From John 1:19-34

There is no better place to start a study of the Gospel of John then in the book of Genesis.

As Abraham and Isaac walked up the mountain to offer a sacrifice to the Lord in Genesis 22, Isaac asked,  “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”

Abraham was so confident that God would provide the lamb he told the young men with them in verse 5 to, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”

In Genesis 17 God promised Abraham that his descendants would be many and they would come through Isaac. “ And God said to Abraham, As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”  Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”  And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!”  God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac.”

Abraham trusted God’s word, even when the circumstances seemed crazy. He knew that he and the boy would worship and return, because he knew that God was a promise keeper. Isaac asked, “Where is the lamb father?” Abraham answered, God will provide the lamb my son.”

Countless lambs throughout the old testament were sacrificed to atone for the sins of God’s people. Exodus 12 recounts the story of Israel’s exodus from Egypt. God instructed each family in Israel to kill a lamb and sprinkle the blood on the door posts of their homes as a sign that they belonged to Him.

Now fast forward to Matthew chapter 1 and look at the circumstances Joseph and Mary found themselves in. The angel told Joseph that his teenage fiancé was going to “bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. “  The angel went on to say that this baby was foretold long ago, “by the Lord through the prophet:  “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”

The scripture goes on to say that he “awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.”

Joseph, like Abraham, believed God in the midst of unbelievable circumstances. He “took Mary as his wife… and he called His name Jesus.”

John’s gospel tells us less of how Jesus was born and more of who was born.  “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The babe in the manger wasn’t just a babe, he was the promised Messiah, Savior and sacrifice.

Colossians 1 says, “He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” And Colossians 2 states, “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

So in John 1:29 when John the Baptist declares “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”, we can rejoice and confidently trust in God’s promises too, even when the circumstances are crazy. God has provided the Lamb, He has cleansed us with His blood, our debt has been paid (it is nailed to the cross), we are free, we are His. And someday in the not too distant future we will all proclaim with the angels, “Worthy is the Lamb”!

My prayer is that each of us would believe and rest in these truths.

• “Where is the Lamb?” Gen 22:7
• “Behold, the Lamb” John 1:29
• “Worthy is the Lamb” Rev 5:12