Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] All right.
[00:00:02] I don't know about you guys, but when it rains hard like this, I just can't help but look outside and then watch it rain. Are you like that as well?
[00:00:10] So if you look that way, I'm not going to be offended if you look that way often or you look up and hear the rain on the roof, because it's what it is and we can enjoy it, I guess. Since we're in a nice warm building.
[00:00:25] As the children make their way back to children's service and all the adults who help with that, the rest of us will be turning to John chapter one.
[00:00:36] We'll be looking at verses. I say verse is. I told Pastor Duba that you may have to pick up at verse 30 next week because verse 29. There's a lot. There's a lot in that verse and especially in light of today's world. And we'll talk about that as we move forward.
[00:00:56] But let's pray and we'll get started. Father, thank youk so much for your presence here today. Lord, thank youk for your spirit that is active and moving. Lord, thank youk for bringing those who are here for the first, second, third time, maybe a lot, but yet they've yet to fully believe and accept yout as our Lord and Savior. Thank you for your spirit that is active and moving in the hearts. Father, help me today to speak clearly or to just present your Word in a way that would be understandable and just beneficial to our growth and our love for you. Today we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:01:40] The title of the sermon, Behold the Lamb of God should have been back in December. But it's such an obvious part of this passage that really, there's no other title that would really fit this passage besides look, Jesus, the one who takes away the sins of the world.
[00:02:04] Especially today, as you know, in this season, this quarter, we're talking about evangelism. I think this is very approach appropriate passage of Scripture for us to remember one part of this passage that we seldom forget to emphasize. And as we look at the introduction, it says we live in a time in history where a strict biblical worldview is almost non existent. Do we believe that?
[00:02:31] It's what it is?
[00:02:33] Which of course leads to the lack of understanding of the biblical gospel. Worse, the need of the Gospel.
[00:02:41] The great deceiver has and is doing his best to disseminate the lie that we aren't sinners and the Savior isn't needed. Do you guys see that in the world today?
[00:02:55] It hasn't changed because when Jesus arrived, the Pharisees didn't really think they needed a Savior either, did they?
[00:03:03] They were self righteous. They thought that we had these rules. We were living by our rules, which is kind of weird. But it was that we're okay. We are good with God because we keep our little petty rules each and every day.
[00:03:20] This religion didn't need or want a savior. Their works were enough.
[00:03:25] And even today, other religions throughout history have reduced the importance of a savior and elevate the deeds and the efforts of man or just plain out reject the fact that there is even a God.
[00:03:40] And it's a lie. Since Satan and sin and death have been defeated by Jesus, right?
[00:03:46] Deception is the only ammo in the enemy's arsenal.
[00:03:51] The lie that people tell themselves. And we hear this. I don't know if you heard it before, but you begin to present the gospel and the need. And they say two words, okay, have you heard that?
[00:04:03] I'm okay.
[00:04:06] I don't need your Jesus. I don't need your gospel because I'm doing okay.
[00:04:14] I have a good life. I have a family, I support local charities. I volunteer all the time. I'm okay on my own. And that's a lie, isn't it?
[00:04:26] It's a lie from the enemy.
[00:04:29] If people are already telling themselves that they're okay, then why are we as churches not telling them that they're not okay?
[00:04:40] It's part of evangelism, isn't it? In a very loving way. Say we have sinned. We have all fallen short of God's perfection and his glory, and we need a Savior.
[00:04:53] And how do we know we need a Savior?
[00:04:57] Because the scripture today tells us that we have sin that needs to be taken away.
[00:05:05] And in a world that is slowly dismantling the existence of God, and not just God, but a holy and just God.
[00:05:15] If there is no God who demands perfection, then no one misses the mark, right? If there's no perfection, then we're all okay.
[00:05:24] My efforts are enough.
[00:05:26] I don't sin. I'm not falling short of anything. Because the perfect lie is that I am my own person, my own God.
[00:05:36] And if no one sins or misses the mark, then there's no need of a savior, right?
[00:05:41] There's nothing to be saved from.
[00:05:45] John the Baptist, he didn't teach this. He came to prepare the way. As Pastor Duva preached last week and talked about to fill the valleys, to level it out, that Christ would come, that we would have a chance to repent. He said this in his messages in Matthew. He Says, repeat, for the kingdom of God is at hand.
[00:06:07] His opening line to the leaders in Matthew 3. 7 says, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
[00:06:16] There is that coming.
[00:06:20] The wages of sin is death.
[00:06:25] But as we see in this passage today, as John pointed out as Jesus came, and we'll read this in John 1, verse 29 through 34, the next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and he said, behold, look right there. Look at this man. This man, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Obviously, there's a sin problem, because Jesus had to come. There is a man who would take away the sin of the world.
[00:06:57] This is he whom I have said, after me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me. I myself did not know him. But for this purpose, I came baptizing with water that he might be revealed to Israel. And John bore witness. I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.
[00:07:18] I myself did not know him. But he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, he on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
[00:07:32] And I have seen and have bore witness that this is the Son of God.
[00:07:39] So we're going to spend the majority of our time on verse 29.
[00:07:45] And so I told Pastor Duba, if I don't get past this, then we're going to tag team, and he's going to pick up on verse 30 next week. It may happen, it may not happen.
[00:07:56] So who is this Lamb and the song we sang today? And what does he do?
[00:08:05] He saves us. He washes away our sin.
[00:08:11] So we read this verse again, and the first point, the fact is, and it's a true fact, he is the Lamb of God needed by the world. And in our state of evangelism, our world needs this Lamb of God, don't they?
[00:08:26] They need someone and understand the realization they have to have something to take away their sins.
[00:08:33] Because if nobody, if they don't recognize that, then they have no hope.
[00:08:40] The Lamb of God is needed by everybody.
[00:08:45] I mean, you look to the right and to the left. All of us here needed or need the Lamb of God, don't we? All of us here in this room had to have our sins taken away forever. None of us are exempt, nobody in the world is exempt of this Lamb that we need salvation through him.
[00:09:09] So the next day, as Jesus, or as he saw Jesus coming, he's baptizing the people there he's already spoken to the Pharisees, already told them that, you know, you guys aren't doing so well. And it says, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And we're going to, we're going to look at this and break this verse down and look at each part of this verse a little more in depth here. Some parts, other more than others. This lamb, Jesus. And you have this article there, and I'm not a big grammar person, but we all know that when you have the word the, it's very unique. It's pointed out to the one.
[00:09:50] And John is saying that this is the lamb because it has ramifications. Because throughout history, how many lambs were sacrificed to take away sins?
[00:10:01] A lot.
[00:10:03] And we're going to get there. But in the fact that this is the lamb that will take away, this is the one that does it right here. Guys, we've kind of been practicing and all this foreshadowing and all this time spent in doing this through repetition and sometimes mindless repetition and heartless repetition. But this is the man, this is the lamb who will take. This is him.
[00:10:26] He has arrived.
[00:10:30] Jesus is the one and only, the supreme lamb that will actually remove our guilt and our shame.
[00:10:39] Think about, I mean, how radical this sounded to the people there.
[00:10:46] But they were still in the midst of doing this part of the law to be obedient.
[00:10:55] But it really didn't do what needed to be done to literally and spiritually wash us clean so that we can have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ ourselves.
[00:11:08] Hundreds of years of going through these motions in order to have this relationship with God.
[00:11:22] He was the one and final sacrifice, as Pastor Duber read in Hebrews and we'll look at that again.
[00:11:31] They didn't get it.
[00:11:33] Some didn't want it.
[00:11:35] A lot didn't think they needed this lamb because of their own self righteousness.
[00:11:43] The next two words of God, this lamb was from God himself.
[00:11:50] Was it a lamb that they bred and went out to the pasture and picked? This was the lamb that God himself sent for our sins to be removed. Big difference, isn't there?
[00:12:01] This is the one, the lamb that God had prepared for before the foundations of the world.
[00:12:12] And what was even more radical, as Jesus would affirm later in the third chapter, is that the Father loved the world, not just the Jews. Now, now they're thinking that, you know, again, we will get to it, that this lamb was not just for you guys, it was for all people, that salvation was not just for you.
[00:12:34] And that rocked their world as well.
[00:12:37] How dare you? We are God's chosen people. Abraham is our father. And you're telling us that this lamb is for everybody?
[00:12:46] That everyone, your neighbor, the person who sits next to you at work, they are in need of this lamb.
[00:12:57] Are we communicating that?
[00:13:02] The next three words. We'll probably spend a little bit more time here.
[00:13:07] The lamb who does what takes away the sin.
[00:13:15] Leviticus 16. We can just read that and you see the same thing. It's just such a beautiful description of Jesus and what he does.
[00:13:23] He's all through that.
[00:13:25] Christ is the complete atonement for our sins. In many ways, he embodies the whole Leviticus 16 from the priests who are going about the business of the high priest and preparing and sacrificing for himself and his family. Jesus is all of that in Leviticus 16 from the high priest to the goat that goes off into nowhere land and doesn't come back.
[00:13:47] It always kind of bothered me. He's like, what if that goat came back and kind of peeked his head in your tent that night?
[00:13:53] That mean all your sins came back on you? He's like, I just never. I mean, how did they make sure that goat just stayed out there?
[00:14:01] But Jesus takes them away forever.
[00:14:05] Once and for all.
[00:14:08] He was the lamb that was slain from the creation of the world before the creation of the world as a sacrifice for our sins.
[00:14:17] He is that scapegoat that we read about in Leviticus 16, that God made him. Read this in 2nd Corinthians 5:21. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
[00:14:34] And we see this picture here as the priests laid their hands upon this scapegoat that they just prayed they didn't come back. Our sins were laid on Christ.
[00:14:45] He bore our sins just as a scapegoat bore the sins of the Israelites.
[00:14:51] But our sins were literally taken away personally.
[00:14:57] Isaiah 53:6 prophesies Christ's acceptance of this sin burden. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of all.
[00:15:14] Isn't that a beautiful thing?
[00:15:18] Everything that we have done and will done has been laid upon Jesus and it is gone.
[00:15:24] After the sins were laid on the scapegoat, it was considered unclean and driven into the wilderness. Just this picture that it's gone off into nowhere land.
[00:15:35] This goat was cast out. And the same thing happened to Jesus as he was crucified outside the city walls, taken upon our sin and left in the grave. As he rose again, he poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.
[00:16:04] Jesus embodied that scapegoat.
[00:16:07] What? That scapegoat represented the removal of sins from the perpetrators. Your sins are gone in Jesus Christ.
[00:16:18] He's also the lamb that was sacrificed for the atonement of sins. After all this was done, the scapegoat is gone, another goat was sacrificed, and then the priest would clean himself again. And then the lamb was taken and brought forth as that burnt offering. Jesus did all of that for us.
[00:16:41] And it's once and for all, isn't it?
[00:16:44] It's done.
[00:16:48] Takes away also is in the present tense, signifying the ongoing sufficiency of God's grace in Jesus Christ, a sacrifice in the fact that it is available at all times for every sinner who will trust him.
[00:17:08] The trillions and trillions of sins that were laid upon Jesus Christ are gone. The sins of today and the sins of tomorrow are taken care of once and for all.
[00:17:20] The shame that comes with that, the guilt that comes with that is gone.
[00:17:26] We don't have to live in that any longer.
[00:17:31] And deep down, the world knows that.
[00:17:35] But yet their heart gets hard. They reject it. They become their own gods. And they say, you know what? If I can make the rules a little bit easier, just like the Pharisees did, I make life a little bit easier. I can be good.
[00:17:49] I can attain this self righteousness, but deep down, it's there.
[00:17:57] I may have shared this story before and I tell my students, just shut up, Mr. Tolan, you've said this a million times, but this is a good, a good story. It's a real story. When we were in St. Louis, we met lots of different people.
[00:18:13] And one of the members of the church or whatever, he had married a Wiccan witch. And she was like, pretty like the woman in St. Louis.
[00:18:25] And we met her, you know, friendly, wanted to. I mean, just all these things that you would want in the purse, but you know that where she came from. They asked us over for dinner.
[00:18:37] And so we go over there for dinner and a lovely evening, great conversation, great meal. And, you know, then we started talking about Jesus.
[00:18:51] And I remember asking her, what do you do with the shame and guilt of doing wrong?
[00:19:04] And it was the. You remember?
[00:19:08] Yeah, she. It was like she just started heaving, sobbing because she had no answer.
[00:19:20] And all her acceptance of all the God. And she, you know, Jesus was a great person. All the things that we hear, everything she fully believed. But when it came down to what do you do with sin and the shame and guilt, she had no answer. And she started bawling and crying. Images like it was heaving. And she goes downstairs into her basement. We didn't know what she was doing down there. We were a little scared. But after about 20 minutes, she came back up and she was like, I'm okay now.
[00:19:49] But she had no answer for the shame and guilt and the separation from God.
[00:19:57] Another time I was at the food pantry there I got all this about this. I mean, I had so many stories about that. One more, I had these four Muslim men come up to me and just wanted to talk about religion. So we go to my office and it's a small office. It was like all of them and me. And we started talking about the same thing. And we mentioned that, you know, you serve a holy, just God. Yes, we do. And I go, what happens when you make a mistake?
[00:20:22] What takes away the guilt and shame of your mistake?
[00:20:28] And they got so quiet.
[00:20:31] I had no idea what was going to happen next. But they just walked out. Why? Because they didn't have an answer to taking away the sin, the shame and the guilt. And what is John proclaiming here? Jesus, the Lamb of God, takes all of that away.
[00:20:49] That's something the world needs to know. People, they don't have to live in that anymore.
[00:20:58] They don't have to be hopeless. And not knowing what happens after I die and the lengths that people go to to keep themselves alive forever or to be immortal is crazy.
[00:21:11] The fear of sickness and the fear of death, and we've seen that with recent events that we don't want to die because we don't know what happens next.
[00:21:20] But we do.
[00:21:24] Why?
[00:21:26] Because we can have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
[00:21:34] That sin, it takes away the sin, the original sin that has been the foundation to the trillions of sin that man has committed against God. That's it. The pride of man, the pride of life is the foundation to everything we do wrong, that we want to be God.
[00:21:53] And everything that we make right for ourselves because we are God is a sin against God. Everything that keeps us from loving God first with all of our heart, soul and mind is sin.
[00:22:03] Everything that keeps us from loving our neighbor as ourself is sin.
[00:22:10] And it's a very selfish sin that initiates all of that. That's the sin that is taken away and the Trillions of other things we've done.
[00:22:22] Thousands of years of men doing what is right by their own mind rather than the commands of God, that sin has been taken away even for us.
[00:22:34] We don't go very long without being selfish, do we?
[00:22:38] We don't go very long without thinking of ourselves first rather than our brother or sister in Christ.
[00:22:46] We don't go very long without having the attitude of Christ by humbling himself, stepping off his throne into this world and dying for us, putting us first. We are far from that. So often that's the sin that Jesus, the Lamb of God takes away.
[00:23:06] And praise him for that. Because we can't go very long without being selfish.
[00:23:14] The last word may have to pick up next week. Dr.
[00:23:21] The last word. Behold. And look, what is John saying here?
[00:23:29] Behold, John says, look, look at this man, Jesus.
[00:23:34] John doesn't say, look at me. I'm a great prophet, you know, preparing the way. No, look at this man who will actually do what needs to be done for you, take away your sin.
[00:23:46] He doesn't say, look at your good works, does he?
[00:23:50] Because they're going to save you.
[00:23:53] He doesn't say, look at your religious rituals by, you know, I do this every day. I have my whatever, my quiet time every day, and that's good enough.
[00:24:06] He doesn't say, look at your heritage or look at my church.
[00:24:15] He doesn't say, look at my checkbook and how much I give every month.
[00:24:20] Look at my calendar and look how many times I go to church to serve and do things. He doesn't say that. He says, look at the Lamb of God who takes away your sin.
[00:24:31] Behold that lamb.
[00:24:36] We can get very tired of trying to do enough, can't we?
[00:24:41] And even still, we think we've done enough. It's impossible.
[00:24:46] All we need is faith and believe by looking at the one who saves.
[00:24:55] Another quick story, not my story, but a good story nonetheless. We all know Charles, Charles Spurgeon, young man at 15. His dad was a preacher, his grandfather was a preacher. And he was struggling with this faith thing.
[00:25:16] Just, just almost like, how am I going to do this?
[00:25:21] Kind of reminds me of Luther, just like just pounding himself. How can I be good enough? But unrealizing the grace of God.
[00:25:30] So in the middle of the night or dark night, he goes to this small church. Not his dad's church, a small church, about 10 or 15 people. And the preacher's not there because it's like snowing, raining, crazy. Like, if we didn't show up, one of you would come up here. And start preaching. But the guy wasn't there. And this man gets up and he reads this verse. Isaiah 45:22 says, look unto me and be saved.
[00:25:56] All the ends of the earth, look at me.
[00:26:03] Look at the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God that takes away your sins.
[00:26:11] The words from this preacher, as Charles Spurgeon wrote down in his autobiography. He says this, my dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, look. Now, looking don't take a deal of pain. It ain't lifting your foot off your finger or your finger. It is just look. Will a man need to go to college to learn to look? You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man needn't be worth a thousand a year to be able to look. Anyone can look. Even a child can look.
[00:26:45] Even a child can put their faith in Jesus Christ.
[00:26:51] It doesn't take much to do that. And some of us want. I don't know. It's the lie that we need to be perfect. It's the lie that I have to know everything about Jesus. It's the lie that I need to know more. Just look and have faith, spurgeon went on to say. Then he pointed out that the text says, look unto me, not to yourself.
[00:27:18] He went on about 10 minutes or so, telling everyone who Christ was and that we're to look to.
[00:27:24] He seemed to be at the end of his tether when he looked directly at a young spurgeon and said, young man, you look very miserable. And you always will be miserable.
[00:27:35] Miserable in life and miserable in death if you don't obey my text. But if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved. Then he shouted, young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look, look, look.
[00:27:50] You have nothing to do but to look and live.
[00:27:55] Spurgeon said that he had been waiting to do 50 different things, but that word look cleared away the clouds.
[00:28:08] And we all know that he went on to be one of the greatest ministers and preachers of that time. And how many times he's still quoted today.
[00:28:20] And what does John the Baptist say?
[00:28:23] Look. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away your sins.
[00:28:30] It's a great message, isn't it?
[00:28:34] And I'm sure you know someone today who needs to hear that same message, just to say, look at Jesus.
[00:28:42] He's the one that will take away your sins and your shame and your guilt.
[00:28:51] Verse 30 and 31.
[00:28:53] This is less to do, but has to do next week.
[00:28:58] He is the greatest of them. These are a lot shorter points until we get down to the end a little bit more says this. This is he whom I said, after me comes a man who ranks before me because he was born or he was before me. I myself did not know him. But for this purpose I came baptizing with water that he might be revealed to Israel.
[00:29:24] And I think we have no trouble realizing that Jesus is the greatest lamb.
[00:29:30] He is the only lamb, the only person that can take away our sins.
[00:29:36] What makes him the greatest?
[00:29:40] Because he is God, as we will see at the end of this passage.
[00:29:46] Jesus makes this claim in John 8:58. Jesus answered, I tell you the truth before Abraham was ever born. I am.
[00:29:59] Jesus is the Son of God.
[00:30:03] And John would not and did not recognize him until he actually came down to the water, just a normal person like you and I.
[00:30:11] Nothing striking about Jesus which makes him so relatable, doesn't it, that he is just like us. He came to be baptized for the repentance of sins and was told the Messiah would have the Spirit come upon him as a dove, as we see that happen.
[00:30:31] And with that verse 32, he too was filled by the Spirit. What makes it even more like he was a man, but he was God. And we say we know that. But to realize that he came, he became flesh.
[00:30:49] He became one of us and like us, so that he could die in our place.
[00:30:56] And he too was filled by the Spirit. We say, well, he was part of the Trinity.
[00:31:02] But it makes it so much more like, yes, Jesus was a man, and he too had the power of the Spirit to do the ministry that he did. It's like we too need the power of the Spirit to do the ministry we're called to do.
[00:31:22] Verse 32 as John bore witness, I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.
[00:31:31] The Spirit was with Jesus the entire time he was here on earth.
[00:31:36] The Spirit was in him.
[00:31:39] Isaiah 11:1 told about this, and there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. And the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of the counsel and the might, and the Spirit of the knowledge of the fear of the Lord.
[00:31:59] And the word Hebrew in Hebrew, rest is to settle down and remain a permanent dwelling.
[00:32:12] Then Jesus spoke about this himself, going back to Isaiah 61 when he taught in the temple.
[00:32:19] He says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and covering the sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
[00:32:44] He wasn't destitute without the Spirit, but it was a way for God to affirm Jesus that he was the Son of God in whom he was well pleased.
[00:32:59] It shows the revelation of the Trinity at the outset of his ministry of God being the Spirit and the Son and the Father.
[00:33:11] Verse 33.
[00:33:13] He is the one who offers a new baptism.
[00:33:17] It says, I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, he on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain the this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
[00:33:31] John was baptizing with water, asking for the Jews to repent and to return to the first love to their God, to have that love for God that they lost, to have that love for one another that they lost.
[00:33:44] The Pharisees refused. And what did John call? He says, you're a brood of vipers. Basically, you are working for the enemy himself.
[00:33:57] We have been both born of the Spirit, regenerated and given the faith to believe in the work of Jesus Christ.
[00:34:05] The same Spirit would circumcise our heart, would just cut out the heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh.
[00:34:12] It would give us a spirit that we would crave God.
[00:34:20] And Jesus baptizes by that same Spirit.
[00:34:25] He changes us.
[00:34:30] I've used the analogy of two types of baptism. A water baptism, which basically just kind of washes off the dirt or the cleansing before a meal.
[00:34:41] But the baptism of the Spirit is. It's like a pickle. You can wash a cucumber a lot with water, but does it change it? Is it still a cucumber? Right.
[00:34:52] But if you set that cucumber in vinegar and let it sit for a while, what does it become?
[00:34:59] Becomes a pickle. Right?
[00:35:02] Jesus changes us from the heart.
[00:35:06] We are new.
[00:35:08] We're no longer that old self anymore.
[00:35:12] Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 5:17 that we are a new creation. The old has passed away. And the baptism of the Spirit, it does that to us.
[00:35:22] It gives us not only the regenerative life to actually believe in Jesus Christ, but it changes us from within that we are new creations and that the Spirit indwells us and rest in us.
[00:35:40] First Corinthians 12:13 Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have been baptized into the body by one Spirit, and we all share that same Spirit.
[00:35:54] Jesus promises that spirit in John 14 and that whole passage of Scripture in 14:15 talking about the coming of the Spirit, I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper to be with you forever.
[00:36:07] Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows Him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
[00:36:19] The fact that the very power of God himself in His Spirit has come to make Himself at home in some real degree is beautiful. But we are the temple, both individually and collectively, the temple of God.
[00:36:34] We have been baptized with the Spirit of God and have a new heart of flesh that will never change again, that we are these new creations.
[00:36:47] The idea is like, do we. It's once and for all, but do we always live in the full Spirit that we have as a follower of Jesus? We're empowered to live this life that God intended for us. And the key word is by submitting to the presence and power and the purpose of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Do we always submit well to the holy spirit?
[00:37:13] John MacArthur says the spirit kind of leaks out of us.
[00:37:19] It's there. I think what leaks is our, or what is waning is our submission to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, submitting to his will rather than us submitting to the Spirit of God that he has given us, to give us power to do the things that he's called us to do, to be the disciple makers that he's called us to be.
[00:37:43] We strive for the Spirit filled life by the constant renewing of our mind.
[00:37:50] That's why Paul tells us in Romans 12 that I mean, conforming to this world is not living by the Spirit to be transformed, to be different from this world. And we only do that by the constant renewing every day of our mind, reminding ourselves of who we are in Christ Jesus, reminding ourselves that we have the Spirit of God to empower us to do what he has called us to do.
[00:38:19] And one day is going to come, the day is going to come when we, like Christ, will reign in glory, fully endowed with the Spirit, living by the Spirit in the Spirit, in perfection for the rest of our life, and with God in Christ as well.
[00:38:38] And we can't even imagine what that's going to look like to fully live by the Spirit of God.
[00:38:47] Finally, Jesus is the Son of God.
[00:38:54] This man that John was pointing to, this man that has been spoken of in the first 28 verses, that Jesus the Word became flesh so that we would know that he was the Son of God, that would Take away our sins.
[00:39:15] Jesus is the eternal Son of God. He stands in the unique relationship with the Father.
[00:39:20] The Jews recognized that when Jesus called God his own Father, he was making himself equal with God. And that really ticked them off.
[00:39:32] He was to be a faithful witness.
[00:39:35] And we also to show that Jesus is the eternal Son of God in human flesh.
[00:39:42] That's why we're here.
[00:39:46] That's why we go out and we share.
[00:39:49] And that's what we remember today as well as we just take time now to share in this communion as the ushers will get ready. Just come on down when you're ready.
[00:40:04] This is time for us as a body of Christ to come together and to do a few things. If you're a visitor here and you are a child of God, you've placed your faith in Jesus Christ and you love him, join us today.
[00:40:23] But as we come together as a body, united together in Jesus Christ, we come to do a few things, to redeclare, to let anybody here know that our faith is in Jesus Christ alone.
[00:40:39] Our faith is in the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, that we come today as one, a body of Christ united by the same spirit, to remember what was done for us on the cross, to remember that our sins have been taken away by his sacrifice, that he took them upon himself, the shame and the guilt and the death, that we may have life ourselves.
[00:41:12] It's also together as a church. It's an expression of our relationship as a body of Christ, a love for one another that we as one, we're in agreement, we're in harmony and a commitment to the values and the vision of what God has called us to do. That together we are moving forward in the great commission to go and make disciples, that we do this together and finally that we're all in fellowship.
[00:41:46] The deep love that we have for one another as we share and participate in the work of Christ, as we share and participate in remembering what Christ has done for all of us collectively and the life that we have with Him.
[00:42:04] Just going to read from First Corinthians. Ushers, you can come down now, please.
[00:42:14] First Corinthians 11, starting at verse 23.
[00:42:28] For I have received from the Lord what I also deliver to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you.
[00:42:45] Do this in remembrance of me.
[00:42:47] In the same way he also took the cup after the supper, saying, this cup is a new covenant. In my blood.
[00:42:57] Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
[00:43:12] Paul would go on and say this. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Let's pray. Father, we thank youk for this cup, for the bread.
[00:43:28] Remember the sacrifice and the means by which you took away our sins.
[00:43:38] Lord, we thank you. We praise you for your son, Jesus Christ, obedient all the way until death, that we may have life with you forever.
[00:43:51] Lord, we love you. We thank you. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:44:02] We can leave today with the freedom and knowing and the peace of knowing that the shame and the guilt and the sins are gone forever.
[00:44:10] Don't let the world remind you of what you've done. Don't let yourself remind you. Live in that knowledge and rejoice in the knowledge that the Lamb of God came and took away your sins. Sins.
[00:44:24] And share that with somebody this week. Let's pray. Father, we are grateful. We are thankful we are here together because we love you. To rejoice in the truth of who we are in Jesus Christ.
[00:44:39] Or to be at peace and have hope for tomorrow, Lord, to be equipped with the knowledge that we can take and we can proclaim the truth. As someone who needs to hear. Hear it. Lord, I pray for that opportunity this week, maybe even today.
[00:44:57] Or that we would seize that opportunity and be bold in the proclamation of hope in the Lamb of God who takes away our sins.
[00:45:07] Father, we love you. We thank you. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.
