Elaine Nordman - Be a Christian? Who needs it? I was young and I thought I would get saved when I was older when I didn’t need to have fun anymore. When I was a girl, thoughts of having fun and being saved were incompatible.
Memroy Verse: Matthew 26:42 Memory Verse Text: If this cup may not pass away from Me, except I drink it, Thy will be done.
Point 1: He went forth from the Upper Room. Ever moving closer to the reality that lay before. His disciples follow Him but little do they know. He longs over them, encouraging them to pray that they not fall in the testing ahead (while His own need so vastly overshadows theirs). Point 2: As to the physical aspect. He goes a little farther - this indicates that there was some aspect that they could not share in - this was HIS cup. He kneels Luke 22:41. He falls on the ground according to Mark14:35. He fell on His face Matt. 26:39. Bowed under the weight of it all. Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows! Point 3: Prays 3 times similarly yet perhaps you can perceive a subtle difference. What seems to be a request about the cup at first becomes a revelation to us that He knows and (that since there is no way we can be saved apart from this cup being endured), He willingly embrasses the Will of the Father who will have all men to be saved. Point 4: He finds them sleeping again and again. They do not know the trials He is enduring nor do they understand their own need as all things move forward to the great hour of Crisis. He knows the time - He knows what is going to take place. He stirs them and moves forward notwithstanding all. Hallelujah - what a Saviour!
Notes: The "if' of the verse is not a question, it is the idea of 'since this cup cannot pass from Me" if salvation is to be accomplished and there is no other way, then "Thy will be done".
This Sunday School Curriculum guide is part of a 254 Sunday School Lesson Book available at www.gospelhall.org. See the Downloads Section of the site for a complete copy.
Elaine Nordman
