"Behold, God's Lamb!"

[Read John 1:29-34]

Now, don’t answer this out loud, just answer it in your head. If I were to ask you right now, “What’s your biggest struggle right now?” or “What’s your biggest problem at the moment?” What would you answer? What’s the first thing that comes to your mind?

I think many people would immediately have topics around money come to mind right away. I’m sure many have some family issues (or friend issues) coming to mind. Others may have work issues. Especially with the elections coming up, and our televisions being overtaken by political ads, maybe people have a political issue come to mind. I’m sure many of you have your own health issues coming to mind—or the health issues of a family member. 

I think if you would have asked a first century Jew that question, one of the first things that would have popped into their mind would have been Rome. That was their primary problem. Rome was crushing them under its thumb.  Rome was stealing their money through overtaxation. Rome was mistreating and misrepresenting them. Rome this and Rome that. And because they saw this as their primary problem, they were looking for a Messiah that was going to solve this problem. That’s why they didn’t recognize Jesus when he came. They were looking for someone else who was going to solve a different problem—the problem they thought was their main problem. 

That’s why John the Baptist has to repeatedly point out Jesus to them. The very next day after he has this interaction with the religious leaders, John sees Jesus and says, “This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’” (John 1:30, ESV). Basically, he’s saying, “You remember the guy I was telling you about yesterday? The one who is greater than me but you don’t know? That’s the guys I’ve been telling you about.” 

And, as you read this story in the context of last week’s passage, there’s a sense where it seems like John is having to say something like, “Remember how I told you that you didn’t know this guy? You didn’t know him—or didn’t recognize him—because you were looking for the wrong guy. You were looking for the wrong Messiah. I’m telling you, this is the guy. I’m serious. He’s the Messiah.” 

Then to keep building upon the previous interaction, John says, “I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.”” (John 1:31, ESV). I find it interesting that John says this right after being questioned about these things—the very next day after being questioned about these things. Remember, the day before they were asking John “Who are you?” and “Why are you baptizing?”. Now, the very next day, John sees Jesus walking and says to the crowd, “If you want to know who I am and why I am baptizing, it’s all about that guy! He’s the reason I’ve come. He’s the reason I’m baptizing. I’m here and I’ve been sent by God to help you see that He is the Messiah. He is the answer to the questions you were asking yesterday.” 

John speaks so confidently about this because God told him what to look for. John says, “I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’” (John 1:33, ESV). The one who sent John to baptize—God himself, as we’ve already read—told John to be on the lookout for someone. John would know—with confidence—that he had seen the Messiah when he saw the Holy Spirit descend on someone and remain on them. When John saw this happen to someone, he could have absolute confidence—no doubt at all—that he had seen the Messiah.

Now, John’s Gospel doesn’t dive into the details of that part of the story, this is all we hear about it, but the other gospels tell us more details about what happened at Jesus’ baptism. I want to take a quick moment to look at one of those examples. In Matthew we read: “And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”” (Matthew 3:16–17, ESV). Now, John is telling the people, “I was there and I saw it happen. I saw the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus and it remained on him”—meaning Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit and the Spirit remained with him throughout the rest of his life and ministry. That’s why John is absolutely confident that Jesus Christ is the Messiah—God told him to look for this to happen to the Messiah, he saw it happen to Jesus, therefore Jesus is the Messiah. 

What’s interesting about all of this is that other people could have been looking for this same thing. Of course, this passage in John says that God revealed these things to John in a special way, but we also read about this in portions of the Old Testament. In one Messianic passage from the Old Testament we read, “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.” (Isaiah 11:1–2, ESV). So, everyone else should have been looking for the same thing—for the spirit to rest upon the Messiah—but they weren’t because they were looking for the wrong things—they were looking for the wrong Messiah. 

That’s why John keeps saying, with as much force as he can, “And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.” (John 1:32, ESV). I saw this happen to Jesus! Then at the end he says it again, “And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”” (John 1:34, ESV). I’ve seen this happen to Jesus. I saw the Spirit descend on him and remain. I heard the voice from heaven say, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” That’s why I KNOW that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. I’ve seen it with my eyes and heard it with my ears!

Which is why he so confidently begins this entire interaction by making a massive proclamation—the central proclamation of the entire Gospel of John: “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29, ESV). John can make this bold statement without any question in his mind because he read about the Messiah in the Old Testament, because God told him to be on the lookout, because he saw these things happen to Jesus. Therefore, he KNOWS that Jesus is the Messiah—which means he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 

And this is why the leaders didn’t recognize Jesus as the Messiah. They were looking for a warrior, not a lamb. They were looking for someone to solve the biggest problems and deepest needs, and in their mind, Rome was their biggest problem and their deepest need. So the Messiah had to be a warrior or a military leader or something like that. But John tries to correct that understanding by saying, “No, the Messiah has come into the world as a lamb, not a warrior.” 

And he came as the Lamb of God—which is really significant. Again, I think we are so used to hearing this term that we don’t always recognize what Jesus ISN’T called. He’s not the Lamb of Humanity—he’s not a lamb from among the people, he’s not a finite and limited lamb, he’s not like the lamb that is sacrificed daily in the temple. He’s the Lamb of God. He’s the fulfillment of every lamb that has ever been sacrificed in the temple. He’s the once and for all sacrifice—so that no more sacrifices will ever be needed. And, as one commentator pointed out, the ministry of sacrifice in the temple was considered the foundation of their relationship and communion with God. Now Jesus is the fulfillment of that as well. He is the once and for all sacrifice and the once and for all path to be in relationship with God. 

And Jesus does that by taking away sin. That’s why the Messiah came, to take away our sin. And he came to take away our sin because—contrary to our natural inclinations, and the problems that immediately come to our mind—our deepest and greatest need is the forgiveness of our sin. Our deepest and greatest need is not financial, it’s not our health, it’s not our family, it’s not political, it’s not… I could go on. Our deepest and greatest need—problem—is sin, and we need to make sure we get that clearly in our hearts, minds, and souls. 

DA Carson has a great quote connecting all of these dots. He says, “If God had perceived that our greatest need was economic, he would have sent an economist. If he had perceived that our greatest need was entertainment, he would have sent us a comedian or an artist. If God had perceived that our greatest need was political stability, he would have sent us a politician. If he had perceived that our greatest need was health, he would have sent us a doctor. But he perceived that our greatest need involved our sin, our alienation from him, our profound rebellion, our death; and he sent us a Savior.” (DA Carson). Take a moment to let that sink in. 

That’s why people didn’t recognize Jesus as the Messiah, they didn’t think their main problem was sin, they thought it was Rome. The same thing is true today, which is why so many people don’t recognize the need for Jesus—which is why we sometimes act like we don’t really need Jesus. We don’t like to talk about sin or deal with our sin. We prefer to pretend like it’s not a real problem. And when we don’t think sin is our biggest problem, then we really don’t need a Savior, we don’t need a Messiah, and we don’t need Jesus. What we really need is a bigger paycheck or better health or a peaceful family or or or. So, we pursue someone or something that can fulfill those needs, and we ignore the Savior and we ignore the biggest deepest underlying need we have…our sin. 

If you take time to work these things out, you will find sin underlying every difficulty and problem in the world. Sin is the disease and all of these other things are the symptoms. I’m not saying that bad things are always happening to you because of your own sin, but because of sin in general. It could be because of your own sin OR it could be because of the sin of someone else. Either way, the root problem—the disease underlying the symptoms—is sin. And if you want those other difficulties to be dealt with, you need to look beyond the symptoms to the root cause—and that is sin. And if you want to deal with sin, you don’t need a politician, and you don’t need an economist, and you don’t need a doctor, and you don’t need a better boss, you need a Savior. He’s the only one who can deal with the sin that is underlying all of these problems. He either needs to address the sin in your own life or the sin in someone else’s life. Either way, a Savior is the only real solution to the problem of sin, and that Savior is Jesus Christ. 

And, to connect this with last week’s message, this is why we need to repent and believe. We need to repent—turn away from—looking to all of these other things for our salvation. We need to repent of thinking that these other issues—these symptoms—are our real problems. We need to turn away from them, recognize that sin is our biggest and deepest problem, and then grab hold of our Savior by faith. We need to grab hold of the Lamb of God who takes away our sin and the sin of others throughout the world. We grab hold of him by faith, trust that he is the once and for all sacrifice who takes away our sin, then live each day resting in that forgiveness. This will literally change everything about your life, when you stop looking for salvation in all the wrong places and find it once and for all in the forgiveness of your sins through Jesus Christ. 

Then, we also need to go out into the world as witnesses like John the Baptist. We need to go out into a world that doesn’t think sin is their biggest problem, into a world that is looking for a different Messiah—right now they’re looking for a political messiah. We need to go out into that world witnessing with the same message as John the Baptist, saying, “Look at Jesus Christ, he is the Lamb of God who takes away our sin. I know you don’t think it at the moment, but your biggest problem and deepest struggle is the sin in your life. Let me show you the way forward. Let me show you the way to overcome. Let me show you the way to find peace and forgiveness. I can show you that way that he’s done this in my life and the lives of other people. Let me show you Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away our sin.”