We will be reading from the book of 1 Peter. If you can turn your Bibles and stand along with me and those who are online, if I can request you to stand with us for the reading of the word from 1 Peter 1: 13 – 21.

13 Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

17 And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you 21 who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

We’ve been studying about Jesus Christ this whole month. In John 1:29, John the Baptist sees Jesus Christ coming down by the river side and He says, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” That was John’s testimony about Jesus Christ. Twice John confesses this about Jesus Christ that He is the Lamb of God and that He’s going to take away the sins of the world. This whole month, we will be focusing and learning about who Christ really is through our series. There are many people who portray Jesus Christ in a different way – views that are very unbiblical. Jesus Christ is portrayed as a human being, a social reformer, a religious leader, an accepting radical with no moral standard who will give you everything. But in the Bible, we find the authentic Jesus. We see very clearly John’s perspective and testimony about Jesus Christ.

We’re going to talk a lot about the Lamb of God and, especially this morning, about the holiness of Jesus Christ. So if you want to give a title to today’s word, we’re gonna talk about the character of Jesus Christ as the Holy Lamb of God. In the Old Testament, when sins were to be remitted and forgiven, the commandment God gave the people was that they were supposed to bring a one year old lamb before the priest to slaughter in the presence of the person. The priest would shed and pour the blood on the altar. The body would then be given back to the person so they could partake of that lamb. That was the method God had given to the people of Israel. Now we see that God is not a bloodthirsty God. The God of the Bible is not simply a lunatic who loves to see innocent animals killed.

That is not who God is. And people try to misunderstand who Jesus Christ is. The reason God commanded them to bring a lamb before the priests to be killed and offered as a sacrifice, was to prick the conscience of the person. They would see the lamb and think, “Hey, listen, I am the guy who committed the sins. This lamb is absolutely innocent. It didn’t do anything. It is beautiful, precious and pure. I’m bringing it here, only to be killed by the priest and for its blood to be shed. All because of my sin – because of who I am.” They were supposed to bring one without any blemish, cut or spot on it. Instead of the person dying, the lamb had to lay down its life.

1. it reminds them about themselves.
2., it reminds them to look forward to Jesus Christ, who will be killed and whose blood will be shed and whose body will be destroyed because of our sin.

We are supposed to be reminded of this when God spoke about animal sacrifices in the Old Testament. One of the most important criteria about bringing a lamb was that it should be without any blemish or any spot. There should be no cut or injury. It should be perfect and the best that they could find in order to be acceptable before God. When John talks about Jesus Christ, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”, John is referring back to this practice in the Old Testament where Jesus Christ was going to be the lamb.

One important characteristic that we will find about Jesus Christ is that He is Holy. Now I’m not talking about being holy in the sense of wearing white clothes or smelling nice and looking outwardly perfectly. No, that is not holiness. There is no English equivalent word to describe what the word holiness in the Bible is. The word in the Bible is ‘Kedush’ which basically means ‘cut above’. It means to be set apart. You have everything else and you have holiness. So holiness is written in the Bible with the Hebrew word meaning to be set apart cut above. This is the entire character of who God is. If you had to sum up who God is in one word, it would be that he is Holy. In Exodus 15:11, Moses is singing here. He writes these words in his song, saying, “Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises, doing wonders?”
It says, who is like you? It’s a rhetorical question. It basically means there is nobody like God in His holiness. None can match his holiness. He is a cut above everybody else. There is nothing greater or higher than His holiness. God is the epitome of holiness. He is the greatest and the highest standards of holiness that you could ever find.

In our country, there are so many gods and goddesses and gurus who are called holy men and holy women. People give them so much respect but none of them match the holiness that God is, as is described in the Bible. I do want to share a personal story. I am not a Christian, because I was born in a Christian family. One of the important things that has drawn me towards Jesus Christ is because of His holiness. As a young person when I was in school and college, I was so interested in finding out about religion. I read all kinds of books. I read most of the books from other religions. This was my conclusion. At a conference of world religions, I can go from one table to another, and never find a God who is holy and set apart like the God of the Bible.

You will see in most of the religions that these gods and goddesses are described like you and I. They all have family problems and issues like children rebelling against them, disputes between the gods etc. You can take it all the way from Greek mythology. There are all kinds of stuff that happens within these religions. Now there are just a few religions that say that God is a holy God. And I think one of the closest that comes to describing God as a Holy God is Zoroastrianism. It is practiced by the Parsis in our country. Here, God is described as a fire. Zoroastrianism is the closest we’ll get to a religion that talks about God being an absolutely Holy person – apart from the Bible. But here’s the only problem that I have; a fire is an immaterial object. I cannot have any relationship with a fire. But we see in the Bible that God is not just Holy, but He is also personal. He is very relational and He is actually a person. He’s not just an object; something that you cannot relate to. But He’s somebody whom you can relate to and talk with. He is moved by the decisions we make. He is a very, very personal God. That is what really sets Jesus Christ apart from all the other religions which is 1. His Holiness and 2. His ability to be relational.

The Bible testifies several times about Jesus Christ and his time on earth. It says that He lived a perfectly holy life. In Hebrews 4:15, the Bible says that Jesus Christ was without sin. In 1 Peter 2:22, it says, “He who committed no sin,.” In 2 Corinthians 5:21, it says, “Him who had no sin.” Apostle John states in 1 John 3:5, “In Him is no sin.” In Isaiah 53:11, he is called “the righteous one.” You see again and again the scriptures testify that Jesus Christ was holy. In him there was no sin, nothing could be found in him. That was no spot or blemish. He was absolutely holy. In Psalm 45:7 it says, “He’s the one who loved righteousness and hated wickedness.” That is who Jesus Christ is: absolutely and one hundred percent Holy.

But in His Holiness, God did not tell us, like some other religions teach, to keep our distance from Him. He did not banish us to hell. That’s not what the Bible says that God has done towards us. Rather it teaches us that because God is holy, He looked down upon us and He loved us. He wanted to redeem us from our sins. God could not look at us with favor because of the fact that we are sinners. But in His great love that he had towards us, Christ came down to this world, and He died for us on the cross. The most famous verse that we have is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.”

In the passage that we read this morning. I wanted to point out one thing. It says in 1 Peter 1:20, “He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.” What does it say? It says for you, that’s you right there. You can write your name there. For you, He was manifested in these last times. Verse 21, “who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” In 1 Peter 3:18, he says, “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:” Jesus Christ suffered for your sins; the just for the unjust, that he might bring you to God and that through His death, and through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you and I can be saved. Revelation 13:8 again talks about Jesus Christ, “the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world.”

So just a couple of days ago, the whole world remembered that Jesus Christ died on the cross. Everybody calls it Good Friday. It was, in fact, a good day when Jesus Christ died. Now how can we claim as Christians the day our God died to be a good day? That should have been a very sad day. I mean, our hero, the one we were looking forward to, died for all you young people. What would you do if your hero dies? Y’all saw the movie Avengers: Infinity War? What happened when Thanos snapped and all the heroes died? What happened after that? Everybody just went on fine after a while. They thought there was nothing they could do about it. That was the end of the story. They all went back to their normal life. They had all those superpowers, but it was over once they died. You see, if that was where the Bible stopped, we would all be in that same situation. If the Bible stopped at the death of the One who was supposed to redeem us and give us salvation, it would be a great tragedy. The fact that His story doesn’t end there is also what sets Jesus Christ apart from every other religion as well. Most of the religious stories just end with the death of the founder. That’s the end of him. And people build tombs for them. They build these huge constructions and monuments for them. Everybody then goes on a pilgrimage to see the tomb of these people.

But Jesus Christ’s tomb is not there. Why? Because He is not dead anymore. On the third day after Jesus Christ died, he rose from the dead and he lives forever. He’s alive today. He’s no longer dead. God didn’t want us to find the tomb where Jesus Christ was put in, you know why? Why do you want to go and look for his tomb when he’s not dead? If he was dead and his mortal remains buried, it would make sense. But his tomb doesn’t have to be found because He’s alive. If you want to search for God, look up to the heavens. That’s what the Bible encourages us to do; to look up. Colossians3:1, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” We look up to God in the heavens because that is where He’s seated right now. We do not search for him in the tomb. In fact, when the disciples came to the tomb, and they were looking for Jesus Christ, what did the angel say? “Why are you searching for the living among the dead?” Why would you come to the tomb and look for Jesus Christ? He’s not here. He is alive. And that’s the greatest thing about Jesus Christ that he is not only dead, but he also rose up from the grave.

In Revelation 1:18, these are the words of Jesus Christ, “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.” Jesus says, “I’m He who lives and was dead, and behold, I’m alive forevermore.” To which John responds with an amen. Jesus Christ says, “and I have the keys of Hades, and of death.” So the death of Jesus Christ is something that has destroyed death itself. These are the words of John Owen, a great writer and preacher, “We see the death of death in the death of Christ.” So death itself died when Jesus Christ died and he rose up from death. He alone has the power to destroy the power of death. He’s redeemed us from death forever.

Death is a tragic event. In fact death is, as the Bible says, the consequence of sin. Death is an enemy. It was a curse. So when Christ died, he entered into the curse that God had placed on the earth. Now, here’s what I shared on Friday, but I want to share it again. Here’s the thing about death; for us, we see death every day. We hear about death every single day. So we kind of get accustomed to it and we say, ‘Oh so and so person died, how sad.’ We cry for a couple of days and we get over it and move on. But for God to die is a big deal. Why? Because in the eternity past, God lived forever. He never had to go through the experience of death. Secondly, it is He who placed that curse of death. You remember He told Adam and Eve that the day they eat of the fruit, they would die. Now for God to participate in that curse was a big deal.

I don’t know how many of you have gone without food for a couple of days. Let’s just imagine you lived a good life. You had a great house, a nice car, wonderful people to cook delicious food and you’re living the best. One day everything is taken away and you’re thrown on the street. What do people say? “You know, I used to live very well, but now I can’t bear this. I can’t live like this.” Think about God and multiply that feeling by a 1000 times. God who never had to taste death had to be made to die because of you. He had to partake of that death and he had to go on the cross and die in the most shameful way. That is why Jesus Christ went into the garden. He was praying to the Father, asking Him to let this cup be taken away from Him if it was the Father’s will. Jesus Christ prayed so much that His sweat was falling like drops of blood because of the intense stress of anticipating his death.

When the Bible says that Christ became a curse for us, it’s because he partook of the curse of death on our behalf when He could have just easily escaped it. When Pilate actually threatened Jesus with his authority to have Him killed. Jesus replied saying that Pilate didn’t have that power and that He could easily ask the Father for a legion of angels to come and to protect him. One angel could kill 120,000 men in the Old Testament. Now multiply that by a legion which is a 1000. They could have completely eliminated everybody in the Roman Empire. But that’s not what Jesus Christ chose. He was like a lamb that was before its shearers. Jesus Christ kept quiet. He spoke no words before Pilate. In fact, Herod was astounded that Jesus Christ did not retaliate back. He did not argue or say anything back to the people that were accusing Him.

Isaiah captures this very well. And I’m going to close with Isaiah 53.

“Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
3 He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
9 And they made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.

10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,
And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,
Because He poured out His soul unto death,
And He was numbered with the transgressors,
And He bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors.”

My friends, the passage just described what Jesus Christ went through on the cross. If you’re sitting here, questioning the value and purpose of your life, remember that Jesus Christ died for you on the cross. Let that sink into your heart. A lady once told my wife and myself, ‘Oh, you’re always very happy. You all must have had good karma in the past so that you can be a happy couple.’
I looked at her and I told her, ‘You have no clue what is happening at home. You don’t know how miserable my life is sometimes. You don’t know the stuff that we go through between us. But we are not happy because of ourselves but because we know our sins are forgiven. That’s why I’m happy. That’s why we can have joy.’ That is why it is called the joy of your salvation. You can be happy and be rejoicing today because you do not have to bear the consequences of your sins anymore. That’s what Jesus Christ said. In John 19:31, His last word on the cross, “It is finished.” That term is actually an accounting term. This is for all the bankers in the room today. The word basically means it is paid in full. The debt is cleared. You don’t have to pay anything. It is completely paid by Jesus Christ. You owe nothing to God anymore because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

That’s why we are happy. Whatever bad deeds I’ve done and the sin I have committed, I don’t have to bear the karma of it because Jesus Christ bore all those consequences. He took all those sins upon Himself and He died instead of me. My friends this morning, I want to invite you to believe upon the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the suffering that He went through on the cross for your sake personally. He’s offering this gift of life free of cost. All the other religions have you pay your way into Heaven. They instill fear and try to threaten your life. We’re constructing a house and we’ve found people to be so particular. If we don’t build a wall in a proper way, something bad will happen to us. And they always target the son, saying he will have problems to get us to constantly live in fear. Whereas the Bible tells us to fear not! Jesus Christ said, “Fear not for I am with you.” So my friends, we have no burden to bear all by ourselves, because Christ bore our burdens and I want to invite you this morning to pray and ask the Lord to come into your heart for you to dedicate your life to Jesus Christ and believe upon him. Amen.