Listen here.

John 1:19-29

¹⁹ And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” ²⁰ He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” ²¹ And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” ²² So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” ²³ He said,

“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’
as the prophet Isaiah said.”

²⁴ (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) ²⁵ They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” ²⁶ John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, ²⁷ even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” ²⁸ These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

²⁹ The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

A more beautiful sermon has never been preached than John’s short, little sermon there: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” In this Gospel text, John does exactly what he was sent by God to do. He points everyone who was there listening to him and the rest of humanity, including us, to Jesus. In that thirteen-word, one sentence sermon, John takes all the theology of the Old Testament and all of the religious practices and ceremonies and worship God had given to His people and piles it all on Jesus. Christ fulfills it all (Jn. 5:39; Lk. 24:27; Ro. 15:8; 2 Cor. 1:20).

Consider the Day of Atonement. That day was the only day that someone could enter the most holy place in the Temple. Only the high priest could enter on that one day. On that day, the people took two rams and flipped a coin to determine which one would be sacrificed and which one would be the scapegoat.

The high priest would take the scapegoat and bring it into the midst of the people, place his hands on the head of the goat, and confess all the sins of all the people over the previous year (Lev. 16:21). All their idolatry, blaspheming, and Sabbath-breaking. All their rebelliousness. All their murderous and adulterous ways. All their theft, lying, and discontentment. All those sins would be placed on the head of the goat which would then be led into the wilderness and away from the people.

Hebrews 10(:3) says, “It impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins,” but those goats could and did preach about the One who would come and take away the sins of the people. Those goats pointed the people to the Messiah who would bear the sin of the world in His body (1 Pet. 2:24). That was the point of all the sacrifices in the Old Testament – to preach about Jesus who would remove sin. When you saw any of the sacrifices – a bull or sheep or ram or pigeon burning there on the altar – you knew that animal didn’t do anything, it hadn’t committed those sins. But it pleased God to take the sins of the people and have them relocated to that animal. And as you saw that animal being killed and burned, you realize, “That should be me, but God accepts the death of another, He accepts a substitute, for my sin.”

That is what John is doing when he points to Jesus and preaches, “Behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” John is saying, “Here is the One who dies in your place. Here is Jesus, the One who has all of your sin upon Himself.”

John wasn’t just preaching about the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement and the sacrifices. He was also preaching about the fulfillment of the Passover (Ex. 12). Remember, the people were slaves in Egypt, and God sends plague after plague to get Pharaoh to let His people go, but Pharaoh refuses. So, in the final plague, God sends the angel of death to go through the land of Egypt. But God’s people were to take a lamb. They were to slaughter that lamb and smear some of the lamb’s blood on the door of their house and eat the rest of the lamb roasted that night. And when the angel would see the blood on the door, he would pass by.

Again, when John points at Jesus, he is preaching, “Here is the one whose blood marks your door and guards you from the wrath of God.”

John is preaching about the fulfillment of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac. For years, God had promised Abraham that He would give Abraham a child in his old age and through that child God would bless all the nations of the world. Finally, Isaac was born, but God told Abraham to offer Isaac as a burnt offering (Gen. 22). God wasn’t testing Abraham’s obedience with this crazy command; He was testing Abraham’s faith. God had promised that through Isaac, He would raise up the Messiah. And Abraham believed God’s promise that he would have great-great-great-grandchildren through Isaac even if he sacrificed Isaac on top of the mountain. Hebrews 11(:17-20) says that Abraham figured that God would raise Isaac from the dead because God had to keep His promise. Abraham believed that Isaac, the child of promise, wouldn’t stay dead. Abraham believed that God would be faithful. But God provided another way of keeping the promise. The angel stopped Abraham’s hand from sacrificing Isaac. And there in the thorns was a ram caught by its horns, and it was sacrificed in Isaac’s place. After this, Abraham named that place “God provides” because God provided Himself as the sacrifice (Gen. 22:8).

And on that very mountain, the Temple would be built. On that mountain and in that Temple, God would continually accept the death of another in place of the children of promise. And now, John says, “Here is Jesus, the Lamb of God, the one who trades places with you, sinner.”

One more. Let’s go all the way back to the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3). Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. They believed the devil’s lie instead of God’s Word. Their eyes are opened, and they realized they were naked. To try and cover their shame, they sewed fig leaves together. Those leafy clothes are like every other human religion; they don’t work. They don’t cover their sin and shame – especially when God shows up. Then, when God comes into the Garden, Adam and Eve try to hide from God. God gives them all sorts of chances to repent, but their sin has made them so afraid of punishment that they continually try to hide behind the leaves of their excuses. God warns them about the curses that have come because of their sin, but He also promises that He will send the Seed of the woman who will crush the serpent’s head.

God had said that on the day Adam and Eve ate that fruit they would surly die (Gen. 2:17), but they didn’t die that day. Instead, Adam and Eve watch God take an animal, who hadn’t done anything wrong, and kill it. This was the first time in all of creation that something died. God hung that animal up and stripped the skin from its lifeless body as blood stained the ground. And God wraps that skin around the shameful, sinful bodies of Adam and Eve.

Scripture doesn’t record this, but it invites us to imagine Adam and Eve watching God do all of this. And you can imagine them in their shock and horror asking God, “Is this what it takes to cover our sin and shame?” And imagine God responding, “No. This is only preaching. There is a sacrifice to come.”

That sacrifice is Jesus, God’s own Son. Prior to Jesus, all of the Scriptures tell the story of Jesus coming to be that Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. And all of the Scriptures would have you believe that God lays on Jesus the sin and iniquity of you and me and of the whole world (Is. 53:6).

This short, beautiful sermon of John takes all of these pictures and points you to Jesus as the fulfillment – not the picture. He is the One who actually bears your sin in His body. This Jesus, who knew no sin, became your sin, so that in Jesus you might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21).

Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Did you catch that? The sin of the world. That means this Jesus takes away your sin. God’s anger falls on Jesus, not on you. When you see Jesus on the cross, you say, “That should be me. But Jesus, my Savior, has willingly taken my place under God’s wrath so that I can take my place with Him in eternal life.”

Dear saints, this Christmas remember that Jesus is born to be your Substitute and your Savior. He, and He alone, takes away your sin now and forever. Amen.[1]

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

[1] I am thankful for a sermon from Pr. Bryan Wolfmueller for much of the content of this sermon.