Sermon Tone Analysis

What is precious to you?

Jesus Christ is about to leave his beloved disciples and he gives them God’s most precious gift; the gift of his body and blood symbolically and then literally

ILLUSTR BROOK KIDRON FROM UPPER ROOM TO MT OLIVES

Let’s now look at the precious blood of our saviour; we know it was shed at Calvary but let us look as God calls us to remember

—The most solemn truth in the gospel is that the only thing Christ left down here is His blood.

I) A Place of Submission ()

The Blood Dripped in the Garden of Gethsemane as he Prayed

A) The Pollution of Sin

Suppose we were to go through this congregation this morning and put your sin in it, and yours, and yours, and yours, and yours, and yours, and yours, and yours, and yours, and yours, and yours, and yours, and yours—put it right in there.

Not some of your sin, all of your sin—every vile thought; every wicked deed; every hurtful, hateful thing; all of the sin of this congregation; and then the sin of this city; and then the sin of this nation; and then the sin of this world.

Now, put it in the cup and take all the sins of the past and all of the sins of the future, distill it, put it in this cup.

Put rape in there.

Put sodomy in there.

Put child abuse in there.

Put Hitler’s gas ovens in there.

Put murder in there.

Put blasphemy in there.

Put witchcraft in there.

Put filth in there.

And say, “Jesus, drink it.

Drink it.

Drink the bitter dregs.

Become sin; not just bear sin, but become sin.”

I didn’t say He sinned.

He never sinned.

But He was “made to be sin for us,” because He carried that sin to the cross.

B) The Punishment of Sin

The price that Jesus paid, only the damned in hell can begin to know; but they’ll never know, because they’re only paying their sin.

He paid all of the sin of all of the people for all time.

And, friend, if that doesn’t move your heart, your heart is harder than a rock.

That is the content of that cup.

No wonder Jesus said, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” (Matthew 26:39)

Can you see Him? His face is matted with blood and dirt—red blood and black dirt on His face.

His heart is broken.

This is the way they found Him when Judas planted that kiss of shame upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

He said, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful.”

The word sorrowful has the idea of being separated, alone.

Before those nails ever went into the hands of Jesus, they had already come into His soul.

Gethsemane was the vestibule of Calvary.

The victory really was won in Gethsemane, not on Calvary.

It was paid for at Calvary.

It was won in Gethsemane—Jesus knowing what He would go through.

There’s another word that Jesus used when He said “exceeding sorrowful,” and that word exceeding has the idea of being surrounded with no way out, no escape, no hope; absolute, abject suffering.

And Jesus paid that for me and for you.

The specifics of the pain.

“Being in an agony … his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”

Christ experienced pain in two areas—mental and physical.

First, the mental pain.

“Agony.”

The word translated “agony” speaks of “severe mental struggles and emotions … anguish” (Thayer).

Thus “agony” shows the great stress of mind that was upon Christ regarding Calvary.

Second, the physical pain.

“His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”

Medically this condition is called “hematidrosis.”

This phenomenon is very painful and death threatening.

It can occur under the pressure of great emotional disturbance.

Blood becomes mingled with a person’s sweat and comes through the sweat glands.

That an emotional disturbance can affect the blood in our body is demonstrated by the common fact that some emotional disturbances cause blood to rise to the face and one becomes red in the face—we call it blushing.

Luke is the only Gospel to report this affliction during Christ’s praying, but Luke is a physician and it is fitting that he report this unusual medical condition.

II) A Place of Oppression

A) Godless Religion ()

He bled in the priests Palace/house

Bled for accusation false

Bled for blasphemy false

• The belittling in the cruelty.

“The men [soldiers] that held Jesus mocked him” (Luke 22:63).

You mock when you lack substance to factually accuse.

These soldiers laughed with scorn at Christ, they belittled Him in their mockery.

In judgment these soldiers will face the glorified Christ with horror at what they did to Him on earth.

• The beating in the cruelty.

“Struck Him” (Luke 22:64).

Christ was brutally beaten again and again by His enemies.

By the time He was taken to Calvary, His body had been literally mauled by beatings.

The venom against Christ was so great that sinful men relished the brutal beating of Christ.

• The blindfold in the cruelty.

“When they had blindfolded him, they struck him on the face, and asked him, saying, Prophesy, who is it that smote thee” (Luke 22:64).

This was a most contemptuous practice by the soldiers.

Little did they realize that Christ did indeed know the source of every hitting of His face, and the one doing this cruelty, if unrepentant, will face this fact in judgment.

• The blasphemy in the cruelty.

“Many other things blasphemously spake they against him” (Luke 22:65).

All the evil was blasphemy, since it was all irreverent conduct and treated things sacred with great contempt.

These trials were in total great blasphemy.

B) Godless Government ()

He bled as a criminal

Blood of the Oppressed

• The deviltry of the court.

“I will therefore chastise him, and release him” (Luke 23:16).

This was a bloody, cruel conduct.

To “chastise” a person involved a cruel, brutal, bloody beating.

First, the injustice of the deviltry.

If a man is innocent, why treat him so meanly?

To cruelly whip an innocent man is not justice at all.

Second, the intent of the deviltry.

Pilate was obviously hoping to appease the accusers who he realized were very upset with Christ.

He thought giving Christ a great beating would calm their animosity.

But it did not.

The accusers wanted Christ dead not just cruelly beaten.

Pilate thought he could go both directions at once—free Christ because innocent, yet punish Christ to satisfy His accusers.

The Romans would, according to custom, scourge a condemned criminal before he was put to death.

The Roman scourge, also called the "flagrum" or "flagellum" was a short whip made of two or three leather (ox-hide) thongs or ropes connected to a handle as in the sketch above.