1-19-2020 Grace-Benson, Vail Sermon

John 1:29-41 [Epiphany 2 CWS A]

Pastor Ron Koehler

Grace—Benson/Vail, AZ January 19, 2020

Dear friends and followers of Jesus, the Lamb of God, There are many things that we can’t just know; we must be told. For example, a husband or a wife can’t read the other’s mind and know what they are thinking and feeling. Unless one tells the other, those things can’t truly be known. If you are asked to serve in a certain way at church, you likely won’t know all the ins-and-outs of that if you’ve never done it before. You have to be shown. We can’t know what we don’t know, right?

This is really true when it comes to Jesus! No one is just born into this world knowing who Jesus is and what he has done. By nature, we just do not know God. With a sinful nature, that’s simply not possible. So we certainly would not understand something as specific as Jesus being the Lamb of God! What in the world does that mean?!

It is a simple fact that Jesus, THE LAMB OF GOD, MUST BE REVEALED. That was true for those we hear about in our lesson from John’s gospel, chapter 1. It was true for you and me. It is true for every person, which means you and I, as God’s people, have a job to do. Those are the things we want to think about this morning as we consider that THE LAMB OF GOD MUST BE REVEALED. Those Who were there Needed the Lamb of God to be Revealed We may find it a little surprising to hear John the Baptist confess that he did not know Jesus. Advent and Christmas weren’t that long ago and we heard how Jesus’ mother, Mary, visited her relative, Elizabeth, when they were both pregnant. Mary was bearing God’s Son and Elizabeth was carrying John the Baptist. So John and Jesus were related! We probably assume that the families must have gotten together, maybe when Jesus’ family came down to Jerusalem for the major festivals. The truth is, Scripture doesn’t say anything about all that. It’s not unreasonable to think that they knew each other, however.

What John was saying was that he did not know that Jesus was the Messiah. He was not aware of that until it was revealed to him. God the Father—the one who sent John as the one to prepare people for the coming Messiah—revealed Jesus to be the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. The giveaway—the thing that would finally tell John who it was that he was preparing people for—would be the Holy Spirit descending upon that One. So, John knew his job as the forerunner to the Messiah, and he was out there preaching repentance and baptizing the people, but not until his baptizing of Jesus was it revealed to him that Jesus was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, which was: We all have gone astray like sheep. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the LORD has charged all our guilt to him. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb he was led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent in front of its shearers, he did not open his mouth (Isaiah 53:6-7). Isaiah looked forward to God’s Lamb who would be charged with the world’s sin and die to pay for it.

Just think of that! How many sins have you committed in your life? How many more will you undoubtedly commit? And how many billions of people have lived…are living now…and will live before The End comes? If you are the average sinner, take whatever enormous number that is for your lifetime of sin and multiply that times the billions and billions of people! It was revealed to John that Jesus was the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin—of the world! And he knew—because of Isaiah’s prophecy—that he would do that with an unblemished life and a sacrificial death.

Imagine how incomprehensible that load of guilt and shame was that Jesus bore!

It wasn’t just John who needed Jesus to be revealed to him. Remember, it was John’s job to prepare the way for the Savior. He was to point sinners to the Lamb of God. Crowds came out to hear John and some became followers, disciples, of his. To those who were there when Jesus was approaching, John exclaimed, “Look! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! The next day, two of John’s disciples were with him—one of whom was Andrew. The other may have been John, who became Jesus’ closest friend. They were told again, “Look! The Lamb of God!” These men had been waiting for the Messiah too. There was no reason to hang around with the Baptist anymore! The One they had been waiting for was there and had been revealed to them, so they followed Jesus!

You noticed another important person mentioned here who needed the Savior to be revealed to him: Simon Peter. The first thing Andrew did was to find his own brother Simon and say to him, “We have found the Messiah!” (which is translated “the Christ”).

We needed the Lamb of God to be Revealed You and I are no different from any of those men or any men and women and children who may have been in the crowd and heard John and saw him point Jesus out to them as the Lamb of God. Like them, we couldn’t know about Jesus on our own. By nature, we don’t hear the name Jesus and say, “Oh, he was obviously the eternal God who came to be the sacrifice for sin—like a lamb being sacrificed.” We can’t know what we don’t know!

By nature, we don’t want to even believe that we’re so bad that we need a Savior!

Sinful people don’t just choose to trust the details that they read about Jesus in the Bible either. The sinful nature actually doesn’t allow that. It fights against that with everything that it has. We needed the Holy Spirit to break through that hard shell of our sin and unbelief with the powerful waters of baptism and the Word of God. And the Holy Spirit has done this for us! Just as he revealed Jesus as the One to John, he has shown us that Jesus is truly the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And if you ever wonder if Jesus could—or even if he would—forgive your sin, all you have to do is ask yourself one simple question: “Are you part of the world?” Of course you are! Then Jesus took your sin away too.

The Spirit has caused us to recognize Jesus as God’s Lamb of sacrifice—the unblemished, perfect sacrifice offered on a cross, but One who did not remain dead.

His rising from death and defeating it was what John and others knew he came to do.

It is what the Scriptures said he would do.

It’s what he did.

The Holy Spirit has revealed to us that Jesus, God’s Lamb, has truly taken away the sin of the world, including ours. Just as Andrew told Simon Peter, Jesus IS the Messiah, the Christ, which we know means “Anointed One.” He was appointed by his Father to be the Savior, anointed at his baptism by John, and with his life and cross and empty grave, he accomplished his saving work as the Lamb of God. The Lord has revealed this to us by his Spirit through his Word. This is wonderful—the best news and the best knowledge we could ever have! Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away our sin. This brings us great joy and confidence like it did for John the Baptist, Andrew, Peter, and many others who listened to John preach.

Everyone Needs the Lamb of God to be Revealed—and God calls us to tell them.

This world full of sin and sinners needs to have Jesus shared with it. The saving truth that Jesus paid for the world’s sin needs to be shared so that the Holy Spirit can work through that message to reveal Jesus as each person’s Savior. The lesson before us today makes it obvious how this happens. You noticed it, right?

God the Father told John and the Spirit made it clear to him.

John told crowds of people and individual disciples and pointed Jesus out to them.

Andrew told his brother, Simon Peter.

Now, it can happen that the Lord directly tells people today as they come into contact with the Bible and the Holy Spirit works through the law and the gospel presented on the pages of the Scriptures.

And it can happen as something brings people into a church like ours and, like John, a pastor speaks to a crowd of people, sharing Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

But often, it happens when you and I personally speak to our friends, family members, and others about Jesus, just like Andrew did. This is what God has called every one of us to do—and it is our joy to do so! We understand that people can’t know what they don’t know. It needs to be revealed. When you read the Bible and as you experience life, you find that people personally sharing Jesus with other people is the most common way the Lord uses to reveal Jesus as the Lamb and Savior and bring them to faith in him.

John the Baptist had a God-given mission to reveal Jesus to people. Andrew had a natural compulsion to reveal Jesus to his brother. We have both of those things, don’t we?! God has called us to be his witnesses, but it is our natural impulse too! What has been revealed to us, we want to share: Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. May God bless us as we reveal our Lord and Savior to the people in our lives and others around us who need him. Amen.

Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.