WAKE FOREST, NC--Last Friday night, more than 800 college students from the University of North Carolina, North Carolina State, Campbell College, Appalachian State, Clemson, and Duke all gathered for the Missio Dei conference at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. The students were treated to messages from C.J., seminary president Dr. Daniel Akin, and several of the most strategic missions leaders within the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Missions Board.

On Friday night the conference kicked off with C.J.’s sermon “The Cup,” a message centered on the narrative of the Garden of Gethsemane (Mk 14:22–28, 32–42).

Throughout the gospel of Mark, the Savior has been forgiving sin, healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead, walking on water, calming storms, feeding thousands with a few loaves and fish, was briefly transfigured, amazing all with his teaching, boldly confronting the religious authorities; he was compassionate, authoritative, fearless. But in the Garden of Gethsemane everything changes. Something dramatic takes place in this garden. Here we encounter a Savior we are unfamiliar with. Here we discover what it meant to him, the Holy One, to bear away our sin. Here in this garden, he contemplates God’s wrath and resolves to endure God’s righteous wrath through the experience of human weakness.

Outline

The experience of human weakness involved:

1. Relational abandonment (vv. 27, 50 with 15:33-34). “This crucible of human weakness would involve relational abandonment.”

2. Distress of soul (vv. 33-34). “During the Last Supper, Christ was giving thanks and leading his disciples in the singing of a hymn. There was no indication of deep distress or shuddering terror. But once he enters this garden, he is deeply distressed and deeply troubled and overwhelmed with sorrow even to death. Why? In this garden, the Savior begins to experience a foretaste of what it means to be the sin bearer. Here in this garden, the Savior contemplates the cup and its contents. The cup dominates the heart and mind of the Savior while he’s praying in Gethsemane. Isaiah tells us the cup is the furious and righteous wrath of God against sin. This prospect of being the object of God’s righteous wrath is so horrific to the Savior that he prays, ‘If possible, take this cup from me.’… The Savior staggers—he does not sin—but he staggers as he contemplates the weight of this horrific prospect. In the garden he is not contemplating the physical pain of crucifixion; he is contemplating the fierceness of God’s wrath poured out upon him for our sin.”

Application

1. Recognize his love for you in his darkest hour. “He resolved to drink the cup of wrath dry on our behalf and leave not a drop so that we—by grace—may drink the cup of salvation. Just a few moments before he contemplated this cup, he took another cup representing his blood and the New Covenant and his finished work on the cross, and he placed that cup in the hands of the disciples (who were both undeserving and ill-deserving). Then he went to Gethsemane and took in his hands the cup we deserved.”

2. Receive his care for you in your darkest hour. “It’s important that we make distinction between his suffering and our suffering.…I don’t want to minimize your suffering in any way. But I want to protect and preserve the uniqueness of his suffering, because if I do, you can be comforted in your suffering. Having endured this suffering, he is uniquely qualified to comfort us in the midst of our suffering. He uniquely understands our darkest hour (Heb 4:14–16).”

Conclusion

After the message, Dr. Akin summarized the message’s impact with these words:

I was listening very carefully when C.J. preached. Sometimes at a conference like this people are very enthusiastic and demonstrative in their response to the preaching. But tonight as C.J. preached, there was a holy silence in this room. There was not much stirring because we were standing on holy ground. I’ll never, ever look at the Garden of Gethsemane the same again.

Listen to the complete address here (see Fri., Feb. 1).