LIFE IS A ZOO
THE LAMB
COMMUNION SUNDAY
DR. JIM DIXON
JOHN 1: 19-30
JULY 18, 2004
In the 1st century in the city of Jerusalem, John the Baptist was the center of great controversy. People were coming to him from north, south, east, and west. They came from the Mediterranean. They came from across the Jordan. They came from Dan. They came Beersheba. They came from everywhere, and he baptized them in the Jordan River and they became his followers. The Jewish authorities in Jerusalem wanted to know who this guy was. They knew the prophecies. They knew that it was prophesied that the Messiah would come. They knew that there was another prophecy that Elijah would reappear before the great and terrible day of the Lord. This was the doctrine of Elijah Redivivus, found in Malachi, chapter 4, verse 5.
They also knew the prophecy concerning the prophet—Deuteronomy, chapter 18, verses 15-18. The prophet would arise, one who was a kind of second Moses. And so, they came to John and they said to him, “Who are you?” “Are you the Christ?” He said, “No.” “Are you Elijah?” He said, “No.” For although he came in the spirit of Elijah and in some sense filled the doctrine of Elijah Redivivus, he was not literally Elijah and he said, “No.” “Are you the prophet?” He said, “No.” “Who are you?” He quoted Isaiah, chapter 40, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness to make straight the way of the Lord.” John the Baptist had come to reveal the Messiah. He had come to introduce the Christ. When he saw Jesus, he introduced Him in this way: “Behold, the Lamb of God.”
This morning we come to the subject of the Lamb. Israel was a land of sheep and shepherds. Sheep ranches were critical to the economy of Israel. Sheep produced clothing in the form of wool. Sheep produced food in the form of milk, mutton, and lamb. I don’t know how many of you like lamb. Lamb is rich in protein. It is rich in B vitamins, rich in phosphorous and iron. I love lamb—not for any of those reasons, but I love lamb because to me it tastes good. And yet you really can’t just serve lamb when you have people come over to your house because in America not that many people like lamb. It’s popular in England, popular in Australia, popular in New Zealand, popular in Greece, but not here in the United States.
Of course, in Israel in the time of Christ, lamb was rarely eaten. Most of the sheep that was eaten was in the form of mutton. They couldn’t afford to slay the animal when it was young. They needed years of wool production. Usually when they got around to eating the animal, it had become mutton. Yet in the Bible, because sheep and shepherds are so prominent, you see a figurative use of sheep and shepherds and lambs and of course the concept of the lamb in the Bible is often used symbolically. Above all else in the Bible, the lamb is a symbol of Christ.
This morning on this Communion Sunday, we seek to understand why the lamb is a symbol of Christ. We have to look at three images of the lamb in the Bible. The first image is this: The temple lamb. The Bible speaks of the temple lamb. Today you can go to Jerusalem (many of you have) and you can go up on the Temple Mount. There on the Temple Mount, you will see a building. That building is sacred to the Muslims of the world. That building is called the Dome of the Rock, and it is called the Dome of the Rock because it stands over the Rock Moriah. It stands over the Rock of Abraham. It was on that rock 4,000 years ago, as recorded in Genesis, chapter 22, that Abraham the Patriarch was about to offer up his son Isaac. A lamb was provided in the thicket. God provided the lamb that took the place of the son of Abraham.
Now, scientists and archeologists tell us that the Rock of Abraham, the Rock Moriah, that rock on the Temple Mount, for 2,000 years was used for sacrifice. There is scientific evidence of that, and you can go in the cave beneath the rock and there’s evidence of centuries and centuries of animal sacrifice. Of course, we understand why, because the temple was once built over that rock. The Temple of Solomon, the Temple of Zerubbabel, Herod’s Temple, the Temple of God, and the Jewish Temple were there on that rock. Of course, they are there no longer. Now the Dome of the Rock stands there and the Dome of the Rock is, for the Jews, a desecrating sacrilege. I think it is safe to say that as long as the Dome of the Rock stands on the Temple Mount, Jew and Arab will never get along, not in this age of the world.
As you look at the Temple, you might think of many things. When you think of the Temple, you might picture many things. Perhaps you think of worship. Perhaps you think of prayer. And certainly worship and prayer were associated with the Temple. But above all else, when you think of the Temple, you should think of sacrifice. It was a place of sacrifice. It was a place for the Temple lamb.
When we come to Exodus, chapter 29, we see how God declared the Temple lamb, that a lamb was to be offered at the Temple every morning and every evening, every day, every week, every year, every decade, every century, without cessation, in perpetuity. The Temple lamb was to be offered for the sin of the people. So, the Temple lamb was offered every morning and every evening without fail year after year. For the sin of the people the blood of the lamb was slain.
According to the Talmud, according to Talmudic literature, the sheep ranches that provided Temple lambs were all within a 5-mile radius of Jerusalem. As you think of the city of Jerusalem as a kind of epicenter with a circle, with a 5-mile radius, everything within that circle, every sheep farm within that circle was producing Temple lambs. Sheep that were produced for wool and for mutton were outside of that circle, but in that circle most of those sheep farms were producing Temple lambs.
Of course, this means that it’s possible that the shepherds of Bethlehem, to whom the angels announced the birth of Christ, were producing Temple lambs for the Temple sacrifice, because Bethlehem was exactly 5 miles from Jerusalem. If this is so, then when the angels announced to the shepherds the good news of great joy, “a Savior is born!” the angel was saying to those shepherds, “Your job is done! No need to produce any more Temple lambs. The sacrifices shall cease. The Lamb of God has arrived. The Lamb of God has come.” Jesus is the Temple Lamb, and with His death all sacrifices were to cease. He died for the sin of the world. The Lamb of God. The Temple Lamb.
Of course, this is the good news of the gospel, that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We all sin. I sin. You sin. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” But the beauty of the gospel is the Lamb of God has come. Perhaps in your heart there are sins of pride, what C.S. Lewis called the greatest of all sins. But Jesus is the Temple Lamb. He is the Lamb of God and if you would come to Him in repentance and say, “Create in me a clean heart, oh God. Put a new and right spirit within me,” you will experience His forgiveness.
Maybe in your heart you struggle with lust. But Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. If you would come to Him and say, “Create in me a clean heart, oh God. Put a new and right spirit within me,” you will experience His washing.
Maybe in your heart you struggle with racism. Jesus is the Lamb of God. If you would come to Him and if you would truly say, “Create in me a clean heart, oh God. Put a new and right spirit within me…” Maybe in your heart you struggle with anger or jealousy or envy. Jesus is the Lamb of God. “Create in me a clean heart, oh God.”
Maybe there’s a sin in your life that’s heavy on your heart. Maybe some time ago, or even recently, maybe you had an abortion. Maybe you had an abortion and you know that your life was not in danger and you know that you were not the victim of rape or incest and you know that there was no prediction of gross fetal deformity. You had an abortion. Perhaps you had been promiscuous. Perhaps you were simply making a belated effort at birth control, but it’s heavy on your heart because you know you did not value the sanctity of human life. But Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Come to Him. He has the power to forgive sin. This is the glory of the gospel. This is the mercy and the grace of the cross, if you would come to Christ as the Lamb of God, the Temple Lamb.
There’s a second image of the lamb in the Bible and that is the Passover Lamb. In addition to the Temple Lamb, the Bible speaks of the Passover Lamb. To understand this, we need to go back to ancient Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. I know most of you have heard of Ramses II. Ramses II was one of the greatest pharaohs of Egyptian history. He was a great builder. It was Ramses II who in the 13th century before Christ, built a new capital in the Nile Delta. It was Ramses II who built the Temple of Amun-Re at Karnak on the Nile River, a majestic structure.
It was Ramses II who built the two temples, the greater and the lesser Temples of Abu Simbel. Of course, those temples were majestic. He built them on the Nile in Southern Egypt. In front of the greater temple, Ramses II put, in all humility, four statutes of himself, each statue 67 feet high. Incredible. Of course, those statues still stand today. They’ve been moved to a different location because of the building of the Aswan Dam, and so nations donated money for the moving of those structures because they are so majestic. For centuries, historians believe that Ramses II was a greater builder than he actually was because, all over Egypt in every city whenever he saw a building, an edifice, a structure, a statue, or something he liked, he just put his name on it. He put his name on it because the man wanted all glory and he was filled with pride and with conceit.
There are some historians and some church historians who believe that Ramses II was the Pharaoh of the Exodus. I personally do not believe that, but I do believe this. I believe that whoever the Pharaoh was, he was a lot like Ramses II because he was prideful, he was arrogant, and he was filled with conceit.
So, you look at the Book of Exodus, you look at chapter 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and12, and in those chapters you see a description of God’s dealing with this pharaoh. God says, “Let My people go!” God speaks to Pharaoh through Moses. God says, “Let My people go!” Of course, the Egyptians were holding the Jews in bondage in Goshen. This pharaoh said no, so God sent the ten plagues. The first plague was blood. God turned the Nile to blood. Fish died and the waters were polluted. The second plague was frogs, an infestation of frogs throughout the land of Egypt. The third plague was lice or gnats, depending on how you render the Hebrew word. The fourth plague was fleas. The fifth plague was plague. The cattle of Egypt were smitten with the plague. The sixth plague was boils, boils on the skin of man and beast throughout Egypt. The seventh plague was hail. Peals of thunder and lightning and hail fell in Egypt such as Egypt had never seen. The eighth plague was locusts. An infestation of locusts covered the land, devouring the crops. The ninth plague was darkness. The sun, moon, and stars did not give their light.
In all of this, the pharaoh hardened his heart. “Let My people go!” The pharaoh said no, and so God sent the tenth plague which you know to be the angel of death. The angel of death came to destroy the first-born in every household as a judgement of God. The Jews and the people of the Jews and the families of the Jews were spared by the Passover Lamb, by the blood of the Passover Lamb, and by the guidance and instruction of God. They took the blood of the Passover Lamb and they put that blood on the doorpost of every Jewish home and the angel of death passed over and they were delivered from death. The Passover Lamb is celebrated at the Passover Feast of the Jews to this day.
Of course, in 1 Corinthians, chapter 5, the Bible says, “Jesus is our Passover Lamb. He delivers us not only from sin, but He delivers us from death. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same nature that by His death He might destroy Him who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver those through fear of death are subject to lifelong bondage.” Jesus is the Passover Lamb.
We all face death. Death comes for us all. You may have noticed that the death rate is pretty much 100%, and we’re getting older. I’m getting older and death comes for us all. Some of us will die quickly and violently, maybe a heart attack. It could be a car accident. In 30 years of ministry, I’ve seen many such deaths. Some of us will die slowly and painfully with a long struggle with cancer. In 30 years of ministry, I’ve seen many of those deaths. Some of us will die in old age, peacefully and quietly. We’ll just go to bed one night and wake up in the hands of Christ. I hope and pray that’s how you die, but death comes for us all.
You don’t need to fear death if you have Jesus because Jesus is the Passover Lamb, and the angel of death will move right on by if the blood of the lamb is on your house. So, come to Christ. Come to Christ. Take Him as the Temple Lamb. Take Him as the Passover Lamb. You need not fear death.
There is a third image of the lamb in the Bible, and that third image of the lamb is the heavenly lamb. We see this image all through the Bible but particularly in the Book of Revelation. Jesus is the heavenly lamb as well.
This is an exciting time for astronomers—not astrologers, but astronomers. It’s an exciting time for them, for cosmologists, for scientists. It’s an exciting time because the Cassini-Huygens Probe has arrived at Saturn in our solar system. It’s amazing what we’re beginning to see through this probe and through this spacecraft as it moves through the rings of Saturn and examines the moons of Saturn. There are seven greater rings, A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Scientists believe they were probably formed by exploding moons. Those seven rings probably represent seven one-time moons that exploded, either because of gravitational forces or impact with a meteor. The debris just continues in these rings around Saturn.
There are at least 31 moons that remain surrounding Saturn and this Cassini Probe will examine 9 of them and particularly the moon called Titan, the only moon in our solar system known to have an atmosphere, which is a mysterious place. The Cassini-Huygens Probe will pass Titan 45 times and then finally the Huygens sub-Probe will be set down onto the planet of Titan. It’s going to be an exciting moment. It only lasts three hours because the temperatures on Titan are -300 degrees Fahrenheit.
A lot of mysteries will be solved, mysteries concerning the rings and mysteries concerning the moons. As Christians, of course we know who is Lord of the rings, and as Christians we know who hung the moon. These things are not mysteries to us. It is Jehovah Sabaoth. Jehovah Sabaoth, the Bible says, the Lord of Hosts, Lord of the Angelic Hosts and Lord of the Heavenly Hosts, Lord of the Starry Hosts. And He is worshipped on earth. He’s worshipped today. He’s worshipped here and He’s worshipped in heaven, but here’s the amazing thing.
In Revelation, the 5th chapter, we see worship given to Him who is seated upon the throne and to the Lamb. “To Him who is seated upon the throne and to the Lamb belong glory and honor and majesty and dominion and power.” The Heavenly Lamb. And we know who the Heavenly Lamb is. It’s Christ exalted, Christ ascended. Twenty-eight times in the Book of Revelation the word “arnion,” the Greek word for lamb, is used—the Heavenly Lamb, Jesus Christ. The word arnion and the word “amnos” both are words for lamb. And there’s the word “probates,” or “probaton,” the word for sheep. But arnion is exclusively used of the Heavenly Lamb, Jesus Christ exalted and in glory.
In that same chapter, Revelation 5, we see Jesus called the Lion of Judah, and He opens the seals of judgement. John looks in his vision to see the Lion of Judah and he sees the lamb slain but with seven horns, symbols of power in apocalyptic literature. The lamb is the lion and the lion is the lamb. Jesus has power.
You’ve got to decide who Jesus is to you because one day He’s going to judge the world. He describes it in Matthew 25 in the Olivet Discourse. He said, “When the Son of Man comes in power and great glory, He will sit on His glorious throne and before Him will be gathered all the nations and He will separate them one from the other as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” Jesus will judge. Jesus said, “The Father judges no one but has given all judgement to the Son that all might honor the Son in the same way as they honor the Father.” Jesus said, “I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.”
In the Book of Revelation, what we see mentioned in Revelation, chapter 3, chapter 13, chapter 17, chapter 20, and chapter 21 is the Book of Life. The Book of Life is called the Lamb’s Book of Life. You know what the Book of Life is? It’s also mentioned in Philippians 4, Hebrews 12, and four different Old Testament passages. We are to think of the Book of Life as containing the names of the saved, those who are citizens of heaven, those who are bound for heaven.
Is your name in that Book? Remember, it’s the Lamb’s Book of Life. You say you believe in God. You’ve got to decide who Jesus is to you. It’s the Lamb’s Book of Life and He longs to save you because He loves you and He came to the cross and He shed His blood and His body was broken because He loves you. He’s charged you to take His message to the nations because He loves everyone in this world. He will one day judge everyone in this world. We do not judge. I make no judgements of anyone anywhere in the world, but I know this. If you come to Christ, you will be saved. You will be saved because He is the Temple Lamb and He takes away your sin. He is the Passover Lamb and He delivers us from death. He’s the Heavenly Lamb and He reigns, so He invites us to embrace Him as Temple Lamb, Passover Lamb, and Heavenly Lamb.
As we come to the table this morning and we partake of the bread and the cup, it is for those who believe. Their belief might not be perfect, there may be doubt, but they believe enough that they’ve made the commitment to consecrate their life to Christ, embracing Him as Temple Lamb, Passover Lamb, and Heavenly Lamb. That’s who the meal is for. If you’ve not done that, we want to give you a chance right now before we take communion to receive Jesus Christ. Let’s close with a word of prayer.