Theme: Jesus:
the Lamb of God
On the evening of the 23rd .of July 1938. Heinrich Hasser and his three friends all expert climbers reached the first stage of their climb of the north face of the Eiger.
The North face of the Eiger is legendary in the annals of climbing. Rising
vertically for 5900 ft, to a snow capped summit far above, it presented one of
the greatest challenges in
But, this was the evening before, and all that lay ahead of them.
As the sun began to set, they reached a ledge about as wide as a man’s hand which ran laterally across the mountain face. This was to be the route they would take the following morning. At this point, before it got dark, they hammered two steel pegs into the rock face. On one peg they hung all their gear with ropes. They hammered the other into a split in the rock face, tied ropes round themselves, and attached them to that steel peg, so their whole weight came to rest on that one single piece of steel. As it did so, they watched peg move, but it moved deeper into the split in the rock face. Through the night that seemingly slender peg held absolutely fast, unmoveable, rock solid.
As we read the beginning of John’s gospel, we are surprised to find how slender, how seemingly slender are the ways God uses for His purposes in the world. After all, the opening verses of John’s gospel declare that the world is place of darkness....... the world resists what God is doing. So what is God’s response ? Not to send a host of angels, an army of heavenly beings to overwhelm men and women, but first, says the Gospel - one man, John the Baptist, a simple man, plain speaking, godly man John. To him, God gives the task of declaring that the promised One is here......... When the religious authorities arrive to quiz John closely, the whole thing becomes even more confusing.
This One who is to come.... they say. Is it you - are you the Messiah ? No, says John.
It has always been said that Elijah the prophet would return is that you ? No.
Well, Are you a prophet like the great ones hundreds of years ago ? No., says John.
And having run out of sensible questions, they say - well - who are you ?
And John, says, in absolute blessed simplicity, I have come in from the desert, to say get ready. Something is about to happen. The One who is coming is here. But its not me - I am not worthy to untie the laces of His shoes.
Now there are many many deep things contained in the first chapter of John, many deep things, many things we could speak of. But this morning let us do this, look at John the Baptist, for a short while. And look at three things we learn from John the Baptist’s life.....
First, how God works in John’s life
Second how God works in John’s life to reveal Jesus
Third how God works in John’s life to reveal Jesus and how John passes this on.
First, how God works in John’s
life
Now, If we look at John the Baptist what we see, is some very deep, and rare and beautiful qualities - we in John the Baptist see a sense of the great holiness of the One who is to come, a deep sense of unworthiness. Rather than being filled with self importance that he is to announce the coming of the One promised - that he is be the organiser, the planner - in John the Baptist we see the opposite.
A truly humble man, a man who truly places his whole life in God, leaves all in God’s hands. And we see this in the most striking way..........
You see, John the Baptist does not know actually who the One is, who is to come..........
there
are thousands of people arriving at the
we read it in verse 31 ‘I myself did not know Him...........’
instead, John leaves all this in God’s care.......... he does not know who or where the One who is to come is, he leaves this all in God’s hands.
He simply says, I would not have known Him, but the living God said:
The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain, is the One.........
And when Jesus comes to the banks
of the
I have seen, and I testify that this is the Son of God............
So here we learn, that what we know of Jesus, all the things most dear to our hearts,
all these things are given to us as God works in our lives,
to open our eyes to see Jesus............
Now, second, we learn from the first chapter of John just how this happens,
just how
God works in John’s life to reveal Jesus
Who is Jesus, what is He like ?
Here is John’s answer........
He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the
world..............
the living God has opened John’s eyes to see who Jesus is..........
the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world..............
Now, you could say the whole gospel is contained in those words.
Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the
world..............
If we can grasp something, understand something of these words,
if we come to love these words, we will have grasped a great part of the gospel, we will have grasped the meaning of the good news !
the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world..............
The richness of these words........
What do they mean ? Well, we only have time this morning to touch on their meaning, but perhaps that will be enough..............
those words about Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world..............
They speak of the purity and holiness of Jesus......... “We are redeemed... says Peter, with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.....”
As the Lamb of God, Jesus is pure and holy, like no other,
In
this world is just as sinful, unjust, the list could go on and on,
But in Jesus there is absolute
purity and holinesss.....
like no other the world has ever seen...... for He
is the Lamb of God. And He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world..............
You see, it is through the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.......that all your sin and mine is taken away, once and for all, at the Cross. And so our peace with God, the central relationship of life, life itself, is given back to us, restored.
Because Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world...... because your sin and mine is taken away, once and for all, at the Cross. So healing, life, wells up again from the depths of our soul, the burden of guilt is taken away, our souls cleansed through the power of the Cross.
A thousand times a day we sin; but as often as we sin, it is laid on Jesus
the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world
so we always find forgiveness, that wonderful life giving communion
with God is ours.
Because Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of
the world
who
has carried both our sin and the judgment that should have been ours, we are
restored to God. There is - no condemnation for us now. Restored to God, we
find the peace that the whole world is looking for, peace, forgiveness and
healing.
Third we see here how God
works in John’s life to reveal Jesus and how John passes this on.
You see are told that John was
at
Standing with two of his own followers, and when John saw Jesus coming along the street he said to the two disciples
There is the Lamb of God...................
and the two disciples cross over the road........... and from that moment followed Jesus.
Actually, this is what John’s whole life has been about. Here, on that busy street, in those few moments, pointing to Jesus, saying There.......there is the Lamb of God is the fulfilment of John’s life. His life has moved towards, led up, this moment. What moment ? the moment in which he says to the two with him........ pointing to Jesus - There.......there is the Lamb of God. Think about it....... what more perfect thing than to point to Jesus and to
to know that your whole life was a preparation for this moment.
John points to Jesus......... and says, in these profound, lovely words -
‘Look ! the Lamb of God’ !
What more perfect thing than to point to Jesus !
Now, how wonderful, the two disciples on hearing immediately follow Jesus.
Then - Andrew, one of them,
goes to get his brother Simon, and says We have found
the Messiah......... the Lamb of God who
takes away the sins of the world.
Think about it....... what more perfect thing than to point to Jesus.
That, in fact, is what we have been doing this morning,
is to point, to point away, to Jesus Christ.
For, there is nothing, nothing deeper than what we are
speaking of here, the moment when a man or woman meets the living Jesus Christ,
and finds in that meeting with Him - the deepest encounter in life. This is
like no other encounter for to meet Jesus, to know Him and His Cross, is to
know the Lamb of God who takes away the
sins of the world.