Sermon preached on 18th January 2026

2nd Sunday of Epiphany

By Richard Webster

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1 Corinthians 1.1-9

1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

 

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, 5 for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— 6 just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8 He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

John 1.29-42

The Lamb of God
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming towards him and declared, ‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, “After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” 31 I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.’ 32 And John testified, ‘I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” 34 And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.’

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The First Disciples of Jesus
35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, ‘Look, here is the Lamb of God!’ 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, ‘What are you looking for?’ They said to him, ‘Rabbi’ (which translated means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ 39 He said to them, ‘Come and see.’ They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated Anointed). 42 He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas’ (which is translated Peter).

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Talk - The Lamb of God

To me this is a curious time of year in the Christian calendar. Less than 4 weeks ago we were celebrating the birth of Jesus and now we are reading about the beginning of His ministry, aged about thirty. We have little information on what happened in the intervening years – a trip to Egypt, presentation in the temple and another visit to the temple when he got left behind by his parents.

And now when I read the passages and looked at the lectionary, I discovered that this is a bit of an in between week. Last week we heard about the baptism of Jesus and next week we hear about the calling of the first disciples. This week we hear about both!

What shall we focus on?

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Each Bible Reading contains an element of the call to discipleship a call to mission. The call is the people of the Old Testament, if we had read the set passage from Isiaih, to hear and receive Gid’s word. IN the passages we did read the message is the same. It is a call to discipleship. To call them to change their understanding of who God is, what he does and does not require, which ultimately leads to following Jesus who is the ‘Lamb of God’.

This description of Jesus comes from John after he has has denied that he is the Christ, he is baptising with water but there is one who is to come who is greater (v19-28) and John is still going about his business.

John testifies that Jesus is Son of God and that he had been told to expect Jesus. That he has seen the Spirit coming down on to Jesus (which is what the other baptism narratives describe).

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The Lamb of God seems to be an odd title. It is coming into lambing season although I have not seen any early lambs in the fields. What do you think of when you want to describe what a lamb is? Small, pure, innocent, reliant on mother for food and protection, playful……..Not the saviour of the world.

The Lamb of God is a most important description of Jesus, but surprisingly it is also an unusual one. John 1 is the only place in the entire Bible where it is used. No Old Testament prophet ever referred to God’s Messiah as “the Lamb of God” and no New Testament writer will repeat this exact phrase either. 

This new phrase would have raised questions in the minds of those who heard it and who would be very familiar with the importance of sheep to the community. These people had long been looking for the Messiah, but in the form of a king, a warrior, a hero. So, calling Jesus a lamb would hardly conjure up the idea of the Messiah in their minds. What exactly does it mean when we speak of Jesus in words which liken him to an animal? And how does Jesus take away the sin of the world? 

So why a lamb? Lambs are often a symbol of gentleness, meekness, and vulnerability as we have mentioned earlier. So, calling Jesus a lamb could be a pleasant thing to say, but it would hardly be the type of description that would fit the Messiah. No lamb was ever going to kick out the Roman occupying force.

Throughout history animals have been used as sacrifices to make people right with which ever deity they worshiped. Lamb’s blood was used to daube on the doors during the first ‘Passover’ when the Israelites fled from Egypt. To say that Jesus would “take away the sin of the world” clearly associated Jesus with his own death as a sacrifice.

Is this what John is foretelling? 

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John’s disciples are curious about Jesus and John encourages them to go and find out.

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When they meet Jesus he asks what do they want? Their strange answer is a question. Where are you staying? Jesus does not answer directly but invites them to come and see what he is doing.

One of them, Andrew, goes and finds his brother Simon. We have found the Messiah he says without realising what this really means. Jesus is not the expected royal priest, king, or mighty warrior but Andrew must have felt some pull towards Jesus. Was he the next new thing after John, the newest influencer to follow, the latest app. How many followers/likes would Jesus have got on X or other platforms?

At this time Andrew’s brother is called Simon, Son of John. Jesus renames him and says that he will be called ‘Cephas.’ which meant ‘Rock.’ Jesus clearly at the outset of his ministry identifies this newly named Peter as somebody who will have a foundational role in the formation of the church.

We can see from this conversation that discipleship is about staying with Jesus being in his presence learning and copying his ways. 'Discipleship is about how we live. It is not just about learning facts and information, it is about being with Jesus and remaining in his presence. None of the early disciples understood Jesus’ ministry at this point. Tthroughout the Gospel we see how inadequate their faith was, as is ours. Yet they were drawn to Jesus and gave their lives to him as they started their journey with him. Their understanding grew, as they listened and lived with Jesus. For the first disciples their weak faith, lack of comprehension and repeated faltering were not a barrier to following Jesus and speaking to others of who he was.

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What did this call to discipleship mean for the early church and indeed ourselves.

In our reading from Corinthians we hear what Paul has to say about their faith and behaviours.

Historically Corinth was not a ‘nice’ place. A commercial centre and place of transit of goods. The canal had not been built and the sea passage around the south coast was dangerous so goods would be offloaded and carried across the narrow strip of land at Corinth and re loaded the other side. There was also a lot of north to south traffic. 
In writing to the Corinthians Paul is acknowledging that they are called to be holy, but he makes this a wider call to those everywhere who call Jesus their Lord. That means us as well.

The Corinthians have received grace and been enriched in speaking and knowledge; they have all the spiritual gifts. They are encouraged to be on the look out for the second coming. To keep strong in their fellowship with Jesus. 
Paul is really building them up with a big thanksgiving before getting into the meat of the letter which had some difficult messages for the Christians in Corinth and indeed us should you care to read on.

So, what have we hopefully learnt?

John is not the Messiah. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus calls people to follow him and stay close to him – to learn from him and spread the word. To live a holy life and stay strong in their/our fellowship with him and each other.

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