Wednesday, May 22, 2024

PT-6 "Sorrow" (Matthew 26:36-38)

 

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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