The Lamb of God - Gospel of John wk 5
Notes
Transcript
The Lamb of God wk 5
The Lamb of God wk 5
This morning we are continuing in the Gospel of John and will be looking at verse 29 - 34 of chapter 1.
Last week we seen John the Baptist speaking with a group of Jewish leaders sent out by the Pharisees to find out who he was.
This morning text is the next day, and John continues his witness of Jesus, as Jesus is once again in the crowd.
Just as last week John the Baptist did not make it about himself but made sure to point the people to Jesus, he once again as there are Jewish officials in the crowd, points the people to Jesus.
In our text this morning he points Jesus our more specifically calling Jesus the Lamb of God which is what I have titled my sermon for today.
In out text we are going to see the importance of Jesus being the Lamb of God, why He is called the Lamb of God, and how John the Baptist was sure that Jesus was the Lamb of God, and also another name that ties Jesus to God the Father and gives Him deity.
We will look at our six verses of our text then break them down to dig into the content of the text.
Therefore, look with me at John chapter 1 verses 29-34
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
30 “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.’
31 “I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.”
32 John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him.
33 “I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’
34 “I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
Pray
Again here we see that John is dealing with a second group of Jews on the second day.
I. Takes Away Sin
I. Takes Away Sin
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
30 “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.’
31 “I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.”
Here we see the next day, that is the day after John the Baptist was questioned by the Jews, from last week.
So the next day he - that is John the Baptist - let’s set the scene here a little.
John the Baptist was not what we might think of as your typical preacher, or evangelist.
Matthew tells us how he dressed in Matthew 3:4
4 Now John himself had a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.
See John the Baptist lived out in the wilderness, he was a rugged man, and the people came out there to hear him preach.
Therefore, they have come out there to the banks of the River Jordan to hear John the Baptist preach once again, and he saw Jesus coming to him, that is Jesus is walking down the River Jordan towards where John is preaching.
And as Jesus gets closer, John the Baptist says, Behold, the Lamb of God - now that title to us might not have a lot of significance but to the Jewish people it did.
The use of a lamb for sacrifice was very familiar to Jews.
A lamb was used during Passover; a lamb was led to the slaughter in the prophecies of Isaiah; a lamb was offered in the daily sacrifices of Israel.
John the Baptist continues on The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
John the Baptist used this expression as a reference to the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus on the cross to atone for the sins of the world, a them which John the apostle carries throughout his writings.
Jesus’ sacrifice for sin potentially reaches all human beings without distinction, however, that its effect is only for those who receive Christ.
Getting rid of sin was one of John the Baptist’s strategic concerns and should also be one of ours, that we go forth and share the Good News of Jesus Christ that people may have the opportunity to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and follow Him as a disciple.
II. Holy Spirit
II. Holy Spirit
32 John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him.
33 “I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’
In verse 31 John the Baptist says I did not recognize Him, that is Jesus, but we know from the other Gospel accounts that John the Baptist, recognized Jesus in his mother’s womb, and that he did not want to baptize Jesus because he did not feel worth to do it.
So now how does he say I did not recognize Him, well we must see and understand that John the Baptist’s whole job was to point people and reveal to the people Jesus.
His mission from God the Father was to reveal to Isreal the Messiah, Jesus the Christ.
Therefore, now he says, I have seen the Spirit, he s speaking of the Holy Spirit, he says, the Holy Spirit descended from heaven as a dove, and remained upon Him, that is Jesus.
We see this in the Gospel account of Matthew in chapter 3.
16 After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him,
So as John the Baptist raises Jesus up out of the water, the heavens, that is the sky opened, and John the Baptist say the Holy Spirit descending as a dove and land on Jesus.
Here we see that the Holy Spirit took the form of a dove, in the Book of Acts, the Holy Spirit came with a violent rushing wind and appeared like tongues of fire.
2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.
If we read on there in Acts the people in the upper room were filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus in Matthew chapter four is led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
In the baptism of Jesus, we see the trinity, all three of the Godhead, the Father speaking in Matthew 3:17
17 and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
We see Jesus the Son, being baptized, and then we see the Holy Spirit come in the form of a dove.
Back in our text though John the Baptist says, I did not recognize Him, again stating he did not recognize Jesus, even though there are other accounts in other Gospels that he had.
The reason why John the Baptist keeps stating this is because once again he was not wanting people to look at who he was but wanting people to see who Jesus was, and to understand the importance of who Jesus was.
John the Baptist wanted them to catch that Jesus was the Messiah, the Lamb of God, not just some teacher, or some prophet, or some other guy on the river bank, but that He was the Lamb of God.
In verse 33 John the Baptist is point to how he knows that Jesus is the Lamb of God, by stating that He who sent me, which was God the Father, told him, that He who you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon, that is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
John the Baptist was the one that baptized Jesus, because Jesus insisted on it, and John the Baptist saw the Holy Spirit come down and rest on Jesus, and therefore, God the Father confirmed it to John the Baptist that Jesus was the Lamb of God, the Messiah, the one that everyone was waiting on, the anointed One.
III. The Son of God
III. The Son of God
34 “I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
John the Baptist uses this phrase with full force as a title that points to the unique oneness and intimacy that Jesus sustains to the Father as Son.
The term carries the idea of the deity of Jesus as Messiah.
This is the second confession that John the Baptist had made that day.
To state that Jesus is the Son of God, is saying that Jesus is the elect one of God, Jesus fulfilled in Himself the great hope of the servant of God.
These confessions provide us with four summaries of Jesus:
Jesus is the Passover Lamb who removes the sin of the world as confirmed on the cross.
Jesus is the one who is able to accomplish this divine task because He is the preexistent one as affirmed in Scripture.
Jesus is the one who brings salvation not merely as a past historical event but as the living reality of God in life as witnessed by His baptizing with the Holy Spirit, the one who is our supporter.
Jesus is the one who as the Son of God has truly embodied God since He is the unique one from the Father.
John the Baptist was sure that his witness pointed people towards the one true Christ, the one and only way to Salvation, and that is through repentance of their sin and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
John the Baptist wanted people to truly know who Jesus was, and he did not want them to be confused at all about Jesus’ identity, and that is why he continuously kept pointing out Jesus and confessing who Jesus was.
We ought to be the same, we all have a testimony of what Jesus has done in our life, if we are true born-again-believers, I mean that Jesus has changed our lives from darkness to light, then we have a testimony, that is a Jesus story, of how Jesus has worked in our life.
It does not have to be complicated and it does not have to be long, actually 3 to 5 minutes is all it should be, or you will lose people, but we should be telling people about Jesus every chance we get.
Our lives should be like John the Baptist - always striving to point people to Jesus, in one way or another.
Do you know Jesus personally today, are you following Him in a personal relationship, are you following in as a disciple - striving to learn more about Him each and every day.
If not let’s talk?