Matthew 26:36--46
I. When we feel like we have “the weight of the world” on us (i.e., pressed), prayer is the answer! (Ray Vander Laan)
A. Insight #1: We will all be pressed.
John 15:20
20 Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
1. v. 36: “Gethsemane” = “Olive Press”
2. “Many “Olive press[es] in Capernaum where JESUS did most of HIS three year ministry.”
3. “That olive press came to symbolize the weight that JESUS carried, the weight that JESUS
felt as HE went to the cross.” (Ray Vander Laan)
4. Olive oil: “connected with anointing and MESSIAH” (Ibid.)
5. “The olive tree was considered the MESSIANIC tree. Two reasons:
a) One...the MESSIAH means to be anointed with olive oil, priest were anointed, kings
were anointed, prophets were anointed...indicated they were gifted an called by GOD”
b) “The second thing about olive trees...when an olive tree gets old they cut it down
because there’s too much trunk for the leaves...the following year, a new branch comes
out of the old olive tree...new fruit and lots of healthy branches.... Now GOD in the Old
Testament compares the unbelieving nation of Israel to an olive tree and HE says, ‘You
didn’t produce any fruit.’ But I was patient. I dug around you. I fertilized you. I kept you
growing, and after a while I see now fruit...so I cut you down.” (Ibid.)
Isaiah 11:1--4
1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch
will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him-- the Spirit of
wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit
of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD-- 3 and he will delight in the fear
of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by
what he hears with his ears; 4 but with righteousness he will judge the
needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will
strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will
slay the wicked.
c) “If JESUS is the ‘Branch,’ then you, Paul says have been grafted in. That means [our]
roots are the Jewish people. That’s our stump.... JESUS is where [we] get our life and
[our] energy, but the key is the olives [we] produce. And if GOD cut down the natural
tree....
(1) “Capernaum” “is the town JESUS pronounces a curse on.” (Ibid.)
Matthew 11:20--24
20 Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had
been performed, because they did not repent. 21 "Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to
you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in
Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22
But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment
than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you
will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been
performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. 24 But I tell you that it
will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you."
(2) “Now what scares me about that curse is that I’m the ‘Capernaum’ of today. I’ve
heard it all...every miracle of JESUS. I’ve seen HIS hand in your lives...and when
you’ve seen JESUS in action, not to respond is an extremely serious thing. And the
strongest curses in the Bible are not for the most evil people, but for the people who
are evil who know better.” (Ibid.)
d) “The word for shoot in Hebrew is of the same word Nazareth.
Matthew 2:21, 23
21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of
Israel. 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was
fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a
Nazarene."
(1) “A ‘Nazarene’ is somebody from shoot town, branch town...JESUS came from
‘Nazareth’ to indicate HE is the ‘Branch.’
6.“Olive oil was not only food, but it was the oil in their lamps, lubricating oil..only preserving
agent, skin care, they used it for almost everything. Like we would use petroleum.” (Ibid.)
a) Which means, whatever is pressed out of us can be used for many different things.
b) “Capernaum”: “like the general motors for crushers...leading industry in...town” (Ibid.)
c) “Here’s how you processed [the olives]: First, you put olives in this sea...take...large
millstone with a stick through it...fasten to a stick in the middle...attach to a donkey...what
it would do to those black olives that were ripe, it would crack them.
(1) “When they would finish cracking these olives...they would put them into a
bag...bring them over to...a large stone column...then lift up...stack those bags of
olives...on base...sat back down large stone pillar on the olives...and leave it stand
there. As that enormous weight begins to sat down heavily on those olives after a few
minutes that very precious oil begins to drip down...into a pit where it is caught. ...they
take the olives out, get another squeezing” (Ibid.)
(2) “This olive pillar is called the olive press, we say ‘Gethsemane.’ Its job is to squeeze
out of the olive its precious oil.... JESUS takes HIS disciples to ‘Caesarea Philippi’ and
tells them to take on ‘the gates of hell’ and then HE shows them how. He goes to
Jerusalem...has HIS last supper then goes out to the garden of the Olive
Press...experienced the weight of what was going to be laid upon HIM...and the weight
of that was so incredibly heavy that it squeezed out of HIM HIS own blood...HE was
heavily pressed...”
(3) “...laid on HIM was the sin of the entire world...the weight was so enormous that HE
said, ‘GOD take it away, but I will do YOUR will.’” (Ibid.)
(4) “The olives are JESUS. What is the weight? [Us!]”... We are what squeezed out of
JESUS HIS own blood... [I] became JESUS’ ‘Gethsemane.’ HE went to hell forever in
six hours.” (Ibid.)
B. Insight #2: Spiritual battles are felt physically. (vv. 37, 41; Luke)
Luke 22:40--46
40 On reaching the place, he said to them, "Pray that you will not fall into temptation." 41 He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. 45 When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 46 "Why are you sleeping?" he asked them. "Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation."
1. “drops of blood”
2. “[S]orrow” produces physical exhaustion! But, it doesn’t reduce or eliminate the temptation.
3. Prayer heightens our “temptation” radar.
1 John 3:5
But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is
no sin.
Colossians 1:13--14
13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the
kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness
of sins.
Luke 12:47--48
47 "That servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or
does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48
But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will
be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much
will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much,
much more will be asked.
C. Just when we think the pressing is over, we get pressed more.
II. Am I being pressed? Pray and trust in the one who went through it victoriously!
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