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In the context of the verse I want to see, we have the mother of James and John coming

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to the Lord Jesus and making an unusual request of him.

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Verse 21, she said to him, command that in your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit

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one on your right and one on your left.

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Jesus answered and said, you do not know what you are asking for.

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Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?

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And so we have here the cup of suffering.

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It is the cup about which Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane when he said, if

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it be possible let this cup pass from me, nevertheless your will not mine be done.

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This is the cup that Jesus was thinking of in John chapter 18 when he says that the Father

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has given him this cup to drink.

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It is the cup containing his suffering for the sins of the world.

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The dregs of that cup, the depths of that cup, involve the very suffering of hell itself

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on behalf of his own.

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It was not necessary for the Lord Jesus Christ to descend into hell for three days as one

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of the creeds puts it, and there to suffer hell, because he suffered hell for us on the

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cross.

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Hell is a place, and it is a place where all of the ungodly must go to spend eternity away

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from the presence of God.

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It is a horrible place.

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But hell for the Lord Jesus was on the cross because it was there as he poured out his

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life that he was separated in fellowship from the Father.

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It was there that he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

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As the sun was darkened and as the Father turned away from his Son, who was bearing

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sin and who became sin for us, that was the cup of his suffering.

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James and John could never drink of that cup, nor can we.

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It is a cup which was his alone uniquely, and it is a cup which he drank entirely.

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He absorbed in himself all of the suffering that his Holy Father required as a propitiation

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for our sins.

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It is a cup that was emptied on the cross of Calvary.

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As the Apostle Paul writes to these Corinthians, warning them about partaking of pagan feasts,

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he says, when you partake of a religious feast, you are actually sharing in that religion.

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He warns them that in doing that, in a pagan feast, they are partaking with demons at their

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tables.

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As he works his way into that subject, he says in verse 16, is not the cup of blessing

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which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ?

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So the second cup of Christ is a cup of blessing.

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The cup which he emptied at the cross, he filled again, and he hands to you and to me

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that we might enjoy it.

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It is the cup of blessing.

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We have talked this evening about some of the blessings that we enjoy as a people.

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I would like for you to turn to Ephesians 1 and notice some of the spiritual blessings

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that are ours in this cup of blessing.

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In verses 3 through 14, in a long paragraph, the Apostle Paul enumerates these.

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He mentions them in verse 3 where he says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord

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Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places

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in Christ.

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Then he begins to enumerate them, and he says, Just as he chose us in him before the foundation

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of the world.

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Then in verse 5 he says, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to

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himself.

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From the Father we have these blessings of election and predestination.

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You say, Well, I'm not sure all that those mean.

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Frankly, neither is the most brilliant biblical scholar that ever lived.

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One thing we are told in the Word of God is that God the Father, before he even spoke

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the universe into existence, looked into the time-space dimension that he was about to

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create, and he chose a people.

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And he predestined those people to be conformed to the image of his Son.

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You and I who belong to Jesus Christ have that as a part of the cup of blessing that

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Jesus has handed to us.

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And then going on, in verse 7 it mentions that in the beloved, the Son, we have redemption

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through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, as Helmer was speaking about earlier.

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So we have redemption.

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We have been purchased through his blood.

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When the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, he bought something.

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He purchased something.

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He purchased the church.

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He purchased his own.

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And it says furthermore, from him we also receive insight.

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He says in verse 8, in all wisdom and insight he made known to us the mystery of his will.

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And there is that word mystery again.

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That is something that God has chosen to disclose to us now that he did not disclose to people

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in past ages.

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It is a word in the day in the New Testament which was written which was used of secret

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religions.

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The mystery religions in that day as they were called had certain mysteries which only

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the initiates of those religions were told.

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There are certain societies and religions around these days that have similar kinds

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of things.

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Those were called their mysteries.

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The Apostle Paul picks up that word out of paganism and washes it off.

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The Holy Spirit causes him to place it in God's word.

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It refers to those things that God chooses to reveal to us in this age.

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And the mystery of his will that he talks about here is undoubtedly the mystery of our

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being one with the Jews who believe in the body of Jesus Christ.

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He talks about it further in chapter 3.

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And so from God the Son we have these two blessings.

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We have been redeemed and forgiven of our sins through his blood.

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And we have been made a part of his mystery, the church.

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And we have been given insight to understand that.

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We are a different, we are a unique people in all of the history of the world being called

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out to belong to Jesus Christ as his bride, as his body, as his temple.

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And then in verse 13 he mentions that in him you also, after listening to the message of

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truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with

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the Holy Spirit of promise who has given us, given as a pledge of our inheritance with

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a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of his glory.

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And so here we have the work of the Holy Spirit in our salvation.

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God the Father places into our cup of blessing the fact that we were chosen in Christ before

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the foundation of the world and we were predestined to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus

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himself.

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The Lord Jesus places into this cup our redemption and he says enjoy it.

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He furthermore places into this cup an understanding that we have of his purpose in this age, the

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calling out of the church for Jesus Christ, the mystery of Jew and Gentile.

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And then the Holy Spirit as it were places into our cup of blessing this truth that he

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has come into us to seal us and to guarantee us for the destiny that God has predestined

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us for.

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As though it were not enough that God's word would do it, the Holy Spirit is a permanent

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resident in our bodies, acting as a seal upon us, authenticating us as genuinely God's

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children, but furthermore guaranteeing us as an earnest, as a down payment that what

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God has said about us will come true.

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What God has promised will be fulfilled.

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Here we have the cup of blessing, the second cup of Christ.

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It is a cup that is filled with blessing because he was willing to drink its first contents.

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But there is a third cup of Christ that I want to reference in closing and that is found

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in Luke chapter 22.

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We come here in this chapter to the Last Supper.

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And at a given point in verse 15, it records Jesus saying these words to his disciples,

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I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

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For I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of

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God.

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And when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he said, take this and share it among yourselves.

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For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom

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of God comes.

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I title this cup of Christ the cup of reunion.

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For Jesus has a future sense here.

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He is saying, I will no longer partake of a cup of the fruit of the vine until you and

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I sit down together in the kingdom of God and enjoy it.

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Jesus was not speaking only to those eleven disciples who were with him on that occasion,

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but he was speaking through them to us today.

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The Bible tells us that there is a feast coming, a supper coming, when we will sit down with

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our bridegroom at the time that we are officially married to him and there we will enjoy with

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him this cup, the cup of reunion, the time when we will be with him in body even as he

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is now with us in spirit, a time when we will be able to look upon his face every moment

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though now we have not seen him.

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It is the cup of reunion.

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The first cup, the cup of suffering, was a past cup.

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Jesus drank it fully.

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The second cup is the cup of the present, the blessing that we now enjoy in Jesus Christ.

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The third cup is the cup of the future.

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It is what we anticipate when he returns and we are with him and with those who have gone

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on before us in Christ forever.

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As we come to this table tonight, we have those same three dimensions.

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We have the past concept, the broken body, the shed blood.

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We have the present concept that now we are partakers of this in this generation, you

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and I who live in the world.

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We come to this table tonight, our hearts having been cleansed by confession of sin,

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to partake of these elements in a worthy manner.

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And we come with a view of that day when Jesus will come.

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We come together looking forward to that blessed hope and the glorious appearing.

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And if there be a generation after us, they too will come to a table like this until the

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Lord comes and we are together.

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So as we partake of the Lord's table tonight, let us rejoice in the cups of Jesus Christ

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and what these elements represent to us who are in him.

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Let's bow together please in prayer as we come to this very important time in our church.

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And as we bow together, I'd like for those who are serving to come here to the front.

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Lord Jesus, thank you, thank you for drinking the cup of suffering, for completely emptying

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it and thus satisfying the justice of the Father.

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We recognize that in a wonderful and mysterious way that even that was planned before the

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foundation of the world.

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And then you came and accomplished it.

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And the Holy Spirit has applied that to our lives and secured us for the destiny that

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you have promised us.

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But as we come to this table tonight and partake of these elements, may our hearts truly remember

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you and fellowship with you and anticipate that cup of reunion that we shall share with

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you in the kingdom of God.

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Amen.