The Crucified Word

I'm going to ask you to open your Bibles with me this morning in the third installment in our series entitled Who Is This Man?

And I'm going to ask you to turn to the first chapter again, the first chapter of the Gospel of John, john, chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

John, chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

Verse 29,.

If you're new with us, we have been parked at the Gospel of John, chapter 1, for the last three weeks, so this is our third week.

John 1 · chapter mention

We have been pulling out of this wonderful prologue, the first 18 verses of John's Gospel, these incredibly powerful statements.

We spent three months in a series called A God Worth Knowing, talking about the Godhead, and now we have focused on Jesus.

And let me tell you, as we go into the month of December, i'm going to be focusing in Matthew embellished by Luke.

I'm going to be talking to you for three Sundays and then Christmas Eve, about the birth of the Jewish Messiah, tim.

This morning I'm going to talk to you about my favorite verses in John 1.

This is called the Crucified Word.

First week we talked about the Eternal Word.

Last week we talked about the Incarnate Word.

This morning I am so excited about getting to talk to you for a few minutes about the Crucified Word John 1.29, familiar or worse, i'm sure, for most of us.

The next day he sought Jesus coming toward him and said Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And in John 1.35, the next day again, john was standing with two of his disciples And he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said Behold the Lamb of God.

Behold the Lamb of God.

Father, i pray with everything within me this morning that you hold forth to this assembly in all of its glory and power, the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world.

We would see Jesus crucified this morning.

Father, help us to understand what that crucifixion means and how Jesus has become the Lamb of God.

And, father, this morning, draw sinners to the Lamb of God.

In Jesus' name we pray Amen.

If you hung out with me in John 1 over these weeks maybe you read it again and again, as I have over these weeks You might have noticed something.

It's very apparent.

You don't have to really search it out.

It hits you very plainly.

And that is John's gospel reads so much differently than the synoptic writers.

We call the first three gospels synoptic.

It's a fancy term that means to view together, because Matthew, Mark and Luke give us a view together of the life of Jesus, and all three of those gospels actually all four except for John doesn't give us any story of the temptation, but all three of the gospels give us the story or account of Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist and then immediately spending 40 days and nights in a howling wilderness being tempted by the devil.

And those three gospels tell us why John was sent, and everybody's aware of that.

He was John the Baptist, which was not, by the way, his designation as the head of a new denomination.

By the way, please tell your Baptist friends or maybe you're here this morning, please, please, get the word out that the first Baptist was Jewish.

It's not gotten around, but this was John's mission in life.

He was sent to baptize the Messiah.

What you may not know, and you only would know by reading John's account, john's gospel, is John the Baptist himself did not know who the Messiah was And he was told specifically that it would be revealed to him through the act of baptism.

And, by the way, john didn't invent baptism.

He brought it to a public formation, but he didn't invent it.

Baptism came out of many years or centuries of Jewish ritual.

How many remember when you went into the Tabernacle or Temple if you were a priest, you had to wash before you could go in.

There were water sprinklings.

Baptism in its earliest form was various washings that God required of the people of Israel.

What John did is make it the public evidence of repentance.

It was called a baptism of repentance And the outward sign to Israel that you were repentant was you submitted yourself to John's baptism And John was baptizing literally thousands of Israelites.

You might have seen this in the movies.

I don't think they've done it justice.

But John is out there in the wilderness, in places where there's water, abundant water, and he's baptizing thousands.

And while he's baptizing them in water, which was necessary, he's telling them this ain't it, guys?

There's something coming better than this.

This is ritualistic, this is form, it's necessary.

But there's another baptism you are going to be introduced to.

It's baptism in the spirit by Messiah when he appears.

And then it happened.

Then it happened Jesus of Nazareth.

I love the way Mark's gospel.

It's powerful for its brevity.

Then Jesus of Nazareth came along and he appears, and he wasn't alone.

He came with many other Israelites on a certain day to submit himself to John's gospel.

And it is in that moment.

And I can't remember the movie.

I remember seeing it.

It made a great scene where John's pouring water on people and he's doing it quickly because there's thousands of people in line, and then his cousin Jesus of Nazareth steps up and John's about to cover him in water And John, for the first time, stared into the face of holiness incarnate.

The word made flesh and John begins to tremble.

Matthew alone records John's verbal response to Jesus coming to him for a baptism of repentance.

And with trembling lips, john basically says I'm going to paraphrase it What are you doing here?

You are holiness incarnate.

You don't have need to be baptized by me.

I have need to be baptized by you and you come to me.

John doesn't get it, but this is the moment for which John had been sent.

This was the moment And I can imagine that all the thousands of people that John baptized before he baptized his cousin Jesus of Nazareth, john was anxiously looking at H1.

Are you the one?

Are you the one?

And then the day came when he stared in the eyes of holiness incarnate And John hesitates I can't baptize you.

This is a baptism of repentance.

You have nothing to repent of.

And Jesus tells John, let it be John, for in this way we are fulfilling all righteousness.

And you know what happens John takes Jesus down into the water And when the when the Son of God splits the waters and comes up, the heavens make a sound.

The Holy Spirit descends on him like a dove And the heavens hear the voice of God.

I can't prove this, but I've always felt this when I've read it.

I think the Father didn't plan on saying anything that day, but when he saw his son come up out of the water, he was like me.

When my son scored a goal at a soccer game, like an idiot I stood up in the stands and went.

That's my boy, And I think that's exactly what the Father.

Now, this is not theologically sound.

I say that in advance because someone's going to email me, but I get the feeling that the Father did not intend to speak.

But when he saw his son that day who, by the way, had done nothing yet regarding ministry, he was just a son The Father said I am so pleased with you.

Get that in your craw, please.

He was pleased with him before he preached a sermon, cast out a demon, raised the dead or healed the sick.

He was pleased because he was simply a son.

And immediately the synoptic gospels tell us that Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days and nights.

Now here's what I want to ask you What was going on in John's mind?

John the Baptist, he baptizes Messiah, there's a visible public demonstration of God's attesting to his son that he is indeed the Messiah, and then suddenly the Messiah is gone for six weeks And I've been asking this question.

I believe John's gospel answers it What was going on in John the Baptist's mind during the almost six weeks that Jesus was in the wilderness?

Because he's got a question.

He didn't have the whole picture and he's got a question.

I hope you have it this morning as well.

I want to answer it.

It's not a stretch to believe that John was pondering this question for the entire time.

The Messiah was in the wilderness being tempted by the devil And the question was simply this why would the spotless, sinless Messiah of Israel, the word incarnate, who has never sinned?

why in the world would he submit himself to a baptism for sinners?

You know the answer because you live on the other side, but put yourself in John's.

He didn't get it yet, he didn't want to baptize and it made no sense.

There are no sins for you to repent of.

And as the 40 days that Jesus was in the wilderness are coming to a close, it was nearing pass-over time.

And let me take you into John's mind.

I'm speculating here, but there is such a thing as Holy Spirit speculation.

I think I have the Spirit of God.

I think John was getting an education by the Holy Spirit for the six weeks that Jesus was in the wilderness.

And as the six weeks winds down, we're almost at Passover.

It's helpful to know that.

And everybody's thinking about one thing I've got to go obtain my lamb.

And everybody's thinking about one thing John, along with every Israelite, is thinking about how Israel, thousands of years before, were living in Egypt in slavery, and they were told by God to take a spotless, blemishless lamb on the 10th day of the month of Nisan, keep it for four days, kill the innocent lamb on the 14th, apply the blood to the doorpost and lintel of their houses And then, after the blood is applied, go into the house, have a meal, which, by the way, is where the Lord's supper comes from.

It's a meal, by the way, and they were to celebrate this meal with the blood on the door.

And that night God said I will pass through the land of Egypt and I will take the firstborn in death of every house that does not have the blood of a spotless, blemishless lamb applied to the doorpost and lintel of that house.

Or maybe John's mind went back before the Passover, the original Passover.

Maybe he thought about his father, abraham, who, in obedience to God, was told to take his son And the emphasis in the Hebrew text is extraordinary.

God literally says because he's got a son named Ishmael, but he had to wait for an Isaac.

And now God tells him the most incredible thing Take now your son, your only son, isaac, whom you passionately love, and bring him to a mountain in Moriah, to a mountain that I will show you, and there I want you to offer him Abraham as a burnt offering.

Maybe Abraham thought about Isaac's response as they neared the mount where the offering was to be made, and he's turned to his father and said Father, you have a knife, you have the wood, you have the fire, but where is the lamb?

And it was then that Abraham spoke prophetically and said these words listen to them carefully.

God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering my son.

And as Abraham begins to plunge the knife into his son, isaac, he's stopped by the angel of the Lord and he lifts up his eyes and finds a provision of God, a ram caught in the thicket.

And God tells him take that ram and offer him.

And he called that place.

The Lord will provide.

Jehovah Jireh, as it is said on this day, on the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided.

It's helpful to know.

It's that very spot where the temple would be built centuries later, and many believe it was that very spot where the holy of holies of the temple was situated.

No doubt John is also thinking of something else, the great 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah, rolling around in his mind during the six weeks that he's trying to understand.

Why would the spotless, sinless Messiah subject himself to a baptism of repentance?

he might have remembered these words in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened, not his mouth, like a lamb that has led to the slaughter and like a sheet that, before it shears is silent.

So he opened, not his mouth.

An entire chapter that's been an enigma to the Jewish people for centuries.

It speaks of one who is innocent yet suffers, not because of his own sin, but suffers horrible, grievous sufferings on behalf of others.

And then Isaiah says, it's so succinctly and so powerfully all we, like sheep, have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Or perhaps John was just thinking about the Levitical command that a lamb be offered every morning and every evening, two in the morning and two in the evening.

On the Sabbath day for Israel's entire existence, while they had tabernacle or temple, every morning, a lamb had to be offered morning and evening.

Now we don't know.

We just don't know how much of this John understood before he baptized the Messiah.

But it is likely that while the Messiah was being tempted of the devil, john was getting a first rate education by the Holy Spirit.

No wonder, when Jesus leaves the wilderness, john is the only writer that tells us what happened immediately when Jesus left the wilderness, and it's found in John 1.29.

And when John sees Jesus, no wonder it's not shocking that he looks at him and makes the greatest declaration about Jesus that's ever been declared behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

That phrase Lamb of God, was not a quote from the Old Testament.

It's what we call an Old Testament echo.

You can't point to a verse, lamb of God and say that verse is quoted, but you're echoing an idea to everybody who listens.

He's the Lamb of God And John wants us to know one thing about Jesus of Nazareth He is the Son of God, he is the eternal Word of the Father, the Logos, who is always with the Father and who himself is God.

But the most important thing John says you need to know about the man Jesus of Nazareth is He was born to die.

He came to die And it is this sacrificial character of his death that is foremost in John's thinking, as Jesus comes from the wilderness.

Jesus, i'm sorry, john is telling us in the entire world that you cannot understand this man, jesus, unless you understand that he came to die and that his death was a sacrifice.

And when we turn to the rest of Scripture, we find out that the fact that he came to die was not an afterthought, but it was foreordained in the counsels of God from eternity past.

Turn with me to 1 Peter 1, if you would very quickly this morning.

1 Peter, chapter 1.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

And I want to read a couple verses to you from 1 Peter 1.

They'll be on the screen if you don't have your Bible with you, but they're powerful verses.

We need to understand that it is before creation, in the counsel of the Godhead, that it was determined that Jesus would be the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world, or, as I've called in this message, the word crucified.

Look at this passage in verse, beginning in verse 17 of 1 Peter 1.

It says And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb, without blemish or spot.

He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who, through him, are believers in God, who raised them from the dead and gave them glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

There's so much packed in this passage, but let me take you to the heart of it Peter's saying to Jews who now believe.

If you call on him, who is Father?

be aware that you will be judged according to your deeds.

So conduct yourself with fear.

There's two types of fear in Scripture, one's bad and one's good.

This is the good one.

The bad one is cringing fear.

I'm afraid to approach at all.

That has been banished for believers, but what is still in place is the fear of God and the healthy respect that if I'm going to draw near to him I better make sure that I'm pursuing holiness, because he will burn away all the dross.

And Peter says the way you develop this fear is to know what it cost to ransom you and I, to know what it cost Knowing you were ransom from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers.

Look up here for a minute.

It doesn't matter if it's Judaism or Christian religion.

Feudal ways inherited from your forefathers I was going to say grandfathers, but that's true Is religious works that people do to try to earn the favor of God and all the dead traditions that men and women have spent a lifetime thinking God is pleased with.

And Peter says if you want to develop this fear, know that you were not redeemed by religious deeds and religious traditions and works.

But here's what you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb, without blemish or spot.

And then Peter says he was foreknown before the foundation of the world.

When did the father determine that the Jewish Messiah would become the spotless lamb who takes away the sin of the world?

Answer before the foundation of the world, which means more than he just knew.

Jesus would exist in time.

But God had a plan in his eternal councils that the lamb would be slain before the foundation of the world.

It's part of the father's plan.

He set his love on his son in eternity past.

What blows my mind?

think about it.

He did that in eternity past and he had us in mind, that the Son of God, the second person of the Godhead, would take on human flesh and die so that his spotless, blemishless blood might cleanse us.

And Peter is saying if you understand what it cost, what it cost to redeem you, you will live your days in fear on this earth.

Now, going back to John 1, let's fill out that statement in the remaining minutes.

Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

I'm going to say some shocking things in the next 10 minutes.

Those of you who have weak stomachs may want to leave.

He doesn't just cover it temporarily, he doesn't save people and put them on probation.

The lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world?

So I have a question If he takes it away, why are we so sin conscious?

Think about this statement In the light of millions I was going to say thousands, but literally millions of bulls and goats and lambs that were sacrificed throughout the history of Israel, every year.

If you were in Israelite every year, every festival, every Sabbath, almost every day, in fact, it was every day.

In fact, if you were at the temple in the Old Testament and you saw a priest on duty at the end of his day, he would look more like a butcher than he would a priest, covered from head to foot in blood.

There were daily sacrifices, there were festival sacrifices, there were annual sacrifices.

Literally rivers, rivers of blood flowed in Jerusalem over the centuries and decades that the temple stood.

And here's what Hebrew 10 says, for since, the law has but a shadow of good things to come instead of the true form of these realities.

Listen, it can never, by the same, sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near, otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins.

But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Let me say it as loud as I can It is impossible for bulls and goats blood to remove sin.

What the writer is saying is all it did.

Every festival, every sacrifice, every, literally, you were reminded again and again and again of two realities Sin is still an issue and it takes the death of an innocent victim to deal with it.

But look at verse 11.

The writer doesn't stop there.

He now presents another priest who did something incredible Verse 11 of Hebrew 10,.

Every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifice, which can never take away sins.

But when Christ has offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting for that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

Here it is, for by a single offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

And if that isn't clear to you, look at verse 17 of Hebrews 10,.

Then he adds I will remember their sins constantly.

I will call it to remembrance every moment.

I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.

This is, folks, the power of the new covenant.

It is permanent, it is efficacious, it works.

It is powerful.

By a single offering, the Messiah has perfected His people forever.

It is so sure that this is the new covenant That He pulls this statement out of Jeremiah 31, where God ends and says I won't even remember their sins and their evil deeds.

Now, does this mean that the Holy Spirit may never convict me and bring sin to my attention?

Of course not.

That's a standard experience of the people of God.

But we need to move from a sin consciousness where we're looking at sin all the time, to a new covenant consciousness that believes that sin has been dealt with.

Somebody said it recently again, it's not true.

Somebody said sin separates you from God.

May I say to you it is not true.

It is sin not appropriated by the blood of Jesus that will separate you from God, but nothing shall separate you from the love of God.

In Christ Jesus, our Lord, that Now you might think well, if I believe that, that He will remember my sins and my lawless deeds no more.

Thank you, i'll just keep sinning.

God forbid, is Paul's response.

Whoever said that you hit it?

God forbid If this makes you want to go out and commit adultery and rob a bank.

Rob a bank, please don't rob a bank.

But if your response to this is I can go sin, check your pulse.

We'll give you an opportunity to repent this morning, in a moment.

This does not promote In the breast of those who believe the New Covenant.

It has the opposite effect.

It has the effect on me of saying if this is true and your grace is so unconditional, i want to give myself away to you forever.

I've used the analogy.

It's what happens when men fall in love.

It's what I had happened to me when I met Shelly and I saw her for the first time and I said I want to give myself to her forever.

I didn't need rules, i didn't need her to read me a litany of things I would covenant to do.

Men have to be smitten that way because no man in his right mind would stand at the altar and say the things we did.

You have to be drugged, and it's called love romance.

What did I say?

I hope you have a copy, ladies, to show him what he said.

Finally, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

That is such a radical statement that has little or no effect on an audience such as is gathered here this morning.

But if you were a Jew and heard such a statement, you would be outraged.

The sin of the world.

A Jewish Messiah wasn't sent for the world, he was sent for Israel.

The lambs offered in the temple daily were not offered for the world, they were offered for Jews.

But John says it without any hesitation who takes away the sin of the world?

And it's exactly what the four living creatures and 24 elders in Revelation, chapter 5, are declaring When they stand before the throne and sing the lamb's song.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

Bear with me, we're almost done.

You remember John was weeping because no one was found worthy to open the scrolls that had been sealed and he began to weep.

It's the only time John weeps.

whatever it is, he's upset.

He's going to see weird things all through this book and he never weeps.

But he weeps when no one is found worthy to open the scrolls.

And then one of the elders comes to John and says John, don't weep because the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered, so that he is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals.

And John says thank you, the lion of the tribe of Judah.

And John looks for a lion and instead he finds a lamb.

John then looks and sees quote a lamb standing as if it had been slain, and then the four living creatures and the 24 elders sing their song.

And this is what it is worthy are you to take the scroll and open its seals, for you were slain and by your blood you ransom people for God, from every tribe and language and people and nation.

The radical news that Israel was not prepared for fully was that God is ransening men and women from every tribe, nation, people and tongue.

In a word, this is why we do missions, it's why Steve is in Brazil this evening We're going to pray for that.

It's why we send out missionaries to the ends of the earth.

It's why Kevin and Christine are in Colombia.

It's why Phil and Jenny are in Afghanistan.

It is why Rick went to Russia and and Yuri, in August, spent months in Russia and India.

It is why we go.

We believe that the spoils of the victory of the Son of God belong to him.

We had a great time Thursday.

We had our master builders monthly meeting Thursday at harvest church and Jeff Oaks brought a precious Russian man to us.

He couldn't speak any English.

There was a woman with him to translate.

He works in Russia on the border with Mongolia And he began to weep as he spoke to us about a people group that live in the mountains in that region who are unreachable because there are no roads to get there.

You have to go there by horse pack.

I knew immediately I'm not going to be visiting that region.

They've never heard the gospel.

Small villages, people, groups of 400 people That's the entire people group.

And we began to pray.

All we had is a map.

We were in a room with a map and he showed us where he labors and where these people groups are on the Russian-Mongolian border.

And we began to pray and call out to God and weep for a people we never saw and probably never will, but he will.

But we began to pray for this people group that God would reach them and send workers on horseback to reach an unreachable group that are in these mountains.

What gives evangelism its strength is the awareness that it is the heart of God to redeem men and women from every people, group, nation, tribe and language.

Missions is a no-brainer.

It's not like an extra obligation.

It is the result of the gospel.

God's going to have people from every tongue, every tribe, every nation and every language And, by the way, it would be the heart of God for Trinity now that we start asking God to bring here every tongue, every tribe, every people and every nation.

And then John, along with Heaven's Course, says this, and I want you to join me this morning.

I want you to stand And while you're standing, put up on the screen, please, revelation 5, 11 to 13.

And let's say it together.

When it comes to the word worthy, i'll read the narrative, but when it comes to the word worthy and anybody that wants to move in towards the front here and get close as we make this declaration, i invite you to if you want to, but when we get to worthy, i want you, at the top of your voice, get used to this.

Guys, this is what we're going to be repeating for four trillion years.

So I'm giving you a heads up, man, this is what we're going to be saying throughout eternity, and I want you to say it loud.

Could you do that?

Someone said, well, i don't need to, god's not deaf.

And I said, well, don't worry about it, he's not nervous either, so let's let it rip.

Then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and blessing and blessing.

Woo, thank you Wasn't good enough.

One more time, when we say Worthy, go back.

We're going to do it on the count of three.

Let it rip One, two, three.

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

Let's praise Him, you, lamb of God.

Now here's how we're going to close this meeting.

I want to invite you this morning.

You see, you may be here and you're not part of that company that's been vanquished by the Lamb, yet You are not yet in that company being ransomed.

You might be religious, you might go to church, you might never have gone to church, maybe you've been brought here.

I give you an opportunity this morning when I call our prayer team, in fact, right now prayer team.

Come on up, norman, melissa, could you come too?

Tom and Nancy, Rachel, and Let's stand and come on up And the other prayer team members come.

I want you to do this right now.

I want you to take a moment and check out where you're at with the Lamb.

Are you part of that company?

You know, being part of a church doesn't guarantee at all that you'll be part of that company.

There's going to be a lot of church members that are going to be shocked on that day When they discover they really weren't part of that ransom company because they never personally exercised faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and received Him.

I'm going to pray and I'm going to release the company.

But look, if you're here this morning and your heart's being awakened by the gospel and you sense that you're being drawn by God to come to Jesus, to commit your life to Jesus.

We all did this.

We all at one moment recognized that we needed to surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lamb died for you and for I.

And now He says join the company of the redeemed.

If you're here this morning, you've never joined the company of the redeemed.

I'm not asking you to join this church?

That's secondary, i'm saying are you really with the Lamb?

Make this morning an opportunity to settle that issue.

And finally, those of you that are here that need prayer for other things, this team will be serving you this morning.

If you're sick in your body, if you need ministry, maybe further ministry regarding depression, which the Holy Spirit pinpointed this morning, come freely.

God is a God of healing.

Father, this morning we close this service and ask that you draw men and women to the Lamb Throughout this assembly.

If there's anyone here this morning that does not know the Son of God, who's never settled the issue that the Lamb is worthy to have their life, may this morning they settle it once and for all.

Bring them now, father, to come.

In Jesus' name.