"Jesus and the Disciples Enter Gethsemane"

 

Matthew 26:36-38: Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, Sit here while I go and pray over there. And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.

Christ had apparently met frequently with the disciples at Gethsemane, a garden less than ten-minutes walk from Jerusalem's Golden Gate. Still there today, the Gethsemane which means "oil press" was a place of ancient olive trees. Probably an oline oil press was in that location at the bottom of the Mount of Olives. The trees today have a large iron fence protecting them from tourists. The Church of All Nations, as was mentioned earlier, is on the right side of Gethsemane.

Jesus took with him the inner circle of disciples (Peter, James, John) who had also been at the Transfiguration. He left the others in the Garden, and with them in a nearby location the immensity of the Cross caused Him to be sorrowful and distressed in His soul. He asks the disciples to stay with him as the sorrow seemed like death itself. He wanted them to watch with Him.

I receive daily reports on a dear friend and fellow member of the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions who is gravely ill. His wife, who has served for years in nursing, is at his side. She is so thankful for those who watch with her during this extremely difficult time. You can read the tears through the daily reports that are often written in medical terminology, yet express the pathos of the moment. It is a comfort to have others watch with you during a time of great sorrow. Jesus wanted that comfort from Peter, James, and John, yet He was to be denied any sort of resource for the task that would be completed by His death on the Cross. Look ahead to verse 40--they fell asleep at this crucial moment!

Jesus truly bore our sins alone. Rise up and shout Hallelujah to our Great Savior!

"Jesus Predicts that Peter will Deny Him"

 

Matthew 26:33-35: Peter answered and said to Him, Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble. Jesus said to him, Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times. Peter said to Him, Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You! And so said all the disciples.

Peter, not realizing the weakness of his flesh, protested that although all the others should stumble (same word as in 24:10 and translated there "offended") Peter would not stumble. Jesus declared that before the rooster would crow, Peter would deny Christ. Mark adds that the rooster would crow twice (Mark 13:35; 14:66-72) The point is that here we are almost midnight, and Jesus is saying that Peter's denial is literally a handful of hours away. Roosters in those days would start crowing at 3 AM..

Peter is so cinfident that this will not take place, he even vows that he would die for Jesus. The other disciples then displayed the same self-confidence and agreed (not to be outdone) that they also would stay with Jesus to the end. These are fleshly, not spiritual, promises. The flesh is prone to declare its own goodness (Proverbs 20:6).

We need to take warning here, because the day may come when it will be illegal to declare that you are with Christ. Elder Danny Seng sent me "The Greatest Speech" given as testimony before Congress this past year by the father of the Bible club president who was gunned down at Columbine for her faith--literally the first Christian executed in a U.S. public school for her faith. The shooter, a fellow student, asked her to deny Christ or die. I can still see the white casket that all her friends wrote notes on.

I attended R. D. White Elementary School in Glendale from 1961-1964. God was kicked out from the school while I was attending. Supreme Court rulings banned prayer (1962) and Bible reading (1963). I do remember we were permitted to pray for our country on November 22, 1963. A teacher who would stand for their faith would be removed from teaching, because the court wanted children to be kept safe from God and those who would promote such a subversive concept. This morning, 50 years later, R. D. White was emptied out quickly as there was a bomb threat. Six helicopters hovered over the school for three hours, and I could hear them that entire time. My thought was that the state has guaranteed those children safety from God, but that is about all they can guarantee. Because once God departs, man has free reign to do as he pleases. I wonder if any of the teachers, or heaven forbid any of the children offered a prayer during those tense moments.

Peter on his own thought that he did not really have to worry about denying Jesus. He did not need prayer for that, yet when it looked like continuing life might require denying Christ, Peter was first in line to curse the Savior. Jesus later forgave Peter, and may He one day forgive a repentant United States.

"The Assurance of Resurrection in the Midst of Darkness"

 

Matthew 26:32: But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.

This verse stands out as a bright shining light in the midst of great darkness. Jesus has just informed the disciples that they will all flee from Him in fulfillment of Zechariah 13:7. They have all been in school for three years (the length of a seminary education after 4 years of college), and they are all receiving a "F" for their final grade in the course "Faithfulness."

But Jesus does not leave them feeling worthless, which would have been a justified emotion after that statement. Instead, he points them to a future reunion spot, and in doing so reassures them all that there departure from Him at the Cross would be not be final. They would return to Him.

The means of that return would be the resurrection. Jesus speaks of it in the past perfect tense. It is a completed action, and not only that, it is regarded as a past completed action. In fact, it was the resurrection that would bring the disciples back their faith that would waver in the face of the suffering and death of Christ. The resurrection would breath new life into them, and it would then be that they would see Jesus in Galilee. The disciples would see Jesus in Jerusalem also, but the gatehring point where five hundred saw the risen Christ at one time was Galilee. Matthew 28:7 has the angel who stood before the empty tomb reminding the disciples that Jesus was going before them into Galilee. The Scripture here is fulfilled within three days.

We have a life changing message. It turned the disciples from cowards into conquerors, and it can do the same for us as we fully appropriate its meaning. Go out with boldness this week. We have a great message and a great Savior!

"Prediction of the Abandonment of Christ by His Disciples"

 

Matthew 26:30-31: And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said to them, All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.

Again we have two paragraphs each with one verse. Verse 30 states that they sang a hymn at the end of the first Lord's Supper. That was a part of the Passover, and the Psalms 113-118 were traditionally appropriate for the end of Passover. These six Psalms are known as the Hallel (praise) Psalms, and the content of those psalms celebrates the deliverance from Egypt. Psalm 135 is similar in content, and in fact that psalm is known as "Little Hallel."

The location now switches to the Mount of Olives. Apparently, Jesus and the disciples frequented the Garden of Gethsemane for teaching and prayer at different times during His ministry. That Garden is located near the base of the Mount of Olives, which rises on the east of Jerusalem. This is not an extremely high mountain, and would be regarded in California as a foothill. Today, you can see the Golden Gate (permanently blocked by Arabs to prevent the Messiah's entry) from the Garden of Gethsemane. This garden is still there today with olive trees, some of which are dated at 3000 years of age.

Next to the Garden is the Church of All Nations, which had I believe 27 nations pay for its construction (USA was one of them). The claim to fame is that they have in that church what is believed to be the very rock on which Jesus prayed that night. We need to always be careful when we say that a rock or some other object is the exact spot, but as Dr. Gary Cohen (with whom I have co-conducted several trips to Israel) has said at these sites in the Holy Land: "We are always within 200 miles of the exact spot." Of course, that is the basic dimension of Israel, a country today that is about the size of New Jersey

Jesus will enter Jerusalem from that Gate in the End Times. Zechariah 14 says that His feet will touch the Mount of Olives, and the mountain will split in such a way that the Jews will be able to flee Jerusalem. As He and the disciples went out of that Golden Gate to the Mount of Olives, He began to warn them of what was soon to occur, and to impress upon them the untrustworthiness of their own hearts.

It was another of Zechariah's prophecies to which Jesus referrs in the next verse when He tells the disciples that all should be stumbled, or scandalized, because of Him that night. Zechariah 13:7 affirms that God will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep (disciples) will be scattered. The word "stumble" in Greek was used in 24:10 to describe the "offending" of those who will fall away from the Lord in the last days. The "stumbling" here is not final, but rather an emotional moment where the disciples because of lack of proper prayer preparation deserted Christ at His moment of need. The disciples must have felt that none of them would forsake Him whom they loved so dearly. But no man can ever sound the depths of evil in his own heart, which grace alone can overcome. Le tus this week Pray without ceasing.

"Christ Takes the Cup of Blessing"

 

Matthew 26:27-29: Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But i say to you, i will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom.

There were four cups during the Passover meal, and this was the third cup commonly called "The Cup of Blessing." Christ took this moment to announce that this cup was indeed the mark of the establishment of a new covenant. The word covenant (literally "to cut a covenant" implied the shedding of blood. Moses shed blood to establish the covenant in Exodus 24:8. While Moses shed the blood of an animal, the New Covenat is established in the very blood of the One who established the covenant. Notice that Jesus speaks of this as a completed action, yet the atonement on the cross had not yet taken place. In His mind it was indeed accomplished.

Note that this is called a cup. We are not told what is in that cup, and it could have been a non-fermented drink. I would prefer that as would find it abhorent to think that wine, described in the Bible as a mocker (Proverbs 20) would have been used. If the bread was not to have leaven, why would the cup have fermentation? I have been to the church in Newport, Rhode Island, where a Mr. Welch was sitting over 150 years ago during a Communion Service and was convicted about the use of alcoholic beverage in the Lord's Supper. He invented grape juice , which is now used in many Protestant churches. The Lord blessed him with great wealth, and a company that still thrives today.

Jesus did not participate in that which was to be a memorial of His own death, but He looked forward to the time when, as a result of that sacrifice, He would have all His own gathered about Him in the Father's kingdom, to celebrate together the full glorious fruit of redemption. It was at that time that He will see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied (Isaiah 53:11).

"Judas Exposed as the Betrayer as the Last Supper is Instituted"

 

Matthew 26:25-26: Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, Rabbi, is it I? He said to him, You have said it.

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat; this is My body.

Two paragraphs that are each one short sentence are packed with pathos and fulfillment of Scripture.

First, Judas in verse 25 finally asks Jesus if it is he that Christ has been referring to. Jesus answers in the affirmative, but the other disciples apparently were not aware. It is suggested that they thought that Judas was to complete some work as the treasurer--helping the poor would have been their guess. The enemy is right under your roof would be a modern way of paraphrasing Psalm 41:9. David in that psalm spoke not only of an incident in his own life, but also predicted what would happen to Christ: Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. What an insult it must have been to our Lord who had given so much of Himself to his disciples to have this reaction by Judas.

Matthew gives the impression that Judas left at this poinit, and I have always thought that Judas would not have been present for the institution of the Lord's Table. Yet, in Luke 22, we find these words after the institution of the Lord's Table. Thus, the significance of the exact moment of Judas departure to betray Christ is not chronologically pinpointed. The Apostle John in John 13:21-30 gives the most detailed description of the scene, and it ends with the statement that after Judas received the bread with the bitter herbs he left and it was night. For Judas, it became dark because of his sin. John also mentions that Satan personally posssessed Judas at the moment that he is given the bread.

The last official Passover then in verse 26 becomes the First Lord's Supper. Jesus is the type represented in both services, and thus it is appropriate that He utilizes this moment to make the point. Jesus was the passover lamb that was slain by the Israelites all those years in the Old Testament. When they were eating the lamb, they were in reality spiritually eating Jesus. Now, he makes the statement in point of fact with the bread--the staff of life. Just as they spiritually were eating Christ's body as they partook of the lamb in the Passover Meal, so it is a spiritual eating of Christ's body as they took the bread. The disciples would not have misunderstood that Christ's body was spiritually present in the bread--because jesus was sitting right there with them and they were not physically eating him. It is sad that for about 1200 years this was the implication given by the church that they could literally eat Christ. The Scriptures make it plain that this is a spiritual presence in the supper.

Matthew 26:23-24: He answered and said, He who dipped his hand with Me in the dish will betray Me. The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.

Jesus followed the basic pattern of the passover. The disciples had made it ready with the roasted lamb, the bitter herbs, and unleavened bread, following the directions in Exodus 12 (and following). Judas had been allowed the permission to enjoy the tenderest expressions of the love of Jesus, even sharing with Him in the dish of bitter herbs. Judas would take his bread and dip in that bitter herb with Jesus. The bitter herbs were to remind Israel of their time in bondage in Egypt. Egypt is a picture in the Old Testament of hell just as crossing the Jordan is a picture of entering heaven. How appropriate that Judas, who would betray the One who came to bring Israel out of the bondage of sin, would be reminded of the suffering of the past with the very One who would lead the way to eternal life.

Jesus says it would be better if the betrayer had never been born. What does that signify? Basically, Jesus is pointing out to the disciples that the betrayer has never been a believer, and in fact, there is no hope at all that he will believe. Judas went to eternal torment soon after he betrayed Jesus. Theologically, here is the best proof text against the concept that we all end up in heaven eventually. That is called "Universalism" and is practiced especially by the "science of mind" cults like Unity School of Christianity, Religious Science, and Christian Science (Mary Baker Eddy). Liberals in Protestant denominations also would be in somewhat agreement that in the end everybody gets to heaven. That is a very nice idea, but it is never found in Scripture. Judas, like all who reject Jesus as Savior, would have been better off to have never been born. That also signifies that Judas will be tormented endlessly, a horrific fate. Accordingly, since indeed God permitted the birth of Judas, we have an exact demonstration that God has elected some to everlasting punishment (a doctrine rejected by all cults).