Revelation 7:9-12 "Welcoming the Lamb"

                 Before we really begin to dig into this text today I have a confession to make.  When we ended our time together last Sunday, this was not the text that I had planned on preaching from this morning.  I had planned on talking about the relationship between the Passover and the Lord’s Supper.  We were going to look at the sacrifice of Jesus and link it with the Passover Lamb from Exodus 12.  However, there was something in me that as I kept digging into these two texts caused me to be uneasy.  Some voice was in my head that just kept yelling “Maundy Thursday!  Maundy Thursday!”  So, we’re going to table them for later on this week (Thursday at 6:00 pm) when hopefully you will all be here for that special service in the life of the church; one of my favorite worship services of the year. 

                As luck would have it, I am currently finishing up working my way through the book of Revelation, and fairly recently I came upon Revelation 7, where our main text for today is from.  Now, typically I probably would have just glossed over this text, but seeing as how we are right in the middle of looking at the significance of the lamb to our faith and our salvation, these verses stood out to me in a way that they never had before.  When I read the words, “a great multitude that no one could number…was standing…before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” my mind immediately  jumped to the story of the Triumphal Entry.  Immediately my mind went to that scene of people lining the street and waving palm branches and shouting “Hosanna!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.”  As I read the word lamb in Revelation 7, I couldn’t picture a lamb at all, but Jesus Christ.  Well, I guess I did picture a lamb, the Lamb of God.

                Now, I want to take a minute and remind you about some of the things that I’ve said previously about this scene there at Jerusalem during the Triumphal Entry.  I’ve said before that the estimated number of people there lining the streets as it is figured by church historians (folks who have studied the attendance of particular festivals held in Jerusalem about the time of Jesus’ arrival) is thought to be somewhere around two million people.  To put that in perspective, I’ve been told that that number is about 3x the estimated amount of people who attend a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans on Fat Tuesday, and about 500,000 more people than the number of those who will attend the sum of all Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans in a given year.  And all two million are lining this street, this road entering into Jerusalem, waving palms, and looking for Jesus.  They’re waiting for this man to come riding in on the back of a donkey; it had to be just chaos.  Y’all I’ve been in the thick of the Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans many times.  I’ve been to national conferences with over 250,000 people in attendance.  I’ve been to sporting events with over 100,000 people in one little area.  So, I think I can imagine what a crowded situation looks like.  No matter how many times I read that number of projected people there that day to see Jesus enter into Jerusalem, it still leaves me with a sense of disbelief that that many people lined the streets of Jerusalem and yet hardly anyone had any clue what Jesus had been talking about the entire time during his earthly ministry.  In fact, no one had any clue as to the true nature of many of the things that he had been saying and teaching about himself.  No one had any idea that Jesus’ ultimate conquering and eternally reigning were to come about as a result of his death.  We know that from the reaction of those around the cross at the time of Jesus’ final breath.

                Getting back to the text for today and keeping our focus there, I want to talk about two things mentioned in this passage in Revelation that carry with them more meaning than we might commonly pick up on.  The first is the white robes that John saw the people of the crowd wearing.  Just a little prior to this (Rev. 6:11) John saw “the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne” wearing white robes as well.  What is the significance of the white robes?  Well, obviously we can guess that with white representing purity and a robe being an article of clothing that you put on, that this probably has something to do with putting on righteousness or purity, and that might be true.  However, there is also the popular suggestion that these white robes have to do with blessedness.  In this particular case, the blessedness of those who are fortunate enough to find themselves gathered around the throne and around the Lamb.  John even goes on to say that the ones in the white robes are, “the ones coming out of the great tribulation.  They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”  Now that I’ve introduced both the concepts of symbolism in Revelation and the tribulation, I need to comment that I won’t have time to fully go into these topics here today, but would love to talk further with anyone if there is particular interest.  Suffice it to say that for everyone that reads this passage, there is almost an equal number of interpretations and significance attached to it.

                However, let me suggest a contextual meaning for the white robes worn by the multitude in John’s vision.  We’re told that they were standing “before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.”  Well, there’s a possible indication as to the answer to our question.  You see, the palm branch was a symbol of victory.  The waving of palm branches was the primary symbol of victory in the Jewish culture.  During the intertestamental period, the 400 years between the Old and New Testaments, the Jews had waved about palm branches immediately after any major military victory.  After a period of time, the palm branch became somewhat of a symbol of freedom and victory for the Jewish people.  So much so that after the Jews revolt against the Romans, sometime in the AD 60’s, the people of Jerusalem minted their own coins with the image of a palm branch on them.  So you see, the palm branch was the people’s way of acknowledging the freedom and victory that Jesus represented to them that day.  Now, keep in mind what we said earlier about the fact that even as they are declaring victory, they still have no idea what that victory was going to look like nor how it was going to come about.

                So, if we combine this very common and primary symbol of victory (the palm branch) with the wearing of white robes (which just as a side note the white flag didn’t always mean surrender, but instead stood for a truce, indicating that the fighting was over) as another symbol of victory, then we start to see what all the fuss was about both during the Triumphal Entry and during John’s vision.  During the Triumphal Entry, the people in Jerusalem (majority Jewish) saw this as the restoration of the kingdom of David.  They saw this as the completion of the restoration of God’s people.  They saw this as the promises of God made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon, and everyone else all coming to fruition.  They saw the words of the prophets that they had heard for so long (some of them now being over 1000 years since first spoken) coming about in a powerful way.  This was the moment that they had so long awaited.  It’s no wonder that they lined the streets shouting about salvation and completion and kingdom renewal and declaring victory over all their enemies.  The only problem was that they really didn’t understand who the enemy was that they were at war with.  After all, they were pretty much battling themselves seeing as how after only three days they shouted to have Jesus crucified.  I think that if nothing else, that is a point that we can very easily relate to.  How many times are we fighting a war against the wrong enemy?  How many times do we have hatred in our hearts towards someone else, when the real enemy that we ought to be fighting is the sin that exists within our very own hearts?

                Now, the white robes and the palm branches in John’s vision, however they are interpreted, are I think more directed at the true meaning of this victory.  After John spoke about those wearing the white robes being washed white in the blood of the Lamb, he went on to record these words, “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.  They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.  For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”  Remember a few weeks ago when we saw Peter in his first epistle say, “By his wounds (meaning the wounds of the Lamb) you have been healed.   For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of you souls.” 

                This Triumphal Entry that we celebrate today on Palm Sunday with children coming in and placing palm branches at the foot of a cross, this is the foreshadowing of Revelation 7.  Yes, it’s a day in which we celebrate the work of Christ and (we could say) the final push of his earthly ministry; this is the 4^th quarter or crunch time of his time on this earth.  All those things are very much true.  However, let us not separate the events of that entrance from the bringing in of the sacrificial lamb of Leviticus 4 that we began this series with.  There was a price to pay for sin.  It wasn’t Jesus’ sin, but the sins of mankind.  The only way for those sins to be atoned was through the sacrifice of the unblemished and spotless lamb, and that’s exactly what happened. 

                As we go about our week and conduct ourselves in the world; whether it’s waiting for a week off of school, enjoying a short week, or getting all of your planning taken care of for an Easter gathering, remember what this week means to the people of God.  This is the week that it all changed.  This is the time when we went from an awaited sacrifice and standing with God to one that is our present reality.  Yes, there is still more to come, but this is something so wonderful and powerful that had been the plan since before the foundation of the earth.  Praise God for his Son.  Praise God for his Lamb.

1 Peter 1:13-21 "Fearing the Slain Lamb"

Before I get into the text as we have it from 1 Peter today, I want to take a moment and read two fairly familiar texts to you as a starting point.  The first comes to us from Mark 10:43b-45, “But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.  For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  The second text comes to us from Paul’s first letter to the Church in Corinth; Corinthians 6:19-20.  “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?  You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”  These two beautiful and wonderful texts could be combined into one that read, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many, and in doing so, we became his, for he bought us with a great price.”  What does that statement have to do with our text from 1 Peter?  What does the fact that Jesus came to serve and purchase us have to do with the words that Peter wrote here?  Well, they have everything to do with one another.  You see, the words that Peter wrote were part of a call that he made towards believers for having both a personal holiness and a reverent fear of God.  In other words, they were Peter’s words as to how we should react in light of the fact that through his own blood Christ has purchased us and has redeemed us.

At the very outset of this text, Peter tells us to prepare our minds for action.  In essence, telling us to fasten our seatbelts or roll up our sleeves because we’re about to get after it.  One of the pillars of the Reformation, John Calvin, notably prefers the interpretation “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind.”   You get the sense that what Peter is about to tell his audience is going to be both difficult and challenging, but also life-changing as well.  He tells us to “set [our] hope fully on the grace that will be brought to [us] at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  Notice that it’s not grace that we discover or find, but grace that is brought to us.  God doesn’t leave it up to us to find him as if he was some ancient artifact just waiting to be unearthed.  No, and he doesn’t even just call out to us like a distress beacon on a radar dropping clues concerning his location.  God brings himself to us; he confronts us with his grace in a manner that leaves us seemingly in a daze.  It leaves us with no other reaction than to follow him.

Then, Peter kicks things into high gear.  “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passion of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.”  Amy and I quite frequently jokingly ask if we can go back to college.  You know, that point in your life where your biggest decisions were whether or not you were going to try and find a date for the football game or whether you were going to go home for the weekend or stay at school.  You know, back to a time when your choices weren’t of very much importance (even though they seemed like they were at the time).  Even the most simple decisions now-a-days seem vastly complex compared to what you thought was a difficult choice years ago.  We both fully know that those days are over and we would be foolish (or ignorant) to think they’re not.  However, how many Christians do this very same thing?  Peter is saying here, “Look!  If you think that you can come to know Christ after a period of not knowing him and think that you can continue to act in the same way that you always have then you’re ignorant.  Before you didn’t know Christ and so you didn’t respond accordingly, but now that you do know him and you’re just an ignorant fool to think that you can continue to not respond accordingly!”  To think that we can hear the call of the gospel and remain unchanged in every aspect of our lives is to simply not recognize the reality of that life which we have been called to; it is to be ignorant.

“If you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.”  First off, by exile, Peter is referring to a place that is unnatural to any person (i.e. Christians and this world).  Our true home is with God; we’re meant to be with him, but we find ourselves here on this earth full of falleness and sin.  However, just because we’re here amongst the world doesn’t mean that we are to work and act by the world’s standards.  If you call on God as Father, then act like it.  Peter says to conduct ourselves with fear during our time in exile, during our time on earth.  I want to ask you a question that might hit a little close to home.  When was the last time that you were afraid of God?  When was the last time that you feared God?  I’m willing to bet that many in here today, if not all, can say that they have never really feared God (at least not once you reached a point of maturity).  After all, how could we?  We find ourselves in this world that so focuses upon the love of God at the expense of his justice, wrath, and anger that we have no reason to fear him.  We’ve been taught for so long and by so many that God is so loving that he would never punish us and that even when we are the most wretched of sinners that God is just waiting on us to say we’re sorry so that he can go back to loving us and showering us with gifts and rewards.  I don’t know where this notion of God came from, but I can tell you that it isn’t from Scripture.  Does God love us?  Absolutely; however, there is much more to God than simply love and affection.  There’s righteousness, there’s expectation, there’s a standard that he expects us to live by and that he commands us to live by.

Yes, God loves us deeply.  Yes, we are to love God deeply too, but we are also to fear him, “knowing that [we] were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from [our] forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”  I opened up by saying that those two texts Mark 10:43b-45 and 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 spoke to the way in which Christ’s blood redeemed us.  By his blood we have been ransomed, freed from the bondage of sin by the payment of a price.  We’re free from useless and worthless and empty rituals and acts because Christ has become the ultimate Leviticus 4 sacrificial lamb.  He is the unblemished and unspotted Lamb of God.  He was the one promised in the Garden after the Fall and the one whom John the Baptist identified as the one who takes away the sins of mankind.  He was and is the sacrifice for our sins.

Jumping back to the notion of simply loving God and not fearing him for just a moment, I’ve often seen the cross as both a symbol of the love of God and our fear of him.  Let me explain really quickly.  We all know why it’s a symbol of love for God and from God.  It’s where God exercised the greatest act of love that the world has ever known.  It’s where the Son, the second person of the Trinity, gave his life as atonement for our sins.  We cling very firmly to the cross is our own personal faiths in light of that atonement.  Unfortunately, that sacrifice is used by many today as an excuse to sin and not a call to holiness.  However, the cross is also the place where the fear of God is more on display than ever.  Think about this for a second.  God’s punishment, which was totally just and fair concerning mankind, fell upon his Son.  And not only did it fall upon his Son, but he willed it to be so.  I want you to imagine your own kids if you have any, or imagine someone who is as close to you as anyone can be.  Say they commit a crime; all of a sudden your mindset goes from one of justice and vengeance to forgiveness and overlooking.    Or here’s another one; there’s an ever-increasing chance that at some point many years from now when my daughter starts dating that I will go to jail for murder.  I’m too overprotective and she’s just too beautiful.  Now, if I don’t learn to control myself at some point over the next 20 years (kidding), then I might just be tempted to shoot some boy.  However, if my daughter were to stand in between my gun and whatever boy she is seeing because she loves him, then I would quickly lower my punishment and take a more forgiving attitude.  I wouldn’t like it, but I could never harm my little girl.  I can punish her without hesitation, but I could never do anything to truly harm her.

Now, think about God.  We’re the no-good boy and God is the over-protective father pointing the gun at us (pardon the analogy, but you get the picture).  God has us dead-to-rights.  We broke the covenant that existed between God and us, we sinned.  Jesus stands in and there’s basically this type of “God’s going to have to go through his Son to get to us” type of situation.  Again, pardon this line of thinking but I think it’s helpful.  And then God the Father, being just as he is, doesn’t lower his gun put pulls the trigger and all the punishment falls up his Son and not mankind.  It would be like me shooting my daughter and leaving the boy unharmed.  Now, if that doesn’t give you a sense of fear of God, then I don’t know what will.

Friends, Jesus became the slain lamb for us.  He stood in our place.  It was God’s plan that Jesus would be slain in our stead.  I know that my analogy makes it seem as if Jesus went against the wishes of the Father to accomplish his redemptive work, but that is not the case.  The work of redemption is a work of the Trinity.  The Father is the architect of our salvation, the Son is the one who accomplished it, and the Holy Spirit applies that work of Christ our hearts and counts it as our own.  You see, God willingly and purposefully sent his Son into the world to die on our behalf.  Yes, we are to rejoice at that fact, but we need also to be a bit fearful at the justice and power and magnitude of a God who would go to such lengths to redeem us.  Because of the sacrifice of the lamb, we are redeemed, and we are to be a changed people.  Peter closes by adding, “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God.”  After the sacrifice, after the resurrection, Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and took his place at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.  He is our eternal Lamb, Savior, Mediator, Redeemer, and Advocate.  To paraphrase John the Baptist for our modern context, “Behold, the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world.”

Isaiah 53 "The Suffering Lamb"

                As we continue our Lenten series on the Lamb of God today, we turn our attention to Isaiah 53.  This chapter in the prophecy of Isaiah is commonly referred to as the Song of the Suffering Servant.  It is seen by many as being the key chapter in interpreting and understanding the book of Isaiah.  This chapter, along with Psalm 22, lists probably the most remarkable and specific prophecies of the atonement of the Messiah.  It is very much a chapter of Messianic prophecy.  As we read through the verses, we could have almost had a checklist going on in our minds, marking off the ways in which Jesus fulfilled the words spoken by Isaiah some 700 years prior to his being born.

                We see the first few verses talk of the Messiah being born and growing up like a young plant.  We are reminded of the fact that Jesus wasn’t just magically placed upon this earth as a nearly 30 year old man.  No, he was born just the same as any other human being has been and will be born.  He was born an infant and grew into an adult.  Jesus went through the steps of maturity just as any of us have.  He learned to walk, to feed himself, to write, etc.  We often don’t think of Jesus having to grow from the newborn baby lying in the manger wrapped in swaddling clothes to the figure that John the Baptist pointed out last Sunday saying, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  Perhaps that is because there really isn’t much biblical information given about Jesus during this period aside from Luke 2 where we’re told about Jesus as a boy reading the Scriptures in the temple.  Now, there is a ton of speculation out there and if you want some entertaining material to read; just go look online at all of the theories out there as to what Jesus was like as an adolescent.  However, if you do choose to look at any of this material, please don’t believe any of it to be verifiably true. 

Also, note that Isaiah says that this young plant grew “like a root out of dry ground.”  Dry ground usually isn’t very conducive for plant growth.  Elsewhere in Scripture when we find something growing and getting stronger, we are told that the ground is fertile and not dry or arid.  Dry ground is typically associated with something that isn’t healthy and ultimately dying.  This reference to this plant growing from dry ground alludes to Jesus’ very humble and meager beginnings in terms of the family and prestige (or lack thereof) that he was born into.  Verse 3 continues this by speaking of his being “despised and rejected by men.”  Now, we could say that this was both true of his life prior to the inauguration of and during his earthly ministry.

                Then, we start to really get into some things in verse 4.  We find phrases like “he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.”  There’s some language about the servant being seen as having been “smitten by God” which would indicate that he was getting what he deserved.  Indeed, many who were there that day when Jesus was crucified thought that he was suffering so because it was what he deserved for his crimes.  Instead, we know that Jesus’ suffering was because of what we had done and were going to do.  The extremity of his pain and suffering shows the enormity of his love for us.  We see something very similar to the words that we looked at from 1 Peter 2 last Sunday as Isaiah recorded, “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by his stripes we are healed.”  Do you remember those words from 1 Peter last Sunday?  By his wounds we are healed.  By his being crushed and chastised and wounded upon the cross, we are healed.  We are somehow healed through this act of both obedience and violence through Jesus Christ.

                If you recall, last Sunday, immediately after stating that it is by Christ’s wounds that we are healed, Peter went on to say, “For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”  Well, immediately after saying that we are healed by the stripes of the suffering servant, Isaiah moves into some sheep language of his own.  “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is lead to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”  Isaiah is pushing home here the idea that we are all broken, that we are all fallen.  We all stand sinful and condemned and in need of a Savior, a Messiah.  We undoubtedly can’t separate the use of the language about the lamb being led to the slaughter and the lamb being required for a sin offering in Leviticus 4 that we looked at last Sunday.  Christ has taken upon himself the sin, the iniquity of all mankind.  He was offered up as that sin offering that atones for our sins.  That’s what Isaiah was telling his audience will happen, even though it won’t come about for some 700 years.

                Verse 8 talks about the fact that his being put to death was a result of injustice.  Surely we can attest to just how unjust this act was seeing as how we are the ones who deserved such punishment and not Jesus.  Verse 9 says that despite his being killed in a manner reserved for the wicked, that his grave is with a rich man.  Jesus may have been seen as a common criminal.  He may have been put to death in the most humiliating manner of his day.  Remember, the cross was reserved for only the most heinous of offenders.  The cross was not just an execution, but an embarrassment.  It was one thing to be put to death, but an entirely different matter to be put to death in front of the public and have it drawn out over the course of several days.  However, the end of John 19 tells us about Jesus being buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.  Remember, Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin, and a wealthy man as well.  Jesus’ burial place inside of Joseph’s new and unused tomb was equivalent to the burial place of a man of great wealth and prestige.  I’ve always found it fascinating that the first time that Jesus is shown any kind of honor by any public official is after his earthly ministry was completed.

                This week, I was looking around at various commentaries about this most famous chapter in Isaiah’s prophecy.  I came across one outline of the song of the suffering servant that went like this:  Isaiah 52:13-15 as dealing with the destiny of the servant; 53:1-3 his life; 53: 4-6 his suffering; 53:7-9 his submission; and then finally 53:10-12 his reward.  But as we turn our attention to this final section according to this outline, beginning with verse 10 we find, “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief.”  That doesn’t sound much like a reward thus far.  However, if we keep reading, we find that the reward for Christ’s life, suffering, and submission is that “he shall see his offspring.”  Now, this isn’t a genetic offspring of course.  Despite how many people might have taken Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code to be factual instead of fictional, Jesus never married nor had children.  No, this isn’t about genetic offspring, but all those who come to life through Jesus’ death.  “Out of the anguish of [Jesus’] soul he shall see and be satisfied…[God] will divide him a portion with the many…he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”

                I’ll say again what I said last week, that even in God’s being just and punishing us for our sin, he didn’t leave us completely destitute and without hope.  Even in our failing to fulfill our part of the covenant of works that existed between God and mankind, God did not give us what we fully deserve.  The punishment for the breaking of a covenant, a bond in blood, was death.  We should have been put to death, Adam and Eve should have been instantly killed and humanity ended right then and there in the Garden, but they weren’t.  Sure, Adam and Eve (along with all of mankind), were cut off from God and banished from the Garden, but we were never abandoned and forsaken.  Banishment and abandonment are two very different things in terms of our relationship with God.  Banishment from the Garden simply meant that we could no longer enjoy things as God initially created them.  Abandonment would have meant that God completely turned his backs to humanity, and we know that isn’t true.  We have the entirety of Scripture after Genesis 3 that attests to that fact, as well as the ways that God has worked in this world since the completion of the cannon of Scripture. 

                Let me bring all of this back in and connect our text with our series for what little time I have left.  We fell in the person of Adam; we sinned and broke the covenant that existed between God and mankind.  God, instead of giving us what we deserved (death), promised to send a Messiah, a Redeemer into the world.  Until that time, God’s people were given rules and regulations as to how they were to live lives that honored God.  One of those rules was our text from Leviticus 4 about offering sacrifices to atone for our sins.  We saw that one of the sacrifices was to be a lamb, an unblemished lamb.  We saw last Sunday John the Baptist identify Jesus (mind you prior to any miracles or any other aspect of his earthly ministry) as the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of mankind.  So, how was Jesus going to accomplish that?  Well, he was going to have to suffer.  He was going to have to receive the punishment that should have befallen Adam, that should have befallen Eve, and that should fall upon each and every one of us.  And not only was this punishment of death going to have to fall upon him, but he was going to have to fulfill the covenant of works that Adam (and consequently the rest of mankind) could not.  He was going to have to be completely obedient to the will of the Father during his life upon this earth.  Ultimately, the one who knew no sin become sin for us.  He was “numbered with the transgressors…and [made] intercession for the transgressors.”

                “Behold, the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sin of the world.”  The Lamb of God came to this world to suffer and die on our behalf.  He came to pay the price for our sins just as an unblemished lamb did during the sacrificial system prior to Christ’s work.  However, the precious blood of the Lamb of God covers all the sins of mankind and not just the sins of that one person for the moment.  And in the midst of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, he became not only the slain Lamb of God, but the Shepherd of God’s people.  After his ascension into heaven, where he sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, he now watches over his sheep, whom he has given the gift of eternal life.

Leviticus 4:32-35; John 1:29 "Behold, the Lamb of God"

                Back a few years ago, when we walked through the Gospel according to John, we came across this passage in the first chapter that says, “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’”  Now, I know that all of you who were here that day remember everything I said about this passage back then so there’s really no need to go over it again.  However, just in case you happen to have missed that particular Sunday, I’ll give you some bullet points about this phrase spoke by John the Baptist that we covered that Sunday.  I said that that title Lamb of God (Angus Dei in Latin) was (and still is) a prominent one within Christian scholarship.  Within Scripture, the title itself is only used in John’s Gospel and later on when he wrote the book of Revelation.  Now, obviously, there are many more references to lambs, sheep, or rams, and particularly sacrificial or slain lambs in Scripture, but these are the only books that make the direct connection between Jesus and this title Lamb of God.  However, we hear this title given of Jesus and we probably never really stop and think about what it means to be the Lamb of God.  Why a lamb?  Why are we told about the Lamb of God and the Lion of Judah?  Well, it’s my hope that today, and over the next several weeks as we lead up to the culmination of our Easter celebration, that we will all come to understand both the significance of the title Lamb of God, as well as maybe getting a better understanding of the place that the imagery of the lamb, sheep, or ram has in our worship and understanding of God.

                The book of Leviticus, the place where our first reading this morning came from, is in essence God’s guide to holiness, God’s guide for us on how to live holy lives.  In its original context, it was God’s instructions for Israel, his chosen people, fresh out of slavery and newly redeemed, as to how they were to worship, serve, and obey their holy God.  Roughly the first half of the book is devoted to how they are to approach God, with the first seven chapters being about how they are to approach him through sacrifices.  Well, right in the middle of those first seven chapters, we find the words for our text today, talking specifically about the sacrificing of a young, unblemished lamb.  And as we see, there wasn’t much room for interpretation, the instructions we detailed and they were clear.  The priest had a very specific formula or format that he had to follow.  I’ve become quite adept at putting together children’s toys over the past few years.  When they say put pieces B and C together before pieces D and E, they mean it.  There is no room for variation in those things.  Well, worship of God, especially for Old Testament Israel, was equally as structured and rigidly ordered.  There was a specific process that had to be followed by the people and the priests in order for it to be satisfactory in God’s sight.

                Now, I’m going to address what is sort of the elephant in the room when we start to get into discussions about the sacrificial system set forth by God in the Old Testament.  People always ask why sacrifices had to be made anyway.  What was the purpose of killing such an innocent creature?  Why would God command us to kill such a sweet animal?  Just get online and Google pictures of a lamb (not now of course, but when you get home), and you’ll find nothing but pictures of these sweet little uncoordinated animals, these baby sheep.  And not only are they lanky and uncoordinated, but they’re dumb.  They’re so dumb that you have to save them from themselves.  I have never sheered a sheep, but my wife has.  She had to do it as part of her course of study in college, and she can tell you just how dumb they are, and that’s coming from a person who has said in complete honesty on multiple occasions that many animals that she has dealt with are a lot smarter than many people that she’s dealt with.  Getting back to the point, how could God command his people to kill and sacrifice these precious creatures, regardless of their lack of intelligence?

                Well, the answer is that it’s your fault.  It is completely and totally your fault that these animals had to be put to death.  You see, it’s because of sin that these sacrifices were required.  God was and is and forever will be a just God.  However, we often don’t really understand what it means when we say that God is just.  This past week, I found one source trying to answer what exactly we mean when we say that God is just that said, “The Bible tells us that God is just.  This means that He is fair and impartial.  It also means that He hates the ill-treatment and oppression of people and of nature, which He has created.  He hates lying, cheating, and other forms of mistreatment of others.  The fact that God is just means that He can and will judge between right and wrong and He will administer justice in accordance with His standards.”  Now, I do agree with some of those words.  However, I think that that particular definition focuses a little too much on the external behavior or mankind. Basically, God’s being just means that there is a punishment for sin, i.e. a punishment for disobedience.  If we disobey God’s will in any way, then he has to punish us.  Also, let me add a little something else to the mix.  God’s being just isn’t just true in the negative, but also in the positive.  Before we confessed our sins this morning in a time of prayer, I quoted to you (as I always do) a text from 1 John (God, who is faithful and just, will cleanse us of all unrighteousness).  You see, just simply means that God is a god of promise.  We might want to say that he is a man of his word (pardon my heresy for calling God a man).  In essence, if God said it, then he means it.

                Now, I’m not the perfect parent; I know that.  My wife isn’t the perfect parent.  My kids aren’t perfectly behaved; I know that too.  However, last weekend, while we were out of town so that I could officiate a wedding for a long-time friend, we attend worship on Sunday at another friend of mine’s church before going to eat lunch with some of Amy’s close friends from the Jackson area.  There were 16 of us in one spot, with half of the group being six years old and under, and all but one of those being four years old and under.  Y’all, it was chaos.  There were kids running around, climbing on walls, running into the kitchen, hanging on stairs, and our three were sitting right where they were supposed to be.  We didn’t criticize our friends or their kids.  We didn’t criticize their parenting strategies.  However, one of the parents asked me later on how we got our kids to sit so still.  I looked at Ashby and asked her why they were being so good and she said, “because mom and dad told us that we had to sit at the table and eat our lunch and we know that if we don’t, then we’re going to be in trouble.”  You see, I watched as our friends gave threats, tried bribes, attempted timeouts, but largely never really meant any of what they were saying.  You see, Amy and I have missed out on things before because we’ve had to carry out punishments.  Amy can tell you that really my only rule of parenting is that you, as the parent, be willing to follow through on any threat you make.  Thomas and I have sat over on the bench together before and watched as his brother and sister played on the playground.  Would I have liked to be over there playing with my children?  Sure, but I bet Thomas would have liked to be over there even more.  However, we set a standard and it wasn’t lived up to.  Therefore, we had to be just in carrying out the punishment.  We don’t do this because we’re mean, but because we love our kids.  You see, loving our kids is teaching them how they are to act and why it is important instead of letting them do whatever they want and letting them decide everything for themselves.

                I’m sure a lot of you are wondering how we went from the Lamb of God to sacrificing sheep to my parenting strategies.  Well, let me tie all of this back together with the time that I have left.  Sacrifices had to be offered because God had to punish us.  God set a standard that was perfection, and we fell short of that standard in the persons of Adam and Eve.  Therefore, God, being just, had to punish us.  Now, we know that there wasn’t enjoyment on the part of God, just as I don’t enjoy disciplining my kids.  However, like parental discipline, God punishes us not because of hatred for us, but because of love.  You see, in that punishment, in that discipline from love in the Garden, God promised that he was sending Jesus, the Lamb of God.  Now, obviously Genesis 3:15 doesn’t spell it out in precise terms, but through the continued revelation of God and the unfolding of his plan, we see it.  Because God is just, mankind had to pay a price for disobedience to God, but God, because of love, didn’t leave us destitute and without any hope.  God set forth a plan to send the Lamb of God into the world.  Man was punished with separation from God, banishment from the Garden, and ultimately death.  However, God, through his love, was giving us the Lamb of God.

                So, we’ve sort of come full circle between our texts haven’t we?  We’ve seen the need for the sacrifice of lambs; which in turn points us to the ultimate sacrifice of a lamb, the Lamb of God.  You see, Jesus’ death was sacrificial because it was not warranted.  Death is only for those who sin and do not completely obey the will of the Father.  Jesus obeyed completely.  There was not one aspect of God’s will or his law that Jesus didn’t fulfill.  And through the work of the Holy Spirit that perfection, that righteousness, is credited to us.  We are made possessors of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  To borrow another line about sheep, 1 Peter 2:24-25 reads, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.  By his wounds you have been healed.  For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

                You see, Jesus’ death restores (at least to some extent) our relationship with God.  It won’t be completely as it was in Adam until we enter into that final state of glory.  It can’t reach that point on this earth because as long as we live upon this earth then we are corrupted by sin.  Sin is a reality that is known in this world but not in heaven.  However, because of Jesus…because of the sacrifice that he made upon the cross, (as 1 Peter says) we have been healed.  Because of Jesus “we have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls.”  This table that sits before us this day, these elements of the bread and the cup, representing the body and the blood of Jesus, they represent our being healed by his wounds.  There’s nothing in them physically that does this.  This meal was instituted by Jesus during the Last Supper between the Lamb of God and his disciples, as a remembrance of the sacrifice made upon the cross.  During the moments that we have between now and our observing of this sacrament, I encourage all of you to think and reflect upon the fact that God is just, and being such, he had to punish us.  However, he did not leave us in our state of misery, but sent the name that is above all names, the Lamb that is above all lambs, to come and die so that we may have eternal life.