SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning.
SPEAKER_00: And welcome to Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Matt, and I'm one of the pastors here on staff.
SPEAKER_00: As we walk through the story this morning, it would be helpful if you had the text in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: If you didn't bring a Bible with you, that's totally fine.
SPEAKER_00: You can feel free to pull it up on your phone, or you're also free to hop up if you want to and grab a Bible from the back.
SPEAKER_00: But it would be helpful if you had the text in front of you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: But before we dive into the text this morning, let's just take a quick moment and review where we've been in the story of Jesus walking towards the cross.
SPEAKER_00: So on Ash Wednesday, this past Wednesday, we entered into this narrative by looking at the plot to kill Jesus, how the chief priests had finally, finally had enough.
SPEAKER_00: Everything Jesus had been saying and teaching was threatening their sense of power and control way too much.
SPEAKER_00: So it got to a point in Matthew 26, 4 when they plotted in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.
SPEAKER_00: Then after that, we saw this amazing scene that Mike preached on on Ash Wednesday, where Jesus was anointed at Bethany.
SPEAKER_00: And remember how confused the disciples were?
SPEAKER_00: They didn't really understand what was going on.
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't understand why the woman would waste a full alabaster flask of a very, very, very expensive perfume at such an occasion.
SPEAKER_00: But recall Jesus, he knew the woman's heart and was fully aware of what was happening.
SPEAKER_00: And in Matthew 26, 12, Jesus said, In pouring ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial.
SPEAKER_00: Now the disciples, even though they just heard Jesus say this, they still could not comprehend the fact that Jesus was about to go to his death.
SPEAKER_00: And then we moved on to the first betrayal of the Passion narrative.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus, when Judas sold Jesus out for just 30 pieces of silver.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you look at your Bibles and you glance down at the text, you'll notice that we're uh we're skipping over a block of text this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We look at the Ash Wednesday text, there's a block of text we're skipping over, and then we're jumping to our text for today.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the scene we're skipping over is the Passover meal that Jesus shared with his disciples in the institution of the Lord's Supper, which is really famously highlighted by Jesus predicting the betrayal he's about to face.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're not we're not just skipping over this because we're trying to gloss over it because it's unimportant.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, we're saving it for Maundy Thursday.
SPEAKER_00: Because May Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday make up something called the uh the Paschal Tritum or the Paschal Tritum, which is the movement of Jesus on Good Friday and the Last Supper to Good Friday and his death and the cross and resurrection on Easter Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: So we'll talk about that passage then.
SPEAKER_00: So so far in the story of Jesus' walk to the cross, we've seen Jesus anointed at Bethany, we've seen Judas' betrayal, and we've seen the Passover meal where Jesus predicts his death, and Jesus instituting the Lord's Supper.
SPEAKER_00: So our text for today picks up right after the Passover meal when Jesus and the disciples are headed out towards the Mount of Olives.
SPEAKER_00: Now, with this context and this background in mind, let me pray for us this morning as we dive into today's text.
SPEAKER_00: Lord God, I pray that you will give us open ears to hear, open minds to comprehend, and open hearts to receive what you have for us in your word this morning.
SPEAKER_00: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all your people's hearts be pleasing and acceptable in your sight.
SPEAKER_00: O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.
SPEAKER_00: So picking up in Matthew chapter 26, verse 30, it takes us to one of the most sacred and revealing scenes in all of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: But before we fully jump in, there are a few things that I really want us to consider this morning.
SPEAKER_00: So first, what we'll see in this passage that's truly incredible is we're going to see two gardens colliding.
SPEAKER_00: Two different scenes and gardens coming together.
SPEAKER_00: So the first scene that we're reminded of is the Garden of Eden.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where humanity first failed, where sin entered into the world and our relationship with God was severed.
SPEAKER_00: And now what we see is we have the Garden of Gethsemane, a second garden, where Jesus, the second Adam, will prevail where we couldn't.
SPEAKER_00: And this idea is so well captured in one of my one of my favorite songs of all time, called Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a line in that song that goes, See the true and better Adam come to save the hellbound man.
SPEAKER_00: So sin that took root in the Garden of Eden, it began to walk toward defeat in the Garden of Gethsemane.
SPEAKER_00: The sin that was born in the first Garden from the first Adam began to walk its path towards defeat in the Garden of Gethsemane.
SPEAKER_00: This is with the second Adam in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And second, in the Garden of Gethsemane, we're gonna see two extremely powerful truths pan out.
SPEAKER_00: And the first is the weakness of self-confidence.
SPEAKER_00: And the second is the strength of surrender.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna see the weakness of self-confidence play itself out, and we're also gonna see the strength of surrender play itself out.
SPEAKER_00: So with that in mind, let's look into this text and dive in together.
SPEAKER_00: And straight off in verse 30 and 31, what I think is one of the most amazing things is Jesus' journey towards the cross.
SPEAKER_00: It starts with worship.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 31.
SPEAKER_00: When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
SPEAKER_00: So they were most likely singing one of the Hillel Psalms, which are Psalms 113 to 118, or the songs of deliverance.
SPEAKER_00: In these Psalms, they they praise God for delivering his people from Egypt, and they often sang them during the Passover.
SPEAKER_00: So how how striking is this?
SPEAKER_00: How striking is it that hours before his death, Jesus is praising God and singing of deliverance?
SPEAKER_00: So within this narrative, out of all the things Matthew could have included, all the details he could have put in there, why does he include this one little detail about them singing a hymn before Jesus walks towards the Garden of Gethsemane and the cross?
SPEAKER_00: So I think Matthew wants us to see that for Jesus, praise and worship, it doesn't just negate the suffering that Jesus is about to endure.
SPEAKER_00: Nor does Jesus worship in this moment to ignore or brush aside the forthcoming pain and suffering he's about to face.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, Matthew wants us to see that Jesus' worship, he worships and praises God to prepare himself for what is to come.
SPEAKER_00: In this one short verse, we see that worship prepares us and prepares Jesus for the suffering that we're about to face.
SPEAKER_00: When we worship, we're preparing our hearts for suffering that is to come and praising God for how He's delivered us in the past.
SPEAKER_00: So after they say a hymn, what happens next?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus and the disciples, they just finished the Passover meal, so the darkness of the night was beginning to settle in upon them as they arrived at the Mount of Olives.
SPEAKER_00: And the Garden of Gethsemane, where they were, was just a short walk east of the old city gates of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: So imagine the disciples, it's dark, it's probably cold, and they're up on a hill, they're overlooking the city of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And when during this scene of them looking out over the city, it's dark, it's cold, Jesus looked to his disciples, these men who have faithfully followed him over the past three years.
SPEAKER_00: And he says in verses 31 and 32, You will all fall away because of me this night.
SPEAKER_00: For it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.
SPEAKER_00: But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there is a sense in these verses that we need to be really, really careful about.
SPEAKER_00: So is Jesus saying here that you, the disciples, will fall away because of something I did to you?
SPEAKER_00: Is Jesus saying to the disciples, you guys are going to fall away because of this thing I am doing to you?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_00: That is not in any way what Jesus is saying.
SPEAKER_00: By quoting Zechariah 13:7, Jesus is saying that they will fall away because of what will happen to him.
SPEAKER_00: The death of the shepherd will lead to the scattering of the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: And recall a couple weeks ago on World Mission Sunday, we talked about Matthew chapter 9, and recall how Jesus describes the crowds in Matthew 9.36, when he says, when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: Now, without the good shepherd to guide them, the disciples will be no different than the crowds Jesus called them to minister to.
SPEAKER_00: And look at how Peter, and Peter is often the most outspoken of the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: He's kind of the mouthpiece of the disciples, says what they're all thinking, but like none of the rest of them really want to say.
SPEAKER_00: So look at what Peter says and how he responds in verse 33.
SPEAKER_00: Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus drops the real bomb, his mic drop moment on Peter in verse 34.
SPEAKER_00: Then he says that Peter, look, man, before the rooster crows three times, you will deny me three times.
SPEAKER_00: Then instead of actually considering this and thinking, like, hey, like maybe I will fail, maybe I will come up short, and what do I do if that happens?
SPEAKER_00: That's not what Peter does.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he he doubles down.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, even if I must die with you, I will not deny you.
SPEAKER_00: So he doubles down on this.
SPEAKER_00: I will stand firm, I will be steadfast, and there is nothing that can shake my faith.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not like the others.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know, I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_00: But I actually I find Peter's actions in this sequence incredibly relatable.
SPEAKER_00: And there are times when I, like Peter, someone warns me of something, and then my response is, who?
SPEAKER_00: Like me?
SPEAKER_00: Never, not not me.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Like I would never fall away.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not like other people.
SPEAKER_00: I would never fall so far.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if that's something you've ever thought, but it's definitely something I've thought in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Like I would never do that.
SPEAKER_00: And then I have um I have a friend who used to do a lot of prison ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And he told me that almost every time he went into the prison, a prisoner would explain away their crime by pointing to someone who had done something worse.
SPEAKER_00: And they would say, you know, I robbed a store because I really needed money, but but at least I didn't do an armed robbery.
SPEAKER_00: Like I didn't hurt anyone.
SPEAKER_00: And the next guy would say, Well, I robbed a store, and I hit the guy at the register, but but I didn't kill anyone.
SPEAKER_00: At least I didn't kill anyone.
SPEAKER_00: The next guy would say, you know, I I killed someone, but but it was in self-defense, right?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not like a real killer.
SPEAKER_00: And it would go on and on and on, and it would get to a point where my friend would tell them, sin is sin.
SPEAKER_00: And you can explain it away or compare your sin to someone else.
SPEAKER_00: But at some point, we must recognize that we're we are all sinners who have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the self-confidence that we have in our own faith, the comparison we make with others, these things don't negate the fact that we are sinners who always need a savior.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, they just brush our sin aside so that we can feel better about ourselves in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, none of us are perfect.
SPEAKER_00: And it's okay.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually healthy to recognize that we are sinners and we are gonna fail from time to time.
SPEAKER_00: And that's okay because look at what Jesus says back up in verse 32.
SPEAKER_00: But after I'm raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: So this passage, one of the most amazing things about it is it doesn't only highlight Jesus' death and the disciples' denial, it also shows Jesus saying that even though he knows the disciples will deny him, he's still planning on going before them to Bethany, where he'll meet them on the shore.
SPEAKER_00: And in the end of the book of John, he'll invite them to eat breakfast with him, and he'll even pull Peter, the one who denied him three times, he'll pull him aside and say, Do you love me?
SPEAKER_00: Do you love me?
SPEAKER_00: And restore the relationship.
SPEAKER_00: So, in the same way, even though Jesus sees and knows our failures, even though Jesus sees how we in our lives will deny him, he still goes before us and prepares a room for us in his Father's house.
SPEAKER_00: How incredibly encouraging is that.
SPEAKER_00: Even though this short passage so focuses on denial and turning against Jesus, this one short verse in there reminds us that Jesus goes before and makes a place for us and restores our relationship with him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as we move on in the story, we'll see how the weakness of Peter's self-confidence and self-reliance, how it stands in super stark contrast to Jesus' dependence on his father and his act of surrender.
SPEAKER_00: Now look at verses 36 through 39 with me as we read through them just one more time.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray.
SPEAKER_00: And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.
SPEAKER_00: Then he said to them, My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.
SPEAKER_00: Remain here and watch with me.
SPEAKER_00: And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.
SPEAKER_00: So with his death, merely hours away, Jesus asked his three most trusted disciples, Peter, James, and John, to accompany him and take watch while he prays.
SPEAKER_00: He tells them in verse 38 that his soul is very sorrowful even to death.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some scholars have translated this verse as Jesus saying, I am so sorrowful that I could die.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is holy ground.
SPEAKER_00: This is the last time Jesus will be with his disciples before he dies.
SPEAKER_00: In this moment, we're truly seeing the real humanity of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: A person who grieves and feels sorrow just as we grieve and feel sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're sitting here this morning and you've lost someone, you've lost something and thought, I'm so sad, I'm so lost.
SPEAKER_00: How am I supposed to move on?
SPEAKER_00: Or if you think, how am I supposed to continue living my life?
SPEAKER_00: Know that you are not alone in that.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus felt the same way as he journeyed to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus felt those same feelings and those same emotions of grief and of sorrow and of loss as he journeyed to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: So as you suffer and you feel the same things, you are not alone in those, because Jesus also suffered those things and defeated them.
SPEAKER_00: Then after showing his emotion to Peter, James, and John, and trusting them to keep watch, Jesus fell on his face and prayed.
SPEAKER_00: Now look at how intimate and how passionate this prayer that Jesus says in verse 39 is when he prays, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus had predicted and told to his disciples, it was it was finally here.
SPEAKER_00: It was finally coming.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, he felt a revulsion about what is to come and asks as this cup it could pass over him.
SPEAKER_00: Now the cup Jesus is talking about refers to the wrath of God and the punishment of sin.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Jesus, when he goes to the cross, he's not solely facing the nails and the wood of the cross and the pain that is forthcoming.
SPEAKER_00: He's also facing separation, judgment, and the crushing weight of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Even so, he only looks towards what is possible within his Father's will.
SPEAKER_00: So then Jesus walked towards his disciples and famously he found them sleeping instead of keeping watch.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus' response to this, how he looks at his disciples in that moment of their failure, it's truly incredible.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of punishing them, he loves them and he takes this opportunity to even teach them.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verses 40 and 41.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus sees them in their moment of failure, and what does he do?
SPEAKER_00: He calls them to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Notice that Jesus doesn't challenge them to pray for his own suffering that he's about to endure.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, what Jesus does in this moment is he calls the disciples and challenges them to pray for themselves, that they won't be tempted.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus challenges the disciples to prepare for the temptations and failures that they are about to face.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus knows that after his death, the disciples are gonna have a lot to face.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna face persecution, they're gonna face suffering, and they're gonna need to be able to pray against temptation in their lives.
SPEAKER_00: So in this moment of the disciples' failure, when they fall asleep, even though Jesus told them to stay awake, Jesus comes to them with love and says, Pray.
SPEAKER_00: Pray that you won't be tempted anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus returns and he prays for a second time.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to notice how the prayer in verse 42, it's slightly different than what Jesus prays in verse 39.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 42, Jesus prays, Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.
SPEAKER_00: In this prayer, there's one important thing for us to note.
SPEAKER_00: It may seem like Jesus is surprised by what's happening, or that he's caught off guard and is suddenly asking for this cup to pass over him.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost at first glance, like Jesus is saying, like, wait, hold up, but I don't want this to happen.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't realize this was the plan.
SPEAKER_00: Like, take this cup from me.
SPEAKER_00: But in this passage, when we look at it more deeply, there is no question of Jesus refusing his father's will.
SPEAKER_00: There's no plan B.
SPEAKER_00: What's happening in the Garden of Gethsemane, it isn't that Jesus is just learning of his death as a new fact.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, what we see is we see Jesus coming to terms in emotion and will with what he already knows in theory.
SPEAKER_00: Here we see Jesus fully surrendering to God's will and facing the true reality of the sorrow and the pain that he's about to endure.
SPEAKER_00: So then this pattern it repeats.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus prays, goes back, sees his disciples asleep again, probably shrugs and thinks, like, ah, come on, guys, like really?
SPEAKER_00: And then he returns and he prays for a third time.
SPEAKER_00: And what scripture says, it tells us that Jesus prayed the same prayer again.
SPEAKER_00: The Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus ends his prayer, goes back to his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And in verses 45 and 46, he says these super powerful words.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Sleep and take your rest later on.
SPEAKER_00: See, the hour is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: And the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
SPEAKER_00: Rise, let us be going.
SPEAKER_00: See, my betrayer is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: And what's truly incredible here is that there's no panic in Jesus' voice after he prays for the third time.
SPEAKER_00: There's no there's no scrambling.
SPEAKER_00: And there's also no retreat.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't come back from his prayer and say, We gotta get out of here, right?
SPEAKER_00: My betrayer is coming.
SPEAKER_00: There's no retreat, no scrambling, no panic.
SPEAKER_00: So earlier in Jesus' prayer, he was sorrowful.
SPEAKER_00: So sorrowful that he felt like he could die.
SPEAKER_00: He was wrestling with the reality of what he was about to face.
SPEAKER_00: But now Jesus is steadfast.
SPEAKER_00: And resolved.
SPEAKER_00: So what changed?
SPEAKER_00: What switch flicked and made Jesus have this sudden resolve and steadfastness to move forward into betrayal?
SPEAKER_00: What happened was he surrendered.
SPEAKER_00: He surrendered it all to his Father and said, Your will be done.
SPEAKER_00: See, surrender did not remove the suffering that Jesus was about to face.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, it strengthened him to face it.
SPEAKER_00: And this is one of the crazy paradoxes of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: Self-confidence collapses, but prayer sustains and surrender strengthens.
SPEAKER_00: Peter was so bold before he prayed.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Yeah, not me.
SPEAKER_00: I'll never fall away.
SPEAKER_00: These other people, they may fall, but me, I'm solid.
SPEAKER_00: I'm steadfast.
SPEAKER_00: So Peter was so bold before his prayer and he fell.
SPEAKER_00: Now Jesus, before he faced his trials, he was burdened in his prayer.
SPEAKER_00: He expressed his emotion.
SPEAKER_00: He was sorrowful.
SPEAKER_00: He recognizes his own human weakness and he stood.
SPEAKER_00: So Peter was bold before his prayer and he fell.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus was burdened in his prayer before and he stood.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the strength Jesus needed to face the cross, it didn't come from avoidance or the confidence that he had in himself.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, it came from submission, it came from true surrender.
SPEAKER_00: And the same is true for us.
SPEAKER_00: You'll never find strength in avoiding your sin or brushing it aside.
SPEAKER_00: You'll never find strength in comparing yourself to others or relying on your own self-confidence.
SPEAKER_00: You'll never find your true strength in saying, what?
SPEAKER_00: Not me.
SPEAKER_00: Like this could never happen to me.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, you'll only find true strength in total surrender to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now to close this morning, here's what we know from this passage.
SPEAKER_00: In the first garden in the book of Genesis, Adam said, My will be done, and sin entered into the world.
SPEAKER_00: And the truly amazing thing, and the truly amazing switch that we see here is that in the garden, Jesus says, instead of my will be done like Adam, Jesus says, your will be done.
SPEAKER_00: And redemption begins to unfold.
SPEAKER_00: So in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus falls to his face in his moment of sorrow, and he turns to his father in this intimate moment of prayer, he says, your will be done.
SPEAKER_00: And at that point, redemption begins to unfold as Jesus walks towards the cross.
SPEAKER_00: So the Garden of Gethsemane, this scene, it truly reveals our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Are we trusting ourselves?
SPEAKER_00: Are we neglecting prayer?
SPEAKER_00: Are we resisting surrender?
SPEAKER_00: Or are we learning to kneel so that we can stand?
SPEAKER_00: So this morning, you may feel the weight of weakness.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe your Peter-like self-confidence.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you see your own prayerlessness.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the good news.
SPEAKER_00: Here is the incredible news of the story of Jesus that we're walking through during this Linton season.
SPEAKER_00: The same Jesus who fell on his face and stood in that garden is the same Jesus who went on to the cross the next day, and the same Jesus who rose from the grave, and is the same Jesus who now intercedes on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: So when temptation comes, when pressure rises, as it surely will, may we remember that true strength is born in surrender.
SPEAKER_00: Surrender to Jesus, surrender to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: So with that in mind, let's pray together this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Lord God, I pray that as we look at the story of you walking towards the cross, God, I pray that we can learn from how you surrendered your will to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that we may not rely on our own self-confidence and our own self-worth.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that we may not compare ourselves to others, but we may recognize our weakness.
SPEAKER_00: And in that weakness, Lord, I pray that we may turn to you who conquered weakness.
SPEAKER_00: God, who was strong when we couldn't be strong, who faced the most difficult trials that we couldn't face.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that if there's anything on our hearts this morning that's holding us back from truly surrendering to you.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that you will give us strength through the power of your Holy Spirit to lift those to you.
SPEAKER_00: So we may feel and know your peace that surpasses all understanding.
SPEAKER_00: God, we love you.
SPEAKER_00: And we pray this all in your holy name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.