Watch and Pray — Pastor Vince Corpus

What's in this sermon

The shape of the argument

28 units across exposition, application, illustration, theological claim, and conclusion. The pastor's argument is built from these moving parts.

Pastoral correction · unit #12

"The pastor applies the promise of regathering to the contemporary believer, using imagery from John 21 to show Jesus' posture toward the fallen is gracious pursuit rather than condemnation, then transitions to the next major section."

Doctrinal loci· 12 surfaced

Christology · 12 Soteriology · 8 Pastoral Theology · 7 Bibliology · 3 Hamartiology · 3 Sanctification · 3 Anthropology · 2 Ecclesiology · 2 Pneumatology · 2 Providence / Sovereignty · 2 Spiritual Warfare · 2 Theology Proper · 1

Bible citations· 23

Theological claims· 3

Prayer is the key to discerning and doing God's will. unit #4
We fall away because of three forces: our own sinful desires, the world's allure, and Satan's deception. unit #10
At the cross, Jesus accomplished the great exchange—taking our sin, wrath, and curse so we could receive His life, righteousness, and pardon. unit #24

Quotations· 2

"It's a rather long quote, so stick with me. I'd say that the culture is definitely more polarized than it ever has been. And I've never seen the kind of conflicts in churches in the past that we see today in virtually every church. There is a smaller or larger body of Christians who have been radicalized to the left or to the right by extremely effective and completely immersive internet and social media loops, news feeds, and communities. People are bombarded 12 hours a day with pieces that present a particular political point of view, and the main way it seeks to persuade is not through argument, but through outrage. People are being formed by this immersive form of public discourse far more than they are being formed by the church. This is creating a crisis. No, I haven't faced anything like this in the past." — Tim Keller (unit #3)

"I have no other plea but that Jesus died and he died for me." — D.A. Carson (unit #25)

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Full transcript

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0 · The pastor opens with light humor and personal connection, establishing rapport with the congregation and signaling his return after an absence

Good morning, church. It's good to be back after missing a week. I was out last weekend getting my booster. I got the Omicron booster.

See, that was a funny joke for once. Once in 5 years, there's an actual joke. No, it's great to be back. Missed you guys. And, you know, I didn't even try to sing last week like John.

I was just— it was bad. So I didn't sing, but it's great to be here singing again and seeing you all.

1 · Opening prayer inviting God's work through His Word and Spirit in the hearts of the congregation

Let's pray before we get into God's word. Father, thank you for your grace. Lord, thank you for your church. Thank you for your word, Lord, that is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. Father, we pray now as we approach your word that you, you cut away what needs to be cut away in our hearts.

Father, that you build up what needs to be built up. We need your help now by your Spirit. We ask for it in Jesus' name. Amen.

2 · The pastor reads the primary text and provides minimal contextual framing, situating the passage immediately after the Last Supper

All right, we're going to be in Mark 14 today.

We're jumping back into our sermon series on Mark, and let's read starting in verse 26.

This is after Jesus had the Passover with his disciples, and he reinterpreted the Passover in light of himself and basically let them know he was the point. And so after dinner is where we pick up here. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. And Jesus said to them, you will all fall away. For it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.

But after I'm raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.' Peter said to him, 'Even though they all fall away, I will not.' And Jesus said to him, 'Truly I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me 3 times.' But he said emphatically, 'If I must die with you, I will not deny you.' And they all said the same.

3 · The introduction establishes the contemporary crisis of cultural division and competing voices, using Tim Keller's assessment to frame the sermon's relevance and set up the need for what the passage will teach

So guys, there are a lot of things that are competing for our attentions today, right? There's a lot of stuff out there. There are a lot of things that seek to pull us away from the Lord. Right? And we are divided more now as a society than I think than maybe even ever.

You know, we've got a political divide. There are ideological divides. There are divides on how we approach and deal with life in the pandemic. There's a divide over is the economy doing great? Is the economy doing poorly?

And what we need to do to fix it. To fix that. And there's even division where there shouldn't be.

Tim Keller sums this unique moment up in this way. It's a rather long quote, so stick with me. I'd say that the culture is definitely more polarized than it ever has been. And I've never seen the kind of conflicts in churches in the past that we see today in virtually every church. There is a smaller or larger body of Christians who have been radicalized to the left or to the right by extremely effective and completely immersive internet and social media loops, news feeds, and communities.

He goes on, "People are bombarded 12 hours a day with pieces that present a particular political point of view, and the main way it seeks to persuade is not through argument, but through outrage." People are being formed by this immersive, form of public discourse far more than they are being formed by the church. This is creating a crisis. He finishes by saying, "No, I haven't faced anything like this in the past." There are a lot of voices out there vying for our attention. Voices that would pull us away from God and each other, voices that would seek to inform us rather than us being formed by God's Word. And against that backdrop, our passage today tells us how we can stay above the fray.

4 · The main thesis is stated explicitly and clearly, establishing the controlling proposition for the entire sermon

Jesus, in this passage, gives us one big truth. And that truth is prayer is the key to discerning and doing God's will.

5 · The pastor reframes the passage's typical heading and establishes a three-part sermon structure centered on Jesus' prediction, discernment, and action, all demonstrating the role of prayer

You know, oftentimes our headings in our Bible, right, the bold spots, those things aren't inspired, okay? They're not part of the original manuscripts. That we have. They're put in there by well-meaning men who are attempting to kind of encapsulate and summarize the part that comes after it. And this, our heading, yours probably says something like, "Jesus foretells Peter's denial." And he does.

But I think a better heading would be, "How to overcome temptation." And it's going to— and that's the heading that should go over the entire passage we're going to be looking at today. And while he foretells and predicts Peter's denial, he also foretold and predicted all of the disciples falling away, all of their denial of him, if you will. Not just Peter's.

All of His disciples.

I think that encapsulates us as well. Not just the 11 that He was speaking to. But it gives us the key to not falling away. Or maybe of making that falling away less of a fall or less of a period of time when we fall away, right? And we'll see this coming to us, how to make our failure less of a failure, in 3 parts, okay?

Jesus' prediction, his discerning of God's will, and then his doing of God's will. These 3 parts reveal to us that prayer is the key to discerning and doing God's will.

6 · The pastor begins unpacking the first section of the passage, highlighting Jesus' prediction that all disciples will fall away and Peter's emphatic objection

All right, so we've just read 26 through 31. So they're headed to the Mount of Olives. Okay, it's a small mountain outside of Jerusalem. And when they get there, Jesus tells them, hey, you are all fall away. Does this thing keep cutting out?

Okay. You will all all will fall away. As it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.

All will fall away. And then Peter comes and says, even if I have to— even if they all fall away, no, not me. Not today.

7 · The pastor defends Peter's sincerity by cross-referencing John 6, showing that Peter's declaration comes from genuine conviction about who Jesus is, not mere bravado

Now look, before we jump on the the bash Peter train. Let's look a bit closer at this, okay? You see, Peter is expressing what's in his heart, okay? He wants to follow Jesus with everything that is in him, okay? How can I say that?

Well, in John 6, when Jesus goes to talking about, hey, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part in me, what happens? The crowds leave, and he turns around and he says to the disciples, You gonna leave too? And who answers? Peter. And he says, where— we— you have the words of eternal life.

Besides, where else would we go?

And so Peter is saying like that he knows something about Jesus. He knows something about Jesus, and therefore he's not going to fall away. He's the one who answered, "No, you have the words of eternal life. I ain't going nowhere. Even if they do, I'm not." Peter knows something about who Jesus is.

And what he does.

8 · The pastor explains the specific timeline of Jesus' prediction, using personal experience with roosters to clarify that "before the rooster crows twice" means a very short window of time, intensifying the severity of Peter's imminent failure

And then Jesus tells Peter, "Truly I tell you, this very night before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me 3 times." He not only restates the prediction, he now gives us a very specific timeline. Okay? Has anyone here ever lived around a rooster?

Okay, so the 4 of us, 5 of us know what it's like with a rooster. Let me tell you, it's not what you think. All right, you think, oh, the rooster crows in the morning and then that's it. No, man, roosters crow in the morning and then a couple minutes later they crow again and then a couple of minutes later They crow some more and like it's anywhere from like an hour before sunrise until like 10 o'clock, okay? And maybe it's like you just got home from work, like a whole week on a drilling rig and you're like tired and trying to sleep.

And that doggone rooster next door keeps waking you up.

All right, and so it's not just like one time, "Ooh, ooh." No, it's over and over, and Jesus says, "Before he crows twice, you will deny me 3 times." Before sunrise, Peter.

Before sunrise.

9 · The pastor turns the spotlight from Peter to the congregation, pressing the question of personal failure and betrayal while vulnerably confessing his own weakness to disarm defensiveness

We know that Peter does in fact betray him.

And the rest fall away.

What about you?

You ever fallen away from Jesus?

Have you ever betrayed Jesus? Have you ever abandoned him when things get hard? Have you ever not spoken up for the name of Christ? Because it was maybe too inconvenient, it might cost you something? I know I have.

Look, I'm not asking you these questions to shame you and tell you, "Oh, I'm a pastor, of course I—" No. No, I'm weak.

And I so often fall away. And deny and betray.

10 · The pastor identifies three sources of temptation that pull believers away: the self (indwelling sin), the world (material allure), and the devil (theological doubt), creating a triadic theological framework for understanding spiritual failure

Why, though? Why? Well, there are many things that seek to pull us away. Like we were talking about some of those earlier. What's the biggest thing that seeks to pull me away?

It's me, okay? It's me. I'm lazy. I'm weak.

I am still surrounded by my desires to sin in various different ways. And I lead me astray more than any other force in the universe, often. The second thing that pulls us away is the world and all of its glittering and glamorous and opulence. We look at it and we go, "Yeah, that looks pretty nice.

I think I'm, I think I could handle a Mercedes." Maybe not. Really expensive to keep up, I've heard. And then there's the third thing is the devil. Satan, our enemy who seeks to lead us astray. By coming to us and saying, "Did God really say?" And we begin to doubt.

And then before you know it, we are over here on the easy road, on the road of having fallen away.

11 · The pastor unpacks the hope embedded in Jesus' prediction by highlighting the promise of resurrection and regathering, showing that falling away is not the final word

But you know what? It doesn't stop there, okay? Jesus doesn't just say, "Hey, you're all gonna fall away," and then leave them hopeless. No, there is hope in these few verses. Where's the hope?

"But after I am raised, I will go before you to Galilee." Jesus goes before them to Galilee. Why? Well, the church at the time, all 11 of the disciples were the church, and it was scattered, and He goes to Galilee before them to regather them. The shepherd goes and regathers the sheep. And by telling them that he's going to, he's giving them hope that their falling away is not permanent, that their falling away is not something that is going to result in them being forever away from Jesus.

He's saying, no, I'll come and I'll regather you again. Just like I gathered you the first time, I will regather you.

12 · The pastor applies the promise of regathering to the contemporary believer, using imagery from John 21 to show Jesus' posture toward the fallen is gracious pursuit rather than condemnation, then transitions to the next major section

And guys, when we fail and we fall away, look, Jesus isn't standing there looking at you with his arms crossed, nose up in the air.

Hmm. Here we are again.

Really, Vince? Really? Again? No, that's not his attitude when we fall and when we fail and when we betray and when we deny. No, he goes before us and he stands on the shore of the lake while we're going our own way and he yells out, "Hey!" Cast your nets on the right side and then bring me some fish.

Let's have dinner together. He goes before us and he comes and regathers us.

It's not a permanent falling away.

He brings us back to himself. But the question is, how can we not fall away? Or how can we minimize our propensity to fall away? How can we minimize the length of time that that falling away occurs over? Well, that brings us to the second point, discerning God's will.

13 · The pastor reads the Gethsemane passage in full, providing the text for the second major section on discerning God's will through prayer

Verse 32, "And they went to a place called Gethsemane." And he said to his disciples, 'Sit here while I pray.' And he took with him Peter and James and John and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, 'My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.' Remain here and watch.' And going a little further, he fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, 'Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will.' And he came and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, 'Simon, are you asleep?

Could you not watch one hour?

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.' And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer Him.

And He came the third time and said to them, 'Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?

It is enough. The hour has come.' The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand.

14 · The pastor explains why Jesus selected Peter, James, and John specifically—they had all claimed willingness to die with Him—to witness His agony, setting them up to learn what that actually means

So they're on the Mount of Olives and then they get to the garden, Gethsemane, which is more than likely an olive orchard. And he Jesus leaves some of the disciples and he says, "Hey, you guys sit here while I pray." And then he takes Peter, James, and John with him. Now, why Peter, James, and John? Are they special?

Are they like closer friends with Jesus? Are they his homies? Are they his squad? No.

No. They're the 3 guys that have publicly aligned themselves with Jesus' death.

And so he takes them with him in order that they might learn something about that. Now, James and John, you remember, they came to Jesus and they said, "Hey." Actually, it was their mom.

"Hey, grant something for my boys. They're good boys.

Let one of them sit on your left and one of them sit on your right.

Sound like a good plan, Jesus?" Jesus told him, "Nah, I can't grant that." And he looks at James and John and he says, He says, "Can you drink from the cup that I'm gonna drink? Can you be baptized with the same baptism that I'm gonna be baptized with?" And they're like, "Yeah." And he says, "You indeed will." And then Peter has just said, "Even if I must die with you." I will not deny you.

So you've got these three guys who have said, oh yeah, I can drink the cup, Jesus. Oh yeah, I can be baptized with the baptism. Oh, even if I've got to die with you, I'm going. And Jesus is like, okay, come on, boys.

15 · The pastor unpacks what Jesus meant by "watch," explaining that He wanted the disciples to observe Him wrestling in prayer as the method for discerning God's will in the face of overwhelming distress

And he takes them and he begins to be greatly distressed and troubled.

And sorrowful to the point of death with His approaching appointment with atonement for His people. And out of that sorrow, He tells them to watch. And He goes, and what does He have them watch? What does He have them watch when He says, "Watch"? Well, He goes and He falls on the ground and He weeps.

'Please, I am sorrowful to the point of death. Watch what I do.' And He falls on the ground. And He prays. He wanted them to watch Him pray. He wanted them to see that when sorrow comes, when there's this overwhelming, thing that must be done, and it's too hard for even Jesus.

He says, "Watch, watch what I do." And he goes and he prays.

Why did he want them to watch him pray? Well, because He was wrestling with the Lord. See, Jesus is praying and wrestling with the Lord. That was Him discerning God's will. And Jesus was telling these 3 disciples, you want to see what the Lord has for you?

Then pray earnestly about it. Seek it. Seek Him out and seek His will.

16 · The pastor begins unpacking what "the cup" represents, starting with sin—Jesus as the Holy One recoiling at the prospect of bearing the sins of His people, connecting this to the Old Testament scapegoat typology

How can I say that Jesus is discerning God's will through His prayer Well, Mark recorded it for us.

"Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Remove this cup from Me." That's Jesus' will. That's what Jesus wants in His humanity as He's facing the cross, as He's looking into this cup.

Remove it.

Yet, not my will, yours.

He's wrestling with the Lord about this cup. And what is this cup? What is this cup? The cup is what has Jesus sorrowful even to the point of death. The cup is what has Him in distress.

The cup is what is weighing on Him, and it is the cup that He is approaching. This cup is what He's asking to be moved, removed from Him, and He's crying out to God with loud cries and tears, and He's asking, "Is this the way that You have for Me?" So what is the cup? The cup signifies 3 things to us. First, the cup is the cup of sin. You see, Jesus, the Holy One, looks into the cup and sees the sins of his people, and him being the sin bearer knows that he must take that sin on himself, and he recoils against it.

He recoils against the cup. The Holy One must become sin. He who knew no sin became sin for us. You know, in the Old Testament, they would transfer, pray over this goat the sins of the people, and then they would send that goat off into the wilderness. It's called expiation.

It is the removing of our sins onto another and removing them from us.

And Jesus is the sin-bearer. He's the one who takes our sins on Himself and removes them from us.

17 · The pastor adds the second dimension of the cup—God's wrath—explaining that Jesus must not only bear sin but absorb the full measure of divine wrath against that sin, connecting this to the second goat slaughtered on the Day of Atonement and Paul's language of propitiation

But the cup is something else as well. The cup is the wrath of God against the sins of His people. You see, Jesus being God knows about God's wrath.

He knows what is in the cup. He sees it, that it's the wrath of God poured full strength, as the Psalms say. And he knows he must drink it all to the dregs. You see, there was another goat on that Day of Atonement as well, and this goat would be slaughtered.

To show that sin brings death and is costly, and then the people would be covered by the blood of that. It would be sprinkled over them.

And it was to show God's wrath against sin. So you've got one goat who's removing the sin, one goat who's absorbing the wrath, and Jesus knows he's got to absorb the wrath. That's what Paul calls a propitiation for our sin. It's a wrath-absorbing sacrifice.

18 · The pastor completes the threefold definition of the cup by adding the third element—Jesus becoming a curse by being hung on a tree, citing the Old Testament pronouncement and showing the full horror Jesus faced

And the cup also means one other thing.

It signifies that Jesus, the pure one, would become a curse.

The Old Testament says, "Cursed is anyone who's hung on a tree." And He knows that as He goes to the cross and He's nailed to the cross and He's stood up on the cross suspended between heaven and earth, that when He becomes sin by taking our sins on Himself and He absorbs the wrath of God that our sins deserve, that when He's nailed to that tree, He will also become a curse.

And again, He recoils against that.

That's why he's crying out to God the Father for the Father to remove the cup if it is possible.

19 · The pastor unpacks Jesus' command to "watch and pray," explains the meaning of "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak," and offers a pastoral aside on the legitimacy of agonizing prayer, citing Hebrews to show that intense, emotionally raw prayer is biblical

And the crazy thing is it would— it was possible. Why? Because Jesus says, "All things are possible for you," and they are. God is that powerful. He can do anything.

And then Jesus says, "Not my will, but your will." And so he's praying that God removes this cup, and he prays for an hour, and he comes back and finds the three sleeping.

And this is when he tells them to keep watch and pray. Not just to watch this time, now he says, "Keep watch and pray," and then he gives a reason why, "that you don't fall into temptation." that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

What does that mean, flesh is weak? Well, you know, those needs, those desires, they're tired. They might even, you know, be a little hungry by now. The Passover meal is probably wearing off and their stomachs are starting to growl. And they've got these needs and Jesus is over there praying.

Yeah, let's take a nap.

He says, "Watch and pray that you may not fall into temptation." And look, again, these guys, they want to follow and honor Jesus with all that they have. But their flesh is weak. Their flesh is weak. Their heart, their spirit wants to, but they're weak. And they give in to their weakness and fall asleep.

And then Jesus, the cycle continues. He goes and prays again, saying the same words, and he comes and finds them sleeping again. Then he goes off the third time.

You know, and prays. And a quick word about prayer here. Like, Jesus is always more than our example, okay? Like, he's our Lord. He's our Savior.

He's our King. He's our Master. But he's never less than our example, okay? And our prayers don't always have to be the put-together kind of prayers of like, "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done." I mean, there's a time for prayers like that.

And then there's a time for prayers like this.

And Hebrews tells us, "In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries." loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death. Look, guys, we know from the other gospels that he was so stressed he was sweating blood.

And then Hebrews tells us that there were loud cries and tears crying out to the one who was able to save him from death. Loud, sorrowful, filled with groanings, filled with crying. He's pouring out his heart before the Lord. And there's a time for a prayer like that as well.

Let's not be afraid of those when we come up against something that's hard.

When we come up against our own kind of Gethsemane where we're looking forward at doing something hard.

And these times of prayer like this can be uncomfortable. They can be agonizing.

They can be filled with those loud cries and sorrow. And at the end of the 3 hours of prayer like that, He finds His disciples sleeping again.

20 · The pastor concludes the Gethsemane section by showing that Jesus, having discerned God's will through agonizing prayer, is now empowered to act decisively when the betrayer arrives, demonstrating that prayer enables obedience

And He says, "It is enough. The hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand." So Jesus has come to discern the will of God.

He's come to find out that God sent Him, that He came, that He has been working for 3 years of ministry with these guys to arrive precisely at this moment. The hour has come. The cup will not be removed. And he now, out of that time of prayer and being sure of what God wants him to do, he acts.

Because prayer is the key to discerning God's will.

And it also empowers us to act.

21 · The pastor reads the arrest narrative, providing the text for the third major section on Jesus doing God's will

That brings us to our third point here. God's will. Verse 43, and immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the 12, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, the one I will kiss is the man.

Seize him and lead him away under guard.

And when he came, he went up to him at once and said, 'Rabbi,' and he kissed him.

And they laid hands on him and seized him.

But one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. And Jesus said to them, 'Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But let the Scriptures be fulfilled.' And they all left him and fled.

And a young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth about about his body, and they seized him. But he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.

22 · The pastor unpacks Jesus' response to the arrest, showing how His question to the mob demonstrates His innocence and how His submission fulfills Scripture, empowered by His certainty of God's will gained through prayer

So the betrayer comes, and he's worked out a signal, and he's got a mob with him.

And they come up to Jesus and the sign is given and then Jesus asks them a question. Am I a criminal?

Am I a criminal that you've come out armed in the dead of night to capture me?

The scriptures must be fulfilled.

And then his boys took off, including Peter, including Peter, who's just said, even though they all fall away, I won't.

And with that statement, Jesus goes with the guards. He goes and He does the will of God. But how is He empowered to do that? The empowerment comes through knowing the will of God. And He's arrived at surely knowing the will of God through earnest prayer and wrestling with the Lord.

And wrestling, "Hey, remove this cup!" "Nope, cup's not going anywhere." "Remove this cup!" Nope, the cup's not going anywhere. Okay, the cup is your will for me. Let's go. Let's go.

He has the power to act by being sure of what God's will is.

And part of that act is even to quiet his own group. So when they come out, we know it was Peter who cut the servant's ear off from the other gospels. So when they come out, Peter cuts the guy's ear off. What does Jesus say? You guys come out as against a robber.

It's his way of saying there's no lawlessness here.

There is nothing here that would require this kind of force to be met. And then he takes it a step further. He says, day by day I was teaching in the temple.

"You all saw me there. You all heard me. You saw what I did. You heard what I said.

There's been no law-breaking in anything that I have done. Everything is on the up and up. There's nothing to hide on my part." But you see, they had something to hide. That's why they came at night.

If there was anything wrong with His teaching, they would have arrested Him and seized Him on the spot in public in the temple. But there was nothing wrong with His teaching. There was nothing that He could be charged with saying or doing that was wrong. Why is that? Well, Isaiah tells us that He had done no violence and deceit was not found in His mouth.

Jeremiah tells us that God put His exact words in Jesus' mouth, okay? So everything He did was right and true and not a lie. And everything He said was God's Word.

And yet He goes willingly with them. That the Scriptures might be fulfilled.

23 · The pastor brings the sermon to its theological climax by citing Isaiah 53, showing that Jesus' submission was the fulfillment of God's will to crush Him for our salvation, made possible by His prayerful discernment

And again, Isaiah tells us why He went with them.

It was the will of the Lord to crush Him.

He has put Him to grief and The chastisement fell on Him that brings us peace, and by His wounds we are healed.

And He had the power to go through with that because He was sure that that was God's will. And He came to be sure through prayer.

And then He freely, totally, willingly gave Himself up as an offering for sin.

24 · The pastor articulates the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement and the great exchange, showing what Jesus accomplished at the cross and connecting it back to the sermon's main thesis about prayer

And by doing so, He purchases salvation and pardon and righteousness for His people. You see, at the cross, Jesus did in fact fulfill God's will. He drank the cup of sin and righteousness. He became a curse for us that in Him we might be the righteousness of God. See, an exchange was made.

We got life at the cost of His death.

We got His righteousness. At the cost of our sin.

We got a pardon while he became a curse.

We were declared just while he got justice.

It was God's will. It was the Father's will. And he had the strength to go through with it because he had discerned God's will through prayer.

25 · The pastor applies the gospel by explaining how the exchange comes to believers through faith alone, citing D

And how do all of these things come to us now? They come to us through faith.

They come to us through faith. The one who looks at Jesus with faith and says, "Yes, he died even for my sins." they get that exchange.

If they look at him and say, "He died in my place," guess what? His blood now covers us.

The cross boldly and loudly proclaims redemption. Forgiven.

As D.A. Carson has once said, "I have no other plea but that Jesus died and he died for me." And those that he died for, he now says, "Hey, follow me.

26 · The pastor closes with direct application of Jesus' command to watch and pray, unpacking how prayer functions as the mechanism for spiritual vigilance against temptation and how it enables discernment of God's will

Keep watch and pray that you do not fall into temptation." And the praying is what enables us to keep watch. Why? Because when we're praying, when we're seeking God's Word, when we're talking to those in our lives that are hopefully older and wiser and we're seeking counsel from them on what God's will is, and when we come to a place of knowing, okay, this is God's will for me, then it helps us to be on guard and watchful of ourselves, of the ways that the world might distract us, and of the ways that the devil may attack us. Keep watch and pray because prayer is the key to discerning and doing God's will.

27 · Closing prayer addressing both unbelievers and backslidden Christians, calling the first group to faith and repentance and the second group to return, trusting in Jesus' promise to regather them

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your word once again. Lord, we thank you that your word shows us who Christ is and what he has accomplished.

Father, if there's someone here who whom your Spirit is giving new life to. Father, I pray that they would respond in faith and repentance. Father, I pray that the new life would be granted and that they would bow the knee to the King.

And Father, if there are Christians here who have fallen away, who have betrayed, who are walking down a different path, Lord, I pray that this passage would be one that calls them back. And that they would come back knowing, Lord, that You are going to regather them. You are going before them and You are going to bring them once again to Yourself.

Father, I pray that they would submit to that in humility and find Your grace once again is sufficient. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Where this fits

Recent preaching context

The three sermons immediately preceding this one in the preaching schedule.

Sep 19, 2021

God of the Living

God is the God of the living, not the dead, and this truth—revealed in Scripture and supremely demonstrated in Christ's resurrection—means that death for believers is merely a change of address, not cessation of existence.

Mark 12:18-27

Oct 3, 2021

Not Far, Not In

We must know Jesus personally through faith, not merely know things about him or believe certain doctrines, because only knowing Jesus himself—trusting in his perfect obedience and atoning sacrifice—brings us into the kingdom of God.

Mark 12:28-34

Nov 14, 2021

Jesus Is In Command

Jesus was in sovereign command of his betrayal, death, and the entire trajectory toward the cross, and therefore we can trust him fully because his sacrifice was no accident but the deliberate execution of God's redemptive plan.

Mark 14:12-25

January 16 · This sermon

Watch and Pray

Prayer is the key to discerning and doing God's will, enabling us to remain faithful despite our weakness and the temptations that seek to pull us away from Christ.

Mark 14:26-52

Take it further

Discuss · apply

Small groups

6 discussion questions

In Mark 14:26-31, Jesus predicts that all of His disciples will fall away, and Peter explicitly denies this will happen. What does Peter's c…

Daily readings

5-day reading plan

This week we trace Jesus's preparation for the cross through prayer, His substitutionary work that accomplished our redemption, and our call to vigilant faith as those who have been regathered by His grace.

Family table

When We Want to Run Away

This prompt anchors in Jesus's wrestling prayer in Gethsemane and Peter's denial—two moments where the disciples chose fear over faithfulnes…

Couples

Watch and Pray Together

What did the sermon reveal to you about your own tendency to fall away from Jesus, and how did hearing about His relentless pursuit to regat…

Memorize

Mark 14:38

This verse encapsulates the sermon's central thesis: prayer is the key to discerning and doing God's will, enabling us to remain faithful despite our weakness and the temptations that seek to pull us away from Christ. It is Jesus's direct command to His disciples in Gethsemane and stands as His call to the church today to combat falling away through watchful prayer.

Small-group discussion

6 questions for your group this week

In Mark 14:26-31, Jesus predicts that all of His disciples will fall away, and Peter explicitly denies this will happen. What does Peter's confidence in his own faithfulness reveal about how he understands his own spiritual strength?

Mark 14:26-31

→ Can you think of a time when you were similarly confident in your ability to remain faithful, only to discover you were weaker than you thought?
Jesus tells the disciples to 'watch and pray' so they will not fall into temptation (Mark 14:38), yet when He returns from prayer, He finds them sleeping. What is the connection between prayerlessness and vulnerability to temptation that Jesus seems to be exposing?

Mark 14:38
In Gethsemane, Jesus prays 'remove this cup from me' but then submits with 'yet not what I will, but what you will' (Mark 14:36). How does Jesus' wrestling in prayer model what it means to discern and accept God's will, even when it comes at great cost?

Mark 14:36

→ How is Jesus' prayer different from simply asking for what we want and hoping God says yes?
The sermon emphasizes that through faith, we receive 'the great exchange'—Christ's righteousness, life, and pardon in place of our sin, wrath, and curse (2 Corinthians 5:21). Why is it essential that Jesus first discerned and submitted to the Father's will in prayer before He could accomplish this exchange on our behalf?

2 Corinthians 5:21
According to the sermon, we fall away through three forces: our sinful desires, the world's allure, and Satan's deception. Which of these three most commonly draws you away from Christ, and how might faithful prayer be your defense against that particular temptation?

→ What would it look like this week to 'watch and pray' specifically against that weakness?
The sermon teaches that when we fall away or deny Jesus—as Peter did and as all of us have—Jesus pursues us to regather us rather than condemn us. How does knowing that Christ will pursue you after you fail change the way you approach prayer and repentance?

Mark 14:28

Daily readings · Monday–Friday

5-day reading plan

This week we trace Jesus's preparation for the cross through prayer, His substitutionary work that accomplished our redemption, and our call to vigilant faith as those who have been regathered by His grace.

Monday Hebrews 5:7

The writer to the Hebrews reveals that Jesus Himself—fully God yet fully man—approached the Father through prayer with loud cries and tears, seeking the will that would lead Him to the cross. This shows us that prayer is not a casual practice but the vital discipline through which we, like our Savior, discern the Father's will and find strength to obey it, even when obedience costs us everything.

Tuesday Isaiah 53:10

Isaiah's prophecy tells us that it was the Father's will to crush the Servant—to make His soul an offering for sin—revealing that our falling away, our desires turned inward, and our susceptibility to deception are bound up in our sin. Jesus alone could bear the weight of those forces bearing down upon Him, and in doing so, He addressed the root cause of our wandering: our guilt before a holy God.

Wednesday 2 Corinthians 5:21

Paul crystallizes the gospel's power in one luminous sentence: the sinless One became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. This is not mere forgiveness from a distance; it is a radical substitution in which Christ bears our condemnation and clothes us in His perfect standing before the Father, transforming our deepest identity.

Thursday Galatians 3:13

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—absorbing into Himself the sentence that was ours to bear. This redemption is not abstract theological doctrine but the concrete, blood-bought reversal of our judgment, accomplished through Jesus's willing submission to the very curse we deserved.

Friday John 6:66-68

When many of Jesus's disciples turned back and walked with Him no more, Peter's response—"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life"—shows the posture of those regathered by grace: not self-reliant, but clinging to Jesus as our only hope. We watch and pray not because we fear abandonment, but because we have already been pursued and reclaimed by the One who loves us with irrevocable love.

Sunday-evening family table

When We Want to Run Away

For the parent

This prompt anchors in Jesus's wrestling prayer in Gethsemane and Peter's denial—two moments where the disciples chose fear over faithfulness. The goal is to help your family name the real temptations they face to turn away from Jesus, and then to see that Jesus knew this would happen and went to the cross anyway.

In the sermon, we saw that Peter said he would never leave Jesus, but then he got scared and denied even knowing Him. Jesus had already told Peter this would happen. Why do you think Jesus still went to the cross for Peter—even knowing Peter would fail Him? And what makes it hard for you to stay close to Jesus when things get scary or uncomfortable?

works for ages 8+; younger children can listen and answer the first question with help

Couples · three questions over coffee

Watch and Pray Together

What did the sermon reveal to you about your own tendency to fall away from Jesus, and how did hearing about His relentless pursuit to regather you affect your heart?
In what areas of your marriage do we most need to 'watch and pray' together—where are we most vulnerable to temptation, distraction, or drift from Christ's lordship?
How can we pray for each other this week to grow in faithful prayer and discernment, asking God to strengthen us where we are weakest?

Memory verse this week

Mark 14:38

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Why this verse: This verse encapsulates the sermon's central thesis: prayer is the key to discerning and doing God's will, enabling us to remain faithful despite our weakness and the temptations that seek to pull us away from Christ. It is Jesus's direct command to His disciples in Gethsemane and stands as His call to the church today to combat falling away through watchful prayer.

Where this was preached

About the church

Cross of Grace Church

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# Cross of Grace Church

A church preaching expository sermons through the books of the Bible.

## Sermons
- [God of the Living (Mark 12:18-27, 2021-09-19)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/god-of-the-living-2021-09-19)
- [Not Far, Not In (Mark 12:28-34, 2021-10-03)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/not-far-not-in-2021-10-03)
- [Jesus Is In Command (Mark 14:12-25, 2021-11-14)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/jesus-is-in-command-2021-11-14)
- [Watch and Pray (Mark 14:26-52, 2022-01-16)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/watch-and-pray-2022-01-16)

## About
- About the church
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