Because of the cross, Christianity is a way of life. Every one of Satan’s efforts to tempt Jesus was aimed at getting him to bypass the cross. Satan never tried to convince Jesus that he wasn’t the Son of God or that he didn’t have “all power in heaven and in earth.” But he did try to persuade him to choose some route besides the cross.
This is the manuscript of the first sermon in that series. In this sermon John the Baptist identifies Jesus to the world as the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"
For an audio recording click the YouTube link at the end of the manuscript.
John 1:29-34 NIV The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.” Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”
Introduction
As we look forward to Easter (Resurrection Day) I’m starting a series that will take us to Easter Sunday. The title of the series is “The Centrality of the Cross.” The Cross is the most important thing in Christianity. Without it Christianity is just another religion.
Throughout the more than two thousand years of Christian history, the cross has been the focal point of our faith. Every other aspect of Christianity is given validity and power because of the cross and what it stands for.
Because of the cross, Christianity is a way of life. Every one of Satan’s efforts to tempt Jesus was aimed at getting him to bypass the cross. Satan never tried to convince Jesus that he wasn’t the Son of God or that he didn’t have “all power in heaven and in earth.” But he did try to persuade him to choose some route besides the cross.
Mathew 4: 3, 6, and 9 are examples of Satan’s attempts.
Matthew 4:3, 6, 9 ESV And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, "'He will command his angels concerning you,' and "'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'" And he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."
But the cross was central in Jesus’ mind. Time and again, in his words and in his actions, the cross and its redemptive message surfaced and confronted the people he talked with.
Luke 14:26-27 NIV “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Matthew 16:24 NIV Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
It was also a consistently troubling thing to those who listened to Him, because the cross it was offensive to the Jews. Not only was it used to execute people but the scriptures at that time said that a curse came along with it.
Deuteronomy 21:22-23 NIV If someone guilty of a capital offense is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
With that background of the importance of the Cross to those of us who call ourselves Christians, let's look at our text for today
Now let’s look at our text for today;
Text: “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’” (John 1:29 NIV).
1. The witness of John (John 1:19–28)
What we see is that John the Baptist identified Jesus as the Lamb of God and God’s Chosen One. Why is it important that this particular person made this declaration?
First a little about this John the Baptist character;
Matthew 3:1-7 NIV In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ” John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
A. John was a recluse who lived in the Jordan River Valley, and, to say the least , he was an unusual man in many respects.
He dressed strangely, wearing a coat of coarse camel hair. His diet was locusts and wild honey. He was definitely not a social person. But he was a man with a mission—a mission to prepare the way for the coming Messiah. He was the one who came before the King to announce Him. As it said in verse 23 of first chapter of John, he was “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ”
B. It was also John’s unpopular duty to shock people into awareness of their sin and of their need to repent and forsake their sins.
His was the first prophetic voice to be heard among God’s people since the days of Malachi four hundred years earlier. The tasks of the Old Testament prophets was to warn the nations of Israel and Judah of the consequences of turning away from God to idolatry and the sin that came from that. Their warning was that if they didn’t repent and turn back to God they would be punished, Jerusalem and the nation destroyed and they would be exiled in captivity and that’s what happened. Here are the last words of Malach, the last book in the Old Testamenti:
Malachi 4:5-6 ESV "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction."
So, many of the people who heard John wondered if he was Elijah.
John 1:19-21 ESV And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ." And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No."
No one living, at that time, had ever heard a true prophet of God, and they had not seen anybody like John who had been filled by the Spirit of God who was used as a voice through which God himself spoke. John’s word had the kind of piercing authority that disturbed consciences, confronted minds, and penetrated hearts.
So the priests and Levites wanted to know who this man was.
They suggested three people who John might claim to be: the Messiah, Elijah, or “that prophet who is to come.” John’s answer was that he was nothing more than a voice crying in the wilderness, pleading with humanity to prepare the way for the King. He told them that his John’s witness and influnce was goint to fade away so that Jesus Christ could be seen and elevated. He saw himself only as a finger pointing to Christ.
John 3:27-30 ESV John answered, "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.' The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease."
He was talking about the man that he had earlier announced as the Lamb of God.
(John 1:29 NIV) “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’” .
Our text wasn’t the only time that John identified Jesus as the Lamb of God.
John 1:35-36 NIV The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
A. Here appears the title of Jesus that is woven again and again into the language of the New Testament—the Lamb of God.
What was John thinking when he made this incomparable that Jesus was the Lamb of God. Well let's use our sanctified imagination for a few minutes..
The story of the Passover was cherished and very important in Jewish culture and it was celebrated in every Jewish family at that time.
So John may have been thinking, Every year during the Passover, thousands of lambs are slain on the temple altar. But you continue to sin, you continue to dishonor God, and break his commandments. Here is Jesus He is the Lamb who will provide the sacrifice to end all sacrifices for sin.
B. Now John was the son of a priest so he was familiar with the rituals of the temple and its many sacrifices.
You can read about John’s father and the fact that he was a priest in Luke 1:5-25.
Being the son of a priest John knew that every morning and evening a lamb was sacrificed in the temple for the sins of the people. As long as the temple stood, this daily sacrifice was made. In giving Jesus this symbolic title, John may have been thinking, In the temple two lambs are offered daily to make restitution for your sins, but you continue to sin because you know that tonight, tomorrow, and the next day more lambs will be slain for your sins! But there is a Lamb who will die one time, and his death will have the power to atone for your sins once and for all and to also change your lives.
C. There are two great pictures of the Lamb recorded in the Old Testament .
Both of these prophets had the vision of One to come who would, by his persecution and sacrifice, redeem his people.
Jeremiah 11:18-19 NIV Because the Lord revealed their plot to me, I knew it, for at that time he showed me what they were doing. I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against me, saying, “Let us destroy the tree and its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more.”
Isaiah 53:7 NIV He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
So maybe John was thinking, Your prophets dreamed and preached about One who was to come who would suffer and die for humanity. Well He has come! He’s here.
D. There is sheer wonder in the name “the Lamb of God.”
The title the Lamb of God appears twenty- nine times in the book of Revelation alone. To the Apostle John, who recorded the revelation that Jesus gave him, the Lamb of God became one of the most precious titles of Christ and that title sums up his love, sacrifice, and triumph.
Revelation 5:6, NIV Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
11-14 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!” The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
3. Then there was the witness of the Holy Spirit that Jesus was God’s Chosen One. (John 1:32).
John 1:32 ESV And John bore witness: "I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.
In a flash of divine revelation, John knew immediately that it was the Holy Spirit coming to reside in the Lord Jesus.
How did he come to that conclusion?
In Palestine the dove was a sacred bird.
Genesis 1:2 NIV Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
In Genesis 1:2 we read that the Spirit of God hovered (and the Hebrew word for hovered is 'rachaph’ and it suggests fluttering) upon the surface of the waters that covered the dark world. It is a word used to describe a bird brooding over its nest in order to bring forth life. The rabbis used to say that the Spirit of God moved and fluttered like a dove over the ancient chaos, breathing order and beauty into it. So the picture of the dove was one that all Jews knew and loved.
A. The Old Testament word for “spirit “ is ruach, which means “wind.”
To the Jews, three basic ideas of the Spirit existed. Remember John says that he saw the Spirit descend like a dove. The Spirit was power—like that of a rushing, mighty wind. The Hebrew word for spirit is ruach, which means “wind.”
The Spirit was also life—the very center and essence of life. And the Spirit was God himself.
So, to John, this symbolic demonstration, with the dove, expressed to him: “This man is God! This man is the unlimited possessor of God’s power! This man is the source of all true life!”
B. After his baptism by John, Jesus went into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
There, with perfect timing and expertise, Jesus fielded each of Satan’s temptations with the Word of God.
Matthew 4:4, 7, 10-11 ESV But he answered, "It is written, "'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'" Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, "'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'" Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
Then he started his ministry. He chose twelve disciples whom he would teach his way of life. At the same time, he would be preparing them to accept him as the Lamb of God who would die to provide atonement for the sins of the world.
Conclusion
In the very first week of Jesus’ public ministry Jesus was presented to the world by his forerunner, John the Baptist, as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” The cross was always in the background.
An old English preacher who had spent time in the early days of the United States often used illustrations from his the time that he lived on the American prairies. He told of a prairie fire and described the way in which the Indians saved their wigwams from the blaze by setting fire to the dry grass immediately adjoining their settlement. They do that because “The fire cannot come where the fire has already been!” Today we know that firefighters when fighting the kind of big fires we have here in southern California set back fires. Then this preacher said “That is why I call you to the cross. Judgment has already fallen there, at the cross, and can never come again. He who takes his stand at the cross is safe forevermore. He can never come into condemnation; he is passed from death unto life. He is at perfect peace in God’s safety zone!”
Romans 8:1-4 NIV Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Romans 8:31-39 NIV What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Eternal safety can be found only in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; nowhere else can we experience the cleansing redemption that makes us God’s children.
As John the Baptist said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"