Stone Mountain Park, Stone Mountain, Georgia
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” ~ John 1:29
There are so many aspects to cover for this day. There’s the set up of the Passover meal for Jesus and His apostles, the foot washing by Jesus and Peter’s initial refusal, the Passover meal, Judas leaving to meet with the Pharisees, the institution of communion, the last teachings by Jesus, the Garden prayers, the arrest, the beginnings of the trials . . . and probably more that I’ve not mentioned. But the more rabbit trails I went down, the more I was led back to Jesus as the Lamb of God.
Do you ever wonder why Jesus is sometimes referred to as the Lamb of God?
It begins way back in the Old Testament with Abraham’s almost sacrifice of his son, Isaac, but I want to move forward a few centuries to Moses and the plagues on Egypt. You may remember the story – or at least parts of it. The Israelites had been slaves to Egypt for over 400 years when God called Moses to take them out. Part of the plan to do that involved a series of ten plagues. The final one so horrific, the Egyptians begged the Israelites to go.
That plague was the death of all the first born in Egypt. All the first born. Animals and people. Think of that for a minute. Who are the first born in your family?
But all the Israelites were spared. Why? How? Because God instituted Passover to protect them. There were specific rules to be followed. It didn’t just happen in an instant. There were several weeks leading up to this fateful night. Each family had to get a lamb or goat that had no defects of any kind. Then, 10 days before, they had to bring it into their home and care for it. And on the exact night at the exact time God commanded, the lamb was then slaughtered and its blood wiped on three sides of the door to each family’s home. This would indicate that those inside belonged to God and death would ‘pass over’ them. It was the sacrifice that saved them. Protected them from death. Sealed them as belonging to God. Everything about that evening became symbolic to the nation of Israel. It was, and still is, remembered annually, just as God commanded, as a reminder of God’s protection and provision for them.
Jump ahead a few thousand years to Jesus in the Upper Room celebrating this memorial meal with His apostles.
These men all knew it by heart. How much was just by rote? How many celebrated with their hearts in the right place? Who knows. But suddenly, Jesus throws a wrench into it. He initiates communion – the bread and the wine, the body and the blood – to remember Him. “Take this, in remembrance of Me.” There’s going to be a new covenant. Something new to remember for all time.
But where’s the sacrifice? There’s just bread and wine. For reasons I’m not getting into here, God requires a sacrifice.
The sacrifice to go along with this new covenant will bring an end to the need for constant animal sacrifices.
Jesus will be the once-and-for-all sacrifice. The Lamb that was slain. The perfect, unblemished, sin-free Lamb. And so, He is called, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
For those of us who aren’t familiar with the regulations of the Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread, it’s hard to understand how Jesus’ crucifixion ties in with that. But it does. Below is a chart which helps us make the comparison.
Pretty amazing! I first began making the correlation between the two many years ago when I was teaching a Bible Study on the Old Testament. During that time, I read two different books I’d picked up – “Passover Haggadah” and “The Passover Feast”. I don’t know the authors, but these books are written by Jewish converts to Christianity and they see the symbolism in everything! Unfortunately, I don’t know where I got the chart from, but it may have been from one of these books. It’s sooo interesting and incredible to see how God works through the ages!
Just as death passed over the Israelites because they were covered by the blood of the perfect sacrificial lamb, so Jesus provided the means for death to pass over all men with His perfect sacrifice. All we must do to claim this sacrifice for ourselves is to allow His blood to cover over our hearts. To do that, all we must do is ask Jesus to apply His sacrifice to us. Believe He is God. If you’ve not already, put your faith and trust in Him today.
We were blessed to spend our day with old friends, Allan and Francine Graham, whom we’ve not seen for about 15 years! Being in their presence once again, felt a lot like coming home. Some of you may be wondering how we got to know these Georgia folks.
It all started when Blaine’s dad and another electrician friend invited Blaine to go with them on a mission trip to Guatemala for a specialized trip. There was a seminary there that needed a new generator and doing that required electricians. This was back in 2001 (we think). The guys went and a week later, Blaine came home and told me that he felt God calling him to take a team from our church at the time, Springfield Baptist in Akron, Ohio.
He contacted Allan Graham who was the missionary who’d organized their trip and plans were set in motion. Blaine thought he could rally a couple of people to go with us, but God had much bigger plans! Seventeen people went on that very successful trip!
Aside from the fact that God was in it, Allan was instrumental in guiding and helping organize, by taking care of all the logistics like ordering plane tickets, etc. He also provided instruction, information, and counsel about all aspects of a foreign mission trip. He visited our church at least four times and maybe five. Helping teach churches how to do successful mission trips is what he and his wife, Francine do. And on top of all that, he’s a wonderful, funny, godly, humble man to be around! We can’t sing his praises enough. Francine’s pretty great, too!
Here’s some information on their organization, World Bridge Ministries:
World Bridge Ministries was incorporated in 1984 as an outgrowth of a recognition of the need for more local churches to be involved in world evangelization on a church-wide, personalized, and strategic basis. The same need that existed then is even more true today. The same fact that existed then is still true today: local churches which are committed to world evangelization not only promote the Gospel overseas, but also grow at home.
The first seminar ever presented was in 1974. Designed for pastors and lay leaders, the seminar aimed to provide both a world vision and the tools to build a world missions ministry. In the following years, more of these seminars were held, and it became apparent that they were impacting many churches in a positive way.
The name of the seminar has changed through the years and other aspects of the ministry were added. Bridge to the Lost Seminars help individual churches maximize their world missions efforts. Should additional assistance be desired following the seminar, we can act as a consultant for as long as you desire to help implement a strategy that fits your church body. Project Build Outreach mobilizes a local church through hands-on, practical mission participation in other cultures.
World Bridge’s home office is located near Atlanta, Georgia. In some areas of the country we have people familiar and trained in our strategies who could also be available to assist you.
If you or your church are thinking about foreign missions (and if you’re not, you should be), we strongly recommend contacting Allan and Francine at 770-529-7000 or write them at PO Box 1099, Acworth, GA 30101-1099. They know what they’re doing, and they are God-led and blessed and you will be too!
Also of note, Allan told us that he recently worked up some statistics and 7% of all the people he’s worked with have been called to foreign missions following a trip – most to places other than where they went with Allan!
After chatting and getting caught up, we went for a drive, stopping to get a look at Kennesaw Mountain (we didn’t visit because they’re re-paving the parking lot) and their office (where we watched a couple of hysterical videos Allan created for their ministry) and then we got hungry and tried Culver’s.
None of us had ever been, but Blaine & I have seen them all over the place in our travels. I’m here to tell you, Wendy’s burger moved to second place for fast food, and I never thought that would happen! Here’s what we ordered (plus fries of course, which were also good):
Their website didn’t have a picture of Allan’s. He had a Wisconsin cheese burger.
It was on sourdough toast.
And they make their own root beer. And – – they have ice cream! And Francine said we absolutely HAD to have ice cream! Why? Because it’s ice cream! So we did. And it was wonderfully delicious and creamy! They’d given us a list of all the ice cream flavors, but we didn’t realize that besides chocolate and vanilla, they only make one additional flavor each day. We were all excited to try these different things, but today’s was chocolate, marshmallow, oreo. (I’m quite sure they have a fancier name for it) Everyone tried that except me, and the Culver’s website doesn’t have a picture of it.
We’ll definitely be visiting more Culver’s now! And Francine’s already planning a trip back at the end of April when they’ll be making her 1st choice – an Andes mint concoction. Sorry Allan!
We left in the evening – after the Atlanta rush hour traffic abated some – and arrived home just ahead of the storm the weatherman had predicted.
So thankful for the reunion!
Remember that storm I mentioned? We came home to this, folded and stuck inside our door handle. YIKES!
Fortunately, we didn’t have anything except some rain and a bit of thunder.