Closing In On The Cross Of Jesus Christ - Part 4: Wake Up, Christians, Wake Up! Series

Closing in on the Cross of Jesus Christ

Part 4: Wake Up, Christians, Wake Up!

The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 26:36-46

Sermon by Rick Crandall

(Prepared April 5, 2023)

BACKGROUND:

*Please open your Bibles to Matthew 26. By this time, the Lord and His disciples had finished their last Passover meal together, and Jesus had led them through the very first Lord's Supper. Matthew 26:30 tells us that "when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives." This hill to the east of old Jerusalem overlooked the city from just outside the city walls. In Jesus' day it was covered with olive trees. Today, its slopes facing Jerusalem have been used as a Jewish cemetery for over 3,000 years, and contain about 150,000 graves.

*The Mount of Olives may be a very small mountain, but it is hugely important in God's Word. Jesus made many visits to the Mount of Olives. In fact, it was usual for Him to go there when He was near Jerusalem. Every time Jesus visited Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, He was on the Mount of Olives, for their village of Bethany was on the eastern slope, and the road from Bethany to Jerusalem passed over the Mount of Olives.

*Jesus rode down the Mount of Olives to make His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday. In Matthew 24 and 25, Jesus told all of His end times prophecies and parables while He was seated on the Mount of Olives. After He was raised again from the dead, Jesus ascended into Heaven from the Mount of Olives (Luke 24:50-53; Acts 1:9-12). And when Jesus comes back to earth, He is landing on the Mount of Olives! Zechariah 14:4 says, "And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south."

*That is the glorious past and future of this small mountain. But here in Matthew 26, the agony of the cross was still ahead. Jesus and His disciples have come to the Garden of Gethsemane. This word simply means "Oil Press," and that makes sense because it was at the foot of the Mount of Olives. (1)

*In all eternity past, the Lord knew the price He would pay for our sins on the cross of Calvary. And from childhood, Jesus knew that He would be about some very difficult business for His Heavenly Father. But now in the darkness of Gethsemane, the full weight of the cross seemed to fall on the Lord as never before. Please think about this and the Lord's sleepy disciples as we read Matthew 26:36-46.

MESSAGE:

*The only time I hate to drive is when I am sleepy. Oh, what a miserable feeling! And I am almost always more careful now, but more than once, I've had some close calls, because I couldn't wake up.

*The disciples had the same problem in the Garden of Gethsemane. Yes, they were exhausted from grief and stress. But this was a critical time, and they needed to wake up. That's what the word "watch" means in this passage. It means to stay awake physically and spiritually. It means to give strict attention to something. Be vigilant, cautious, active, and watchful.

*This waking up is so important that the Lord mentioned it three times in these few verses. Jesus wanted them to wake up. And He wants us to wake up to the crucial spiritual truth in this Scripture. As Paul also tells us in Romans 13:11, "Now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."

1. FIRST TODAY: GOD WANTS US TO WAKE UP TO THE SUFFERING OF OUR SAVIOR.

*We begin to get an idea of the Lord's suffering in vs. 36-38:

36. Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, "Sit here while I go and pray over there.''

37. And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.

38. Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.''

*Again, vs. 37 tells us that Jesus "began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed." Then in vs. 38 Jesus said, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death." In other words, "My soul is crushed with grief, and it hurts so badly that I am just about to die." Luke 22:44 tells us that "being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. And His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground."