NOVEMBER 23 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#32 “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?” (Matthew 26:40)

 

NOVEMBER 23  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#32 

“What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?”  (Matthew 26:40)

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord and my Redeemer, what is man (?), and certainly, what am I (?)

 that the Son of God would suffer and die the cruelest death, and to 

offer Himself as the Passover Lamb to deliver the undeserving?!?! 

Lord, I plead as did the thief on the cross: 

“Lord, remember me [now that] You [have] come into

 Your kingdom!” (Luke 23:42)    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus  has just made His Crucifixion personal with this Question He 

asked as He was in the Garden of Gethsemane after eating the 

Passover with His disciples. Judas has left the group to betray Jesus

 to the chief priests, Peter has sworn to die defending Jesus, and the

 other 10 disciples had followed Jesus to the Garden and Jesus has told

 them to “Sit here…” while He went to pray but Jesus left them with a

 serious command: “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.

 Stay here and watch with Me.” (Matthew 26:38) 

So the disciples knew this was a critical time and yet they fell victim

 to the world because it was late and they were tired so even though 

Jesus had just commanded them to “watch with Me” that they fell 

asleep and Matthew records: “Then He came to the disciples

 and found them sleeping…” (Matthew 26:40) It is at this point 

that we all find ourselves guilty of not watching and we know we are

 guilty as we answer Jesus when He asks us as He catches us 

sleeping instead of “watching” with Him — 

“What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?”  (Matthew 26:40) 

—It was after Jesus asked this direct personal Question that Jesus 

then made it clear that we were putting our souls in danger when He

 said immediately: “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. 

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41) 

Jesus never asks a Question, and especially when He has made

 the Question a personal one, without leaving us with a Truth of God

 that if we apply it to our daily lives we will be blessed. Jesus does not

 leave anything to “interpretation” because He makes it simple and plain,

 or as Pastor Steve says, “Put the cookies on the bottom shelf 

so everyone can get to them!”  Jesus simply commanded us to

 “Watch and pray…” which is within everyone’s capabilities and Jesus

 gave us some helpful incentives because if we “Watch and pray…” 

as He commands us then the problem of us falling victim to the “flesh” 

and entering into the “temptation” of the world will be averted. 

The Lesson we should learn is that 

God intends for mankind to “enter into His labors with Him” 

and to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. 

God could have made us robots without the ability to “fall into temptation”

 but instead God gave us freewill and commands us to “Watch and pray”

 with Him and it is through “obedience” to His Word that our weak

 flesh will be strengthened and we will have the strength to pull others

 from the pit. Jesus confirms the importance of being “obedient” to the Father:

 “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.’” (Matthew 26:42) 

This passage makes me think about the song “Trust And Obey” and Jesus

 makes it clear that “there is no other way” — so when we think about

 the Garden of Gethsemane we should think of it as another 

“Great Commission” — 

“Watch and Pray”!!! 

NOVEMBER 22 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#32 “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?” (Matthew 26:40)

 

NOVEMBER 22  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#32 

“What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?”  (Matthew 26:40)

LIVING FOR JESUS -Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord when I stop and realize what You gave in terms of Yourself

 for the good of others, I am ashamed at what little I have done for

 the eternal security of even my own family. Lord, forgive me of the sin

 of omission and may I from this day forward look for each opportunity

 that You will place in my life that through serving those in need

 that I will be serving You.  Lord You gave Yourself without conditions that

 we may inherit the kingdom — an inheritance that You paid so high

 a price for but gave freely, Lord let me die to the old sinful self and

 serve others as You served, not for my benefit, but for the Glory of God!   

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has just shared the Passover with His disciples and made it 

clear that this Passover would be His Last Passover until He partakes of

 the Passover “with [them] in My Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:29)

 which is a very powerful statement to His disciples in light of the fact that 

Jesus has been talking about His Imminent Death as the Passover Lamb! 

Jesus and His disciples rose from the Passover Meal and have now

 entered into the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus told them, 

“Sit here while I go and pray over there.” (Matthew 26:36) 

Matthew then writes: “And [Jesus] took with Him Peter and

 the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and 

deeply distressed.” (Matthew 26:37) 

Peter had just sworn his allegiance to Jesus up to and including

 his own death so when Peter hears Jesus saying He was going to “pray”

 and then observes that Jesus is “sorrowful and deeply distressed” 

and knowing that Jesus has announced His Imminent Death it is 

understandable that Peter would have been concerned —

 but when Jesus said to them, 

“My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, 

even to death. Stay here and watch with Me” 

(Matthew 26:38) 

that you would certainly think Peter would be on guard!? But  alas,

 “[Jesus] 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.” 

(Matthew 26:39) 

In quick succession Jesus has announced His Death, His Burial, 

and His Resurrection, and now Jesus makes it clear that He would 

meet them in “My Father’s kingdom”.      

Jesus had at His Last Passover Supper demonstrated His body 

would be broken and His blood shed for the “remission of sin”,

 Jesus then left the Upper Room Passover with His disciples 

and entered into Gethsemane

 where He began to “pray”, and there in Gethsemane, Jesus became

 “deeply distressed” and “exceedingly sorrowful” and then 

“fell on His face” and Jesus cried out, “O My Father…” 

which should serve as

 the Perfect Example of how we should face 

both life and death by Trusting God The Father! 

Jesus KNOWS that He will be RESURRECTED but the fact that He is

 asking His Father to “let this cup pass from Me” is an indicator that

 JESUS KNOWS that there is going to be great pain involved on the cross!  

Nowhere else in Scripture does it state that Jesus is

 “deeply distressed” nor “exceedingly sorrowful” or that He

 requests His Father to change His situation — so we can be certain 

that Jesus was making the Ultimate Sacrifice!  

Jesus knew that His Father would allow the great weight of ALL SIN 

to be put on His Shoulders and the Father has made it clear from the

 Garden of Eden that the penalty for sin is death!  

Here in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus knows that He must feel

 the pain of death for EVERY SIN ever committed in the 

Past, the Present, and all Future — literally ALL Sin,

 Sin PAST, Sin PRESENT, and all FUTURE Sin!!! 

If Jesus is going to Sacrifice His Innocent Life for ALL SIN 

then He would have to suffer the Penalty for ALL SIN and Jesus knows

 that at some point that the Father would have to abandon His Only

 Begotten Son because God the Father cannot look on sin and it is

 my belief that Jesus is distressed because He has

 NEVER BEFORE been left ALONE by HIS FATHER — 

but for the FATHER to be FAIR AND JUST, JESUS MUST SUFFER 

DEATH ALONE AND SHED HIS BLOOD or the SACRIFICE 

WILL NOT BE ACCEPTABLE! 

That is the Supreme Responsibility Jesus was about to face 

and He was both “distressed” and “sorrowful” on a scale we cannot

 imagine but it tells this 

TRUTH OF GOD — ONLY THROUGH JESUS 

IS THE REMISSION OF SIN POSSIBLE!!! 

It is a small wonder that Jesus is concerned and commanded His

 disciples to “watch with Me” and I can hear the disappointment in His voice

 when the disciples went to sleep on Him and Jesus asked, 

 “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?”  (Matthew 26:40). 

Surely each of us that reads the Scriptures knows the Sacrifice 

was Supreme and those that do not read the Scriptures know that sin

 is a very serious issue in every life so when we become aware that

 Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and that His Purpose 

was to be our Savior then we should accept the challenge to 

“pray and watch with [Jesus] one hour” 

or do you find yourself as I do keeping company with the disciples

 and Peter and we are sleeping on our “watch”?!?!?!