The American Red Cross in Oklahoma had this interesting poster sent to churches: "I gave my blood. Christ gave his. I gave a pint. He gave all. The needle is small, sharp. The nails were large, dull. The table - soft, restful. The cross - rough, painful. The nurses - kind, gentle. The soldiers - cruel, mean. The crowd applauds my sacrifice. “They that passed by Him reviled Him.” Mine is for O Positive. His for positively all. Mine, at best, will prolong a Life for a while. His, without doubt, can save all forever."
Down thru the years, I’ve answered the call from the Red Cross to give blood. And I suspect many of you have done the same. But I kind of doubt that any of us have donated as much as one man I read about. According to Reader’s Digest there was a 67-year-old man named Bill who had donated over 100 pints of blood in his lifetime. THAT’S A LOT OF BLOOD. And, no doubt many people owe their lives to this man’s kindness. Someone once asked him what he thought about his accomplishment, and he answered: “When that final whistle blows, and St. Peter asks, ‘What did you do?’ And I’ll just say, ‘I gave 100 pints of blood,’” THEN he laughed and said: “That ought to get me in.”
I hope he was joking. Because, if he was serious - if he truly believed that his good deeds (like giving his blood) would get him into heaven - then Bill was counting on the wrong blood. His donation of HIS OWN BLOOD may have saved people from a physical death. But only the blood of Jesus can save ALL people from eternity in hell.
Our sermon series is focused on the colored Beads found on “witness bracelets” like this one. The black bead stands for sin; The red bead for the blood of Jesus; The white stands for purity; blue for the waters of baptism; The green for our growth in our faith; and the yellow or gold for our home in heaven.
Last week we spoke of the deep darkness (blackness) of sin, and the power that sin has - to damage and destroy our lives. But the dark power of sin is no match for the RED red blood of Christ.
Someone said it this way: "Life is short, death is sure; Sin the cause, but Christ the cure." The Bible tells me that the power of Christ over sin is found in His blood.
Now I Peter 1:18 tells us that you and I were "ransomed". Several times in Scripture that word is “ransomed” is also translated as “redeemed”. And in fact, you may have heard a song that rejoiced in being redeemed: "Redeemed how I love to proclaim it; Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; Redeemed by his infinite mercy; His child forever I am."
You have been redeemed, ransomed, and purchased by God. But now… what does that mean?
ILLUS: Well, if I want to know what a word means in Scripture I’ll often look it up in something called the Strong’s Concordance. Over a hundred scholars worked for 35 years to compile all the English words in the Bible and then trace the meaning of the Greek and Hebrew words that they were translated from. So I looked up this word for “redeemed” or “ransomed” in Strong’s Concordance. And there was this PHRASE that described how that word was used in the ancient world. “Redeemed: “To be released from bondage or imprisonment.” The idea in Scripture - is that sin had gotten hold of us - it put us in BONDAGE and imprisoned us. SIN literally owned us.
But now, of course the Bible also tells us that God MADE us. We were His creation. So technically we’re HIS, but our sin stole us away from Him.
ILLUS: I recently had a conversation with someone I know. He’s a nice enough guy, but he’s got moral problems
and he’s definitely not a Christian. He wanted to talk with me about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. His opinion was that this (murdering Kirk) was the worst thing anyone could do, and that the guy who killed Kirk definitely wouldn’t go to heaven. As far as he was concerned, murder was the worst sin he could think of. And he was right - this assassin was vile and evil and destroyed the life of a man who'd done nothing but engage people in a discussion about God, morals and righteousness.
But I explained that God can even forgive murderers – he’d done it with Paul who claimed that (because he’d had people killed) he himself was the worst of all sinners, but God forgave him (basically) to prove it could be done.
As evil as Kirk’s murderer’s actions were, he could be forgiven (though he would have to face the earthly consequences of his evil deed).
My friend had a hard time believing that was right. And when he stated that he believed if a person did enough good things, they’d make it to heaven I explained that wasn’t how it worked. No matter how “good” a person was, they’d never be good enough to be good enough to make it. My friend was not good enough and I wasn’t good enough. The only way we could make it into heaven was by the blood of Jesus.
And my friend said “What’s that?” (meaning the blood of Jesus) – and I was stunned. I suddenly realized I was using “Christian speak” that people outside of Christ might not understand. So, I asked “do you remember when Jesus died on the cross?” He said he did. When Jesus died on the cross, His blood paid the price for my sins. He died in my place. But if I didn’t accept the blood of Christ as my ONLY hope of salvation, I wouldn’t make it to heaven.
ILLUS: I listened to a popular preacher tell the story of a renowned artist who went back to his home town where he was born and brought up. As he walked around the stores, he came across an antique shop. And there in the window of that antique shop he was shocked to see one of his masterpieces. It was a painting he’d done years before he became famous. And through the window, he could see that the frame was broken, the picture was scratched and dirty, and it was in terrible shape… but it was his. HE HAD PAINTED IT. But he couldn’t go into the store and say to the manager “That’s my painting, give it back to me” because the antique store owned it now! If he wanted it back, he had to buy it back. He’d have to redeem it. And once he’d redeemed the painting… it would be his. And he could clean it, and restore it, and reframe it… because he’d paid the price to own it again.
That’s what Jesus did for us when He died on the cross. He BOUGHT us back (from the sin that had imprisoned us)… so that we could be cleansed, we could be restored, and we could be reframed. And the price He paid to redeem/ransom us was the precious blood of Jesus. (from an illustration by J.John)
As I Peter 1:18-19 tells us “You were RANSOMED from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.”
Now, the Bible ALSO tells us that (not only have we been ransomed from our sin). But at the Passover, BEFORE Jesus had died on the cross, Jesus explained that the cup they were sharing represented His “blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission (or removal) of sins.” Matthew 26:28
So, every time you take of Communion you are telling the world that you are here BECAUSE of the blood of Christ. You were redeemed by the blood of Christ. It’s the BLOOD of JESUS that REMOVES our sins. It BLOTS out our past. It WASHES away our shame.
And this was done when we BELIEVED in Jesus; REPENTED of our sins; and were BAPTIZED into Christ.
In Acts 3:19 Peter told a crowd to “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your SINS MAY BE BLOTTED OUT”. But it was the blood of Jesus that blotted out their sins, but in repentance men appealed to God for Christ’s blood to blot out their past.
Then, in Acts 22:16, Paul was told “Arise and be baptized and WASH AWAY YOUR SINS, calling on his name.” Now, it was the blood of Jesus that WASHED AWAY Paul’s sins. But in his baptism, Paul appealed to God to have his sins washed away.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BLOOD OF JESUS.
Without the Blood of Jesus, our faith/ repentance/ confession/ and our baptism have no power.
Now, there’s another aspect of the power of Christ’s blood that you might miss. In I John 1:7 we’re told that “if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” The blood of Jesus CLEASES US! But, how can it do that???
ILLUS: Years ago, I read an article the internet where an atheist mocked the very idea that blood could ever cleanse anything. Why? Well, let’s say that you bled on your most expensive dress or shirt. If you take it any dry cleaners they’d tell you that a blood stain in clothing never really goes away. Blood leaves a permanent stain. And so, this atheist asked: IF blood leaves a permanent stain, how could blood possibly cleanse us of our sins?
ILLUS: underneath your kitchen sink… you probably have numerous cleaners. Some of those cleansers will say things like: Don’t use on white clothing; Don’t use on colored garments; Don’t use on delicates; Do not allow to come into contact with your skin or eyes. What they’re basically telling you is – the stronger the cleanser, the more damage it will do to materials it wasn’t meant to clean.
The Bible tells us the most powerful cleansing agent in the world is blood. In fact, God created blood to be a cleansing agent INSIDE our bodies! INSIDE your body, your blood takes oxygen and other supplies TO cells
AND then it REMOVES waste and impurities from those cells. Blood literally cleans out the filth from your body. You see, there is NO OTHER cleansing agent known to man that can purify our your physical body’s system as well as the blood that courses thru our veins. And, so also there is no other cleansing agent known to man that can rid your soul of its filth and shame - than the cleansing agent that is the Blood of Jesus.
Now, there’s one more question we should consider - WHY BLOOD? Why would the blood of Jesus be so central to our being forgiven? One person noted that the Bible was a bloody Book. You can cut the Bible anywhere… and it bleeds! God put a serious emphasis on blood to wash away our sins. But why? What is it about blood that God considered important enough to DEMAND that blood be shed for our sins?
Well, let’s back up a minute and acknowledge that we didn’t deserve forgiveness. Ephesians 2 tells us that before we were saved, we were “Children of wrath”! And Romans says that before we were saved we were God’s enemies. It’s like the Bible was saying that we were undeserving of God’s love. We were practically worthless before we turned to Christ. And that’s true. In fact, that kind of echoes what many people think about themselves. They know what kind of lives they’ve lived and they can’t hardly stand themselves; so how could God possibly care what happens to them?
But here’s the deal: My daddy used to say – that something is worth whatever somebody else is willing to pay for it.
ILLUS: Back in 2009, a show called Pawn Stars was on the History Channel. It was so popular that it ran for 23 seasons. It was a reality show filmed in a pawnshop in Las Vegas, NV and each show had someone bringing in rare coins, guns, or books. Many of these people would walk up to the counter wanting $1000s - even millions - of dollars for their items. And the Pawn Shop owner (named Rick) would look the item over and would usually admit that he had no clue what the item was worth. So he’d bring in an expert. And the expert would spend a few minutes explaining the history and background of the gun, or the book or the coin; and when that expert was all done, Rick would pause and ask him: So, what is it worth?” And the expert might say $35,000. Then Rick would turn to the seller and “How much do YOU want for this?” And they’d sometimes reply “Well, you heard the expert say it was worth $35,000, so that’s what I want - $35,000.” And Rick will reply “It’s not worth $35,000 to me. I have to make a profit. I can give you $25,000 for it… but that’s the highest I can go.”
What was Rick saying was this: The object was only worth so much to him. It might be worth more to someone else… but not to him. The object was only worth so much to him, because that was all HE was willing to pay forg, And here’s my point: God used blood because - by saving you through the blood of Jesus - God was declaring that THAT was what you’re worth! You are worth the blood of His Son!
Now I know there are people who despise themselves. I know people who hate who they are and who think that God hates them too! But I know how much you’re worth! I don’t care what you THINK you’re worth – I KNOW what you’re worth because I know how much God was willing to pay for you. God so loved YOU that He gave His only begotten Son. You were so valuable to God that He gave the most valuable thing He HAD. He gave His only begotten Son so that He could “buy” you, and so that we could belong to Him.
Someone once dreamed a dream, where he saw Jesus. And in the dream he asked Jesus if Jesus loved him. And in the dream he saw Jesus stretch out His arms on the cross and said “I LOVE YOU… THIS MUCH.”
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
