Agony In The Garden Mark 14:32-42

As we begin this morning, please turn in your copies of God’s Word to the Gospel of Mark 14:32-42, and I will read those verses shortly, so please have them marked for that time.

Last Sunday morning, as we continued our journey through the Gospel of Mark, in a sermon entitled “The Seen & Unseen Sovereignty of The Savior & The Passover Personified”, from Mark 14:12-31, we looked at Jesus Visible Sovereignty, when He was able to miraculously tell Peter and John, that the moment they entered Jerusalem, they would run into a man carrying a jar of water, a task reserved for women at that time, and that man would lead them to the home, with a large upper room, already set up for them, where they could prepared for their Passover Celebration. We also looked at The Invisible Sovereignty of God. How He was at work 600 years earlier when, during the Babylonian captivity, the Jews from the south changed their calendars to match that of the Babylonians, while the Jews from the north, kept their current calendar. This enabled Jesus to both celebrate the Passover with His disciples on Thursday night, when He established The Lord’s Supper, what we call Communion. Then on Friday, when the Jews from the south were preparing for the Passover, become the Ultimate Passover Lamb, when He was being crucified at the exact moment the priests were sacrificing Passover lambs for the Jews from the south. Thus He Personified The Passover. We closed by watching as He let the Disciples know, in advance, that He would forgive them, even though all of them would turn their backs on Him when He needed them most.

Well the sovereignty of God did not end that night with the Lords Supper, it continues to be solidified as we move into His Agony In The Garden.

With that as an introduction, would you please stand, in honor of the reading of God’s Word? New Slide

Mark 14:32–42 ESV

32 And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. 34 And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.” 35 And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36 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.” 37 And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? 38 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 39 And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. 40 And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer him. 41 And he came the 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. 42 Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”

May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Word, please be seated. New Slide

Crossing The Bloody Brook.

Leaving The Upper Room, where Jesus and the Disciples Celebrated the Passover, and where Jesus established the Lord’s Supper, Jesus, and the 11 (Judas had already left to betray Him), headed down the slope outside of Jerusalem, down the path that took to the Kidron Brook. Keep in mind that this brook was just below the Temple in Jerusalem. With the Jews from the North celebrating the Passover on Thursday, and the Jews from the South celebrating it on Friday, and somewhere between 100,000 and 250,000 lambs were being sacrificed by the priests in the Temple, it is believed that the blood flowed out of the temple and down into the Kidron Brook. Picture, in your minds, Jesus and the 11, descending the path down to the Kidron Valley. Today, the only time water flows in the Kidron Brook, is right after a hard rain. Chances are, In Jesus day, it would have been small enough, you could have easily stepped over it, or possibly waded through it. Reaching the brook, I picture Jesus and the 11 Disciples, stepping over or wading through the brook. A brook now flowing with the blood of the sacrificial lambs. I wonder, were Jesus’ eyes, the eyes of the One Who’s blood was soon to be shed, were His eyes drawn downward to the blood filled brook, knowing His own shed blood would soon eliminate the need of the Old Testament sacrificial system? New Slide

Crushed in The Olive Press.

After crossing the brook, they began to make their way up towards the Mount of Olives. Part way up the hill, they came upon the Garden of Gethsemane. Gethsemane means “Olive press”. And it is likely, that there was an olive press in the garden, where they would crush the olives for the purpose of extracting olive oil, oil that many believed had healing powers in it. This fits well with the prophetic words of Isaiah in Isaiah 53:5, where he writes more than 700 years earlier, of the coming Messiah, “But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities....and with His wounds we are healed”. Is it any wonder that He was crushed, in a place known as an Olive Press!

It is believed that this garden was owned by a wealthy friend of Jesus, who gladly made it available to Jesus and the Disciples. We learn in Luke 22:39, that it was a place Jesus loved to take the Disciples. And in John 18:2, we are told that Judas knew that, the Garden of Gethsemane, was where Jesus would take the remaining disciples that night.

The garden itself would have likely been surrounded by a fence or stone wall. Stopping by the gate near the entry, Jesus left 8 of the Disciples and took Peter, James and John with Him, further into the garden, but before leaving, Jesus told them; “Sit here, while I go over there and pray” (Lk. 26:36). In my eyes, this was a challenge for them to pray also, certainly if it was necessary for Him to pray, it was also necessary for them to pray. As far as we know, this was the third time Jesus took Peter, James and John with Him, leaving the remaining disciples behind. Interestingly, all 3 occasions were associated with death. The first was when Jesus took the 3 with Him, when He raised Jairus Daughter from the dead. The 2nd time was on the Mount of Transfiguration, where at the end, Jesus alluded to both His death and resurrection. And this occasion, leading up to His sacrificial death, to pay the price for our sins. I guess you could also say that they all three were associated with a rising from the dead as well.

Jesus, Peter, James and John, all went further into the large garden. Jesus heart was heavier that in had ever been as they ventured further in. Mark tells us He was “greatly distressed and troubled.” The combination of those 2 words coming from the original Greek language, indicated He was in the midst of the deepest distress, anguish and deep sorrow, deeper than anything He had ever experienced before. The intensity of the emotional pain was so great that He was astonished by it. I cannot imagine what would have been going through the minds of Peter, James and John. Jesus had always been, to them, a rock. Undaunted by anything He was ever faced with, but on this occasion, He appeared anything but the picture of strength.

Now, as I say this, I want to be clear on something very important, Jesus strength was in no way diminished there in the garden that night. He was still God in the flesh and could have called forth His omnipotence at any moment. In Philippians 2:6 we read the following of Jesus, New Slide

“Who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped” Phil. 2:6

Meaning that there were times He relinquished what was available to Him as God the Son, to be obedient to the will of God the Father. We have a tendency to envision strength as powerfully overcoming any obstacle, or defeating any enemy. But often times the greatest strength is seen by those who courageously walk through the valley of the shadow of death, with no fear of evil. There was no fear in Jesus that night! Something else entirely was at play, which we will look at in more detail shortly, but for Peter, James and John, their minds had to have been thoroughly confused and fearful, as they watched Jesus while walking with Him in the garden. At some point in time, either as a response to a question from one of the three, or just by virtue of the questions He saw on their faces, Jesus said to them;

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“My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.”

His obedience to God the Father and the emotional stress of what lay ahead, had zapped Him of any physical strength, to the point He literally was close to dying on the spot. The Greek word from which we translate “very sorrowful”, conveys the notion of being surrounded by sorrow and overwhelmed with sadness. Picture in your minds being surrounded on every side by your enemy, with no hope of rescue, and you have a pretty accurate picture of what He was feeling. It was at that point, He left the 3, but before leaving, He gave them 2 challenges. The first, we see here in Mark, Jesus challenged them to, “Remain here and watch.” The second, we see in Luke’s account of this event, when He challenges them to “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” Keep in mind that this is not long after all of them, including the 8 left behind, had assured Jesus they would never abandon Him. Jesus knowing differently, challenged them to pray, seeking strength from His Father. Which is exactly what He went on to do.

Leaving Peter, James and John, Jesus went about a stones throw farther, and there, the pain became to great to bear. The normal posture of prayer at that point in history, was to stand with your hands lifted towards heaven. But when an individual was in extreme anguish, he would go on his knees or face before God. In Luke we learn that He first went to His knees, but before long, we learn in Mark that “He fell on the ground”.

From here we move to the real: New Slide

Last Temptation of Christ.

In the history of mankind, no one has ever been faced with an anguish like that of Jesus that night. There, having fallen on His face before God the Father, He begins to plead with Him. The plea begins with His calling on God using the most intimate of terms; “Abba, Father”. This was an Aramaic term of great endearment and intimacy with God the Father. About the closest equivalent we have in our English language is Papa or Daddy. It is here that Jesus is faced with the greatest temptation He had ever been faced with before. This far outweighed anything He faced in the wilderness at the beginning of His ministry, during His 40 day fast when Satan brought before Him temptation after temptation. The temptation here, was to bypass the will of the Father, that He become the Ultimate Passover Lamb, the One Who’s blood would take away the sins of the world. That the divine wrath of God, for the sins of all mankind throughout all of history, would be poured out on Him. That was the picture He had in His mind when He prayed “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Remove this cup from Me.” The cup He was referring to was the cup of the divine wrath of God.

To give us a better understanding of what Jesus was facing here, let me ask you a question. Barring the blood of Jesus shed for us on the cross, what is it, that we deserve based on our sin? (Eternal punishment in Hell). Well there are currently somewhere between 7.5 and 8 billion people in the world. Some have estimated the total population of man for all of history to be about 117 billion people. Well, Jesus was staring down the eternal wrath of God for all of those 117 billion people about to be poured out on Him, when He hung on the cross paying the penalty for our sins. As John MacArthur put it;

“The primary cause of His anguish was not Israel’s rejection, Judas’s defection, or the disciples’ desertion. Nor was it the injustice of the religious leaders, the mockery of the Roman soldiers, or even the impending reality of physical death. All of those considerations, as hurtful or horrifying as they must have been, were secondary. The agony and astonishment that overcame Jesus in the garden went infinitely beyond any of those things. His grief was fueled, first and foremost, by the horrifying recognition that He would soon become the bearer of sin and the object of divine wrath (2 Cor. 5:21). For the first time in all of eternity, He would experience alienation from His Father (Mark 15:34; cf. Hab. 1:13), being crushed by Him as a guilt offering for sinners (Isa. 53:10). The reality of it was nearly too much for even Jesus to survive.” MacArthur, J. (2015). Mark 9–16 (p. 300). Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers.”

That was the cup He wanted removed. But His painful and powerful prayer did not end there. He went on to say; “Yet not what I will, but what You will.” Based on what we read in Matthew, Mark and Luke, that is what He prayed, while laying prostate on the ground, over and over and over again for the next hour.

“Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Remove this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You will.”

“Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Remove this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You will.”

All along, you have to know.....He knew the answer…He knew this was the will of the Father. He knew this before ever coming to earth! He understood fully that the Holy character of God could not be in the presence of sinful man. That the only way for any of us to have any hope of an eternity in the presence of God in heaven, is to have our sins washed away by the Suffering Servant Savior, Who was the Ultimate Passover Lamb, Who’s blood washes away our sin. Who’s blood enables us to stand in the presence of God, not clothed in our own righteousness, which the Bible describes as “filthy rags”. But clothed in the righteousness of Jesus the Messiah. But in that moment, He continued to pray;

“Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Remove this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You will.”

His anguish was so great, that we learn in the Gospel of Luke, that God sent an angel from heaven to strengthen Him. To strengthen Him, not to save Him. To strengthen Him so that His death would not take place until the perfect time appointed by God. And He needed strengthened. Luke writes that He was in “agony”. The word here describes a state of extreme mental and emotional anguish and sorrow. Perhaps the best way for us to imagine this type of anguish and sorrow, is to picture a parent that has just lost a child. The body shakes and convulses as the parent loudly weeps, almost inconsolable. But even this barely scratches the surface of what Jesus was experiencing in the Garden that night.

Actually, the writer of Hebrews gives us an idea, when he writes in Hebrews 5:7 New Slide

Hebrews 5:7 ESV

7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.

The writer of Hebrews goes on to point out, that even though He was heard, He was not saved from death, because; “He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him”.

Luke, the physician, describes something else that took place at the time. Luke writes ; “and His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground”. John MacArthur writes that there is a medical term for this, it is called “hematidrosis, which is characterized by blood oozing from the skin. It is most frequently caused by extreme mental and emotional strain, causing subcutaneous capillaries to dilate and burst, releasing blood to mingle with sweat.” MacArthur, J. (2014). Luke 18–24 (p. 306). Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers.”

Finally, after an hour of repeated praying, Jesus returns to:

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Sleeping Watchmen.

Despite Jesus’ 2 challenges to the Disciples, they fell asleep. Luke tells us that the reason they fell asleep wasn’t because they were tired, it wasn’t because is was dark, nor because they had just eaten a big meal. They fell asleep because of sorrow. Now, perhaps you may be thinking, well wouldn’t that be a good thing? I mean here they were, filled with sorrow for the anguish Jesus was experiencing. But had that been the cause of their sorrow, it is highly unlikely that they would have fallen asleep. Had that been the cause of their sorrow, they would have.....well they would have done exactly what He challenged them to do, they would have “watched and prayed”. Instead, they fell asleep. Because their sorrow was a selfish, woe is me sorrow. Just 4 days earlier, they were with Him during His Triumphal Entry, when the crowds were shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord.” And Yes, Jesus had already told them He was going to die, but in their minds, He was mistaken. But now....now the reality was beginning to really set in....maybe He was going to die! Maybe they would not soon rule next to Him as He established His earthly kingdom and vanquished to rule of the Roman Empire! No, their sorrow was not for Jesus, it was for themselves. Fatalism and dispair had crept in, as their world was seemingly collapsing around them, and there seemed nothing left to pray for…all was lost. So they slept.

Jesus awakens them and singles Peter out, Peter who boldly proclaimed; “All the rest of these guys may abandon You, but not me, I am willing to die for You!” Jesus says to Peter “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is week.”

This happened two more times that night. Three times He went away and rayed, the same basic prayer He did the first time. And three times He returned to sleeping disciples. Finally, we read: New Slide

Mark 14:41–42 ESV

41 And he came the 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. 42 Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”

We will look at the sovereignty of God in that dark event next week. But i want to close with 3 Action points for us to consider this morning. New Slide

Action Points From the Garden:

1. Think on the Deep Love that both God the Father, and Jesus have for us.

Think over the description of what Jesus went through that night, and this is before the agony of the crucifixion! And as a father I can attest, whatever the son was feeling, the Father felt also, maybe not identically, but still powerfully.

2. We need to Watch & Pray.

That we, like the Disciples should have been doing that night, need to diligently watch and pray. And trust in the sovereign Hand of our God, Who was in complete control of all things that night.

3. We need to place our focus on God and others.

That we move away from a life focused on ourselves and our own selfish desires, and instead, focus on the God, Who’s great love for us brought Him to the point where He willingly sent His Son to die for us, and His Son, went to the cross for us, “for the joy set before Him”, which the writer of Hebrews declared. That we would, in turn, love Him and then love others, more than we love ourselves.

Let’s close our time in prayer. Our most loving Heavenly Father. Even with our deepest imaginations, we could never fully understand all that took place that night. The pain and anguish Jesus must have felt, as He faced the cross, faced being crushed under the weight of the wrath of God poured out on Him as our sins were placed on Him, our Passover Lamb. Father, I pray that we would never forget Your seep love for us. That we would devote ourselves fully watching and praying, that we would not fall into temptation, but stand strong through Your Spirit that indwells those of us who have placed our faith and trust in You. That you would, in turn, transform us in such a way, that Your light and love would shine through us. We pray this in the matchless Name of Jesus, Amen.