Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 722
Delivered on Sunday Morning, November 25, 1866, by C. H. Spurgeon, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
“Jesus answered, ‘I have told you that I am He. If therefore you seek Me, let these go their way,’ that the saying might be fulfilled, which He spoke, ‘Of them whom You gave Me have I lost none.’” John 18:8,9.
THE whole story of our Lord’s passion is exceedingly rich in meaning. One is tempted to linger over every separate sentence of the narratives given by the Evangelists. It is possible to preach several series of sermons upon the whole story, and there is not a single incident, though it may seem to be but accidental, which might not furnish a wealth of holy thought to the careful student.
In looking through this chapter one was greatly tempted to speak awhile upon the Master’s selecting the place of His prayer as the place of His agony and betrayal—the holy prudence and forethought by which He had, as it were, cast up His entrenchments and made His defenses upon the very spot where He knew He should meet the shock of the evening’s first onslaught. This is a lesson to us, Christians, not to venture out into the day’s battle without girding on our armor, nor make a voyage upon the sea of life without having seen to it that the vessel is well supplied against every possible danger which may be encountered upon the storm-tossed sea. Jesus prays before He fights, and so must we if we would overcome.
One is tempted, also, to dwell upon that remarkable expression, “Judas, also, which betrayed Him, knew the place,” to show the futility of knowledge apart from sincerity. Oh, the injuriousness of knowledge, if it is not attended with corresponding Grace! Had the traitor not known he could not have betrayed, and had he not been an intimate friend, he could not have been so base a wretch! Strange, but strangely true is it, that the ability to become the child of perdition by betraying his Master was found in the fact of his having been the near acquaintance of the Savior. He could never have been so sevenfold an inheritor of Hell if he had not been so largely a receiver of the privilege of companionship with Christ.
Direful truth, that to be educated to take the highest degree in Hell it is almost necessary to enter hypocritically into the school of Christ. Terrible reflection, which should well check any of us who make high professions without a corresponding weight of sincerity. But as time does not allow us, like the bee, to gather honey from every flower, we shall dwell upon the text. In this passage there is much instruction and we shall endeavor to draw it forth. And then we shall take the liberty to spiritualize it, to set the words in another sense in order that we may still be promoting our great object of setting forth our Lord Jesus Christ.
I. When we observe the words of the text, we notice upon the very surface a sure proof of THE WILLINGNESS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST TO GIVE HIMSELF TO SUFFER FOR OUR SINS. The voluntary character of Christ’s suffering makes it beam with a matchless splendor of love! He needed not to have died. If it had been His good pleasure He might have tarried gloriously among the songs of angels. He came not to earth to win a crown because He had none, for all honor and glory are His by right.
It was not to earn a dominion, or because He was not Lord of principalities and powers, that He descended from the skies: “Who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that we, through His poverty, might be made rich.” It was a disinterested mission upon which the Redeemer came to the abodes of sinful men. He had nothing to gain— rather He had everything to lose—and yet let me say to correct myself, by that losing He did gain, for as our Mediator, He is clothed with a special glory of unrivalled Grace, unequalled by any other manifestation of the Divine perfections.
The proofs that the Master went voluntarily to His death are very abundant. He rose from supper when He knew that Judas had gone out to betray Him, but He did not seek a hiding place in the corners of Jerusalem, or retire to the calm retreat of Bethany. If He had chosen to parry His betrayer’s thrust that night and to wait until the day, the fickle multitude would have gathered around Him and protected Him from His foes, for they would soon have been won to His side if He would have consented to become their king.
Instead of retreating, even for a moment, Jesus, attended by His disciples, boldly advanced to the spot where Judas had planned to betray Him. He went as calmly as though He had made an appointment to meet a friend there, and would not be late when he arrived. He entered upon His terrible sufferings with His whole heart, with the full concurrence of His whole being having a baptism to be baptized with, and being straitened until it was accomplished. What true courage is in those words, “Arise, let us go from this place,” when He knew that He was going to the Cross! When the band came to take Him, it appears that they did not know Him. “I am He.” He said to them twice, “Whom are you seeking?”