The following sermon was preached at Grace Predatorian Church, a mission work of the Orthodox Predatorian Church and Covenant Predatorian Church in Mansfield, Ohio. For more information about Grace Predatorian Church and when we meet for worship and Bible study, log on to graceop.org or email us at graceopchurch at gmail.com. When we stand in honor of God's word, I would direct your attention to the Gospel of Mark. Chapter 14. We're going to pick up where we left off. Mark 14. We're reading verses 32 through 42. Mark 14, beginning with verse 32. 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, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will. And he came and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer him. And he came a 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. Here ends the reading of God's Holy and Inspired Word. Please be seated. Well again, in this text, as we've seen, as the Lord is to the Lord's Supper and the Passover, Christ is the central figure. And I think that what Mark is reminding us again, in so many ways, is that we must not trust ourselves, but wholly trust Christ. Christ is that central figure that is presented to us, and he is the object of our faith. We must not trust ourselves, but we must wholly trust Christ. This text is one of the most mysterious and heart-rending stories of the life of Jesus. Mark takes us into the very presence of Jesus' suffering. We know that Jesus endures the suffering for us, on our behalf. One cannot help but be moved by Jesus' intense emotional agony as Mark presents it for us. In fact, the synoptics as a whole present that scene in Gethsemane. Yet, even as we read it, I think, we fail to understand the suffering even as the disciples failed. And that's the point. We really can't enter into. We look at it from afar. And that's a lesson for us. I think we feel it when we have those near us and dear to us that also suffer. It's always hard when someone that we love is suffering. We're at a loss as to what to do. We wish we could alleviate it or somehow be more sympathetic or be more of an encouragement. We feel but don't feel. And it is a difficult thing. And certainly dealing with suffering involves prayer. And Mark, I think also in this context, reveals the importance of prayer. in this account as, again, he's shown prayer's importance throughout his gospel. It's interesting if you think about it, this is the third time that we're presented with an account of Jesus' intense prayer. It happened at the beginning of his ministry, it happened midway through his ministry, and now, as it were, at the eve of his suffering, Mark presents it again for us. You see, suffering and prayer show us one thing in common. That we cannot look to our own strengths. We must look to Christ. We must flee to Christ. We must flee to God. That is how we deal with that suffering. Because Christ has suffered for us. And what Mark is painting for us in these words is the fact that that Christ came for a purpose and to bear what we ought to bear. That is the essence of the gospel, that Christ has come to die in our place. So let's take a look at our text as it opens up before us then. And in doing that, Mark gives us a setting. He kind of paints the picture of the setting here in verses 32 and 33. It's Gethsemane. They leave the upper room. and they then come across the Kidron into this garden. So, if you remember Jerusalem in some sense, you're in the northern part of the city, and they leave the city proper, outside the gates, into the valley, and back up to the other side at the foot of the Mount of Olives, and there is this garden. Now, Gethsemane means oil press in the Hebrew that's where it comes from and so there was a garden grove of olive trees there at the base of Mount Olives and apparently as we've seen in other Gospels that Jesus and the disciples gathered there in the past it was a place that was known to them probably for its solitude, its beauty, its a place of rest all the trees in that part of the country were very old and you can still find a garden there in fact, an olive grove Very old trees and as olive trees grow they become very large and expansive with their branches and it provides a shade by day and certainly a cool place at night. The significance however I think is unstated but subtle but nonetheless true. The olive tree along with the fig tree is often a symbol of Israel. And here is Jesus who is Israel. who is that faithful son, who enters into Gethsemane, this place. But this oil press, it is the press of God's wrath about to be poured upon him. He's about to be pressed out, as it were. This is the picture that's painted for us. And so as Jesus faces the wrath of God, this is the setting that Mark wants us to see. That it really is the relationship of Christ, Jesus, and His Father. And how that relationship, in a sense, will be changed. And how Jesus will bear the wrath for us, and it begins here. The other part of the setting is the gathered disciples. It's interesting, they go to this place, and he says to his disciples, sit here while I pray. There's at least eight of them. They are told to simply wait. and wait for Him, probably near the entrance of the Olive Grove, perhaps as an initial buffer between Himself and the coming mob that would come to arrest Him. They were to sit and wait while He prayed. Sometimes God calls us to sit and wait. He doesn't give us anything in particular to do. We're just to wait upon Him. We're to wait for the next act, as it were, to open Himself up for us. And so they're told to do nothing more than to sit and to wait while He prays. And I would suspect that what is being communicated there in unspoken words is that Jesus is praying for His disciples. You see, He's not just praying for Himself. Because He knows why He's about to endure all these things. And then there's the inner group. Jesus then takes with Him Peter, James, and John. Now, He takes them and He tells them to wait and to watch and to pray. He gives them some further instructions. They are to wait like the others, but these three are to watch and to pray. It is sometimes suggested that Jesus took these inner three that were often with Him as to be those companions that they might share, as it were, with this suffering, that they might encourage him in some way. But I suspect not. These three had assumed, by themselves, and in God's providence, a certain responsibility to share in Jesus' suffering. Remember, Jesus tells Peter, and tells the disciples, that they're all going to be scattered. And as they share the Passover, and Peter says, not me. And he vows that he would remain faithful even to death. So Jesus takes him along with him into this beginning of suffering. If you may remember, the sons of Zebedee, James and John, also had vowed their ability to drink the cup that Jesus would drink in chapter 10. They said, yes, we can do it. We're with you. So in a sense, he's just saying, okay, you guys come with me and you're going to enter into this suffering. This is your destiny in a sense. So I don't think it's so much for him to be comforted by them, but rather it's almost the reverse really. He's going to comfort them. He's going to be watching over them. He takes them. That they would learn to be identified with him is not so much a privilege but rather to be identified with Christ and to share in His suffering. There again is another lesson for us about being a Christian. To owe the name of Christ is not so much to have your ego built up, to look good in the eyes of the world, but to share the sufferings of Christ. Jesus wanted them, I think, also to be near to Him so that He might watch over them. Because remember, He warned Peter that before the cock crowed, he would deny Him three times. And I believe that while Jesus was praying, He was praying fervently for these disciples and called them to pray because they were entering into temptation. He knew that they would be scandalized, as we talked about this last time, about what would happen to Him being under the judgment and the curse of God. And so He was going to watch over them and their serious danger of exposure to temptation in that struggle with Satan's agents who were on their way. So really what we have pictured here, I think, is Jesus the Good Shepherd watching over his flock in the conflict that he was entering into. And so that he, in the midst of his own sorrow, was still concerned about his disciples. May we always remember that Christ is concerned about us. that we're not forgotten, but rather, he paints the setting, in this instance, in our own lives, the setting of whatever it may be, even in our own trial, Jesus, even as we understood it from the scriptures, from Romans chapter 8, He's doing what? He's interceding for us. He's praying fervently and watching over us. That's the setting. Then we enter, through Mark's words, into the very suffering itself. Jesus says that he became greatly, or he is troubled, distressed. He began to be greatly distressed and troubled. An overwhelming sorrow, a spiritual distress, an emotional conflict. It was not fear. That's not how Mark paints it. It's just this overwhelming sense of distress. And really, I suspect, it is this. He became appalled at the pressing reality of the judgment of God that was aimed at his heart. The arrows of God that were directed to the enemies of God were now turned to the heart of Christ his own Son. And that was appalling to him. And I mean that in a sense because this is the one who had known the most intimate fellowship with the Father, had always known that fellowship, had always been one with the Father's will, and now faced alienation from Him. And so even as he calls Him Abba, Father, which a Jew never would in those days, that was not a thinkable thing to do because God was the Exalted One. Even as he calls Him that name, He does it out of reflex, but there's a sense in which he understands, you see, what it is that he's about to enter into. The analogy that comes to my mind is not anywhere near it at all, but I'm reminded of the second or third time my wife entered into labor. It just comes to mind when I think of that. We go to the hospital and the process begins and the labor campaigns begin in earnest. And I remember her looking at me and her eyes got real wide and she says, Oh, I remember this. You see, it was the reality of the moment. And I think as Jesus enters the garden, he then sees and the reality of the moment becomes very, very real to him. It perhaps is that human nature that begins to be very much aware of what's now approaching. The divine nature was very much aware of the plan all along, but now it comes. And now he's at the precipice, you see. And Jesus comes perhaps seeking brief comfort and renewed fellowship with the Father before his trial and found hell rather than heaven opened up before him. You might think of it in that way. He sees the mouth of hell yawning wide, God's wrath and judgment there, not the comfort of the Father. The reality of God's judgment, you see, causes Him to be appalled in that sense that it would fall upon Him. Causes Him, even as the psalmist writes in Psalm 60, to stagger under the weight to stagger at drinking the dregs of a cup of God's wrath. That's what it was intended to do. But he was drinking it. He, who had known only the sweet fellowship of the Father, was now about to drink that cup of the wrath of God. And as God promised to take away the cup of staggering from his people in Isaiah 51, so he turns and gives it to Jesus, who becomes the very enemy of God. The one who is cursed. of God. And so, the reality strikes home. Jesus' reaction, you see, to that suffering is not one of fear, not one of running away, but the overwhelming sense of reality of what was awaiting Him. And so we speak to the hour and the cup. The hour is in reference to the opportunity, you see, of Jesus' enemies to overcome Him. It was their hour. His hour of suffering, that time had come. That hour is the period of time that his betrayal and deliverance into the hands of sinners, the agents of Satan, had come. See, that was a scandalous thought, that he was this righteous man who God was delivering over. Not defending or protecting, but now handing over to his enemies. You read the Psalms, and the writer writes about how God delivers him from his enemies. but not this one. He was handed over to his enemies. The cup, again, that reference to the cup of God's wrath that was promised in Scripture, that was His to drink. And yet, in all the struggle, we find Jesus' care. As He leaves His disciples and goes off to pray and ask that these things might pass from Him, that He might not have to endure them, yet He submits Himself to the Father's will, He comes back to the disciples. Even in the midst of his struggle, he comes back looking for his disciples. He called them to watch and to pray. And of course he finds them sleeping. He three times comes back. Never forgetting them in the midst of this struggle. And he warns them to watch and pray, to be vigilant. To call them to arms against the temptations that awaited. How many times? The Scriptures and the Holy Spirit call us to watch, and to pray, and to stand against temptation, and do we not heed? And wander into it, because we don't take the opportunity to pray, and to read the Scriptures, and to be fortified. It's a remarkable thing and revealing of Jesus' great love that in the midst of unmatched suffering Jesus looked after his vulnerable disciples to warn them of their danger of failure to watch and to pray. He doesn't berate them. He finds them the second time. He just says not a word. He just goes back to praying again. Watching over them even as a mother would watch over her sleeping child. So Jesus watches over them and goes back to his business and then calls them to awaken to face the hour that had come. So we find a setting in this garden and grove. We gather disciples. We find his suffering as he reacts to what is now before him drinking the dregs of God's compass suffering, his care for his disciples. And then, there is the scandalous part of this whole text. The disciples' shortcomings. Their shortcomings. Mark doesn't make excuses, he doesn't gloss over it. He shows us the scandal is there. Jesus says to them, As he comes and finds them, he says, could you not watch for one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. In verses 37 to 40 we find those shortcomings. The flesh is so weak. Peter, who had vowed to be faithful, is the one who is picked out and questioned. Can you imagine those searching words being applied to you? Couldn't you watch for just one hour? I'm sure that was like a knife to his heart, reminding him of his words that he would be ever, ever faithful. Peter is chosen, you see, and questioned about sleeping. And this is a description of sinful man who's left to his inadequate resources, who becomes overwhelmed by the situation. How many times has that happened to you? You're determined to be God's witness. You're determined to do what is right, and when the hour comes, the moment comes, it's like everything leaves you. I've had that happen. The mouth turns to cotton. You know, and you just can't get the words out. It's like, and I still remember, I've been in this situation before, the story of the hot tub, and the Hindus, they get in with me and say, so what makes Christianity so important or unique? And all I wanted to do was just relax after being on the road and trying to get away to a vacation. And it just felt like sliding down the bottom of the hot tub and staying there for a while. You see, our best intentions are betrayed by our inability to resist the weakness of the flesh and the pressure of Satan. Oh, we're going to do better next time. And so next time comes, and we don't do any better because we're not fortified in the Spirit. We're still trying to do it on our own. And so we see the weakness of the flesh. Jesus commends them about the Spirit. The disciples had stated their support of Christ, a statement that was wrought, I believe, in belief. They believed they could. They believed in Jesus. They wanted to be His true disciples. The spirit which stands in opposition to the flesh is the very presence of the Holy Spirit, a man that strives against human weakness. That's what Paul tells us in Galatians chapter 5. The Spirit is given to us. It is willing, and our spirits are made willing. But the flesh drags us down. It pulls us away from the things that we'd like to do. And so spiritual watchfulness and prayer and dependence upon the Holy Spirit is the only means to face a crisis. But I have to confess that I too have tried to face crises by my own strength and then been found wanting. So is Peter. So are James and John. And that's the scandal. The disciples are found wanting. He comes the third time. And he says, are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough. Now it's too late. The hour has come. The Son of Man has betrayed Him to the hands of sinners. The hour has come. They are found wanting. You know, as much as we might consider whoever, you know, Mark, or Anas the Count might want to blame everything on Judas and his betrayal, you notice how all the disciples end up looking badly. None of us can stand on our own three times Jesus returns and finds them sleeping. It would be three times that Peter will deny his Lord. An interesting parallel to be sure. A warning three times and the failure of three times. We cannot, you see, rely on our own strength in the face of sin and the face of trial. We need a Savior. That's the point of the text. We can't trust ourselves. I've said this before. What we learn, at least one of the lessons we can learn from the history of Israel is that God brought out sinful human beings by mighty powers and signs and wonders and put them in the best possible situations. Gave them a land. Gave them righteous laws. Set them up. What did they do with that best of situations? They made a mess out of it. They turn their backs upon God. It's left to ourselves. If we think that by our own free will, if by our own strength, we can do it, the Bible should be a story to us to say, no, no, no, it's never going to work because you're always going to sin. We need a Savior. We cannot rely on our free will. We cannot rely on our intentions. We need to rely on the one that God's provided for us. That's what Mark is paying for us. That man's strength fails. The arm of man is too weak because of the corruption of sin. Even our best of intentions fall short. But Christ is able to. And think of the strength of Christ. That's what the final point here is, at the end of this, is that Jesus is all alone. He is the picture of the solitary Savior, bereft of all support, none who would stand with Him, and all those who would stand against Him, and He takes them on. And He even lifts up the weak disciples. He is surrounded by enemies, left by His disciples, alienated from His Heavenly Father. And yet, what does he do? Rise, let us be going. My betrayer is at hand. And I love how the Gospel of John records this. They come and we're seeking Jesus. And he says those words, I am. And anyway, Chopin puts he in there, but it's not there. Because when He says those words, He's announcing who He is, and they fall back to the ground. Christ comes and stands in strength, in the confidence of His God, because He is God. He's the Savior. And He faces it with that divine power and ability that we do not possess. And so, in Jesus' strength, despite His betrayal, Not only by his closest friends, even one who dipped his bread with him in the sop to trace him. Yet Jesus is strong. His confidence, you see, is the fact that he's committed to the plan of redemption. He's committed to what God had ordained and what they had agreed on in all of eternity. That he would come and take and bear our sins, the curse of that, to save his people. And he raises up his disciples to face the moment of his suffering. Come, let us go, you see. My betrayer is at hand. He knows what will happen to them. But he shows them the strength. And He possesses us as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the righteous Redeemer and Savior. And that ought to build us confidence. This is Christ. He didn't go whimpering to His death. He didn't go as the weak and mild man. He went as the Son of God and the Son of Man. And He took on that responsibility gladly to face hell, death, and Satan for you and for me and for all who would believe in Him. And so when your hour of trial comes, remember Christ. That He has faced all for you. And He even says to you in these words, Rise. Let us go. Because He's faced it and defeated it. And you and I can rise in His power and can overcome through Christ. You see, our confidence has to be in Jesus. We cannot trust ourselves. Our weakness is great, but our Savior is greater. And that's the gospel we preach. Not of self-improvement. Not of a heavenly coach who comes alongside of you and bucks you up and says, come on, let's get going, you can do this. We preach a gospel that says you can be changed and you can be transformed and I am the God who has come to save you and to rescue you from that which you could not rescue yourselves. I am your God. Jesus, the righteous. Jesus, the Savior. Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Jesus, the King of Kings. And so he goes from this place facing that suffering with a confidence in God's plan and all things being delivered into his hands that to the point that you remember it will be Jesus alone who lays down his life because he will commit his spirit into the hands of God he won't let men take it from him but he will lay it down he will give it up but on his terms you see that's a reminder to us God holds us, keeps us to the very end. He has saved us, as the scriptures say, to the uttermost. May that be your confidence, but also may that be your gospel as you speak to friends and neighbors and family members that Christ is that strong and powerful. He can save any and all. He's the one. He's the one whom we hope. Shall we pray? O Lord God, we thank you again for showing us Christ. We thank you for showing us not simply a meek, mild Savior, but the King of kings and the Lord of glory. The one who willingly took on all things for us. To do what we could not do and to bear what we could not bear. To redeem us, despite all the enemies arrayed against him. O Lord God, we thank you for this glorious gospel in which we share. May we see and trust Christ. May we believe in Him and hope in Him in all things and all circumstances. And may He reign in our hearts. And we pray, O God, that this gospel would go throughout the land and you would call many more into your kingdom. That Christ be magnified. We ask it in His name. Amen.