The Lamb of God – Our Most Perfect Sacrifice
1. Good Morning!
Let’s
pray. O Lord,
may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You
O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
2. Opening Comments: This morning we’re going to focus on the happy subject of
“Sacrifice,” and the role this has in God’s strategy for establishing His reign
over the world.
In other words, we’re going to think together about the importance of the reality of sacrifice in God’s battle plan to take back the world for Himself and what this means for us - you and me!
The Gospel reading from John chapter 1 verses 29-34 is going to be our proof text. It’s here that we hear John the Baptism refer to Jesus as the sacrificial Lamb of God and that’s why I’m sensing that our Lord wants us to reflect upon this much forgotten idea of sacrifice.
What then is
sacrifice all about anyway?
Let’s begin
with this question:
“How often do you hear the word “sacrifice” used on the nightly news reports? Is it a word in wide circulation today?” If not – why not? What is it about this word that doesn’t fit niecely with this time and this culture?
I suspect that this word is used very rarely and has probably
lost the fullness of its meaning in this sacrifice-denying
culture. For really
we’re a culture of consumerism and quick-fixes and by no means a long-suffering
sacrificial culture.
So let’s go back to the basic understanding of what the word
“sacrifice” really means shall we. My
compact Oxford Dictionary says this:
Sacrifice is
primarily the slaughter of an animal (often including the subsequent
consumption of it by fire) as an offering to God or a deity. Hence, in the wider sense,
the surrender to God or a deity for the purpose of propitiation or homage of some object or possession. Also applied to the
offering of prayer, thanksgiving, penitence, submission, or the like.
So a sacrifice is offered to God as an act of propitiation or homage which is an act to appease God or to honor or ingratiate oneself to Him.
3. Substitutionary
Atonement: Sacrifices in the Old and
New Testament were in type and symbol substitutionary. Life was for life.
Christ
became for us our substitute sacrifice – He took our punishment upon Himself –
He became our substitute sacrifice.
In . . . Heb. 10:14 we read “because by one sacrifice he (Christ) has made perfect forever
those who are being made holy.” Christ’s
sacrifice substituted for the punishment our sins deserved and because of this
- . . .
Heb. 10:19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the
Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened
for us through the curtain, that is, his body,
Because of Christ’s substitutionary
sacrifice we can come boldly into the most holy place of God! Because of His sacrifice we can come right
into the very presence of God!
This
doctrine of substitutionary atonement has
been called the “scarlet line of
redemption” which begins in Abel’s sacrifice in Genesis and climaxes in the
blood of the Lamb slain from the creation of the world in the Book of
Revelation. (Rev. 13:8)
Jesus
plainly said it in the Gospel of John chapter 10 verse 15: “I lay down my life for the sheep.”
4.
Gospel. So this is the central meaning of the
word sacrifice. Now let’s turn to our
Gospel reading to delve into this a little further.
Remember the context of this
passage. Jesus has just come out of his
30 years of “hiddenness” in the mountains of Galilee
and it’s in the waters of the Jordan as His cousin John the Baptist baptizes
Him that God reveals to the entire world just who Jesus really was – “This is
my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” (Matt 3:17)
John 1:29 The next day after
Jesus’ baptism John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the
sin of the world! This is a direct allusion to our Lord’s substitutionary
and sacrificial role. Let’s read on
verse 30 This is the one I meant when I
said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before
me.’ 31 I myself did not know
him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed
to
As what?
As what?
The “Lamb of God!”
This is a pivotal title for Jesus Christ – the Lamb of
God! Listen to what happens to this Lamb
at the end of all time:
Rev. 5:6 Then I saw a Lamb,
looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living
creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the
seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
Rev. 5:13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and
under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in
them, singing: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”
Rev. 6:16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us
and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!
Rev. 7:9 After this I looked and there
before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation,
tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the
Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their
hands. 10 And they cried out in a
loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our
God, who sits on the throne, and to
the Lamb.”
Rev. 7:17 For the Lamb at
the center of the throne will be
their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe
away every tear from their eyes.”
Wow! What a Lamb – what a Lamb! Let’s read on now in our Gospel reading –
verse 32:
John 1:32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a
dove and remain on him. 33 I
would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water
told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who
will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34
I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.”
Ah! God had already told John how He would know the One for whom he was preparing the way – the Spirit would come down upon Him and remain on Him – This would show John who was the Chosen One!
Can you imagine how John
must have been looking and waiting for the One to come? Who was he?
How would he recognize him and so on.
And so the day came and John recognized
Jesus and a day passed and his understanding had probably grown because of God’s
revelation. It had grown to the point
that he realized that Jesus was to be the sacrificial lamb of God for all
people – all nations – not just for the Jews!
But for all!!!!
John the Baptist knew now who Jesus was
and what He had come to do – to become the sacrificial Lamb of God – to give
Himself on our behalf so that we could be completely forgiven and able then to
come boldly before our Father God – through the blood of the Lamb – Jesus
Christ!
4. Do we get this? Do you and I even begin to grasp the personal significance of this for us and for the world? God must have thought it was pretty significant to sacrifice His own Son for us! But do you and I get it?
God incarnate died for
you and you and you! How valuable are
you? Infinitely valuable! How valuable is the life of the God of God
and the King of Kings? Infinitely valuable! And He died for you and me!
His death was absolutely
necessary to restore our right relationship with God!
Please think about it – God incarnate died for you and because of that death you can now freely come into the Presence of God Almighty – all of your sins have been appeased for! Nothing is owing to God! Jesus has paid it in full!
Now this sacrifice of Jesus was done once and for all 2,000 years ago. It is done – the price has been paid – but how do you and I appropriate the wonder and grace of this gift today?
Some
would say – it’s given – receive it and move on. But is that the response of a truly thankful
child of God? No, I don’t think so. There has to be something that will enable us
to remember – to reenact - this wonderful event and in so doing to re-receive
the profound gift of His death on our behalf!
Ah! What is it that God incarnate has given us to
remember and then to reenact that singular and sublime event of His
sacrifice? Yes, the Eucharist.
5. This is what happens every time we celebrate the
Eucharist or as the ancients referred to it as “The
The Eucharist is a true sacrifice, not
just a commemorative meal. It is in
fact a re-presentation of the once and for all sacrifice on the Cross of
Calvary – we re-present that sacrifice to our Present God and in so doing enter
once again experientially into the wonder of that act and the wonder of the
gift that we received and are always receiving from it – eternal life in God’s
Presence!
The first Christians knew that it was a
sacrifice and proclaimed this in their writings. They recognized the
sacrificial character of Jesus’ instruction, "Do this in remembrance of me" which perhaps is
better translated "Offer this as
my memorial offering."
Malachi’s prediction (1:10–11)
that the Lord would reject Jewish sacrifices and instead would have "a
pure offering" made to him by the Gentiles in every place was seized upon
by Christians as a prophecy of the Eucharist.
Mal. 1:11 My name will be great among the nations, from the rising
to the setting of the sun. In every
place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name
will be great among the nations,” says the LORD Almighty.
The Didache actually
applies the term of “sacrifice,” to the Eucharist. . . .
"Assemble on the Lord’s day, and break bread and offer the Eucharist; but
first make confession of your faults, so that your sacrifice may be a
pure one. Anyone who has a difference with his fellow is not to take part with
you until he has been reconciled, so as to avoid any profanation of your
sacrifice [Matt. 5:23–24]. For this is the offering of which the Lord has said,
‘Everywhere and always bring me a sacrifice that is undefiled, for I am a great
king, says the Lord, and my name is the wonder of nations’ [Mal. 1:11,
14]" (Didache 14 [A.D.
70]).
Wow! Can you see what God is wanting us all to see
– the Eucharist is
God’s way of drawing us – body, soul and spirit – into a remembrance of who we
now are because of Christ’s once and for all sacrifice on the Cross of Calvary.
Now
listen very carefully – here comes the kicker!
This way of sacrifice – is “the” model for all Christian behavior!
We must
be like our master – always ready to give our all for the accomplishment of
God’s plans!
Sacrifice is “the” model for
all Christian behavior.
God, this morning, is calling
you and me to rediscover our fundamental calling to give our lives to Him as
sacrifices!
Sacrifice is to characterize our
lives! As Christ sacrificed Himself for
us so too we must be willing to sacrifice ourselves for others!
6. Challenge – Does sacrifice characterize your
life? Perhaps you're like most of us and
feeling a bit uncomfortable now – Good!
Let’s bow our heads and invite our Lord – THE Lamb of God, to reveal to
us those things that He wants us to do to more completely enter into His
ministry of being the Lamb of God for the world – let’s pray . . .