Well, please turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 3. Matthew chapter 3, this morning our message will consider baptism, but we'll approach it from a bit of a different angle. I think it'll be evident as we move through the material this morning. But Matthew chapter 3, I'll begin reading in verse 1.
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "'Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance. And do not think to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father.'" For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones, and even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
I indeed baptized you with water under repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. But he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent him saying, I need to be baptized by you and are you coming to me? But Jesus answered and said to him, permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he allowed him.
When he had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water. And behold, the heavens were open to him. And he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
Now you can turn to Matthew chapter 20. I'll read verses 20 to 28. Matthew 20 beginning in verse 20, then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from him. And he said to her, what do you wish?
She said to him, grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on your right hand and the other on the left in your kingdom. But Jesus answered and said, You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They said to him, We are able.
So he said to them, You will indeed drink my cup and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with, but to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by my Father. And when the ten heard it, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to himself and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant, and whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many.
Amen. Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the written word and we pray now for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We know that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and that it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.
We pray that the Spirit would take that word and apply it to our hearts. which would cause us to reflect upon what many in the church have called the active and the passive obedience of our Lord Jesus, cause us to see this as the very ground of our standing with a holy and glorious God. May these things be clear as we study these baptisms of our Lord Jesus. And may You indeed cause us to appreciate the work that He went through and the lengths that He went to in order to save His people from their sins. Again, forgive us now and wash us from everything that would darken our understanding.
And we pray through Christ the Lord. Amen.
Introduction: Why We Baptize
Now, baptism is certainly a good time for us to ask the question, why do we baptize? Why does a person, in a few moments after the sermon here, will step inside that baptistry, why does a person go underneath the water and come back out again? Why do Christians do that? Well, there's a whole host of reasons that can be given in terms of an answer.
Covenant theology certainly drives our understanding of why we baptize the way that we baptize, as well the command of Jesus Christ as a good operating rule. When Jesus commands something to the church, the church needs to obey, and Jesus in Matthew 28 says to his church, go therefore, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I'm with you, always, even to the end of the age. So certainly we could get at the question, why do we baptize? Through a study of the covenants? through a study of the command of Christ, but this morning I want to consider the two baptisms of Jesus that I read in your hearing.
Two Baptisms, One Gospel
His first baptism was a water baptism, and there is a particular significance that we need to appreciate about that event that we'll look at in just a moment. And then the second baptism has a reference to his death. When he talks there in chapter 20 about a cup that he needs to drink and a baptism that he undergoes, he is talking about his death. And so when we look at these two baptisms, I think they show us or demonstrate for us something called the active and the passive obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, this is conventional Christian terminology to reference the fact that Christ, by His life, His life of obedience to the Father's law, won for His people, or secured for His people, a perfect righteousness that avails with God. Some call that the act of obedience. In fact, our confession calls it that. A passive obedience refers to His death at Calvary.
And so when Jesus offers himself up as a sacrifice and as a substitute, that is the passive obedience. Doesn't mean he's passive in the sense that he's not involved in fully suffering, but it has reference to the fact that this is passion, this is his death, this is his suffering. And so the active and the passive obedience of Christ is absolutely essential for any and all who would come to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. We need that, because you see, we not only need our sins forgiven, but we also need to be clothed with the righteousness not our own.
And the gospel of Christ answers to that. It's a wonderful illustration of this reality in the prophet Zechariah.
Joshua, Filthy Garments, and Imputed Righteousness
In Zechariah chapter 3, we get a glimpse of the high priest Joshua. And Joshua is standing there. It's not Joshua the son of Nun, the conqueror of Canaan. This is a latter Joshua.
And he was the high priest in Israel after the exile. And Joshua is there representative of all of Israel. And we get this view of Joshua standing before the Lord Most High, and Satan is there to accuse him. And Joshua is filthy before God.
Joshua is dirty before God. He doesn't have a bit of of toast crumbs on his shirt, but rather he is covered. The language that is used with reference to the filth that is applied to Joshua has parallel usage in the Old Testament to feces and to vomit. So when we see Joshua standing there before the Holy God, Satan there to accuse him, the Lord rebukes Satan.
He doesn't even let Satan say a word. God knows Joshua's condition. God knows Israel's state. God knows that they are a filthy people.
So God says to his angel to strip away those garments, to take those filthy rags off of him. And this is representative of the forgiveness of sins. but then he orders that a beautiful garment be placed upon him. This is representative of the imputation of Christ's righteousness. You see, in order to get to heaven, if you are not a believer here this morning, if you're not a Christian, you have the very good question, how do I get to heaven?
There is one way, and it's through Christ the Lord. And that Christ the Lord not only brings forgiveness for sin, but He gives you that garment that you need. He gives you that righteousness that you need. Because we need to be forgiven, but we also need a righteousness that avails before a holy God.
This is why Paul, in 2 Corinthians 5.21, says that God made Him, Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. In sum, brethren, I understand this first baptism of Christ, this water baptism, as representative of His active obedience. And then that second baptism in Matthew 20, that death, that brings the forgiveness of sins, that passive obedience that does answer to our particular needs.
Christ's Active Obedience: Matthew 3
So let's look first at this first baptism of Jesus in chapter 3, verses 13 to 17.
John's Protest and Christ's Answer
John the Baptist is out preaching in the wilderness of Judea. Verses 1 to 12, I mean, he's a very intriguing fellow, isn't he? In fact, the author here is conspicuously trying to show him as an Elijah-like figure. In fact, he is the Elijah prophesied by Malachi.
But he is like that, and he is out there preaching, and he is calling sinners to repent. And then in verse 13, it says, Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent him, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and are you coming to me? It's an intriguing statement, isn't it?
John understood something about Jesus. In a parallel account, when Jesus came to be baptized by John, John says, I did not know him. I don't think he means, I did not know who he was. But I did not know he was the Messiah.
I did not know he was the Son of God. I did not know he was the one the prophets had testified concerning. But he did know something about this Christ here in verse 13. He sees Jesus coming and he says, are you coming to be baptized by me?
I have need to be baptized by you. John is right to appreciate the reality that Jesus is most high. Jesus is most excellent. Jesus was not a sinner and therefore not called to produce fruits worthy of repentance.
Notice as well. He not only attempts to prevent him, he asks this question. Now note what the Lord says in response in verse 15. Jesus answered and said to him, permit it to be so now for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.
There's that idea of Christ's fulfilling all righteousness.
Fulfilling All Righteousness for Us
Why does Christ fulfill all righteousness? Because it is a term of the covenant that He is within with reference to His Father. In other words, the Father sent Him to be the obedient servant of the Lord, to engage in that covenantal mediatorship that demanded He obey the Father. But as well, it is for us.
He obeys for us. Praise God for what is called the active obedience of Christ and the imputation of Christ's righteousness to sinners. Because we're not righteous. We are sinners.
We have all violated the living and the true God. We've all raised our fists at Him from Commandment 1 to Commandment 10. God says to have no other gods before Him, and we do that. We have other gods.
It may not be Baal. It may not be Molech. In our culture, it's more commonly mammon or money, or it's more commonly ourselves. We worship at the altar of self.
God says we're not to be idolaters. If we do identify with the living and the true God, we're to worship him the way that he prescribes. We don't do that. Not even as churches.
We do all sorts of things that make Nadab and Abihu's strange fire look like perfect orthodoxy. God says we're not supposed to blaspheme His holy name. We all do that. You say, well I've never taken the name of the Lord in vain.
By your actions. Remember when David is reproved by the prophet Nathan for having committed adultery and murder. Nathan says to him, by this act you have given cause to the enemies of Yahweh to blaspheme. We are told not to break the Sabbath day.
We're believers that affirm a Sabbath day. Everyone who enters the membership of this church says that they hold allegiance to the scriptures, to be sure, and then our secondary standard is the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689, which is a Sabbatarian document. And yet, we find ourselves breaking the Sabbath. God says we're supposed to honor our parents.
Children, obey your parents and the Lord. Why? For this is right. Honor your father and your mother, for this is the first commandment with promise.
But you see, it's not just the children who are guilty of violating this particular command. It applies to all lawful authority. We're not to be insubordinate to the governing authorities. Of course, we do when they tell us to sin, but if they don't tell us to sin, Paul's statement is, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities.
We're told not to murder. Now I suspect most of you here can claim, notice most of you can claim, I've never actually ended a human life. This one doesn't fall on me, Butler, because I don't have a butcher knife and I don't have a 30-06. I've never gone and sat up on the clock tower and picked people off in Chilliwack.
What do the New Testament authors say? What does our Lord say with reference to the Sermon on the Mount? If you hate your brother in your heart, you're guilty of the sixth commandment. Seventh commandment, God says you're not supposed to commit adultery.
Hopefully we saw last week that that doesn't just apply to adultery, but all manner of sexual sin, all manner of sexual immorality. But before you start raising your hand and say, well, I've never done that physically, again, Christ applies it to the heart. He who looks upon a woman to lust has already broken the commandment. The eighth word, we're told not to steal.
Say, well, I don't go to Walmart and pinch candy bars, but what do you like at work? It's been my observation at times that Christians who boast of their fastidiousness with reference to the law of the Lord can be time thieves when it comes to their employers. What about bearing false witness? Are you a man or woman who tells the truth?
What about covetousness? Oh no, that's not me. It's every single one of us.
Our Failure Under the Law
Do you see why we need a champion? Do you see why we need a Redeemer? Do you see why we need the Lord Jesus Christ? Because He never committed adultery.
He never committed blasphemy. He never broke the Sabbath. he was never insubordinate to his parents or to the civil authority, he never murdered, he never committed adultery, he never stole, he never lied, and he never coveted. See, the Christian gospel says that the righteousness that he fulfills, the righteousness that he accomplishes, is given to those who believe. It's a blessed judicial transaction.
It doesn't mean I'm transformed and I become the best guy on the face of the earth. Paul uses the language in Romans 5 that we are constituted. Again, it's forensic, it is legal, it is declarative. Roman Catholicism sees an actual change in the sinner.
Protestantism rightly maintains, no, it's a judicial process. It has the idea of a courtroom. We are forensically given this righteousness of Christ.
Federal Headship and Forensic Justification
Paul's language specifically in Romans 5.19, so also by one man's obedience many will be made, constituted is the better rendering there, righteous. By one man's obedience, many will be constituted righteous. Paul's whole argument in Romans chapter five hinges on two men in the history of the world. Two men that actually matter.
I know that that might make you want to run to your safe space, but hopefully you're not a snowflake this morning. He told me I didn't matter. Well, in the grand scheme of things, you don't. The two men that matter in the Bible are Adam the first and Adam the second.
And Paul says in Adam the first, Romans five, all die. That's our lot in life as a result of Adam's transgression. You see, he sinned as a representative. He sinned as a public figure.
He sinned as our federal head. And because of that sin, we all die. But that's what Paul goes on to outline in chapter five of Romans. But in Christ, all shall be made alive.
You see, Adam brings death, Christ brings life. And Paul's words here highlight the blessed aspect in view here. For, or so also by one man's obedience, many will be constituted righteous. You see, I think with reference to the gospel of our Lord Jesus, we're all pretty well attuned to the idea that we need to be forgiven.
We need to have our sins washed away. But we don't equally hear that we need a righteousness that avails with God. We need to stand clothed in His presence. We need to be washed and purified.
We need, like Joshua, the high priest there in Zechariah, not only to have our sins removed, but we need that blessed righteous garment given to us so we can stand before a thrice holy God. You see, God has never relaxed his demands for a perfect righteousness. So in order to stand before this holy God, we are clothed in the righteousness of another. We are given this in the gospel.
We are blessed beyond blessing. We are given this spotlessness of the Lamb himself, because as Adam was a public figure, As Adam was a representative, as Adam was our covenant head, this is how Christ functions. He's a public person. He's a representative.
He is our covenant head. And this is the very beginning of His life of perfect obedience. Not the beginning He obeyed from the moment of conception, but this is the public demarcation. When the Spirit comes in the form of a dove upon our Lord Jesus, this isn't His first reception of the Spirit.
There is something going on here. Christ is being identified. Christ is being singled out. Christ is having a light shone upon Him that He is the Messiah of God.
He is the mediator of the New Covenant. He is the beloved Son of the Father. Heretics teach that this is when Jesus became the Son of the Father. No, the second person of the Trinity has always been the Son of the Father.
He is the eternally begotten Son. He is God from God, light from light, true God from true God. He doesn't become the Son of God in Matthew 3. He's identified.
He's affirmed. That divine approbation rests upon Him. And the revelation is given to us to appreciate that this is God's man. for God's time, for God's people. He is a public man, he is a representative man, and he is our covenant head.
That's what he means when he says, for thus, it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. He lives in perfect obedience to the law and will of God. This act was the first public demonstration of the obedience that would characterize Christ's life and provide his people with the righteousness that we most desperately need. Now, let me just try to make sure I'm not leaving anybody behind.
Does everybody get this? If you're not a Christian today, you do need the forgiveness of sins. I'm not going to lie to you. Your sins have come as a stench in the nostrils of a holy God, that he has nostrils.
The scripture uses such language. God is spirit. But if you have sinned against this God, Scripture says you are under His wrath. Scripture says that God is angry with the wicked every day.
God has no delight, no pleasure whatsoever in those who reject His holy law. So most desperately, you need forgiveness, but you also need this righteousness. You need all that Christ accomplishes for His people. You need the forgiveness because of His death, but you need the righteousness because of His life.
Because you haven't kept those commandments, and Christ did always keep those commandments. This is the Protestant doctrine of justification.
Justification Defined
A famous catechism asks the question, what is justification? Justification is an act of God's free grace wherein He pardons all our sins. Isn't that beautiful? He doesn't pardon some of our sins.
He hasn't pardoned 90% of our sins, but you go out and fix the rest. He pardons all our sins. I don't know how much better this could sound to anybody who is not a believer. If you are dead in your sins, if you are in your sins and God is angry with you today, what better news could you hear than He pardons all our sins?
But the catechism goes on and says, and accepts us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to them. It's another one of those legal words that sort of means something like constituted, or given, or handed over, or reckoned. and received by faith alone. This is the blessed doctrine of justification by faith. And Christ is our head who accomplished all righteousness.
Let's just finish looking at this passage briefly before we move on. There's a couple of things we ought to appreciate. We notice Jesus had been baptized, verse 16. He came up immediately from the water.
And behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him. I read at the outset of worship, Isaiah 61.1, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. Again, this isn't Christ's first reception of the Spirit.
He is being marked out as the Messiah. Not, again, becoming, but He is being identified. This is revelation. This is confirmation.
This is affirmation. The Spirit of God descends like a dove and alights upon Him. Isaiah 11, the spirit of Yahweh shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh. Isaiah 42, 1, behold my servant whom I uphold, my elect one in whom my soul delights.
I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. The way the spirit of God broods over the waters in the old creation. The Spirit of God comes in the form of a dove at these waters of new creation.
The Lord Christ, in the coming that He has instituted, is a recreation. It is a new creation. Is there any accident between the way the book of Genesis and the way that John's Gospel begins? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
John 1.1, in the beginning, the Word was with God and the Word was God. You see, brethren, there is connectivity, there is continuation going on. We don't have a disjointed book, but we have what is anticipated in the old, is realized and fulfilled in the new. And then notice this divine proclamation from heaven.
Verse 17, and suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Again, he doesn't become the son in this instance. He is not becoming something He was not, but this is for our benefit. This is an announcement that the covenant promised by God in terms of redemption for His people has come to pass.
It's come to fruition. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. I think several passages are behind this. Remember the biblical type in Genesis 22.
It's a beautiful passage when we see how Jesus is the only begotten son of the Father. Genesis 22, God commands Abraham to take his son, his only son, the son whom he loved, take him up to Mount Moriah and there sacrifice him. It's a beautiful system of theology at work there too. Mount Moriah is where the temple would be built.
First, Aaronah's threshing floor and then the site of the temple. So Abraham takes his son, his only son, the son he loves, up to Mount Moriah to sacrifice him. And just as he's bringing the knife to bear upon his son, the angel of Yahweh stops him. You see, we have this theology in the New Testament that the angel of Yahweh doesn't stop when the knife comes down upon the Holy Son of God.
His Son, the Son whom He loves, the One who has His approval and His approbation. As well, Psalm 2, we see this theology of God's Son coming to conquer, coming to reign, coming to rule. We see this in Isaiah 42, this reference to My Beloved or My Elect One. This is the theological point of the passage.
In essence, we are meeting face to face with the Lord Christ, who is going to be that public person, that representative, that covenant head who does fulfill all righteousness, who ultimately goes to the cross and gives his life a ransom for many. But we ought to at least acknowledge one more thing before we move to the passive obedience in Matthew 20.
The Trinity at the Jordan
Note the Trinitarianism here. Note the Trinitarian witness at this particular passage. We have Jesus, the Son of God. We have the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove.
This does not mean the Holy Spirit is a dove. It doesn't mean that a hypostatic union occurred and that when we get to heaven, there will be a dove that is the Holy Spirit. No, he used the dove to manifest his presence in this particular instance. There was no hypostatic union such as occurred between Jesus' divinity and the humanity or the human nature.
We've got the Son of God, we've got the Spirit of God, and we hear the voice of the Father say, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. I've always loved this quip I found in Turretin's Institutes of Atlantic Theology. He says, hence the saying of the ancients, Arian, reference to Arius, the heretic that denied that Christ was in fact God and denied the fact that the Spirit was in fact God. Arius taught that there was a time when the Son was not.
The Orthodox taught the Son has always been. Athanasius repudiated him. But Arius taught a denial of the Trinity. So Turrenton says, hence the saying of the ancients, Arian, go to Jordan and there you will see the Trinity.
Beautiful, isn't it? This wasn't developed by Constantine or the Council of Nicaea. This wasn't hatched by some of the early church fathers who lived out in deserts. This is what the Bible teaches.
There is one God, the true and the living God, who exists eternally in three blessed persons, Father, Son, and Spirit. We have one substance or one essence, three persons. There's not a contradiction. If we said one in one sense and three in the same sense, that would be contradictory.
But we have one in one sense, three in another sense. No contradiction. Blessed Trinity. The scriptures teach it, and as Turretin reminds us, the ancients say Arius, go down to the River Jordan.
There, you'll see the Trinity. That's his active obedience.
Christ's Passive Obedience: Matthew 20
Notice, secondly, his passive obedience. Again, please get it out of your head that passive means passivity in the way that some people act. Sometimes men are passive in their relationships. They just sit and hope everything gets done.
You might be passive in your workplace. You're hiding under your desk when your boss comes to demand you to do a particular thing. We all know what passivity means. It's not a virtuous trait that we all would want to have.
But the passive obedience of Christ has as its fundamental sense his passion. That means his death. His sufferings, His atoning work, wherein He satisfies divine justice by His sufferings and death. And I think that this passage illustrates it for us very well.
Notice the context here in Jesus' interaction with the apostles. At 20 verse 17, then Jesus, or now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and discourage and to crucify, and the third day he will rise again. That's the context. That's what's in view.
Going to Jerusalem to die. Now notice in verse 20, then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from him. And he said to her, what do you wish? She said to him, grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on your right hand and the other on the left, in your kingdom.
Now you probably remember my illustration with reference to this. I might just change it up a little bit. But this would be akin to me saying to my sons, sons, I'm gonna die. And them saying, can we have your books?
Can we take your library? I get his car. Sons, I just announced to you that I'm going to die. Certainly I said I'm going to be raised again, but if history is interpretive, the apostles didn't seem to get that fact when he announced that he would not only die, but he would be raised the third day.
Do you see the connection? Jesus says, I'm going to Jerusalem to die, and these men say, we want to sit on your right hand and on your left. Now, it expresses faith. A man who's going to die has a kingdom nevertheless, but it does seem a bit presumptuous to say the least.
He is going to engage in his passion. He is going to the cross. He is going to suffering in such a way that these men haven't even begun to think about. And that is precisely how he addresses the situation.
Notice verse 21. You do not know what you ask. You don't understand. In other words, you want the crown, but you haven't entertained the cross.
They are very symptomatic of the rest of us, aren't they? They're very typical of God's people, all in all. In fact, I suggest to you, verse 24, when the ten heard it, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers. Why do you think they were greatly displeased?
Oh brothers, you shouldn't have such carnal aims when our master has just announced that he's going to die. Oh brothers, you shouldn't tip your hand like that and show that you're simply in this to sit on his right and on his left. They were greatly displeased because if they were on the right and the left, the ten wouldn't be. This is us, brethren.
This is how we are. We want crowns, we don't want crosses. Hence the popularity of the prosperity gospel. How else can you explain a world in which Benny Hinn is actually popular?
The guy is nuts. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. 30 seconds by most pagans write these kinds of guys off. and multiply the Benny Hinns, multiply the sorts of guys that will stand under so-called Christian pulpits and preach a gospel without a cross. Oh, you can have everything right now. Consider America's pastor, Joel Osteen.
I'm American, he ain't my pastor. How do you explain the great success of a guy like Joel Osteen? Because everybody wants their best life now. We don't want the cross.
We don't want sorrows. We don't want hardship. We don't want pain. We don't want travail.
We certainly don't want to be identified as one of those weirdos who served Jesus. So Joel Osteen and Benny Hinn and count the numbers of others are making their way in this world because they're telling sinners what they want to hear. This is our default setting, isn't it? I mean, we don't want crosses.
We want crowns. We don't want suffering. We want pleasure. We don't want pain.
And I'm not saying you wretches, I hope you hear there the third person plural, we, I'm not out there saying, boy, don't I like to suffer. Oh, boy, honey, let's get rid of the toilet so that we have to use an outhouse. Because that just sounds like the better way to, I'm not like that. I don't think any of us are like that.
Especially in North America, we like our stuff. We like our stuff when all is said and done. So I think in some respects, what we see in this passage is us. Christ says, I'm going to die, and we say, can we sit on your right?
Can we sit on your left? I'm going to die. Can I have your car? Can I have your books?
I'm going to die. Can I have your golf club? I'm going to die, and you need to ponder that reality. And this is what Christ presses upon him, and he uses two metaphors that they would have understood, because there is a rich biblical heritage for the youths.
The Cup: God's Wrath Poured Out
First, cup. He says to them in verse 23, you will indeed drink my cup and be baptized. First of all, this idea of cup. The cup here is referred to in the Old Testament in Psalm 11, Psalm 75, Isaiah 51, Jeremiah 51.
It comes up again in Matthew 26, 39 when Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane. Remember that situation when Jesus says, Lord, if it is possible, or Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. You know what he's referring to there? The wrath and fury of God.
That's what it means in Psalm 11. That's what it means in Psalm 75. That's what it means in the prophets. It means the cup of God's wrath that he's going to pour upon Babylon, that he pours upon Israel.
It's the cup of suffering. That's why Jesus prays thus, Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. He's speaking according to his humanity. He is speaking according to the form of a servant.
And he says to the Father, if it is possible, let it pass. Why? Because it's wrath, it's fury, it's judgment. And he tells these men, you don't know.
You don't understand what the cup of wrath is. You don't understand the degree of suffering that's involved here. You don't understand what it is to save my people from their sins. And then he refers to this baptism.
The Second Baptism: Immersion in Suffering
This is why I call this the second baptism of Jesus. You will indeed drink my cup and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with. I don't want to get polemic. I don't want to argue with infant Baptist brethren.
I know you're out there and I love you and I esteem you and hopefully you appreciate that this message was never intended to be that way. I didn't make anything out of the fact that Jesus came up out of the water. I guess I just did, but. Baptism.
If it was translated instead of transliterated, it would have been immersed. You see, there's a metaphorical use by our Lord Jesus Christ that sprinkling and even pouring doesn't capture. It's the image of immersion. It's the image of plunging.
It's the image of being overwhelmed. The word baptized is used outside of the Bible concerning a battle wherein a ship was baptized. It doesn't mean it was sprinkled. It doesn't mean it was poured.
It means that it was capsized. Christ is using this term loaded with theological freight to refer to the cross. In fact, it comes out in Luke 12.50 in a similar usage. Luke 12.50, the Lord Jesus says, I have a baptism to be baptized with and how distressed I am till it is accomplished.
John Gill says, but the baptism of his sufferings is meant. See why I call this the two baptisms of Jesus. There was the physical, the water in Matthew 3. The fact that he says it is necessary for us to fulfill all righteousness. answers to the act of obedience of the Lord Jesus.
Here is His second baptism that He is referring to, and it's the death on the cross. It is that overwhelming influence of pain, suffering, and misery heaped upon the person of the Son of God to save us from our sins. You see, our salvation is free. Our salvation is gracious.
But it costs Christ everything. Theologians have rightly understood that the covenant of redemption was a covenant of works for our Lord Jesus. The covenant of grace is ultimately the covenant of works kept for us by the Lord Jesus Christ. But Gill, defining the nuance of the word baptism here in Luke 12.50, he says, but the baptism of his sufferings is meant, which are compared to a baptism because of the largeness and abundance of them.
He was, as it were, immersed or plunged into them. You see, this is a reference to his impending death. This is a reference in the context of verses 17 to 19, where he is announced that he must go to Jerusalem, he must suffer at the hands of these godless men, he must be crucified, and he must be raised the third day. They come saying, can we be on your right?
Can we be on your left? He says, you don't know what you ask. He says, notice in verse 22, you don't know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?
They said to him, we are able. Note, he does say, you will indeed drink my cup and you will indeed be baptized. The pages in the New Testament show this to be the case. Who are the sons of Zebedee?
They are James and John. The James that is here looking for position loses his head in Acts chapter 12 under Herod. The John here that is looking for position is the one that is exiled on the island of Patmos for the word of God and the testimony of Christ in Revelation chapter one. History tells us that he was plunged in a boiling oil, somehow lived, and ultimately ended up exiled on the island of Patmos.
Now, when we read that language, it might seem somewhat appealing. I'd like to be exiled on an island, especially in the winter in Chilliwack. Send me to an island. It was a rock out in the Aegean Sea.
There wasn't golf courses and buffets or anything like that. He was exiled for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. So you see, Jesus does say to that, you will suffer, identifying what the Son of God will, in fact, bring suffering. In other words, there will always be a cross associated with the crown.
Jesus set the paradigm. If you think, as a believer, you will never be a man of sorrows or acquainted with grief, just wait. Unfortunately, the Christian life oftentimes is punctuated by trials, by adversities, by hardships, and by difficulties. It's all worthwhile.
It's all most blessed. It's all wondrous to be sure no one would ever change it in or exchange it and say, I'd rather go back to the city of destruction. I'd rather be a child of wrath. No, the people of God bear up.
They persevere under trial. They pray instead of whine. They worship instead of complain. They do what they're supposed to do by the grace of God, and they count it all worthwhile.
But to say there's no suffering or hardship or trial or adversity connected to the Christian life is more akin to Joel Osteen and Benny Hinn than any of the New Testament or Old Testament authors. Now note, Jesus ends this section, verses 25 and following. He essentially says, look at the Gentiles, don't be like them. Don't be like Gentiles.
Don't lord things over others. You want to be great? Be a servant. You want to be first?
Be last. And then verse 28, he uses himself as the example. He says, just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. The willingness of the son of man to undergo this for the glory of his father and the good of his people, the substitutionary character of his work.
Notice, the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Christ doesn't come to give His life as an example to all. He comes to give His life as a ransom for many. Notice He doesn't help men ransom themselves.
He doesn't make men ransom a bull, but rather He actually ransoms them. When Christ goes to the cross, He pays their debts. When Christ goes to the cross, He secures their salvation. When Christ goes to the cross, He satisfies divine justice on their behalf.
So that when Christ finishes His work, when Christ is raised the third day, when Christ is ascended on high, when Christ is ruling from the right hand of God Most High, when anyone, by the grace of God, believes in Him, they receive at that moment the forgiveness of sins and the righteousness that avails with God, which was accomplished by Christ. And I love the way, I love the location of verse 28 here. The location is telling. Where's Jesus going?
He's going to Jerusalem. Verse 28 explains it all. See, verses 17 to 19, he announces the facts, right? Machen made this observation, in scripture we get the presentation of the facts, but we also get the interpretation of the facts, right? 1 Corinthians 15, Christ died, it's a fact, for our sins, that's theological interpretation.
Christ was buried, Christ was raised. Romans 4. He was delivered up because of our offenses. He was raised up for our justification.
You see, he's both delivered and he's raised, but the Bible tells us why. So in verses 17 to 19, Christ gives us the facts. So he called Jack Webb, just the facts, ma'am, just the facts. That's verses 17 to 19.
Verse 28 is the theology. If you start to have trouble when you're reading the Passion Narratives, you come with the Savior into the Garden of Gethsemane, and there you hear him cry, Father, if it is possible, let this pass from me. Let verse 28 of chapter 20 ring in your ears. Oh, this is the way.
This is the means. This is the how. This is the interpretation. This makes sense of the Roman soldier's slap on his face.
This makes sense of the reality that the mob says, away with him, away with him, crucify him. This makes sense of his own cry of dereliction on the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Verse 28 answers, He gave His life a ransom for many. We've got the facts, we've got the theological interpretation.
And may I encourage you to get this Christ. May I encourage you to hear these words this morning. And may I encourage you to look unto him in whom alone there is both forgiveness and the righteousness you desperately need.
Application: Baptism, the Gospel, and Us
You will see a baptism in a few moments. We as a church ought to happily receive Sylvie into the membership of our church. We ought to pray for her. We ought to encourage her.
We ought to exhort her, trusting that she in turn will do the same for the church as a whole. We, as the people of God, ought to be reminded what happens there in baptism. It is unto the party baptized. It is a sign.
It is a symbol. There's no magic in that water. You don't go in a sinner and come out a saint. There's no magic.
If that were the case, we would just open our doors during the week and plunge everybody in. It's no magic, but it's representative. It is symbolic of what God Almighty has done inwardly. It's an external sacrament of what God has done internally.
He has changed our hearts. He has made us alive together with His Son. He has engrafted us into Him. He has remitted or forgiven us of our sins.
So that baptistry ought to remind us as the people of God, if we've grown lazy, if we've grown apathetic, if we are not pursuing that newness of life conveyed to us by our Savior, then we should repent. We should get our acts together when we see this sister identified publicly with the Lord Christ in baptism. But if you're not a believer and you're not a member of this church, baptism doesn't save. It's Christ who saves.
He answers to the two particular needs that you have. You're a sinner. You're outside of God. You have no heart for God.
There's rebellion in your heart. There's rejection in your heart. You may not be as bad as, say, those people that marched, you know, a week ago, or you may not be so bad as that guy who governs the country, or you may not be so bad as those thugs that run the streets selling crack cocaine, but you're bad. The scripture tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
There is none righteous, no, not one. You may keep your lawn cut, you may pay your taxes, you may be the best employee at your particular business, but if you are not in Christ, you're a sinner. And what does Christ answer to in the gospel? Forgiveness.
I have long thought, long believed, and long preached that that's one of the chief bones of Christianity. That is one of the chief bones of Christianity. Is there anything better? If we were in a black church in LA, I'd say, give me an amen.
Don't do that. But is there anything better than as a sinner to be forgiven? to be able to sing with the hymn writer, my sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Is there anything better?
Is there anything better? I mean, right now, you may have issues in your life. You may have trials, you may have difficulties, you may have pains, you may have suffering. When you lay your head on your pillow tonight, you know what you've got?
You have the forgiveness of sins. This is it, isn't it? Isn't this what Jesus told us? There is a problem bigger than paralysis.
That scene in Matthew's gospel, in Matthew chapter nine, when Jesus is preaching in a particular house, and the house is filled with people, and a man has several friends that want him to hear the truth, and so they open up the roof and they lower the man down. The man's on a mat, by the way, because he's paralyzed. What does Jesus say when he sees the man? He says, son, your sins are forgiven you, What?
He's paralyzed, Jesus, and you're talking about the forgiveness of sins? Can't you see his problem? Yeah, Jesus knows his problem specifically. Of course, when Jesus makes that pronouncement that your sins are forgiven you, the scribes and the Pharisees all reasoned among themselves, who does this man think he is?
Who does he think he is? Only God alone can forgive sins. So Jesus asks the question, which is easier, to say to the man, take up your bat and walk, or your sins are forgiven you? Think about it, brethren, it's easier to say your sins are forgiven you, isn't it?
If I tell you your sins are forgiven you, we don't know that. I mean, I can tell you and assure you and affirm you and confirm to you that when you believe on Jesus, your sins are forgiven. But in the context, you can't tell, right? In other words, there are those in this church whose sins are forgiven.
We don't have light bulbs over our heads. We don't have shirts that have sin with a cross, a red mark going through it. We don't know, do we? So Jesus says, which is easier, to say your sins are forgiven or take up your mat and walk?
And then he says, but that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. He looks at the man, he says, take up your mat and walk. And the man did. And again, the Charismatics and the Pentecostals, and unfortunately a lot of people say, wow, he healed him of his paralysis.
The healing of the paralysis was a demonstration of the greater miracle, that he forgave him of his sins. If you are here this morning and you can't walk, you've got a bigger problem. If you are here this morning and you've got cancer, you've got a bigger problem. If you are here this morning and your kids are terrible human beings, you've got a bigger problem.
And it's sin before a holy God. We saw last week, whoever believes the Son has everlasting life. He who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but God's wrath abides on him. So yes, this baptistry is going to testify to you of what God has done in one of His own.
But that water cannot save. Church membership cannot save. You need to come to the Savior. You need to believe the gospel.
You need to look and you need to live. And when you look by the grace of God, you are forgiven and you are clothed with a righteousness that is not your own. Luther called it the great exchange. Our sins are heaped upon Christ.
His righteousness is heaped upon us. Luther also said it in this way. I know this is probably a little bit more Luther-ish than we might like, but he describes what happens in the gospel. The joyous exchange.
The rich, noble, pious, bridegroom Christ takes this poor, despised, wicked little whore in marriage, redeems her of all evil, and adorns her with all his goods. Praise God that he does that, because if he didn't, none of us would be saved. Well, let us close in a word of prayer.
Closing Prayer
Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the scriptures. We thank you for these baptisms of our Christ that do point us to the active and the passive obedience of Christ. We thank you that in the gospel, Jesus answers for every need that we have. He brings forgiveness.
He brings a righteousness that avails with God. as a church, strengthen us. God, cause us to shake off our lethargy and our apathy. Cause us to see that we have been called to newness of life, to follow a master, to follow the Lord Jesus, to be obedient to his word. And for any unbelievers here, we do pray, God in heaven, that you'd open their hearts, that they would have heard the truth and by your grace would believe it and be saved.
And we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.