SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/22/2024 10:39 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-6 “Sorrow”
My Worship Time
Focus: Matthew 26:36-38
Message of the verses: “36 Then Jesus came
with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, "Sit
here while I go over there and pray." 37 And He took with Him Peter and
the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. 38 Then He said
to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here
and keep watch with Me.’”
I want to talk about the phrase “My soul is deeply
grieved, to the point of death.” The
question is can a person get so grieved and die from it? The answer is yes and we see in the other
gospel accounts that angels had to come and minister to Jesus because of this
grief. I have a movie at home entitled “Undaunted”
which tells the story of the early life of Josh McDowell, and his early life
was a huge challenge, especially for his mother. His mother was a very big woman and his
father was a drunk. When people came
over to their house they had to tie up his father in the barn because he was a
drunk. There was a man how sexually
abused him when he was young which also was part of the problem. All his mother wanted for him was to see him graduate
from high school, and once he did his mother because of her deep grief just
died. Many know the story of Josh
McDowell’s turning to Christ as he became a strong believer and has wrote many
books and spoke at many different conferences.
Two things happened after the death of his mother. The first one was that his drunken father
became a believer, and this actually upset Josh because of all the harm he had
done to his wife. Second was that he
confronted the man who had abused him to make sure that he would not do that
again. The story in the town that he
lived in was that his drunken father had became a believer in Jesus Christ and
was telling others how they too could be saved.
The point I am making is that deep grief can cause death.
Now
back to some quotations from John MacArthur as I desire to complete this
section this morning. “It is therefore
hardly surprising that Jesus told Peter, James, and John, “My soul is deeply
grieved, to the point of death.’ Perilupos carries the idea of being
surrounded by sorrow. It is possible to
die from sorrow just as from other strong emotions, such as fright and
anger. Jesus’ anguish was enough to kill
Him and doubtlessly would have done so had He not been divinely preserved for
another kind of death.
“The
agony of this temptation was unequaled.
It was Jesus’ most intense struggle with Satan, more agonizing even than
the encounter in the wilderness. The
magnitude of His grief apparently caused Jesus’ subcutaneous capillaries to
dilate and burst. As the capillaries burst
under the pressure of deep distress and blood escaped through the pores of His skin,
it mingled with His sweat, falling down upon the ground’ (Luke 22:44). It was to this experience, no doubt, that the
writer of Hebrews referred in saying that Jesus ‘offered up both prayers and
supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death’
(Heb. 5:7).
“Jesus was not grieved because of fear He would
succumb to Satan’s temptations. As
mentioned above, He had already declared that Satan ‘has nothing in Me,’ meaning
that there was no sin or evil in Him in which temptation could take root. Nor was He grieved over a possibility of not
conquering sin or surviving death. He
had repeatedly spoken of His coming resurrection and even of His
ascension. There was no doubt of our
Lord’s mind about the outcome of the cross, by which He would become victor
over sin, death, and the devil. Jesus was deeply grieved, to the
point of death because of His having to become
sin. That was the unbearably
excruciating prospect that made Him sweat great drops of blood. Holiness is totally repulsed by sin. The prophet Habakkuk revealed this when he
wrote, Thine eyes are too pure to approve evil, and Thou canst not look on
wickedness with favor’ (Hab. 1:13).
In that deep sorrow Jesus knew His only solace was
with His heavenly Father, and with each wave of temptation and anguish He
retreated to a place of seclusion some distance away (see vv. 36, 39, 42). Luke reports that ‘He withdrew from them
about a stone’s throw’ (Luke 22:41), which amounted to thirty to fifty yards. The intensity of temptation and of Jesus’
prayer response increased with each of the three sessions and is reflected in
the positions the Lord took. At first He
knelt (Luke 22:41), but as the intensity escalated He fell prostrate on His
face (Matt. 26:39).
While
He went to be alone with His father, Jesus asked His three dear friends to keep
watch with Him, leaving them not only to watch but also to pray in view of
temptation (see v. 41), just as He would be doing.”
We
have finally reached the end of this section and I have to say that this part
of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ has brought new meaning to my heart. Now human being will ever be able to
understand what the Lord Jesus Christ went through while He was in the garden
praying to His Father.
5/22/2024 11:24 AM
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