Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Sermon Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ.

Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. He says unto me, Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, saith unto Peter, What could ye not watch with me one hour? Sometimes I feel like that on a Sunday morning. People turn you off at 12 o'clock.

We're talking about the individual that died for their sins and they're in such a hurry to get out of their car and go feed their face. When we ought to be thankful that we can sit and talk and worship about Jesus. If church has gotten so old to you that you can't wait to get out, you have a problem. Take that on a Sunday morning.

To all of our visitors, we're glad you're here with us today. I guess that's a pet peeve of mine. I'm sorry, but I grew up in church. I've been in church more than most of you have, even though I'm probably half your age.

I went to church every night of my life. But I don't understand people that are in such a hurry to get out of the service. Never have understood it, never will.

I think it's a spiritual problem, but only God can deal with that. Well, we're getting to business today, aren't we? Man, I wasn't even planning all that. Verse 40, and he cometh unto disciples and findeth them asleep. Interesting, isn't that? When he needed them the most. Verse 41, watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. He went away again the second time and prayed, saying, O my father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. And he came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. And he left them and went away again and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then cometh he to his 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 hand of sinners. Rise, let us be going. Behold, he is at hand that doth betray me. Powerful words.

I want to speak on this subject this morning. He went a little further. I don't think you and I will ever understand how far he went and to what degree Jesus suffered.

We'll never understand that. But I want to look at three places today. In fact, these are the three places that the Bible says that Jesus actually suffered. And these three places are something that is special to us, and yet it's painful to us as Christians to know that this is where our Savior suffered while he was here on earth. These three places are Gethsemane, Gabbatha or Gabbatha as some commentaries say to pronounce it, and Golgotha.

I'll begin with G. It seems as if the Bible has outlined itself. These are the three places of agony, the three places of suffering that Jesus suffered here on earth. By looking at each of these, I hope that you and I will maybe get a better understanding. We have talked in the past about these three places, kind of with other things and other sufferings that have gone on, but today I want to look at these three particular places. Because in each of these places, Jesus suffered at the hands of different people and different reasons.

We might look at these three places and say, well, this is all the places that he suffered, but the suffering was different at every place. And you and I might not just by looking understand why they were different and how they were different, and our intention today is to try to shed a little bit more light on the suffering of our Savior. Let's pray. Lord, we love you, and as we approach again Easter, we have spent these past weeks somewhat preparing our hearts for the celebrating of your resurrection. And Lord, as we have looked at your suffering last week and this week, I pray that we will be reminded once again not only of what you have done for us, but how we will never be able to fully understand, comprehend, and even thank you for what you have done for us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Number one, very simple this morning, I just want to explain these things to you. Number one is Gethsemane, and Gethsemane is the place that Jesus suffered at the hand of Satan. Now, all of these places he suffered differently, and you say, preacher, what do you mean he suffered at the hand of Satan? All we see is that here was Jesus, and here was these few disciples that he had left outside, and then he brought a couple with him into Gethsemane, and they slept the whole time anyway, and he asked them to pray, and he asked them to help.

That's really the only people that we see, but you've got to understand, Satan is not somebody that you saw there, but he was there. And Gethsemane is where Jesus went to pray, and during that time in Gethsemane, Jesus was involved in spiritual warfare. In fact, you and I, when we pray nowadays, it is our contribution to spiritual warfare.

You are not engaged in spiritual warfare unless you are praying. You can live right, act right, talk right, smell right, but you will do no damage against Satan unless you pray. You can give him an offering, you can open a door for people, you can sing in a choir, but you won't damage Satan unless you're praying. Gethsemane was Jesus suffering at the hand of Satan.

You say, how is that? Well, first under that, I want you to see Satan's attack. We find in Luke 4 another occasion where Satan was fighting with Jesus, and he had led Jesus to the top of a high place there in the city, and he was going to tempt him, and he was going to try to get Jesus to do wrong. And in verse 13 of Luke chapter 4, the Bible says, And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. That means just for a little while, Satan left Jesus alone, which tells me this, Satan did not just bother Jesus on top of the temple, Satan did not just bother Jesus in Gethsemane. I believe Satan fought and warred against Jesus every second of every day Jesus was here on earth. He was in constant warfare, and by the way, that's exactly what Satan's doing to you, and he's doing to me.

Satan is taking this very serious, and oftentimes you and I are not. I believe with all my heart that that night in Gethsemane, Satan tried his best to murder Jesus, to prevent his blood from being shed on that cross for our sins. You and I have no idea the attack that Satan brought against Jesus that night in the garden. For us to even imagine it, the Bible tells us later that Jesus literally sweated drops of blood while he was engaged in that spiritual warfare in prayer. There is no telling what Satan did to Jesus, tried to do to Jesus, what he brought against Jesus, everything that Satan has, is, and ever will be, and by the way, he is extremely powerful. Everything he had, he unleashed it all in Gethsemane that night. In fact, Jesus came out to his disciples and he said, please pray with me. I need the help, and they slept. You say, I don't know how they could do that.

Oh dear friend, they are nothing more but a picture of us. Satan may have tempted the Lord to back away from the cross that evening, but Jesus was submissive to his Father's will. We know what Satan kept trying to tell him to do in a sense because of verse 39. If you look at verse 39, the Bible says, And he went a little further, and he fell on his face and prayed, saying, Oh my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Satan was trying to tell him and show him all that he would go through on the cross and all the pain and all the suffering, but it wasn't really the physical pain and it wasn't really the physical suffering. What was in that cup that Jesus was talking about? It was the sin of an entire world. It wasn't suffering and it wasn't death that Jesus was scared of.

It was our sin. The Bible says in Mark chapter 14 verse 32, listen to this quickly. It says, And they came to a place which is named Gethsemane, and he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here while I shall pray.

Listen to this. And he taketh with them Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy, and saith unto them, My soul, Jesus is saying this, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death. The sorrow that this sin was bringing upon him.

And Satan had brought everything he had against Jesus that night in the garden. You and I will never know how he suffered that night. You and I will never know how he suffered on the cross and all the things that were done to him.

But what is forgotten and overlooked, I believe the worst pain he felt was in that garden. Knowing what he would go through, I have no doubt that Satan offered Jesus a way out that night. It's the same thing he did on top of the temple in Luke chapter 4 where he offered him, if you'll just get down and worship me, I'll stop everything.

And Jesus wouldn't do it. The Bible says that he was sore amazed. That word means suddenly struck with surprised terror. Jesus is basically telling his disciples that I was struck with unsurpassed terror while praying in that garden.

I often sometimes hear people say, how you doing today? And they will answer, well Satan's been on my back all day long. And dear friend, I know what you mean and I know what I mean. At times I'm sure I've said the same thing, but Satan's never been on our back. You wouldn't have made it if Satan had been on your back.

You and I have no idea how Satan, if he unleashed everything he had on one individual, you and I, we fall for such simple things. Imagine what would happen if we felt everything Satan had. You say, well he was God. Yes, but he was man too, Jesus was.

He felt it all. Not only Satan's attack, but I want you to see secondly, sin's curse. Gethsemane was where he suffered at the hand of Satan. Not just Satan's attack, but the curse that sin would bring upon Jesus.

Sin brought a curse upon the earth and upon mankind. You and I are here this morning in church, either saved or lost. And those of us that have been saved came to a point where we realized that we cannot save ourselves. We are on our way to hell. We are sinners by nature and we need a Savior and we accepted Christ.

And if you're not saved this morning, you're an individual that is here that is a sinner just like we are in need of a Savior. Because there is a curse upon mankind, because back in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve sinned. As this earth has been cursed all these years later, here's Jesus laying upon cursed earth in that garden. Pleading with the Father under attack by Satan himself. And that night in the garden, look at me folks, we think all the suffering that Jesus went through on the cross. He would have never even made it to the cross. If he had lost that battle that night.

It wasn't something that he could punch or hit or physically man handle. It had to be done spiritually. It had to be done through prayer. And you and I often times, we fight everything physically. And yet there's some things you can only fight spiritually. You might be here today and you say, preacher, I've got some things going on in my life and I've got addictions in my life and I've got things that I just can't give victory over.

And dear friend, you can try whatever programs and whatever books and whatever things you want to. And I'm for it if they'll help you, but I'm here to tell you there are some things and problems and addictions and all the things in our life that you cannot treat physically or mentally or emotionally. You've got to treat it spiritually. Sin's curse. You know what Gethsemane, the word Gethsemane means? It means oil press. And that's where you take those olives and sometimes grapes, depending on whether you're making olive oil or grape juice, and they'll put them in these presses and they'll compress them and turn it and turn it where it compresses and compresses and compresses.

And it literally gets out every bit of juice that is possibly there. That's why the Bible says that Jesus in Gethsemane literally sweated drops of blood. The pressure and the warfare and the burden that Jesus was carrying in that garden was so great and it was compressing him and compressing him in Gethsemane, which means oil press, that it literally drops of blood came out of his pores. Gethsemane, a place of suffering. A place, and listen to me, that he had to suffer alone. Although he had friends and even saved individuals with him, they weren't much help.

And dear friend, you will find, and I love you and I hope you love me, but there's just some things in our life we have to go through with Christ. We've got to get down in our little garden and we have to pray and we have to fight spiritual warfare and there might be people that love us and have helped us, but you know what, they've got things going on and we're all flesh and we're all sinful and sometimes you've got to get yourself in that garden and you've got to fight spiritual warfare. You've got to fight spiritual warfare on your own. Gethsemane was a private place, number two. Gabbatha was a public place. Now that Jesus had fought this battle in private, now he was made to fight this battle in public. In Matthew chapter 26 where you're at in verse 45 the Bible says, Then cometh he to his disciples that saith unto them, Sleep on now, take your rest, behold the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Jesus had just been in the hands of Satan and now it was time to take that next step and he would be delivered into the hands of sinners. You see he had been fighting Satan in the garden and now he would have to fight sinners in the pavement.

You say, what do you mean pavement? Gabbatha means the place of pavement. Gabbatha was a public area, it's almost like a courtyard in the middle of the city kind of in a sense and that's where he was brought to light publicly, that's where they would have a lot of public trials and public judgment and all those different things and if you'll hold your place if you wish to, now you don't have to turn here but if you are interested and want to see it you hold your place in Matthew 26. I want you to turn to John chapter 19 because you need to understand as the Bible uses this word and the setting of this place. In John chapter 19 verse 1 the Bible says that Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him. The Bible says in verse 2 that soldiers put the crown of thorns on his head and they put a purple robe on him and they began to make fun of him in verse 3 and they said all hail king of the Jews sarcastically and we talked about that last week. And then in verse 5 they brought him into this place Gabbatha and he was wearing a crown of thorns and his robe and Pilate said behold the man, he said that to who?

To all the public. And as Jesus had just fought that private battle with Satan now he had to fight the public battle with the very people he was dying for. They kept calling out and ridiculing him and spitting on him and making fun of him. Now he had to fight this public battle. Verse 6 the Bible says when chief priests therefore and officers saw him they cried out saying the chief priest crucify him crucify him. Pilate saith unto them take ye him and crucify him for I find no fault in him. Then Jesus answered him we have a law and by our law he ought to die the Jews answered him because he made himself the son of God. When Pilate therefore heard that saying he was the more afraid and he went again into the judgment hall and saith unto Jesus whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.

All this time all these things done Jesus hadn't said anything yet publicly. Look at verse 10. Then saith Pilate unto him speakest thou unto me? Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee and have power to release thee? And what is interesting in verse 11 this is what we're going to be preaching on tonight.

Now listen I hope you make your way back tonight. This is going to be a little different tonight but I this intrigued me it stopped me and I've been studying it all week long and I cannot wait to preach this to you tonight. Now it's going to be informative and you're going to have to dig into some scripture.

And don't expect if you come that we're going to have big rah-rah and cheerleading pom-poms and everybody's going to feel great and wonderful afterwards. We are simply going to deal with God's word and learn God's word tonight. But I want you to understand this look at verse 11 Jesus finally says something. Why did he speak now?

And why all of a sudden now did he say something? Look at verse 11 Jesus answered thou couldest have no power at all against me except it were given thee from above. Therefore he that delivered me unto death hath the greater sin. Tonight we're going to be preaching on the subject the greater sin. Do you mean preacher that there are some sins that are worse than other sins? Haven't we always said sin is sin? Well I've always said that and that struck me the greater sin. And I began to dig into the Bible and it's not the case at all.

There are greater sins and we're going to talk about that tonight. Look at verse 12 and from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him. Wait a minute Jesus just ridiculed him? I mean he just put him in his place. He just rebuked Pilate and as soon as he got done what did Pilate? He sought to release him. What is amazing here after Jesus found fault in Pilate, Pilate still couldn't find fault in Jesus.

It just got chills. Dear friend if you get close enough to Jesus he will expose the faults in your life. But you will never find a fault in him.

And I have found the more faults he finds in me the more I love him. Look at verse 13. When Pilate therefore heard that saying he brought Jesus forth and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the pavement but in the Hebrew gabitha. And it was the preparation of the Passover and about the sixth hour he saith unto the Jews behold your king. But they cried out these are the sinners this is in public away with him away with him crucify him. Pilate saith unto them shall I crucify your king?

The chief priest answered we have no king but Caesar. Now gabitha is associated with the suffering of Jesus at the hands of sinful man. Gethsemane is associated with the sufferings of Jesus at the hand of Satan. In gabitha Jesus was despised and rejected of men. At gabitha he was betrayed by Judas and deserted by the disciples. He was beaten by the temple guards. He was rejected by the very people he came to save. He was scourged he was mocked he was crowned with thorns. He literally had his own beard plucked and pulled out of his face. He was condemned to die he endured the pain the agony and the suffering.

Why? Because he loved you because he loved me. Gethsemane suffering at the hand of Satan. Gabitha suffering at the hand of sinners.

Third this morning, Golgotha. What is interesting is Golgotha is Jesus suffering at the hand of sovereignty. You say oh the people that put the spear in his side no no no no no no. He'd already been through so much. They would have been doing Jesus a favor to kill him there. The pain that Jesus felt on the cross was his own father turning his back on Jesus. He had felt everything that Satan could give him. He had literally physically felt everything that sinners could do to him.

But now he felt what it was to have the father have nothing to do with him. Verse 33 of Matthew chapter 27 the very next chapter from where you are in Matthew 26. Why don't you look at verse 33. And when they were coming to a place called Golgotha that is to say a place of a skull. They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall and when he had tasted thereof he would not drink. Look at verse 45.

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness all over the land under the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying Eli Eli lama sabachthani. That is to say my God my God why hast thou forsaken me. Why did he not say father father why hast thou forsaken me. Because he wasn't father now because Jesus had all the sin. He was being judged by God. Because he now had our sin.

Now he wasn't father. He was God. And God is holy.

God is so holy that even his own son when he has sinned God will not look on him. Let me read you another excerpt from John chapter 19 verse 16. Then delivered him therefore unto him to be crucified and they took Jesus and led them away. And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull.

Which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha. Where they crucified him and two other with him on either side one and Jesus in the midst. What is interesting is that in these verses Jesus did not feel pain from Satan. And it wasn't that he felt pain from people. He felt pain from his father. He felt pain from God himself. He was suffering at the hand of God.

Why is that? Because since the beginning of time God had never fully dealt with sin. God had never released 100% judgment on sin. God had always kept back his hand. Let me read you a verse. Romans chapter 9 verse 20.

Just listen to this please. O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed, which is us, say to him that formed it, which is God, why hast thou made me thus? In other words, really the person that was made is gonna say to the person that made them and complain? Listen to this. Hath not the potter power over the clay?

Of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? In other words, God has enough power because he made us. He controls everything about us. He can disintegrate us like that.

Listen to this. What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? Do you hear that verse? What if God decided to just unleash it all on us?

The Bible says literally we would not stand. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kerwinbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.