The Cross of the Blood
1 John 1:1-7
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Introduction: It is wonderful to have each of you here for this Palm Sunday service. On behalf of our New Bethel church family I want to welcome you here. I am very thankful for the faithfulness of our church family as well. I love coming to church don’t you? I need to be with my church family. I don’t want to miss out on what God is doing. Reminds me of a story I heard… “It was Palm Sunday but because of a sore throat, 5 year old Johnny stayed home from church with a babysitter. When the family returned home, they were carrying several palm fronds. Sammy inquired as to what they were for. 'People held them over Jesus' head as he walked by,' his father responded. 'Wouldn't you just know it?' Sammy complained, 'the one Sunday I don't go and Jesus shows up.' [funny-jokes.com]
Dear friends do you know what the difference is between all the other world religions and Christianity? It is really quite simple yet so profound. These other religions ask that you die for their gods but in Christianity God dies for us! The religion of Jesus Christ is one of deliverance and redemption from the judgment of sin [Ephesians 1:7]. You see that in the very definition and description of the faith itself. The Christian faith is not in the first place an ethic, although it is ethical. It is not in the first place a theology, although it is theological. It is not in the first place reformational, although it has social and cultural and political overtones. The religion of Jesus Christ is first and foremost and always redemptive. “He was delivered for our offenses, and He was raised for our justification” [Romans 4:25]. You see that in the sign and symbol of the Christian religion. The sign of the Christian faith is not a burning bush [Exodus 3:2-3]. It is not two tables of stone carrying the Ten Commandments [Exodus 32:15-16]. It is not a seven-branched lampstand [Exodus 25:31-32]. It is not a halo above a submissive head. It is not even a golden crown. But the sign and the symbol of the Christian faith is always a cross [Galatians 6:12-14]: a cross in all of its naked hideousness, as the Roman would have it; the cross in all of its philosophical irrationality, as the Greek would have it; but the cross in all of its saving power and efficacy, as Paul would have it. “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” [Galatians 6:14]. This is the very epitome and summation of the redemptive message of Christ. And make no mistake the Cross of Christ is a Cross of blood. There is a very familiar old hymn that asks the question:
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing flood?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you fully trusting in His grace, and His blood?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
No other question this morning is as important as this one.
W. A. Criswell
This morning God has led me to four truths about the blood of the cross from v 7. First there is:
I. The Preciousness of the Blood – “It is the blood…”
Blood is precious, so precious in fact that we can’t live without it. Friday I drove to Sutton FWB Church in Pocahontas where my grandson Chase is youth pastor and they were having a Red Cross blood drive. I was able to give a pint of blood in 5:13 seconds which means that I have given over 2 gallons over the years. That single pint of blood will be used to help someone, maybe even save someone’s life. It is precious for those who need it. I was feeling pretty good about passing this mark until I read about…
A CHAMPION BLOOD DONOR
Joe Kerkofsky is America's blood-donor champion. The American Association of Blood Banks will honor the 62-year-old retired security guard at a special presentation in Chicago.
Mr. Kerkofsky lost an arm in an accident when he was six. He was thence rejected for military service in World War II. Since then he has donated nearly 31 gallons of blood. The human body contains 10 or 12 pints of blood. Joe has donated more than 20 times that amount.
"Giving blood makes you feel like contributing life itself," he says. "There's no more precious a gift than life. Money can't buy the joy of giving blood to help someone who needs it."
(Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations)
Blood is very important in God’s economy of things too.
M. R. DeHann “The Chemistry of the Blood”
“In the human body there are many different kinds of tissues. We define them as muscle, nerve, fat, gland, bone connective tissues, etc. All these tissues have one thing in common, they are fixed cells, microscopically small and having a specific and limited function. Unlike these fixed tissues, the blood is fluid and mobile, that is, it is not limited to one part of the body but is free to move throughout the entire body and touch every other fixed cell as it supplies it with nourishment and carries off waste products and the ashes of cell activity which we call metabolism.
In the normal human body there are about 10-12 pints of this fluid, and this blood pumped by the heart circulates through the system about every twenty-three seconds, so that every cell in the body is constantly supplied and cleansed and at the same time is in constant communication and touch with every other cell in that body. This blood is the most mysterious of all tissues, being composed of scores of elements and compounds and strange chemical bodies, whose function is not yet fully understood, but all of which have to do with the mystery of life for the "life is in the blood." Once the blood fails to reach the cells and members of the body, they promptly die and no man ever dies until his blood ceases to circulate. The life is in the blood.”
Human blood is a very precious commodity but not nearly as precious as the “blood of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
II. The Person of the Blood – “It is the blood of Jesus Christ…”
Remember that John says that “It is the blood of Jesus Christ and Peter declares also that it is the blood of Christ…Christianity is as one man called it “a bloody religion.” After Adam and Eve sin they seek to hide their shame with some “fig leaf fashions,” to no avail. God Himself provides the skins of animals to cover their nakedness. "Unto Adam also and unto his wife did the LORD God make coats of skin, and (He) clothed them." —Genesis 3:21 This principle of blood laid down in this first sacrifice runs like a scarlet line all through the book. In Genesis four Cain and Abel bring a sacrifice each. One is accepted, the other rejected simply because Cain presented no blood while Abel did. In Genesis nine, Noah sheds blood of the clean animals out of the Ark and God makes a covenant of grace with him. In Genesis twenty two, Abraham sacrifices a ram caught in the bushes in Isaac's stead and the blood of the substitute spares the sinner. In exodus we have the Passover Lamb.
In Leviticus, we have the tabernacle sacrifices with their steams of blood, and all through the rest of the book we follow the line until we trace it to its source and we see on Calvary God's perfect Lamb of which all the others were but a picture and a type and we see the one who met the three conditions of the Father,
First — He was God's own gift.
Second — He died in the place of others and,
Third — It was by the shedding of His own precious blood.
Oh, friend, have you seen the utter uselessness of [making an attempt at] saving yourself by your own fig leaf efforts? Remember, "It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Without shedding of blood is no remission."
"The atonement in Jesus Christ’s blood is perfect; there isn’t anything that can be added to it. It is spotless, impeccable, flawless. It is perfect as God is perfect."
Tozer, A.W. The Radical...
III. The Power of the Blood - “It is the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us…”
In Genesis three God provided the skins of animals to cover the shame of Adam and Eve’s nakedness but the blood of Jesus Christ goes beyond just covering, it cleanses us!
Would you be free from your burden of sin?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood;
Would you o'er evil a victory win?
There's wonderful power in the blood.
Would you be free from your passion and pride?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood;
Come for a cleansing to Calvary's tide,
There's wonderful power in the blood.
Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood;
Sin-stains are lost in its life-giving flow,
There's wonderful power in the blood.
There is power, power, wonder-working power,
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is power, power, wonder-working power,
In the precious blood of the Lamb.
source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/miscellaneouslyrics/christianlyrics/wouldyoubefreefromyourburdenofsinlyrics.html
In Luke 5:12 we read…”And it came to pass when He was in a certain city, behold, a man full of leprosy, seeing Jesus, fell on his face and besought Him, saying, “Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.”
Isn’t that what we all want too, to be clean? The drug addict wants to get clean and sober. The alcoholic wants to be free from the chains that bind him. The individual with an addiction to pornography wants to have clean thoughts and a clear conscience. Millions would like a fresh start in life. They are tortured and tormented because of the mistakes of the past. We all want to be clean but do we believe that it is the blood of Jesus that can cleanse us? Are we willing to turn to Him for this cleansing power? Listen friend, someone will pay for sin. It will be us or the Blessed Savior dear friend. From “Payday Someday” by R. G Lee…Paul Lawrence Dunbar showed wisdom as great as the wisdom of Churchill and a knowledge of Nature’s laws as great as Emerson’s knowledge when he wrote the autobiography of many individual sinners in these poetic and potent words:
This is the price I pay —
Just for one riotous day —
Years of regret and of grief,
And sorrow without relief.
Suffer it I will, my friend,
Suffer it until the end,
Until the grave shall give relief.
Small was the thing I bought,
Small was the thing at best,
Small was the debt, I thought,
But, O God! — the interest.
Dr. Lee went to see a young man who was dying in the Charity Hospital in New Orleans and this young man said he wanted Dr. Lee to deliver a message… Oh! I wish I could tell all men and women and all boys and girls everywhere to believe the truth that Satan always pays in counterfeit money, that all his pearls are paste pearls, that the nectar he offers is poisoned through and through. Oh, that men would learn the truth and be warned by the truth that if they eat the Devil’s corn, he will choke them with the cob.
But friend we all can be clean through the blood of Jesus Christ.
IV. The Promise of the Blood - “It is the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin.”
I. THE BLOOD CLEANSES FROM SIN’S PAST
A. Whatever sin a person has committed in the past the blood of Jesus can cleanse it.
1. People want to reform; change way of living, turn over a new leaf, but the problem is their past record. Still have to deal with their past.
2. Our sins must be erased with the blood of Jesus. There are many promises in the Bible:
3. “I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, like a cloud, thy sins;” (Isa 44:22)
4. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psa 103:12)
5. “And thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” (Mic 7:19)
6. “I, even I, am He who blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” (Isa 43:25)
7. “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” (Heb 8:12)
B. No matter what you have done the blood Jesus cleanses us from all past sins.
II. THE BLOOD CLEANSES FROM SINS PRESENT
A. The blood of Jesus cleanses from sin after we have been saved.
1. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
2. The Christian life is a battle and the only victory we have is claiming the blood of Jesus for cleansing.
3. The blood of Jesus not only cleanses a person when he is saved, but it cleanses daily.
III. THE BLOOD CLEANSES FROM SINS IN PROSPECT
A. Any sin that you would or could ever possibly commit the blood of Jesus will cleanse.
B. There are many excuses a person could give for not being saved and living the Christian life:
1. “There are too many hypocrites in the church.”
a. Jesus said there would always be hypocrites.
b. We don’t let the hypocrites keep us from other things.
c. There are more honest Christians than hypocrites.
2. “I’m doing the best I can, isn’t that enough?” “No”! “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us,” (Titus 3:5)
3. “I am afraid I can’t live it.”
a. This is said by many sincere people who fear they can’t live the Christian life.
b. Afraid after salvation will commit some great sin that will doom them forever.
4. The blood of Jesus was shed to cover and to cleanse every possible sin you will ever commit.
Conclusion:
"The blood of Christ stands not simply for the sting of sin on God but the scourge of God on sin, not simply for God’s sorrow over sin, but for God’s wrath on sin."
Forsyth, P.T.
THE SHEPHERD'S BLOOD
In 1972, a shepherd had brought his sheep into a walled-off, enclosed area for the night, and he had just gone to sleep when he heard a commotion. He quickly rushed over to where the sound was coming from and to his horror he discovered that a wolf was in the process of dragging off one of his sheep through a hole in the wall. He was mauling this sheep and blood was flying.
The shepherd quickly began hitting the wolf, and the wolf turned on him and began attacking him. He bit him over and over while the shepherd was striking him with his staff, and finally with one final blow of his staff, he killed the wolf as he himself collapsed into a bloody heap.
He managed to crawl over to the half-dead sheep and began to bandage its wounds. He gave it some water, and then took it in his own bloody arms, and shepherd and sheep went to sleep together. The next morning the shepherd was found dead, his body literally draped over the sheep to comfort it and keep it warm. The following day the headline in the Jerusalem paper said, “Sheep Alive, Covered in Shepherd’s Blood.”
(From a sermon by Jason Jones, More Than Fringe Benefits, 4/18/2011)
