Month: January 2023

Jesus Appears As the Lamb of God

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(John 1:29-41)

We care quite a bit about our appearances in a number of different ways. Some care about how they look physically. They eat well and work out because body fitness and physique matter to them. Fashion and style matter more to others as far as appearance is concerned. They stay on top of who is wearing what and what’s in style and what’s not. But even those less concerned with how they look physically still care about how they appear to others. Social media also provides a platform that allows people to portray themselves as they want to appear to others. It doesn’t take very long to swipe through a person’s account to be able to determine how they want to appear – “car guy,” “dog lover,” or “sports nut” are just a few examples of appearances we see.

But we also know that how a person appears may not actually line up with who they are. Christians are not immune to this. In fact, it can be an extremely damaging thing to Christianity’s reputation. When Christians are more concerned with how they appear to others than who they actually are, there can even be eternal consequences. When the churchgoer mask or makeup comes off at home and who we are around other Christians ends up being a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde difference at home, that’s a significant spiritual matter. 

Yet if there is one individual for whom it is essential that reality matches appearance, it is the Savior. It is Jesus. It would not matter how Jesus would appear if he had not ended up being who he appeared to be. And that’s why this season of Epiphany is so important. At Christmas, the Savior appears, and during Epiphany, he is revealed to be the Savior that he appeared to be. The account recorded for us in John 1 reveals Jesus appearing as the Lamb of God.

John the Baptist pointed it out on back-to-back days: “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (v.29).  With this one sentence, John was making a monumental revelation about who Jesus was. To appreciate the significance of a lamb, consider every thought and feeling that immediately fills your mind whenever you see the image of a cross worn or displayed. There is so much meaning packed into just that one symbol that for us summarizes the basis of our relationship with God.

Now imagine the lamb carrying that same significance for Jewish people in John the Baptist’s day. Instead of a cross, people would have worn necklaces with lambs on them. A lamb would have been the picture on the T-shirt of believers. The lamb was the centerpiece of what we’d call their church services. The lamb represented sacrifice for sins that was absolutely essential for fallen man to have a relationship with a holy God. John, pointing to Jesus, revealed that he was that lamb, that sacrifice, that means to a relationship with God.

To make that matter even more certain, John emphasizes that he is “of God.” John hadn’t hatched some hair-brained idea to fleece his followers and deceive them into thinking Jesus was something that he wasn’t. This Lamb was “of God.” Jesus wasn’t some charismatic cult leader who paid John to promote him and start his own movement. This Lamb was “of God.” Sometimes believers describe an experience or event in their lives that was above and beyond chance or coincidence as being “a God thing.” They are demonstrating that things tend to carry more weight when God divinely intervenes. John was emphasizing the clout Jesus carried by describing him as the Lamb “of God.”

Finally, in John’s power-packed proclamation, he highlighted that this Lamb, Jesus, would do what no lamb before him ever could: take away the sin of the world. Of all the daily lambs sacrificed by the priests throughout Israel’s history, of all the lambs served up in the Passover meals of countless Jewish families for generations and generations, not a single one of them, nor the whole vast quantity of all of them taken together, could take away so much as the smallest sin. They could only symbolize. They could only foreshadow. They could only point ahead to the perfect Lamb who would be revealed. And on this day, with this simple statement, John declared the fulfillment of all of it. The Lamb appeared, the only Lamb who could take away the sin of the world – all sin of all people of all time. 

Notice what John did next. After making a profound theological statement, proclaiming the good news of the gospel for others to hear, he shared his own personal experience. He gave a testimony of why this all mattered so much to him. “Then John gave this testimony: ‘I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 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.” I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One’” (v.32-34). 

John had just shared the most powerful message that any ear can ever hear – the good news of the gospel that Jesus, the Lamb of God, Jesus, the Savior, takes away the sin of the world. That message and that message alone is what brings life from death, light from darkness, faith from unbelief. We cannot in any way improve or upgrade that message!

But, we can personally validate its significance and impact in our own personal lives for others to see. In our skeptical, truth-seeking, fact-checking world today, your personal experience is starting to carry more clout.

We have been in the progress of moving beyond the foolishness of postmodernism’s “everyone’s truth is valid” as a license to provide permission for anyone to live and do as they see fit. We’re recognizing the collateral damage that has come with believing the lie that associated permissiveness with personal happiness. That deceptive connection between the two continues to become unstuck like a house held together with scotch tape. People pursuing “their own truth” continue to arrive at a dead end. The result is an increasing openness on the part of people to pay more attention to the truth of others. So when your truth, your testimony, matches and verifies the powerful message of the gospel, there is potential for great kingdom impact. Look at what happened after John shared his testimony!

“When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ)” (v.38, 40-41). Note the two things that happened: they followed Jesus and they invited others to do the same. John proclaimed the good news and shared his testimony and it resulted in people following Jesus. Then, those people who followed Jesus invited others to do the same. 

Do you see the kingdom building going on and how it was taking place? It happened exponentially, like compound interest. As some of John the Baptist’s listeners heard the good news, that good news took root and faith sprouted. Then, as that faith sprouted, it spread to others. Followers of Jesus were implementing a key quality of disciples of Jesus: disciples disciple. When we were called to faith in Jesus, we weren’t called to perform a solo act; sorry to say it, but he didn’t want just you. But not sorry to say it, because he doesn’t just want you, he wants others to join in the party!

We were called to be disciples who make disciples who make disciples who make disciples who make disciples. Get it? The process doesn’t end. God’s design for your discipleship was not that it would stop with you, but would continue through you. That is to say, if there there is no element in your life of discipling others, then you are missing out on a notable chunk of what your own discipleship truly involves. And that doesn’t just affect you; it affects others who are missing out on Jesus because you have too narrow a view of your own discipleship. Yours is a tunnel vision discipleship if you mistakenly think that your discipleship is only about you.

Does all of this terrify you? Does it make you feel inadequate? Does it make you feel guilty for making so much of your discipleship about yourself and not making disciples? Good, then you’re where you need to be, right back at square one, which is realizing how important the primary calling of a disciple is: to follow Jesus.

The whole process of discipleship and making disciples hinges on John’s seismic proclamation that Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That includes your sin, your guilt, your inadequacies, your shortcomings – all of it. Jesus appeared as the Lamb of God to take all of that away and in its place provide you with everything you would need to point others to him in some way or another. But you will have neither the interest nor the ability to disciple others if you yourself aren’t closely following the Lamb of God as his dearly loved disciple.

Have you ever been on a group hike and found yourself somewhere in the middle of the pack? In that spot, two things are going on. One, you are making sure the hiker in front of you doesn’t get so far ahead of you that you can no longer see him. If he does, you might end up losing the trail. Not only that, though, you also risk leading astray those who are following behind you. See how it all starts with making sure you are closely following the person in front of you?

So it is with Jesus. The closer we are to him, the less risk that we will be lost, and the closer we are to him, the better position we are in to lead those following us. That is how discipleship works. 

That is how it has worked ever since that first day John pointed others to the Lamb of God. His disciples made other disciples who made other disciples all the way down the line like links in a continuous chain until you became a disciple. Now you get to continue that same process of discipling, and you get to do it the same way John did: let others know that the Lamb of God who has appeared is their Lamb of God who takes away their sin of the world. And he longs for them to follow him and make disciples, too.

A Savior Born to Act

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(Isaiah 63:7-9)

As our continued Christmas celebration finds us turning the page from one year to the next and you look back on 2022 and reflect a bit, I have a question for you: did you do everything you said you’d do? Were there resolutions that sounded nice on paper, but never gained enough traction to experience the coveted “crossed-off” or checkmark on a to-do list? 2022 was somewhat unique in that it started to provide us with opportunities to seize the day and prioritize the things that the pandemic exposed in our lives – things we wanted to change and give attention to or things we wanted to stop or discontinue. Some of us vowed not to return back to the days of filling every waking hour with some activity or responsibility, but leaving margin for downtime with family or simply to slow down more. Some of us realized there were some ambitious things we wanted to do with our lives and feeling COVID shortened the window of opportunity, we were going to really get cracking on some things. And inevitably there are the “someday” projects that we’ve talked about – some of them for an embarrassing number of years – that we were fully committed to finally making happen in 2022. So… did you do everything you said you’d do in 2022?

Didn’t think so. Neither did I. Some of us are better at it than others, but the majority of us have at least some level of unfinished business in our past. I suppose we fall into one of probably three categories of people when it comes to those incomplete commitments we made either to ourselves or to others: 1) Maybe someday we’ll actually get to it and get it done. 2) Maybe we have already forgotten about it or will forget about it at some point and never revisit it again. 3) Maybe all we’ll do with it the rest of our lives is spend more time convincing ourselves that someday we’ll get it done than spend any actual time getting it done. 

Depending on which category you fall into, it probably impacts how you feel about those unfinished commitments, too. Those who are ambitious and driven feel angry or ticked off. Others who are more carefree won’t lose any sleep over any unfinished commitments. Then there are those who feel stuck and frustrated because they’re tired of not doing the things they said they were going to do. They mean well, but they fail to follow through and the same repeated struggle is discouraging and exhausting. No matter which of those types of people you are, no matter which feelings you most relate to, I have good news for you this morning: Christmas is about completion.

So as we put one year behind us and enter into a new one, before we completely hit the stop button on our celebration of Christmas, let’s rejoice that in Jesus we have a Savior born to act. Ours is not a Savior who makes empty promises. Ours is not a politician who says whatever needs to be said just to gain support and then not deliver on his campaign promises. Ours is not a Savior of soundbites or catchphrases. His words aren’t empty. He came to take action. 

Isaiah foreshadowed not only his actions but also his attitude behind them. Look at all of the ways Isaiah described the Lord. He speaks of compassion, love, and mercy. If I asked you to pick three adjectives that best describe yourself and our society these days, would any one of these three show up? It might be borderline laughable to pretend any of these three would accurately describe our society. But sadly, if we could carry out an honest self-assessment, I don’t know that compassion, love, and mercy would be the top three descriptions of my own attitude either. I would like to think at least one or two of them might make my list, but as much as I know they should, my inconsistent past track record betrays that they would.

So when Isaiah describes our Savior this way, it isn’t only to help us appreciate that we’re on the receiving end of that compassion, love, and mercy, but also that those are the attitudes that drive his actions. Even that is so unlike us. Remember that God isn’t only concerned about our outward actions, but about our hearts. Doing the right thing with the wrong heart is still the wrong thing in God’s eyes, and so often that’s where our actions come from. Obligation-driven obedience does not measure up to the compassion-driven compliance that God calls for. So when our Savior acts, his actions are an outward expression of a holy heart.

I also want to call your attention to another reality of our Savior that relates to how he acts on our behalf: when you hurt, he hurts. Isaiah wrote, “In all their distress he too was distressed” (v.9). Those either cautious about or even skeptical of Christianity often struggle with how a loving God could allow so much hate and hurt in this world. But why should we conclude that the presence of hate and hurt somehow indicate that God condones it or is indifferent toward it? The Bible doesn’t speak of God that way and Isaiah certainly paints a different picture of the Lord right here. Yes, it weighs heavily on your Heavenly Father’s heart when you hurt. He is distressed when he sees you distressed.

But the Lord doesn’t stop there. If Isaiah only revealed the Lord’s attitude and how he feels about us, it might bring us some level of comfort, but it would be short-lived. Nice as it is when others express thoughtful sentiments, they are just that. “I’m sorry for your loss” lets us know that someone is aware of the hurt we’re feeling and cares enough to express it. Someone may “hope” for the best or “wish” us the best in the future. Knowing how someone feels toward us in our situation is not unappreciated… but it isn’t the same as when someone takes action. A kind gesture that supports kind words makes a different impact by providing added weight to words. We might say that actions amplify attitude.

They also build trust. Consider the difference between two people who each spoke words of encouragement or concern to you while you endured some hardship. In addition, they each expressed their intention to do something for you as well. But, only one of them actually did it. While you probably weren’t unappreciative of the encouraging words of each person, the one who also took the action to do the thing she said she would is perceived as more sincere and heartfelt. Actions amplify attitude. 

Isaiah described the Lord’s actions, too. He called them “many kindnesses,” “deeds for which he is to be praised,” “many good things he has done,” “saved,” “redeemed,” and “lifted up and carried.” That’s quite a combination of nouns and verbs that denote action – action that the Lord takes for his people, and action that amplifies his attitude.

Isaiah’s audience knew it firsthand. So much of the Jewish faith is about recounting what God did in the past for his people. He guided and guarded the patriarchs while blessing them along the way, as through them he built the foundation of what would become the nation of Israel. He raised up Moses and used his leadership to break the chains of oppressive slavery, delivering the Israelites out of Egypt by splitting the sea and then swallowing Pharaoh’s army with it. He fed them in the wilderness with bread from heaven while protecting them as they made their way to the land he had promised. He flexed his mighty arm to grant them victory over their enemies living in the Promised Land, allowing them to enter it and establish themselves. In all of this, the Lord’s actions amplified his attitude, showing very clearly what compassion, love, and mercy looked like – never turning his back on his people, even when they did so to him! 

As another celebration of Christmas has passed, we are not without our own recounting of what God did in the past for his people. All that he did for Israel he did for us, too, as it allowed everything to fall into place for the Savior to be born, just as he had promised. Through the birth of the Savior – and specifically through faith in him – our eyes are opened to see the constant kindnesses of the Lord on our behalf.

How good God is to us! The physical blessings abound, as another year of unwrapping gifts demonstrates the need to get bigger trees every year because the presents spill out from underneath and start to consume the whole room. We have so much that you probably have come to realize how challenging it is to shop for people in a day and age when everyone already has everything.

But God’s constant kindnesses aren’t only on display on December 25 – they abound all year long. Think back to how many times you worried about work, stressed about school, dreaded the doctor, and yet here you are – God’s care and compassion carried you through yet another year.

Yet as much as God has and continues to take action on our behalf to address our physical needs, your Savior was born for more than that. He came to take action that would impact your eternity, not just the handful of decades we’re granted here on earth. He came to take action that would guarantee you a future free from a fate that we would wish on no man, a future that guarantees that no soul should ever have to get what it deserves: the judgment of a guilty verdict and the ensuing sentence of eternity in hell.

No, hell is not what anyone really wants to talk about at Christmas, but understand that it’s precisely because of Christmas that we don’t have to! Christmas is God doing what he has always done, taking action that amplifies his attitude. It was never enough for God to express his hope that we’d be eternally OK or send us positive vibes to aid us on our journey. He took action. He took on flesh. He took on the law and perfected it. He took on our punishment and endured it. He took on our sin and paid for it. He took on hell and overcame it. He took on death and destroyed it. He took action. 

He did everything he said he was going to do… for people who don’t. People like you and me. How do we respond? Wallow in guilt and self-deprecation? No. There’s a better way. 

Tell about the one who does what he says he’s going to do on the biggest scale ever, having taken action to secure your salvation and continuing to take action so that you remain secure in your salvation. Join me in making the commitment in 2023 to imitate Isaiah. “I will tell of the kindnesses of the Lord, the deeds for which he is to be praised” (v.7). Join me in fervently celebrating the one who did what he said he was going to do for us, by now following through with what we say we’re going to do and taking action to tell others about him.

A Savior Born to Change the World

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(Luke 2:1-20)

There will always be unavoidable tension at Christmas that we are all forced to face every year. A part of what we love and long for this time of year is the familiarity of tradition, all those little things that we have to do and experience this time of year that mark it as special. It is that sameness that sets it apart from the rest of the year. It’s the time of year when we have to watch this movie, listen to that album or artist, bake this specific cookie or that sugary treat, or any number of other customs, just like we do every year for Christmas. The sameness helps cement this season as special.

But the tension starts to stiffen when that sameness is threatened by change, which always springs up in one way or another. A canceled flight or travel arrangements can cause change. Our kids grow up and, depending on which stage of life they’re at – possibly beginning new traditions of their own with their family – it may no longer be a given that we get to celebrate with them anymore. And as we age, we certainly don’t welcome the change of having to be much more discerning about what and how much we snack on over the holidays!  

Adding to that tension is how well we’re focused on the reason for the season – the birth of the Savior of the world, Jesus. I invite you to wrestle with that tension and reflect on the weight of his birth – not pounds and ounces – but the weight of same vs. change. Did Jesus come into our world to ensure that everything in your life would stay the same? Or, did he come into our world to make sure that everything would change forever? 

As we listen to the Christmas Gospel from Luke 2, we notice several things that were the same. A census was being taken – something that had been done the same every five years in the Roman world for several centuries already. Mary and Joseph were heading to their hometown to register for the census, just the same as everyone else in the Roman world was doing. The same shepherds were watching the same sheep in the same hills that surrounded Bethlehem. 

Ah, but then God pierced the timeline of history with something that was drastically different, something not at all the same. “An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” (Lk. 2:10-14). 

Did you catch it? Did you notice what had changed? Yes, an angel addressed the shepherds. Yes, an angelic army pierced the pitch-black night to proclaim the glories of God. Yes, those things were not at all the same. But the biggest change ever was what had just happened ever-so-subtly beneath the world’s radar: a Savior had been born. 

That had never happened! It had been promised, yes; prophesied, yes. Those same promises and prophecies had been passed down for centuries. But this was different. This was not the same. This wasn’t just a declaration of what would be; rather, it was the reality of an event that had taken place. What was hoped for had happened! The Savior was born. Everything changed. 

Contrast that with an area of your life and mine that has not changed – at least not as much as we’d like it to, and certainly not as much as God has called it to: it’s called sin. Sin, simply put, is missing the mark. It is as if every thought we think, every word we speak, every action we take, is like being at the foul line shooting a free throw. God’s demand is that every thought, word, and action is a swish from the line that seals our perfection. But instead of shooting 100% from the line, our lives are filled with one brick after another that clangs off the rim. 

We read through the picture-perfect details of other people’s family life in their Christmas letters and cards and we can feel the envy creep in. CLANG! Another brick. Another half-truth at work to the boss to tide him over for the holidays. CLANG! A drink or two too many at the office party. CLANG! A snarky shot back at mom or dad when asked to help around the house. CLANG! A testy text fired off in anger or impatience. CLANG! Brick after brick after brick – some days may see more go in than others, but we’re nowhere near 100%, and never can be, because every CLANG from our past will always count against the perfect percentage God requires of us. Meanwhile, we keep adding missed shots every day of our life. That’s the same in our lives and it always will be. It will never change!

So the change that Luke recorded in chapter 2 was absolutely necessary. “A Savior has been born to you” (v.11), the angel announced. A trainer to get you in shape isn’t what you need to hit 100% of those free throws. You don’t need a motivator to yell at you or inspire you. You don’t need a shooting coach to help you with your form or technique. While they all might make some noticeable contributions, what you need is someone who is guaranteed to hit every single shot for you. 

The good news of Christmas is that the Savior was born to do just that. Envy never once entered his heart. Lies never left his lips. He was never hungover, never dissed his dad or mom, and practiced patience perfectly. With his perfect life, he never missed the mark. He carried a perfect percentage. 

That gift of his perfection would have been outstanding on its own! But the Savior is not like Santa, only bringing gifts one night a year. No, the Savior came to give so much more. He didn’t only come bearing the gifts of his perfection. He came to give a gift that would cancel out every future CLANG and forgive all future free throws ever missed. While the Savior got his start in Bethlehem, he would meet his end just outside of Jerusalem. The gift wrapped up in swaddling clothes would one day be stripped of those clothes and publicly whipped and crucified. He stepped in as the substitutionary gift to die in our place to save the human race. He paid the price for our sin and changed everything. 

The angels pointed out that he would be the source of joy and peace for all people. Until Jesus arrived, the world’s experience with joy and peace had always been the same – short-lived, dependent upon temporary circumstances, or based on the hope of what was to come. But the Savior’s birth changed that forever. It would never be the same. The joy of our very real salvation has been permanently solidified. The peace of a fully restored relationship between mankind and God that is no longer divided by sin has been permanently solidified. The Savior’s birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension assure us of it. They guarantee that nothing will ever be the same!

So how can you be? Knowing this, believing this, trusting this to be true – the Savior has changed us. The tension has been resolved. We have been released and freed from it. We have been changed! That means our joy is not connected to our circumstances, whether good or bad. That means our peace does not exist only in the absence of conflict or stress. Rather, joy and peace belong to us all day long, every day.

So when you don’t get what you hoped for under the tree this Christmas, you’re just looking in the wrong place – joy is found in the manger. When December 26 hits and the world begins its hurried rush into whatever is the next urgent thing to get ready for, we can still be at peace, found in the manger. When a new year begins and the same old problems spring up, they may not change, but how we handle them has, because they cannot rob us of the joy and peace the Savior came to bring. He came into a world that was otherwise stuck in the sameness of sin, and he changed it forever.  He changed you forever, too, from sinner to saint. Merry Christmas!