Behold the Lamb (2)

Imagine with me a dusty road somewhere between Jerusalem and Gaza. The ancient location of where there is currently fighting. Imagine it as Acts 8 describes – it is hot and dusty – a desert. This is where we are told that the evangelist, Philip, meets an Ethiopian official. The Bible record is this:

Acts 8:26–29 NIV

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

So, Philip is just following directions, walking down a hot and dusty road. Philip was first mentioned in Acts 6 as a designee to meet the needs of the widows. 2 chapters later he is in Samaria seeing people healed and freed from spirits. He was seeing signs and miracles happening.[1]Now he is going to a desert place and had to be wondering what was up but it was in this dusty place that he saw a man in a chariot.

Acts 8:30–31 NIV

Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

Now he’s in. He’s past the front door so to speak and now he’s invited to talk about his passion – the Word of God. He wasn’t afraid of people. He had been chosen by the disciples to be the first missionary and evangelist into Samaria. He had remarkable success. Now he wondered what this Ethiopian was reading.

Acts 8:32–35 NIV

This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.” The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

The book of Acts doesn’t give us any more details about the conversation, but we can easily imagine that the conversation excited Philip and in this desert place they had the time to talk.

Philip Could Have Said…

We (the Jews) Had Been Waiting for a Savior

Philip could have explained the importance of a Savior, the Messiah, to the Ethiopian.

It would be impossible to exaggerate the import of the word Messiahamong faithful Jews. The Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947 confirm that the Qumram community imminently expected a Messiah-like figure, setting aside an empty seat for him each day at the sacred meal. Audacious as it may be to dream that a tiny province wedged in among great powers would produce a worldwide ruler, nonetheless Jews believed just that. They staked their future on a king who would lead their nation back to glory.

Sir, what you are reading is a part of a bigger prophecy by Isaiah. Just a few verses earlier this man is described as someone you wouldn’t really notice. And, we didn’t at first. But let me tell you about a man named Jesus. Even his family didn’t pay a lot of attention but things began to change about 3 years ago. He showed up in the temple and began to read from the same passage. Then He told them that Isaiah was talking about Him.

Endorsed By John the Baptist

We recently had another prophet like Isaiah by the name of John the Baptist. He was rough and challenged the people to repent from their sins.

When another report spread that the long-awaited prophet had turned up in the desert, crowds flocked to see the wild man dressed in camel skin. “I am not the Christ [Messiah],” insisted John the Baptist, who then proceeded to raise hopes even higher by speaking in exalted terms of one who would soon appear. John’s question of Jesus, “Are you the one to come, or shall we expect someone else?” was in a real sense the question of the age, whispered everywhere.

He baptized thousands of people and then one day he saw Jesus coming…

John 1:29 NIV

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

Celebrated for His Miracles and Teaching

This got the attention of a lot of people and Jesus quickly became very popular. He taught the scriptures, called out the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy. He healed the lame, the blind, the deaf, and even raised people from the dead. He cast out demons and told storms to stop.

In fact, He became so popular that the city of Jerusalem took palm branches and their overcoats and gladly welcomed Him into the city:

John 12:12–15 NIV

The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the king of Israel!” Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”

It's hard to believe that this all happened the week before He was unfairly tried, mocked, defamed, and flogged. On top of all that, He was crucified on a Cross – the Romans invention for a torturous death.

Passover

Philip could have explained the imagery in Isaiah about the lamb. He explained the Passover and the importance of this celebration that marked the freedom the Jews experienced from Egypt. At twilight on the 14th day of the month the lamb would be sacrificed. This lamb’s blood atoned for the sins of the people.

I want to read an excerpt from Andrew Paterson that draws the OT and NT together:

John has a particular perspective on Christ’s death and how it achieved redemption. It is the category of Passover sacrifice. It is not an accident that ‘the hour’ of Jesus’ death falls during a Passover feast, or more specifically that it is following the Passover meal with the disciples that Jesus went out to arrest, trial, and execution. The Passover ritual, rooted back in the deliverance from Egypt, called for each worshipper to bring a lamb ‘without blemish’ or broken bones, and present it to the priest to be slain and for its blood to be dashed against the base of the altar. This recalled the slaughter of the Passover lambs in Egypt and the smearing of their blood with the hyssop plant on the lintels of their houses, by which the people’s escape from judgment and their liberation from bondage were won. So Jesus comes, as God’s own Lamb, without blemish or broken bone (33) in the perfection of his obedience, and there at Calvary, in the presence of the hyssop plant (29), he offers freely the one ‘full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the world’. As he cries, ‘It is finished,’ and gives himself up for death, the knife falls, and all the sacrifices of the ages are gathered up and rendered obsolete forever. Because he has died, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, for all who have come and trusted in the virtue of that sacrifice there is ‘no longer any sacrifice for sin’ (Heb. 10:18).

No one took Christ’s life from him. They couldn’t. Jesus himself laid down his life.

Behold the Lamb!

Sir, this is what it means here in this scroll that you’ve been reading…

Isaiah 53:7 NIV

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.

It was just like that. He didn’t speak up to point out the inconsistencies in the testimonies (although even Pilate suspected them of lying). He didn’t ask His friends to testify for Him (He had powerful Jews and Romans who owed Him favors). He didn’t cause miracles to enable His escape (He walked through an angry mob once and on a stormy sea). Just like a lamb, He went to the Cross. My friend, Peter, wrote this later on…

1 Peter 1:18–19 NIV

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

Baptism in the Desert

After you’ve heard about Jesus, a decision must be made.

"When I was a boy, my father, a baker, introduced me to the wonders of song," tenor Luciano Pavarotti relates. "He urged me to work very hard to develop my voice. Arrigo Pola, a professional tenor in my hometown of Modena, Italy, took me as a pupil. I also enrolled in a teacher’s college. On graduating, I asked my father, 'Shall I be a teacher or a singer?'

"'Luciano,' my father replied, 'if you try to sit on two chairs, you will fall between them. For life, you must choose one chair.'

"I chose one. It took seven years of study and frustration before I made my first professional appearance. It took another seven to reach the Metropolitan Opera. And now I think whether it's laying bricks, writing a book--whatever we choose--we should give ourselves to it. Commitment, that's the key. Choose one chair." - Guideposts.

After all that Philip said, the Ethiopian made a choice. The good news about Jesus demands action.

Acts 8:36–39 NIV

As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.

The story concludes with the Ethiopian rejoicing (Chairo). Paul used this word when he told the Philippians, “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice” (Php 4:4). It is recognition about what God has done for them. This is what the Ethiopian celebrated. That is what the Gospel does.

A Victorious Lamb

What Jesus did for us, after He entered Jerusalem, is monumental. Revelations

Revelation 5:6–10 NIV

Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”

John the Baptist saw Jesus and declared Him the Lamb. From the beginning, God spoke about the importance of the blood. Abel’s blood cried out to God. God told the Israelite nation that the life is in the blood. It would take the Blood of the Lamb to set men truly free.

The holiness of God is a deeper revelation in the cross than his love; for it is what gives his love divine value. And it is meaningless without judgment. The one thing he could not do was simply to wipe the slate and write off the loss. He must either inflict punishment or assume it. And he chose the latter course, as honouring the law while saving the guilty. He took his own judgment” (pp. 205–6).[2]

Behold, the Lamb of God!

[1]G. L. Knapp, “Philip the Evangelist,” ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1979–1988), 834. [2]John Stott, The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott, ed. Mark Meynell (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018).

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