Why Are You Sleeping?

Why Are You Sleeping?

Mark 14:32-42

Good morning, Happy New Year.

I hope you enjoyed time with loved ones for the Christmas holiday, and I hope you took time to truly be thankful to the Lord for how good He is to all of us.

King Solomon asked in Proverbs 6:9 How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep?

I read some funny quotes about sleep I want to share with you.

Someone has said, “Some people talk in their sleep. But lecturers talk while others sleep.”

Anthony Burgess said, “Laugh and the world laughs with you. Snore and you will sleep alone.”

Leo Burke said, “People who say they sleep like a baby usually don’t have one.”

Please open your Bibles to Mark 14, as we continue in our line-by-line study of Mark. Last time we were in Mark, we learned how at the Passover dinner, Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper.

Passover and communion are intimately linked together, because it was during the celebration of the Passover Feast that Jesus offered His disciples the bread and the fruit of the vine.

Although the Israelites never understood this truth, God the Trinity was pictured with the matzoh during the Passover.

Jesus clearly showed that communion was a picture of His body about to be offered on the cross and His blood soon to be shed, for the remission of sins.

This observance is a time to remember all that Christ did for us individually and corporately by dying on the cross.

The Passover meal was followed by the singing of the last half of the Hallel Psalms found within Psalms 115-118.

Jesus Christ was singing worship songs to the Father with His Disciples on His way to the Garden of Gethsemane before His brutal beatings and crucifixion!

Then Jesus predicted Peter’s denial. Jesus had already told His Disciples one of them would betray Him and here He told them that all of them would fall away!

Some people believe Peter’s denial began after Jesus’ arrest, but his denial was a slow fade into sin which began right here.

This morning we are going to see Jesus preparing for the upcoming crucifixion by praying to the Father and asking His closest followers to pray for Him as well.

I. A walk in the garden.

Read Mark 14:32-34

Here we have a timeline from the passage, vs. 32 “Then”.

Jesus had just announced to His followers that they would all be made to stumble because of Him that night.

But Peter said not so Lord, and after Jesus reiterated the warning again, Peter said he was willing to die before betraying Him.

Then the other Disciples said the same thing.

Last time we were in Mark, I said, “Peter’s double self-confidence ultimately led him to a triple denial of Christ.”

I believe Peter was sincere, even though he failed; In the Garden narrative from John 18, we read about Malchus, the soldier who came to arrest Jesus and Peter cut off his ear.

The moral of that story is we should never trust a sword in the hands of a fisherman.

It is ironic the last miracle of Jesus prior to taking the cross was to fix the mess of one of His followers and to show grace to someone who had come to falsely arrest Him.

So, supper was over, and Jesus and His disciples made their way to the Mount of Olives and went for a walk in the Garden.

Jesus went to a secluded place to pray, and He instructed the Disciples to go sit and pray as they wait for Him, as well.

Jesus took just His inner circle of followers with Him to pray, Peter, James, and John.

On three separate occasions, Jesus invited just these three men to join Him and all three occasions dealt with death.

• When Jesus healed Jairus’ (Jeye-russ) daughter.

• When Jesus was glorified on the Mount of Transfiguration.

• And here the night of His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus takes these men further to pray for Him.

If it was important for Jesus to spend time with the Father as He prayed for strength and guidance, what does that teach us?

It’s hard to imagine that someone who had the power to make the Heavens and the Earth would seek someone else’s help.

And yet, Jesus, the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, in His human form said in John 5:30, I can of Myself do nothing.

The relationship between Father and Son is one of absolute dependence and it is also an example of perfect harmony and unity between God the Father and God the Son.

That is why Jesus would be able to say with absolute certainty, “I and the Father are one” John 10:30.