John the Baptist has been emphatically denying that he himself was the Christ, but now he sees Jesus coming toward him. He cries out, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" Now he not only points to Jesus as the coming one, but he actually points to the man Jesus. As he points to him he sums up the ministry of Jesus in one sentence. The rest of this passage is further testimony as to who the man Jesus really is:
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.” 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 the Son of God.”
When John called Jesus the Lamb of God, he had several things in mind. Perhaps he had the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 in mind;
He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.(verse 7)
Of course he probably had in mind the Passover Lamb of Exodus 12. Moses had been the instrument to bring God's plagues upon the people of Egypt. The final plague was to be the death of the first born sons. But God came up with a way for the people of Israel to escape this plague. They were to take a lamb, kill it and place the blood on the doorpost so that the angel of death would see it and pass over that house. Jesus is of course our passover lamb who shed his blood so that we could be forgiven. This indeed was the mission of Jesus; to take away the sins of the world.
In fact, John finally really reveals why he had been baptizing; to reveal Jesus to Israel. As he looks at Jesus he says that this is the one that I was talking about when I said there was one coming after me whose sandals I wasn't even worthy to untie.
Two questions come to mind about this encounter; 1) what does John mean when He ways that he didn't know Jesus, and 2) how did he recognize Him if he didn't know Him? Even though John was a cousin of Jesus, he evidently wasn't raised with him. John's parents were very elderly, did they die while John was young? Was he raised relatively far away from Jesus? He knew that Jesus was coming, but he didn't recognize him. The second question is answered in the passage. When John Baptized Jesus, he saw the Holy Spirit come down upon Jesus and remain on Him. Of course, this was the anointing of Jesus for ministry. Jesus ministered as a Spirit Filled man. After His ascension into heaven, He poured out the Holy Spirit on the Church as an anointing for ministry. He still gives us individually and corporately, the Holy Spirit to anoint us for ministry.
John goes on to testify that Jesus is God's chosen one; the Son of God. We hear the Father speak in the other Gospel accounts of Jesus Baptism. Once again, we are confronted with the fact that this man, while truly a man, is at the same time, much more than a man.
This man, Jesus did for us as our sin sacrifice; he is our passover. Because of this death on the cross, we are forgiven of our sins. We are now in fellowship with God. It is important to note that we are not only forgiven, but we are delivered from our sins. Because of the Holy Spirit we are also no longer powerless. We have power to live the Christian life and we have power to minister in the authority and power of Jesus Christ. Indeed, Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
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Do you understand the 4th Cup?
After the beginning of Jesus' Last Passover Supper (Seder) Judas Iscariot left to do what he had to do. The twelve left in the room were at the point where the second of four traditional cups was about to be drunk.
(The first is at the beginning of the Seder meal.) Jesus took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them and said, "Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God comes."
More of the lamb meal was consumed. During that He took a loaf of unleavened bread, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to His disciples saying, "This IS my body given for you; do this to recall me." ("Recall" is a better translation of the Greek "anamnesis" than "remember".)
After the supper He took the third cup saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This IS my blood of the NEW and everlasting covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."
A hymn was sung, which is a combination of several psalms called The Great Hillel, and they went out to the Mount of Olives.
What happened? The Passover ceremony and ritual was not complete. There was no fourth cup. There was no announcement that it was finished. Could it be that Jesus was so upset with what He knew was about to happen that He forgot? Doubtful!
Not only Jesus, but also the 11 others had participated in the Passover Seder every year of their lives. No, this was done on purpose. The last supper of Jesus was not over.
On the Mount of Olives, in the Garden of Gethsemane, the disciples slept while Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done."
He prayed that three times. Then Jesus was arrested, illegally put on trial by the Sanhedrin, then by Pontius Pilate, sentenced and crucified.
While on the cross He wept. Jesus, who was in excruciating agony, was so merciful that He prayed for the forgiveness of His executioners. He was offered some wine with a pain killer, myrrh, in it. He refused it.
"Later, knowing that all was now complete, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled and the kingdom established, Jesus said, 'I am thirsty.'" A man dipped a sponge into sour wine; he placed it on a hyssop branch and lifted it up to Jesus lips.
He drank. (We recall that it was the hyssop branch which was used to paint lambs blood around the Hebrew's door for the Passover of the angel of death.)
It was then that Jesus said, "It is finished." He then bowed His head and gave up the spirit to His Father.
The fourth cup now represented the lamb’s blood of the first Passover, a saving signal to the angel of death.
The Lamb of God was now sacrificed. The last Passover supper of Jesus Christ was now complete with the fourth cup. It was finished.
The tie in with the Passover is unmistakable.
The Lamb of God was sacrifice and death was about to be passed over come Easter day.
The promise of eternal life for many was about to be fulfilled.
Christ’s Passover was finished, but His mission was not until he rose from the dead.
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