Sermons 2024

Sermon

We walk with Him to Calvary.
He prays to God to set Him free.
But as we wait, we are too week
And cannot help but fall asleep.

O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer.

Good night! I am going to bed. How important is a good night’s rest? A good night’s rest is very important. We all need a good night’s rest. Appropriate sleep is needed for mental focus and memory, managing stress, maintaining proper body weight, boosting the immune system, and a host of other wellness needs. Some studies suggest sleep can help to prevent illness, such as diabetes or obesity. Adults aged 18 to 60 years should get at least seven hours of sleep each night in order to achieve the benefits of sleep. If not, you run the risk of becoming sleep-deprived. 
 

We are not made to pull all nighters, to stay awake all night, not even to finish up late night projects or papers in High School or College. It would hurt and harm our bodies and health. Many times we are like the disciples who fall asleep while Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane for an hour. They fall asleep for sorrow when they should have stayed awake. If they had, they would have witnessed Jesus is awake in agonizing prayer to the Father. He prays for His freedom. He prays, if possible, the cup be taken from Him, yet not His will but the Father’s be done. To the point that an angel comes and strengthens Him. What is this cup?

In the Old Testament we can see that this “cup” is the pouring out of God’s wrath. Isaiah 51:17, “Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O 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.” Again in Psalm 75:8, “In the hand of the Lord is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs. This is the same figure of speech that is used in Revelation of the pouring out the seven bowls of God’s wrath.
What is this cup that is causing Jesus to stagger? It is none other than the wrath of God poured out against the sinfulness of mankind.
 

This is why he is in so much agony, to the point that He is sweating blood. Jesus’ full humanity is on display in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is not the physical assault which he is dreading so much. It is this cup. And he knows that his hour is approaching, so he goes to the Garden to plead with the Father to remove the cup—as well as to be strengthened by the Father.
The Son is strengthened so that the will of the Father is accomplished. What is the will of the Father? That the Son go to Calvary, go to the Place of the Skull to drink fully of the cup of wrath.
“Christ was going to be cast into a dreadful furnace of wrath, and it was not proper that he should plunge himself into it blindfold, as not knowing how dreadful the furnace was. Therefore that he might not do so, God first brought him and set him at the mouth of the furnace, that he might look in, and stand and view its fierce and raging flames, and might see where he was going, and might voluntarily enter into it and bear it for sinners, as knowing what it was. This view Christ had in his agony. Then God brought the cup that he was to drink, and set it down before him, that he might have a full view of it, and see what it was before he took it and drank it.”

Jesus as He is praying in the Garden is viewing the sin of all humanity, including yours and mine. Again, words are going to escape us. As one commentator put it, “the agony that Jesus endured was multifaceted. The blows that encompassed His soul came from every corner. His suffering was not simple but complex. We can only begin to understand this suffering by noting that He had to suffer the penalty that sin deserved for millions and millions of people. Hence it is part of His calling to [recoil] in anguish before our God…. One would need to have been in hell for some time in order to understand what it is that is tearing Jesus apart in the garden.”

His anxiety about the cross was connected to what the cross means. It means that “he made him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf.” Jesus’ humanity is fully seen here in the Garden. We see Jesus in his, dare I say, weakest moment. He remains sinless, yet he is now experiencing the fullness of what it truly means to be human. It is here that he will experience our grief. It is here that he will experience stronger temptation than any of us, so that it is fitting to say that He was tempted in every way. And it is the view into the cup that causes Christ to pray, “if it is possible take this cup from me.” Can you hear Jesus’ prayer? Papa, you can do anything. Can you take this cup from me? Is it possible that we can redeem sinners and yet me not suffer estrangement from you? Is it possible to redeem them in any way other than me being the sin-bearer? 

He appeals. Silence. He appeals a second time. Silence. He appeals a third time. Silence. Why silence? Because there is no other way.

Now certainly, it would have been possible for God to have not poured out the cup of His wrath on Jesus. He would not have contradicted his nature had he chosen not to send his Son and left sinners to their just reward. But because God had purposed before the foundation of the world to save sinners, this then was not possible. God’s purpose of love was to save sinners, and to save them righteously; but this would be impossible without the sin-bearing death of the Savior.

As the obedient Son, Jesus drinks the cup of the wrath of God fully, all of it, down to the very last drop. Not a single drop remains that you or I must drink. Jesus has fully satisfied all of the wrath of God for us. He was betrayed with a kiss, suffered, bled, and died, that every single one of our sins is forgiven, fully by the grace and mercy of God.

Stay awake, watch with your Lord as He drinks fully of the wrath of God, bears all of your pain and sorrow on your behalf fully and completely to reconcile you to God forever.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.