Sleeping Disciples in Gethsemane

Q: What does the Bible say about the significance of Gethsemane?

Gethsemane highlights Christ's intense struggle and submission to God's will before His crucifixion. Gethsemane represents a profound moment in Christ's life where He faced the impending suffering and wrath of God on behalf of His people. The intense agony He experienced, marked by praying with strong cries and tears, illustrates His humanity and His commitment to fulfilling the will of the Father. It reveals the dual realities of Christ's divine nature and human suffering as He wrestled with the reality of drinking the cup of wrath meant for sinners, showcasing His obedience and ultimate sacrifice for salvation. The garden's significance extends beyond just a historical account; it sets the stage for the redemptive work of Christ, affirming that His suffering was necessary for the salvation of His people.

Q: How do we know that Jesus' sacrifice was necessary?

Jesus' struggle in Gethsemane confirms His mission to save sinners by drinking the cup of God's wrath. The necessity of Jesus' sacrifice is illustrated through His prayerful agony in Gethsemane. As He contemplated the weight of what lay ahead, His prayer, 'If it be possible, let this cup pass from me,' underscores the seriousness of the task at hand. The 'cup' symbolizes the impending wrath of God against sin, which Jesus willingly took upon Himself for the sake of His people. His struggle and surrender to God's will affirm that the sacrifice was not only necessary but also a fulfillment of God's redemptive plan throughout Scripture. This event signifies that salvation comes through the perfect obedience and sacrificial death of Christ, emphasizing that such atonement was essential for reconciling sinners to a holy God.

Q: Why is prayer important for Christians according to the Gethsemane account?

Prayer is vital for spiritual vigilance and strength against temptation, as demonstrated in Gethsemane. In the account of Gethsemane, Jesus emphasized the necessity of prayer for His disciples, urging them to 'watch and pray' to avoid entering into temptation. This directive highlights the intrinsic connection between prayer and spiritual vigilance. Prayer serves as a means of communion with God, a source of strength, and a safeguard against the spiritual drowsiness that can lead to falling into sin. By calling His disciples to pray during His time of distress, Jesus illustrates that reliance on God in prayer is essential for overcoming the weaknesses of the flesh. This call to prayer continues to resonate with believers today, reminding us that constant engagement with our Savior through prayer is necessary to navigate the spiritual challenges of life faithfully.

Q: What does Jesus' response to His disciples' sleep in Gethsemane teach us?

Jesus' gentle rebuke reveals His compassion and concern for our spiritual state. When Jesus returned to His disciples to find them sleeping, He addressed Peter with a mild rebuke: 'Simon, sleepest thou? Couldst thou not watch one hour?' This response teaches us about Jesus' deep compassion and care for His followers, even when they falter. Rather than displaying frustration, He expresses concern for their spiritual well-being, showing that He desires them to be alert and prepared for temptation. This interaction emphasizes that Jesus understands our human frailty and provides an avenue for restoration and grace. It encourages believers to recognize their vulnerabilities and the need for prayer and vigilance, and it reassures us of Christ's unwavering love and support, even when we are unfaithful.

This sermon was preached on Sunday
morning, June 11th, 1989, at the Trinity Baptist Church in
Montville, New Jersey. Now as we continue our consecutive
expositions in the Gospel of Mark, we find ourselves again
this morning in the incidents surrounding our Lord's experience
in Gethsemane, Mark Chapter 14. And I would ask you to follow
as I read verses 32 through 42, and then we shall turn over to
Hebrews chapter 5 and read just several verses which are the
Holy Spirit's own commentary upon the experience of Gethsemane. Mark 14 and verse 32. And they come unto a place which
was named Gethsemane. And he said unto his disciples,
Sit ye here while I pray. And he taketh with him Peter
and James and John, and began to be greatly amazed and sore
troubled. And he saith unto them, My soul
is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. Abide ye here and watch. 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, all
things are possible unto thee. Remove this cup from me, how
be it not what I will, but what thou wilt. And he cometh and
findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? Couldst thou not watch one hour? Watch and pray that ye enter
not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak." And again he went away and prayed, saying
the same words, or the same thing. And again he came and found them
sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy. and they knew not
what to answer him. And he cometh the third time
and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest. It is
enough. The hour is come. Behold, the
Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Arise, let
us be going. Behold, he that betrayeth me
is at hand. Now over to Hebrews chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5. Referring to our Lord Jesus Christ,
in verse 7 we read, Who in the days of His flesh, having offered
up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears
unto him that was able to save him from death. And having been
heard for his godly fear, though he was a son, he had learned
obedience by the things which he suffered. And having been
made perfect, he became unto all them that obey him the author
of eternal salvation, named of God a high priest after the order
of Melchizedek. Now let us once again seek the
face of God in prayer that the Holy Spirit, who delights to
fulfill his ministry of taking the things of Christ and revealing
them to the hearts of his people, will be present and powerfully
active in each of our minds and in each of our hearts that we
shall know Christ himself coming to us In his word, let us pray. Our Father, we feel again as
though you would say to us as you said to Moses standing by
the bush that burned with fire and yet was not consumed, take
the shoes from off your feet for the ground whereon you stand
is holy ground. And as we have come to that plot
of ground called Gethsemane in recent weeks, surely, Lord, we
have felt that it is holy ground. And we have wondered at what
right we even have to stand on that ground. For we confess our
own sinfulness, our own unfitness, to look upon our Savior in His
moments of intense agony. And yet, because You have told
us that Your Word is given to be light and life, we dare not
through a false humility avoid the ground of Gethsemane. But
coming again to stand within those stone walls of that plot
of ground, We plead for the Spirit's ministry to our hearts, that
we may reverently and yet joyfully behold Him whom you have set
forth as the only hope of needy sinners. Holy Spirit, come with
might and power and illuminating grace and take of the things
of Christ and reveal them to us with clarity and with life-transforming
power, we ask in our Savior's name. Amen. Gethsemane, a small band of men
placed inside the wall which probably marked out the actual
boundaries of that special garden of olive trees, A smaller group
of men penetrating more deeply into that garden, half asleep,
fully asleep, periodically awakened by another figure within the
walls of that garden. The Lord of Glory prostrate on
the cold, damp clods in that grove of olive trees. Strong
cryings and tears wrung from his heart, now held in the grip
of a tempest of internal commotion and of deepest conflict. An intensity,
yes, of vehemency, of prayer produced in a state of agony,
resulting in sweat mingled with blood, clotting and falling to
the earth. It is these realities which constitute
the profound mysteries of Gethsemane. Mysteries which all have their
origin in what it will mean for Jesus to drink the cup, the cup
of the Father's own wrath against the sins of his people. The cup
which, when placed before him there in Gethsemane in a way
in which he had never encountered the cup before, caused him to
recoil and to pray if at all possible the cup might pass without
his having to drink it. And in a very real sense then,
for our Lord, Gethsemane was Golgotha's shadow etched upon
the Savior's heart. and impressing itself upon all
of the faculties of his mind and of his soul. We have already
paid three visits to this solemn scene as depicted by Mark and
then with the side lights of Luke's account in Luke 22 verses
43 and 44. And in these three expositions
based primarily upon Mark 14, verses 32 through 36, and also
verse 39, our attention has been riveted upon our blessed Lord
Himself. It has been His amazement, His
trouble, His sorrow unto death, His conflict, His prayer, His
resignation to the Father's will, and his submission to that will,
which have filled our thoughts as we have followed the track
of Mark's own pen, as that pen was guided by the Holy Spirit. However, if you have carefully
noted the reading over these past weeks, you will have noticed
that in verse 37, there is a very clear shift in the focal point
of interest. the emphasis shifts from an almost
exclusive preoccupation with our Lord's inner turmoil and
the agonizing prayers which it produced to one in which the
disciples are now prominent along with our Lord as he deals with
his own in Gethsemane. One commentator has accurately
observed that from verse 37 onward there is a clear shift of emphasis
from the prayer of Jesus to the failure of the three disciples
to maintain their appointed vigil. And as we attempt to grasp the
facts of this section, bounded by verses 37 to 42, and then
to begin to extract their abiding message, Let me ask you to follow
the text with me as we consider, first of all, the initial directives
to the disciples in Gethsemane, or we might say, the initial
directives to the disciples upon entering Gethsemane. And those directives break down
into two very clear categories. There is, first of all, the general
directive to all of the disciples, and then secondly, the specific
or exclusive directive to the special three disciples. Note then under this heading
of the initial directives to the disciples upon entering Gethsemane,
the general directive to all the disciples, verse 32. and
they come unto a place which was named Gethsemane, and he
saith unto his disciples, and we know from the setting that
refers to the eleven apostles who then were with him, he saith
unto his disciples, Sit ye here while I pray. So the general
directives to all eleven are very simple, straightforward,
and clear. They are commanded to sit just
inside the entrance to Gethsemane. They are informed that Jesus
intends to go off to engage in prayer. The form of the verb
plus a particle with which it is used could be rendered literally,
sit ye here until I have prayed. Our Lord thus intimating that
as he leaves them, it is to engage in a specific exercise of concentrated
prayer, and then at a time subsequent to his having prayed, to return
to the eleven. And we must note that while Luke's
account, which is a very loose summary without any attempt at
chronological precision, Luke's account says that after entering
the garden, he commanded some disciples, upon entering, to
pray. When they came to the place,
he said, sit here and pray. It may be that at this time a
general command to pray was given to all the disciples, and the
focal point of that prayer was, pray that you enter not into
temptation. In Luke's account, there is the
fuller admonition at the end of Luke's treatment of the subject,
the words that are very familiar in Matthew's account, verse 41,
and here in Mark's account, verse 38. So upon entering the garden,
our Lord speaks to all eleven and He says, sit here until I
have prayed. It may be that in addition to
the directive for them to sit, was also a command that they
should pray that they would not enter into temptation. But whether
that word from Luke was inserted here, this much is clear. There
is not a shred of evidence that our Lord asked them to pray for
Him, let alone to pray with Him. In Matthew and Mark, we are simply
told that His general directive was, sit here while I pray. And at that point, He made it
evident whether with a nod of the head, whether by pointing
to them or speaking their names, he singles out three of the eleven,
Peter, James and John, and indicates his desire that they accompany
him further into the heart of the garden. So we read in verse
33, and he takes with him Peter and James and John. And you remember
that in our previous expositions we noted that at this point Our
Lord begins to be overwhelmed with the realization of what
it will mean for Him to encounter the cup of the wrath of God unmixed
with mercy, and that if He is to accomplish the redemption
of His people, He must drain every last dark drop and drain
it all alone. and taking then the three with
him, that group of three who were with him when he raised
Jairus' daughter, Mark 5.37, who were with him as witnesses
of the transfiguration, Mark 9.2, to this group of three he
gives a twofold command. Notice then the specific directives
to the favored three. First of all, he tells them to
abide here, verse 34b. Abide ye here. What he was telling them was
that they were to remain in the precise place in the garden to
which he had taken them, some distance from the other eight
who had been left just inside the outer borders of the garden,
but not to the point where he himself will go and engage in
prayer, somewhere in between, separated from the eight, and
yet short of the place to which he himself intends to go and
pour out his soul unto the Father, and his directive to them is,
abide here, remain in this particular place. Then the second thing
he charges them to do is that they are to be continually watchful. Again, verse 34, be, abide ye
here and be watchful. Now in the light of the frequent
use of this verb, to watch, as our Lord had used it just a couple
of days before in the Olivet Discourse, And as he had used
it frequently throughout his ministry, it means at its most
elementary level to stay awake, something that is good advice
when you're listening to sermons. And it indicates that to stay
awake is not only a human responsibility in certain circumstances, it
is a human possibility. We must never talk as though
sleep were some great and powerful monster that could consume us,
some great giant against which we had no strength, when God
calls us to wakefulness, sleeping and slumbering our sin. And so
though the hour was very late, and it had been a long and in
many ways an intensely draining day for remembrance, And these
three, one of them had been chosen to go on and prepare for the
Passover meal They had relived the exciting history of their
own nation in the remembrance of the Passover feast. They had
been brought into the mystery of the institution of the new
supper of remembrance there in the upper room. It had been a
long and an emotionally as well as physically exhausting day,
and yet our Lord says, keep awake. But watchfulness rarely refers
to mere physical wakefulness. For you know what it is to be
fully awake and yet to be daydreaming? Something you normally do when
you're asleep. When you're well off into the
land of nought is when most of us do our dreaming. But you see,
it's possible to be awake and yet, for all intents and purposes,
to be sleeping. So we speak of daydreaming. And
this command to watch not only means to keep awake, but it means
to have all of the faculties of the mind and soul wakeful
and alert to the impending spiritual realities, and in particular,
potential spiritual dangers. That is the predominant usage
of this word in the New Testament. Now in Matthew 26, 38, we read
that our Lord added two words, watch with me. Now in verse 35, it says that
He went forward a little. So having just told them watch
with me, clearly does not mean watch in the closest company
with me, for having told them watch with me, he then immediately
leaves them. So the words can only mean one
of two or possibly two things. You be watchful as I will be
watchful. As I now leave you, having confronted
in a degree that I've never confronted before, the cup that I must drink. All of my faculties are so awake
and alive to the realities of my Father's burning holiness,
of His inflexible justice, of His overwhelming wrath against
sin. I see these attributes of my
Father and these commitments of my Father for the redemption
of a people there in the cup My soul is so alive to them that
I am exceeding sorrowful unto death." He staggers with this
inner commotion of soul and now he says, you sit here and you
be watchful with me as I in my state of total alertness and
awakeness to the realities of the hour go yonder to pray in
the light of those very realities, so watch with me, that is, be
watchful even as I am watchful. And it may mean that our Lord
was seeking from them some measure of sympathetic support in His
agony. Be alert and awake, and as you
are alert and awake, And you behold me as I press on a bit
deeper, what Mark calls a bit further, went forward a little,
loops as the stones cast beyond them, that you will be able as
witnesses, who are not detached and indifferent, but with some
measure of sympathy, behold me as I wrestle with my own father
concerning this issue of the cup. So it may have been that
our Lord was in some measure seeking a degree of sympathy. It is clear that He commands
them to personal watchfulness, even as He was watchful. But
the more I have studied the passage, the less inclined I am to think
that there is anything in the text clearly to establish that
our Lord was seeking sympathy for Himself. For as we shall
see in our subsequent studies this morning, the whole preoccupation
of the Lord in His various visits to the slumbering disciples is
not with Himself or any disappointment to Himself. It is all concern
for His disciples and what their state of non-watchfulness will
produce in them. Well then, those are the initial
directives to the disciples as they enter Gethsemane. The general
directive to the eleven, the specific directive to the favored
three. Now we come in the second place,
and this of course is the heart of our study, to consider the
repeated visits of our Lord to the favored three. The repeated
visits of our Lord to the favored three, and I shall simply follow
the chronological order in opening up the text. We'll consider the
first visit to the three, the condition in which they were
found, the response of our Lord, the second visit to the three,
the third visit. First of all, then, the first
visit to the three, verses 37 and 38. And he cometh and findeth
them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? Couldst thou not watch one hour? Watch and pray that ye enter
not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. Here is the record of our Lord's
first visit back from the place where he had wrestled with his
father and could well have been visited by the angel and strengthened
in his agony. And he rises from that place
and comes precisely to the place where they had been told to abide. And we note the condition of
the three when our Lord returns. The text says they were all sleeping. And he cometh and findeth them
sleeping. He has displayed his deep agitation. He has engaged in mighty wrestlings
with God. so intense that apparently, as
so often happens, and those of you who know anything of the
agony of deep, intense spiritual wrestlings will appreciate this
immediately. There are times when your mind
and spirit as well as your body will be, as it were, crushed
if you don't take a break from that intense concentration and
preoccupation with those realities. And as our Lord, as it were,
takes that break that he might give himself to further wrestlings,
he comes to his disciples and he finds them sound asleep. And obviously awakening them,
we now note our Lord's response to their condition. Having awakened
them, he singles out Peter from the three. He finds them sleeping
and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? Couldst thou not
watch one hour? He singles out Peter and, as
it were, addresses the three in the person of Peter. And very interestingly, this
is the first time he's called Simon since way back in chapter
3. He had his name changed from
Simon to Peter, a rock. but as if to remind him that
he was not living up to his name with reference to his function
and usefulness in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's
addressed by his old surname, Simon. Simon, couldst thou not
watch with me one hour? You see what he was doing? Here
is the man who just a short time before When Jesus had predicted
that when the shepherd was smitten, all the sheep would be scattered,
it was Peter in verse 29 who said, though all others should
be offended, yet will not I be offended. I can believe that
these other fellows might be weak enough, cowardly enough,
might be filled with enough jelly instead of steel in their backbone
that under pressure they would turn and run, but not me, Lord. If I must pour out my life's
blood in martyrdom, Lord, I'll never deny you. If I must die
with you, I will never deny you. And then the Lord had given his
solemn prediction to him. Before the cock crow twice, thou
shalt deny me thrice. And perhaps Peter was still stinging
from that prophecy of the Lord. And so he singles out Peter and
says, Simon, sleepest thou? All I ask you to do in this place
of security, in this place of absolute retreat and quiet from
all the bustle of the multitudes, much more from overt enemies
who would destroy you and lay hold of you, all I've asked you
to do is in this place to be watchful, to be wakeful. That's all I've asked. Simon,
couldst thou not watch one hour? You say you have spiritual strength
and that you have internal grace to go even to martyrdom? I've
not asked you to shed a drop of blood. I've not asked you
to prick a finger. I've simply said, stay awake
and be alert to the realities of the hour. Simon, sleepest
thou? Couldst thou not watch? Not through
the whole night. Not for three days and nights,
but one hour! The basic unit of time that they
would use to speak of a time that was longer than a moment,
but shorter than any extended period. And we should not press
it into an exact 60-minute time frame. But Simon, could you not
watch for this one relatively brief period of time? That's his question. And then
our Lord moves from the singular to the plural and addressing
the three patently and clearly. Verse 38. He says, Watch and
pray that ye, and now we're in the second person plural, that
ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. And here our Lord gives two parallel
imperatives. Be watchful and be praying. To the three, He says, having
awakened them from their slumber, repeats the first command given
to them before he engaged in his first season of wrestlings
with his father, be alert, be awake, be watchful, and to that
he now adds without any question that he did so here, be continually
watchful and be continually praying. And in this context, to what
purpose are they to engage in watchful prayer and in prayerful
watching? Look at the text. Watch and pray
in order that this is the specific intention I have in commanding
you to be continually watchful and prayerful in order that you
enter not into temptation. That is, that you not merely
be tempted by the pressures of the coming ordeal, but so to
enter temptation as to be ensnared and overcome and defeated by
that temptation. And so our Lord's command is
very clear with the two imperatives. Be continually watchful and prayerful. You must engage in watchfulness
unto prayer and prayer that will sustain watchfulness. And then
He gives the rationale for this. Look at the text again. Why is
this necessary in the light of the coming ordeal? Here is the
reason. The Spirit indeed is willing. But the flesh is weak. Now, with no desire to enter
the very vexing question of the precise nature of the meaning
of the words spirit and flesh, and I have spent hours tracking
some of these things down, and I do not believe it would be
unto edification, at least today, this much is clear. Whether spirit
here refers to their renewed human spirits, which as regenerate
men were willing, that is, delightfully committed to doing the will of
God, or whether it is speaking of the Holy Spirit who in some
measure as Old Testament believers dwelt in them. It was not the
spirit of the ascended Christ who would be given on the day
of Pentecost, but surely the personal Holy Spirit who alone
had regenerated these men and made them what they are. This
much is clear. There is a contrast between a
willing spirit, the inward basic disposition and prevailing bent
of the soul, and this weak flesh. And whether the word flesh here
is used to refer to human nature in its present fallen condition,
or whether it's used in the Pauline sense of depraved polluted, remains
of corruption. The mind of the flesh is death. The flesh lusteth against the
Spirit. Galatians 5.17. It seems that
there is only one place in the Gospels where our Lord uses the
word in that sense. In his discourse with Nicodemus,
that which is born of the flesh is flesh. But one thing is clear. The reason
for which He commands them to be watchful and to be prayerful
is that they might not so enter temptation as to be ensnared
and overcome. And the reason why that is a
danger is because though they have a spirit that is willing
to please and follow and obey their master, they have flesh
that is weak, that is sick. They have either. weak human
nature which quails before suffering and opposition and hardship. Or added to that, they have the
remnants of sin within that are in opposition to all that is
pleasing to God. But whichever it be, in any combination,
it was the reality of this true biblical dualism that regenerate
men, in the language of Galatians 5, 17, have this constant conflict
between what they are as new men in Christ and what they are
in terms of the remnants of what they once were. Now notice I
did not say two natures. I've chosen my words very carefully. Don't anyone go out and say,
Pastor Martin taught the two-nature theory of the Christian life
that will be breaking the ninth commandment. I've chosen my words
with precision and carefulness. You listen with precision. It's
vital. Though the two are set as though
they might be equal and opposing forces, we know from our study
of the scripture that in every regenerate man that which he
is as a spiritual man will ultimately prevail and will be dominant
in his life. But no matter how much the spirit
dominates, flesh is always present. until we join the spirits of
just men made perfect and are glorified at the day of resurrection. Well, that's what our Lord says
after that first visit. It's clear that when he took
this brief reprieve from his own wrestlings, that his primary
concern is not that his disciples disappointed him and left him
down, rather it is clear they have left themselves vulnerable
and unprepared for the coming conflict. You see that in the
text? All right, now then, the second
visit to the three, verse 40. And again he came and found them
sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and he knew not what
to answer them. Again, we look at the condition
of the three. Our Lord obviously goes away
to pray a second time, and Matthew records that explicitly for us. And after this second season
of prayer, he comes back and he finds them again in a state
of slumber. And it is Mark who alone, in
conjunction with the second visit to the slumbering three, says
for their eyes were very heavy, it's a compound word meaning,
were exceedingly weighed down. Now here I can give an illustration
to which you can all relate. Do you know those times when
you're in a given company of people, and alas, often it's
in a church that a preacher can see it, and someone is fighting
sleep, and that's noble, to fight sleep. The person that doesn't
fight, at the first wave of it he feels coming over, just folds
his hands. You ever see someone fighting?
Biting their lip, they're shifting around in the pew and changing
their posture. Then you see their eyes beginning
to flutter and then they jerk their heads and they hold up
their eyes. And then after a while the eyes begin to, just like
someone is tied little fish sinkers right to their eyelids. And they
are weighted down. until after a while they give
up and give in and usually a no because then the head will give
one little jerk and they're gone. Well that's the picture here.
If you were talking about a slave or a beast of burden that was
excessively weighed down with goods and commodities upon its
or his back, this is the verb you would use. Their eyes were
exceedingly weighted so weighty that they finally came down and
stayed there. Luke adds a very touching stroke
that they were sleeping for sorrow. You see, it was a state of the
heart that was affecting the condition of the eyelids. As
it began to dawn upon them to some degree, that as they beheld
their Lord in His wrestlings before they nodded off to sleep
the first time. And as they beheld Him in His
wrestlings before they nodded off to sleep the second time,
that something foreboding, something frightening, something like a
gathering storm of fury was about to break upon them, and to some
degree their hearts entered in to the sorrow of that hour. And in their sorrow, rather than
doing as our Lord, who was exceeding sorrowful even to the point of
death, and had His sorrow cut a conduit in mighty wrestlings
with God, they retreated from their sorrow as men do, either
by blowing their brains with alcohol or drugs, or going off
to sleep. There's many a person who's never
used alcohol as a crutch to run from problems, who becomes a
sleepaholic. Because while sleeping one can
have dreams that all is well and his world is a paradise,
but when he waits and the real world stares him in the face,
the world of doing what? Watching, being wakeful and alert
to reality. It's too ugly, it's too sorrowful,
it's too much laced with black. It's funereal in its holy thoughts. And so they drift back off into
sleep and have had pleasant dreams that they're running over a hill
spotted with daisies and they're seven years old and they're barefooted
and the sky is blue and puffy cumulus clouds float by and it's
just so wonderful. Now that's the picture of the
disciples. And apparently our Lord awakened them, because Mark
says, and they knew not what to answer him. It could be at
this point, according to Luke 22, 46, that he may have asked
the question, why are you sleeping? For Luke tells us that somewhere
in this whole Gethsemane complex of incidents, he asks the question
of the three, why are you sleeping? It could well be at this point.
And Mark says with stark honesty, they knew not what to answer. They had nothing that would stand
up as even a plausible excuse. They couldn't say, Lord, the
hour is late and it's been a busy day, for the Lord could say,
did I not precede the dawn with you? Have I not been with you
in all the activities of the day? Have I not borne burdens
of which you know nothing? Am I not even now pressed down
with cares that drain the strength from my own holy humanity?" They
knew not what to answer. They couldn't say, well, we weren't
told to be kept awake, for His command, twice repeated, was
still ringing in their ears as soon as they woke up. Be awake! Keep alert! Be wakeful! And be praying!" So in self-confessed
guilt, they say nothing. They knew not what to answer
him. And again, it is clear that amidst
his own mighty wrestlings, our Lord does not forget his own.
Equally clear, no word of personal disappointment. Jesus then obviously
goes a distance away to pray again. And Matthew 26, 44 states
that very clearly. And now we have the third visit,
verse 41. The third visit to the three,
verses 41 and 42. And he cometh the third time
and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest. It is
enough. The hour is come. Behold, the
Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Arise, let
us be going. Behold, he that betrayeth me
is at hand." Now I confess, dear people, that when I began my
study of this passage, I did not realize what a minefield
of exegetical problems I was walking into. There's a sense
in which ignorance is bliss when you're trying to be a responsible
expositor of the Scriptures. But when I opened my Greek texts,
and began to examine the passage carefully, I found I could hardly
take a half of an exegetical step without gingerly feeling
to see if my foot were on another mine. Or to change the imagery,
what I thought would be a clear path of exegetical study, and
this is perhaps a better imagery, became a veritable maze. Do you
kids know what a maze is? Sometimes you have them in your
little workbooks and coloring books where they have a whole
bunch of lines and you've got to say, start here and then it shows
something in the middle and you've got to have a line and it doesn't
cross any of the other lines. You've got to make your way right
into the middle and find which are dead ends. Well, I confess
that I spent hours in the maze of exegetical work and it would
not be unto edification to trace you to every single wrong path
that I took. or the possible paths that may
be right. And so in opening up these verses,
I want to just suggest along the way what may be the possibilities
because in terms of the vital applications, whichever course
is the right one exegetically, the application is essentially
the same. Now notice the condition of the
three when he comes back the third time. And he cometh the
third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on now. The indication
is that they were again fast asleep, or they were in such
a state of semi-sleep and stupor that they may as well have been
asleep. That was the condition for the third time when our Lord
returns to them. Now what was our response, or
what was the response of our Lord? And here is where you have
great difficulty. And the difficulty arises, first
of all, from the fact that in the Greek, certain forms of certain
verbs in the indicative, that is, a simple statement, he is
here, and the imperative, be here, are exactly the same. And context has to help one in
determining, is this an indicative or is it an imperative? Sometimes
certain indicatives are questions. He is here? It's a question,
isn't it? He is here? He is here, in indicative. He is here? In interrogative.
But you'd say it the same way, just as I did. And just by my
paralinguistics and the use of my voice, you know if I say,
he's here? It's a question. He is here? It's a statement. Now, that's
part of the problem. Then there is also the problem
of this little word, it is enough. Apeke. And pages and pages and
in footnotes I found whole treatises have been written on trying to
ascertain what that one word means. In some places in the
New Testament it means, as it's translated here, it is enough.
In other contexts it means he is a far off. It's used in conjunction
with the prodigal son. He saw him afar off. It's used
several times that way. And some commentators make a
whole case for certain interpretation. Very difficult. Well, as I say,
I'm not going to wear you with all the possibilities of the
labyrinth, for I've come to a tentative conviction that the way in which
it's translated in the old 1901 is probably the proper understanding. And that's as far as I will go.
When our Lord comes, He says, And then he speaks an imperative,
sleep on now for this period of time and take your rest. Continue sleeping still. Continue resting. It is enough. In which case, our Lord would
have awakened them sufficiently to say in a sanctified irony,
which would constitute a mild rebuke, sleep on now, take your
rest, grab whatever few winks you can. It is enough. It is enough. Why? The hour is
come. The hour is come. I will not
call you again to wakefulness and prayerfulness. I call you
ironically if sleep means so much to you in this context.
Sleep on, take your rest, for you've just about completed all
the rest you're going to get. Why? And then he makes, after
that ironic rebuke, this sober announcement that has two parts.
Look at it. The hour is come. Behold, the Son of Man is betrayed
into the hands of sinners. So the response of our Lord,
which begins with what I judge in terms of my present light
to be a gracious but ironic rebuke, then issues in a sober announcement
with two parts, the hour is come. You remember how many times in
his earthly ministry he said, my hour is not yet come? My hour is not yet come? But now he says the hour is come. The hour is come, the time appointed
by the Father, when all of the promises concerning the work
of redemption in my own person, in my own suffering, in my own
pouring out of my life unto death, that hour has arrived. He could see it off in the distance. In perhaps the very beginning
of the emergence of the lights and lanterns of the multitudes
making their way out of Jerusalem, the arresting party was on its
way. And perhaps our Lord looked beyond
the disciples whom He just had wakened out of sleep, and seeing
off in the distance, saw them coming, and He says, The hour
is come. That's the first part of the
sober announcement. And then he defines what that
hour is, so none need mistake it. The Son of Man, and he uses
a present tense, is already being betrayed. And he's being betrayed
into the hands of sinners. Up until now, every word about
betrayal was always future. We go to Jerusalem, remember
chapter 10? There the Son of Man shall be
betrayed, shall be handed over to the Gentiles. He shall be
scourged and crucified, and He shall rise from the dead on the
third day. But now it is no longer future,
but present. The hour is come. Behold, consider,
fix your mind upon this reality, my disciples. If my command to
be awake and alert and watchful did not break through to you,
perhaps this announcement will. The Son of Man is already in
the present moment being betrayed, and He's being betrayed into
the hands, not just of sinners generically, but the definite
article is used, into the hands of these sinners. And as one
commentator has very, very accurately opened up the significance of
that, and I quote him, the one perfect flower of humanity, referring
to the Lord Jesus, is thrown by treachery into the polluted
and polluting grass of wickedness in its many forms. The traitor
delivers him by his hands to hirelings, the hirelings by their
hands to hypocrites, the hypocrites by their hands to an unjust and
skeptical pagan judge, the judge by his hands to his brutal soldiers
who expose him to all that malice can wreak upon the most sensitive
human being, or ingratitude upon the most tender heart, at every
stage It is an outrage, every outrage and appeal to the indignation
of the God who held them in the hollow of his hand. Surely it
may well be said, consider him who endured such contradiction
and endured it from sinners against himself. Very interesting that
our Lord does not shrink back from identifying the religious
leaders as the sinners along with the Roman cohorts and all
others who will conspire to lead him to death. And then after
the ironic rebuke and the sober announcement, then we have what
I have chosen to call his regal command. And I wrestled with
what to call it, and I said, no, nothing less than those words
will do justice to the whole spirit. Look at verse 42. In
the light of this, what does he say? Let us now quickly retreat
into some secret place in the garden. The hour has come. The Son of Man is being betrayed,
and that into the hands of the most outrageous sinners. Let
us run! Let us retreat! No! What does
He say? With regal dignity and authority,
He says, rise up and let us be going. with two terse verbs which
could be rendered, Be roused from your sleep, let us advance
to meet them. And the reason, behold, he that
is betraying me, and now he singles it down to Judas, is at hand. There will be no hide and seek
No search and destroy or search and apprehend operation by the
soldiers. He will go forth willingly, don't
you sense this, almost anxiously, to meet the betrayer. He sees
the betrayer and all of his crowd coming before they see him. He
doesn't even wait till they come to find him. He says, rise, let
us be going. And in company with the three,
he goes to the other eight. And the actual sign of betrayal
takes place with Jesus having advanced to meet these sinners
who will apprehend him and then subsequently put him to death. And from this point onward, and
we'll have occasion to allude to it again and again, and if
you read ahead in the Gospel of Mark, note this, from this
point onward, Jesus appears publicly in one position, in one light
only, that of a convicted criminal. He is apprehended, he is indicted,
He is tried, he is condemned, he's executed, and he's buried. Everything in the outward theater
that human eyes can see identifies him as a convicted felon. And he goes to that set of circumstances
voluntarily, I say it reverently, anxiously. Let us be going, and
we shall meet the betrayer at our own initiative." Well, that
is our Lord's encounter three times with the sleeping disciples. Now, what I hope to do in the
remaining few moments this morning is simply to bring a couple of
words of application that focus upon the Lord Himself, and God
willing, two weeks from today, I shall be gone God willing,
next week, but coming back that following week, we will open
up other lines of application that are vital, but I would leave
you this morning with the applications that focus upon this very simple
principle. What does this section of Gethsemane
and its record of Jesus dealing with his disciples reveal about
our Lord himself? And I say, first of all, behold
in these dealings of our Lord with His sleeping disciples,
His selfless concern for those whom He came to save. Few passages
in Mark have moved me as this has with the revelation of the
selfless concern of Jesus with respect to those whom He came
to save. Remember the circumstances. From
the time He entered the outer regions of the Garden of Gethsemane
to the place where He left the three and went on to wrestle
with His Father, our Lord encountered that which He had never known
in His entire life history as the incarnate eternal Word. There was something in the nearness
of that cup, as we've seen in previous studies, that he could
smell it and taste it. He could feel his teeth set on
edge by its bitterness. And all within him recoiled,
and his soul was in such an agony that the capillaries burst and
blood mingled with his sweat. And yet in the midst of bearing
in his own soul an agony that would have killed him there in
the garden had not an angel come in answer to his prayers and
strengthened him, it's as though he can only leave his disciples
alone for a few minutes at a time. And he finds his respite from
his wrestlings about the cup. not in going out and diverting
his mind by looking up at the full moon at that Passover time
and causing his mind to run over the wonders of his own created
handiwork. He finds his relief in ministering
to sleeping, slumbering, half-awake disciples. If ever the words
find expression in concrete incidents. He loved the church and gave
himself for it. He nourishes and cherishes the
church as a man does his own body. Surely here, amidst his
own agony, his troubled soul and his bloody sweat, he comes
to disciples who are overcome with the shame of their own weakness
and lack of resolve. And what does he do, apart from
a mild ironic rebuke? He pours out his heart of concern
to let them know. that in the midst of His most
intense wrestlings for the salvation of all of His elect, He has not
lost sight of every single last one of His elect, even sleeping,
slumbering, unsympathetic, and in that sense, backslidden disciples
totally unprepared for the coming ordeal. One of those very three
in a few hours will go back to his old sailor's language and
curse and swear, I don't even know Him. But Jesus is saying
as He comes back three times, I know you, and I've known you
from eternity, and my love is set upon you, and I'm committed
to keep you in the way, even when it appears you're doing
everything to prepare yourself to be driven out of the way.
My friends, when the Scripture says Christ saves His people. That's what it's talking about.
He saves them by the continuous ministry of His own gracious
nurture to His church. And surely this passage sets
before us that wonderful dimension of the love and compassion of
Jesus to His people. And Hebrews 13.8 says, Jesus
Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. One of the greatest
tricks of the devil is this, to tell you, well, it doesn't
matter if you're sleeping spiritually when you should be awake. It
doesn't matter if you're doing something else when you ought
to be praying, and you come into a state where you're overcome
by temptation because you did not watch and pray in obedience
to the Word of Christ. And then the devil comes and
says, Aha! You knew you should have been watching. You knew
you should have been praying. Your sin was willful and wide-eyed. You can't go and seek forgiveness
from the Lord. That's to make a cheap thing of the blood of
Christ. I mean, if you had been surprised and overcome, and it
was a stumbling where you just hadn't looked down, but with
eyes wide open you walked into the path of spiritual drowsiness
and prayerlessness, and now you're overcome. Surely you're not going
to go running to Christ stinking and reeking with the smell of
your sin. It's to make the blood of Christ cheap. Ever hear that
stuff before? I hear it every day in my own
heart. Go to Gethsemane. Go to Gethsemane
and see Jesus coming not once, not twice, but three times to
nurture and to succor slumbering disciples. And He's here this
morning to do that for you. Child of God, who by a combination
of neglect and indifference is found this morning spiritually
sleeping out of touch with the world of heaven and communion
with Christ and the glory of the world to come. The world
has encroached upon you and you are spiritually asleep. Oh, that
you might hear your Savior saying, Why sleepest thou? not to then
beat you with a club, but to nurture you back into spiritual
wakefulness, to nurture you back into prayerfulness. But then
secondly, behold, in these dealings of our Lord with His disciples
in Gethsemane, His ability to discern the graces of His people,
even when they are buried out of sight to others by spiritual
dullness, You see, the Lord could discern the graces of these three
when those graces were buried out of sight to anyone else.
When He came and found them sleeping, it appeared that there was nothing
but spiritual dullness, but He saw what others could not see.
He said, the Spirit is willing. And the only other place that
word, willing, is used in the New Testament, apart from Matthew's
use of it in the parallel passage, is in Romans 1.15, where Paul
says, As much as in me is, I am ready. I am willing. to preach
the gospel to you who are at Rome. As Paul's heart was anxious,
bursting as it were to preach, our Lord says the Spirit indeed
is willing. Our Lord saw that the true state
of those men was not to be read in their slumbering when they
had been commanded to be wakeful, in their prayerlessness when
they had been commanded to pray. He saw that those things were
not the true index of their true state. He saw beneath the temporary
lapse in the weakness of the flesh, and He said, the Spirit
indeed is willing. And oh, what a consolation it
should be to us to know that our Savior still sees the graces,
those things that are the evidence of His own mighty work according
to the tenor and terms of the New Covenant. He can see His
own law written on our hearts! when in a period of spiritual
lapse and dullness someone would wonder if we were indeed Evangelical
law-keepers? But he can see his own work,
and in such times we need, when emerging out of sleep by the
gentle rebukes of Jesus, to say, O Lord Jesus, behold the transcript
of your own work in me. and you take this thinly burning
flax, which you said you would not quench, and you make it burn
brightly again. Lord, take this bruised reed
and don't snap it. But Lord, you put splints on
it and nurture it until it becomes a strong reed once again. That's our Savior. And finally,
because time has gone from us, behold, in these dealings of
our Lord with His disciples, His holy resolution to go forward
to the cross with calm commitment to the will of God. You see,
there's a marvelous transition. Something happened after that
last mighty wrestling. No longer does He come out distracted,
full of turmoil. He comes out with the calmness
of a prince on His coronation day. Arise, let us be going. He that betrays me is at hand. I have a baptism to be baptized
with. How am I pressed until it be
accomplished? Let us go forth to what? To my
suffering, to my agony, to my death, which will be the redemption
of my people. Though they will not stay awake
and pray for their own good, he agonizes and sweats blood
that he might do the will of God and in so doing it might
bring us that salvation which he alone could bring. It was
in a garden that our first father disobeyed and brought wrath upon
us. It was in another garden that
the second Adam prayed and secured salvation for us. For as through
the one man's disobedience the many were constituted sinners,
So by the obedience of the One shall the many be constituted
righteous. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Let us pray. O, our Father, as again we have
sought to draw near to this sacred plot of ground, we confess that
we are in one sense driven back by its light and glory, and yet
drawn by its beauty. May the Holy Spirit write the
truth upon our hearts. And for any sitting here this
morning who do not know so gracious a Savior, foolishly trying to
weave upon the loom of their own efforts a cloak for their
own sins, God help them to smash the loom in true repentance from
dead works. and throw the weight of their
souls upon the perfect obedience of Jesus, obedience even unto
death, a righteousness made upon the loom of His perfect life
and His death. Oh, may they have no rest till
they know they are clothed with that righteousness. We pray for
any of your disciples who came this morning spiritually slumbering,
prayerless, careless, vulnerable to temptation. O Lord Jesus,
come and succor them. Bring them back to wakefulness
and prayerfulness and to whole-souled allegiance to yourself. We thank
you, our Lord, for your grace. We thank you for your pity, for
your love. We marvel at your patience. Receive
our praise and seal the word to our hearts for our good and
for your glory. Amen.

Sleeping Disciples in Gethsemane

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the significance of Gethsemane?

How do we know that Jesus' sacrifice was necessary?

Why is prayer important for Christians according to the Gethsemane account?

What does Jesus' response to His disciples' sleep in Gethsemane teach us?

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About Albert N. Martin

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Sleeping Disciples in Gethsemane

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the significance of Gethsemane?

How do we know that Jesus' sacrifice was necessary?

Why is prayer important for Christians according to the Gethsemane account?

What does Jesus' response to His disciples' sleep in Gethsemane teach us?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

Comments

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