SO MUCH SORROW, SO LITTLE COMFORT

#1) This may be you.

A) Have you ever-experienced fear or worry to the degree that you desperately needed someone to comfort you?

- There will be times where you need someone close to you, someone that can comfort you at that time.

B) Your level of nearness to Jesus, who is our comfort, will be able to help at those times.

- I want to look at an account in the life of Jesus and the nearness of His disciples.

C) Matthew 26:36-45 Very quickly let me give you a summary of what precedes this event.

- Just observed the Passover.
- Jesus then instituted the observance of the Lord Supper.
- Jesus then announced and identified Judas as the betrayer.
- After the supper Jesus and his disciples leave for the garden.

D) This is where our text picks up, this must be one of the saddest accounts we have in all the scriptures.

- As this message is preached I want each of us to figure out where we fit into this message.

- I want you to earnestly apply these verse to your current nearness with God, I want us to examine our position with God today.

#2) A paralyzing fear.

A) I want you to see the condition of Jesus at this moment in scriptures.

- You must always remember Jesus was all man and all God.

- Jesus needed to be comforted at this moment in His life.

- Verse 37 says that Jesus “began to be sorrowful and very heavy”.

- The closer Jesus drew near to that time the greater its effects were on Him.

- We know that in Luke 22:44 Jesus was so afraid that He sweat great drops of blood.

B) Some of you may be thinking Jesus was never afraid of anything, He’s God He can’t be afraid.

- When it says in Verse 38 of our text “exceeding sorrowful” its literal original meaning is...

- Overcome with sorrow so much as to cause ones death.

- Jesus knew what he was very soon going to endure and it caused extreme fear within Him, yet without sin.

- In Marks account, chapter 14 verse 33 it say’s Jesus was “sore amazed” and its literal meaning is...

- To throw into terror or to alarm thoroughly.

C) Jesus was afraid and terrified to the point of sweating blood.

- Jesus was looking to those who were closest to Him for comfort.

- By looking at what Jesus did we see a clear picture of those involved and their nearness to Jesus.

- Lets simply look at the division Jesus made among His disciples.

#3) Are you in or out?

A) In verse 36 Jesus tells 8 out of His 11 remaining disciples to wait outside of the garden.

- In verse 37 He takes Peter, James and John with Him INTO the garden.

- Then in verse 38 Jesus goes a little further all alone.

- All of these disciples were close to Jesus but why did He only take 3 into the garden to pray with Him?

- These are the same 3 that Jesus took to the mount of transfiguration where Moses and Elisha appeared.

- These were the 3 that Jesus felt were closest to Him.

B) This was Jesus inner circle, but lets take a look at all 3 groups.

- Those on the outer edge of the circle.

- Those who were a little further into the garden.

- Finally Jesus who was all alone inside of the garden.

- I want to make it very clear the 8 outside of the garden are not lost, the were disciples of Jesus, they were apostles.

- These 8 were not against Jesus.

- They weren’t like Judas who was out to get Him.

- They loved Jesus.

- Notice the sizes of the outer and inner groups, the closer you get to Jesus the less crowded it becomes.

- The farther you are from Jesus the greater the numbers.

C) Notice what Jesus tells the first group, in verse 36.

- He tells them “just sit here”, these REPRESENT those that God can't depend on.

- They REPRESENT those who put off serving Jesus for another day.

- They REPRESENT those who won't work for the Lord at all.

- These are those who are not as close to Jesus as they COULD BE.

- These are like the man who went to join the Armed Services, Air Force recruiter said, “Join the Air Force and travel by air”. The Navy recruiter said, “Join the Navy and travel by sea”. The Army recruiter said, “Join the Army and travel by land”. But the man said, “I think I’ll join the Coast Guard and just coast”.

- A lot of Christians just want to coast.

- Just as we are looking at 3 groups of people in this text there are also 3 groups in every church.

1. Those who make it happen.
2. Those who watch it happen.
3. Those who don’t know what’s happening at all.

- Jesus told these 8 to just sit here; but the closer you get to Jesus the greater the responsibility becomes.

D) Notice what Jesus tells Peter, James and John in verse 38.

- “Watch with me”.

- All Jesus wanted from these was to be vigilant.

- These were those that were closest to Jesus, and yes they did fall asleep when Jesus asked them to watch.

- Could they have done better? Yes, and so can we.

- At a time in Jesus life when He was near death pouring out his soul in prayer, HE WAS ALONE.

- At a time when all He wanted was to be comforted by those closest to him, HE WAS ALONE.

- Jesus is the one in the center of the garden; He’s in the center of Gods will.

E) At the beginning of this sermon I asked you to measure your nearness to Jesus according to our text.

- Jesus has done all of the hard work; all He wants from us is to draw as near as we can to Him.

- Sometimes we simply get to comfortable, that leads to complacency and apathy.

- Instead lets draw closer to Jesus today.

- How close are you right now?

- Have you trusted in Jesus for eternal life?

- Followed Him in baptism and Church membership?

- One day you may find yourself as terrified as Jesus was in the garden, who will you have to turn too?

- Seek to know Jesus even more today.