(Audio not available for first few minutes of message)....blood of the Passover lambs that were slain in the temple up above, in that area.

And it's fascinating when you think about it 24 hours earlier, he was in the same area, revealing to his disciples the glory of his Second Coming. But now he anticipates the unimaginable horror of being alienated from his heavenly Father; being crushed under the weight of the Father's wrath for unworthy sinners like you and me. I find it interesting that about 1000 years earlier, we read, for example, in Second Samuel chapter 15, especially in verse 30, that a broken hearted and betrayed King David, traversed this very same path along with his distressed entourage. You may recall the story, David was walking barefoot, with his head covered, crying. Which by the way, was an expression of intense grief in that ancient culture. And why did he do this? Well, it was because of his son, Absalom's conspiracy to usurp his father's throne. And because David's trusted advisor Ahithophel had betrayed him.

Now, I must say that we are on holy ground here, as we look at this passage, I find myself even retreating from the responsibility to explain it and to apply it. It's such a sacred passage. And because what the Spirit of God is revealing here, is so transcendent, it is so traumatic, it is so far beyond the realm of human comprehension and experience that frankly, it begs language. It certainly deserves a far more fitting tongue than mine, to appropriately and effectively explain what is happening here. But here we are given a supernatural glimpse of divine suffering, all that Jesus is enduring on our behalf. But I might say that what we see here is going to be mild in comparison to what he will experience on the cross. But let me read the text to you.

"And Jesus said to them, 'You will fall away because it is written, "IWILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP SHALL BE SCATTERED." But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of 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 this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny Me three times.' But Peter kept saying insistently, 'Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!' And they were all saying the same thing also. They came to a place named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, 'Sit here until I have prayed.' 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; remain here and keep watch.' And He went a little beyond them, and fell on the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by. And He was saying, 'Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.' And He came and He found them sleeping, and said to Peter, 'Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.' Again, He went away and prayed, saying the same words. And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; they did not know what to answer Him. And He came the third time and said to them, 'Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough; the hour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!'"

Dave Harrell

I wish to focus on six categories of truth, divided into three headings that seem to be to emerge from this text. I pray that we will all be deeply impacted by what the Spirit reveals to us. We're going to see first of all, predicted defection and proud rejection. Secondly, we're going to see piteous supplication and perfect submission and finally, practical exhortation and powerful resolution. And in all of this, dear friends, we're going to see ourselves more clearly. Especially those secret sins we tend to justify, we tend to excuse, we tend to camouflage especially with our self righteous religiosity. It will expose our own spiritual overconfidence, but more importantly, what we're going to see here is the Savior's infinite love for us.

So first of all, let's look at the predicted defection and proud rejection, verse 27. "And Jesus said to them, 'You will all fall away, because it is written, "I WILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP SHALL BE SCATTERED."'" When he says, "I will strike down the shepherd," the "I" refers to Yahweh, the Lord of hosts, Yahweh of hosts. And we know that this is true, Isaiah 53 and verse six, we read that, "the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all, to fall on Him." The 11 must have been shocked to hear the Lord's prediction. And to quote from Zechariah 13, verse seven, a text that was prophesied some 500 years earlier. And it's interesting, we know that later in the garden, after Jesus rebuked Peter for cutting off the ear of the high priest's slave, you remember that story, the disciples realize that Jesus was not going to defend himself. And that he was going to be arrested; allow them to arrest him. And so Mark tells us later on in verse 50, of chapter 14, "And they all left Him and fled." Just as the Lord prophesied.

But Jesus' prediction was not only a foreshadow of the cowardice of the disciples' on the night of his arrest, but it also speaks to the scattering of the saints just a little bit later on. We read of this, for example, in Acts eight one, There we read, "And on that day," the day of Stephen's death, "a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles." Furthermore, following Christ's death and resurrection, we see how God scattered the entire unbelieving nation of Israel all over the globe. And that was, and continues to be, an act of judgment for their unbelief, a period of, shall we say, purification and refinement through the trials of their sufferings, but he did not leave them without hope. In fact, if you go back to that same prophecy in Zechariah, chapter 13, the verse seven goes on to say, "And I will turn My hand against the little ones."God predicted this in the words of Isaiah chapter one, verse 25, he says, "I will also turn My hand against you, and will smelt away your dross as with lye, and will remove all your alloy. Then," and here's the hope, "Then I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. After that you will be called the city of righteousness, a faithful city. Zion will be redeemed with justice..."

So with this background, what we see here in Mark 14 is Jesus is clearly stating the disciples perceived loyalty to Christ would not be sufficient to sustain them in what was about to happen; their fears would get the best of them. He knew that they would be overcome by fear, that they would scatter to places of perceived safety. And, frankly, knowing that his companions would abandon him, undoubtedly made the prospect of his suffering all the greater, would it not? But his resolve to do the Father's will remained undaunted. And Jesus next statement, was no doubt reassuring to them, because it indicated that their cowardly abandonment would not be permanent, verse 28, "'But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.'" There's a glimmer of hope here. All is not lost. And we see this, as well later on, the fulfillment of this at the tomb, the empty tomb. In Matthew 28, beginning in verse seven, remember, the angel said to the women, "'Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.'"

Now, as you would expect, proud Peter vehemently protested Jesus' prediction. Verse 29, "Peter said to Him, 'even though all may fall away, yet I will not.'" And certainly his strident boast, only underscored his lack of spiritual awareness, which fueled his overconfidence, and his refusal to take seriously what Jesus had told them--frankly, about an hour or so earlier in the upper room, at the Passover meal. Remember in Luke 22, verse 31, we read what the Lord said to Peter, "'Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.' But he said to Him, 'Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!' And Jesus said, 'I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today, until you have denied three times that you know Me.'" Oh, the power of pride--"I don't care what he says, I know myself." You know, our pride is often nourished by our selective hearing of what God says. Beloved, we must always be suspect of our own spiritual maturity. We should always be suspect, of how loyal we think we are, to Christ. Despite the self promoting deceptions that we tend to pander in our deceitful heart. You know, our pride would have us rely on our religious behaviors--externals--as an accurate measure of our spirituality. When in fact, many times our external religious behaviors are nothing more than an illusion of spirituality. Certainly not always, but they can be. Our true condition can only be known by an honest assessment of our love for Christ. You want to know your level of spirituality ask yourself, "How much do I really love Christ? How much do I really love my neighbor? And am I joyfully and humbly submitting to his Lordship?"

So here we see a prediction of defection. And as I say, a proud rejection; the sheer folly of self-assurance in the denial of the Lord's clear assessment of Peter's inflated opinion of himself. And in verse 30, we read, "And Jesus said him, 'Truly I say to you, that this very night, before a rooster crows twice...'" That means before dawn. A rooster crowing served as a time indicator in that culture. "...before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny Me three times.' But Peter kept saying insistently, 'Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny You!'" Oh my, what an inflated opinion of self. I struggle with it as well. So do you. Obviously he overestimated his courage, his loyalty to Christ. You might say, Peter simply did not know his own heart. But the word of God will expose it. And the difficulties in life, the temptations that we experience, will expose who we really are.

And the text also says that "...they were all saying the same thing also." Well, naturally, they don't want to be outdone by Peter. So we're all going to say, "Yeah, we're, you know, we're gung ho." Folks, again, we've got to guard ourselves against pride. It is so easy to convince ourselves that we are more mature than what we really are. Let me flesh this out a bit practically. "Oh, that's okay. Lord, I don't need to discipline myself for the sake of godliness. I'm good. I don't need the systematic in depth teaching and preaching of the Word of God. I don't need discipleship. I don't need to be around other godly people who can speak truth into my life. I don't need to have a passionate personal pursuit of holiness, church on Sunday morning is good enough for me." And on and on it goes. May I remind you of what God says in Proverbs 16 verse 18, "Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before stumbling." Proverbs 29 verse 23, says, "A man's pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor." And folks I've lived long enough to see men and women sow seeds of arrogant wickedness in the things that they do, all the while convinced that they are right, that they are innocent. And then over time, see how they sowed the wind and they're reaping a whirlwind of misery, still convinced that they are right, everybody else is wrong, and that they've been mistreated.

So first, we see predicted defection and proud rejection. Secondly, what I would call piteous supplication and perfect submission. And again, I approach this narrative with deep reverence. My exposition of it won't even come close to doing it justice. Verse 32, "They came to a place called Gethsemane;" Gethsemane means "olive press." "And He said to His disciples, 'Sit here until I have prayed.'" And he probably is having them sit near the entrance of the garden. And what they had then, as they do even do now, in that same area in Jerusalem, is they would have a fence around gardens that people owned. And this, no doubt, was a friend that owned the garden and they would go there to have privacy. Then we read in verse 33, "And He took with Him Peter, and James and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled." So he has one group stay towards the entrance, and then he takes his inner circle, Peter, James, and John, goes deeper into the garden.

And it says he became "very distressed." The term in the original language, the term for distressed, is one that means to be excessively affected by emotion. "...and troubled," it says, which carries the idea of being completely overcome by mental and spiritual anguish to the point of losing one's composure. This is what's going on in the Lord.

Verse 34, "And He said to them, 'My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death.'" "Perilypos" in the original language--deeply grieved. It means surrounded by intense sadness. And I want you to remember something here. Do not lose sight of this fact. We're talking about God incarnate here. This is our Creator. This is the Son of God, who was about to become the sole object of divine wrath, who is about to bear your sin and mine in his body, who was about to be alienated from his Father, something that we will never experience. This is supernatural suffering. Friends what is happening here exceeds the limits of our ability to imagine. And frankly, the temptation to avoid the torture of sin bearing that awaited him would have been the greatest temptation of all, an inducement that even exceeded Satan's temptations of Christ in the wilderness. But here Jesus is also confronted, we know, according to Luke 22, verse 53, the "power of darkness" in some mysterious way that we're not even told, Satan is there. Certainly, this was Satan's final opportunity to prevent Jesus from going to the cross to accomplish our redemption and fulfill the mission for which the Father had sent him. The depths of anguish that gripped him was so severe that he was at the point of death, as we will see. "'My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death.'" And yet, what is fascinating is he is still concerned for his disciples. And that's why he says, "'...remain here and keep watch.'" You see, he knew he must suffer alone. And he also knew that his disciples could really offer him no comfort. But what they could do, and what he's asked him to do, is to stay vigilant and pray, "remain here and keep watch." Keep watch for what Judas and the rest of the crew coming to take them away? No, no, no. He's asking them to keep watch over their own heart, to watch for the your own spiritual lethargy, your own spiritual indifference, especially toward obeying the will of the Father sins that plague each of us. In other words, what Jesus is concerned about is, I don't want you to fall into sin, as you are so prone to do. Remember, all that happened at the Passover meal where he had to confront them? I mean, they're in a time of worship and they're arguing over who's going to be first in the kingdom. Luke 22 and verse 40 says, "When He arrived at that place, He said to them, 'Pray that you may not enter into temptation.'" I want you to watch for this because your heart has a proclivity for this. In other words, I want you to pray, yes, Father, please, help Jesus with all that he's going through right now, but deliver me from my foolish pride that he has exposed. Even just a little bit earlier. I'm blinded by my own flesh, I am weak. I need your help. Give us all discernment. Give us the ability to somehow respond in a godly way, in the midst of this grim reality that we can't even begin to comprehend. We don't know what's going on. All I know to do is to cry out to you, as you have told us to do. And so I'm crying right now I'm watching and I'm praying, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil. I've got to have help because I am so prone to spiritual lethargy and spiritual indifference, and seeking my own way, rather than submitting to the will of the Father, as He has revealed Himself in His Word.

Now to be sure, these brothers were emotionally, they were physically and you might say spiritually, exhausted, all of the events that had just occurred over the course of the Passover meal, which probably lasted about six hours. I mean, their vitality was drained from them. But the real problem was not so much their physical fatigue. The real problem was that they were operating under the power of their own sinful flesh, rather than the power of God. Now, while nothing we encounter, dear friends, will ever come close to the evil that Jesus endured, make no mistake, the same enemy is on the prowl. And our flesh is also weak. That's why we should all heed this command, to watch and to pray. Bear in mind that the enemy has all of the seductions out here that would cause you to go in the opposite direction of the will of the Father. And all of those seductions appeal to your flesh. And therefore, without you even realizing it, you are moving away and from God, and moving away from the blessing that he wants for you, for your faith, for your family, for your marriage. He wants to deceive; the enemy wants to deceive you. He wants you to say, "you know what, my kids are good, I'll just let them watch whatever they want. You know, my kids are good, they go to school, I don't have to be involved in their life and, and really try to instruct them and be intentional that everything's good. We got a good Sunday School at church." You see how it works? And we buy into all of those wise because we're not watching, we're not praying. Oh, dear Christian, keep watch. Keep watching and praying. Said differently, Ephesians six, beginning in verse 11, "Put on the full armor of God." You see how all of that fits together? Why? "So that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything, to stand." So dear friends, learn well, this lesson. Get serious about keeping watch over your heart, guard yourself against spiritual lethargy, against spiritual indifference. And against all of those subtle ways that you are going in the opposite direction of what God has asked you to do.

Let me make this very practical. When was the last time you earnestly went before the Lord and prayed for these very things that I'm describing? When was the last time that you went before the Lord and said to him, "Lord, I'm blind. I'm weak in so many ways. Please help me to see my hidden faults helped me to see those ways that I'm just living for myself. Lord helped me to hate hypocrisy in my life more than the way I hate it in the lives of others. Father, help me stop looking for the speck in the eye of my brother and sister and see the log in my own? Husbands and wives, when was the last time you held each other by the hand and you got on your knees and you knelt by your bed, and you poured out your heart that God would give you all that you need to effectively love each other and teach your children and invest in them as God has asked you to do? Dear Christian, we know so little of holiness because we know so little of watchfulness. And we know so little of power because we just know so little of prayer.

Certainly the disciples learned this well, after all of this, Jesus says, Peter, James, John, "'My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.'" In other words, don't fall into more temptation, like I have already shown to you that you so easily do. Verse 35, "And He went a little beyond them." Luke tells us and Luke 22:41 That it was about a stone's throw. So Jesus goes about a stone's throw beyond them. And it says he, "fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by. And he was saying, 'Abba!Father! All things are possible for You remove this cup from Me. '"The term "cup" is an Old Testament metaphor for the wrath of divine judgment and the suffering that goes with that.

Please understand, this is what he hated more than everything else that he was experiencing, because he knew this was coming. What troubled his soul more than anything else, was the anticipation of being a sin bearer. This was utterly foreign to the sinless Savior. Perfect righteousness was the automatic impulse of his soul. But he is now about to be assaulted. And he's going to be assaulted at the point of his transcendent holiness. Charles Spurgeon says it's so well quote, "The penalty of sin began to be realized by Him in the garden. First the sin which had put Him in the position of a suffering substitute, and then the penalty which must be borne, because lie was in that position, a dread to the last degree, that kind of theology, which is so common nowadays, which seeks to depreciate and diminish our estimate of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ." He goes on to say, "Brethren, that was no trifling suffering, which made recompense to the justice of God for the sins of men. I am never afraid of exaggeration when I speak of what my Lord endured. All hell was distilled into that cup, of which our God and Savior Jesus Christ was made to drink. It was not eternal suffering but since he was divine, He could, in a short time offer unto God a vindication of His justice, which sinners in hell could not have offered, had they been left to suffer in their own persons forever. The woe that broke over the Savior spirit, the great and fathomless ocean of inexpressible anguish, which dashed over the Savior soul when He died, is so inconceivable that I must not venture far, lest I be accused of a vain attempt to express the unutterable. But this I will say, the very spray from that great tempestuous deep as it fell on Christ, baptized him in a bloody sweat. He had not yet come to the raging billows of the penalty itself, but even standing on the shore, as He heard the awful surf breaking at His feet, His soul was sore, amazed and very heavy. It was the shadow of the coming tempest. It was the prelude of the dread desertion, which he had to endure when He stood where we ought to have stood, and paid to his Father's justice the debt which was due from us. It was this which laid Him low, to be treated as a sinner, to be smitten as a senator, though in Him was no sin. That is what caused him the agony." End quote.

Because we know so little of holiness, we cannot even begin to fathom how infinitely repulsive sin really is. I mean, what we see of sin in our life is the proverbial tip of the iceberg. And as I say, it's only the snowflake or to own that tip. We don't see all of the rest underneath that God's see. In fact, Jesus temptation to sin throughout his ministry was far more powerful than any temptation that we will ever experience. Because typically when we are tempted, we just give in. We justify, we just do whatever and go on. We rationalize, we blame shift or just ignore it. But Jesus had never known any separation whatsoever from the Father, much less his wrath. And he knows that's what's awaiting him. So he "fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass by. And He was saying, 'Abba! Father!'" by the way, that's Aramaic for "Papa." It is a term that affirms one's intimacy with the Father, in this case with his Father God.

"'All things are possible for you remove this cup from Me.'" Beloved, here in is the piteous, that is the mournful, the distressing supplication of our Savior. You might say this is the apex of human grief, one that would have killed any of us. Yet I find it fascinating in his, in his doleful entreaty, he still submits to the Father. "'yet not what I will, but what You will.'"

May I add another lesson that emerges from this passage. And that is simply this prayer is never about changing God's mind. It is about aligning our will with his. And once again, we see that God is in control of everything that is happening. He alone could remove the cup of suffering, he alone could choose some other way to reconcile sinners unto himself. But this was the perfect and just plan of God. Certainly perfection and justice can be defined very simply, it's what God does. Jesus willingly submits himself to the Father's will, not his own. Paul spoke of this in Philippians, two eight, "Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

And in Luke 22 verse 44, the physician offers additional insight into the inconceivable stress on Jesus body, it says, "And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground." This is a rare condition known as "hematidrosis" which is, as I understand it, the subcontanious capillaries dilate and they burst forth and mingle a little bit of blood with sweat with prespiration. That's what's going on here. I cannot fathom that kind of anguish.

So we've seen the predicted defection and the proud rejection. We've seen the piteous supplication and the perfect submission, and finally, the practical exhortation and powerful resolution. Verse 37, "And He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, 'Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation.'" Once again, that you won't fall victim to your own spiritual lethargy and indifference and resistance to the will of God. And then he says, "'The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.'" Yes, "the spirit," those high aspirations of our own inner man informed by the Spirit of God, yes, that's willing. Oh, you can say all of the right things. And in your core, that's what you want to do. But it's the flesh. That's the problem. "The flesh is weak." And O, the proclivity of our flesh to choose the easy path that avoids doing the will of the Father; something we cannot do apart from divine power. We must all take seriously our need to be physically and spiritually awake and alert. Yes, our spirit may be willing but our flesh is weak. That's why we are told to "walk by the Spirit", the Holy Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of your flesh.

You see, we have an enemy within and we have one without. They are formidable foes beyond anything we can imagine. The enemy within is our own unredeemed human flesh and the enemy without is Satan. You know, Peter learned this lesson very well. Later on, he would write in First Peter five beginning in verse eight "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert." It doesn't say this, but I think in parenths, he could have said a whole lot there. I had to learn this the hard way, that whole deal. It goes on to say, why, "Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him firm in your faith..." And Paul speaks of the same thing in Romans 13, beginning in verse 11. He says, "Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep..."---that's your lethargy here-- "for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore, let us lay aside the deeds of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts." And the lust of the flesh includes so many different things, but especially in this context, spiritual lethargy and indifference and resistance to the will of God.

So back to the text. Verse 39, "Again He went away and prayed, saying the same words. And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not want to answer Him." Obviously, they did not want to answer him because they're embarrassed. And frankly, they're bewildered by their own weakness. I mean, God put them in a place where they absolutely could not muster up enough faith, and boldness and love and loyalty to possibly endure that situation. This is reminiscent of chapter nine, verse 34, where quote, "they kept silence" when Jesus confronted them over their bickering about who would be greatest in the kingdom. That's what goes on here as well.

Verse 41, "And He came the third time and said to them, 'Are you still sleeping and resting?'" Then he says, "'It is enough; the hour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand.!'" An amazing scene, Jesus now sets his face towards the cross. This is the powerful resolution of the Savior to willingly sacrifice himself on our behalf. And as I see the scene in my mind, I can only imagine that his face and his garments are still glistening with sweat drops of blood. And yet the Lord Jesus is going to resolutely and triumphantly accept the cup that the Father had given him. Imagine the scene, Jesus knew that Judas Iscariot was leading the proud members of the Sanhedrin. Perhaps they could even see the lights; if you get in that area, as I have been, it would be easy to see such a large group coming towards you. Perhaps he saw them, but certainly in in his mind, he could see them. The Sanhedrin would have been with them as we're going to learn later in our studies, accompanied by the temple police, and a cohort of Roman soldiers--that's 600 Roman soldiers.

But what Jesus says essentially is, it's time to advance, not retreat. The writer of Hebrews reiterates the sacred scene. If I can close by taking you there for just a few minutes. In Hebrews five verse seven we read, "In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death. And He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek." Let me explain this briefly. In the days of Abraham, according to Genesis 14 and verse 18, long before the Aaronic priesthood was established, Melchizedek, which by the way, means "righteous king." Melchi is "king," and zedek, the verb means "to be just or righteous." Melchizedek was king of Salem, it says, which was ancient Jerusalem; a priest of God Most High. And in Hebrews seven, in verse three, we learned that his priesthood was unending, unlike that of Aaron, which began later on in the days of Moses and ended in AD 70, when the Romans destroyed the temple. But as we look at this Melchizedek character, we see that he was a type of Christ. In the Old Testament, he was a person that pictured or prefigured the antitype that was far greater; that was perfect that was eternal. Though Melchizedek is in no way equal to Christ, his unique priesthood, and frankly, even his name, typify Jesus Christ and his work in a number of significant ways. And we don't have time, but in chapter seven of Hebrews, it goes on to explain all of that. So Melchizedek's priesthood elevated the priesthood of Jesus Christ, even beyond that of Aaron.

In verse 10, we read that he was "designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek." And so what's fascinating is in Hebrews five, verses seven through 10, which is a commentary on our text this morning, again we read, "In the days of His flesh," referring to Christ, "He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety." It's interesting--"krauge" in Greek--"loud crying." Fascinating term, very significant. It does not refer to a cry a man chooses to utter on his own. But rather it speaks of a cry that is extracted from him; the cry that is pulled or forced out of him as a result of excruciating anguish. This is what accompanied the prayers and supplications of our precious Savior in the garden. He prayed to the Father, not to avoid the cross, but to be resurrected from the dead, to be saved, it says "from" or "out of" death. And you will recall that for this reason, an angel from heaven appeared to him to strengthen him, Luke 22:44, "And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly and His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground." His distress brought him to the very threshold of death. And when you examine our Lord's life and ministry, you see that indeed, he was a man of sorrows, he was acquainted with grief. But he experienced the full spectrum of human suffering, of human temptation. And this made him eminently qualified to be our sympathetic high priest.

In verse eight of that text, "Although He was the Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered." Isn't it interesting, the Father didn't give him a pass; he was given no exemption from all of the sorrow, and all of the pain associated with the human condition. And because of his perfect obedience to do the will of the Father, he experienced death. So there's nothing that we can experience that he has not experienced and done so far greater. For this reason, he can be affirmed as our sympathetic high priest.

And then finally in verse nine of Hebrews five, he says, "And having been made perfect"-- he's not speaking here of metaphysical perfection, but in terms of function, in other words, having completed all that was necessary to make him perfectly fitted to become our Savior and priest-- "He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation." Is that not magnificent? "Being designated by God as a High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek." And I might add, as a footnote, that this was the inspired argument given to the Hebrews to prove the superiority and the deity of Christ.

Well, in closing, dear friends, may I challenge you to contemplate what we've examined here this morning; to contemplate the Son's willing submission to the Father's purpose, and to examine our own lives. My, don't you see our own weaknesses here, and the necessity to watch and to pray. And I close with just two verses of the lyrics of a 19th century English hymnist, James Montgomery, where he said this in his hymn: "Go to dark Gethsemane, you who feel the tempters power; your Redeemer's conflict see, watch with him one bitter hour; turn not from His griefs away, learn of Jesus Christ to pray." And then he also says "Follow to the judgment hall, view the Lord of life arraigned of the wormwood and the gall; O, the pains His soul sustained; Shun not suffering, shame or loss; learn of him to bear the cross."

Let's bow our heads together. Father, we humble ourselves before you realizing that what we've just examined is so far beyond our ability to comprehend, and yet you have given us enough to grasp some measure of what our Savior has done for us. May this evoke from each of us a higher level of praise perhaps than ever before? And may it also cause us to examine our hearts that we might indeed, be watchful; that we might pray, that we might not enter into temptation because we want to honor Christ with all of our heart, all of our lives. And we want to enjoy the full expression of all that he is given to the Redeemer. So we commit this to you and we pray it in Jesus' name, and for his sake. Amen.