The King’s Prayer (Matthew 26:30-46)

The King’s Prayer

Matthew 26:31-46

Sunday, March 1, 2026 — Land O’ Lakes Bible Church

Introduction

We continue in our series through the Gospel According to Matthew this morning. We will be looking at Matthew 26:30-46 this morning. Please then take out your Bibles and turn with me there, to Mattthew 26:31-46. If you do not have a Bible, there are Red Bibles there in your seats and you can find our passage on page #989 of that Bible.

In high school, my graduating class got to be the first in the State of Tennessee who was required to take and pass not one, but two standardized tests before we could graduate. If tests were not dreadful enough, this test was written not by the teacher, but at the state or federal level, I cannot remember which on these two.

Therefore, your teachers were charged with trying to prepare you for these tests. Even though they themselves knew not what would be on them. And I had a really good 10th grade biology teacher, but even he struggled that year to know how to best prepare us.

Thankfully he prepared us for the test well, and I passed with flying colors on that one. And I was grandfathered in and was able to not have to take the Algebra I test as I had already taken Algebra in 8th grade. So, the tests came and they went.

In our passage this morning, we see that Jesus himself was tested in the Garden of Gethsemane right before he was betrayed.

This coming betrayal had not caught Jesus off guard. For he has persistently been telling his disciples about what was to come.

Right after Peter’s confession that Jesus was the Christ in Matthew 16, Jesus begins to tell them that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things and be killed and on the third day rise again (Matthew 16:21).

Jesus told them this again in Matthew 17:22-23 following his transfiguration. And then a third time in Matthew 20:17-19.

In fact, Jesus had reminded his disciples of these things as he introduced them to the Lord’s Supper which we looked at last week. Teaching them to take the bread and the wine as a meal of perpetual remembrance of his shedding his blood for them once and for all to take away their sin.

Jesus’s betrayal and death are not the test. The test is far greater. Let’s now then hear the word of the Lord on this matter from Matthew 26:30-46…

Main Idea: Jesus endured the agonizing and sorrowful path of the cross in obedience to the Father for our sake. Therefore, let us humbly look and submit our whole lives to him.

1) The Predicted Abandonment of Jesus

2) The Agonizing Prayer of Jesus

I. The Predicted Abandonment of Jesus

Truly from the scene of Gethsemane, we can see that Jesus is a Man of Sorrows. For he is a man filled with grief. But before we consider the sorrow of Jesus, we must hear his warning to his disciples. For following their hymn, now out on the Mount of Olives, Jesus tells them what is about to happen. Verse 31…

Jesus begins to tell the group of disciples, not only will 1 betray him, but that they all will fall away from him that very night. To fall away (σκανδαλισθήσεσθε) means to stumble, offend, even to deny. This is the prediction that Jesus gives concerning all of his disciples as a fulfillment of what is said from the Scriptures.

For from Zechariah 13, which we read earlier in the service, it is stated there in verse 7:

7 “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,” declares the Lord of hosts. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones.

And so, as Jesus will be struck as this Shepherd, his sheep will be scattered. But Jesus reassures them, just as Zechariah doesn’t end there in verse 7, but has this promise in verse 9:

Zechariah 13:9 (ESV)

9 And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”

Jesus tells them there in verse 32 that he will go before them to Galilee following his rising, that is his resurrection from the dead. He will go before them and implies that there he will gather them again. That this falling away is to test and refine them!

They will be like a sword that a blacksmith puts into the flames. For though the sword enters and is beaten and shaped, it comes through the fire stronger and sharper. And so, this will be the case for the disciples.

However, in hearing these words of Jesus, one of the disciples opens his mouth and sticks his foot in. Once more, Peter thinks he knows better than Jesus. Verse 33…

Peter elevates himself above the rest. Saying they may fall away, but never me. Arrogance arises in Peter here. For he rejects the warning of Jesus here and says with certainty that he will not fall away ever. Verse 34…

You are right Peter, you will not simply fall away, you will deny Jesus 3x that very night! But Peter digs his heels in further here in rejecting Jesus’s words there in verse 35…

And don’t miss this, Peter is extra emphatic here in that I will not deny you! For he is literally saying, I will never, no never deny you! And the others echoing the same.

Give credit here to the disciples, they have a willing spirit to faithfully follow Jesus. A willing spirit to remain by his side and loyal to him. But there is a problem. A problem we begin to see intertwined with Jesus’s sorrow in verses 36-46.

For as Jesus goes to pray, even his inner circle of disciples are unable to stay awake and pray with him. For three times in verses 36-46, Jesus goes off to pray. And three times he comes to find his disciples asleep and unable to stay awake.

And so, Jesus exposes the issue. He exposes the issue in the heart of man with not being able to stay awake and pray, as well as the issue with what will soon come in the disciples falling away. Look there in verses 40-41…

Temptation is at work in this hour, both for Jesus and his disciples. And though their spirits are willing, they continue to ignore the weakness of the flesh. A weakness that will bring about their stumbling.

For while Peter and the other disciples have the willing spirit to not fall away, to march with Jesus even to death, in the weakness of their flesh they will indeed all fall away. Peter will deny his master 3 times later on into the night as the temptation for self-preservation and shame overcomes them.

Beloved, how true is this often of us. We make great boasts of our love for Christ. That we will do great things for him and go to great lengths. And yet, we grow weary in our daily communion with Christ, giving way for temptation and the weakness of the flesh.

And it is in that weakness of the flesh, we ourselves will be overcome by temptation and too fall away in various ways.

Beloved, we must learn here from what Jesus tells the disciples and their ignoring of these words. Let us not be like them, allowing arrogance and pride to ignore these words.

Instead, as we hear these words that the spirit is willing and the flesh is weak, let us see how our Master both exposes this weakness and encounters his own weakness by turning to our Father in persistent and ongoing prayer. Depending not on our own weak flesh, but the aide of our good Father!

This is point #1, the predicted abandonment of Jesus.

II. The Agonizing Prayer of Jesus

The disciples are not the only ones to experience the weakness of the flesh on this very night. Jesus himself begins to feel the weight of what lays before him here in verses 36-46.

First, look there at verses 36-38…

Jesus tells his inner three disciples of the sorrow (λυπεῖσθαι) and trouble (ἀδημονεῖν) that has filled him. He tells him that this has distressed him and even has him to the point of being sorrowful to the point of death itself. What is this sorrow? Verse 39…

The sorrow of Jesus is revealed here in his prayer to the Father. He asks that, if possible, this cup to pass from him.

This cup not merely being his betrayal, arrest, and coming crucifixion. This cup is far greater. Jesus here alludes to the prophets and their use of the cup. Consider these words:

Isaiah 51:17 (ESV)

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.

Habakkuk 2:16 (ESV)

16 You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision! The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory!

The cup Jesus here is pleading with his Father to take away is the cup of his judgment. A cup that Jesus himself is to drink on the cross. As he becomes the sacrificial lamb to bear the sin of all who come to him in repentance.

For on the cross, the greatest stroke that pierces Jesus is not that of his nail pierced hands and feet. The deepest stroke that pierced him is the stroke that justice gave. Hear how this truth has been put to song in that great hymn, Stricken, Smitten, & Afflicted[1]:

Tell me, ye who hear him groaning, was there ever grief like his? Friends through fear his cause disowning, foes insulting his distress; many hands were raised to wound him, none would interpose to save; but the deepest stroke that pierced him was the stroke that Justice gave.

Jesus was feeling the weight of the justice that was about to fall upon him as he endured the full weight of God’s judgment against our sin. Our sin past, present, and future as a once and for all sacrifice. For on the cross, he would take our punishment, our guilt would be transferred to him so that his righteousness may be imputed, that is accounted, to us.

Sins such as those both great and small. Sin ranging from wrongly worshiping God in breaking one of the first four commandments, to that of breaking one of the commandments against our neighbor in the last six commandments.

Sin often overlooked such as that little white lie that you told this week. For that moment of unrighteous anger towards your spouse or child that you burst into just this morning. That coveting of what belonged to another, their life, their family, their belongings that you felt in your heart. That careless thought or wrong worship of God according to his commands. Each and every one of these should bring us under the judgment of God. A judgment that we could not stand.

And yet, Jesus here is drawing near to drink this cup of God’s wrath against each and every one of these sins. No wonder he is sorrowful to the point of death! No wonder that we call Jesus the Man of Sorrows.[2]

For in my place condemned he stood, to seal my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior!

And it is here in the garden of Gethsemane that Jesus goes to the Father and prays if possible, for this cup to be removed from him. Pleading, asking if there is another way, now is the time. But notice again there in verse 39, Jesus asks not for his will, his desire to be done. He asks instead for the will of the Father to be done!

Three times, Jesus goes to pray. Each time, he pleads for the Father to remove this cup. But with each request, he submits himself not to his own will and desire, but that of the Father’s.

Jesus becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross.[3] And it is this will that Jesus will indeed fulfill as he moves forward towards the cross where he indeed will drink the fullness of the cup of God’s just judgment against sin. With the righteous one drinking the cup of the unrighteous, so that the unrighteous could be accounted righteous.

This is the one gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. He came to do what we in our weakness could not do. Where we are weak and fall away from remaining loyal to our Triune God in weakness and temptation, Jesus succeeds.

For even in his weakness, the depth of his sorrow as the Man of Sorrows, Jesus models for us what we need to do. He models for us the importance of continued prayer!

Hear the well put words of J.C. Ryle from his Expository Thoughts on the Gospels. Ryle writes,

He uses that very weakness as an argument for watchfulness and prayer. He teaches us that the very fact that we are encompassed with infirmity, should stir us up continually to “watch and pray.”

If we know anything of true religion, let us never forget this lesson. If we desire to walk with God comfortably, and not fall, like David or Peter, let us never forget to watch and pray. Let us live like men on enemy’s ground, and be always on our guard. We cannot walk too carefully. We cannot be too jealous over our souls. The world is very ensnaring. The devil is very busy. Let our Lord’s words ring in our ears daily like a trumpet. Our spirits may sometimes be very willing. But our flesh is always very weak. Then let us always watch and always pray.[4]

As Christians, we must humble ourselves and submit to Christ, reminding us just how weak we are in the flesh. And because we are weak, we need to be reminded to remain watchful and alert and pray.

Prayer is too often seen like the lamp of a genie, go to God and ask what you wish of him. But prayer is more than that. It is going to the Father, making your concerns and requests known to him, all while trusting him as a loving Father to do what is ultimately best for you, even if you cannot see it yourself in the moment.

This is what Christ modeled for us! He trusted the goodness of His Father in heaven with this plan of him laying down his life.

So beloved, see that even as we are being sanctified, there is still much weakness in our members, in our flesh. Much sin still abides in us. And yet, as Christians, we are called to be watchful and pray in the midst of this weakness to aide our spirit in following Christ!

Therefore, let us heed these words of Jesus and submit to these words and all his words! For though Jesus is an example, he is more than an example. He is our King, the Beloved Son of God who has authority over us. And to faithfully follow him is to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Repenting of our own ways of thinking and submitting ourselves to King Jesus.

But we not only submit to Jesus, but we set our eyes on him for our strength and our hope. For where we failed, he succeeded. And so, as we draw near to the cross, as we reflect on this season leading up to Resurrection Sunday, let us set our eyes on Jesus and marvel!

Marveling at the Man of Sorrows who bore the judgment reserved for us, so that we may be declared righteous from his righteousness. Marveling at how Christ became a willing sacrifice on our behalf, how he went like a lamb led to slaughter, but did not open his mouth in resistance. But went willingly in accordance with the plan of the Father to rescue us!

So do not let this season that some call lent fool you. This season of reflecting on the cross is not a call for you to give up something for Christ. It is a season that instead calls you to see what the Man of Sorrows endured for you, giving up even his life to bring about our salvation. A salvation that has been secured and finished in Jesus’s drinking of the cup of God’s judgment against sin.

Beloved, keep resting in this great salvation that has come in Jesus! And because of what Jesus has won and who he is, let us continue submitting, to yielding to his instructions as we seek to follow him, not according to our ways or our strength, but according to his ways and the strength of the Helper that has been sent to aide us in the midst of our weaknesses. This is the hope for us as Christians! Not our strength, but his! Not on our hold, but His! And this is why we pray. We pray, because prayer is the humbling ourselves before our God, and acknowledging our need of help from our good and loving Father!

But even you this morning who do not yet believe. You who have resisted Jesus. You who have thought you have another way to be right with a Holy God. See first of the inadequacy of this foolish thought. You are weak in and of yourself. You may even have a right spirit within you, but apart from Jesus, you will not taste of the gift of salvation. You will not enter the Kingdom of God.

But there is hope if you will repent of your sins and submit yourself to Christ and his rule as King. A turning from your self-reliance and relying on him alone as your only hope in life and in death! Will you today, turn and believe this message of Good News, of this gospel? That Jesus has come to take away our sins by laying down his life for us on the cross!

And even as we enter the Lord’s Supper, we get to be reminded of this once more…

Let’s pray…

[1] Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted. Getty Hymnal #815.

[2] Man of Sorrows. Getty Hymnal #226 allusion.

[3] Philippians 2:8 allusion

[4] J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Matthew (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1860), 365–366.