Good morning. I love this church. I really do. Charles Spurgeon in one of his books, Words of Counsel, he’s just writing encouraging words to what he calls village preachers. And if I’m going to preach, I consider myself a village preacher. And there’s no other village that I would rather be in than this one. I don’t want to be in no city, no town, just this village. I’m glad to be here, truthfully. We’re going to be in Matthew 26 this morning.

Matthew 26. We’ll start in verse 36.

It says, Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane. And He said to His disciples, Sit here while I go over there and pray. And taking with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then He said to them, My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Even to death. Remain here and watch with Me. And going a little farther, He fell on His face. And He prayed, saying, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will. And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And He said to Peter, So you couldn’t watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again, for the second time, He went away and He prayed, My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, Your will be done. And again, He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So leaving them again, He went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then He came to the disciples and He said to them, Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise up and let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.

When is then? Then Jesus went. Two days ago, Jesus said to His disciples, Two days from now, Now it will be Passover, and I’ll be handed over for crucifixion. And then the woman at Simon the leper’s house anoints Jesus with oil, and Jesus says, She’s preparing Me for My burial. Then Jesus gets to sit at the table and look into the eyes of His betrayer and break bread with Him. Jesus got to realize in real time what He was doing. What had been spoken of long before that was really about Him, He got to see the sum and the substance of the Passover about to unfold. Jesus broke the bread and He said, This is My body that I’m giving for you. And He passed the cup and He said, This is My blood that’s spilled for you. And then they went out and they sang a hymn. And it’s then Jesus came. Jesus came into the garden. Jesus came into the garden fully aware of what is going to take place. This did not creep up on Him and catch Him by surprise.

So He goes to the garden and He takes a few with Him, Peter and James and John. And He shares with them, He says, My soul is sorrowful, even to the point of death. He’s burdened. And you couldn’t understand why. Why? Isaiah 53 says, He’s a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He knows well what it is to grieve and to be sorrowful. This is a powerful passage to see into the humanity of Jesus. And Jesus is fully God. Yet, He’s fully man. Jesus did not dip His toe into humanity and observe from a distance what it means to suffer, what it means to be plagued with our weaknesses and our infirmities. Jesus wasn’t a bystander. Jesus clothed Himself in flesh. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. And then what? And the Word became flesh.

It’s comforting to me to know that Jesus, of all people, knows what it means to be sorrowful. Again, He tasted that for me. If you don’t have a fully human Jesus, you don’t really have the Gospel. Jesus couldn’t have done what He did if He was not really a man. A God-man. That’s something we all need to wrestle with. I don’t think we can fully comprehend it and wrap our minds around it. It’s called the hypostatic union. Jesus is God and man joined together. And that’s what’s so wonderful about it because He joins man, us, back to God. In the body of Jesus. We are brought back to God. He’s sorrowful. Is it only because He’s going to face crucifixion? I would imagine that’s an enormous part of what’s burdening Jesus right now. But I wouldn’t say it’s all of it. There are two men on each side of Jesus when He’s on the cross. I don’t believe those men sweat blood in agony about what they were about to endure. I’m not trying to paint it lightly and say that it was no big deal. But I don’t think it was the fullness of what Jesus was experiencing.

Jesus was not only going to face death, He was going to face judgment. And Jesus above all people knew what judgment really meant. Jesus knows fully what the wrath of God would entail. Jesus knows what justice requires.

And so let’s not skim over the fact that Jesus was sorrowful and troubled.

So what did he do? He even leaves the three and he goes on a little further. And he fell on his face.

When the hour of darkness is at hand,

you’ve got to have the truth. Jesus said, My Father. The truth was that He knew who it was He needed to call on. There was nobody else for Jesus to go to at this hour. There was no one else for Jesus to call on at this hour. And Jesus knew that. This is the truth. There is no one for me but God right now.

I think the longer that I’m a Christian, the harder it is for me to really believe that when I call on God, I’m calling on Father. I think when I first got saved, it was just what it is, the Spirit in me causing me to cry out to Him as my Father. But the longer I walk, the more I keep sinning. And the more… The more I keep sinning, I do it with a greater light and a greater knowledge of who God is and what Christ has done for me. And so sometimes I struggle to come to God and say, Father, what business do I have before God as my Father?

Yet, it’s what we’re instructed to do because God is good and He’s gracious and He forgives sin.

And if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Again, Jesus has some truth about Him. Jesus is not waltzing into Gethsemane like this is no big deal or that He’s strong enough on His own to handle what’s about to happen. Jesus is brutally honest. Please. Please let this pass. Not this one.

We’ve got to both know who it is that we’re coming to and who it is that we are. When you find yourself… And life has its way of just gripping you sometimes. And it won’t let go. You’re suffocated. You’re smothered by its worries and its trials and its temptations. And all these things. It won’t let go. And you have to be honest about that. You’ve got to know the truth that you can come to the Father. And you can also tell Him exactly how you feel. Exactly what you’re worried about. Exactly what your fears are. The psalmist says, when I’m afraid, I’ll trust in God. You have to come to Him. Again, this is just powerful in painting the picture of Jesus as the God-man. Jesus is crying out, if it’s possible for any other way for us to do this, please, let this cup pass from me. This wasn’t just any cup. It was this cup. And this cup was full of God’s wrath and His vengeance and His fury against our sin. Father, please let this cup pass from me. Again, in Isaiah 53, He frames it like this. It was the will of the Lord to crush Him. The NASB says, it pleased the Lord to crush Him. And He was put to grief.

He poured out His soul to death and He was numbered with the transgressors. He bore the sin of many. It was this cup to be crushed by God Almighty. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that this cup was not for me.

Thank you, Lord Jesus. Who can stand and drink that cup? Forgive my emotion. I preach this with fear. And I preach it with humility. I pray. I pray. I pray. I pray. I pray. I pray. Brother David, that cup had your name on it. Mr. Chris, it had your name on it. And Haley, it had yours on it. It had yours and it had my name on it. And Jesus said, no, this is my cup.

I don’t want to drink it. I don’t want to drink this cup.

Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done, Father. Jesus, when He found Himself in the hour of darkness, He had some trust. He trusted God.

Not my will but yours be done. Whatever that might entail. And that’s why this passage is so scary for me. I’ll never have to drink this cup. But some of us have some pretty bitter cups to drink. Sometimes the will of God for us is bitter. Nevertheless, it’s His will. And you just have to come to a place where you trust Him. Whatever it is that God has allotted for you. Whatever portion He’s cut out for you. You have to trust Him.

Like the song, or the passage we read. We walk in darkness sometimes. You don’t know where this road leads. You don’t know what the end of this, situation is. You get diagnosed with cancer. You have some sort of illness. You watch a loved one with the same things going on. You don’t know what tomorrow will have for them, or for yourself. You may be healed. And please, beg the Lord to heal them, or heal you, or to work out whatever it is that’s going on. Whatever it is that’s burdening you. Plead with Him. Father, please. Not this one. But at the same time, you have to trust Him. And say, whatever you do, I’ll still bless your name. Job says, though He slay me, yet I will praise Him.

You have to trust the Lord. Again, the psalmist says, when I’m afraid, I will trust you, God.

So Jesus gets up and He comes and He finds His disciples sleeping. I bet Jesus would have liked to take a cat nap right about now. You know, it’s been a long day. I’ve had to deal with these knuckleheads, I’ve had to dwell on the fact that I’m about to be crucified and drink this cup.

I’m probably the guiltiest in the room of this. Something’s going on in my life or in yours. And when my head hits that pillow, I just want to go to sleep. And I do. I do.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you didn’t go to sleep that night. That you fell on your face. I’m so prone to just shrink back and close my eyes because I’m a good sleeper. I sleep hard. Not quite as hard as I used to since I have kids, but I sleep pretty hard. And that’s how sometimes maybe me and the wife are in a little tizzy and just roll over and go to sleep real quick and then I don’t have to think about it. Or deal with it. That’s foolish. That old saying, never let the sun go down on your anger. I think there’s a lot of merit to that. Get it resolved and get it worked out. But when you find yourself in that hour, in that darkness, don’t go to sleep. You need what’s supposed to be happening. You need to be on your face. Jesus says, so that you won’t enter into temptation. It’s not just to stay up and do something. It’s so that this won’t happen. So that you won’t fall away. So that you won’t sin. So that you won’t make foolish decisions. So that, He says, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. I think what He really meant is the flesh is this monster that will consume you if you don’t find this time. Because when temptation comes, the flesh is going to shrink back. The flesh is going to drive you down the street to the farthest place away from where you need to be. I don’t mean to pick on Darcy. Darcy, this is me. Last week, when you got baptized and you were about to go into the water, your eyes got big. And you were like, hold on, what’s… It was an unsureness, right? It was a bit of fear maybe. I’m not trying to speak for you. But that’s me all the time. I can say Sunday after Sunday how much I love Jesus and that I’m going to follow Him all my days and that I’m going to be faithful until the end. But until that test comes, your eyes kind of just hang like this. But when it comes, they get real big and you’re like, wait, hold on. Not this one. Not this cup. Please. The true test comes. You find out really who you are and how much you trust God. You find out how much you trust Him.

On Tuesday mornings,

a few of us men here, we meet together and we call on the Lord. If you’re physically able to be here at 7 o’clock on a Tuesday morning, you need to be here. I don’t say that to make you feel guilty. I don’t say that to burden you with my burden. But I hope that you would be burdened to be here with us. Calling on God, the Father. Confessing our sin to Him, praising Him for who He is. Thank Him. Thank Him for all the things that He’s done. Pleading with Him to work out the things that we need Him to work out. I know people have jobs. I know people have obligations and all of that. So if you don’t make it on Tuesday, I hope that you will and I wish that you would. I hope that you find a good consistent time to stay up late at night when things are worse than they are. I hope that you can be faithful to watch with Jesus. He asked His disciples to stay up and watch with Me. You couldn’t stay up for an hour. Too tired. Maybe they didn’t quite understand, but I think on this side of the cross with the information that we have, no excuses. We know exactly what’s at hand. We know exactly who the enemy is and what he’s trying to do. We know exactly what the remedy is. We know exactly what we need to avoid falling into temptation. Jesus is giving it to us right now. We’ve got the truth. You’ve got to have the trust.

Jesus went away a second time. He called on His Father. He said, if this can’t pass unless I drink it, Your will be done.

In the hour of darkness, Jesus certainly had, and that’s what we need, is a little bit of tenacity. You need to grab on with a great firmness and not let go. Jesus went back and prayed the same thing. Because He had a great trust in the truth that He knew. And He was going to hold on to it with everything that He had because He knew if He didn’t… Don’t forget, Jesus is a human man. Jesus is not asking His disciples to do something that He wouldn’t be affected by. Jesus needed to go back to the Father. And He did it a third time. He came and found the disciples sleeping and He didn’t even bother waking them up. He went back and prayed a third time the same exact thing. Tenacity. He’s holding on tightly. Because if He doesn’t, is Jesus exempt from temptation? No. Jesus was tempted, just like you and I. Yet He did it without sin. And you know why? Because He was tenacious. And He went back, back to the Father. And He went back to the Father. And He went back to the Father. Pleading with Him. He went back to the one place that He knew He needed to be.

Jesus is showing us something. I believe this is powerful here. When the hour of darkness is at hand, you’ve got to have some truth. You’ve got to have some trust. You’ve got to have some tenacity. To put it simply, when the hour of darkness is at hand, you’ve got to pray.

That’s it. And maybe there was another tea somewhere along the way and I’ll throw it in there. Some training. Long before the hour of darkness is at hand, you’ve got to be well trained in praying. I’m convicted by this passage. I’m not up here preaching this because I’ve got it. I’m up here preaching this because I’m convicted. Because Jesus comes and finds me sleeping all the time. Amen.

Does He find you sleeping?

Without Gethsemane, there is no Golgotha.

Do you understand that? Does that make sense? Without Gethsemane, there is no Golgotha. If Jesus was not a practicer of what He preached, there would be no forgiveness of sins for you. If Jesus was not faithful to do what He needed to do to resist temptation and to be faithful to the will of His Father instead of His own, there would be no forgiveness of sins for you. But Lord, praise You this morning that You were faithful, tried and true. And You prayed and You prayed and You prayed so that You would endure the cross that was meant for me. Jesus is a faithful friend. And He’s an all-sufficient Savior.

So if you’re sleeping this morning, wake up. Wake up, Chase. Look, the betrayer is at hand.

The devil will come and snatch you away real quick.

But I suppose I must say that thanks be to Christ. He’s the faithful shepherd. And He’s always with us. He’s watching out for us. And so that even in times when I am sleeping and the devil would come and snatch me up, Jesus says nobody can snatch you out of My hand.

Nobody can snatch you out of the Father’s hand. John 10. Go read it. The faithful shepherd. I and the Father are one. No one can snatch me away. No one can snatch you away. But that does not exempt you from doing what Jesus has commanded you to do. At all times, pray.

Lord Jesus, I thank You that

in the wilderness, when we’re tempted, You prayed. And You resisted. I thank You that for every day on the other side of the cross that You walked this earth, that You prayed, Lord, I believe the only reason Judas knew where to find You was because You were faithful in praying and they knew that.

And though the enemy would try to use something like that to foil God’s plans, You stuck with it, Lord, and You prayed through the garden and You endured the cross. You bore our shame and our grief and our sin, our iniquity, Lord. You pinned it there. You poured Your blood out for us.

Thank You, Lord, for Your faithfulness. We thank You that even now You pray for us. You’re standing before the Father praying for us. Lord, I pray that You would make us a people who are faithful prayers. I pray that we would pray to You to give You thanks and the glory do Your name. That we would constantly confess who we are in fallen Adam. But that we would pray to You that we would forever trust that we’re Yours in the resurrected Christ, the last and the better Adam. Lord, I pray that You would teach us to pray, Lord, that Your Spirit would be constantly wooing us and correcting us and pulling us in to communion with You, Lord. That we would do it alone. That we would do it together. But, Lord, that we would be found faithful when You return, Lord, that we wouldn’t be sleeping. Lord, make us to stand firm in the hour of darkness. In Jesus’ name, Amen.