Matthew chapter 3, specifically at verse 13. Matthew 3.13 to the end of the chapter, then we'll turn over to chapter 20 in Matthew's gospel. So Matthew 3.13, 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 opened 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. So turn over to Matthew chapter 20, Matthew chapter 20, specifically at verse 17. Matthew 20, beginning in verse 17. Now Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the 12 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. And 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 of the living and true God. We know all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.
And we pray that the Holy Spirit who gave us the word would guide us now as we study, as we consider, as we ponder, and may it find its mark in our hearts. And may we as believers rejoice in the gracious work of our Savior on behalf of his people. And for unbelievers, we pray they would see clearly what it means to be saved, what it means to be justified freely, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ Jesus alone. Again, forgive us for all sin and unrighteousness and everything that darkens our mind, and we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Introduction
As I said, this is a happy occasion wherein we have baptisms, three of them, and I think it does provoke the question, as a Baptist church, why do we baptize? And there are several answers to that particular question that we can give. We could argue from covenant theology. We could argue from the clear command of our Lord Jesus Christ, and then the pattern of the apostolic church.
But this morning, we're not going to argue from that vantage point. We're going to argue from the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein He pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. It is that article upon which the Church stands or false.
It is that article that distinguishes us from the Roman Catholic communion. They teach that a justification has a sanctification in such a way that it's faith plus faithfulness in order to be saved. But the great clarion call of the Protestant Reformation was justification by faith alone. And then when we ask the question, what is justification by faith alone founded upon, it's founded upon the life and the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Theology calls this his active obedience and his passive obedience. And in Matthew's gospel, we see a reference to two baptisms concerning our Lord Jesus. The first is literal. It's water baptism, wherein he comes to John the Baptist in Matthew chapter 3.
The second is metaphorical. Jesus uses the language of baptism, and when we compare that with Luke's gospel, we understand that he's speaking about his death. He's speaking about his passion. So in other words, Matthew 3 underscores the active obedience of Christ, that it was necessary, that it was requisite that He fulfill all righteousness, and then Matthew 20, 28 specifically, shows us that His work on the cross was for a ransom, for redemption, in order to secure the salvation of His people.
So in sum, we need His death, we need His blood to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. but we also need a positive righteousness by which we can be accepted with God. To put it in common parlance, we not only need cleansing through His blood, but we need to be clothed in His righteousness so that we are fit and able to go to heaven. So this morning we celebrate God's conquest, we celebrate Jesus' victory, we celebrate what the Most High has done in saving these three people from their sins. The water is an emblem, the water is a symbol, the water is a public declaration of what God Most High has done with them inwardly.
Active Obedience: Christ's Baptism
So let's look at Matthew chapter 3. First, the baptism of Jesus by John, which underscores the active obedience of Christ. And there's three things to appreciate here.
The Request for Baptism
First, the request for baptism, verses 13 to 15. Secondly, the act of baptism itself in verse 16. And then the significance of this baptism in verse 17. But notice the Lord's initiative there in chapter 3 at verse 13.
So we see that favorable implication concerning baptism. There are some churches that don't practice it. There are some churches that practice it falsely. The Lord God calls us to not only engage in it, but to engage in it in a way that is biblical and scriptural.
So Jesus dignifies the act by coming to the Baptist in order to be baptized. And notice John's attempt to prevent him. He was persistent, but he was unsuccessful. Notice what John says in verse 14.
John tried to prevent him saying, I need to be baptized by you, and are you coming to me? John the Baptist understood that the one who was coming after him was to be preferred beforehand. John the Baptist was the friend of the bridegroom. John the Baptist says in John's gospel, according to chapter 3, that he, Christ, must increase, but I must decrease.
So on this occasion, when Jesus comes to be baptized by John, you kind of get the reason why John says, I'm not going to baptize you. I should be baptized by you. There's a reluctance on his part. a hesitancy on his part because of his understanding that Christ was, in fact, to be preferred over him. And then notice the Lord's explanation, specifically in verse 15.
But Jesus answered and said to him, permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Jesus is functioning as a mediator. Therefore, he is a public person. He is a public representative at this particular juncture.
We know that John preached a baptism of forgiveness, or remission, for sins committed. That's not why Jesus is coming to be baptized. He is not a sinner. He has no guilt.
There is nothing impure in him such that he needs to be baptized. But this marks the public ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. We'll see some significance as we move through the passage. But here he specifies the nature of his ministry.
He must fulfill all righteousness. He must do everything that is pleasing to the Father. He must obey. Again, we need a righteousness.
We're not going to produce that righteousness because we're sinners. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. Scripture is not silent here.
The Scripture tells us we're totally depraved. That doesn't mean we're as bad as we could possibly be. that all of us are Stalin or Pol Pot or the like. But it means that every part of us is affected by sin. Our heart, our mind, our soul, our strength, everything about us is depraved.
But we're also unable to fix the problem with God. There's a total depravity and a total inability. So it's not that we just hear law, go out and perform it, and then we win our acceptance from God. It's never going to happen.
We need this representative. We need this high priest. We need this prophet. We need this king.
We need this mediator. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Why did He become flesh? So He could live in obedience to the Father's law. So He could do everything that was specified in terms of our commitment, in terms of obligations placed upon us. And so Christ announces at the outset of His public ministry here that it's necessary, it's requisite, it is absolutely essential for Him to fulfill all righteousness.
In the Old Testament, you have that statement, the prophet Isaiah, chapter 53, 11. By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. And then the New Testament is not silent at the point where we need the righteousness of Christ. Again, we need his death.
We need His blood. We'll see that when we turn to Matthew chapter 20. We need the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But if we don't have that positive righteousness, then we're back at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And we have to fulfill, and we have to perform, and we have to do so in a way that is perfect. Brethren, that's a mingling of law and gospel. The gospel really is good news. Justification is by faith alone, and that entails both forgiveness and the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ received by faith alone.
So Paul speaks of this in Romans 5, 12-19. He summarizes God's dealings with man in two men. He says, so also by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous. So through Adam came curse, through Adam came sin, through Adam came sort of estrangement with God, but it's through the righteousness of Jesus Christ that there is this righteousness that we receive by faith alone. 1 Corinthians 1, the apostle tells us that Christ has been made unto us as righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5.21, God the Father made Him, God the Son, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Galatians 2.21, the apostle says, I do not set apart the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. What's Paul's point? We need a righteousness. We need forgiveness and a righteousness, and Christ brings that.
Philippians 3, the apostle rejoices that he's found in Christ, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, he says, but having that righteousness, which is from God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. See, we celebrate the death of Christ, and well, we should, but we need to celebrate the life of Christ. And again, not just as an example, not just as an ethical precept, but as the means by which God accepts us in the Beloved. wherein we are counted righteous for his sake alone. So that's what Christ means when he says, it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.
And on the heels of this explanation, we see that this was appropriate for John the Baptist, because at the end of verse 15 it says, Then he allowed him. What's he going to do? No, Lord, I'm not going to baptize you. No, Lord, I'm not going to follow through.
No, Lord, I'm not. Of course he allowed him. So the Lord Jesus identifies with those of us who need repentance and remission of sins. He identifies with all those whom the Father had given him.
Jesus not only identifies with, but represents us. So this marks his life of obedience to the Father with constant, constant attention.
The Act of Baptism
Now note the act of baptism, verse 16, when he had been baptized. That word has a meaning. We're not free as the church to redefine the meaning. We're not free as the church to change the meaning.
We as the church, I know this is going to be shocking, but we need to obey God with reference to the meaning. In our Wednesday night studies, we've been going through the book of Leviticus, and there were two fellows by the name of Nadab and Abihu. who after receiving detailed legislation on how to sacrifice before God, and then witnessing the approval of God on an authorized sacrifice, then presented strange fire to the Lord, profane fire, that which God had not commanded. How do you think that went for Nadab and Abihu? Do you think Yahweh said, well, that was the best you could do, that was innovative, that was creative, that was good?
No, God killed those men. And then God ordered the brothers of those men to pull them away from the sanctuary so that the sanctuary would not be defiled. The word baptism has a particular meaning, and according to one lexicon or dictionary, it is very simple. It says to use water in a rite for purpose of renewing or establishing a relationship with God.
Plunge, dip, wash, baptize. plunge, dip, wash, baptize. Those are great sort of explanations. Calvin and his institutes, if you have the two volumes set, translated by Battles on page 1320, Calvin admits that the word means to immerse. And that's what the text suggests.
Notice what happens according to verse 16. When he had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water. He came up from it, underscoring immersion as the proper manner involved relative to Christian baptism. And then notice the opening of the heavens at this particular juncture.
And behold, the heavens were opened to him. It's a glorious scene. It's not alone in Scripture. You've got that scene at the end of Acts chapter 7, when Stephen is under examination by the Sanhedrin.
And they're going to stone Stephen to death. It tells us that he was filled with the Holy Spirit. He saw heaven open. He saw the glory of God.
And he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. You see it in the Old Testament prophets. The prophet Isaiah says, rend the heavens and come down. There are these instances, these scenes, the prophet Ezekiel saw this where the heavens open and it shows God's approbation, God's approval, God's confirmation of that particular event.
And I think that's what the text is underscoring. And behold, the heavens were open to him. And then it says, he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him. Now the Holy Spirit is not properly a dove.
This is what's called a theophany, a manifestation of God in some particular manner. It's like God's not a bush. He appears to Moses in Exodus chapter 3, but we're not authorized to say God's a bush. We say that God demonstrated his majesty and his presence and his power and his glory through the bush.
Just like we don't say that the Holy Spirit is a bird, he's not a dove, but he manifests, he shows, he reveals, he demonstrates through this particular medium. So the Spirit of God comes upon Jesus in this instance. He comes upon Jesus not as God the Son, he comes upon Jesus according to his humanity. as God the Son who is the mediator, the prophet, priest, and king, being equipped for that work of redemption that He's undertaking. We see the background to this in the Old Testament, Isaiah 11, verse 2.
The Spirit of the Lord 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 the Lord. Those are sort of prophecies concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and what will be true of Him. 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, which incidentally is quoted in Matthew chapter 12 and applied to Jesus. Isaiah 61. The text is not underscoring that the Spirit is a dove. The text is underscoring that just like the Spirit brooded over creation in Genesis 1, verse 2, the Spirit broods now over the new creation.
The fact that there is a new era launched in the coming of the Son of God to save His people from their sins. We would expect the triune God to be present. We would expect the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to be present. We would expect all three persons demonstrating the glory and the majesty of God Most High.
And as we move through the text,
The Significance of the Baptism
notice what we see there in verse 17. It says, And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. The significance of this particular event It underscores the fact that Christ, as our Savior, is going to fulfill all righteousness. Christ, as our Savior, has the approval of God the Father.
Our Confession speaks about this. It says, The Lord Jesus, in His human nature, thus united to the Divine in the person of the Son, was sanctified and anointed with the Holy Spirit above measure. having in him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, in whom it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell, to the end that being holy, harmless, undefiled, full of grace and truth, he might be thoroughly furnished to execute the office of a mediator and surety." So for our benefit, we learn that his mission is gonna be one of obedience. He's gonna fulfill all righteousness. And again, as a sinner, may I encourage you to consider this.
You need a righteousness. You're not going to go to heaven without it. And I'm going to tell you right now, spoiler alert, you cannot fulfill all that God has commanded. You're in Adam.
You're dead in your trespasses and sins. You must be born again. You must, by the grace of God, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and repent from your sin. Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ accesses those twin benefits of justification, forgiveness of sins and the imputation of Christ's righteousness.
It is received by faith alone. There is no better news. There is no more glorious truth. There is nothing more excellent than the reality that God Most High is in Christ Jesus, reconciling the world to Himself.
There is an abundance of grace. There is an abundance of mercy. There is an abundance of acceptance with our God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that scene in Luke chapter 15, all the sinners and tax collectors draw near to Jesus to hear Him.
What do the Pharisees do? What do the scribes do? They look down their noses on him. They look down their noses on them.
They say, this man receives sinners and eats with them. This was a derogatory statement on their part. This man receives sinners and eats with them. You can sense their distaste.
You can see their menacing faces. You can see their disgust at the thought that this man would receive sinners and eats with them. So what does this man say? This man says, I absolutely positively do receive sinners, and I absolutely positively do eat with them.
And then he tells three stories. He tells a story about a man who had sheep, and he lost one of them, and then he leaves the 99 to go find the one. What happens when he comes back with that one sheep? Heaven rejoices.
There's a woman who loses a coin and doesn't say, well, I'm just going to write it off at the end of the year. She busily searches for that coin. When she finds that coin, what happens? There's great rejoicing.
What does Jesus say? There's rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents. And then the father of the prodigal. Remember the prodigal son?
He comes to the father and says, you're better off to me dead than alive. Give me my share of the inheritance. He takes the share of the inheritance. He goes off and he squanders it.
And then he comes to himself. And a lot of people think that he was converted there. I don't think he was. He came to himself in the sense that if I go back and cast myself upon my father's mercy, I may at least get three hots and a cot.
I may get three hot meals and a cot to sleep in. I'll be treated like one of the hired laborers, and I'll get at least something rather than this pig food. So when this young man returns, what happens? The father sees him from a long way off.
The father runs to him. The father falls on him. The father puts a ring on his finger. The father puts a rope on his back.
And the father orders that there be feasting. Kill that best animal. My son who was dead is now alive. My son who was lost is now found.
Do you think that passage in Luke 15 is given to discourage sinners from coming to Jesus? Do you think that these calls of our blessed Savior, the last great day of the feast, John 7, 37, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink? Do you think these are calculated to tell you, never come near? Or are they calculated to tell you, come near, look unto him, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for he is God, and there is no other?
Consider our Lord's teaching in John chapter 3. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man also be lifted up. What happened in the wilderness? God sent fiery serpents to bite the whiners, to bite the complainers, to bite the grumblers.
And then Moses was instructed to build this brazen snake and set it up. And then what was the requisite? drag yourself over there and feel the healing potion come out from it? No, it was look and live. It wasn't suck the venom out of your bite and then look and live.
It was look and live. Why do you think these are told you in scripture? To keep you away from God? To keep you at arm's length?
To discourage your approach to the high and holy one? He's about that. That's why Jesus came into the world. Sinners to save.
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. See, these things, again, are not given in the Bible to keep you away. They're given in the Bible so that you'll flee to Him in faith. And that's precisely the emphasis throughout the gospel narratives.
You need a righteousness. It is to be found in Christ. So verse 17, suddenly a voice came from heaven, the voice of the father saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. This reflects Isaiah 42.1 that I read earlier.
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. This statement from the Father refers or rather shows divine affirmation, it shows divine approbation, and it is revelation for us so that we can see that the one who has come has been set apart and approved by God to do what he's been sent to do.
And before we move to Matthew chapter 20, you have to appreciate the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. We've got the Father, the Son, and the Spirit present at this scene. I'll just read our Baptist forefather, John Gill. He said, it would be almost unpardonable almost unpardonable not to take notice of the testimony here given to the doctrine of the Trinity.
Since a voice was heard from the Father in heaven, bearing witness to the Son and human nature on earth, on whom the Spirit had descended and now abode. The ancients looked upon this as so clear and full a proof of this truth that they were want to say, go to Jordan and there learn the doctrine of the Trinity. Amen. That is absolutely, positively true.
Passive Obedience: Christ's Death
Well, let's turn now to the passive obedience of our Lord Jesus. I realize that word suggests sort of an inactivity on the part of the Savior, but the passive probably is connected to our word passion, and it refers to the death of our Lord. So the act of obedience is His positively obeying all the precepts of the law. He never sinned.
He never had a lustful look. He never had a lustful thought. He never stole. He never lied.
He never cheated. He never coveted. He never did anything forbidden in the law of God by God. Passive obedience refers to his death on the cross.
It refers to what he underwent on our behalf, for us men and for our salvation. So if you look at, we look secondly at the baptism of Jesus on the cross. Notice Matthew 20, 17 to 28. We're not going to be able to deal with every jot and tittle of this, but I just want to point out a few things.
Context: The Road to Jerusalem
First, note the context. Note the context, verses 17 to 20. Now, Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the 12 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 rise again. And the third day he will rise again.
It's a pretty sober statement, isn't it? You're with your friend. You're with your rabbi. You're with your master.
You're with one that you've grown to love. The disciples loved him. They had affection for him. They spent time with him.
He was in their midst. How would they not love him? He's altogether lovely. He's chief among 10,000.
There's everything in Jesus wherein sinners should love him. I know we reflect upon the fact that they don't, but that's because of sin and depravity and those things I mentioned earlier. There's nothing owing to Jesus that would cause us to not love Him. He is life itself.
He is love itself. He is the blessed one. Now on the heels of this statement that he's going to go die, look at what happens in terms of the disciples. 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. Seems a bit insensitive, doesn't it? He's just said he's gonna go be brutalized in Jerusalem.
He's gonna be mocked. He's gonna be scourged. He's gonna be crucified. And what do they want?
They're jockeying for position. We wanna be on your right hand and we wanna be on your left hand. We want prestige. Well, part of the emphasis of this passage, at least by way of an application, is to demonstrate that the cross always precedes the crown.
See, they're getting a little bit ahead of themselves. They want crown, but they don't want cross. I think we get ahead of ourselves sometimes too, don't we? We want crown, but we're not into this whole cross thing.
We want all the benefits and the blessings and the privileges and the protection, but these afflictions don't really work for us. We can be like these disciples from time to time. I just want to be ushered into your presence. I want to take my seat either on the right or on the left in your kingdom.
There is probably that in all of our hearts to one degree or other. It's kind of the escape hatch. You look around at the world today. Boy, Lord, take me now.
I don't want to have to sort of stick around and see what further menacing they have planned for us in the future. I mean, we're looking at some horrific things already. If the last three years were any indicator, they might have horrors to which we can only imagine. So we might just say, take me, Lord.
Well, brethren, it might be the case that there's a lot more horrors that you and I have to go through. You look at the history of the church, there were a lot of horrors that the people of God had to encounter before they received that crown. So the problem of the sons of Zebedee, and their mother is inkling here, is that she wants position for her babies. She wants position for her boys.
She wants them to sit at a place of prestige when it comes to the kingdom of Jesus. They want the crown before the cross.
The Cup and the Baptism
Notice how Jesus discourages this thought. Notice what he says in verse 22, 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? So he tells them, they don't know what they're talking about.
They don't know what they're asking. They don't know the nature of the question. And so he's going to set them straight. And later on in the passage, he's going to point to Gentiles and he's going to say, don't rule like them.
The kingdom of God is not, you know, everybody on the bottom serving the guy on the top. Rather, the kingdom of God is to flip that and invert it. If you want to be first in the kingdom, you'll be last. If you want to be great in the kingdom, you'll be least.
So certainly he points to Gentiles as a bad example on how to seek prestige in the kingdom of God. But before that, he deals with this cup and this baptism. What does this mean? Well, the cup is metaphorical.
The cup refers to God's wrath. So look at what he says in response. You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?
You'll meet with that cup again in Gethsemane. Remember when Jesus says, Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. He's not talking about a physical cup. He's talking metaphorically.
And the cup is the cup of God's wrath. You see this in the Psalms, Psalm 11, five and six. You see it in the prophets. God is going to give the cup of his wrath to the nation of Babylon.
This cup signifies the wrath and fury and judgment of God. So when Christ goes to the cross, it's not just as an example. He's not just going there to teach us what it looks like to love one another. He is going there to satisfy divine justice.
He is going there to exhaust the wrath and fury and judgment of God. So he says to the disciples, you don't know anything about this cup. and you haven't even got the ability to drink from this cup. And then he uses another metaphor, and this time baptism. Look at what it says, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with.
Now this is not his first or water baptism that we just saw in Matthew 3, 13 to 17. This is a metaphorical use of the word baptism. Remember the English sort of rendering of baptism? What does it mean?
It means to plunge. It means to dip. It means to immerse. The word was used outside of the Bible to speak to battle, sea battles.
And when a ship was struck by a projectile, it was baptized. That doesn't mean it just sustained a little surface damage. That means that it sunk. That means that it was overwhelmed by the enemy.
And that's the manner in which Jesus is using the language. I mentioned Luke's gospel. Luke 12 50. Jesus says to the disciples, but I have a baptism to be baptized with and how distressed I am till it is accomplished.
So you've got that first baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ wherein we see His act of obedience. He must fulfill all righteousness. But we have this second baptism, a metaphorical use of the word, to underscore His death on the cross. He must drink the cup of God's wrath and He must be baptized.
He must be overwhelmed by divine judgment on behalf of His people. He not only needs to positively work out a righteousness that can be imputed to us, but he also needs to deal with the sin problem. How does he deal with the sin problem? He deals with it by going in or going to that cross in our stead.
He takes our punishment. He takes our penalty. He takes the judgment and wrath of God that you and I deserve. Matthew Poole makes the observation here.
He says, this baptism spoken of here by our Savior. This is a comment on Luke 12. He says, is the same mentioned in Matthew 20, 22 and Matthew 20, 23, and can be understood of nothing but his passion. See, we need both these baptisms.
We need the fulfillment of all righteousness, but we need this overwhelming death on our behalf to cleanse us from our sin and filth. John Gill 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. So that's how he seeks to extinguish this jockeying for position on behalf of the sons of Zebedee.
But notice what he goes on to say with reference to these two men in particular. At verse 23, 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. He's not saying that their death is going to be substitutionary in nature. He's not saying that they have a lot of people that they will die for.
He's simply referring that they're going to meet their end in very unsavory ways. James, the son of Zebedee, gets his head cut off according to Acts chapter 12. John, the son of Zebedee, ends up on the island of Patmos for the Word of God and the testimony of our Lord. Now before you get it in your head, well, what could be wrong with an island out in the Aegean?
It was a rock. It was a prisoner colony. It was exile. It was a bad place to be.
So Jesus underscores that they themselves would know something of suffering for the cause of Jesus Christ our Lord. And then
The Ransom for Many
notice, with reference to our last observation here, he not only gives the revelation of his death in terms of going to Jerusalem, that it will be a metaphorical baptism where he'll be overwhelmed with death, but then he gives the reason, the rationale, the explanation in verse 28. It 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." This functions in two ways in the narrative. It explains why He's going to Jerusalem. Go back to verse 17.
Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the 12 disciples aside on the road and said to them. And then look at chapter 21, verse 1. Now when they drew near Jerusalem, If you've read the story up to this part, you might wonder, why is he going back to Jerusalem? They hate him there.
They despise him there. They loathe him there. They want to kill him there. Well, obviously he knows that, and obviously that's the purpose for which he comes.
So the rationale of verse 28 is not only why he's going to Jerusalem, but the rationale of verse 28 is why he came in the first place. Why the Word became flesh and dwelt among us? Why He assumed our humanity with all the essential properties and the common infirmities thereof and yet without sin? Why does Jesus do what He does?
He came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. This word ransom is closely connected to redemption. It's through the blood of Jesus Christ, we have a ransom. We see that in 1 Timothy 2, verse 6.
We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, Ephesians 1, 7. You've got that redemption background in the book of Exodus. It's God's redemption of the people of Israel out of the land of bondage, out of Egypt. That is the purpose for which the Savior came.
This idea that he's just an ethical teacher, that he's just the starter of a new religion, that he's just a model for our behavior. All of that is true to one degree or other, but the Apostle Paul condemns that mindset when he says the Jews, or the Greeks, seek after signs, and the Jews, for the Jews, the cross is a stumbling block, but for us, those who are saved, Christ is both the wisdom and the power of God. It is redemption that we stand in need of. It is cleansing through His blood.
Our sins need to be forgiven. If you're not a believer here this morning, this is your problem. You may have a lot of problems, economic, family, society, civil government. I'm not going to say you don't.
But your big issue, the big problem that you have today is that God is angry with the wicked every day. I'm not trying to pick on you. I'm not suggesting that I'm somehow better. All of us in this room were conquered by that grace.
We know of which we speak. We know that if God is able to save wretches like us, He's able to save wretches like you as well. We need that ransom. We need that redemption.
We need that righteousness. We need, in summary, to be cleansed in His precious blood and clothed in His absolutely perfect righteousness.
Conclusion
Well, in conclusion, we have the obedience of Jesus Christ as the very linchpin for our salvation. He took on our humanity so He could obey the Father's law in our stead. He took on our humanity so He could suffer the Father's wrath in our stead. He was delivered up for or because of our transgressions, and He was raised for our justification.
That first baptism underscores His active obedience. This second metaphorical one underscores His passive obedience to the law. In fact, our confession says, but by imputing Christ's active obedience unto the whole law and passive obedience in his death for their whole and soul righteousness. If you've missed, you know, the previous however many minutes, let me just tell you, you need righteousness, you need forgiveness, and the only place to get that is in the person and in the work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When this brother and these sisters go into the water today, we don't congratulate them on good decisions or on their better free will than the rest of ours. We praise God. We express gratitude. We welcome them to the family of faith to be sure.
But the reason for the baptistry, the reason for the sinner going into that water and coming up again, is because of the finished work of the Savior. It's because of Christ and Him crucified and resurrected. It's because of what Christ accomplishes in the gospel. And this is why we see the necessity for gospel preaching as crucial.
What does man in sin need, wherever he may be? He needs the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. He needs to hear of this one in whom there is salvation. And by way of encouragement to the three that are being baptized, I always like to read this bit out of Spurgeon's autobiography.
For those of us in our church who've heard this many times, you're gonna hear it one more time, at least, maybe another if we have another baptism in the not too distant future. Spurgeon speaks, and I just say this to encourage the brethren that are going into the water today. May 3rd, in the afternoon, I was privileged to follow my Lord and to be buried with Him in baptism, blessed pool, sweet emblem of my death to all the world. May I henceforward live alone for Jesus, accept my body and soul as a poor sacrifice, tie me unto Thee.
In Thy strength I now devote myself to Thy service forever. Never may I shrink from owning thy name. Witness ye men and angels now if I forsake the Lord. I vow to give glory alone in Jesus and his cross and to spend my life in the extension of his cause in whatsoever way he pleases.
I desire to be sincere in this solemn profession, having but one object in view, and that to glorify God. blessing upon Thy name, that Thou hast supported me through the day. It is Thy strength alone that could do this. Thou hast, Thou wilt. Thou hast enabled me to profess Thee.
Help me now to honor Thee, and carry out my profession, and live the life of Christ on earth. Amen. It's a good reminder, and I want to encourage the newly-to-be-baptized. I don't know how to refer to them.
Baptizees? Bapties? I don't know. But the ones being baptized, I want to encourage you.
See, at our church, when they get baptized, they're also joining our membership. So our church gets a bit stronger today. Not stronger for more numbers, but stronger for more faith. More people conquered by our Savior, and we reflect on that promise that He'll build His church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
So you enter into our church, we want to receive you with open arms and with joyfulness and thankfulness and pray for you, pray for us, and as we go forward in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Spirit, may God indeed bless, and may God indeed help, and may God indeed use His Word for drawing more sinners unto Himself through that blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Closing Prayer
Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the Lord Jesus. We thank you for his life and death and resurrection, for that mission wherein he saves us from our sins.
We pray today for Adrian, for Rihanna, and for Corey. We just commend them to you and to the word of your grace and pray that this would be a most blessed day, that they would echo the sentiments of our brother Spurgeon, that they would resign, resolve to serve you each and every day, to bring glory and honor and praise to you. And may we all be reminded in this local body to go forward in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Bless the preaching of the gospel throughout the earth and add to your church such as should be saved.
And we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.