Advent Week #3: Behold, the Lamb of God
Sunday morning at 10:30, Eastside Baptist Church, Twin Falls, ID
Transcript for this Podcast:
Welcome back to the Behold the Lamb of God podcast. This is part three of a four-part podcast series. This episode is titled Behold the Lamb of God. It’s focused upon John’s message whenever he’s at the Jordan River and Jesus comes. And when he’s there, John looks at him. And it’s in John chapter one, verse 29, that John the Baptist points to Jesus and says, behold, the Lamb of God.
Now what’s happening here is that this is a significant moment for us. This is the announcement to everyone who’s gone out to the river to hear what John has to say. And what does John do the moment he sees Jesus the Christ? But he points to him and he makes the declaration, the Lamb of God.
Now this is actually a beautiful moment of combining Old Testament and New Testament. This is the language of the Passover, the Passover lamb. The lamb is broad. Everything in it is to point to the promise that God has preserved you, God has saved you, God has rescued you. So that’s what’s happening here. John the Baptist looks at the Lamb of God and he acknowledges and he points to him and he announces to everyone who is hearing, there he is, the Lamb.
When John makes this acknowledgement, This is actually even still even more foreshadowing. It is John acknowledging the Lamb is here for the kingdom of heaven has come. It’s right now. He’s also pointing to the sacrificial moment that is still in front of the ministry of Jesus Christ. And that is the time when Jesus will lay His life down on the cross, and Jesus will bear the sin of the world. And here He does this in a way that is completely glorious. and is worthy of our praise.
So this Sunday as we come to the Lord’s house on December the 14th, don’t forget we start at 10 30. I really want to encourage you to make every effort to get there on time. I don’t want you to miss any part of this gathering that we’re going to have on the Lord’s day. We’ll gather, the first thing we’ll be doing is singing a song unto the Lord, essentially a call to worship. And then we’ll sing a psalm together. And then what we’ll do, we’ll read that psalm. And then from there, we’ll humble ourselves as the Bible instructs us to do so. We’ll humble ourselves and confess our sins before the Lord. And then, before long, we won’t have to stay in that moment of wondering, did God hear our prayer? Has God truly forgiven us of our sins? We’ll know because He’s already promised that. We already hold that promise secure in our hands. Not because we’re strong enough to grasp it, but because the Word of God has told us, it’s promised us, that whoever confesses their sins, that God forgives them.
Oh, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. So John’s declaration, it fulfills the Old Testament promise of that, or that Old Testament Passover promise that if you have the blood across the doorpost of your home, that the death angel will pass by. And here’s the promise that Jesus, the one who sheds his blood for the sinner, and bears that weight upon himself. He takes your own sin and he exchanges your sin for his righteousness. This is beautiful. Behold the Lamb.
This phrase, behold, it really serves as a command. It’s it is in the text in the way it’s used. It is instructing the hearer to do something now. Behold the Lamb of God. Look at him. There he is. Don’t miss him. Don’t delay. Don’t be late. Don’t suffer anything to get in the way of looking. Beholding. being saved and rescued. You know, it’s the Apostle Paul to the church in Colossae where he says to them, where he makes this beautiful statement of how we’ve been rescued because of Jesus. We’ve been rescued from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the beloved son. This is what John’s saying. Here is your moment. Here is your Savior. Here is your Redeemer.
So on December 14th, when we gather at the church house, we’re going to focus upon this. We’re going to hear what John has to say there at the river. We’re going to draw all the connections. We’re going to see the connections that exist that Jesus is this Messiah. He’s not just a prophet. He’s not just a priest. He is also the King of the universe. Nobody says it better than the Gospel of John. And so we’ll focus upon this on this coming Lord’s Day.
Hey, we’re getting closer, aren’t we, to the day where we’ll celebrate the birth of our Savior. These events that we’re looking at here in this podcast are really more toward the beginning of the ministry of Jesus when he’s baptized by John the Baptist. Everything moves forward from there to the cross. What’s happening here, while we’re focusing upon the start of that ministry, all of this is really ignited on the night in which Christ is born. We’re getting close, aren’t we? I’m anticipating the celebration of that moment.
Hey, the city looks like Christmas. It sounds like Christmas. I hope your home is looking like Christmas. Your church has the sound and the air of Christmas. The reading of the Word is all about Jesus. May the Lord bless you. May the Lord bless your household. May the Lord bless the church with a pouring out of the Holy Spirit in our day and the spread of the gospel like never seen before.
I look forward to gathering with you on December 14th at 1030. May the Lord bless you.
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