ESSENTIAL KING JESUS: BLOOD OF THE COVENANT
MARK 14:24
#kingjesus
USE AUDIO BIBLE: Mark Chapter 14:1-72 [10:08]
https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Mark.12
INTRODUCTION STORY (p)
A man once had a dream where he died. In his dream, this man stood in front of the throne of God and it was Judgement Day. All people from all tongues and tribes and nations were being judged at this time. He wasn’t sure how long he stood there because it is hard to tell time in eternity. As the man stood there, all sorts of books were opened before him. Angels were flipping pages to places in the books where it mentioned his life. Some had small entries. Some had entries about him that went from page to page to page. Gabriel, the messenger of God was also there.
Once all the books were opened, Satan the Accuser arrived on the scene. In his dream, Satan did not look like he expected with hooves and such, but looked like a red dragon in a very nice three-piece pin stripe suit. He looked very dapper and was smoking a very large cigar which smelled horrible. It smelled like death.
Satan the Accuser began to accuse the man for misdeeds, sins, errors, mistakes, omissions, offenses, and everything that had been wrong in his life. The man wanted to refute the charges, but each of them was absolutely true and were confirmed in the books laid out before him.
“Most High God,” Satan began, “The sins of this man, if I were to list them all, would take an eternity to recount. So, if you don’t mind, I will just hit the highlights and allow him to answer?”
Satan the Accuser looked up at God for an affirmation that the highlights would be good enough. He could not process unless permission was given. Satan wasn’t in charge. Satan is never in charge.
God nodded. Permission was given.
The man hung his head in shame as Satan the Accuser spouted off the secret things of his life along with the public things of his life that were mistakes.
“When this man was a teenager and even far into his adulthood,” Satan said at one point, “he liked to talk about himself often. When social media came along, those computer applications did nothing but feed his ego. Life was all about him. Every post about him. Every picture about him. Every decision this man made, even though he had a wife and children, was always about him.” Then Satan looked straight at the man and said, “Do you deny this?”
The man shook his head no. He did not deny it.
Then, Satan the Accuser asked a very important question of the man: “How will this sin be paid for?”
The man thought back on his brief life of around 60 years and came up with an idea. He spoke up and told Satan the Accuser, Gabriel, God, and all beings that could hear him about the time that he emptied his closet of all the clothes that did not fit him and gave the clothes to a thrift store. He did not even ask for a tax-deductible receipt. Some of them even had the price tags on them. Boom. Sacrifice. Come to think of it, he did this several times in his life and never once ran out of clothes. Surely this good deed gets him some amount of forgiveness.
Satan the Accuser looked at the man with a large smile and at God and asked, “Does giving clothes away as a good deed, or for that matter any amount of good deeds make up for the sin of self-absorption? Does any good deed or any amount of good deeds pay for sin?”
Gabriel, whose job it is to be God’s messenger, spoke for God, “No. No forgiveness.”
The man hung his head again in shame as Satan the Accuser spouted off more shameful highlights in his life:
“When this man was alive, he made having money his top priority. He skipped giving tips at restaurants. He padded his expense account at work to get a little more money. He took half of the birthday money sent to his kids from relatives and spent it on himself. Once he saw a guy drop his wallet right in front of him, took the money out of it, and then caught up to the man and acted like a hero giving him back his wallet. One time he used the business credit card for something personal. Oh wait, it was way more than once. And not to bring up too much, but when he was 10, he stole candy bars from a store by his house every week for two months.” Then Satan looked straight at the man and said, “Do you deny this?”
The man shook his head no.
Then Satan the Accuser asked a very important question of the man: “How will all this sin be paid for?”
The man thought back on his brief life of around 60 years and came up with an idea. He spoke up and told Satan the Accuser, Gabriel, God, and all beings that could hear him about some of the ways he spent his money. He told about the time he gave towards hurricane relief in Haiti. He gave to the Red Cross. He put change in the bucket at Christmas time for the Salvation Army. Then there was some sponsored kid his wife and kids had over in Ecuador. That was money spent in a good place. Several times while downtown he bought a homeless guy a meal. Also, how could he forget, one time he helped pay for the funeral expenses of a co-worker that died suddenly!
Satan the Accuser looked at the man with a large smile and asked God, “Does spending money in good ways or charitable giving make up for the sin of stealing? Can money or any amount of money pay for sin?”
Gabriel, whose job it is to be God’s messenger, spoke for God, “No. No forgiveness.”
The man hung his head again in shame as Satan the Accuser spouted off more shameful highlights in his life. Satan listed off just the highlights of the man’s life that were errors:
Adultery and Lust
Bad Language and Cursing
Coveting what all his buddies had
Drunkenness
The list went on and on from A-Z and this was just the highlights!
Every single time Satan the Accuser was finished, he would look straight at the man and ask, “Do you deny this?” The man would always shake his head no. Not only did he somehow remember the sins, but the items were all written down in the books in front of him. There was a record.
Every single time, Satan the Accuser asked a very important question of the man: “How will this sin be paid for?” Every single time the man came up with a way that the sin could be forgiven. Good deeds. Money paid. A change of heart. A lesson learned and then taught to others. New Year’s Resolutions not just made, but made and kept. Someone offered forgiveness to him and let the offense go. Over and over again he offered reasons and excuses and logical arguments and extenuating circumstances and alternatives as to why he should not be guilty.
Every single time, Gabriel, whose job it is to be God’s messenger, spoke for God and always said, “No. No forgiveness.” No excuse was good enough. No action was good enough. No amount of reasoning changed the verdict.
No Forgiveness.
No Forgiveness.
No Forgiveness.
No Forgiveness.
No Forgiveness.
No Forgiveness.
The man grew angrier and angrier and finally shouted at the top of his lungs, “What gets forgiveness?!” As soon as he yelled, he woke up. He was covered in sweat. He must have been very restless in bed because the sheets were in knots as was his stomach and his heart. For a minute, he forgot where he was. It was a hotel room. His memory was foggy. He turned on the light. He took a sip of water. The same words kept ringing in his head:
No Forgiveness.
No Forgiveness.
No Forgiveness.
He opened up the nightstand beside the bed and there in the drawer was a book. Not just any book mind you, but a Bible.
He stared at the Bible.
He felt like the Bible was staring at him.
He picked up the Bible in the early morning hours and the pages flopped open to where someone had placed a bookmark. He expected something mundane to be marked like John 3:16 or some kind of famous verse like that. It was not John 3:16. Marked on one of the pages were a few verses from a book called Mark.
READ MARK 14:22-24 (ESV)
And as they were eating, He took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is My body.” 23 And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank of it. 24 And He said to them, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.
It was that last verse, Mark 14:24 that caught his attention in that hotel room.
READ MARK 14:24b (ESV)
“This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.
The Bible was in his hands and he noticed another bookmark. He expected something mundane to be marked like John 3:16 or some kind of famous verse like that. It was not John 3:16. He turned to the new bookmark and marked on one of the pages were a few verses from a book called Hebrews.
READ Hebrews 9:20-22 (ESV)
“This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” 21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. 22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Blood.
Shedding of Blood.
Shedding of Blood Cleanses.
Shedding of Blood Cleanses Sin.
Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Jesus is the Blood of the Covenant that cleanses and forgives sins!
He said those words aloud in his hotel room, “Jesus is the Blood of the Covenant that cleanses and forgives sins!”
All of a sudden, the man heard laughing in the hotel room. It was not nice laughing, but a mean, deep, and evil laughter. He smelled cigar smoke that reminded him of death. He suddenly knew he was not in his hotel room alone. Was he in a hotel? He turned to see Satan the Accuser looking like a red dragon in a very nice three-piece pin stripe suit.
Satan pointed at the man and told him: “Do you remember this night? You were in the hotel room. You woke up from a dream. You took a sip of water. You read some verses from that dreaded book of God’s Word which shared the Truth with you. God Almighty through His Word told you the way of salvation. He told you the way of forgiveness.”
The man said those words aloud again in his hotel room, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
“Yes,” Satan the Accuser said, “the shedding of blood provides forgiveness. The blood of Jesus provides forgiveness. Jesus Christ is the blood of the new covenant between God and humanity. You. Never. Accepted. Him. His blood does not cover you. Therefore, for you, there is no forgiveness.”
No Forgiveness.
No Forgiveness.
No Forgiveness.
ESSENTIAL KING JESUS
We are making our way through the Gospel of Mark that I’ve themed ‘Essential King Jesus.’ Each week we are taking a look at one passage in a chapter. Each week I want to share with one essential truth that is important for us to believe and then also communicate to others about Jesus. We are focusing on the Essential King Jesus. Mark 14 shares with us so many truths in the 72 verses of the chapter. I picked one. The Essential King Jesus for Mark 14: Jesus is the blood of the covenant.
FOCUS OF THE PASSAGE
This passage has as its focus the Passover meal that became what we know as the Last Supper. During this Last Supper, Jesus washed His disciples’ feet, Judas Iscariot went out to betray Jesus, and Jesus gave His disciples a specific way of remembering Him. With prayers and important words, Jesus focused His followers on everything He was about to do for them and for us. A New Covenant in His blood was promised on this night. It is quite a significant event.
The next steps for the disciples would come immediately after His death. His death was not the end, but the beginning of so much for them… and by extension for us! Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper so that all disciples would remember the critical point of faith in Him. The Christian faith has as a foundational belief that Jesus’ body and blood literally, figuratively, and spiritually took on sin for us to provide forgiveness.
The bread focuses the disciples on the body of Jesus which would suffer for them. Jesus of Nazareth was an actual person who made the choice to suffer that we might have forgiveness.
The “fruit of the vine” in the cup focuses the disciples on the blood of Jesus which would be shed to provide forgiveness. Jesus of Nazareth actually bled in payment for wrongs we have done. Jesus was eager for the disciples to move forward in faith based on His death and share the news with others.
READ MARK 14:24b (ESV)
“This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.
JESUS COMPLETED MUCH
I imagine Jesus reclining at the table with eagerness and fear and excitement and perseverance and stress and joy about everything that is about to happen. There is much that is about to change to usher in the Kingdom of God for His followers and for all those who would follow Him after them as faith in Him grew deep and wide. I imagine Jesus reclining at the table also looking back on the cross. He can do that… He is after all the Eternal God. Jesus talks about the “New Covenant” poured out in His blood and so much is completed and finished because of what happens on the cross. What is finished because of Jesus’ blood?
COMPLETED: REDEEMING LOVE
I believe we look back and see that in Jesus we have completed work of redeeming love. All throughout history God has been working and weaving His will to show us how much He loves us by redeeming us. His redeeming love is evident as we look back. The primary motivator for Jesus shedding His blood on the cross was love.
READ 1 John 3:1a (ESV)
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.
COMPLETED: MEANING OF PASSOVER
I believe we look back and see that everything that the Passover foreshadowed in the Old Testament in Exodus came true in Jesus Christ. It is no accident that Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper at Passover. He had Passover on His mind for good reason.
READ EXODUS 12:22-24 (ESV)
Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. 23 For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. 24 You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever.
The reason Passover was a lasting ordinance is because it foreshadows what Jesus will do for us. In Exodus 12, those marked by blood were passed over by death. For us, those marked by the blood of Jesus are also passed over by death and offered eternal life. Looking back we see the connections between Jesus, the Last Supper, and Passover.
COMPLETED: LAMB OF GOD
I believe we look back and see that the lamb of God was slain. John the Baptist pointed the way as Jesus began His ministry.
READ JOHN 1:29 (ESV)
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world!
We look back and see that Jesus’ perfect spotless life was offered like a lamb to the slaughter. The purpose of what Jesus did is made very clear. It was clear even in the mind of John the Baptist: “takes away the sin of the world.” We look back and see that true lasting forgiveness is accomplished in Christ by the shedding of His blood for us in the new covenant.
COMPLETED: KINGDOM OF GOD
I believe we look back and see that the way into the Kingdom of God is open. Forgiveness, rightness with God, righteous living, abundant life, a firm foundation for life, and grace are all provided for us through Jesus. He is the only way into the Kingdom of God that He was eagerly awaiting. Jesus unlocks all of that for us with His blood of the covenant.
READ JOHN 14:6
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
SUMMARY
I imagine Jesus reclining at the table with all of salvation history about to take a divine turning point. The Essential King Jesus for Mark 14: Jesus is the blood of the covenant. Jesus’ blood makes a way for redeeming love, salvation, payment for sin, and entrance into the Kingdom of God. Only the blood of Jesus accomplishes this. The Essential King Jesus for Mark 14: Jesus is the blood of the covenant.
PRESENTATION OF THE GOSPEL
Listen to me carefully please. I am about to explain the Gospel to you and you will have no excuse later that you never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am going to be very clear about this greatest news I could ever share with you. I am going to use an acronym to share with you why Jesus is so important and why Jesus matters. The word I’ll use is blood. B-L-O-O-D.
Because we are sinners, we are separated from God. [expand]
Lost, alone. [expand]
Only blood pays for sin. [expand]
Only the blood of Jesus Christ pays for all our sin. [expand]
Deliverance from sin only happens through Christ. [expand]
INVITATION
PRAYER
