JESUS THE SACRIFICIAL LAMB
John 1:29-34
CONFESSION OF FAITH
V: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! "
A. God has a plan for
the life of every believer.
1. On the day
before, John was interrogated by the Jewish leaders.
a. They
wanted to know who he was and by whose authority did he baptize .
b. He responded that he was not Elijah or the promised Messiah.
2. He was a
voice crying out in the desert. Isa 40:3
B. John fulfilled
the prophecy concerning his life. Isa 40:3
1. The commission
for John's life was given 700 years before his birth.
2. We first hear about John when his father
Zacharias, a priest of God, was serving
in the Temple .
a. At least nine
months before the John's birth, Gabriel an angel of the Lord, gave
his
father his commission. Luke 1:14
b. The angel
Gabriel named the unborn baby, John.
c. We next
hear about John, when his mother, Elisabeth was six months pregnant
with
him. Luke 1:36.
d. At this time, we also learn the connection
between John and Jesus. Mary the
mother
of Jesus, is the cousin of Elisabeth.
e. The next
time we hear about John is when he is 30 years old, performing the
ministry
he was call to do by the Father in heaven.
Luke 3:3, Luke 3:23
C. While John was
baptizing Jews in the Jordon river, the leaders of the Church
came questioning his ministry and his
authority to do ministry.
1. John got his
commission and his authority to baptize from the heavenly Father.
2. Large groups were coming to be baptized
and that upset the Church leaders.
3. John's job
was to prepare the way for Jesus by preaching the truth and baptizing
with water
as a sign of repentance of sin. Mal 3:1
4. The Church
leaders were upset because they thought it was their job to prepare
people
according to their tradition and their misinterpretation of scripture for
baptism.
5. John had too
much influence on people, and that was upsetting to the Church
leaders.
D. John the Baptist
announced the identity of God's Son to his disciples and those
coming to be
baptized.
1. John
announced the mission of God's Son; the sacrificial Lamb of God.
2. John
announced the ministry of Jesus; take away the sin of the world.
3. John
announced the success of the ministry of Jesus; take away the sin of the world.
a. The word
sin is the Greek word harmartia which means offense or miss the mark.
b. Notice,
God is not talking about individual sins but the nature of sin.
c. All have
sinned and missed the mark.
b. Without
the Lamb of God, we are an offence to the Father.
c. We were
born with the nature of sin. Therefore, we have to be reborn
without
the nature of sin by being baptized in to the death of Jesus.
PREACH JESUS
V:30. " This is the one I meant when I said, 'A man who
comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me."
A. John had been preaching Jesus, now he was given the
opportunity to introduce Jesus
in the flesh to
the world.
1. John preached
Jesus with his mouth and his life style.
2. John was all
about Jesus and nothing else.
3. John's life was
consumed with the ministry of Jesus Christ.
B. John announced the greatness of Jesus.
1. He humbled
himself before Jesus. He is better than me.
2. Jesus is more
than us.
3. At the Name of
Jesus our heads ought to be bowed.
4. At the Name
of Jesus we ought to confess Him as Lord
and Savior.
C. John announced the eternal nature of Jesus.
1. He was before
me.
2. Before the
world was, Jesus is.
a. Jesus lives
in the presence, not the past or the future.
b. He is Alpha
and Omega.
D. John announced the
two natures of Jesus.
1. He is man and
God.
2. He was physical
and spiritual.
E. No one surpasses the goodness of Jesus.
1. No one surpasses
the greatness of Jesus.
2. No one surpasses
the knowledge of Jesus.
3. No one surpasses
the power of Jesus.
4. No one surpasses
the presence of Jesus.
COMING TO KNOW JESUS
V:31. " I myself did not know him, but the reason I
came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel ."
A. "I myself did not know Him".
1. To me, this is a
strange confession.
2. 30 years
earlier, Elisabeth his mother had a divine revelation that Jesus was the
son of God,
when Mary the mother of Jesus visited her doing her pregnancy.
Luke 1:41-45
a. You would
think that Mary told John's mother of her virgin pregnancy.
b. You would
think that Mary told John's mother of her visit of the angel
Gabriel and
the moment she received the seed of Jesus in her womb by
Holy Spirit.
c. You would
think that John's mother would have told him about Jesus
while he was
growing up.
d. You would
think that Jesus and John would have visited each other doing
the time they
grew up.
3. John's life was
not about him, but about him being prepared to introduce Jesus
to the Nation of
Israel .
a. John said, I
did not know Him, but I baptized Israel
to open their hearts to know
him.
B. When God calls you
to serve, you might have to serve without knowing the
full purpose of
your service.
1. John served in
his mission faithfully without knowing the one He was to introduce.
2. God does not
tell us everything that will happen to us when He call us into service.
3. God starts us
out with a mission, but we don't know where the mission will take us.
4. You have to
serve Jesus to get to know him.
5. Jesus will
reveal more and more of himself to us as we serve Him.
C. We have to trust
that we were called to influence others about Jesus.
1. It is not
about us, but the will of God.
2. We do not know
who will meet on our journey, but we will meet those who
need a word
from the Lord.
YOUR PERSONAL TESTIMONY IS IMPORTANT
V:32. " Then John gave this testimony: "I saw the
Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him."
A. Sometimes God talks to us in ways that others may not
understand.
1. When you are
doing what God has called you to do, you will have a
testimony that
God will give to you.
2. God will
confirm His will to you in special ways.
3. We have the
Word of God in print.
a. Sometimes
God confirms to us His message in ways not known to others.
b. We have to
have our minds tuned to God to hear from God.
B. John said, I saw
the Spirit come down from heaven.
1. The Spirit is
something you cannot see with the eye.
2. God gave John a
vision of something that he related to us in a physical way.
3. John's mother
was filled with Spirit and she knew it.
a. John the
baby, in Elisabeth womb jumped when Mary carrying Jesus
came into
her house. Luke 1:41
4. Elisabeth, John
mother, filled with the Spirit, spoke
about Jesus which
was revealed by the Spirit to her.
C. In John's vision,
the Holy Spirit sat on the shoulder of Jesus.
1. Jesus in the
flesh, was revealed to John by the Spirit.
2. We have the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit that gives us special insight about
the things
of God.
D. John had a vision
of heaven, a vision of the Spirit and a vision of Jesus at the
same time.
1. When we study
God's Word, we have a vision of Jesus because He is the Word.
2. When we study God's
Word, we have a vision of the Holy Spirit who gives us an
understanding
of the Word.
3. When we study
God's Word, we have vision of heaven because that is our final
destination.
THE WORD IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS
V: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."
A. Through out our ministry for God we have be in constant
communication with Him.
1. We cannot be
effective in the ministry of God without the study of the Word of
God.
2. God does not
tell us everything about the ministry at one time.
a. God reveals
what we need to know when we need to know it.
b. John
received his commission at birth, but He had to serve God
to be
continually enlighten in his ministry.
3. John really
didn't need to know what Jesus looked like until it was time to
baptize Him.
a. What John
needed to know was what he needed to be doing when Jesus
showed up.
b. None of us
know what Jesus looks like, but we do know what we need to
be doing at
His second coming.
B. God gave John a sign to identify Jesus when He showed up
in his life.
1. When John saw
the spirit sitting on a man, he knew it was Jesus.
2. You can tell
who is being led by Jesus, by the spirit that is manifested in their
lives.
a. Does he have
the spirit of love?
b. Does he have
the spirit of compassion?
c. Does he talk
about Jesus as Lord and Savior?
d. Is his
behavior like Jesus?
e. Does he have
an unselfish attitude.
f. Is he humble
or prideful.
C. God revealed to John the mission of Jesus.
1. The job of Jesus on earth was to baptize
with the Holy Spirit.
a. New
believers are still being baptized by the Holy Spirit.
b. The Work of
Jesus will not cease until He comes again to get
His
Church.
2. You know a man
of God if he proclaims the baptism of Jesus by the
power of the
Holy Spirit.
3. The Apostle Paul
said, " I determine to know nothing but Jesus Christ
and Him
crucified.
A PREACHER'S CHARGE
V:34. " I have seen and I testify that this is the Son
of God."
A. This is the
ministry of the Church to testify that Jesus is the
Son of God.
1. We must
testify that Jesus is the sacrificial Lamb of God.
2. We must
testify that it is by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross that
atones for
the sin of the World.
B. It is our mission
to proclaim Jesus as Lord and Savior.
1. It is our mission to claim peace with God
through Jesus Christ.
2. It is our
mission to proclaim the baptism in Jesus through the Holy Spirit.
C. It is our mission
to proclaim the love of God.
1. God so loved
the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that
whoever
believes in Him shall not parish, but have everlasting life.
2. The word,
"begotten" is the Greek word "monogene" which means unique,
one of a
kind.
3. Jesus is the
only one with the job of saving soles.
4. Jesus is the
only sacrifice worthy to atone for the sins of the world.
D. It is our mission
to proclaim the Grace and Mercy of Jesus.
1. It is by God's
Grace that we were call out of the world into the marvelous light.
2. It is by God's
Mercy that our sins are forgiven,
LET YOUR TESTIMONY OF JESUS AS LORD AND SAVIOR BE KNOWN
Rev. M. Mitchell, Asst Pastor of GMBC
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