The Four Cups

Thank you so much, worship team.

I love, uh I feel like that's uh a common lyric in our songs lately is how God never ever fails.

And uh this morning I'm a little nervous because I've been a klutz this morning.

Um I've already tripped over some things and dropped some things and forgotten some things, and I'm like, and I'm gonna use a uh illustration involving breakable items uh today.

So I'm a little bit nervous about it.

So hopefully we can survive that.

Um I hope it's already been uh a great holiday weekend for you.

It's kind of a little bit different.

I feel like my wife's been a school teacher for years.

I feel like this is the earliest uh she's been out of school ever.

Like, and it's like makes this feel a little different because she's done with teaching and yet there's a three-day weekend, but it's not gonna, she don't have to go back to the school on Tuesday.

Now I know we may have Boone County uh families.

I'm so sorry I brought that up.

I know you have to go back on Tuesday, go another week and have some other things going on, but I do hope it's already been a great weekend for you.

And thank you for including us worshiping together as a part of your weekend.

And I know we have some traveling and some joining us here on live stream because of that.

And we're so grateful that we're able to gather together and worship our God who never, ever, ever fails.

Uh, as you can tell, we got four cups sitting in front of you, and we're gonna talk a little bit about uh the last supper that uh Jesus had um with his disciples.

And uh if you came in today and just happened to miss the tables that were sitting at each of our three entrances, uh, we have baskets with uh our elements for Lord's Supper.

And so totally won't be a distraction at all if you're like, oh, I didn't see that.

I would love for everyone to have one of these.

Uh, even if you're not sure why we have these and it's your first time ever here at church.

I would love for you to have one.

So feel free to get up at any point to go get yours for you, for anybody who's with you.

We're gonna hold on to these, and at the end of the teaching today, we will put these to use.

So just hang on to them for now.

Um, as I begin to share with you, we're gonna be in Matthew uh 26 in a moment, but I was thinking about the Lord's Supper and um how much drinking is so much a part of my life, uh, which I know sounds obvious, right?

We need to hydrate.

Uh, but I take this thing with me wherever I go.

It's kind of like my adult sippy cup.

Um, which is funny how things come full circle after a while.

Like, you know, you get rid of these, and then these are just very expensive sippy cups, right?

It's what they are.

Uh, and I feel like uh I feel wrong if I don't have it with me.

I take it with me wherever I go.

It's kind of like my adult binky, I guess, also.

Um, but I wondered, like, I share uh Missy and I joke that we're the Gen Xers on the staff.

You know, that's the gen, you may never you never heard of that generation.

There was a small little generation between the boomers and the millennials.

That's us.

Anyone, anybody else a Gen Xer?

All right, we're just got we are the forgotten generation.

Um, uh, we don't get made fun of as much, which is kind of nice.

Uh, but I was thinking about like, what was hydration like when we were teenagers and college students?

And I remember learning when they started to sell bottled water.

And even as a kid thinking, what a scam, you know, that stuff's for free.

Who would buy that stuff, you know?

Um, and we never had things like this.

Uh, if they were there, either they didn't make it to Harlan County yet, or we weren't we were against them or whatever.

All I remember drinking until I was an adult was Mountain Dew.

And so I'm just praising God I'm alive today and that I drink more water today.

Uh finally getting the hydration I'm supposed to have.

But drinking obviously is a very important part of life, part of health.

And uh, I don't know how much research you've ever done about hydration in the Bible days, in the New Testament days, in Jesus' day, uh, but it was more difficult than we, I think, realize.

Uh, clean, safe water, even palatable water was somewhat scarce, kind of hard to come by.

So often for everyday beverage, for everyday drinking in Jesus' day, they would definitely get water from a well, but they would most of the time have to boil that water, but they would actually use it to dilute wine.

And that was kind of a common beverage for them to have it very diluted with this water that they tried to boil and make clean.

Uh, and that's what made it somewhat tasty and definitely way healthier to drink.

And that was just a common thing, uh, a staple in their life.

So some of you may have heard the term Seder, a Seder mill.

Um, so the diluted wine was actually a very big part of the Seder mill, which is the first night of Passover, the very initial meal to begin the Passover celebration, which would last for days afterwards.

So, this Seder meal, it's it's an ancient Hebrew custom.

It's still even observed today.

And they would use four cups as a part of the Seder meal.

The first course of this meal consists of the Kiddish cup.

And kiddish means sanctification, it's the cup of sanctification.

And as the beginning of the Seder meal, and this is again what Jesus and the disciples were experiencing together in the Last Supper, sanctification means set apart.

Uh, we often would even use as another synonym the word holy.

And during the kind of very scripted meal, this Seder meal was very scripted.

Certain things were said, certain things were asked as a part of that meal, as the family and the friends were with them were gathered together.

What they would talk about during this first part of the Seder meal is how uh Israel was God's chosen people, that he had set them apart as his people.

And that's the whole point of the kiddish cup.

They would uh recognize this cup, they would mix this cup, they would actually have appetizers together as well.

Then the second course of the meal consists of the retelling of the story of Exodus.

Uh, and it culminated in the mixing of the second cup called the Maggad cup, and that means cup of deliverance.

And so they would uh tell the story.

Someone would tell the story, a father, most likely, uh of that household would tell the story of how God delivered the Israelites out of Egypt, out of slavery, uh, to enter into the promised land that had been promised uh to Abraham, the cup of deliverance.

Um, there is also the the singing uh of the little halel, um, halel.

And that's where the root word for hallelujah.

They would sing Psalms 113 and 114 as a part of this.

And all of that was a reminder that we have reason to praise God for Him delivering us out of Egypt and making us a free people.

That was the second cup, the Magad cup, the cup of deliverance.

Then the third, the third course was actually when they would eat the meal.

They would eat the entire meal, the main course that was provided for them as a part of the Seder meal.

But at the end of the meal, um, then they would recognize this cup, the third cup, which is the Birkat Hamazon cup, the cup of redemption.

And a blessing would be spoken over that cup, and it was consumed by those taking the meal, and it was a reminder of how they were all redeemed by the blood of the Passover lamb.

The whole point of the Passover celebration was to remember that what delivered them out of Egypt was the fact that they obeyed the instructions that God had given Moses to take an unblemished lamb and to slay that lamb.

And they actually ate the lamb and they took the blood of the lamb and put it over the doorposts, and that was their redemption.

That was how they were rescued from death and delivered out of Egypt.

Then finally, the culmination of this Seder meal would be the singing of the great Halel, hallelujah, Psalms 115 through 118.

And after the song was finished, they would partake of the final cup, the halel cup, the cup of praise, where they would praise God, who is alone worthy of their salvation uh of being praised for their salvation.

He won the battle for them, he rescued them, he is their salvation.

And in many ways, like we are still doing these halels today.

We're praising God, who alone is worthy of our worship because of his redemption, uh, how he paid it all for our salvation.

So these are the four cups that were a part of the ancient Seder meal, still being observed today.

And as we read Matthew's account of Jesus' Last Supper with His disciples, there are some pretty huge hints of how it corresponds with the ancient Seder meal.

So I'm going to begin reading in verse 26 of Matthew chapter 26.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

And here's what it says, it begins, and I know it's so subtle, but it says, while they were eating, and we know based on the full context of this passage that they're already, as we get the description of their meal together, we are already in the third course.

And they're eating their food.

And it says, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take and eat, this is my body.

Then he took a cup, and we know this is the third cup.

And when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink from it, all of you.

This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

And I think this is what we miss.

I'm so used to reading this passage.

Uh, we observe the Lord's Supper together about six times a year here in this space.

And I'm used to reading either this passage or Luke's version or Mark's version, or even go over to 1 Corinthians and read Paul's recitation of it.

Um, and I'm just so used to reading it.

But this being an ancient Seder meal that was so scripted where you kind of knew what to expect.

You knew what was going to be said, you knew the lyrics that were going to be sung.

When Jesus stops at the end of the meal and pauses to break that matzah bread and gives thanks and passes it out.

Uh, maybe that wasn't too weird, but when he actually picked up the cup and he said something completely different than was normally said, I have a theory that I believe it was probably the quietest meal that the disciples had ever had with Jesus.

It was jarring to hear him say that you drink from this all of you.

This is my blood.

This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Hopefully, they were maybe trying to connect some dots there about the Passover.

I've often wondered if Andrew, one of the disciples of Jesus, I don't know if you remember his backstory, but when Andrew began to follow Jesus, he actually left from following John the Baptist to follow Jesus.

He's like, oh, he's the real one, huh?

All right, I'm gonna walk away from you, John the Baptist, and follow this guy.

And that was okay.

That was very good because John the Baptist himself had acknowledged Jesus as he came.

You might remember this quote: John the Baptist said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

And that was at the very beginning of Jesus' public ministry.

And I just wonder if, for a moment, during that Seder meal, this last supper that Jesus had with the disciples, if Andrew was like, wait a minute, maybe there's some dots being connected there.

And if that wasn't jarring enough for Jesus to sort of break from the script of the Seder mill and say, This is his blood poured out for the sins of many, he then does this.

There's one cup left in this Seder mill.

He says this in verse 29, I tell you, I will not drink from the this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom.

When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

So radically, Jesus skips the fourth cup, completely skips it.

And I'm thinking they're like, what?

This is not how this works, this is not how this goes.

It's there, it's prepared, but Jesus skips it altogether.

And not only that, he still moves forward to the final great halel, the singing of worship.

Still does all that part of it, but skips this final cup, and indeed actually ends up saying, I will not drink of this cup.

I will not partake of this until we partake of it together in the fullness of my kingdom.

Now, to make things even wilder, historians have reason to believe that a long time ago, rabbis had begun to exclude a fifth cup.

And it was referred to as the cup of Elijah or Elijah's cup, also called the cup of wrath.

And so kind of the legend goes that the Jewish people believed that before the Messiah would come on the earth, that Elijah would come first.

And the story of Elijah in the Old Testament is that he never actually died.

He was caught up into heaven.

And so they believed, oh, Elijah comes and then the Messiah comes.

And there was this idea of like, when Elijah comes, we'll find out about this cup of wrath.

Who is to take the cup of wrath?

And so here we fast forward in the same chapter, Matthew 26, and you know probably what happens after the Lord's Supper that he actually found himself in a place that was probably a common place for Jesus to escape away to pray.

But on this night, his prayers were a lot different.

We know that he was so troubled that he sweat drops of blood.

And at one point he asked, Lord, Father, may this cup pass from me.

In verse 42, it says, He went away a second time.

He had already prayed, come to check on his disciples who were falling asleep on him while he had asked them to pray.

He went away a second time and prayed, My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.

And for those who were aware of this fifth cup, the cup of Elijah, the cup of wrath, boy, do we know that Jesus was the one who drank that cup.

The cup of the wrath of God.

He drank it all the way to the last drop, suffering the most inhumane death imaginable, so that we could live freely.

I look to John 19, and there's this moment of Jesus on the cross.

And there were a lot of final last words of Jesus, seven to be exact phrases that Jesus said that were his final words.

One of my favorite is found in this passage.

In verses 28 through 30, it says, Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, I am thirsty.

A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips.

When he had received the drink, Jesus said, It is finished.

With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Some historians have said that as much as we talk about the it is finished phrase rightly, meaning that the salvation work that rescues us, that saves our souls, that gives us the forgiveness and the grace and the mercy that we do not deserve, that the work needed to accomplish that is finished on the cross.

Absolutely true.

But also kind of a double meaning here that Jesus finally finished the cup of wrath, the final cup needed to be drank in order for the Passover, the final Passover of all Passovers, completed by the Lamb of God Jesus Himself.

But there is still that fourth cup.

He skipped it.

Why did Jesus skip it?

Because of a vision that we have in Scripture.

We have it in the book of Revelation.

Revelation chapter 21 talks about it.

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

But even in Jesus' day, they had that same vision in the book of Isaiah.

I want to read to you from Isaiah 25, starting in verse 6, it says, On this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine, the best of meats and the finest of wines.

On this mountain, he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations.

He will swallow up death forever.

The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces.

He will remove his people's disgrace from all the earth.

The Lord has spoken.

In that day they will say, Surely this is our God.

We trusted in him and he saved us.

This is the Lord.

We trusted in him.

Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.

This amazing vision of what we have often referred to as the wedding feast or the feast of the Lamb.

That on that day when all things come to fruition, when his kingdom consummates in its fullness, when the old earth and the old heaven are passed away, and we're now in a new heaven and a new earth, where there's no more sin, no more death, no more dying, no more temptation, no more disease, no more limitations, all in our incorruptible eternal bodies, feasting together with Jesus Christ Himself.

Jesus said, I won't take another drink of any of those cups till I do it there with you.

What an amazing vision.

So in essence, our lives today are living between this third and fourth cup.

That we know that Jesus took on the cup of wrath for us.

And ironically, too, in a cool way, there was still a song of praise in that third cup, but that final fourth cup, where we will be with him in heaven forever, where no more sin, no more dying, no more troubles that we face today, that still awaits us.

And I love it because it paints a picture of these truths.

That today, though this world is troubled, though we still face hardships, though sometimes life isn't easy, and there's still the tempter tempting us to go off the path that God has for us, though we face all of that, and we will until the day we die, or until Jesus comes back, we will face that.

Though all of that is true, we still live in this great freedom, in this great salvation.

We are so forgiven, we are so loved, and he has such a plan for us where not even the pains and the failures are wasted, that God even redeems those for his glory to use your life and the story he's writing with your life to point other people to this great salvation so that they too may be saved, so that they too may one day partake of that final cup in heaven with God.

That's the life we get to live today.

And even though it's not always easy, just like Jesus and his disciples still saying the little hallel before that final cup, we still can praise and worship God through anything.

No matter what we're going through or no matter what we're facing, we can still worship through it.

But friends, there's coming a day.

Man, I can't even imagine it.

The older I get, the more I actually take time to try to imagine it.

We have a Thursday morning worship service every week for our senior adults.

And we've been uh on the on the weeks that I've been bringing the message, we've been talking about heaven like since July, haven't we?

Um just a message on heaven, a message on heaven.

We read a passage also um from Revelation and from Isaiah where it describes.

The worship.

And at one point it says thousands times thousands, no, ten thousands times ten thousands of voices all at once lifting up like a pill of thunder of worship.

Can you even imagine what it will be like to worship with all those voices lifted up?

Not only will we be worshiping God in that place forever and ever, man, we'll be fellowshipping and feasting with Him forever and ever.

Did you hear him describe the meat in Isaiah 25?

Heavenly meat that we will get to eat with the Lamb of God forever.

I'm telling you, I think one of the biggest things we miss is how amazing heaven is.

And I think that it would change the way we think about death.

I think it would change how tightly we hold to things on this earth today.

I hope that as we partake of the Lord's Supper together, that we can capture a vision of how the best is yet to come, guys.

We are worshiping with the little Halel now.

But there's coming a day when we will feast like never before, where we will praise like never before, and it will be awesome and it will be great.

And let's take as many people with us as we can.

Let's proclaim the salvation of our Savior Jesus Christ and let people know that he died for them too, that mercy and grace is available to them too.

May our lives and our lips proclaim that.

And honestly, I think that's why Jesus wanted us to observe the Lord's Supper till He comes back.

It's a way of proclaiming His salvation.

We do that today.

It's so unique, it's so different.

I find myself over and over again trying to think of new ways to sort of explain it and express it, even when we're gathered together.

And it's hard to put it into words.

Before we partake of this, I wrote down this sentence to remind me of what we learned from the four cups.

And I wanted to be the foundation upon which we partake the Lord's Supper.

Today we can walk with Jesus as completely redeemed by his blood, worshiping him and proclaiming him through our lives until we praise him before our very eyes forever in heaven.

That's our lives.

This is our purpose.

This is how we live.

This is what we do every day till we see him face to face.

So as we prepare to partake of the Lord's Supper together, before we do that, I want to speak to you in the room, those watching, listening online.

You might be like I was before the age of 16, where I was in rooms where we partook of this and I wasn't sure what was going on.

I didn't know if I should do it.

I didn't know how to handle all of this, what it fully meant.

And I want you to know this.

The Bible teaches very clearly that this communion experience, Lord's Supper, is for the believer.

And so if you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, you have had a point in your life where you've asked him to forgive you of your sins and to save you.

You are a child of God forever.

You are part of the family of God, and you're invited to partake of this here in just a moment.

But to be fair, you might be like I was, and I wasn't there yet.

And what I want you to know is that this blood and body of Jesus is still for you.

Even if you haven't believed in this yet, even if you're not sure what you think about that yet, even if you're still trying to figure things out, what you believe, what you don't believe, He did this for you still.

And what we do when we gather together and partake of the Lord's Supper, what I ask of you do when we do this is though you're not going to partake of this because you haven't believed in Jesus yet, we're not going to put that on you to do that.

But I would love for you to hang on to this and put it somewhere at least for a week where you will see it.

I don't know if that's on your nightstand.

I don't know if that's on your dashboard.

People be like, what is that on your dashboard?

You know, I have to explain it fully.

Just that weird preacher of mine told me to do that.

Put it where you'll see it.

So that at least for the next few days, as you celebrate Memorial Weekend, as you think about the sacrifices that people have made for your freedom that we have here, the ultimate sacrifice, friends, that saves our soul was paid for by Jesus' blood.

He absolutely loves you.

He made you, he wanted you to exist.

In Psalm 139, it says, You were knit together in your mother's womb.

You were fearfully and wonderfully made.

The enemy wants you to think, nah, but it's true.

And he died for you, and he has a plan for you and a purpose for you.

And if you will just completely submit your life to him, completely say, I'm yours, God, man, you will experience the freedom that comes from not having to have it all together, but to live for the one who holds you all together for the rest of your life.

That's what we celebrate when we partake of the Lord's Supper.

So here's what I'm gonna do.

Before we partake, I'm gonna pray.

And actually, the prayer I'm gonna pray is kind of a prayer of salvation.

If you're here today, or if you're watching, listening today, and you've never put your faith in Jesus, but you're like right there saying, I want to do it.

I want to be saved, I want to be forgiven.

How do I do that?

Romans 10, 13 says, For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

While I call upon his name in prayer, you call upon his name right where you are, and simply use the best words you know how to ask Jesus to save you and to forgive you.

And the Bible says, if you do that in this very moment, you are adopted into his family forever, signed by his blood, you're his.

And as Jesus Himself said in the book of John, no one and nothing can snatch you from his hands.

You're his forever.

So as I pray aloud, if you want to be saved by Jesus, you pray also.

Let's bow together as we pray.

Father, in this moment, we just want to take an opportunity for anyone who's here, who's watching, who's listening, who has heard this amazing good news that you put on human flesh and dwelt among us and died for us so that we can live in your power, in your freedom forever.

Father, there might be someone who has not taken that step of faith yet, and this is their moment that they call upon your name and say, Jesus, save me too.

I believe that you died for me.

I believe that your shed blood paid for my sins.

And so, right here, right now, I ask for you to save me, for you to forgive me.

And I give my life to you.

Take my life because I'll make a mess of it.

But you will rescue it and you will use it for your glory.

So I give it to you now, Father.

Lord, whoever might be praying a prayer like that, help them to know that today is their adoption day.

Their forever family begins now.

They are yours forever, they are saved and rescued forever by you.

Father, thank you for this great salvation that is free for us, but paid for by you.

And we pray this in the powerful name, the only name by which we might be saved, the name of your son Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

So, if you walked in here today and you had never done that, but you just did that, all who have believed in Jesus, right now you're invited to the Lord's table.

What I would ask you to do now is to pop open the bread end of your cup and don't partake yet.

We're gonna do it the way the disciples did it.

Just take that bread and hold it in your hand.

And as you're holding this little piece of bread, as Jesus said to his disciples, he literally said, This is my body.

And he broke it and he gave it to them.

And they probably had no idea what was about to happen to him in the next 24 to 36 hours.

But his body took on the wrath that we deserve for our sins.

And I know I don't think about me deserving wrath.

I don't really cross my mind that much.

But the truth is, if we really sit in it and we really think in it, think about it, absolutely every single one of us deserve hell.

Because we're so godless and so selfish and so self-sufficient and self-dependent.

When we have God right there, that's how we roll sometimes.

A man, Jesus Christ, paid for our sins, taking it all on.

We can't do anything to earn it, we can't do anything to deserve it.

All we can do is receive it by faith.

Just like the original Passover, bunch of varmint heathens living by the way of the Egyptians, still not sure if they really even believed in Yahweh God, but they were rescued because there was blood on their doorposts.

That's all that saved them.

Jesus' blood is all that saves us.

So before we eat of this bread, let us give thanks just like Jesus and his disciple did.

Let's pray.

Father, we give you thanks, which seems so small, just saying thanks.

And yet, Father, we will spend the rest of our lives thanking you for delivering your body to the cross, to the wrath that we deserve, so that we might live.

Thank you forever.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let us eat together.

And then, as we just read in Matthew 26, he took that third cup.

And he said, This is my blood poured out for the sins of many, a new covenant.

And it was one of those agreements, contracts, covenants, where he paid it all, and all we have to do is receive it by faith.

Our salvation is paid for the blood of the Lamb.

So let us also give thanks for that before we drink.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for this little cup of juice that reminds us of the great price that you paid so that we could walk with you today and live with you forever in heaven.

Father, we praise you and thank you now in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let us drink together.

And now the next thing that happened for those disciples after partaking of the Lord's Supper together was to sing a song of praise together.

So we're going to do that now as well.

And so what I invite you to do is stand to your feet.

We're going to pray one more time before we sing.

The song that we're about to sing, I think, reminds us of what we do from this point on.

That from this point on, we just abide in Him.

We are a branch on the vine that is Jesus Christ.

And as we have already partaken of the Lord's Supper together, may it remind us that we stay clinging to Jesus all the days of our life.

The best way to describe the Christian life is a life of desperate clinging to him.

And we still are figuring out what that looks like.

How do we do that in our daily lives?

And so, in a moment, uh, when we sing this song, may this song be a prayer that you ask the Lord to teach you to do just that together.

All right.

Missy mentioned this earlier.

Her and I are going to be in this next steps area.

We'd be so honored to get to talk to you about any next step that you have taken with Jesus today or that you know you still need to take.

If you're in a rush to get to the next thing, take the card in front of you and jot down a note about that.

Slip it in the giving box before you leave and let us know how we can pray for you.

Before we sing, let me lead us in prayer one more time.

Father, you are so good, you are unfailing.

And Lord, as we sing your praises, as we sing this halal together before we depart, our praise will never ever measure up to your goodness and to how awesome you are.

And yet we offer it to you now.

We praise you because you are awesome, you are good, and you never fail.

Teach us, O Lord, how to abide in you today.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.