The Blood Of Christ
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
if you have your Bibles please turn to
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)—
So we must begin this morning with a tough truth but kind of an obvious truth at the same time. However this truth will add another reason why Jesus is life changing. We do not belong to Israel. We are Gentiles. In the first century when Paul wrote this , this was a very big deal. You were either Hebrew or you were a gentile. In the nation of Israel that was the two choices. It did not matter whether you were Greek or Roman, pagan. We would belong to the Gentile part. We would not be God’s chosen people. Now to be fair, while this was the prevailing attitude during the time. There were previsions in the Old Testament that allowed for foreigners to join the nation of Israel.
remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
Paul continues here. The results of where we are without Jesus. Now I want to make two separate points about these verses. The first point is culturally. It is easy to look at this line of thinking , Hebrew vs Gentile and judge them. With hindsight being 20/20 people will look at this and say that it is wrong. While I can understand the sentiment, it is hubris of us to think we are so much smarter than those that came before us. Instead, I would challenge all of us to look in the mirror. The society that we live in now is more tribal than it has been in a very long time. Even the Christian church has become tribal. While the culture being tribal is sad. It breaks my heart that it happened in the church. because to be honest it isn’t that difficult. I should probably teach my lesson on the core values of Christianity again. But there are core values which I like to call Blood bought beliefs. These include things like Jesus is the one and only way to the Father. That Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected. That the Bible is the true and complete Word of God. It breaks my heart that Christians can’t come together around that.
Now spiritually speaking , without the finished work of Jesus we are without hope and without God. I know this sounds very black and white but this is the truth. Our sin causes us to be far removed from God. Our sin causes the destruction of so much but most of all the relationship with the Father. Without Jesus there is no hope. We must understand how deeply sin can get into your souls. It can take over your life and for many people it does take over their lives.
Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.
John Owen (Puritan Divine and Statesman)
It is daily work. It is a daily fight and a daily living with Jesus. This brings us to the good news of Jesus
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Because of Jesus you are no longer far away. You can now have fellowship with the Father every single day. Every minute of the day because of what Jesus did. This is such a grace that I do not think we can fully comprehend until we meet Jesus. The blood of Jesus, the covenant that He made with us and the suffering that He went through brings us back into the Father’s arms. If Jesus never goes to the cross all of our lives look vastly different. It is because of His love that we are able to have hope and have God.
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
Anywhere that we see division in this world whether it be in the culture or in the church there is only one answer to that problem that is Jesus. It isn’t about what “tribe” you belong to or skin color or anything like that. It all boils down to Jesus being the second Adam, the true reflection of God and through the cross Jesus accomplishes what could never be done without Him, unity between us and God. Unity between us. People put way to much stock in other things that unify us and less stock in the only true unifying force in this world. Look at His own disciples. Matthew the tax collector was part of the group with a zealot. How can that happen?
In this world people are trying so hard to create a utopia. That is because we long for Eden. In that longing instead of following the plans that God has laid out, we instead take matters into our own hands. There are all kinds of ways that we try to do this. Communism was supposed to be the utopia, that resulted in an untold amount deaths across the world.
In the current age we have attempted to do that via a digital world. A world of our own creation but that is proving to be problematic as division, mental health, laziness, and other more predatory side effects far outweigh the benefits of these digital worlds. We long for Eden, we long for the second coming of Jesus but we must look to the Bible and the Holy Spirit for guidance and not ourselves. We are not able to solve these divisions by ourselves. We must look to the King of Kings for that healing.
And so we must understand the magnitude of this verse. One of the purposes of Jesus was to create a one new humanity. A humanity where people are living out there pupose in Christ and He is in charge.
He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Remember what we talked about a few weeks ago. We were once sinners. We were once and some of us for a good bit of time away from God. Jesus preaches peace and He preaches repentance to everyone.
His first words always echo in my mind.
“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
The Kingdom of God has come near Repent and believe the good news. Brothers and sisters, the world is where we are living but the Kingdom of God is our citizenship. Do you want hostility out of your life? Do you want to see miracles? Do you want to know the peace that Jesus has available to you ? Then Repent and believe the good news
As we move into a time of communion with the bread and the cup. Please take a few moments to reflect on that bread and that cup. The blood of Christ that takes away your sins. The blood of Christ that tears down divisions. The blood of Christ that brings us together as believers in our Lord and Savior. Then take a moment to examine your life. We all need to renew the covenant but first we must repent and believe.
Let us pray.
