Look at The Lamb: John 1:29-36
Let’s open our Bibles to John chapter 1:
Today, there are lots of people claiming to be “awakened.” There are lots of gurus claiming to be “enlightened”, that is to be spiritually aware, to be spiritually illuminated. One man claims that he has had a revelation of his own inner goodness. Another claims to be alive spiritually because he finally understands, not the Godhead, but rather his own godhood, as if he were the fourth member of the trinity.
But there is one thing that happens to every single person who becomes truly enlightened. One thing tells us when we become spiritually aware. Oh, it is not that I become aware of all the goodness within me, it is not that I realize the light within, or come to understand my own godhood; no, in fact it is quite the opposite. I become aware that I am sinful, deceptive, and wicked. We become enlightened to our true condition before God; we see that we have broken His law, rebelled against Him, and that we are now under guilt and condemnation. That is what it is like when someone truly becomes enlightened.
And the person who is made aware of their condition knows they must rid their hearts of this sin, that they must get rid of their guilt before God, yet we discover that we are not able to do this. And so there comes a desperation, and a deep cry rises within us, “Oh where can I go to be clean, how can I get rid of my guilt?” This is a truly enlightened person. And today’s message answers the question, how can I be rid of sin, what can wash away my guilt and remove my shame? Let’s look at our next passage in John chapter 1:
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, ’A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel." 32 Then John gave this testimony: "I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ’The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God." 35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!" John 1:29-36 (NIV)
We have just completed the section of Scripture that shows John the Baptist preparing the way for the Messiah. He did this by calling people to repent. And now John introduces Jesus by saying “look the Lamb or God, who takes away the sin of the world”. So verses 19-28 introduce John the Baptist and his ministry of repentance, and verses 29-36 introduce Jesus Christ and His ministry of forgiveness. John is the voice crying “repent”, and to those who do, Jesus is the Lamb crying “forgiven!”
So today’s message is called “look at the Lamb”, then next week is “live with the Lamb” from verses 38-39, the following week is “lead others to the Lamb” from verses 41-42 and finally we come to “a life transformed by the Lamb” (verse 42).
Now if we look at these verses, verses 29-36 we see that Jesus Christ does two very specific things: He takes away the sin of the world, you can see that in verses 29, and He baptizes with the Holy Spirit, you can see that in verses 32-33, so that you might say that the work of Jesus Christ is to take those who are immersed in sin and removes their sin from them, and then He immerses us in His Holy Spirit instead, so that this is a most wonderful exchange where our sin is taken away from us and the Holy Spirit is given to us. The animals used to symbolize these two works are a lamb and a dove.
Please turn in your Bibles to Leviticus chapter 16. God gave us an amazing illustration of exactly how sin is removed. In the Day of Atonement God shows us a picture of what Jesus came to do as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. You will notice that sin is both paid for and removed. Notice verses 5-10:
5 From the Israelite community he is to take two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. 6 "Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household. 7 Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. 8 He is to cast lots for the two goats--one lot for the LORD and the other for the scapegoat. 9 Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the LORD and sacrifice it for a sin offering. 10 But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat. Leviticus 16:5-10 (NIV)
So what we have so far is two animals for one sacrifice. One dies, the other is taken into the desert.
15 "He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull’s blood: He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it. 16 In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been. He is to do the same for the Tent of Meeting, which is among them in the midst of their uncleanness. Leviticus 16:15-16 (NIV)
So the priest was to kill this animal and take its blood into the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle in order to make atonement for the sins of the people, whatever their sins have been. In other words, the people sinned, they were impure and unclean, but a sacrifice was made to cover those sins, so that the people could look at that dead animal, with its blood drained out and say, “wow, my sin is atoned for, and I’m forgiven.”
But there was one more animal necessary to complete the atonement, and this second animal was called the “azazel” or the scapegoat:
20 "When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. 21 He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites--all their sins--and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. 22 The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert. Leviticus 16:20-22 (NIV)
So the priest places his hands on the head of this animal and confesses all the sins of the people over it, symbolically transferring the sins of the people on to this animal, and then they led the animal away from the people. The Israelites could watch this animal being led away from them and say, “wow, my sin is not only paid for, but also removed from me.” Hebrew literature tells us that when they were leading this animal away, all the people stood there mocking it, spitting at it, cursing it as it took their sins away.
2,000 years ago, God laid the sins of us all on Jesus, not symbolically but really transferring them to Jesus. He took our sins off of us and put them on His Son, who endured ridicule, persecution, and mocking. He was hit, spit on, cursed, scorned, hated and crucified by an angry mob. But the physical suffering did not even compare with the spiritual torture of taking the sins of mankind upon Himself and receiving all the wrath and hatred of God against sin. God made His soul an offering for sin, a guilt offering.
It took two animals to represent the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ; the first animal shows what the cross accomplishes, full atonement. The second animal shows us the effects of the cross: our sins are removed from us. And both show that Jesus is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.
What does it mean that Jesus is the Lamb Who takes away the sin of the world? What does it mean to have our sin removed?
1. He takes away the guilt of sin. God made His life a “guilt offering.” Jesus was loaded with our sins, and then judged as guilty in our place, even though He was innocent, and then He was executed for crimes He did not commit, for crimes that we committed, so that through His death our guilt is removed. “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world”. 1 John 2:2 (NIV)
2. He takes away the power of sin. “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. Romans 6:14 (NIV) We are under grace, under the Lamb, under forgiveness, under grace as a Master, therefore the power of sin is broken and we are not under sin’s dominion. This Lamb of God washes our sins away from us in His own blood, and then His Spirit defeats the power of sin in our lives, so that He Who the Son sets free is free indeed. He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He sets the captive free!
Do you know that the above order is very important? That Jesus first takes away the guilt of sin, and then He breaks the power of sin? You see guilt is like an undertow, it drags us back out into the sea of sin. But when guilt is removed in a person’s life, then the power of sin is also removed. This is all done by the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.
Summary: The Lamb of God both justifies and sanctifies us through His death and by His Spirit. What I mean by that is He removes the guilt of sin and takes away the power of sin. This is the work He does as the Lamb of God, and as the One Who baptizes us in His Spirit.
John the Baptist introduces Christ by saying, “Look the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.” So let’s do that for a minute today. Let’s look! What do we see if we look at the Lamb? Let me give us 5 things that we see if we look at the Lamb:
1. God is love. Look at the Lamb as He suffers and bleeds and dies, and you will see love revealed, love expressed. For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes will not perish. The Lamb of God exposes the heart of God for us, and it is one of love. “Heartache and tears accompanied Jesus at every step of His life. And when we come to view him in his agonizing prayers in the garden of Gethsemane, and then being insulted and mocked as our sins were placed upon Him, and we see Him struggling with his load along the via del a rosa, until the muscles in His body gave out, and he fell to the ground. We see that He was oppressed on the cross until from the depths of His soul He cried out with a loud cry which startled the heavens and shook the world. And in all of this God is shouting to the world, ‘I love you, I love you, I love you.” I gave my Son for you, I killed my Lamb for you.” Oh gaze, and wonder, and weep, and repent at this awesome display of God’s love.”
2. Our sins are paid for: The Lamb poured out His blood as full payment for our sins. At the death of the Lamb, He cried out, “It is finished” and those same words were found on tax receipts, and translated as “Paid in Full.” We owed a debt we could not pay, He paid a debt He did not owe. And now, listen to me, there is no payment left for us to make. God does not accept payment twice, both by Jesus and by us.
3. Our sins are removed. Jesus is the “Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.” The sacrificial animal has been led out into the wilderness with our sins on Him. He has removed our sins from us as far as the East is from the West. “But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself”. Hebrews 9:26 (NIV)
4. All who believe are righteous. The Lamb became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. God removed our sins from us by taking them off of us, and putting them on His Son, therefore if we have no sin we are righteous. There was once a missionary in China who was trying to help the Chinese people understand righteousness, and they just weren’t getting it. And one day he came across an ancient Chinese graphic for the word “righteous.”. It had the word righteous in the middle, and a picture on top and another picture on the bottom. The graphic on top was a picture of a lamb, and the graphic on the bottom was simply the word “I.” The missionary took this graphic to the Chinses people and said to them, “look, I, under the Lamb, am righteous.” The Chinese people got it, and then they asked, but what Lamb do I need to be under in order to be righteous? The missionary read John 1:29: “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29 (NIV)
5. The wrath of God is gone. God literally exhausted all His wrath against sin on His own Son. The Lamb of God became the recipient of all of God’s hatred for sin, and God pummeled Him and assaulted Him and shot all the arrows of His wrath into His Son, and now there are no more arrows left for us. Jesus drank every ounce of the bitter cup of God’s wrath, and there is not a drop of it left for us who believe.
What we see when we look at the Lamb is that God is love, that our sins are paid for, that our sins are removed from us, that we are righteous, and that God’s wrath is exhausted.
End with a challenge for all of us today: we are called to look at the Lamb of God and see Him taking away the sin of the world. We are told to fix our eyes on Jesus. Just like David Who said, “I have set the Lord always before me.” That is our intention here in this church, to set the Lord always before us, to fix our eyes on Jesus, to look at the Lamb, and live with the Lamb, and lead others to the Lamb and have our lives transformed by the Lamb.
So I invite us to look at the Lamb and to see Him taking sin away. And as we see Him dying in our place let’s not hold on to that which the Lamb of God came to take away. Let’s not cling to that which Jesus died to remove from us. Let’s relinquish our sin so that we might receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that is, so that we can be immersed in the Spirit of God.
"Either sin is with you, lying on your shoulders, or it is lying on Christ, the Lamb of God. Now if it is lying on your back, you are lost; but if it is resting on Christ, you are free, and you will be saved. Now choose what you want."--Luther, Martin
I’m going to close with a poem just now. Kids you know the song, Mary had a little lamb, right? Well here it is, worded just a little differently.
Mary had a little Lamb, who lived before His birth;
Self-existent Son of God, from Heaven He came to Earth. (Micah 5:2)
Mary had a little Lamb, crucified on the tree
The rejected Son of God, He died to set you free. (1 Peter 1:18)
Mary had a little Lamb—men placed Him in the grave,
Thinking they were done with Him; to death He was no slave! (Matthew 28:6)
Mary had a little Lamb, ascended now is He;
All work on Earth is ended, our Advocate to be. (Hebrews 4:14-16)
Mary had a little Lamb—mystery to behold!
From the Lamb of Calvary, a Lion will unfold. (Revelation 5: 5,6)
My friends, if you are spiritually enlightened, then you know you are a sinner, and you have no hope in yourself to be able to remove your sin. But you also know that God sent His Son to be the Lamb, Mary’s little Lamb, who takes away our sin, and then baptizes us in the Holy Spirit, so that our lives are consumed in Christ.
