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sin is the most awful deception
It's a funny thing about sin
when you're tempted
the reward looks so wonderful sin never comes with a bare hook it's gotta look good
and what it promises always looks huge and wonderful
whereas sin itself was so slight
that's before but after its the opposit
if we yeild to temptation
then the reward suddenly crumbles away
the manna turns to worms
nectar the turns to gall
now the act of sin is huge
and the reward is slight
sin is a cheat
I want you to consider
how much
space
the bible has given to the central theme of the cross
only forty two days of our Lord's life are alluded to
in the New Testament only forty two days
that's approximately
one day in every three fifty
and yet approximately thirty verses
out of eighty nine
in the gospels
revolve around passion week
and about half of thoughs
are about the last twenty four hours
if the whole bible
was dedicated to just the life of christ
giving each day
as much
space
as it now gives
to his last day
we would have a bible
approximately two
hundred thousand pages
so that gives some idea
of the importance of the cross event
and the mark of true religion
and true christianity
is always to give the same sense of proportion
to the cross as God has done
that is why Paul could say we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord
I determined to know nothing among you
he said but Christ
and him crucified
we're going to look
at the commencement
of the end
we're going to look
at the story first of gethsemane
we're going to see how God intervened and what he did
and how it works I am reading to you from matthew
the twenty sixth chapter
and beginning at verse thirty six
then Jesus went with them to a place called gethsemane
he said to his disciples sit here
while I go yonder
and pray
and taking with him Peter
and the two sons of Zebedee and he began to be sorrowful and troubled
Mark's gospel says he was greatly distressed
the greek expression
gives the idea of someone that has seen a specter (haunts or disturbs the mind)
greatly distressed
he says my soul is very sorrowful even to death remain here and watch with me
and going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed my Father if it be possible
let this cup pass from me never the less not as I will but as Thou wilt
and he came to the disciples he found them sleeping
he said to Peter so could you not watch with me one hour?
watch and pray
that you may not enter into temptation
the Spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak
this is one of the most mysterious pictures all of
history and biography
you know when Socrates died he was very calm
He said to one of his disciples now remember i owe a
chicken
to somebody pay my debt
Socrates was calm as on a
summers day taking a stroll
why is Jesus so upset is he more cowardly than Socrates? socrates
the only answer
is that the weight of the sin of the world
is now resting upon Christ
he had sung a hymn
just an hour or so before
with the disciples he had joyously led out of the great
Hallel from the book of Psalms
as he enters Gethsemane
a mysterious weight
begins to fall upon him
i can imagine him stumbling in those last steps
then he says my soul is exceedingly sorrowful
and as Mark says he's greatly distressed and as Luke says he sweat drops
of blood
can you imagine the pressure that leads a person to sweat drops of blood?
so the difference between Christ and Socrates is that Christ has now become as
sin incarnate
and God is treating him
as though he is dealing with the sinful world
he is there as our substitute
he endured what we deserve
that's the only thing that can explain
mysterious agony of gethsemane
and the cry of dereliction on the cross
my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? it only makes sense if he represents me
there
if he's suffering
what I should have suffered
indeed he's being treated as the devil
there is a fascinating story in 2 Samuel you remember it?
that when that beautiful boy Absalom
rebelled against the king
he ended up suspended between heaven and earth on a tree
it tells about it in 2 Samuel 18
here is Absalom
without spot or blemish
but proud
and rebels against the one who gave him life
he's a figure of satan, lucifer,
who was once
without spot or blemish
but who was very proud
and he rebelled against the God who gave him life
and when you read in 2 Samuel
Chapter 18
about Absalom being caught
and suspended on the tree between heaven and earth that is a preview of when
the son of David another son of David would come
Absalom you remember was David's son
another son of Absalom..of David would come
and be suspended between heaven and earth
in order to atone
for the sins
of the rebels on the world he would take the place of satan himself
the cross was an inverted sword that pierced satan
and destroyed him
so the old testament picture of Absalom suspended between heaven and earth Absalom
the figure of lucifer
because he was so
beautiful
and yet so proud
and rebelled
it's interesting it tells us
in 2 Samuel that
David and his men
went over the brook kedron
into gethsemane
i'm reading from 2 Samuel 15:23
and all the country wept aloud
as all the people
passed by and the king crossed the brook kedron
and all the people passed on toward the wilderness
now to see the significance of that passage in 2 Samuel 15
please look at John
and Chapter 18
John and Chapter 18
at the very beginning when Jesus had spoken these words
he went forth with his disciples across the kidron valley
so where David went
when his rebel son rebelled
Jesus went
when David's
own child
rebelled against him
David and his disciples
went out of Jerusalem
crossed the brook kedron
went through gethsemane
and went up the Mount of Olives
so the son of David
is now retracing
the steps of David because of the rebellion of the jewish nation
his own children
name kedron is interesting it means dark waters
and it's important to know
that all the names in the gospel record have meaning
Jerusalem means foundations of peace because that's where the prince of peace
will come
offering an olive branch
of peace between God and man
gethsemane means the oil press
here Christ would be pressed
down
under the terrible weight
of the sins of the world
he was born in Bethlehem which means the place of bread
he was the bread of life
he was brought up in Nazareth which means the place of the branch
because one of his names in the old testament is
the branch
of the Lord
he did much of his ministry in Capernaum
which means
the place of consolation
he had wonderful fellowship
in Bethany with the sisters
Mary and Martha Bethany means a place of sweetness, the place of dates
palm dates
calvary means the price of the skull
golgotha
and calvary one in the hebrew, aramaic,
and one in the Greek both mean the place of the skull
because of sin the world will become a cemetery
a place of skulls
here we do a little business
indulge a little pleasure
and then we lie down beside the dead
in many places the dust on which we walk
has been man
and so God himself comes down to the cemetery of earth
to the place of the skull
and he will reverse the tide of death
there in John 19:41 it says that in the place
where Jesus was crucified there was a garden
he begins