Noel Dear: Jesus and the Olive Press

Baptists Preaching is a column from the Baptist Standard. It is not an effort to advance any one theology or style but to present what a collection of Baptists considers a word from God. Likewise, Baptists Preaching offers a repository of Baptist preaching for future study and research. To recommend a sermon to be featured in Baptists Preaching, please contact eric.black@baptiststandard.com.

Noel Dear: Jesus and the Olive Press (Matthew 26:36-46)

Noel Dear, pastor of First Baptist Church in Nacogdoches, explained the significance of olives and their oil for the people of Jesus’ day and society. He gave a detailed account of how olive oil was made, pointing out olives were pressed three times, each time resulting in a different quality of oil.

Dear noted Gethsemane—as in the garden where Jesus prayed the night he was arrested—means “oil press.” While in that garden, Jesus was pressed three times, Dear said. The guilt of our sin was the weight that pressed Jesus, who grieved our sin to the point of death, Dear added. But we have a hard time believing our sin is that serious, he contended. “Our sin separates us from God,” and Jesus becoming our sin resulted in God turning away from him, Dear proclaimed.

Returning to olive oil, Deal explained that the first press—the purest oil—was used for sin offerings, the second oil was used in lamps to produce light, and the oil from the third pressing was used to make soap. Jesus’ experience in the garden of Gethsemane depicts a similar pressing that resulted in Jesus being our sin offering, our light in a dark world, and our cleansing and fresh start, Dear concluded.

This sermon was delivered April 9, 2023, for the Easter Sunday morning worship service of First Baptist Church in Nacogdoches, which was held in the William R. Johnson Coliseum at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches.

A sermon manuscript and outline are available for further reading.