Matthew 26: Jesus Calls His Church to Watch and Pray

Introduction

These past Sundays, Benjamin Lamotte-Augris has noticed "how specifically God is speaking to us" at Église Évangélique Paris Métropole, at Bastille: messages of watchfulness and warning, including the one from Pastor Mathieu the week before, a warning that the glory of God must not leave the Church. The Lord brought him back to a text that had deeply marked him when he first started preaching, under this title: Jesus calls his Church to prepare.

He recalls the testimony of Times Square Church in New York. Several months before the attacks of September 11, 2001, God had warned Carter Conlon, who pastored the church alongside David Wilkerson, that the church had to be prepared because a calamity was about to strike the city. In the same way, he believes that God wants to prepare his Church in Paris. With the presidential elections approaching, "a spark can really change the whole course of things." The Church cannot lounge around saying, "Everything is fine for me, so I'm not concerned about the rest." She is called to shine in the midst of darkness, and what she undertakes must be led by the Spirit of God, not by her own ideas.

The chosen text lets us prepare, personally and together, for the trials to come: Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, on the eve of the cross, in Matthew 26:36-58.

Outline of the message

1. Jesus prepared his disciples, but they were not ready

Jesus knows the trial of the cross; his disciples do not. Yet he warned them many times: the Son of Man must suffer and be delivered into the hands of sinners.
Their heart and their listening were not yet enlightened by the power of the Holy Spirit: Pentecost had not come. For three and a half years, they had been learning to live with "this unknown man who was leading them into the unknown."
At every miracle, every storm calmed, they asked themselves: "But who is he?" Their faith grew, but Jesus would tell them: "The flesh is weak."
Everything converges on the cross, but the disciples are not ready to converge toward this trial. The text opens right after Peter declared that he would follow Jesus to the very end.
Jesus experiences an anguish that no one has ever known and prays that the cup would pass from him. The preacher observes that if God put before our eyes all the trials to come, we would beg him to be spared from them. He graciously does not tell us everything, but he can prepare the condition of our heart.
It is not the disciples who will be nailed to the cross. But they need to be prepared so they know how to react according to the Spirit of God. Their falling asleep led to the "mess": from the moment of the arrest, all of them left Jesus alone.

2. Three circles around Jesus: where are you?

The text shows three levels: the group of disciples to whom Jesus says "Sit here," then Peter, James and John, whom he brings closer to himself, and finally Jesus himself, alone, a few yards away.
The first group stays seated, with no particular mission, perhaps because their heart was not as attached to Jesus. The other three show up elsewhere in the Gospels, for example at the transfiguration, at moments that the others do not experience.
Is it God's choice or the level of attachment of the heart? "I think it's both." God chooses men for particular ministries: Peter receives the keys in Matthew 16 and his first message brings in 3,000 souls. But there is also what we are ready to give to God.
This group of three is not made up of perfect men. Peter is the one who committed himself the most, who spoke the most: "I will follow you to the end." And it is to him that Jesus speaks when he returns: get ready.
"Maybe this morning you were the one who sang the loudest." When we sing "I will love you more than life," these are not empty words: God hears them and waits to see whether, in the moment of trial, we will keep our faith to the end.

3. Do not fall asleep: one hour with Jesus

The three disciples "are not going to last long." Jesus comes back a first, a second, a third time: they are still sleeping. "So, could you not watch with me for one hour?"
The preacher refers to Pastor Christian's message in January about one hour with Jesus: a call to take a practical stand in prayer. One hour out of twenty-four is not much on the scale of eternity and salvation.
God calls his Church not to be part of the first group, the one that sits down, waits and flees at the first moments. He invites her to draw closer to him.
Every Sunday, the Church draws near to Jesus together. The house group, during the week, is for him the picture of those who go closer: "We want to take the time to listen to you together."
The parable of the soils is not only about evangelism. It should challenge us daily: do I still have good soil to receive the Word, or have the thorns and the worries of this world taken over, taking away the joy of salvation and peace? The preacher calls us to come back and to persevere with brothers and sisters, so as not to remain alone.

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

Our intentions are generally good: when we read the Acts of the Apostles or the miracles of Jesus, we want to live those things. "But the flesh, it wanders around," attracted by plenty of things.
In a workshop with the youth, he presented two ways of living one's youth. That of Ecclesiastes 11:9: following the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes, knowing that God will call you into judgment. And that of Paul to Timothy: "Flee from youthful lusts, and follow after righteousness, faith, love, and peace" (2 Timothy 2:22).
Psalm 119:9-11 asks the question: "How can a young man keep his way pure?" By living according to the Word of God, by holding it close in his heart so as not to sin.
With humor, he describes the flesh finding excuses: it's raining, you have to get the umbrella, take the metro, "no, I'm not going to the night of prayer." God is not angry with you, "but you stay here," in that group. "Even as a pastor, sometimes you don't feel like getting up."
The closer you get to Jesus, the more you feel the spiritual battle he is fighting and that is at work in the world, and the more you discern where the good fight of faith is. The apostle Paul speaks of the armor to put on in order to stand firm in the evil day: the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the shoes of the Gospel of peace and the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:13-17).
The willing spirit must hold fast to the Holy Spirit in order to draw near to Jesus and prepare to go through the trial that is coming.

5. The trial is not the end point

For Jesus, the end point is not the cross but coming out of the trial: three days later, the hearts of Peter and John race again, he is risen. The resurrection brings him back to his glory.
Jesus went through the cross for the joy that was set before him (Hebrews 12:2): to regain his glory and to have accomplished everything to set us free.
"My brother, my sister, do not look at the trial as an end point, saying: there is nothing left after this in my life." The trials the Church will have to go through are not an end. God wants to prepare us now, before the trial, so that after the trial we will be in the ministry of Christ.
The preacher believes that if the disciples had prayed with Jesus, they would not have barricaded themselves in. They would have been at the foot of the tomb waiting for his resurrection, and no one could have claimed that they had stolen the body.

6. The panic of the arrest: the fleshly sword

Judas arrives (Matthew 26:47-56): another category of disciple, even further away, who walked three and a half years with Jesus without his heart being his.
Peter draws his sword and cuts off the ear of the high priest's servant. He reacted, he took a stand, but with the flesh: "We're going to slaughter them all, you'll be fine, Lord. That's not the plan." He had not grasped the spiritual stakes nor God's plan to have his Son go through the cross.
"Put your sword back into its place": this is the fleshly sword, and God is calling him to take up the spiritual sword. Jesus could have called on more than twelve legions of angels, but the Scriptures had to be fulfilled. Then all the disciples abandon him and run away.
Peter follows from a distance as far as the courtyard (verse 58), though Jesus had called him to be closer. But we should not always make him feel guilty: trembling, afraid, he keeps some closeness, he wants to see what will happen to his master.
Even if you are not prepared enough, even if you fell asleep, you have already drawn near to Jesus. "There is a dimension that the Lord will not take away from you": staying close to him, even when things are shaky.

7. Do not set aside the spiritual battle: Jesus has accomplished everything

The danger is falling asleep, which we find in the parable of the virgins (Matthew 25:1-13): the oil of perseverance, the reserve we build up Sunday after Sunday, in the daily study of the Word and in prayer.
The danger is setting aside the spiritual battle that we discern: "Right now I can't fight, I'm falling asleep." Yet Jesus has won. Today, we are all positioned after the cross, and the battle is of a different nature.
God does not spare us the trial, but his Word is trustworthy because Jesus has accomplished everything. Our fight consists in reminding, in prayer, that Jesus has accomplished everything and that the enemy no longer has any business with us. Too often, "we endure the trial instead of going through it."
In conclusion, he reads Romans 13:11-14: "it is already the hour for you to awake out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed. The night is far gone, and the day is near." Let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and let us be close to him so that we can put him on.
In the closing prayer, he calls the Church to rise "like an army," to come out of spiritual torpor in the face of the trials to come, "the hour of testing, that is coming on the whole world" (Revelation 3:10), to keep the Word and to turn it over in her heart like Mary (Luke 2:19), and to be ready for Paris, as in 2015, at the time of the Bataclan attacks, when the Church was in a night of prayer, watching and praying. May she be able to answer present "when the world knocks at the door of the church."

Key takeaways

Jesus calls his Church to prepare now, before the trial, and not at the moment it strikes.
Around Jesus, there are those who stay seated and those who draw near. Words and songs commit us: God hears them.
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak: it always finds excuses. The willing spirit must hold fast to the Holy Spirit.
Without preparation, we react with the fleshly sword, like Peter, or we flee. Prayer prepares us to react according to the Spirit.
The trial is not an end: Jesus went through it for the joy that was set before him, and he has accomplished everything.

Personal application

In which of the circles of Gethsemane do you find yourself today: seated at a distance, close but asleep, or watching with Jesus?
What excuses does your flesh give you for not praying, not coming to a night of prayer or not joining a house group?
Can you give Jesus one hour a day, one hour out of twenty-four, to watch and pray?
Is your soil still good for receiving the Word, or have the worries of this world choked your joy and your peace?
In the trial you are going through, are you enduring it or going through it, remembering that Jesus has accomplished everything?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

What does "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" mean?

For Benjamin Lamotte-Augris, our intentions are often good: we want to live the promises of the Word of God. But the flesh wanders around, attracted by plenty of things, and always finds excuses, even for not going to a night of prayer. The willing spirit must hold fast to the Holy Spirit in order to draw near to Jesus and prepare.

Why does Jesus take Peter, James and John aside at Gethsemane?

The preacher sees in this both a choice of God, tied to particular ministries, and the level of attachment in the hearts of these disciples. They are not perfect: Peter had just promised to follow Jesus to the very end, and all three fell asleep. Jesus calls them to draw closer to him to watch and pray.

How do we prepare for the trial according to Matthew 26?

By watching and praying before the trial arrives, by drawing closer to Jesus, on Sunday as well as in a house group, and by not setting aside the spiritual battle. The preacher reminds us that the trial is not an end point: Jesus went through the cross for the joy that was set before him: to regain his glory and to have accomplished everything to set us free.