger towards sin, God's anger towards the rebellion of His people. It was that cup. And Jesus is anticipating here His death as a substitute for sinners. That sin, the sins of His people will be reckoned to His account. And later, on the next day, He will cry, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It's that that he's anticipating. He's never known a moment where the heavenly Father's embrace and love and fellowship hadn't been the source of all his comfort and joy. But now he's anticipating a moment when all of that will be taken away. And he says, remove this cup from me. Imagine for a moment that the father had answered that prayer. What if the father had answered his son's prayer, remove this cup from me? What would have been the consequence? You understand what the consequence would be? You and I would not be saved. You and I and no one else would be saved because there is none other. There is no name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved. If the father had answered that prayer of his son, we would be all together lost. I imagine, and this is not in the Bible, I imagine that the angels in heaven held their breath in anticipation of what it is that the Father would do in answer, in response to this prayer of Jesus. Don't read this passage too quickly. Let that sink in. Remove this cup from me. Yet, not what I will, but what you will. And there it is. The absolute Willingness on the part of Jesus to to yield to his father's will Because he had he had come he had been born He was incarnate for the purpose of serving the will of his heavenly father. He had come to be the Messiah He'd come to be the Savior There was a moment In the humanity of the Lord Jesus, there was a moment in the incarnate life of the Lord Jesus when the cost of saving you and me caused Him to shudder. And to almost say, almost say, I don't want to do this. cannot do this. And therefore there's an expression here of the immensity of the love of the Lord Jesus, let alone the love of the Heavenly Father who looked down as it were and beheld and heard these words of His dear Son. For God so loved the world that that He gave His only begotten Son. And the Son so loved His people that despite His inclination at this moment, He yielded to the will of His Father and said, not my will, but yours be done. If the first word is intercession and the second word is isolation and the third word is anticipation, the fourth word, and you see it there in verse 42, the fourth word is resolution. Rise. Let us be going. We'll pass over the disciples and their sleeping Don't be too hard on them. You and I would probably have done exactly the same. It's in the dead of night, after a long and emotional week, let alone a long and emotional day. But in verse 42, there's something, well, there's something of a calm and there's something of a resolution. The struggle is over. The struggle, you see, didn't take place on Calvary. The struggle took place in Gethsemane. This is where the struggle took place. And as you now read the narrative that leads to the crucifixion of Jesus, there is something of a resolution. Jesus is resolved to doing the will of his Heavenly Father. Rise, let us be going. The verb that's implied here in Mark's gospel, in John's gospel, the verb is a military verb. As though John is suggesting that in rising and going to meet his betrayer and his enemy, he's going into battle. And he was, of course. to spoil principalities and powers and make a show of them openly, triumphing over them in the cross. The reason John will tell us, the reason the Son of God came into the world is to destroy the works of the devil. There are greater things afoot here than Judas. He wrestles against principalities and powers, and now he goes to meet and engage his foe, filled by the Holy Spirit, upheld by the loving embrace of his heavenly Father, knowing, for he has already anticipated it, that his Father must withdraw that fellowship when sin will be reckoned to his account. Well, this is Gethsemane, and this is the prayer of Jesus. It's not a prayer, it's not a prayer that's really meant for us to mimic, I don't think. I don't think the application is pray like Jesus, because there's something almost altogether unique about this prayer. This is Jesus' prayer for us. for himself and ultimately for us. And so as we anticipate Good Friday, before we anticipate Easter morning, reflect a little today, will you, this afternoon? on the immensity of the struggle that went on in the human soul of the Lord Jesus to fulfill the obligation that had been laid upon him as the mediator. For you. For me. Father, we thank you. Thank you for your Son. Thank you for the Lord Jesus. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for the sheep. Father, we thank you. Thank you as we think about the way in which you and the Holy Spirit upheld and strengthened the Lord Jesus there in the Garden of Gethsemane. For we do realize, yes, Lord, we do realize that had you answered that prayer of Jesus in the way in which it was first asked, we would be altogether lost and undone. So we thank you today for the resolve of the Lord Jesus to follow your will no matter what, and grant, Lord, that from within us there would arise a wellspring of praise and gratitude and adoration and loving and devoted and obedient service for our King. And hear us, we ask it all. In Jesus' name, amen.