Sunday Gathering - John 1 : 29-34 - Nick Lugg - Sermon Only

Nick Lugg continues the John series in John 1:29-34, the day John the Baptist saw Jesus coming towards him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” He picks up where Chris Simpson left off the previous week, on the ministry and identity of John the Baptist — a man who was not the Messiah, was not the main event, but was a signpost: someone who directed people to Jesus and then stepped back. John was clear that there was more to come than himself or his ministry, and Nick holds that up as a picture of what the church’s ministry should be. Whatever the church can offer, however connected someone is to it, it is nothing compared to the fullness of knowing Jesus. Our security and identity must come from knowing him, not from the church, our activity, our gifts or how useful we are.

The heart of the sermon is recognition. Three times in six verses John says he did not recognise Jesus — “I did not recognise him as the Messiah”, “I didn’t know he was the one” — until God revealed it to him. Nick’s question is what makes Jesus remarkable, and his answer is that we only see it when God opens our eyes. That is uncomfortable, because it is possible to be close to what God is doing and still miss him: to be in the mainstream of church life, hearing the right words and doing the right things, and never quite to see Jesus. Coming to know him, then, is a spiritual encounter rather than an education. Nick illustrates this with his father, who read Luther and Martyn Lloyd-Jones before he believed, trying to think his way into faith, until someone told him to stop trying to understand everything and put his faith in Jesus. He adds John Wesley at Aldersgate in 1738, an ordained minister and missionary whose heart was “strangely warmed” — a man steeped in Christianity who saw Jesus for the first time — and his own experience of waking one morning to peace and an overwhelming sense of God’s presence.

The sermon turns on what the Lamb of God actually does. The message is not “join the church and spend a lifetime trying to overcome your sin”, but that he takes it away. John came baptising with water; Jesus baptises with the Holy Spirit, and Nick insists that is not an optional extra or a denominational distinctives question but simply what Jesus does to everyone who meets him. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us, so we should not settle or resign ourselves to a powerless gospel with diminishing expectations.

Bible passages

• John 1:29-34 — the passage for the morning, read in full
• John 3:30 — “he must become greater; I must become less”, on John the Baptist’s posture
• John 12:21 — “Sir, we would see Jesus”, the request Nick turns into a prayer
• Isaiah 6:6-7 — the coal touching Isaiah’s lips and his guilt being swept away, quoted on sin being taken away
• Matthew 11:11 (and Luke 7:28) — “even the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist”
• Romans 8:11 — the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead giving life to our mortal bodies, alluded to without being named

Key points

• John the Baptist knew exactly who he was not: not the Messiah, not the main event, but a signpost
• The church’s ministry is the same — point people to Jesus and step back
• Our identity and security must come from knowing Jesus, never from church activity, gifting or usefulness
• “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” is the message, at the beginning and every day after
• John did not recognise Jesus until God revealed him — recognition is revelation, not intuition
• It is possible to be fully involved in church and still miss Jesus entirely
• Knowing Jesus is a spiritual encounter, not something you educate yourself into
• Wesley: a devout, educated, ordained man who only then had his heart “strangely warmed”
• John the Baptist closed one era; Jesus opened another, an age of encounter with God himself present
• The gospel is not a lifetime of trying to overcome sin — the Lamb takes it away
• Jesus baptises with the Holy Spirit; that is what he does, for every Christian
• The power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us

Calls to action

• Ask God, simply and honestly, to open your eyes to see Jesus afresh
• Pray “we would see Jesus”
• Come to the front during worship to ask God to reveal himself, without worrying what people think
• Ask yourself whether you have actually connected with Jesus or are only going through the routines
• Do not settle for a good thing when Jesus offers something greater

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/EsJX0atMcLY