Jesus' Darkest Night, Matthew 26:36-46

Jesus' Darkest Night

Matthew 26:36-46


By Pastor Brian Lam
April 22, 2011
Good Friday Worship
Fort Bend Community Church


2011-04-22 from Fort Bend Community Church on Vimeo.

Purpose

To explain the pains and sorrow of Jesus in Gethsemane so that the congregation pays attention to what God has done for us.

Introduction

1.       These are some of the pictures of the modern day Gethsemane. My visit to Garden of Gethsemane 15 years ago brought back the intense emotion of the night when Jesus was praying here the day before he died.

2.       Gethsemane means “oil press” in Hebrew. It was called a garden but was more than a garden. It was an olives farm with an olive oil press.It is located across the Kidron Valley on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives.

3.       Jesus and his disciples entered into the Garden at around 10-11 pm Thursday night before He died on Friday around 3 pm.So it was less than 12 hours before He was crucified on the cross.

4.       I believe it was Jesus’ darkest night of His life.What we see in Gethsemane was the most painful and lonely moment in Jesus’ life. It was dark at night in the Garden. It was absolutely fitting because it was the darkest night of Jesus’ life.

5.       He knew that very soon he will be put to death. The wrath of God will be poured out on him as a substitute for us. The wrath of God was something Jesus had never experienced before.

6.       Some of you know what it is like to be in the darkest night. You have been there: lonely, devastated, anxious, abandoned, facing death. Even your closest friends or your spouse won’t be able to understand the darkness and the excruciating pain that you have experienced.

7.       Why Jesus had to go through this? He is the One who knew no sin and He is the perfect Son of God in the bosom of the Father. Now he was in the darkest place of the darkest moment in His life.The sin of the whole world was about to unload on him.

Let us go into the Garden with Jesus.

Scene One—in the garden

Matthew 26:36-37

Jesus went with the disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And he took Peter, James, and John with him. He was sorrowful and troubled.

A. Matthew uses two infinitives and one adjective to describe Jesus’ darkest night:

1.  The infinitive, “sorrowful,” appears 26 times in the NT. It is translated, “grieve (10), sorrowful (7), pain (4), distress (2).” It describes the severe mental or emotional distress
2. The second infinitive, “troubled,” appears 3 times in the NT only. It means “depressed, overwhelmed with anxiety, a heavy burden of mind.”
3. The adjective that Jesus uses in His own word on his psyche and feeling is in verse 38,
   “I feel very sad, even to death.”

B. Our Darkest Nights

Have you ever felt the same way, in pain under severe mental and emotional distress, and overwhelmed with anxiety? Your mind cannot think as if 200o tons of concrete cements were poured on you. And you feel sad as if you are about to die.

As a pastor, I have witnessed some of the darkest nights among us up close and personal.

1. A grieving spouse when the wife said, “I don’t love you anymore. I am leaving for another man.”
   Bing! It is like a 30 foot tsunami hit right at you and taking everything away!
2. A painful parent when the young child committed suicide.
   It can’t be! It is impossible. Everything stops to make sense at that moment.
3. A failed business: the man has worked so hard for it and now it is crumbling down despite your strongest efforts. Talk about sadness.
4.  Or the doctor said it is cancer. It has spread.
   And you know your days ahead would be hard and numbered.

And you think you are sad, you are devastated, you are depressed, and you are overwhelmed with sorrow.
Think of Jesus’ darkest night in Gethsemane. He was more so. God made him who knew no sin become sin for us all.

C. Jesus Sweating Blood

Verse 39,

He fell on his face to the ground and prayed to the Father. “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.”

Luke gives us more details on his emotional and physical effect of his prayer.

Luke 22:44 “And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat become like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”

1. The prayer was so intense. He was in agony, in great momentary anxiety and fear.
2. The word, “earnestly,” refers to emotional combat—going back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth for over an hour. “My father. If it is possible, please take this cup from me. I am fearful and scare.”
3. The cup probably refers not to the imminent death, but the wrath of God. It has its OT root. The wrath of God is like the liquid in the cup pouring out on sinners. Jesus was not afraid of the physical death, as much as the spiritual death. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, one God in three persons in the Trinity. They have been in perfect union and communion from eternity to eternity until now. Now God is going to make Him to become sin for all of us (2 Cor 5:21). 
4. He would stand condemned in our place.
   He would suffer and die as our substitute.
   The wrath of God would be poured out on Him.
   He would be separated from the Father.
5. And that was why He was so dreadful. And He prayed and prayed and prayed that this cup may be removed from him.
6. The prayer was so intense that it resulted in a physical condition: sweat that dripped like clotted blood falling down to the ground. 
7. I have checked the weather in Jerusalem in this time of the year. The average temperature is between 50 to 60 F. And April is the beginning of the dry season. It gets less than 1 inch of rain for the whole month. Therefore the weather at Gethsemane at night was nice and cool. The humility was very low. There is no way Jesus sweated like this naturally. 
8. It shows you that Jesus’ prayer was so intense. Even though he was just praying, he perspired profusely as the prayer intensified. The sweat beads multiplied on his body like flowing clumps of blood and dropped to the ground.
9. Very few people ever, ever get to this point. He prayed earnestly with intensity few can match in this darkest night.

D. He suffered for you.

(Take it home.)

1. My friends, He suffered such agony and pains for us so that we are healed. We are broken people, born into a broken world and a broken family. There are so much hurts, so much wound. Look at yourself. In the secret place of your heart, there are so much regrets, so much you desire to be better. You have hurt people and people have hurt you.

Illustration: A sister once told me that she wished to be born dead. Why was she born into such a broken world? Sin has such a devastating effect on us. We are all broken people, torn apart with broken relationships and wounds.

2. Jesus suffered so much pain, so that we are healed. You don’t have to be broken. Everything has become new—a new birth, a new life, a new nature, a new relationship with God, a new perspective, a new motivation, a new power who lives within you.

Alleluia! He has healed us.

Scene 2—the Prayers

Verse 39 He fell on his face and prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

A. Jesus prayed honestly and respectfully.

The Gethsemane prayer is the most difficult prayer to pray.
1) Be honest to God about how you feel. That God is good and he would listen to your cries.
2) Yet at the same time, be obedience to God that His will be done.
Prayer does not change God; prayer changes us to the will of God.God is both good and sovereign. He is both loving and wise.

When you pray during your darkest nights, be honest about how you feel. It is okay that you are devastated; it is okay that you are sad and depressed. It is okay that you are whelmed with anxiety. Tell God about it in your prayer. But also pray to be obedient. “Not as I will, but as you will.”


B. Jesus became obedience for us.

(Take it home.)

1. Jesus became obedience and obedience to the point of death and death on a cross. Notice the second time Jesus prayed in verse 41, “If it cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” Third time, He prayed saying the same words. Jesus became obedience. “Your will be done.”

2. In the next 12 hours, he was going to be arrested, put on trials, 3 trials in total. But He never backed down, never looked back. He was beaten, disfigured, humiliated, stripped naked, dragged through the streets, nailed on the cross, suffering excruciating pains, and eventually died among the criminals. He never had a doubt. When He finally said, “It is finished. It is done. The will of the Father is done.” The curtain that used to separate us from God and shielded us from the presence of God in front of the Holy of Holies in the temple was torn open from the top to the bottom.

3. We now have access to God through the blood of Jesus; There is now the way to heavens through Jesus;

We are reconciled to God because of the cross. The penalty of sins has been paid in full. In Christ we have new life.

Alleluia! He has saved us.

Scene 3—the disciples

Verse 40

When Jesus came to the disciples, He found them sleeping. And He said to Peter, the leader of the group, “So could you not watch with me for one hour?”

A. Jesus was lonely.

1. At Gethsemane, Jesus was very lonely. He asked his closest friends, Peter, James and John for support.
And when he came to them, he found them---what? Sleeping.

2. Why in the world did they sleep through the hour when Jesus needed them the most? Think about that. The Son of God from eternity to eternity needed them just for a couple of hours to be there for him in His darkest night. There is not another time before and after ever again when the Son of God would ask specifically for help. Jesus was lonely and sad. Why couldn’t Peter, James, and John just stay awake and support him for cry out loud. Don’t judge them. Identify with them. Alright! Why couldn’t we stay awake and be watchful and prayerful?

3. In a few hours, Jesus was going to be abandoned by his own people, and by God the Father. He was going to be separated from God. The path to the cross was lonely. The cross was a lonely place. Jesus was hanged and lifted up when everyone abandoned him, including his disciples, his closest friends, Peter, James and John. And at the end, even God the Father has to turn his face from Him. Talk about separation pain. The Son of God was separated from God because of us.


B. Jesus was abandoned for us. Nothing can separate us from God now.

(Take it home.)

1. Jesus paid the price and His separation has granted us our acceptance to God. Because of love. He loves us so much that He came to lead us home.

2. At the Cross by Hillsongs:

Oh Lord you've searched me
You know my way
even when I fail You
I know You love me

Your holy presence
surrounding me
In every season
I know You love me
I know You love me

At the cross I bow my knee
Where Your blood was shed for me
There's no greater love than this
You have overcome the grave
Glory fills the Highest Place
what can separate me now?

You go before me
You shield my way
Your hand upholds me
I know you love me

At the cross I bow my knee
Where Your blood was shed for me
There's no greater love than this
You have overcome the grave
Glory fills the Highest Place
what can separate me now?

You tore the veil
You made a way
When You said that it is done (2x)

And when the earth fades
falls from my eyes
And You stand before me
I know You love me
I know You love me

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to give you a challenge.

The word, “Watch,” appears three times in the passage. Jesus asked the disciples to watch.

1.  It comes from the word, to arise, to arouse. It is used moving from a physical sense to the moral and religious sense. In the NT, it is used 22 times. Some of the usage includes: Paying attention (Mark 13:34) to God’s revelation (1 Thess 3:6); or be on the alert looking out for dangers. It is especially used for watching for the signs of His coming.
2. This is a warning from Jesus for the disciples: Watch and pray. Pay attention to what God is doing.
   Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. For the disciples, the temptation is to sleep through the night and not aware of what is happening. Jesus is suffering. He needs their support.
   The soldiers are coming. Don’t be lured into a comfort zone of sleeping. Be on the alert. Pay attention.
   They had missed the golden opportunity to minister to Jesus. It was the opportunity of the eternity--it happened only once. And the disciples by sleeping and not watchful had missed it.

This is the warning for us and the challenge for us today. Every Good Friday and Easter comes and goes. It is so easy to take it for granted. Jesus is going to the cross. Does this meaning anything to you? Jesus is crucified and dies. Do you see God’s plan being unfolded? Maybe we have heard the story too many times that it lures us into apathy. Maybe we are too busy with our work and with our family that it is hard to care what God is doing through Jesus and the cross. Maybe we are so comfortable with ourselves that we don’t see our brokenness and our spiritual poverty. Watch, pay attention, be on the alert to what God is going especially tonight on Good Friday.

Listen:

1. Jesus suffered the pain so that we are healed. Come and receive his healing.
2. Jesus obeyed the Father’s will so that we are saved. Come and appreciate the great salvation we have.
3. Jesus was abandoned so that we are accepted. Nothing can separate us now.
   At the cross, He tore the veil and said it is done.

Were You There When they crucified my Lord? Let us be there at the foot of the cross and be watchful of what He has done for us.

Response Songs

The Process of Preparing This Sermon

By Brian Lam

1. Many years ago, I read a sermon by Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington, on Jesus' prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. It kind of stuck in my mind when he talked about Gethsemane being Jesus' most devastated and lonely time. My Lord and Savior, Jesus, my best friend, was lonely and devastated?! And when he was the most devastated, he prayed--long hours, with sweating blood. The image is vividly burned in my conscience. We are in the middle of the 30 days of prayer and fasting in the month of April. I want to learn to pray like Jesus in his prayer of Gethsemane. The story is recorded in all three of the Synoptic Gospels: Matthew 26:36-46; Luke 22:39-46; and Mark 14:32-42. I decided to focus on Matthew's account which offers the most details.

But the feedback from the preaching team is that it is Good Friday and we need to focus more on the suffering of Christ instead of modeling ourselves in the Gethsemane Prayer. Jesus Christ is more than an example for us to follow in the time of great distress; "He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastisement upon Him brought us peace. By His scourging we are healed." Isaiah 53:5. The church needs to celebrate Good Friday with a reminder of His great sacrifice and its significance. I comply and change the focus of the message. It is Wednesday; less than 3 days before the Good Friday worship.

3. Besides the usual different English Bibles and Greek Bible, here are the key commentaries that I used for this sermon.

• Hagner, D. A. Vol. 33B: Word Biblical Commentary : Matthew 14-28. Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas: Word, Incorporated. 2002.
• Nolland, J. The Gospel of Matthew : A commentary on the Greek text. Grand Rapids, Mich.; Carlisle: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press. 2005.
• Wilkins, M. J. The NIV Application Commentary: Matthew. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House. 2004.

3. As I studied the story several times, I was really touched by the intensity of the story. I wanted to tell the story of Jesus' intense agony and his loneliness. It was hard to grasp that the Son of God had such great needs. And yet his closest friends were not able to support him. They had missed the most precious opportunity to minister to the Son of God at his most needy hour. Jesus' prayer was completely honest and yet trusting; it is the landmark example of the kind of prayer with honestly and trustfulness in the time of sorrow and anxiety. It reveals the intimate relationship between God the Father and God the Son. After the time of prayer, Jesus was ready for the "hour"--in which he was going to save the world. The contrast between his agony and his bravery and determination at the arrest, the trials, and the cross was stunning.

4. From these thoughts, I drafted my first sermonic outline as a story teller.

Introduction

My visit to the Garden of Gethsemane--the site of Jesus' most devastated and lonely moment just before he was arrested, brought back the intense emotions for the story when it first happened.

Scene 1: In the Garden, 26:36-37
Scene 2: The prayers, 26:38-39
Scene 3: The Disciples, 26:40-46

Conclusion

The challenge to be watchful.


5. I found the story of Madame Guyon and a quotation from Dante's Divine Comedy: "In His will is our peace" from the internet. I read Guyon's autobiography, The Life of Madame Guyon,when I was in college. I googled her. And during the preparation of last week's sermon, I ran into Dante's quotation accidentally. They all became good source of supporting materials. But I did not get to use it since I have changed the focus of the message.


6. I went through two approaches to the sermon:

a. Direct application: We identify with Jesus and follow His example.

b. Explain the significance of Christ's death and suffering on our behalf.

 

Since this is for Good Friday, the cross needs to be the focus. I preached the second approach.

7. I did four word studies using Logos Bible software: 1) Sorrowful; 2) Troubles; 3) Sad (even to death); and 4) Watch. First I go to ESV and find the Greek words. Then use the Bible Study Guide to study on these Greek words. Read a couple of dictionaries: BDAG and WSNTDICT, and get the basic meanings of these words. Use Logos to see other possible translations for these words. For examples, "sorrowful" is more often translated "grieve". And "sad" can be translated "sorry." I spent more time on the word, "watch," looking up all 22 times the word is used in the NT. The usage gives vivid examples and pictures of the meaning of the word. It is most often used to describe mindfulness of God's actions or revelation around us. It is used especially for paying attention to the second coming of the Lord.

8. The setup:

It is important to change the setting of worship from time to time especially on special occasions like Good Friday. Familiarity breeds contempt. On this Good Friday, I made the following changes different from a regular Sunday worship:

a. Change the seating. We arrange the chairs in a circle and I preach at the middle. It allows the congregation to see each others face, and creates an intimate feeling for worship.

b. Candles are used in the middle.

c. Four projectors are set up on four sides of the gym so that everyone can see with their own screen.

d. A camera is at the catwalk to capture video for the video projectors so that the people at the back of the speaker can also see the speaker's face.

e. A special men's quartet presents a special music.

f. We encourage people to stay behind after the service to pray and to spend a few moments to wait on the Lord.

It ends up to be a very nice evening of worship. God is to be praised.

9. I also spent quite some time in prayer in preparation for the worship on Good Friday. I feel that my heart must be right before I can lead the congregation to worship God. Starting on Sunday before the worship, I spent an hour a day in quiet meditation and prayer. And I also asked the pastoral staff to pray together on Friday morning. We read the Scripture together and prayed for the congregation. The Spirit was with us.