In our study or Mark we are in Mark 14:36; where Jesus is praying that God the Father would remove the need for Him to go to the cross and receive the imputation of the sins of all mankind if possible but "not my will but your will."

We have taken a side trip into the doctrine of the impeccability of Christ in order to more clearly understand why He was under pressure that was so grievous it was almost to the point of death. Mark 14:34;

Last time we noted that God had to resolve the sin problem before He could have fellowship with mankind and Jesus being judged and dying spiritually and being rejected by God the Father on the cross was the only acceptable solution.

Jesus' impeccability was the prerequisite for Him to perform this saving work on the cross. Jesus' impeccability was the capital that God the Father and Jesus Christ were spending and this is what caused His humanity to have such grief in His prayer to the Father as He steeled Himself to obey the Father and go.

Our Lord was qualified to go to the cross, He was qualified to receive the imputation and judgment of all the sins of the entire human race, and to provide forgiveness, redemption and eternal life for all who would choose to believe in Him.

Jesus Christ had to retain His impeccability while undergoing the entire process of bearing our sins because the substitute had to keep on being perfect through the entire process of judgment for it to be accepted by God.

This means that He could not reject the punishment for any of the sins of mankind no matter how egregious or revolting they were to Him.

1John 3:5; "Indeed, you know that He was revealed (in unglorified humanity in the First Advent) in order that He might carry away our sins; in fact, there was no sin in Him." Net note 22

1Pet 2:24; "He Himself carried our sins in His own body on the cross."

2Cor 5:21; "He made Him who knew no sin (to be) sin as our substitute so that we might become the righteousness of God by believing in Him."

All the time that God the Father was making Jesus to be our sin substitute Jesus did not personally sin by reacting to any of them. He remained inside the prototype spiritual life the entire time.

Isa 53:5-6; "But He was pierced by our transgressions, He was crushed by our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace (reconciliation) was upon Him, and by His wounds we are drawn together with Him.

v6 We all like sheep have gone astray, each one of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord (God the Father) has stricken Him with the punishment of all of us."

The forensic judgment did not actually make Jesus a sinner, but He was punished for the sins that we committed. The punishment belonged to us, but He accepted our punishment and took it for us.

This passage tells us that we are "healed" or brought to peace with God through the work of Jesus Christ. This means that the barrier between mankind and God has been removed so anyone can choose to walk out of the prison of condemnation by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.

This is not talking about the healing of people's bodies it is talking about the healing of or removal of the barrier between God and mankind.

Because of Jesus Christ, God holds nothing against us so we are forgiven when we simply believe in Jesus Christ.

This is the greatest love that ever existed in heaven or earth. This is the love of the prototype spiritual life, our Lord's personal love for God the Father that enabled His impersonal love for mankind.

This same love is the most important thing in your life, a soul love from the maximum integrity of the spiritual life that is directed toward the maximum integrity of God that changes us now and forever. 1John 4:19;

This brings us back to our verse by verse study at Mark 14:36; where Jesus is begging God the Father to find another way if at all possible so that He does not have to spend the capital of His impeccability and fellowship with God the Father yet "not my will but yours be done."

Mark 14:37; He only speaks to Peter and before He could talk to him He had to wake him up. "What, could you not watch with me for one hour?" Apparently we do not have all of the prayer because the word for "one hour" refers to an elapsed time of a literal hour.

Mark 14:38; He then specifically commands Peter. "keep awake and pray." Both are in the imperative mood so it could be translated "stay awake and start praying."

He warns Peter that He needs to be alert and praying, "that you might not fall when you are tempted. He is commanding Peter to pray for himself. He is not commanding Peter to pray for Jesus.

Jesus is praying for Himself. Peter has no capacity to pray for Jesus because He doesn't have a clue. Jesus was praying not to fall to His temptation to by-pass the cross.

He had already told Peter that he was going to be tempted to deny Jesus three times that night so Peter also needs to be praying. Of course Peter doesn't believe he will deny Jesus it so he's not concerned.

We see a connection here between prayer and the power to resist temptation. The connection is doctrinal orientation because prayer focuses us on God's Word rather than our circumstances so when circumstances pressure us we recall God's Word rather than yield to the temptation and resist by means of faith rest application of God's Word. Heb 10:38;

Remember the purpose for prayer is not to change our circumstances it is to change our view of our circumstance so that we can more accurately understand God's plan for us through God's Word (by means of faith or Bible Doctrine).

Mark 14:38c; "the spirit is willing." means that the human spirit always does the will of God. Negative volition comes from the human soul. The (human) spirit is willing to do the right thing; "but the flesh is weak"

The human spirit is willing but its capacity to do the will of God is a function of the power options of the spiritual life.

It is affected by our relationship with God the Holy Spirit because the human spirit is no good without the filling ministry of the Holy Spirit.

When a believer is out of fellowship he can't go on positive volition except in a non-meritorious way through confession of known sins or self-evaluation in rebound.

if you are ignorant of Bible doctrine then the willingness of the human spirit is limited by your ignorance of doctrine.

Failure to consistently operate under the power options of the spiritual life is how we limit God's power in our life.

The word "willing" is an adjective that means there is positive volition to do the will of God. The reason that Peter is not going to do the will of God is that he does not believe the doctrine so he is arrogant and ignorant and he does not obey Jesus' commands to be alert and pray,

Only God and the power of His word would be sufficient to handle the pressure Peter is about to face but Peter is not aware of the danger he is in so he choose to sleep rather than pray. The "flesh" refers to the old sin nature and the old sin nature never can resist temptation because it has no capacity to resist.

Satan propagandizes us just as he did Peter and because of the weakness of the OSN we are deceived and lulled into an attitude of complacency that causes us to fail to be alert and on guard and then he attacks us suddenly and unexpectedly and we are caught completely off guard so we fail.

Because of his lack of awareness and his failure to stay alert and pray so that He has a doctrinal viewpoint Peter will not be able to resist the temptation to deny Jesus three times.

Having positive volition to Jesus' mandates could have prevented the failure that will cause him great anguish. Matt 26:75; 2Cor 13:8; Psa 76:10; Peter learned his lesson from this failure. 1Pet 5:8;

Mark 14:39-42; Jesus prays the same prayer three times so He is in prayer to the Father for three hours. His disciples got a three-hour nap because their eyes were "very heavy."

When the eyelids are heavy it means apathy and lack of interest. No matter how tired you are if your brain is stimulated and functioning your eyes are wide open. If the disciples had even a little doctrinal understanding of what was about to happen wouldn't have been sleeping.

v41 They had nothing to say to Him when He rebuked them for sleeping with the sarcastic command "You keep on sleeping and resting." in the Greek the words sleeping and resting are both in the imperative mood so it is sarcasm. "Since you can't stay awake just go ahead and sleep and rest."

"It is enough" is the translation of the Greek word "aphecho" in the NASB and the NET but I don't think that translation really fits. The word means "to hold off" or "be away from." It is only used in this manner in Mark so determining exactly how to use it in the sentence uncertain.

If verse 41 is read straight through into verse 42 it makes sense. And He came the third time and said to them "keep on sleeping and resting, no hold off on that (aphecho), the hour has come look at this, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners get up let's go, look, My betrayer is approaching.

Jesus knew God's plan so after He was done praying He was just hanging out there waiting for Judas to come to betray Him. He was going to let the disciples sleep some more but as He was talking to them Judas showed up so there was no more time for sleep so He told them "hold off get up let's go.

Mark 14:41e; Who are the sinners Jesus is being betrayed to? They are the Jewish religious party bosses, the ones who prayed seven times a day and went to church three times a day, they are the arrogant, self-righteous religious unbelievers who Jesus had confronted in the temple a couple of days before.

We have two antithetical situations here. Jesus was prepared but Peter and the disciples weren't. Sleeping hadn't prepared Peter and the disciples for anything. Peter will become the man without doctrine who fails and produces his own misery because he ignored doctrine and slept.

In contrast to Peter's failure we see the success of our Lord Jesus Christ and how by means of doctrine He will fulfill God's plan of God, go to the cross and die for the sins of the world.

We also see that even under maximum pressure Jesus doesn't lose His poise, He doesn't become upset, He is not guilty of any sin of any kind. He knows exactly what He is doing, He understands God's plan, He orients to God's plan, He deploys God's grace, and He accomplishes the objective.

Peter on the other hand goes from bad to worse and ends up totally miserable, self-loathing, and despondent and it didn't have to be that way. 2Cor 13:8; Gal 6:7-8;

Mark 14:42; "Get up, let's go the one who betrays me is here.

When Judas showed up with the lynch mob Jesus had God's answer to His prayer. There was no longer any doubt, His going to the cross was the only solution to God's problem of mankind's sin.

Instead of running Jesus and the disciples advanced to face the mob.

Life is filled with periods of inactivity and then suddenly as if out of nowhere a lot of action, then more inactivity and then a lot more action. In flying we refer to it as hours of boredom punctuated by moments of terror.

The periods of inactivity are very important because they determine the course of action that we will take during the times of sudden pressure.

During those periods when there is no particular problem or difficulty or disaster at hand, we have the opportunity to prepare ourselves, to settle our minds down firmly with Bible doctrine, and learn something of the inner happiness that can come from times of peace and tranquility.

And then when the pressure hits suddenly and unexpectedly the determining factor in our response is what we did during the hours of boredom when we had the time to prepare with God's Word.

This is the contrast between Jesus and the disciples. Jesus prepared with prayer and meditation, His disciples slept so they squandered their opportunity.