The Passion 1 - Blood (Why Jesus Came)
The Passion; Why Jesus Came – nv 4/20/04
OS: Have you been to see The Passion – In this movie Mel Gibson artfully and brutally portrays the crucifixion of Christ. You walk away from the movie completely numb, and with a lingering question…why?
I. God created man for His pleasure, but it didn’t take long for His creation to bring Him pain.
A. Man rebelled against his maker.
B. God knows all things and since before the foundation of the world God had a plan.
C. He would become man, and pay the price demanded by the sin of mankind.
D. Jill Briscoe, Prime Rib and Apple – “Eve took the hand God had fashioned from her little piece of bone and with it plucked the piece of forbidden fruit. She placed it between the lips Omnipotence had framed to praise Him and absorbed into her system the poisons of independence, selfishness and death. And immediately Jesus prepared to leave for Bethlehem.”
II. Why Jesus came. – Every reason has to do with buying us back.
A. When He arrived He made it clear - Mark 10 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
1. Ransom = deliverance by purchase from something you cannot deliver yourself from.
2. Isaiah 53:12 …For He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
B. Why Jesus came – Ransom / How would He ransom us?
1. With His Blood
2. Hebrews 9:22… without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
3. Your sins required bloodshed before you could receive God’s forgiveness.
C. Our initial thought is, “that’s ugly”
III. Blood had to be shed – Why?
A. Leviticus 17 11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.
1. Life is in the blood – life is given for life.
2. Only something that severe could express the extreme view that God takes toward sin.
B. Here is the dilemma.
1. God is so holy He cannot be in the presence of sin – something had to be done to remove that sin because God is holy, just, merciful, and He is a God of wrath.
2. Sin had to go and it could only be removed by a substitute.
3. So Jesus spilled His blood so that we might be covered.
C. Long before Jesus arrived in Bethlehem God had been preparing his people for blood-bought redemption.
1. From beginning to Calvary you have this thread running through the bible setting forth the principle that blood was necessary to provide forgiveness of sin.
D. Let’s consider some examples of how God prepared us for having an understanding and an appreciation for Calvary.
I. Adam and Eve’s family we taught about sacrifice and blood.
A. Skin of an animal was used to cover their sin. Genesis 3 21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
B. Remember Cain and Able? Genesis 4 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering,
C. The very first family was taught about sacrifice and the need for blood.
II. The Patriarchs also understood and learned of the need for blood shed in order for a sacrifice to be acceptable. Consider Abraham.
A. Abraham waited nearly 100 years before God gave him Isaac – the son of promise.
1. Genesis 22 “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. 2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”
2. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
3. The first mention of “lamb” in scripture for sacrificial purposes.
4. 8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
5. 11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. 12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” 13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”
B. A momentous occasion in Abraham’s life, but also a wonderful image to mankind of a greater substitute that was yet to come.
1. The precious Lamb of God would be provided by God as the blood sacrifice for all of mankind.
2. Genesis 22 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
III. The Israelites also understood and learned of the need for blood shed in order for a sacrifice to be acceptable. Consider the Passover.
A. Exodus 12 – Following the plaques, this was the final blow that released Israel from Egyptian bondage.
1. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.
2. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect
3. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.
4. 12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.
5. The blood of the Lamb was their salvation.
B. A momentous occasion in the nation of Israel’s existence, but also a wonderful image to mankind of a greater sacrifice that was yet to come.
1. 1 Corinthians 5:7, Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
2. 1 Peter 1 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
C. We do not have the time to follow all the blood offerings involved in the Law of Moses.
1. Day of Atonement
2. Sin offerings, guilt offerings.
3. Hebrews 10 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, 4 because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. 7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, O God.’”
D. That is why John the Baptist in John 1, upon seeing Jesus said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
IV. Jesus came to shed His blood for you and for me, because only through the shedding of His perfect sinless blood could atonement be made for us.
Psalm 32 Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 2 Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.