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University SDA Church- East Lansing

The Face of Jesus Christ

David Shin

The Face of Jesus Christ- Part 1

The Face of Jesus Christ- Part 2

Today we are beginning a new series of messages that we've entitled, The Face of Jesus Christ.

And it came out of a personal reflection of mine as I've been going through the last few chapters of each of the Gospels.

And it's my prayer that each 1 of you will journey with me as we were going through these different aspects of the character of Christ.

I want to back up, do a little bit of review.

We said that it was always God's desire to reveal himself to humanity.

He wanted to reveal his character to man, show us who he was, but there was a problem.

He always had to clothe himself in another medium.

Remember with Moses at the burning bush, he did not come out and talk to Moses face-to-face, he had to be within the bush.

He chose a very humble medium with which to communicate with Moses.

We also see that in the Old Testament, the pillar of cloud was another means of communication.

God would be enshrouded in a cloud and Moses would come to the cloud and God would speak to Moses from within a cloud.

It was never face-to-face communication, It was always through another medium.

And then we have the Ark of the Covenant.

The Ark of the Covenant was where the Shekinah glory was, and this was a place where God's presence resided, and yet it was covered.

You were not able to go into the most holy place of the sanctuary, rather you were only to view it many times only when it was being taken from place to place, it was covered and there was a particular way that this object was covered.

You'll notice that in 1 Samuel 6, verse 20, after the Ark of the Covenant has been uncovered and people perished because they witnessed the glory of God.

It said, 1 Samuel 6, verse 20, who can stand in the presence of this what?

God wants to reveal himself to humanity, he wants to show us his character, but the problem is because of his holiness we are not enabled to stand in his presence.

So God solved the problem we talked about in our first presentation by the greatest revelation of God in history, Jesus Christ.

There was no filter, there was no veil, and all you had to do to know the character of Jesus was to look in his face, amen?

Every look, every smile, every nod, every wink, every whisper, every sound, every touch, you could literally touch God.

You could look directly into the face of Jesus and know who God was.

The greatest revelation, yet it took the greatest condescension.

And we've said that the greatest revelation of Jesus can be found in the face of Jesus Christ.

2nd Corinthians says, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God is in the face of Jesus Christ.

So we come to our passage today with our title, In the Olive Grove, and I'd like to invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 26, verses 36 through 46.

Matthew chapter 26, 1, 1, 4, 6 in your pew Bible.

Matthew chapter 26, 1146 in your pew Bible, 2636-46.

And I'd like to read this entire portion and then go back and highlight some points very briefly.

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane and said to his disciples, sit here while I go and pray over there.

And he took with him Peter and 2 sons of Zebedee, James and John, and he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed, and he said, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.

He went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed and said, Oh my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will, but as you will.

And he came to his disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, What?

Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.

The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

And a second time he went and prayed, saying, O my father, if this cup cannot pass away, unless I drink it, your will be done.

And he came and found them asleep again for their eyes were heavy.

So he left them and went away again and prayed the third time, saying the same words.

And he came to his disciples and said, Are you still sleeping and resting?

Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners." Verse 46.

This was after the Last Supper, before the crucifixion, and the Bible says in this passage that he went to a place called Gethsemane.

It's interesting, in John's account, it doesn't mention Gethsemane, it says that it was a place across the Kidron Valley.

Another account says it was on the Mount of Olives.

It was in a garden, an olive grove, on the Mount of Olives.

This was incidentally the very same place where Jesus ascended in Acts chapter 1.

In Zechariah 14, verse 4, it says that this is the place where Jesus will descend.

Very significant place, the Mount of Olives.

And the Bible tells us that this was a place that Jesus was accustomed to be going.

It was a regular place of prayer, so there was nothing out of the ordinary.

He would many times go with his disciples to pray, but this time it was different.

This time, Jesus, his composure was changed, and the Bible tells us, it's interesting, when you look at the nuances of the original language, in verse 37, it says, and he took with him Peter and 2 sons of Zebedee.

He took with him his 3 disciples, remember on the Mount of Transfiguration he took these 3, these were his closest friends, and the Bible says that he began to be sorrowful.

This is interesting because in the Greek language they have different tenses.

This is a very significant figure of speech, a tense in the verb.

In other words, prior to coming to the Garden of Gethsemane, everything was fine, but then He entered the garden, took his 3 friends, and the Bible says, he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.

The Bible goes on and says something else, and he said to them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.

Jesus walks into the garden, suddenly he feels this weight upon him, and notice the language that comes out his mouth.

He's telling his 3 friends, his 3 closest companions look something's going on my soul is not just sorrowful but he says exceedingly sorrowful to the point of death Another translation says he was deeply grieved to the point of death.

In the Old Testament, When you sinned, you would have to bring a lamb into the sanctuary.

The Bible was very clear as to what you had to do to that lamb.

Prior to slitting the throat of the lamb, the sinner had to place his hands on the head of the lamb, and what he would do was transfer or confess all of his sins on to the Lamb.

The Lamb would then be slain and sacrificed on the altar.

Symbolically, the sins of the person were being transferred to the Lamb.

And I don't think that we can even scratch the surface of what is happening because the Bible says that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of whom?

If we were to compress all of Pastor Shin's sins, which I hope that none of you found out about, past, present, and future.

All the sins that I have committed, am committing, well by God's grace I'm not right now, but you get the point, all right?

And will commit, and you compress them down, and then you take all the compressions of every single person in this room and you place them upon 1 individual.

You take all the billions in the world, all of the people in the state penitentiaries that have done terrible deeds, all the people throughout the scope of history, past, present, future, and you place them upon 1 individual at 1 moment in time, and this is exactly what was happening.

Jesus walks into the garden, and suddenly he becomes the sin-bearer.

The corporate guilt, sin, shame, all of the things that come with sin are being placed corporately upon 1 man and it is crushing his soul.

He turns to his closest friends and he says, look, I'm not just sorrowful, I'm exceedingly sorrowful even to death.

In other words, I think I'm going to die.

The Bible goes on by saying he fell on his face.

He goes to pray and the weight is so great that he falls physically on his face and prays, Oh my father, and notice the nuances of his language, Oh my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away.

In other words, he's saying, Lord, I don't know if I can do it.

The sinless 1 is becoming the sin bearer and this is foreign to him and he's like, I don't know if I can do it.

Please Lord, if there's any other way, please.

The Bible tells us the Luke account, the physician.

Notice what he says, he says, and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood.

When you're under so much stress, you actually start sweating blood, the bursting of blood vessels.

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Series

The Face of Jesus Christ

The Face of Jesus Christ- Part 1

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Called in Darkness, Raised in Light

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What Jesus Said

2. The Unconditional Love of God

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How to Overcome the Devil- Part 2

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02 The Major Message of the Scripture

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Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

The House God Built

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The Cross & The Great Controversy

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Don’t Kick the Donkey!

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Who Then Can Be Saved?

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The Healthy Mind

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Sound Doctrine