There Is Power In The Blood – Part 1
It All Began In Heaven
One of my favorite old hymns found in our hymnals is the one we sang this morning, There Is Power In The Blood. It’s an incredible song with life giving, heart pounding, and awe-inspiring lyrics. It’s got an upbeat tempo, and it just seems like it compels you to worship. Not matter how I’m feeling, when I come to church, when I hear this hymn, I can’t help being uplifted and renewed.
The wonder working power in the blood of the Lamb. To a Christian these words have such great meaning. But to a nonbeliever, they can be confusing, and maybe even a little bit disturbing.
I mean let’s face it. Talking about blood isn’t really something that stirs warm fuzzy feelings inside. Instead, it brings to mind pictures of operating rooms, or tragic accidents, or maybe even religious rituals and sacrifices. Blood is not usually considered something to get excited about. Most of our lives, when we see blood we try to stop-up the source. A cut finger or a scrapped knee sends most of us running to the medicine cabinet in search of Band-Aids or gauze.
We understand intellectually that we all need blood in order to live. We know a little about blood types, and blood transfusions. Some people even try to donate blood whenever they can. We’ve heard about diseases of the blood and there have even been times when we’ve felt like giving someone a bloody nose.
But what is there about blood that is so powerful? Why do Christians put so much emphasis on blood? And not just any blood, but the blood of Jesus Christ? What was so special about His blood, anyway?
Some of you may already know the answers to these questions. You’ve been a Christian for years and have sat under some wonderful teachers. But others of you have never heard of some of the things we are going to be talking about in the next few weeks.
So, let’s look at an opening verse, which shows us the power the blood of our Savior can give to His children. Revelation 12:11, And they overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
This verse is telling us that any believer in Christ can overcome the devil and any accusations, lies, disease, guilt, or anything else he tries to lay on us in two ways – by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony. By this one verse alone we see that having knowledge about the power of the blood of Christ is vital for a Christian to live a victorious life over Satan.
That is what I hope you will have by the end of this study – a greater knowledge and better understanding of the power of the blood of Christ.
I. The Original Tabernacle
So let’s start laying some groundwork for our study.
Many of you know that the Jewish people, under the direction of Moses, built a Tabernacle in the wilderness as a place for God to dwell among His people on earth. It was also a place to worship God and receive forgiveness of sin. The tabernacle was later replaced by the permanent Temple once the Israelites reached the Promised Land. But did you know that the tabernacle and Temples built on earth were not the originals? Did you know that there was actually a Temple before the ones the Jews built?
Let’s look at Exodus 25:8-9, and I’ll try to explain. God is speaking to Moses on Mt. Sinai. “And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.”
Have you ever wondered how Moses knew how to build the tabernacle in the wilderness? If you read the Exodus passages that describe the exact measurements and placement of the tabernacle – the specific materials that had to be used, the construction and use of the instruments and even the dress of the priests, it’s amazing. Where did Moses get his instructions? Did he just come up with them himself?
The passage that we just read explains. The Lord is speaking to Moses and tells him that I will give you the pattern. But He says something else. He says the blueprints, are AFTER the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all the instruments thereof. That little word AFTER has a whole lot of meaning behind it.
For if the pattern that God is giving to Moses is AFTER the pattern of the tabernacle, that leads us to the conclusion that there must have been a tabernacle BEFORE that acted as the pattern. Are you following me?
You see, God didn’t say I’ll tell you what you should make and then gave Moses a list of instructions. He said I’ll show you how to make my dwelling on earth AFTER the pattern of the original tabernacle.
A. Where Is It?
So that leads us to another question. If there is an original tabernacle or temple, which Moses used as a pattern, then where is it?
Psalm 11:4, “The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven…”
There is a temple in heaven. Many people are unaware of this fact. But the Bible is really pretty plain. Several places it clearly speaks about a temple or tabernacle existing in heaven.
Isaiah chapter 6 verses 1-5 describe the prophet’s vision of God in heaven sitting upon His throne in the midst of the heavenly temple. The prophet describes the train of God filling the temple and the posts of the door moving. And the book of Revelation has several references also. Revelation 11:19, “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament…” Other references to the heavenly temple can be found in Rev. 7:15, 14:15, 15:6.
B. What’s Its Purpose?
So, knowing that there is a temple in heaven leads us to the next question. Why? Why was there a need for a temple in heaven? What occurs there?
We know that the tabernacle and later the temples that the Jewish people were instructed to build on earth served several purposes. But the main purpose was that the tabernacle was a “sanctuary” (Ex. 25:8), a place set apart for the Lord to dwell among His people and meet with them. This is where God came and His people could have access to Him through their priests.
Today, we no longer have need of the temple, because of Jesus atoning work on the cross. When He died and paid for our sins, He opened the door to our spirits and now God dwells in the spirit of every believer, instead of in a building. But before the cross, the tabernacle and temple were the places of God’s dwelling and worship.
Likewise, in heaven, the tabernacle is the center of God’s dwelling place. It is there that we can find His throne. It is in the tabernacle that He is worshipped and where Christ, our high priest intercedes with the Father on our behalf.
II. The First Sin
A. The Anointed Cherub
But before mankind was ever created, the angels were the beings that worshipped God in the heavenly tabernacle. In fact, Ezekiel 28 tells us about one particular cherub who actually led the angels in their worship of God. See if you can figure out who he is by the description given.
Ezekiel 28:13-18, Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. [14] Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God (where the temple sits); thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. [15] Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity (sin) was found in thee. [16] By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. [17] Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. [18] Thou hast defiled thy sanctuary by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic: therefore will I bring forth fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
Did you guess who this anointed cherub was? It’s Satan or Lucifer. Before the sin of pride was found in him he was one of the most beautiful and powerful angels ever created. It said that he was perfect in his ways from the very day that he was created, until he sinned.
B. Who Sinned First?
Let me ask you another question. When did the first sin take place? It wasn’t in the Garden of Eden. Adam wasn’t the first created being to sin. Satan was. And he sinned in heaven. So, believe it or not, the first sin to ever take place actually occurred in heaven, by one of the most perfect beings ever created. And as a result of that sin Satan fell from his high position and was cast from heaven. Jesus said it this way in Luke 10:18, “And he said unto them, ‘I beheld Satan as lightening fall from heaven.’”
The passage that we just read in Ezekiel even tells us where in heaven Satan sinned. Verse 16 says, “I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God.” And verse 18, “Thou hast defiled thy sanctuary.” Sanctuary is the exact word used in Exodus 25 to describe the tabernacle in the wilderness.
Lucifer sinned in the very temple of God in heaven. This is an important fact to know. Because when Satan sinned in the temple, the very temple of God and all of the articles in it were defiled by that sin and needed to be purged.
III. Man and Blood
This brings us back to the blood. You see, in the beginning, God wanted to have a family to love and who would love Him in return. First, He created the angels, but as we just read Satan fell and took a third of the angels with him. So, God decided to create another being that could love Him and be His family, only He decided to make this being different. He decided to make His new family just like Himself – a three-fold being. So He created man. As we talked about last week, we are created in the image of God. We are three-fold beings with bodies and spirits and souls. Angels are not. They are only spirits
A. Blood For Purging Sin
But God also needed something else. He needed to be able to purge the temple in heaven that had been defiled by Satan’s sin. Read Hebrews 9:22, “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.”
So, how would the heavenly temple be cleansed from the taint of sin? The same way all sin is cleansed – by the shedding of blood. Blood is an incredible substance. It is the weapon that God uses to overcome sin and Satan.
B. Power of Blood
Why is blood so powerful? What is it about this red stuff pumping through our veins that has such power? Well, there are two reasons.
1. Gives Life
God gives us important information about blood in the book of Leviticus. Let’s read the main text for this morning Leviticus 17:11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul.”
Wow! What a powerful, verse packed full of meaning! For those who have fleshly bodies, that is humans and animals, life is found in the blood. Blood is what keeps our physical bodies alive. We find that in Genesis 4:10 that blood had such great life in it that when Cain killed his brother Abel that Abel’s blood actually cried out to God from the ground where is was spilt. “And he (God) said, ‘What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.’”
But what is even more amazing is that fact that the life that is found in the blood can also make atonement for another part of us, our souls. Remember, I said that God wanted a family that would love Him, and He created the angels first, but they fell. Then he created man, but we fell too. Now God has a problem. He must have a way to redeem man back to himself. Blood had to be shed.
What was the first thing God did when Adam and Eve sinned? He took two animals from the Garden of Eden, killed them (shed their blood) and wrapped Adam and Eve in the animals’ skins. God was establishing the ground rules from the beginning to show what it would take to put mankind back into a right relationship with Him, by shedding the blood of an animal to provide a covering for the shame of sin.
2. Angels Don’t Have Any
But another reason why blood is so powerful a weapon against Satan and sin is the fact that angels don’t have any. Satan doesn’t have blood. Have you ever thought of that? Satan is a spirit. He was created as a cherub, a type of angel. Angels are spirits, and spirits don’t have blood. They don’t need it. Only physical bodies need blood.
So, Satan doesn’t have any blood. Therefore, there is nothing he can ever do to save himself or anyone else from sin. Only blood can cover sin, and he doesn’t have any.
Nor does he have a soul, so that would lead me to believe that angels can’t be redeemed by the blood of Christ like humans can. Remember, Leviticus 17:11 tells us that blood makes atonement of sin for the soul. Because it is in the soul where we choose whether or not to sin.
So God has the edge in the battle for human souls. When you have a weapon that the enemy doesn’t, it gives you the edge. God has the edge. He created a powerful substance called blood, and He placed it in His earthly creation. And He uses it to forgive sin, redeem mankind, and defeat anything Satan throws at us.
We will continue our study on the power in the blood next week.
Now we will prepare for our communion service.
