The Lamb of God | Sermon 09/25/2022

Apologia Utah

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John chapter 1. After this sermon, we're only going to have one more sermon in John chapter 1, then we'll be moving on.

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We're going to be in verses 29 through 34 today of John chapter 1. And the title of this sermon today,

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I could really pick no other. It is, The Lamb of God. The Lamb of God.

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So starting in verse 19 of chapter 1 of the Gospel according to John, hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true

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God. Verse 29.

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The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

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This is he on behalf of whom I said, After me comes a man who has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me.

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I did not recognize him, but so that he might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.

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John testified, saying, I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and he remained on him.

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I did not recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me,

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He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is the one who baptizes in the

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Holy Spirit. I myself have seen and have testified that this is the

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Son of God. Thus ending the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray quickly, church.

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Father, again, we pray to you now. I ask you, Lord, that you would speak through me, that you would use me as a vessel,

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Lord, to bring about the message you want for your people, Father. Lord, I thank you for this passage.

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At the very heart of it is the Gospel, Lord. It is the good news. You can't miss it, Lord. So I pray that today we would leave here being impressed with that very thing, that Christ is the

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Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, and what that means for all of us as people have turned to follow him.

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Lord, please help your people to focus in on the word today. And Lord, help me to speak in a way that is helpful and clear, and let it always be true.

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I pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. So in England, there has been the centuries -long tradition of knighthood.

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Knighthood. A young man was made a knight by a superior or a lord or a monarch, and the knight's sword would be girded onto his waist, while the person knighting him would take their sword, and they would bring it to him.

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And what they used to do, at least, they would kind of hit the side of their cheek with the flat side of the sword on each side, and kind of go from shoulder to shoulder, and even strike the cheek slightly there.

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And that was called dubbing. That was doubling, dubbing. And it symbolized that that would be the only strike a knight would receive without fighting back.

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Every other blow would be something he would defend against. And so the church eventually,

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Church of England became more involved in the knighthood process. The evening before being made a knight, the young man would have to bathe.

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He'd wash away his sins in this bath. Very interesting. And he'd put on white clothes and a red cloak overneath those white clothes.

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And all night, this young man would kneel in prayer. He would kneel in prayer before an altar with his weapons laid upon it.

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Very interesting. In the morning, there would be a mass in the chapel with many knights and ladies there.

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And the priests would bless the young man's sword and fasten it around his waist.

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The young man would take an oath. An oath against evildoers. An oath against all wrong.

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He would take an oath to protect widows, orphans, and the poor. He would give his very life for it.

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Then spurs were put on the back of his heels. They were attached there. And the priests would do the dubbing.

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Okay. Now, in our age, it is quite different.

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It's changed. The process and requirements have changed quite a bit to become a knight.

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In many ways, it's more like a Nobel Peace Prize. In fact, you can find online consultants.

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And they'll help coach you on how you can become a knight in England. And you'll pay a fee to them.

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And they'll make sure you can get into knighthood. So different compared to that warrior status that was happening there.

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In many cases, though, today, people simply want that title.

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They want the title of knight. They want to have sir or lady placed at the beginning of their name.

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They think it means something. That they themselves would have more inherent value.

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And titles can carry with them power or status. Especially with the position that it's labeling.

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So you have, of course, you have kings and queens, princes and princesses, dukes, earls, counts, barons.

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Those are just royalty names. You also have, you know, of course, military titles and stuff like that.

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So for many, they want the title. They want the title to demonstrate to people their greatness.

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Look who I am. Sir Wade Orsini. That sounds strange. But a title shouldn't instill greatness in a person.

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It should actually be the greatness of that person that makes that title great.

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That that is an amazing individual. That is a person gifted by God. And thus far in the gospel, according to John, we have seen

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Jesus called the Word. He is the logos. And that title, of course, speaks to his creation abilities, his revelatory powers.

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He was called the life. I told you that is the zoe in the Greek. He is the life.

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He is the light of all men. These titles show that in Jesus is life.

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Life and light originate from Jesus. Whether physical or spiritual, it all has its origin in him.

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In fact, if you remember, he was called the true light. The true light.

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The one from whom all truth and goodness originates. And then the Word became flesh, we saw in the prologue.

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The Word became flesh. Jesus became flesh. And he tabernacled among us. And so then his title then became

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Monogenes Theos. Monogenes Theos. That is the one and only son of God who is

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God. Monogenes Theos. Jesus was then, in verse 17, called the

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Christ for the first time. In verse 17, which means Messiah. He is the anointed one.

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The Jews would have known that title very well, Messiah. The one prophesied about with that title would bring an everlasting kingdom.

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An everlasting world that would never fade away. And peace on this earth.

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He would bring salvation to his people. And so the prologue finished by calling

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Jesus the exegesis of God. He is the fullest manifestation.

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The full explanation. The highest self -disclosure of God on earth.

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We have seen God with our own eyes now, in a sense. The invisible has become visible with God.

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If you haven't seen that sermon, check that out. That would make more sense. And it was alluded to in our last sermon that Jesus is the prophet of Deuteronomy 18.

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The prophet who is to rise amongst their kinsmen and become the prophet of God.

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The long -awaited prophet who would speak directly from God because he is God. All that Jesus speaks is the word of God.

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And now we see a new title. We see a new title here in our text. And like everything else in the

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Bible, it's not purposeless. It's not vain. It has meaning.

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And its meaning is significant. And this title should speak volumes to us. Just as much as it spoke volumes to those first century

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Jews. So starting in verse 29, let's go into more of what this title means.

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Verse 29. It says, So we are now at the next day after the delegation from Jerusalem came to investigate

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John. To see who he was and by what authority he was baptizing people. We're now the next day.

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We've moved on. And Jesus comes to the place near the Jordan River where John was baptizing.

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John saw Jesus, it says. And what he sees occur with Jesus is part of his testimony and witness as well.

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The apostolic author writes Jesus came to John. He has finally arrived.

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Jesus comes to his creation. He then comes to his people. And we will see then he comes to the apostles.

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And he comes to the disciples. And he comes to the world. He pursues others.

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He sovereignly comes after them. That is to say, without Jesus coming, without Jesus seeking us, we would never know him.

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Without Jesus coming for us and seeking us, we would never have known him.

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So there they are. There are probably people everywhere. They're getting baptized.

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There's people all around. There's probably a lot of commotion, a lot of people by the

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Jordan River there. And John yells out, behold.

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In the Greek, the word behold would be used to gain attention of people before something significant was said.

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It would have been more significant than just how we know behold today. It would have been very much here now.

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Look over here. Stop what you're doing. See this. It's to grab everyone's attention and say, you've got to see what's coming because something important is on its way.

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And that's what he's trying to do. And so then the most glorious announcement in the creation of the world is announced.

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Behold the Lamb of God. Behold the

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Lamb of God. And this lamb is unique. This is no regular lamb.

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This one is of God. This lamb is of God. This is not a lamb of men, but of God.

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God has provided this one. And this lamb is God. This lamb is

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God. It points to his function and his nature. Function being that he takes away the sin of the world.

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Jesus Christ, the righteous substitute. He's divine and yet also human in nature.

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That's what it is. He is God. Son of God, but also born from Mary.

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He yielded up his life so that we would have life. He is the sinless for the sinful.

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He is the just for the unjust. That is Jesus Christ. The spotless lamb came for blemished dogs, so to speak.

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And yet as angels look on from heaven with wonder and awe, the announcement could have passed some people by.

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Where is the behold the warrior Messiah? Right?

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Behold the final high priest and King of God. Where's that? Where's that?

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No. Behold the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God.

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You see, some have argued that John the Baptist couldn't have come up with this title himself.

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Okay? Some people think at this point in time,

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John the Baptist would have no idea that Jesus was coming in a sacrificial way, they say.

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That maybe he was expecting something or someone else, like that warrior, like that high priest.

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Some say that the evangelist, the apostle John, injected that title into John's quotation.

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That it was added after the fact. But I don't think that's the case.

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But who, at that point in time, could have understood the idea of a suffering Messiah?

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Let's consider a few biblical correlations. How could the people have gotten the idea that the

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Messiah was to suffer? Let's see. I think one of the first sacrifices that ever happened in creation, after Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they had realized their nakedness.

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They had eaten of the fruit of the tree. They realized their nakedness. And it says they were ashamed.

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It then says, Then the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you?

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And Adam said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself.

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And God said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which

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I commanded you not to eat? And so, of course, in the bounds of the marriage bed, nakedness is permissible.

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It's, in fact, celebrated in the Bible. But ultimately, they were naked before this.

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They just didn't know it because sin had not come into the world. Now they are realizing their nakedness.

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And so nakedness now is impurity, in a sense. Nakedness is now exposure, vulnerability.

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Nakedness points to their shame. And this awareness of their nakedness was acutely associated with their sin.

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And pointing forward to the one who will cover our guilt, our shame, and our nakedness, it says this.

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This is pointing forward to someone who will cover our nakedness and our shame. It says, The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

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A sacrifice was made. God made it, and He gave them animal skins. The very first sacrifice.

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It is much like the predicted and coming righteous robe of Christ that will cover our sinful nakedness and wicked disposition before a holy

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God. So is that what John is referring to? Let's continue.

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Fast forward from that moment to now. To now the

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Hebrews had been multiplying in Goshen. A city was separating them from the rest of Egypt, if you remember.

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And they had been put to brutal slavery for over 400 years. The people cried for a deliverer from the

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God of their fathers. And after Moses was appointed by God and Pharaoh was faced with the plagues of God over Egypt, a final plague was to come as Pharaoh would not let

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God's people go. You remember that. And it would be a plague that would kill all the firstborn

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Hebrews and Egyptians and beasts as well. Here's what

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God told the people to do in Exodus 12. Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, this month shall be the beginning of months for you.

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It is to be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel saying on the 10th of this month, they are to each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their father's household, a lamb for each household.

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Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them, according to what each man ought to eat.

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You are to divide the lamb. The lamb shall be unblemished, an unblemished male, one year old, and you may take it from among the sheep or from among the goats.

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You shall keep it until the 14th day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill the lamb at twilight.

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Moreover, they shall take some of the blood of the lamb and put it on the two doorposts on the lintel of the houses in which they eat.

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They shall eat the flesh that same night roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

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Now you shall eat it in this manner, with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste because it is the

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Lord's Passover. For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and I will strike down all the firstborn of the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments.

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I am the Lord. The blood shall be assigned for you on the houses where you live, and when

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I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when

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I strike the land of Egypt. So after that it reads that there were screams heard all through the night, and the angel of death came into the land.

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Judgment was coming and God required blood, blood from an unblemished lamb.

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Paul says to the Ephesians, we have redemption through Christ's blood. He says to the

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Romans, we have been justified by his blood and saved from the wrath through him.

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We are now able to draw near to God by the blood of Jesus Christ, and the blood is going to be a dominating factor throughout the rest of scripture, the blood of Christ.

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Maybe this is what John was referring to. Maybe it wasn't the first sacrifice in Genesis, maybe it was the sacrifice of the

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Passover lamb, something that pointed to something greater.

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But after the people were delivered from slavery in Egypt, they received the law of God. The Mosaic covenant was being made with God's people.

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They had the moral law, the civil law, the ceremonial law. All of that was being established at this time.

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And God was, of course, demonstrating his very own character through his law, how righteous he is, his desires for obedience among the people.

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And that included laws on how he wanted to be worshipped. He didn't want strange fire.

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He didn't want something to come in and desecrate the most holy place. God set out specific rules for them to learn and know so that they would fear and obey him and worship him the way that he has desired.

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So you have the tabernacle and sacrifice laws that were given. And in this law was something that was called the day of atonements.

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The day of atonements. This is laid out in Leviticus 16, if you want to check it out later or even now.

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It says that two spotless goats will be presented before the

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Lord at the doorway of the tent of meeting. And that they would cast lots for the two chosen goats.

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Because one goat would be a sin offering.

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It would be slaughtered and sacrificed. Then the other goat would be sent out in the wilderness.

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I'll tell you why. It would be kept alive. That goat was called the scapegoat.

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All the sins were placed on that goat and taken away. It reads this in Leviticus 16.

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Then he shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people. He shall bring its blood inside the veil into the most holy place and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull.

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He is to sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat. He shall make atonement for the holy place because of the impurities of the sons of Israel and because of their transgressions in regard to all their sins.

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And thus he shall do for the tent of meeting which abides with them in the midst of their impurities.

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When the priest goes in to make atonement in the most holy place, no one shall be in the tent of meeting until he comes out.

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That he may make atonement for himself and for his household and for all the assembly of Israel.

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Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it and shall take some of the blood of the bull and the blood of the goat and put it on the horns of the altar, that is where they did the sacrifices, on all sides.

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They were consecrating everything. They were consecrating with the blood of these animals, the tent, the mercy seat, the basin, the sacrifice.

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It was all being consecrated because over time, their sin and their impurities,

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God is saying, has impacted these things. And when he finishes atoning for the holy place in the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall offer the live goat.

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So Aaron then is to take both of his hands. He is to go to the live goat.

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The sin -offering goat has already been sacrificed. The blood has been shaken on the mercy seat.

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And he is to take his hands and put his hands on top of the goat.

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And he is to come over it and confess all the sins of Israel into the goat, onto the goat, confessing the sins of the people.

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Okay, at that point it says, when they do that, they will send away the goat into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness.

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And the goat shall bear on itself all the iniquities to a solitary, desolate land.

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And he shall release the goat into the wilderness. The goat just wanders out there. And the goat just dies a little bit later, probably, than the one that was offered previously, most likely.

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So it is this removal of sin in that way.

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The goat takes the sin. Jesus Christ, though, is simultaneously the sin -offering who gives his blood for his people.

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His blood was shaken on the mercy seat. And at the same time, after that act, which appeases the wrath of God, that is propitiation, his blood was spilled.

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At the very same time, Jesus then is the scapegoat. Expiation, propitiation and expiation is made.

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And so then the sins of all God's people are placed on Jesus. And he is like the scapegoat.

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And he removes our sin away from us. Actually, that reminds me.

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Brian told me something amazing yesterday about taking away sin. In Psalm 103, it says that the

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Lord takes our sin from us as far as the east is from the west. And he explained how if you go north, you're eventually going to go south.

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But if you head east, you will never head west. You will always head east. You will always head east.

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And that is kind of the hyperbolic statement that God is making. Your sin is that far away from you.

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It will never come back to you. It's taken away from you and remembered no more. It's such an amazing thing,

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I think. And that really shows the expiation of Jesus. The removal of sins.

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Because the fact is, God is just. So he must punish someone for your sins.

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Someone must pay the price. It says, for the wages of sin is death and someone has to die.

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God doesn't just pardon our sin into thin air. We need a substitute. We need someone who can take our place.

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Someone who can take the wrath of God upon himself. We would bear that wrath for all eternity, but Jesus bears that wrath on the cross.

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It's such a difference. Life given for life. Blood given so our blood would not be shed.

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And these are the grounds in which the Lord gave to forgive them their iniquity.

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Because as Hebrew says, the blood of bulls and goats and lambs could never fully take away sin.

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Year after year after year, it was necessary for them to sacrifice these animals.

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They're reminded year after year that the blood of the lamb wasn't enough.

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The scapegoat wandering wasn't enough. They're reminded. Is this what

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John the Baptist is considering when he says, behold the Lamb of God? Just a few more things.

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Beyond the day of atonement, there is even in Numbers 28, the Lord expressing his desire for daily sacrifices.

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I don't even know, some people don't even realize this. But he says, you shall be careful to present to me an offering by fire, two male lambs, one year old, unblemished, without defect, as a continual burnt offering every single day.

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Every single day. One lamb was to be sacrificed in the morning, and then another lamb would be sacrificed at night.

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And so that's why even near Jerusalem, there's all these shepherds. In fact, now

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I'm reminded of what Eldon told me, which is an amazing story too. I just love our church. Have you ever thought about the fact that the first ones to come to Jesus when

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He's born, when He's in the manger, are shepherds? Shepherds come to Jesus, the ones who are outside of Jerusalem, tending to the lambs that are to be the daily slaughter, to be the atonement slaughtered lambs.

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So the first ones to come to Jesus are these shepherds, and they come to Jesus, and they prepare

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Him for sacrifice. The first ones to see Jesus. Amazing. Amazing.

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It's all too perfect, is it not? It all just goes perfectly together. Isaiah 53 adds to this imagery.

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It says, all of us like sheep have gone astray. Each one has turned to his own way. That's the apostles in the

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Garden of Gethsemane. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open

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His mouth. And here it is, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shears, so He did not open

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His mouth. That is Jesus. That is the Christ. So you are to put your mindset, like a mindset of the

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Jews, every day, day by day, every day, lambs were sacrificed.

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Morning, night, lamb sacrifice, blood spilt, atonement made, sacrifice made.

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God is pleased. It was a common thought for them. If I said to you, what do you do on Sunday?

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What do you do on Sunday, guys? You go to church, right? That would just kind of come into your mind.

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On Sunday, we go to church. It's wired for us. And this would be like them, but stronger.

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Day after day, year after year, sacrifice. It's like, how could they have missed this?

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But they did. Many missed this. But the ones that God appointed didn't miss it. They saw it.

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And I think John the Baptist understood that the Messiah had to come, and He had to suffer as the

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Lamb of God. That is what I'm getting at. Okay? The Messiah wouldn't just be a man, but He'd be the

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Lord God. He wouldn't just be a man, but He'd also be the Lord God. He wouldn't just be a king, but He'd also be a peasant.

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Jesus isn't just the high priest. He's also the sacrifice, right? He's not just the prophet, but He's the

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Word of God. He's called the Logos. He's both. Just this both of everything is what

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Jesus is, right? He knew no sin, but He became sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

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So one that we should probably remember, and some of you are looking at the fact that we're still on just verse 29.

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The majority of the sermons on verse 29, we're just going to really skip over the last few. This is where it's at, okay?

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So some of you are like, boy, we haven't moved on to the next verse in a while. Don't worry. Don't worry.

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Ha, ha, ha. Praise God. So this is one to remember, okay?

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Right here. The moment Isaac is to be offered to God by Abraham on Mount Moriah, okay?

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The wood for the altar is laid on Isaac's back as they hike to the summit. And you can almost miss this if you read too quickly.

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In Genesis chapter 22, Isaac asks his father a question. Isaac asks

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Abraham this. He says, Father, where is the lamb offering?

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Father, where is the lamb offering? And Abraham responds and says this,

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God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.

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Abraham was in the spirit there. Abraham prophesied there, not even knowing it.

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And you might say, well, what do you mean? How is this a big deal? A ram was indeed provided.

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His horns were stuck in the thicket and they sacrificed the ram, right? But that's the thing.

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Abraham said that a lamb would be provided, not a ram. A lamb.

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So what he replied to his son would not be fulfilled right then. It would be fulfilled thousands of years later in Jesus Christ.

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Jesus is the lamb of Genesis 22 that Abraham prophesied that God would provide.

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He is that lamb. And you know what's fascinating as well?

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Even 200 years before Christ, Jews were starting to think of lambs in an apocalyptic warrior sense, okay?

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Jewish literature like 1st Enoch, the Testament of Joseph, and the Testament of Benjamin detailed things like this.

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And now I know those aren't scripture, but it kind of, again, gives us the mindset of what Jews were thinking 200 years before Christ came.

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And so it would be that a lamb wasn't just for sacrifice, but in these books, it would show that a lamb was a fierce warrior.

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Even the Bible's apocalyptic writing called the Revelation shows, if you just do a concordance search on the lamb, there's like,

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I think, more than two dozen references of lamb in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, our last book of the

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Bible. So in the heavenly scene before the throne of God, it says that there is a lamb standing as if slain.

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Revelation 5. A lamb standing as if slain, and all living creatures fall down before this lamb, and they worship him, and they all say with loud voices, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

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And it continues to show that lamb, Jesus Christ. It says that that lamb was the only one worthy to open the scrolls, to remove the seals.

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Then many evildoers cry out when they see the lamb. It says that these evildoers cry out that the mountains and the rocks would fall on them and hide them from the wrath of the lamb.

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It says, wrath of the lamb. The lamb waged war and his name is called

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King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It says that this lamb was on a throne, that by the blood of the lamb the saints washed their robes and were made white.

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And it says the lamb will be the people's shepherd. There it is again.

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He will be the good shepherd and he will be the lamb. He's both. He's both.

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And those are just some of the references. Now, of course, John the Baptist wouldn't have known those references were from Revelation as they came later, and he died, of course.

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He was murdered by Herod. But he did likely know of the warrior lamb principles gathered during the intertestamental period in between Malachi and Matthew, right?

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But I'll be honest with you. We don't know. No scholar knows exactly how or why

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John the Baptist said lamb of God. They just can't point it down. They can't.

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But I submit to you that all that I just gave you is why he is the lamb of God.

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But that's what we need. We don't need this perfect. Why did John the Baptist say he is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?

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He was given the word of the Lord to himself. That's what it says in Matthew 3. It says the word of God came to John the

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Baptist. He was given knowledge to these things. He knew these things.

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So we don't have to have this perfect cookie cutter. This is how John would have known that he is the sacrificial lamb.

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Okay? It's all those things that I just said. It's not just one of those. All those things point to Jesus Christ.

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All of them are relevant to him. All of them speak to why he is called the lamb of God.

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Scripture can do that. And even among the apostles, we get this sense that they were growing in their knowledge of him.

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They were giving him titles, and it really shows that they didn't understand them a bit, even until later in their epistles and in the book of Acts and stuff like that.

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So there's this growing knowledge of who Jesus is. But the biggest indicator is who takes away the sin of the world.

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That is the biggest indicator of what lamb of God means in this moment. The removal of sin.

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This is sacrificial. One theologian says the sacrificial act has narrowed from many lambs, lambs every day, to one lamb sacrifice.

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And then it has changed from the benefits.

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The benefits have broadened from one nation to every people. So we've gone from many lambs to one lamb, from one nation to many nations in Jesus' coming.

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Okay, amazing, amazing. He removes sin from men without distinction, but not without exception.

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He removes sin of the world from every man and woman without distinction.

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Every tongue, tribe, people, and nation, but he doesn't remove it without exception. Because even the prologue said there are those who did not receive him.

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There are those who did not know him. There are those who rejected him. And Jesus, I will tell you today, Jesus did not die for people in hell.

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The people who are in hell did not have an atoning sacrifice for them. If they did, if Jesus died for people in hell, they would not be in hell.

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That's how powerful and efficacious the atonement is. If we make it any less than that, then that is an atonement that is impotent.

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That is an atonement that can't save. There is no one in hell whom Jesus died for. Because it's that powerful.

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That blood is that powerful. It just needs to be said.

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So, now I have to find my place.

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Here we go. Ultimately, the Lamb of God is what Jesus is. John says, behold, look to Jesus, the

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Lamb of God, because he is who we look to for salvation. We ought to remove our eyes from ourselves.

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We remove our eyes from all earthly kings who say they can save us. We remove our eyes from ourselves when we think we can save ourselves.

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And we are to behold the Lamb of God. That is what we are to do. To look to him.

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Removing our eyes. Looking to Jesus. John may be even referring back to the delegation from Israel.

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When they questioned him about the Christ, the prophet, Elijah. What John is saying is, finally, now all people remove your eyes from me,

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John. I'm not the guy. I'm not Elijah. I'm not the prophet. I'm not the Christ. Look, behold, the

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Lamb of God is here. He has fulfilled his duty. John has reached the pinnacle of his career.

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His ministry has hit. He's at the climax. He's done what he's come to do.

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Don't look to me. Behold, the Lamb of God, the coming one is here. He prepared the way.

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And so Jesus came. Only if people would turn their eyes to the

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Lamb. If only people in this world would behold the

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Lamb. Or even us as Christians. How many times do we take our eyes off the

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Lamb, we look to ourselves, and then we go through issues.

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We go through sin. We go through problems. Only keeping our eyes on the

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Lamb of God will remedy our situation. Because nothing else is worth looking at except for the

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Lamb of God. We are to behold Him. To behold His sacrifice.

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Behold His teachings. Behold His law. Behold His precepts. Look to Him. Keep your eyes fixed on the author and perfecter of your faith, the

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Word says. We have too many people in this world not looking to Jesus.

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So we are to behold the Lamb of God. We are to follow the Lamb, and we won't be led to slaughter.

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You get that? If you follow the Lamb, you won't be led to slaughter. You'll be kept from it.

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So go to verses 30 and 31 real quickly. This is

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He on behalf of whom I said, After me comes a man who has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me.

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I did not recognize him, but so that he might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.

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So this quotation was, if you remember from verse 15 of the prologue, we learned how

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Jesus is simultaneously before John in respect to His deity, that word ein, which is to say no point of reference.

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Jesus was before John eternally in respect to His deity, but after John in respect to His humanity.

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That's what's being said here. He comes after me, but He existed.

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He was before me, and that in the Greek, that was eternally before me would be the word.

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He uses man this time. He didn't use man in verse 15, but this continues to reinforce the fact that God didn't just come and appear like a man.

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God came and became a man. This reinforces the doctrine of the hypostatic union of Jesus Christ.

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Then John says, He did not oida Him. He did not know. He did not recognize or was aware of Jesus, aware of Him, the

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Lamb of God. But I'll tell you, it's not that He did not know Jesus. I told you, at least the sermon before that, that they are related.

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Mary and Elizabeth are kinsmen, kinsmen, and so Jesus and John the

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Baptist maybe even, you know, had to sit in and be babysat together, you know, as the women were,

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I don't know, washing pots by the river or something like that. And John and Jesus are just like, you know,

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I don't know, that could be. So it's not that John didn't know who

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Jesus was. It's that he did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah yet before this time.

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That's what it is. John baptized in water so that Jesus might be phanerothe, manifested, revealed, shown, displayed, made visible, appeared, made known.

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That's what happened. So how did John come to recognize

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Him? How did John recognize Jesus as the Messiah? It says that right after this.

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Go to verses 32 and 33. It says, John testified saying,

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I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained on Him.

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I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me this.

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Here's where it is. He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the one.

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This is Him. This is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. John points to the divine indicator of what demonstrates

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Jesus to be the Messiah. The Holy Spirit descended upon Him as a dove and remained on Him.

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That's how he knew. Although John's water baptism of repentance was for the preparation of the hearts of the people, it was also the inauguration of Jesus's ministry.

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So that when John would baptize Jesus, Jesus would then be fully revealed.

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Matthew 3, 13 through 17 provides us a fuller picture of what occurred prior to this day.

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That's kind of what I'm taking is, I believe that He was baptized, what I'm about to read happened likely the day before He announced the

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Lamb of God. Matthew 3, 13 says this, Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the

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Jordan coming to John to be baptized by John. But John tried to prevent

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Him saying, I have need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? But Jesus answering said to him,

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Permit it at this time, for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.

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Then He permitted him. After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water.

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And behold, the heavens were opened, and John saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on him.

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And behold, a voice out of the heavens said this, This is my beloved

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Son, in whom I am well pleased. Amazing. So could you imagine, right?

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John must have been confused or horrified or both. It's like, he said,

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I need to repent. I need to be baptized by you. You're asking me to baptize you,

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Jesus? I need you to cleanse me. He must have been horrified, right?

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Excuse me. I need cleansing. You're the one that's perfect and righteous.

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And so Jesus doesn't need anything to repent of, by the way.

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He needs not to repent of anything. So what does He say? He says, It must happen as thus, so as to fulfill all righteousness.

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The way that Jesus said that was like He understood John was having a difficult time comprehending the baptism request.

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It's like Jesus is saying, Look, I know you don't get it right now. I know you don't get it right now, but just trust me and baptize me.

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That's kind of what I get out of what He's saying there. Okay, just do it.

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Now, there are many different views of what Jesus meant by this. I'll just be real quick about that.

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Okay, some say when

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Jesus said it was necessary to be baptized by John to fulfill all righteousness, some say that it was because John was of priestly lineage.

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That Zacharias was a priest and Elizabeth, it says, the beginning of Luke, was a descendant of Aaron.

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So he's a full -blooded Aaronic priest in that sense. Or at least half and half.

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He could be Levite and Aaronic, you know, combined. We're not sure. It doesn't say exactly about.

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Well, actually, no. To be a priest, you had to be of Aaronic lineage. So was his mother.

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So John the Baptist was fully a descendant of Aaron. Okay, so like it was

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John, like he would be called John the priest. John the priest was preparing

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Jesus the sacrifice. So the shepherds came to Jesus, marked him out as unblemished.

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And now John the Baptist has high priestly

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Aaronic blood and prepares him for it. So that's one possibility, okay?

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But it also definitely functioned as the inauguration of Jesus' earthly ministry. That's when everything started.

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Right after that, immediately in Matthew 4, is when Jesus goes into the wilderness and he's tempted by the devil.

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And so that starts the beginning of his ministry. Some say that it was Jesus entering into the priesthood.

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That John the Baptist was passing the priesthood over to Jesus. But that doesn't make sense to me because Jesus is in the eternal order of Melchizedek.

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He is outside of the Aaronic priesthood. He is of an eternal heavenly order.

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He doesn't need to be part. In fact, we learn in the book of Hebrews that that Aaronic order is subpar.

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It's not good. It wasn't good enough. We need an eternal one. So I think that some of these apply the inauguration of Jesus' ministry.

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That's very interesting. The possibility that John was preparing Jesus as a high priest for the sacrifice.

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That's kind of cool. You know, that's pretty neat. But, you know, we're not exactly sure.

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But here's what I think. At the very basic level, the very basic level, something that is much more simpler,

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John has been shouting imperatives to these people. Repent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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Be baptized. Be baptized. And who told him to do this? God told him to do this.

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So who told him to do this? Jesus told him to do this. And so here's the thing.

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Jesus doesn't go against his own word. Jesus has to fulfill all the law.

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So to fulfill all the law, to fulfill all the commandments of God, he obeys this righteous command as well.

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In his humanity, he performed this one. He was baptized by John so that if he would die for you, he'd be willing to be baptized for you.

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Being baptized was in pursuit of saving you. Jesus wouldn't go against his word. And so he did it to fulfill all righteousness.

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To fulfill all righteousness, he was baptized. But again, I think it's multi -faceted.

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I don't think it's only that. I think it's maybe a combination of those things. But we know it wasn't for evil.

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And we know that Jesus was impeccable. And so it was to fulfill all righteousness. Anyways, John said,

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I have seen the Spirit. I have seen the Spirit. And this is the same word, see, as when it said we saw his glory.

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And there is this reality in which John is trying to describe the indescribable. Right? Just like we cannot properly see the glory of God, we can merely describe what we think the glory of God is.

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But it's almost impossible for us to see the pure glory of God.

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And so John is trying to describe something here. And he expresses that the

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Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus as a dove. A dove from heaven. And I'll tell you, church, to this day there are theories, but it's all speculation.

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No one knows what like a dove means. No one knows what that looks like.

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And that's okay. We can be okay with that. The fact is the Holy Spirit came and rested upon him.

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And the Word tells us that. And we will believe that. And we'll trust that. Amen? But what was absolutely clear was someone from heaven came down and rested upon Jesus.

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That's what we know. In the Greek, remained on him is implying an action that was completed.

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And yet the effect is permanent. Okay? That is to say that the

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Holy Spirit came upon Jesus, remained on him, and it never left him through his whole ministry.

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He, the Holy Spirit, never left Jesus in his ministry. Okay? The Father says,

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This is the Son of My love in whom I am well pleased. And in this moment, the

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Father endorses the Son. He validates Him. Revealing He is the unique Son of God.

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And the Holy Spirit remains on Him. Church, this is a Trinitarian event.

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Jesus is not merely a historical person, nor is He just the one who was before John in his eternality and deity.

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But Jesus is the historical and divine second person of the

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Trinity, marked by the activities of the Holy Spirit and the Father. And that will continue from here on out.

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He is the Triune God. He is the Triune God. That's what we see here.

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And we see that especially in Matthew 3. When the Father endorses the Son and the

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Holy Spirit comes on Him, that is a Trinitarian event. Real quickly,

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I want to show you how this moment fulfills prophecy. Isaiah 11 says this,

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A shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from Jesse from his roots will bear fruit.

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It says this, Then the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him. Isaiah 11,

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A root will come from Jesse, and the Spirit will rest on him. Isaiah 42, Behold my servant whom

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I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights. What did we just hear the

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Father say? This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And it says here again,

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Yahweh says, My chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have put my

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Spirit upon him, and he will bring forth justice to the nations. Isaiah 61,

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The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring the good news to the afflicted.

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He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the

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Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn. These are all characteristic of the

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Messiah. These are all about the Messiah. They each say the Spirit of God comes upon him.

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So when we see that, we're to go back to this. Isaiah, This moment shows

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John the Baptist and all men that Jesus is the Lamb of God. He is the Christ. And it stands to say, church, that we need the

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Holy Spirit to make us see that Jesus is the Messiah. Just like what happens for John here.

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John didn't recognize Jesus as the Messiah until the Holy Spirit came on him as a dove. We too, we need the

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Holy Spirit to make us see that he is the Lamb of God. We need that as well.

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Okay. Apart from the work of the Spirit, the Lord would only appear to us as a historical man or a prophet at best.

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That's what you see in this world. He was a great man. He existed. He did good things. You should read your

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God's beatitudes. You should do some of those, buddy. That's what they tell us, right? Some say he's a prophet.

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They need the Spirit of God. They need the Spirit of God to show them that he is the Christ, that he's the

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Messiah. That means that our most crafty evidence that Jesus is the

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Lamb of God is not good enough. Our most crafty arguments, the best debate that we could ever do, could never convince a dead man or woman to believe on Jesus.

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The Spirit of God has to show them. The Spirit of God has to change the heart of sinners, and that should be a relief to you.

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You just be faithful with pointing him out. You point him out like John. Behold the Lamb of God. Look to the gospel.

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And that's all you do. The Spirit has to come upon them. Be faithful in one, and God will be faithful in the other.

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You could say that at that moment when the Holy Spirit rests upon Jesus, John knew this was the beginning of the diminishing of his ministry.

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I bet you John knew that. I bet you when Jesus came and he said, Behold the Lamb of God, and we're going to see it in the next sermon,

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John knew. My time is up. It's going down. He's hit the pinnacle of his ministry, and little by little it will diminish from there.

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He will decrease, and Jesus will increase, he says. No doubt he'll continue to point out the

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Christ, but John came and did what he did. He did what

01:00:03

God told him to do. I'm almost done. John restates the fact that his ability to recognize

01:00:11

Jesus as the Christ only occurred at the descending and remaining of the

01:00:16

Holy Spirit. I have to say this. Like a prophet who receives a word from the

01:00:24

Lord, John had to receive this instruction from God as well. Luke 3 says that the

01:00:30

Word of God came to John, okay? And what this shows us is that people who claim that they have prophetic powers or that they receive direct revelation from God, they make it out to sound like a process that involves much of themselves and just this hyper spiritual thing inside themselves.

01:00:51

And in me, God will let me give you a word. And in me and coming forth from me,

01:00:57

God will help me prophesy. And they make it about themselves, right? These internal feelings.

01:01:03

But John says, He who sent me said to me.

01:01:10

Look how simple it is. It's not this hyper spiritual recipe. God told him what to look for.

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And he said what God told him to say. It's much simpler than what we think.

01:01:24

John receives something outside of himself. It's not in him. God told him what to look for.

01:01:30

And the one who came is not only superior to John. So is his baptism.

01:01:38

The Christ baptizes with the Holy Spirit. That's what it says. Matthew chapter 3 adds more context to this.

01:01:48

It says, The axe is already laid at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown to the fire.

01:01:57

As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance. But he who comes after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove his sandals.

01:02:05

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clear out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn.

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He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. That's what it says. He baptizes with the

01:02:26

Holy Spirit and fire. And we see that the Holy Spirit baptism is for the wheat.

01:02:33

The wheat that is kept, okay? That's what we can see in this verse. The baptism of the

01:02:39

Holy Spirit is for the wheat that is kept that goes into the barn. But the fire baptism is without a doubt judgment for the covenant breakers of that day.

01:02:50

This points to Malachi chapter 3 especially. Malachi chapter 3, it starts out saying that the

01:02:57

Lord will send a messenger before himself. Who is that? John the

01:03:02

Baptist. That's what we're seeing. But then it says this in Malachi 3.

01:03:08

It says that the Lord will then, after that messenger, come into his temple and cleanse it.

01:03:13

What are we going to see in the gospel according to John? Jesus coming into his temple and cleansing it. But then it says this.

01:03:20

Then I will draw near to you for judgment and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and the adulterers, and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner and his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien and do not fear me.

01:03:40

So all at once in the coming of Jesus, there will be salvation offered, baptism in the

01:03:47

Holy Spirit offered to all men all over the world, all men and women, but also a coming day of the

01:03:54

Lord is near. And that's just throughout Scripture. All of the minors and major prophets point to this coming of the

01:04:02

Messiah who's going to bring salvation and he's going to bring judgment. Judgment for the covenant breakers of that day.

01:04:10

And that, honestly church, will remain a big focus of Jesus' preaching throughout the gospels.

01:04:16

Just think about the woes that he gives in Matthew 23, the woes to the Pharisees, the

01:04:21

Jews, the covenant breakers. Then you have Matthew 24 and he says, you are not going to die before you see these things take place.

01:04:30

And so we're going to see salvation and judgment. So what does baptism of the

01:04:36

Holy Spirit do? Many things. Baptism of the Holy Spirit will bring regeneration.

01:04:43

It will bring adoption as the children of God. It will do what men's blood, the flesh, nor their will could ever achieve.

01:04:52

The baptism of the Holy Spirit can only do the regeneration of individuals.

01:04:59

It's like Ezekiel 36 type stuff. A new heart is given, right? And then it says the

01:05:05

Spirit of God will come upon us and in us will be the ability by that Spirit to obey his statutes, to obey his precepts.

01:05:14

Okay. So the fact is we need the baptism of the Holy Spirit and we need the

01:05:20

Holy Spirit given to us to be able to obey God. That's what it is. That's what it is.

01:05:27

Baptism of the Holy Spirit isn't a separate thing that we conjure up. So on the times that you've been here and we've baptized people in the baptismal here and we've immersed them and they've come up and they've been baptized into Christ, we don't then go in the back after the service and do this incantation or pray in tongues over them and then they get the baptism of the

01:05:51

Holy Spirit. That's not what this is saying, okay? Yeah. Did I just see you?

01:05:57

They don't do spirit hands. You just really excited? No, I'm just kidding. So that is, it is regeneration.

01:06:08

Because the promised age of the Spirit was coming upon them.

01:06:14

They were anticipating the age of the Spirit of God being poured out on his people.

01:06:21

But you know what's interesting? Unlike the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, unlike those gospels,

01:06:30

John the Baptist is not called the Baptist ever in the gospel according to John. He's only ever called

01:06:36

John, okay? He's only called the Baptist in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In this, he's only called

01:06:43

John and he's simply John. And I think it's likely because of these verses.

01:06:51

Jesus is the Baptist. Jesus the Baptist. He baptizes with the

01:06:57

Holy Spirit. He is the ultimate Baptist. That is what we are to see.

01:07:03

He is the true Baptist. He baptizes with the Holy Spirit and fire. The baptism of the

01:07:09

Holy Spirit is Christ's messianic mission. That's what he's called to do himself. So the last verse, verse 34 says,

01:07:21

I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God. John is the witness who testifies of the

01:07:29

Christ. He says he is the Son of God. John's like,

01:07:36

I've heard those very words on that man. This is my beloved Son in whom

01:07:41

I am well pleased. I testify that this is the Son of God. John's heard it.

01:07:47

He testifies of it. I'll tell you real quick. Some manuscripts have ha -ek -lek -dos,

01:07:56

I'm sorry, ha -ek -lek -dos to -theu, okay? It's a later manuscript than this one that we have here, which is

01:08:06

Hu -yas, Hu -yas' son. So ha -ek -lek -dos is like elected, the chosen one of God, okay?

01:08:16

So several, I think it was P75 and one other has the ha -ek -lek -dos of theu.

01:08:25

So that makes no issue for us, by the way, because the forerunner came before the one he was called to testify and witness about, right?

01:08:39

And the fact is, as Isaiah 42 said, he said, this is my chosen one.

01:08:45

So even if that's the translation, we are to look to that and go back to Isaiah 42 and go, okay, yeah, Jesus is the chosen one.

01:08:52

We take no issue with that. So John couldn't be any clearer. This is the

01:08:58

Lamb of God, this is the chosen one of God, and this is the Son of God. That's who he is.

01:09:06

So let me conclude here for you, church. Like John, we tell people, behold, the

01:09:14

Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We tell people that. We constantly then look to the

01:09:21

Lamb. The Lamb of God translated in Latin is Agnus Dei.

01:09:27

You ever heard that before? The Agnus Dei? That means the Lamb of God in Latin. There are hymns on the

01:09:34

Agnus Dei. There are prayers about the Agnus Dei, especially in Roman Catholicism.

01:09:41

Michael W. Smith does a really good song, Agnus Dei, that goes, Worthy is the

01:09:46

Lamb. It's a good song. But just like the elders in Revelation, we will join in with all people and with them and say,

01:09:56

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise.

01:10:03

We will say it too. You will say that. Honestly, we should start practicing it.

01:10:09

Start practicing that. Say that. Without the

01:10:16

Lamb, you will not see heaven. And without the Lamb, you won't be able to see in heaven because the

01:10:24

Lamb is the light. All of us need the Lamb. We need the Lamb now. We need the Lamb later.

01:10:31

Revelation 19 says, Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to him. For the marriage of the

01:10:37

Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean.

01:10:45

Then he said to me, Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the

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Lamb. And he said to me, These are true words of God. So those clean and bright linens only come by way of the

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Lamb. If you have yet to see Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God in your life, turn to him now, repent and trust in the

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Lamb of God. Because there is a day that is coming when all men and women will face the

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Lamb of God. They will behold the Lamb of God. Everyone will see who he is.

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And the Lamb will present himself in righteousness and justice. And he will make good on his word.

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I want to share one last thing with you. In my research about the Agnus Dei, the

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Lamb of God, I found this interesting. The Roman Catholics will pray a prayer related to this passage.

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And they'll pray the Agnus Dei when they're hoping for a good outcome. It's like a good luck charm.

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If I pray this prayer, then something good will work out if I pray the Agnus Dei.

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And here's what they'll say. They'll say, Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

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Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace. And I'm like, what's wrong with that?

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But the reality is, church, for the believer who has trusted in Christ, we have a far better confidence.

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We don't simply have to hope for mercy. We've been given mercy. We don't have to hope for peace.

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We've been given peace by the Lamb of God. We don't pray that for a good luck charm. It's come.

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Behold, the Lamb of God is here. The Lamb of God has given you peace.

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The Lamb of God has given you mercy. And the Lamb of God has done that by taking away your sins.

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Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise your name.

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Please bless the message that went out. And we pray to you, Jesus Christ, O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, and you took away our sins, and you cast it as far as the east is from the west.

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You are our propitiation. You are our expiation. You are the scapegoat.

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You are the sin offering. You are our everything. We love you,

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Lord Jesus. We thank you for your mercy and your grace that you've given us. We pray this all in your name.