Sermon: The Spirit Is Willing (Mark 14:26-42)

The Spirit Is Willing
Sunday, July 28th, 2024
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA

Mark 14:26-42

26 And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives. 27 And Jesus saith unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. 28 But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee. 29 But Peter said unto him, Although all shall be offended, yet will not I. 30 And Jesus saith unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. 31 But he spake the more vehemently, If I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any wise. Likewise also said they all.

32 And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray. 33 And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy; 34 And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch. 35 And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36 And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt. 37 And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour? 38 Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak. 39 And again he went away, and prayed, and spake the same words. 40 And when he returned, he found them asleep again, (for their eyes were heavy,) neither wist they what to answer him. 41 And he cometh the third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough, the hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Rise up, let us go; lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand.

Prayer

Father, we thank you for the example of Christ, who teaches us to learn obedience through the things we suffer. We ask now for an increase of grace that we might receive endurance to run and finish our course with joy. We pray all this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

For those of you who were here last Sunday, you may notice that we have the same sermon text all over again. And there are two reasons for that: One is because we only got through verse 36 in our exposition (so we’ve got a few more verses to get through), but second is because this scene and moment in Christ’s life is so significant and so dense with revelation, that I want to explore a little more how to apply these truths in our own lives and sufferings.

• So the outline of my sermon is as follows:
  • 1. First we will review what we covered last week in verses 26-36.
  • 2. Then I’ll briefly expound verses 37-42,
  • 3. And then third and finally we’ll consider the work of the spirit in our lives.

Review of Verses 26-36

We said last week that there is a kind of numerical symmetry in that just as God is three persons in one essence, so also Christ the God-man is three essences in one person.

• The Triune God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three distinct persons who are the One Divine Essence.
• And Jesus Christ is the one Divine Person, The Son, who also joined to himself two other created essences, a human soul and a human body.
  • So who is Jesus? He is fully man and fully God. One Person, two natures (human and divine). One person with three distinct essences (human soul, human flesh, and divinity).
• And so what Mark and the other gospel writers have given us in Gethsemane is a window into how Christ as a perfect man, subordinates his human flesh and human soul to God.
  • And therefore, we who have received the very Spirit of Christ, can learn from Jesus how to do the same.
  • In the words of the Apostle Paul, we are learning how to “walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us” (Rom. 8:4).

Now there were 3 distinct lessons we learned from Jesus that answer the question, “How do I walk with God through the valley of the shadow of death?” Or to put the question another way, “How do you suffer righteously?” “How do you endure pain and sorrow and the many griefs of this life, without sinning?” Jesus is your example par excellence and the first lesson we observed is that:

• 1. Christ prepares himself for suffering by singing and praying with his disciples.
  • It says in verse 26, “And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.”
    • We could also go a few more verses back and observe that Christ eats and fellowships with his disciples as well.
  • So God gives us one another, and He gives us this corporate gathering of the saints around His table, to communicate grace to those who need it.
    • The Apostle James says, “Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms…” (James 5:14).
    • Notice that phrase is any among you afflicted? The Apostle assumes that your afflictions are taking place within the context of the church.
    • All who are baptized are baptized into Christ’s body (the visible church), and as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:26, “if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.”
  • So if you are a Christian, your individual sufferings and afflictions are never actually solitary, they are always as parts to the whole who is Christ. We often feel alone and feel abandoned and feel alienated from the life of the church, and indeed there are times when our infirmities prevent us from being physically present at the public gathering.
    • But remember the promise that Jesus gave to his disciples, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
  • Now despite being an Apostle in the church, Paul found himself like Jesus, alone without any other Christians to help him. He says in 2 Timothy 4:16-18, “At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!”
  • So although Jesus had the fellowship of his disciples, and although Paul had many companions and fellow ministers in the gospel, there usually comes a time in our life when we must face down our fears alone. And yet, because we are members of Christ’s body, we are never completely alone. The Lord stood by Paul and strengthened him. And in Jesus’ case, when all forsook him, His Father was His unbroken source of strength.
  • Summary: So the lesson for us is first, prepare yourself for suffering by being present among the body, by singing and praying and feasting together as we do, and that is how the majority of our trials become tolerable. We endure them together. We bear one another’s burdens together. We suffer and rejoice together. God intended that His grace be ordinarily communicated from one member to another united in Christ.
  • But then also remember that there are extra-ordinary times of crisis when God calls our number, and he permits affliction to so remove us from human society, so that all we have is Him. We might be stuck in the hospital, or stuck in our sickbed at home, or forsaken by all our friends and family. And that is what Jesus experiences here in Gethsemane, total alienation from those who are closest to Him. And yet ever and always, our Father is with us. The Lord will stand by you and never forsake you. It is to this truth that you must cling.
  • Now the second lesson we learn from Jesus is…
• 2. How to be fearful and sorrowful and yet without sin.
  • It says in verses 33-34, “And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy; 34 And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death…”
  • So Jesus teaches us that it is natural to our bodies to fear pain and fear death for ourselves and others, and yet that fear of suffering can be so governed, and even overcome, when it is directed towards a greater purpose, namely the will of our Father in Heaven.
  • So contrary to the Stoics, who equated passions like sorrow with vice and moral weakness, for them there was no place for sorrow in the life of a wise man, Jesus on the other hands teaches that to be truly human and perfectly human requires us to be sorrowful at times.
    • It is actually a defect in our nature to not feel sadness when there is real evil in the world.
    • This is what Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 1:18, “For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.”
    • And so Christ who in his humanity possessed the fullness of wisdom and fullness of knowledge, also possessed a sorrow unto death.
    • And thus Isaiah 53:3 calls him “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” for “Surely he hath borne our griefs, And carried our sorrows.”
  • So Jesus teaches us that sorrow accompanies knowledge, and grief accompanies wisdom. And yet these passions that can tend to debilitate us, or leave us despondent and depressed, need to not terminate there.
    • For as it says in Psalm 30:5, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”
    • Here on the night of Passover, we behold a perfect man, the lamb of God, fearful and sorrowful unto death, but it does not derail his mission, his passions do not overcome his reason, but instead he governs them by his spirit and directs them to the work His Father sent him to do.
  • When God sends you on a mission, he does not expect you to be unaffected by the obstacles in your path, indeed He permits them to be there.And what He wants you to do is imitate the Lord Jesus and rule your passions like a Godly Emperor rules his kingdom.
    • That means there is a place for sadness and a place for joy. There is a place for hope and there is a place for fear.
    • We see in the Apostle Paul’s ministry that there is even a place for holy anxiety. The same one who says, “be anxious for nothing” (Phil. 4:6) also says, “I feel daily pressures and anxiety for all the churches” (2 Cor. 11:28). And he considers that anxiety appropriate and exemplary.
  • Summary: So a life of Christian perfection does not consist in a life without passions/emotions/feelings. But rather, the perfect humanity of Christ teaches us to govern and direct them to God.
  • The third lesson we learn from Christ is…
• 3. How to pray in suffering.
  • Jesus says in verse 36, “Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.”
    • We said that prayer is the ascent of the mind to God, and that there are three basics steps to prayer:
      • 1. We acknowledge our Father’s infinite power to do all things.
      • 2. We ask Him for what we presently desire.
      • 3. We wait and wrestle and keep on asking, until our desire becomes one with the Father’s. That is what means to say, “not my will, but Yours be done.”
  • There is the excellent line from St. Jerome who says, “The good Lord frequently does not grant what we wish, in order to bestow what we should prefer.”
  • In other words, God always gives us what we would have asked for if we knew as much as He did.
• So those are just three of the many lessons we might learn from this scene in Gethsemane, but let us turn now to consider a fourth lesson in verses 37-42. Recall, Jesus has just told his disciples to keep watch while he prays, and now he comes to check on them.

Verses 37-42

37 And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour? 38 Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak. 39 And again he went away, and prayed, and spake the same words. 40 And when he returned, he found them asleep again, (for their eyes were heavy,) neither wist they what to answer him. 41 And he cometh the third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough, the hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Rise up, let us go; lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand.

• Observe that the disciples fail to do all the things we just learned by example from Jesus.
  • Instead of supporting Jesus in his greatest hour of need, they fall asleep.
  • Instead of ruling their bodies and passions in accord with reason, they let their eyes grow heavy and dim.
  • Instead of praying fervently to the Father for strength to stand firm, they slumber.
  • Three times Jesus comes to them, three times they are found sleeping.
    • Now in the disciples’ defense, it’s the middle of the night. They’ve had a full day, a full meal, the wine is starting to have its effects, and so sleepiness is the most natural thing for them to feel here.
    • And this is why Jesus says, “The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.”
    • Earlier in his ministry he told them, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing” (John 6:63).
• So there is a kind of double lesson in Jesus’ exhortation here.
  • 1. As long as you are in the body, the flesh is going to weigh you down.
    • That is not to say that the body or matter is inherently evil, but rather that because of the sin nature we inherited from Adam, our bodies don’t work like they ought to.
    • In Adam before the Fall, and in Jesus’ perfect humanity, the lowers powers of the body worked in harmony with the higher powers of reason and will. But after the fall, that harmony was broken. The grace of original justice was removed, and that is why sin leads to death. We fell from grace and inherit from Adam flesh that must eventually die.
    • And this what provokes the Apostle Paul to say in Galatians 5:16-17, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”
      • Likewise in Romans 7:23-24 he says, “But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
    • Paul is describing in Himself the weakness of the flesh that Jesus is warning of. Even after we are baptized and united to Christ, so long as this flesh remains, it profits us nothing.
    • And therefore, the second half of this lesson is that…
  • 2. The spirit is willing.
    • When we are born again, and God enlightens our mind, a new principle is implanted within us. This principle goes by many and various names in the New Testament:
      • In Romans 8, Paul calls it, “the law of the Spirit of life” or being “in the spirit” or being “spiritually minded.”
      • In Ephesians he calls it being “in Christ” or putting on, “the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”
      • In Acts it is described as receiving power from on high or receiving the Holy Spirit, and in other places is simply called grace.
    • God graciously gives us His Spirit, so that what was disordered and broken by sin can be reordered and healed by Christ.
      • In this life, the war between flesh and spirit does not stop until death. Flesh will never ever profit us.
      • But in the life to come, that grace and Spirit we receive here, comes to full bloom in the resurrection. And then we too shall share in the perfect bliss of knowing God and loving God and walking in the joy and peace and love of the Spirit forever.
  • Summary: When God gives us His spirit, we are given a new power through which we can wage war and win against sinful flesh. This is the power of faith, hope, and love for God. And the more we exercise this power, and subdue our flesh, the easier it becomes to keep in step with Spirit.
  • So that is the fourth lesson, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
• Now I want to close by highlighting one aspect of the spirit’s work in us, which is to sanctify or make holy.

The Spirit Sanctifies

• What happens when God sanctifies someone or something? First, he separates it, and then he purifies it for His own use.
  • We see this exemplified in the consecration of the high priest.
    • First, God took Israel out from all the other nations. He sanctified them from the world.
    • Then, God took the tribe of Levi out from all the other tribes and set the Levites apart to be His firstborn son.
    • And then God took the sons of Aaron, out from the tribe of Levi to be his holy priests.
    • And then God took one of those priests, out from the rest, to be High Priest, and he alone could enter the holy of holies.
• Now how did all of those sanctifications take place?
  • It says in Hebrews 9:22, “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.”
    • The blood of Passover sanctified Israel from the world.
    • The blood of circumcision sanctified the seed of Abraham from the rest.
    • The blood of bulls and goats sanctified the priests and tabernacle and holy vessels.
    • Where there is a cutting off, a separation from what is common and unclean, there is blood.
• So when God wants to sanctify you, what should you expect? You should expect to see blood. You should expect to see things cut out of your life that are of no use. You should expect to be alienated from the world, because you died to that world.
• This is what the spirit wills against the weakness of our flesh, to say with the Apostle Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).
  • It was by the severing of Christ’s body from his soul, that the blood of the New Testament was ratified.
  • It is by the sprinkling of that same blood upon us that our sins are washed away.
  • And it is on the basis of that most precious blood, that the spirit of eternal life is given unto us.
• May God give you that spirit in greater measure. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.