The Lamb has Arrived

          There were many anxiously waiting for the arrival of the Lamb; and when His forerunner first laid eyes on Jesus, he said:

     “Behold!  The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” 

John 1:29

     John’s proclamation was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy 700 years earlier.

     “…My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.”  Isaiah 53:11b

     Then after the slaying of the Lamb, and after His resurrection and ascension, Philip was subsequently witnessing to an Ethiopian eunuch.  Philip also quoted Isaiah to explain Jesus.

     “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opened not His mouth.”  Acts 8:32

     And Paul was even more specific when describing the initial role of Jesus at His first advent.

     “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.  Therefore let us keep the feast…”  1 Corinthians 5:7

     Then Peter summarized the work of Christ on the cross.

     “…you were not redeemed with corruptible things…but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.  He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world…”

1 Peter 1:18-20

     Paul confirmed that Christ was the Passover Lamb that shed His blood to redeem the Church, and His role as such was established before the world ever existed.

     Christ is now in the heavens at the Father’s right hand.  However, His role as Lamb is far from over.

     Let’s look forward to the future ‘Day of the LORD’ when the Lamb will reclaim all that He paid for on the cross.

     After the fulfillment of the Church age, as described in the initial chapters of Revelation, John heard a loud voice from heaven saying:

     “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.”  Revelation 4:1b

     Recall that Jesus said that this current age was the end of the ages.  Then will come the ‘Day of the LORD.’  John was told that he would be shown things that ‘must’ take place after the age of the Church.

     John finds himself in heaven before the throne.  And he saw in the right hand of the one on the throne a scroll sealed with seven seals.  The scroll represented the title deed to the earth, and the seals represented the necessary step by step process to redeem the earth.

     But John was deeply saddened because it appeared that there was no one worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals.

     “So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll…”  Revelation 5:3

     But one of the elders assured John that there was one who was worthy.

     “And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne…stood a Lamb as though it had been slain…”  Revelation 5:6

     “Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.”  Revelation 5:7

     That act elicited tremendous excitement in heaven, and the four living creatures and elders fell down before the Lamb and sang a new song.

     “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood…”  Revelation 5:9

     Thereafter the seals are opened, the trumpets are blown, and the final seven bowls of wrath are poured out on the earth. 

     The earth is reclaimed and for 1,000 years there is relative peace.

     Then after the millennial kingdom, all who have rejected Christ as the Passover Lamb are resurrected from Hades to stand before the great white throne.

     After the judgment, the earth is renewed and New Jerusalem descends from heaven.

     “But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles... but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”  Revelation 21:27

     And the same John who initially recognized Jesus as ‘The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,’ saw the Trinity.       

     “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”  Revelation 22:1

     The Lamb is forever!