Should I Serve on the Worship Team?

The first question is: I have a desire to serve by playing piano and glorifying God within the church, but I don’t know if I’m ready to serve in something so important. So, basically, it’s a question of: I think I want to play an instrument and I want to play an instrument at church. What should you be thinking about? Are you ready?

I want to emphasize—don’t make that decision on your own. If you have any desire, if you can play an instrument but aren’t sure if you’re good enough (which I think is what this question is getting at), that’s okay. Talk to Chris Drent or to me; I can get you connected with Chris. When the band practices, he can invite you to listen. Even if you might not be ready to play, you can still be shepherded through the process of asking, “Am I ready to be part of the band, part of the worship team?”

More important than perfection or ability to play well, God cares about your heart. He’s pleased with a humble, willing heart much more than with a flawless performance. Before you even start thinking, “Am I ready musically?” ask, “Am I ready spiritually?” It’s critical that you’re not merely up here playing instruments or making music, but that you are leading or being an example by having a worshipful heart that wants to glorify God. You see that in the question itself.

It’s a very good thing to want to use your musical gift, your musical skills, to honor the Lord—to worship. That is the best use of those musical gifts. If you have any desire, even if you don’t play an instrument yet and want to learn, talk to Chris or talk to me. You won’t be part of the band to learn how to play an instrument—you have to do that on your own—but even as you’re learning and asking, “What should I set my heart on?” don’t try to figure that out alone. Talk to us.

The answer is: talk to Chris, and even if you’re not ready to play with us yet, you can come and sit in and listen, see the way he shepherds the musicians’ hearts, and get help on how to practice and get ready.

How Does the Human Body Sweat Blood? (Luke 22:44)

Next question: “How does the human body sweat blood like in Luke 22:44?”

The physiology is actually pretty cool. It’s called hematidrosis. In Luke 22:44, Jesus was in such agony that sweat dripped off of Him like blood. We’re going to go to that passage, but first, let’s talk about the physiology.

I looked up some journal articles on the pathophysiology of sweating blood. Can it happen? It can. Patel and Mahajan, in a dermatology journal, describe hematidrosis as a condition in which capillary blood vessels—the super small blood vessels that feed your tissues and sweat glands—rupture, causing blood to exude through the skin.

Why would that happen? It occurs under conditions of extreme physical and emotional stress. Acute fear and intense mental contemplation are the most frequent causes. Journal articles mention cases in men condemned to execution, people hiding during the Blitz in London under bombing, and someone fearing for their life in a storm while sailing. It’s very rare, but it’s a known phenomenon.

This is triggered by the body’s fight-or-flight response—a sympathetic surge or adrenaline rush. There’s a part of your brain called the locus ceruleus, sort of your panic center. When you get that sudden panic (like almost getting in a car accident), you get a surge of adrenaline and your blood vessels tighten, blood pressure spikes, and in rare cases, capillaries rupture and blood comes out through the sweat glands.

That’s likely what happened in Jesus’ body. Theologically, this is a vivid reminder of what we read about Jesus being fully man, even as He was fully God. Under intense emotional stress, His capillaries failed, and blood came out of His sweat glands. The journal article calls it “extreme emotional stress,” which is probably an understatement for what Jesus was facing.

Let’s look at what He was actually enduring. In Mark 14, Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane after the Last Supper. He was greatly distressed and troubled. He said, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.” That’s not just hyperbole. The sorrow in His soul was so powerful and pronounced that He drew near to dying, even before the cross.

He prayed, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” He wasn’t just sweating because He was nervous or afraid of death. He was facing the cup—the cup of God’s wrath against sin described in Isaiah 51. That was what Jesus was contemplating: a cup filled with God’s wrath, which He would drink down completely.

We could not survive the cup of God’s wrath or satisfy it, not even for ourselves. The agony of Jesus was not about the nails or physical pain, but about bearing our sin and God’s wrath. From eternity past, Jesus knew this was coming. Before the foundation of the world, God had prepared for this day—Jesus would have to bear God’s wrath if anyone were to be saved.

Now, Jesus was in time, knowing that in a few short hours, God the Father, with whom He had perfect fellowship, would put our sin on Him and punish Him for it. His last words in John 19:30, “It is finished.” He drank the Father’s wrath to its very bottom in three hours—what would have taken eternity to pour out on us.

That means there’s no more punishment or condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Jesus did everything necessary. He was in such agony that His body was pushed to the point of death and needed an angel’s help not to die prematurely. The panic centers in His brain pumped adrenaline so much that blood poured from His pores.

Why Was Jesus in the Grave for Three Days?

The next question: If Jesus completed His work on the cross in three hours, why was He in the grave for three days?

So, what are we talking about in three hours? There were three hours on the cross when Jesus paid for sin. How do we know it was three hours? In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, it says that at the sixth hour (about noon), there was darkness over the land until the ninth hour (about 3:00 p.m.). During those three hours of darkness, Jesus was on the cross. At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and then, “It is finished.” The temple veil was torn in two from top to bottom.

What we know is that during those three days in the grave, Jesus was not still paying for sin. He finished it—He said, “It is finished.” That darkness was a visible sign of God the Father’s judgment as He treated God the Son as if He had committed every sin of everyone who would ever believe. All the wrath we deserved was fully paid.

So, why three days? First, it was to fulfill Scripture and the sign of Jonah. Jesus said in Matthew 12:40, “Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” He did it because He had predicted it, and He fulfilled the promises of God’s Word. In John 2:18, He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” referring to His body. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that Christ died, was buried, and was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

Second, it was to show that He was really dead. If He had died and come back to life right away, people could have claimed He hadn’t really died. John 19 records that when the soldiers saw Jesus was already dead, they didn’t break His legs (as they usually did to hasten death), but instead stabbed Him in the side, and blood and water flowed out. He was then wrapped and placed in the tomb—His body was truly dead.

Even though His body was in the tomb, His soul and spirit were alive with the Father, just as with us when we die—our soul is separate from the body. That’s why Jesus could say to the criminal on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Jesus’ body was in the tomb to show He truly died.

Third, the resurrection itself shows that God accepted the sacrifice. Jesus is called the “first fruits” of our resurrection. Like the first fruit on a tree, He’s not the only one—there’s much more resurrection to come. Even though our bodies will likely die and go into the ground, just like a seed is sown perishable and raised imperishable, so we will be raised with new bodies fit for eternity.

Those were some good questions. I hope they spark others. Most of all, I hope they remind you to think about the cross, knowing that it really happened. Jesus really did die. When we say Jesus took on flesh, this isn’t just something we sing about at Christmas or merely theology to consider—it really happened, and it should affect our lives.

Let’s go to discussion groups. If you didn’t finish your packet last week on the work of Christ, your leaders might take you through that. Otherwise, let’s review together what this year has been like, what you’ve learned, and enjoy the last half hour of Student Ministries in 2025.