Saturday June 18 730 8pm William Bell Baptism of Suffering 4

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the All Things Fulfilled broadcast. This is William Bell, and I want to thank you for tuning in right here on the NOW Network. We're here every Saturday from 6.30 until 7 p.m. Central Time, from 7.30 to 8 p.m. Eastern Time, and we're always delighted to have you tune in to be with us. We have been working on a series of lessons on the baptisms found in the New Testament, and from our understanding, we see at least six of them, and we've talked about, I think, about three of them, and this will be number four. We spoke about the baptism of John the Immersive. We talked about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the baptism of fire, and today we're going to be talking about the baptism of suffering. But before we do that, let me make just a couple of announcements. The first is, visit our website at allthingsfulfilled.com, and on the website, you'll find a lot of free materials, articles, hundreds of them, as well as videos. 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And in this video, we want to look at a passage that we find in the scriptures relative to the baptism of suffering. So that is going to be Matthew chapter 20, verse 20 through verse 23. So let's go ahead and get underway. It says, 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 your left, in your kingdom. But Jesus answered and said, You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink of the cup that I am about to drink and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They said to him, We are able. Matthew 20, verse 22. Then in verse 23 says, 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. Now, this context can also be found in Mark's gospel in Mark chapter 10. But what we have here is the baptism of suffering. Jesus spoke of this suffering in these verses when he asked the disciples whether or not they were able to drink from the cup that he was about to drink. He uses the word mellow. There's another example of mellow. And Jesus was about to suffer these things. He had just mentioned it, which I will cover in a moment. But he asked them, Are you able to drink of the cup that I am able, that I am about to drink of? And what is it? Is he referring to when he talks about the cup? He's talking about the cup of suffering and death, the suffering and death on the cross. Now, in the verses prior, verses 17 through 19, he said, or the scripture says, 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 to scourge and to crucify. And the third day he will rise again. Now, who is it that likes to be betrayed? It means to be treacherously abandoned, to be deserted, to be mistreated, usually by a friend or a loved one. Jesus would be betrayed by or to the chief priests and to the scribes by Judas, a disciple, a friend, one of his close friends, the chief priests and the scribes would see that he was put to death, but only after he had undergone a tremendous amount of suffering. And in the process, they were going to mock him. They were going to ridicule him and blaspheme. They were going to scourge or beat and whip him or at least have the Romans to do so and crucify him, which was one of the most cruel forms of punishment of the day. And that would be the ultimate persecution against the Lord. So now this brings us to the subject of the suffering of Christ. The suffering of Christ was so great that during the time that he was in the garden of Gethsemane, and of course he endured suffering throughout his ministry, where they charged him with being the prince of devils and spoke about him, laughing him to scorn, so many other things that they did to him along the way. But his suffering on the road to the cross was so great that he asked his own disciples to watch and to pray with him. And Luke describes the suffering as agony, saying that as Jesus was speaking, Father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. When we read in Matthew's gospel, Matthew said he prayed the same prayer three times, indicating just how serious the matter was, how intensely severe this suffering of having to undergo the cross and to cry out my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But all of these things were very, very significant in terms of the suffering of Christ. And it says, and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. The suffering was overwhelming for Christ. And this is why it is called a baptism of suffering. This is why he alluded to it or referred to it as the baptism that he was baptized with, that he was going to be baptized with. It was a baptism of suffering and overwhelming, a submerging and an immersion into suffering. As the Bible says in Hebrews five and the verses eight, though he were a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And being found Philippians chapter two and verse eight being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. So what we're looking at here is Jesus suffering that are taking him to the cross. And the cross was very, very important in terms of the suffering that he would do on behalf of mankind, but also the time in which it occurred and the event to which it is associated. These sufferings that Christ was about to endure were eschatological sufferings. So there was a baptism of suffering related to the time of the end. The scripture says in Hebrews nine and the verses 26, he then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now once at the end of the ages, he has appeared to put away sin notice by the sacrifice of himself. And so Jesus had to give up his own life. He had to die. He had to suffer. He had to endure the mocking and the cross of thorns, et cetera. The smiting with rods and the beating with the fist, all of these things in order for him to be the savior in order for him to fulfill the promises made by God to the fathers that he would come and that he would die. Just as Isaiah chapter 53 says, those are eschatological sufferings. And I know that Isaiah 53 is a very well-known passage, but I think it's important just for us to interject it into this conversation. In Isaiah 53, the Bible says, who has believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? What is his point? He's talking about the sufferings of Christ for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant. As a root out of a dry ground and has, uh, he has no form of commonness. And when we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he is born our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And by his stripes, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So not only did he have to suffer, but he had to bear the iniquities of the entire world. And in so doing that added to his sufferings, because that meant that, um, he would be separated from the father, uh, from that point of view. Now, um, Jesus therefore suffered in the end of the age, it was an eschatological suffering. And so we need to keep that in mind, especially with the message that we spoke about on last week, when we were talking about, uh, the fire coming forth from the temple when God was coming in judgment. And so here again, we see this, uh, which sets all of that in motion in terms of the debt of Christ and the suffering that he endured prior to his coming to the cross, but also in terms of, uh, dying on the cross. Now these sufferings extended to the disciples. Again, let's notice the question 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 do you see how he's using the word baptism in a figurative sense, in a metaphorical sense to talk about the suffering that he was about to endure? Just as he said, the son of man is going up to Jerusalem and he will be delivered into the hands of the chief priests and the scribes, and they will mock and crucify him, spit upon him, et cetera. And, uh, he's being delivered up to the Gentiles to be crucified. And so they're saying, Lord, we're able to do this very same thing. We can be baptized with the baptism that you are baptized with. So he said to them, you will indeed drink my cup. It's the cup of death. It's a cup of suffering 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. Now, what did he mean by that? He meant according to John chapter 16, verses one and two, that if they were going to follow Christ, they were going to have to deny themselves. This is spoken of in several passages, but one particularly, of course, is Matthew chapter 16, beginning at verse 24. Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Now, where did Jesus's cross lead him? It led him to Calvary. It led him to Golgotha. It led him to death. It led him to suffering and pain and crucifixion, to agony. The Bible says, for whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. But what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul, or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? And so, Jesus was talking about these sufferings that were leading up to the eschatological end. They were eschatological sufferings. They were sufferings designed for that time. And so, he says in verse 27 and 28, for the Son of Man is about to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward each according to his works. Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. So, in speaking of them in John about these sufferings, John chapter 16, for example, Jesus said, these things I have spoken to you that you should not be made to stumble. Now, if you are going to take up the cross as Jesus was telling his disciples, if they were going to take up his cross, if they were going to be baptized with the baptism that he was baptized with and drink the cup of which he drank, then he had to forewarn them so that they would not stumble. As he says in John 16, he says, they will put you out of the synagogues. Now, that's very, very important for us to see that in order for them to follow the Lord and to follow his message, they would be excommunicated. They would be cast out of the synagogues. It's interesting that today where we are not suffering nearly the kind of suffering that they had to endure, that men are afraid to be cast out of their synagogues. They're to be cast out of their congregations. They're afraid to be cast out of their fellowships. If they were to embrace the truth, it says in John 16 and verse two, they will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And that was already taking place in the time of Christ, his parents. When you look in John chapter nine, Jesus was having a conversation with the man who was born blind after he had healed him. And of course the Pharisees came to inquire about the matter, et cetera, and they engaged in conversation. And so this is a little bit of how the conversation went in John nine in verse 18, it says, but the Jews did not believe concerning him that he had been blind and received his sight until they called his parents or the parents of him who had received his sight. And they asked him saying, is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he now see? But his parents answered them and said, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But by what means he now sees, we do not know, or who opened his eyes, we do not know he is of age. Ask him, he will speak for himself. Now they were intimidated. They were afraid. And the reason they were afraid is mentioned in verse 22, because the text says his parents said these things because they feared the Jews for the Jews had already or had agreed already that if anyone confessed that he was the Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. He's going to be excommunicated. Now for many, you know, his parents didn't want that heat. They didn't want to drink that cup. They didn't want to be baptized with that baptism of suffering the anathema of the Jews and being cast out of the synagogue to endure that social stigma of being a castaway. So his parents said he is of age. Ask him. The Bible says they fear the Jews for the Jews had agreed already. See, people have already conspired that if you confess the truth there, this is what they're going to do to you. They've already made up their minds. They've already planned it in these dark back rooms of evil, that this is what they're going to do. And so he says that if anyone would confess that he was the Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. So they called the man who was blind and said to him, give God the glory. We know that this man is a sinner referring to the Lord. He answered and said, whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I know that though I was blind. Now I see. Then they said to him again, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? See, they can't deny it. Everybody knows he was born blind. So since they can't deny it now, they want to know, well, how did he do it? And so he answered them and said, I told you already, but you didn't listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become one of his disciples? Are you inquiring because you are interested in following him in believing him? No, they had ulterior motives. The Bible says in verse 28, then they reviled him and said, you are his disciple, but we are Moses disciple disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses for us, this fellow, we do not know where he is from. The man answered and said to them, why this is a marvelous thing that you do not know where he is, where he's from. Yet he opened his eyes and they said, now we know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone is a whisper of God and does his will, he hears him since the world began. It has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. But now watch, they answered and said to him, you were completely born in sins. And are you teaching us? Watch what they do. And they cast him out. They cast him out of the synagogue. He was excommunicated, but you know, people today fear. They're just totally distraught about the idea of being excommunicated for standing for the truth. There are a lot of people who believe the things that we're saying, but because they fear the Jews, if you please, and I'm using the Jews metaphorically here, the people who act like them, like the ones in the new Testament, lest they be put out of the social status and everything else they have going for them. Sometimes it's money and, but nevertheless, that is the situation. And so they were going to be excommunicated. You know, Jesus was excommunicated. They cast him out. They wanted not only to cast him out, but to throw him over the cliff. So people will do those things. And Jesus spoke to them also in John chapter 16 about these birth pangs. He said to them in verse 20, most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, these are the birth pangs, has sorrow because her hour has come. But as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow. This is the cup. This is the baptism of suffering, but I will see you again. And your heart will rejoice and your joy. No one will take from you all related to the time of the end. And so he spoke of those birth pangs. The apostles in the church experienced that Peter and John were beaten by the council or who had them beaten. Stephen was murdered by the Jews in act seven. James was killed by Herod and he wanted to kill Peter also seeing that he pleased the Jews. The sufferings of that present time were those sufferings that the church was enduring with the view to the coming Parisian. Paul said, for I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory, which is about to be revealed in us. And then Peter wrote, beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you, but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory is revealed, you also may be glad with exceeding joy. And so from that point of view, we can see how this suffering was going on during their time. Now, the last point that we want to make this afternoon or this evening is there was a baptism called the baptism for the dead, but it was in fact the same baptism of suffering. This is found in first Corinthians 15 and verse 29. Now we have the teaching of the Mormons on this text that claim that it is a baptism in order to, or a baptism by proxy, a baptism in order to bring back or to convert members or individuals, I should say, who died without being baptized, who died without being saved, without having faith in the Lord, that a person living could be baptized for them and bring them back. Well, that is as far from the context and the truth as it could be. Remember, Jesus said that if a person dies in their sins, where he is, they could not come. So he didn't give them a second chance. Even in the parable in Luke 16, when the man was in Hades, the rich man, he says, well, Lord, let me tell my five brothers so that they don't come to this place. He said, they have Moses and the prophets. If they don't believe Moses and the prophets, they won't believe one who has risen from the dead. And so from that perspective, you don't get another chance after you die. So this baptism for the dead was not a proxy baptism in the sense that it was designed to bring back those who had been lost, those who were not saved and who died in that condition. That was not the point. Even Paul said, if the dead were not raised, then those who fell asleep in Christ have perished. He didn't say they get another chance. He said they had perished. So what is this baptism? If you look at the context in first Corinthians 15, it is a baptism of suffering. I'm going to do a full lesson on this, uh, on my, uh, am broadcast. And we'll talk about it, but this was the baptism of suffering in first Corinthians 15. Notice he says, otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead do not rise at all, why then are they baptized for the dead? Now watch the context. And why do we stand in jeopardy every hour in jeopardy of what of suffering and dying? I affirm by the boasting in you, which I have in Christ Jesus, I died daily. If in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus. Now let's just think about that. If you fight with a lion, a tiger, a bear, a leopard, or an elephant, et cetera, something of that nature, do you think you won't be injured? Suffer possibly, uh, undergo death. That's what Paul meant. His fighting with these false teachers was a manner of suffering. And he was being persecuted by them as he related many, many times in the scriptures. And that's what the baptism of suffering is all about. We'll talk more about it in other places until next time. This is William saying you have a very pleasant good evening and we'll see you the same time on next week.