What God Did About It Series

WHAT GOD DID ABOUT IT

John 1:29-34

#John1

READ John 1:29-34 [Responsive Reading, Congregation Reads Bold Print]

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."

I. THE SIN OF THE WORLD

This passage starts out in verse 29 describing that the Lamb of God has come to take away the sin of the world. Is the world really that bad? Are we in need of sin taken away? We believe, as Christians, that the answer to both those questions is ‘yes.’ ‘Yes,’ the world really is that bad and ‘yes’ sin does need to be taken away.

Errors. Corruption. Misstep. Misspoke. Disobedience. Mistakes. Attitude problems. Immoral choices. Faults. Wrongs. Violations. Every single one of us deal with personal issues that break our life to pieces and cause chaos… a great umbrella term for that is ‘sin.’ Sin is really a church word anymore, but it is a good word for the wrongdoing that we do that often snowballs into more wrongdoing.

* Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

* Romans 5:12, “and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.”

* 2 Peter 3:17, “be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position.”

* 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."

What do all these verses (and certainly other verses) tell us? The Bible describes to us that human living is fraught with error. We mess up. We all sin, but do so differently in different situations. We at times do what we want and it is not what God wants for us. We all can be corrupted by our own thoughts, people around us, and situations we put ourselves in. We all sin.

ILLUSTRATION… We all sin (p)

Adam is a 23-year-old college drop-out who came home from college and lives in his grandmother’s basement because he has no job and doesn’t plan on getting one. Gran Gran pays for everything.

Bart always wants what everyone else has. He got a John Deere 4066M even though he just needed a push mower. He also got an addition to his garage and put in a backyard patio with a fire pit in order to keep up with all his neighbors.

Cory decided he would go to church with his family so he could find new clients for his business.

David is concerned with running the Kingdom of Israel and doesn’t have time to discipline one of his sons who sexually harmed one of his sisters. He was furious with his son, but he let it go. He didn’t say anything good or bad to any of his kids about it. (2 Samuel 13)

Ellen just couldn’t help it when she fell in love with Rosie and everyone else should just accept that this is who she loves. She divorced her husband and now lives with Rosie.

Fred told the preacher who stopped by his house that he just didn’t have time for God. Golfing, fishing, watching his grandkids playing sports at the high school, and working on his car all kept him pretty busy.

Gigi loved that she got a raise at work. She even told people and used the words “Praise the Lord.” When the offering plate came by at church, she still put in her quarter, just like she had since she was 8 years old.

Henry screamed and yelled at the other driver and gave her a double fisted middle finger as he tail-gated her through downtown. He decided to follow the other driver all the way to their destination and then glowered at her as she parked.

Ingrid just loved it when the men stared at her. That’s why she wore short tight skirts and low-cut tops. God created her curvy and beautiful and she loved to show it off.

Judas just can’t understand why his Master allowed the woman to anoint His feet with the expensive perfume. It was worth a year’s wages. Now there would be less for him to steal from the money bag. He needed the money in the bag so he could skim off the top and pay for some stuff. (John 12:6)