Today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. The physical suffering, as bad as it was, was not the essence of the cross. The essence of the cross was abandonment by God. In Gethsemane, Jesus looked full into the cup of God's wrath against our sin, and it overwhelmed him so badly, is literally squeezing the life out of him.
Welcome back to Summit Life with J.D. Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. You know, Jesus was well accustomed to getting a clear response from God when he prayed. He truly had the first and only real hotline to heaven.
But there was one time when God was completely silent. Today, Pastor JD continues our new teaching series called Instead of Me and shows us how necessary it was for Jesus to be abandoned for me and for you, to take on the full wrath of God in our place. Today's message really hits at the heart of the gospel message, so we're thankful you're here. As always, if you miss any of our programs or if you're in search of our featured monthly resource, you can find it all online at jdgreer.com. Grab your Bible and a pen and let's join Pastor J.D.
Greer in Matthew chapter 26, verse 30. When we left. Jesus last week, he had offered to his disciples the bread and the cup that represented his body and blood given for them, verse 30. And after singing the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus came with them.
Verse 36, to a place called Gethsemane, and He told the disciples, sit. here while I go over there and pray. Taking along Peter and The two sons of Zebedee, James and John, he... began to be sorrowful and troubled. He said to them, I am deeply grieved to the point of death.
Remain here and stay awake with me. Going a little farther, he fell Face down, and he prayed, My father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Did not as I will, but as you will. Then he came to the disciples, and he found them sleeping. And he asked Peter, so could you not even stay awake with me for one hour?
Peter, stay awake and pray so that you won't enter into temptation. The Spirit is willing. But the flesh is weak. Again, a second time, he went away and prayed, My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, then your will be done. And he came again and found them sleeping because they could not keep their eyes open.
Verse 44, after leaving them, he went away again and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting? See, the time is near. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let's go.
See, my betrayer is near and While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, suddenly Arrived. This is the kind of passage where I feel like there's Just not a lot in here for me to really be creative with and the right Response here is not for me to try to organize this into a teaching line, the outline with. A lot of illustration and application. I feel like it's in there primarily for two reasons: for us. Number one, it is to confront us with the magnitude.
of what Jesus was about to do for us. And then, number two, to show us the response that you and I are supposed to have to what Jesus. did for us. You know, one of the first things I think we have to acknowledge about this. Scene.
is that Jesus does not appear. to be going to his hour of death with the Defiance and the bravado that we might have expected. In fact, if I could be so bold, he almost appears weak. Even scared. A lot of the world's other great martyrs, by contrast, died with their fists in the face of the evil empire, defiantly saying things like, I'm not afraid of you.
I'm not afraid of dying. Bring it on. Give me your best shot. I'll never back down. Think of scenes like the ones that are portrayed in movies like.
Gladiator or Braveheart. We know that many Jewish heroes who died around the time of Jesus died in much the same way. People like Spartacus or Maccabees. We know that many of Jesus' followers have gone to their hour of death defiantly and bravely. One of my favorites is the story of Polycarp, who was the student of the Apostle John.
When he was 86 years old, is when the emperor sent soldiers to get him to execute him. And they went to his house, and ones who were there said that Polycarp was sitting there very calmly. And when the soldiers came in and told him that they were taking him away so that they could burn him at the stake, Polycarp asked for a few minutes alone to pray. And he got down on his knees right there in the presence of the soldiers. And he prayed very calmly for 15 or 20 minutes.
And finally, they took him off and took him into this Colosseum where there were thousands of people gathered. And the emperor was there, and they tied him to the stake there so they could burn him at the stake. And they asked him if there were any last words that he had. And Polycarp very calmly looked up at the emperor and he said, in the presence of all these thousands of people, you think that I'm afraid of this fire? You think I'm afraid of this fire?
This fire burns for just a moment and then it is extinguished. You, emperor, you should be afraid of the fires of hell. I'm not scared of these temporary flames. You should be afraid of the eternal ones. Come on, boys, bring on the fire.
That's how I want to go out. Right, that's a hero, that's a martyr. Yet, here we see that Jesus is approaching death with a different sort of spirit. He is trembling, he is stammering, he is going back and forth frenetically between God and his disciples. He's asking God if there is any other way.
Matthew even says at one point, verse 39, that he falls face down. He is too weak even to stand up. Martin Luther observed, he said, Never we see a man go to his hour of death fearing death like we see this man fearing death. What's really strange about this whole thing is that everywhere else, Jesus is the one who shows unflinching courage in the face of danger. Right before this, for example, Jesus' disciples are trying to dissuade him from going to Jerusalem because it was so dangerous for him there, and there were people who wanted to kill him.
But Jesus said, No, this is my destiny. This is where I must go. Right after this, he's going to stare Pilate in the face. And he's going to tell Pilate that Pilate has no authority except what heaven gives him, and he's going to say that with stone-cold resolve.
So the question we have to ask is: what is happening at this moment that makes it different? Where's this defiance and bravery that we see at other points in Jesus' life? Verse 37 gives us a clue. It says that as Jesus prayed, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Began.
Began means that Jesus saw something there in the midst of praying that wasn't there before. As he was praying, something is revealed to him that he had not seen up until this point. The word translated sorrowful is a very strong Greek word that can mean horrified, especially when you couple it with the word troubled. Whatever Jesus saw in this moment was so troubling. That he said he almost died from it.
You see, verse 38. I'm deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me. Jesus was not one prone to exaggeration in moments like this, which meant that Jesus in this moment saw something that was so horrifying that he literally almost died from it. Luke would take this a step farther and explain what was happening.
He says that Jesus was under such strain that he began to literally sweat great drops of blood, a condition that doctors now call hematridosis, where you're under such strain that the capillaries. In your face and extremities begin to burst. I never really understood what that meant until one of our pastors told me a story. He said, when my sons were younger, he has three boys. He said, my wife and I were at our community pool.
He said, we were the last ones there. He said, there's no lifeguard on duty. He says, so my wife and I took our three sons and went to get in the minivan to go home. He says, when we got to the minivan, we realized that two of our sons were there and one of them was not.
So we turned around to go back. He said, I walked into the pool area and I saw, he said, what is the most horrible scene that I cannot erase from my mind? He says, I saw my youngest son, who was about five years old, lying still at the bottom of the pool. He said, I jumped in there after him. I picked him up.
I put him on the deck. He said, We began to revive him. We called the ambulance. He said, Now, thank God we actually did revive him. And the ambulance got there.
They took him to the emergency room, and he said, He was breathing again, and everything was fine. And the doctor said, You got to him just in time. He's going to be okay. He said, after the doctor left the room, he says, my son was just resting there. He said, was sleeping.
And I noticed that all over his face were these little purple blotches. And so I called the doctor back in. I said, Doctor, what are these things? What's wrong with him? And he said, There's nothing wrong with him.
He said, I don't know exactly what happened, but the best I can tell is that when your son was drowning, when he was going under the water, he was screaming so loudly and so fervently for you or your wife that these little capillaries all over his face began to burst. He was under such strain. I want you to let this sink in for just a minute: that here in Matthew chapter 26, we see the Son of God. Who walked on top of angry waves, who could speak in calm storms, who stared down demons and disease, who could literally raise people back to life from the dead under such strain. Under such strain that he feels like he's going to die, and the capillaries in his face begin to burst.
What did Jesus seen that troubled him so? The real question is what he had not seen. You see there in verse 39, when Jesus calls out to God his Father, as he had numerous times throughout his life. What you will see that is unique in this situation is he gets no response. He refers to God as Abba, the Aramaic word for father, which indicates a term of closest intimacy.
But for the first time in all of eternity, in all of eternity, God the Son calls out on the name of God the Father, and the Father is silent. You see, up until this moment, Jesus had enjoyed the closest intimacy with the Father, so much so that he consistently withdrew to be alone with God in a time of trouble to draw strength and comfort from the presence of God. And the Father had always radiated back toward Jesus with openness, sometimes even affirming him publicly. But now, for the first time in eternity, only silence. And so Jesus stumbles back to his disciples.
Looking, it seems, for some kind of comfort from them. He hasn't received it from the Father, and so now he's going to his disciples, and so he wakes them up and he says, guys. I just need you to be with me. Mean there's something that's Tender? About this, it almost reminds you of a child.
Who's scared at night and goes to his mom or his dad and is like, Mom, just stay awake with me. Jesus just needs somebody to be with him, but the disciples aren't there to help him because they're asleep. Asleep while the most significant moment in history unfolds in front of them, utterly unaware of the significance of what is happening, disloyal to the one who has been nothing but loyal to them, asleep when heaven and hell are in the balance. Y'all can stop for just a minute and say, what a revealing picture of us. asleep under the most Significant of circumstances, unaware.
Of the magnificent things that are taking place in front of them. That's another sermon for another day. You are listening to Summit Life with Pastor JD Greer. I wanted to take a quick break here to let you know more about who we are. At Summit Life, our mission is to take people deeper into their understanding of the gospel and then help them advance that gospel message wider into their world.
It's a simple mission at its core. Just remember, deep and wide. We believe that everyone should have access to the life-changing truth of Jesus Christ. Through these broadcasts, podcasts, devotionals, and other resources, we work tirelessly to make the gospel not only known to you, but more accessible to a world in need. This vital mission is made possible by friends like you who support us with your time, talents, and treasure.
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Now let's get back to the conclusion of our teaching. Once again, here's Pastor JD. Asleep they are.
So, verse 42, Jesus goes back again to the Father, saying the exact same thing again: Father, did you not hear me? Why are you not responding? If there's any other way, save me from this. And again, only silence. What's happening?
William Lane, the New Testament scholar, says that the only explanation for these events is that here in Gethsemane, God has already begun to turn his face away. The judgment for our sin has already begun. Before the first nail was driven into Jesus' body, Jesus' soul was being abandoned by God. Jesus had lived his entire life, you see, with the approval of the Father. And now, in the moment that Jesus most needed his heavenly father, God is turning his face away.
And Jesus staggers under the weight of it. Almost to the point of death. William Lane says, This is the horror of one who lived wholly for the Father, who came to be with his father for a brief interlude before his death. and found hell rather than heaven. It's open before him.
In that moment, he faced aloneness, utter aloneness. You ever felt alone? I mean, really alone? Maybe it came on the heels of a betrayal, betrayal by a trusted friend, or maybe a spouse. Maybe it was when you walked through some dark trial that nobody was there to walk through with you, and everybody forgot about you.
Or maybe it was you were going into some kind of medical thing that nobody around you could really understand the kind of fear that you felt and the kind of aloneness and the pain that you struggled with on a day-to-day basis. Jesus felt that in Matthew 26. Not just aloneness, but also rejection. You ever been really, really rejected? Really rejected.
I think about what it would have been like for me to have turned away from one of my children in a moment when they needed me. To have one of my children look to me in a moment of pain or weakness, and for me just to turn away from them in scorn and say, You're not even my child. Can you imagine how crushing that would be to one of my children? That my children have only known me for a few years, and I am not a perfect father. What must it have been like?
To lose the infinite love of the Father that you have known unbroken for all of eternity. Is it possible even to describe this? I mean, I feel like there's nothing that I can say that'll actually make us understand. What Jesus is going through, no illustration that enables us to feel the magnitude and the weight of this, any human analogy that I come up with. Only takes away from the darkness and the bitterness of this moment.
This is the horror of one who lived wholly for the Father, who came to be with his father for a brief interlude before his death and found hell. Rather than heaven open before him, somehow in that one moment, Jesus got a glimpse of an eternity in hell for us because, see, that's what the essence of hell is. The essence of hell is complete abandonment by God. You see, when I was younger, I always thought that what made Jesus' death so bad were the physical horrors of the cross. And yes, they were terrible.
The Roman historian Cicero tells us that one of the Romans' goals in crucifixion was utter humiliation. And so they began the crucifixion process by beating the victim to a point that they were barely recognizable. Cicero said that when they used that cat of nine-tails with the pieces of bone and glass in it that would lodge into the skin and rip it off as they beat the person, he said it was not uncommon to see a rib get a hold of one of those ribs and it would go flying from the frame of the man that they were beating. They say it is very likely that when they got finished beating Jesus, he was at least partially disemboweled. Then they put nine-inch nails through his hands and his feet.
They took a crown of thorns of an inch and a half long each and shoved it down into the skin between his forehead and his skull. The prophet Isaiah said he was beaten so badly that he didn't even look like a man anymore. You would have known who he was had you had not already known. His face was so swollen and beaten. Then he was nailed up on a cross, naked, in a public place, in the full light of day.
So, yes, the physical horrors of the cross were terrible. But listen, that is not in Gethsemane what made Jesus stagger. What made Jesus stagger was the abandonment by God that he faced. That was the horror of the cross for him. That's honestly why the gospel writers don't go into much gory detail about all the ephesiological aspects of the crucifixion.
They don't go into detail because the physical suffering, as bad as it was, was not the essence of the cross. The essence of the cross was abandonment by God. In Gethsemane, Jesus looked full into the cup of God's wrath against our sin, and it overwhelmed him so badly that it almost killed him. Just the sight of it. Gethsemane means an Aramaic oil press.
And that's exactly what's happening here to Jesus. The reality of God's wrath, the reality of hell is pressing in on Jesus, and it is literally squeezing the life out of him. I hesitate to use this because I don't want to cheapen this moment at all, but it's like reminding me of that scene in The Force Awakens when Ray is drawn to Luke's lightsaber. She doesn't know why she's drawn to it, but as soon as she touches it, as soon as she reaches out and grabs it, she gets this swift but overwhelming glimpse of what is about to happen in her future. And it's so overwhelming that it knocks her to the ground.
Here you find Jesus get down on his knees to pray and find comfort in the arms of his father, and he gets a sudden but overwhelming glimpse of the wrath of God against our sin, and he almost dies from it. Just the sight of it. So he prays three times, Father. If there's any other way, There's any other way, let this cup pass from me. Had Jesus ever prayed another prayer?
that had not been answered. Yet this one is not answered at all. For me. Because there was no other way. Isaiah 51:17 describes God's wrath against our sin like a toxic cup.
A cup of wrath, who have drunk the dregs, the bowl of wrath for sin, the cup of staggering. And what you're seeing is Jesus drink this cup of wrath, and it is literally making him stagger. That cup was going to be offered to you and I. It is eternity apart from God because of our sin. And Jesus stepped in the way, and He said, I'll take that cup.
And he drank it for us. Jonathan Edwards describes this moment like being in front of a gigantic dam that breaks. I was doing some ministry in Nevada, and one of the days I was at the Hoover Dam, and you may have seen that this magnificent structure that just holds back a body of water that is hard to get your mind around, is how big it is. Imagine that you were standing a few hundred feet down from that dam in the valley below it. And you look up and you see a crack begin to form in the dam, and then one of the bricks spring out of it, then five or six, and then the entire thing breaks open, and a wall of water five or six hundred feet high comes rushing down that valley.
You've got nowhere to go. You can't outrun it. You know that death is certain. Edward says, as that wall of water is coming to you, about to sweep you away, suddenly the ground before you opens up a gigantic chasm, and all the water goes into the chasm beneath you so that not a drop of it touches you. He said, This is what Jesus did in Gethsemane: the wrath of God was coming against our sin.
And Jesus stepped in the way and said, I'll take every drop of it, so not a bit of it remains for them. The cup was offered, and Jesus took it. He drank it to the dregs. He turned it over on the table and he said, It is finished. If I had been there and I had tried to stop Jesus, if I had said, no, no, no, what are you doing?
Don't do that. Jesus would have said, no. There is no other way, either you drink this or I drink this. And if you drink it, that you're apart from me forever. I'm going to go onto the cross and I'm going to drink the cup of God's wrath because your salvation is something only I can accomplish.
You know Jonathan Edwards. The Puritan theologian went on to ask the question. He said, why? Why do you think God showed Jesus this in Gethsemane? Why give him a glimpse before it actually began?
I mean, it's almost. Cruel. It's almost a little dangerous. A little risky because what if Jesus had lost his nerve at the sight? What if Jesus had backed down?
What if he had not gone through with the cross? Why not wait until Jesus was secured by nails to the cross to then give him the glimpse of this? Terrible reality. Jonathan Edwards' answer, which I think is correct, and I'll paraphrase, but it His answer was this, it was so we look at this. It was so we could see Jesus go to the cross voluntarily.
Knowing full well what he was about to experience.
So that his love for us will be put on display even more. God wanted you and me to see Jesus. See the wrath of God. To see what he was about to experience. and to voluntarily choose to go into it so that we would know.
That it was not this situation that he just got caught up in. He knew exactly what he was going to face for us, and he chose to do it with eagerness and joy because of his love for us. He wanted us to behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we would be called the children of God, because God was demonstrating his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. There was no other way. He was truly abandoned for us.
You're listening to pastor and author J.D. Greer on Summit Life. This month we are offering Pastor JD's foundational book, Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart, to everyone who gives toward our mission.
So, Pastor JD, what do you hope readers will take away from this book? My prayer is that people will finally find that security in Christ and that assurance of heaven that they long for. That God wants you to have. It's like a father wants their children to be assured of his relationship to them. When I go away on a business trip, I never say to my kids, Hey kids, you know, I'm gonna come back, I love you, I think about you every day, I'm gonna bring you surprises when I get back.
Or maybe I'm not really your dad at all. You know, why don't you think about that while I'm gone and let that compel you to become better children, right? I mean, no dad would say that. No, no. Because I want my kids to know that whether they're good or bad, whether they succeed or fail.
My love for them doesn't change, and God wants us to have that knowledge. The other thing I realize is that all the great acts of obedience in your life, all of them, Arise when you are assured of your salvation. And so when I think that, then I'm actually, I'm able to sacrifice. I'm able to resist temptation.
So that's what I hope this book does, and that's why we offer it. It's a little, honestly, a little bigger, bulkier than most of our. Are things that we do, but we really wanted to make it available to our audience because I mean, really, it's just a way of saying thank you to so many of you who are so generous to us and allow us to do what we do. Thanks, JD. You can reserve your copy today at jdgreer.com.
Again, it's titled Stop Asking Jesus into Your Heart, and it comes with our thanks for your support. Call 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220. Or you can give and request the book online at jdgreer.com, and we'll immediately send you the e-book access by email. I'm Molly Vitovich, inviting you to join us again tomorrow as we continue the teaching series titled Instead of Me on Summit Life with J.D.
Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.
