{"id":11159,"date":"2026-01-13T07:05:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T14:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=11159"},"modified":"2026-01-17T11:12:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T18:12:05","slug":"the-baptist-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=11159","title":{"rendered":"The Baptist points"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Select here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

John 1:29-42 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Sermon for the Second Sunday of Epiphany<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you heard of \u201cThe Nutshell Library\u201d? It\u2019s a collection of four miniature books, published in 1962, by Maurice Sendak. They are tiny pocket-sized books, perfect for small hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was once given a pocket-sized New Testament, but the print was so small it was difficult to read, and I missed the Old Testament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Bible there are, however, certain verses that are like the whole Bible in a nutshell. Our gospel text today has one such sentence, John 1:29: \u201cBehold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you hold this verse in your head and your heart, it\u2019s as if you can carry the whole Bible with you wherever you go. I\u2019ll show you what I mean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That first word, \u201cBehold,\u201d is key. It tells us that the action is outside of us, in spite of us. Behold, look, see what the Lord is doing. The Lord saw the problem of sin and death, he solved it by himself, and \u201cit is finished\u201d (John 19:30). Nobody else does this. Not Allah, not Buddha. Only God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, \u201cBehold, the lamb of God.\u201d That takes us back to Genesis, to Abraham and Issac. The Lord said to Abraham: \u201cTake your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.\u201d And when they got there and made a pile of wood for the fire, Isaac turned to his father and asked: \u201cFather, where is the lamb for the burnt offering?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Abraham says: \u201cGod himself will provide the lamb.\u201d This account finds an echo in the New Testament in John 19:17: \u201cAnd so they took Jesus, and he went out, to the place of a skull.\u201d The Lord will provide the lamb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the lamb provided to Abraham and Isaac, we move to the main event in the Old Testament: the Exodus. There the Lord said to Moses: \u201cTell the people that they are to sacrifice a lamb and put the blood on the door posts and lintel.” The blood of the lamb would protect them against the wrath and destruction to come. And so, they did, and they were spared. The blood of the lamb protected them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then in Isaiah 53, there is he who is \u201clike a lamb that is led to the slaughter\u201d (Isaiah 53:7). And the famous preceding lines:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief . . . he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely, he has borne our griefs, carried our sorrows; he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities and with his stripes we are healed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When John the Baptist says: \u201cBehold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!\u201d \u2013 he is harkening back to how the Lord provided a lamb for Abraham and Isaac, how the Lord protected the ancient Hebrews with the blood of the lamb on their doorposts. He is saying Jesus is like those, only different. Only in Christ, never before and not elsewhere, has God himself has come to solve the problem of sin and death. Moreover, he solved it by himself, without our help, and it is finished (John 19:30).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus\u2019 crucifixion is \u201cthe\u201d decisive battle of all history, certified by the resurrection.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it says in Revelation 17:14: \u201cThey [the powers of evil] will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which brings us to today and to you and me. What about us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider the plight of Scott Adams, the cartoonist, creator of the Dilbert cartoons. Adams has been in the news because he has terminal cancer and is close to death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has not been a Christian, but he has friends who are Christians. They are urging him \u201cto convert.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recent interview he said he considers converting to Christianity a risk-reward situation because he agrees with what he calls \u201cthe dominant Christian theory that he would wake up in Heaven if he had [lived] a good life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He adds: \u201cI don\u2019t necessarily have to, you know, just state something in advance.\u201d In other words, he\u2019s not sure his friends are right that he must make a decision for Christ. Nevertheless, he concludes: \u201cI\u2019m convinced that the risk-reward is completely smart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott Adams presumes that what matters is being a virtuous person and living a good life.  As he says: \u201cYou wake up in Heaven if you\u2019ve lived a good life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, he presumes he\u2019s good enough. After all, he hasn\u2019t been in big league sins like murder or extortion. Rather, he judges himself as good as the next regular person. In short, good enough. He\u2019s earned it. God is more or less obligated to take him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAre you listening Lord? Here\u2019s how you need to handle this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If \u201cthe general Christian theory\u201d that heaven is a risk-reward wager based on good works, why not convert?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is, of course, that that\u2019s a misdiagnosis, and in ultimate matters, as in health and sickness, a misdiagnosis can be deadly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bible says that death is a big problem, but it is also light the warning light signaling an even bigger problem. As Paul writes: \u201cThe wages of sin is death\u201d (Romans 6:23). And: \u201cNo one is righteous, no not one\u201d (Romans 3:10). Jeremiah 17:9 says: \u201cThe heart is deceitful above all things and desperately corrupt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bible warns us that there is judgment ahead and the real problem is holiness and sin. It is hard to talk about holiness and sin because holiness is beyond us and sin is a far deeper corruption than we can imagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this reason, Christ came.  As 1 John 3:5 states: \u201cYou know that he appeared to take away sins,\u201d and: \u201cThe reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil\u201d (1 John 3:8).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott Adams needs better Christian friends. The ones he has have told him he needs to convert, to make a decision for Christ, as one might say, to seal the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s cringeworthy because any decision for Christ is just another \u201cgood work.\u201d Did I do that right? Was I earnest enough? Say the right words? But that doesn\u2019t work because as Isaiah 64:6 says: \u201cAll our righteous deeds are filthy rags.\u201d All our decisions for Christ are riddled with sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s too bad that Scott Adams doesn\u2019t have Christian friends who say: \u201cScott, you don\u2019t have to make a decision for Christ, and any decision you make and think you\u2019ve done it is just another way you are trusting in yourself and in works.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Christian friend could also offer to baptize him or encourage him to be baptized, because whether we arrive at the baptismal fount as adults or infants, our situation is the same. We are as helpless as a tiny babe. We need the Lord to rescue us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baptism does that. As it says in 1 Peter: \u201cYou know that you were ransomed from the futile ways . . . not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot\u201d (1 Peter 1:18-19).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cBy his wounds, you have been healed\u201d (I Peter 2:24, echoing Isaiah 53:4-5).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s like the famous painting by the Lutheran artist, Matthias Gr\u00fcnewald, back in Luther\u2019s day. You can see it today on display in Colmar, France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The painting is massive in size \u2014 three huge panels, which portray the crucifixion. Off to the far side is John the Baptist, who with his knobby finger forever points to Christ on the cross: \u201cBehold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the gospel. Our comfort and our calling. We point to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the gospel in a nutshell and the Christian life in a nutshell: \u201cBehold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John 1:29-42\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Sermon for the Second Sunday of Epiphany<\/p>\n

Have you heard of \u201cThe Nutshell Library\u201d? It\u2019s a collection of four miniature books, published in 1962, by Maurice Sendak. They are tiny pocket-sized books, perfect for small hands.<\/p>\n

I was once given a pocket-sized New Testament, but the print was so small it was difficult to read, and I missed the Old Testament.<\/p>\n

In the Bible there are, however, certain verses that are like the whole Bible in a nutshell. Our gospel text today has one such sentence, John 1:29: \u201cBehold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!\u201d<\/p>\n

Select here<\/a> to read more or here <\/a> for a pdf version.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11159"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11170,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11159\/revisions\/11170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}