The Cup, The Curse, and The Crush
Notes
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Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”—
Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
The Cup
The Cup
During a war between Britain and France, men were enlisted into the French Army by a kind of lottery system.
Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 360.
When someone’s name was drawn, he had to go off to battle.
On one occasion, the authorities came to a certain man and told him he was among those who had been chosen.
He refused to go, saying, “I was shot and killed two years ago.”
At first the officials questioned his sanity, but he insisted that was indeed the case.
He claimed that the military records would show that he had been killed in action.
“How can that be?” they questioned. “You are alive now!”
He explained that when his name first came up, a close friend said to him,
“You have a large family, but I am not married and nobody is dependent upon me.
I’ll take your name and address and go in your place.”
And that is indeed what the record showed.
This rather unusual case was referred to Napoleon Bonaparte, who decided that the country had no legal claim on that man.
He was free. He had died in the person of another!
This incredible story is nothing in comparison to sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Today I want to focus on the cost of the freedom for those that believe in Him.
Today I want to focus on The Cup, The Curse and The Crush.
Let’s start by looking at our main passage, .
Reading of the Text
Reading of the Text
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”—
To understand this passage better, we need to look at the commonly used term in the Bible and our first point, “The Cup.”
42 saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
43 Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him.
44 And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.
The Cup
The Cup
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“The Cup” or specifically the “Cup of Wrath” represented as in the Old and New Testament was of God’s wrath and judgement.
The New American Commentary: Jeremiah, Lamentations (3) The Cup of God’s Wrath (25:15–29)
The cup of wrath in these verses is not a new figure in the Bible. It probably finds its origin in Num 5:11–31. If a man suspected his wife of being unfaithful, she was required to drink a potion prepared by a priest. If she was innocent, the drink would have no effect on her. If guilty, she would experience bitter suffering.
The New American Commentary: Jeremiah, Lamentations (3) The Cup of God’s Wrath (25:15–29)
The cup of wrath in these verses is not a new figure in the Bible. It probably finds its origin in Num 5:11–31. If a man suspected his wife of being unfaithful, she was required to drink a potion prepared by a priest. If she was innocent, the drink would have no effect on her. If guilty, she would experience bitter suffering.
The cup of wrath finds its origin in .
If a man suspected his wife of being unfaithful, she was required to drink a potion prepared by a priest.
If she was innocent, the drink would have no effect on her.
If guilty, she would experience bitter suffering.
We also see God talk about the “Cup of Wrath” against nations as in Jeremiah and Revelations
11 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
12 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘If any man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him,
13 and a man has intercourse with her and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband and she is undetected, although she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act,
14 if a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife when she has defiled herself, or if a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife when she has not defiled herself,
15 the man shall then bring his wife to the priest, and shall bring as an offering for her one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he shall not pour oil on it nor put frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of memorial, a reminder of iniquity.
16 ‘Then the priest shall bring her near and have her stand before the Lord,
17 and the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel; and he shall take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water.
18 ‘The priest shall then have the woman stand before the Lord and let the hair of the woman’s head go loose, and place the grain offering of memorial in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy, and in the hand of the priest is to be the water of bitterness that brings a curse.
19 ‘The priest shall have her take an oath and shall say to the woman, “If no man has lain with you and if you have not gone astray into uncleanness, being under the authority of your husband, be immune to this water of bitterness that brings a curse;
20 if you, however, have gone astray, being under the authority of your husband, and if you have defiled yourself and a man other than your husband has had intercourse with you”
21 (then the priest shall have the woman swear with the oath of the curse, and the priest shall say to the woman), “the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people by the Lord’s making your thigh waste away and your abdomen swell;
22 and this water that brings a curse shall go into your stomach, and make your abdomen swell and your thigh waste away.” And the woman shall say, “Amen. Amen.”
23 ‘The priest shall then write these curses on a scroll, and he shall wash them off into the water of bitterness.
24 ‘Then he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings a curse, so that the water which brings a curse will go into her and cause bitterness.
25 ‘The priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman’s hand, and he shall wave the grain offering before the Lord and bring it to the altar;
26 and the priest shall take a handful of the grain offering as its memorial offering and offer it up in smoke on the altar, and afterward he shall make the woman drink the water.
27 ‘When he has made her drink the water, then it shall come about, if she has defiled herself and has been unfaithful to her husband, that the water which brings a curse will go into her and cause bitterness, and her abdomen will swell and her thigh will waste away, and the woman will become a curse among her people.
28 ‘But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will then be free and conceive children.
29 ‘This is the law of jealousy: when a wife, being under the authority of her husband, goes astray and defiles herself,
30 or when a spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife, he shall then make the woman stand before the Lord, and the priest shall apply all this law to her.
31 ‘Moreover, the man will be free from guilt, but that woman shall bear her guilt.’ ”
[1] F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations, vol. 16, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1993), 228.
15 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.
16 “They will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.”
17 Then I took the cup from the Lord’s hand and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it:
18 Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and its kings and its princes, to make them a ruin, a horror, a hissing and a curse, as it is this day;
12 For thus says the Lord, “Behold, those who were not sentenced to drink the cup will certainly drink it, and are you the one who will be completely acquitted? You will not be acquitted, but you will certainly drink it.
13 “For I have sworn by Myself,” declares the Lord, “that Bozrah will become an object of horror, a reproach, a ruin and a curse; and all its cities will become perpetual ruins.”
12 For thus says the Lord, “Behold, those who were not sentenced to drink the cup will certainly drink it, and are you the one who will be completely acquitted? You will not be acquitted, but you will certainly drink it.
Seven bowls of God’s wrath are poured in .
1 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.”
However, the most imperative use of the “Cup of Wrath” for you and me is when Jesus took on the wrath that was meant for us.
Jesus took on the wrath that was meant for us.
42 saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
43 Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him.
44 And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.
Why was Jesus sweating blood? What could cause Him that kind of agony and stress to the body to produce this rare but real medical phenomena?
It would be our next two points, The Curse and The Crush.
Looking
The Curse
The Curse
Looking next at “The Curse” we need to see what Paul was quoting from in our opening text.
What did Paul mean when he said, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree?”
We have to look at the Old Testament and the writings of Moses.
23 his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.
Deuteronomy
Definition of “Curse”: An expression of contempt for someone.
To be cursed is to suffer various kinds of misfortune, sometimes to the extent of being cut off from one’s family or community, or of suffering death itself.
Divine curses came into effect after the fall - Adam and Eve and the world during Noah’s time
Hanging on the tree represented the death by crucifixion and the shame that came along with it.
The Curse by God the Father on Jesus was a major obstacle for the Jewish people to accept.
The Chosen People of God could not imagine this could happen to the Messiah despite the prophecies that explicitly said this would happen.
The Jewish people wanted a warrior Messiah but ignored the prophecies of the Suffering Servant.
When reading about the Suffering servant in the Old Testament, we come across one of the most shocking and ignored truths about what Jesus had to endure for us.
This is “The Crush”
The Crush
The Crush
In the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, we see the detailed prophecy of the Suffering Servant.
The Suffering Servant is so clearly Jesus that Synagogues have banned the reading of Isiah 53.
This chapter is so loaded you may miss one of it’s most powerful truths found in verses 10 and 11
10 But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.
11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.
Isaiah 53
The Father was actually pleased to crush the Son. HOW CAN THAT BE?
Even looking at the Greek for the word “pleased” means: to delight or to desire
When we read that “the Lord was pleased to crush Him” it means what it means.
It means that God the Father was pleased to crush Jesus
Yes, God was pleased that His Son’s death would pay the price required for restitution so that guilt could be removed and a new relationship restored with sinners.
God wants the reader to know that the rather strange things recorded in this tragic message about the Servant did not occur just as a regrettable accident or without some predetermined forethought.
[1] Gary Smith, , vol. 15B, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2009), 457–458.
In fact, to the surprise of some, God’s purposeful desires will be fulfilled through all these events related to the cross.
God’s punishment of sin, his love for others, and his plans to ultimately establish his worldwide kingdom required the removal of guilt to form a holy people.
It pleased the Father because Jesus suffered what no one else could endure or was qualified to do.
Physically, His body endured as much as a body could endure being executed in the most sadistic form of execution humanity has ever seen and will ever see.
Physically, His body endured as much as a body can endure being executed in the most sadistic form of execution humanity has ever seen.
We as Christians have been desensitized from the crucifixion due to so many beautiful works of art commemorating the greatest sacrifice the world has ever seen.
However, crucifixion is a grisly ordeal. The scourging alone was to much for many to endure and many did not even survive this.
Crucifixion was actually death by suffocation due to the internal bleeding that would fill up your lungs
A victim would have to place their freshly scourged back right against a rough wooden cross and then somehow push up and down just to take a single breath
Hands and Feet where pierced by long metal nails which one would have to pull on in order to be able to lift oneself up
To add shame, the criminal on the cross would have to be stripped naked. Out of respect and decency to Jesus, our artworks of Him on the cross cover Him up.
In addition, due to the severity and agonizing pain of this, criminals would be given gull (a sedative) to numb out just some of the pain
However, Jesus rejected the drug. He endured all this and wouldn’t even accept a bit of relief.
Spiritually, the One who Knew no sin, experienced sin on our behalf, crying out, “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?”
Paul makes this clear in his letter to the church in Corinth when he said:
21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
The one who lived a sinless life died a sinner’s death, estranged from God and the object of His wrath.
estranged from God and the object of wrath. He was treated as a sinner in his death.
He was treated as a sinner in his death.
David E. Garland, 2 Corinthians, vol. 29, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 301.
A real transfer of sin and curse to Christ was essential.
Christ must truly become polluted.… A real death was necessary to put real distance between saved Christians and the power of sin.
David E. Garland, 2 Corinthians, vol. 29, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 301–302.
Even though Jesus was sinless, God deals with him as though he were a sinner by letting him die an accursed death.
In the Jewish ritual the animal offered up to atone for sins “had to be holy, without defect, precisely so that both priest and offerer could be confident that the death it died was not its own.”
David E. Garland, 2 Corinthians, vol. 29, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 302.
We do not simply have righteousness from God, we are the righteousness of God as a result of being in Christ.
David E. Garland, 2 Corinthians, vol. 29, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 302.
We are given his righteousness only as we are in him, and will be raised like him only if we live in him.
Peter goes on to say:
24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
The purpose of Christ’s death was not merely to provide forgiveness but to empower his people to “live for righteousness.”
Thomas R. Schreiner, 1, 2 Peter, Jude, vol. 37, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003), 145.
Jesus actually took on the full wrath and condemnation of God the Father
The spiritual anxiety of this lead to him sweating blood, a medical phenomena that happens only under the most stressful physiological stress
Jesus wh
Jesus, knowing the
WHY all this??? Because, THIS…IS…REAL…LOVE
WHY all this??? Because, THIS…IS…REAL…LOVE
We where all to be cursed because we could not keep all the law.
As is made clear:
26 ‘Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
Total obedience is demanded by the law and required by God. Only the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished this
Paul quotes this verse to underscore the stringency of the law’s demands and the impossibility of meriting salvation by works ().
John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), .
Measured by God’s standards, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God ().
R. C. Sproul, ed., The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015), 290.
All are subject to the curse, and can escape only through Christ’s taking the curse on Himself.
Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 370.
Because of Christ’s volunteer sacrifice, the debt of all who believe in Him is paid, PAID IN FULL.
As it states in Romans:
3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
His mission was to put an end to sin, to condemn that evil power that has, since the dawn of history, held the human race in bondage.
God’s condemnation against sin was fully poured out on the sinless flesh of Christ
Robert H. Mounce, Romans, vol. 27, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 176.
John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), .
We must understand the great price at which we where bought, no longer under the chains of sin and this world.
says,
22 For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord’s freedman; likewise he who was called while free, is Christ’s slave.
23 You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.
23 You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.
All believers belong to the Lord and thus none should become “slaves of men.”
When it comes to personal identity, the key issue is not who you are but whose you are.
Mark Taylor, 1 Corinthians, ed. E. Ray Clendenen, vol. 28, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2014), 182.
As Christ’s freedman, the former slave takes on the name of the master, is directed by him, and owes him allegiance.
Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010), 323.
The slave’s true status is bound up in “his or her placement in a different household entirely: the household of Christ.
The slave is a freedperson of the Lord and shares in the benefit, status, and obligations that relationship brings.
Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010), 323.
The notion is not so much that “of Christ’s purchase of believers out of slavery,” since the price “brings the believer into Christ’s own possession as his or her Lord, who then takes over the responsibility and care of the purchased one.
Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010), 324.
The Christian belongs to Christ, not to himself or to herself.
Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010), 325.
This is seen in the Old Testament too.
Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010), 325.
The Israelites were slaves in Egypt, and God redeemed them from their bondage.
Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010), 325.
But he did not set them free to go off and live however they might like.
Indeed, they were freed to serve the Lord.
Closing Thoughts
Closing Thoughts
In closing, when we see what Christ endured for our sake I can boldly proclaim that if there was another way to heaven, we would know it.
As Jesus Himself prayed in that Garden of Gethsemane, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will” ().
The cup did not pass because, there is only One Way and that is through the Way, Jesus Christ.
reads:
New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), .
Jesus said, “
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
This is even seen in Old Testament. For example, the Psalmist prays that the Lord would teach him the divine “way” and lead him to walk in “truth” (), and he contemplates the “path of life” () as his blessed hope.
Any hint at universalism, syncretistic patterns of salvation, or reaching the Father through any other means than Jesus is here completely eliminated.
Gerald L. Borchert, , vol. 25B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002), 109.
The meditation of Thomas à Kempis is often quoted regarding this:
“Follow thou me.
Gerald L. Borchert, , vol. 25B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002), 110.
Follow thou me. I am the way and the truth and the life. Without the way there is no going; without the truth there is no knowing; without the life there is no living. I am the way which thou must follow; the truth which thou must believe; the life for which thou must hope. I am the inviolable way; the infallible truth, the never-ending life. I am the straightest way; the sovereign truth; life true, life blessed, life uncreated.
I am the way and the truth and the life.
Without the way there is no going;
D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 492.
without the truth there is no knowing;
without the life there is no living.
I am the way which thou must follow;
the truth which thou must believe;
the life for which thou must hope.
I am the inviolable way;
the infallible truth,
the never-ending life.
I am the straightest way;
the sovereign truth;
life true,
life blessed,
life uncreated.”
So, how do we come to Jesus? make it very clear:
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
That is not just head knowledge, even the demons have that. But believe in your heart.
Those who come to Christ by faith are acknowledging that they have placed themselves entirely and without reserve under his authority to carry out without hesitation whatever he may choose for them to do.
There is no such thing as salvation apart from lordship.
Robert H. Mounce, Romans, vol. 27, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 209.
That is trusting your whole life to Him. He needs to be the Lord of your life in ever-which way.
If we lost everything: our business, our job, our friends, our family, our children, our spouse, our health, our freedom. You name it.
You name it.
Would you curse God like Jobs wife or would you hold on to God like Job?
Will you praise him in jail or when beaten half to death like Paul?
Would you confess his Name when it becomes illegal like the apostles Peter and John?
All He wants is everything you got…
But what He has, His Amazing Grace, is better than all the riches of this world.
His Amazing Grace, is better than all the riches of this world.
If your burden is heavy, know it is because you where never made to carry that weight.
But His yoke is easy. He will carry your burdens.
So won’t you come. Come down and surrender everything to Him and dedicate your life from today to the One who endured so much for you.
Call up Pastor Wayne to close out service
Call up Pastor Wayne to close out service