The Silence of the Lamb
The Silence of the Lamb of Christ.
Why was the Silence of Christ triumphing for You?
The silence of Christ was his Word triumphing for you. Jesus was speechless here to prepare himself for the silence of the grave that would then give way to the words of the Resurrection. Because Jesus said not a word in order to fulfill God’s Word, by faith you are taken from death to life, from being dead in sin to being alive in Christ.
· Ecclesiastes tells us that there is time to speak and a time to keep silent. And this makes sense enough, but the issue is, when is the fitting time? When is it better to speak? And when is it necessary to stay quiet? This is the art of wisdom.
Yet, as a society, we have pretty unanimously voted in favor of speaking. Our world, filled with technology and social media, never stops speaking, be it with words, pictures, or videos. Background music follows us everywhere. There is pressure to yelp every restaurant, photo every meal, and post every opinion that passes between your ears. This obsession with speaking has crowded out any positive value of silence. Yet, our Lord masters the art of the silence for us, so that we might speak better for him and so that our words may be conformed to his words.
Point to Ponder. The enemy is charged to seek to whom he can devour by any means possible, and he does this through your own mind which is connected to your heart which is connected to your tongue which cause your mouth to speak. Psychology Is the Study of the Mind and Behavior Psychology can be defined as the study of mental processes and behavior. The term comes from the Greek words psyche, meaning "breath, spirit, soul," and logia, meaning "study of." Psychology has not always existed as it has today.
The Importance of His Silence
· The silence of Jesus makes us remember how he prophesied that the Son of Man must suffer and die for our salvation.
· And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” (Luke 9:21-22)
· The silence of Jesus recalls to our minds God’s Word of Isaiah 53:7—that the Messiah had to be a silent lamb. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. (Isa. 53:7)
The silence of Jesus instructs us that sometimes silence speaks louder than words
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.... a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak. (Eccles. 3:1, 7)
The silence of Christ leading to his crucifixion is the power of God for our forgiveness, justification, and redemption. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Cor. 1:18)
The voice in our minds.
It’s important to protect our mind. They are life-ruining, worship-destroying desires, and they get their life and their power from the deceit of our minds. There is a kind of knowledge of God — a renewal of mind — that transforms us because it liberates us from the deceit and the power of alien passions.
Romans 12:1-2 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
Victory over your mind will come from spending time with the Lord, relying upon the Spirit, and renewing your mind with God’s Word. God so deeply loves you and His goal is to assist in conforming you into the image of Christ. God is constantly working to mature us in Christ and renew our mind. What a glorious privilege. Take a moment to think about the precious work of the living God in your life.
It is now our turn to be the Silence of the Lamb.
Jesus rose to make us a proclamation about his resurrection and power to save. In fact, in the narrow sense here, we are told not to imitate our Lord. Back in Luke 21, Christ told us that when we are dragged before rulers for his name not to worry about what to say, for the Spirit will teach us what to say.
The Spirit will give us the words to speak for Christ. Thus, before our accusers, we testify about Christ. Before the noisy hostilities of the world, we gather on the Lord’s Day to sing and speak that Christ is the Son of God at the right hand. Note: all days are Holy unto the Lord. One of our highest privileges is that we get to speak well of our Lord, and we can sing forth his praises. And even if the world silences us with death, we have the sure confidence that the silence of Christ is more powerful than all the rhetoric of the world. Thus, let us root our faith and confidence in the Word of Christ that never fails and the silence of Christ unto death that won for us the resurrection. And with Christ on our side, may we never be ashamed to speak for our Lord, to testify that he is both Lord and Christ. And may we sing boldly the name of Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, every Lord’s Day, until we join the heavenly choir to offer up to God both our words and our silence for his eternal glory.
Point to Ponder: As much as we have with all the freedoms as we have, do we see ourselves free to be free and live in the freedom that Christ bought with His life. His meekness towards all circumstance was a message in itself.
· He tells them of the present happiness and advantage of their sufferings, v. 5. Their faith being thus tried, and patience exercised.
· He tells them next of the future recompence that shall be given to persecutor and persecuted.
Concerning this future recompence we are further to observe, the certainty of it, proved by the righteousness and justice of God: It is a righteous thing with God (v. 6) to render to every man according to his works. The thoughts of this should be terrible to wicked men and persecutors, and the great support of the righteous and such as are persecuted; for, seeing there is a righteous God, there will be a righteous recompence. God's suffering people will lose nothing by their sufferings, and their enemies will gain nothing by their advantages against them.
Christ was silent before His accusers because He knew that it was God's plan and God's will for Him to die on the Cross to pay the penalty for human sin. The silence of Christ showed His power and majesty as God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity.
WE WIN IN THE END