Sermon
Text: John 1:29-42
Title: The Lamb of GOD
I. Lambs’ blood saved the children of
Israel
II. THE Lamb’s blood saves the world.BEHOLD! THE LAMB OF GOD
WHO TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD.
In
the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Grace,
mercy, and peace from God our Father, and from our LORD and Savior Jesus
Christ. Amen.
The
sermon text for this Sunday, is taken from The Gospel lesson just read. I would read again a portion of these verses…
The next day he saw
Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the
sin of the world!
Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I.
Some
of you may remember a movie from the 90s entitled Multiplicity starring Michael Keaton better known for playing
Batman the first time around and Mr. Mom.
In
the movie Multiplicity Keaton plays a
character who is married, has a couple of kids and is a foreman for a successful
construction company. His company happens to be constructing a building for a
lab that is on the cutting edge of cloning. Keaton’s character winds up getting
cloned to help him make ends meet with his wife, his children and his job. We’ve
all been there wishing we had another pair of hands!
This
clone – called One – taps into the more masculine side of Keaton’s character
and takes over the work side of things. Keaton’s character and One decide they
need more help. So Keaton goes back and has another clone – Two – and Two taps
into the more feminine side. Two begins to take care of things around the
house. One and Two decide that THEY need
more help and so they go back to the lab – without Keaton’s character or his
permission – and have a clone made of One – his name is Three.
Three
is about as dumb and useless as it gets. Why? Two explains that when you make a
copy of a copy it comes out a little ‘fuzz.’
The
premise of the movie is that even the copies of the original were truly only a
shadow of that original and in the end Keaton’s character realizes he will be
the one to set things right in his life – not the copies. The original had to
do it
So
what does all of this have to do with our text today? Why all this talk of
originals and copies? Is this a sermon or a film lesson? Rest assured – it is
indeed a sermon!
In
our text today St. John the Baptist cries out…
“Behold, the Lamb of
God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Why?
Why does this prophet of the New Testament say this when he sees Jesus approaching
the Jordan River? Why a Lamb? Why not a giraffe, an elephant or a lion? As
always – there is a reason and a purpose behind everything GOD says and does.
And here in our text this morning there is much reason and purpose behind John’s
words.
So
we must do a little digging to find out the meaning of John’s words. And not unlike
Indiana Jones – trying to stick with the movie theme – we find ourselves digging
for clues among the Hebrews of the Old Testament.
Where
do we find ourselves? Smack dab in the middle of Egypt at the end of the ten
plagues. After water turning to blood
and frogs and gnats and flies and dead livestock and boils and hail and locusts
and darkness, Charlton Hestand – I mean Moses – I guess I got the movie theme
stuck in my head – writes in the book of Exodus...
So Moses said, “Thus
says the LORD: ‘About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, 5 and
every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh
who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind
the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. 6 There shall be a
great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor
ever will be again. 7 But not a dog shall growl against any of the people
of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the LORD makes a
distinction between Egypt and Israel.’ [Exodus 11:4-7]
Did
you catch that? The LORD says through Moses that He makes a distinction between
Egypt and Israel. So we are getting
somewhere aren’t we? We are getting
close to discovering the clue that will help us understand John’s words.
Moses
– after being instructed by the LORD – writes…
Then Moses called all
the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves
according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of
hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and
the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out
of the door of his house until the morning. 23 For the LORD will pass
through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and
on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the
destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. 24 You shall observe this
rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. 25 And when you come
to the land that the LORD will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this
service. 26 And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this
service?’ 27 you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover,
for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck
the Egyptians but spared our houses.’ ” And the people bowed their heads
and worshiped. [Exodus 12:21-27]
So
the blood of each unblemished lamb is taken and smeared across the top of the
doorway and on either side to let the Angel of Death know that this house
belongs to GOD and should not be entered.
So the blood of these lambs saves the Children of Israel? For now – yes.
II.
So
how do we make those ends meet? How do we draw a connecting line between these
lambs of the Old Testament Passover and the phrase from our text today calling
Jesus the Lamb of GOD?
First
– you are going to make a little visit to the Seminary this morning and learn a
way of looking at Holy Scripture that may have never been explained to you before.
Remember
Michael Keaton’s character and all of the copies? There is a way of looking at
these and that is through the eyes of a theologian. Keaton’s character – the original
– is called the Antitype. Each copy is called a type of the original one. All this
means is that the types are not quite the original – and we call the original
the Antitype meaning that it’s is not a copy or a type – but the original.
These
types and Antitype are all over the Bible. There are several in the texts today
– but we will examine only two of these. Moses is a type of Christ – meaning he
acts or functions in the Old Testament in a way that is similar to the way Jesus
does in the New Testament. Another way of saying this is that Moses foreshadows
in an imperfect way what the LORD will do for His people in a perfect way through
the Messiah – meaning Jesus.
There
is another type of Christ in the Exodus readings – do you know what it is? I’ll
give you a hint – it’s our last clue to discovering the meaning of the words of
John in our text. Yes – the lambs of the first Passover are a type of Christ. Through
their blood smeared on the doorposts they foreshadow Jesus’ death on the Cross.
Jesus blood will be shed on the wood of the Cross just like those doors in
Egypt.
You
see folks to be saved from death means something or Someone else has to die in
our place. For the Children of Israel countless unblemished lambs had to die in
order for the first born in each household to be saved.
And
on the Cross, Jesus – the Lamb of GOD as St. John the Baptist rightly calls Him
in our text today – goes beyond a few doors in Egypt. Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ – Jesus’
blood shed on the Cross covers the door of every person on the planet – past,
present and future.
You
see, it takes the Original – not a copy, not the type – but the Antitype to get
the job done. The copies couldn’t do it in the movie, and Moses sure can’t do
it in the Bible. It takes the blood of
the Lamb of GOD to take away the sin of the world. Thanks be to GOD that blood
is spread across the doorposts of our hearts – saving each and every one of us
from the Angel of Death – and in fact granting us the opposite of what we
deserve. We deserve death but we receive Life through Christ Jesus the Lamb of
GOD Who takes away the sin of the world! Amen.
The
peace of the LORD – which surpasses all understanding – will keep your heart
and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ Soli Deo Gloria +
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