Outdoor Worship Service for Rally Day

"Why We Need A Substitute"

September 17, 2006

John 1:29

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

Intro: Going to court in Suffern.

            A few weeks ago I had the experience of accompanying someone to Suffern Village Court just to be with the person and help out in any way I could. I found the experience rather fascinating. I probably would have been terrified rather than fascinated if it had been me who was summonsed to court. What I found fascinating was 1. the nervous looks on people’s faces as they awaited being called forward to address the Judge and the Village attorney. 2. the amazing stories / excuses people had to explain away the charges against them, 3. the big smiles on people’s faces when the judge dismissed their cases, basically telling them not to do it again.

            Each person was in that court room because of some alleged “offense.” They were charged with doing something wrong. For the session of court I attended, the infraction could have been that a Suffern homeowner had failed to trim his bushes or to clean up the trash in his back yard. Or it could be a landlord who failed to comply with safety regulations for their tenants. Some of the people were actually told by the judge that the offense was serious and that they had to come back to face an actual trial. They would need an attorney to represent them. Those folks were not smiling when they walked out.

            Isn’t it funny how we all try to make excuses. Who hasn’t had a tall tale to tell the police officer when he pulls you over? Which one of us hasn’t “exaggerated” a bit to try to cover our offense? Most of the time, the reality is, we were speeding. We go to the judge, plead guilty and pay our fine. That’s how it works. That’s justice. That’s the way it should work.

            By paying your fine satisfy the demands of justice. Or you could say that you “atone” for your illegal action. Webster’s Dictionary defines the word to “atone” as “to become reconciled, to be in harmony, to supply satisfaction for, to make amends.” When a person gets out of jail, often it is said, “He has done his time, he paid for his crime.”

             There is another possibility, though for satisfying the demands of justice. Someone else could pay your fine or someone else could correct the problem for you. For the situation I mentioned earlier, the alleged offense was taken care of before the actual court date. In our church there is a group of people who take care of serving others and helping those who struggle. We call them our Board Deacons. The Board of Deacons has a fund the help people in times of financial crisis. Usually it’s in small amounts, like to help someone pay a rent or a utility bill, or to buy groceries. What the Deacons did for this person who had an alleged offense about the condition of the bushes in her yard was to provide $200 to someone to go trim the bushes and clean up the yard. So, the Deacons “hired” some of our junior high school students who went over there and spent a few hours doing something that this senior citizen could not do for herself. The junior high youth in turn put the money in a fund to help provide scholarships for summer camp. Pretty simple idea… but it was based on the principle of substitutes. Someone substituted for someone else’s need.

            I’m not talking about a “substitute teacher” like the kind you have in high school and junior high. Having a substitute teacher, for me when I was in high school meant having a really good time cracking jokes and getting away from having to do any work that day.

            No, the Bible talks about us human beings needing a substitute. About someone or something else paying for our crimes. Let’s jump back in time a few years to the Beginning. In the Garden of Eden there was Adam and Eve leaving at perfect peace with God and with each other. They had everything you and I could ever hope to obtain. All the joy, all the relaxation, all the work of ruling and reigning over the most perfect vacation spot you can ever imagine. They only had one rule to live by. God told them they must not eat any of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told them that if they disobeyed this one rule, they would surely die. This is no misdemeanor, this is no traffic ticket. This is no building code violation where you have to pay a fine. No, this is instant capital punishment.

            Guess what Adam and Eve did. They ate the fruit. And every human being has been feeling the effects of this crime ever since. Genesis 3:21 says that God made animal skins to clothe Adam and Eve because as soon as they disobeyed God they felt naked and ashamed. Guess where the skins came from. An animal. An animal had to die “to atone” for their crime. The blood of an animal was shed in order to cover up their shame. Yes, they are thrown out of paradise, they experience spiritual death. And yes, they do die in their old age rather than living forever as they would have if they had not disobeyed. But that animal died and every time they looked at their clothing it would be an acute reminder of their sin.

            Another place I want us to look in the Bible about an atonement is in the Passover story. Jewish people celebrate Passover in the spring, and the Jewish holiday called “Yom Kippur,” or “Day of Atonement”  is coming up on October 2. But let’s look at Passover first.

            The Book of Exodus tells us how God’s people were held as slaves in Egypt and the King of the land, the pharaoh, wouldn’t let the people go. They wanted to leave and go live in the land God had promised them. What finally convinced Pharaoh to let the people go was when an angel of death went all over the country killing the first born of every family and the first born of all livestock. If the Israelites took the blood of a lamb and sprinkled it over the doorframe of their house, the angel would “pass over” them. The lamb served as a “substitute.” All this sounds pretty gory to me but that’s the way it worked.

            Later on in the Bible, when someone broke the law, rather than paying a fine or going to jail like we do today, they would have to atone by killing an animal and pouring out its blood on an altar.

            Now’ let’s look at this Day of Atonement. The Book of Leviticus explains this holiday. It involved 2 goats. On the Day of Atonement the high priest was to enter into the most sacred place, the holy of holies. This was located in the tabernacle where the Ark of the Covenant was located and when the temple of Israel was built, it was the inner sanctuary. For the high priest to enter the sanctuary he had to sacrifice a goat to atone for his sins and for the sins of the people. The sacrifice of the goat was understood to offer forgiveness of sins. The other goat is what I think is particularly interesting.

            Listen to what the Bible says in Leviticus 16

When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. ^21 He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. ^22 The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert.

Isn’t that exciting. Not only does one goat pay the price for our crimes. He pays the fine. The other goat actually takes away our sin. Now let’s fastforward about 1300 years to hear the words of a prophet, who, like the scapegoat, lived in the desert. His name was John.

John 1

^29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! ^30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ^31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”

You know what John is saying? He’s saying: Behold the Scapegoat. Behold the lamb whose blood is going to pay the price for our sins.

Jesus when, when He was celebrating the Passover with his disciples, took the third Passover cup, the cup of redemption, and said, “This is my body which is broken for you. This is my blood which is shed for you.” He is telling them that He is now the one who makes atonement for their sins.

When Jesus died on the Cross and said “It is finished.” He wasn’t just saying, ‘finally, all this torture and crucifixion is over.’ No, He was referring all the way back to Adam and Eve, when they were the first ones to break the law. He is saying “Atonement is made for all humanity.” It is finished- his work is accomplished. He has substituted himself in our place for the crimes, for the sins that we commit.

Now let’s roll ahead to the future. I don’t know how long this will be, could be tomorrow, could be thousands of years from now. This is when each of us will have to give account of ourselves to a Holy God. God will evaluate us from top to bottom, beginning to end. How did we do?

Many people think that God will accept us based on how good or bad we were in this life.

They believe that they aren’t so bad and that because there are lots of people a lot worse than them, then God should accept them. We can all find someone else a lot worse than ourselves. Just take a trip over the Rockland County Jail. Make you feel pretty good about yourself, right? That’s not quite how it’s going to work.  Judgment Day won’t be like that. On that day God will examine every thing we’ve ever done and every thought we’ve ever had.

So the question is not how bad I sin. The question is: who’s going to atone for my sin? 

We have a choice before us. I can choose to atone for my own sin or I can accept Jesus as a substitute. Guess what, standing up before a judge in traffic court is nothing like what it will like if you try to stand up before God and self atone. God, the Judge, is offering to dismiss your case, not because you are innocent but because someone else has paid your fine. Someone else has made things right.

Are you ready to accept that? Faith in Jesus means you stop trying to self atone. That you stop the excuses. It means getting honest with yourself and with God and saying- I need help. Please forgive me. Please change me.

Prayer