Transcript
Lead Pastor (0:00)
If you got a Bible, go to John, chapter one. And I got a tag team preacher with me this weekend. It is not a person. It is an animal. So I'm gonna invite my friend Sean out to the stage. This is a baby lamb here in Oklahoma, belongs to the Mahaffey family. Give Sean a big hand as he's coming out on stage. This is his owner, Nora, 10 years old.
Worship Leader (0:28)
Come on, Shawn. Shawn. Yes.
Lead Pastor (0:34)
Come on, my buddy. It's you and me. It's you and me. We've now done this for the last two services.
Worship Leader (0:42)
All right.
Lead Pastor (0:42)
Thank you, Nora. Yes. Give Nora a big hand. Thank you, guys. So in the last service, he bad a lot. He was amen in my sermon. He might do it again this sermon. Last night, he fell asleep during my sermon. I was just holding, just rocking him to sleep. I've had some practice. I got five kids, if I haven't told you. So I've rocked some babies. But, you know, I want to preach to you this weekend about the Lamb and the power of the Lamb and how the Bible talks about the Lamb and John the baptist. John, chapter 1, verse 29. The disciple John wrote about John the Baptist. In this moment, two different characters. You had John, disciple whom Jesus loved, John the beloved. He named himself that. And then there was John the Baptist, who prepared the way of Jesus. And when John the Baptist was baptizing people in the Jordan river, he starts talking about a teacher, a Lord, a savior who's coming that is so much greater than him that he doesn't even have, like, the worthiness to untie the sandals of this Savior. And all of a sudden, Jesus walks up. And when Jesus walks up to the Jordan River, John says these words, behold the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. When John said this, he was referring to the Lamb that the Old Testament understood. And so I want to back up. If you got a Bible, go to Exodus, chapter 12. I'm going to try to flip through my Bible while I'm holding a lamb. It's kind of tough. Y' all pray for me here. We got this, Shawnee. We got this. Exodus, chapter 12. He's like, I don't know about you, but I don't got this. Exodus, chapter 12, verse 1. This is where the Lamb was instituted into a story of God. God was delivering the Israelites out from slavery. They had been in bondage under Pharaoh, who was very cruel and just mean and just drove these Israelites into just. Just terrible places, mistreated them, abused them killed them. And so God said, enough is enough. I am delivering my Israelites out from this bondage of slavery. Well, it represents Jesus in the New Testament delivering us from the bondage of sin and the slavery to our flesh and to fear and shame and anxiety and darkness. Everything in the Old Testament points to the New Testament. Everything in the Old Testament is a shadow and a type of. Of the New Testament. So here's how God does it. In Exodus 12, verse 1, the Lord spoke to Moses and said, listen, from now on, this is your beginning. As I lead you out, you are being born again. And this will be the beginning of a new day. This new life that I'm leading you into, you will celebrate the start of something fresh. This is what happens when we give our lives to Jesus. He gives us a new life. We are born again into his salvation. Then he says this in verse three, tell the whole community, tell the church, tell Israel that each family is supposed to select a lamb. Now, from this moment on, he was instituting the Passover supper. It would be called Seder. Seder was a annual tradition that every family in Israel would select a lamb. And on the first Sunday of this selection week, they would call it Selection Sunday. Not like Selection Sunday for sports that you guys know about in the draft. But Selection Sunday was choosing a lamb that was without blemish, a male lamb with no broken bones that would pay for the sins of that family and be a reminder to that family on Passover week for what God did for the Israelites. Hey, buddy, I think he just growled at me. I think he's hungry. He's like, you're not talking about me. You're not going to sacrifice me, are you? No, Sean. You're not my animal. But look at this. It says. It says, pick an animal, select an animal. Now, I want to. I want to title this message. A lot can happen in a week. If you're taking notes, just write these words down. A lot can happen in a week. Because what we're going to see in Holy Week is everything is connected to Exodus, chapter 12. And it is in this week that Jesus is headed during Passover, towards the cross. Here's what Moses told the Israelites, what God told Moses. He says, if any house is too small for a whole lamb. Notice that it doesn't say if anybody's too big for the. There is no problem too big for the lamb to solve. There is no sin too big. There is no shame. There is no sickness. There is no cancer that is too big for the lamb to Heal. Come on. Because of the blood of the lamb, not only am I forgiven, but I am healed and saved. Once you understand the power of the lamb, you start connecting the dots in these scriptures and it comes alive to you. So he says, if any house is too small for the whole lamb, they must share one with their neighbor. In other words, share the lamb with your neighbor. Everybody say, share the lamb with your neighbor. Now, this is what we do every week, but especially during Easter. We share the lamb with our neighbors who aren't yet right with God, who aren't in the house of God. We take the lamb to the streets to the north, to the south, to the east, to the west. We take the lamb on the missions field. We share the lamb with our neighbors in Guatemala and in Honduras and Mexico and Dominican Republic. We share the lamb when we go to the prisons. Every time we go and minister to the men's prisons and the women's prisons. Prisons. And we're sitting there with these prisoners. What are we doing? We're sharing the lamb with our neighbors. This is what God told the Israelites to do. Don't keep this lamb to yourself. Share it with those around you. Share it with the neighbors. People need the lamb in these days, right now. But then he says this. Take the lamb in verse five, bring it into your house. And in verse six, he says, take care of the lamb. Everybody say, take care of the lamb. Jesus tells parables in the New Testament about a lamb. He says, suppose one of you is a shepherd and you have a hundred sheep. And one of your sheep, a little lamb, goes off and that lamb wanders into the wilderness and gets lost and is trapped. Wouldn't you leave the 99 to go and find that one lost sheep, that one lost lamb, little Sean. Oftentimes, Jesus spoke about the lambs of his flock. In fact, In John chapter 10, he said, I am the good shepherd. Everybody say, the good shepherd. Jesus said, I watch out for my sheep. The good shepherd lays his life down for his sheep. Jesus was telling his disciples, you are my sheep. And my sheep hear my voice, and they know my voice, and they follow me. And as a good shepherd, I lay my life down. The hireling. He runs when there's trouble, when a wolf shows up. The hired shepherd, the hired servant, he doesn't care for the sheep. But a good shepherd watches over his sheep. Friends, we got a good shepherd up in heaven. Can we thank God for the good shepherd we have through Jesus Christ, who laid his life down for us? David said it like this in Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. To have a shepherd, you got to be a sheep. A lot of people want a shepherd, but they don't want to be a sheep. They don't want to be led. They don't want to be guided. They don't want to be directed. They don't want to be corrected. A good shepherd directs and corrects. A good shepherd encourages and rebukes. A good shepherd watches out for the flock. David said, the Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, leads me beside still waters. He's my shepherd. He takes care of me. He restores my soul. He leads me down the good paths of righteousness, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. And I'm telling you, every lamb walks through some hard times. I've been to Israel. I've seen where the shepherds are at. They live nomadic lives. It's not always sunny in Israel. There's stormy days, there's cold days. There's snow that falls on those sheep. Those sheep walk through valleys and on mountaintops, but the shepherds watch over the sheep. So David says, you set me at a table in the presence of my enemies. Now, I think David was not just talking about any table. I think he was talking about the Lord's table. Lord, you set me at a table. You prepare a table before me. If there was anyone that understood this scripture, it was Jesus. When he sat at a table in the presence of Judas, in the presence of people that would run from him and betray him, David said, you set a table before me in the presence of my enemies. And then he says this. You anoint my head with oil. You anoint my head with oil. Now, oil is used by shepherds to actually bring healing ointment to the eyes of their sheep. So when sheep are out in the pasture and flies land on their face, there's a lot of flies in Israel, especially near the sheep. These flies will land. These bugs will land on the face of the sheep, and they will lay eggs, and it is gross. And those eggs will harvest, and there will be more flies and more stuff. And it's all to blur the vision of the Lamb. So what shepherds do to heal the eyes and to heal the vision of the lamb is they pour oil over the head, and the oil runs down the head of that sheep, of that lamb, and it washes out, cleanses out, and acts as a defense mechanism against the flies. In the Bible, the devil is called the Lord of the Flies. Here's what the devil does. He tries to mess with your life. He tries to mess with your vision. He tries to mess with your hope. He tries to mess with who your shepherd is. He tries to make you feel discouraged and afflicted and tormented and the victim. But today, the oil of the Holy Spirit is in the house. And there is healing in the room and there is freedom in the room. And when the oil pours down your head, the enemy cannot stay. The enemy cannot stay in the presence of the Holy Spirit. You know what God told Moses? He said, when you take this lamb and you take care of this lamb, and the day comes that you sacrifice this lamb, he says in verse 7, Take the blood of. Of this Lamb. Exodus 12. 7. Take the blood of this lamb. The blood acts as a defense mechanism. He says, I want you to put it over the top of your doorpost. Make sure that your house is covered by the blood, because there is an angel of death coming. And that angel of death will not enter any house that is covered by the blood. Any house. Listen, if the angel of death cannot cross that bloodline, then the devil cannot cross that bloodline. Anyone who's been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ, who's put their hope in the blood of Jesus, anyone who's been saved by the blood of the lamb, I'm telling you right now, the devil cannot mess with your family, cannot mess with your kids. Even though weapons are formed against you, they shall not prosper. That blood is a boundary. It says, not in my house, not in my kids, bedrooms, not in my marriage, not in my mind. I put the blood of Jesus. Notice that he says, put the blood on the doorpost, not on the floor. In other words, don't trample on the blood of the lamb. Don't treat the blood of the lamb as common or as unholy. Don't approach the Lord's table with just an unholy manner. A common, oh, it's not a big deal. We're just taking communion. No, no, no, friends. Communion is holy. It is sacred. It is precious. That blood speaks stronger than your sin and your sickness and your fear and your shame. And Jesus says, listen, this is something. When Jesus showed up, Jesus was saying, I am the lamb. Because in the Old Testament, every year they had to have a spotless lamb. Moses told the Israelites, he said, every year we're going to do this. That night, the angel of death passed through Egypt. It never touched any houses that were covered by the blood. God told Moses, he said, tell the Israelites, when they cook the Lamb. They are not to boil it in water. He says, don't water down the lamb. Don't water down the lamb. I want the lamb on fire. I want the lamb cooked on an open fire. I want that lamb so hot on fire. Can I tell you, churches and preachers that water down the lamb, they don't want to sing about the blood of Jesus. They don't want to talk about the blood of Jesus. Not in my house. At Victory, we're going to proclaim that it is only by the blood of Jesus what can wash away our sins. Only the blood of Jesus. Don't water down the lamb. Don't water down the gospel.