JESUS – THE LAMB OF GOD
OR
HIS REDEEMING BLOOD
SUNDAY AUGUST 26, 2018
Scripture To Consider:
“The next day John [the Baptist] saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, “After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me. I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.”’”
“And John bore witness, saying, ‘I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.’” John 1.29-34
Something To Consider:
John the Baptist seeing Jesus, declared for the entire world to hear, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” To the Jewish mind and heart of that day, the significance of John’s announcement was very easily understood. The Passover feast was near. It could very well be that there were herds of sheep being driven toward Jerusalem on some of the same roads the people traveled in order to come and hear John preach. The time had come for John the Baptist to begin turning the spiritual spotlight of attention on Jesus. The veil of privacy was finally being removed from the life of Jesus. Therefore, John introduced Jesus to the people as “The Lamb of God!”
Let’s fast forward to Revelation for a front row seat to a future event that caused John the apostle to weep. Beginning in verse 1 of Revelation chapter 5, John testified; “And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?’ And no one in heaven or on the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it. So, I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it.” John was beside himself at the thought of no one being worthy to open the scroll of evidently extreme end time importance.
John continued his first-hand reporting in verse 5, by stating, “But one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.’ And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.” Then Jesus took the scroll from Him who sat on the throne!
Something Else To Consider:
John in verses 8-10 brings this futuristic heavenly scene to a dramatic close by explaining, “Now when He [Jesus] had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying: ‘You [Jesus] are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.’”
According to the Word of God, Jesus is the Lamb of God and His redeeming blood has washed our sins away through repentance. It is because of Him that we are as true born again enduring to the end believers, to be made kings and priests, and according to the Word of God, shall take our place on earth under the authority of Jesus in His millennial kingdom. Every year at Passover people would travel to Jerusalem and offer a sacrificial lamb to be slain. The lamb’s blood would spiritually point forward to what God had spoken to Abraham thousands of years earlier on Mount Moriah. There Abraham passed God’s final exam in the offering up to God his long awaited and much-loved son Isaac.
Isaac was a picture of Christ, the true Lamb of God. Isaac asked his father Abraham on the way to the mountain of sacrifice a question. “Look the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And in the King James version, Abraham said, “My son, God will provide Himself a lamb.” God speaking through Abraham foretold of the sacrificial redeeming death of His own dear Son, Jesus of Nazareth.
Therefore, worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing, according to Revelation 5.12. And in closing out Revelation chapter 5, John recorded, “And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I [John] heard saying: ‘Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him [God the Father] who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb [Jesus], forever and ever!’”
Something More To Consider:
The people listening to John the Baptist waited with anticipation every year for Passover, so they might be temporarily spiritually cleansed of their sin by the blood of a lamb sacrificed in Jerusalem at the temple. Peter, a one-time leader in training, wrote in his first letter in 1 Peter 1.18-19, “Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as a Lamb without spot.”
Jesus was and continues to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. As the old hymn still declares, “There is power in the blood of Jesus!” There is indeed power in the redeeming blood of Jesus of Nazareth. May we allow His blood to powerfully cleanse us of our sin that so easily ensnares us! Yes, Jesus is the Lamb of God, and yet, He is not coming as the Lamb of God when He returns as promised and as predicted as the undisputed King of kings and Lord of lords over all the earth.
Again, looking forward to Revelation 19, John gives us a most different portrait of Jesus as we anticipate His soon return. In verse 11 John begins his futuristic and artistic rendering of Jesus, by stating; “Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And he who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He [Jesus] judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.”
John continued in verse 15, “Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He [Jesus] has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”
It would do us all well as true enduring to the end saints of God who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb Jesus, to see Him as the Faithful and True One clothed in a robe dipped in His own redeeming blood that was shed to take away the sin of the entire world. It would do us all well to see Jesus ready to make war and ready to pour out the wrath of God upon a Christ rejecting world. It would do us all well to see Jesus whose eyes are as a flame of fire and whose name is The Word of God. It would do us all well to no longer simply see Jesus upon an old rugged cross without strength, but soon seated upon a white horse and being followed by the armies of an Almighty God!
A Few Final Words:
John, the author of our Scripture to consider and of Revelation, declared of Jesus; “Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that it should strike the nations.” Notice the presence of the Word of God in the beginning and here at the end just prior to the unleashing of the wrath of God. The mystery writer of Hebrews 4.12 reveals, “For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
The Word of God is at work in the earth and reminds us that Jesus was and is the Lamb of God and that we have been redeemed by His precious blood through the repentance of our sin. But the Word of God also reveals that Jesus is coming again in power and great glory and He will rule over the earth with a rod of iron and He will rule in righteousness.
I can hardly wait! But before the coming of Jesus there is also coming a flood of evil deception directed by Satan, the Antichrist, and their religious but not spiritual leaders in positions of power. Let us be reminded of the final outcome of the battle for planet earth. Christ will be victorious!
Prayer:
Our Father in heaven, may the redeeming blood of Jesus of Nazareth, the Lamb of God, be spiritually applied to our lives this day. In Him Always, Amen!
According to Jesus 