God Really Loves us (2)

Please open your Bibles to Luke 22, Jeremiah 25, and Isaiah 25.

Each of you should have a small cup that contains a black substance. I’ll explain what that is later. But as you hold this cup, think of the many uses that a cup has. It holds a liquid, and we drink from a cup. We offer toasts or raise our cups in or celebration. A cup can hold pencils, pens or plants. Throw them at people. With a cup we can bless and honor or we can poison and destroy – depending on the contents. The same is true in the Bible - cups had a variety of uses, but there are two particular cups that I want to bring our attention to.

One cup is mentioned in Luke chapter 22. On the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested, and shortly before His crucifixion, He and the disciples went to an olive grove to pray.

Luke 22:41–42 ESV

And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

What is this cup and why mention it during His most agonizing prayer? What is this cup that was so terrible, so horrific that Jesus dreaded it and prayed for it to be removed? It’s ironic in a way if you think about it. Jesus had healed hundreds of people, raised the dead, confronted demons, calmed storms and a host of other miracles. Jesus, the Son of the living God could have called armies of angels to assist in His time of need, yet this cup was something He dreaded, yet willing to drink its contents.

When we read Scripture, the biblical authors expect the reader to know the whole story of God, to remember previous events that influence the current event, and to recognize the threads that run through the story.

There’s a thread here – so what is it? The thread is tied to a cup no one wants to drink, and that is the cup of God’s wrath.

We need to understand God’s wrath before we understand the cup. Listen carefully because there are many misunderstandings that we often have about God’s wrath.

God’s wrath is rarely connected to God’s anger.

Wrath is based on God’s justness, righteousness, and sovereignty (i.e. the whole character of God).

Wrath is not some arbitrary punishment because God is in some raging tantrum. Not like the Incredible Hulk – “God Smash!”

Wrath is the deserved consequence for continuously choosing to live contrary to God’s perfect design for humanity, disregarding His warnings, and is a last resort.

God’s wrath is most often experienced by God giving people over to what they wrongly desire.

As we continuously choose our desires over God’s, He eventually removes His presence and protection and the consequences result in a loss of blessing, enslavement and/or death. For example, in 1 Samuel 8, Israel rejects God as King and demands an earthly king, like all the other nations. Yahweh warned them, as He always does. He said this is not going to well. Israel ignored the warning and pleaded for a king, so God gave them a monarchy. And many of those kings enslaved Israel, their own people and led them to worship other gods. Despite multiple warnings to repent, Israel continued their rebellious path and God gave them what they wrongly desires – He gave them over to other nations – to the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans. That is wrath.

I want to make sure we’re clear –

Wrath is not about God’s anger or a supposed eagerness to punish humanity. Wrath is about humanity’s desire to live apart from the life-giving presence of Yahweh.

And that’s the meaning behind

Romans 6:23 “the wages of sin is death” – wage, basically getting what people want. To drink God’s wrath is to be handed over and conquered by our enemies, to be enslaved, oppressed, eventually conquered by death – temporarily, eternally, physically, spiritually - all the above.

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The cup of God’s wrath is mentioned in several places in Scripture. But the one that Jesus probably referred to is in Jeremiah 25. God told the prophet Jeremiah that wrath was coming to Judah. Not because God wanted to punish, but because they did not listen to God’s prophets and persistent warnings. Israel plugged their ears and hardened their hearts to God. Keep that in mind –

God always warns prior to wrath.

– always calling people to repent and return to a right relationship with Him and with one another.

So God warned Judah that wrath is coming. Then He expanded that warning to the nations.

Jeremiah 25:15–17 ESV

Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them.” So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand, and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it:

Then God gave Jeremiah a list of nations that would face wrath. And the list eventually included

Jeremiah 25:26 ESV

all the kings of the north, far and near, one after another, and all the kingdoms of the world that are on the face of the earth. And after them the king of Babylon shall drink.

This particular cup of wrath is for the nations and for all who have rejected Yahweh and His Son, Jesus Christ – who continually choose to live in sin.

Try to imagine the amount of wrath that is in this cup for all human sin – past, present, future – let alone our own.

But isn’t the cup of wrath an Old Testament thing? No.

John 3:36 ESV

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

The Apostle Paul tells us that we are naturally children of wrath. In other words, because we have chosen to live apart from Christ, chosen to live our own way, the natural consequence is wrath.

Romans 2:5 ESV

But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

The final judgment – that day is coming.

Jesus Himself warned us in Matthew 25 that when He returns, He will gather the nations before Him and He will separate all people into two categories. Those who have chosen Christ on His right, and those who have chosen wrath on His left. And Jesus will say, “Depart from me” – meaning continue on the path you have chosen – the path of eternal punishment, which was not created for humans, but for the devil and his offspring.

1 Thessalonians 5:9–10 ESV

For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.

Now, in your hand is a representation of the cup of God’s wrath. I believe that was the cup that Jesus dreaded to drink. The fullness of God’s wrath and the totality of all human sin and wickedness and vileness and all your sin and mine was in that cup. Of course Jesus dreaded it. But God doesn’t want us to drink from that cup, and so He offers another cup from which to drink – and we find this cup in what we call the Last Supper.

Matthew 26:26–29 ESV

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

Do you see what Jesus did?

Jesus exchanged cups.

He went to the cross and drank the cup of God’s wrath - the cup that carried the penalty of our sin and transgressions and iniquities – the sin of the world and offered us the cup of His blood – the cup of grace, the cup of forgiveness, the cup of mercy, the cup of eternal life and a reconciled relationship with God the Father.

I want you to see something. Turn to Isaiah 25, written about 700 before Christ. What I’m about to read is called the Messianic Feast – referring to Christ and what was accomplished on Calvary – the place where He was crucified.

Isaiah 25:6–8 ESV

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

That’s what Jesus did – He exchanged cups. He loves us that much.

Ephesians 2:4–5 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

For some, you’ve already made the exchange. The cup in your hand is a reminder of Christ’s sacrifice – His death, resurrection, and forgiveness – that your sins are nailed to the cross and you bear them no more.

For others, perhaps you have not made the exchange. You have not received God’s offer of forgiveness and love. You have not confessed that Christ is the Lord of all. The the cup in your hand is a symbol of the eternal wrath God wants to take from you – and He will if you allow Him. To you, Scripture tells us to Admit that we all have sinned and fallen short of God’s moral standards. We are to Believe that Christ died for us and God raised Him from the dead on the third day. We are to transfer our trust from self – to Christ and Commit ourselves to Him. Call on the name of Christ and you will be saved.

Before we celebrate Communion, let us pray and listen to the Holy Spirit.

COMMUNION

Communion or the Eucharist is a sacrament of the Church – it is a means of grace – that through our participation, God extends His love and grace to us. We celebrate Communion because Jesus told us to do this in remembrance of Him. I encourage you to come forward and place your cup of wrath on the table in exchange for bread and juice. As you do so, think on these things – the white cloth represents Christ’s purity in exchange for our impurity. The bread represents His body that was broken and killed for us and then resurrected that we too may live. The juice represents His blood that washes away our sin and God’s wrath.

Come.