Mark chapter 14, verses 26 through 43. This is God’s holy word. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. And Jesus said to them, You will all fall away, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.
But after I am raised up, I will go before you into Galilee. Peter said to him, even though they all fall away, I will not. And Jesus said to him, truly I tell you, this very night before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times. But he said emphatically, if I must die with you, I will not deny you.
And they all said the same. And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, Sit here while I pray. And he took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, My soul is very sorrowful, even unto death.
Remain here and watch. And going a little further, he fell to the ground and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Remove this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what You will. And he came and found them sleeping and said to Peter, Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour?
Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer him. And he came the third time and said to them, Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?
It is enough, the hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand. And immediately while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs from the chief priests and the scribes. and the elders.
Thus far, God’s holy, inspired, and infallible word. It will please the Lord to take his word and use it in our lives into service for himself. Thanks be to God. Dear Lord, we come now to the study of your word. It’s easy for us to be distracted from within, from without, in different ways, but we pray we’ll hear, that we’ll heed, and that we will honor You, Lord, by serving You and obeying You. We thank You for this time together. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
The Passover meal having ended, the band of 11 plus the Lord Jesus left the rented room and headed out of Jerusalem about half a mile to the Garden of Gethsemane. Gethsemane was a favorite stop, actually. When Jesus was visiting Jerusalem, He needed rest. He was very busy, usually teaching all day long. So he was very appreciative where there was a place to rest, and I guess you would say that he understood that this was the Lord’s provision for him, and certainly it was the Lord’s provision now as he had to face a very difficult situation and he wanted time to pray. The Garden of Gethsemane was usually quiet, refreshing, without a lot of people and a private place.
But you see what a contrast happened when Judas showed up. It was no longer quiet. There was a mob of people. It was not very refreshing as people were on edge and uncertain about what would happen. It was obviously not very private because I’m sure with this great number of people, they were kind of surrounded and people were looking in and seeing what was going on and so forth. So you see the great contrast between just a few minutes before when Jesus had taken time to pray and ask others to pray with him and now when this to-do comes about. It was, that is the garden was often unused and unnoticed by many.
That’s why Jesus liked it. But it was known to one of the disciples in particular, namely Judas Iscariot. He knew it very well because every time Jesus and the disciples went there, prior to this, he was there with them. And of course, Judas was there to facilitate the arrest of Jesus, and this would lead to his persecution and crucifixion and all the troubles that would go with that.
It was usually a place, as we’ve said, to pray, and in this case, it was especially used by the Lord to urge the disciples to pray. Now, I don’t know about you, But sometimes I go to pray and the next thing I know I’m asleep. Well, I can’t say very much about that because the disciples were also in that situation.
It says their eyelids were heavy. But we’re going to join them now as they come to the Garden of Gethsemane and observe also these events. And our points this morning are these. We have Jesus’ second alarming declaration. Now He said before, one of you will fall away. And He meant betray Him. But now He says all of you will fall away. That’s from Zechariah chapter 13, incidentally. And then Peter’s shameless and misguided bravado. Everybody else may deny you, but not me. I will never deny you. And we’ll take a look at that. Jesus had his own particular struggles in Gethsemane. We want to take some time to think about that. And finally, the disciples’ rude awakening. And it was sort of rude, not in the sense that Jesus did anything wrong, but he said, wake up. We’re going to be in big trouble any moment now. So those are our four points this morning. Let’s start with this second alarming declaration.
Again, he had already alarmed them by saying, one of you will betray me. That was in the room where the Passover supper was celebrated. And now he tells them they’re all going to fall away. But I want to emphasize to you there’s a difference between betraying Jesus and falling away. We’ll look at that in a moment. The second declaration, all of you will fall away, is not quite as serious as the first. And the idea of falling away really means that they would disassociate themselves with Jesus. That’s what happened with Peter. I won’t get too much into that now because we’ll come to it. But Peter’s remarks were, I don’t know the man. Yeah, but aren’t you a Galilean? I don’t know the man. But you have that accent. I don’t know the man. But didn’t we see you with him? I don’t know the man. You see, that’s disassociating.
And that’s what Jesus means now. He doesn’t say all of you will betray me. But he says all of you will fall away. All of you will in some way or other indicate that you don’t know me, that I’m a stranger to you. Peter’s denial, of course, was the worst.
And that’s the one that gets recorded in Scripture. But let’s just say that there were some of them that just disappeared. When what was the obvious thing to do was to say, yes, I’m His disciple. What are you going to do about it? I’m His. I belong to Him.
But it says everybody’s scattered. They all went in different directions. And we can assume that they all went and hid somewhere. so that they wouldn’t be arrested either. Now, let’s give credit to John and to Peter. They didn’t run away. They followed, and of course, in Peter’s case, there was a denial. We don’t know about John.
We don’t know what John did inside the palace because he was let in and so forth, but I think we can just assume, if Jesus says, you’ll all follow away, that there was some disassociation on everybody’s part, and Jesus was, in effect, left alone. because nobody was really standing with Him. And let us say that although there was no excuse for anybody’s denial, even though they would have said, well, what did you expect me to do, and so forth, the thing here is that Jesus was alone, and that was part of God’s plan at this point. What Jesus was going to have to do, He was going to do alone. where he was going to have to deal with the authorities, be it the Jewish authorities or the Roman authorities, he was going to have to do it alone. Nobody was going to stand up for him and take up for him at this point.
And of course, we all have to be convicted in some respect, because there are times when we say, well, it’s just better if I keep my mouth shut, or it’s better if I don’t go to this meeting or whatever. We’ve all been guilty of that ourselves, maybe some less than others, maybe some more bold than others. But when Jesus said, you’re all going to fall away, I don’t think he said, and that’s limited only to the 11 here. I think he was saying to us too, there’ll be times when you’ll deny me, not so much as Peter did, but you will in some way say, don’t look at me, I don’t really have anything to do with that. You know, there’s a person that’s involved in this whole matter of Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion that seems to be the boldest of all.
If you could pick out somebody and say, well, none of them are very exemplary, but there’s one that really impresses me, and that would be Joseph of Arimathea. because he went to Pilate and he said, I’d like to have the body. And he couldn’t have done that in some sort of secretive way. The soldiers knew about it. The soldiers were called in. Pilate questioned them as he really did and so forth. This was a bold man.
He doesn’t have the press, as it were, the publication of his boldness. But he was so committed to the Lord that he said, no matter what happens, I’m going to take my stand with him. And if they say, well, why are you going to the tomb? Why did you put him in your tomb? Why this identification? He was willing to say, because I am his disciple. And that was more than a lot of people did. So if you say, who do you find in all this that really is impressive? I would say it’s Joseph of Arimathea. Well, we’ll know more about that someday, I suppose.
Let us be careful, okay? Let us be careful not to be like Peter and make bold statements and so forth that we can’t keep. Why? Because it’s easy to fall away. Easy to fall away. The devil makes it easy for us, you know. They won’t bother you anymore if you’ll just… Look like you don’t know him or act like you don’t know him or say you don’t know him. It’s easy to fall away. How can we avoid it then if it’s so easy to fall away?
Because we have God’s help. We have the Holy Spirit. He hasn’t come at this point. And maybe that’s something for us to consider. His coming made a big difference. But let us say, how can we have the strength? How can we have the boldness to take a stand for Jesus, to be a Joseph of Arimathea if we have to be? And that is with the help of the Holy Spirit. When we’re filled with the Spirit, we speak boldly, we act boldly, we stand up for the Lord. So Jesus made this second alarming declaration. You’ll all fall away, and sure enough, And they all did fall away. They all did disassociate with the Lord Jesus.
How much we need the help of the Holy Spirit. Lord, I’m going into a difficult situation. I don’t know how I’m gonna get through this. Holy Spirit, help me. Holy Spirit, come upon me. Holy Spirit, give me boldness. And the Lord gives the Holy Spirit, the Bible says, to those who ask Him. Okay, well we go on to our second point then.
Peter’s shameless and misguided bravado, though they all fall away, I will not. Now, before his fall, we of course know that Peter did mess up pretty bad, but he thought very highly of himself. I think all through the years of following Jesus in the band of disciples, Peter was always self-confident.
He was usually the one that spoke up. He didn’t always speak carefully and sometimes he had to be rebuked by the Lord Jesus, but he thought very highly of himself. He spoke his mind. And I think you could say of Peter that in the ordinary sense, he was a brave man.
He did, after all, go into the courtyard, as we’ll see later. He did take a chance that he might be arrested in that situation. So it wasn’t that he was not a brave man, that he was chicken or something like that. It’s just we’re not stronger than the devil. And he makes it so easy, as I said, Apparently, and I say this carefully, I don’t know, and we’ll find out some of these things later, but I don’t think Peter ever ran from a fight. I think he was ready to, you know, to put them up or to draw a sword or whatever was needed there. He was, generally speaking, in the world’s eyes, a brave man.
He didn’t run from a fight. And when it came time to arrest Jesus, what did he do? He pulled out his sword and said, let’s have at it. But there’s 50 men here and you’re the only one that has a sword, Peter. He said, I don’t care, I’m gonna fight for him. So give him credit, he was a brave man in the ordinary sense, but it’s just we’re not stronger than the devil. He will get to us after a while, unless we have the help of the Holy Spirit.
Now scripture warns, and I’m just quoting from Proverbs, but you could look a number of places, even in the book of James, it says something about the arrogant think that they can’t fall and so forth. Here it says, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. And I think the Lord was saying there, up to a point, your bravery is good, your strength is good, your intentions are good, but don’t think that in the end you’ll survive without my help. Pride goeth before destruction, and the Holy Spirit before a fall.
Well, we will return to Peter, of course, later on, but the point here, I think, is positive. That positive being that we are his sheep. Jesus quoted a passage that said, the sheep are going to be scattered. And all those sheep were his sheep. He said not one of them is going to be lost, except Judas, of course, the one that had been ordained to be the betrayer of Jesus. But those sheep were gonna go ahead of him into Galilee, and they were sheep. That is, not that they were timid, but they were His sheep that He had come to save.
And putting your trust and faith in Jesus Christ is your greatest source of assurance and comfort, because He will save you. He’ll get you to Galilee, let’s say. Now, we’re not going to Galilee, of course, but the symbolism here, and of course, it really happened, but the symbolism is that wherever He takes us, He’ll be with us. Lo, I am with you always, He said. to the end of the age. Now we may be thinking highly of ourselves and say, I’ll never deny you and so forth. And we know that that can come tumbling down, but we also know that Jesus will never leave us or forsake us. He’ll get us to Galilee. He goes before you into Galilee, and all you sheep, you’re going to be there. Some of you will come kicking and screaming, but he’ll get you there always. Jesus will overcome our falling away.
Isn’t that good news? Peter went out later, as we’ll see, and he wept, and he said, oh, I’m finished. This is a terrible thing, but Jesus received him back, and he became one of the greatest apostles in terms of what we know about him and the preaching and the leadership that he gave. But the point here again is that Jesus will overcome our falling away.
And He will lead us to victory. To victory after victory. And that’s why in the Lord’s Prayer we pray, Thy kingdom come. Thy kingdom come means victory. It doesn’t mean thy kingdom be remembered or thy kingdom here and there, but it means the kingdom of Lord Jesus Christ will come and all of us who are citizens, all of us who are sheep will be a part of that kingdom and we can thank God for it. But be careful, let us be careful that we don’t think too highly of ourselves.
So our third point is that Jesus had a struggle in Gethsemane. He prayed that the hour might pass from him. Now, this is the humanity of Jesus. Just a short time before this, at least in the narrative, Jesus is on the Mount of Transfiguration. He’s changed. All the heavenly qualities about Him come out and amaze the disciples who are with Him. He is feeling at that point fully a part of the Father and the Father’s purpose and so forth. That’s His divinity. This is God with us. This is Emmanuel.
But now, things have turned around, and now it’s his humanity that comes forth. Lord, do I have to go through this? Now, he doesn’t say, I won’t do it, I can’t do it. He just says, if it’s possible, may this pass from me. Jesus appears to recoil, not so much from death. Even Peter said, I’m willing to die. But Jesus says, I don’t want to have all this sin be laid upon me. Isaiah 53, 6, the Lord has done what?
Has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And I think when Jesus thought about that, he was a perfect man, a righteous man. The Lord was going to lay on him the iniquity of us all. not that He was going to commit any sins, but that the punishment for sin, the consequences of sin, the realization of sin was going to come down upon Him. And at one point there, He’s going to say, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? All this sin, our sin, laid upon Him when He goes to the cross. But here, He recoils from that idea.
I love righteousness. I love purity. I don’t want anything to do with sin. God says, you’re going to have to take it upon yourself if your people are going to be saved. And in the end, Jesus says, not my will, but your will be done. He says, Abba, Father. What was he saying? Abba means dear father, dearest father. And he was saying, don’t you love me? Aren’t you willing to spare me all of this? And you say, why could he say that? Because he was human. He was a human. He didn’t sin, but he was fully human. He recoiled from that idea.
He said, I’d just soon die as have to face the punishment for sin, the hour of wrath that’s coming. And of course, as we said, he feels abandoned. Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Abandoned, alone. We said before, this is something he has to face alone. In the old spiritual, it says, nobody else can walk it for me. I have to walk this way alone.
Well, it was a sickening feeling, may I say. Sometimes I think we think that Jesus just felt fine physically, but I think the Bible says he was sick. It doesn’t say that he necessarily showed that by vomiting or something like that, but I think he felt a sickening feeling of betrayal and aloneness, and especially when Judas arrived.
We say that God answers prayer, and usually here’s how he answers prayer. He says yes, he says no, or he says wait. And so we sort of take comfort in that, that we don’t have the immediate thing that we ask for sometimes. God says yes, sometimes God says no, sometimes God says wait. But here, God says very firmly, no. Can’t this hour pass from me?
No. All my humanity says, let me just go to be with you, Lord. And the Lord says, no. I’m laying upon you the iniquities of my people. but good for us. Because if He had skipped that part, then we would still be liable for our sins. We’d be bearing the sins that we have and deserve punishment for. The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Well, we go to our last point then.
The disciples’ rude awakening. Wake up, Jesus says. Huh? Huh? My betrayer is at hand. My betrayer is here. Now, I just want to take a few of these phrases quickly and speak about them. And I’ve kind of reversed the order here a little bit. But first, the hour has come. What does that mean?
The hour has come. You see, God had ordained from before the foundation of the world that this hour should come. What hour? The hour when Jesus would die on the cross and pay for our sins. That’s how we’re saved. The hour has come. The period of suffering that culminates in the cross is now underway. The hour has come. But we could say concerning that phrase, my hour came, using the past tense there, my hour came then. The hour when I was supposed to have died and suffered eternal punishment, it came and went. because he took it upon himself. Just as he said, my hour is come, we say our hour came.
It is enough. That’s the next phrase I want us to consider. It is enough. What does he mean by that? It means that nothing now prevents the arrest and brutalization of Jesus. It is enough, meaning everything now has taken place except that, and now it’s going to happen. Jesus knew it all along. He felt it all along. He said the Son of Man must be arrested and abused and die and rise again and so forth. He knew it was coming, but now it is enough. Now it’s here. Now there’s no more putting it off, thinking about it, dwelling on it. Now it is here.
Then he says, into the hands of sinners. It means that God’s enemies are now permitted to do their worst. I’ll tell you, there was not a blacker hour, a more horrible time frame than this that ever happened in the history of the world. Because, in effect, the Lord said to Satan and his minions, do your best. Actually, do your worst.
Take care of Jesus as you think that you’re going to. Into the hands of sinners means that God takes His hand back and puts Jesus into their hands. But may I say, of course, that Jesus was up to the task. Even though He said, I really would like to avoid this, He says now to them, Let it happen. Let it happen. It is enough. Into the hands of sinners I go.
And of all the sinners there, Judas stands out as the most heinous one because he leads this company. He leads them to do everything that Satan would like to do to Jesus and hasn’t been able to do up to this point. Judas was one of the twelve. Judas knew the Gospel.
He knew Jesus is the Son of God, and yet, he still betrayed Him. You have any doubts now that however strong you think you are, that the devil is stronger than you are? But Jesus is stronger than the devil. The Holy Spirit is stronger than the devil. You can have Him and His help when you ask for it.
But let me warn everybody, including me, if you reject Jesus, If you seek another Savior, if you deny the witness of the Holy Spirit that this is the one Savior, then you may as well abandon all hope. There’s no hope, there’s no life, there’s no salvation unless you come to Jesus. Lord Jesus, I believe You’ve died for me. Lord Jesus, there’s no other Savior but You and I’ll not seek another one. Lord Jesus, Your Spirit has convinced me And I will hold on to you as long as he gives me the strength to do that.
And therein lies my hope. Or as the hymn says, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. May that be true for all of us, all of us observers there in the garden. Dear Heavenly Father, we pray for ourselves today. We pray for the Holy Spirit. We pray to know with great assurance that that hour came and went because Jesus died for us. And it is in his name that we give praise and thanks. Amen. Let’s turn to the back of your bulletin and we’ll sing the closing hymn now.