In the preceding studies, we learned about the Word who was God that was made flesh and dwelled among his creation. A creation that though was created through Him, denied and rejected Him and desired to live life apart from him. From His fullness, God’s people received an alternative way to righteousness: grace and truth as opposed to the law from Moses and its unachievable requirements. For an arrival as important as this, we learned of the messenger, John the Baptist whom God set apart and prepared to herald the coming of Jesus Christ who is God’s Word made flesh. Last week we focused on who John was and what his mission was and today, we hear the content of his message.
(A) Behold the Lamb of God: God’s sacrifice identified (John 1:29-31)
Jesus addressed Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). John was speaking to Israel (John 1:31b). Israel was God’s chosen people whom he covenanted with to be their God, and they to be his people. The coming of Jesus is proof that God is faithful to his covenantal promise.
By describing Jesus as the Lamb of God, John’s listeners would also be led to think back to passages in the OT that pointed to this Promised One.
The first passage would be the sacrifice of Isaac in Gen 22:7-8. God commanded Abraham to Mount Moriah and sacrifice Isaac, his only son whom he loves (Gen 22:2). Abraham was confident that God will provide for himself a lamb for a burnt offering, though he did not know how at that point (Gen 22:8). The angel seeing that Abraham feared God, provides a ram in place of Isaac (Gen 22:10-13).
We see here how Abraham displayed faith. He trusted and obeyed God, even if it meant giving up his son, his only son. In a culture that normalized human sacrifice, God stopped Abraham and from that, we learn that God does not approve worship that seeks to appease him with human suffering or effort. God provided the offering and sacrifice that He requires. There’s this idea of substitution, with the ram standing in for the beloved son of Abraham.
Thus, John is emphasising that Christ’s coming is at the cost of God Himself. Israel remembers that In place of Abraham’s one and only son God gives to us his dearest beloved son. In place of our own sacrifices , God will provide for himself a lamb.
Israel would also be led to think about the Day of Atonement (Lev 16:15-22). Blood is required for the purification of the tabernacle (Lev 16:15-19). Notice that even the tabernacle — God-inspired and manmade — needs purification because it was in the midst of a sinful nation. The sins of Israel cannot be simply written off.
Lev 16:20-22 also writes about a scapegoat that carried the sins of the people away. The goat bears the iniquities of the people. It is a physical picture of sins being removed from them and being sent out into the wilderness. This is something that they had to keep doing year after year, a constant reminder that the sacrificial system was sufficient for the alloted time but was not the ultimate sacrifice that lasts thru eternity.
We see from here that the Bible has numerous pictures of what atonement looks like. God’s people didn’t understand it as one thing, until they see how Christ fulfilled it all!. The Lamb of God will bear the entirety of the people’s sins and will remove sins from their midst. In doing so, the people will be made clean.
The lamb motif was also in Israel’s history from the Passover (Exo 12:3-14). Every household in Israel was to prepare a male, year old, blemisheless lamb or goat on tenth day of the first month (Exo 12:3-5). The lambs were slaughtered on the fourteenth day at twilight (Exo 12:6-11) and its blood was painted on the doorposts of the houses where it is consumed. The blood on doorposts act as both sign of the Lord’s people and a seal of the Lord’s protection from the plague (Exo 12:12-14).
The redemption of Israel from slavery to Egypt is rooted in the passover event. This is so important an event that God commands Israel to reorient their calendars to this event of the Passover. It is the decisive event that creates a new year and a new way of telling time and served as a memorial day of what God did for his people. The sacrificial lamb was not given to all but only to those who identified themselves as God’s people and followed his instructions.
Thus when John the Baptist proclaimed “Behold the Lamb of God”, he was awakening them to him whose arrival reorients our lives. John is saying: Israel, our life cycles have been rearranged for the singular reason of him! Our passover festivals have reminded us of what God did and it looked forward to the Lamb and He is walking amongst us now. As Albert Mohler says: The reality of the birth of the Son of God in human flesh is the most decisive event in human history and it is the event of our redemption.
This was also a warning to the listeners. Israel, if they were God’s people, would do well to identify with Him and follow His teachings. They were not to lean on their Jewish heritage to excuse them from fully obeying his commands. There will be judgement poured out on sinners and the Lamb will be judged in place of those who trust in him, and they in turn shall be saved.
Lastly, John could also have in mind the picture of the Suffering Servant in Isa 53:6-7. The Suffering Servant bears the sins of the believing remnant of Israel (Isa 53:6, c.f. John 12:37-38, Rom 10:16). He would take on the role of the Lamb and die in innocence (Isa 53:7). John thus called the people to behold the Lamb who is the reminder that all our sins cannot be covered by our good works, but collectively contribute to his pain. The Lamb of God is the Suffering Servant, the only one uniquely qualified to take on the sins of others and all people add to the sufferings He endured.
These were the implications in the term “Lamb of God” that John used to address Jesus. Yet, he also acknowledged a limitation. John said that he himself “did not know him” (John 1:31a). Now it doesn’t mean that John did not know what the Messiah came to do. And certainly, John would know Jesus, his cousin. But what he didn’t know was that Jesus was the prophesied One.
Despite not knowing who this Messiah is, John was obedient and carried out His work of guiding people to repent and be baptised for the forgiveness of sins.
Today, though we don’t know everything about God, we know more than John did. We have the Word of God that fleshes out for us the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world. As hearers of the word, how do we respond to what we do know? Jesus Christ is not just a good person that lived. He is not just a conjured idea, but He is the worthy sacrifice provided by God at His own cost and pain. Will you rejoice in God’s providence and will you treasure Christ? The Lamb of God is the one that sheds His blood in order to cleanse us of our sin and filth. He is the one that takes our sin upon himself and carries it as far as east is from the west so that we might be pure like him. No matter the sins you have committed, will you trust in His complete and effective substitution on your behalf? Will you trust in him to be more than enough to appease God for your sins? Will you see his sufficiency? His arrival is the decisive moment of our human existence. Will you reorient your life to make much of him in work, in studies, or in church? And if you are a Christian, will you boldly and clearly hold out the message of the season, that Christ has come and he has taken away the sins of the world?
(B) Behold the Lamb of God: Who baptizes with the spirit (John 1:32-34)
John was the herald, but God also provided a confirmation that Jesus was the Messiah. In John 1:33a, we read of the Spirit descending on Jesus and remained on Him. Many kings and prophets in the past had the Spirit descend upon them to fill and empower them, but Christ, who is a third of the Trinity, has a perpetual relationship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. Later in Acts 10, Peter spoke to the Gentiles and attested that God anointed Jesus with the holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with Him.
The Spirit-filled Jesus will also baptise people in a different way (John 1:33). This phrase appears in all the 4 gospels and twice more in Acts (Acts 11:15-16). Through Jesus, believers will also be filled and empowered with the Spirit in the same way. At Pentecost, the Spirit was poured out on the disciples and believers first in Jerusalem in Judea, then in Samaria and finally to the ends of the world. The point is clear: that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is where believers are equipped and empowered by Gods Spirit to carry out the task Jesus gave the church.
Dear friends, today when we are convicted of our sins, and repent and believe in Jesus Christ, we are baptised in the Holy Spirit and equipped with what we need in order to be effective gospel witnesses. Are you someone that is timid and shy, often losing track of the words to say and worried about the potential objections people have to the Gospel? If you have accepted Christ, he has baptised you with the Spirit to give you the words and bring about gospel fruit in His time as you reach out. The same Spirit that dwelt on Christ and the apostles is now in you. Working miracles might not be the primary means of God’s revelation now, but let us not be distracted from the greatest miracle of all which is the changing of hearts from sinful rebellion against God, to soft repentant hearts that are turned to follow the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
How has the Spirit equipped you for gospel proclamation? How can you join in the spread of the gospel from “Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8)?