As I mention these five steps in Matthew 26:37 and following I want you to fix in your mind what it is that threatens your tranquility most, what it is that causes despondency or disheartened feelings to rise most often in your own life. What’s the shell that Satan drops most frequently into your life? And then as I mention these five steps that the Lord Jesus took when the bomb dropped in his life, I want you to translate them immediately into your experience, because they’re all relevant. Alright? There five of them.

1. Jesus chose some close friends to be with him. Verse 37: “And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.” So he didn’t withdraw. He took the inner ring, his most precious and trusted friends, and he pulled aside with them.
2. He opened his soul to them. Verse 38: “Then he said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.’” I can imagine their mouths dropping open, their King confessing his weakness. He opened his soul to them.
3. He asked for their help in spiritual warfare. Verse 38, second half: “Remain here and watch with me.” Another text says “pray,” and another, “Don’t let yourself come into temptation; stay here and fight with me. Fight with me.”
4. He poured out his heart to the Father in prayer. Verse 39: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” It’s just fine to pray that the bombshell that has dropped into your life be taken away. That’s just right. Whatever it is that Satan fires at you, it’s just fine to say, “Take it away Father. You’re stronger than he is.”
5. But finally, he rested his soul in the sovereign wisdom of God. Second half of verse 39: “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

Piper, in Future Grace, add’s a sixth point:

He fixed his eye on the glorious future grace that awaited him on the other side of the cross.  “For the joy set before Him [He] endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2)

-Ben

So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. – John 2:18-22

The disciples were good Jews.  Surely they thought they knew and believed the Scripture (OT writings).  But we see here that it wasn’t until after “he was raised from the dead” that they “believed the Scripture.”  What was the problem here?  They didn’t understand the Scripture, and they didn’t understand what Jesus was saying about himself.  You can’t have believe without understanding.

To believe what Jesus says, you need to understand what Jesus says.

To believe what Jesus did, you need to understand what Jesus did.

Not a comprehensive understanding, but a correct understanding.

How?

For God… has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. – 2 Corinthians 4:6

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” – James 1:5

So we pray and ask God to give us understanding as we read the Scripture… and then we READ THE SCRIPTURE.  Two parts.  Gotta have both.

-Ben