Easter Sunrise
Service
5 April 2015
I. Introduction
-- turn in
Bibles to Matthew 26:36-46
Matthew 26:36-46 (NIV)
36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, "Sit here while I
go over there and pray."
37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him,
and he began to be sorrowful and troubled.
38 Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with
sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me."
39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the
ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken
from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."
40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them
sleeping. "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" he
asked Peter.
41 "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into
temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
42 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."
43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because
their eyes were heavy.
44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the
third time, saying the same thing.
45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them,
"Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son
of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
46 Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!"
-- when you
think of Easter, what comes to mind? -- what is the symbol of Easter for you?
-- for many
people, Easter means the Easter bunny -- it means hunting for brightly colored
Easter eggs -- Easter is symbolized by Easter baskets filled with chocolate
bunnies and marshmallow peeps -- it means celebrating the day with chocolate
and candy
-- for
others, especially for Christians, the symbol of Easter is the cross or the
empty tomb or even the outline of a fish -- for thousands of years, these
symbols have represented our faith and our understanding of who Jesus was and
what He did -- we wear these symbols as jewelry -- we decorate our cars and our
Bibles with them -- they represent for us the reason we are gathered here on
Easter morning
-- but today
I want to talk about another image that symbolizes for us the meaning of Easter
-- the symbol of the chalice or cup
-- this
symbol was predominant on the Thursday of Holy Week and pointed to the purpose
for Christ's coming, death, and resurrection
-- if you
remember, Holy Week began on Palm Sunday, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the
back of a donkey as crowds cheered His name and laid palm branches before His
path and shouted, "Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name
of the Lord -- Hosanna in the highest"
-- four
days later, on Thursday night, Jesus and His disciples joined together in the
Upper Room to celebrate the Passover Seder -- the Jewish ritual feast that
marked the start of the celebration of Passover and that involved the
ceremonial drinking of four cups of wine
-- after
they had finished sharing the Passover meal, Jesus and His disciples left for
the Mount of Olives, where Jesus prayed alone in the Garden of Gethsemane about
the ordeal He was about to face
-- look
with me now, if you would, at Matthew 26 and let's discuss the first cup of
Easter
-- verse
36-38
Matthew 26:36-38 (NIV)
36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, "Sit here while I
go over there and pray."
37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him,
and he began to be sorrowful and troubled.
38 Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with
sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me."
-- the
Passover was a joyous holiday for the Jew -- it was a time of celebration -- a
time of remembering God's mighty works in delivering the Jews from bondage in
Egypt
-- as Jesus
and the disciples made their way from the upper room to the Garden of
Gethsemane, I have no doubt the disciples were in a good mood -- they had just
come from a party -- they were happy and well-fed -- and I'm sure this mood
carried with them as they made their way up the Mount of Olives to the garden
-- but the
closer they came to the garden, the greater the distance became between Jesus
and them -- as they were jovial and joked with each other, Jesus became more
and more quiet -- more and more somber -- more and more sorrowful -- Jesus
tells Peter and James and John in verse 38 that His soul was overwhelmed with
sorrow to the point of death
-- but this
distance between Jesus and the others was not just in mood -- it was also
physical -- Matthew tells us that Jesus directed His disciples to sit in a
certain place while He went on farther into the garden to pray by Himself
-- this
distance between Jesus and His disciples that we see in this passage was not
just a coincidence -- it points to the separation between us and the Father --
the great expanse that exists between us and Him because of our sin and
disobedience -- because of our sins, there is a distance between us and God -- because
of our sins, we cannot approach Him
-- only
Jesus could enter into the presence of God because only Jesus had lived a
perfect and sinless life -- and that's important to remember as we continue on
in this passage
-- verse
39-46
Matthew 26:39-46 (NIV)
39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the
ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken
from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."
40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them
sleeping. "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" he
asked Peter.
41 "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into
temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
42 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."
43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because
their eyes were heavy.
44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the
third time, saying the same thing.
45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them,
"Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son
of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
46 Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!"
-- Jesus
left His disciples and went into the Father's presence to pray -- and three
times, Jesus prayed about the same thing -- a cup that the Father had asked Him
to drink from
-- this cup
was the source of Jesus' grief and sorrow that night -- this cup was the reason
why Jesus was in agony in the garden -- as Luke records, Jesus' ordeal that
night was so great that as He prayed and wrestled with the Father about this
cup that He actually sweated out drops of blood onto the ground
-- what was
this cup? -- more importantly, what was in this cup?
-- some say
this was the cup of sin or iniquity referred to in the Bible -- that this is
the reason why Jesus prayed to the Father and said, "Father, if there is
any other way, please do not make Me drink from this cup" because He did
not want to take this sin upon His sinless self -- and that does makes some
sense
-- Jesus
was the only person who ever lived who was able to fully keep God's law and be
obedient to Him in all things -- Jesus was the only sinless person that ever
lived -- yet, the Bible tells us that Jesus became sin for us on the cross --
that all our sins were placed upon Him -- and that He carried them with Him on
the cross -- that's why some people say that Jesus drank our sins that night in
the garden
-- others
say this was the cup of suffering -- that when Jesus looked in the cup He saw
the suffering of the cross -- He saw the pain of the flogging and the beatings
He would endure later that night and early into the next morning -- He saw the
pain and suffering of the crucifixion He would have to go through on Friday and
so He prayed to the Father, "if it is possible, please keep me from this
suffering" -- this is the cup that some say Jesus prayed to avoid that
night at Gethsemane
-- but I
don't believe that it was either the cup of sin or the cup of suffering that
caused Jesus such grief and sorrow that night -- instead it was another cup
that we see described for us in Psalm 75 and Jeremiah 25 -- the cup of God's
wrath
-- let me
read for you Psalm 75:7-8 -- "But it is God who judges: He brings one
down, he exalts another -- In the hand of the LORD is a cup full of foaming
wine mixed with spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink
it down to its very dregs."
-- in
Jeremiah 25:15 we read, "Take from my hand this cup of the wine of my
wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it"
-- this cup
Jesus prayed about in the Garden
of Gethsemane was the cup
of God's wrath -- now when the Bible speaks of the wrath of God, it is
referring to God's righteous judgment against sin and transgression
-- all of
us deserve God's wrath and judgment because all of us are sinners -- as it says
in Romans 3:23, "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of
God" -- God is right and righteous when He punishes us for our sins -- and
that punishment is eternal death and separation from Him -- Romans 6:23 says,
"the wages of sin are death"
-- so what
was going on in the Garden of Gethsemane that night was that Jesus had been
presented with the cup of God's wrath and judgment that had been stored up for all
eternity -- not only the wrath and judgment for my sin and your sin -- but for
the sin of each and every person who ever lived and who will ever live
-- if you
can imagine the punishment that each of us deserve and then expand that almost
infinitely, that is what Jesus was being asked to drink in our place with the
Cup of Calvary -- that is why His soul was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point
of death -- that is why He prayed, "Father, if there is any other way,
please let this cup pass from Me"
-- several
years ago we watched a movie called "The Last Sin Eater" -- it was
based on a practice that grew up among the people of Wales in the early 1800s
-- when a person died, a wafer of bread would be placed upon their chest -- it
was believed that the sins of the person would enter that wafer of bread
-- and then
one person in that community -- the Sin Eater -- would eat the bread -- taking
upon himself the sins of the deceased that he would carry the rest of his life
-- this
person was considered condemned and unsaveable -- it was believed he would
suffer the wrath and judgment of God for all of the sins of the deceased he had
eaten as well as for his own personal sins and that he was outside the reach of
God's grace, condemned to eternal damnation and punishment
-- now
while we know this was not possible -- that a sinful person cannot carry the
sins of another -- that each of us must pay the penalty for our own sins --
this is a picture for us of what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary when He
drank from the cup of God's wrath
-- because
Jesus was sinless -- because He was fully God and fully man and lived a perfect
life -- He alone was capable of drinking from the Cup of Calvary and taking
upon Himself the entire wrath and judgment of God for the sins of the world
-- this was
the struggle Jesus faced in the garden that night as He wrestled with the
Father -- would He drink of this cup or would He choose to let it pass and
force each of us to suffer the penalty for our own sins?
-- the
decision was made in verse 42 when Jesus said, "may your will be
done" -- at that moment His path was set and He stood to face the kiss of
the betrayer and the suffering of Calvary in
our place
-- it was
on the cross of Calvary that Jesus drained the cup of God's wrath -- it was on
the cross of Calvary when He swallowed our sin and suffered the penalty in our
place -- and it was because of this cup that Jesus cried out, "My God, My
God, why have You forsaken Me?"
-- on the
cross of Calvary, as Jesus died, the cup of
God's wrath was emptied
-- which
brings us to the second cup of Easter -- if you still have your Bible opened to
Matthew 26, look up with me at verse 26-29
Matthew 26:26-29 (NIV)
26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and
broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my
body."
27 Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them,
saying, "Drink from it, all of you.
28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for
many for the forgiveness of sins.
29 I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine
from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's
kingdom."
-- there is
a saying in science, "Nature abhors a vacuum" -- which means that if
something has been emptied, it will be filled by something else -- the same is
true in the spiritual realm
-- the cup
of God's wrath was emptied on Calvary, poured out on Christ Himself -- but the
cup did not remain empty -- it was redeemed, renewed, and refilled -- as we see
in these verses, the cup of God's wrath was replaced with the cup of the new
covenant, filled with the precious blood of Christ, which was poured out for us
for the forgiveness of our sins
-- because
of Christ's sacrificial death -- because He chose to drink of the cup of Calvary and offer up His body and His blood as payment
for our sins -- we have been given a new cup from which to drink -- the cup of
grace -- the cup of forgiveness -- the cup of the new covenant
-- through
the sacrament of Holy Communion, we remember and experience anew the sacrifice
of Christ's death on the cross and the hope of eternal life and forgiveness of
sins made possible through His resurrection
-- so as we
close our service on this Easter morning -- with a new day of hope dawning
around us -- let us come together and share this cup of the new covenant as we
celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
-- let us
pray
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