But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!
3 sermons cite this verse
But our text declares that God has exalted Jesus that He may be to His own chosen people a Prince and a Savior— not that He may be a Prince only, or a Savior only, but that He may be both a Prince and a Savior! He is a Prince to receive royal honors. A Prince to be the Leader and Commander of His people. A Prince whose every word is to be instantly and implicitly obeyed. A Prince before whom we who love Him will gladly bow, even as in Joseph's dream, his brothers' sheaves made obeisance to his sheaf and as they, themselves, afterwards "bowed themselves to him to the earth" when he became a great lord in Egypt. The Lord Jesus Christ is a Prince among men, a Prince in His Church and a Prince in the highest heavens! Indeed, He is more than a Prince as we understand that word, for He is "King of kings and Lord of lords." But He is also a Savior to be trusted. A Savior to be accepted with our whole heart. A Savior who exactly meets our needs, for we feel that we need to be saved, we recognize our inability to save ourselves and we perceive in Him the ability, the Grace, the power and everything else that is required in order to save us! So He is a Savior to be trusted and accepted as well as a Prince to be obeyed and honored! Let us never imitate those who talk of Christ as a Prince, but will not accept Him as a Savior. There are some who speak respectfully of Christ as a great Leader among men, a most enlightened Teacher and a holy Man whose life was perfectly consistent with His teaching so that He can be safely followed as an Example. He is their Prince, but that is all. We cannot occupy such a position as that! If we were to say that Christ is our Prince but not our Savior, we would have robbed Him of that honor which is, perhaps, dearer to Him than any other! It was not simply to reign over the sons of men that He came from Heaven to earth—He had legions of nobler spirits than those that dwell in bodies of clay, everyone of whom would gladly fly at His command to obey His behests! Besides, if He had pleased to do so, He had the power to create unnumbered myriads of holy beings who would have counted it their highest honor to be subservient to His will! Mere dominion is not what Christ craved—from of old His delights were with the sons of men because He had covenanted with His Father that He would save them. Therefore was He called Jesus, because He came to save His people from their sins! In order to accomplish that great purpose, it was necessary for Him to take upon Himself our nature and to live a life of perfect obedience to His Father's will and, at last, to die a shameful death upon the Cross that He might offer the one Sacrifice for sins, forever, that alone could bring salvation to all who believe in Him! We never read that Jesus said to His disciples, "I am longing for the hour when I shall take the reins of government into My hand and wear upon My head the crown of Universal Sovereignty." But we do read that He said to them, "I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitened till it is accomplished." We never read that He said to the Jews, "I am come to rein over you." On the contrary, when men would have taken Him by force and made Him a king, He hid Himself from them. He was a King, but not a man-made king, and His rule was to be a contrast to that of every other monarch! Christ's own description of His mission was, "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." I think that our royal Savior puts the saving before the ruling—and if I call Him, Prince, and deny Him the title of Savior, He will not thank me for such maimed and mutilated honors! No, God exalted Him to be a Prince and a Savior—and we must receive Him in both offices, or not at all. …
2. The manner in which this bitter cup was now set in Christ’s view. (1.) He had a lively apprehension of it impressed at that time on his mind. He had an apprehension of the cup that he was to drink before. His principal errand into the world was to drink that cup, and he therefore was never unthoughtful of it, but always bore it in his mind, and often spoke of it to his disciples. Thus Matt. xvi. 21. “From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.” Again ch. xx. 17, 18, 19. “And Jesus going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death. And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.” The same thing was the subject of conversation on the mount with Moses and Elias when he was transfigured. So he speaks of his bloody baptism, Luke xii. 50. “But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” He speaks of it again to Zebedee’s children. Matt. xx. 22. “Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able.” He spake of his being lifted up. John viii. 28. “Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.” John xii. 34. “The people answered him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man?” So he spake of destroying the temple of his body, John ii. 19. ” Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” And he was very much in speaking of it a little before his agony, in his dying counsels to his disciples in the 12th and 13th ch. of John. Thus this was not the first time that Christ had this bitter cup in his view. On the contrary, he seems always to have had it in view. But it seems that at this time God gave him an extraordinary view of it. A sense of that wrath that was to be poured out upon him, and of those amazing sufferings that he was to undergo, was strongly impressed on his mind by the immediate power of God; so that he had far more full and lively apprehensions of the bitterness of the cup which he was to drink than he ever had before, and these apprehensions were so terrible, that his feeble human nature shrunk at the sight, and was ready to sink. …
Moreover, God, in choosing Christ to suffer in our place has been pleased to lay help upon One that is mighty, upon One that is mighty to save. O my Soul, delight in the thought that Christ was my Substitute! If I had been told that an angel had done his best to save me, I would feel unsafe. If I had been told that all the holy men in all the world had striven to save me, I would have felt insecure. But if the very Christ of God, Himself, the Eternal One, has deigned to bear my iniquities, why, then, should I fear? The mighty Savior, the Almighty Savior, can surely put away my sins! There is help laid upon One that is mighty! The Lord also laid our sins upon Christ because it was Christ's desire that it should be so. Do you remember how He said, "I have a baptism to be baptized with"? It was the baptism of His sufferings! "And how am I straitened till it is accomplished!" And long before that He had said, "Lo, I come; in the volume of the Book it is written of Me, I delight to do Your will, O God, yes, Your Law is in My heart." And then He adds, "Sacrifice and offering You would not, but a body have You prepared Me." And He longed to come, and in that body, bear His people's sins! And in that body prove that He had a love for them which many waters could not quench, and floods could not drown, for down into the deeps He would go with His beloved Church and never come up again until He could bring her up with Him, as He has done, to the praise of the Glory of His Grace! Therefore, you see, God is honored, His Grace is honored, we, ourselves, are comforted by have a mighty Savior, and Christ's own longings are contented by having sin laid upon Him. …