By the physical need rather than the spiritual need, the phrase saying the same words means Jesus prayed the same thing: "Not my will, but thy will be done." In other words, three times he interceded the same prayers, "My father, if this is your will, give me the strength to endure it and may your will be done." If the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, needed to pray in this hour of Temptation, how much more you and I! If Jesus asked the disciples to watch and pray along with him, how much more you and I should desire the Brethren to pray with us and to pray for us.
Sometimes we feel very sad because people may be going through a lot of troubles—troubles after troubles—and yet they still do not pray, they still do not come for prayer meeting. The prayer meeting is the best place for the Believers to share their struggles, and then others will watch and pray with them. But the saddest thing is that there are many who have their prayers answered, and yet they still do not come for prayer meetings. This is a reminder to us that remember the 10 lepers that our Lord Jesus had healed—only one returned to give thanks to God. How sad!
So Jesus was heavy-hearted, exceedingly sorrowful because he's the perfect righteous god without sin. Holiness is always repulsed by sin. He was so troubled in his heart considering the fact that he would become sin for all of us to carry the guilt, the humiliation, and face the justice and wrath of God and even death. But he prayed, and he prayed intensely. He asked the disciples to pray along with him; they failed to do so, but he alone prayed. And what happened? He was empowered, he was strengthened, so much so that he was prepared to take on himself the sins of the world, so much so that now he was prepared to go to the Cross.
This brings us to our final Point, his immense empowerment. Verse 45, "Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, 'Sleep on now, and take your rest.'" In other words, "Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the son of man is betrayed into the hands of Sinners." Verse 46, "Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me." Jesus knew that Judas Iscariot had brought the chief priest and the elders, including the Roman soldiers, to arrest him. And he said, "The hour is at hand," which means the time has come, the time has come for the son of man to be betrayed, the time has come for the son of man to go to the Cross.
But do you notice something very amazing? He commanded his disciples to arise, "Let us be going." To where? To those who came to arrest him! Instead of being weak, instead of waiting for them to come, our Lord Jesus, he became so resolved. Instead of waiting for the enemies to arrive, he says, "Let us go and meet them because the time has come, the time has come for the son of man to be betrayed, and ultimately to be crucified on the cross of Calvary, shedding his precious blood for the remission of sins." And he said these few words, "Rise, let us be going."
Can you see the sequence? He was exceedingly sorrowful, which led him to pray. The result was he was empowered, he was strengthened by God, and he not only prayed, "Thy will be done," he was resolved to do the Lord's will, "Arise, let us be going."
My friends, the reason why I chose to preach on how our Lord Jesus prepared himself to face this great agony ahead of him was that for so many years, we always talk about the crucifixion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, of course, Good Friday is a time we commemorate the death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But many a time, we do not consider even the events that precede his death, the event that led to his arrest, how our Lord Jesus was so ready, how our Lord Jesus prepared himself and taught us this most wonderful lesson: that you can be sorrowful but don't remain there. You need to pray, and you need to rise up. And like him, he was ready to do the Lord's will so much so that he said to the disciples, "Rise up, let us be going."
My friends, in life, we will go through different emotions. Sometimes we may be depressed, at other times we may be distressed, despaired, worried, nervous, anxious, sorrowful, and heavy-hearted. Though it is not a sin to be sorrowful, but very often the problem is that we carry this sorrowful emotion every day of our lives, even until the day we die, we are still sorrowful. God does not want us to do that.
Do you remember the last time you truly experienced an intimate communion with God? When was that? It was during your greatest struggle, right? The more we are tested, the more we are tried, the more we cry out out to God, who alone is able to help us, who alone is able to provide us with the strength to meet our desperate needs. And the result is we are empowered by him, we are strengthened by him. Our Lord Jesus said to the disciples, "Rise up, time for us to go, let us be going," and he went boldly and courageously to meet the enemies. He did not wait for the enemies to come, but he went. Instead of we cowering in fear, instead of we running away from trouble, instead of we feeling sorrowful and depressed all the days of our lives, what should we do? We should pray intensely, we should cry out to God, we should say to ourselves, "Time for us to wake up, let us face the troubles, whatever may be the trouble."
It could be cancer, it could be financial distress, it could be persecution or even death. Let us face whatever trials, challenges, and issues of life, and let us cry out to God, "If this is your will, may your will be done. Give to us the strength that we will be able to say likewise, 'Rise up, let us be going.'" I pray that all of us will remember Jesus. He saved us, he will never leave us alone. Others may forget about us, others may forsake us, but not our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He taught us what we must do to prepare ourselves. There will be challenges, there will be issues of life, there will be struggles, but let us not run away. Let us look to him who was willing to die for us, to save us, who shed his precious blood to wash away all our sins. Let us look to him and say, "Lord, help me, I cannot do this, I cannot face this, I'm afraid." He will help us, and then we'll be able to say, "Let us rise, and let us be going."
May the Lord strengthen our faith and help us that all of us will look to him who came for us and died to save us, not just on Good Friday, but every day of our lives. Let us pray, "Our Father in heaven, we thank thee for enabling us to come that we may worship thee, and enabling us to look into a portion of Thy word. Indeed, we need Thy word at every moment of our lives, and thou hast taught us how much our Lord Jesus loved us. He came for us, he died on the cross shedding his precious blood to save us, and even before he went, he taught us this most wonderful lesson. How he was exceedingly sorrowful and he prayed intensely, and the result was he was immensely empowered. So much so that he said to the disciples, 'The time has come, rise, let us be going.' Oh Lord, what a wonderful spiritual lesson thou hast taught us. We need to pray, we need thee at every moment of our lives. Help us, oh Lord, that we will always trust in thee, knowing that the one who came for us, he will never forget, neither will he forsake us. Help us to cry out to him in our moments of needs, and that thou will strengthen us by thy spirit. That all of us as Believers will rise up to do thy sovereign will, no matter what it may be, we are ready, we want to rise up, and we want to be going. We give thee thanks, and we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen."