 If we can turn to Matthew chapter 26, the reason why this passage is heavy on my heart is because recently, a few of us, and there's some people here tonight that we went to Israel, as our church went to Israel this last, this last March, and there was a few places that really spoke to me. This is the second time I've been there. So the first year I went, there was things that really stood out to me that really impacted my trip. Last year, it was when Pastor David shared at Caesarea Philippi where Jesus asked his disciples, who the man would say that I, the Son of Man, am. That year, that was kind of like the key verse to my life, that whole entire year, as I just kept thinking about who does Jesus, who do I say that Jesus is and what does my life represent as Jesus Christ in my life? Does he represent the Son of God? So through the whole year, that was kind of my personal theme. Then we go this year, and once again, Pastor David gave this amazing teaching in the Garden of Gethsemane. And that was the time that impacted my entire trip. That was the time that was my spiritual awakening in my heart. That was the time where it seemed like my eyes were opened, being in the place where Jesus suffered tremendously for you and I. And I took that passage and I've been replaying it over and over and over in my mind, as I'm reminded of what Jesus went through that night before his crucifixion. But how does that apply to our lives tonight? How does that make sense for us who live in the 21st century to an event that took place over 2,000 years ago? What I'm hoping to do tonight is looking over this passage and looking back on what Jesus experienced the night before his brutal crucifixion. We did an amazing job here a couple of weeks ago celebrating Good Friday. We had an amazing service that was Good Friday afternoon and Good Friday evening. It was just a reminder of what Jesus did for you and I, that amazing Friday, and then the victory that Sunday morning. It was an amazing time that we were able to share here and celebrate and worship such a significant time as Christian brothers and sisters that is probably one of the most significant times as a believer. The most impactful, most meaningful event was a resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's what gives us life. That's what gives us hope. And tonight what I wanna do is I wanna reflect on a few things and give some thought into what Jesus went through the night before his crucifixion. So what I wanna do is I wanna read the entire passage and I wanna cover it's just 10 verses. And then I wanna go into a few things I wanna point out. And hopefully it makes sense and hopefully as brothers and sisters and the Lord, this is something we can always remember not just on Good Friday services, but every single day because a lot of times we get so busy caught up in our daily living that oftentimes we fail to reflect on a daily basis what Jesus done for us. And how we were on his mind the night before his brutal crucifixion. So let's read starting with verse 36. This is Matthew chapter 36, starting with verse 36. Then Jesus came with him into a place called Gethsemane and said to his disciples, sit here while I go and pray over there. And he took with him Peter and two sons of Zebedee and he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then he said to him, to them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death. Stay here and watch with me. And he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed saying, oh my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass for me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping and said to Peter, what? Could you not watch with me one hour? Verse 41, watch and pray. Lest you enter temptation, the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again a second time he went away and prayed saying, oh my father, if this cup cannot pass away from me, unless I drink it, you will be done. And he came and found them asleep again for their eyes were heavy. So he left them one away again and prayed a third time, saying the same words. Then he came to his disciples and said to them, are you still sleeping and resting, excuse me, behold the hour is at hand and the son of man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go be going, see my betrayer is at hand. The picture is clear. Jesus goes into a place with some of the disciples. In verse 36 that is indicated by Gethsemane. Now the word Gethsemane is an interesting word. It's two Hebrew words that is gat. And then the other word, what means, what gat means a place for pressing and shamanim is oil. So we get the word oil press from the garden. I have some pictures here but I wanna take a look at, this is, now when you go to Israel, your tour guide will tell you there's an A site, a B site and a C site. The A site according to the tour guide is that this is the place where it happened. A B site is, it's in the local region and we can expect it to be somewhere here. And then a C site is somewhere, it's in the area, it's in the vicinity. This is considered an A site. This is the garden behind the garden. You can see like little, like stones, that's where the temple would have been. So Jesus would have had a clear view of the temple, the next picture. You see that these olive trees are, these are considered young but there were some other ones if you can go to the next picture that are getting wider. And the wider, I identify myself as an olive tree because another tree, as you get older, you grow this way instead of this way. And I find myself connecting with the olive tree but you see some of them here that can be thousands of years old and the other picture, please. You see that as the trunk is big, this is where they believe Jesus prayed the night before his crucifixion. I think there's one more, look at this one. That tree is over 2,000 years old. Imagine, this is the potential place where Jesus went and bared his soul, begging the Father to take this cup from him. I think that's it, is there any more? I think that's it, right? Okay, that's it. We see that Jesus takes three of his disciples to this place of oil pressing. By all the olive trees that are there, you can see that this is where they would gather their olives and make olive oil. You know what's interesting about olive oil? I keep referring to our tour guide but he brought us some olive oil and went to an olive oil factory where they would use every part of the olive. They use it now for face and for skin and for olive oil. And the amazing thing about the pit of the olive, to get the best part of the oil, the pit has to be crushed. And I think it's interesting to point out that in order for us to receive what Jesus gave us his best, it was in the garden when he felt the pressure of being crushed. Because the next day, he would be brutally crucified. And the book of Isaiah tells us that he was so marred that his visage, he'd even look like a human. And on the eve of that night, he is begging the Father to take this cup from him. And so I wanna take a look at this is that we see in verse 36 that he's in Gethsemane, but also in verse 36, he says, "'Sit here while I go and pray over there.'" So we see that Jesus takes three of his disciples and they go and pray. And one thing that we can see from going from this passage is that when we go through difficult times, we're to pray. The model that we learn here tonight is that when Jesus was going through the suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, he didn't go on Snapchat. He didn't go on Facebook. He didn't go and tell his friends he went to the Father. He didn't go to Oprah or Dr. Phil. He went to the Father. And that's something we can learn while going through a difficult time is that we can turn to the Father who is in heaven above who hears our prayers. The Bible tells us in James that the effective fervent prayer of the righteous avails much. So when we're going through a difficult time as Jesus was here, we see that he prayed. There's a tendency for us to go this way with our problems instead of going this way. A lot of times we want to tell our friends. We want to tell social media. And the next thing you know, we're out there spreading our laundry everywhere. And that's not what we're to do when we're going through difficult times. We're to take it to the Father. You know, I was listening to an old song that reminds me of my dad. And it's a song called, What a Friend We Have in Jesus. It's an old school, oldy but goody. And he says, in one of the verses, he says, taking everything to the Lord in prayer. That's a good model for us to understand that when we're going through a difficult time that we're to go through the Father. And in verse 38, it tells us that Jesus' soul was exceedingly sorrowful unto death. Now I think a lot of times we think that we know what that means. But if you really think about what this means, we have no clue of what exceedingly sorrowful truly means. I'm sure many of us have gone through very difficult times and have experienced deep grief and sorrow. Have experienced a pain that nobody else has ever experienced before. We've experienced anguish and we felt like where if we're going to die and we feel like we're not going to make it sometimes and we're like, Lord, where are you? I can't feel you. I'm not gonna be able to get through this difficult time. But just multiply that by three or 4,000. Because I don't ever think that any of us have gone through such an exceedingly sorrowful experience that the grief is so intense that the only thing we can do is die. And this is what it's explaining here that Jesus was so sorrowful that he was grieving so intensely that it felt like literally he was going to die, which he was the next morning. It's interesting if you look at the word exceedingly. For any of you English buffs in here, it's considered an adverb, which really what it does, an adverb really, and this is not a history, I mean the English lesson, but what this word is designed to do is to qualify the next word. It's to, it really described the next word intensely. So the word exceedingly sorrowful, it's really to express that sorrow that Jesus is expressing. Mark 14, 34 tells us the same thing. It says that what he said to them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death. Stay here and watch. You know what's interesting to point out, the word soul here in the original language is psyche. It's the same Greek word that James uses. He says who who is like a double-minded person who's unstable on their ways, the double-minded, it's psyche, it's a Greek word that encompasses the body, the soul, and the mind. It's what makes you up as a human being. It's your thought process. It's who you are inside. It's your total psyche. And when Jesus says my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, he's telling that every part of me is going through an intense grief that I can't even explain, but it feels like I'm gonna die. We see the human nature of God in the flesh, going through such intense grief that he felt that he's gonna die. We can equate the psyche with a soul, mind, and spirit of a person. And the word sorrowful is made up of two Greek words. It's perian lipos. Peri comes from the word encompassing or engulfed or surrounded. Lipos is intense sorrow or grief. So if you can picture in your mind's eye the intensity of the grief that Jesus went through the night before his crucifixion. He went through a sorrow and a grief that was so intense and I don't know if any of us has really truly experienced something like this or this type of sorrow. It's being grieved so intensely that it's gonna bring about death. You know what's interesting? To really measure what Jesus was going through for you and I that night in the Garden of Gethsemane, Luke chapter 22 verse 44 points something very interesting out. It shares that Jesus was in such tense and anguished that he began to sweat drops of blood and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly than his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground. As you can tell, I'm not a very gym person. I try to go, but it doesn't look like it, I know. And when I'm on that treadmill, I start sweating. And every time I sweat, I'm reminded of this passage. I see it sometimes, I'm sweating more than usual and I have these drops of blood just dropping profusely and sometimes it's kinda sick because it's on the treadmill and I make sure I wipe it up, but I'm reminded that at the night when Jesus, before he died, he was in the Garden of Prane and he had drops like sweat that were sweat and blood mixed falling to the ground. I don't know if you guys ever experienced such a deep intense emotion such as Jesus did that night. It's a condition called hematidrosis. It's a real medical condition. It's a condition which capillary blood vessels that feed the sweat glands, they rupture because of intense pressure. Causing them to exude blood, occurring under conditions of extreme physical or emotional stress. This is our Jesus. And we look at verse 39. It says, he went a little farther and he fell on his face and prayed, saying, oh my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass for me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping and said to Peter, what? Could you not watch and pray with me one hour? Watch and pray, let's you enter temptation. The spirit is indeed, I'm sorry, the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak. And again, a second time he went away and prayed, saying, oh my father, if this cup cannot pass for me unless I drink it, your will be done. Jesus was surrounded by sorrow and he knew when and how he was going to die. Three times, Jesus asked the father, if it was possible, if there's any other way, if there's any other way that this can happen, please take this cup for me. He didn't do it once, he didn't plead and ask twice, he pleaded and asked the father three times. I don't think we understand what that cup is. But it's interesting, we point out, did Jesus fear those he knew were coming to lead him to the cross? Did he fear the whips that were going to rip open his back and allow so much blood to be lost and where his organs were hanging out and his back was shredded like paper? Do you think he wasn't fearful of that? Or do you think they were fearful of him plucking out his beard that literally pulled out skin? Do you think he was fearful of the nails being driven through his wrist? Do you think he was fearful of the crown of thorns he was gonna have to wear? As sometimes the pictures that we see of Jesus look so nicely and nestled on his head when we don't have a clue to what really went on. Do you think he feared going to the cross? Perhaps his humanity recoiled at the thought of having that spike driven through his wrists or beaten with ruthless brutality? And in the midst of anguish, it's interesting to point out that Jesus still cares for the spiritual well-being of his disciples. If you look at verses 36 and 38, it says in verse 36, sit here while I go and pray over there. And in verse 38, he says, stay here and watch with me. So what Jesus is really telling his disciples is to be spiritually vigilant, be aware, be sober minded. I think a lot of times as Christians that we do is we walk aimlessly instead of walking with vigilance, walking with a spiritual sobriety that we know what's going on around us. I think a lot of times that we have this idea that we are to walk in a certain way and say, okay, Lord, I've given my life to you, now you do the hard work. Or we live in such a way that we couldn't be convicted in the court of law of having enough evidence against us to convict us of being a Christian. I think one of the things that we need to be mindful as Christians is that we need to walk with the spiritual vigilance of being aware of what's going on around us and being separate from the world. But it's interesting to point out that Jesus here instructs his disciples to sit and pray and watch. I think a lot of times we get so busy in our lives that we fail to sit, pray, and watch. I've brought this up before. A lot of times we, at least in my life, I can say is that I get so busy sometimes is that I have this drive through mentality of, okay, Lord, I got five minutes to do my devotions and I open up my Bible and I'm saying, okay, Lord, I'm gonna pick a verse and I look and it says, by what means how he now sees and we do not know and he opened his eyes and we do not know. Lord, thank you for this morning devotion. Thank you, be with me, and we're off. And it's no wonder that our spiritual vigilance is so low and it's no wonder that we go through the wilderness at the same time like Lord, where are you? Because we have this drive through mentality when it comes to our devotions. And Jesus is instructing his disciples to sit, watch, and pray. We are two. We're to sit and we're to watch and we're to pray. And in verse 40, it says, then he came to his disciples and found them sleeping and said to Peter, what? Could you not watch with me one hour? Jesus asks a profound question, couldn't you? Couldn't you? I think about this in my life. Can you not just watch with me? I think about the things that Jesus has asked me to do in my life and I've suddenly fallen to sleep. The world can suddenly put us to sleep with things that Jesus has asked us to do. The world can suddenly put us to sleep where we're no longer active from the things that Jesus is wanting us to do. What are the things tonight that Jesus has asked you to do, whether it's in your marriage, whether it's in your relationship, whether it's with your finances, whether it's with your colleagues at work, whether it's with your spiritual walk, what is it that Jesus has asked you to do? Can you just sit here and pray? Have you allowed the world, the cares of the world to come and suddenly put you to sleep as we see the disciples here? Are you being spiritually vigilant? Or have you been lulled into this nice restful sleep? Couldn't you? Couldn't you just watch with me one hour? Is that the question Jesus is presenting to us? I think sometimes he's presenting that to the church because the church has suddenly allowed the world to lull us to sleep and Jesus is saying, couldn't you? You know what's amazing is that Jesus, this is, thank goodness I'm not Jesus because I wouldn't care about anybody that night if I'm facing the cross, but here he was telling his disciples, be spiritually vigilant, be aware, sit, watch, and pray. I think a lot of times we're so, we gotta get through this, gotta get through this, gotta get through this, and the Lord's like, no, sit, watch, and pray. And the world can be suddenly putting us to sleep to the thing that Jesus has asked us to do or even command, and we must be spiritually vigilant and we are to watch and pray because the Bible, Jesus says, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Our flesh is weak. And if we're not spiritually vigilant to what Jesus has asked us to do, and if we've allowed the world to come and put us to sleep, we're sitting ducks. Look at verse 42. And again, a second time he went away and prayed, saying, oh, my father, this cup cannot pass away from me, unless I drink it, you will be done. And he came and found them asleep again for their eyes were so heavy, and their eyes were heavy. And then he left them and went away again and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then he came to his disciples and said to them, are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour's at hand. The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand. One of the things that really stood out to me in this passage is that cup that Jesus refers to three times. He says, well, he says it twice, and then it says, the Bible says that he went the third time and said the same things. Jesus is asking the Father to please take this cup from me. And that really stood out to me because I started thinking about cup. And I started thinking about what Jesus is referring to when he's referring to asking that this cup is taken from him. But to understand what Jesus, what he's referring to, what he means, we must look to some of the Old Testament passages that gives us a clear understanding of what this cup symbolizes. It symbolizes God's judgment. There are three verses I wanna point out that, I mean, we can be here all night looking at this, but there are three verses that really point out what Jesus is referring to when he's talking about this specific cup. In Habakkuk, chapter two, verse 16, it says, you are filled with shame instead of glory. You also drink and be exposed as uncircumcised. The cup of the Lord's right hand will be turned against you and utter shame will be your glory. Ezekiel 23, excuse me, 21 to 24, I made a mistake, it's 21 to 24. It says, you have walked in the way of your sister, therefore I will put her cup in your hand. Thus says the Lord God, you shall drink of your sister's cup, the deep and wide one. You shall be laughed to scorn and held in derision. It contains much. You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, the cup of horror and desolation, the cup of your sister's samaria. You shall drink it and drain it. You shall break its shards and tear it at your own breast for I have spoken, says the Lord God. And in Psalm 11, four, it says, upon the wicked he will reign coals. Fire and brimstone, a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup. Time and time again, the Bible speaks of a cup of God's wrath, which will be poured against and poured out against all sinners. It's a cup of disgust, of desolation and shame. It's a cup of destruction. It is a cup filled to the brim with the perfect wrath of a perfectly just God. So what Jesus is asking the Father is that he would take this cup that is being described here, the cup of wrath of a perfectly just God, a cup of what? A cup of all the wrath that comes against the sin that we've committed in our lives. I heard this interesting story and it's, I don't know how true it really is, but I just heard it and I thought it would be interesting to share of a man who was praying one day, Lord, I want to feel what it was like that you felt in the garden when the sin of the world was upon you or when you were on the cross, Lord, I'm begging you, let me feel what it was like to feel the sin of the world on your shoulders. And all of a sudden this person got a horrific, sick feeling and he's like begging the Lord, Lord, take the sin of the world off my shoulders. Please, Lord, take the sin of the world. I can't bear this any longer. And he heard a small voice that says, son, this isn't the sin of the world. These are your sin. And I imagine that the wrath that God had intended for you and I was now taken upon Jesus Christ. He took that cup and he fully drank it. Why? Because he loves you. Because he took what was intended for you and I and not only took a sip, but he drank it until the cup was empty. What an amazing Jesus that we serve. An amazing God who came and took a cup filled to the brim with a perfect wrath of God and he took it. Before the world was even created, Jesus agreed to drink this cup, to save the ones that he loves. He would not just take a sip of this cup, but would drink it to the bottom until there was nothing left. And just a few short hours later, from this passage that we read in the Garden of Gethsemane, his battered body was nailed to a wooden cross. As he hung there alone naked before God, he began to drink the cup that was supposed to be drank by you and I. He faced God's judgment. He drank in the horror and desolation, shame and destruction that was rightfully designated for you and I. It was rightfully ours, but he drank it. Imagine how the father must have felt having to punish his own son with every bit of wrath of his righteous anger against sin. At the time of his son, at the time Jesus needed him the most, he was unable to comfort him. The father poured out punishment against his son that our human minds can never, ever comprehend. Hour after hour, God's wrath poured in, on and through Jesus. Finally, hours after he began, Jesus did what no other person has ever done or could ever do, he emptied that cup. Drinking it down to the last drops of God's wrath until there was no more. The wrath that was deserved to be poured out against me, a wrath that was designed to be poured out against you and that was consumed by the one who loves us more than we can ever know. I don't know if you've ever taken the time to think about this cup that Jesus pleaded three times for the father to take. The father poured out punishment against his son that the human minds can never comprehend. Having drank in the last drops, Jesus shout out in triumph, it is finished. The work had been done knowing that his task was complete. Jesus turned his gaze to heaven and said, Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. And at that moment, he yielded up his spirit and returned to fellowship with his father. There are those who would say, having seen the events of Jesus's life portrayed in a movie that they were better equipped to understand what Jesus really went through. Make no mistake about this, you guys. This can never be. Though we may have a greater appreciation for the physical abuse and torture that Jesus endured by watching a movie, we can never ever understand the depths of his sacrifice. See in the drama of a spike driven through the arms and the nails of Riz tells, you know more about the sacrifice than Jesus seeing the thimble full of water that helps the child understand the power, the depths and the vastness of oceans. We can't ever presume to understand what Jesus ever went through us because we can never comprehend what he's done for us. A thousand songs, a thousand books, a thousand words can never express adequate thanks for the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. But what we can do is that we can turn to him who drank the cup on our behalf and acknowledge that this wrath was meant for you and I, turn to Jesus, praise him for the completeness of the sacrifice that is too great for us to comprehend. This is something I would think about over and over and over again. Lord, what is this cup? What was it that I watched the Passion of Christ? That was hard to watch. That was toned down because I don't know if we would ever truly fully comprehend the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. This is what's so important for me that I remember this on a daily basis, not just on Good Friday, not on just Easter morning on Resurrection Sunday, but every day. We're to rejoice and be thankful that Christ drank this cup to the bottom. Be thankful knowing that in all of eternity would not be enough time for you and I to drink that cup. Jesus' sacrifice was so great, so complete that when he drank in several hours, you and I could not drink if we had the rest of time to do so. Look not to the time of his suffering, but look to the intensity of what he suffered, a suffering Jesus. We can rest. We can rest in him in his infinite, complete, awesome love. We can rejoice that this cup that our cup is emptied, consumed in the greatest act of love that the world will ever know. Did you know what's so amazing about Jesus? Is that he came to save him? He came to save us from himself. Think about that. Jesus came to save us from himself. You know what's so amazing? You know on Wednesday, we're gonna be taking communion. Pastor David will be given his message and then afterwards we'll have communion. For me, this has opened my eyes to communion because now I'm able to drink. Oh, if we look at the word communion, you guys ever looked up the definition it's sharing or exchanging intimacy with Jesus. We take communion and a lot of times for me it was just something, a piece of bread and some grape juice and we drink it and sometimes it seemed like it became like just a habit. But if we truly understand that communion means exchanging intimacy with Jesus. We eat the bread, we drink the cup and then we have communion with Jesus but we don't deserve communion with Jesus. We deserve the cup of wrath but once again, Jesus took that for you and I. And what I'm wanting to really drive home tonight is to always remember what Jesus has done for us even in the garden, a suffering Jesus. You know, it's interesting as we take communion we're sharing something with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And if Jesus has come to save us from himself and he has come and he has taken the cup of wrath from us that we deserve because of our sin but yet he wants that intimacy with you and I. See, when we celebrate communion this Wednesday may it not be a regular tradition that we've had but remember what the wrath that Jesus really took for us when he drank the cup. When we take that little drink, we're reminded that we have communion exchanging intimacy with our Lord and Savior when we should have been receiving the wrath. And our intimacy with Jesus is so amazing but I don't think we understand his intimacy towards us. Isaiah 21 4 says that he will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Can I ask you guys a question? What is one of the most appropriately, what is one of the most intimate places on your body? Your face. I've been sharing this with some of my friends. Your face. If I go up to Dave Bustamante tonight, start rubbing his face, he'd probably knock me out. The face. That's how much intimacy Jesus has with you. I don't let anybody touch my face. If I went up to you sir and touched your face, you'd probably slap me because it's intimate. My kids kiss my face. My wife touches my face. My daughter even just before church was kissing me, kissing me, kissing me, kissing me. That's intimacy. Jesus says he will wipe away every tear. That means he's so intimate with us that he literally, it's part of touching our face. I don't know if you ever thought about that. Jesus who suffered and pleaded, take this cup from me. That was designed for you and me. And a God who's full of wrath and judgment against sin. Jesus says, I will take it because I love you. And I will take it. And not only will I take this cup, but I will have intimacy with you because my love for you is so great. I don't think our minds can comprehend that. I don't think we can fully understand what Jesus truly has done for us. You know what hit me the hardest? So let me back up. So this is what was so significant me for me while in the Garden of Gethsemane. One of the things that really impacted me in that trip was when Pastor David shared on in the Garden that after the third time that Jesus asked, let this cup pass from me. I wonder if he got a glimpse of each and every one of us. I wonder, as he said, Father, let this cup pass. I'm wondering if he got a glimpse of all of our faces. He says, but not my will, your will. I wonder if he knew that we would be going through difficult times tonight. If he knew that we'd be going through a tough place. And he says, you know, it's not my will, Lord, because I love them so much. I wonder if he got a glimpse of you and I. I wonder about stuff like that. And then he responded, but not my will, your will. That's what made the most impact on my last trip. Because for Jesus to take a cup that was deserved for me, how wretched that I am, how often I fall short, how often I go through the difficult times, how often I just messed up. And Jesus still says, I love you. That blows me away. That's what hit me the hardest this time in our last trip. Next year, it's gonna be something else and I'll be here sharing it with you guys next year. But the Garden of Gethsemane. I hope one day you can all go because it will change your life. But not only that, but remembering on a daily basis, what Jesus has done for you and I. Remembering every day what Jesus suffered for you and I, but not just on Good Friday, but every single day.