Brother Gary Sunday Morning 3/29/15

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 3/29/15

Mat 26:26  And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

Mat 26:27  And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;

Mat 26:28  For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Jesus was there with His disciples.  It appears that they had already eaten and this was a separate occasion.  He took the bread, broke it and said, “This is my body which is broken for you.”  Then He took the cup and said, “Drink ye all of it for this is my blood of the New Testament.” 

Without the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ there could be no new covenant written on our heart.  Without Him giving us life, our heart could not be changed.

Mat 26:30  And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.

It is so interesting that Old Testament worship had the singing of hymns as a part of it.  We are blessed to have hymns to sing.  I believe the hymns they sang were Psalms 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, and/or 118. 

They sang a hymn.  Whether they sang all of them, we don’t know.  The hymns they sang usually are recorded in the book of Psalms as we know it.  They were singing that which was inspired by God.  It was not just chanting or off the wall.  It had real meaning and bearing to it.

Mat 26:31  Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.

This exact thing happened with Jesus and His disciples.

Mat 26:32  But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.

Mat 26:33  Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.

Mat 26:34  Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.

Mat 26:35  Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples.

This is a very sad setting.  The message doesn’t end sad but this is a sad setting in the scripture.  Jesus was in a particular moment in his life that would have a great bearing on all mankind.

You and I don’t choose when battles will come.  We don’t choose, “This would be a good time to have this trial or for this to come across our way.”  We don’t have the power of choice in that.

Jesus did not lose his focus at this point.  We will be challenged to stay on course and especially so in crucial times of our life.  This morning I am of the conviction that there is no time in our life to get off course. 

May God help me and you to know this morning that even though the eleven got off course according to the Word of God, none of them acknowledged that they planned to draw back.  But they did.  The important thing is that Jesus stayed on course.

Mat 26:36  Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.

Mat 26:37  And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.

Mat 26:38  Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.

They had been at the Lord’s Supper and left there.  Judas had left the eleven.  They sang a hymn.  Jesus went to the Mt of Olives and spent time there and now He was going to Gethsemane. 

Jesus often resorted there in prayer.  It is vital that you have a place of prayer.  He said to James, John, and Peter that He was sorrowful and very heavy and instructed them to tarry there and watch with Him. 

The Bible says that He went a little further.

Mat 26:39  And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

Jesus’ words were this, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful.”  We know that Jesus was the Lamb of God without blemish and without spot that came from heaven, a land of no sin, to a land of darkness.  He came into the world as a babe and came with a definite purpose to bring God to us.

He came and would not have had to go to the cross.  May God help me and every one of us to realize that He chose the cross to buy eternal life for you and me.  Jesus himself said, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful.”

Jesus was so burdened and desirous of going through everything that He might by the grace of God taste death for every man and buy eternal salvation for every one of us. 

He was so sorrowful that His strength and vigor began to leave Him.  He recognized, “I have reached a point of exhaustion and desire to finish the course because there is so much at state.”  He looked down through time and saw us that would come and did not want to fail. 

Consider the heaviness of Jesus’ soul.  It was heavy with overwhelming anguish.  There are those of us that have felt the fear of going to a dentist how heavy it makes us feel.  One man wrote, “If you have never experienced anxiety I ask that you remember this for when you do.”

If you have experienced anxiety and know what it means to feel extremely anxious about something: To wake up when you should be asleep but your mind has awoken with anxiety, “God what about this?  I am so concerned.”  Sometimes the anxiety is, “God help me to not fail you, to not fail in the gift and the calling that you have entrusted upon me.”

The anxiety of opportunity:  Knowing God as I know Him, this week will be another week of opportunity.  If we will allow our flesh or our humanity, we won’t consider the opportunity.  If we know God as the Apostle Paul did, we realize, “We are bought with a price and are not our own therefore let us glorify God in our body and in our spirit which are His.”

Jesus knew excruciating anxiety.  We think of those we know that had an impact upon us spiritually.  Jesus knew anxiety in the thought, “In order for that life to be changed, I must suffer some things.”  No one ever suffered like Jesus suffered. 

When we think of the anxiety and the heaviness of Jesus, He looked to March 29, 2015 and realized that our victory depended totally upon Him.  The deepest concern of your and my soul, there would be no hope for if it had not been for Jesus Christ recognizing the sorrow and the heaviness was very great.

He the Son of God knew it.  Jesus bare the immeasurable weight of His spirit being tortured.  There are times in our walk with God when the eternal God of heaven allows our spirit to taste just a little bit of hardship and pain.  Before we ever tasted it, Jesus knew it very well.  The heaviness of His soul was immeasurable.

The sorrow of His soul was because He knew what He would face.  In life Jesus faced rejection, never because he was the Son of God.  That couldn’t be changed.  He bore that rejection and felt that rejection.

I think of the marvelous work of the veil of the temple being rent in twain.  We rejoice with joy unspeakable that the barrier between the Jews and the Gentiles, the barrier between individuals and the Kingdom of Heaven has been rent in twain.

He knew humiliation.  When we look upon someone being humiliated we think, “That is so wrong.”  It is wrong of an individual to take advantage of a situation. 

There were false witnesses.  It was a part of the cost so that when you are lied upon, you will be; you might as well brace yourself.  Why would any tell a lie?  They are false witnesses.  It is not what you did wrong, it is what is in them.

The evil in the world made His soul so sorrowful.  Jesus knew that He faced bearing the sin of all mankind. 

They robed him with scarlet.  Our sins were as scarlet.  He did this so that He could identify the exact condition that sinners are in, robed in sin, in heartache, without peace, without joy.  He faced it and wore the change of apparel.

He wore the crown of thorns.  Whether it was intended for pain or mockery.  He wore it.  He counted the cost.  He didn’t have to go through it.  He counted the cost of going through this and then seeing what the results would be.

We cannot praise Him enough.  We can never praise Him too much.

He had to come to terms of being forsaken by all and His heavenly Father not able to look upon Him.

The love of the saints and the strength of that love is extremely strong.  When He was on the cross, ridiculed, tried.  When He carried that cross whether the entire, or a portion, to Him it was the cross.  He bore that cross.  Before He was ever headed up the trail, in Gethsemane He realized that He would bare the cross

Many times people hope that things won’t go like it looks like it will.  We hope that we won’t have to suffer whatever it might be.  Jesus suffered; there was no shortcut.

Unjust trial, abandonment:  His own disciples went off course.  My God help us to stay close to God and when anything would lead us off course, may we have the unction of a hymn to say, “I’m going to stay on course.”

Jesus knew everything.  He knew, that as He laid on the cross, it would have to be picked up, and as painful as it was laying down, it would only increase.  That cross had to be placed into a hole.  You brothers know about building a fence.  Can you imagine the thud of the cross going into that hole? 

There were thieves mocking.  There were those that passed by and wagged their heads and made fun of Him.  They said, “If He is the son of God…”  He was the Son of God.

They entitled Him, “The King of the Jews.”  People have been making titles for a long time.  The loneliness that He went through…

It was a sacrifice acceptable to God for our sin.  The youngest children know already that the price has been paid for their sins to be forgiven.  I preached to an audience where many did not grasp the idea, “I can be forgiven.”

Jesus was willing to be very heavy so that we could be forgiven.  Forgiveness gives such opportunity.  Many times people are headed down the wrong road.  Life is miserable, their conscience is guilty.  Their life is messed up because of sin and bad choices.  If they would repent and truly get saved, they would find a place of forgiveness.  It opens a new door of opportunity. 

People who are hopeless, desolate, their minds shot because of sin and drugs.  If they repent and find forgiveness, a door of opportunity opens up.  The door opens not just to spiritual things, it opens a door of opportunity to life.

Jesus suffered and His suffering brought healing, hope, light, and opportunity.  It brought conversion and new creature.  Let us consider the purchase the blood of Christ brought for us.

He purchased forgiveness.  It is wonderful.  You look at a life that has such pain because of sin.  To think they can be forgiven!  Their sin cast as far as the east is from the west and the sin buried in the sea of forgetfulness.

It purchases sanctification.  Dying to self.  If people think of it as hard, they don’t understand the blessing of having the carnal man removed.  The blood of Jesus brought our unity.

The body of Christ has many members but we are all one.  The blood of Christ breaks the thought of superiority.  We are all brothers and sisters and Christ is the head.

The price could only be paid by Jesus Christ.

The heaviness of a life out of course:  in a terrible plane accident, 150 passengers were killed, the co-pilot intentionally put the plane off course and it crashed.  They locked the pilot out of the cockpit and the plane crashed.

Do we realize what it is like to have a plane out of course, someone take over our life that plans to destroy us?  You precious children and young people are blessed at a young age to realize, “We are not our own, we are bought with a price.”

Get that education so that you can be used of God.  Use your talents for God at a young age.  We too have been bought with a price and our age is no excuse to not use our time for Christ.  If we fail to seek God, our life will be full of so many things.  The heaviness of lives that are off course! 

We cannot afford a newspaper.  It is not the money but the terrible things that we read there we cannot afford to have in our mind.  Don’t be afraid to question a teacher.  If the teacher doesn’t want to talk to you then they shouldn’t be teaching.  We need to be fearless when it comes to these little souls. 

Lift a high standard as you teach.  We live in a terrible day.  Jesus suffered heaviness.  I think of people that have been abandoned.  Some by their own family, some by their husbands, some by their relatives, they know you one day and the next they are gone without a word.  Only Jesus can bring healing.  No matter what they have done, Jesus suffered so that you could be well.  You don’t have to repeat what your mother did.

In an altar of prayer, I met Jesus Christ.  He understands heaviness, and anxiety.  He prayed through it and yielded.  He concluded by saying, “Not my will but thy will be done.”

At that time an angel appeared strengthening Him.

Paul wrote, “You are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God’s.”  Jesus paid it all.

You can become a convertible.  Your life can be in the wrecking yard or almost headed there, but when you come to Jesus Christ, way back then He paid it all.

1Pe 1:18  Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;

1Pe 1:19  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

Isn’t that wonderful, we are redeemed by the blood!  We are blessed to know that Jesus suffered all things so that we could be His children.

Rev 1:5  And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

Rev 1:6  And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

John wrote this and when He was on that Isle of Patmos he looked back and said, “Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sin.”

Isa 53:4  Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

Isa 53:5  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

Isa 53:6  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

We are so blessed this morning that Jesus paid the full price.  He went through everything and came out victorious so that no matter where our need is He is able and ready to supply every need.