The cup of blessing.

Q: What does the Bible say about the cup of blessing?

The cup of blessing represents the communion of Christ's blood, symbolizing unity among believers and Jesus' sacrifice for sin. In 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, the apostle Paul speaks of the cup of blessing as the communion of the blood of Christ, emphasizing its significance in the life of believers. This cup symbolizes the unity of the church as one body in Christ, reflecting back to how the Israelites were united in their deliverance from Egypt. In taking the cup, believers express gratitude for the atonement made by Jesus, recognizing that through His sacrifice, they are united with one another and with Him. The cup is thus a powerful reminder of God's grace and the blessings received through Christ's shed blood, encouraging believers to live in thanksgiving and unity.

Q: Why is the concept of communion important for Christians?

Communion serves as a vital reminder of Christ's sacrifice and the unity of believers, calling Christians to remember their shared faith. Communion is significant for Christians as it acts as both a remembrance of Christ's sacrifice and a declaration of the unity among His followers. Participating in the Lord's Supper, which involves the cup representing Christ's blood and the bread signifying His body, highlights the collective identity of the church as one body. Just as the Israelites experienced God's provision and unity during their deliverance, Christians are reminded that they are called to reflect on their redemption and the grace of God through Christ. This shared remembrance fosters a sense of community and encourages believers to live in alignment with God's call, reinforcing their commitment to God and each other.

Q: How can we understand God's judgment through biblical examples?

Biblical examples, like Israel's rebellion and Noah's deliverance, illustrate God's justice and the consequences of sin. Throughout the Bible, God’s judgment is often demonstrated through historical examples that serve as warnings to the present and future generations. For instance, the rebellion of the Israelites in the wilderness shows that despite their miraculous deliverance, God was not pleased with their unbelief and rebellion (1 Corinthians 10). The story of Noah also emphasizes God's judgment, where he preserved Noah and his family during the flood while judging the rest of humanity. These narratives illustrate that God’s justice is consistent; He must punish sin while also preserving those who obey Him. The lessons drawn from these examples remind believers of the seriousness of sin and the need for faithfulness and obedience to God.

Q: What does it mean to flee from idolatry?

To flee from idolatry means to avoid anything that distracts or turns us away from our devotion to God. Fleeing from idolatry involves actively rejecting anything that seeks to take the place of God in our lives, as warned by Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:14. Idolatry can manifest in various forms, from physical idols to the elevation of personal desires and ambitions above God. In a world filled with distractions and temptations, believers are called to pursue purity, prioritizing their relationship with God and seeking to live in accordance with His will. This flight from idolatry requires diligence in prayer, accountability with fellow believers, and a commitment to studying Scripture to resist the allure of worldly distractions and remain focused on Christ.

Speaking once again in the help of God, I would like you to turn with me to the chapter that we read together, 1 Corinthians and chapter 10, and the text you'll find in verses 16 and 17. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? for we being many are one bread and one body and we are all partakers of that one bread. As the apostle writes to the Corinthian church there are many problems that are found in that young church and one of those problems was the self-elevation and that the apostle then writes to them to to warn them of the dangers that there is in pride and the dangers that there is in setting yourself up, striving for masteries.

And he speaks to them and he uses the example of the people of God, the children of Israel, as they walked out of Egypt. Yes, they were all united together. They were as one body being delivered from Egypt. They were all, as it were, under Moses and they were all, as it were, baptized through the Red Sea. They all drank of that spiritual river. They all drank of that river that followed them. If you remember that Moses struck the rock as the people complained that they were thirsty, that they'd been brought into the wilderness to die, and the water ushered out of that rock. And the apostle tells us that that was a spiritual type of the Lord Jesus Christ, that that water followed them and it sustained them in the wilderness. And even though then they experienced a great blessing, even though they were delivered from Egypt, even though they had that great miraculous passage through the Red Sea, they all ate of that manna, they all drank of that spiritual rock, that water, yet God was not pleased with all of them. Why? Because they did not continue in his ways. They did not continue walking in the way that was pleasing unto him. They did not submit to him.

And so he says that these things have been written for our example. And we know that there are many things in the Old Testament that were written for our example as warnings to us in the New Testament that God is a just God, that God is a righteous God, that God will always punish sin. We have it with Noah and we see how the Lord preserved him and his family in the ark while that judgment came, that flood came upon the whole of the world and flooded and took the lives of all those who were living at that time, yet Noah and his family were spared. that was a warning, that is a warning to us that that second judgment that is going to come is not just a story but it is a warning to us that this first judgment by water then this second judgment by fire that would come at the end of time we have Sodom and Gomorrah as a warning that God hates sin and must punish sin. And so these evidences that we see even today of the justice of God, the judgment of God, they are there. just like the Pharisees.

We have eyes or people have eyes but they don't see. They see what they want to see and if they want to see that the world has been flooded before, they will see it. God gives them eyes to see it but if they don't want to see it, they will look at it with the blind eyes. Although the evidence is clear, and the evidence shouts out of a worldwide flood that God flooded and judged this earth, yet in their stating that they see, yet they're blind to the facts.

Same as Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah, there's the evidence that is there, the sulphur and the piles of stone and rock that levelled those cities. It's still there for people to see today. I guess it's just placed to the back of the mind, having eyes that they don't see.

And so it is with the people of Israel as they walked through the wilderness. They were judged. They were punished by God because of their sin. They knew what God wanted them to do. They knew that God wanted them not to infiltrate into the nations that were around about them, to become like them. so he says that these things were our examples to read the Old Testament and see that God brought about a judgment on these individuals who were part of that one body that left Egypt, yet he was not happy with them because of their unbelief. He says, neither be idolatrous as some of them were.

As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Not long after they came out of Egypt, where did they go? Moses went up into the mountain as the Lord spake to him and gave him the Ten Commandments. And what did they do? They melted down their gold and they built a calf. and they worshipped and said, this is our God that brought us out of Egypt.

Instead of looking to the true and living God, where Moses had gone up to get the law, they immediately turned back. And they turned back to their idol worship, using their bodies as instruments of sin fornication. going after other gods, infiltrating into the surrounding areas, into the various countries and tribes that were around about, tempting God, tempting Christ, destroyed by servants, murmuring and complaining, and they were destroyed.

And he says, so these things happen for an example. What does that mean? Learn from what has taken place before. It's like falling, as I said the other day, the sheep that continues falling into the same ditch every day. The farmer gets up and has to pull it out and it goes back into the same ditch. We're slow learners. But these things have been written for our example. for our teaching, that we should learn from the weakness of those that have gone before us.

You think that somebody who had seen the great judgment of God, those plagues that came across Egypt, those people who had walked through the middle of the Red Sea and seen that water come crashing down, They had seen Moses go up and the thunder and the lightning and the fear that took hold of them. You'd think that these people, they would be the most holy people. They would be the people who were seeking to live the most godly lives. Even though they had such visual manifestations of the work of God, yet they were drawn aside.

What does it tell us? It tells us that you may witness great things. It tells us that you may even be part of the church. It tells us that you may even be labelled as a Christian. Yet if our hearts are not truly changed, then we will be drawn off, we'll be lured aside by the things of this world, just like the people of Israel. They saw everything that God did, that it had no transformation of their heart. They were witnesses, but it didn't affect their lives. So he tells them, he warns them, learn from those that have gone before.

These are examples just because we are together in a church does not mean we are exempt from falling away, does not mean we're exempt from the temptations that are rife in the world. He says, there is no temptation taken you but that is such is common to man. God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape. that you may be able to bear it. I've said to you before, I think I've spoken from this, that God always gives a way and there is always a way to escape and that is to pray. If any other escape door doesn't open there's always that prayer, but Lord help me, deliver me from this temptation, it is too strong.

The Bible tells us to flee fornication, to run away. So there are times, isn't there, when you have to literally run. You have to run away from sin. You have to run away from temptation. You have to get away from the trouble that you're in by literally moving from one place to another. There are times in my life when I've had to pray, Lord, get me out of this situation. And the Lord will hear those cries. Things happen which stop that situation from progressing even further. And so the Lord is faithful to his people.

He has provided a way of escape. When we are tempted, when we do find ourselves drawn aside, when we do find opportunities to sin or others alluring us away from the path of righteousness, When we do find that we are grumbling and complaining about the pathway that the Lord has put us in, remember that. There is no temptation that has overtaken you which is common to man. All of us are in the same boat, all of us experience the same temptations, yet Christ and he is offered a way of escape. And so he says that these people here, they didn't take the way of escape. They succumb to those temptations. They succumb to those thoughts and those murmurs. So he goes on then to flee from idolatry. But then he comes down a level and he seeks to bring the reader's mind to Christ.

Remember the people of Israel, they were drawn out of Egypt and they had those visible manifestations of the ability and power of God. They looked for a perfect sacrifice. He now seeks to bring the mind of these Corinthians to the unity that they have in the Lord Jesus Christ, the cup of blessing.

He tries to point their mind to all that they have in the Lord Jesus Christ, all that Christ has done for them, to focus their mind upon this cup, that in focusing their mind upon this cup, then they lose sight of all that is taking place outside. They lose sight of their pride, their selfish ambition. They lose sight of their idols. They lose sight of their difficult pathways, their murmurings and their complainings. And they come now to focus upon this cup of blessing.

We look at a cup. A cup's purpose is to hold something. It's a container by which we put something in. And so when, he's speaking of the cup of blessing, he's speaking of what is inside of the cup. say a cup of tea or a cup of orange juice or a cup of coca-cola and here he's speaking about the cup of blessing. It is a blessing because of what it represents, the blessing of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. and we bless that cup, we give thanks for that cup, we give thanks for the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, the shedding of his precious blood, and the manifold blessings that we receive at the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We give thanks that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. We give thanks for his love, that Christ humbled himself and made himself of no reputation for the suffering of death. We give thanks for his grace, his love. It was an undeserved love, therefore we receive it as grace. We did not deserve it. It was grace that drew him down from heaven. We did not deserve to receive the love of God. We did not deserve to receive the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ or the atonement for our sin. We give thanks for the sacrifice, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, who shed his precious blood upon the cross. And we give him thanks for drinking our cup.

If it be possible, Jesus says, let this cup pass from me. So the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? This cup by which we take of the Lord's Supper, it speaks to us of the unity of the believers, but within that cup is the wine which symbolises the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's that cup, that blood which takes away the sin of the world. Christ's cup, the contents of Christ's cup was the wrath of God. Our contents, the cup of blessing, the cup of blessing which we bless is the precious blood of Jesus Christ. What we receive is a great blessing of love and grace and peace and joy but Christ Jesus What was in his cup was the wrath of Almighty God due for the sins of his people.

In Psalms 75 verse 7 it says, but God is the judge. He put it down one and set it up another. Just like as we looked at this morning that God is sovereign. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red, it is full of mixture, and he poureth out of the same. But the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth, shall wring them out and drink them. And so here he describes God as having a cup. In the hand of God is a cup. And that cup is foaming. It is agitated. It is like his anger is boiling over, full of mixture. And he's going to pour out that cup upon the wicked. that they will stagger under the pouring out of this wrath of God, in the hand of God.

Verse seven, it says, thou even thou art to be feared, and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry? Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven. The earth feared and was still when God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. a sealer.

So we have this picture that God is angry with the wicked every single day, that in his hand there is a cup, a cup of foaming wine, as it were, his anger boiling over, waiting to pour out his anger upon the nations. The scripture gives us that illustration. of God's sword drawn, ready for battle, his bow stretched back, ready to fire his arrow, that he is a God who is waiting, waiting to pour out his judgment upon mankind because of their sin. Yet God is long-suffering and patient, that he is not immediately responding to every single sin of the wicked, but is waiting. And we have this image then of this boiling over, this bubbling up of the mixture of the wine in his hand.

Jeremiah and also Isaiah speak of this cup of God, but in Jeremiah in verse chapter 25 and verse 15. For thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel unto me, take the wine cup of this fury at my hand and cause all the nations to whom I send thee to drink it. And they shall drink and be moved and be mad because of the sword that I will send among them. I took Then took I the cup at the Lord's hand and made all the nations drink unto whom the Lord had sent me." If we read through the book of Jeremiah, you see that Israel is the first spoken of. that they are going to be judged by God because of their sin. Although their judgment is limited to an allotted span, yet at the end of that judgment God himself is going to judge all those nations that he used to bring about that discipline on his own people and so his wrath boiled over the people of Israel, they're taken into captivity, then this cup in his hand is again going to be poured out upon those nations round about.

And so Jesus says, let this cup pass from me. So if we have in our minds an image of God with a cup, boiling with fury over the sin of the wicked. It is going to pour out this cup upon the nations to destroy them and yet there here we have the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus saying, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. That this cup that was due to be poured out upon the nations, which was due to be poured out upon individual sinners, is going to be poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

Luke 22. Verse 40. 2 or 41, and he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.

And so the cup that Christ was to receive was not his own. The fury of God was not due to his son, but his son was made sin for us, the one who knew no sin. And so the spotless lamb of God is going to have the full wrath of God poured out upon him. That foaming cup that was due to me and was due to you, it is no longer being poured out upon yourself or myself, but it's poured out upon the beloved son of God. that he took the punishment for the sins of his people, that they might live the wrath of God for the sins of his people.

How long would it have taken us to drink that cup? It would have taken us an eternity to drink that cup, yet Christ drank it upon the cross in those three hours that he absorbed the wrath of God in those three hours for the sins of his people that would have taken an eternity for each and every one of us. Yet Christ drank it to the dregs and he says it is finished. drank it to the very drop and said, it is finished.

What does that mean? If the cup is empty, there's nothing left for you and I to drink. Christ is that perfect sacrifice that he has paid in full the debt that his people owe to God. that there's no more for you to pay, no more wrath of God to be poured out upon his people because Christ cleaned the cup out. Like we were saying this morning, we may say, well, this is that punishment and that's punishment and that's punishment. And there may be individual punishments for different believers. as God disciplines them in their individual lives, but we cannot say that it's because of sin, because Christ drank the cup right up at eternal punishment. He drank it right up.

And so we as believers sit together around the Lord's table and we take the cup the cup of blessing and we return a blessing to God. We have received the greatest blessing and we give thanks for that blessing, that the love brought down Christ, that Christ drank up the cup for us. We sip the cup in communion, one with another and with the Lord Jesus Christ. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? A communion is that we are participating in the same thing. We know that there is no other way by which man or woman can be saved. we sit down at the Lord's table, we are declaring our allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ and our unity with one another as the as the Corinthians were saying, I'm of Paul, I'm of Peter, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Christ. As we sit down around the Lord's table, we are declaring that we are Christ's and Christ's alone, that we are saved by his precious blood and his precious blood only, that he has paid for the penalty of our sin by drinking up his, that cup by shedding his precious blood, that we are participating in the precious blood of Christ that was shed for his people.

And it says about the bread which we break, we have the blood that was shed and then we have the body that was given the body that was offered, that Christ came to give himself up, an offering for sin, a sacrifice to take away the sins of his people. One body and one bread. For we being many are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread. picturing the Lord Jesus Christ himself as a bread, as a loaf. And then the believers are partakers of that bread.

As the people of Israel, they drank all from that spiritual stream, which was Christ, but they also ate from that manna which came down from heaven. That manna that sustained them in the wilderness, though that manner was individual pieces, yet with Christ it is described as one bread, that he is the true bread that came down from heaven. He says that those who ate in the wilderness, they're dead, but whoever eats of me or trusts in me or is absorbed by me shall live. They shall have eternal life.

We being many are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread. Christ is the bread that came down then from heaven. May the Lord add his blessing. Amen. Let us sing our final hymn from Gatsby's 1105 to the tune 423. Jesus, engrave it on my heart, that thou the one thing needful art, I could from all things parted be, but never, never lord from thee. 1105. all my heart. That there were more things before us, I could, from all things, partake thee.

But never, never, nor from Needful of Thou, O grace to give, Needful to guide me as I stray, Needful to help me every day. is I correctly wrong? Needful is I, be doubt you can, needful thy all remaining through. ♪ Earth's dearest home ♪ ♪ True peace and love for two are four ♪ ♪ Needful I promise to impart ♪ ♪ Fresh life and bigger to do my part ♪ my soul can say. Through life's dark and folly way, in death thou wilt most needful be. When I yield up my soul to To raise my dust, In shining glory with the just, Needful when I in heaven kill, To crown and to Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father, with the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit, to be with you each now and forevermore. Amen. Amen.

The cup of blessing.

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the cup of blessing?

Why is the concept of communion important for Christians?

How can we understand God's judgment through biblical examples?

What does it mean to flee from idolatry?

Sermon Transcript

About James Gudgeon

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The cup of blessing.

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the cup of blessing?

Why is the concept of communion important for Christians?

How can we understand God's judgment through biblical examples?

What does it mean to flee from idolatry?

Sermon Transcript

About James Gudgeon

Comments

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