John 1:19-51

Read John 1:19-51 in English: https://www.youversion.com/bible/59/jhn.1.esv
Read John 1:19-51 in Chinese: https://www.youversion.com/bible/40/jhn.1.cnv

It is clear from the conversation between John and the priests and levites that the people were looking for someone. They had their categories for whom they were expecting. They were looking for the Christ. If not the Christ then an incarnation of Elijah or Moses (the prophet). Yet John took none of these titles upon himself, but instead pointed to Jesus, for whom he had a different title:

Jesus, the lamb of God.

While Jesus would indeed be called Messiah (Christ) later in the chapter, he is first called Lamb, a designation that should have meant something, particularly to the priests and levites.  For they worked with lambs. For a thousand years the priests and levites had been a part of a sacrificial system in which the blood of animals was accepted as payment to cover over the sins of the people. The idea was that sin brings death, and death was to be exacted, either from the perpetrator of the sin or a substitute on his behalf. A repentant Israelite would bring from his flock a lamb without blemish to act as a substitute to remove the guilt of his sin.  

Yet this system was only a placeholder until the true lamb of God would appear to deal with sin once and for all.  For the blood of goats and cattle could never remove the stain of human sin. Only the life of a perfect man could pay the debt of sin committed by man. Before Jesus could truly take the title Messiah, he was sent to be the Lamb of God.