Name Above All Names: “The Lamb of God”
John 1:29-34
Focus: Jesus is the perfect, complete & triumphal Lamb that takes away the sins of the world.
Function: To encourage trust and faith in the triumphant Lamb of God by celebrating his victory thru communion.
Maybe the hardest story in the Bible for me to get my mind around is the story of Abraham & Isaac in Gen. 22.
You know that Abraham loved Isaac more than life itself! God had promised Abraham years before that all nations of the Earth would be blessed through
him and that his descendants would be as “numerous as the sands on the seashore!” He had fathered Isaac in his ripe old age, had doted on the boy and
believed that all of God’s promises to him were bound up in his precious son. That’s why its SO hard to imagine God giving him the instruction that he did!
Gen 22:2 Then God said, "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." NIV What? I’ve got to admit that this is a difficult one for me to grasp. I cannot imagine
what must have gone through Abraham’s mind! I cannot imagine how difficult it must have been for Abraham to consider sacrificing his very son–
by his own hands. Not only was this a son he loved, but it was a son through whom he saw God’s promises at work. To kill him would have been
unthinkable! But, Abraham does just as God instructs. The Bible says ..
Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough
wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the
distance. 5 He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to
you." 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of
them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?"
"Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" 8 Abraham answered,
"God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together.
Isaac was no dummy... he knew his father hadn’t brought a lamb and I wonder what he must’ve been thinking as his father prepared the altar...
9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and
laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called
out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"
"Here I am," he replied.
12 "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me
your son, your only son." 13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and
sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the
mountain of the LORD it will be provided." Gen 22:9-14 NIV
Thankfully, God intervenes and reveals to Abraham that this had been a test of his faith. What faith Abraham demonstrated! The Hebrews writer tells us
Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead which figuratively he did with Isaac... but what FAITH! What I want us to notice this morning is how God
took care of everything for Abraham. Where did that ram come from? Was it just there by accident? Did it just happen upon the scene? Of course NOT!
God put it there! What is significant for us this morning is this: When Abraham needed a sacrifice, God provided!
We’re somewhat familiar with the O.T. sacrificial system, aren’t we?
Countless rituals and offerings were commanded in the O.T. and many involved the slaughter of a lamb on an altar dedicated to God. These were associated
with atonement rituals and explained somewhat by Lev 17:11
For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes
atonement for one’s life. NIV
Atonement is one of those $15 religious words that really does begin to make a lot of sense if you break the word down and think about it a little bit. It means
reconciliation and has to do with our reconciliation with God. Sin has broken that cord between us and God, but atonement is about bringing us back
together... making us “one” again. It is about “At-one-ment” with God. That’s what the sacrifices at the altar were all about... bringing about “at-one-ment”
with God and reminding the Children of Israel that they were separated from him. We forget in our modern day sometimes that God is a RIGHTEOUS God
and that sin makes him ANGRY! God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day -Ps. 7:11
We don’t often like to think of God in this way, its not the “warm & fuzzy” grandfatherly picture some of us have of him. But the Bible clearly depicts him as
demonstrating righteous anger/ wrath against sin! And because all of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory... WE are the object of that wrath! But
the beauty in the idea of atonement and a term used in many of our translations, propitiation, is the idea of averting that anger; appeasing it; satisfying it;
turning it away. The truth is: God is right to be angry at our sin! And we are right to be fearful of an angry God! But he is also a God of kindness,
compassion & grace... and so he has arranged a way of satisfying that anger, that wrath and making atonement for our sins! But, even as elaborate as the
O.T. sacrificial system was... it wasn’t enough! The writer of Hebrews in chapter 10 says, that if it HAD been enough they wouldn’t have had to continue
making blood sacrifices year after year... but they did! Why?
it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Heb 10:4 NIV God’s people needed a LASTING Sacrifice!
God’s people needed a LASTING Sacrifice, and He provided! Heb 10:11-14 NIV
11Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away
sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. 13 Since that time he waits for
his enemies to be made his footstool, 14 because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
Who is THIS priest? Who has once and for all made perfect forever -by one sacrifice? “Behold the Lamb of God”
Behold the sacrificial lamb of god!
Jesus is that Lamb. I love that image that John’s gospel gives us in the text read a moment ago. John the Baptist has been proclaiming the in-breaking of
the Kingdom– that there was one who was coming who would be greater than he- “the throngs of whose sandals he was unworthy to untie!” Then one day
he looks up (he’s already baptized Jesus and witnessed the voice from Heaven call out to him).. He looks up and there is Jesus. And John wants all of HIS
followers to know that Jesus is the fellow they should be following. Now, its close to Passover time (cf. Jn 2:13) and what he says next only comes natural...
, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is the Son of God.” We remember the Passover story... how when Moses was
trying to free God’s people from bondage in Egypt, the Spirit of the Lord swept through the country killing the firstborn from every household. But the children
of Israel had been told to wipe the blood of a lamb over their door as a sign for the Spirit to “pass over” them. They were thus saved by the blood of the lamb.
John wants his disciples to know: Jesus is that LAMB! When God’s people needed a sacrifice... a LASTING sacrifice God provided!
He is the perfect priest who once & for all has offered the ultimate sacrifice that makes perfect forever those of us who are in the process of being made holy!
What the blood of millions of animals had anticipated, the blood of Jesus secures. Going back to Abraham & Isaac for a moment, do you remember where
the altar was built and the animal slain? Mount Moriah is mentioned only one other time in the Bible. Unless there were two places with the same name,
the place of Abraham’s altar was the same one where Israel’s temple later stood. 2 Chron 3:1 tells us “Then Solomon began to build the temple of the
LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah,” NIV So, Isaac was prepared for death very near the place where Jesus would be raised on a cross! The
substitution of the lamb provided for Isaac foreshadowed the substitution of Jesus as the perfect Lamb of God for me and for you! Why is he the perfect
sacrifice? Because he was without blemish or stain... he was perfect. The Apostle Peter would write, “For you know that it was not with perishable things
such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood
of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”1 Peter 1:18-19 NIV As I’m emphasized so much through this series, no mere man could have achieved
our redemption; God couldn’t have sent another prophet... he had to come himself because only one who was both a Son of God & Son of Man would be
able to identify with our sin & brokenness and be able to save us from it! Only one who was perfect could have been that blood sacrifice!
And so, Jesus stands in our stead. We deserved to be up there on that cross... but Jesus took it instead; He is the substitutionary Lamb who took the bullet
for us! I’ve always been intrigued by the secret service agents who protect the President. Their job is to protect the life of the President at all costs and are
even trained to take a bullet for him if necessary. I remember when Pres. Reagan was shot as soon as an agent realized what was happening he pushed
Reagan into the back of the Presidential limo and threw himself on top of him! These guys are paid to do that, what’s even more impressive is another story
I was reminded of recently of a teacher in Arkansas. Many of you remember March 24, 1998... Westside Middle School. It had been a normal early Spring
day; children going about their classes, doing their homework, fussing about the cafeteria food. A 32 year old English teacher, Shannon Wright was doing
what she had always dreamed of doing. She had attended Westside as a kid and had always dreamed of coming back to teach there. On that Tuesday
morning she had been doing just that, teaching nouns & pronouns to twelve and thirteen year old students. Just as she finished her lunch that afternoon,
the fire alarm sounded and no doubt she knew exactly what to do– they’d rehearsed it dozens of times, preparing for a possible emergency. But what I’m
sure she didn’t know- nor did anyone else- that that day was the emergency none of them could have imagined! She had no sooner gotten outside than the
sound of shots were heard as two students fired directly into the crowd of kids. There was a 13 year old girl directly in the line of fire and Shannon did what
many of her relatives and coworkers said would have been expected of her. She selflessly put her own body between the little girl and the deadly bullets.
She was killed. Since I read that story again last week, I can’t help seeing Jesus. I’ll never understand what happened there... or at Columbine later... but
I hope never to forget the glimpse that Shannon Wright’s death has given us of what Jesus did at Calvary!
Isa 53:4-5
4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was
pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we
are healed. NIV
Just as she put herself in the line of fire to save that little girl, Jesus went to the cross to save me from the just fate I deserved! THAT is the remarkable thing
implied by the name: Lamb of God!
But the story doesn’t end there! There is ANOTHER picture of the Lamb presented in Scripture... again by the Apostle John, but this time in Revelation 5.
In just a moment we’re going to be focusing our minds around the Lord’s Table and reflecting upon what He has done for us... but what makes the Supper
meaningful isn’t the death of Jesus, but the Resurrection! What gives it power is the triumph of the empty tomb!
Behold, the triumphal lamb! Rev. 5
In the symbolic imagery of Revelation an angel is holding scroll with writing on both sides– there’s seven seals and he asks, “Who is worthy to open such
a scroll?” The answer comes from one of the elders: The Lamb, looking as if it had been slain v. 6 Rev 5:8-12And they sang a new song: "You are worthy
to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language
and people and nation. 10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." And vs. 12
"Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" NIV Worthy indeed!
The good news that we proclaim: that slain Lamb of Isaiah 53 is the Triumphal Lamb of Revelation 5! That broken body hanging up there on the cross;
that was beaten & pierced; that was laid in an unused tomb... didn’t stay there! The whole point of Calvary, of what the Lamb came to do, was revealed when
that tomb was found empty! Jesus had risen! He had overcome death! Paul would say, "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your
sting?" Well, Jesus took care of that!
We are about to enter into our time of Communion.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with our practice, this is a special time of “remembering” what the Lamb did for us. Again it was Passover time in Israel.
Just before going to the cross, Jesus met with his disciples one final time and told them that the bread would symbolize his body which would be given for
them. He took the cup and told them that from now on it would symbolize his blood which would be shed for them. And he forever re-defined the Passover
meal. He told them that as often as they did it “Do this in memory of me.”
So, for Christians, we invite you to participate with us in this memorial feast... this Last Supper of the Lamb...And we reflect upon the elements which for us
memorialize & symbolize the body & blood of the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world... And I want to challenge you to think about your sin
which it has removed! Praise God as we commune together!
Invitation: Phil 2:8-11
8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death- even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted
him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and
on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. NIV
Names do tell us something, don’t they? I hope that the names of Jesus we’ve looked at over the last couple of months have told us something of WHO
Jesus is and what he has done for us. I hope it has given you a bigger & fuller picture of all that he is!
“Jesus”-- God is Salvation; “Messiah”/ “Christ”- anointed one/ king; “Immanuel”-- God’s promise to never leave us nor forsake us; “Righteous Advocate”
– intercedes for us before the Father; “Son of God/ Son of Man”- he had to identify with our weakness in order to save us from it.; “Word”-- that force that
holds all things together, that ‘true’ philosophy, who reveals the Father to us, who became flesh to dwell among us.; “precious, Sacrificial & Triumphant Lamb
of God” – who takes away my sin and yours
But the reason for examining Jesus and these titles isn’t to just know more ABOUT him... Knowing about him isn’t enough. The question is what are you
going to do about him? Next week, I’ll begin a new series that I’m going to call, “What will you DO with Jesus?” You see, hearing about Jesus demands
a DECISION! It demands a RESPONSE! What will we do with him?
If you’re here this morning and haven’t yet decided what you’re going to DO with Jesus, don’t wait until next week! Let us encourage you right NOW to make
up your mind! Hearing about Jesus demands a decision. What will it be? Will you trust him with your life? Will you turn to him for hope? Will you surrender
your life to him? Will you die with him? (In baptism) What will you do with Jesus, the precious Lamb of God?
