John 1:29-41
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”
32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”
35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ).
Look, the Lamb of God!
What do you do when you see something really cool? “Hey Don, did you see McDavid’s goal last night? You have to check out this replay.” “Oh man, look at that moose. It’s majestic.” Or, if you are my 2-year-old son and you see one of the 300 school buses that drives by every day, you go, “Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.”
When we see something amazing, we want to share that experience with the people we love. John the Baptist saw something amazing in our Gospel reading today: The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said,
“Look the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”[1]
That one sentence is a sermon in itself. There is so much in those 24 words both for us to marvel at, and for us to share with the people we love.
I think the first thing that stands out to me is who it was whom John saw. It was Jesus. For the first 30 years of his life, Jesus certainly would have stood out as a very nice man, e.g. reliable, trustworthy, kind, humble, generous, etc…, but that’s about it. No one would have looked at Jesus and said, “Surely you are God in the flesh.”
But when Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended on him in the form of a dove – apparently just as God told John he would – and then, if there were still any doubts, the heavens opened above them and a voice spoke from the clouds, announcing, “This is my Son who I love, with him I am well pleased.”
God revealed Jesus to John and to the rest of the eyewitnesses on the banks of the Jordan River as the long-promised Saviour of the World. Without that revelation, people may have thought that Jesus was a good guy, but not much more than that. But because of that revelation, John could see Jesus walking his way and say,
“Look the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”[2]
It may seem like a simple and obvious statement that you’d expect to hear in a Christian church that Jesus is the Son of God and the promised Saviour of the world. But whether you’ve that truth once or a thousand times, it’s still worth hearing again because it reminds us who Jesus really is and clarifies why we come to worship him.
Jesus was not just a nice guy whose example we have decided we want to follow, like Gandhi or Mother Theresa. Our congregation does not exist to feed the hungry, clothe the cold, or comfort the lonely. We may and should do those things, but they are not our purpose or our reason for gathering together every week.
Similarly, Jesus is not just a great teacher whose instruction we want to learn so that we can be wiser, so that we can have answers to life’s greatest questions. We don’t come to church to become philosophers. We don’t come to church to make sense of the world, or to find our place in it.
That’s why Jesus’ question to Andrew and John is so perfect. When two of John the Baptist’s disciples decided to follow Jesus, he asked them, “What do you want?”[3] Not, “Who are you looking for?” but, “What do you want?”
Unfortunately, we follow Jesus for all the wrong reasons. I’ve hit rock bottom and I don’t know where else to go. I’m sick or dying, and now I’m afraid. I’m looking for someone, something, anything to solve my problem. I’m lonely and looking for my people. I cherish the values I learned as a child and want to keep being a good person.
Now, don’t get me wrong, whatever it is that caused you to come to church, to look at Jesus with curiosity or hope, even for a second, is a tool in God’s hands to bring you to where you really need to be. And your God does care about whatever it is your going through, whatever problem you can’t solve, whatever anxiety you can’t calm. But when John saw Jesus, he didn’t say, “Look, here comes your Problem Solver; here comes your Mentor; here comes your Medicine Man.” He said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”[4] That’s what John was excited to see and share.
This world does need people to take compassion on each other. This world does need believers who buy in to what the Bible teaches. In short, this world needs Christians acting like Christians. But that’s the problem, isn’t it? We don’t always act like Christians.
We don’t always answer the call to help people in need, even when that call comes to our doorstep, much less when we have to go looking for people in need. We don’t always look for the wisdom of God from his Word. Instead, to make sense of the world we live in, we turn to popular psychology; to learn how to be a better parent we look for hacks on TikTok. Sometimes, we even come to church or read God’s Word or turn to him in prayer not because of who he is, but because of what we think we can get from him.
If there are elements of your life that feel messed up, they are only a symptom of the sin that lives in each of us, i.e. the sin that makes us selfish, the sin that indulges in harmful craving without caring about the consequence, the sin that ruins relationships, that separates us from our God, that even makes our coming to church all about me and what I can get from God rather than a celebration of who my God is.
But that’s why John was so excited, because when he looked at Jesus, he saw the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
When God organized the Jewish religion, he gave his people a symbol of their salvation – the sacrifice of innocent animals. Those animals hadn’t done anything wrong. In fact, God demanded that only the best lambs, without blemish or defect, were to be used for sacrifice. The people would lay their hands on those animals, symbolically passing their sin and guilt from themselves to the lambs, and then slaughter them on the altar of God to pay for their sins with that animal’s blood. Blood, death is the only thing that can pay for sin.
But all those animals for all those years were just symbols of salvation. They were all pointing ahead to the true Lamb of God who would take all our sin away.
I said before that to look at Jesus you would have seen a really nice guy – reliable, trustworthy, kind, humble, generous, etc… Well, that would be an understatement. He was perfect in every way. He always cared for other people. He always kept his priorities straight. He always did everything that a good person does, and he did it all for the right reasons – not for show or to get something from someone, but from sincere love for others and for his Father in heaven.
Another way you could say that is that Jesus was pure and spotless, a Lamb without blemish or defect. He was perfect in every way, which perfectly qualified him to be the perfect sacrifice for our sin. When Jesus went to the cross, it was as if each of us laid our sins on him, unburdened ourselves of our guilt and received the peace of his forgiveness. He took all our sins away. He paid for them with his holy, precious blood. He removed all our guilt from us forever when he died on that tree.
And yet that’s not exactly what John says here, is it? John doesn’t say, “Look, the Lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world,” or, “who did take away the sin of the world.” He says, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” i.e. “who is taking… who keeps taking… who continually takes your sin away.”
That’s the comfort you have knowing that Jesus is the Lamb of God. No matter how many sins you commit, no matter how many times you fail in your calling as a father or mother, a neighbour or a friend, no matter how many times you fall back into that same sin you just can’t shake, Jesus takes that sin away too. He is your never-ending, all-sufficient Lamb of salvation who takes every one of your sins away.
That’s why we come to church week after week. It’s not to become better people. It’s not to serve our community. It’s not even to become Bible scholars. It’s to be forgiven, to live in the grace of our God that sent his Son to be the Lamb of sacrifice to take all our sin away. We come here to hear those glorious words at the start of almost every service:
God, our merciful Father, has forgiven all our sins. He sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Redeemer and Savior. Jesus paid the penalty for our guilt by his death on the cross and freed us from death by his resurrection from the grave. We have peace with God now and forever.
It’s little wonder, then, that John the Baptist got excited when he saw Jesus. “Ooh, ooh, ooh! Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” It’s little wonder that the Apostles John and Andrew went and found their brothers James and Peter and said,
“We have found the Messiah!”[5]
That’s the joy and excitement we have every time we hear God’s Word, and that’s the opportunity you have everyday to say to someone you love, “Look, I can’t cure your disease or addiction; I can’t solve your problem, but I can point you to the one who supplies your greatest need. Look, the Lamb of God who takes your sin away. Let me show you Jesus, not for what earthly benefits he may offer, but for who he is, your loving Saviour, who shoulders your every sin, who bears your every burden, who frees you from guilt and shame and who gives you the hope of heaven. Look, the Lamb of God, who takes all your sin away!” Amen.
[1] John 1:29
[2] John 1:29
[3] John 1:36
[4] John 1:29
[5] John 1:41