Gift of Forgiveness

Background

If we have not had the pleasure of meeting my name is John colunga

I have the pleasure of serving as a Staff Pastor with New Day Church

I have the privilidge of bringing todays message

It is the third message in our Christmas Series called Among Us

We are continuing todays messge from John chapter 1

John is written by the apostle John

Not John the Baptist

John the disciple writes this gospel that is different from the other gospels

John writes his book in a way that seeks to magnify Jesus as the Messiah, Christ, King, Savior

John 20:31 “but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

What I personally love about the gospel of John is that it uses sharp contrasts (Light/darkness - love and hatred - above and below - life and death - truth and false)

THe first week we talked about Jesus and how he is God

He has always existed and was at the beginning of creation

He came to earth willingly fully man and fully God

Jesus was God incarnate

Jesus walked this earth and was tempted as man is

He hungered as man does

But Jesus overcame every tempatation

That is why he is the light for all men

And that while darkness may seem great, big scary, the darkness cannot overcome the light that is Jesus

Last week talked about Gods glory, grace, and truth

That since Jesus was God incarnate he came with the full glory of God and displayed it through his character and actions

That Jesus himself was the grace of God and God’s greatest gift to us

Jesus also gave this grace to others and teaches us to have grace

And that Jesus is Truth

Because Jesus is truth, his incarnation to dwell among us is the greatest thing to have ever happened on earth

Today as we look at John 1 we will find forgiveness, adoption, and a call to faith

John 1:29-34 “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.””

Forgiveness

It seems today that many people are obsessed with titles

And people dont really want the responsibility that comes with the title but often they do it because a pay raise is involved

But nonetheless manager, superviser, board member, president, CEO, CFO, managing partner, chairman, etc.

In the UK you find people wanting to be knighted as Sir, Duke, Duchess, King, Queen, etc.

There are many names and titles sought out

But it is hard to find anyone who holds more names than Jesus

We find John the Baptist using the name here “Lamb of God”

What is interesting is that Jesus is only called or referred to as the Lamb of God twice

Both are found in Books written by John the Disciple

One is here and the other is found in the book of Revelation

So the question comes up, “Where did John get this name from?”

If the old Testament didnt explicitely call him that, Did John the Baptist or John the apostle make this up?

Did they get divine revelation?

The answer is that although it is not explicitely stated, Jesus was the lamb, the sacrifice of God for his people

Remember that John wasn’t just a Preacher

As we noted, this is John the Baptist speaking and he is son of the Priest Zachariah

It was custom that most boys take up their Fathers trade and so John is well versed in the Old Testament

John was full of the Spirit

John would preach and prepare the way for Jesus knowing that he is Messiah

John preached knowing the story of Abraham and Isaac

God tested Abraham and told him to sacrifice Isaac

Abraham was being obedient and half way up the journey Isaac realizes there is fire and wood but no sacrifice

So Isaac turns to his dad and asks him Father where is the sacrifice “Abrahams response was that God would provide it”

So Abraham and Isaac set up the alter and then Abraham put Isaac on the altar and just as he raised his kife, an angel called out

Genesis 22:12-13 “He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.”

God provied the lamb for sacrifice rather than taking Abrahams only son

Then we find the lamb being used in another sacrifice in the time of Moses

God sent Moses to free the Israelites from Egypt

God said to Moses and Aaron to have the people take a lamb without blemish and kill it

They are to put the blood of the lamb on the doorpost and eat the flesh

That night God said he would come

Exodus 12:12-13 “For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.”

The lambs blood would save the Israelite sons and the lambs body would be substanance for the people

And so what we do find is that the lamb was used over and over as the sacrifice of sins

And when John the Baptist looked up and saw the Spirit decend on Jesus, He knew that it was Jesus and says

“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of this world

Behold the Sacrifice of God

Behold the Forgiveness of God

That through Jesus our sins would be forgiven

Church - Last week I conveyed that Jesus was the greatest gift ever given

That his coming was the single most important thing to have ever happened

And today I want to convey that Jesus came with the purpose to be the greatest sacrifice!

He came to forgive you

He came to be the payment for your sins

He came to us to be the Final Sacrifice!

I love community group as we get to discuss and dive deeper into the previous weeks sermon

This past week we talked a little deeper about the Old Testament law and Jesus coming to fulfill it

I gave an articulation, Danny gave a great articulation - and it prompted me to bring it up again for us today

To give a more clear, easier, picture of this I want to dive a little deeper

God gave the moral law - Makes up what is right and wrong (ten commandment) the moral law - is eternal, we still follow the moral law

Civic Law - Given only to the Israelites that wasn’t to be for other people

Ceremonial Law - Sacrifices, rituals that point to the Messiah

We are humans and therefore we fail the moral law

In the Old Testament before Jesus, because they failed the moral law, thy must keep to the ceremonial law

They would give sacrifices for their sins - again they would observe to point to Jesus

When Jesus came he fulfilled the moral law perfectly

He didn’t stop there

He did not have to adhere to the ceremonial law but rather he fulfilled it by

He sacrificailly gave himself up, God’s only son, without a blemish, to be the sacrifice for our sins

He was the Lamb of God

Now that the moral law has been fulfilled and the ceremonial law fulfilled

We do not need a lamb to sacrifice everytime we fail and sin

We can go directly to God and ask for forgiveness because of the Lamb of God

And so God gifts us Jesus because its through Jesus that we are forgiven

As we celebrate this Christmas, we celebrate Christmas to adore baby Jesus

To adore the Messiah who was and is and forever will be

To adore the lamb of God

Pride

One of my favorite things about this account of John the Baptist is that he doesn’t seek to elevate himself

‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.”

This was in our text last week and I highlighted that Jesus is eternal which is why he is before John even though John was born first

But I do want to highlight that John knows, submits, and teaches that Jesus is greater than he

Becuase John was raised in the priesthood, because John was gifted by the Spirit, John had many followers

John would tell them he is not the Messiah but still, amongst themselves the people would question this.

Nonetheless, John knew that as he preached and baptized, one day Jesus would come to be baptized

And so we see John stayed faithful and the time had come

And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.””

What we find here is that Jesus is revealed to John by the Holy Spirit present - like a dove decends on him

Revealed word of God to John that as the spirit descends and remains in Jesus, so he will baptize with the Holy Spirit

This is not his own opinion, but he witnesses to Jesus on the authority of God’s revealed Word.

We, likewise, must base our witness on the authority of the Bible, God’s Word to us.

God revealed to John that the Spirit came upon Jesus so that he would baptize us not merely with water but with the Holy Spirit.

Richard D. Phillips, John, ed. Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani, 1st ed., vol. 1, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2014), 89–90.

John humbled himself to the word of God, Jesus, and we should humble ourselves before God in his Word, the Bible

It seems that as humans, we have a tendency to elevate ourselves and try have a say in what the Word of God says

One of the most damaging words that is bringing false witness even within the church is the word “I”

Rather than reading God’s word as is, in the context of which it is written, and submitting to it

There are those that dont want to take it as written because “I dont feel that its fair, I dont think that thats right, or I dont see how that is acceptable.

I dont see, I feel, I dont think, The I comes into play and because I dont like it, I have to change the framework of God’s word to fit what I believe is right

At its core, A lot of this has to do with elevating ones self over the sufficiency of scripture

I implore you today not to give in to what you think and always ask the question of What is God trying to teach you

Let me be clear, John the Baptist was chosen by God to fulfill The Old Testament Prophecy

Matthew 11:11 “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

John always stayed submitted to the Messiah, to his mission

One of the greatest theifs of joy is pride

Adoption

Pride will keep you from accepting the truth

Pride will not allow you to see how you are wrong

Pride will lead you on a journey where you bear the weight of the world on your shoulders to accomplish what you want

If there is any pride in you, it will be hard to see what the Father has for you

Pride will have you reject God’s love

Pride will have you reject God’s forgiveness

Pride will keep you from accepting God’s promises for you

Lets back up to John 1:9-13

John 1:9-13 “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Jesus the Messiah was walking on earth and he was rejected

He was rejected in 2 ways - He wasnt recognized

Why is it that the wind and waves recognize him and obey

Why is it that the demons shutter and obey his every word

Yet, men cannot recognize him

This is evidence of our spiritual state which is a state of death and darkness

But the second way Jesus was rejected is because men do not want him

I would venture to say that the majority of the people here can recite John 3:16

What if I asked you to recite John 3:17-19 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.”

John 3:19 “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.”

The pride of man wants to do what man wants to do and so pride will keep man in darkness

Desire to gratify oneself will keep man in darkness

A depraved nature that elevates mans framework over God’s framework will keep man in darkness

Here is the good news - Man has no weight over God

Man can hate God, Reject Jesus, Love the darkness, but God is still God and Jesus is still the light

And in God’s love, In Jesus’ saving power, and in the Spirits Work of revelation,

God calls you out of darkness into Jesus’ saving power, and the Spirit reveals himself to you

And when God calls you out of darkness and you see the glorious light of Jesus

When you see that God is calling you to be his child, to be adopted into the family of God

Your drop your flesh, you drop your pride, you drop your will

and you recieve him, you believe in his name, you become a child of God

You believe that you were in darkness

You believe that Jesus is the light

You believe that Jesus forgives your darkness

And once you are in the light and in the family of God

You are eternally secure, an heir to the throne, and no matter what you go through in this life

You recognize that God is the final authority, Jesus is King, and that the Lamb of God has given you the best gift of forgiveness anyone could ever recieve

You may not know this but I have a tight group of cousins of which I am the oldest

And when I tell you I domineered over them when we were kids is an understatement

I was the oldest so I am in charge and what I say goes

If I say no girls, then no girls allowed

If I think we should go to Gregs house instead of Michaels house then thats where we are going to try to go

And I have to give props to my cousins because they were great submissive cousins, I know they will be blessed

But as much as I thought that I was in charge, as much as I thought that I was a leader,

I was actually under my parents and aunts and uncles authority

If I said no girls allowed and the parents came stepped in to change it, their word overuled mine

If I said we are going to Greg’s house and the parents said no, guess what, we didn’t go

And my pride, my (I’m the boss mentality), dwindled all the way down

Although I thought I knew what was best and what we should do, our parents knew better

And so I was always under their authority, (still am to an extent)

And I can look back and see how our parents raised us knowing our character, knowing our tendencies, and did their best to instruct us in the ways of God to always be submissive to him

God knows who you are, your character, your tendencies, your struggles, - And he loves you

And he forgives you

And he wants to direct your path

Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

I exhort you today, to give up your pride - Accept God’s forgiveness

If the Holy Spirit is revealing Jesus to you today, say yes to him

Be adopted as a child of God

If you are already a follower of Jesus and you are struggling to trust God, carrying shame, walking your own path and doing your own thing,

Get right with God

Talk to God in prayer and know that he is listening, that he is with you

That His answer may not be what you have in mind but it’s better than anything you can come up with

That His forgiveness eliminates shame and that you can take a step forward in faith and love to continue to pursue righteousness

Submit to God and his ways, his design, his teachings, wether you like it or not, agree with it or not, His way is the right way, His way is the only way.