This is Larry Jones. You are listening to the Grace and Glory Hour of the Dyer Baptist Church with our co-pastors David M. Atkinson and Dr. Lee Atkinson. We are coming to you from Dyer, Indiana. Our prayer is that you will be strengthened by the Word today. Now, here is our pastor. Please find Matthew 26, if you would. Matthew 26. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where thou hast died. I'm thine, oh Lord. Now I belong to Jesus. Jesus belongs to me. Not for the years of time alone, but for eternity. A number of our songs had in them that theme of the intimacy, the communion, the fellowship, the belongingness that we have with God. We sometimes talk about there's no place like home, and sometimes I think we mean that because home is a place where we feel like we belong. Whether it's our house where we live, or the church where we're familiar, or your home country after you've been out of the country for a while, it's just good to feel like you fit, like you belong, like there's a connection. And those thoughts are all in my heart as we consider this evening approaching the Lord's table this theme that is the cup of fellowship. The cup of fellowship. In Matthew chapter 26 we find one of the shorter accounts of the Last Supper. Matthew 26, 26. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it Take, eat. This is my body. And he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, drink ye all of it. For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." Amen. In this special supper, this institution of a new memorial or visual for us, We see that Christ's blood had been symbolized for centuries by the blood of animals. And now it was symbolized by the blood of the grape, if you will. And Jesus was eager to share in the sharing of this beverage with his people. In another account, it may have been Luke, he said, with desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you. He was looking forward to, in a special way, sharing this beverage with them. For cross-reference, let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10. I'm trying to establish this idea of the fellowship that comes in a cup, or a shared beverage. Jesus talked about drinking this cup, all of you, how it represented His blood. He talked about drinking it again with them later. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. The passage here is really helping us to see that we need to be separate from the things of darkness. There's a difference between God's people and those people who are not yet God's people. The children of darkness, the children of light, the children of the devil, the children of the Lord. 10, in this copy of the Bible that I have, verse six has a header that says, stay away from idolatry. And it talks about how we need to not do like they did in the Old Testament when they fell into the worship of the golden calf in verse seven, and so on. Let's pick up our reading in verse 14. 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 14. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, that word blessing there is like eulogy is the Greek word, we get the same derivation from eulogy or blessing or saying something nice and kind and formal. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion And you might think of communion, but it's the same word that we get translated fellowship often. The communion of the blood of Christ. The fellowship, the koinonia of the blood of Christ. The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? So here we see the word communion. We're reading about the drinking of the cup and the breaking of the bread. And in it he has that word communion or fellowship. And then he talks about it for a while, we being many are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread. Behold Israel after the flesh, are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What say I then, that the idol is anything, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything? But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not God. When they engage in their idol worshiping, they're actually engaged in a kind of a satanic demon-powered religion. And they're not sacrificing to God, actually. And he says, I would not that ye should have fellowship, again, koinonia, with devils. I don't want you to fellowship with the devils. And right after he talks about fellowship as relating to sacrifice and worship, he comes back again to the cup in verse 21. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of devils. He's saying separate. Don't engage in idolatry and try to come to the Lord's table as one or the other. In other words, who is on the Lord's side, choose you this day whom you will serve. But we see the notion of the communion or the fellowship of the blood of Christ, and we see the fellowship involved in worship in verse 20 immediately followed by the concept of the cup of the Lord. So we're considering tonight the cup of fellowship. When we come to the Lord's table, there is a certain fellowship that we experience that those who don't come to the table do not experience. And it makes me sad. for those who for various reasons do not come to the Lord's table. I want to address three aspects of the cup of fellowship and illustrate them from my own personal life with some simple anecdotes that maybe you can relate to that are gloriously excelled in the one cup of fellowship, the cup of the Lord's table. This is just to build up the suspense. Actually, it was because I needed these things to be wrapped so I wouldn't break anything. I asked Bethany if I could borrow a pretty teacup. She said I could. This teacup reminds me of when I was, I don't know, probably, I guess I would say a mid to late teenager. I was living at 1310 Calumet Avenue, which house no longer exists. My older sister was away at college and I was there living with my parents and going to high school. And my parents had a tradition. Virtually every night without fail, like clockwork, Mom would put the kettle on the stove to boil water to make tea. And she and dad would gather back to the table where we'd had supper a few hours before. Usually, dad had a magazine, Newsweek, or something stressful like that to read. And mom was reading a nice, comfortable novel, or doing cross-stitch, or something like that. And they always had tea to kind of unwind before bed, and the best part was there usually was a snack that went with it. Some kind of a cookie. I appreciate that, amen. That's good. And they had done that since I was a child, probably since before I was a child. Tea was just a thing that you did in the Atkinson household. And I remember, maybe not the very first time, but I remember the beginning of the process where one time I thought, you know, I'm kind of feeling like I'm left out. I always thought tea was kind of gross and grown up, but maybe I'll try it. And so mom poured me a cup of tea. Half an hour later, it was cool enough for me to drink. No, I'm kidding. But I had to wait a long time. Mom, she'll drink it right out of the tea kettle, boiling water. I don't know how she does that. But it was kind of like a rite of passage for me. But now, here's my learned father and my wonderful mother drinking tea and doing their grown-up things at the table. And there I was. And I was probably interrupting them and talking to them and making all kinds of noise. I don't know what I did. I don't think I read, but maybe I did. But I felt in a new way included in the family. Because there was a fellowship in the teacup. This is something that mom and dad had always shared. It was uniquely theirs. And now I was part of it. I was with them. And when you share a special beverage like that, it is kind of an including type of thing. When Jesus instituted communion, or the Lord's Supper, he was including us in his family. He was partaking of that beverage himself. Can you picture that? Imagine yourself as one of the disciples, and you don't realize the full significance of what's happening. But Jesus has a cup, and he passes it around. He didn't have little plastic one-inch joggers either. It was probably a common cup that they passed around. And Jesus didn't say, well, I've got my cup, and you've got yours. They were included in a family-type relationship together. When we were in South Africa with the Meyers, they're always hot and thirsty over there, and we're driving along in their car on these dusty roads, and they would have these two-liter bottles, sometimes refilled with water, sometimes with hop, or cold drink, as they call them. You know, in a family of seven, they just get a two-liter, pass it around multiple times, you know. No need for cups. just everybody sharing the same two-liter. They offered it to us very graciously. I wasn't thirsty. I'm not real squeamish, but I mean, seven people, that's kind of a lot. But there was this familial sharing of beverage together. And when Jesus passed that cup around the table, there was an inclusion. Jesus drank from that cup and he included his disciples. And by extension, when he says to continue to do it, we are included when we partake of the Lord's cup. I mentioned in prayer this morning something that our Wednesday night Bible study people, I hope, recognize. A verse that touched my heart in a new way in our Hebrews study. Hebrews chapter two, verse 11. It says that him that sanctifies and those that are sanctified are all of one. In other words, when Jesus sanctifies us, he does such a thorough job, he makes us so holy, it's like we're on the same level with him. His robes for mine kind of thing. And then it says, for which cause, because he sanctified us so thoroughly and made us so holy, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. I think if I were Jesus, I would be ashamed to call me my brother. Like maybe, you know, third cousin twice removed by marriage or something. But Jesus calls us his brother. were included in his family. And when we remember the Lord and the Lord's Supper, we have that cup of the Lord, that cup of fellowship, that is inclusion. That's Hebrews 2.11. He's not ashamed to call his brethren. Reminds me of another cup of fellowship that I've partaken of. It also is wrapped. Not quite as fragile, but very special as well. Coffee mug. This particular coffee mug has some pretty cool history. I happen to know it's over 20 years old. It's over 22 years old, because I bought this for my wife when she wasn't my wife. She was out in Colorado, backside of the desert, living in rebellion, fleeing from me. Somewhere in the line there, I got her this mug. And it said, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say, rejoice. Because she was a schoolteacher. She taught grades 6 through 12, just about all the subjects. She had a big job. And she needed to rejoice in the Lord. And she needed a coffee cup. So I got her a coffee cup. It said, rejoice in the Lord. Well, lo and behold, eventually, we got married. And we were living in 1322 Calumet Avenue, which also no longer exists. Or was it 1318? No, it was 13... I think they changed the address, actually. The county was confused, or I was confused. Anyways, it was Parsons number 2, which is no longer there. We were recently married, and you know, as a young groom, I want to please my wife in all things. I think that's biblical. And you know, she... She's a great cook, has been as long as I've known her. And we had a wonderful Sunday dinner. And she said, you know, back home, we always used to have coffee with dessert on Sunday afternoon. I'm like, coffee? It's like burnt flavored stuff. Why would you ever drink that? And she looked at me adoringly. Oh, I just have to have my coffee with Sunday afternoon dessert. It's just, it's no fun to drink alone. Which right there is discerning. But I think those are the words she used. And I, not willing to be, you know, a bad husband, said, well, go ahead and pour me some. She says, I'll put plenty of cream and sugar. It'll be fine. You'll like it. It won't even taste like coffee. If there's a drink that we have to make not taste like itself, why don't we just drink cream and sugar? I mean, wouldn't that be better? I don't know. But I was hooked. And she gave me a cup. And I would sip just a little bit and get half a cup down. And she said, that's OK. That's all I needed. I just needed someone to share this cup with me. Because it was a way for us to have a connection. It was something that we were doing together. There was no Sylvia, Russell, Clara, Chase. It was just us and Alfred, our golden retriever. And he had no thumbs, so he got to drink coffee. And still, we'll sometimes be out running errands, and she'll have a gift card because somebody loves her, and she says, hey, you want to run through and get some coffee? And I'm like, yes. And I could take or leave the coffee, but I would never want to leave her, and so we share a coffee. And there's a connection. And I have since grown to enjoy coffee, not as much as she does. But I do enjoy coffee. Mostly that's because of graduate school, but that's another story. So we have found that with the coffee mug, when we have coffee together, we have fellowship. Just last night, we were having dessert. And it was getting to that hour where it's getting a little late. Are you going to have coffee this late? How dangerous do you want to live? And we had a little bit of coffee with our dessert last night. The kids didn't want to have coffee with her, but I had coffee with her because it's our connection. And sometimes when you share a beverage with somebody, it builds a connection, doesn't it? Notice back in our lead-off text, Matthew chapter 26, verse 27, what Jesus said about this cup. He said, take this cup. You're still getting there, but I have it in my notes. He said in Matthew 26, 27, Drink ye all of it. I want everybody here to drink from this cup. I don't think the emphasis is drink everything that's in the cup, finish it, drink it all. I think he means all of you drink of it. And I don't know what they were thinking. As I said before, I doubt they recognized the significance of what they were experiencing at that moment. But I think on later occasions they look back and have a special connection because of that. Can you imagine in the years to come when Matthew and Andrew, Philip or Nathaniel were somewhere in some local church, whether it was Jerusalem or Samaria or some other city, they're observing the Lord's Supper and somebody says, hey Matthew, Tell us again, what was it like? I doubt Matthew ever got tired of telling that story. Of the time when Jesus took the cup and blessed it. Says, drink ye all of it. Because there weren't many people there that night. But Matthew was one of them. Matthew was there and Matthew recorded it. Luke wasn't there, I don't believe. Mark may have, but probably wasn't there. Peter probably told him about it. John didn't write about it in his gospel. Paul wrote about it, but he got it from the Lord. Matthew may have been the only one who wrote about it, and it was there. But regardless, those 11 men, whenever they observed the Lord's Supper, like we'll observe tonight, Don't you think that they had a brotherhood and a connection with the other disciples, the apostles, that nobody else had? Because something in sharing that beverage and having that experience together bound them in their hearts. Because every time thereafter, they would think, you know, the first time I did it, Jesus was the one at the head of the table. I'll never forget it. He said, drink ye all of it. You're connected because you all drank from the same beverage. I'm thinking of Acts 2, 41 and 42 as well, where it says that 3,000 souls were saved and baptized and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. And it talks about what they did after that. So let's just turn there. We're talking about how a shared beverage or a cup of fellowship can symbolize the strong connection among people. Acts chapter two, verse 41. Acts 2, 41. The day that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and, there's that word again, fellowship. And in breaking of bread and in prayers. I believe breaking of bread there is a reference to the Lord's Supper, the ordinance that we'll observe tonight. And these Christians were continually fellowshipping and learning from the doctrine and observing the Lord's Supper. There was a connection that bound them together. They were fellowshiping, they were learning, and they were observing. Sharing the cup, the cup of the Lord, the cup of fellowship, puts a connection between us. And I believe that as a local church, when we observe the Lord's Supper, we are connected in a special way. I always feel a special kinship and a fellowship at these services that I don't at other Sunday night services. Our other seven night services, I think, are often very sweet. But there's something about sitting together and waiting on one another, and letting the elements be passed, and listening to the music, and pondering our Lord, and anticipating his return, and together, drinking and remembering, and eating and remembering. There is a connection that binds us together. And that's the way it's supposed to be. I'm so thankful for the fellowship of connection that comes with the company of the Lord. So the Fellowship Cup speaks of inclusion, it speaks of connection, and there's one more thing that I'm happy to share with you. Please don't get concerned. This jug is not brown, it's clear. It says on the front, Denardo's Original Cherry Delight. In Canyon City, Colorado, There is a little mom and pop gift store type arrangement where Mr. DiNardo is selling his cherry cider like he's been doing. This company is a little family business. We're twin brothers that ran it most of the time. They just celebrated their 80th anniversary. And if you ever happen to be on that little highway in Canyon City, I encourage you to stop by and get some cherry cider. I'm pretty sure the first time I had this, again, was before we were married, but in Bethany's parents' house. I was trying to get them to let me marry Bethany and perhaps they were trying to get me to marry Bethany, I don't know. And so they thought that they would give me this cherry cider. I had a much smaller amount than this. It was the most amazing stuff I'd ever drunk in my entire life. I still describe it this way. Drinking DiNardo's cherry cider is like drinking a piece of cherry pie. And I don't mean the canned cherry pie filling. pies. I mean the tart baking cherry cherry pies that are just so bursting with flavor sweet and sour all at the same time make your mouth pucker kind of cherry pie. It's incredible. And they make and sell this. And the cherries are grown right there in Colorado. And they press them, and they make this cider. And because it's so authentic, do you think this is inexpensive? It's expensive. I tried to look up the price. It didn't really say. You can order it online, I think, or call, and they'll ship it to you. But I think a container about this size runs around $40, maybe $50, something like that. This is really expensive. Let me hasten to add that this was a gift and that brings me to my point. I had a little bit of cherry cider there with her parents and then later on we stopped at the gift store and I bought a smaller bottle and I thought I was really splurging. Whoa, it's like $18 for a different size bottle. And the thing is, Bethany has a younger sister named Brenna. And she also married a pastor's son. And Brenna and Noah are generous people. They're good gift givers. And they appreciate good food. And where I can't quite bring myself to spend a certain amount of money on food, they can. And I'm so thankful they're my relatives. And so it's kind of turned into a bit of a tradition. They live in South Dakota, and whenever we go out there, often, down in their cellar, they'll have one of these half gallons, or is this a gallon? Yeah, half gallon of Donardos. And when we come out to visit them at a certain supper, I'm always kind of waiting to see if they're gonna bring one up. Are they gonna bring one up? And usually they do. And this past year, for Christmas, they drove out to visit us from South Dakota for Christmas. And I was wondering, because they've done this before, and sure enough, for Christmas, they gave me a new jug of DiNardo's Cherry Cider. And it's become this thing where I love them because they're my relatives. But I anticipate getting with them because it could include some Donardo's cherry cider. Like anymore, it's about the only time I have it is either they give it to me or we're at their house and we drink their cider. It's so good. It's the kind of stuff when the kids were little, we would give them Kool-Aid or something like that. Because they didn't appreciate it. They just go, go, go, drink a quick Donardo. You take a little sip. Then rinse your mouth out so you can start all over again. Take another sip of this. It's so good. Now they're older and they need to get their own glass. It's terrible. Anyway, it's become something that I associate with getting together with the Torversons. It's something that we anticipate fondly together. And a cup of fellowship will do that. The Torbersons and us have had cherry cider together enough times that now, I'm always kinda wondering when we get together, is it gonna be Donardos? And I'm thankful that it does. Jesus' cup, the cup of fellowship that is at the Lord's table, much more seriously is a cup of anticipation, isn't it? Come back again to Matthew 26, where in our text, Jesus hints at this indication, Matthew, or at this anticipation, Matthew chapter 26. He says in verse 29, Matthew 26, 29, and when they had some, or excuse me, verse 29, but I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, Until, that's an anticipatory word, isn't it? Until, until I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. Now, I don't know for sure what that means. And anyone who says they do know for sure, I think might be overconfident. But I always think of Revelation chapter 19 when I think of drinking it new in my father's kingdom. That's the passage that talks about the marriage supper of the Leah. You can turn there if you want, I'm going to read it for you, this description of the marriage supper of the Lamb. Maybe this is what Jesus meant when he said, I'll drink it new with you in the kingdom. Revelation 19, six. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters and as the voice of mighty thundering saying, hallelujah, the Lord God of muffets and rain. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. And he saith unto me, Right blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These things are true sayings of God. Whether it's at that occasion or another occasion, Jesus says, in the kingdom, I will someday drink it new with you, but I won't drink it until then. There's an anticipation, there's a looking forward to sharing that cup. And again, think of those original apostles. year after year until they died, observing the Lord's Supper like we will tonight, and they must have thought, maybe next time, it'll be with Jesus. Maybe next time, Jesus will have established his kingdom. I miss him so much. I'm anticipating his return, and I hope that we can enter into that just a little bit tonight as we observe the Lord's Supper, anticipating his return and saying, maybe this is the last time we'll have the Lord's Supper without him. He'll drink it new with us someday in the kingdom. Amen. It could be anything now. All that's wrong with the world will be made right. There'll be no more cancer, knee surgeries, dementia, chronic pain, no more heartache, no more questions, no more wrestling with our own sin. He will come and He will make all things new. So as we have this cup of fellowship, this cup of the Lord, I got a little extra. This one little plastic cup really does all these things, doesn't it? When we observe the Lord's Supper, we can have a cup of inclusion. We're included with the Lord and his family. We have a cup of connection. We are bound to each other in this fellowship. We can have a cup of anticipation, looking forward to when he comes again and we drink this cup with him. I hope that this action we take won't lose its significance to you, but you'll savor this cup and all the things it represents. Thank you for joining us today. We'd love to hear from you. Our email address is GraceGlory7 at Juno.com. GraceGlory, the number 7, at Juno.com. Pastor David M. Atkinson also has a ministry on Facebook and invites you to connect with him there. Now, until the next time, remember to walk softly with the Lord. you