Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Well, welcome to our Good Friday communion service. If I have not had the opportunity to meet you, my name is Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here at the village church. And so before we kind of get into things, I want to just give a heads up for moms and dads. At the end of our service. We are going to celebrate communion together. And we also want to invite your children to partake in communion with us. If, number one, you're confident that they have personally trusted in Jesus, that you are confident that they've had a moment where they have told God that they are sorry for their sins and they have believed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And then, number two, if you're okay with it. So, kids, whatever your mom and dad say, they win. They're in charge. They get to set the rules. Sound good? Amen. All the parents are, like, hearty, Amen to that one. So with that in mind, we're gonna do that at the end of the service so you guys can have some time to think about that.
[00:00:59] One of the most powerful images in Scripture is that of a simple cup. It often refers to something positive. For example, the cup, it symbolizes our salvation. So in Psalm 116, there are those that raise the cup of salvation almost like they're cheering to what God has done in our life, saving us from our sins. The cup can symbolize blessing. So in Psalm 23, you guys know this one, an overflowing cup symbolizes the blessing and the provision of God. Most weeks of village church, we partake of communion together in the communion cup. It symbolizes unity and fellowship together in Christ. But in Scripture, the cup, usually the majority of the time, refers to something ominous and scary.
[00:01:54] So, for example, in Revelation 17, there's the cup of idolatry, evil. Babylon holds a golden cup full of abomination.
[00:02:05] And then there's the cup that we're gonna focus on tonight. It goes by actually many names in the Bible, but it's actually one cup. And here's just a short list of the names of this cup. It is called the cup of Judgment. It is called the cup of Staggering.
[00:02:22] It's called the cup of horror and destruction.
[00:02:26] It is called the cup of the wine of the fierce wrath of God. And lastly, and simply, it's just called the cup of Wrath. Hey, welcome to Good Friday Village Church. We're gonna have a great time tonight. No, but the Bible speaks so bluntly on this subject. So that when the Bible speaks bluntly, we want to preach and teach bluntly. So this brings us to Good Friday. Do you guys remember what we celebrated on Sunday? Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday. Good job. So in the original Palm Sunday, just a couple days prior, the mother of James and John, two of the disciples of Jesus, she came up to Jesus and they're on their way to Jerus. Jesus is on his way to die, and she asks him a funny question. And the question essentially goes like this. Jesus, when you are the king of the world and you're overseeing everybody and everything, can you just like, make sure that my sons are ruling the entire world with you, one at your right hand and one at your left hand? It's a pretty audacious question. Okay, talk about a helicopter mom. Or I think those are lawnmower moms is what they call them now. Okay, this is a bold question. And so Jesus response to this is actually pretty interesting because Jesus doesn't even answer her. He looks over to the brothers, pretty young men at this point in their Life. In Matthew 20, here's what Jesus asks the brothers. He says, are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? And they said to him, oh, yeah, we're able. Totally. We got it. They have no idea what they are talking about. I imagine actually when they responded that Jesus belly laughed out loud because they literally have no idea what it means to personally drink the cup of wrath of God over your body, soul and emotions.
[00:04:06] Fast forward about a week. It's the night before the crucifixion. Peter, James, and John, they're in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus knows what is awaiting him. And in Matthew 26, Jesus says, My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.
[00:04:24] And going a little further, he fell on his face and he prayed, saying, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. A few verses later, in verse 42, again for the second time, he went away and he prayed, My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.
[00:04:51] So what cup could make the body, soul, and of emotion of Jesus so overwhelmed with.
[00:05:00] And the answer is that it is nothing short than the cup of judgment, the cup of horror and destruction talked about in the Old and New Testament, the cup of the fierce wrath of God. This cup is full of nothing but vengeance and gloom and sadness. And Jesus knows there's no way out of this except right through it. So there's a couple things that you need to know about the crucifixion and the cup. And here's the first one.
[00:05:28] Every person has their own cup where God's wrath is being stored. Now this may sound strange to you, and this is a thought that most people don't consider. In fact, in the book of Romans, chapter two, verse five, I just want you to see this. Here's what Paul says. He says, but because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. And so here's the image. The image is that of a cup and what it's being filled with. It's being filled with future wrath every time someone sins. And on the day of judgment, this cup of wrath gets poured out. Now here's what we know, that God's judgments are always just. God must justly and rightly deal with every sin all throughout history. Nothing ever gets swept under the rug in Jesus courts. By the way, this is actually a doctrine that many people really appreciate because here's what this means. All the people that have ever wronged you are going to be exposed and judged. Right? Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. But this is a double edged sword because not only will they be exposed and judged, so will you and I.
[00:06:39] Now I want you to see this in Revelation 14. Again, it's so blunt that there's no way to talk about it without just saying it.
[00:06:48] Speaking of the final judgment. Revelation 14, verse 9.
[00:06:53] Speaking of those who deny Jesus at the end of the world. If anyone worships the beast in its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God's wrath poured full strength into the cup of his anger. And he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels, in the presence of the Lamb. All right, all right. Can we just agree none of us want to drink this cup? Can I get an amen on that one? Like, there's not a single person in the world who's like, I would like to have the God's wrath poured. The wine of God's wrath poured full strength into the cup of his anchor. I'm sorry, I'm just not interested. What have I told you? There was actually a way out of having to ever drink this cup. And guys, I have really great news. There is absolutely a way out. Which brings me to the second thing you need to know about the crucifixion and the cup. It is 100% unnecessary for you to drink the cup of wrath. Someone is going to drink the cup of wrath for your sin and There are two options. It is either gonna be you if you reject Jesus, or if you believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. He is offering to drink your cup of judgment and wrath in your place so that you actually never, ever have to. And so we find is that on the cross, the reason he was so not looking forward to this cup is because he would bear on his body and his soul and emotions the righteous wrath of God against all sin, of all humans. Like, this is a powerful moment. And so for you and me, this is. I think we should rebrand this from Good Friday to Great Friday or to awesome Friday. Because the good news is that because of what Jesus did on the cross for you, you do not ever have to bear the wrath of God. You don't have to. It is 100% unnecessary.
[00:08:40] There are a whole bunch of scriptures that you may be familiar with. I want to take a minute and I want to read them to you. Because when you come to Christ, when you come to him and you apologize for your sin and you tell him, I'm sorry, will you save me? Will you forgive me? I believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Some pretty incredible things happen. And these verses could apply to you. And I want you to see these. One is Isaiah 53.
[00:09:04] But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Was he crushed for his own iniquities? No, he was not. He was innocent. And he was crushed for our iniquities. And the Lord laid on him, on Jesus the iniquity, the guilt of us all. Or First Peter, chapter 3, verse 18. Christ also suffered once. And why did he suffer for sins? His sin? Definitely not the righteous. That's Jesus for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. Or 1st Peter 2:24, he himself bore our sins on his body on the tree which is the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. Or Hebrews 9:28. So Christ having been offered once, why to bear the sins of many.
[00:09:54] What Jesus did on the cross was he paid the price. He took the wrath, he took the penalty. He took the just punishment that you and I deserved. And he took it on his body, soul and emotions in our place. And these scriptures that we just read to you, there is only one way. And there will ever, only ever be one way that they can be applied to you. That is, if you personally trust in Jesus, there is no other avenue to have your sins forgiven, to have your punishment of your sins be paid for it is only ever all throughout history. It will only ever be in one way, and that is by us coming to Jesus and saying, I am sorry. Will you forgive me? I believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. This brings me to my final point.
[00:10:42] On Good Friday, Jesus drank the cup of God's wrath to the very last drop.
[00:10:50] In the Bible, when God justly judges and pours out wrath, he judges everything.
[00:11:00] He does not leave things undone. He is very thorough. Again, we don't get to hide stuff under the rug hoping he'll never see it or deal with it. Everything gets dealt with. And it's interesting, in Isaiah 51, this principle is described, and there's a little funny phrase here. It says, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord, the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs. This is an interesting phrase. Dregs means to the very bottom, to the very last drop. In book of Psalm 75, it says, in the hand of the Lord there is a cup. And all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs. And here's kind of the point of this.
[00:11:43] When God pours out his wrath in the final judgment, there will be no sin left unaddressed. And what makes Good Friday so unbelievably incredible? And I wanna put this on the screen. Cause I just want you to sit in this and process this. On the cross, the Father drained his cup of righteous anger down to the very last drop. God poured out his wrath against your sin, full strength undiluted unto His Son.
[00:12:13] This is incredible news. That means there's nothing left in the cup. For those of us who personally trust in Jesus, that means that every single one of your sins, past, present and future, the moment you come to believe in Jesus Christ is completely and thoroughly and absolutely dealt with by Jesus, by his shed blood on the cross.
[00:12:36] So on this Good Friday, what I want you to understand is the cross was not just some good moral example of a guy being sacrificial, loving to his friends. I mean, it was. But that's so small.
[00:12:50] The cross is not a place where Jesus was sitting there, being like, I'm so helpless, I don't know what to do. He could have called down a legion of angels and gotten himself off that. Just a heartbeat. The cross is not the story of Jesus the victim. Jesus went to Jerusalem intending to die. This was the plan of the Father, the Son and the Spirit from the beginning, from the beginning of time.
[00:13:08] The point of the cross was that Jesus drank the poison of Your sin and the wrath of God for you and me in our place. The good news of Good Friday is that not a single person on the planet needs to pay the price for their sin. And here's man this is the greatest exchange ever. All you have to do is tell him truthfully from the heart you're sorry and come to him and make him your God. Do you believe that Jesus is your God? That he died for your sins on the cross and was raised from the dead? Have you ever come to him and said, I've been living for myself and I need to live for you? I am sorry. I've never apologized for my sins. I've never made you my God and my Savior. I think this is an pretty credible deal, by the way, because he gets all of your wrath and you get life eternal. That's a pretty great deal, if I would say so myself.
[00:14:00] This demands, I think, a question. So what on earth or what in heaven could compel the Father to pour the wrath we deserve onto his innocent and beloved Son? And what could possibly compel Jesus to willingly drink your poison and the wrath you deserve?
[00:14:32] Again, the Father is willing and the Son is willing.
[00:14:36] What could possibly motivate them? And the answer, I hope you know, if you've been in church long enough. But the answer is so simple. The answer is love.
[00:14:46] Like if you get to the end of a Good Friday message and you are not unbelievably aware that God the Father loves you, either you're not listening, or I've done a terrible job at preaching, or both.
[00:15:00] And if you get to the end of this and you do not see that Jesus willingly, out of love for his people, took on his body, soul and emotions, the cup of wrath, of horror and destruction, that is the righteous judgment of sin, took it on himself. If you don't see the love that motivates that, and if you can't see the offer of salvation. One of the things I love about God is he does not look at people and say, yeah, I paid the price for your sins. Now you have to be a really good boy and girl or you have to do a bunch of sacraments. It's not in the Bible. What I love is that God is offering anybody who wants to own their sin and apologize and believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. He is offering to take your punishment for your sins in your place. Why? Because he's a curmudgeony God? Because he's grumpy? No, because he loves you. He could have sat back and did Nothing but because he loves you, because you are made in his image, every person on the planet has the opportunity to come to him and to believe and to take the free grace of God and to let him take your judgment. Now, as we come to communion, Communion is a reenactment of what is called a Passover meal in the Jewish tradition. And in the Passover meal there are four cups of wine that are poured and drank by everyone at the table.
[00:16:27] The second cup is called the cup of judgment. And Jesus took this cup and he drank the cup of judgment, our cup of judgment, and he drank it in our place.
[00:16:38] The third cup is actually every week we come together, we celebrate communion. The third cup is actually what we celebrate the third cup of this Jewish Passover meal. And it is called the cup of redemption. And so essentially what happens is Jesus drinks the cup of judgment for us in our place and then offers to all of us the cup of redemption for anyone who would believe in the life death of resurrection of Jesus.
[00:17:03] And so in communion, these symbols, right, they have deep, deep meaning. We are remembering and celebrating this simple, beautiful fact that, that Jesus took God's wrath so we can have relationship with Him.
[00:17:19] Now. If you've been around village church, at the end of our messages we have a few so what's and these are basically so what is, what is the demand? What is the next step? What are the things that God wants us to do with this and our so what's are fairly simple. Number one, if you are ready to believe in Jesus, I want to invite you, please take communion with us.
[00:17:42] If you are here and maybe you're like, you've been wrestling through your sin, you didn't even, you knew you and God weren't okay, but you didn't realize quite how bad it was. And now that you know what the scriptures say is the next step to make things right with you and God, maybe you're here and you're like, I am actually ready to tell God I'm sorry and to receive his forgiveness and salvation.
[00:18:04] Maybe you're here and you just came in because you got dragged here by somebody you love. Kind of a guilt time. And you're just like, like the Lord is doing something in your heart and you know you're a sinner and you know that you and God are not reconciled. Maybe that's your story. But if you are here and you are ready to tell God you're sorry and ask him to forgive you and save you, I wanna invite you to partake of communion now. When you Eat this symbol of bread and you drink this juice.
[00:18:30] You're actually making some really big declarations.
[00:18:34] And so here's a few things that you're saying when you partake of communion.
[00:18:39] Number one, every person who partakes of communion is declaring that I have sinned against a holy God.
[00:18:46] Every person who partakes of communion is declaring, jesus isn't just God, he is my God.
[00:18:52] And when you partake of communion, you're actually declaring Jesus, God in the flesh, on the cross, took my wrath, took my punishment in my place. We're not done. When you partake of communion, you are saying, I believe that Jesus, historically and bodily, he was killed and he was raised again from the dead. So if you're not there, like, we just tell people, if you don't believe these things, don't partake. Because your partaking is a huge declaration of what you believe or don't believe. But if you're here and you're like, listen, all those things you just said, I believe I've sinned against the Holy God. I believe that Jesus is God. I believe that he died for my sins, was raised from the dead. I wanna be reconciled back to him. Partake of communion. And this is like your first big declaration. And if that is a decision that you made, I wanna just encourage you. Find someone, talk to one of us up front. And if you are ready to trust in Christ, maybe for the very first time, tell someone. Maybe you're like, bro, I got a lot to think about. You've just said a lot of things about wrath and hell, and I gotta think about this. And maybe a week or a month or a year down the road, you're like, you know what? What that pastor said, that one day is actually accurate. And when you are ready to trust in Christ, tell someone so they can help you figure out what it actually means to be in a relationship with God. Here's the second. So what if you are a true Christian, I also want to invite you to partake of communion with us.
[00:20:16] There are often family and friends who come from different states, maybe different countries. You're here and you're like, I don't want to upset anybody. Am I allowed to partake of communion here? And so, really, simply, a few things about communion. Number one, our communion is what we call open, which means it's not just for members or people who attend communion, is for anybody who is personally trusted in Jesus. And so if you're here, I just want to invite you, because when we get to heaven, it doesn't matter. If you went to village church or not, what matters is whether or not you have been reconciled to God by believing in Jesus. And so we want to invite you partake of communion with us. If you are a Christian communist. Kids, you got to get permission from your mom and dad. 1. But if you've trusted in Jesus, that's kind of the rule. We take communion if we are Christians.
[00:21:05] Now, I want to take a moment. I want to address a group of Christians that are probably at church every single week. And I just want to take a minute, encourage you.
[00:21:14] There's this idea that when it comes time to take communion, that we think to ourself, I really messed up this week.
[00:21:24] I'm not worthy. And so, because maybe we have a struggle or something that has plagued us or we just made some really dumb decisions this week that we think to ourselves, I gotta be a better little boy or girl until I can take communion. And I just want to take a moment and say to you, we don't take communion to let all the people around us know that we were a good boy or girl this week. That is not the point. There's never been a point where I've ever taken communion and thought to myself, I deserve this.
[00:21:52] We take communion as a declaration of who our God is and what he has done for us. Now, if you're sitting in willful sin and you're like, yeah, I'm not gonna stop. I'm just gonna keep doing it, maybe don't take communion. But if you have a brokenness over your sin and you believe in Jesus, and even if you have messed up royally this week, communion isn't for good people. Communion is for forgiving people. And so I wanna encourage you, when you partake of this, let it be you declaring the gospel over yourself again. I have believed in Jesus. He has saved me. And now if you need help to take a next step to get rid of some of the sin in your life, get the help you need. But communion is not for perfect people. It's for forgiven people. Finally, if you are here and you are not a Christian and you're like, listen, I'm not interested. I'm not gonna become a Christian right now. Nice try, Pastor.
[00:22:42] Here's what we ask you do not partake of communion. Why? Well, first of all, you don't need to. If you're hungry, we can feed you. It's not the reason. And nobody's gonna look at you and be like, oh, that dude didn't take communion. Let's look down on him. And judge him and make fun of him. That's just not the way it works. In fact, at Village Church, what we have every week is a group of people, a large group of people who are trying to figure out what they believe, they're trying to figure out faith, they're trying to figure out the scriptures. And so as you're trying to work through that, we just honor that process. We want you to be in a place where you can ask really challenging questions and work through the struggles that you're having. We invite that. And so you're in good company with other people who are just trying to figure it out. But there is no reason for you to make big, bold declarations about your personal sin before holy God and the deity of Jesus Christ and him dying on the cross and raising again from the dead. If you were at a place where you're like, I just don't know that I can.
[00:23:35] And so if you're here and you're not a believer, I want to just give you a simple encouragement. Don't partake. But we're going to have a time of silence here. And here's a prayer that I would encourage you to pray something to the effect of Jesus. I don't think I believe in you, or I don't know what I believe.
[00:23:53] But if what the Bible says about you is really true, would you make it overwhelmingly clear to me?
[00:24:01] Now, let me be frank with you. If Jesus made himself clear to you, and even then you're like, I still wouldn't follow you, he probably won't make himself clear to you.
[00:24:12] But if you actually are willing, like Jesus, if you're really the God of this universe, the creator of all things, my designer, my maker, if that's really you, will you show me so that I can be in a relationship with you? If that is really where your heart is at, I think at the right time and the right place, Jesus will, with overwhelming clarity, reveal himself to you. Now, let me be clear. He may not reveal himself to you in the way you're demanding him to, but he will reveal himself in a way to you that is unmistakable. So this is an opportunity, when we have this time of silence, just to pray. Ask God, help me, confess to God.
[00:24:49] Usually in communion, we have this time of silence this afternoon. It's going to be just a bit more extended. So if you suffer from not knowing what to do when things are ominously quiet, good luck.
[00:25:01] So we're gonna have just a few minutes, and it's an opportunity to pray, to confess, and to prepare hearts. And so here's what's gonna happen. We'll do that, and then we'll sing a song together. If you don't have the elements when you came in, you can get them anytime during the time of silence or the song. They're at this corner to my right, also to my left. And then between the double doors in the back, you can get up anytime and then come back to your seat and hold onto them until we're done with the song. I'll come back up, we'll read scripture, and then we'll partake together as a symbol of our unity, that is in Jesus Christ. So let's have a time of silence together.
