The Closing Scenes Of Anguish In Matthew 1

Message 1: Praying And The Exercise Of The Will

Scripture Verses: Matthew 26:36-56; Matthew 6:10; Hebrews 5:7-9;
John 12:24-27; Philippians l 2:13

In Matthew 26:36-56, we see two main things: The Lord’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane and the inability of His disciples to watch and pray. We can sympathize with the latter because even to watch and pray for a short time is not easy. The time span covered by this short portion of twenty-one verses is brief yet the feeling is profound.

 Work of Redemption Only the Lord Himself Could Bear

This morning I want to read Hymn 93 to you:

1.             Lord, we treasure with affection
All Thy path of sorrow here,
And those closing scenes of anguish
To our hearts Thyself endear.

2.             Deep Thy sorrow then, Lord Jesus,
Deeperfar than thought can reach;
Grief intense and suff’rings holy,
Far beyond all tongues can teach.

3.             None could follow there, blest Savior,
When redemption’s work was done;
For those suff’rings deep, unfathomed,
Were, Lord Jesus, Thine alone!

4.             Thou didst measure then sin’s distance,
Darkness, wrath and curse were Thine;
Man-betrayed, by God forsaken;
Thuswe learn Thy love divine!

             Chorus:
Praise Thee, Savior! Praise Thee, Savior!
Praise Thee, Lord, for sinners slain!
Give Thee glory! Give Thee glory!
Give Thee glory for the life we gain!

                                               By M.W. Biggs

What a marvelous description of the profound sense of suffering of those brief moments of the closing scenes of anguish beginning from Matthew 26:36! Then also in the first stanza of Hymn 91:

It was alone the Savior prayed,
In dark Gethsemane;
Alone He drained the bitter cup
And suffered there for me.

Chorus:
Alone, alone, He bore it all alone;
He gave Himself to save His own,
He suffered, bled and died alone, alone.

                                                      By Benjamin H. Price

This realization, that only the Lord Himself alone could bear the work of redemption because everyone else is sinful, is scriptural. These closing scenes start with His prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane, is followed by the accusation by the Jews and His appearing before Pilate, and culminates in His crucifixion.

Although the Lord knew His redemptive work could not be shared, yet when He was in Gethsemane, He still felt the tremendous weight of pressure and anguish. In fact it weighed so heavily on Him that He wished His disciples would watch and pray with Him. But they failed to do so. This is why many dear Christians throughout church history have desired to enter into this particular sense of appreciation and gratitude.

Many hymns have been written to express both the truth of what the Lord Jesus alone had to accomplish and our gratitude and appreciation of what He did. In our hymnal, there is a fairly large selection of hymns on the Lord’s suffering. For example, we sang Hymn 999, ‘Alas and did my Savior bleed and did my Sovereign die’ by Isaac Watts who also wrote, ‘When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Lord of glory died’. The same sentiment is expressed by others like P.P. Bliss who wrote ‘Man of sorrows what a name, for the Son of God who came’ and Albert Midlane who wrote ‘Himself He could not save, He on the cross must die’.

 The Church, His Mystical Body

Many Christians know doctrinally that the church as the mystical Body of Christ was established on the day of Pentecost. But the Lord's journey to this end began with His visit to the Garden of Gethsemane to His death on the cross where out of His side flowed blood and water. It continued with His burial, resurrection, becoming the life giving Spirit and His ascension; and culminated with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

He solved the problem of our sins by the shedding of His precious blood. He also solved the problem of our sinful nature by releasing His life, signified by the water flowing from His side. All this was for us to participate in this mystical Body of Christ. As Paul wrote that we have all received of the one Spirit and we were ‘all baptized into this one body’ in 1 Corinthians 12:13:

For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit. (1Cor 12:13)

 In the Breaking of Bread this morning, the bread was originally one whole and the brothers broke it into many pieces signifying the Lord’s body broken for us. When each of us took a piece of the broken bread, it was a testimony that we all have fellowship in this one Body. We are here   representing and participating in the oneness of that one mystical Body of Christ which transcends time and space. I believe throughout church history, many dear brothers and sisters have seen this.

The Church came into being through what the Lord accomplished. His death on the cross, burial, resurrection, ascension and outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost was a fulfillment of the prophecy in Genesis 2. God first created man in Genesis 1. In Genesis 1:26:

And God said, Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (Gen 1:26)

God did not make just a singular, individual man but God made a ‘corporate man’. This corporate man was a couple. In Genesis 2, God made Adam ‘of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life’ and Adam became a living soul. Then God said it is not good for this man to be alone because His purpose needed to be accomplished by a couple. So God made Adam fall into a deep sleep and took a rib out of his side and built into a woman and brought her to Adam. Adam said:

This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. (Gen 2:23)

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. (Gen 2:24)

And when Paul quoted Genesis 2:24 in Ephesians 5, he went on to add:

This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church. (Eph 5:32)

So dear brothers and sisters, what was typified in Genesis 2 was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost.

In Genesis 2 when God made Adam sleep and took a rib from his side and built it into a woman, Adam’s rib alone was used to build the woman. This was a picture of the redemptive work of Christ. Only Christ alone could accomplish the work of redemption. No one can have any part in it.

Although it was regrettable that the disciples were unable to watch and pray, had we been there, I don’t know if we could have stayed awake to watch and pray either. One thing we know, none of us could add anything to what the Lord was going through. His suffering was profound, His anxiety and anguish was deep and unfathomable, yet only He alone had to bear it.

It is easy for us to read Matthew 26 and doctrinally understand the Lord’s unique accomplishment. That is why when I came to this portion I prayed, ‘Lord, I want You to touch me from this portion afresh. I don’t want just to understand it correctly according to the scripture and theology’. The question is how can we enter into the burden of this portion and benefit from it? I will share with you how the Lord has touched me.

 He Prayed to do the Father’s Will

From this portion, I was touched by two words. The first word is ‘pray’. That is simple because the Lord Jesus was praying in Gethsemane. The word ‘pray’ is a verb, not a noun. This is important because we can talk about prayer (the noun), but we may not pray (the verb). The verb is used here five times, not the noun. A verb means it is an action. You may talk a lot about prayer and even convince others of its importance, but you may not pray. The Lord prayed three times and asked His disciples to pray twice:

Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto His disciples, Sit ye here, while I go yonder and pray. (Matt 26:36) 

And He went forward a little, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. (Matt 26:39) 

Again a second time He went away, and prayed, saying, My Father, if this cannot pass away, except I drink it, Thy will be done. (Matt 26:42) 

And He left them again, and went away, and prayed a third time, saying again the same words. (Matt 26:44) 

The Lord prayed three times, the disciples did not pray.

In Hymn 91 above, it said in Gethsemane the Lord Jesus was ‘alone’. Yes, He alone had to bear and accomplish the work of redemption. He was perfect; He was sinless; He was God became a man. He alone was worthy to bear our sins. None of us could participate in this. Yet the Lord still prayed!

What He prayed leads to the second word I was touched with. The second word is ‘will’. Matthew 26:39 says:

And He went forward a little, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt. (Matt 26:19)

He prayed about His being willing, that is, He wills the Father’s will. Then in Matthew 26:42:

Again a second time He went away, and prayed, saying, My Father, if this cannot pass away, except I drink it, Thy will be done. (Matt 24:42)

Then in Matthew 26:44:

And He left them again, and went away, and prayed a third time, saying again the same words. (Matt 242:44)

The same words meant not My (Christ's) will but Your (Father's) will.

 This morning I want to fellowship with you on how we can learn the lesson of prayer. The Lord gave us a wonderful example when He prayed three times In Matthew 26. First in Matthew 6:10 when the Lord Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He said:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. (Matt 6:10)

How He taught His disciples in Matthew 6, He practiced it Himself in Matthew 26 in the Garden of Gethsemane. He prayed three times ‘not My will but Your will be done’.

The Lord Jesus prayed three times but how long do you think it took? I believe, not very long because the Lord Jesus did not pray a long prayer. In Matthew 6, the Lord told His disciples not to pray like the Gentiles who think God will hear them by their much speaking. So don't think that by using flowery words our prayers are going to be more effective. Our prayers are often ‘long winded’ but the Lord’s prayer was brief and to the point. Don’t think you can convince God by long prayers. The example the Lord set when He prayed three times was to the point, "Your will be done".

To Pray Requires the Exercise of the Will

 There are two Greek words for ‘will’ in the New Testament. One is in the verb form, the other is in the noun form. The root is from the verb form. The verb form is an action derived from the action of will. In the Lord’s first prayer in Matthew 26:39, when He went forward a little, and fell on His face, and prayed to the Father saying, "If it be possible, let this cup pass away from Me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will (NASV)". The first ‘will’ is the verb form meaning ‘not as I have willed’. This is the exercise of a particular function in us.

We are wonderfully and fearfully made by God. We have a body and we also have an inner person, our personality. The Bible tells us we have a soul, and it comprises our mind, emotion, and will. We also have a spirit in us. In 1Thessalonians 5:23, Paul said:

And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thes 5:23)

The body, soul and the spirit comprise our complete person.

With our mind we understand. You are all sitting here listening, your mind is active. Our emotion is easy to understand because we all love, we all dislike. Our will is the part of our soul we need to exercise. Whenever we are in our comfort zone that becomes a very dangerous time because in our comfort zone or ‘default’ mode, that is in the state of our natural man, our self, we are always passive. It takes effort to exercise our will. Only when our mind is made up and our emotions care strongly for something will we then act. We all start off from our default state where our mind is not made up, our emotions have not been worked up and our will is neutral. In this neutral state we are very passive.

No one in their neutral state likes to pray. I do not believe that there is a single person in this condition who will say, ‘Yes, I want to pray!’ We need to make a conscious effort, a conscious choice and a conscious decision to pray. Even someone who has been a Christian for more than half a century will not wake up every morning automatically praising the Lord.

In our default state, in our natural man, we would rather be passive and not pray. We would rather not exercise the will to please God. In your comfort zone your eyes will be very heavy if you try to watch and pray. Just like the disciples in their natural state, they automatically fell into passivity.

In the New Testament, the word ‘will’ in the verb form is used more than three times as much as its noun form. This means that we need to exercise our will. The reason the Lord told His disciples that ‘the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak’ shows that if you do not exercise your will, your default state is passivity.

The Lord told His disciples to ‘watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation’. In the Garden of Gethsemane what terrible things could they do? What temptation could they fall into? They were not in a so called ‘red light district’, so what temptation was there? The answer is the temptation of passivity.

If we do not exercise our will to choose God, or to choose to pray or to stand on God’s side, we will always end up on the opposite side. There is no sitting on the fence, no buffer zone. The Lord prayed three times ‘not what I will’. So here is the lesson. We must say, ‘I want to exercise my will because if I do not, I will not choose God automatically’. Do not think that you are automatically choosing God’s will just because you are not choosing the enemy’s will.

We have said that prayer is like laying tracks. How far the tracks are laid is how far the Lord will accomplish His purpose. We have to lay it, not just talk about it. Prayer takes exercise and effort. Don’t think that it is that easy. Although there are some who find it easy to open their mouths to pray aloud about everything, but real prayer is to exercise our will to choose the Father’s will, not using many words wanting God to do the things we want.

Hebrews 5:7 is a description of the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 26 in the Garden of Gethsemane:

Who in the days of His flesh, having offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and having been heard for His godly fear (Heb 5:7)

'Prayers and supplications’ are strong prayers with an exercised will. In Greek, the word ‘prayer’ is related to the word ‘bound’ or ‘under bondage’. When the Lord Jesus was in Gethsemane praying concerning His upcoming crucifixion, it seemed as though He was bound. This takes exercise. When you pray, don’t let your words flow out so lightly but rather exercise your will to do the Father’s will. Then you will see that the spirit is willing and the flesh is not weak.

‘Gethsemane’ means ‘oil press’. Some have been touched. This was a place where there was pressing and squeezing but what is squeezed out is not juice but oil. In the Bible, oil is a type of the Spirit. We need more of the Spirit, but in order to have more Spirit we have to exercise our will. Oil will not flow in our default state. We have to lay the tracks, exercise the will and have strong prayers like what the Lord Jesus did to accomplish the Father’s will and to fulfill the prophecy.

The Sense of Urgency

Another word in this portion that is important is ‘hour’. It speaks of the Lord’s sense of urgency. Usually when we think about the fulfillment of the prophecy, we usually consider only how it fits in its details. For example, the Lord Jesus was the fulfillment of the Passover lamb. As the children of Israel were preparing to get out of Egypt, the angel of death came to slay all the firstborn of the Egyptian households while sparing the children of Israel. The blood of the Passover lamb was on the doorposts and the lintel while they ate the roasted lamb, the unleavened bread and the bitter herbs. In the Lord Jesus as the full fulfillment the prophecy of the Passover lamb, not only the details of whole Passover needed to fit (the 'how'), but also 'when' they were fulfilled, the timing, was also important. I don't think we usually have the sense that the time element was important. 

The word ‘hour’ is used three times in Matthew 26. In Matthew 26:40, 45 and 55:

And He cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with Me one hour (Matt 26:40)

Then cometh He to the disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. (Matt 26:45)

In that hour said Jesus to the multitudes, Are ye come out as against a robber with swords and staves to seize me? I sat daily in the temple teaching, and ye took me not. (Matt 26:55)

Sometimes the word ‘hour’ is used figuratively to mean a relatively short period of time while at other times it is used literally. I believe here it is literal because the Lord Jesus prayed strongly but briefly.  

 The Lord Jesus prayed three times and I believe the time line could be within an hour. For the fulfillment of the prophecy, not only the ‘how’ but also the ‘when’ is crucial. The Passover lamb had to be sacrificed on the day of Passover. So not only the Lord Jesus had to be crucified on the day of Passover, He also needed to be raised on the third day which is the first day of the week. Therefore the time schedule was tight.

The Lord Jesus realized that every moment in His life was to accomplish God’s purpose at exactly that time for the fulfillment of the prophecy. So not just the ‘how’ but also the ‘when’ was very important. It is the ‘when’ that brought in the sense of urgency. Too often we don’t exercise our will because we think we have a lot of time. No, we don’t. We never know when the opportunity will pass and never return. None of us can count on another opportunity. That is why we have to exercise our will to pray for the Father’s will to be accomplished.

The Denying of the Soul

Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto this hour. (John 12:27)

In John 12:27, you can see the Lord Jesus was very conscious of the moment He was in. After the Lord had finished speaking in John 12, He ate the Passover feast with His disciples. This was shortly before the time of Matthew 26 in the Garden of Gethsemane where He prayed that He wanted to do the Father’s will, yet His soul was troubled. In His spirit He was clear but He was still human and had human feelings. His saying ‘for this cause I came unto this hour’ meant that He needed to exercise His will to choose the Father’s will.

We often quote John 12:24 like it was a standalone verse. We say that the Lord Jesus as that grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died and now we are all the ‘much fruit’ that He bore. That is correct, but don’t stop here:

Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit. (John 12:24)

He that loveth his life (Greek, soul) loseth it; and he that hateth his life (Greek, soul) in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. (John 12:25)

If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will the Father honor. (John 12:26)

What is the purpose of bringing forth much fruit? It is to warn us that he who loves his soul will lose it. Don’t think that once we are regenerated everything is fine and we can just remain in our comfort zone happily hereafter. ‘He who loves his soul will lose it’ means that if you do not want your mind to be renewed, if you want to continue to love what you love naturally, and if you do not want to exercise your will to get out of your comfort zone, then you will lose your soul. 

In John 12:25, ‘He that hates his soul in this world shall keep it unto life eternal life’ means our mind has to be renewed, our emotion regulated and our will exercised. And 'if any man serve Me, let him follow Me' (John12 26)  means we all have to follow the Lord’s example of denying the soul and exercising our will to pray.

His Working and Our Willing

I believe the purpose of these closing scenes of anguish is for us to learn how to pray. Pray to deny our soul, to exercise our will to choose God and not fall into the temptation of passivity. In John 12:27 the Lord showed that in His humanity, His soul was tempted:

Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto this hour. (John 12:27)

Dear brothers and sisters, the Lord’s example in Gethsemane is for us to learn how to live a life of prayer today. Thus we can follow Him and participate with Him in choosing the Father’s will.

Let me end with Philippians 2:13:

For it is God who works in you both the willing and the working according to His good pleasure (Phil 2:13)

There was a brother who was struggling before the Lord because he realized that God’s will was for him to do something which he did not want to do because it was hard on his flesh. So he had such a prayer based on this verse. He prayed, ‘God I am not willing, but make me willing’. This is an example of exercising the will.

When the Lord said, ‘if it is possible’, it showed that in His humanity He felt the pressures, the anxiety and the grief. If we feel sorry for ourselves, then we would choose the path of least resistance. This is only human. But if we see God’s will like the Lord did, we will realize that God is the one who is doing both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.

We need to be honest with Him instead of making excuses for ourselves. Our roundabout prayers will not bring peace but if we pray that the Lord will make us willing. I believe He will usher us into the real peace and rest and learn the real lesson of prayer.

Next: Matthew Message 2: Jesus Christ the Righteous >