Explore the Bible Study: Do I Have the Strength?
9:02 AM
As you lead your group to study Matthew 26:36-46 this week, be sure to draw a contrast between the results of Jesus spending time praying and the disciples spending time sleeping. In order to illustrate this, I have included Matthew 26:47-56 in the teaching ideas. In these passages we see the following results:
- The evidences in Jesus life that His prayer time with His Father gave Him strength to do God's will: He did not fight; He did not try to escape; He kept the disciples from fighting; He did not call on more than twelve legions of angels - equivalent to an army of 72,000 angels - to fight on His behalf; He determined to fulfill all the Scriptures.
- The evidences that revealed how the disciples lack of prayer caused them to succumb to temptation: They drew their swords; A disciple cut off one of the high priest’s servant's ears; they all deserted Him and ran away.
John MacArthur, in his commentary on Matthew observed this:
There is no indication that they (the disciples) uttered a single breath of prayer, no hint that they called on the Father to strengthen them. In smug self-confidence, they still thought of themselves as loyal, dependable, and invincible. Like many believers throughout the history of the church, they foolishly mistook their good intentions for strength. The sinless Son of God felt a desperate need for communion with His Heavenly Father, but His sinful, weak disciples, as so often they do today, felt no desperation about their weakness and vulnerability.
Teaching Ideas
Video tour of the area around Gethsemane
Image: Gethsemane
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