The Lamb of God

A message from John 1:29-37 by Phil Rogers 3/02/08

To listen to Phil's message click here mp3

In the book of Revelation the Apostle John recounts his vision. Read Rev 5:1-14. The Angel in his vision said “Look! See there! The Lion of the Tribe of Judah - and when John turned round he saw a Lamb looking as if it had been slaughtered, yet it was alive. That very same writer, John, now in his nineties, had had a similar experience in his early twenties. He was talking with that strange young man who shared the same name as him, John the Baptiser, who dressed in camel hair like Elijah the prophet. Suddenly he stopped speaking and pointed and said “Look! See there, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” I don’t know what young John expected to see, but as he turned round he saw another young man with a jaunty air and wide grin on his face coming towards them. Let’s read John’s account. Read John 1:29-39.

Lions, lambs? What a strange way to refer to people. Yet to these Jews their whole history was steeped in a rich imagery in which lambs in particular featured heavily. In such an agrarian community lamb was a favourite food. A special treat, that adorned their table particularly at their greatest feast each spring time when they celebrated the Passover. Rather like turkey is for us at our Christmas dinner, lamb was the delicious centrepiece of the Passover meal. The meal took these Jewish celebrants back to a point in time, early in their history. Slaves in the land of Egypt God raised up a leader Moses to free them from the intolerable mistreatment and abuse of their Egyptian overlords. Read Exodus 12:1-14.

The blood of a lamb painted on the doorpost of their homes was a sign to the Angel of death to pass over and not slaughter the eldest males in those houses where he saw the blood. And so from then on whenever the first baby boy was born to a young couple or a male to any of their animals, they would have to give it to God as a sacrifice - but rather than sacrifice it they could redeem it, buy it back from God by offering a sacrifice in its place - a lamb. Also when the Lord gave Moses the law it contained many instructions about making sacrifices. In these lambs features strongly and by these sacrifices sins were believed to be ‘remitted’.

So in the Jewish mind - throught the death of a lamb sins could be ‘taken away’, baby boys lives could be redeemed and its blood could protect them against God’s wrath and his judgment, as it did when the angel of death passed over their houses. Is 53:7

All this and much more is encapsulated in those words of John, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. The Jew had to provide his own lamb for the sacrifices, and if he didn’t own a lamb he would have to pay a lot to buy one. But the amazing message of John was here is God’s Lamb, one that he has provided at no cost to us. It is completely free! The cost to him was unimaginable to us, but to us it is utterly free. The cost to us absolutely nothing - as there is nothing we have that could pay the price and nothing we can do to earn or deserve this gift of his own Son from God. So Jesus the good Shepherd became the Lamb! God became a man for that was the only way he could be a sacrifice for the sins of the world of human beings. A human being had to die in the place of human beings. That was the only way God could take away the sins of the world. So God, the Word, became a baby, a boy, a man, a sacrifice. Jesus the Lamb of God. He was God’s free gift to all those who would accept that gift and would devote themselves to following him.

Although the forgiveness and the acceptance and the freedom that Jesus brings us is completely free, unearned and undeserved, in another sense it will cost us everything. God gives us the benefits of his Lamb on several conditions.
•Firstly that we will turn our backs on going it alone in life, and turn our lives over to God in order to fulfil the purpose for which he created us.
•Secondly that choose to live in a daily relationship with the Lord, continually trusting him for everything and loving him and praising him and serving him. It will cost us our pride, because:
•Thirdly, the way we accept his sacrifice is by being immersed in a pool of water, publically washing away our sins. In baptism we bury of all our independence and self-centredness and we rise up out of the water to live a new life devoted to Christ who sacrificed himself for us.
•Fourthly we open up our lives to receive the power of God’s Holy Spirit. In our passage in Jn 1, not only does John point out Jesus as the Lamb of God, he also tells of the time when Jesus was baptised and John saw the heavens opened and the Spirit of God come down upon him. “I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptise with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptise with the Holy Spirit.’” v33 Jesus the Lamb of God also baptises with the Holy Spirit.

What does this mean? The Holy Spirit comes to live inside your body, filling you with all the God’s fulness, his love, his power: to overcome sin and to exercise spiritual abilities - praying in a language you have never learned, hearing God speak to you... When Jesus sets you free, you really are free, totally forgiven, completely accepted as you are, given new life, set free from guilt and shame. There is nothing like it on earth.

When the followers of John the Baptist saw him point out Jesus a second time and say “Look ! The Lamb of God” they went after him and followed him. Friends this is the most appropriate thing to do - to follow Jesus and see where he takes you. There is no better life than one following Christ and discovering what he has planned for your life.

Response:
1. Have your turned away from running your own life and given your life back to your creator to fulfil the purposes for which he created you?
2. Have you ever buried your independence and self- centredness in baptism and given yourself over to following the Lord, the Lamb of God who gave himself up for you?
3. Have your received the Spirit since you believed and known yourself filled with all the fullness of God?