The Cup He Refused to Drink

Driving home: That bitter cup, love drank it up. Now blessings draft for me. Now tonight I want you to consider with me the second of the three cups of our Lord, moving on from the consideration of the cup that he drank, to our medita…

A quote from Ann Cousins' hymn 'O Christ, what burdens bowed thy head' is used to vividly describe Christ draining the cup of God's wrath, emphasizing its completeness.

of his people. And it was that cup that our Lord willingly drank, and drank unknowingly. Until he drained its last dark drop. In the very accurate words of the hymn writer, Ann Cousins, it is captured in the second stanza of that marvelous hymn, O Christ, what burdens bowed thy head. Death and the curse were in our cup. O Christ was full for thee, but thou hast drained the last dark drop. Tis empty now, for me. That bitter cup, love drank it up. Now blessings draft for me. Now tonight I want you to

4:23 - 5:14 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Two possible reasons are explored: first, an act of compassion by women following rabbinic tradition (Proverbs 31:6-7); second, an act of convenience by the soldiers to subdue…

The controlled pain alleviation administered by hospice to a dying cancer patient is used to illustrate the compassionate motive behind offering drugged wine, if it came from the women.

place for an unusual concentration of alcohol and that is in order to give strong drink to him that is ready to perish and this concentrated amount of wine to the bitter in soul and it could well be that the women whose presence is described in luke 23 and verse 27 who were there in some measure of concentrated numbers and were bewailing our lord's suffering to whom our lord spoke and weep not for me but for yourselves it could be , that these women in keeping with rabbinic tradition had secured the cup of drugged wine and if it were presented from their hands through the soldiers it was an ac...

8:49 - 10:01 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Two possible reasons are explored: first, an act of compassion by women following rabbinic tradition (Proverbs 31:6-7); second, an act of convenience by the soldiers to subdue…

The observation that very weak criminals can momentarily possess 'almost superhuman strength' when facing execution is used to explain why soldiers might offer drugged wine for convenience, to make their job easier.

wine the most natural reading of the text is that it was the soldiers who offered him the drugged wine and in the text the verb used to describe their offering points to a repeated and insistent offering of the wine there is a use of an imperfect verb describing action in the past that was continuous so the soldiers were seeking as it were almost to force the cup of drugged wine upon our Lord well for what purpose would they have done this well remember these were experienced hardened soldiers perhaps those who were somewhat expert in execution by crucifixion and they had seen first hand what ...

11:26 - 12:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Commit yourself anew to drink in submissive faith whatever cup God places to your lips.

The metaphor of 'spitting out anything that isn't as sweet as Kool-Aid' is used to rebuke believers for their unwillingness to accept bitter experiences from God's hand, contrasting it with Christ's endurance.

Then shame on you and shame on me when beholding our Lord taking the first cup to his lips and draining its last dark drop while refusing the second cup. Shame on us that we're constantly spitting out anything that isn't as sweet as Kool-Aid. Shame on us when we spit out and are irritated and question the heart of God when he puts something to our lips that is not saccharine sweet like Kool-Aid. God have mercy on our pathetic, self-centered, soft unwillingness to undergo those things that are in our best interest that Christ might have what he died for. And that is a people who reflect his lik...

30:33 - 31:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Commit yourself anew to drink in submissive faith whatever cup God places to your lips.

Bitter cups from God are likened to medicine or purgatives, explaining that they are for spiritual nourishment or cleansing, not wrath.

as we considered last week. The cups that God puts to our lips that are bitter are never, never, never tinged with divine wrath. They are cups put for our nourishment or they are cups put to our lips as medicine. Put to our lips as the old writers would say as purgatives to clean us out.

31:58 - 32:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider what this cup that Jesus refused says to you, an unbeliever, regarding the future experience of God's wrath without relief.

The 'drugged wine' is used as a metaphor for various worldly obsessions (music, alcohol, illicit drugs, fun) that unbelievers use to dull their conscience to the reality of judgment and God's wrath.

What you will do in drinking the cup of God's wrath you would give anything for a cup of drugged wine. You may now dull and drug your conscience with the drugged wine of an obsession with music and abuse of alcohol the use of illicit drugs obsession with fun and games a thousand things can be your present cup of drugged wine to dull your senses to somehow silence your conscience that speaks of hell and of judgment and accountability to God. But when the scripture says that the unconverted shall drink of the cup of the fury of God's wrath amidst amidst there will be no drugged wine in hell no d...

33:10 - 34:37 Read in full sermon