July 8, 2018 The Lords Submission by Pastor Josh Sheldon

I felt led this afternoon towards some thoughts on the cross rather than continuing in the prophet

Zephaniah, which Lord willing, we'll return to next Sunday. I wish to just give a few thoughts, some comments, some table preparatory notes from Matthew chapter 26 and verse 39.

Matthew 26, beginning of verse 39. The scripture says, the word of God says, and going a little farther, he, he of course is

Jesus, he fell on his face and prayed saying, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping.

And he said to Peter, so could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.

The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, my father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.

And again, he came and found them sleeping for their eyes were heavy. And to add this, just one verse from another gospel from Luke, we read that during his third prayer, and he, and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

And again, just some thoughts, some devotional matters regarding the

Lord Jesus Christ, there at Gethsemane, praying for this cup to pass as we consider ourselves before we take this cup that the

Lord himself, this very Lord that I was reading about has set before us. I want to ask us, ask you, why did he pray three times?

Have you ever wondered that? Why did he pray the same prayer three times?

And again, he said the same thing, says the scripture. Three times he goes and he prays this same prayer.

Why three? I mean, Jesus himself taught us that we're not heard for our many words, that repetitions don't get

God's ear any more than eloquent speech gets his ear. What gains

God's ear for us is that we come to him by faith in his son.

Jesus knew that, he taught us that, not many words. The woman who went to the unjust judge in that parable kept coming and coming to him until he grew tired of hearing her and gave her justice just to be rid of her annoyances.

Of course, in that parable, the judge does not stand for God, rather Jesus is telling us not to give up, not to give up not only just in prayer, but in faith that is the seed from which prayer blossoms.

So why three entreaties? Do you remember in R .C.

Sproul's curriculum, that video that we watched a few months ago on Sunday School, the holiness of God?

Do you remember how R .C. Sproul, in the lectures on the holiness of God, he brings forth the importance of God's holiness being repeated there in Isaiah 6 three times where the angels or the seraphim are calling out holy, holy, holy is the

Lord God Almighty and Dr. Sproul stops and he makes this point and it's a very great point.

How this thrice repeated attribute of God is to magnify beyond all our ability to conceive of it, just how holy

God truly is because he says it three times and remember the good doctor points out that we don't hear in the scripture that God is just, just, just, though he is just.

Neither do we hear that he is righteous, righteous, righteous, though of course he is righteousness itself. We hear holy, holy, holy, no other attribute of God emphasized in this way.

And as I thought about Matthew 26, 39, and of course Mark and Luke have the same thing recorded that Jesus three times prayed to the

Father this same prayer. As I thought about it, nothing else emphasized like this.

If God, if Jesus prayed once and a few loaves and a few fish fed 5 ,000, if he could speak once to dead

Talitha and rise her up, the same to Lazarus, if whatever he said to the 10 lepers, we don't know what he said because the scriptures are silent, but it wasn't repeated, but this entreaty three times.

My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. One might say, some people might theorize he spoke this prayer three times because he got back no answer.

And eventually we know an angel was sent to strengthen him, and we might talk about that another time. But what are we to learn from this triplicate prayer?

I think there's an emphasis here similar to what Dr. Sproul said about holiness. This thrice repeated attribute of God like none other tells us how magnified that is.

And I think there's something to be said here for the agony of Gethsemane. Magnified by this thrice repeated request and the same thing each time.

What does it tell us then? Well, I think it tells us something like this.

It tells us that Jesus was human, human, human. Yes, he was

God, we know that. To affirm otherwise would be blasphemy. But it was not his deity that recoiled from the cup, it was his humanity.

Christ was the perfection of both. God and man. It's fear without sin.

Christ feared that cross. The cross that we remember here this afternoon, it was fear without sin.

Ambrose, the ancient theologian said, he grieved for me who had no cause for grief for himself.

And laying aside the delights of the eternal Godhead, he experiences the afflictions of my weakness.

You know, if the Lord had not looked upon the cross with horror, then we would have to say that the

Lord had not truly entered into humanity. His flesh was so weakened at the prospect that his sweat was like drops of blood.

I read that one verse from Luke about how he sweat and being the more in agony, he prayed all the more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood.

And I was thinking about that too, as I thought to bring us to the table this afternoon.

I decided I have very little appreciation left for medical analyses that prove that a human can actually sweat blood.

Now, I don't disbelieve them. Don't get me wrong. I don't disbelieve them. And I'm sure our modern doctors can explain this and they can make it perfectly sensible if not common or normal.

But he sweat drops of blood because of what?

Well, Luke says because he was in agony and he prayed the more earnestly. What does that tell us?

It tells us that Jesus was human, human, human. That he needed that extra level of prayerful exertion to stay the course, to remain in the garden, knowing that his arresters were coming, they were on their way, even them.

Why drops of blood? As Luke says, why drops of blood? Well, it was not so sufficient, physicians could centuries later prove it possible.

You see, we already know it's possible for a man to sweat blood. How do we know that?

Because the scripture says that it happened. I don't need any other testimony, nor do you.

But why did God's son suffer this way? What does it tell us?

These drops of blood that he sweat. He was praying with such agony, with such earnestness.

I think it was a precursor to the blood that would flow from the next day's proceedings.

Because our Lord, who prayed and then prayed and then prayed, he was human, human, human.

His totally human, yet totally sinless blood was about to spill. But not these drops.

The blood that anointed his prayer was not for his tormentors, but was a seal of his determined will to meet the

Father's will. It seems that each time he rose from prayer and looked at the cup, it was more full.

The prophet Jeremiah pictured it much the same way. A cup of fury, a cup of wrath, a cup of judgment, a cup of darkness, being filled with the sins that men would have to guzzle down themselves.

Matthew says that he fell on his face and prayed. Prostrate on the ground before the

Father, fell on his face and prayed. Why? As I asked before about why three times, why did he fall on his face?

Was it humble submission? Well, we could affirm that. We could say, yes, praise God, because he was submitted to the

Father's will. Because when he finally arose, he said, not my will, but yours be done. But before those salvation -sealing words, he fell on his face.

So we anticipate the Lord's table this afternoon, and this is where this message is leading us to this table.

Why did he fall on his face? Have you ever wondered about that? I pondered it a while, and I was led to look at what the prophet

Isaiah says. He says, wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the

Lord the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering.

I think staggering helps us to understand that a bit. If not fully. You see, when the

Lord fell on his face, I would say he staggered. He staggered, why?

Why would he do that? Because as are those who he was about to die for, he was human, he was human, he was human.

He came in the form of sinful flesh, and as man, as fully man, he died for man, and as only

God, fully God, could have died. If you or I was there, and that cup went before us, what would we do?

I know what I would do, I would fall to the ground because my knees would give way. In other words, I would stagger.

I would pray as never before to be relieved in the necessity, and did not our

Lord, fully God, fully man, did he not pray that same way?

Hebrews chapter five, verse seven says, in the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.

You know, Jesus stood before the high priest. He stood before Pilate, and later, when

Pilate sent him before Herod, he stood before Herod, and when he was returned to Pilate, he stood, and he stood while he carried his cross until exhaustion and blood loss called

Simon of Cyrene to bear it for him for a while. He stood through all that, and yet, fell on his face.

He staggered when the shadow of that very cross came into view. Great German theologian of the 19th century,

Krumacher, puts it this way. He says, the cup of staggering does not pass from the trembling sufferer.

On the contrary, its contents become every moment more bitter. Louder sound the complaints of the agonizing savior.

More urgent becomes his prayer, but the lofty one is silent, and heaven seems barred with a thousand bolts.

Well, why is heaven barred, as Krumacher says? Well, it's because the cross is planted here on earth, not there in heaven.

Heaven is shut because here, not there, is where sin is. Who would have it opened?

Who would have heaven's gates open at a point like that? I mean, at that very moment, who would wish the savior to return there to heaven?

To unbolt that gate, swing it open, and let him in right then at that moment?

Who would want that? Well, Brash Peter might have thought he wanted that. Brash Peter, who said, far be it from you,

Lord, this shall never happen to you, he might have wanted that in an impetuous moment.

Maybe that's why God ordained him to sleep while Jesus struggled in prayer. Who would have wanted heaven's gate to swing open and for Jesus to ascend right that moment on a cloud?

Our enemy would. Our enemy would have been very pleased had heaven's gate swung open, then the cloud come down then and taken him back to his glory.

I mean, if Jesus dreaded the cross in a way that we will never quite grasp, our adversary, the devil, he feared the cross in a way that we likewise can never quite lay hold of.

And what would he say? He'd say to Jesus, come now, let us reason together. These people who you're to die for, they're not worth it.

Take a road better paved, the same I offered to you in the wilderness. Take Peter's way, take my way, take any way but that old, rugged, painful cross.

Any path, he would say, but my demise, which was met at the cross.

But our Lord, with his human, human, human staggering, he truly did not waver for a moment, did he?

The issue determined by God the Father to be accomplished in God his Son and applied to the intended people by God the

Holy Spirit, that issue was decided in eternity past, long before the foundation of the world as we read in the book of Ephesians, chapter one and verse three.

So the blessed words, never truly in doubt, come forth from our Lord's oh so human lips.

My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done. So first garden is disobedience.

Second garden, obedience. The first garden, sin.

And the second garden, redemption. In the first garden, God said,

Adam, where are you? In the second garden, without being asked, at Gethsemane, where there was no attempt to hide, there where Jesus prayed in full view of the

Father who sent him, the reply was, as it were, here am I. The psalmist said,

I desire to do your will, oh my God, your law is within my heart. And in a sense,

Jesus answered his own prayer. He said, behold, I have come to do your will, oh God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.

Matthew Henry puts it this way, he grounds his own willingness on the Father's will and resolves the matter wholly into that.

I'd love to be able to write a sentence like that myself. He, Jesus, grounds his own willingness on the

Father's will and resolves the matter wholly into that. That a good

God has only good purposes and good intents for his Son, for those who are in his

Son. And on that will, we can cast ourselves confidently. We know that because Jesus suffered the way he did, the wrath of God poured out upon him the way it was when he cried out, my

God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That as we cast ourselves upon his will, as we submit ourselves to him the way

Jesus did, none of us will ever suffer the way Jesus did because Jesus suffered for us.

All this that he went through, then and the next day, all so we could be free.

The torments of hell upon the only soul that didn't owe hell its due so that the glories of heaven might come upon those who to the last can make no claim to that realm.

From the Father's hand to his, the cup of wrath, and from his hand to ours, the cup of salvation.

That we might empty it as fully and as obediently as he emptied his cup in Gethsemane.

And that clip included what we're not going to go to today in the scriptures, in the gospel account, the cross itself.

Where Jesus' body would be horribly broken. And we will remember that as we take the broken bread.

And he was nailed to that cross, where his life was given up for you,

God willing, for me, for all intended by God to benefit from what

Jesus did. His blood, his life poured out, we will remember that in the fruit of the vine.

I would just have us this afternoon, as we approach this table in a worthy manner, to remember to ourselves the idea of Jesus falling down before God three times as a staggering, fulfilling what the prophet said would happen.

Staggering because of this cup that was before him. Staggering to his face before God these three times.

This thrice repeated action. Action. And think, as we do take the table, on what we were spared.

Our doctrines, our theology tell us that what Jesus suffered, the eternal wrath of God poured out upon him while he was helplessly pinned to that cross, is my deserved punishment for my sins.

And each of yours. Only Jesus didn't deserve to be punished and only Jesus was punished in a way efficacious to others, to us.

And remember too that he fell down and he staggered and he called out to God with these tears and pleaded with him to spare him.

Because he was human. And I think these three times he falls down and as we take this table, we can remember with gratitude and with awe and with wonder that in him,

God became flesh. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. The word is

God and the word was God. And in his suffering, he left out none of the experience of humanity.

He fully entered. Not an apparition, not a vision. God becoming physically man just as all of us are.

And experiencing and going through all that we go through. As the author of the

Hebrew says, tempted at all points as we are, yet without sin. This is the

God we worship. This is the God we remember when we take the table. And Lord willing, as we look to the gospels, we meditate upon these portions of the gospel and his passion as we call it.

Let our hearts swell with wonder and with gratitude that the man

Jesus Christ was willing according to the Father's will to suffer in this way for the likes of us.

Amen? Turn please to hymn number 181.

Oh dearest Jesus. Hey Zeus, I forgot to remind you that the scripture reader, please come and help with the table if you would.