Well, this morning we're returning to our study in the Gospel of Matthew. We took a bit of a lengthy break to consider our Lord's final teaching to his disciples, that final lengthy teaching, what we sometimes refer to as the Upper Room Discourse, recorded for us in John chapters 14 through 16. In that final bit of discipleship training, Jesus was encouraging his eleven disciples, remember Judas had already gone out from them in chapter 14. And it really is a precious time between the Lord and his apostles, an intimate time filled with the promise of joy and peace. He assured them of his love for them, of the Father's love them, of the power of the Holy Spirit that would come upon them at Pentecost and would comfort them and bless them and equip them for ministry. He explained to them that despite the real opposition that they will face in the world, there's the promise he'll be with them. He will be with them in the power of the Holy Spirit so he can promise, I will not leave you as orphans. The passage is packed with soul-stirring assurances that finally reach the crescendo in John 16.33. this triumphant promise. These things I've spoken to you, that in me you may have peace, in the world you'll have tribulation, but be of good cheer." I've overcome the world. Jesus will be totally victorious. Yes, he's telling his disciples there will be hardships and burdens, but he promises his disciples he has overcome the world. If I can simply say it this way, in all of human history there's only one true victor, and that's the Christ of God, and if we're in him then we too are victorious overcomers. These really are deep and delightful encouragements. Just hours before we go to the cross, he's lovingly pouring himself into his disciples. Now they're going to sing a hymn, and they're going to depart from the upper room, and they're going to leave for the Mount of Olives. And in a private garden, Jesus will pause with his disciples and we're going to encounter an astonishing change of tone. In the upper room, Jesus poured himself into his disciples. In the garden, he's going to pour himself out before his Father. In the upper room, the mood was characterized by joyful anticipation. In that garden, the mood is characterized by our Lord's own soul-crushing sorrow. In the upper room, he had bequeathed peace to his disciples. In this garden, Jesus is in turmoil, knowing what he'll have to do on Calvary to secure that peace. It's a stunning change of tone and one we want to explore this morning. But before we do, let's seek the Lord's blessing on the reading and proclamation of his word. Let's pray. Father, how we do bless your name. From our inmost being we bless your name. We pray, O God, that that same Spirit that works from within us, the Spirit that worked in men of old to record Holy Scripture, that Spirit would bring these truths into us and transform us and help us to see and understand the Gospel even more clearly. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, let me ask you please to open up your copy of God's Word to Matthew 26. Just so you know, did you hear my iPad beep earlier? I apologize, but it was reminding me I'm meeting Anne tomorrow at 10 o'clock, so it's basically her fault. Matthew 26, Matthew 26 and we're going to read verses 36 through 46. Give your attention now to the holy and infallible reading of God's Word. Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane and said to his disciples, sit here while I go and pray over there. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and he began to be sorrowful. and deeply distressed. Then he said to them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death, stay here and watch with me. He went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed saying, oh my father, if it's possible, let this cup pass for me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, What? Could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak. Again a second time he went away and prayed, saying, O my father, if this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it, your will be done. And he came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. So he left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then he came to his 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. Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand. There ends the reading of God's holy and inspired word. May he bless it to our hearts this morning. Dearest congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, The passage we just read is like one of those tragic scenes that immediately grabs your attention, but then the shock of it forces you to look away. And then you try to look again, but only for a moment, because once more you have to avert your eyes. And then slowly you're drawn to focus your gaze on what's right before you. you can't look away. You're astonished and captive by what you see, even if you can't fully explain it, you're drawn to it. And I think that describes the scene in which we see Jesus in agony, Dear old brother Spurgeon described the scene in this way, here we come to the Holy of Holies concerning our Lord's life on earth. This is a mystery like that which Moses saw when the bush burned with fire and was not consumed. No man can rightly expound such a passage as this. It's a subject for prayerful, heartbroken meditation more than human language. Of course Spurgeon went on to preach in human language. D. A. Carson said of Gethsemane, as his death was unique, so also is his anguish, and our best response to it is hushed worship on our knees. The reason these men speak as they do is because there's something about Gethsemane and looking in on all the deep, deep anguish of the Lord Jesus' soul that almost makes us blush. So we're looking at a scene we have no right to see. But indeed, it's in God's Word to teach us, so look, we must. One of the things we're confronted with in this passage, in the most vivid ways, the genuine frailty of our Lord's human nature. And we can say that that frailty is on display in this scene, in this historical account, in ways that it wasn't previously recorded for us. Yes, we know he was born of a woman, that he was laid in a humble manger. We know he grew up with a true body and soul, that he experienced everything in life that we experience except sin. We know he got hungry, he got thirsty, he got tired, we know he wept when people who were near and dear to him died. But here our Lord seems so exposed, so vulnerable, in a way that it seems to almost take your breath away. It's a disposition of Christ we haven't seen in him. And if you remember our study of Matthew, we've learned so much about Jesus, about his active ministry. We've seen him do amazing things. He's forgiven sin. He's healed the sick. He's cast out demons. He's raised the dead. He's walked on water. He's calmed the seas. He's fed thousands with five loaves and two fish. He was transfigured in glory and had a conversation Moses and Elijah. He amazed the crowds with his profound teaching. He boldly confronted the religious leaders for their hypocrisy during his day. He demonstrated compassion, he had been authoritative, and without a doubt he had been fearless. But here in Gethsemane it's different. The Savior's in deep distress. He's experiencing overwhelming sorrow and agony. And here's the question we have to ask. Why here? Why now? What's on the Lord's mind that has caused Him so much anxiety? mean it's not as though this is the first time he's contemplated his death. All the way back in Matthew 16 21, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third day. And at least three other times he's told the disciples what awaited him in Jerusalem. This wasn't new news. So again, why now? What is it that's so powerfully affecting the Lord of glory? That's what we're gonna meditate on this morning. And then next time we gather together, which will be in two weeks, we're gonna look at this passage and see what it teaches us about waiting and praying. But this morning, we're gonna focus on why this change of disposition. So Jesus had led his disciples to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover during the celebration. Christ instituted the Lord's Supper in a dramatic way to show his disciples that he was the one true Passover lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Something you want to keep in mind, in the back of your mind at least, that when the Lord instituted the Lord's Supper, one of the things he put in their hands was the cup of blessing. And as I mentioned, he spoke tender and precious words throughout that time in the upper room. He was preparing them for what was about to take place, namely his arrest, the various trials he will stand, his being charged guilty, and then his crucifixion. And he's preparing them because they must continue the work of the ministry. That's what they were called to do. So they left the upper room. He led his disciples along a road north of the temple. They traveled outside the city walls to the east across from the Brook Kidron. They would have continued to a point where the road divides into three branches all leading to the Mount of Olives. And it was there at this fork in the road that there was a garden called Gethsemane. The word Gethsemane means oil press. This was probably a small enclosed garden used to harvest and press the olives from the Mount of Olives. We know it was fairly common for Jesus and his disciples to get away to this garden area, and Jesus goes to that garden on this particular night for two reasons. One, because he knew Judas had gone to get the authorities to arrest him, and this would be an easy place to be found, and he wanted to be found. That was the plan. That was God's plan. But the other reason he went there was to pray and to prepare himself for the immense suffering he was about to endure. When they arrived at the garden, he told his disciples in verse 36, you men sit here while I go and pray over there. So we've got the eleven disciples told, sit in this particular spot, and then in verse 37 he tells Peter and the sons of Zebedee, who would be James and John, but you three, you come with me. This was his inner circle. These three had been at the Transfiguration. They may very well have been Jesus' closest friends. They'd been privileged to get a glimpse of his divine glory, and now these three friends given the privilege to glimpse the frailty of his humanity, a privilege that they will squander on account of drowsy eyes. Jesus and the three proceed a short way in the garden. notice what it says there at the end of verse 37, and he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. We know they didn't go too far because John's Gospel account tells us they were only a stone's throw from the other disciples, but as they took those few steps you can almost envision the Lord's legs feeling to him heavier and heavier and like he was carrying a great weight on his shoulders. The pressure's mounting and becoming almost unbearable. And then he finally explains to his three friends in verse 38, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with me. So Jesus begins to explain to his friends that the burden he's carrying is so great, it's crushing him. It feels like it's killing him. And he wanted those closest to him to be with him and to comfort them, to share in this in some sense. And so Jesus said, just please remain with me and stay awake for me. Let me insert something here, something that this teaches us about fellowship and the communion of the saints, and maybe even intimacy within the body of Christ. In Jesus' moment of despair, he longed to be close to those he cared about, his disciples. his people, his spiritual family. That's who he needed at this moment in his human nature. That's what we need, even if we don't know it. Let me say it this way to flesh this out. After the upper room discourse, Jesus didn't say, OK guys, this has been real. It's been good, but now things are gonna get tough for me, and I'm gonna need my mom, Mary, and I'm gonna need my natural brothers and sisters. I'm about to go into crisis mode, and I'm gonna need them. No. Back in Matthew 12 verses 48 and 50, Jesus already explained his true family are the disciples who do the will of his Father in heaven. They are his true brother and sister and mother. And now he takes these brothers with him to share in this bitter moment. Isn't that something we need to learn and embrace? Isn't Christ teaching us something here about the way the body of Christ is meant to function, the kind of intimacy and sharing there ought to be, particularly in life struggles? You may remember, it's been a couple years ago since I preached on Matthew 12, but in no way was Jesus diminishing the importance or centrality of our natural family and the way God works in covenant families to accomplish his redemptive purposes. But in this time of soul distress, this is who he wants to be near him. And I'm not going to belabor this this morning, except to say I often worry that we've taken the good blessings of a natural family and we've turned it into an idol. Of course, some might say, oh, but Pastor Byrd, the church, you know, I've tried this before and the church has let me down. Your natural family's never let you down? Really? And more importantly, you might have noticed that Peter and James and John, they're not really going to prove themselves to be all that reliable, are they? But those are the ones Jesus takes with him. And Jesus knew what he had just said back in verse 31, you're all going to fall away on this night, yet he takes them. He takes them. Here's a test you might do. Imagine there's some momentous event in your life, perhaps a great crisis, a profoundly difficult decision, a season that seems to be profoundly hard. Where do you turn? You might say, I turn to my family. Praise God. That's perfectly normal and perfectly good. But here's my experience. You can come up and tell me afterwards just how different you are. But here's my experience. I'm going to turn to my family and we're going to hunker down. And once we figure out what we're going to do, we're going to go into damage control. You know what that means? We're going to decide who we're going to let in on our little secrets. Where's the church fall? How much damage control do you do before it gets to the church? You see? That's a good test, isn't it? Jesus took these men with him. These men. And he's teaching us something here. Something very, very important about the nature of the church. He bares his heart to these three disciples. Verse 39 tells us, he went a little farther and he fell on his face. And he prayed, saying, oh, my father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Of course, then he went back and he saw Peter and James and John. And what did he find? Faithful friends? No. Verse 40, Jesus said, Peter, What, you could not watch with me one hour? Not one hour, Peter? Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak. Then Jesus leaves them again and he cries out a second time, Oh my father, if this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it, your will be done. Then the Lord approaches his three friends again and what does he find? They're still sleepy. They're still drowsy. And remember, Matthew doesn't give us this detail, but we know from John's account Jesus was drenched in sweat, which became like blood falling to the ground. How striking that must have been. Just a bit earlier, these are the men who had said to Jesus, no matter what, we're with you, even if that means dying. Here their master is in agony. They can't manage to stay awake. And then the scene repeats itself in verses 44 and 45. Jesus prays, Abba Father, is there any other way for this cup to pass from me? And while Jesus pleads with his father, the disciples, they just keep on snoring. So once more, here's the burning question, brothers and sisters. Why is Jesus' soul in such a state of turmoil? What is it that's crushing his spirit? Well clearly, it's the thing he prays to be removed three times. The cup. The cup. My friends, don't let this escape you. This is a remarkable thing. Whatever else this cup is, Christ dreads to have it in his hand. So what is it? What is this cup? Now if you look through the biblical imagery, especially in the Old Testament, very often it refers to God's wrath. Let me give you a couple biblical examples. Psalm 75, verses 7 and 8. But it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another. For in the hand of the Lord there's a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs." Isaiah 51 17, wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering In Jeremiah 25, 15 through 17, thus the Lord, the God of Israel said to me, take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I'm sending among them. So I took the cup from the Lord's hand and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it. Most interesting about these three passages is that both Israel and the nations are said to be deserving of the cup of God's wrath. Both Israel and the nations. What is it that Christ dreads about the cup? It's the wrath of God for the sins of his people. unmistained wrath of God that will pour over him on the cross like a tidal wave and consume him. He will be paying the penalty for your sin. for my sin, and for every sin that every believer has ever or will ever commit. And he can't even contemplate it. And let me just say, this is so important in our time of all kinds of movies about Jesus. You understand Jesus wasn't broken because he was going to be falsely accused, that's not what crushed his spirit. He wasn't exceedingly sorrow because he's going to get beaten and slapped and spit upon. He wasn't in deep distress because they'll push a crowd of thorns upon his head. We know historically there were some 30,000 people that the Roman Empire crucified, and we know historically some of them went to their crucifixion defiant, some of them hung there defiantly, some of them died defiantly. Do you think Christ was less more afraid than they were? Of course not! It wasn't nails in his hands that brought him fear. It wasn't nails in his feet, it wasn't a spear in his side, it's the wrath of God about to be unfurled upon him. William Lane, who went to be with the Lord about 15 years ago, was a New Testament scholar. He made just a shocking and helpful comment. He said, when the Lord Jesus cried out to heaven, What he was beginning to see were the jaws of hell open for him. Do you understand what he was saying? He's not suggesting Christ went to hell. He was saying Christ is about to experience the fullness of hell for every believer who's ever lived, because that's what we deserve. That's why William Hendrickson, I think again very helpfully said, on Mount Calvary, hell came that day. It was overwhelming. That's the cup the Lord is about to drink and he's pleading with his Father, is there any other way? There isn't. It's what we deserve. It's what God's justice demands. It's what must happen for that justice to be satisfied. The wrath of God has to be extinguished. And that is distressing the heart of the Lord of Glory. I wonder sometimes if we understand how important this is. This is at the sum and substance of the Gospel. This tells us how wretched our sin is, how holy God is, and the depths of his love. to endure this for us. But make no mistake, this is what we deserve and it's what every person will experience who's outside of Christ. They will personally drink the cup of God's wrath. Listen how that's explained in Revelation 14. I'm going to read 9 through 11. I'm not going to have you turn there for time reasons, but just listen carefully. Then the third angel followed them saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast and his image, and he receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God. which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb, and the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night who worship the beast in his image and whoever receives the mark of his name. So a holy angel is announcing what will happen to all those who take upon themselves the mark of the beast. They will have to drink down the wine of God's wrath, and that wine will be poured out in the full strength of Almighty God's indignation. And the message we're confronted with here is simple, although the imagery is a bit befuddling. It's eternal damnation. It's the fullest measure of God's white hot wrath that's not undiluted in any way, poured into those and upon those who have rejected God's grace and mercy. It's the picture of internal and external suffering. As they drink in the wine, their souls will inwardly burn. As they have a whole eternity to rehearse how they spurned the offer of the gospel, and there's external pain of an unimaginable sort, they're going to be tormented with fire and brimstone, and as the flames lick their bodies, their nostrils will be filled with the stench of burning sulfur. And verse 11 says, their torments ascend forever and ever, they will not experience one moment's rest from hell, no rest day or night. And what's in view here? Hell, burning and burning and burning, but never consumed, always dying. but never having the privilege of being dead. I know these are very distressing words, maybe even stressful to hear, but they're God's words. God's words. We do well to remember what the writer of Hebrews tells us. It's a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. You see, everyone deserves to drink that cup individually for their individual rebellion against their Creator. But Jesus is saying, I will take the cup. that belongs to every single one of my people. And I'll drink down the dregs so you won't have to." And Jesus did this so we could have a different cup. That different cup is described in 1 Corinthians 10.16 this way, is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks and participation in the blood of Christ. We have a cup of blessing, a cup of salvation. In Psalm 116 verses 12-13, The psalmist extols, how can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. So Jesus took our cup, a cup filled with wrath, and he's given us a cup, a cup of salvation. Well, I want to close with this wonderful Little section from the hymn writer. Death and curse were in our cup. O Christ was full for thee, but thou has drained the last dark drop. Tis empty now for me. That bitter cup, love drank it up. Now blessings. draw it from me." Jesus drank that bitter cup so that in our hands we would have the cup of blessing, the cup of salvation. He was exceedingly sorrowful, but he said, not my will, but your will be done. and He went to the cross for us. Amen. Let's pray. Father, how we bless Your name and thank You for this day. What a marvelous truth that our Lord, the very Lord of glory, was consumed with distress because He knew what faced Him. on that cursed tree, your wrath, the satisfaction of your justice. And he went, and he paid, and he died, and we're redeemed. Now, O God, the cup that is in our hand, It's the cup of blessing and the cup of salvation. Hallelujah to the Lamb. Amen.