Behold the Lamb of God

Good morning. Our passage is John 1:1-34. Follow along as I read.

Let’s pray.

Father, thank you so much for the opportunity to preach the Word at Christ Fellowship. I ask this morning that as we open the Scriptures that your Spirit would enlighten us to your truth and that you would plant your truth down deep in us. Change us from the inside out by the power of your Spirit as the Word is preached. As we look into this beautiful passage, help us to behold the Lamb of God truly and faithfully. Now, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.

INTRODUCTION:

Again, thank you all so much for coming to the first public gathering of Christ Fellowship. It’s our prayer that God uses this church to reach northeast Arkansas with the gospel! And the main way we will seek to do that is by gathering every week to fellowship together, sing together, pray together, and hear a sermon from God’s Word. At Christ Fellowship, the main diet of what you hear up here will be sermons through books of the Bible. We believe – according to Psalm 19 – that God’s Word is perfect, able to revive our souls; his testimony is trustworthy, and makes us wise. His Word is capable of bringing us joy, convicting us of sin, and contains all that we need for life and holiness. So we are a Word-centered church. Unapologetically. Because we really do believe that God’s Word is living and active, and never returns void. And to that end, our first sermon series will be coming from the Gospel of John. Over the next few months, we will be looking at this wonderful message about who Jesus is, what he came to do, and the hope that he offers to people like you and me.

In reading and hearing our passage, we know that this is the introduction to the Gospel of John. And John doesn’t spend any time with details on Jesus’s birth like we have in Matthew and Luke. He doesn’t take any time to give you cultural background information. No – he jumps right in with one of the most vivid descriptions of Jesus that we have in the New Testament. John’s emphasis in these first few verses is to reveal who Christ is and what he came to do. And his whole purpose in revealing who Christ is in his gospel is found in his thesis statement – or his purpose statement. That purpose statement is John 20:31: “But these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” That’s the why of John’s gospel. He wants you to believe that Jesus is the one who has come to earth to save sinners like you and me. And particularly in John 1, the passage wants to reveal who this Lamb, or Word, or Son of God, is so that we might behold him.

That’s the whole point of this sermon series and our passage: We want to talk about who Jesus is as we meet him in the Scriptures so that we might behold him. What do I mean to behold, right? We don’t use that language very often anymore. Beholding is different than seeing or looking at something. We look at things all the time. When I am driving, I look at other cars. I see road signs. But I very rarely BEHOLD anything. To see or look means to merely notice that thing. To behold means to pay special attention to something; to note what it is and have wonder and awe at it. Beholding is to mark something as significant and enjoy its beauty. To behold something is to be utterly encapsulated in its glory. That’s what we’re going to do with Jesus as we go through John because that’s what John wants us to do! He writes in such a way that the reader has no choice but to BEHOLD the Lamb of God, and to enjoy his beauty, and to be lost in his glory.

In light of all that, here is my main point this morning: Beholding the Lamb of God leads to believing in the Lamb of God. Beholding the Lamb of God leads to believing in the Lamb of God. And that’s John’s purpose, remember? That we might believe. In order to do that, we must stop and behold - enjoy and be in awe of – who Jesus is.

Imagine you are in an empty, well-lit room. It’s a large room, and you’re laying flat on your back. Stretched across the room, about halfway up the wall is a thick black curtain. The curtain is between you and any source of light. While you’re in a bright room, you’re now experiencing it as pitch black. This is how we are going to look at this passage: Each revelation of Jesus that John makes sheds a little light on who Jesus is and gives us more insight. More light. We are wandering around in darkness beneath this curtain, separated from the light. As we read this passage, John pokes little holes in the curtain, and light starts to creep in.

First he says that there was the Word in the beginning. This Word is eternal. He is God. He is with God. He is a person in the Trinity. A hole here. A hole there. And we have a bit more understanding of who the Word is. He is the light that shines in darkness. A little more light in the room. He was rejected by his own people. Sheds a little more light. This Word was not only divine and in heaven and creating the world, but he comes into the world and dwelt among people like you and me. He brought grace and truth. He was coming after John the Baptist, who was called to testify about him. So in verse 1-28, John is poking holes in the curtain. More and more light is coming through. In verses 29 and 34, he rips the curtain down and we are finally able to behold who this is that he’s been talking about: John the Baptist says, BEHOLD, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” and “I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.” Jesus himself is the light that shines in darkness and the darkness cannot overcome him. This is the Jesus that we are called to behold.

Because Beholding – truly taking in and seeing Jesus for who he is – leads to believing. Beholding Jesus leads to believing in Jesus.

But that’s not the full story, right? I can’t just say, Behold Jesus and you will believe in him. One of the themes that we’ll get into in a few weeks is that you must be born again. Jesus talks about this in conversation with Nicodemus in John 3. This is a spiritual birth. To fully realize who Jesus is and fully behold the Lamb of God, we must be born again. We need to be born, as verse 13 says, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God. We need new birth. And to behold Jesus, we need new eyes.

New Eyes (Beholding the Lamb)

That’s really the first point. In order to truly behold the Lamb, we must do so with new eyes. The way that we experience and get to know Jesus is not really with our physical eyes. Sure the culture puts forward movies and tv shows that try to depict Jesus, but we know that that’s not Jesus. When I’m talking about beholding the Lamb, I’m talking about experiencing him as he is revealed in Scripture to be. Is the Jesus you behold the one that is revealed in Scripture? Or are you merely looking at a made-up version? We have a tendency to do that, you know. We make up different idols and call them Jesus. There’s movie-star Jesus with good hair and a perfect smile, everything we’d want in a leading man. There’s EMT Jesus, who we only call on when we’re in an emergency. There’s political Jesus, shaped and fashioned after our party ideals and platforms. There’s prosperity Jesus, who gives me whatever I want. And there’s activist Jesus, who always takes up a cause that we care about. None of these are what Scripture reveals Jesus to be!

So we need to do what John the Baptist did and BEHOLD the LAMB as he really is! John describes Jesus in three different ways here:

The Word

The Word is a call back to the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, we see God creating by his word, revealing himself by his word, and saving his people by his word. God uses his word to reveal more of himself to his people. And the fullest way he does that is by sending his own Son to earth. By using the term ‘Word’ to describe Jesus, John is saying here that Jesus is showing the world who God is. As the Word, Jesus has come to create a new people, reveal himself as God, and save his people. The Word creates, reveals, and saves.

The Son of God

John also describes Jesus as being the Son of God. John is showing us that God exists as Trinity: three distinct persons in one divine substance – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Son of God, who was with the Father and the Spirit in the beginning and was there to create the world. Surely as we read about the Son of God in verses 14-18, we can deduce that the Word and the Son are the same. This Word and Son of God existed before time began, and has brought God’s grace to earth.

The Lamb of God

And finally, John refers to Jesus as the Lamb of God. This comes from a quote from John the Baptist (who is a different John than the author of this gospel account): “Look, or Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John the Baptist here is pointing at Jesus, already identified as the Word and Son of God. So why do we now need to know him as the Lamb? In Jewish life, a lamb was the required sacrifice for Passover each year. This lamb served as a symbol for God to take away the sins of the Jewish people. Now John the Baptist uses this term to identify Christ himself.

He was pointing everyone forward to Jesus’s death on the cross as a sacrifice, but not just for the Jewish people. Look: John says that the sins of the whole world would be taken away through the Lamb of God’s sacrifice. Christ, who was more pure and perfect than any passover lamb could ever be, died on the cross as the once and forever sacrifice. He offered himself in the place of sinners and made the sacrificial system of the Old Testament obsolete. But his death was for the sin of the whole world, meaning that this was not just for the Jews, but for the Gentiles as well! His salvation is for all who would believe in him. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, what language you speak, who your parents are. Christ’s death takes away the sin of the world.

So Jesus is the Word. Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the Lamb of God.

What Jesus are you beholding today? Have you crafted a Jesus in your own mind? Have you allowed society’s picture of Jesus to cloud your image of what Scripture testifies to? Or are you beholding the Word, the Son of God, the Lamb of God? In order to see him in this way, you must have new eyes. But you need not only new eyes; you also need a new heart.

New Heart (Receiving the Lamb)

When we look with spiritual eyes at the Lamb, we will receive him for who he is. But this means we need a new heart. I’m not talking about a heart transplant surgery or a physical heart. In Jesus’s time, the heart was viewed as the center of the body’s emotion and desire. And we really still think this way today. When we talk about the heart, we are talking about love, passion, desire, even anger.

Have you ever said, “My heart just wasn’t in it”? When we talk in this way, we’re saying we did something physically but we didn’t really feel it or give it our all. In order for something to take root in our lives, our hearts “must be in it.” So this brings us to the concept of faith. Look at verses 10-13: (re-read vv 10-13). John is saying that some people received and some people rejected. This means that some believed and some didn’t. Some had faith and some didn’t. Here’s what I want you to get today: Faith is more than simply head knowledge. Having faith in Christ is more than merely accepting the facts of his life. Saving faith means that you have intellectually accepted the facts as true, but also moved to accept that those facts are good. In other words, your heart’s in it. You’ve been emotionally moved. This is the process of getting a new heart. And this is the process of receiving the Lamb.

But not all those who saw Jesus in his day received him in faith. Look at verses 10-11: His own people rejected him. He was despised and rejected; he was stricken, smitten, and afflicted, which was prophesied in Isaiah 53. You can see Jesus. You can hear a sermon about him. You can come to church. And still reject him. These people saw his miracles. They heard his sermons. But they rejected him. Unless you behold him with new eyes and receive him with a new heart, you’ll do the same. These would say that he truly existed and taught – even the demons believed that God is one – but they have not been moved in the heart. They haven’t taken that next step of faith.

But to all who did receive him, he gave the right to become children of God. All who behold Jesus for who he is and receive him in faith are children of God. And what does that mean? If you’re here and that’s you, you’ve been adopted into his family. The Father is your father. So that means that even when your faith isn’t strong, he is strong for you. In your weakness he is strong. Being a child of God also means that you have a community of brothers and sisters that you are called alongside in a local church. That’s expressed through local churches. That’s why we’re planting Christ Fellowship!

If you haven’t already, receive Christ today. Behold the Lamb of God, and have faith that he can take away your sin.

We are all born in sin and have all fallen short of God’s glory but there’s good news: Jesus, the Lamb of God, came to save sinners like you and me. This is the gospel. If you have questions about this, or how to receive Christ through faith, talk to me or Taylor after this service.

And receiving him with a new heart leads to our final point today: We are called to have a new life.

New Life (Pointing to the Lamb of God)

When you behold the lamb with new eyes and receive him with a new heart, it leads to a new life.

First, as Christ is the light of the world he is the light of men. We have been given the light of the world and are called to be light in a dark world. We’re now the lightbearers taking the gospel to the darkness and driving it out. When we become Christians, we take up a torch and carry it into the darkness. We know that darkness cannot drive away light, and light will always shine in the darkness. So we move forward with the gospel to a world that is reading to reject it, but needs it for life.

Not only are we to be lightbearers for the cause of Christ, but we are to take up the ministry of John the Baptist. John’s whole ministry was based upon pointing to Jesus. Making a way for hearers to receive the Lamb. He was a voice in the wilderness (Isaiah 40:1-5) - John preached comfort for a people who were lost. He gave living water to spiritually thirsty people. And all of that came through Christ, who he knew was greater than him.

We are now called, as we have been raised to walk in the newness of life, to take up John’s ministry. We preach Christ and him crucified to a world that is usually ready to reject him. When we proclaim the gospel, and seek to prepare the way of the Lord, we do so in the knowledge that he is coming back again.

We know that Christ is surely returning one day, and we have urgency to point people to the only way, the only truth, the only life which is found in Jesus himself.

So Christian, today, are you ready to take up the ministry of John the baptist? Are you ready to point people to the Lamb of God? If you’re unsure of how you can do that, that’s why the church exists! Lean in to a local church and take up this ministry in God’s community. If you’ve been made new in Christ, your life now points to Jesus. If you’ve not been made new in Christ, your life still points to Jesus. He is coming back again, and will judge everyone. And on that day, every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess. But those who did not receive him will be cast away from him for eternity, where they will suffer eternally under the wrath of God. Reject the Lamb in this life, and he will reject you on the last day. Those who do receive him in this life will be received by him in the life to come. And all this is to praise of God’s glorious grace. All of this points ultimately to God’s glory. He is glorified in receiving as his child. And he is glorified in his righteous judgment of your rejection of him.

CONCLUSION:

In conclusion, if all you’ve written down today is that ‘I need to behold Jesus more’ then this sermon has accomplished its purpose. Today, run to the Scriptures and meet Jesus there. Don’t go to your TV, don’t go to your Facebook, don’t turn to social media influencers. Go and meet Jesus in the Scriptures and let your life be changed by his power. Let your soul be taken up with his majesty. Let your eyes be taken by his beauty.

Let’s pray.