1. The Symbol
2. The Work

Open your Bibles this evening to the gospel of John, chapter 1:29. Let me read this one simple verse for you this evening. "The next day he [i.e. John] saw Jesus coming to him, and said, 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!'"

This text is a small, but powerful text of scripture. Charles Spurgeon once had an opportunity to speak at Agricultural Hall in Islington, England. Anywhere from 12,000 to 25,000 people heard him on that occasion. Before anyone had arrived, he took the stage to test the acoustics in that great room. He shouted, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." Unknown to Spurgeon until later, high in the rafters of the building, was a worker, who heard these words and came to faith in Christ as a result of these powerful words. (Christian History, Issue 29, p. 2).

Perhaps this evening, I could simply shout to you, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" and sit down, my job being don. For, in one sense, all that needs to be said this evening has been said with these simple words, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" But this evening, I would like to unpack these words for you. They are so rich. I trust that these words will prepare us to celebrate the Lord's Supper.

These words were spoken by John, the Baptist. If you look back in verse 6, he is described for us. "There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John. He came for a witness, that he might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light" (John 1:6-8). This is what John was doing in verse 29. He was "bearing witness of the light." He was pointing people to Jesus.

That John was not the light was evident in the preceding verses when the priests and the Levites came to him. They asked him who he was, ...

... he denied that he was the Christ (verse 20).
... he denied that he was Elijah (verse 21).
... he denied that he was the Prophet (verse 21).
... he affirmed that he was "a voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the LORD'" (verse 23), which is a straight quote from Isaiah 40:3, which clearly describes the role of John the Baptist as the one who would come to prepare the nation of Israel for the advent of the Messiah.

John the Baptist viewed himself, not as a great prophet, but as a voice, who pointed to the coming light. To use an illustration from our culture, John was to "roll out the red carpet" for Jesus. His role was not that of the main attraction. He wasn't the man in center stage. He was the usher, pointing peoples to their seats, where they could get a good view. "He was not the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light" (verse 8).

The sum and substance of John's existence was to give this announcement! John existed to point to Jesus, the light. When the light would come, John would disappear. John was the dawn, which disappears when the sun rises. Speaking of Jesus, John said in chapter 3, verse 30 - "He [i.e. Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease." In verse 29, we see the witness bearing witness, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

Our outline tonight will be simple and text driven.
1. The Symbol
2. The Work

The Greek text is pretty clear on this. Literally, John said, "Behold ...

(1) the Lamb of God,
(2) the one taking away the sin of the world."

To use a grammatical term, these two thoughts are in apposition to each other. These two phrases are equivalents, each focus on the same thing, though with a slightly different emphasis. Let me give you an example with an ordinary sentence, "(1) Steve DeWeese, (2) the carpenter, built this house." "Steve DeWeese" and "Carpenter" are in apposition to one another. They talk about the same person, only using different terms.

In the text before us this evening, the phrase, "Lamb of God" directs our attention to a well known symbol of Christ as the Sacrificial Lamb. The phrase, "the one taking away the sin of the world" directs our attention to His well-known work on the cross.

Let's look at ...
1. The Symbol

John called Jesus, "the Lamb of God." For us, this phrase has become part of our Christian vocabulary. We sing songs of "the Lamb of God." We praise "the Lamb of God." We sing "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing" (Rev. 5:12). We reflect upon "the Lamb of God" who was worthy to take the book and to break its seals (Rev. 5:9). It presents no difficulty, or shock to us that Jesus is the lamb of God. We understand that Jesus was to be a sacrifice for our sins.

Yet for those who first heard these words, it would not have been clear to them. Our Christian vocabulary would not have been in their minds. Let's think about how the first hearers would have heard these words. When the Jews thought about a lamb, they would have thought about two images ... a flock of people and sacrifices.

A Flock of People
Often in the Bible, the people of God are represented as a flock, which need a shepherd. For instance, in Psalm 23, we hear, "The LORD is my shepherd," which implies that I am a sheep. Similarly, we find in Isaiah 40:11, "Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, in His arm He will gather the lambs, and carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes." The LORD was understood to be the shepherd of His people.

These people were often seen as straying, "all of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6). So God gave leaders to Israel who were to shepherd the flock of God. They were chastised in such passages as Ezekiel 34 and Zechariah 11 for failing in their duties.

Yet, John said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." When they heard of lambs and sin together, the Jews would have thought about ...

Sacrifices
When the Israelites went up to worship in the house of the LORD, there would always be the stench of the burning flesh of the morning and evening sacrifices. Israel was required to continually offer these sacrifices, every morning and every evening before the LORD as a soothing aroma. When they thought about a lamb, they thought about a burning carcass of a dead animal.

Moses instructed them, "(38) Now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two one year old lambs each day, continuously. (39) The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight; ... (42) It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the doorway of the tent of meeting before the LORD, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there" (Ex. 29:38,39,42).

This is repeated elsewhere in the law, "This is the offering by fire which you shall offer to the LORD; two male lambs one year old without defect as a continual burnt offering every day. You shall offer the one lamb in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight" (Numbers 28:3,4).

Not only were lambs continually offered day and night, but they were also offered for specific sins that Israel committed -- the sin offering, the guilt offering, the wave offering -- they all required the death of a lamb.

"If he brings a lamb as his offering for a sin offering, he shall bring it, a female without defect" (Lev. 4:32).
"He shall also bring his guilt offering to the LORD for his sin which he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat as a sin offering" (Lev. 5:6).
"And the priest shall take the lamb of the guilt offering, and the log of oil, and the priest shall offer them for a wave offering before the LORD" (Lev. 14:24). (For cleansing a leper).

Perhaps in the minds of the Jews, they thought of the Passover lamb -- the lamb that each family would sacrifice each year.

They were told, "(3) to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers' households, a lamb for each household. ... (5)Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; and you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. (6) And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. (7) Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. ... (12) For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments--I am the LORD. (13) And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you life; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt" (Exodus 12:3,5-7, 12-13). The Jews have obeyed this custom every since -- nearly 4,000 years.

To the Jewish man listening to John, the imagery of the lamb would be clear. It would have brought to mind the sacrifices of ancient Israel. But nobody ever considered another person to be a "lamb" as a sacrifice for sins. Lamb's didn't speak of people. The "lambs" that were sacrificed were always animals, which were sacrificed to atone for sins.

The only exception to this was the suffering servant of Isaiah 53.

"He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living, For the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due?" (Isaiah 53:7,8).

Today, we can clearly look back and ascribe the truths of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53 to the Lord Jesus Christ, who was "like a lamb that is led to slaughter" (53:7). But they didn't understand this as we do today.

So, when John the Baptist called Jesus, "The Lamb of God," on the one hand, he gets it exactly right. He communicated that Jesus would be a sacrifice for sins, according to the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, "the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him" (Is. 53:6). Yet, on the other hand, John didn't understand what he, himself, was saying.

John probably spoke better than he knew. You remember in Matthew 11, John was in prison for his public stance against the immorality of Herod. John observed the ministry of Jesus and didn't think that His ministry was matching up to what the Messiah's ministry ought to be (though he said that Jesus was the Lamb of God, presumably who needed to be sacrificed). He sent word to Jesus, asking Him if He indeed was the "Expected One" (Matthew 11:3). John had his doubts, probably because he didn't understand that Jesus was going to suffer and die, like Jesus' own disciples.

Jesus repeatedly told His disciples that the Son of Man would be handed over to the chief priests and be put to death and raise again. They didn't understand. It wasn't as if the disciples were told this only once. Repeatedly, Jesus told them this (for instance, look at Matt. 16:21; 20:17-19; 26:1-2).

Likewise, this wasn't merely a one time utterance from the mouth of John. The day following verse 29, John said the same thing. Look at verse 35, "Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, (36) and he looked upon Jesus as He walked, and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God!' (:37) And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus."

This is the sense of the word, "Behold" -- "Look, inquire, see for yourself." John's disciples did precisely that! They went to see who this one was that John was point out to them.

Surprisingly, this concept of Jesus being the Lamb is taken up in only a few New Testament texts, other than the book of Revelation! We see it here twice in John, chapter 1 (verses 29, 36), once in Acts, and once in 1 Peter). Then, in Revelation, it occurs some 28 times! Twice in John. Once in Acts. Once in 1 Peter. 28 times in Revelation!

In Acts 8, we find Jesus being spoken about as the lamb when the Ethiopian eunuch was reading from Isaiah 53, "He was led as a sheep to slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He did not open His mouth" (Acts 8:32). The Eunuch told Philip that we was confused about this text. So Philip "opened his mouth and ... preached Jesus to him" (Acts 8:36).

Surely Philip preached how Jesus was the fulfillment of this passage the eunuch was reading. Philip probably preached how Jesus was the lamb , ...

... who bore our griefs (v. 4),
... who was pierced through for our transgressions (v. 5),
... who rendered himself as a guilt offering (v. 10),
... who bore the sin of many (v. 12),
... upon whom our iniquities fell (v. 6).

Perhaps Philip went to other passages to show Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament scriptures. Philip certainly would have presented to this Ethiopian Eunuch of his need to be justified before God (as we all need to be) and shown how Jesus was the one who "will justify the many" (verse 11). The eunuch responded in belief and was baptize. A glorious response! The Eunuch believed because of a presentation of Jesus Christ, the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

In 1 Peter, we see Jesus described as the lamb, par excellance! Turn to 1 Peter. 1:18. In this passage, Peter demonstrates how indeed He is the Lamb of God!! He said that we "were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold" (1 Peter. 1:18). You might add here ... or perishable animal sacrifices.

Our redemption was accomplished through something that isn't perishable We weren't redeemed with perishable things, but rather, with something far more precious than anything here upon the earth, which moth and rust destroy. "We were redeemed ... with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, [the blood] of Christ" (1 Pet. 1:18-19).

So when Jesus is called "the Lamb of God," by John, the implication is that Jesus was greater than any other lamb that was sacrificed. He wasn't just a another sacrifice for sins. He wasn't your ordinary sacrifice. The blood of Jesus is precious, because Jesus, Himself is imperishable, and eternal, and blameless and spotless. "He was foreknown before the foundation of the world," (1 Peter 1:20).

But let me tell you another reason why it is precious. The blood of Jesus atones completely and fully for sin.

I struggled with how I wanted to communicate this with you this evening, until I had a chance to speak this week with a man who is preparing for the Catholic priesthood. Our conversation turned to the topic of forgiveness of sins. He explained to me the importance of confessing all of your sin, so that your years in purgatory would be minimized. This man's view of forgiveness of particular sins was dependent upon your actual confession of each particular sin you committed.

It struck me, like never before, how the Catholic church minimizes the effect of the blood of Christ. Having meditated upon this text and the truth of Jesus being the Lamb of God, it was easy for me to see how this teaching minimizes the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. This week, I saw afresh the preciousness of the blood of Jesus Christ. When Jesus forgives, He forgives completely. His precious blood is a thorough remedy for sin. All of my past sins, all of my present sins, and all of the sins I will commit have been forgiven in the cross of Jesus Christ!

Many of us are familiar with a form of treatment for cancer, which requires an ongoing regimen of juicing foods and eating, juicing foods and eating, foods and eating, foods and eating, foods and eating, ... The idea is to cleanse the body of the pollutions within. At Thanksgiving time, we found out of another friend of ours who has the same liver disease as Walter Payton had. She is on such a diet, of juicing and eating, juicing and eating, ... This is the picture of the Catholic doctrine of forgiveness of sins. You sin and confess, sin and confess, sin and confess, ...

But the precious blood of Jesus Christ doesn't work this way. When one places his faith and hope in the blood of Jesus to forgive His sin, He is completely forgiven! His sin is totally taken away!

Now, of course, we still confess our sin. When we sin, we acknowledge before God what a terrible thing we have done and confess it for what it is -- sin. Of course, we still acknowledge our sinfulness before God. But listen carefully, the forgiveness of our sins is not based upon an actual confession of each and every sin we ever commit. This was the discovery of Luther, who spent hours and hours in the confessional booth every day, seeking to confess every sin that he had ever committed, and trying to remember other sins, that he might confess them as well. It is a vain exercise to confess every sin we commit, because of the wickedness of our hearts. Listen to Genesis 6:5, "Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." For you to confess every sin you every commit, you need to confess "every intent of the thoughts of your heart." An impossible task!

As we mature in the faith, our understanding of our own sinfulness before God ever increases. The greatest saint who ever lived, the apostle Paul, called himself the foremost of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). As our understanding of our own sin increases, the preciousness of the blood of Christ increases. The greater you see your sin, the greater you see the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!

The great news of the gospel is that our sin has been taken away! It is upon the cross of our Lord, that Jesus "took away our sin!" Turn back to John 1. We have seen ...

1. The Symbol - Jesus, the Lamb of God
Let's focus our attention now upon ...
2. The Work

"Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).

John the Baptist was a prophet and predicted the work that Jesus would accomplish. When John was a voice pointing to Jesus, the work was not yet accomplished. It would be another three years until the work was finished. But upon the cross, Jesus said, "It is finished." The finished work of Jesus is obviously the work of taking away sin.

Last time we celebrated the Lord's Supper, we spoke about this concept of Jesus taking away our sin from Hebrews 10:1-4. I would like to return to the topic, (1) because our text does and (2) because we need to hear it again. We read in Hebrews 10:4, "It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." Try as they might, all of the ritual sacrifices of the Law, could never take away sins. They simply covered it over.

I remember a painter telling me one time of the amazing qualities of paint. He said, "It will cover over anything." I remember in the basement of our old house, it used to be dark, dark paneling. We simply painted a layer of white primer and two layers of white paint on it and the results were marvelous. We had bright, white walls! The outside looked wonderful. But the paneling was still there! We never rid ourselves of the paneling, we simply covered it up, so that you couldn't see it. Every now and then, we were reminded that we still had paneling underneath when some sharp object (say a desk, or a chair, or a hard toy) scratched the surface. There would be our old, dark paneling showing itself again.

See, in our old house, we didn't remove the paneling, we simply painted over it. We, "covered" it. That's what all of the sacrifices of all of the lambs in the Old Testament did. They covered the sin. Now, rather than painting the paneling in our old house, we could have taken it off the wall and taken it out to our curb where the garbage man would "take it away"!

When the sacrifices were performed in the Old Testament, they pulled out their paint and white-washed the walls. When the final sacrifice occurred, Jesus took out his hammer and took the paneling off the wall, took it to the dump, and proceeded to burn it! This is what Jesus did when he "took" away the sin of the world! He got rid of it and eliminated it.

For anyone who believe in Jesus Christ, he never has to worry about his sin coming before God, because Jesus has removed it. When you accidentally place something in your garbage, do you have any hope of ever retrieving it again? No! So is the sin that Jesus has "taken away."

This concept comes up several times in the Bible. "He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sins" (1 John 3:5). "The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. (:27) And this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins" (Romans 11:26-27 - Quoting Isaiah 27:9).

When Jesus came to take away sins, he did more than simply take the sins away, so as to leave us empty. He also made people perfect. "Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins" (Hebrews 10:11) ... but He, ... by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified" (Hebrews 10:14). We are perfected. We are made righteous and holy through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. "The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). Rather than covering the dirty wall with paint, Jesus actually cleans the wall, by taking away the stain and guilt.

Furthermore, this isn't something that is only temporary. It lasts forever. "When Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption" (Hebrews 9:11-12). The redemption of a Christian is eternal! The sins that Jesus takes away will never, ever, ever, ever, ever return again.

How unlike our own forgiveness of others. My struggle in forgiving the sins of others against me is that I never quite seem to bury them. They always seem to linger in my mind. I never quite seem to be able to forget them entirely. But this is the promise of the New Covenant, "I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more" (Jer. 31:34). "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:12). What glorious news this is. As the hymn-writer said, ...

My sin--O the bliss of this glorious thought!--
my sin, not in part, but the whole,
is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more;
praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

This makes the lamb of God glorious!

I said earlier that the concept of Jesus being the Lamb of God appeared 28 times in Revelation. Often in Revelation, we see the Lamb, seated upon the throne, receiving the worship of the saints who have been redeemed by his blood. This is a picture of our enjoyment in eternity. This is where those of us who have trusted in Christ will be. Let's return with a look at one of these passages. I sought to choose one that is a little less familiar. Let's turn in our Bibles to Revelation, chapter 7, and let us obey John the Baptist and "Behold the Lamb of God!".

Revelation 7:9-17
After these things [the sealing of the 144,000 from the twelve tribes of Israel] I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and [all] tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches [were] in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." And all the angels were standing around the throne and [around] the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, "Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, [be] to our God forever and ever. Amen." And one of the elders answered, saying to me, "These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and from where have they come?" And I said to him, "My lord, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. "For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne shall spread His tabernacle over them. "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb in the center of the throne shall be their shepherd, and shall guide them to springs of the water of life; and God shall wipe every tear from their eyes."

Tonight, as we celebrate the Lord's Supper, it is an opportunity for us, as a church, to corporately remember the death of our Savior on the cross. His death accomplished for us what we could never accomplish for ourselves. He is the Lamb of God, who took away our sins. May we rejoice in this glorious reality!

This sermon was delivered to Rock Valley Bible Church on November 25, 2001 by Steve Brandon.
For more information see www.rvbc.cc.