Pastor Tim Patoka
Jesus Appears as the Lamb of God
January 22, 2023
The Lamb of God Comes John 1:29-41 1) To Take Away the Sin of the World 2) To Give What We Need to Look For When you think of a lamb, what do you first think of? Is it the cute, cuddly animal you see in petting zoos? Children love petting lambs for not only are these animals their size, but it’s surprising to feel how fluffy and soft their wool is. Maybe your first thought was completely opposite. You saw yourself going out to eat for a special occasion and what’s on the menu under meats? A sumptuous and delicious cut of lamb. But did anyone here first think of a sacrifice when you thought of a lamb? For the Old Testament believers, that is how lambs were typically seen: offered up in sacrifice to God. It had been this way for nearly 1,500 years since Moses received the Law on Mt. Sinai. When Jesus first walked by John the Baptist, you wouldn’t have connected a sacrificial lamb with him, the Lamb of God. But that’s keeping in line with the season of Epiphany where Jesus appears in unknown or unexpected ways. As John the Baptist draws our eyes to Jesus, we see him come as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and who gives us what we need to look for. To Take Away the Sin of the World John the Baptist had no doubt when he called Jesus the Lamb of God. Last week, we heard how Jesus was baptized and the Holy Spirit descended on him as a dove. That was one of the identifying marks of who the Lamb of God would be. Though Jesus was six months younger than John, he existed before John since he’s the Son of God. In fact, Jesus had been around before the beginning as an active participant in the creation of the world. As such, Jesus clearly outranked John because he was the main act, the headliner people came to see once the opening act was done. How did John point everyone to Jesus? By calling him the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. To fully understand this, we need to know how lambs were used in the Old Testament sacrificial system. Lambs were commonly sacrificed. There was the annual Passover lamb for each household. There were 2 lambs a day, one for the morning sacrifice and another for the
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