The Lamb of God Who Takes Away the Sins of the World (John 1:29-42) (1/18/26)

Let us now pray and ask for the Lord's blessing

of the preaching of his word. O Lord our God,

we give thanks unto you that by your sovereign

grace you have made us your people. You have

surrounded us with your mercies and your protecting

care. Make us grateful morning and night, joyful

in your providential care and your grace. Take

our eyes from our burdens and griefs and grant

that they may always be fixed upon your goodness

and your grace. Teach us this day and always

the things that we need to know so that we may

serve you with all our heart, mind, and being.

And so make the words of my mouth and the meditations

of all our hearts pleasing in your sight for

the sake of your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ,

our Lord. Amen. Sermon text again is our gospel

reading. Let us hear it once more. The next day

John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold,

the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the

world. This is he of whom I said, After me comes

a man who was preferred before me, for he was

before me. I did not know him, but that he should

be revealed to Israel. Therefore I came baptizing

with water. And John bore witness, saying, I

saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a

dove, and he remained upon him. I did not know

him, but he who sent me to baptize with water

said to me, upon whom you see the Spirit descending

and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes

with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and testified

that this is the Son of God. Again the next day

John stood with two of his disciples and looking

at Jesus as he walked and he said Behold the

lamb of God The two disciples heard him speak

and they followed Jesus Then Jesus returned and

seeing them following said to them. What do you

seek? And they said to him rabbi, which is to

say when translated teacher Where are you staying

and he said to them come and see? And they came

and saw that where he was staying and remained

with him that day. Now it was about the tenth

hour. One of the two who had heard John speak

and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

He first found his own brother Simon and said

to him, we have found the Messiah, which has

translated the Christ. And he brought him to

Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, he said,

you are Simon, the son of Jonah. you shall be

called Cephas, which is translated a stone. These

are the words of Almighty God. Receive them in

your hearts. This past week, we've been subjected

to several very public revelations that demonstrate

the confused and sad state of the people of our

country. First, in arguments before a Supreme

Court, the question of whether there is any true

distinction between women and men who think that

they are women. So that's one question. Is there

a distinction between women and men who think

they're women? Secondly, in a Senate oversight

committee, a senator asked a doctor of obstetrics

or a doctor that specializes in birthing of babies,

right? asked him, the senator asked this woman,

can a man get pregnant? The doctor danced around

the answer because she said that there were pregnant

people who don't identify as a woman. Both of

these questions, which have garnered attention

at both the highest levels of power and probably

even around your dinner table, have the same

root error or problem. They are rooted in the

assumption that every person has the right of

self -definition. Or to put it another way, every

person is only held to his own truth. For people

who desire to live this way, reality and truth

do not matter. It is like a short video I once

saw where there was apparent lighting what appears

to be a Roman candle on a stick. For those of

you that don't know what a Roman candle is, it's

a firework that's a bit of a tube and sometimes

they're sticks because they want all the excitement

for you to be able to point them around. And

what it does is it fires a rapid succession of

these fireballs at different colors. Now in this

video, there's a child about six or seven and

he is giddy about being able to hold this firework.

And the parent, his mother is telling him, hold

still, hold still. He's so excited. She lights

it on fire. And man, this is where the chaos

ensues. And of course, many of you can imagine

what's about to happen. This is all happening

on what appears to be their front porch and the

front door standing open. And so he is standing

there. And as this begins to happen, he's real

excited. And when the first explosion comes off,

he is beside himself. And the parent is yelling,

let it go, let it go. And he's like, ah. And

he takes off running full speed. Now here's the

thing. He doesn't run out into the driveway or

the yard. He runs in the house. He's still holding

this. And of course, as he does this, this firework

rapidly and repetitively explodes all over the

house. And the video ends with the parent screaming,

no. We're all sitting here imagining that the

fire department was called to that house Where

there may have been fire in the house? There

were probably some burns on both the child and

for all the recipients of the exploding fireballs

that were already in the house Now what was the

cause of this funny but terrifying event? For

some the answer might be that the boy ran into

the house where that Where this is true, it was

rather not the boy's fault, but the parent that

handed the lit fireworks that hurls fireballs

rapidly. I imagine that the parent blamed the

child and didn't realize that the problem was

her own sin and foolishness. We live in a world

where we mistakenly think that we know what our

problems are. So people go to court to fight

over what they believe is their enemy or their

biggest problem. Others, for the sake of their

ideology, don't want to answer obvious questions

lest they undermine the truth as they define

it. Dearly beloved our biggest problem is our

sin so as we go through today's passage I want

you to see these three things our biggest problem

is our sin Certainly collectively, but for each

one of us individually So our biggest problem

is our sin Jesus here's the good news Jesus is

the lamb who takes away our sin Jesus is the

lamb who takes away our sin. And finally, because

of Jesus, we shine as his light to the world.

Because of Jesus, we shine as his light to the

world. Our passage this morning happens sometimes

after Jesus' baptism and temptation in the wilderness.

Presumably Jesus is returning from the wilderness

temptation having defeated Satan. Now I believe

that the Holy Spirit led the writers of the New

Testament to write what we now see as the Gospels

in order. So we have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and

they give us detailed information relating to

both Jesus' baptism and his temptation. As a

matter of fact, we're told in Mark that Jesus

after his baptism immediately goes into the wilderness

and fasts for 40 days. So we know that that happens.

So this is happening afterwards. And really,

this is really important for us just to think

about. You have those first three books. They

give these detailed accounts of particularly

this section. But what this allows John to do

under the influence of the Holy Spirit is give

us some deeper things, some other perspectives,

kind of like the big 30 ,000 foot view of who

Jesus is in the first half of the book of John.

We see this all over the place. But it also allows

John to focus from chapter 12 to the end about

the last week of Christ's life. Really so at

the beginning we get all of who Jesus is and

then we see fulfillment of what Jesus does in

the last week That's the whole book of John summed

up So this text tells us that in verse 28 that

these things happened and bethah barbara The

place where Joshua this is important the place

where Joshua led the people of God into the promised

land Okay, so this is the same place where Joshua

came across brought deliverance. It's also the

place where Elijah leads Elisha out into the

wilderness. Elijah is taken up in a whirlwind

and Elisha comes back and crosses over in the

same place. This isn't happening here by accident.

Jesus like Joshua crosses the Jordan River to

cast out demons, false kings, false priests,

and to lead God's people out of bondage and into

being reconciled to the triune God for service

in his kingdom. Christ came not just to save

people to heaven, but to set people free in order

to bring the will of God to earth as it is in

heaven. One more time, I want to say this. Christ

came not just to save people to heaven, but to

set people free in this life in order to bring

the will of God to earth as it is in heaven.

That's not just a petition, that is an action

item for all Christians. In this passage, John

the Baptizer declares four titles of Jesus. I'm

going to give you what those are real quick.

There are four titles that we see where we see

Jesus revealed. One, this is obvious. The Lamb

of God who takes away the sins of the world.

The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the

world. That's verse 29. We also see that John

identifies Jesus as the eternal one in verse

30. This is where he says, as the one before

me. We look at that, we understand that best

as the eternal one. And we'll get to that in

just a moment. He also identifies Jesus as the

one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. He identifies

and illumines us, lightens us to the idea that

Jesus is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

That's verse 33. And finally we see Jesus as

the Son of God. Jesus is the Son of God. Now

John reveals his revelation here actually is

book -ended because we see that in these he starts

with, Behold the Lamb of God takes away the sins

of the world. And then we see, behold, the Lamb

of God. And in between are those other three.

So the foundational thing is Jesus is the Lamb

of God who takes away the sins of the world.

And any time God repeats himself, he tells us

something two times, we should say, wait, that's

the key point here. That is the key point. In

this epiphany or revelation of who Christ is,

John The baptizer who is the greatest of all

the prophets? Reiterates that Jesus is the eternal

one in the very beginning of John chapter 1 we

John 1 · chapter mention

hear this and the beginning was the word and

the word was with God and the word was God he

was in the beginning with God all things were

made through him and Without him nothing was

made that was made and him was life and the life

was the light of men And the light shines in

the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend

it. Since Jesus is the eternal God, the Son through

whom all things are made, all life and light

comes from Him. Everything that has breath in

colluding every person before us in history and

every person that will be alive in the future

has been given life by God in Jesus. Jesus brings

light that is truth and reality to men But by

sin men live in darkness grasping for truth and

meaning But darkness doesn't comprehend the light

that is shining in it Of course we expect the

unbeliever not to understand these truths But

too often as Christians we live thinking in the

same ways that we always have Not comprehending

the light that is the truth that Jesus provides

for us Too often we think that our biggest problems

are everything but our sin and We especially

think our problem and our problems are the sins

of other people As the eternal creator Jesus

defines the world and everything in it he rightly

identifies our enemies and he is and rightly

tells us what the way to life and peace are.

So John the Baptizer next reveals that Jesus

will baptize with the Holy Spirit. This is real

important because during the Old Covenant the

Spirit of God came down on judges and kings and

prophets and priests for a particular time place

Not every God -fearing Israelite or Gentile believer

in God received the Spirit But because of the

work the Lamb of God all Christians are given

the Spirit and are empowered by the new heart

new mind given by the Spirit To be able to do

the works of God freed from the bondage of sin

Now John here also reveals that Jesus is the

son of God the one of whom all the prophets spoke

of Psalm 2 reminds us that God set his son on

the throne So all authority in heaven and earth

is his He not only set him on the throne, but

he set him on the throne and as Psalm 2 describes

in a time of conflict Right. There are all these

people and kings and leaders rising up Break

the bonds of God and God just smirked Psalm 2

actually says that he laughs at all those that

are conspiring against him Because he's already

set his son on the throne And so because of this

all authority given to Christ Jesus all Truth

comes from Jesus Jesus speaking in John 14 says

I am the way the truth and the life No one comes

to the Father but by me. Our sin is what separates

us from God, and this is our chief problem. We

cannot know the truth, the way, or what life

is outside of Christ Jesus. Jesus made the world

and all men, so He has the only way, the only

truth, and the only way of life. So in that God

defines all things. So if you want to know can

a man get pregnant or What a woman is we must

look solely to the Bible If any person wants

to know what their chief Difficulty or biggest

problem in their life is we must look to the

words of God From Genesis to Revelation man's

chief problem is our sin And that is what separates

us from God. The only solution is Jesus, for

he alone takes away the sin of the world. But

why does God use the title, the Lamb of God,

who takes away the sin of the world? We understand

that there's imagery in the Old Testament regarding

the Passover lamb whose blood was used for the

deliverance from the angel of death during Passover.

And, of course, the eventual deliverance out

of Egypt, the land of bondage. Again, we see

God using lambs for the sacrifice for sins and

for trespasses and for the peace offering. Faith

in the mercy of God, using a little lamb for

deliverance from the bondage of sin, and it gives

us God's grace and peace. What's this image?

They had to have faith that God said, okay, here's

what you're gonna do. You're gonna do these things.

You're gonna get a little lamb without spot and

wrinkle, and you're gonna put him on this altar,

and his blood's gonna be spilled for you. They

had to believe what God was telling them in order

to receive that grace. You know, even for all

of Christendom, right? What's one of our symbols?

It's called the Angus Day. It is this banner.

This big pole with a flag is flying. It's got

a cross on it. We're all like yeah Right, but

what's at the base of that little banner a little

tiny lamb? Why is there a lamb for deliverance?

After all a lion sounds more glorious and more

likely to be able to deliver his people We see

that John later in Revelation 5 sees this dramatic

situation unfolding, where he sees the mercies

and judgments of God that close out the old covenant

and brings in the new creation. And in this situation,

here is this call. Who is worthy to open up this

scroll, right? And it says this. What's this

scroll? Who can open it up? This is the scroll

from Daniel. Where this lays out all the things

that's going to happen to transition the world

from the old covenant to the new the old creation

to the new creation and of course John says this

you know the angel says who's worthy and it looks

like no one is found and so John says in verse

4 of Revelation 5 so I wept much because no one

was found worthy to open and read the scroll

or to look at it But one of the elders said to

me do not weep behold the lion of the tribe of

Judah and you can hear you never The lion of

Judah, that's right Jesus is the fulfillment

of Jesus of David rather and He is called the

lion of Judah by the way just pointing back to

the original Prophecy that that Jacob gives to

Judah about being the one who holds the scepter.

He calls him a whelp Like a little little baby

lion you might be fine, but you're just a baby

Right the root of David has prevailed to open

the scroll and to lucid seven seals But then

it says when he looked when John looks and behold

in the midst of the throne and of the four living

creatures And in the midst of the elders stood

the lamb as though it had been slain having seven

horns and seven eyes Which are the seven spirits

of God sent out to all the earth? Then he came

and took the scroll out of the right hand of

him who sat on the throne So here it is our expectation

is in strength many times our own strength to

find deliverance, but God Consistently brings

deliverance through what we see as the weak and

the impossible We see in Genesis God takes an

imprisoned slave to deliver the whole world from

famine and preserve the seed of the woman. That

is Jesus. In Judges we see Gideon's 300 men with

torches and trumpets defeat a field of 135 ,000

Midianites. Are you kidding me? They didn't even

have swords. They had a torch in a clay pot that

they waited to break open at the right time,

right? And what else? A trumpet. And yet that's

how God delivered. They repented of their sins

and they obeyed. And there was deliverance. We

see David against Goliath. We see Israel at the

Red Sea with the whole Egyptian army coming down

on them. And God brings deliverance to the people

of Israel by leading them through the baptism

of the Red Sea. Much, much later, we see King

Hezekiah facing off with the Assyrian army. There's

185 ,000 Assyrians surrounding Jerusalem. And

Hezekiah goes to the Lord and says, have mercy.

All the ways we've sinned, forgive us. Bring

deliverance to us, please. They didn't even have

to go outside the walls of Jerusalem. God Himself

brought defeat against those 185 ,000. God wants

us to trust in Him for our deliverance. Standing

behind a little lamb for deliverance is God's

way of telling us, don't trust in yourself and

in what you think is strong. We look at our lives,

the struggles, the challenges, and the hardships.

And we look towards other means for deliverance.

We often look to ourselves, and how are we going

to deliver ourselves? Behold, the Lamb of God

who takes away the sins of the world. That includes

you. That includes of us This is important because

what truly ails all of us this morning is our

sinfulness Christ came and died for our sins

So confess your sins and turn away for your own

efforts in your salvation So much theology today

so many churches are teaching a false gospel

Because they say you choose you bring Dearly

beloved the only thing we bring to our salvation

is our wretched sinfulness and We are delivered

from our sin because of the work of Jesus Christ

So confess your sins and turn away from your

own efforts in your salvation Now Jesus is revealed

by having his titles named And this is what's

interesting. He goes out, he has his title's

name, and he immediately goes out and begins

to name others, defining them in him. Right?

We saw right there that Simon, the son of Jonah,

was renamed into who God had him to be. That

is Cephas the Rock. That's verse 42. And then

a few verses later, we see Nathaniel, an Israelite

that we're told, that Jesus declared an Israelite

in whom there is no deceit. That's a very interesting

thing that happens right there. In all of the

gospels, Nathaniel is the only one named as an

Israelite. What's the description used in the

gospel for all the other people that we find

in the land of Judea? They're Jews. Here though

we have an Israelite Jesus names Nathaniel and

Israelite. What's an Israelite a son of Abraham

who actually believes and follows God Dearly

beloved you have been named by Jesus as his in

your baptism Jesus calls you to a life of confronting

your sin and confessing your sin because you

carry His name. Reigning sin is defeated for

the Christian. You're no longer in bondage to

it. But what we must do is deal with our remaining

sin. What worries do you have now? What do you

believe? Or who do you believe are your chief

enemies? For some of you, The answer is your

spouse. Might be your children. Maybe it's your

coworkers. Maybe it's what's going on with your

finances. Maybe it's in the labors of the education

of your children. It might be loneliness. You

might be pointing towards your community or country.

Dearly beloved, let me tell you this before I

go there. I want you to understand that you need

to believe in the forgiveness of Christ. And

then do what? You're set free. All of us come

here in this room and we gather and glorify God,

and we are grateful for the forgiveness of His

sins, but we get bowed up because we forget that

there's something that we are set free that we

are to do, and that is to obey Him. So what happens

is we become totally stymied, stuck, and we don't

take the next step. We know that we're baptized.

We know that our sins are forgiven. We know that

we're no longer in bondage. And then what do

we do? We waller in self -pity. And then all

the things we think are the problems in our life,

instead of believing Jesus, confessing your sin,

and know that by the power of the Spirit, we're

going to get to that in a second. You are enabled

to do these things. Dearly beloved, Jesus is

the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world,

and this includes your sin. Jesus, the Son of

God, in whom all authority in heaven and earth

dwells, has claimed you. So stand with the Lamb.

Your chief problem is your sin. Confess it. and

believe Jesus has in fact delivered you from

the bondage of your sin. Jesus is the light and

life of the world. Trust in Jesus' work on the

cross and so get up and walk in obedience to

Him. You desire a better marriage? Confess sin

and obey Him. I'm going to tell you right now

across this church and across the Church of Jesus

Christ broadly, there are people looking for

every way to make their marriage better. So they're

reading books, listening to podcasts, maybe even

going to counseling, and none of those things

are wrong, but they are not the way to a better

marriage. The way to a better marriage is to

confess your sin and then go walk in obedience

to God. See we want to believe Jesus for the

forgiveness of our sins But we don't want to

believe that if we just simply do what he tells

us to do that it'll work out We want to have

faith in Jesus because it soothes our conscience

for our sins, but we don't want to have in Jesus

To obey him So what do we do we think our enemy

is our husband or our wife or our children, or

the other problems, or the other difficulties,

or all those other rotten sinners out there,

confess your sins. And then go and walk in obedience.

You can. Do you desire less stress in your life?

Confess your sin and obey. because you can because

Jesus remember it said he one of the titles was

he baptizes with the Holy Spirit because Jesus

sent the spirit to give you a new heart if he

says he gives you a new heart you have a new

heart yes and do you have a new mind in Christ

Jesus yes and so if you have a new heart a new

mind you're able to obey him and in that you

will bring light and life to the world You think

there's darkness and confusion in your household?

Confess your sins and be obedient, you, yourself.

Children, are you listening to that? Confess

your sins, be obedient, joyfully so. In Philippians

chapter two, we see all this great stuff about

Jesus coming down, and we all know that first

part of Philippians two very well. And we see

that he condescended to us, he stooped down low,

he cared for us, he did all the things. And because

of his obedient death on the cross, God lifts

him up and all creation, every voice in history

will say Jesus is Lord. We all go, right? We

think, here's the lion. Well, here's the lamb.

In verse 12 of Philippians chapter two, therefore,

my beloved, You have always obeyed now. This

is to the church and Philippi. This is all the

Christians there But as you have always obeyed

not as in my presence only But now much more

in my absence Work out your own salvation with

fear and trembling. What does this mean? Well,

you believe Jesus is forgiving your sins You

want to work out your salvation and fear and

trembling? Obey what he says and trust that the

creator of the world, the definer of all things

says, this is how you're delivered. This is what

brings you life and peace. This is what brings

change to the world so that my will is done on

earth as it is in heaven. And here's the thing,

he says all this. How can you figure this out?

And and and he says this for it is God who works

in both to will and to do for his good pleasure

Because Jesus died and he has sent the spirit

you can do the will of God and please him and

Then he says so here it is again. We're kind

of like yeah this spiritual thing. God's doing

Here's the tangible part for you right now. Are

you ready verse 14? Right so you work out your

your salvation and fear and trembling The spirit's

going to give it to you. Here's the crux for

you. Are you ready? Do all things without complaining

and disputing. Every one of us in this room is

guilty of complaining for the circumstances that

we find ourselves in. We do not submit to the

fact to say that this is God's providence in

our life. Dearly beloved, stop complaining and

disputing. You know where the disputing here

is? This is debating with God as to whether or

not if I do what he says that the things will

work out the way he says them. Are you with me

on that? The disputing a lot of times we think

is with one another. That's not what this is

talking about. We are disputing with God to say,

yeah, I'll take your forgiveness, but I don't

want to go be and do what you say and be obedient.

In the hard providences and the good graces.

that He gives us. Dearly beloved, believe in

the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world,

and then go and be obedient. And what does He

say? Do all things without complaining and disputing,

that you may become blameless and harmless. Harmless

to what? Yourself and the world. Children of

God without fault in the midst of a crooked and

perverse generation, which we all admit that's

where we are. And he says this, among whom you

shine as lights in the world. Dearly beloved,

when you walk in obedience to God, you will shine

as lights to the world, bringing his truth to

everyone else. You want to see your coworkers

come to Christ and stop acting bad? Be a light

in the world. You confess your sins and then

walk in obedience to God. You want to see your

marriages improve, your family life get better,

confess your sin, and get up and be obedient.

Behold, Jesus is the lamb who takes away the

sin of the world. Believe it, confess it, and

confess your sin, and go and obey all that Jesus

commands. That's the battle. Not all these other

struggles that vie for your attention. So ask

in every situation and circumstance, what does

God's word say? And if you've sinned, confess

it. And then go and sin no more to the glory

of God and be life and light to the world. Our

biggest problem is our sin. Jesus is the lamb

who takes away our sin. And because of the work

of Jesus, we shine as His light to the world.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for

the refreshing power of Your Word and of Your

Spirit. Make us ever mindful of the wealth that

we have in Christ for the forgiveness of our

sins and that the Holy Spirit has made us His

habitation. Your love, mercy, and strength surround

us. Your Word Your promises are in our hands

and in our heart. How rich you are unto us, O

Lord, and we to you. Help us to believe in the

strong work of the Lamb, your Son, our Savior

Jesus, who reigns with you in the Holy Spirit,

world without end. Amen.