Christ Rules The Cup

Christ Rules! Gospel of Mark Series (part 29)

A Sermon By Jim Hammond from Mark 14:12-36

Let me name for you 5 things only Jesus can do.

He can change you in ways you cannot change yourself.
He can give your life purpose and meaning that cannot be robbed by circumstances.
He can help you do the right thing for a change.
He can give you a heart for other people, even unlovely people.
He can save your soul.

The way he made this possible is nothing less than amazing. He took upon himself the deadly curse of sin, and because he conquered sin’s effects through his sinless life, his death and resurrection, out of his life comes a vaccine called grace that he makes freely available to anyone who wants it.

Focus: Only Christ could convert the cup of God’s wrath into the cup of God’s grace.

Paul described how Christ did this when he wrote, 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV) “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Today we are going to look at Mark’s description of how Jesus transformed the cup of God’s wrath into the cup of thanksgiving, or the cup of God’s Grace. Turn to Mark 14:12-36.

The Setting: Passover Lambs Were Being Killed

Mark 14:12 (NIV) 12On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”

The Setting: People are killing the lambs. The disciples are concerned about where Jesus will eat the Passover.

Mark 14:13-16 (NIV): So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. {14} Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ {15} He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.” ¹⁶The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

The Theme: Christ Rules

Jesus knows in advance what is happening. He is sovereignly in control. He is not the victim. Christ Rules.

16 The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

Events happen just as Jesus told them. What else has Jesus already told them?

Review The Preview

Jesus has already predicted His rejection, Suffering, Death, and Resurrection in Mark 8:31-32; and again in Mark 10:32-34. Though these events also will happen just as he told them, the Disciples are still in the dark.

In this passage alone Jesus will tell them

1. where they will eat (12-16).

2. That one of them will betray Him (17-21).

3. That he was going to offer his life as a New Covenant and his blood would be the blood of the new covenant (22-24),

4. that he would drink of the fruit of the vine anew in the kingdom of God

5. that they will all fall away and scatter (27)

6. that he will rise from the dead and go ahead of them to Galilee (28)

7. that Peter would deny him three times that night (30)

No, Jesus’ suffering, the cup he was to drink, was not a surprise. He ruled the cup. He ruled the hour. The hour had come to drink the cup.

^{Mark 14:}¹⁷When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. ¹⁸While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.”

Events will continue to happen just as he tells them. Now a dark cloud is lowered over them with this prediction.

^{Mark 14:}¹⁹They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, “Surely not I?”

With sweaty palms, we should be asking this question of ourselves while we partake of communion. We should be making our hearts right so that we will not play the part of Judas.

^{Mark 14:}²⁰“It is one of the Twelve,” he replied, “one who dips bread into the bowl with me. ²¹The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”

Don't betray Jesus. So much of our lives we live for all the wrong reasons. So much of our motivations are based on the wrong things. We need to come to know Him, and be moved by Him, and Live for Him. This is where Judas failed. Something else motivated him. There have been many speculations, but suffice it to say simply, let us examine our hearts to see what is our primary motivations.

I. Only Christ Could Transform The Cup

A. And he did this by Drinking It (to the dregs)

Let’s read a couple of verses out of order that show how Christ transformed the Cup. before resume our reading of the text this morning.

The term cup shows up numerous time in Mark. Jesus asked the disciples earlier when they asked if they could sit at his right and left, Can you drink the cup I am going to drink? In the passage of study this morning the term cup shows up twice.

^{Mark 14:}²³Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it.

^{Mark 14:}³⁵Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. ³⁶“Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Interesting contrast isn’t it? First Jesus took the cup and gave thanks for it. Later, this cup would be called the cup of thanksgiving (1 Corinthians 10:16, or the cup of the Lord 1 Corinthians 10:21). Then within the hour he wrestles with the cup asking God the Father if He could take it away. It is this contrast that I want us to focus on today.

^{Mark 14:}²²While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”

He gave of Himself. We have received life from Him.

HE TOOK THE CUP IN THE UPPER ROOM:

Mark 14:23 Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it.

He knew what taking the cup meant for him. Do we know what taking the cup with him means for us? The cup contained the blood of grapes, pressed out in the wine press. Here, he takes the cup. With the taking of the cup, the "hour" has come (see Mark 14:35). Notice what he does in the upper room. It's almost surprising in retrospect. He gives thanks for “the cup”. His thanks is a surprising contrast with his stress in Gethsemane over “the cup”.

HE WRESTLED WITH THE CUP AT GETHSEMANE:

Mark 14:36 “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Gethsemane was the place where he would wrestle with the cup just before taking it to his lips. Gethsemane, "the Olive Press," where, while suffering extreme stress wrestling with “the cup”, some suggest that Luke the physician states that some blood was coming out from his pores along with sweat (cf. Luke 22:44). This is a medical phenomenon of extreme stress situations.

HE DRANK THE CUP AT THE CROSS

Mark 14: 24 “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. ²⁵“I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.”

He offers his own life as the blood of a new covenant. He will willingly poor it out for us. He will willingly go to Gethsemane, “the Olive Press” where he will be pressed, squeezed out through stress. The stress came from what he would willingly endure for us.

The gloom cloud is so dark for the disciples; nevertheless Jesus speaks light into that gloom. He speaks about life after death. He talks of "that day" when he drinks it anew in the kingdom of God.

^{Mark 14:}²⁶When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Let’s pause for a moment here and sing “Man of Sorrows”.

^{Mark 14:}²⁷“You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “for it is written:

The gloom of the evening gets gloomier even after the song. "You will all fall away." Has anything Jesus told them so far not come true? No. What a blow! He tells them, you will all fall away. They don’t want to believe him. But how devastating to hear it whether they believed him or not.

“‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’

Who is it that strikes the shepherd? God! This is a quote from Zechariah and God is the one speaking. God is still in control here. Who is it that strikes the shepherd? God. Wow. The wrath of God was going to come down upon Jesus, and Jesus knows it. He is willingly going to accept the blow.

^{Mark 14:}²⁸But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”

Again Jesus shines his light through their gloomy minds. They have no ability to grasp the light yet. But there will come a time, when their memories will put it all together.

^{Mark 14:}²⁹Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I will not.”

The scattering begins, even with this bold assertion. There is no solidarity. There is a competition. Peter alienates the others. Their hearts begin to be alienated even as Peter speaks.

^{Mark 14:}³⁰“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times.”

Again, Jesus shows us he is in charge. He shows us who rules the situation. He shows us He is sovereign. Christ Rules. But how gloomy the prediction. How sad. Jesus speaks the truth, but he is not repulsed by Peter. Jesus knows what Peter is going to do, but do you know what Jesus does next? He still takes Peter with him, as support to Gethsemane.

^{Mark 14:}³¹But Peter insisted emphatically, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the others said the same.

^{Mark 14:}³²They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” ³³He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. ³⁴“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”

Knowing in advance what was going to happen did not make it any easier to bear the full weight of the sin of the world. Knowing in advance that he would receive the wrath of God, His Father, made it more difficult to swallow that cup, not easier. He knew what was in the Cup. He looked in to the cup, deeply, fully aware, more aware than any of us even today are aware even after we have read the Bible explaining it. The wrath of God to us is still mysterious, unknown, even as we read the descriptions of the crucifixion, we know only what is described to us. We have no idea what the spiritual devastation felt like. We can hardly imagine it. Jesus knew enough in advance that he was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death! Luke the physician, and author of the gospel of Luke, tells us the stress was so great blood was coming out his pores (Luke 22:44).

Was it really possible for God to take the cup from Jesus? Yes. But at what price? Everyone of us would drink the cup of God's wrath ourselves. The cup of joy would be forfeited. Only Jesus would drink it. We would not. Oh yes, it was possible, but it was not God's will. God wants you to drink the cup of joy together with Jesus in the Kingdom of God. The only way we can join God for eternity is this way. Jesus had to drink the cup. Jesus had to drink the cup of God’s wrath down to the dregs. In this decision, Jesus created an alternative for our eternal destiny. Christ Ruled The Cup!

Out of Love, God the Father, and God the Son, did the hard thing.

Scott Wenig tells the story of Debbie Johnson in his message “Hide and Seek”[i]

I used to have a good friend named Debbie Johnson. Debbie was beautiful and bright and gifted. She was a wonderful mom to a couple of young boys and the wife of a good friend of mine named Dave. Dave was a pastor here in town. In early 1994 Dave and Debbie Johnson got a call to leave their pastorate in Denver and go back to Minnesota and serve the Lord in a church there. About six months after they went to Minnesota, Debbie was diagnosed with cancer, and about eight months after that she died.

But she didn’t have to die. They caught the cancer early on. All they had to do was give her radiation and chemotherapy, but she wouldn’t take it. Two months before she was diagnosed with cancer, she found out she was pregnant with their third child, and the treatment for the cancer would have killed the baby, so she said no cancer treatment She went full term, gave birth to that baby, and then she died. She died so that the baby could live.

That’s exactly what Jesus did for all of us. Was it possible that Debbie Johnson could have lived? Yes, but not while saving the baby at the same time. Debbie Johnson chose the hard thing. She drank from the cup to give her child life. Jesus drank from the cup to give us life.

On a lighter note:

In her column, Ann Landers recently passed along a joke she credit to Curmudgeon's Corner, it goes like this: "Emily Sue was going into labor, and her husband, Bubba, called 911. The operator told Bubba she would send someone out right away. 'Where do you live?' asked the operator. Bubba replied, 'Eucalyptus Drive.' The operator asked, 'Can you spell that for me?' There was a pause and then Bubba said, 'How about I drag her over to Oak Street, and you pick her up there?'" [ii]

The easiest way, isn't always the best way, or the most compassionate way. Loving often means we have to put out a little extra effort. In the case of our salvation the hard way was the only way God’s love and His holiness could be reconciled. The hard way was the only way we could be born again.

Jesus in effect prayed, “Father if there is any other way, let this cup pass from me.” There was no other way. Either Jesus would drink the cup for us, or we ourselves must drink that bitter cup, the judgment of God that we deserve. Jesus paid our debt, a debt we would otherwise have had to pay ourselves. The wrath of God was that judgment. We are not simply talking a physical death here that caused Jesus such agony. That wasn’t what Jesus feared so much. Jesus feared undergoing the judgment for sin. That judgment in which he would cry out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me. Do you know what the answer to that question was if God were to speak it. My God why? The answer would be because of Jim’s sin. Because of your sin and mine. The wages of sin is death, and Jesus willingly paid the price of sin for us.

One of the saddest things of all is this. The price has already been willingly paid but some people don’t know it and will pay that price themselves because they never received the gift of life that Christ’s shed blood purchased for them. Only those who call on the name of Christ, and receive his gift are saved.

Only Christ could transform the cup, He did this by drinking it down. . .

B. So that I can Drink the Cup of God’s Grace (and Blessing with thanksgiving )

Only those who drink from the transformed cup are saved. Only those who receive God’s grace are saved.

Sin is the deadly virus that spread throughout the world with an eternally lethal devastation that is terrifying. The only hope is to find the one host who has survived the virus and from that survivor, extract a vaccine that will heal all those afflicted with the disease. Scripture tells us that God made Jesus who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf. He drank the cup. He paid the price of a sinner. The only answer for the deadly outbreak is to receive the vaccine that comes from Christ. He gave it to us in the transformed cup. We can now drink in Grace. There was one who triumphed over the deadly virus, then, through that one, all can find life.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the grape juice of communion saves. Only the cross saves. But in faith we make a real spiritual connection to the cross every time we partake in this covenant renewal ceremony called “communion” or “the Lord’s Supper.” It is symbolic yes, but it is also spiritually real. We really do drink from the cup of grace when we connect by faith to the cross, and to Christ when we partake of the cup of communion together.

II. Only Christ Could Transform Me

Lee Strobel in a message entitled “Meet the Jesus I Know”[iii] tells the story of Billy Moore.

Billy Moore grew up in a tough city in Ohio to an impoverished family. He got involved with crime when he was young. They’d smoke dope and get drunk and break into taverns and steal cash registers – all kinds of petty theft. Then he joined the army, got married. His wife left him, took their kid with her. He was broke, and he was desperate.

One night he and a friend were drinking, smoking dope, and talking about how broke they were. His friend said, “I know about a guy who lives not too far from here, and the word is, he doesn’t trust banks. He keeps all his money in his bedroom.”

Billy said, “Is he some big, tough guy?”

And the friend said, “No, he’s an old guy. Wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

So the plot hatched in Billy’s mind. He went back to the barracks, got his gun, and loaded it. He drove to that man’s house, broke in, and started ransacking the house.

Put yourself in the position of this elderly gentleman. He’s 77 years old. He’s in the bedroom as Billy breaks in the front door. He hears the noise, and he’s afraid. He had a shotgun he used for hunting. As Billy Moore broke through the bedroom door with a gun in his hand, this elderly gentleman pointed a shotgun, pulled the trigger, and a blast went off. The buckshot went over Billy’s shoulder, missed him completely. Billy took his gun, pointed it at the old man, and he pulled the trigger twice. The elderly gentleman fell dead. Billy rifled through his pockets, ransacked the bedroom, and walked away with $5,600. He fled to his trailer in rural Georgia.

It didn’t take long for the police to track him down. They arrested him and took him to jail. You can just imagine the first night in a jail cell; he realizes his life is over. He’s charged with capital murder. There’s an electric chair waiting for him.

Well, Billy Moore’s mom was a Christian, and she knew a Christian couple who lived not far from the jail in Georgia. She called and said, “I got a son, and he’s on death row. Would you please go visit him?” They went to visit Billy Moore, and they said to Billy, “Jesus is willing to give you a fresh start and a new chance at life.”

Billy looked back at them dumb-founded and said, “You got to be kidding me. Don’t you realize my situation here? I murdered an old grandfather. I am charged with a death penalty case. My life is over. There are no new beginnings for me.” But that Christian man looked back at Billy Moore and said, “No, you don’t understand. Jesus Christ loves you so much he wants to find a way to make your life count.” Billy not only heard these words from this man and woman, but he saw Jesus in them. He said later, “Nobody ever told me that Jesus loved me. Nobody ever told me Jesus had died for me. It was a love I could feel. It was a love I wanted. It was a love I needed.”

And so Billy Moore, as hopeless and broken an individual as you’re ever going to see, got on his knees in his jail cell and said, “God, I’m sorry for all I’ve done, and I want to live for you. If you would adopt me and take me to heaven, that would be the best. I don’t have much time left, but if you could do something to make my life count, it would be like icing on the cake.”

Jesus heard that prayer. There was a bathtub there on death row. They got permission from the guards to fill it up with water. Billy Moore knelt in the bathtub, and they dipped him backward into the water to baptize him.

God began to change that man from the inside out. Billy went to court and pleaded guilty. He said, “How can I tell you I didn’t do it when I did?” They found him guilty and sentenced him to death. But the criminal justice system is slow. It took 16 years of living in a cage waiting to die, but during those 16 years Billy opened his life up to God. God changed him from the inside out.

Billy Moore became a model prisoner, so much so that the guards had a nickname for him. They called him “the peacemaker.” Death row was an ugly, violent, hateful place until Billy got there. Billy had Bible studies with the other inmates, and one by one they found redemption and new life in Jesus Christ. The place that had been awful and violent became a place of hope where people cared for each other.

. . . “The issue has never been whether God would forgive you for what you have done. The Bible makes it clear. First John 1:9: ‘If we confess our sins to him, he can be depended on to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.’ The issue is, will you let God forgive you like Billy Moore did? If Billy Moore can be forgiven by God for murdering a defenseless grandfather, then what in the world have you done that you think would disqualify you from the forgiveness of God?

“The issue has never been, can God make your life count? The issue has never been, will God transform you? The Bible makes it clear. Second Corinthians 5:17 says when someone becomes a Christian he becomes a new person. He’s not the same any more. The question is not, will he change you? The question is will you, like Billy Moore, open your heart to God? Will you invite him to change you? Will you invite him to give you a purpose for living beyond eating and drinking and going to work every day?”

If God can use a guy like Billy Moore living in a cage, then think what he could do with your life. Think what he could do in your family, with your children, in your neighborhood, and in this church.

In August of 1990 the court system finally caught up with Billy Moore. The hours were ticking down to August 22, when they would kill him. He was put in the deathwatch cell. His lawyers would call him, and I had an opportunity to talk to one of those lawyers. “What was it like to call this guy who was facing death in just a few hours?”

The lawyer said, “It was the strangest experience I’ve ever had.”

“What happened?”

“We would call to console him, but he ended up consoling us. Billy would say things like ‘Are you guys okay? I know this is difficult for you. Can I pray for you?’ We were trying to reach out to him, and he was reaching out to us. Why?”

Why? Because Billy Moore was not afraid to meet Jesus Christ face to face. Why wasn’t he afraid? Because he knew, If God loves me so much, if Jesus wants to adopt me, if he wants to forgive all my sins, then I can trust that when I close my eyes in that electric chair, he’s going to take care of me forever.

On August 21, 1990, seven-and-a-half hours before Billy Moore was to be electrocuted, something amazing took place. In fact, it’s unprecedented in American history. The Georgia Pardon and Parole Board held an emergency hearing about a model prisoner they’d heard about.

The five members of that Pardon and Parole Board looked at this repentant man, and they did something so amazing it made the front page of the New York Times. They looked at Billy Moore and said, “We are going to show you mercy.” They threw out the death penalty against Billy Moore and did something that had never been done before in American history: they set the gears in motion to release him from prison. It was the first time in history a confessed killer on death row was to be set free.

And that, I would tell my friend, is like Jesus. It’s like his grace. His grace is unmerited favor. Billy Moore deserved to die. Instead he was set free. That’s what Jesus does.

You know where Billy Moore is right now? Billy Moore today is where he is every Sunday. He’s in church worshiping the God of the second chance, because Billy Moore is a pastor.

I remember sitting in Billy’s living room a couple of months ago, and we were talking. I started to goad him a little bit. I said, “It’s just the two of us here. You can tell the truth now. What is really at the root of the miraculous change in your life? It was the prison rehabilitation system, wasn’t it?”

He laughed. He said, “No, Lee, it wasn’t that.”

I said, “What was it then? Was it a self-help program?”

He said, “No, it wasn’t that.”

I said, “Was it transcendental meditation? Was it psychological counseling?”

He said, “Come on, Lee. You know better that that. You know what it was.”

I did know what it was, but I wanted to hear him say it. I said, “No, Billy, you tell me. What changed Billy Moore?”

He said, “I will tell you plain and simple. It was Jesus Christ. He changed me in ways I could never have changed myself. He gave me a reason to live. He helped me do the right thing for a change. He gave me a heart for other people. And, Lee, he saved my soul.”

That’s the business Jesus is in. Aren’t those the exact five things all of us want? Don’t we want to be changed in ways we can never change on our own? Don’t we want to have a reason for living? Don’t we want to be helped to do the right thing? Don’t we want to have a heart for other people? Don’t we want God to save our soul and take us to heaven? That’s what Jesus does.

And the amazing thing is, it’s free. It is a gift. It cost Jesus everything. The price tag was his suffering and death on the cross to pay for our sin. It cost him everything; it costs us zero. He offers it as a free gift because he loves us.[iv]

Dear Lord Jesus,

Thank you for choosing to drink the cup of the consequences of my sin. Thank you for taking those consequences upon yourself and setting me free from the wrath that was coming to me. Lord, thank you for transforming that awful cup, through your conquering life into the vaccine of grace. I gladly take the cup you asked me to remember you by. I’m a vessel, a cup of your making. And I know you have made me to be filled with your presence. I gladly dump out my sin, the sin in my cup, my life, and ask you to fill me from your cup, the cup of grace and allow your life to fill me and overflow from my life, that in you I might become the righteousness of God. Lord, I surrender to you, as you surrendered to your Father. “Not my will Lord, but your will be done.”

Amen.

[i] Preaching Today Tape 211

[ii] Ann Landers, Monterey County Herald, 2-21-01

[iii] Preaching Today Tape 211

[iv] Lee Strobel, Preaching Today Tape 211