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William Barclay
William Barclay (December 5, 1907 – January 24, 1978) was a Scottish preacher, biblical scholar, and author whose accessible New Testament commentaries made him a beloved figure in 20th-century Christianity. Born in Wick, Caithness, Scotland, to William Dugald Barclay, a bank manager and lay preacher, and Jane Toynbee, he moved with his family to Motherwell at age five after his father’s health declined. Raised in a devout Church of Scotland home, Barclay excelled academically, graduating with an M.A. from the University of Glasgow in 1925. He then studied divinity there, spending a year at Marburg University in Germany, before being licensed to preach in 1932 and ordained in 1933. Barclay’s preaching career began as assistant minister at St. John’s Church in Helensburgh, followed by his first pastorate at Trinity Church in Renfrew from 1933 to 1946, where he honed a warm, engaging style that drew working-class congregants. In 1947, he joined the University of Glasgow as a lecturer in New Testament Language and Literature, rising to Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism in 1963, a post he held until retiring in 1974. His Daily Study Bible series (1953–1959), later expanded into 17 volumes of New Testament commentaries, sold over 1.5 million copies, blending scholarship with practical faith—written, he said, “for the man in the street.” A BBC broadcaster from 1956, his televised lectures and books like The Mind of Jesus (1960) reached millions, though his universalist leanings and doubts about miracles sparked debate among conservatives.
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Sermon Summary
William Barclay emphasizes that the Passover Lamb symbolizes both deliverance and the means of deliverance. He illustrates how the original Passover Lamb represented God's powerful act of rescuing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, paralleling Jesus as the ultimate Passover Lamb who delivers humanity from sin. The blood of the lamb was crucial for the safety of the Jewish homes during the Exodus, just as Jesus' sacrificial death is essential for salvation from sin's penalty and power. Barclay highlights that through Jesus, God's delivering power is made manifest for the salvation of all mankind.
Passover Lamb
The Passover Lamb stood for two things. The Passover Lamb was the symbol of deliverance. Nowhere in history did the Jews see the delivering power of God so clearly and definitely demonstrated as in the events which brought them out of Egypt. here was the deliverance par excellence, and without parallel. And to think of Jesus as the Passover lamb is to see in him the delivering and rescuing power of God come to earth for the salvation of men. Just as the first Passover lamb was the sign of God's deliverance of his people from their slavery in Egypt, so Jesus the second Passover lamb is the symbol of their deliverance from slavery to sin. But there is a real sense in which the Passover lamb was more than a symbol of deliverance; it was the means of deliverance. It was the mark of the blood of the lamb, which the lamb had to die to provide, which was the means which kept the Jewish homes safe on that terrible night of death and destruction. The death of the lamb was essential for the deliverance of the people. Jesus therefore is the means of salvation whereby men are saved from the penalty and the power of their sins. Through his sacrifice and death that salvation came.
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William Barclay (December 5, 1907 – January 24, 1978) was a Scottish preacher, biblical scholar, and author whose accessible New Testament commentaries made him a beloved figure in 20th-century Christianity. Born in Wick, Caithness, Scotland, to William Dugald Barclay, a bank manager and lay preacher, and Jane Toynbee, he moved with his family to Motherwell at age five after his father’s health declined. Raised in a devout Church of Scotland home, Barclay excelled academically, graduating with an M.A. from the University of Glasgow in 1925. He then studied divinity there, spending a year at Marburg University in Germany, before being licensed to preach in 1932 and ordained in 1933. Barclay’s preaching career began as assistant minister at St. John’s Church in Helensburgh, followed by his first pastorate at Trinity Church in Renfrew from 1933 to 1946, where he honed a warm, engaging style that drew working-class congregants. In 1947, he joined the University of Glasgow as a lecturer in New Testament Language and Literature, rising to Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism in 1963, a post he held until retiring in 1974. His Daily Study Bible series (1953–1959), later expanded into 17 volumes of New Testament commentaries, sold over 1.5 million copies, blending scholarship with practical faith—written, he said, “for the man in the street.” A BBC broadcaster from 1956, his televised lectures and books like The Mind of Jesus (1960) reached millions, though his universalist leanings and doubts about miracles sparked debate among conservatives.