The Last and Living Lamb

So if you're just joining us for the last year, for really this entire year since February, we've been doing something really cool called the whole story.

We've been going through the entire story of scripture week by week.

We've broken up the whole story into 14 different series, and we've been making our way through it.

And if you're like, man, I'm here for the first time, I've missed a lot, correct, you have, but you can catch up.

The book that we're studying has been around for a very long time, so there's no like spoilers.

Um, but you can you can definitely listen back and catch up.

It's been really exciting.

It's been really enjoyable.

I've learned a lot as I've had to prepare to go through this.

And so um we find ourselves today in a one-week series.

This is our second of these in the course of this whole story thing.

Uh this whole series takes place today.

So you are at the beginning, the middle, and the end just by being here today.

That's awesome.

You've done the whole thing.

And this series is called the Last and Living Lamb.

This is a Sunday, the Last and Living Lamb.

What we're going to explore today is the death and the resurrection of Jesus.

And this is something that's been foreshadowed so many times as we've been studying the story of Scripture, even way back in the Old Testament, we were in a series called So Much Blood.

And it was all about all these sacrifices and all these wars and all this stuff that you read and you're like, ah, that's awful.

That's I don't I don't want to read about this.

But so much of it was God giving us hints about the necessity for sacrifice, the seriousness of sin, and our need for someone or something to cover all of our mistakes and failures, all of our sin.

We've talked about this over and over again, but today we come to the point where Jesus gives his life, dies on the cross, but raises again.

This is very powerful, obviously, as you're if you're a Jesus follower, like, I mean, come on, what could be more powerful than this?

Now, I woke up on Monday morning and I was praying about this this exact message.

And just in my mind, as clear as day, was the thought, man, I would really love to hear what Fred Goodwin has to say about this topic.

And I was thinking about that, like, man, I would just love to get Fred's perspective on this.

And many of you know Fred, many of you don't.

Fred has been a mentor of mine, he's part of our church, he's awesome.

Um he's a pastor who became a pastor the year I was born, so he's much older than me, just significantly older than me.

Um it's kind of crazy when you think about how much older than me he is.

Interesting.

All right.

Um Fred is a mentor of mine, and I have learned more from Fred.

I have fun at his expense sometimes, but I've learned more from Fred than just about any other person that I've ever spent time with.

And so I woke up on Monday, like, man, I'd love to hear what Fred's take on this.

And then it just hit me, maybe everyone should hear what Fred's take is on this.

And so I called Fred and I said, Hey Fred, short notice.

But is there any way you might be available on Sunday to teach on this?

Because I just feel strongly like you're supposed to.

And he said, Yes, and so we get to be blessed by that today.

So do me a do me a favor, welcome Fred.

He's gonna come out and teach us this morning.

Fred.

It's like he pitches the perfect pitch, and then he expects me to hit it on the park.

It's just very, very okay.

Let's recognize that over the last weeks, Justin has taken us in some amazing places on this journey through Scripture, right?

And he's reminded us that we recognize Jesus as the one and only.

Do any of you remember that?

Okay, okay.

And he also challenged us to remember that Jesus is the word.

And after that, he reminded us that Jesus is the way, and Jesus is the truth, and Jesus is the life.

Do you remember those messages?

We're gonna go on a slightly different journey today for yet another title of Jesus, because he is the last and living Lamb.

Do you know Jesus as your Lamb?

That may sound a bit unusual, but that's the journey we're gonna go on today.

Now, for those who haven't yet made that decision to follow Jesus, I hope this answers some of the pieces of the questions that you still have in your heart.

For those of you who are followers of Jesus, I hope it allows you to see the path a little clearer and go a little bit deeper.

So are you ready?

Okay.

Then I need to start not with pictures of basketball, but pictures from my life.

And um as I guess most of you know, um, Jill and I retired from full-time ministry uh about four years ago.

And it wasn't long before she turned to me with her expectations of what retirement would mean.

And she said, Honey, I want us to have a lamb.

And of course, as the husband, trying to be practical, I said, Well, hon, that's fine, but we live in a residential area.

We aren't allowed to have lambs on the and she said, Oh, I've already talked to our daughter Maureen, and uh she's getting two for their small farm, so uh I want to get another one so they have three.

I want to have one of the lambs be ours.

So, picture number one.

Yeah, uh the one in the bottom um is our lamb.

And you're right, it is it's a little aw.

Aren't they cute?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So um, yeah, and then the next slide, uh, of course, Jesus is down on the ground feeding the little lamb.

Isn't that cute?

Just darling.

Uh by the way, the lamb's name is Daisy.

Isn't that sweet?

Yeah.

I I know all of you women are going, uh oh, I wish I had a lamb.

Yeah, right.

Okay.

Guys, from my perspective, it's significantly more work than I ever imagined.

Because you see, the first thing I had to realize is my son and I had to put in special fencing next picture.

So from my perspective, it's okay.

And see, lambs grow up and they become sheep.

And Daisy's about 200 pounds.

And um, so, and then of course they had to get the goats to protect the sheep.

It's one of the reasons they're mixed around the world, to be honest, because goats aren't afraid of anybody.

So in Georgia, they keep the coyotes away, to be honest, but they also keep away the guy who is trying to mow the lawn on the riding lawnmower.

To learn that one.

But then uh trying to catch, wrangle is the word I'm learn I've learned.

I'm a wrangler now, a sheep wrangler, um, that you you realize that, okay, it's like catching a fish with bare hands.

A lamb or sheep that doesn't want to be caught.

Well, there's biblical images, but we won't go into that.

But this is a little video you might find amusing.

One of my other daughters thought it was more fun to watch a video.

We're just trying to catch Daisy because she needs to be sheer.

We thought we had a corner.

We did.

So, yes, I I've I've learned how to wrangle, and you need to wrangle the sheep by getting uh the shepherd there who is our our daughter.

She feeds her regularly.

So we needed her help the next day to get her, and we finally got her sheared.

I've learned how to shear sheep.

I've learned how to pick her up and get her into a truck bed so we can transport her.

Um, because you see, it wasn't enough for us to have a lamb who became a sheep.

Jill said, Hun, it's time that Daisy has a a lamb of her own.

Thank you.

That's exactly what I said.

I went, you've got to be kidding me.

This is all pertinent to the message.

It really is.

Um, so of course, with three granddaughters, and Jill, who was so intimate with this lamb, Daisy, sheep, uh, there had to be a bridal shower before we took her to meet the male.

So here's the bridal shower picture.

Uh there it is, right there.

Through the the gold uh swim tube.

Okay.

And then and then the next picture, yeah, we drove her up to Cleveland, Georgia to meet.

That's uh his name is Benjamin Butthead.

It really is.

We got a call this week that Daisy is probably pregnant, so we can pick her up anytime.

And I said, How about in eight months?

But it didn't work.

So I'll be wrangling her again and getting her in a truck and getting her back to this area so she will go into the pregnancy pasture.

Did you recognize that there's a difference between a distant relationship with a dumb animal and an intimate relationship with a pet?

You can find both of those differences in my own family.

So now, ready for the journey?

All right.

We're gonna start all the way back.

We're gonna start all the way back in Genesis.

Because if we're gonna understand Jesus as the last and living Lamb, we need to go all the way back.

And we're gonna go all the way back to Abraham, who we call the father of the faith.

Abraham was the first one who 4,000 years ago was uh invited into a covenant relationship with God.

Covenant relationship is a binding contract, it's a contract, and it's normally sealed in blood, as it was with Abraham.

And Abraham was given many promises by God, and the promises were that uh God would be his God, and he would, he and his followers, his descendants would be his people.

And so God promised Abraham that he would have descendants.

And Abraham spent many, many years praying for that.

And it wasn't until much, much older in life when when Guys figured there's no more chance of us having any children, his wife Sarah gave birth to Isaac.

And uh he was so excited, had Isaac around the house for years, and then God said, Abraham, I want you to prove your devotion to me.

I want you to sacrifice your son Isaac.

Now, I hope all of us are sitting here in this room, horrified by that challenge.

But in that day, that's what other cultures were doing as well.

And Abraham said, Okay, God.

So he goes on a journey with Isaac up to the mountain, away from mom, and even makes Isaac carry the sticks for his own sacrifice.

But Isaac doesn't yet know that he's the one.

And I pick up the story in Genesis chapter 22, where Isaac turns to his dad and says, Uh, my father, um, and he said, Here I am, my son.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

He said, Uh, behold the fire in the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?

Isaac is old enough to know, wait a minute, there we need to sacrifice a lamb.

I'll get to the burnt offering later, but we need to sacrifice a lamb.

And Abram said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.

Now, Abraham at that point is thinking, it's you.

But I want to remind you, this is the living word of God.

So this is our story as well.

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

He literally puts down the sticks, gets Isaac strapped to the sticks, and is about to sacrifice him.

And God realizes that he is willing.

And he says, Abraham, stop.

And he provides a ram over in the thicket, he unties Isaac, they sacrifice the lamb.

And now we have the story of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the descendants.

Okay?

Big event, big story.

Abraham somehow knows God will provide the lamb, my son.

We don't need to sacrifice our own children.

Fast forward 400 years.

We get to the time of Moses, and of course, the story of Moses, all of the all of the horrible plagues that he had to announce on Egypt, because the Pharaoh wouldn't let God's people go from their slavery.

And the very last plague, the tenth plague, is the sacrifice of the firstborn sons.

And anyone who is not marked by the blood of the lamb will be ready for destruction.

Listen to what's said in Exodus chapter twelve.

Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses, a lamb for a household.

And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his near nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons.

According to what each can eat, you shall make your count for the lamb.

Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male year old.

You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.

Did you just hear the timing?

You pick a lamb on the tenth day of the month.

You keep it with you, with your family, and it becomes your pet for four days.

We know what that means, don't we?

As I found out in my own household, all of a sudden the lamb has a name, it gets special treats, it gets special favor, it's loved on by all the kids.

And then, blemish-free, it is offered.

The story goes on.

Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts in the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.

They shall eat the flesh that night, roast it on the fire with unleavened bread and bread or herbs, they shall eat it.

Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roast it, its head with its legs and its inner parts, and you shall not let any of it remain until the morning.

Anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.

In this manner you shall eat it, with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste.

It is the Lord's Passover.

For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments.

I am the Lord.

The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will bef befall you or to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations, as a statute forever.

What's the dynamic going on?

There is this Passover lamb, this innocent, without blemish, pure lamb.

It's going to be intimate with the family, and then it will be chosen to have its blood shed.

It'll be put on the two doorposts, on the lintel above, and yet stripping onto the floor, as Justin mentioned a few months ago in his message when he was covering this.

Bloodshed.

As the angel of death comes along, if the angel of death sees the blood, pass over that house and go to the next.

Now notice just let's just pause for a moment.

The angel didn't stop and say, Have you been a good person?

The angel didn't stop and say, Um, are you are you living the kind of life you should be living?

It was only the blood.

The blood was sufficient.

The blood of the Lamb was sufficient to say, This is one of God's.

I'm gonna keep going.

Now, what was this all about?

Why is God doing this?

Well, we read a few verses uh before that in chapter six.

This is what God spoke to Moses as the plagues were in the midst of being exercised.

He said, Say therefore to the people of Israel, I am the Lord, I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will deliver you from slavery to them, I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment, I will take you to be my people, I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

That's an extraordinarily significant passage in Scripture because it mentions the four activities that God wants to do in the life of his people.

It's the four activities that he wants to do in every one of our lives: your life, your friend's life, your kids' life, your grandkids' life.

What are the four activities?

These are what the Hebrew people know as the four cups of the Passover.

Yes, when Jesus gathered with his disciples, they had four cups of wine that they shared, not just one.

He probably picked the third cup to be the one that we know.

But listen again to what God wants to do with his people: remove our burdens, deliver us, redeem us, and take us to be his people.

I will be your God, and you will be my people.

That goes all the way back to Abraham 400 years earlier.

God says, I'm going to do this through the blood of the Lamb.

This is what I'm doing, says the Lord.

Well, this journey has to continue.

I can't look at all hundred places that the Lamb is mentioned in Scripture, but I will bounce ahead to another very famous passage.

It's called the Fourth Suffering Servant Song of Isaiah.

It is the most poetic description of the suffering of Jesus in the whole of the Old Testament.

In the whole Hebrew Scripture, this is the most significant.

It's Isaiah 52, 13 to 53, 12.

I'm just going to read a couple verses out of this amazing poem.

You've heard these words before if you've been in church more than a uh a few months.

Isaiah chapter 53, beginning at verse 5.

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

But he was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.

Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, like a lamb that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

In the most beautiful depiction of the crucifixion of our Lord, the prophet, six hundred years before Christ, says he's like a lamb shedding his innocent blood for us to receive forgiveness and new life.

But we'll jump ahead to Jeremiah.

Jeremiah in chapter 31 described it as a new relationship with God, a new covenant that God was going to form.

And he says in chapter 31, verse 31, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the old covenant that I made with their fathers on that day, when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was like a husband to them, declares the Lord.

For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.

I will put my law within them.

I will write it on their hearts.

I will be their God, and they will be my people.

And no longer shall each teach his neighbor and his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.

For I will forgive their iniquity, I will remember their sins no more.

Why the Lamb?

God always wants to do something new in us.

It's not that God is judging our behavior and seeing if we're good enough, He's going to do something new.

A lamb's gonna come and shed his innocent blood so we can be delivered, redeemed, forgiven, and claimed as God's own.

Isn't it interesting that when Jesus, exercising his ministry, goes first to be baptized by his cousin John?

As soon as John sees him, what does he say?

Behold the Lamb of God.

Of all the titles he could have used for Jesus.

As Jesus is about to start his ministry, he says, Behold the Lamb of God.

The very next day, he sees Jesus again after the baptism.

And his own John the Baptist's own disciples, Andrew and John, are with him.

And he said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

In other words, guys, go follow him now.

My work is done.

Go follow the Lamb.

And again, he doesn't say, Go follow the Lord.

Go follow the teacher.

Go follow the Messiah.

He doesn't say that.

He says, go follow the Lamb.

And they do.

And Andrew went to get his brother Peter.

John wrote the gospel.

They all become followers of the Lamb.

Then Jesus spends all of his amazing ministry doing the things that we've heard about over these weeks, as we'll continue to hear about a lot in this community.

But the story goes to the now the last week.

I'm in Mark chapter 14, verse 12.

Mark 14:12

On the first day of unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, Where will you have us go and prepare to eat the Passover?

The context for Jesus' death and resurrection, they're gathering in homes throughout the land.

Many of them, up to a million many believe, gathered in Jerusalem to be present in that holy city to have their Passover lamb.

It's in that context that Jesus gathers to have the Last Supper.

Later on in that chapter, it says this.

Jesus said, This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.

So he takes this cup, and yes, one of the four Passover cups.

We don't know which one it was.

As I said earlier, it was probably the third cup.

And he offers his cup to us to drink.

And he says, This is my blood of the new covenant.

Hmm.

And then, of course, as we know, hours later, betrayed, beaten, crucified.

The brutality of the crucifixion is beyond words.

It is a horror.

It is called his burnt offering.

The word in Hebrew is Holocaust.

The complete offering of himself for us.

Our Lamb.

The last lamb that needs to be shed to make us right with God.

I was a little kid raised in a traditional church, liturgical church, and in that church, as in many of the churches I've served over the years, there is in the center an altar.

And as a little kid, I'm going, why is it called an altar?

It's a table.

And then it was, oh yeah, memorial to a sacrifice.

So we don't kill animals anymore.

We don't need to shed innocent blood because innocent blood has already been shed for us.

Church, do you get it?

You're awfully quiet.

Do you get it?

You got it?

You got it?

Innocent blood shed for us so that our burdens of our lives can be removed.

We can be delivered from all of that pain, brokenness, and sin.

Our lives can be redeemed, and we can enter into new life.

But consider what our Lamb said at the cross.

I invite you to put that into the context of this journey we're on today.

The first words that Jesus spoke were the words of forgiveness.

As the Roman soldiers are driving the nails into his hands and feet, Jesus prays, Father, forgive them.

They know not what they do.

And again, this is the living word of God.

That's the first word Jesus speaks to each of us.

You get it, don't you?

It's the first word God speaks over us at the cross.

He says, I forgive you.

Father, forgive them.

Let it go.

You are forgiven by the blood of our Lamb.

But that isn't the only thing he spoke at the cross.

Remember, there was one who was sacrificed next to him, crucified next to him.

And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

And what did Jesus do?

He offered hope and a future.

He said, Today you'll be with me in paradise.

And he speaks that to us too.

He gives us hope.

He gives us the future.

He says, I'm shedding my blood for you so you can be set free.

You are not strapped to the traumas of your past.

You are not strapped down and tied down by the grief and suffering and loss you've had.

You are not tied down to the sins and brokenness and pain of your past.

You are not tied down to the struggles of life and you're just trying to struggle and make it through a day.

That is not what God has for us.

He has a hope and a future, just like he did to the man on the cross.

That's his word.

Do you see it's like he's giving a context for those four cups, those Passover cups?

He's saying, Now I'm doing it for you all.

But it goes on.

He sees his mother standing next to his disciple John, and he turns to Mary and says, Behold your son.

He turns to John and says, Behold your mother.

At that moment, he's providing a context so that John has a purpose and has security, and so does his mom.

Comfort and security.

That's what he gives to us.

That language of have no anxiety about anything.

He's got us comfort, security.

I will be your God, you'll be my people.

But it goes on.

There's a shift now for the next words, and as he speaks, as he offers himself as our living Lamb, and he says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And we might decide, well, he was forsaken by God, all the sin was laid on him.

Or was he, as most of us believe, as even was taught this past week in one of the classes here, was he just referring to Psalm 22 or Psalm 22 and 23 and 24, which is the proclamation of feeling forsaken and yet God doesn't forsake, and he makes all things new.

And those Psalms are the celebration that God is our shepherd and he is our Lamb who is gathering us.

And one day we will know the celebration of new life.

The fifth word, he says, I thirst, making it very clear he is it he is fully human.

This is not some foreign alien who's doing something strange and we have to accept it and believe in this strange thing.

No, he's fully human.

Just like us, he thirsts.

Yeah, I brought up some water and maybe a good time to just grab some.

Because we all thirst, don't we?

Jesus did too.

He's just like us, but without sin.

He's the blemish-free lamb.

But then he spoke a remarkable word.

Teleo.

Let me give the context for this.

It was eight years ago that I was doing a series in our church, The Bible Through a Year.

And what we were trying to do to make it special is I was talking to artists every week and saying, Would you paint a picture of this particular idea?

And one of our college students, named Darby, said, Yeah, I'll paint that one.

So they came in with their painting a couple days before Sunday and said, Here's what I painted.

And I looked at this painting, and it was a runner crossing the finish line, and the tape was ripped, and the runner is finished.

And underneath was the word teleo.

I stood there looking at it and went, great, I'm the pastor here.

I have no idea what that means.

So I turned to my ministry coordinator, who happens to now be this Darby's mother-in-law, soon to be a grandmother.

And uh she said, Fred, teleo means it is finished.

And I went, oh yeah, that's right.

Got to be cool when you're the pastor, you know.

You don't have to be when you're just filling in for him, but you have to be when you're, you know.

So I went, of course.

He's done it all for us.

He's done it all for us.

All we have to do is believe.

We are not going to impress God with how many things we do, or how many times we've gone to church, or how many good deeds outweigh our bad deeds.

Those are all the other gods of the world.

And we're seeing that in crisis right now.

A follower of Jesus believes Jesus has already done it for us.

And now we're free to do what he wants us to do, not what our selfish ambitions are.

Tell you, it's accomplished, it's completed, it's finished.

The final word, as it is should be for us, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

Total surrender.

The complete and total holocaust, the complete sacrifice of the Lamb for us.

Now, I have to admit, since I've been in pastoral ministry for about 40 years, I need to pause for a moment and just mention what I experienced at this point with many believers.

A lot of folks, and I have as well at times, gotten stuck on this side of the cross.

And we're looking at it from the Good Friday side and we're going, oh, he was sacrificed for us.

Oh, I'm a terrible sinner.

Oh, I'm glad I'm forgiven.

And we end up praying over our sins over and over and over and over again, as though God hasn't died for us at all.

And our perspective of God, or even Jesus, is He died for us.

But we're still not worthy because we're not good enough.

And I suspect if you got serious about the condition of your heart, the majority of people in this room would say that.

I'm not good enough for this.

And what I found is that when people do that, they never experience the real freedom that comes next.

They are so busy, we are so busy concentrating on our brokenness and our pain and our grief and our sorrow that we forget what happens three days later.

And my suggestion to many, even in this room, is this if you aren't willing to accept and let it go and recognize that the Lord takes your sins as far as the East is from the West, never to meet, then what you're doing is kicking Jesus out of the throne room of your heart, and you're saying you're not going to let him be the king on this issue in your life.

And you're going to sit on the throne of your life on this one, because you will not forgive yourself, so Jesus shouldn't.

And my brothers and sisters, when you do that, you are denying the faith that is ours in Jesus.

He is the Lamb we aren't.

We don't have to be.

Jesus died for us.

His innocent blood set us free.

We're alive in him.

So please trust this old guy.

You've got to move through the Good Friday side and get to the amazing side of looking at the cross from the resurrection side.

He rose from the dead.

Do you get it?

He rose.

He said, This is done.

The Father said, It's sufficient, it's enough.

And did we believe it right away?

Of course not.

Fortunately, there was one woman who believed and she went to the tomb.

Mary, go tell my brothers.

I'm risen.

First, I'm grateful the woman had the faith to do that.

Second, just to remind you, this is the first time in Scripture he calls us brothers.

Or if we for brothers and sisters.

How can he do that?

This is the great secret of the Christian faith, though everybody should know.

We're forgiven.

There's no stumbling block between us and God anymore.

We're the children of God.

We just heard that from Justin a week or two ago.

We are the children of God.

Children go right up to the king.

They don't wait in the back row.

They don't, then, then don't tremble, they don't get in line.

Children go right up to the king.

The prince or princess go right up to the king and say, and the father says, What can I do for you, my child?

That's who you are.

You're the redeemed of God if you've if you've accepted the Lamb.

Isn't that amazing?

It's it's the miracle of miracles.

He loves us.

Oh God, yes, he says.

He loves us.

Listen, listen to what Paul says.

He's writing to the Corinthians.

You'll probably hear again.

Corinth in that day was like Las Vegas.

People did whatever they wanted.

And he had to put a lot of criteria into his letter to the Corinthians.

But this is what he says.

1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 7.

1 Corinthians 5:7

Cleanse out of the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are in leaven, for Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

Let us therefore celebrate the festival.

What he's saying is, we've already been, has someone died for us?

His name is Jesus.

We're now set free.

Let's celebrate.

Let your heart and mind rejoice.

You're free.

You're forgiven.

You're alive.

All of the promises of those cups are fulfilled.

He has removed our burdens of our past.

He has delivered us from our sufferings.

He has redeemed our lives and he has taken us to be his people.

And the only experiences that we might have where he hasn't done that is when we don't give them to him and let him do the work he wants to do in our lives, which is giving us his new spirit so we can be the new creation.

Listen to what Peter said.

Peter is pretty savvy.

He wrote in his first letter.

This is so cool.

As obedient children, do you hear that again?

Obedient children.

Hmm.

Do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.

But as he who called you as holy, you also must be holy in all your conduct.

Since it's written, you shall be holy, for I am holy.

And if you call him on his father, who judges impartiality according to each deed, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, your purchase your freedom wasn't purchased, but with this, with the precious blood of Christ, like 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.

There it is again.

He just invites us to believe.

I think we heard this message just last week, didn't we?

Believers, putting our faith in the one who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Not in the church, not in the pastors, in God.

Wow.

The Lamb.

And yes, we have to keep going to get to Revelation.

There's not time to talk about Revelation and the role of the Lamb, but I'll mention just two.

In Revelation chapter 5, John describes seeing heaven.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

Angels are singing, creatures are singing, 24 elders are singing praises.

And then the father seated on the throne has a scroll in his right hand.

Apparently, it's a scroll of unfolding the end of this world and the scroll of life.

It's sealed with seven seals.

And the question is asked, who is worthy to unroll the seals?

And no one is found worthy in heaven or earth or under the earth that's good enough, pure enough, holy enough to undo the seals.

And John begins to weep.

Now this is the disciple of Jesus.

He's seeing this vision and he realizes there isn't anyone who's good enough.

And then an angel speaks to him and says, John, don't weep.

There is one.

The Lion of Judah.

He's the Lamb of God.

He'll open the seals.

And immediately John sees the Holy One.

As he describes the Lamb of God.

Now, if you're in a study of Revelation, you discover that numerology is used a lot in Revelation.

We're going to hear about that from our pastor here in a couple weeks.

Twenty-eight times Jesus is identified as the Lamb.

It is the most popular title for the living Lamb, Jesus.

Our Lamb.

You get to the very last chapter of Revelation.

And John sees it when it's all brought together.

All of the promises are realized.

And we're in the city of God and of the Lamb, where the river of life is flowing from the city.

I asked you at the start of this journey, do you know Jesus as your Lamb?

He's not just the last Lamb to end it all needed sacrifices, because he's the perfect sacrifice.

But he is the living Lamb, the Lamb of God, who shed his blood for you and me, so we could become the people God wants us to be.

If you're relatively new on in the faith, risk believing this is all true comes right out of the Word of God.

And maybe it's time to schedule a baptism if you haven't done that.

But my dear brothers and sisters who are already followers of Jesus, hey, maybe we ought to just include this in our list of prayers sometimes as we pray to the Lord, as we pray to Jesus, as we pray to our Redeemer, our Savior, our shepherd, and maybe we just remember, and Lord, thank you.

You are my Lamb.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Now, I have the privilege of doing what Jesus did with the disciples as he identified himself as the Lamb.

I invite you to get a cup.

If you don't have one with you, don't hesitate to go back and get one.

This is what he did for them.

This is what he did for us.

And since I know some of you in this room are already thinking about a big holiday coming up next month, uh Jill had suggested I end with this picture painted by a friend of ours some years ago.

Notice some of the symbolism.

The heavens are solid, but the roof of the manger has a hole in it.

And Mary is holding Jesus.

As the cross is behind them, and the Lamb is there.

Can you leave that up for communion, please?

Let's just keep that picture there as I invite the music team to come forward.

Please risk believing.

He's given his life for you.

He really has.

Your life with God is not based on how many prayers you offer, how much you read scripture, or how many times you come to church, although I hope you do all of those.

It isn't counted how many times you do great acts of service.

That isn't how the relationship gets established.

Oh, it may have something to do with a reward, but that's something else.

Your relationship with God is because you have a lamb, a pure and holy lamb who he invites us to be intimate with.

Like my wife Jill is intimate with Daisy.

Get to know him as much as you possibly can, and you're gonna find he's hugging you all the time.

And risk believing.

And he rose that we might look at all of life in a different way.

No longer in the burden and weariness and pain of life, but with the joy and love and wonder of journeying with the purposes and plans of Jesus.

Ready for communion?

Let's take the cup and ask the Lord's blessing on the bread.

Lord Jesus, you you said that this was your body broken for us.

And we know that when we take this, we are taking you symbolically into ourselves, making a claim that we belong to you.

And we thank you for the sacrifice.

Bless this bread in Jesus' name.

And now the cup, that which is the symbol of the new covenant, his bloodshed, that we no longer have to offer our own or anyone else's.

We accept his for forgiveness, redemption, and new life.

Lord, bless this juice, that it would indeed be for us the cleansing and new life you have for us in your resurrection glory, for you are the living Lamb.

Strength the cup.

And now it's time.

Time for some baptisms.