00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
So when we think of the cross,
the cross is really a paradox. Because on the one hand, it's
the greatest moment in all of history of human suffering. While at the same time, it is
the source of our greatest hope. Charles Spurgeon, a late preacher,
who was very open about his depression that he struggled with, talked
about how he would look to Jesus's suffering as encouragement. Because he embraced this idea
that the darkness and gloom of the garden and the cross are
the foundation of our brightest hopes. Grace Life, Jesus is acquainted
with our suffering. He became like us in every way
so that we may find comfort and strength in Him. So tonight,
as we think about the cross, on Good Friday we often think
about the human suffering, the physical pain that Jesus went
through, but I want us to really focus beyond that tonight. I
want us to look below the surface to things that the people that
were standing there that day watching Jesus Christ be crucified
would not have known. the spiritual weight that he
experienced, the separation he experienced. That is what I want
us to contemplate tonight. Because Jesus didn't just face
suffering, he didn't just die, but he drank the cup. So this
cup that he drank, the idea of the cup, is something we see
all throughout the Old Testament. And what it is, is it's a picture
of God's wrath poured out on human sin. So let's walk with Jesus. We'll
look at three cups tonight. First, in the garden, then on
the cross, and finally, we'll meet at the table. So let's start
with the cup before him when he's in the garden of Gethsemane.
If you have a Bible with you, you can flip to Matthew 26. There's
Bibles in the chairs as well if you didn't bring one with
you. Matthew 26. verses 38 and 39. So Jesus is with his disciples
in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew all that was before him,
and in this moment, he says this in Matthew 26, verse 38 and 39. Then he said to them, my soul
is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch with me. And going a little farther, he
fell on his face and prayed, saying, my father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as you will. This is our savior, sorrowful
to the point of death, meaning he was so sorrowful it could
lead him to dying. In one gospel account, we see
that he's actually sweating blood. That is the weight he was experiencing. In Christ, we have to recognize
that there are two wills that meet. There's a human nature,
and in his human nature, he's able to experience the full range
of emotions we experience and the full suffering that we can
experience. And at the same time, there's
a divine nature who's in perfect union with the Father at all
times and in perfect alignment with his plan. So in the agony
of the garden, We see a man coming to grips with the reality of
a brutal death, but the obedience of the Son of God, who does not
shrink back from his divine destiny. But we must remember, Jesus genuinely
suffered. He was fully human. And I want
to put a picture up. There's a sculpture in the Garden
of Gethsemane today that somebody carved. And when I got to see
this, it moved me. There's something about the picture
of Jesus falling on his face, praying. I knew about this story. I knew what Jesus went through
physically. But to think about our crowned
son of God, crying in agony, knowing what he would experience.
That is a sobering reality. And here in the garden, Jesus'
greatest fear wasn't the Roman whips. It wasn't the nails that
were gonna be placed on his head and a crown of thorns. It wasn't
even the shame of being hung naked on a cross in front of
your whole community to see. But he was standing on the edge
of something far, far worse, the wrath of God. He's looking
into the holy, righteous, furious wrath of God on human sin, knowing
that he's going to have to bear the full weight of it alone. If you think about this, there
are many Christian martyrs who have gone to their deaths singing
hymns, seemingly at peace in their soul. So we must ask, why
is Jesus, the sinless son of God, sorrowful here to the point
of death? because his death was not like
theirs. He wasn't just facing the physical pain and public
shame. He was standing in the place
of sinners in judgment. On the cross, he bore what we
deserved, not just death, but the full weight of God's wrath
poured out on sin. Hell in our place. Jesus is not
shrinking back from this, but he's stepping willingly into
this submission, this substitution in our place. And if there's
anything you get out of this message tonight, I want it to
be this. Jesus drank the cup of God's
wrath so that we wouldn't have to. Jesus drank the cup of God's
wrath so that we wouldn't have to. Sometimes God leads us through
deep sorrow, not around it. And Jesus knows, because he experienced
it himself, that this obedience doesn't always feel triumphant.
It can actually feel like death. Yet knowing all he would face,
he stepped willingly into it. And now that power, the power
of God, the divine nature, He actually chooses to dwell in
us, to live in us when we share in the union with Christ through
faith. So now, Grace Life, this is when we face trials. We have Christ, the Son of God,
on our side, walking through it with us. And this, if you
think about it, is where perfect obedience is most clearly seen.
Because when it's easy to obey, that's not true perfect obedience. True perfect obedience is when
it costs everything, and that's what it costs Jesus. So we may
face physical pain in this life, and I know all of us are gonna
face death. But Jesus has been there, he
knows. And he has gone further still.
So he knows what he's about to drink in the garden. He's looking
at the cup that is going to come to him. And it's not just Roman
nails, it's divine judgment. Not my will, but yours be done. The cost of that prayer, we cannot
begin to fathom. And yet he prays it, he prays
it. So that is the cup that is before
Christ when he's in the garden. So next, we'll go to the cross
and we'll see the cup being poured out, the moment the cup is poured
out. So turn with me, Matthew 27 now,
verse 46. These two verses, the verses
we just read and now this verse, I think if we look at Jesus's
whole life on earth, these are the two moments of his greatest
suffering. So Matthew 27, verse 46. In about the ninth hour, Jesus
cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lemma sabachthani. That is, my God, my God, why
have you forsaken me? This is the moment he drinks
the cup. Here at the cross, the full weight
of God's wrath on human sin being poured out on Christ, our Savior,
it falls completely on Him. This cup that He saw in the garden
being foreshadowed is now completely drained to the last drop. This sinless, glorious Son of
God who has throughout all eternity been worshiped and adored by
angels, is now hung on a tree in shame, humiliated on a Roman
cross. The one who knew perfect fellowship
with the Father for all time, his whole life, is now experiencing
this agonizing abandonment to the point where he cries out,
my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And this forsakenness,
it's not a loss of faith, but it's a cry from the depths of
his very soul. He is experiencing the separation
that we deserved. And I don't want this to be some
theological puzzle that we feel like we have to solve, but just
to communicate the agonizing reality of what Jesus had to
go through what it means to be cut off from the loving presence
of the Father. God's still present, but now,
instead of love, the Son of God is experiencing wrath. So the doctrine we call the hypostatic
union says that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, 100%
God and yet 100% man at the same time. And this unique union allows
the Son of God to experience this full spectrum of human emotions,
including this profound feeling of abandonment that's leading
him to cry out. And yet this doesn't diminish
his divine nature or fracture the unity within the Trinity.
But for one who has only experienced perfect union with the Father,
this is utter abandonment, utter loneliness, utter desolation. And it's what we in our sin deserved
to experience for all of eternity. He bore our sin. He bore our
judgment. This cry, my God, my God, why
have you forsaken me, is actually a direct quote from Psalm 22,
verse one. A psalm that prophetically describes
the suffering of this servant. And if you read that psalm, you
can see the account of Jesus' death playing out. And this cry,
my God, my God, it's a cry that reverberates throughout the cosmos,
marking the most profound moment throughout all of human history
of suffering. In 2 Corinthians 5.21, it's described
this way. God made him who knew no sin
to be sin for us, so that in him we may become the righteousness
of God. The judgment was to have God
the Father pour out his wrath, but instead of pouring it out
on you or me, he pours it out on his own son. Instead of treating
him as a son, he treated him as sin itself. The only true
son was treated as sin so that you and I could become sons and
daughters. That is reality of what it means
for Christ to become sin. Experiencing the full weight
of sin and death that we deserve. This is substitution. Christ
didn't just die for us, he died instead of us. Jesus bore the
isolation, the darkness, the judgment that we should have
endured. In this moment, when the Father's
loving presence turns to wrath, that is the cost of redemption. That is the cost of grace. And he did it all for you. Tim Keller tells a story of a
woman who approached him one Sunday after service, and she
tells him that she thought his sermon was very narrow. And the
reason why, when he asks, is because she says, well, I don't
believe in a God who has to punish sin. I believe he just loves
everyone. And as gently as possible, Tim
Keller responds with this profound question. He says, what did it
cost for your God to love you? She said, after thinking about
it, I guess nothing. Tim Keller's response is that
if you don't believe in a just God who must punish sin, you
don't have a sense of what it cost Jesus to love us. He had
to somehow take this infinite, eternal punishment in his own
being, in our place. And that is why, in the Garden
of Gethsemane, the divine Son of God could say that he was
overwhelmed to the point of death. And that is why on the cross,
Jesus doesn't just cry out, my hands, my hands, my feet, my
head. He certainly could have because
of all he was going through, but instead he cries, my God,
my God, why have you forsaken me? Do you get it? There's so much more beyond the
physical that was happening on the cross. The internal suffering
that Jesus experienced was the true agony. And someone might
say, well, God loves everyone. He just loves everyone. Why does
he have to go through this suffering? But such a God is not as loving
as the God of the Bible. who because he was holy and loving
gave us grace. Because he's loving, there is
free, free, free, free grace for you and for me. But because
he's holy, it's costly grace, infinitely costly grace. And when I know that I'm the
recipient of this kind of costly grace, when I know that Jesus
went to hell's heart for you and for me, and was loving and
obedient for me there, that's what changes me. That brings
the tears. That brings amazement. And that
is exhilarating. It changes me because at the
very same time, on one hand, I hate my own sin because I know
it's what put him on the cross. But at the same time, it forbids
me to hate myself because he died so that I could be free.
The cup of wrath became the cup of grace because Jesus drank
it dry. And that is the cup he received
on the cross for us. So what's now the cup that we
receive? And this is where we look to
the table. So on the night before Jesus suffered, he lifted up
a cup with his disciples and said, this is my blood of the
covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness
of sins. He says that in Matthew 26, verse
28. And this cup that Jesus offers
is the cup that we receive today. Because Jesus drank the cup of
wrath, we drink the cup of mercy. Because he was forsaken, we are
adopted. Because he bore our judgment,
we are given his righteousness. The table is not light or casual. It's holy, sacred, and reverent. but at the same time, it's full
of joy because it is a reminder of what Christ did for us. He drank the cup of wrath, and
now we can receive the cup of mercy, the cup of blessing. So
when we take communion, which we will tonight, we remember
not just that Jesus died, but why he died, and that he finished
the work. It isn't just remembering what
he did, but it's receiving what he offers to us here and now. This grace is not just a past
tense thing we look back on and say it was poured out, but it's
continual, it's present, it's for this moment, for every need
that we have. It's for sinners who come with
empty hands knowing that we need mercy. So we come to this table
not because we are worthy, but because he is worthy. And it's
not just remembrance of what was happening then, but it's
a promise of what is to come. So right after Jesus offers this
cup and says, do this in remembrance, he says, I will not drink again
of this fruit of the vine until the day that I drink it anew
with you in my father's kingdom. So grace life, there is another
cup coming. There is a wedding feast that
we will get to partake in with the lamb, a victory cup, a celebration
of the lamb. So tonight, when we come to the
table, I want us to remember not just this juice and bread,
but the cup that Christ drank for us. It's a reason for the
cup we now receive. hold it with reverence, drink
it with gratitude. Because like I said, this is
more than just juice and bread, but it's a picture of wrath turned
into welcome, judgment turned into joy, and death turned into
life. The gloom of the garden and the
darkness of the cross that we reflect on tonight are the foundations
of our brightest hopes. So if you've been carrying guilt,
come. If you've been numb or dry or
distant, come. If you've been overwhelmed by
the burden and weight of your own sin, come. Not because you're
worthy, not because of anything that you've done to deserve it,
but because of everything he finished. That's what I want
us to reflect on tonight.
The Cup He Drank, The Cup We Receive
| Sermon ID | 4182523362475 |
| Duration | 21:16 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Matthew 26:38-39; Matthew 27:46 |
| Language | English |
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.