My friend, Justin Edwards writes of this sermon (below):

Closing out the final Resolved Conference a couple of weeks ago, C.J. Mahaney delivered one of the most enthralling messages I have ever heard. No other message should captivate our souls and move us to love, worship, and obey the Lord Jesus Christ than the reality of the cross. Yet, not just the cross on Golgotha, but beginning in Gethsemane.

The Garden of Gethsemane is where we find Jesus being so distressed and troubled, so sorrowful even unto death, so overwhelmed with the impending reality of what He was about to face, that He was crushed by the weight of despair to soon be forsaken by His Father as He drinks the cup of the Father’s wrath. Mark 14:35-36b:

And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me.
Jesus was so distressed that Luke tells us,

And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. – Luke 22:44

Jesus was praying to His Father that, if it were possible, He would remove this cup:

For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs. – Psalm 75:8

And this cup:

He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. – Revelation 19:15c

But, Jesus was met with silence from the Father. Three times. What did this mean? What did it mean for Jesus, who lived perfectly holy before His Father, who never sinned in thought, word, or deed, who was pure in every way and had always been in perfect fellowship with His Father since eternity past, to be met with silence?

And what did it mean when Jesus said,

Yet not what I will, but what you will. – Mark 14:36c

What did this mean for Jesus, who was not only about to drink the cup of the fury of His Father’s wrath but to do so alone and forsaken by His Father, to be resolved to obey His Father’s will even unto death on the cross?

Step inside Gethsemane and walk to the foot of Golgotha to witness the resolve of the Lamb of God by watching CJ Mahaney’s beautiful depiction of the glorious Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. May it change you and cause you to either surrender your life to this Worthy King, or cause you to grow in your understanding of the breadth and length and height and depth of God’s love for you.

Resolved 2012, Session 13 from Resolved on Vimeo.