Song of the Lamb

If you're new with us this morning, we're so glad that you're here to join us as we are in the very early stages of our series through John called Spirit and Truth.

This morning we're kind of at the still in the beginning few sermons.

We're going to be going through John for two years.

And so you're in a good spot.

So you didn't miss out on much.

And we're excited to have you here.

The title of my sermon this morning is Song of the Lamb.

Song of the Lamb.

And so I know those of you who track with this regularly, I'm usually doing music, and I'm sorry I couldn't get away from music even as I was preaching this morning, but I'm a one-trick pony.

So this morning the title is Song of the Lamb.

And so as we continue working through John, I wanted to draw attention to and make sure that we keep in mind where we find ourselves in the larger story that's going on in this grand arc of redemption, this story of redemption that is going all throughout the Old Testament and into the new.

So this morning I'm going to try to paint with a broad brushstroke, and I'm a terrible painter.

I don't have the patience for it.

So my hope this morning is that using the song and art, uh the art of music, I'll be able to better draw our attention to where we're at in this story.

So I'm going to try to kind of paint the narrative of the gospel and redemption through the art of song.

And we're going to do that through three different songs this morning as we navigate through our text.

So three different songs.

So the first song, if I were to say that the entire Old Testament would be summed up in a song, I would say that it's a song of longing.

A song of longing.

So God created Adam and Eve, right?

And he placed them in the garden to have dominion over everything, and everything was peaceful and good.

And man had fellowship with God the Father.

He had relationship with God the Father.

He had relationship with Eve, and everything was good.

And then sin crept into the garden, and Adam and Eve sinned and rebelled against God, and they deserved to be put to death.

But God in his grace and mercy spared them.

He cast them from his presence because he is perfectly holy and righteous, and he can have nothing to do with sin.

And so Adam and Eve are removed from the garden, and the rest of the Old Testament is a longing to be restored back to what Eden was.

And so the whole testament is longing for relationship.

It's wronging for a relationship not only with God, but for restored relationship with each other.

It's a longing for a home.

We see this in the wandering through the desert, right?

They're longing for a place to live.

They're longing for not only a place to live, but a place to worship.

We see this in the tents, in the tabernacles, and in the temples.

It's longing for a king as all the kings had failed, God's people.

It's longing to actually hear from God's voice like they once had.

And they we see this in the prophets who end up becoming rejected.

It's a longing for a true and better sacrifice, as all the sacrifices of the Old Testament were a foretaste and a type of the sacrifice that was to come in Jesus the Lamb.

Ultimately, it's a song of longing, a longing for redemption, to reverse the curse and stain of sin.

And this is where we find us this morning, church.

We find ourselves at a pivot point.

A new song is about to be sung.

The song of longing is about to come to an end, and a new song is going to rise up.

And this new song is being sung by John the Baptist.

It's a song of longing that is coming to an end.

And so we're introduced to this title for God that He is the Lamb of God.

The Lamb of God.

Those of you who've been coming to church for a while or have flirted with church for years, you're familiar with the Lamb of God.

We see it in art, we see it in paintings.

It's all throughout music.

It was easy to write today's liturgy of songs because it's in so many of our worship, right?

Michael W.

Smith, he's most famous potentially for uh hallelujah song.

So I'm not going to do it because I can't sing, but that is one of his most famous songs, and it's called Agnes Die.

And that is the Latin word for Lamb of God, which is actually what we get from today's text.

That song was taken and inspired from today's text.

And so what I want us to do is not take our preconceived notions of what the Lamb of God is, but I want us to think about John, the Apostle John, as he is writing this letter and as John the Baptist is proclaiming this message, what this Lamb of God title would have meant to the original audience.

See, to John's Jewish audience, this title, Behold the Lamb of God, would mean something completely different than what you and I run to instantly in our minds.

And so for us to fully understand this, we need to go back to the story of Abraham and Isaac, all the way in Genesis chapter 22.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

You're probably familiar with this story.

Abraham was the father of many sons, and many sons had Father Abraham, right?

But there was a time that he didn't have any sons.

There was a time of longing for a son, and one, the promised son did come, and his name was Isaac.

And God went to Abraham and he said, Abraham.

And Isaac, or and Abraham said, Yes, I'm listening, and he said, Take your son, your only son, the son whom you love, because I want you to sacrifice him.

He says, Take your son, take him up to Mount Moriah and sacrifice him.

And so Abraham, being a man of great faith, takes his son and they go on this journey.

He gathers the wood for the offering, he gathers the oil for the burning of the sacrifice.

And as he's going up, Isaac looks at his father.

He says, Behold, we have the wood, we have the oil, but where is the lamb?

Where is the lamb?

And what does Abraham say?

He says, God will provide the lamb.

God will provide the lamb.

Now, as a pause on this, I have to wonder, you know, you know, the story, how the story ends is that uh as Abraham ties up his son, he binds him and places him on the wood as he's hand his back with a knife to slaughter this son of prod of promise.

An angel appears and says, Hold up, hold up.

And there was a ram in the thicket, and that was the ram that God had provided, and God spared Isaac as he saw Abraham's faith.

I have to wonder what kind of daddy issues came from this scenario.

As I was pondering, I was like, man, like I don't want to be alone with you, Dad.

Like, I remember that time you took me on the mountain?

Like, I don't know.

I I don't know.

I just thought about that.

Like, man, that would be that's messed up.

But uh, this is what happens.

And so God says, God, or Abraham says, God will provide the lamb.

And so we see this statement from Isaac, where is the lamb?

Weaved all throughout the rest of the Old Testament.

And so this song of longing in the Old Testament, we're gonna entitle, Where is the Lamb?

This song of longing throughout the rest of the Old Testament is entitled, Where is the Lamb?

We see this in the Exodus story, right?

God is going to rescue his people from the oppression and hand of Pharaoh, and he tells them that the angel of death is going to come in one of the plagues, and he's gonna strike down the firstborn male of every home.

And what does God say?

He says, Kill a lamb, take its blood, and put it over the doorpost, and when the angel of death comes, it will pass over your home because the blood of the lamb is on there.

We also see it in the prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah.

They prophesy that there will be a lamb to come, a suffering servant in Isaiah 53, a lamb that will be led to the slaughter.

So where is the lamb?

And this is where our story picks up this morning.

This song of longing has turned to despair.

People have not heard from God for 400 years.

They were walking in darkness, and we're introduced to a man named John.

Not the apostle John, but the other John.

John the Baptist.

John, the forerunner of Jesus, is putting an end to his song of longing, and he's going to sing a new song.

So if where is the lamb of the song of the Old Testament?

We have a new song, a song of hope.

And it's sung and it's titled Behold the Lamb.

Behold the Lamb.

John the Baptist begins singing this new song.

And this brings us to verse 29 of our text this morning.

Verse 29 reads, The next day he saw, he, John saw Jesus coming towards him, and he said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And so if I was to summarize verse 29 through 31, I would say that Jesus is the long-awaited Lamb.

Jesus is the long-awaited Lamb.

See, this verse 29 is jam-packed, and so we're going to kind of break it up in three little sections to help digest it and unpack it.

But I don't want us to miss just through our general reading of what's happening.

We can read a text and kind of lose the gratitude or the gravity of the situation.

I don't think as John was baptizing, he had been baptizing for a year.

He had quite a following, and he's baptizing, baptizing, and then guess what?

Jesus appears.

I don't think John was like, hey, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

I don't think it was just like a passing statement.

I liken it to Bruce Buffer, if you were in MMA.

He is this wonderful announcer that can get anybody just amped up and ready to go.

So I picture John the Baptist, who they say is this wild man who lived in the wilderness, who ate locusts and honey.

I picture him saying, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

See, this was a momentous statement.

This was a a um grabbing of attention.

This was a um uh uh a statement that would draw the hearts and minds of the original audience to behold the Lamb of God.

They instantly go back to what the prophets had prophesied, that there would be a lamb that would come, this sacrificial lamb.

And this is where we find ourselves this morning.

Behold, the lamb has come.

And this is not just any lamb.

This isn't a lamb like all the sacrifices before.

No, this is God's lamb.

This is God's chosen lamb.

This is God's chosen son, the eternal son who took on flesh and dwelt among them, the one that the prophets had prophesied.

This is Jesus, the sacrificial lamb that Abraham told Isaac, God will provide.

This is Jesus, the true and better lamb of the Passover lamb, was a type of in Exodus.

This is Jesus, the lamb that was proclaimed through the prophets, the lamb that would be led to the slaughter.

See, John the Baptist starts singing this new song that hope has come, for behold, the Lamb has come.

And what did the Lamb come for?

To take away sin.

The Lamb had come to take away sin.

This verb take away, it refers to the act of moving something from one location to another.

The act of moving something from one location to another.

This verb is the same verb that's used in Mark's gospel when Jesus goes to the paralytic and he tells the paralytic, Rise up, take your mat, and take it with you.

See, this Lamb of God had come to do something with sin, and it wasn't to bury it, it wasn't to um diminish the magnitude of it against the holy and righteous father.

No, he came to take the sin that we have, and he came to bear it on himself as the sacrificial lamb.

Jesus, the Lamb, had come to take away the sins through his bearing of it upon himself.

The Lamb had come to carry our sin debt, just like the paralytic had carried away the mat.

Jesus carries away our sin.

He became our substitute as he took it upon the cross.

2 Corinthians 5 21 says it like this for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

See, Jesus was made sin for us.

So that why?

We might become righteous.

We might become righteous.

Our sins were taken upon him, our sins were imputed to him.

This is where we get the theological concept of penal substitution.

Penal meaning penalty and substitution, referring to Christ taking our place at the cross.

See, our sin is imputed to Christ, it is taken from one place and placed to another, and his righteousness is given in exchange for our sins.

See, Christ as our substitute paid sin's penalty.

Colossians 2 says that by his sacrificial death he cancelled the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demand.

See, behold, the Lamb had come to take away the sins.

And the last part of this verse is of who?

The sins of the world.

So what does John mean here when he says the sins of the world?

Does he mean the sins of everyone?

That Jesus had come to remove the sins of everyone?

Well, I think we know that not everyone will believe, right?

And we know that hell is a real place.

So I don't think John's getting at that Jesus removed the sins of everyone.

That would be universalism.

What I believe John is saying in here in verse 29 is that salvation is not only for the Jews, but because of Christ now the Gentiles and the rest of the world are able to be grafted in through the covering of the blood of the Lamb.

See, this is what John the Baptist's forerunner to Jesus was doing even as he was baptizing.

He wasn't simply baptizing Gentiles, no, he was baptizing Jews.

Why?

Because something new was happening, something different was happening.

John's baptism was a baptism of repentance, and that's why it was so controversial for him to be baptizing Jews as well.

John 11, verse 50 through 52 reads this way Nor did you I nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people.

John 11:50–52

Not that the whole nation should perish.

He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would be uh that Jesus would die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one, the children of God who are scattered abroad.

See, this is the prophecy of Caiaphas, the high priest, that Jesus, the eternal Son of God, had come to redeem the children that the Father had given him.

See, Jesus was the Lamb of God, and he was entitled the Lamb of God because he was born to die.

And through his death, he would purchase salvation for the children of God from every nation, tribe, and tongue.

See, Jesus' death didn't simply make salvation possible, rather, no, he made adoption actual.

See, he purchased and full, he canceled the record of debt that held us in opposition and away from God.

He satisfied the entire wrath and justness of God's holiness on our behalf, and he gives us his righteousness and he bangs the gavel that we are adopted through the blood of the Lamb.

And his redemptive work is definite, it is safe, it is secure in nature, securing salvation for the sheep of his fold.

And how does he do this?

Well, we find our answer in verse 32 through 34.

It goes on, and John bore witness.

I saw the spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.

I myself do not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain.

This is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.

To summarize, verse 32 through 34, say Jesus is the priestly lamb.

Jesus is the priestly lamb.

This might be a weird phrase or a weird attribute to apply to a lamb, but if we look at the role of a priest in the Old Testament, what was the role of a priest?

The priest was chosen by God of a lineage, selected by God to offer sacrifices on behalf of God's people to God.

And priests were the only ones that were allowed to enter the most holy of places once they had purified themselves in the holy of holies.

And so Jesus is this long-awaited lamb, this long-awaited sacrifice.

But he wasn't like a lamb that had gone before.

No, he was he was a different lamb.

See at his baptism as he comes out of the water.

This is the story that we're working through.

We are told in John's testimony that he saw the Spirit of God descend on Jesus in the form of a dove.

The form of a dove is all throughout Scripture and it's a sign of innocence, a sign of purity.

But what's interesting is that a dove is the only bird in Levitical law that could be offered as a sacrifice.

See, Jesus, as he comes up out of the water, as the Spirit descends on him in the form of a dove, was a symbol that this was the long-awaited one.

This was the Son of God.

This is the Lamb of God, the one that had come to do something about sin.

The sacrificial, suffering servant that Isaiah had prophesied.

And this baptism of Jesus wasn't like a baptism that had gone before, and it's not like any other baptism that will follow.

We're reminded that John's baptism was a baptism of repentance, of forgiveness of sins, and that's why it's important for John to say, Behold, the Lamb has come to take away the sins of the world.

Why?

To not be misunderstood, that Jesus had no sin.

He had no need for forgiveness of sin.

John in 1 John 3, 5 says, You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

See, Jesus' baptism was a proclamation.

It was a proclamation that the long-awaited sacrificial lamb had come, instilling hope and wonder to the watching world.

See, all in all reality, Christ had no need for baptism.

Neither that of John's nor of any other man.

No, no, baptism needed the power of Christ.

And that's what we read in verse 34 as it talks about the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

See, the baptism in verse 34 is what we call believers' baptism.

It's a proclamation of the power of the gospel.

It's something that we celebrated a few weeks ago as four people publicly proclaimed that they belong to the Christ, that they have been washed with the blood of the Lamb.

See, it's not a baptism that saves us, but rather a baptism that sings.

It sings of the hope of the gospel, the power and the blood of the Lamb.

It's a baptism that the thief on the cross received, although he never was dipped or sprinkled into any body of water.

But it was received by faith as he professed that Jesus is the Messiah.

What was purchased by the blood of the Lamb is applied to believers.

By grace through faith and a miraculous resurrecting power of the Spirit.

It's a baptism not of the body, but of the heart.

It's a baptism which Jesus, this priestly lamb, keeps exclusively in his own hands.

Hebrews 7, 23 through 27 reads this way: See, the former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office.

But he, Jesus, holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever.

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he has always lives to make intercession for them.

For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

He has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.

See, Jesus is both our sacrificed and our great high priest, the one that the scriptures say he is daily living, seated at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us, daily purging us, cleansing us, bathing us in his blood, pleading on the behalf of the Father to look at his finished work on the cross.

And we're reminded that he's granting and applying fresh streams of mercy day by day and morning by morning.

See, Jesus, the long-awaited, spotless Lamb of God, he carried our sin, he removed it from us, and he climbed the hill of Golgotha, bled and died, and thereby nailed it to the cross.

And this is our gospel conviction.

The purifying flood of the blood of the Lamb has the power to remove the deepest stains of sin.

No matter how dark they are, no matter how long they've been on there, not only the sins of our youth, but the sins of our future, God is not surprised.

But he has sought fit to do something.

And that's in sending his son, the spotless Lamb of God, the chosen one to die, to atone for our sins of his beloved children.

See, the insufficiencies of the animal sacrifices all throughout the Old Testament are put to an end.

And the sufficient, spotless Lamb of God.

We sing this song at Sacred Mission a lot, and it's there is a fountain.

It's one of my favorite hymns.

And verse one reads like this: it says, There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose what?

All their guilty stains.

All their guilty stains.

See, there is power in the blood of the Lamb.

See, the gospel centers upon Christ, centers upon Christ, the eternal Son, as the sin bearer, the sacrificial lamb of God.

See, Christianity is a bloody religion.

We like to think of the Lamb as this beautiful and white and pure and innocent and soft and cuddly lamb, when in all reality the lamb was a beast of burden as it took upon our sin and as it was slaughtered and as blood was shed.

I was reading in preparation of some Jews today that still sacrifice lambs yearly, and they said that the stench of the blood and the flies and the maggots goes for miles.

Man, that's a completely different picture when we think of the Lamb of God than what we maybe what we typically come to mind.

See, the gospel centers upon Christ as our substitute, taking our sins, putting them on himself, and being nailed to the cross as the sacrificial Lamb of God.

Hebrews 10, 19 through 23 reads, There, therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh.

And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near.

Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who is promised is faithful.

Church, Jesus is the sacrificial lamb that didn't just die.

He didn't just come and die.

No, he's the Lamb and the priest.

He resurrected, and he, through the power of the Spirit, applies the finished atoning work of his sacrifice on our behalf as we are washed in his blood, as we are united with him by the power of the Spirit.

Jesus is a priestly lamb.

And because the tomb is empty, we are enabled to sing a new song this morning.

So our song of hope turns to a song of adoration, where we get to proclaim, worthy is the Lamb.

Song number three is a song of adoration.

Worthy is the Lamb.

See, as we are bathed in that cleansing flood, as we are baptized with his spirit, we get to sing this song.

It's the eternal refrain of the church.

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.

And this brings us to our main idea.

The Lamb of God is the plan of God to redeem the children of God.

The Lamb of God is the plan of God to redeem the children of God.

And far too often, our story is that we live as though we have no need for the Lamb.

Our story is far too often we live as though we have no need for the Lamb.

Maybe some of us reject the Lamb because we believe our sins are too great.

Our past is too dark.

There's no way that God could love me for what I've done.

And this morning, the invitation is for you that to come.

That Jesus is not surprised by your sin.

He doesn't diminish it.

No, he went to the cross to cancel it.

And he offers new hope this morning.

Maybe others of us wouldn't say that our sin is too big, but really maybe our sin is small.

It's too minimal for our need for the blood of the Lamb.

And I don't think we would say this outright, those of us who fall in this camp and I'm speaking for myself.

But I think if we looked at our pattern of repentance, our pattern of coming before God and asking for forgiveness for our sins, for losing our temper with our children, for being an unkind spouse, for not modeling the love of Jesus.

Man, our patterns of repentance would effectively speak that we have no need for the Lamb.

The Christian life is marked by faith and repentance.

We should be daily going before the Father, dying to self, confessing sin, because we are promised that He is ready to receive us.

We can draw near with full assurance of faith because the Lamb is seated at the right hand of the Father, and He desires to give us new mercy today, to restore us, to show the Father His righteousness on our behalf.

Many of us sing worthy is the man instead of the Lamb.

We do this with the way that we spend our time, spend our resources, where our money goes, where our thoughts go, where we are so consumed, far too often we live as though we have no need for the Lamb.

And so our gospel vision this morning, the question I want to leave with you is how can your life sing of the worthiness of the Lamb?

How can your life sing of the worthiness of the Lamb?

What is your next step as you seek to sing of the worthiness of the Lamb?

See, now that we have been bathed by the blood of the Lamb, by the blood of Christ, and been filled with the Spirit, we have been empowered to sing a new song.

We've been invited into this choir.

We've invited to this song that is to proclaim the worthiness to a watching world.

First Peter says that we were not a people, we did not have a place, but now because of Christ, we are a people.

We are a chosen race.

We are a royal priesthood.

Why?

So that we might proclaim, that we might herald the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light.

So what needs to change in your home?

What needs to change in your workplace?

What needs to change on your Google calendar as you set up your week?

What needs to change so that your life might sing of the worthiness of the Lamb who was slain?

Maybe baptism is your next step.

Maybe you have professed a faith in Jesus and you have yet to be baptized.

You've yet to come out publicly and say, I belong to Him.

Maybe that's your simple next step this morning.

And if that's so, we would love to talk to you as pastors.

Maybe it's expressive worship this morning.

We order our gatherings the ability of revelation and response.

So in a moment, we're going to get to respond to God's word.

And I've heard from some that maybe they just don't feel like they're good at worshiping or they don't like their voice.

I'll tell you what, if I could sound like Chris Stapleton, I'd probably give up my pinky.

I'd give up something of value.

This morning you've been enlisted into the choir of the king.

And you've been enabled by the Spirit to sing of his excellencies.

And so this morning, your next step is to be able to herald with arms raised and a heart posture that is just proclaiming your deep need and adoration for the Lamb who was slain.

And in a moment, we're going to come forward to the table, the apex, the climax of our services every week, where we get to drink of the blood and we get to eat of the body that was broken as this foretaste of eternity.

So before we come forward, I want to give you guys some time.

Our band is going to lead us in a response, but I want to give you guys some time to really take any posture that you seem fitting.

Maybe that's just to sit in your chair and just to ask the Spirit to convict you of sin.

Maybe simply ask, God, where are you calling me to proclaim of your worthiness?

What are you asking me today to change that I might sing of your worthiness?

Maybe that means going to the back where Pastor Rick and Barb will be back there to pray for you, to answer questions for you.

Maybe that means just standing there and listening, being reminded of the truth of the scripture as brothers and sisters in this room lift up their voices.

Maybe today you feel like you're in a place where you can't sing.

But but being reminded of this truth, being reminded of the worthiness of the Lamb as we corporately make much of his name.

One of the metrics of grace that we have here at Sacred Mission is Jesus first and foremost.

So I want to leave us with a statement that for our lives to sing of the worthiness of the Lamb requires that we die to self.

To be able to sing of the worthiness of the Lamb requires that we must die to self.

And so I ask you this morning as I ask myself where do we need to die to self, to live to Christ, and to sing of the worthiness of the Lamb?

Let me pray.