“JESUS PRAYED” Matthew 26:36-46
CWBC – 4/7/19
Jon Daniels
INTRO – Good morning everyone! There’s no better place to be today than to be right here worshiping Jesus Christ, our Savior & Lord!
Jab 1 – Whenever someone says to you, “I’ve got good news & I’ve got bad news. Which do you want to hear first?” Most of us want to hear the bad news first & get it over with. Then we want to hear the good news, hoping that it will overshadow whatever bad news we got.
Like the lawyer talking w/ his client –
- Lawyer: I’ve got good news & bad news.
- Client: Give me the bad news first.
- Lawyer: The bad news is that the DNA tests showed that it was YOUR blood that was all over the crime scene.
- Client: Oh no! I’m in big trouble! What’s the good news?
- Lawyer: Your cholesterol is down to 130!
Jab 2 – Check out this video: “Best News Ever” video
Jab 3 – Today, we are starting a series of message that will tell best news that the world has ever heard. The title of the series is, “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know.” If there is any time of year that reminds us just how much Jesus loves us, it is this season as we move toward Easter & celebrating His resurrection from the grave. It truly is the “best news ever!” This would be a great time for you to be inviting your “1” to come to church w/ you b/c I can guarantee you that the best news ever will be preached over the next month!
EXPLANATION – This chapter begins the events that are the culmination of the life of Jesus. Right after this experience in the Garden of Gethsemane (show pics), He would be arrested, abused, humiliated, falsely accused, & scourged. Then He would be crucified on Golgotha. He experienced the most excruciating form of execution that a human could endure. The Romans were experts at making sure that it lasted as long as possible so that the suffering would be extended to the maximum degree.
- Charles Spurgeon: “Crucifixion was a death worthy to have been invented by devils. The pain, which it involved, was immeasurable. I will not torture you by describing it. I know dear hearts that cannot read of it without tears & without lying awake for nights afterwards.”
- Erwin Lutzer: “What a contrast outside the city of Jerusalem that day! On the one hand, redemption is being purchased for those God would redeem; on the other hand, the soldiers mark time by playing their tired games, waiting for the ordeal to be over. Those who love Jesus are in grieving despair; those who hate Him are in a mood of spiteful rejoicing. Heaven hovers over the cross, waiting for the payment of our sin to be made. But hell is there, too, with its cruelty, indifference, & darkness.”
APPLICATION – There’s a simply application point that I want to make from this passage: We need to learn to pray like Jesus prayed.
Jesus prayed regularly – We see it early on in His earthly ministry that Jesus made prayer a priority in His life.
- Mark 1:35 – “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, & went out to a solitary place, where He prayed.” (NIV)
- Luke 6:12 – “…Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, & He prayed to God all night.” (NLT)
If Jesus, the very Son of God, knew He needed to have regular times of personal, solitary prayer to His Father, how much more do we need that in our lives!
- Spurgeon: “Though infinitely better able to do without prayer than we are, yet [Christ] prayed much more than we do.”
You & I need a regular time of prayer in our lives.
- Daily – Start your day in prayer. But don’t just limit your prayer time to just your morning quiet time. The Bible says to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). Pray all throughout the day.
- Defined – Have a place. Have a plan (different groups on different days of week – have a written prayer list – notebook or app on phone).
- Distraction-free – Unless you use an app on your phone for your prayer list, I would urge you to leave your phone in another room.
Jesus prayed passionately – Can you sense the passion, the desperation, the intensity, the gut-wrenching fervency in His prayer here in the Garden?
- v. 37 – “…He began to be sorrowful & troubled.”
- v. 39 – “And going a little farther, He fell on His face & prayed…”
- v. 39, 42, 44 – Prayed 3 different times during this excruciating experience for Him.
Jesus was wrestling deeply w/ the impending suffering & torture He was about to endure. He was fully God & fully human, & His human nature, although perfect was still struggling w/ the need to go through the pain & humiliation that was coming; His flesh recoiled from the cross.
Ever had times when you were wrestling w/ God in prayer? We need to pour out our hearts honestly to God, even if we know our deepest “want” is not what he will grant. God desires us to be able to come to him feeling the safety of total honesty. He is competent to handle the cries of our souls.
- Psalm 62:8 – “Trust in [God] at all times, o people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah.”
All of us have had those times, or will have those times when we will fall on our face before the Lord – either literally or figuratively - & pour out our hearts to Him in passionate desperation.
- As Daddy was languishing in the final hours of his life, prayed, “Lord, please take him home.”
- When something happens in your kids’ or grandkids’ lives…
- When you’re battling against temptation & sin…
- When you’re praying for your “1” – that person in your life who is lost & whom you love so much…
Jesus prayed obediently – Those words, “…nevertheless, not as I will but as you will…your will be done…” ought to be the foundation of our prayer lives. “Father, whatever your will is, I will trust you & I will obey you, no matter what.”
- His will is always best.
- Don’t have to understand it completely. May not understand it this side of eternity, but have to trust Him.
- Don’t have to understand it, but do have to obey it.
CONCLUSION – So let’s put this into practice & pray! The altar is open now.
