“The Lamb of God”
[John 1:29-34]
April 1, 2010 Old First Presbyterian (Newark)
Last week, we saw the priests and the Levites question John the Baptist about who he was, and we saw John deny that he was the Savior, Elijah, or the Prophet. He said that he was the herald – the voice – that Isaiah prophesied would come to announce that the Savior had come. And John criticized the priests and Levites for being concerned with him when the Savior was in their midst, and they didn’t recognize Him.
Today I’d like to quickly look at Who Jesus is and what He came to do, as we have heard it expressed in the Scripture that I read:
The next day – the day after John had this discussion with the priests and Levites, Jesus came towards him and John announced, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!” Now, did John mean that Jesus was furry and had four legs? Of course not. What John was saying is that Jesus fulfilled the sacrificial system and, specifically, the feast of the Passover, which began Monday evening this year.
We will remember that God led the people of Israel out of Egypt, and the night that He freed them, He told them to sacrifice a lamb and to spread its blood on the lintel and doorposts of their homes. “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ‘This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight” (Exodus 12:1-6, ESV).
John was drawing a parallel between the reconciling effect of the blood of the lamb and the reconciling effect of the Blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God. This made no sense to the priests and the Levites. They would have understood if Jesus had come as a savior and prophet – someone to challenge the social norms and offer wisdom. They would have understood if Jesus had come as a savior and king – to overthrow the oppression of Rome and make them a free and powerful nation. But the idea that Jesus came to be the Savior Priest, Who offered Himself up as the Sacrificed Lamb – as the author of Hebrews goes to great lengths to explain – that just didn’t make sense to them.
One reason it didn’t make sense to them is that they didn’t think they had such a big sin problem that a savior was needed to make things right. They thought that they were pretty good people, and if there were any little slips here and there, it could be covered through the sacrifices.
But John makes it clear that Jesus came to take away sin – because we are all sinners who can never do enough to make ourselves right with God. We are all in need of a Savior Who will pay our debt to God for sin and credit us with His Righteousness. And, John tells us, this Savior is not just for the Jews, as many thought, but He is the Savior of every type of people in the whole world. There is One Way and One Savior Who can make us right with God, and He is Jesus, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world.
As Isaiah prophesied, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7, ESV). And as Peter wrote, “Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (I Peter 1:18-19, ESV).
John continued by saying that Jesus is the Savior he kept mentioning – the One Who was greater than John because He was before John. And we might want to ask John what he meant by that – after all, John the Baptist, the son of Elizabeth, was six months older than his cousin, Jesus. John was before Jesus, as far as human birth is concerned. But that is not what John was referring to – John was making it clear that Jesus is not just a Man – though He is a Real Human Being, but – as we saw in the opening verses of John – Jesus is at the same time the One Eternal God. So, John was pointing to Jesus’ Divinity by saying that He was before him.
And John confessed that growing up, he didn’t know that Jesus was the Savior. John had been told that the Savior would be revealed to him – that when He baptized the Savior, God the Holy Spirit would descend and remain on Him, and that would be how John would know Him. That was why John was baptizing – even without the permission of the Sanhedrin – God told him to baptize that it might be clear Who the Savior is.
We read, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:13-17, ESV).
So we see that, in John’s confession, we are taught that Jesus is the Eternal God. Jesus fulfilled the Sacrificial Law on behalf of all of the types of people in the world. And, as the Priest, Sacrifice, and Savior, He makes all those who will believe in Him right with God.
We should keep in mind that the image of Jesus as the Sacrificial Lamb did not end that first Holy Week with His Crucifixion: when John, the writer of the Gospel, was exiled on the island of Patmos received visions from God. In part we read, “And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
“And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.’
“Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and glory and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!’ And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!’ And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ and the elders fell down and worshiped” (Revelation 5:6-14, ESV).
The Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, the Sacrificial Lamb, Who gave Himself to satisfy the debt to God the Father as our Substitute and makes our accounts full of His Righteousness, our Risen Savior, is the One Holy God, Who is worthy of worship.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, as we celebrate the days of holy week, we are reminded that You came to earth in the Person of Jesus to fulfill Your Sacrificial Law, standing as the High Priest over the sacrifice of Yourself. Help us to understand more of the mystery of our salvation. And may You receive all the glory and all the honor. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
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