Jeremiah: Three Cups - Week 4
Opening Prayer:
Lord God,
You are sovereign, You reign over all things.
You love, You guide, You correct, You redeem.
Help us not shy away from those hard times when You love us enough to bring us back to the right path.
Show us how to be truly repentant so that others may see the wonder of the glorious rescue that you offer to all people.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
Key Scripture:
(You may wish to read all of Jeremiah chapter 25 in preparation for this study.)
15 This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. 16 When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I will send among them.”
17 So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand and made all the nations to whom he sent me drink it: 18 Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings and officials, to make them a ruin and an object of horror and scorn, a curse—as they are today; 19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, his attendants, his officials and all his people, 20 and all the foreign people there; all the kings of Uz; all the kings of the Philistines (those of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the people left at Ashdod); 21 Edom, Moab and Ammon; 22 all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; the kings of the coastlands across the sea; 23 Dedan, Tema, Buz and all who are in distant places; 24 all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the foreign people who live in the wilderness; 25 all the kings of Zimri, Elam and Media; 26 and all the kings of the north, near and far, one after the other—all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. And after all of them, the king of Sheshak will drink it too.
27 “Then tell them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Drink, get drunk and vomit, and fall to rise no more because of the sword I will send among you.’ 28 But if they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink, tell them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: You must drink it! 29 See, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that bears my Name, and will you indeed go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword on all who live on the earth, declares the Lord Almighty.’
Jeremiah 25:15-29
Sermon Summary:
This sermon looks at the difficult imagery of divine judgment in Jeremiah 25, where God commands the prophet to tell all nations they will drink from a cup filled with the wine of God’s wrath. This language poses a profound theological challenge because it seems to contradict God's core self-revelation as a compassionate, gracious, and patient deity. To reconcile this internal tension, the text explores a biblical narrative arc structured around three distinct cups.
The first cup is Jeremiah’s cup, which represents the cup of human consequences. Historically, the nation of Judah faced severe political and social turmoil, enduring five different kings over a forty-year period at the same time as being constantly under enemy siege. Rather than trusting God during this time, the people continually ignored divine warnings and sought control through the alternative gods of the surrounding nations. So we see that God's wrath was not arbitrary, but rather it was God’s patient, painful choice to ultimately give humanity over to the self-destructive consequences of the world they stubbornly demand to live in apart from Him. Israel’s actions—seeking salvation in other Gods—had consequences. Crucially, this wrath is not the opposite of love, but rather reflects God’s absolute insistence that evil, violence, and exploitation will not have the final word.
The second cup is the one Jesus drank in Gethsemane and on the cross. In a first-century historical landscape of occupation and unrest (with much similarity to Jeremiah’s time), Jesus also called His people back to covenant faithfulness. This ultimately provoked the hostility of the religious and political leaders. In the garden, Jesus pleaded for this cup to pass, recognizing that He—the only perfectly innocent King—was about to absorb the full weight of humanity's rebellion. While humanity chose to free a violent revolutionary (Barabbas) and condemn an innocent savior, Jesus willingly allowed Himself to be handed over to death. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus entered our exile to bring us home, taking the ultimate consequence of separation upon Himself.
The third cup is the cup of the new covenant that Jesus places back into human hands. Initiated at the Last Supper, this cup directly transforms the narrative of judgment. Where the first cup brought exile, destruction, and separation, Jesus' new cup offers forgiveness, communion, restoration, and new creation. By accepting this cup of welcome, we are brought into genuine friendship with God and empowered to participate in His active mission to make the broken parts of the world completely new. We are invited to stop pursuing false sources of control—such as success, money, relationships, or total autonomy—and instead receive Jesus’ standing offer of radical forgiveness and grace.
Discussion Guide:
Jeremiah is a notoriously challenging book. It confronts us with graphic language of judgment, swords, and divine anger that can feel profoundly shocking and deeply disconnected from our modern concepts of God. We are left asking: How do we reconcile a God who calls down a sword on all the earth with the God who looks at an unfaithful person and says, "Go and sin no more"? As a community we need to wrestle honestly with these heavy texts. Rather than bypassing the tension, we trace the biblical narrative through the imagery of three distinct cups. In doing so, we discover that God's wrath is not a random loss of temper, but His absolute, loving insistence that evil will not have the final word. Ultimately, this journey leads us to the communion table that reframes how we view our personal discipleship and our collective mission in the world.
Part 1: Setting the Context
Icebreaker Question - What is something you consider yourself incredibly patient with? Conversely, what is one minor thing that tests your patience almost instantly?
Hearing the Word
Ask a volunteer to read Jeremiah 25:15–18, 27–29 aloud for the group. Pay attention to the raw emotion and intensity of the language used by the prophet.
Jeremiah spoke to a particular people in a specific, tumultuous period. Judah was experiencing extreme political and social instability, cycling through five different kings over a forty-year span. External empires (Egypt and Babylon) besieged them constantly. Despite continuous warnings from God to return to covenant faithfulness, the leadership and people repeatedly turned to alternative gods, believing these foreign powers and idols would save them.
Part 2: The Core Framework
To navigate this narrative, the sermon broke down three consecutive "cups" that span from the Old Testament prophets to the life of Jesus, and finally to our own hands today.
1. Jeremiah's Cup: The Cup of Consequences
What It Represents - Humanity experiencing the full, natural reality of what life becomes when we insist on living apart from God. In Jeremiah’s day, this cup took the physical form of the invading Babylonian empire.
The Core Reality - God’s wrath is His agonizing choice to eventually step back and give humanity over to the destructive paths they stubbornly demand.
2. Jesus' Cup: The Cup of Substitution
What It Represents - In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prays, "May this cup be taken from me." As the only perfectly innocent human, he steps up and willingly drinks the collective cup of humanity's violence, exile, and rebellion.
The Core Reality - The cross is not where God suddenly becomes loving; it is where we discover how stunningly loving he has always been. He absorbs our self-destruction.
3. The New Cup: The Cup of Communion
What It Represents - At the Last Supper, Jesus passes a new cup: "This is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for the forgiveness of sins." It is a cup of absolute welcome, forgiveness, and radical restoration.
The Core Reality - We are invited into a life of shared friendship with God, joining his active mission to make the broken parts of the world completely new.
Part 3: Deepening Discussion
Use these questions to guide your group conversation. Do not feel pressured to answer every single one; give space for the conversation to breathe where the group feels most challenged.
Reframing Wrath: The sermon noted that "wrath" in Scripture is rarely lightning bolts from the sky, but rather God reluctantly honouring human autonomy to our own detriment—letting us "have it our way." How does this definition change your view of God's anger? Why is a God who is completely indifferent to human evil actually less loving than a God of holy wrath?
The Alternative Gods: Like ancient Judah, we rarely think we are abandoning God entirely; instead, we quietly supplement him with external things to gain a sense of control. The sermon listed a few modern equivalents: Success, Money, Relationships, Autonomy. Which of these are you most tempted to turn to when life feels unstable?
The Innocent King vs. The Revolutionary: Reflect on the historical scene where humanity chose to free Barabbas (a violent revolutionary) and condemn Jesus (an innocent king). In what ways does our world still prefer the way of Barabbas (force, hostility, coercion) over the way of Jesus (sacrificial love, truth, humility)?
Living in the Tension: As Christians, we do not escape the natural worldly consequences of our mistakes (e.g., breaking a law still means facing legal accountability). However, Jesus has eliminated the ultimate consequence: total separation from God. How does knowing your eternal belonging is secure change the way you face earthly consequences, failures, or trials?
Practices:
Individual Practice:
The Pre-Drink Pause
The Purpose: To ground your morning in the profound reality of Jesus' substitution.
How to do it: Before you take your first sip of coffee, tea, or water each morning, hold the physical cup in both hands and look at it. Spend 60 seconds in silence reflecting on the truth that humanity filled a cup with bitterness and rebellion, yet Jesus willingly took it so you wouldn't have to. Offer a silent prayer thanking Jesus for drinking the cup of exile on our behalf so that our ‘cup’ today can overflow with mercy to others.
Community Practice:
Entering the “exile” of others
The Purpose: To join Jesus in His active mission of bringing restoration and making the world new.
How to do it: As a group, choose one local area of social isolation in your wider neighborhood to support over the coming quarter. This is how we practically oppose systemic exploitation and abandonment.
Examples: Partnering with a refugee settlement agency, volunteering at a local food distribution pantry, cooking meals for a local homeless shelter, or committing to visit elderly neighbours who have no local family.
The Goal: It is not about a single day of charity, but creating a consistent, relational rhythm where your community steps out of its comfort zone to bring a "cup of welcome" to those who feel completely forgotten.
Additional Resources:
For a printable version of this guide click here.