I will never forget when Bonnie and I flew into a region of the Congo to hold an evangelistic outreach. As our single engine plane flew in, we saw thousands of people converging on the grounds where we would hold our meetings. I was amazed as we realized more than 50,000 people, many of them having walked for days through the bush, had come hungry to hear the word of the Lord. The first night of our outreach, my primary message was, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the whole world.” Suddenly, in the middle of the meeting a young man started walking toward me through the congregation of thousands of people. There was a stirring in the crowd followed by an eruption of ecstatic cheering.

Unbeknownst to me, this young man had never walked before. He lived in the region and survived by begging in the local town. When the townspeople recognized him, they broke into shouts. What had happened? I had not even started praying for people. But that young man connected by faith with the Lamb of God who is the same yesterday, today and forever. He beheld the Lamb and connected with the King of Glory. He stepped into the eternal reality of the shed blood of our Passover Lamb and was healed instantly and started walking. It was one of the most glorious days.

Jesus is called the Lamb of God because the miracle of the first Passover points to salvation in Jesus Christ. The blood of the first Passover lamb brought deliverance, healing, provision and all the essentials of life for Israel. It provides a type for us of the Lamb to come, Jesus Christ. Jesus’ shed blood not only provides healing, provision and deliverance in this temporal life, but ultimately saves us from death. We have eternal hope and salvation in Him because He took our sins, going into the jaws of death and hell for you and me and returning in victory. This is why John the Baptist said of Christ, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn. 1:29).

Life is in the Blood:

“And the blood shall be a token for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you” (Ex. 12:13).

In the first Passover, the blood of the lamb gave supernatural protection. As the families received and obeyed God’s Word with regard to sprinkling the blood, it became like a bubble of protection and blessing for all who entered into the house by faith:

The Blood Brought Healing: God said to those under the blood, “No destructive plague shall touch you” (Deut. 12:13). Imagine the rampant disease and destruction that accompanied slavery in the ancient world. Yet, in that single night, every malnourished and disease-ridden body, every broken limb, every frail form was made whole! “There was not one feeble among them” (Ps. 105:37).

The Blood Brought Provision: After four hundred years in utter poverty God “brought them out with silver and gold” (Ps. 105:37). So vast was the collection of silver and gold that when Moses was building the furnishings for the Tabernacle, he had to order Israel to stop giving! “For that which they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much” (Ex. 36:7).

The Blood Brought Deliverance: “So this day shall be to you a memorial, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations…for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt” (Ex. 12:14,17). The Lord prescribed that the lamb be slain and the blood be applied to the doorposts and lintel at twilight, however, the Israelites were to watch with their belts girded, their staffs in hand and their sandals on their feet in readiness and expectation for a great deliverance at the midnight hour. In an instant God delivered over 3 million people from slavery and bondage from the most powerful nation in the civilized world. His blood has set us free. No circumstance, oppression or hold of the enemy can withstand the power of His shed blood for you.

The Blood Brought Escape from Death: The blood on the doorpost turned away the angel of death that smote the firstborn in every house not marked with the blood. “When I see the blood I will pass over you” (Deut. 12:13). Every man had to take “a lamb for a house.” Once the lamb was slaughtered, the family applied the blood to the doorposts of their house in order to come under God’s prescribed protection. The blood of the lamb made atonement for the sins of that household. All were covered, not just the husband, the wife, not just the father, the mother, but the children. It speaks to us of household salvation. Bonnie and I have seen time and again where the blessing of the blood of the Lamb has been appropriated for entire households. Step into the realm of God’s miracle provision and deliverance for your family. Apply the blood of the Lamb to the doorposts of your household in your prayers for your children and loved ones. Behold the Lamb of God.

A person could have missed the provision ordained by God in Passover. Salvation was contingent on the sprinkled blood of the lamb. It was an act of faith and obedience that connected those who believed with supernatural protection. If they did not appropriate the provision God gave them in the lamb, they would have suffered the same fate at the Egyptians. There was no other provision for their protection outside of the blood. False religions and humanistic ideologies claim that there are many paths to God and eternal life. Scripture emphatically states that there is only one way to eternal life: through the Blood of Jesus Christ. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Keys to Beholding the Lamb:

I used to read from the Narnia series to my children. In the book, The Voyage of the Dawn Trader, Lucy has been desperately seeking the presence of Aslan, who represents Jesus, the Lion King in C.S. Lewis’ series. When Aslan suddenly appears before her she says,

“Oh Aslan. It was kind of you to come.”

“I have been here all the time, but you have just made me visible.”

“But Aslan. Don’t make fun of me. As if anything I could do could make you visible.”

“It did. Do you think I wouldn’t obey my own rules?”

So, what are the rules? How do we, like that young man in the Congo, behold the Lamb of God?

First, we want to emphasize that the salvation message of the gospel is simple enough that a child can understand and enter by faith. The Lamb is available to all who believe. Jeremiah 29:13 says clearly, “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” Jesus Christ is the Passover Lamb. He takes away the sin of the world. That means there is not one person on earth who cannot receive the blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Rom 10:13 says, “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” There is not one family on earth that Jesus did not come to bless and release from every oppression to set the captives free.

However, just as the Israelites were commanded to memorialize the night of their deliverance in the Passover Feast from year to year, we can enter afresh into the revelation of the Lamb as we set aside time to meditate and remember what He has done for us. In doing so we step into greater dimensions of knowing and beholding this Lamb.

One of the keys to beholding this Lamb is connecting with the eternal realm through the Word of God. Isaiah 40:8 says, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” We have the Word made flesh in the person of Jesus and the written word given in Scripture. The Word is real. It is eternal. Before one molecule of our world was even created, His Word was speaking forth light into darkness and framing the world into existence. The more you begin to meditate on and harmonize with His eternal Word, the more you will begin to recognize and behold the eternal Lamb of God. He is the Alpha, Omega. His is the beginning and the end. One of the key passages that we have found connects us to the finished work of Jesus is Isaiah’s prophecy of the great exchange made for us at Calvary:

“Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open his mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open his mouth” (Is. 53:4-7).

As we enter this Passover season, we encourage you to meditate and commune with this living word.

Another key to beholding the Lamb is in entering again by faith into His provision at Calvary through communion. As Jesus ate the Passover with His disciples, they celebrated the last memorial of that shadow of the redemption God has prepared for every one who receives the exchange of Jesus’ sinless body and blood at Calvary. When Jesus took the unleavened bread at that supper, he broke it and said, “'Take, eat, this is My body which is broken for you.' Then after supper He took the cup and said, ‘This is the new covenant in My blood which is shed for you’” (Luke 22:20). Paul tells us that, “as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” (1. Cor. 11:26). We step into the supernatural provision of the blood and behold the Lamb in the same way Israel ate the lamb that night in Egypt, applying the blood to the doorposts of their dwellings. The power of God is released in our lives as we actively proclaim His victory through the taking of communion.

The Sum of All Things

We find the sum of all things in Revelation 5:6 when John describes Jesus eternally at the right hand of God’s throne, “And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain…” Jesus the Lamb has been slain. He is victorious and seated on the throne. Our provision through His blood is present. Let us aggressively accept by faith and boldly confess the provision for us in the precious Blood of the Lamb.

The protection found in the Blood of the Lamb provides us with safety from spiritual, physical and mental plagues being loosed in this hour. By His Blood we can step into the atmosphere of His perfect Shalom where all is well. By His blood we can boldly come before His throne and receive grace in our time of need. By His blood we appropriate the protection and victory over death for which our Lamb gave His life on the cross 2,000 years ago. By His blood we can appropriate and enter His perfect rest. As He protected His people during the plagues in Egypt, the Lord rescues us as we Behold Him, Believe and Lay Hold of His Word.