TITLE: The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power 04-13-2014
TEXT: Matthew 26:27, 28 27 And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, “Each of you drink from it, 28 for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many. 29 Mark my words—I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom.”
Meander to the stage singing under your breath “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power” ask musicians if they have ever heard the old song. Kick it with Selah’s version.
I. JESUS INAUGURATION DAY PARADE
A. Today is Palm Sunday. Close your eyes for a moment. You’ve heard the story before haven’t you? Jerusalem is eager for a King. Herod is a homicidal maniac. If he were not that, he would be a joke. Pilate is a little Tyrant. Caesar must be the devil.
1. They just can’t take it anymore! They want this wonderful King long prophesied who would be of David’s line, who would save the nation from slipping into the abyss. They want the Messiah. They want Him NOW!
2. No one has ever satisfied the scriptural description and the hunger of their souls like Jesus. He was loved by the people. So what if the rich and powerful Jews didn’t like Him.
--The Pharisees and Scribes only seemed concerned about ingratiating themselves on the prestige and esteem they garnished from their respected position
--The Sadducees were just jealous and a bit too cozy with the status quo of Roman rule.
3. This Scriptural concept that people were God’s loved children little, though as old as creation itself, was deceitfully hidden.
4. This Jesus was the provider of bread for the masses. He was the Healer of the sick. He was the Deliverer from the devil’s tyranny. He was EVERYTHING.
5. Palm Sunday was sort of like His inauguration day parade –His stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue with a donkey.
6. When I was a kid, when this time of year rolled around, I found myself asking the question, “How did Jesus choke so bad? How could anybody choke so bad?” “In just one week...” “Man, He needed somebody to handle His PR or sumthin.”
--It’s like He had a 90yd lead in the 100yd dash and He still finished last when you look at Golgotha.
7. Strangely, I bet that is how the disciples would have reflected on that Passover week had Jesus not been very careful to give them some utterly Earth Shaking information as they celebrated the Passover Seder together.
II. JESUS BLOOD IS FINALLY, COMPLETELY SUFFICIENT
A. Jesus has gathered His disciples together for the meal we now call the Last Supper. He holds up a significant ceremonial cup and begins to explain His blood will be the New Covenant and will be sufficient.
1. For 4000 years they sacrificed goats and bulls, though highly esteemed by the Jews as a means of religion, such proved to be insufficient, unsatisfactory, in bringing people into a close family relationship with Father God –almost it seems though by God’s grand design. Hebrews 9:18-22 18 That is why even the first covenant was put into effect with the blood of an animal. 19 For after Moses had read each of God’s commandments to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, and sprinkled both the book of God’s law and all the people, using hyssop branches and scarlet wool. 20 Then he said, “This blood confirms the covenant God has made with you.” 21 And in the same way, he sprinkled blood on the Tabernacle and on everything used for worship. 22 In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.
2. But now, Jesus is lifting a cup and saying it is filled with His own blood and it confirms what the Old Covenant failed to completely confirm – the total forgiveness of sins.
3. Jesus satisfied the stone cold, harsh requirements of the Law given by Moses with His very own blood.
--Jesus blood was, is and will always be sufficient. In fact, it is more than you will ever need.
4. This is what He was meant in the Sermon on the Mount when He said Matthew 5:17 17 “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.
5. His execution would be a selfless loving act which would accomplish what no other ritual sacrifice had ever accomplished.
6. He lifted the cup. If you look to this cup of His blood –this representation of His loving sacrifice; --If you trust in the power here in you will be: 1) Ripped from the hands of your cruel task master the devil (his claim on you will be satisfied); 2) You will be put in a position where you can access all the promises of Kingdom of God by faith; 3) Promises like: Healing, Protection, Deliverance, Supernatural Strength, Transformation, the list goes on.
7. The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power
III. JESUS POWERFUL BLOOD RESCUES FROM HORRIFIC PERIL
A. The horrific peril was the status quo of bondage to the devil’s junk –disease, destruction, death. –That’s where I was headed. Where were you going?
1. Galatians 3:13 13 But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
2. The Law of Moses described the stone-cold-hard-cruel facts about sin. A curse, like a disease infested pall had been cast over the entirety of our race.
3. Don’t shoot the messenger! But the Law of Moses didn’t contain a lot of “good news” It did contain a load of curses and bad news –the consequences of what we had done to ourselves.
4. You don’t have to look hard. You still see it. Where ever Jesus is not King, there are curses: Bondage, Disease, all manner of awfulness.
5. By the blood of Jesus we are freed from all these curses and diseases –from the bondage of it all. Romans 8:15 15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”
6. The ritual sacrifices of the OT had to be made over and over and over. No single sacrifice was sufficient. Jesus sacrifice was different. 1 Peter 1:18,19 18 ...God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. 19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.
7. According to Jesus’ demonstration we can call the Fantastic Being Who created everything “Daddy” or “Abba.” How that must have sounded boorish when His disciples first heard it.
8. Back then a great veil separated God and man, a veil through which only the High Priest could enter once per year to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat, a heavy, mysterious veil causing so much trepidation they would sew a bell to the fringe of his robe, tie a rope to his foot lest the bell stop ringing and those listening would know he must have been struck dead as he entered the presence of a Holy God. Let’s pull him out before he stinks up the joint.
--This veil was torn in two in order for the people to finally be granted access to Daddy.
9. Only power in the ever-all sufficient blood of Jesus could accomplish this feat.
10. The writer of Hebrews reminds us of Jeremiah’s Prophecy Hebrews 10:16-19 “This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the LORD: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” 17 Then he says, “I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.” 18 And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices. 19 And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus.
- But the really good news is... The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power
IV. JESUS POWERFUL BLOOD RECREATES
A. Have you ever considered how much your attitude about yourself either holds you back in life, or spurs you on to excellence?
1. If in your mind you could know, “I am good, because I am right with God. I can do all things.” And you really believed it. How far could you go in life?
2. Hebrews 9:14 14 Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds (In Greek Literally: dead works, Lifeless religion) so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.
3. It is only by the Blood of Jesus that we can Romans 12:2 ...be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
4. The blood recreated Saul into Paul, from a hater and a murderer into a lover who gave his up his life for the church.
5. The blood recreated an unnamed, greedy, vile thief being executed on a Roman cross into a saint who is at this very moment cruising down golden streets of Paradise.
6. 2 Corinthians 5:17 7 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
7. There’s still hope for changes which need to take place in you and me. Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let’s settle this,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.
--It will do the same for you today because... The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power
V. JESUS POWERFUL BLOOD IS LIFE
ILL. I’d sneak and watch the soap opera “Dark Shadows” when I was a kid. Nothing ever happened. The music was spooky though. But the neighbor kid told me if a vampire ever bit you on the neck and sucked out all your blood, you’d be dead
A. And we know that’s partially true. Should blood cease to coarse through our veins, we would die.
1. The blood you and I have in our veins is only good for this lifetime, after that, the warranty is up. Without preparation, we will die what is known as the 2nd death when we die and be consciously separated from Father God for eternity.
2. Revelation 21:8 8 “But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
3. But if we put faith in the cup lifted by Jesus that wonderful evening, if we place all hope in His Blood of the New Covenant, we tap into the purpose of His coming to this earth. John 10:10 ... I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
--Thank God... The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power
VI. JESUS POWERFUL BLOOD HEALS AND PROTECTS
A. The devil’s junk is out there. It’s not all witches, warlocks and wiccans. It’s as common as the cold.
1. When a virus attacks your body, immediately, your blood responds to the threat with white blood cells.
2. When the devil attacks you, whether the attack be against your physical body, your mind, your family, your property, anything good God has given you –When the enemy comes in to steal, kill and destroy, there is power in the blood
ILL. Back in the day a Pop artist had a hit record entitled “It Cuts Like A Knife”.
3. That needs no explanation. Everyone here has lived that one. Only the blood of Jesus is able to rush to the source the injury, bring healing, take away bitterness, even take away the scar, and leave you stronger than you were for the experience. –a powerful miracle! But you gotta trust Him.
ILL. Dr. Felix Ruh knew the importance of finding a cure. His granddaughter had died of the dreaded black diphtheria and many more children lay sick and dying. Dr. Ruh and his partner, Louis Pasteur, were among the few who believed that these deaths were caused by what was then unseen germs. While the medical establishment forbid their experimentation, Pasteur and Ruh secretly carried out their clandestine research.
They brought 20 healthy horses into the lab. Ruh then opened a steel vault and took out a large pail filled with black diphtheria germs, which he had cultured carefully for months. There were enough germs in that pail to kill everyone in France. The scientist went to each horse and swabbed its nostrils, tongue, throat, and eyes with the deadly germs. Every horse except one developed a terrific fever and died. For several more days this final horse lingered, lying pathetically on the ground. While Ruh and Pasteur slept on cots in the stables, the orderly on duty had been instructed to awaken the scientists should there be any change in the animal's temperature during the night.
About 2 a.m. the temperature showed a half degree decrease, and the orderly wakened Dr. Ruh. By morning the thermometer had dropped two more degrees. By night the fever was entirely gone, and the horse was able to stand, eat, and drink. The horse was the only one who could withstand the disease.
Then Dr. Ruh drew blood from the veins of this animal that had developed the black diphtheria but had overcome it. The scientists drove as fast as they could to the municipal hospital in Paris. They forced their way into the ward where three hundred babies lay, segregated to die from black diphtheria. With the blood of the horse, they forcibly inoculated every one of the babies. All but three lived and recovered completely. They were saved by the blood of one who overcame the disease.
--Jesus Blood Will Never Lose Its Power
VII JESUS POWERFUL BLOOD DELIVERS
A. Habits, addictions –traps we get ourselves into but cannot free ourselves from. We were enticed, allured by the promise of pleasure. Once hooked, pain is all we know and all we are able to offer those we love.
1. the blood of Jesus cleanses and frees. It not only forgives, it breaks the chains with which we have been bound.
2. Galatians 5:1 So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.
3. It has touched us all in some way. Something, at some time has stolen the joy and peace from your life God intended for you to enjoy. It’s choking the life out of you.
4. Maybe you are the enabler; --The addicted; --Maybe you are just plan bitter and mad at everybody all the time. –Nobody suits you. You are the only one capable of doing right. There is a word for that – self-righteous pride
5. Colossians 1:13,14 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Who hath
6. How’d they do it? Revelation 12:11 11 And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony...
VIII. THE BLOOD OF JESUS WILL NEVER LOSE ITS POWER
A. Look around in our own congregation! Leopards don’t change their spots! There are some people here, who just a few years back were pretty shady characters. Today, you’d let them house sit for you or maybe even baby sit.
1. That’s the true test of the power in the blood. It has never and will never lose its power!
2. Clothes go out of fashion, buy Tommy Hilfiger at Good Will for pennies on the dollar. Pay $40,000 for a new car today, in 10 years it’s worth nothing. A bullet-proof, rock-solid motor will lose compression, power and eventually die.
3. But 2 Timothy 1:12 ... I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.
IX. CHALLENGE
A. Jesus was celebrating the Seder –the sacred meal of Passover with His disciples, commemorating the night the captive Jews took blood from a lamb and applied it thoroughly to the fame of the door of their homes to cover and protect them as the death angel went through out the land.
1. In the very same way, you are given the opportunity and challenge to thoroughly apply the blood God’s Lamb, Jesus Himself to your entire life.
2. It rescues, recreates, gives real life, heals, protects, delivers and it will never lose its power!
