THE SEVEN FOUNTAINS OF THE BLOOD
Isaiah 53:3-5
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. A man went on a ski trip and was knocked unconscious by the chairlift. He called his insurance company from the hospital, but they refused to cover his injury.
2. He asked them, "Why is the injury not covered?" They answered, "Because it is a pre-existing condition." He said, "That’s impossible! Being hit with a chair lift is not a pre-existing condition!"
3. "No, but no one but an idiot would get hit in the head by a chairlift. That makes you an idiot, and we consider that a pre-existing condition."
4. Today we’re going to celebrate the Lord’s Supper so let’s read a passage about Jesus’ atonement.
B. TEXT
3 “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.” Isa. 53:3-5, NKJV.
C. THESIS
1. The suffering of Jesus Christ wasn’t a stop-gap or an after-thought in the plan of God to save mankind after our fall into sin. The Bible tells us that Christ’s sufferings and death were planned from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). Nothing about them was haphazard.
2. The specifics of His sufferings were prophesied 100s or 1,000s of years in advance; his rejection (Isa. 53:3), betrayal (Ps. 41:9), sold for 30 pieces of silver (Zech. 11:12), struck & spat on (Isa. 50:6), crucified with sinners (Isa. 53:12), hands & feet pierced (Ps. 22:16), mocked & insulted (Ps. 22:6-8), given vinegar to drink (Ps. 69:21), his side pierced (Zech. 12:10), his clothing divided (Ps. 22:18), buried in a borrowed grave (Isa. 53:9), and feeling separated from God (Ps. 22:1).
3. Since so many aspects of human beings had been effected by the Fall, the sufferings of Jesus were very precise and the myriad of ways He suffered each had a purpose and provided for some aspect of our healing.
4. So we’re going to look at “The Seven Fountains of the Blood” of Jesus and how each fountain administers healing to our lives. The first fountain opened in…
I. THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE
1. The Garden of Gethsemane exposed the first of the seven fountains. It represents the FOUNTAIN OF OUR WILL. This is the place where Jesus prayed, "Not My will, but Yours be done." It was there that Christ experienced hematydrosis, where such intense pressure was placed on the membranes of the skin and arteries that blood passed through His skin in the form of perspiration that had blood in it. His blood hemorrhaged through His skin.
2. Luke the Physician recorded, “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (22:44).
3. What caused the intense pressure that Jesus felt? Possibly, He didn't want to become the embodiment of sin! “For [God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Cor. 5:21). Imagine that Holy Being immersed in sin! Jesus had to submit His will to the Father’s.
4. We also must be willing to die out to our own will. That’s why the first prerequisite to salvation is, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me” Mt. 16:24. We can’t be saved if we won’t surrender all. The 2nd fountain came from…
II. THE CROWN OF THORNS
1. Before His crucifixion, the Roman soldiers, in mockery, arrayed Jesus as a king – with a scepter, a purple robe, and a crown made out of thorns (Matt. 27:29). The crown was most likely made of the Euphorbia milii plant which usually has 1.2 inch long sharp spines along its stem. This crown of thorns was thrust down on Jesus’ forehead, piercing the skin of His head all around, but especially along His forehead.
2. This FOUNTAIN OF blood impacts THE HUMAN MIND.
The thorns encircling His brain signify the terrible thoughts that our minds experience. Jesus bore our mental anguish (Isa. 53:4). The crowd, the leaders, and the soldiers all mocked. Blood ran down his forehead and into His eyes – atoning for the thoughts & sins our imaginations have entertained. We need our minds purified by the blood of Jesus! The third fountain came from…
III. THE HANDS OF JESUS
1. Both of Jesus’ hands were pierced and poured blood profusely. Our hands represent our activities & abilities; -- what we do, our work, our efforts -- even to save ourselves. Once Christ's hands were nailed to the cross, He was helpless. This is the FOUNTAIN OF OUR ACTIVITIES.
2. One of our chief problems is that we think we must save ourselves. We try various ways of doing this: by doing good works, by medical intervention, or through the legacy we leave behind, people try to win the esteem of others, in order to achieve a perception of value. This is called in scripture “the work of our hands” Hos. 14:3.
3. The blood that trickled from Jesus’ hands did everything necessary to attain God’s righteousness and atone for the wrongs our hands have done. We are saved by grace, not by the works of our hands, lest anyone should boast! The fourth fountain issued from…
IV. THE FEET OF JESUS
1. Jesus’ feet also had to make atonement for us. The Bible tells us our “feet run to evil" (Prov. 1:16), and our “feet are swift to shed blood" (Romans 3:15). Jesus had to make atonement for our feet because of all of the evil places our feet have taken us.
2. The feet represent THE FOUNTAIN OF OUR MISSION. Our feet take us to all the places that we can do either evil or good. So Jesus’ feet bled so that our missions could be sanctified and made holy.
3. On the other hand, Isaiah says, "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"(Isa. 52:7). It is also with our feet that we trample down the enemy, so that’s another reason we need sanctified feet! The 5th fountain came from…
V. THE FACE OF JESUS
1. The face of Jesus was battered and bruised by the scepter the Roman soldiers hit him with. His hair and beard were torn out for our vanity and pride. The Bible says that He "hid not his face from shame and spitting" (Isa. 50:6). He was slapped by His Jewish guards and told, “Prophesy who hit You!” (Mt. 26:68).
2. Why did our faces have to be atoned for? Because the Bible says we “made [our] faces harder than stone and refused to repent” Jer. 5:3; we bore “shame…on [our] faces” Ez. 7:18; we “disfigured faces” with hypocrisy, Mt. 6:16; and we wear an “impudent face” of sin, Prov. 7:13.
3. Another reason for the assault against Jesus’ face was that the devil can’t stand to see the face of Christ – the face of his Master in Heaven and because, in it is seen the glory of God (2 Cor. 4:6)! It’s the seat of identity and the focal point of beauty. This fountain is the FOUNTAIN OF GLORY. The 6th fountain flowed from…
VI. JESUS’ BACK
1. The back of a person is what carries most of the weight. Atlas, the titan, carried the world on his shoulders. That's what Jesus did; he bore the sins of the whole world on his shoulders. Matthew says that He “Bore our sicknesses and carried our diseases” (Matt. 8:17).
2. The stripes that were laid on Jesus back were clearly laid there for our healing, so this means that the blood that came from his back is a FOUNTAIN OF HEALING. “And with His stripes, we are healed” Isa. 53:5.
3. ILLUS.: THE SUBSTITUTE
a. Ned Wright lived in London during the 1800s. After getting drunk in a saloon, he was tricked into joining the military and woke up in the barracks. Of the men there, he was drafted to serve in the Boer War between England and South Africa. He did not want to go but another recruit was anxious to go and was not chosen, so they switched identities and clothing, since they looked almost identical.
b. It was not long after that that it was reported that
Ned Wright had been killed. This had a profound effect upon the real Ned. He said, “Had I not exchange with him identities, I would now be dead. I would’ve received the same bullet that he received. I owe him my life for he died for me!”
c. This is exactly what Jesus did for us; He assumed our identity and died in our place on the cross. We too owe him our lives! The last fountain of blood was…
VII. THE SIDE OF JESUS
1. One of the saddest accounts of the crucifixion is the cruel thrust of the spear into the side of Jesus. The apostle John told that when the spear was pulled out, that blood and water flowed out (John 19:34). This indicated a broken heart. This is the Forgiving Fountain. It represents a double cleaning: we are cleansed by Jesus’ blood, and we are cleansed by His Word (“cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word” Eph. 5:26).
2. As the old song, Rock Of Ages says, “Let the water and the blood, from his wounded side which flowed; be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure." This is the FOUNTAIN OF DOUBLE CLEANSING.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: “God’s Amazing Love”
1. A young woman was married and had two beautiful children, but one day as she was standing over the sink, washing dishes, she thought, ’There must be more to life than this.’
2. When her husband came home, he found a note she’d written and he began to weep. She would call him about once every week to check on the children, and he would always tell her of his great love for her and beg her to come home. She would always say no and hang up.
3. Finally, he hired a private investigator to find her. He went to the apartment where she was staying, nervously holding a bouquet of flowers in his hand as he stood at the door. He had rehearsed over and over what he would say and he finally got up the nerve to knock on the door.
4. She opened the door and he started to speak, but she suddenly began to weep and fell into his arms. She managed to say through her tears, "Let’s go home."
5. Months after, when things were starting to heal, he finally asked her something that had been bothering him. "All those times I talked to you on the phone; I asked you to come back and you refused. Why did you come back now?"
6. "Before," she started, with tears in her eyes, "you were just telling me that you loved me. When you came, you showed me."
7.The Bible tells us of God’s love, but Jesus came and showed God’s love. Jesus proved God’s love by dying for us.
B. ALTAR CALL
1. Some of you need to receive that love today by accepting Jesus as your Savior. The Bible tell us to “repent & believe” – turn from our sins and put our faith in Jesus to save us. Why don’t we pray right now and ask forgiveness.
2. Lord’s Supper – now let’s celebrate the Lord’s death and resurrection.
[This is a rewrite of Everitt Fjordbak’s message of the same title from May 24, 1998.]
