Published: May 5, 2024 | Speaker: Mark Freitag | Series: Gospel of Mark - Part 99 | Scripture: Mark 14:32-36
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going to try to pick up where we left off back in December uh in Mark chapter 14 so if you'd like to follow along there our Focus this morning will be
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verses 32 through 36 but I'm going to start up a little sooner than that to uh again to remind us of the the context on the night um in which Jesus was
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betrayed after the supper together we read in verse 26 and after singing A Hymn they went out to the Mount of Olives and Jesus
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said to them you will all fall away because it is written I will strike down the shepherd and the Sheep shall be scattered but after I have been raised I
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will go before you to Galilee but Peter said to him even though all may fall away yet I will not and Jesus said to him truly I say to you that you yourself
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this very night before a clock crows twice shall three times deny me but Peter kept saying insistently even if I have to die with you I will not deny you
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and they were all saying the same thing too and they came to a place called called Gethsemane and he said to his disciples sit here until I have prayed
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and he took with him Peter and James and John and began to be very distressed and troubled and he said to them my soul is deeply grieved to the point of death
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remain here and keep watch and he went a little Beyond them and fell to the ground and began to pray that it were if it were possible the hour might pass him
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by and he was saying ABA father all things are possible for thee remove this cup from me yet not
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what I will but what thou Wilt let us pray our heavenly father again we do ask for those ears to hear
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and Minds that might understand hearts and wills to believe and we ask that you would teach us that you would grow Us in these
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things but again not to us oh Lord not to us be the glory but to Your Great Name be the glory and so we ask that you would teach us about our Lord Jesus
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Christ on this night and we ask that you would build your church in Christ's name we pray
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amen what happened here mark says and they came to a place named Gethsemane the Last Supper as we call it the Lord's Supper had ended Judas is
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scariot had gone off to get his co-conspirators and Jesus is leading his disciples out of Jerusalem there are many who say that
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being the Passover and all the multitude that had come that Jerusalem was probably pretty noisy that night with people getting ready um apparently they
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opened the gates of the temple at midnight and so people would be getting ready to go and get on with the the feasts and the slaughtering of the
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Lambs and yet here they he is with his band of disciples 11 now crossing the kidan valley uh across the the brook
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which was probably not a brook because of the snow melt and the waters rushing down from the winter apparently a torrent as some believe that it might
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have been at this time into the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives and began to ascend when they come to a
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place and even in spite of the fact that Judas has already gone out to do his
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deed Jesus had told them some good news that after all of you fall away and I have been slain and struck down I will
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go before you to Galilee and yet very quickly we see in Mark's narrative that things turn very dark very quickly and that darkness is
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not just the night but the darkness of what does this mean what happened here in this place called Gethsemane and I
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don't believe that that darkness is fully comprehended even by us Believers as one of the commentators JC riy said quote the history of our Lord's
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Agony In The Garden of Gethsemane is a deep and mysterious passage of scripture it contains things things which the wisest divine
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wisest divine cannot fully cannot fully explain and here I
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am Mark does a masterful job Mark the writer of the Gospel of his as I like to call it his cinematography his writing in a style that shows us the action and really the
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The Agony and the feelings and emot emotions of Christ we we we see something rare in Jesus not just his emotional state but
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he actually says something about it himself and it's as if Mark gives us a little summary of what is happening but
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then he can't help but saying but I can't put that into words the way the witnesses heard him say these things
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and you notice in your scriptures some of you will have little asteris In this passage and they indicate that action and motion that Mark is trying to convey
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and not just what is happening but again the human feelings that are going on here at this time it's not just they came it's they were coming into a place
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called Gethsemane and he was saying to his dis his dis deciples we see this in almost as it is in real in real time and they were coming to a place
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Mark says the word he's using there is is a farm it it's actually could be a country estate that they're coming to and there's at least a wall and perhaps
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several buildings several buildings there and then he says this is a place named or it is called Gethsemane it it's a Hebrew word that means oil
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press which is not too surprising because they're coming into the Mount of Olives this was an Olive Grove and there was a garden there in this perhaps in
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this walled area where they would crush the olives into a pulp taking out the pits and they would end up with a pulp and
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then they would take those olives and take them to um it's not really a mill it would be a place where there were two giant stones and they would
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crush the olives and then the oil would run down over the stones and be captured in a trough and they would take that oil and put it in earn
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jars again it's probably a secluded area maybe a place where Jesus took his disciples before but I can only count three times in scripture where Jesus
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went to Jerusalem but a place that would be known as we can see later that Judas finds him
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there and yet there are many commentators and those who preach upon this passage that this is to them what the Garden of Gethsemane the place
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called Gethsemane means the oil and it was a little surprising to see this but I'll mention a couple of these things that I have come across these are
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contemporary not from older writers but contemporary modern day writers this is what one of them said the image of the Gethsemane on the slope
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of the Mount of Olives where Jesus went the night before his crucifixion provides a vivid picture of Jesus suffering the weight of the sins of the World Press down upon him like a heavy
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slab of rock pressed down on olives in their baskets his sweat like drops of blood falling from the ground as Luke 22 says flowed from him like olive oil as
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it was squeezed out and flowed into the pit of an olive press um I don't think so another says that
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well there were three pressings of the olives at olives at Gethsemane when it was an active place the first pressing was always the one
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the oil was saved for the ceremonial for anointing and for oil lamps to light a lamp and the second pressing was
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medicinal to use the oil for making of medicines and the third pressing was the oil was now what was left was used to making for the making of soap
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and so he says that Jesus is the light of the world and he is the squeezing of the oil that lights the lamp that you
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get the idea and as I studied this and pondered these things these things I I still asked that question what
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here the Deep mystery of this p passage and the things that Jesus says particularly of himself and Mark writes of him I think they go beyond just the squeezing of the
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Olives Jesus Olives Jesus addresses eight disciples as he gets to this perhaps to the walls of the enclosure or perhaps inside next to the
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Press he tells them sit here until I have prayed and again I think we're not to think of this as sit here I'm I'm going
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to go pray a while the idea from Mark is that he has a definite prayer and he is going to pray until he has finished that
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prayer it is something more than just I'm going to pray a while and then he does this mysterious thing out of the 11 he says eight sit here I take three with
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me and remember Peter James and John those three were with him on the night of his Transfiguration they were the one who
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saw his Transcendence and they were the ones who were with him later when he raised gyrus his daughter they were the three that
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got to see this magnificence this Transcendence this Transcendence this Majesty this power and now they will be the three to most clely
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closely witness his Agony and his anguish what do we see here in verse
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33 even as he's telling Peter and James and John to stay where they are we see that quickly his
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emotions his changes Mark says and he began to be very distressed and
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troubled he becomes agitated agitated he becomes visibly becomes visibly upset the the words might translate literally sore
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literally sore amazed and we've encountered this word before in Mark chapter 9 the people who saw Jesus after his Transfiguration after he comes down off the mountain to
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meet the other disciples they were amazed they stood there kind of a gape at the way he looked and his presence
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suddenly among them the disciples were amazed at that time when they had come with him From Galilee across the Jordan and they had hiked all the way down and
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come across into Jericho and about to rise up going on the way up to Jerusalem and they saw jesus'
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countenance the way the scripture puts it he had set his face like Flint the disciples were amazed there is something of awe and something of
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uh an anxiety to this some surprise and surprise and consternation and now they were seeing that not they were not the disciples
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being amazed it was Jesus who was being amazed Jesus had that look of surprise and consternation something approaching
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depression and alarm and Jesus says I am troubled again literally I am very heavy extreme
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anxiety and anguish this is the description that Mark from the disciples learning from the disciples they said this is what we
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witnessed this is what we saw and they told it to mark but again I I think Mark is saying but that doesn't cover it because now we
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hear Jesus hear Jesus himself going a little bit beyond them and saying my soul is deeply gri G
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to the point of death Jesus is not simply saying I am really sad right
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now he's not using the expression my soul as another word for
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I it's a strange emotion and strange feelings that overtake him overtake him and it's as if he is saying they they enclose me they surround
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me they shut Me In by the distress I feel on every side and he says my soul is grieved to
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the point of death or unto death some of us have used the expression when we're feeling really sick really bad flu I'd have to die die
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to get to get better but I don't think that's what Jesus means I think he's saying even death would add very little to the suffering I am feeling right
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now and soon those sufferings would exceed the human power of endurance the English Bible scholar Henry Barkley site wrote long as he had
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for seen the passion when it came clearly into clearly into view its Terror exceeded his
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anticipations Jesus reaction to this is he needs to be secluded because he needs to pray to his
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father even as he sought companionship and we would be the same when one of us is is sick when one of us is severely ill you want people
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around you even though they cannot do anything for you it is that comfort of having them with you and I believe that's one of the things that he reasons
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he brought Peter James and John and yet here here Jesus is alone and he needs to be
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secluded because he tells them Terry here I really need the Liberty to pray to the to the father and he tells them to
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watch literally be on your guard protect yourselves from danger be watching for danger he could have we might have
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expected him anyway to say my say my soul is burdened even to death will you pray for
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pray for me but he is thinking of them even as he is thinking of his need to pray to the father again I have a hard time wrapping
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my brain my brain around this kind of Agony this kind of Amazement this kind of surprise at the ordeal that is about to overtake him
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Jesus Christ Our Lord but I think and this is where I am today that this is where Jesus completes
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his obedience and I know we read and he went a little bit beyond and began to pray and I know that the cross is hours
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away that that Agony of the trial and the mockery and the just the disgusting way the soldiers treated him
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and the crowd calling him to be crucified and the carrying the cross and the crown and all of that is in the future but I believe that this is where
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Jesus completes his obedience again Mark is very descriptive here and he verse 35 and he went a little Way Beyond them and again falling
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to the ground this is not the posture that you see at least I do on the television of of the the ones who who go Kneel To The Wailing Wall where they
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have the little mats this is not Jesus posture of prayer Jesus is falling flat on his on his face by The Agony and the D exess that
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he is under at least that's what I understand the scripture is saying it's not a posture of devotion but it's an expression and literally a consequence
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of his extreme anguish and Mark's summary of His prayer if it were possible if it was compatible with God's
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Perfections and his design he asked if the hour the hour of his passion might be removed the time that God had set for Jesus to
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be betrayed the time that he had set for Jesus to die to be buried the time when his enemies would have their way with
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him and they would be set free to mock him to try him to slay
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him again trying to understand the depths of Jesus thoughts
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here but if Redeeming the world without going through the agony of all of these things to the Cross was possible God would do it that this time would pass from him
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and not occur is what he asks and he cries out ABA and again many would say he said the two words but I think it's just as we've
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seen from Mark before he's translating for us what does that mean my father he
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father he cries but what does he cry all things are possible for thee recognizing the Divine omnipotence without any reserve for
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himself the human will of Jesus speaks and he cries out and we're not told by Mark that the
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disciples heard disciples heard this but the writer to the Hebrews writes in the days of his Humanity he offered up both prayers and pleas with
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loud crying and tears to the one able to save him from death and he was heard because of his devout behavior and here's where I think The
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Obedience of Jesus is complete again the same writer tells us that Jesus learned obedience from what
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he suffered again the the awful arrest scene the trials the mocking the brutal part is yet to come but Jesus I don't think he fears the
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physical pain the physical death but he says not my will but what you will there's a complete
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submission there there's no regard for human wishes to the father's
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will and certainly we read in Isaiah again a passage deep and hard to comprehend the Isaiah writes it pleased the father to crush him causing him
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grief Jesus Jesus obedience meant the wrath of God coming down on him not his punishment for Jesus sin because he was sinless but the wrath of God toward
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Sinners toward the sin that they have committed and we don't know how a sinless man
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understands the understands the sorrow of a sinner towards sin I don't know how Jesus could feel
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that but something about the wrath of God his God his father for sin descending upon him who
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knew no knew no sin and yet he was willing to become sin for us all of his obedience to the father's will and all of his suffering I believe
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were done in his human nature and yet I believe that because he came to this place of complete obedience
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we can read later how he fulfilled the words of scripture that he was able like a sheep before his shearers was dumb he didn't cry out then because he had
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cried and he had learned obedience and he was able to march to the cross
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of this time as about Jesus as being a mysterious Enigma and I know I realize that that phrase is a tautology you know where you
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say the same thing and two different words and you don't really need two words and yet there is a Mis mystery to
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Christ's Enigma the understanding the reasons why he said things and his actions and what he says and yet what he also does not
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say these things are not easily understood why does Jesus act and react the way he does here in this place
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called Gethsemane I believe that Jesus undertook these things because he was a representative
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of man Jesus as a man desired his three closest friends to be near him again even if they could not do anything for
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him they could not change his pain they could not change the suffering and yet this was by necessity his fight as a man
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alone he must lay down his life he must give his life as a ransom for many and because of Jesus Incarnation and because of his humanity and because
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as the theologians write because he possessed a true body and a reasonable
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Soul he suffered with men and four men in their place instead of them of them as the Theologian lensy writes the agony
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suffered in Gethsemane will always bear an element of mystery for us because of the mystery involved in the union of Christ's two Christ's two Natures we we can't conceive of what the
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wrath of God and the death on the cross did to Jesus holy human nature there are those who say Jesus was the first martyr no he was not
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a martyr is a person who voluntarily suffers death as a penalty for witnessing or refusing to denounce or renounce a
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religion if you read Justin's book of Martyrs you read about men and women who because they knew Christ and because they knew their sins were
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forgiven and because they knew of their salvation and they could sing the hymn that we saying sometimes I know that my redeemers live then they could go
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courageously to death but Jesus didn't know any of
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that Martyrs willingly face death for Faith but Jesus died under sin and curse and Wrath of which he knew
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none Jesus endured the same kind of suffering as any human would under the circumstances but without sin and so the good news for
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us is from the writer of Hebrews since the children share in Flesh and Blood he himself likewise also
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partook of the same that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death that is the devil and he might deliver those who through fear
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of death were subject to slavery all of their lives this is our man this is our man who is now in glory this is our man who
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completed his obedience even in the face of this Soul crushing
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Agony Paul in Romans writes for us but God God demonstrates his love toward us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us much more then having now been justified by his
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blood we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him let us
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pray Our Father these things truly are mysterious and mysterious and awesome and we ask that you would give us the the courage and the grace to continue to continue to study to see if these things are so to
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learn of our Lord Jesus Christ and the price that he paid the life that he gave in order that we may fully understand but also that we may
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glorify you in our understanding and so we ask father that you would teach us these things help us as we read as we study and as we participate together as
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we now come to our communion our supper together as we partake together in Remembering Christ's Agony in the garden
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and his facing death and the death and the burial and its glorious Resurrection May you draw us closer and closer together as a family of God as a church
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we ask in Christ's name