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The second scripture reading
is from the New Testament, from the Gospel of John. They're of
chapter 1, and we'll start reading from verse 19 until verse 39.
John 1, verse 19 to 39. And this is the record of John,
when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask
him, who are thou? And he confessed and denied not,
but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, what then? Are thou Elias? And he said, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And they
answered, No. Then said they unto him, Who
art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us?
What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one
crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the
Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah. and they which were sent were
of the Pharisees. And they asked him and said unto
him, Why baptizes thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor
Elias, neither that prophet? John answered them, saying, I
baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom you
know not, He it is who, coming after me, is preferred before
me, whose shoes, let's just, I am not worthy to unloose."
These things were done in Beth-Abarah, beyond Jordan, where John was
baptizing. The next day, John seeth Jesus
coming unto him and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After
me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before
me. And I knew him not, but that
he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing
with water. And John bear record, saying,
I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode
on him. And I knew him not, but he that
sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom
thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same
is he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bear
record that this is the Son of God. Again, the next day, after
John stood and two of his disciples, And looking upon Jesus as he
walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples
heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and
saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They
said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, Master,
where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, come and
see. They came and saw where he dwelt,
and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour."
So far the readings. Now in the coming months, children,
you will get some different preachers to preach here. Once I leave,
and hopefully there will be some other ministers that will come
from time to time. But I will doubt you'll ever
get a minister like John the Baptist. He had a really strange
coat, unusual, and he ate some really strange food, grasshoppers,
locusts. I see some of you pull up your
nose And honey, well that's good stuff. But that's not the main
thing about this preacher. This John the Baptist, he was
a different preacher than all the preachers that were around
in those days. What was so different about him?
Well, he wasn't a preacher that was making you feel very good. John did not make you feel good.
John says, you're a bad boy and a bad girl. We don't like to hear that, do
we? We like to think we're good boys
and good girls, but John says, no. Yeah, but I'm acting quite
nice. I'm coming to church two times
on Sunday, sit there a whole long service, and I pray before
I go to bed. and I pray when I come out of
bed, and I read the Bible. So, am I still a bad boy and
a bad girl? Well, yes, you are, because in
your heart there are things that God sees, and hopefully you see
too, somewhat, that are not good. See, John told him that. He's
a very clear preacher. He says, you've got to stop sinning.
You have to change your way of living. You cannot live like
this. Very clear. And I must say the same to you
today. Children, if you keep on being naughty, and you keep
on ignoring God, or you keep on not listening to the Bible,
and to the Lord, and to the parents, and to the teachers, you are
to change that. The Bible calls that repent you.
You need to change that light. But John didn't only make people
feel bad. That was one of the purposes
that he came. Make people feel their sin. No,
no. John also was a preacher who,
as it were, had a real big light in his hand. Real big light. And he shone
that light in front of people, to show them in their darkness
a pathway. What was that light? I didn't
see in the Bible that I read this morning that John had a
light in his hand. Yeah, he did. The light is Jesus, Jesus Christ. John would preach about Jesus
Christ, and Jesus Christ says, I am the light of the world.
And in the beginning of this chapter that we didn't read,
But I'll read it to you now. It says, there was a man who
was sent from God, whose name was John, and he came to bear
witness of the light, that all men might believe. He would shine
the light. Ask John, he preached about Jesus.
No, no, he didn't preach about Jesus. He preached Jesus. He told people, Jesus. Now in the chapter I read this
morning, I would like to draw your thoughts today to verse
29. Maybe your mom and dad can help
you find that verse for a moment, if you can read. And if not,
listen. This is a very plain text of
the Bible. I'll read also verse 28. These things were done in Bethabara. on the other side of Jordan,
beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. And the next day,
John seeth Jesus coming unto him. And he said, Behold, look,
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. So
far. We are going to gather this morning
Listen to what God has to say to us. Before we look at this
verse, we have to understand what's happening here. It says
that John is at Beth Tiberias. Parents, will you please take
your children today and show the map where Beth Tiberias is.
It's right there, right above the Dead Sea on the Jordan River.
Let's show them for a moment. And Beth Tiberias is a place
by the river Jordan And the river Jordan there is very shallow.
And that was a very important part of that place, because it
was shallow, and please show them on the map, because the
kids would like to see that. From the north of the hills of
Bashan, they would drive the little lambs that were born there,
north, they would drive them south, And by Bethabara, they
would cross the Jordan River to go to Jerusalem. And every
day, there were lambs shepherded across to go to Jerusalem. And they probably lived for a
little while in the fields of Bethlehem, until it was time
to move to the city, and there they would... What would they
do with those lambs, children? They would kill every one of
them. We'll talk about it in a moment. Why that was? That's
very important that while that, probably while John is preaching,
on the river, you can hear all these sheep. They cross the river. They hear
them. And all of a sudden John says,
look! The Lamb of God! And he pointed to a man standing
or not standing yet, but he is coming towards the people. And John says, look! In the Bible,
if you read it well, there's a comma missing here. It says,
behold, comma. It's not a verb in this case.
It's not looking. It's look, like we say, hey,
look! There's a lamb. No, not a lamb. There is the
Lamb of God. that taketh away the sin of the
world. Now we know that that Lamb is
Jesus, but how did John know that? We don't know for sure
how John got to know Jesus. But we know that about a month
before this very moment, Jesus came for the first time to listen
to John's preaching. And on that day, Jesus also asked,
can I be baptized? Now, you know that John was called
John the Baptist because John was baptizing. He was preparing
people. He was telling them about their
sin. He says, you need to be washed. Today, we're going to
see baptism. You need to be washed, John said.
You need to be washed from your sins. And then they were baptized
as a picture of that they needed to be washed, but also of a picture
that they wanted to be washed and that they wanted to start
a new life. So people would come to John and they would say, John,
I've listened to your message. I feel sorry about what I've
done, John. And the preacher said, John, I want to be baptized.
And John says, you have sinned? Yes, John. Are you sorry about
your sin? Yes, John. Have you confessed
it to the Lord? Yes, John. And then John said,
then I will baptize you. Let's go. And one day Jesus comes
to John. And what did Jesus ask? He says,
John, may I be baptized? And John recognizes this Jesus. We don't know for sure how, but
it says, I knew him not. But there comes a moment that
John begins to know that this is Jesus. Maybe he met him before,
we don't know for sure. But he knows that this man doesn't
need to be baptized. John would have said to him,
but Jesus, you don't have any sin, have you? You don't have
to confess any sins to me, do you? I ought to be baptized by
you instead of me baptizing you, Lord Jesus. There was no sin. Jesus had nothing
to say. I'm sorry about I've done this.
I'm sorry about that. Namaste. No. Maybe Jesus said this to John.
John, I need to be baptized not for myself, John, but I'm here
to be baptized for others. I'm here, John, to be the lamb,
to bear away the sin of the world. Baptize me. And then Jesus was
baptized too. Not because Jesus was sinful.
Now, after a month, the Lord Jesus comes back. We read in
our text, the next day, John is preaching, he sees Jesus coming,
and he says, Behold the Lamb of God. That's the one to help you. Now,
we're going to see lambs pretty soon. Maybe you've seen them
already. I love lambs. They're cute. But they're not very strong.
They're not going to defend you, are they? What's a lamb going to do? They
have no horns. They have no sharp teeth. They
have no claws. They're just really a cute animal. But they're really not very helpful
to protect you, or to help you. They cannot even carry you when
you're big. And yet, John says, look, there
is the Lamb of God. Now, this morning, let's think
about that. Two things. Why do I need a Lamb? And secondly, why has God given
us this Lamb? Behold, or look, the Lamb of
God. You know, in the Bible times,
children, every day lambs are killed. Thousands and thousands
of little cute lambs are killed every year in Israel, in the
Bible days. They were first killed and then
they were burned on a fire. The Bible calls that a sacrifice,
an offering. They were laid before God and
they were burned in the fire. Why? Why were those lambs killed? Those cute, sweet, nice lambs,
they don't harm anybody. Well, they were punished. Those
lambs were punished, every one of them. That's why they were
killed and burned. punished, why had those lambs,
what had they done wrong? And why would you punish a lamb
by killing it and putting it into the fire? Well, they were
punished because of sin. This is good. These lambs were
punished, they were killed and burned because of sin. Poor lambs. Do lambs sin? Do lambs sin? They can be naughty,
and they can walk out of the fence, but they don't sin. No. Let's indeed understand why
God commanded these lambs to be killed. God says, children,
when you think a bad thought, or when you do a bad deed, or
when you say a bad word, you sin against Me. You hurt me. You're not only hurting your
parents, you're hurting your brothers and sisters, you're hurting me.
You are sinning against me. You are indeed doing wrong and
I need to punish you. When I was a child, I sometimes
heard that statement, that sinning is like hitting the Lord in His
face. That's a terrible thought, isn't
it? Hitting God in His face. That's what sin is. You know,
when I get hit in my face, that hurts. It probably doesn't hurt
my skin as much. But if one of my children would
hit me in the face, it probably hits my heart more than anything. I feel so bad. Sin is bad. And God said, you do that to
me. You need to be punished for that.
Because you cannot do that to me. I am God and I am holy. And so, you need to be punished. And your parents will do that,
right? When you break the rules, then they punish you. Depending
on what you've done, depending how you will be punished. Now,
let's for a moment think about this, children. This morning,
you and I have to think about our sins. If you've only done
one sin, You are deserving to be punished. What about two? I need two times. Three? Three
times. We sin all day. We sin every
day. We've come again out of a whole
week in which we have sinned against the Lord. And each of
these sins need to be taken away. And what will we do to take away
those sins? What will we do to take away
the punishment? Well, we can't do anything. Imagine
that you hit your brother on his nose, and you quickly go do something
nice, and then you say to your mom and dad, yeah, but I did
something nice. Will they not punish you for hitting your brother
on his nose? No, of course they will. See,
you can't take away the wrong with doing something nice. And
this is what our problem is. This is why God has come up with
this wonderful plan in the Word of God. And this wonderful plan
is this. God has said to the Israelites,
when you feel sin in your heart, when you feel you've done wrong,
when in your heart that little voice says, you have done wrong,
you've sinned against God, Then what I want you to do, I want
you to go to your herd, and I want you to pick out one of your lambs. I know that these people all
love their lambs, but I want you to go pick out one lamb.
And if you don't have any lambs, I want you to get all your money,
and I want you to go buy a lamb. And I want you to take that lamb,
and I want you to walk that lamb all the way to the temple, to
the priest. And when you come there by the
priest, I want you to lay your hands on the head of the lamb,
and I want you to say this, God, I have sinned. I have done wrong. I have hurt thee. I have given
thee great pain by what I said or did. See, while you're holding
those hands on that lamb, we need to say to the Lord what
you've done. And the Lord says, and what will happen then? Then
I will take your sin and I will put it on the lamb. Now the lamb
is naughty and guilty. And then you have to kill the
lamb. And you have to burn him. That will be for you. And then what would the priest
say to those people, children? They would say, go home in peace. your sin is taken away, it is
covered. And if those people would believe
that, they will go home feeling joyful, because now their sin
is taken away. And they will do this many times,
because every time, at least once a year they will do that,
even if they lived far away, but every day there are lambs
being burned in the temple to remind the people of the need
for forgiveness. Now, let's for a moment stop
and think. Have you sinned? When you say sorry to your mom
and dad about your sin, does that mean that the sin is gone?
No. When you bow your knees at night
and say, sorry, Lord, for my sin, does that mean the sin are
gone? Don't know. They only will be
gone if you take along a lamb. What lamb? There are no lambs
out in the fields anymore, but the lamb. the land of God which
taketh away the sin of the world. That's the only way God can take
away that sin. Let's think about that together
a bit more after we sing. We're going to sing Psalter 89
verse 1 this morning. Ye children, come, give ear to
me, and learn Jehovah's fear. Psalter 30, 89, verse 1. Venerate all that is. In the
room of love, let there be bliss. Let there be joy all the year. Look, John says, the Lamb of
God, the Lamb. There's only one like this. And
it is not any kind of a lamb, it is the Lamb of God. It is God's Lamb. Jesus Christ is God's special
Lamb. You know, God loved the Lord
Jesus, children. I was his son. We can understand it, but before
the world was even existing, before there was any world, God
was there. He was there as a Father, and
as a Son, and as a Spirit. And the Father loved the Son,
and the Son loved the Father, and the Spirit and the Son loved
each other. They all loved each other. And
that special Son, God made into a Lamb. Not a real
lamb, of course, but like a lamb. And I always wonder why John
the Baptist didn't say, behold, the Lion of God, because he's
also a lion. Jesus compared to a lion. And
people that are in need, that are in danger, they may need
a lion rather than a lamb, don't they? But no, a lamb. Behold, look. The Lamb of God,
that special Lamb was God's Lamb. You know the text in the Bible
that God so loved the world that He created. And He loved so very
many sinful people in this world that one day, that Father has
asked already before the world was even there, You ask, Son,
I have a plan. All these people out in this
world out there, they all deserve to be punished. They are terrible
in their disobedience. But are you willing, Son, to
leave our home, our fold, And are you willing to go to that
fallen and that miserable world? And are you willing to die like
a lamb for all the people that I give to you? That's something. Think about
that for a moment. Maybe some of you will soon have
a pet lamb. And if your father would say
sometime, we're going to have to put a pet lamb to death, you
might not be so happy. Here, God says to His Son, will
you go to that miserable world and will you die there? Will
you be punished for those awful and rebellious children and men
and women I have chosen to save? Do you know what the Son said? He says, yes, Father. I love
to do what you ask me to do. I will be the Lamb. to bear away the sin of the world. God sent Jesus as the Lamb to
take away the sin of the world. That never stops amazing me,
children. Your minister has preached so many times to you about Jesus,
and it never stops to amaze me that God was willing to give
his son as a lamb. Never did Jesus do anything wrong.
Never did Jesus have a wrong thought, never did Jesus have
a wrong word, never disobeyed his parents, never was nasty,
and never was cruel, never teased his brother, never teased his
sister, always was a nice child as he grew up, always was a wonderful
man as he was an adult, and he died for sinners like you and
me. And now John says, no, no, now
John, let's forget about John because he's alone in heaven.
Now Jesus says to you, look at me. I am the Lamb of God that
taketh away the sin of the world. God has given himself in his
Son, and Jesus has given himself as the Lamb, the Lamb to take
away the sin of the world. That's a big world here, and
there's a lot of sin in this world, isn't there? Maybe some of us think, maybe
John, you should have not said it that way. You should have
said, behold the Lamb that takes away the sin of God's Church.
Some of us would like to say that that way, but I'm glad the
Spirit didn't make John say that. He says, Behold the Lamb that
taketh away the sin of the world. That means the whole world can
look at that Lamb, and the whole world is allowed to make use
of that Lamb. There has to be not a single
person in the world to feel shy this morning to take this Lamb. You have to take this Lamb. When
you feel sin in your heart, congregation, when we feel we've done wrong,
when we feel our conscience speaking, we are to go back to God, but
don't come without a lamb. And don't come without a single
different lamb than the lamb that God has given. Don't just
pray, forgive my sins. Without this lamb in your hand,
as it were, or without pleading in prayer on this lamb, without
laying the hand on this lamb. Yeah, but how do I dare to lay
the hand on a lamb? The lamb of the world, remember?
The lamb that takes away the sin of the world, remember? That
anyone in this world can take this lamb, and is to take this
lamb. If the sin is ever to take, be
taken away. You know, this lamb is worth
enough for all the world. In New Zealand there are 30 million
sheep or so. Pretty soon there will be 60
million or more when all the lambs are going to be born. You
know, children, if we decide to kill all those 60 million
sheep this year, Not one single sin of you will be taken away
by that. Even if you burn all the sheep
and lamb in the whole world, not one single sin can be taken
away by that, because we sinned against God, and God is great. But this Lamb of God that John
was seeing there, he says, don't look at those lambs who are at
the Jordan River anymore. Look! The Lamb, that one Lamb,
Jesus Christ, is enough for 30 million, for 60 million, for
600 million, for 600 million. It is enough, that one Lamb,
for the whole world's sin. Never do I have to doubt whether
I may take that Lamb Here is your word. And you say,
yeah, but I can hardly believe that. And this morning, I may add to
the two children of the congregation that most of the children here
have already received as well, a very special token. And what
does that token of baptism mean? That means I speak to you, child,
that I am the Lamb for you too. No other Lamb will do for you.
No other Lamb can take away your sin but Jesus Christ. And you
never have to doubt that you may come to me. With all your
sin, with all your wrongdoing, you never have to doubt, never
have to doubt. You can say to the devil, get
away devil, don't ever tell me that I am not allowed to come
to the Lord Jesus. You have His name written on
your forehead. So God wants to assure you that
this Lamb He has brought into this world is a Lamb that you
also may use, must use, if you ever will have
peace with God. Let us close with those thoughts
this morning. We need this land. To have peace
between God and you children, you need this land. This cute
little Ruben and this cute little Josiah that's going to be baptized
this morning, they are cute in my eyes and in their parents'
eyes, but they are not in God's eyes. They're not. Why not? Because
God looks at their heart. He sees that they're sinful.
Every child in this world is a sinful child. So are you. You were once a cute little baby.
But you are a sinful baby. You know what they are, those
two children? They're little enemies of God. That's what you
and I are all, little enemies or big enemies. And soon enough, it will be seen
in Josiah and Reuben, that they have a sinful heart. They're
cute, yeah, but they're guilty. They need this Lamb as much as
the oldest person needs this Lamb. Congregation, children,
adults, when we feel bad about sin and when sadness fills our
heart about sin, nothing can take that sin away. Nothing!
What I do, what I feel, what I say, nothing but the Lamb of
God which taketh away, which carries away the sin of the world. When you don't feel bad this
morning, when you don't feel your sin this morning, then go
to that same Jesus today and say, Lord Jesus, I know and I've
heard that Thou art the Lamb, but I do not know why I need
Thee. I don't feel my sin. Jesus is also a teacher. Then
pray to Jesus today, show me why I need that Lamb, that I
also need to be covered by His death. And then lastly, it says here
in our text, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the
sin of the world. There's a sweet thought in that.
It's in the present tense, you notice that? My children of God, those of
us here who have come to repentance and have taken this Lamb and
are daily taking this Lamb, that's not a one-time thing. Daily,
morning and evening, a Lamb was offered in the temple. Constantly, it was as it were,
the presentation of this Lamb before the very throne of God.
Constantly, day and night, you'd say. And today that's no more necessary.
Why not? Because there He stands. Now
He's at the right hand of the Father. And what did John see
when he looked in the book of Revelation? He saw the Lamb. standing at the right hand of
the throne, the same Lamb that John saw is now in heaven. And let us be reminded this morning that we will feel every day bad
about sin. If we have grace in our heart,
there is not a day that we do not feel more or less our sin,
that we carry with us this burden of our sinfulness. But every
day, This land taketh away the sin. All Church of Christ, people
of God, and you don't have to be old to be a child of God,
you can be a boy and a girl looking unto Jesus. You know what happens
every time when we look unto Jesus, and that Lord Jesus in
heaven, as it were, takes those father's judge's eyes away from
your sin and sinfulness. And he looks, Father, look, I
have given myself as the land for the sin of the world. And every day, Christ is, as
it were, hiding, covering the sins of his people. As far as
the East is removed from the West, so far has he removed sin. And so let us remind ourselves
lastly that the smallest faith in this Lamb, the smallest faith
in this Lamb saves. It doesn't have to be big faith,
big story faith. No, the smallest trusting on
this Lamb for the forgiveness and the pardoning of my sin takes
away that sin out of the sight of God the Father. Congregation,
do you live with this lamb in your hand all day? That's the Christian's life.
To have this lamb all day between God and me. And then there is
peace. If by faith I take this lamb. Do you? For Jesus' sake. Amen.
Behold, the Lamb of God
Series Children's Sermon
Baptism / Special Children's Sermon
Also see the attached outline with questions for the children.
| Sermon ID | 727132233370 |
| Duration | 40:10 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | John 1:29 |
| Language | English |
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