Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

When thinking of a lamb, what comes to mind?

What you do thing when you use lamb in context of Jesus?

Both biblical and Near Eastern literature symbolize the lamb as innocent and defenseless.

The lamb is symbolic of the ideal kingdom

The word lamb is prominently used in the NT scriptures, especially by the apostle John

John the Baptist proclaims Jesus to be the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world.

What would that mean to the people of that time?

The primary background for the image of Jesus as a lamb in early Christianity was the Passover lamb, combined with allusions to sacrificial lambs; the secondary background was probably the image of the Suffering Servant as a lamb in Isaiah 53:7, a passage to which early Christians devoted much attention.

Historical and Cultural context of the lamb

Cultures prior to establishment of Israel used the lamb in their sacrificial system: Mesopotamia used it for substitutionary rituals, seeking to transfer evil to animals.

(Ex.

Woman who wants to transfer issue with stillbirth to a lamb).

The substitutionary concept also applied with a human as the object of receiving evil called the substitutionary-king ritual, which this idea is reflected in Isa 53:2-6 where the Suffering Servant bear both the iniquity and punishment of others

Israel’s sacrificial system where lambs could only be used in certain instances in peace offerings, sin offerings, guilt offerings, burnt offerings, and freewill offerings.

However, provisions were made for the poor where they could use turtledoves or pigeons instead.

Under Israel’s system, the lamb had to be ritually pure.

Lamb was hyper-domesticated animals.

They did not merely escape, but strayed away.

They required human leadership, human intervention, and human assistance in order to survive.

Perspective of God in the Old Testament

Although God is known to be merciful (compassionate), gracious, stead-fast in love, slow in anger, faithful, forgiving, and just, He was primarily portrayed as a warrior and the animal imagery (iconography) often associated with Him is a lion ( Isa 31:4; Jer 49:19; 50:44; Hos 5:14).

However, there is one exception. . . the Servant Songs (Isa 40-55); specifically, Isa 53:6-7.

“More than just an innocent sufferer, the lamb here is a surrogate sufferer; not just a blameless victim, then, but also in some way a vicarious victim.”

John R. Miles, “Lamb,” ed.

David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 132.

Testimony of Scripture

Remind them John intentionally ordered his gospel account around the passovers

29 of the 34 NT occurences of “lamb” occur in this book

Conclusion

What do you say about Jesus?

fullest expression given to what we might call Christianity’s mystical syllogism:

Jesus is the Lamb.

Jesus is God.

Therefore, the Lamb is God.