The Lamb & The Dove

INTRODUCTION Good morning! My name is David Sorn, and I’m the Lead Pastor here. Well, this is kind of fun! We haven’t had many delays in the construction process (praise God), but we have been waiting for these chairs to come for 10 weeks. And we’re so glad to see them here! And we’re excited for how in the years to come the Lord is going to fill these seats with new believers who are going to have their lives changed by the Gospel…the good news of Jesus. John 1:29 34 Page 724 Well, I’d love for everyone to grab a Bible (If you need one, there is a church Bible near you)…and let’s take a look at our passage for today. If you’re visiting for the first time today, we want you to know that this is a great place to come and actually open up a Bible and learn about God’s Word to you! If you were here last week, we started talking about John the Baptist. Whom God tasked with preparing the way for Jesus. And John has been out at the Jordan River preaching and baptizing people. And now, Jesus is going to come on the scene in the book of John. Let’s take a look. THE LAMB (John 1:29 31) 29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 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 Israel.” (Title Slide) Okay, so John the Baptist sees Jesus walking over, and what’s the first thing he says to introduce Jesus to the crowd? Does he say: “Look everybody! Here comes the nicest guy I know!” “Hey everybody! Here is the greatest moral teacher the world has seen! He’s going to teach us to love our neighbor!” Now, those things may be true…but John is going to announce Jesus’ main purpose here: And he says, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” Now, I don’t know what that phrase means to you. Maybe it’s rich with meaning, or maybe it sounds like confusing religious jargon But the idea of “The lamb who takes away the sin” would’ve invoked a lot of rich imagery for the Jewish listener at the Jordan River that day. Let me explain with some old testament history. If you’re taking notes, you can put these next passages under the heading of “The Lamb” as we’re talking about “The Lamb & The Dove today” And I know we have a number of 10 & 11 year olds in here still taking notes on their note sheets… We have you here with us just 3 more times after this…as our amazing new kids wing opens on January 7th! The first main story about the lamb is the story of Abraham and Isaac. Let’s take a look: Would you turn to page 14 in your Bibles or Genesis 22? Genesis 22 Page 14 God surprisingly asks Abraham, the great father of the Jewish faith, to sacrifice his son Isaac. And Abraham is willing to trust God even when God asks Him to do the unthinkable…to take his son’s life. And Genesis 22 tells us: (Genesis 22:6 8a) – NIV 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” 8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”  And then, just as Abraham is about to sacrifice his son, an angel calls out for him to stop. And then if you look to verse 13, it says this: (Genesis 22:13) – NIV 13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. The lamb was a sacrifice Years later, Abraham’s descendants, the Israelites are living in Egypt as slaves and another powerful story of the lamb occurs. Exodus 12 Page 46 God has sent a deliver for the Israelites, Moses, to save them from their captors, the Egyptians. God then inflicts 10 plagues on Pharaoh and the Egyptians And the last plague is the death of the firstborn sons. The Israelites were told that at midnight the angel of death would come through the land and strike down every firstborn son unless they take a lamb, sacrifice it, and do the following: Look at verse 7 of chapter 12. (Exodus 12:7) – NIV Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.  Well, that’s odd. What’s that for? Look now to verse 12. This is the Lord speaking: (Exodus 12:12 13) – NIV 12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. (Title Slide) And that’s exactly what happened. And the Jews were instructed then to remember this event by celebrating PASSOVER each year to remember when the Lord Passed Over their houses… …because of lamb who was sacrificed for their sin. Then, as the Israelites leave Egypt and begin their journey back to their homeland of Israel, God gives Moses moral instructions in the desert (like the 10 commandments)… …but He also gives Moses instructions for how the Israelites should offer sacrifices to atone and pay for their sins. And many of the sacrifices, involve the sacrifice of a lamb. That lamb was to be without defect, and by dying, it would be taking the punishment that the sinner deserved. This imagery of “a lamb taking the people’s place” is constantly in front of the Jewish people. Even in their greatest prophecy Turn now to Isaiah Isaiah 53:5 7 Page 505 This is the great prophecy about the coming of the Messiah Look at this prophecy about Jesus the Messiah hundreds of years before he came. (Isaiah 53:5 7) – NIV But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth. Isaiah the prophet is saying that when the Messiah comes, he will be the lamb of God, who takes away our sin. So what’s happening here? God is burning this imagery of a lamb being sacrificed to take away their sins into their minds. And it keeps getting clearer and clearer. At our house this Christmas season, we have these advent blocks to do with our kids for 25 days. (Show image of blocks) And each day, you read a Bible story and then turn over the date on the block to reveal an image of the story. And the first half or so of the blocks are stories from the Old Testament. And it does a good job of showing you that God’s people were waiting…waiting…always waiting In fact, each daily reading ends with a phrase that says, “And so they began to hope and pray, God, will you come back to stay?” Will the lamb come for us? (Title Slide) And so when John the Baptist says, “LOOK! The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” That, to his listeners, is a showstopping sentence. Everyone would have stopped in their tracks and opened their mouths. And then they would have said, “He’s here?! He’s come! The lamb of God!” That’s why John said in our passage that he came so that Lamb might be REVEALED to Israel. And Jesus would indeed be the lamb of God, right? After this introduction by John, he would teach for 3 years, do miracles, disciple others, and eventually give his life on a cross…as a sacrifice. To rise again 3 days later. But the symbolism of his death and sacrifice is that he was dying in your place for your sins. Just like the lambs that were sacrificed for sins at the temple in Jerusalem. Or the lamb died in the place of the people at Passover. Jesus has taken our sins upon Himself, so we can live! And this is something that we need to let sink in deeply. Even if you’ve been a believer for quite some time, and you’ve even heard this explanation about the lamb before… …lots of times we only apply this beautiful truth to our initial salvation. And we say, “oh yeah, Jesus died for me in my place. That was good.” But my friend, you want this Gospel truth about the lamb to affect you still today. And I suspect for many of us as believers…it doesn’t…because we’ve made it a thing of the past, not our present. But think of it this way: Imagine you were an Israelite in the days of the Old Testament, and you had sinned. You had stolen, you had lied, you had cheated… In those days, when you felt guilt and remorse for what you did, and you needed God to forgive you… Leviticus says that you would need to find a lamb in your flock, without defect, and take it to the temple to be a sacrifice for your sins. More specifically, when you got there, YOU would lay your hands on lamb’s head, and most typically, you (not the priest) would do the killing And the priest would splatter the blood against the altar. Now, don’t think, “That’s gruesome.” In their agrarian world, it wasn’t gruesome…that was daily life. Most of you gladly eat the meat of slaughtered animals every day, you just didn’t have to personally be part of it 😊 But if this were you, and you were dealing with shame for your sin…and it was heavy on your heart. But then you went to the temple…and you saw your forgiveness happening before your eyes. And you could literally feel the transfer, the exchange of God’s wrath going off of you and onto another… I suspect that would be powerful. Now, we’re thankful that we don’t have to do that anymore because Jesus is our final sacrifice as Hebrews says. But, this is why studying and meditating on the truth of Jesus being the Lamb of God is so important. It can’t just be some theological concept that only applies to you getting saved. You need to take your sin, and your shame and put it on the lamb of God, Jesus, today! Let me ask you: What is it that you are struggling with? What are you hiding from God? Where are you drowning in shame? Saying, “I’m a terrible this, a terrible that…I’ve messed up here… I want you to stop for a minute and identity what that is (pause for a bit) And now I want you to take that very thing to the lamb of God who takes AWAY the sin of the world. In fact, I want to do something unique right now: I want all of you to close your eyes…and picture Jesus on the cross. Do you see Him? I want you to see yourself walking over to Him in your mind. Do you see his face? Even while on the cross…you can sense His love for you… …the Forgiveness He has for you…that’s why He’s on there in the first place. Now, I want you to reach your hand up and touch where Jesus is on the cross. (you can even stretch it out in real life if you want to) This is just like the Israelites of the Old Testament would have placed their hand onto the lamb who was about to be sacrificed. And I want you to give Him that sin…transfer it over to the Lamb of God In your mind, in your heart…tell him what’s happened…and let the guilt of it go onto Him. Take a moment here and do that… You can open your eyes. Believers, isn’t it amazing that He has done this? Isn’t it amazing that the God the Father…loves you so much…that He has allowed His rightful wrath, His judgment that was meant for you…to come down on His Son instead? Let this Biblical truth of the Lamb move your heart still today…and tomorrow and the next day as well. THE DOVE Now, I want to take us back to our original passage in John now. John 1:32 34 Page 724 And I want to read 3 more verses. We’ve read about the Lamb, and now I want us to read about the Dove. Let’s take a look. Verse 32. (John 1:32 34) – NIV 32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.” (Title Slide) So let’s make sense of this: God has told John the Baptist that the one whom the Holy Spirit rests on is going to be the Messiah. The one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? Well the word baptize literally means “immerse.” To plunge into it. Which is one of the many reasons that when we BAPTIZE someone here, we immerse them in the water, rather than sprinkling them with water. And John is saying that the Messiah (Jesus) is going to baptize people, not in water, but with the Holy Spirit. He’s going to fill them up with God. Christians are, as we taught in September, temples (dwelling places) for the Holy Spirit as soon as we become believers. And the sign that proves that this Jesus of Nazareth is the Chosen One ends up being a Dove that rests on Him. And for years and years, many of have said that the Holy Spirit must have been represented as a Dove because Doves feel so beautiful and peaceful. But to the Jew by the Jordan River that day, that’s probably not the connection they would have made Let me explain: When you picture dove, you picture this (Show white dove) So beautiful and peaceful, right? But I was talking with our resident bird expert Pastor Josh this week, and he pointed out to me that this image of a dove we have isn’t even what a normal dove looks like. In fact, if you see a white dove, it has a genetic mutation, such as albinism, (it’s albino) So that’s almost certainly not what they saw on Jesus at the Jordan River that day. There’s much greater chance that it looked something more like this: (Show Regular dove) And so for the Jews, the first thing they would have thought of when they saw a dove that day was not peace… Most likely they would have thought of how they typically interacted with doves. And for the average common Jew, they had a deep spiritual connection with a dove. And that’s because Leviticus says that if someone was too poor to offer a lamb for their sacrifice, they could offer (wanna guess?). Doves. And so God is marking Jesus as the One who will give His life for everyone… No matter your economic status, your job, no matter what …he came for you. (Title Slide) And we read in the other Gospels (the other 3 books about Jesus) that the Holy Spirit coming down as a Dove (and marking Jesus) happens during Jesus’ baptism. So listen, baptism is so important, that even Jesus gets baptized (even though he doesn’t have to because He never sinned) But it’s so important that He does it to set an example for us. And then He even commands us to get baptized. And so if you’re a believer in Jesus, and you haven’t been baptized (immersed) AS a believer yourself yet, sign up today. You can sign up in the lobby at the Welcome Table or on our app. You can give your testimony, we can ask you questions, do a video. We’re here to work with you, but we want you to be obedient to Jesus. We’re going to do more baptisms in January, probably more in February, and we’re doing them all morning today! BAPTISM (SWITCH TO BAPTISM SUNDAY SLIDE) All right, at this point, I want to call our Baptismal Team on stage right now As we are going to celebrate a baptism at this service Baptisms are a visual reminder that God’s Son, Jesus Christ has paid for our sins. And by our faith in Him, we were forgiven, washed clean. And not only that, that God has raised us up from the dead and given us new life. Baptism is a symbol of what happens when a person believes in Jesus (that their sins were washed clean) Baptism doesn’t save you. But it is such an important symbol of his love. Every person you see baptized at Renovation Church is baptized by a sponsor (people who’s had a spiritual impact on them) But before we do the baptism, we get to hear their testimonies GOSPEL AFTER BAPTISMS (Title Slide) One of the things that really jumps out to me in our passage is that after Jesus is marked with the dove, and John announces Him as the Lamb … John says, “I myself did not know him, but now, I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One” But here’s the thing, John almost certainly knew Jesus before this. What he’s saying is that he didn’t know Jesus was the Messiah. In fact, John the Baptist and Jesus are 2nd cousins. The Book of Luke tells us that their moms (Mary & Elizabeth were cousins) In fact, they were so close, that Mary even went to stay with John’s mom (her cousin Elizabeth) when she was pregnant with Jesus. So John & Jesus almost certainly knew each other growing up. But what John is saying here is that “I knew Jesus as my cousin… …and a carpenter from Nazareth. But I didn’t see it until now…until he was marked…that He actually is the Lamb of God (that we’ve been waiting for!) to take away the sin of the world.” And my prayer is this morning that some of you would say, “I knew about Jesus. It’s not like I’m hearing about Jesus for the first time” “But, I guess I haven’t thought that hard about him actually dying in my place before” But that’s who He is. And that’s what you’re looking for. Listen, I find so many people are just going through the motions of typical suburban life. And maybe that’s you. And maybe you’ve been trying to live a decent life…give your kids the best opportunities in sports, and education. Get a nice house, and on and on. But something isn’t quite right. And for many suburbanites, I believe they experience that “not quite right” feeling because while you’ve worked on all different parts of your life, you haven’t dealt with the deepest issue of life: And that’s eternal life. That there is more, billions of years more, of your existence And see Jesus Christ is so much more than just a figure, or a teacher, He is the one who came to offer you Eternal Life. And that means a changed life right here and right now, and eternal life in heaven for all of eternity. The Bible says that you can have that, and have forgiveness from Him, and a real relationship with Jesus (seriously!) if you believe. If you stand up in your life to say, “I believe that I’m not good enough on my own, but that Jesus is the lamb who died for my sins in my place” In fact, let’s do this. Let’s just have everyone, just for a minute, close your eyes and bow your head. I want to give you an opportunity to receive Jesus in as your Savior If you need to make this decision for the first time today…to tell Jesus that you need His forgiveness for your sins…to make Him the leader of your life…to believe He died in your place for your sins as the Lamb of God In just a minute, I’m going to ask you to stand up No one’s going to be looking at you, that’s why we had everyone close their eyes. But by standing, you can be like John the Baptist who said, “I’ve seen now, and I testify! This is real!” But sometimes in life, we just need that moment…that line in the sand moment. To say, “God I believe. I receive you in!” And if you need to do that today, and I bet you already know it on your heart and you can feel it inside right now… If you need to tell God for the first time today that you do believe, and you want to follow Him and be forgiven. Then I invite you to stand where you are right now (and keep standing). The Bible tells us that in this moment we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths. Repeat after me Dear God I confess to you, that I have sinned against you. But God I believe, that you sent your Son Jesus, to take my place And God I thank you, for forgiving my sins. And now I commit, to following you, with my life. (NEXT STEPS) As everyone still has their eyes closed, for those of you standing up, you just made the most important decision of your life, and I believe that requires some more information… So here’s what we’re going to do to get you that… in just a second, I’m going to close the service in prayer, and then right after the service, I want the TWO/THREE of you to meet me up here in front. And I, and our follow up team, for just a couple of minutes, are going to get you some extremely important resources & next steps to get you started If you’re part of this church, and your friend or family member raised their hand, PLEASE come out there with them. Let me just close by thanking God. Copyright: David Sorn Renovation Church in Blaine, MN You may use this material all you like! We only ask that you do not charge a fee and that you quote the source and not say it is your own.