Mary’s Little Lamb
John 1:29
Last week Gail Thomas came up to me and gave me a sermon topic. It was just a question and she may not yet know what I’m talking about. Today I am going to preach that sermon.
Mary had a little lamb, who’s fleece was white as snow….
Gail’s question was that since the poem mentions Mary and a pure white lamb…. Did that poem come from the scripture?
The answer is “NO!”
But there have been many sermons preached on “Mary’s little Lamb” and using that poem.
Today, there will be one more.
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John 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh ( or, beareth) away the sin of the world.
John was preaching in the wilderness.. in the barren place outside the town.
People streamed out of the towns to listen to his message. They were crushed by their sense of their own sinfulness. They came to the river to be baptized... washed from their guilt.
John preached a simple message about a messiah, a Christ, a deliverer who was coming and how they had to prepare their hearts for his coming.
Then one day Jesus came to where John was teaching and baptizing.
When John saw Jesus coming he preached the simplest and greatest sermon ever preached.
And he did it in only 13 words “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
THE LAMB OF GOD
Under that system, a person could bring a lamb. A spotless and pure lamb from his flock and it would be presented to the priest. The priest would then kill the lamb. The death of that lamb accomplished two things.
1. The satisfaction of the law.
The law declared that the wages of sin is death.... where there is sin, there must be a death.
2. Bridged the chasm caused by sin.., the rift between man an God.
That system was an imperfect system. It had it’s flaws.
It could not take away all sins..., just those of the past year.
He wanted to send THE LAMB... the lamb that could die ONCE FOR ALL.
When this lamb died there would never be a need for another lamb This lamb would take away.. FOREVER.... the sins.., all sins.., of the world.
When John pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold the lamb...” his audience understood the whole meaning of the sacrificial lamb.
John applied that truth to Jesus. He said this lamb, is the ultimate Iamb, the lamb to end all lambs, “the mother of all lambs.”
He could have begun, “Mary has a little lamb, whose fleece was white as snow…”
It would have been appropriate.
Mary had a little lamb.
Where should a lamb be born? IN A STABLE, barn, corral.
Where would you expect him to lay? IN the hay, near his mother.
When God, in eternity decided to send his Only Begotten Son, Jesus, to come to earth as a human and die for our sins….. why did he not make plans for him to have some place to stay.
Perhaps you have been traveling and did not make your reservations in time and you wound up staying in some sleezy hotel…. With scum in the shower, water spots on the ceiling, the ice machine was broken, and the pool was closed for repairs.
Well, you may have done that. BUT GOD DID NOT!!!
Neither did Mary and Joseph.
That is not why the inns were full and Jesus was born in a stable.
You may think he should have been born in a castle because he is King of Kings
But he was INTENTIONALLY born in a stable…. BECAUSE HE WAS THE LAMB!!!!!
Jesus was a great teacher.
He was a miracle worker.
The creator.
The eternal Judge
But more than anything.... above all things.... JESUS WAS THE LAMB.
He was the sacrificial lamb of God.
From the time of Adam and Eve, man has been a sinner. They did not have to learn to sin. (Who taught Eve to covet or Cain to murder?)
And from the first sin the heart of God has been broken by that sin. Why? Because God loves us.
And since he did love us he was crushed by our separation from him. He wanted to be close and intimate with us... like was he was with Adam and Eve before the sin.
So God prepared a way for the sin to be removed and the separation to be healed. That WAY was the sacrificial system of the Old Testament.
Under that system, a person could bring a lamb. A spotless and pure lamb from his flock and it would be presented to the priest. The priest would then kill the lamb.
The death of that lamb accomplished three things.
1. His death took away the curse of sin.
The curse of sin was death… separation from God.
Jesus bore that curse…. “My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me?”
Because he was forsaken, cut off, separated from God…. We don’t have to be.
2. His death took away the guilt of sin.
The guilt of sin is Satan’s lie.
It is his one remaining shackle he has to control us.
He uses guilt to separate us from God… to do what sin can’t do.
He uses guilt to make us ineffective.
But God declares we have no guilt… Romans 3:23-26
3. He takes away the pollution of sin
When I was in the fifth grade, my friend and I found a whole trash bag of Playboy magazines. We snuck them home and hid them. Every day we would sneak under his grandmother’s house and look at those pictures. Those pictures are burned into my mind. Several years ago I was at a yard sale and there was a box of Playboys….. old ones. With one look I saw a familiar face… as familiar as my own… on the cover of that magazine. At once I remembered every pose in the book.
SIN POLLUTES!!!! It pollutes minds, it pollutes memories, and that pollution can pollute our lives today.
I have read of men who could never be intimate with their wives without feeling the presence of other women in the bed…. Memories, pictures, imaginations.
BECAUSE SIN POLLUTES!!!
But Jesus Christ, the sacrificial lamb sets us free from the pollution. Save that experience of seeing that magazine… God has allowed that pollution to remain locked safely away.
“Who’s fleeced was white as snow…”
A lamb is the perfect picture of Innocence.
His motives were spotless
His words were spotless
His nature was spotless
His imaginations were spotless
Jesus had not one sinful weakness or infirmity.
He was not spotless because he was impervious to sin.
We do ourselves a great disservice when we fail to see Jesus struggling with sin… truly struggling to bring every thought captive, struggling to beat his body into submission, struggling to hold his tongue, struggling to keep himself pure.
When John pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold the lamb...” his audience understood the whole meaning of the sacrificial lamb.
