Going Further In

Going Further In

Matthew 26:36-46

{You can watch today's message at Living Water's YouTube channel: Mesquite NV Living Waters Fellowship}

{Or listen at https://mega.nz/file/iZ9zHIrb#jssSJ6xQLPevlzCMKaBXH5t2mnNH2Jq2s1Bdk7GmZX0}

Several weeks back, in the message on the Calvary Road, the road of sacrifice Jesus took for the forgiveness of our sins, and the sacrifice He asks for all of us to make saying, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23 NKJV). In that message, we looked at where it all began, and that which gave Jesus the strength to endure hell’s fury poured out upon Him as He was mocked, beaten, and crucified.

What gave Him the strength to endure is because he went further in and prayed. And it says in Luke’s gospel that an angel appeared and strengthened Him. Yet even then, Jesus went further into prayer as it says, “He prayed more earnestly,” and as He did, His sweat became like great drops of blood (Luke 22:43-44).

So, let’s take a moment are read our story from Matthew’s gospel.

Read Matthew 26:36-46

What I see from our story are two types of Christians when it comes to following Jesus.

1. Sit On The Sidelines

“Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, ‘Sit here while I go and pray over there.’” (Matthew 26:36 NKJV)

Now, I know that Jesus was the one who told them to wait at a distance, or on the sidelines, and not to go further in with Him, but there may have been reasons for this, in that he only chose the inner three to go further.

Now, trying to figure out why Jesus did this is like trying to figure out the mind of God, Oh, that’s right, Jesus is God. So it would be highly presumptuous of me to make any sort of generalizations.

But what I do see, and what I have seen in my over 25 years of being a senior pastor, and my over 40 years of being a Christian, is that there are many who sit on the sidelines, that is, they come to church, pray, or read their Bible when it is convenient. But they don’t go any further in their relationship with God than to come on Sunday morning, and that if there isn’t anything else that they would rather be doing.

They are like that soldier from the civil war I mentioned last week. Not wanting to stand out or take sides, he wore Yankee pants and a Confederate shirt, only to get shot by both sides when he went outside.

I believe Jesus addresses these Christians in the Parable of the Two Sons.

Speaking to the Pharisees, he said that a man had two sons. He asked the first to go and work in the vineyard, but the son said he wouldn’t, but later changed his mind and went. The father asked the same thing of his second son, and his second son replied that he would go, but didn’t. Then Jesus asked, “Who did the will of the father,” and they answered, “The first.” Jesus then told them that the tax collectors and prostitutes would enter into heaven before them, because they believed in the message and went further in, that is, they believed and repented.

The second type of Christian revealed in this scene from the Garden of Gethsemane are those who…

2. Don’t Go All The Way

That is, they go further in, but not all the way in.

“He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee” (Matthew 26:37a NKJV)

Peter, James, and John were Jesus’s inner three. And while He left the others outside, Jesus did take these three further in, but they still didn’t go all the way with Jesus.

This I believe describes many of us, in that while we enter into a deeper relationship with God, there are some things that are holding us back from going all the way.

In Revelation chapter 22 there was something that expanded my understanding of the Holy Spirit and power to live this life for Jesus and to go further in with Him.

“And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” (Revelation 22:1 NKJV)

This is a picture of the heavenly Temple, and what we see is the throne room of God, and sitting upon the throne are the Father and the Son, the Lamb, or Jesus Christ. But where’s the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is none other than that pure river of the water of life flowing out from the throne. How can I be sure? Because the same word structure used here to describe the river is the same word structure Jesus uses describing the working of the Holy Spirit when He said that out of those who believe will flow rivers of living waters (John 7:37-39).