Behold the Lamb of God
John 1:29
Intro
For many centuries the people of Israel had been longing and looking for the promised Messiah who was to redeem them from the curse of evil and from the inevitable consequences of sin.
There appeared on the scene a man, chosen and endowed by God, to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah, and he was to do this by gathering about himself a group of people who by disposition would be prepared to become followers of and coworkers with the Messiah.
The piety of this man, John the Baptist, was so eminent that many people took him to be the Messiah. Again and again they came and asked him if he was the Promised One, the Anointed One, the one about whom the prophets had spoken. Again and again John the Baptist denied that he was the Promised One. He introduced himself simply as a voice crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.” He challenged people to turn away from the love of evil and turn to the way of personal faith and righteousness. Those who heeded his message were thus prepared for the appearance of the Messiah.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, after living the first thirty years of his life in the city of Nazareth, went to John for baptism. Immediately following his baptism, he was led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness to be tested and to be tempted by the Evil one. After our Savior overcame these temptations and demonstrated his superiority to the power of Satan, we find him coning to John the Baptist again. When John the Baptist saw Jesus approaching, he said to his disciples who were gathered around him, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)
This descriptive phrase by which our Lord was introduced came straight from the heart of the Old Testament prophets. From the book of Gensis through the Psalms and the Prophets, the Messiah is frequently spoken of as the Lamb of God. The lamb was the animal of sacrifice by which atonement was made form sin. The ceremonial death of the lamb was a picture in which people’s sins would be covered and removed and they would be forgiven through the blood of Christ. To the hearts of John’s disciples, this phrase, “the Lamb of God,” had a significance that it would not have for the modern-day man on the street if someone were to appear and say, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” The announcement of John contained eternal, timeless truth. In one sentence he stated the need of man and the provision of God. Even for this modern day the imperative of John the Baptist rings down through the corridors of time, and there is nothing that we need more today than to “behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
I. The Lamb of God came because of sin.
a. We assemble from Sunday to Sunday in classroom and sanctuary in order that with the eye of our soul we might “behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
i. This is a sight of which the eyes never grow tired.
ii. This is a sight that can always bless the heart, challenge the mind, sway the will, and deepen the faith.
iii. So today, it is my prayer that somehow during this service you might be able to “behold the Lamb of God.”
iv. In this statement, “the sin of the world,” John the Baptist was speaking about the world’s greatest problem.
b. There are many superficial diagnoses of what ails the world.
i. Some people believe that through education the ills of humanity can be eliminated.
1. Certainly the value of good education is not to be underestimated.
ii. Others believe that the solution to our problem here in America is to eliminate the slums and by means of an extensive urban renewal program eliminate the ghettos that are a constant breeding place for crime and delinquency.
1. Definitely something needs to be done about this.
iii. Others would say that the greatest problem in the world today is the threat of terrorism.
1. Somehow we need to recognize that these issues of problems are but the outcroppings of something that is deeper.
iv. The heart of our problem is SIN.
c. When many of us think in terms of sin, we think of this little thing or that little thing or a particular act or attitude.
i. We fail to recognize that these are but the fruit of the heart condition called sin.
ii. John the Baptist did not say, “Behold the Lamb of god, which taketh away the sins of the world.”
1. He went deeper than that.
2. Jesus Christ came to deal with the core of the problem that plagues us all; he came “to take away the sin of the world.”
3. When John pointed to Jesus, he was pointing to the one who came to deal with our deepest need.
d. What is the greatest need of your heart and life today?
i. Young people may say, “My greatest need is to finish my college education.”
ii. Another person may say, “My greatest need is financial. I need money to pay off my debts.”
iii. Couples experiencing martial discord may say that peace and harmony in the home is the greatest need they have.
iv. When we take all these problems and analyze them, looking at ourselves as we really are, we come to realize that behind our uneasiness, behind our frustration, behind our failure, behind our shortcomings, is this thing we call sin.
v. It is not just a question of if the wife would do this of the husband would do that, everything would be all right.
vi. It is not merely if the son would quit doing this or the daughter would start doing something else, then everything would be perfect.
e. All of us need to recognize that our greatest need is for a solution to our sin problem.
i. Only Jesus Christ can deal with this problem adequately.
ii. Only Jesus Christ can solve this problem for the world, for the nation, for your home, and for your individual life.
iii. If a man has skin cancer and considers it merely as a mild skin rash, he is in great danger.
1. He is laboring under and illusion.
2. Often we fail to diagnose what our problem really is, and consequently, we do not know how to treat it.
f. John the Baptist would point us to hi who alone can deal with the deepest need of our lives.
i. Jesus Christ came into the world not just to live a beautiful life or to give voice to pious platitudes.
ii. He did not come into the world merely to heal the sick, give sight to the blind, restore hearing to the deaf, and make the lame to walk,
iii. Jesus Christ came into this world primarily to deal with my sin problem and your sin problem.
iv. The angel said to Joseph concerning Mary, “She shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).
v. Jesus himself said, “Even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
vi. Paul wrote to the Romans, “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
II. The Lamb of God takes away the punishment of sin.
a. Sin has never been a popular subject.
i. It is a negative subject, and people do not like to hear about it.
ii. I do not even like to think about it.
iii. Yet it is the problem with which all of us must deal.
iv. Jesus Christ came into this world to take care of the sin problem and to help us with the biggest problems we have.
v. He came into this world that he might bear the punishment for our sins.
vi. Sin must be punished.
vii. Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.”
viii. It is impossible to sin without suffering.
ix. Jesus Christ came into this world to suffer for our sins in the sense in which our sins separate us from God.
b. Jesus went to the cross and suffered condemnation, isolation, agony, and death as a substitute for us that he might bear the punishment of our sin.
i. Our only hope of escaping a Christ-less, hopeless eternity is through the fact that Jesus Christ loved us to the extend that he died in our place on the cross.
ii. He took the “rap” for you and for me.
iii. He suffered in our place.
iv. You and I should ‘behold the Lamb of God” suffering the unutterable agony and anguish of the cross.
v. The Scriptures tell us that Jesus Christ died for our sins.
1. His death on the cross was not an accident in the plan of God.
2. His death on the cross was not the death of an apostle of some lost cause.
3. It was not an emergency venture.
vi. It was the plan of God that Jesus Christ should demonstrate God’s immeasurable love by dying in my place and your place.
c. Sometimes we forget that Jesus died for our sin.
i. Behold, gaze upon, focus your attention upon him who came to take away the sin of the world.
ii. He took away the punishment of our sin, that punishment that would separate us from God, by dying on the cross in my place and your place.
III. The Lamb of God takes away the power of sin.
a. This Lamb of God comes into our hearts to take away the power of sin and to deliver us from the practice of sin and from the evil nature within us.
b. Romans 6:14 says, “For sin shall not have dominion over you.”
i. We are not to be slaves of sin.
ii. God would not be a good God if he placed within our hearts a hunger and thirst for a holy life but did not also make available to us the resources and the strength to enable us to live a holy life.
iii. And so Jesus Christ came into the world that he might deliver us from the power, the practice, and the habit of sin.
1. He does this by means of his church.
a. It is the plan and purpose of God that everyone of his disciples be a part of the church, a community of the redeemed, a family of the forgiven, a fellowship of he twice born, a group in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, a people who practice the law of live and live by the rule of mercy and mutual help and encouragement.
b. The church is a part of God’s plan to deliver us from the power of sin.
2. Our Lord would deliver us from the power of sin through His Bible.
a. You cannot be victorious over the evil within you and you cannot escape the evil that is about you if you are a stranger to the pages of this blessed book; If you do not memorize and meditate on its truths and hide them in your heart, if you do not feast you soul upon it as daily food, if you do not make it the rule of your life.
b. When you take the precious, divine, living Word of God and make it a part of your way of life, you will find that this is God’s way of helping you live a victorious life.
IV. The Lamb of God takes away the love of sin (2 Cor. 5:17)
a. Jesus Christ came into the world not only to take away the punishment of our sin and deliver us to a life of righteousness; he also came into our hearts and lives to destroy our love for sin.
b. Many people have no interest in becoming a Christian because they are infatuated with the pleasures of sin.
c. But these pleasures are counterfeit and destructive.
d. Only with Jesus Christ in the heart can a person fall out of love with sin and fall in love with the righteousness, holiness, and purity that are good, kind, merciful, and gracious.
V. The Lamb of God will take away from the presence of sin.
a. Ultimately, this Lamb of God who came to deliver us from the punishment, power, and love of sin will also deliver us from the very presence of sin.
b. Have you ever knelt to pray only to discover that the Satan was in the closet of prayer with you and that in your most sacred moments, the most violent, sinful thoughts would enter your mind?
i. Where did these thoughts come from?
ii. Well, they come from our sinful human nature and from Satan working to tempt and destroy each of us.
c. Have you ever been distributed by the fact that even when you come to the house of God to worship you are out of tune with God?
i. You can’t seem to focus, and the message from God’s Word doesn’t sem to sink in.
ii. You eagerly wait for the pastor to pronounce the benediction so that you can go home or out to lunch.
iii. Have you wondered what is wrong?
iv. Paul writes in Ephesians 6 that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of darkness.
d. One of the wonderful things about heaven is that Satan, which we have been talking about will be no more.
i. Jesus Christ came into this world that ultimately he might deliver us from the presence of sin and take us into the home of his heavenly Father.
ii. There nothing shall enter in that can defile, pollute, or corrupt in any manner.
iii. There our praise to God will be perpetual.
iv. There we will be purified.
v. And there by the grace of God we will worship and praise him without the limitations that we know in this life.
Closing
As followers of Jesus Christ, with the eye of our faith, let us behold the Lamb of God and adore him, love him, admire him, and obey him. Let us behold him and not only adore him, but also let us decide to serve him lovingly and obediently.
If you have not yet fastened your eyes on Jesus in faith to trust and receive him as your Savior, then do so today. He wants to be your Savior, teacher, friend, and guide. Your decision to receive him will permit him to take away the sin that has separated you from God.
