OPEN: Back in 1970’s, I read about a 78 year old King of a small country in South Africa.
What I found interesting was the titles this man had. He was called:
• Ngwenyama, or the Lion.
• He is also known as the Sun,
• the Milky Way,
• the Master in Weapons,
• the Obstacle to the Enemy,
• the Mouth that Speaks No Lies,
• the Miraculous Body That Grows Feathers in Winter While Others Are Without Plumage,
• and the Jaw That Cracks All Bones.
(Readers Digest 10/77 p. 106)
Now, why on earth would he have all those names?
Well, he was a king of a very small country (Swaziland, about the size of New Jersey that was virtually surrounded by much larger nations in the area of South Africa) and I suspect that he figured that the more names he had, the bigger and more important he would seem to others.
That’s why a lot of people try to have “titles” in front of their names, or letters behind their names - they want to be important, and they don’t think they can be important without the titles. That’s also one of the reasons God warned us about being too attached to titles for ourselves:
“… you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant.” Matthew 23:8-11
But folks who think like that are right – the more important a person is, the more titles and descriptions people will use to for them.
That’s especially true of Jesus.
ILLUS: Billy Sunday, a famous evangelist of the last century said:
“There are 256 names in the Bible for the Lord Jesus Christ, and I suppose this was because He was infinitely beyond all that any one name could express.”
Now, what we’re looking this month are a few of the titles the Bible uses for Jesus. And the first title on our list is the “Lamb of God. Of all the titles Jesus has been given in Scripture this seems to be one of the most common.
In the book of Revelation (for example) Jesus is called the “Lamb” no less than 26 times.
But here in the gospel of John, we find John the Baptist being the first one to declare: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” John 1:29
To understand how important this proclamation was it helps to realize just who John the Baptist was. John’s job was to “reveal” or introduce Jesus to the people of Israel. Isaiah tells us that John’s job was to “Prepare the way of the Lord...” Isaiah 40:3
So when John declared that Jesus was the Lamb of God…that meant something. But what exactly did it mean? It meant he was answering a question that was asked way back in the book of Genesis.
And the question was this: Where is the lamb?
And John the Baptist declared: Here he is! Here is the Lamb!!!
The question was asked in Genesis 22 where we’re told the story of a man of faith named Abraham. Most of you may know the story, but what happened was this:
God promised Abraham that he would have a son, and when he and his wife were nearly 100 years old, God gave them what He promised.
Now Abraham and Sarah were as happy and excited as they could be and they literally built their lives around this young boy they named Isaac. But THEN… one day, God comes to Abraham and says:
“Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” Genesis 22:2
Now, this is a bizarre story. The idea that God would ask a man to sacrifice his son as a burnt offering doesn’t square with anything else we know about God. But the outcome of this event was never really in question. God was never going to allow Abraham to go thru with the sacrifice. This was a test.
As God told Abraham later “… now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Genesis 22:12
This was a test to see if Abraham loved God MORE than he did his son.
This was a test, and God would never have allowed Abraham to sacrifice his son.
But the fact of the matter was – Abraham didn’t know that. Abraham was fully convinced that God intended him to place his son on the altar and sacrifice the boy to Him.
Why on earth would Abraham even consider such a thing? Well, Hebrews 11 tells us that Abraham “… reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.” Hebrews 11:19
In other words, God had a made Abraham a promise – that through his son Isaac a great nation would arise. And Abraham reasoned God wouldn’t lie. If necessary God could raise Isaac from the dead to fulfill promise.
But there’s something else going on here. This little story in Genesis is about more than just Abraham having his faith tested. Notice what is going on in this story:
o Abraham was asked to sacrifice HIS ONLY SON.
o He was to take his son to the region of Mt. Moriah to offer that sacrifice
(Mt. Moriah was where the Temple was built in Jerusalem and close to where Jesus was crucified).
o And the sacrifice?
o Who supplied the ram for sacrifice that day?
o God did that so that Isaac would not have to die.
Do you see what God did there? He painted us a picture of what He was going to do when He sent His only begotten Son to die on a cross close by Mt. Moriah and to be the sacrifice that God supplied so that we would not have to die for our sins.
God was telling the Gospel story of Jesus in the opening chapters of Genesis.
But what I want you to see this morning is something that happened BEFORE Abraham went up the mountain to sacrifice his son. Isaac looks around and says to father:
“Behold, the fire and the wood, but WHERE IS THE LAMB…?”
You see, if there’s no lamb… Isaac’s got to die. Isaac may not have known that (he was a little slow to catch on) but you and I - the readers - DO know that, because God wanted us to get caught up in the drama of what is written. God wanted to understand - if He did not supply the lamb… there was no hope for Isaac.
But then God gives away the plot to this story when He tells us: Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” Genesis 22:8
Without that lamb – Isaac had no hope.
What many people don’t understand is that if Jesus hadn’t died on the cross for our sins… Isaac would STILL have had no hope. Scholars often refer to Hebrews 11 as the “FAITH HALL OF FAME” because Hebrews 11 tells us about the faith of all the great men and women of the Old Testament. But right at the end of that chapter we read of those faithful OT saints:
“And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.” Hebrews 11:39-40
Thus, if God had not supplied the lamb, all the great saints of old would STILL be in their graves. And they’d have no hope of their sins ever being forgiven. But now… because of Jesus they have rec’d what was promised right alongside of us.
All because the Lamb of God had taken away the sin of the world.
And this imagery of the sacrifice of a lamb is repeated all through the Old Testament. God drove home over and over and over again the fact that a LAMB would bring about cleansing from sin. Throughout the Old Testament, lambs were prominent sacrifices.
• Lambs were sacrificed for the cleansing of lepers who had been healed.
• Lambs were offered up as voluntary/freewill offerings at feasts and when folks wanted to seal a vow before God.
• And their sacrifice was mandatory for those desiring to take a Nazarite vow.
And perhaps, most significant of all - EVERY DAY at the Temple Lambs were offered on the altar as the first and the last sacrifices of the day.
But there was ONE MORE time, once a year, when a Lamb was offered up as special Sacrifice. It first sacrifice the Israelites offered up when God led them out Egypt. Do you remember what that special day was? (PASSOVER)
o At Passover, the Israelites were to sacrifice a lamb… a male lamb.
o It was to be a lamb without blemish or defect.
o And at that first Passover, the blood of that lamb was to be painted on the doorpost/lentils so that death would PASS OVER their homes.
The tie-in with Jesus is obvious:
• He was the LAMB OF GOD who came to take away our sins.
• He as a Lamb without blemish or defect.
• And His blood covers the sin in our lives so that we don’t have to fear death.
Again, the story of the sacrifice of a lamb was God’s way of telling the Gospel story of Jesus death for our sins in the early history of Israel’s existence.
Now, what’s intriguing is that every sacrifice in the Old Testament taught the same message. The blood of the sacrifices of bulls, goats, turtledoves and lambs all “covered” the sins of the offerer.
But that brings me to a question… why was Jesus the LAMB of God?
Why not, the BULL of God?
Or the GOAT of God?
Or the turtledove of God?
All those other animals were sacrificed to God as well. Why would God focus on Jesus being the LAMB??? What was so intrinsic about lambs that made them the animal that God used to identify who Jesus was to be? What was it about a Lamb that made it God’s choice to symbolize Christ?
Well, here’s a couple of thoughts:
First Lambs are known for their innocence. Have you ever heard the phrase “innocent as a lamb”?
BULLS are known for their strength.
GOATS for their stubbornness.
DOVES for their gentleness.
But the there’s something about the behavior of lambs that makes us think of something that is innocent. There’s just something about lambs that conjures up the image of innocence, purity and – yes – sinlessness.
But there’s something else God wanted us to think about here.
In Isaiah 53:7 God tells us about the day Jesus would come and die for us:
“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”
Sheep don’t fight when faced with being sacrificed.
They don’t struggle.
They seem to meekly accept their deaths.
ILLUS: Back when my dad was alive, he was once a meat inspector. He’d go into slaughter houses and make sure that they meat was properly slaughtered, and often he’d lend a hand and help the workers do their job.
One day, he was in the holding area with a couple of the other workers – Fernando and Jose when one of the bulls got loose from its pen and was now out in the walkway… and it was NOT happy. Fernando and Jose found the closest pole and tried to climb out of the bull’s way, but dad was an older man and climbing wasn’t really an option for him.
Then, dad saw a water hose on the ground beside him. He picked it up, turned on the water and sprayed it at the bull right between its eyes. The bull shook its head and slowly backed up until it was backed into its pen – and dad secured the gate.
Then he turned to the two men still up on the polls and he laughed as he said “I heard Jose tell Fernando – get out of the way and let someone climb up there that knows what he’s doing!”
My point is – bulls don’t volunteer to be sacrificed. In fact, given the choice, they’ll fight it.
But Jesus didn’t fight dying for us. Jesus was like a lamb led to slaughter…
What would that have been like???
ILLUS: Years ago I read about a man had worked for a meat packing firm for many years.
He had cut the throats of many animals. He’d heard the cattle bellow, the fowl squawk and pigs squeal. But then one day, a farmer brought a lamb to be slaughtered. With business as usual, the man took his sharp knife and cut the lamb's throat. But the lamb did not squawk and flop around like a chicken or turkey might. It didn’t squeal and struggle like the pigs did. And the lamb did not bellow and slump lover like cattle would. Instead, the lamb just stood there… silently standing before him.
Then, with blood flowing from its throat, the lamb stumbled toward him and licked the blood from his hands. Then, the lamb silently fell over… and died.
For the rest of the day, how that lamb faced death plagued that worker’s mind. And all that night … and for ALL the nights afterward…. he started having trouble getting to sleep. This went on for almost a month and eventually the man went to his supervisor and said, "I quit! I can’t kill another animal. Every time I do all can think of is the death of that lamb!"
CLOSE: So, why did God use the image of a lamb to describe Jesus? Because, as our sacrifice, Jesus didn’t fight His death. He volunteered to take YOUR place and MINE and He went to the cross like a lamb going to the slaughter to pay the price for our sins.
And God tells us that Jesus was the Lamb who could take away our sin because Jesus was an innocent sacrifice. Innocent and blameless as a lamb.
God taught His people that a lamb with defects or blemishes was not acceptable as a sacrifice. It wasn’t good enough!!!! So, if it came to a choice between ME dying for your sins… or one of the Elders, or one of the Sunday School teachers… or even the most righteous and holy person in the church…it wouldn’t make any difference. Because God wouldn’t take anything less than a pure and undefiled sacrifice. THAT WAS Jesus – the Lamb of God.
Just to repeat what we’ve said before - if God had not supplied the sacrifice Isaac would have been without hope. The lamb God supplied died in Isaac’s place
And in the same way, Scripture tells us Jesus was the Lamb of God who died in our place. If God had not supplied His only begotten Son to die in our place, we would be without hope.
But Jesus did come. The Lamb of God did die in our place.
So, that leaves only one more question for you - Did Jesus die for you?
There are plenty of people who come to church on a regular basis, they put in their time, sing the songs, pray the prayers, take communion, put in their offerings and listen to the sermon… but for all intents and purposes, Jesus didn’t die for them. They don’t recognize His sacrifice. They don’t sense really think much about the idea that without Him they’d have no hope. They’re just putting in their time, playing the game and giving token respect to God.
Without recognizing the sacrifice Jesus made for them, church becomes little more than smoke and mirrors.
ILLUS: There’s the story told of an artist named Steinberg who had taken in a beautiful gypsy girl to pose for his paintings. At the time he was working on his masterpiece "Christ on the Cross" and the girl used to watch him work on this painting. One day she said "He must have been a very wicked man to be nailed to the cross like that."
"No, he was a very good man, perhaps the best man that ever lived. He died for others."
The girl looked at the painting for a long time and then looked up at him and asked. "Did He die for you?"
At the time, Steinberg was not a follower of Christ, but the gypsy girl's question touched his heart and not long afterward he became a believer in Jesus.
It simply became a matter of answering a simple question: Did He die for you?”
Behold, the Lamb of God, who died for others.
Did He die for you?
INVITATION
