Drinking the Cup

Mark 16:9-20 · 2025-04-18 · Jason Wolin · Gospel of Mark | Cross and Crown

Mark 16:9-20 · Jesus' Passion. Drinking the Cup — sermon from Cypress Bible Church on BibleSlides.

Drinking the Cup Slideshow for this message PDF Message Download Introduction Today we come to Good Friday which is the day in which we remember Jesus being raised up on a cross. It is at once the most horrible and the most blessed day in all of human history. It is horrible because of what Jesus ENDURED and it BLESSED because of what we receive. The Garden Experience This evening we will start with the HORRIBLE and we will end with the BLESSED. Now to really appreciate the suffering of Christ, let’s rewind again to the garden. In the garden, there’s a SINGLE adjective that we need to focus on tonight. In the book of Mark [and only Mark tells us this] we’re told that Jesus began to be AMAZED. He was STUNNED. It was ASTONISHED. Now here’s the question: Jesus Christ has prayed to his Father tens of thousands of times in his earthly life. What about THIS prayer would knock the Son of God flat? What about THIS prayer WOULD so AMAZE him and SURPRISE him that he would cry out Father if it possible take the cup from me! What about THIS prayer would so shatter him that the little capillaries beneath his skin would burst with the strain of it and he would begin to sweat blood? Jesus saw something in that moment he was NOT EXPECTING. It’s because he was NOT EXPECTING something that he felt AMAZED. That’s what amazement is. What WAS THAT UNEXPECTED THING? It was a re-understanding, a full and complete understanding of what it would mean to suffer the wrath of God. I think the best place to see this in John chapter 16. This is just a couple hours before the GARDEN OF GETHSEMEN, Jesus is predicting their desertion: BEHOLD, THE HOUR IS COMING, INDEED IT HAS COME, WHEN YOU WILL BE SCATTERED, EACH TO HIS OWN HOME, AND WILL LEAVE ME ALONE. In other words, you guys will be of no HELP. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.” What sort of EXPECTATION do you hear from the lips of Jesus? God will be with me! Jesus possessed an ABSOLUTE confidence that the Father would NEVER leave him or forsake him. His desire was to do NOTHING but that which would please the FATHER. Of course the FATHER will always be there for me. When he peered into that AWEFUL CUP OF SUFFERING he UNDERSTOOD what going forward really meant. BECAUSE what did Jesus cry out on the cross? Father, father, why have you forsaken me? The Significance of a Choice. The Garden of Gethsemane among other things was Jesus’ chance to turn back. God gave him a choice. The Father sets the cup down and says to Jesus, “This is what the cross will tastes like. This is what it smells like. This is what it is going to feel like. I want you to know if you don’t do it, they will die. If you do it, they will live, but THIS is what you will experience. It’s your choice. Nobody can make you do it. What will it be?” He co…

Cypress Bible Church · Full sermon loading below.