Title: Jesus the Lamb / John 1:29-34
Contents
Ex) Cutting off the tail of a lizard and running away - When there are no scales on the joints and stiffness comes to the body, it automatically boils. No blood, no pain. And after a month, the tail comes out again.
I think this is how people sin these days.
Ex) A few years ago, when I went to the Suwon Prison to lead a service, the people in shrouds there looked so miserable. The person in charge of that place is saying that there are two kinds of people. One is that after realizing their sins, there are people who prepare for the future with a guilty heart and repentance, and the other is that the reason they came here is because they were unlucky. That is why he is a person who resents his life and people and wants to create another opportunity.
When a person realizes his sin, suffers from it, and has no life to fight against that sin, he becomes like an animal.
- In today's text, John the Baptist looks at Jesus passing by and exclaims:
“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
This cry was not very interesting to the people of the time.
People at that time did not wait for ｢God's Lamb｣, but for ｢God's Messiah｣.
In other words, rather than the will to solve the problem of their own sins, they waited for the Messiah who would change the world, transform society, awaken the nation and liberate it from Rome, and establish a new kingdom.
Our society is like that.
Although the fundamental problem of human sin is the problem of this age, we are living only dreaming of a utopia of the times and society.
So, a political battle broke out, and material abundance came as an economic first strategy, but this society is in danger of collapse due to obesity and high blood pressure.
In our life, we must first solve spiritual problems.
Among them, the problem of sin must be resolved first.
Even if we have the root of sin and have abundant money, even if there is a good political leader, this society will get sick, rot and crumble.
Ex) Sampoong accident and the collapse of Seongsu Bridge are the collapse of this society. Because of his sin, he looked good and handsome on the outside, but his fundamentals were weak and eventually collapsed.
“Greed has conceived, which gives birth to sin.”
Example) Someone is evangelizing and he says, “There are people who believe in Jesus, but it’s okay if they don’t believe in Jesus, but there is no need to believe in Jesus.” If you want to end everything by eating well and living well only in this world, you don't need Jesus. However, if you want to have eternal life even after death without ending in this world, you must believe in Jesus. Because Jesus forgives our sins.
God sent Jesus into this world as a lamb to be a sacrifice in order to solve the first problem of sin in life.
That is why John cried out to Jesus, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
Jesus came to this earth for our sins.
Jesus' death was not just a personal death, but He died to bear the sins of many people in the world.
“God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17).
There are several examples of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world as illustrated in the Bible.
First, the sheep of Isaac (Leviticus 16:6-22).
When people sin, they usually sacrifice animals to make atonement for them. Animals used for sacrifice are goats, goats, pigeons, etc. The animal used in the sacrifice was a sacrifice as a type of Jesus Christ. However, the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, which is offered once a year on July 10 every year, was wrong. (Leviticus 16:8) On the live goats chosen for Azazel, Aaron the priest laid his hands on their heads, and the priest put his hands on them, and all the iniquity of the children of Israel, and all the iniquity they committed. Confess all their sins, put their sins on the head of a goat, and send it to a man whom he has predestined to go into the wilderness; -22). Acezer means [to give]. This Azazel goat was a symbol of the lonely and pathetic figure of Jesus, who was abandoned by people and condemned as a sinner, carrying the crucifixion and walking to Golgotha. Jesus bore our sins in His body and died on the cross. (Isa 53:6).
The second is the Passover lamb. (Exodus 12:1-28).
The Passover is a festival to commemorate the liberation (salvation) of the people of Israel from Egypt. On the 10th day of the first month, a male lamb without blemishes and one-year-old lambs were separated and prepared. At the sundown on the 14th day of the new year, the blood was spread on the left and right posts and lintels of the door. The meat was eaten at night with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
* In addition to this, the Old Testament already indicates that the Lamb is the sacrifice for atonement.
Adam and Eve's skins,
A sacrifice of the lamb of Abel's faith.
The lamb that was prepared in place of Isaac for Abraham's burnt offering.
Also, the daily sacrifice offered by the priests of Israel was a lamb.
As a Lamb, Jesus took the sins of this world and ascended Golgotha.
The Bible says that He was led without a word like a lamb to the slaughter.
And as a sacrifice on that cross, he tore his whole body and flesh and shed blood and died.
Ex) If you look at the book of Revelation, a peculiar fact is that all the appearances of Jesus in heaven appear as Lambs.
The sinless Jesus suffered like the Lamb for our sins.
(1 Peter 2:24) He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. By His wounds you were healed.
All those who believe and depend on Jesus, the Lamb, will be saved.
If all sins are forgiven and we become righteous, we will walk on the path of eternal life.
- Speaking of sin, we have little consciousness of sin.
The top stone was moved with a whimper, and the other woman picked up a skirt full of small stones the size of a bird. But this is what the pastor said. "I'm sorry, but please put the stones in their place this time." The woman who brought the large rocks whimpered again and put them back in place. Because she clearly knew where they came from. The woman who had picked it up was stunned, not knowing what to do. "That's it!" the pastor shouted. "This is the sin God has committed, and you..." He said to the woman who said he had only done something wrong, saying, "Even though I commit these and other sins day by day, I spend my whole life without guilt toward God.
Because she has committed many sins and never repented because she has lived, this woman has committed a great sin and is contrite and self-condemned, so God's forgiveness will be with her."
*What does the Bible say about sin?
1. Hamartia- It means the state that has gone out of the way, and it is not the state it should be.
2. Parabasis - A state of deliberately and deliberately committing a sin, meaning stepping on gold. The state of doing something even though you know you shouldn't do it. In Psalm 32, it is translated as “transgression, transgression.”
3. Paraphtoma- A crime committed impulsively in the sense of slipping and stepping on gold.
4.Anomai- In the sense of being one's own way, it is an act of rebelling against God and doing one's own way. Translated as “sin” in Psalm 34.
5. Opeilema - “meaning that you are in debt” The act of not giving God and people what they ought to give.
*When a person sins, various actions appear.
1. Escape.
2. Trying to forget - Trying to forget with alcohol, pleasure, or drugs.
3. Rebellion - Take an active resistance attitude.
4.Self-rationalization - making excuses in such a way as to have no choice but to make excuses.
5. Self-Abandonment - Entering a state of self-abuse and self-deprecation in a way that allows you to feel suicidal.
6. Activation of reward mentality - Trying to repay the comb of sin by doing good deeds.
Ex) The beginning of the Boy Scout - It begins with a heart to make amends for the sin of killing his son.
7. Camouflage - Acting with hypocrisy and wearing a mask.
But neither is the way to solve the problem of sin.
The only way to solve the problem of sin is to believe and rely on Jesus, the Lamb who came to this world for our sins and died on the cross to atone for our sins.
(1 John 1:7) “- the blood of Jesus will cleanse us from all sin”
(1 John 1:9) “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The God of love who wants to save us is still crying out like this.
(Isaiah 55:6) Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
(Isa 55:7) Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous from his thoughts, and let him return to the LORD, and he will have mercy. Come to our God, and he will forgive widely.
(Isa 1:18) Come, and let us reason together, says the LORD, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
-Dear friends!
“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
Look at Jesus on the cross.
Look to the Lamb Jesus.
Look to Jesus who died so for our sins.
There is our hope and the joy of life.
Also, if there is someone who is still in pain and suffering because of the problem of sin, look to Jesus and tell him all your sins. He will forgive and make new.
Amen.
♬Jesus the Lamb.