Sermon Tone Analysis

As a pastor, you are always supposed to preach the message to your own heart before you deliver it to the church.

Some times, God works in unique ways to make sure you get the message.

This week was one of those weeks.

Monday morning, I had been working on this message and it really started coming together.

I was away from studying for a bit, so I kinda put it out of my mind.

On my way back to the office, I pulled up to a stoplight, and my car sputtered out and died, right at a stoplight with nowhere to go.

I couldn’t get it started again and had to flag down a passing deputy to block traffic while some kind men helped me push the car into the median and wait for a tow.

The tow truck came and towed it off, Samantha picked me up, and then she dropped me off here at the church.

I walked back into my office, and my mind immediately began racing.

I started thinking about how we would work out transportation for the week and what adjustments we needed to make to our budget to pay for the repairs and how much time it would eat up, and the list goes on.

You could boil down all the thoughts in my head down to this one question, “How in the world am I going to fix this?”

It was then that I looked down at the very notes I had written about four hours earlier.

God had already answered the question, although I still have lots to learn about what it means.

In fact, this is a lesson God has brought me back to repeatedly this week.

This morning, that’s what I want to share with you today.

I want you to be able to answer the question, “What do I do when I find out that I am weak?”

We are one week away from Easter, and today, I want us to look at some of the events that occurred the night before Jesus’ death on the cross for us.

These events are going to show us two different ways we could respond when we find out we are weak, and as a spoiler, only one of them actually works.

You can either try to handle it yourself and fall asleep, or you can cry out to the Father and surrender.

That will make more sense when you see what happened in our passage this morning.

Open your Bibles to .

Jesus and his disciples have been celebrating the Passover supper together.

He has spent a lot of time teaching and talking about the fact that he was leaving and that the Father would send the Holy Spirit to lead and guide the disciples.

He has given us a picture of the new covenant he is about to seal and settle as he took the cup and the bread at the Passover meal and redefined their meaning.

We will look at that some on Friday evening as we observe that same ceremony together.

He and the disciples have left and are now headed to a garden to pray.

It isn’t overstating the point to say that what would transpire over the next several hours would forever change the course of human history.

This story, like so many in Mark, show just how human these men were.

However, it give us an exceptional glimpse into the humanity of Jesus as well.

There is a key phrase Jesus uses with the disciples that we want to unpack together: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

As incredible as it sounds, both Jesus and the disciples demonstrated that our bodies are weak and frail.

However, they both reacted differently to that weakness.

Here’s what we will see: when we are confronted with weakness, we can choose to handle it ourselves and sleep or take it to the Father and surrender.

Read it with me, starting in verse 32...

Jesus and the disciples were tired.

It was late and had been an incredibly long day, but it wasn’t over yet.

In fact, it was about to get much, much worse.

So, how did the disciples respond to their weakness?

So, how did the disciples respond to their weakness?

1) Handle it ourselves.

Think about what is going on for the disciples here.

It is late, and it has been an incredibly long day.

There were all kinds of preparations to make for the Passover meal, so they have been busy.

Then, they ate this big, long, ceremonial meal together.

While they were at the meal, Jesus said some really difficult things to them.

He said that he was going away and they wouldn’t see him for a while.

He told them that one of the disciples at the table with them would betray him and that all the rest of them would fall away.

Despite his confidence, Jesus said that Peter would deny him three times before sunrise.

Jesus also predicted that his disciples would suffer a great deal because of their allegiance to Christ.

Now, as we have seen in Mark, Jesus is broken and trembling under the weight of what will take place.

The disciples are completely wiped out because of their grief over everything that has been said and taken place so far:

luke 22:

Their bodies just can’t handle it, so when Jesus leaves them alone, they keep falling asleep.

On three different occasions, Jesus leaves them and goes off to pray.

Each time he comes back, he finds them asleep when he gets back.

He rebukes them each time, and even that wasn’t enough to keep them awake.

I don’t think the disciples were trying to ignore Jesus.

Like Luke said, their hearts were breaking with grief, so we know they weren’t totally dismissing what Jesus said.

Have you ever tried to stay awake when you are exhausted?

It is next to impossible.

I am sure they tried all the tricks…pinching themselves, rubbing their eyes, moving around a bit, but nothing worked.

Why?

Because they were trying to stay awake using their own strength and their own power.

As Jesus said, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

They wanted to stay awake and be there to support Jesus, but they weren’t able to do it.

Like Luke said, their hearts were breaking with grief, so we know they weren’t totally dismissing what Jesus said.

Have you ever tried to stay awake when you are exhausted?

It is next to impossible.

I am sure they tried all the tricks…pinching themselves, rubbing their eyes, moving around a bit, but nothing worked.

Why?

Because they were trying to stay awake using their own strength and their own power.

That sentence from Jesus is convicting, isn’t it?

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

Let’s pull back the curtain for a minute: Where is your spirit willing, but your flesh is weak?

Is there something in your life that you know you are not supposed to be doing that you keep doing anyway?

Is there something you are supposed to start doing but you just can’t?

Maybe you can identify with the way Paul described the battle that goes on in our heads and hearts:

ro 7:19-

ro 7:19-22

I do what I don’t want to do, and I don’t do what I want to do!

I do what I don’t want to to

There is a battle and a wrestling in my flesh, in my body, and it fights against what I know God is calling me to do.

Understand this, though: the Bible uses the term “flesh” a few different ways.

Sometimes, it is simply referring to our physical bodies that aren’t as strong and as capable as they should be because of the curse of sin that has impacted all of creation.

Other times, like in , it is referring to that part of our nature that is weakened by our old sinful patterns.

For the disciples in our passage in Mark, it is somewhat referring to both.

They were exhausted physically, so their flesh was weak.

However, because they were like us an sinful, they also struggled with an old nature that still gave into sin and temptation.

Jesus wasn’t rebuking them for being tired; he was rebuking them because they were trying to do this on their own and not recognizing their need to cry out to the Father like we see Jesus doing.

We still live in bodies that are weakened by the effects of sin in the world.

That’s why we get sick and things hurt and there are challenges in our mental and physical health.

I am not denying the fact that your physical flesh may be weakened by some disease or disorder.

However, what Jesus rebuked the disciples for is the same thing he would rebuke us for: instead of crying out to God for him to either deliver us from this pain or to give us strength to endure it for his glory, we try to handle it on our own.

If I just try harder, I can overcome my depression or my anxiety.

If I achieve more, I won’t feel so worthless.

If I make more money, I won’t be afraid of the future.

If I have more stuff, then I will finally be happy.

If I can just eat more or have sex more or have a steady relationship, I will finally feel good.

No one wants to be weak, but like the disciples, you can’t rely on your own strength or your own goodness or your own power.

When you find out how weak you are, don’t make the mistake the disciples made.