Watching With Jesus

Stay here and watch with Me —Matthew 26:38

“Watch with Me.” Jesus was saying, in effect, “Watch with no private point of view at all, but watch solely and entirely with Me.” In the early stages of our Christian life, we do not watch with Jesus, we watch for Him. We do not watch with Him through the revealed truth of the Bible even in the circumstances of our own lives. Our Lord is trying to introduce us to identification with Himself through a particular “Gethsemane” experience of our own. But we refuse to go, saying, “No, Lord, I can’t see the meaning of this, and besides, it’s very painful.” And how can we possibly watch with Someone who is so incomprehensible? How are we going to understand Jesus sufficiently to watch with Him in His Gethsemane, when we don’t even know why He is suffering? We don’t know how to watch with Him— we are only used to the idea of Jesus watching with us.

The disciples loved Jesus Christ to the limit of their natural capacity, but they did not fully understand His purpose. In the Garden of Gethsemane they slept as a result of their own sorrow, and at the end of three years of the closest and most intimate relationship of their lives they “all . . . forsook Him and fled” (Matthew 26:56).

“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit . . .” (Acts 2:4). “They” refers to the same people, but something wonderful has happened between these two events— our Lord’s death, resurrection, and ascension— and the disciples have now been invaded and “filled with the Holy Spirit.” Our Lord had said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you . . .” (Acts 1:8). This meant that they learned to watch with Him the rest of their lives.

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傳道者的警醒

同我警醒。 （太二十六40）

[同我警醒。 ]－－完全沒有自己的私見，單單與主一同警醒。初時，我們不會與主一同警醒，只會為他警醒。我們不懂得透過聖經的啟示和生活的環境，與他一同警醒。主一直想用一個特定的客西馬尼，帶我們與他同心，有一同的體驗，可是我們不肯去。我們說：[不，主啊，我看不出這有何用處，太苦了。 ]怎樣可以與一​​個難以捉摸的物件一同警醒呢？我們若不明他受苦的目的，怎能對耶穌有充分的了解，以致肯在客西馬尼與他一同警醒？我們根本不懂得怎樣與他一同警醒，只習慣於他與我們一同警醒的觀念。

門徒愛耶穌，只到天然本能的限度為止，因她們不明白他在做什麼。在客西馬尼園中，她們因憂愁睡著了。在三年親密關係結束的時候，他們都離棄他逃跑了。 [他們都被聖靈充滿。 ]同樣是[他們]，只是奇妙的事發生了。就是主的死、復活、升天，門徒被聖靈充滿，主曾說：[聖靈降臨在你們身上，你們就必得著能力。 ]就是他們已學會終其一生與主一同警醒。

祈禱◆主啊，今天早上，為著你的話－－[主用手攙扶他]，我感謝你。