Dear Christian friends:

“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41) In our text wee see Jesus praying to remain true to God and do His will, but the disciples are sleeping. Before they brag, but when the enemy really comes they run away like scared rabbits and one sells Him to His enemies for $20.00. Would we do any better? Maybe; maybe not.

But in one way we are like them. Sleeping when we ought to be awake and praying. Jesus complains to them, "Can't you stay awake with Me one hour?" Jesus says that the flesh is weak and often prevents us from serving God as we should. Why does it prevent (stop) us? Why does it often defeat our spirit?


Jesus gives us two reasons here: We don't watch and we don't pray. "Flesh" means our human body but also our mind, spirit, our natural self as we are born. Jesus said to Nicodemus: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." (John 3:6) That's a wonderful gift of God. It can do wonderful things: both good and bad. Love or hate; build or destroy; sing and paint, dance, be happy or sad. But "flesh" means man without God's Spirit ruling in him. So Jesus warns, "Watch, stay awake, that you not be tempted and fall." "Flesh" gets tired; needs and wants rest and play. "Flesh" seeks pleasure and comforts and wants these so much it will steal, cheat, rob and kill to get them. "Flesh" becomes so interested in satisfying its needs and desires it easily forgets God.

In time of danger "flesh" seeks to protect itself. It will hide or run, forsake and betray as the twelve disciples did when Jesus was in danger. "Flesh" is wishy-washy, can't depend on it. When it has a hard problem it tries to forget by sleeping or drinking or escaping from duty.

That's why the disciples were sleeping. They were sad because Jesus intended to surrender and die. They were afraid of what may happen to them. So Jesus says, "Stay awake," realize that your flesh is weak. If you do not understand this and confess it, you will never force it to serve God. (Traveler in a blizzard a good example.) We also must stay awake and understand the nature of our flesh.

Here in Gethsemane Jesus Himself was tempted to forget His duty to serve the heavenly Father, and escape. God the Father had asked Him to suffer and die for our sins. Jesus became a man to do this. He had flesh like ours, too. His "flesh", too, was afraid and wanted to escape to comfort, pleasure and live. But Jesus did not fall asleep like His disciples. He did not escape His duty. He stayed awake. He understood how weak His flesh was, and then He went to God and prayed to Him for help and strength to suffer the pain and death.

Tonight we are watching Jesus struggle with His flesh to obey God's will. Our flesh did not want to come here tonight. It would rather stay home and rest or watch TV and not think about the problems of doing God's will. Thank God you forced your flesh to come here. Like Jesus you stayed awake, and understand you must force your flesh. And, like Jesus, you had to pray to do it.

Some of our members failed to come here tonight. Maybe they are sleeping, maybe they did not pray to God for help. That's the second reason why our flesh often wins and stops us from serving God, we fail to pray.

Jesus says, "Pray." We need power outside of ourself. That power is God. In prayer we ask God for help to do His will, our duty. We confess we can't do His will alone.

In prayer we remember it is God who helps us and why He is eager to help us. (Explain the why, Jesus is here in Gethsemane and on the cross.) Because Jesus did that, we love Him. His love gives us power, eagerness to stay awake and do our duty.

Jesus came to do His Father's will and He did it perfectly. We love Him and adore Him because He did not fail. He loved God. He loves us. Because He loves us He will give us His Spirit to live and rule in our hearts. Then we can force our flesh to serve God! "Thy will be done." Not my will, my flesh, but your will God, be done.

Now we are not only man, but God's man! He rules in us, and Jesus is Lord of our life.

Amen.