John chapter 1 I already read to you this morning verses 19 through 34 this morning in our preaching I want to focus on verses 29 to 34 29 to 34 the next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said behold I The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. If we're going to consider the Lord Jesus and his life and his birth in proper context, it was a joyous occasion last week to consider the coming, the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we want to put that in continuing proper perspective for just a moment to not only think about his birth but to think about the purpose of his birth and why he came and who he is in his coming. And as I thought about that I thought about this text and went back and looked over it for several weeks and thought this is a great place to continue considering the life of our Lord when we look at his birth. When we see this text we have to recognize that this was after Jesus' baptism and after his subsequent time of temptation in the wilderness. He was returning from that temptation period and John saw him. So I want you to have that in your mind when you see that in verse 29. You need to have a sense that John is already baptized the Lord Jesus. He's already been in that moment and it's in the text here where he talks about that revelation of seeing Jesus and Jesus asking him to baptize him. And John says, no, no, no, you ought to be baptizing me. You can go back and look at that in Matthew chapter three. And in the context of that, the Lord Jesus says, no, no, permit it at this time. He's saying this is about fulfilling the covenant. So permit it at this time, because this is going to be the beginning of something very important. You don't understand all of it yet, but you are a messenger, and I will use you, but you need to see this in the context that it needs to happen. So John baptizes the Lord Jesus, and here in the text, John the Apostle recalls the words of John the Baptist. that he saw the Spirit descending on him like a dove. He says very clearly, I was there, I witnessed it, I saw it. And it's after this baptism and the Spirit coming upon the Lord Jesus like a dove, that then he goes into the time of temptation. And after that time of temptation, and you have to remember, that's so important, that time that the Lord Jesus spent in the wilderness being tempted by the devil himself and Satan tempting him in all ways like the temptations that we have. Jesus spent that time there and he thwarted the plans of Satan himself. He denied Satan the power that Satan wanted. He denied to Satan that Satan would be the one who could do his will and his work. He lived the law of God perfectly even in that kind of temptation. And in a way that temptation was further revelation of the context of the life of the Lord Jesus because that temptation was in a sense greater than what we would know because Satan himself was right there tempting the Lord Jesus. And after he walked through every bit of that, It says in verse 29, the next day he saw Jesus coming to him. So, you get the picture here, there's lots of Johns. John the Apostle is writing about John the Baptist and what John the Baptist saw in the context of the Lord Jesus. And John the Apostle writes this in that context Because John the Baptist would not be around afterward to be able to tell of these things. So John the Apostle wrote, the next day he, John the Baptist, saw Jesus coming to him and said. Now there's three things we want to do this morning. We want to answer three questions. Number one, what did John say? Number two, what did John or who did John see? And number three, how did John know? What did John say? Who did John see? And how did John know? Question number one, what did John say? Well, first and foremost, John says, behold. Now, some of your versions may say, look. Some of your versions may say, see. Some of your versions will use the word behold here. I think the more proper word is actually the word look and see. There's a different Greek word, actually, for behold. It's not used in the Greek text. Some of our English translations want you to get a bigger sense of what John is doing, and so they use the word behold. It's not that it's an inappropriate translation. It's just that, in its most literal sense, John was saying, look and see. Look and see. John told them to look and see. Remember, he's speaking to a crowd that's right around him in the moment. Jesus is walking up and John says, look and see. Even the idea here, John told them to look and see, but he's also saying to them, listen, listen. Now this emphasis that John uses in just this one word here is a sense to grab the attention of those that are in the crowd in the moment. He's warning them to pay close attention to who He's pointing to. Christ is the object, and He's the object in that moment, but He's also the object in the whole of the context of the New Covenant. We're building off of the old covenant where the old covenant has been pointing to him the whole time, and now John is the one who's come to make straight the way of the Lord. He's the one saying, look and see. The Messiah had to be identified. Who was it that would be able to identify him? The problem for the Pharisees and the Sadducees is they wouldn't have identified him properly because they were looking for a completely wrong figure. They were looking for someone who was going to be a political entity, someone who was going to be this political leader that would lead a physical nation and bring the physical nation of Israel back to this time where they ruled and reigned in Judea and other regions. They couldn't have identified him, and yet it was this Babe that had been born of Elizabeth, the one who had leapt in his mother's womb when Mary entered the room, it was this one who had to identify him, who had to make clear the revelation, make straight, make known the way of the Lord and who he was. And so the first thing he says is, look, see. This ought to be the object of all preaching. It ought to be the object of all the Christian life, to look and see the Christ. It's one of the most important things we do as Christians is to recognize the Christ of the scriptures. In everything we do in our lives, when we're reading the Bible and studying the truth of God's word, is to recognize the Christ, to look and see and know him. But you have to imagine, here's this first pointing out of the Messiah. Here it is, this first time in its proper context, he says, look and see. Well, the second question, who did John see? Well, the text says he saw the Lamb of God. That's who he called him, the Lamb of God. One writer notes that the phrase here, use the Lamb of God, is very important as it is in the New Covenant context. We had not seen this particular phrase used in the Old Testament in this way. And some would say, well, that's wrong. No, no, no, that's proper. Because Christ is being revealed. He had been veiled in ways in the Old Covenant. He was there, but He had not been seen properly. And now, here in the text, we have this idea, behold, or look and see, the Lamb of God. The writer goes on to give an indication of the importance of the phrase, the Lamb of God. He's taking the Old Testament context and pulling it forward into the new covenant so that we see the Messiah properly. If we are to note this phrase, the Lamb of God, we can note it in two particular ways from the scripture. Number one, The final fulfillment of the Passover lamb is found in the Lamb of God. The final fulfillment of the Passover lamb is found in the Lamb of God. Exodus 12 5, your lamb shall be an unblemished male or year old You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the 14th day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lentil of the houses in which they eat it. Passover lamb of the Old Testament, the Passover lamb of the time of the Egyptians having lorded over God's people and enslaved them. God taking his people out of that bondage, bringing them out of it. He did so through that final and most awful plague. of the death of the firstborn of every house who didn't have the blood of the Lamb on the doorposts." This becomes significant because John himself will never see the Lord Jesus in the fullness of his ministry. John the Baptist will never see the Lord Jesus on the cross like the other disciples And yet he's the one that says, behold, the Lamb of God. He was the one who is this connecting prophet. After that 400 years of silence, he's the one bringing forward the truth of Messiah and taking that truth and bringing it in to the new covenant and its context. And he's pointing backward to say, look and see the Lamb of God. He is that lamb that without his shed blood, no one will have eternal life. That Passover lamb was simply a foreshadowing. of God bringing his people out of the greatest bondage, which was their bondage to sin. And because they are bound by sin, the wages of sin is death. So here John gives a proper recognition of the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God as being the final fulfillment of the Passover lamb. That was the point of the Passover lamb, is that those who had that blood on the doorposts, that their firstborn would be passed over and would live. And so it is with those who have the blood of Christ applied to them properly. They will live and will live eternally. But it's not only the final fulfillment of the Passover lamb. When he saw the Lamb of God, It's the full fulfillment of the daily sacrificial lamb. It's the full fulfillment of the daily sacrificial lamb. Exodus 29 beginning in verse 37. For seven days you shall make an atonement for the altar and consecrate it. Then the altar shall be most holy and whatever touches the altar shall be holy. Now this is what you shall offer on the altar, two one-year-old lambs each day continuously. The priests of Israel were to offer these lambs each day continuously so that the altar would be consecrated and holy before the Lord that their sacrifices would be pleasing unto Him. When John revealed that he is the lamb of God, he is revealing him as the full fulfillment of the daily sacrificial lamb. Can you imagine what it must have been like to have been a priest and to have had to offer these animals and especially these lambs day in and day out consistently? We've talked about it before in other studies, the stench, the smell, the sounds. And through Christ alone, he is the daily sacrificial lamb. He continues to intercede on behalf of his people. When John is saying, look and see, he's not just pointing to a man. He says, look and see, and he points to the one man and he calls him the Lamb of God. What hope does a sinner have apart from the Lamb of God? What hope does a sinner have apart from the person and work of the Messiah Christ? The Hebrews writer is so careful to point out to us that these altars and these sacrifices and these animals were simply a foreshadowing because ultimately the blood of bulls and goats will not do to eternally save and keep God's people for himself. It's interesting here, he not only calls him lamb, but he says lamb of God. He didn't just see any sacrificial person, he saw the lamb of God. We see here the fullest revelation and the exact representation of God come to earth. This is how the Hebrews writer describes it in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3. See, John is bringing forward this revelation so properly, and it has to be stunning. I mean, think about it for a minute. I read these words to you. You read them in your Bibles. You've heard them at other times. Oh, behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Yay, yay, yay, yay. This is so new, so real in the moment. John's standing and these people around, and he says, look and see the Lamb of God. who takes away the sin of the world. It had to be striking. John was preaching to people who came out to him in the wilderness, people who were coming to hear, people that were recognizing they are sinners and they are in need. And now he proclaims to them in Revelation, I've been baptizing you in water, he says, but this one who comes is going to baptize in the Holy Spirit. Now John is not giving a recognition that the Holy Spirit had never been in work before. John, once again, is a part of new revelation, saying this is what the Spirit has been doing, but now the Spirit will be revealed in a greater way. Although he's been doing this work, he'll be revealed in a greater way because he is the Lamb of God who's doing the work. And the Spirit has descended upon him like a dove. And John says, I saw it. When he speaks of him as not just the lamb, but the lamb of God, he is saying, this is deity. Right before you, walking in front of you, the deity of the Lord Jesus is being proclaimed by John. Did he understand all of that deity in its fullness? Probably not. But nonetheless, God used him to reveal it and to proclaim it plainly, that he was not just the Lamb, but he's the Lamb of God. The only way that sins could be dealt with is that God would have to deal with them. What does man do every time man tries to deal with his own or her own sins? They make it worse. Why? Because they try to work themselves out of the debt or work themselves out of the guilt of their own sins. So-called Christian religions, where they go wrong, is many of them are works based in their idea of righteousness. Sadly, even in Protestant groups now, there's many works-based ideologies among these groups. The Roman Catholic Church has been works-based from its inception. All types of foreign religions, the ideas of these religions in and of themselves are all works-based. You can go to multiple countries and nations all across this world and you will find religious people. And when you find these religious people, you will find them in works-based mentalities, whatever the name of that religion is. Native to that region, not native to that region, having spread from other places, We were born, in a sense, in the context of how we were made to worship. We were made to be religious and to worship. And yet, because of our sin natures, we worship that which is false, left to ourselves. And here John is telling these Jewish people that are standing around him, look and see the Lamb of God. This is not just a prophet. He's telling them, even before Jesus has to answer the question of whether he himself is Elijah. He's saying, no, I'm not Elijah. That's not Elijah either. That's the Christ. That's the Lamb of God. By using that word, God, he is imploring the people to see the Lord Jesus properly as the true Son of God. He is deity and there is none like him. In that moment, This is the first and most proper utterance and ordinance that Jesus is to be worshiped. We have to think about that because sometimes we talk about worshiping God and we have to be careful because other religions will worship different ideologies and so-called deities of their own. But there's a recognition here properly that the Lord Jesus himself is of God. He's going to proclaim later in this gospel that he and the Father are one. He's going to proclaim himself that he is to be worshipped. And here it is John in this first utterance pointing to the fact that the Christ himself is to be worshipped. Look and see the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is the perfect place for Christ to be recognized as the one who is to be worshiped. We talked about last week briefly the context of the Christ. They had questioned, show us the Father, the disciples said. We'll be good if you'll just show us the Father. And what does He say? If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. The Lamb of God can say such a thing because He's actually saying, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father because the Father and I are one and therefore I am to be worshiped. So if you want to worship the Father properly, you worship me, the Lord Jesus. That's a big claim. It's another reason the Pharisees and the Sadducees hated Him so much and wanted to dispose of Him and do away with Him. When we gather on the Lord's Day, we're not worshipping a nebulous idea of God that we don't know. We're worshipping the God of the scriptures, and most specifically, we're worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ himself, that through worshipping him, the Father will be glorified, because we are worshipping him properly, because he is the Lamb of God. Well, not only did he see the Lamb of God, he saw the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I want to be careful with this phrase here and be thoughtful for just a moment. When John utters this phrase, that is John the Baptist, utters this phrase, There are some that take this word world and use it in our most modern context. And yet, not only John the Baptist here, but John the Apostle through his gospel does not use the word world in our most prevalent modern sense. Most often we use the word world we're thinking about all the people of the world and a lot of times it's brought into every single individual. Well the word world here is the world word base word cosmos, cosmon, And according to multiple language scholars, and they have some differing additives to this, but the basic idea of this world that's used by John here is regarding the whole of the created system of order. the whole of the created system of order. So when you see the word world in John's gospel especially and in his letters, don't think about that in the sense of every single individual because that's not what the word means coming from its Greek origins. That word in our original idea of it from the Greek text is a word dealing with the whole of the created system of order. God created not just man, he created a whole world. He created the whole system and he ordered the whole system. The stars, think about creation. What do we get in the creation history that's told to us from Genesis 1? God creates the heavens and the earth. He creates the trees and the plants. He creates the animals. He creates this whole system, the stars and the planets. He creates the whole of the cosmos, the whole of the system. And what does he say about that creation? Including man, it is good. There's been a problem ever since the fall. Adam's sin not only did great grave damage to humanity, that his posterity would be born into sinful bodies with sinful natures. and that they would inherit death because of sin and its consequences. But Adam's sin cast the whole of the world into the grip of the consequences of that sin. Was it not told to Adam and Eve in the curse that Adam would work the ground under the curse? Do we not see that? I heard this week, I think it was Christmas Eve day, I got out with the boys and we were doing some yard work. And we're having to cut a bunch of privet hedge and deal with some of that. JB looked over at me and he was like, man, what in the world did Adam do to us? Seems like that stuff just grows anywhere and everywhere and it's always so hard to deal with. Spray it and kill it back and after a few years it figures out a way to come back. Although Adam and Eve probably didn't have good old Southern American privet heads, they had something like it after the fall. This was a great consequence. The toil on the earth that we now have. You can take something like Privet Hedge and you can kill it and work it and cut it back and spray it and kill it and yet it never completely goes away. Kudzu is the same. Whoever brought that to America and thought they could feed cattle with it sounded like a great idea at the time. Too bad cattle won't eat it. Now thankfully the deer will. But it just grows and it takes over and you can kill it back and it just keeps coming. These are just a few little evidences of what has happened in the world and the grips of the consequences of that sin of Adam and Eve in the garden. The whole of the created system of order has been affected It even gives us a sense of the understanding of what Jesus is saying in John 3 16. God so loved the whole of his created system that he sent his son to die in order that the whole of that created system and order may be reconciled to him. Now specifically, he preaches there that those who would believe in him would have eternal life. But even Paul understood the context of this and you can turn to Romans chapter 18 for just a moment. Excuse me, Romans chapter 8, verse 18 through 25. In Romans chapter 8, Paul is in the first seven chapters, built this whole great doctrine of Christ because we're sinners and in need of this Christ, justification by faith alone, dealing with our sin, the context of struggling with sin in Romans chapter 7, and he opens Romans chapter 8 and says, therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And then he implores us to walk by the Spirit, to deal with the flesh. And then after imploring these things to be led by the Spirit, that we would be found children and heirs. In verse 18 he says, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. He says, our present sufferings are awful enough in and of themselves, and yet there is a future revelation coming at the return of Christ that it's gonna be even more glorious in its revelation than anything we can imagine. True enough, we will be brought into glory with Christ, we will be there with Him in its final fulfillment, and yet at the same time, something else is going to happen. Verse 19, for the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. Why is that so important, the revealing of the sons of God? For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it. and hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Not only will there be humans who are reconciled to God eternally that they may live with him in Christ Jesus, but the whole of this created system of order will be reconciled and made new. This word world, in the context of John, and even in the preaching of John the Baptist, has a greater meaning than just looking at every single individual. For if they are preaching and teaching that the word world only means the individuals of the earth, then that reconciliation would be applied to every single individual who's ever been born, and that means every single individual would be reconciled and therefore saved. But doesn't Jesus teach about the wheat and the tares? The sheep and the goats? Doesn't Jesus himself say that the sheep know his voice? Doesn't he give an identification that there are those who will not listen? Does he not even preach to the Pharisees that many of them stood right there and he said, you are of your father the devil? There is no way John the Baptist or the Apostle John are preaching and teaching that every single individual will be reconciled fully and finally, and that not one of any of the human race would have ever been lost or condemned. Because if that is the case, then why did Jesus preach on hell? And why did he say, even in his teaching in the parable, that there were some who were already there? So it must be that this word world has a greater context to it and greater content to it that we need to recognize when he says, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, it is in the context of the fullness of this reconciliation. That there will be his people who are ultimately reconciled, but the whole of that created system of order which had been subjected to futility, as Paul says, it would be reconciled as well. For do not the reconciled people of God need a reconciled place? They will live in glorified body forever. See the revelation here that John is giving John the Baptist. I hate to use this phrase because it's often overused but it's pregnant with meaning. It's bursting with all kinds of meaning. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. When he speaks of that phrase, the sin of the world, it is not just a phrase in the sense of saying, taking away the sin of every single individual. He's saying, I'm going to take away the effect of sin upon my people and upon the whole of the created order that all of my people specifically, particularly. will be redeemed and reconciled and the whole of the system properly will be reconciled. Well, lastly this morning, how did John know? How did he know he was the Lamb of God? Well, in some way, John knew Jesus by personal introduction. Elizabeth and Mary had known each other, they had been friends, there had been some type of introduction, it's very likely. But that's not the most important way. That has a lot of speculation to it probably. But the best and the most important way that we can answer the question, how did John know? John knew Jesus by special revelation. Here it is being revealed that John himself has had it revealed to him because on that day of the baptism it was revealed to him and he saw the spirit come upon or descend like a dove upon him and he said it stayed with him. Verse 33, he goes on and he says, excuse me, verse 32, I have seen the spirit descending as a dove out of heaven and it remained upon him. This is special revelation. John was one who had been sent to reveal these things, and he was the one who had to witness it. Even in verse 34, he's saying, I'm testifying. Even in giving these words, John the Apostle is testifying through John the Baptist. I'm testifying. These eyewitness accounts of the Lord Jesus and the work that was done through him. They are testimony of who he is and that is special revelation. That revelation is necessary for us. He wasn't just saying behold the Lamb of God because it was an idea that came to him out of nowhere. He wasn't just saying behold the Lamb of God because he had an emotional moment and something got a hold of him and he said behold the Lamb of God. No. He says here in the text, I saw him. I baptized him and I saw the spirit come upon him like a dove and remain upon him. He says this is the testimony of the one who was sent to make straight the path of the Lord. John is giving us special revelation from special revelation. It tells us the importance of special revelation to us. It's very probable that John the Baptist had met Jesus. Elizabeth and Mary certainly knew each other. But in the grand scheme of things, what does that actually matter? Jesus met other people that didn't believe while he was on the earth. He spoke to other people directly that didn't believe while he was on the earth. John was given special revelation so that he could be a part of giving special revelation. Because apart from special revelation, no one will believe in the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is why we cannot take too lightly the importance of God's Word as special revelation. We need His Word to go on and be preached. We need His Word translated into languages properly and well done so that the Bible can be taken to the different tribes and tongues of this very planet that we live on. What you're seeing here is one of the first utterances of special revelation of the Christ, given prominently through one that God had chosen to use in special revelation. And every time a preacher stands to take this word and open it to a group of people, Lord willing, they stand to do so, giving them the Word of God from special revelation. John was not saying to you, hey, I left in my mother's womb when his mother came into the room and she was pregnant with him. That's not what John was preaching. John's giving you special revelation and saying, see, look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That's far greater information than anything else. And it's John who gives it. It tells us the importance of the word of God going forward. In special revelation, it tells us the importance as we move back into 1 Corinthians and we deal with spiritual gifts, that we are not in need of new revelation. We are in need of keeping the special revelation that's already been secured for us. And to preaching it, and teaching it, and reading it, and knowing it, and understanding it. If John had not been given special revelation and had not preached it properly and not proclaimed it in the moment properly, then we could not be commanded to see the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I pray this morning that you will see that there is one Lamb of God and it is the Lord Jesus Christ and that our sin is only dealt with properly through Him. As you come to this table, will you think about what Christ has done that you could come and remember Him and you could worship Him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you are merciful to us to give us a time at your table that we may glory in you alone through your son. Lord, we have merely scratched the surface of this text this morning, and yet I ask, Lord, that you would bless its reading and the preaching of it for your glory alone. Draw us near to your son Christ. It's in his name we pray. Amen.