What Was In The Cup?

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Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

Rev. Dr. Levi Howard Wright, Pastor & Founder

WHAT WAS IN THE CUP?

St. Mark 14:34-36

"My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them. "Stay here and keep watch." Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."

Introduction

When Judas left the upper room, no one except he and Jesus knew the real reason why. The disciples thought it was nothing unusual, for as the Scripture explain, ¡°they thought that he went to buy additional preparations for the Passover, or else, because of the custom of the Passover, that he might have gone to make an offering unto the poor.

The disciples were not sensitive to the depth of grief that Jesus was going through. They mistook the taste of the bitter herbs and the solemnness and sacredness of the hour as being accountable for the heavy burden and exceeding great sorrow that was upon the Lord¡¯s soul.

Jesus then led the disciples out of the house where they had been breaking bread together, across the brook of Kedron, and up the slope of the Mount of Olives and into the Garden of Gethsemane.

As they walked the disciples seemed to sense an unusual heaviness about the Lord Jesus Christ.

They said nothing and He offered nothing. They were not sure where He was going, but they knew that oftentimes He would retire to the place of prayer in the Mount of Olives for communion with His Father.

✞Even as the Psalmist David cried out in Psalm 61:2 "When my heart is over whelmed: led me to the rock that is higher than I".

Jesus sought refuge in this prayer-place near the city that was called Gethsemane.

➣ He and those who were closest to Him went inside the gate of the garden, eight of His disciples remained there, not so much to keep intruder out, for they were soon fallen asleep.

➣ The three who were closest to Him went a little farther, and He asked them to wait there. They had no part in the communion He was to have with His Father that night.

✞ The Scriptures says, that He went a stone’s throw farther and fell on His face.

The word "Gethsemane" means "an olives press". It was a place where picked olives were piled up and pressure was put on them to extract the oily juice. In this place, according to history and prophecy, the son of God, the Son of man, was to tread the winepress alone. (Isaiah 63:3)

Jesus did not come to the place of prayer as though, He would hide from death; But, He came rather that He might prepare for death.

1. When Jesus Looked Into The Cup He Was In The Present Of All Of The Principalities In This World ....

There are some things that we ought to know about Jesus’ prayer.

First of all, we ought to consider the principalities that He was facing.

➣ Satan had hounded Him from the very beginning. As soon as Jesus was identifed by John the Baptist and had left the baptismal waters of the Jordan River, He went into the wilderness for some forty days and nights.

Immediately the tempter came to Him with a series of temptations:

✞ First..... Satan made an appeal to His flesh..... because He was hungry: Satan said to Him, "Why do you not turn these stones into bread You can eat?" (St Luke 4:3)

He went on to say..... "Surely, if You Starve, if you die, You will fail in the great mission of God.

Therefore it ought to be alright that, You should use Your power in order to do this.

✞But, Jesus was not tempted to use His miracle-working power for such as this, and He said to Satan, "It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God", Luke 4:4

✞ Secondly..... Jesus was taken upon a great mountain and faced with the temptation to accept from Satan the Kingdoms of the world....the easy way (St Luke 4:6-7).

✞ Then, placed on the pinnacle of the Temple itself, Satan challenged Him; "If thou be the Son of God cast thyself down from hence." The angels of God will rescue You. They will let no harm come to You. Still Jesus turned away from the tempter.

Now, as Jesus came to His final hours, all the forces of Hell were arrayed against Him.

➣ In the group who came that night to take Jesus was Judas, a traitorous friend.... the temple priests.... the religious leader of that day; they of all people should have been able to see that "a greater than Moses is He."