Billy Conrad
Matthew 26:38 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”
39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
40 Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?
41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
42 Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.”
43 And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy.
44 So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.
We read in verse 38 that Jesus is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. He is totally distraught with the thought of the cup He is being commanded by the Father to drink: Being abandoned by His disciples, being arrested and beaten, facing the Sanhedrin for a mockery of a trial, being condemned as a blasphemer, being spat upon, beaten, mocked, having His beard ripped out, being beaten so badly He would be unrecognizable as a person.
Isaiah 52:14 But many were amazed when they saw him. His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human, and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man.
Being taken to Pilate who would send Him to Herod where He is mocked and ridiculed before being sent back to Pilate. Pilate tries to let Him go but the crowds cry out for Him to be crucified. Being scourged by the Romans and then taken in and beaten and mocked by the whole Roman guard. A crown of thorns driven into His head and more beatings. Then the crucifixion, the nails in His hands and feet, being hung up on the cross naked before the crowd where more mocking and ridicule will be thrown at Him.
Matthew 27:39 And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads
40 and saying, “You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”
41 Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said,
42 “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him.
And then the real horror: God placing the sins of the whole world upon Him, and the Father and the Spirit forsaking Him when He literally becomes sin for us as He hangs on the cross and dies spiritually in our place.
Matthew 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?”
Left alone on the cross to die physically in our place.
Matthew 27:50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.
As He dies, His spirit will leave His body and descend into hades, the place of the unsaved dead.
Ephesians 4:9 (Now this, “HE ASCENDED”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?
Jesus, struggling in His flesh with drinking this cup asks the disciples to pray with Him, but when He returns to them after making His first request to the Father He finds them sleeping. He tells them again to watch and pray and then makes the statement: “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” This of course was directed at the disciples who wanted to obey Him and watch and pray as He commanded them to, but they were unable to because of the weakness of their flesh. I believe Jesus was also alluding to the battle He was having with His own flesh which did not want to obey the Father’s command to go to the cross and die.
In His struggle He goes and prays to the Father again.
Matthew 26:42 Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.”
He ends His prayer to the Father saying, “Your will be done.” But still He goes and prays the same thing a third time which shows how great and real this struggle was.
Matthew 26:44 So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.
I said all this to make a few points concerning our (your, mine, and Jesus’) struggles against the flesh in doing the will of the Father.
First Jesus.
If Jesus had given into the flesh and not obeyed the Father’s will and plan for His life and had not gone to the cross and not allowed all the above to happen to Him, He would have lived but He would have sinned. And if He persisted in His rebellion against the Father and died in His sin, the Holy Spirit and Father would separate Themselves from His spirit and He would die spiritually, and when His spirit separated from His body and He died physically He would have descended into Hades.
You say, but that’s exactly what happened to Him when He obeyed the Father and went and died spiritually and physically on the cross. Yes, but the difference is that because He obeyed the Father, the Father did not leave Him in Hades. The Father sent the Holy Spirit into Hades to reunite with Jesus spirit, and then reunited His spirit with His body, raised Him from the dead, gave Him an indestructible, incorruptible, eternal body and raised Him up into Heaven and sat Him at His right hand.
Now for us.
Jesus said:
Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
27 For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.
Let’s consider what Jesus is saying in this statement.
Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
First He says, “if anyone” so we know this is for anyone, everyone. If anyone desires to come after Him, follow Him, they must deny themselves and take up their cross. If He means follow Him as their Lord or follow Him in the way He lived or follow Him into Heaven or all of these, the way is to take up our cross. What is our cross? It is the same as Jesus cross, die to our will and do the will of the Father even if it costs us our life.
Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”
Matthew16:26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Next He says, if we want to live in the flesh for what is in the world, even if we gain the whole world, it will cost us our soul. But we know from what the Bible teaches, if we will live to do the will of God, we will abide with Him forever in Heaven!
1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
Matthew 16:27 For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.
Lastly He says, when He returns with the Father and the angels to judge the world “He will reward each according to his works.” We can choose to live our lives for ourselves, doing our will and not the Father’s, pleasing ourselves in the flesh, but it will cost us our souls. Or we can take up our cross and live our life the way Jesus did, always doing the will of the Father and receive an eternal reward in Heaven!
Revelation 22:12 “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”
14 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.
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