The Cup of Elijah

Two cups explicitly mentioned here but, comparing it to the other Gospel accounts all five cups seem to be accounted for. You’ll see four of the five mentioned in this text.

The Five Cups of the Passover

Cup 1 - I will free you. The Cup of Sanctification.

‌Cup 2 - I will deliver you. The Cup of Judgment or Deliverance.

‌Cup 3 - I will redeem you. The Cup of redemption.

‌Cup 4 - I will acquire you (make you my people.) - the Cup of Protection. Pesach, translated Passover, means Protection.

It appears as if Jesus passes on this cup.

I will not drink until the Kingdom of God comes.

He was forfeiting the Passover, or God’s protection against the death angel.

Cup 5 – I will bring you into the land. The cup of Elijah.‌ The Cup of Wrath.

Left undrunk at the Seder meal as something to be fulfilled.

Over time - The rabbis debated on whether it should have been included in the seder. It was poured out on Egypt...

But in the end, it was considered teku, or can’t decide. Let’s ask Elijah when he comes again, and so it sits full waiting for Elijah to come.

Malachi 4:5 NASB95

“Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.

According to this folk belief, the first thing Elijah will do after he returns to the Jewish people to proclaim the advent of the messianic age is to resolve all those questions of Jewish law that confounded the rabbis.

One of two witnesses at the beginning of the tribulation period

This messianic age referenced will begin the Millennial reign of Christ

B‌ut prior to it being declared teku, it originally stood for and heralded as the final and ultimate redemption.

A‌s God’s wrath on the nations to drive the wickedness out of the land and then take possession of it.

A‌s the complete deliverance of God’s people from the wages of sin.

As spoken by Malachi - The Great and Terrible day of the Lord is elsewhere referred as just “The Day of the Lord.”

The Day of the Lord and the Cup of God’s Wrath on the Nations go hand in hand.

Jeremiah 25:15 NASB95

For thus the Lord, the God of Israel, says to me, “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it.

Asaph

Psalm 79:6 NASB95

Pour out Your wrath upon the nations which do not know You, And upon the kingdoms which do not call upon Your name.

David

Psalm 69:24 NASB95

Pour out Your indignation on them, And may Your burning anger overtake them.

Paul in the NT also brings the cup forward into the church age to apply it to Jew and Gentile.

Ephesians 2:1–3 NASB95

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

Romans 1:18 NASB95

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

The Fulfillment of the 5th Cup

Revelation 14:9–10 NASB95

Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.

Revelation 15:1 NASB95

Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished.

Revelation 15:5–7 NASB95

After these things I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened, and the seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple, clothed in linen, clean and bright, and girded around their chests with golden sashes. Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever.

Revelation 16:1 NASB95

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”

Revelation 16:17 NASB95

Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, “It is done.”

Revelation 19:7–9 NASB95

“Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ ” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.”

I shall never again eat it / I will not drink of the fruit of the vine…until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

At which point there will be no need for the fifth cup except as a memorial like the other 4.

Those who put their faith in Christ escape this cup of wrath.

Speaking of the The Day of The Lord, the last 3.5 years of the tribulation period where the bowls of wrath were poured out, right before Jesus comes again in His second advent.

1 Thessalonians 5:2–4 NASB95

For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief;

1 Thessalonians 5:9 NASB95

For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Although this ties in directly to the rapture occuring before the last half of the tribulation period, it more fully applies spiritually.

John 3:16–17 NASB95

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

1 John 4:9–10 NASB95

By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Hebrews 2:17 NASB95

Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

propitiation - to satisfy and thus remove God’s wrath against the ungodly by an atoning sacrifice given in substitution for the object of wrath.

By What Means? My body given for you.

Isaiah 53:5 NASB95

But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.

By What Means? My blood poured out for you - the new covenant.

1 Peter 1:18–19 NASB95

knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

B‌ut even further in The Garden of Gethsemane:

Take this cup from me. The fifth cup of Elijah

Jesus says, “Not that cup. Anything but that one. I can’t do it. Please do not ask me to drink it.”

Not my will, but thine be done. Drink the cup of God’s wrath.

He drank every last drop of it so that those who have placed their faith in Christ will not have to drink one drop of it.

His drinking the wrath only applies to those who put their faith in Him.

Those who do not put their faith in Christ, still stand condemned and still have to face the cup of God’s wrath.

John 3:17–19 NASB95

“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.

Romans 1:18 NASB95

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

But for believers:

1 Thessalonians 1:9–10 (NASB95)

For they themselves report about...how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.

Romans 8:1 NASB95

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

So as we take of bread and the wine tonight. Let us be in even greater awe at what Jesus took for us.

He drank the dregs of the cup of wrath so that we could drink of the well of eternal life.

Pray

Songs:

Lead Me To Calvary (King of My Life)

At the Cross (Chris Tomlin)

Celebration at the Lord’s Table

Closing Song:

O The Blood

Benediction:

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