Good morning. All right, our text is Mark 14,
Mark 14, verses 32 through 42. This is now after the supper
that our Lord had with his disciples, and we're told that he took them
to a place, Luke tells us, to a place where he was wont to
go. and that means that it was a
place that our Lord really liked going to when he was in Jerusalem. It's the Mount of Olives or Gethsemane. Now as I was reading this passage
this morning and I was looking over the scriptures here and
I began to read some of the commentators, I was relieved that every commentator
that I read all confessed our inadequacy to describe what our
Lord endured, what he suffered here in this hour, in Gethsemane. We're told here that he suffered,
that he was sore amazed there in that garden, and as he entered
the garden, he said to the bulk of his disciples, sit ye here
while I pray. And he took with him Peter, James,
and John, and he said to them, they went a little further, and
he said to them, tarry ye here and watch with me. You pray with
me, you watch with me. And so just thinking about this
passage and thinking about our Lord, I confess, like Paul, who
is sufficient for these things? Who am I to declare what our
Savior was enduring here? Who are we to even speak of these
things? So this morning, we'll attempt
to peer into this dark occasion where we see our Lord in the
distress of His soul, which He endured for sleeping sinners. For sleeping sinners. Our title
is, While You Were Sleeping. While You Were Sleeping. And
we'll have three divisions. First, the cause of His sorrow. And then we'll look at Christ's
prayer. And then we'll see what he said
there, what was meant when he said, it is enough. It is enough. So our text opens
here in verse 32. And we'll read down to 34 together.
He says, and they came to a place which was called, which was named
Gethsemane. And he sayeth to his disciples,
sit ye here while I shall pray. And he taketh with him Peter,
and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be
very heavy. And he saith unto them, My soul
is exceeding sorrowful unto death. Tarry ye here, and watch." Now
the words that are used here to describe our Savior, these words spoken of to describe
what our Savior was enduring here, they're very moving words. They're moving words. We're told
that he was sore amazed. We're told that he was very heavy. And that he said to Peter, James,
and John, my soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death. This is Christ, who is the Son
of God, so fully God as if He were not man, and yet He's fully
man, so fully man as though He were not God. And what the Lord
is showing us here, one of the things that we see here so preeminently,
so predominantly in this passage, is the weakness of Christ, the
weakness of our Savior. In Hebrews 4.15, the Apostle
there tells us that we have not in high priest which cannot be
touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points
tempted like as we are, yet without sin. We look here at the Savior, we
read this passage, we look at our Savior saying these things
about himself, being so amazed and in great distress and in
such sorrow of his soul unto death. And we wonder, we wonder
looking at him in disbelief, wondering what was he enduring? What was happening here to our
Savior at this very time? And it's very hard to enter into
what he was enduring and feeling and going through and what was
happening to him here in the garden. And it's sad, but I have
to confess that I think I understand the disciples more. I think I find myself identifying
with these disciples who experienced Sleep. They were asleep. They were weary, and their eyes
were heavy, and they slept. Look at verse 37, Mark 14, 37. And he cometh and findeth them
sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? Couldst not thou watch one hour? And I have to think, how often
does my Lord say that to me? Sleepest thou? Couldst thou not
watch one hour? And he says, Watch ye and pray,
lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but
the flesh is weak. And so we hear him for a moment,
and no sooner do we hear him, but we're lulled right on back
to sleep in a worldly slumber. And it says in verse 40, Mark
14, 40, And when he returned, he found them asleep again, for
their eyes were heavy, neither wist they what to answer him. They didn't even know what to
say to him. And I confess, that's what I understand more of. Lord,
here I am again. If you've ever tried to pray
to the Lord when you are laying on your bed going to sleep, how
many times have you said, Lord, and then you wake up the next
morning? And you don't even think about it until you try and do
it again the next night. Lord, oh yeah, I was just here
praying last night and I never even finished my prayer. And
so you start again, Lord, and you wake up the next morning.
And you barely got, you don't even know if you got anything
out. And it's, we're just like them. So their eyes and our eyes
were heavy, heavy with sleep. And the thing is heavy with sleep
as though we hadn't a care in the world. As though everything's
fine and there's nothing wrong, nothing needed, nothing necessary.
Everything's great. I'm just going to sleep without
a care in the world. Now we're told in verse 33, he
began to be sore amazed and to be very heavy and the name Gethsemane
means oil press. Gethsemane is the Mount of Olives,
there was an abundance of olive trees and they had a press there
that would press the olives and that seems fitting, right? It's
fitting for our Savior because he was in great heaviness, being
pressed in his soul, pressed under the pressure and the weight
of what was being laid upon him. And so I thought, well what pressed
him, what was pressing him so heavily that he was so amazed? Was it physical pain? Was he worried about the physical
suffering that he was about to endure? Was he worried about
the death that he was going to, was he worried of dying? Was
he worried about going to the cross and dying on the cross?
I don't think so. Mark 10.45 says, for even the
Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to
give His life a ransom for many. It's why He came, to give Himself
a ransom for many. Luke 9.51 tells us that it came
to pass when the time was come that He should be received up,
He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. So it was not
the physical pain that he was about to suffer. It wasn't dying
that he was afraid of. It wasn't going to the cross
that he was tried so fiercely in his spirit. But what it was,
it seems to be the anticipation of what he was to be made for
his people. What he was to become, that burden
that he was to bear for his people and bearing their guilt, and
bearing their shame, and that before his father, with whom
he had eternal fellowship with until this point. The psalmist,
I don't think, could have captured it any clearer for us. The psalmist
wrote in Psalm 69, verse 20, he said, Reproach hath broken
my heart. Reproach hath broken my heart. And that word is sometimes translated
rebuke. Rebuke. Thy rebuke hath broken
my heart. When it's used on a person, it
means one who is despised. One who is despised. And so he
was anticipating that he would be forsaken by his father. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?" He was to be forsaken by his father as a thing despised,
bearing the sin, the guilt, and the shame of his people. And
he says in Psalm 69, 20, And I am full of heaviness, and I
looked for some to take pity, but there was none. and for comforters,
but I found none. Simon, sleepest thou? Couldst thou not watch one hour? And that curse, you know, we
hear that curse pronounced against us from the garden, Genesis 3.19,
in the sweat of thy face, in the sweat of thy face shalt thou
eat bread. You know, we labor in this life,
we labor in this world for that which is not bread, and we labor
for that which does not satisfy. And yet, believers, you that
believe, who hope in Christ, have no confidence in the flesh,
but hope in Christ, though we labored and toiled not, yet we
are blessed to partake of the bread of heaven. We are blessed
to eat that bread, that blessed bread from heaven, and to be
satisfied with the Lord of glory, the bread of heaven. And we have
it, not because we labored for it or toiled for it, but we have
it because of his grace. because of his abundant grace
toward his people who labored and toiled for this bread. Our
Savior labored and toiled for this bread. Luke records in Luke
22, 44, we're told that his sweat, his sweat was as it were great
drops of blood falling down to the ground. so that he was laboring
by the sweat of his own brow, with his own blood, he labored
to bring forth the bread which we can never produce by our flesh,
being cursed as we are in Adam in our sin. So, with his great
drops of blood, he put away the curse of his people. He delivered
us from the curse of the law. And you think about it, Christ
knows what sin is. He knows what sin is just as
the Father, as God, knows what sin is. The Son knows it. He knows how evil sin is. And He understood what would
happen to Him when He was made sin for His people, when He was
made a curse and forsaken by His Father. And it was weighing
on Him very heavily. But he knew that he had to do
it. He's the mediator. There's no other mediator between
God and men. If Christ doesn't save us, we
cannot be saved. There's no other law. Had there
been a law given that could have made us righteous, then Christ
would not have had to die. And he's showing us, Paul was
telling us, there's no other hope of salvation but the Lord
Jesus Christ. Neither is there any other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. And so Christ, we're told, was
made sin for his people. We're told in 2 Corinthians 5.21,
for God hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we
might be made the righteousness of God In him. And then he was
made a curse for his people. Galatians 3.13, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for
it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And so Christ, when he hung there
on the tree, was slain by the father. The sword of God's holy
justice awoke and slew the son, slew his own darling son as the
substitute of his people. so that He shed His blood as
our substitute, as our surety, to put away once and for all
the sin of His people and to obtain eternal redemption for
them. As the surety of His people,
we are told that He restored that which He took not away.
He didn't sin. He did no evil. He did nothing
wrong. He was faithful and true and
just in all that he did. And yet, he came to restore that
which we took away, that which we did, the debt of righteousness
that we owe to God that we can't pay. He paid it for all his people. He paid that debt in full so
that now we understand, looking to Christ, we understand that
scripture which says, by mercy and truth, Iniquity is purged. It's purged by Christ. Christ
is merciful. Christ is the truth. He's the
one that purged us of our sins by the shedding of his own blood.
And Paul, by the Holy Spirit, summarized it very well when
he declared Christ, saying, in whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
the riches of His grace. So, brethren, you that believe,
you that know Christ, and have the love of Christ formed
in your heart by the Holy Ghost, rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord
your salvation. Rejoice in Him. Be thankful.
Be thankful each day for what God has given us, the blessing
of heavenly bread and our Savior. But if you don't know Christ,
if you don't believe Him, if you don't rest Him, then you're
outside of Christ. And your sin is still upon you.
And the Lord still sees you in your sin. There's only salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And those that hear Him declare,
do you believe? Do you believe it? Do you believe
the Word of God or do you doubt it? Those that believe, they
shall never be ashamed. But those that doubt it, and
those that think, nope, that's not how God saves, there's no
hope for them. There's no hope outside of Christ.
We must be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. But for His people,
there's now no cause, no cause or fear of condemnation. You
don't need to fear being accused before God the Father or being
separated from him. Paul asked, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of
God, who also maketh intercession for us. He maketh intercession. Our Savior prayed. We're told
that he prayed in the garden. Let's look at that Christ's prayer.
Look at verse 35 and 36 with me. And he went forward a little,
and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the
hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba, Father, that's
Hebrew and then Greek, Abba, Father, all things are possible
unto thee. Take away this cup from me. Nevertheless, not what I will,
but what thou wilt. And we're told that he prayed
this each time that he went and saw the disciples asleep and
awoke them, he would go back and this is what he would pray.
Now, just taking a little sidetrack here, this is a good example
for us. You that are afflicted and aburdened,
look to the example of Christ. Because he first laid out his
burden, he unburdened his heart in prayer to His Father. And that shows us when we're
troubled and burdened and sorrowful, afraid, worried, scared, whatever
it is, speak to the Father, pray to Him. Christ has opened the
way for us to pray to Him. You that believe Christ, pray
to Him, trust You that are frightened and don't know what to believe,
pray. Pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray that
he open the way and that the Lord hear you. So the first to
hear our complaint really should be God the Father. He's the one
that should be the first one. So before you turn to your spouse
and complain, before you text your friend and complain, lay
it before the Lord. Unburden your heart to him. He
careth for you. Lay it before him. James tells
us, he says, is any among you afflicted? I'm afflicted. Are you afflicted? I'm sure you're
afflicted too. I'm sure there's things that
try you and tempt you and burden you and trouble you. They afflict
you. He says, is any among you afflicted?
Let him pray. Pray. He doesn't qualify it any
more than that. Are you afflicted? Pray. Pray
to the Lord. Now concerning our Lord's prayer,
we're told that Christ prayed that if it were possible, the
hour might pass from him. And again, he said, Abba, Father,
all things are possible unto thee. Take away this cup from
me. Nevertheless, not what I will,
but what thou wilt. When looking at this, The Lord
isn't speaking about the hour on the cross. He's not speaking
about that. There's something more to this.
If you remember in Revelation 13, 8, Christ is the lamb slain
from the foundation. of the world. He's the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. This is the very purpose, the
cross is the very purpose that he's coming to this world. But
he's speaking about this very hour. This very hour in great
temptation. Look at it. He prayed that if
it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And when he came
to Simon, what did he say? Couldest thou not watch one hour? One hour, Peter? So whatever
was transpiring here in the garden in that very hour was so immensely
trying to the Lord. That's what he was praying about.
He was praying about what was transpiring or occurring there
in that hour in the garden, and I confess it's something very
difficult for us in the weakness of our flesh, in the heaviness
of our sleepy eyes, to enter into what was occurring there
upon the Lord, in His heart, and in His mind, and in His soul,
and in His body. We're told, remember, that he
sweat great drops of blood and if you lose a lot of blood and
if you've ever been in a stressful situation before where you're
so pressed in your body you are so stretched and burdened you
feel I know just there's been days where I've worked where
I thought I was going to die just from exhaustion and The
Lord is being tried and tempted here. He's losing blood. He's
very weak, no doubt, and he's afraid that, he's wondering,
am I about to expire here in my human body? Am I going to
make it to the very day, to the appointed time where I'm going
to lay down my life as the Lamb of God for the people of God?
Am I gonna make it there? Am I gonna get there? You know,
I say that because what was that prayer that was spoken of, written
about in Hebrews? Turn over there to Hebrews 5.
Look at Hebrews 5, and let's pick up in verse 7. Hebrews 5,
7. says who in the days of his flesh
speaking of our Lord who in the days of his flesh when he had
offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears
unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard
in that he feared he was concerned Lord I'm I'm struggling here. I'm burdened and sore amazed
at what's about to come upon me, and I've got to make it.
I'm weak, Lord. I'm weak. And his body is given
out. And we're told there that though
he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which
he suffered. So that Luke tells us, in Luke's
account, stay there in Hebrews, because we'll look at verse nine
in a moment, but Luke tells us that there appeared an angel
unto him from heaven, strengthening him, strengthening him. And you
think about that, this is the creator, the word of God, the
voice of God, who created all things, including this creature,
an angel, who was sent of God to minister, to strengthen, to
give strength to the son who was weak, weak. So that Christ,
being so weak in the flesh there, that the angels, who have no
part in the salvation that Christ is providing for his people,
that this death that he's laying down of himself, has no part. This creature who's wondering
to behold what Christ, the Creator, is doing here, what he's about
to accomplish for his people, he's beholding this, and he,
the creature, is ministering to Christ, the Son, in his weakened
body, his weakened body. And we're told, and being made
perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all
them that obey him. So that what we find is after
he was strengthened, after with all that sweat pouring out and
his body being weakened, and him crying out to the Lord, praying,
Lord if Lord, I'm weak. We see that after
that time he was so strengthened that he gets up and in strength
and in power he goes back to the disciples and he becomes,
he's now ready for the task at hand to do what's needed to be
done. And so He's able, being strengthened by the Father, he's
able to make that final push into the veil of death, to lay
down his life for his people as their sacrifice, as the Lamb
of God. able, ready, sufficient to bear
that load before the Father. But do you see the weakness?
He's showing us, He's making us to see, in the Gospel here,
to see the weakness of our Savior. The weakness of our Savior. I
have a purpose in pointing that out to you. We see there that our Savior
now is, though He was weak, He's now strengthened. He has the
strength now to finish that work. And Hebrews 12, two and three
says, to us, behold, behold your Lord, look to Christ, look to
Christ the Savior, Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God." He saw that joy set before him there as he was
strengthened there in the garden, and he despised the shame. He
said, I'm doing it, Lord, thank you. You've strengthened me sufficiently
so I'm able to go and do this work that you've sent me here
to do. And it says, for consider him
that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest
ye be wearied and faint in your minds. All right, so now he gets
up, he's strengthened, and he goes to the disciples, and he
says to them, it is enough, it's enough. He wasn't rebuking them,
he says it's enough. Look at that in verse 41. Now
Mark, back in our text, Mark 14, verse 41. He cometh the third
time and saith unto them, sleep on now. Right before, he was
struggling, and he was saying, pray with me, watch with me.
Lord, help me in this hour. I'm struggling, Lord, save me.
But now he says to them, sleep on now and take your rest. It
is enough. So whatever the Lord needed,
whatever he was in need of there in that hour, whatever he was
going through, he obtained it of the Lord, the strength necessary,
and he comes back and tells them it's enough. Everything necessary
is ready. It's all done. It's now been
accomplished. It's accomplished. You can sleep
now. I have everything I need of the
Lord. And so the purpose here the purpose
is to show us just how weak our Savior is in the flesh, how weak
he was in the flesh. When he was here in the likeness
of our flesh, having the flesh, he was weak, all right? And so he says to them, the hour
has come. Behold, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands
of sinners. Rise up, let us go. Lo, he that
betrayeth me is at hand. And so there in the garden, our
Savior so emptied himself of everything and became nothing
but the Lamb of God. He became that which was necessary
to put away, to do this work in putting away the sin of His
people. And so then our Lord being strengthened
by His Father, He returns to the disciples and He's so merciful.
He's so gentle and so patient with them, right? It pictures
here that that he finds them asleep again and he says, just
sleep on now. It's okay. Everything that was
necessary is done. It's accomplished. And so the
picture here is that what we see of the disciples is they
did nothing. They contributed absolutely as well as what he accomplishes
there on the cross. And he in utter weakness, emptying
himself of every strength, became utterly weak and having nothing,
depended entirely upon his Father. He didn't trust anything in his
flesh. He depended on nothing in his
flesh, though he's holy and perfect. And so you see that compared
to us, who are so strong, so mighty in self-confidence that
we just sleep as though there's no sin, as though we're just
entirely indifferent to the Lord God. We just sleep, just like
these disciples, and we did nothing. And Christ here shows us how
perfect and holy and righteous He is, that He depended nothing
in himself. He depended on his flesh for
nothing. He trusted entirely on the Lord
to strengthen him and to help him to do this work. So, like
them there in the garden, so we contribute nothing to our
salvation. There's nothing that we do that
we give or can do that is aided in our salvation. Peter couldn't
even watch for one hour. He couldn't even pray with the
Lord. He was asleep. And that's how we are. We contribute nothing
to salvation. So we see that picture there
that it's not by works of righteousness which we have done. It's by him
and him alone, his righteousness alone. It's his strength and
his power. And he assures us now it's enough.
It's accomplished. Everything necessary, I've accomplished
it in the Father. And by His strength, by His power,
it's all accomplished. And so we'll never accomplish
anything in our strength. We're so confident in trusting
ourselves. Even when we're humbled, even
when we're humbled and brought low, I'm still confident. I still
trust in myself. I still find some strength in
me to depend on and look to, even when I'm weak. But you see
now that in my strength, in my cocky confident self, I can do
nothing. But Christ in weakness did everything
in utter and complete weakness. And that's really what I'm trying
to get out, to show is how Christ who in utter complete weakness
did everything, whereas we in our strength and our might accomplished
absolutely nothing. in our salvation. Nothing. Nothing
at all. He did everything. So, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust Him. Believe Him because
He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto Him, trusting
His righteousness, trusting Him. Because even in weakness, it
didn't stop Him. Nothing could prevent Him from
accomplishing the salvation of His people. But, you can also
continue in your own strength and perish in your sins. and
you'll perish in your sins and have to pay off your debt of
righteousness, which shall never be paid off, though you spend
an eternity in hell. So I pray that the Lord would
shine upon you, that he'd shine upon us, that he'd wake us up,
right? Wake up, oh sleeper. That we
would hear his voice spoken to us, which says, it's enough.
I've accomplished it. I've done the work. All that
was necessary is accomplished in me. I think Paul had this
hour in mind when he wrote to the Romans in 1311 saying, and
that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake
out of sleep. When the Lord said, rise up,
let us be going, for now is our salvation nearer than when we
believed. Wake up, look to the Lord, trust
him. Remember your Lord and Savior,
consider the salvation which he accomplished in the weakness
of his flesh, having no strength. And Paul said, when I'm weak,
then I'm strong. Because I'm not strong in the
flesh, I'm weak in the flesh, and I have all the strength necessary
in Christ, who is my strength. And so just like Christ going
before us, emptied himself of all the strength of his flesh
and depended entirely upon the Lord, that's our salvation, isn't
it? If you trust in the flesh, Paul
said believers have no confidence in the flesh. That's not our
salvation, is our strength in the flesh. Our salvation is having
nothing and depending entirely upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Trusting
to his strength entirely. because he accomplished that
salvation. That's exactly what he accomplished. Wherefore, Paul
wrote to the Ephesians, awake thou that sleepest and arise
from the dead and Christ shall give thee light. He did this
all for his people while we were sleeping. While we were sleeping,
Christ accomplished this entirely and we contributed nothing to
it. Shall he not complete all things
and shall he not return? and raise us from the dead when
we shall hear his voice saying rise up rise up now's the time
so I pray the Lord would fill our hearts with rejoicing in
what Christ has done and that we would be satisfied with the
bread of heaven though we toiled and labored not for it yet he
provided everything he toiled he shed his blood and sweat and
labor that you and I might be satisfied and find full, complete
satisfaction before the Lord God Almighty and Christ our Savior. All right. Brother, if you close us in a
hymn, then I'll come back up. All right, close us in prayer.