Sermon Series on John’s Gospel
Week #5
“Three animals that preach” 1 Is it possible that the same God who made the Tiger, also made the lamb? Tigers are the largest members of the cat family and are renowned for their power and strength. The tiger is capable of killing animals over twice its size; it is one of nature’s most feared predators. The tiger relies heavily on its powerful teeth for survival. If it loses its teeth through injury or old age, it can no longer kill and is likely to starve to death. Tigers live alone and aggressively scent-­‐mark large territories to keep their rivals away. They are powerful nocturnal hunters that can see 6 times as well as a human can at night and can travel many miles to find buffalo, deer, wild pigs, and other large mammals. A Bengal tiger can eat 45 pounds of meat in a night and can kill the equivalent of 30 buffaloes a year. The roar of a Bengal tiger can carry for over 1.2 miles. Tigers can reach a length of up to (11 feet) and weighs as much as (660 pounds). A tiger can jump 16 feet long and 5 feet high 2 What does it say about God, that he made the Tiger? Let’s talk about sheep now for a moment. Sheep have very good memories. They can remember at least 50 individual sheep and humans for years. Sheep have been shown to display emotions. Contrary to popular misconception, sheep are extremely intelligent animals capable of problem solving. They are considered to have a similar IQ level to cattle and are nearly as clever as pigs. Like various other species including humans, sheep make different vocalizations to communicate different emotions. They also display and recognize emotion by facial expressions. Like humans, sheep also seem to find familiar faces comforting. Researchers found that when sheep were socially isolated the sight of familiar sheep face pictures reduced behavioral and physiological measures of stress. Researchers have also found that sheep can recognize emotions in facial expression, not only in their species but also in humans. Female sheep are very caring mothers and form deep bonds with their lambs that can recognize them by their call when they wander too far away. Sheep have a strong instinct to follow the sheep in front of them. When one sheep decides to go somewhere, the rest of the flock usually follows, even if it is not a good "decision." For example, sheep will follow each other to slaughter. If one sheep jumps over a cliff, the others are likely to follow. Sheep are a prey animal. When they are faced with danger, their natural instinct is to flee not fight. Sheep have an amazing tolerance for pain. They do not show pain, because if they do, they will be more vulnerable to predators who look for those who are weak or injured Did the same God who made the Tiger, make the lamb? Brittish Poet William Blake once pondered that very question in his famous poem, “The Tiger.” 3 The Tiger By William Blake Tiger! Tiger! burning bright In the forest of the night What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire? And What shoulder, and what art, Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand? and what dread feet? What the hammer? what the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp? When the stars threw down their spears, And watered heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the lamb make thee? Tiger! Tiger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? Three animals that preach Did he who made the Tiger make the lamb? I believe you can learn a lot about God by studying the attributes of animals. And I believe you can also learn a lot about Jesus by studying three animals he is associated with. He is referred to as a lamb, and a lion in the Bible and in the passage we are about to look at, the Holy Spirit descends upon him from heaven like a dove. 4 If you want to know the Son of God, study the Old Testament & the animal kingdom I agree with Pastor Tim Keller of Reedemer Presbyterian that the best a man or woman can be is a liony lamb or a lamby lion. Pastor John Piper of Minnesota says the people he admires most in the world are lion-­‐like and yet they are lamb-­‐like too. Both male and female. I agree with them both. We live in a world that is confused. Many times people, namely men, think it’s okay to only be lions. And because they see themselves only as lions they are not lamb like at all. And it’s a problem. Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson are in trouble. Both of them have been tremendously successful NFL football players but neither of them will play football today. And it’s game day for their respective teams. The reason that neither of the guys will be in uniform is because they did violent things to their loved ones. Ray Rice got violent with his fiancé on an elevator and it was caught on camera. It was a video that was very hard to watch. Adrian Peterson whipped his son with a switch off a tree, something that most likely happened to him many times throughout his life. But his son was 4 years old. And pictures released show that the boy had marks all over his little legs that broke the skin and left him a mess. The authorities for now have declared that Adrian Peterson didn’t spank his son but abused him. You may not be physically abusive to a loved one. You might not struggle with the things those too men struggle with. But a question I have for you men this morning is this, are you overly lion like? Does your lion like nature need to be infiltrated with the gentleness of a dove or a lamb? Is it possible that you need to become more of a liony lamb intead of presenting yourself to loved ones exclusively as all lion? On the flip side, it’s possible to be entirely lamby and not enough of a lion. I had a friend once that said that there’s never a reason to fight a war and that we should’ve yelled at Hitler instead of fighting him. And I greatly respect this friend but still I thought, “Jesus is a lion and a lamb and that sounds overly lamby to me.” 5 John chapter 1 verses 29-­34 If you want to truly know the Son of God, studying the Old Testament & the animal kingdom is critical. John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ John 1:31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” John 1:32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. John 1:33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ John 1:34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” 6 The Plane! The Plane! John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! Why did John the Baptist say, “Mira!” Why did John the Baptist say, “Look!” The author, John the disciple, will use this word 15 times in his gospel, more than all the other NT Writers combined. Remember Fantasy Island? Remember Tatoo? What would Tatoo belt out with excitement any time a new plane would arrive with a new set of passengers? “The Plane! The Plane!” Why did John the Baptist say, “Look! Behold! The lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” There are 2 reasons he refers to Jesus this way. 1) Because lambs are referred to constantly in the Old Testament 2) Because to understand Jesus you need to understand lambs 7 Ancient Israelites knew they were waiting for a Lamb John wrote his gospel, I’m convinced, with a Genesis scroll right next to him. John the Baptist was a man whom God spoke to. We can’t be sure John the Baptist always perfectly understood the things God was giving him to say. Most people don’t think John even fully understood the ramifications of his own declaration but he says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Why? My answer would be because of Genesis 22 and Isaiah 53. Remember the story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice his only son? His boy? His only boy whose name meant laughter? Well into the story the boy says this to his father… Gen. 22:7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here am I, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” (When Jesus arrived on the scene, the ancient israelites were still asking that very question – where is the lamb? The lamb of all lambs? When is he coming? How will we find him?) Gen. 22:8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together. (I say praise God that he did just that. That he indeed provided the lamb of all lambs. His son Jesus). When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” 8 Where did the story of Abraham & Isaac take place? “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” The region of Moriah is where God’s son, the true lamb of God, would one day take away the sins of the world on a cross. That happened on one of the mountains in the region of Moriah. It’s almost as if God was acting like Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin when they landed on the moon and drove a flag into it to mark their sacred territory. By making sure that the Abraham & Isaac scene took place at the region of Moriah, God was in a sense driving a cross into the ground. He was essentially saying, “one day, this place will no longer be called the region of Moriah, it will be called Jerusalem. And one day, I, God the father, will provide the lamb to take away the sins of the world and prove that I love you, for I will not withhold my son, my only son, from you. In this very region, my son will take away your sin. And on that day there will be no intervention from an angel. The nails will finish him off. All because I love you.” This is surely in part why John the Baptist says in John 1, “behold the lamb of God.” 9 The second reason John refers to Jesus as a lamb is to show you what Jesus is actually like He presents Jesus as a lamb. Gentle. Humble. Kind. A peacemaker. He’s not one that would abuse his spouse or his child if he had one. He’s not one that would be overly and unnecessarily aggressive. He’s was lamb like. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 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 her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. A pastor once was in a foreign country where they still do animal sacrifices. He said to the people who did them, (they of course weren’t Christians), can I watch you sacrifice a lamb? And they said, “no.” He said, “why?” and the said, “because it’s too sad. You see a sheep doesn’t really resist and it doesn’t make a sound when we kill it. It just surrenders it’s neck.” John the Baptist says, “Behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” If you want to understand Jesus you can learn a lot from sheep. Remember the exchange between Pilate and Jesus? Matt. 27:13 Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” Matt. 27:14 But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor. He could’ve refuted every charge but instead he was a lamb. He didn’t open his mouth. Never before were the words of Isaiah 53 more clear, “as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. “ I believe that sheep were designed by God. And I believe he designed sheep to help us understand Jesus. Just as sheep are gentle, kind, peaceful, mild and friendly and when they are slaughtered they don’t squirm, so it is and was with Jesus. 10 The Dove preaches as well But just in case the whole lamb thing would fly over our heads, God stuns us with another lesson from the animal kingdom. When the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus at his baptism, he comes like a Dove. John 1:33 I myself did not know him (he says this twice), but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ Why does John the Baptist say twice in these 5 verses, “I myself did not know him.” It’s because John the Baptist wants to make sure you know, “if you’re not careful you could miss what he’s like the way I would’ve had God not told me what to watch for.” John was volatile. Edgy. Prophetic. Brutally honest. No one said about John, “He was like a lamb and he was dove like.” John is saying, “I wasn’t expecting a dove-­‐like lamb but that’s what he was like.” I have shot some dove since I have been here. As you all know, the dove is not aggressive. It’s not going to bother you. It has no way to defend itself. It is a graceful bird that really has no way to defend itself other than to fly away. I’m not a great shot yet and a few times I have hit a dove and not killed it. And so I have to go pick it up while it’s floundering. And unlike other birds, it simply can’t defend itself. It’s just a delicate, gentle, lowly bird. When John the Baptist watched the Holy Spirit come and remain on Jesus he says, “the whole thing was like watching a dove land. His nature was dove like. And that is the way he approached the world in order to save it.” 11 Behold, the Lion from the tribe of Judah There’s one final animal that Jesus is compared to. Not in his gospel but in Revelation John sees a picture of Jesus the world hasn’t seen just yet. Rev. 5:1 ¶ Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Rev. 5:2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” Rev. 5:3 And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, Rev. 5:4 and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. Rev. 5:5 And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”
This is a vision of the future. And in the future John tells us Jesus is a lion. And the whole purpose of the final book John would wrote was to make sure we know that Jesus is coming again. And he’s going to make sure we know that the next time the world sees him, no one will hit him. No one will spit on him. No one will mock him. And no one will abuse him. The next time he comes, the Bible says every knee will bow before him. In other words, Jesus is a lamby lion. A liony lamb. A dove like lion. A lion like dove. Husbands, are you ever like a dove to your wives? Are you ever lamb like? It doesn’t mean you’re a man if you are always like a lion. Real men are like Jesus, they are lions and lambs. Our kids should say this about us dads. Best case scenario, we will be lion like lambs. There’s a time to be both. Wives, it’s okay to roar once in a while. And God bless you for how dove like and lamb like many of you are to us. 12 If you go to Ed Compton’s house, you will see a scary, dangerous looking Cape Buffalo. He shot it when he was in Africa. Before moving here, I had not heard how dangerous and mean those things are. In fact one nearly fatally killed Ed’s daughter. The Cape Buffalo is no joke. The poet William Blake essentially said, “is it possible that the same God who made the cape buffalo, also made the dove.” I would answer yes. And I would go a step further and say, the God who made the lion has a son who is just like one. One day soon he will return and when he does he will right all wrongs and he is mightier than the mightiest lion or cape buffalo. But his son is also like a lamb. He came in the spirit of a dove. He’s humble, gentle, kind. Behold, the lion of Judah and the lamb of God who took away the sins of the world. 13 I wish I could show you the image I have in my phone. It’s of the Albany Lion’s mascot holding my little girl. Corrie is smitten by the Albany Lion. It’s her favorite thing to see in all of Albany. I love the picture because Corrie is being held by the Lion. And the Lion is smiling. And my little girl is captivated and is all smiles. Friends that is a picture of Jesus. As C.S. Lewis once said of Aslan, the great lion of Narnia, “he’s not a tame lion. He’s not safe. But he is good.” May he be praised in this church and for all eternity. Amen. 14