JESUS'S BLOOD IS BETTER

INTRO

Pray for pastor. I got a call at around 5 last night that he wasn’t feeling well and to see if I could cover. Pray for me. I got a call at around 5 last night that he wasn’t feeling well and to see if I could cover!

Went upstairs to put something together and “There’s Power In The Blood” by Alan Jackson came on.

Decided to do something I’ve wanted to do for a while. Fascinated by the songs we sing at church. Often I find as much ministry in the music as I do in the message (NO OFFENSE PASTOR) Do we really consider what they’re saying?

Wherever He leads I’ll go

All to Jesus I Surrender

“Jesus is coming soon, morning or night or noon, Many will meet their doom, trumpets will sound” - Jesus is Coming Soon

See if you can identify these: Victory in Jesus (I Heard About His Groaning and His Precious Blood’s Atoning), Nothing but the Blood (What Can Wash Away My Sin?), Power in the Blood (Would You Be Free From The Burden Of Sin?) - All of these songs mention the power of Jesus’s blood to atone so I asked:

WHY IS THERE POWER IN THE BLOOD?

SIMPLY PUT: JESUS’S BLOOD IS BETTER

By that I mean that Jesus’s blood does things that NOTHING else can do because Jesus was the perfect sacrifice, and atonement through Jesus, instead of through man, is a foundation of our faith! It’s that important.

Let’s look at Hebrews 10 (We’ll be starting in verse 8), which talks about the difference between OT and NT atonement.

Jesus’s Blood Creates A New Covenant (Not reliant on man)

Up to this point, Jews would visit the temple to make offerings as atonement for sin. These could be burnt offerings or sin offerings, but all were made at the temple with the help of priests. Now the way it worked...

Temple “First Room” or “Holy Place” - Table, Lampstand, Loaves of Bread - Room where priests would have people come in weekly to make burnt offerings and sin offerings. You would bring an animal that and sacrifice it as there was no atonement for sin without blood. This would “cover your sin”

Behind the curtain was the “Most Holy Place” - Gold Altar, Ark of the Covenant, Aaron’s staff, tablet of the Covenant - Room that only the High Priest entered annually and made atonement for all

Problem was the outside though, man was turning God’s temple into a place of sin.

In John 2, we see Jesus run the money changers and animal salesmen out of the temple

Mark 11:17 says: He was teaching them: “Is it not written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it a den of thieves!”

We had introduced a human element into worship and we, as humans, are unable to keep even our sacred places holy because of our sin nature and desires of the flesh.

This human nature is one reason that a new covenant was necessary. Even if we don’t mean to, our human nature means that we will mess things up!

BOWL OF SOUP - We add a little humanity and mess up the whole batch! Humanity is the cinnamon of the faith.

The episode where Jesus clears the temple shows us that God was not happy with man’s manipulation of his covenant, so He was going to do something about it! This is where we pick up our reading of scripture:

Hebrews 10:8-10

Hebrews 10:8–10 CSB

8 After he says above, You did not desire or delight in sacrifices and offerings, whole burnt offerings and sin offerings (which are offered according to the law), 9 he then says, See, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first to establish the second. 10 By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.

God was not pleased with the state of things, and sent His son to fulfill the law. This is another change in God’s MO, because if you remember: He normally dealt harshly with those who perverted His plan.

Exile from the Garden

The Flood

Sodom & Gomorrah

The Plagues of Egypt

The Golden Calf

The Cleansing of the Temple

Ananias & Sapphira

Normally when we mess up the soup, God throws it out and starts a new batch, but this time, he changed the recipe!

These are just a few examples of times that human nature changed God’s plan but for the first time, God responds by sending help instead of wrath! Instead of throwing away the meal, this time he changes the recipe!

If I had a faith that was reliant on others, I would live in constant fear, because man lets me down. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes by accident, but we are “let down” by those around us every day, are we not?

Fulfilling the Law established a new covenant that we (as humans) would be able to fulfill and provided a path to salvation through grace and love instead of works and religion.

Jesus’s Blood Covers Sins For All Time & For All People

By fulfilling the covenant of the Law, and by being the perfect sacrificial lamb, He eliminated the need for the atonement rituals of that law and that there would not be need for repeated sacrifices.

Hebrews 10:11-18

Hebrews 10:11–18 (CSB)

11 Every priest stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time, which can never take away sins. (Note that the sacrifices didn’t take away sins, but atoned for them. Double entry accounting! But Jesus’s atonement makes it as though the sin never happened in the eyes of God, which we’ll see later in this scripture.) 12 But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. 13 He is now waiting until his enemies are made his footstool. 14 For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified. 15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after he says:

16 This is the covenant I will make with them

after those days,

the Lord says,

I will put my laws on their hearts

and write them on their minds,

17 and I will never again remember

their sins and their lawless acts.

18 Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

Aren’t you glad that there is not a time limit on God’s forgiveness? My mind goes back to some of the things I have done in my past and I continue to be embarrassed by things I may have done, said, or thought. ANYONE ELSE? I rejoice in knowing that God does not do the same!

Hebrews 9:24-28

Hebrews 9:24–28 CSB

24 For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands (only a model of the true one) but into heaven itself, so that he might now appear in the presence of God for us. 25 He did not do this to offer himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary yearly with the blood of another. 26 Otherwise, he would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now he has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment—28 so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Just as we will die once, and then to judgement… Jesus will die once and then to glory!

Jean pointed out to me that previously, when God sent His wrath, he always left a remnant to preserve the bloodline of Jesus. Noah survived the flood, Abraham made it out of Sodom & Gemorrah. But this time he poured His wrath out on Himself so that not only the remnant could be saved, but EVERYONE can be saved!

Verses 16-17 are a reference to a promise of God in Jeremiah 31:33-34

Jeremiah 31:33–34 CSB

33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.

“I will be their God, and they will be my people” is one of my favorite lines in the Bible. It talks of God’s desire to grow close to us… to treat us as family or friends instead of subjects and servants. Isn’t that a wonderful thought? It also illustrates my last point:

Jesus’s blood provides access to the Father - Finishing with the best!

Hebrews 10:19-25

Hebrews 10:19–25 CSB

19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus—20 he has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain (that is, through his flesh)—21 and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. 23 Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, 25 not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

Allowing us access directly to the Father eliminated the humanity issue. We no longer had to rely on the high priest to enter into God’s presence on our behalf as we could do it ourselves as it mentions in verse 19. We have a new high priest (v21) in Jesus that intercedes for us and protects us when we are in the presence of God!

One of the things I like about being in a “small church” is the fact that if I have a problem, I can get in touch with my pastor/deacon without going through levels. (JOKE TO THE PASTOR but I have never tried to talk to Pastor Greg and felt like he didn’t have time for me or care about my issues)

I hear from some friends about setting up meetings with the assistant to the associate pastor and don’t know how I would be able to function if I really needed some advice but couldn’t talk to them directly when I needed to. Now, zoom out and imagine that with God!?! To have to bring all of your concerns, burdens, and troubles to a priest and to have to purchase sacrificial animals and STILL NOT BE ABLE TO SPEAK TO THE ONE WHOM I REALLY NEED COUNSEL? Unbearable.

THANK GOD that He has torn the curtain from top to bottom, invites us to His table, calls us His people, views us as His children, and did all of this through the provision of His son… and His son’s blood.

Thank God that he has opened up a line of communication directly with the father… which is prayer and pastor will be talking about in the coming weeks. There truly is power in the blood.

INVITATION

If you have burdens, troubles, or concerns I would invite you to come speak to the Lord about them. If you need to know Jesus so you can be part of the new covenant, I would invite you to come forward and speak to someone about how to do that. Or if you need a church home, I would invite you to come forward so we could welcome you to our assembly.

PRAYER

BENEFITS OF THE BLOOD

By Christ’s blood:

1. We have been purchased by blood (Acts 20:28) Victory In Jesus

2. We have been brought into fellowship with God (Ephesians 2:13 & Hebrews 10:19)

1. To make God bigger, we don’t use a microscope, we use a telescope

3. We have peace (Colossians 1:19-20)

4. We are cleansed (Hebrews 9:13-4) Whiter, much whiter than snow?

5. We are being sanctified (Hebrews 13:12)

6. We have been freed (Revelation 1:5) Free from your burden of sin?