Christ's Bitter Cup

Coral Ridge Ministries

Christ's Bitter Cup

Matthew 26:39

March 28, 2023

“He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.’”
—Matthew 26:39

What was in the mysterious cup that appeared before Christ’s face there in the darkness of Gethsemane? First of all, the cup contained all the sin of the world. Imagine you’re visiting the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. You walk into a large, sealed room full of hundreds of vials containing diseases—cancer, AIDS, syphilis, gonorrhea—every dangerous and foul disease known to man. You see a technician unstopping each vial, one by one, and pouring the contents into a large beaker. How would you react if the technician asked you to touch the beaker? And if the technician asked you to drink the contents, what terror would fill your soul? But all of that is nothing compared to the cup of sin which Jesus drank.

The second element in Jesus’ bitter cup was God’s abandonment. By drinking that foul cup, Christ became the archcriminal of the universe, full of sin. God, whose holiness prevents Him from looking at any sin, turned His back on Christ, His Son, leaving Jesus abandoned and alone.

Third, since God must punish sin, He poured on Christ the great fiery cauldron of His wrath. More than that, Christ, rejected by humanity and abandoned by God, was then given over to the demons. He sank to the bottomless pit of hell, where the demons fell on Him with fang and claw.

All of this was in the bitter cup. But the most important thing about this cup is that it wasn’t Christ’s cup at all. It was ours. The sin was ours. The abandonment, the fiery punishment, the demons should have been ours. But Christ drank the cup for us. And because He did, today the cup of Christ is one full of blessings—love, pardon, peace, and joy. This is the cup He now offers to you and me. Take and drink of the love and freedom you can now enjoy because of the sacrifice Christ has made.

“We may not know, we cannot tell what pains He had to bear. We only know it was for us He hung and suffered there.”

Man's Greatest Fear

March 31, 2023

“And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is vain and your faith is also vain . . . But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” —1 Corinthians 15:14,20 Are you afraid to die? If so, you’re not alone. That fear is quite natural. But Jesus has solved this problem, the most incredible problem humankind has ever faced, generation after generation. Death has endured since humanity’s fall, and people have asked, “If a person dies, will he or she rise again?” By rising from the dead Himself, Jesus gave us irrefutable evidence that the answer is “yes.” But people have doubted the truth of Christ’s resurrection. Some of the most brilliant and skeptical minds of the last two thousand years have attempted to disprove it. But all those efforts have yielded nothing but the truth—that Christ rose from the dead. Let’s consider some of the facts that these skeptics have had to address. First, the Christian Church has endured and grown until it has become the largest organization on the planet today. That growth began in the first century, when the apostles began to preach that Jesus had risen from the dead. Next, to disprove the resurrection, skeptics have had to explain the empty tomb; the broken Roman seal (if someone broke a Roman seal, he or she received the death penalty); and the Roman guards, who faced sure death if they left their posts or fell asleep on the job. Most important, skeptics have had to dispute Christ’s appearances after His resurrection. The people saw Him, heard Him, touched Him. He fixed breakfast for his disciples. He ate fish with them. He appeared to five hundred people at one time. Furthermore, the apostles were transformed. One day they huddled in an upper room fearing for their lives, but soon after that they boldly proclaimed Christ’s resurrection in public. And all except John died for what they proclaimed, sealing their testimony in their own blood. For these reasons and many more, we have a sure foundation for our faith in Christ’s resurrection. Because we know the resurrection really happened, we know Christ has conquered death, and we no longer need to fear it. “. . . the evidence speaks for itself. It says very clearly—CHRIST IS RISEN INDEED.” —JOSH MCDOWELL

Beneath The Cross Of Jesus

March 30, 2023

“And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center.” —John 19:17-18 Did you know that the Jews have built a bus stop at the foot of Golgotha? Bus after bus lines up there, waiting for passengers. When a bus leaves, it passes right by the mouth of the “skull.” Once I was standing near the bus stop with a church tour group, and I pointed out the features of the skull. As I did so, four or five people not associated with our group came to see what I was pointing at. They couldn’t figure it out. To them Golgotha meant absolutely nothing. But it should mean something to all of us, because there all the ingredients came together for our salvation. The first ingredient is humankind’s sin. If people had never sinned, Christ wouldn’t have had to come to earth and die for us. The second ingredient is God’sjustice. God must punish sin because His eyes are too pure to look upon it. If He didn’t punish it, He wouldn’t be God. Combining humankind’s sin with God’s justice always and inevitably produces hell. Therefore, we need the third ingredient: the infinite, inexpressible unfathomable love of God. The Creator’s love for His creation compelled Him to die for the creature’s sin. How vast is the love God has for you and me, past our ever understanding it! Someone once said to a minister, “There are hundreds of religions in the world, and they all have their own ideas. How do you know yours is right?” He replied. “No, there are only two religions in the world. They are either ‘do’ or ‘done.’ The other religions in the world teach that man will be saved by what he does: Do this and don’t do that. But Christianity is the only religion that teaches ‘It is done.’ It is finished.” Which religion do you trust for everlasting life? Look toward Golgotha, where the three ingredients came together perfectly, providing for your salvation. There Christ proclaimed, “It is finished.” Thank God today for granting you eternal life because of what happened at the Place of the Skull. “Beneath the cross of Jesus, I fain would take my stand, A shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land, A home within the wilderness, a rest along the way From the burning of the noontide heat and the burden of the day.” —FREDERICK MAKER

Christ Lifted Up

March 29, 2023

“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” —John 12:32 When you think of Jesus Christ lifted up on the cross, how do you want to respond? Christ’s crucifixion has a magnetic quality, drawing people to Him, and as long as we keep it centrally focused, people will continue to come to Christ. Some churches don’t understand this, attempting to attract people in other ways. Unitarians, who have denied and rejected the atonement of Christ and the deity of Christ, don’t have the power to attract people. One of their leaders in Birmingham, England, said that Unitarianism failed to “draw.” The English public will not attend their chapels. Though Unitarians seem bewildered by this, it’s no mystery. These churches don’t “draw” because they’ve thrown away the magnet. We don’t need big signs or flashy worship services to attract people to Him. Christ’s humble sacrifice has more magnetic power than anything any church could concoct. Let’s take a quick look at the immediate impact of the crucifixion to catch a glimpse of its awesome power. At the cross, the centurion—who had nailed Christ’s hands and feet to the cross—saw darkness cover the sky, the sun cease to give light, the rocks quake, the earth tremble, and the tombs open. Upon witnessing all this, the centurion said, “Truly this was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54). History tells us that this man went forth to follow Christ. A few weeks later three thousand more were drawn at Pentecost, then five thousand more, then multitudes of priests and elders and scribes were drawn, and then an exceeding great multitude were drawn, until finally the Roman Empire itself was overwhelmed by the magnetic power of Jesus Christ to draw men to Himself. Why does the crucifixion have so much drawing power? Consider the agony Christ endured. Hanging, a firing squad, electrocution, the gas chamber—the pain of all these forms of execution could never compare to the excruciating pain of crucifixion. Jesus submitted Himself to a slow death by suffocation that could have taken several days. The crucifixion shows God’s incredible love for us, the love of a Father who would give His only Son to endure the penalty for the world’s sin. Today, meditate on the Christ lifted up for your sake, and let the power of His crucifixion draw you nearer to Him in love and gratitude. “It was not the character of Christ, not His justice, nor His proclamations, nor His preaching, nor His teaching, but rather it was his death that would draw men.”