Cleansing Through The Blood

Text: Hebrews 9:11-14

For the past few weeks we have been focused on the Blood of Jesus.

The Blood that Jesus willingly shed for us.

The Blood that we desperately need applied to our lives.

Oh, how we need the Blood of Jesus!

Please understand I am speaking of spiritual truths.

In dealing with His disciples, Jesus told them the words we will use for the Lord’s Supper in a few minutes:

John 6:53–56 (NASB95) So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. 54 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 “For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. 56 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

Jesus was not telling these disciples to literally eat His flesh and drink His Blood.

He said a few verses down in:

John 6:63 (NASB95) “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

Spiritually, we need the Blood of Jesus applied to our lives.

Spiritually, we need it’s saving, cleansing power.

We focus on the Blood at this time of the year, because it is at this time of the year that we remember the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross and His resurrection from the dead.

This year we will have a service to remember both.

On Friday, April 15 we will remember Jesus’ death on the Cross.

We will read the scriptures that describe his Crucifixion.

We will sing the hymns and songs that remind us of the tremendous price He paid for us.

Like this morning, on Good Friday we will partake of the The Lord’s Supper together because Jesus instituted it so that we would be constantly reminded that He paid a debt He did not owe while we owed a debt we could not pay.

1 Corinthians 10:16 NASB95

16 Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?

And then on Sunday, April 17 we will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus — because He is risen!

He is risen indeed!

As the angels asked the women in Luke 24:4–6 (NASB95) … “Why do you seek the living One among the dead? 6 “He is not here, but He has risen. …

Leading up to these future services of remembrance, these past two Sundays we have remembered:

There is Power in the Blood — the power to save us

And there is Rescue and Reconciliation through the Blood of Jesus

This morning I want us to understand that even in a sin-darkened, sin-defiling, sin-staining, sin-saturated world there is cleansing in the Blood of Jesus.

Yes! There is Power in the Blood to Cleanse

Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb!

Jesus Entered Into The Holy Place By His Own Blood

You will need to read it for yourself, but the verses before our text, Hebrews 9:1-10 speak of the earthly tabernacle and the High Priest entering into the Holy of Holies once a year on Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement.

As I was reading that description in the verses leading up to our text, I encountered something I had not seen before:

Verse 3 & 4: Hebrews 9:3-4 (NASB) Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, 4 having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, …

Did you catch it?

In Exodus we are told the pattern of the Tabernacle (and later the Temple):

There is an outer court

There is a Holy Place OUTSIDE of the Holy of Holies that contains:

The Table of shewbread

The Golden lampstand

AND according to:

Exodus 30:6 (NASB) "You shall put this altar [of incense] in front of the veil that is near the ark of the testimony, in front of the mercy seat that is over the ark of the testimony, where I will meet with you.

Inside the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant with its special lid called: the Mercy Seat

Over the Ark and the Mercy seat stood an angel on each end with their wings stretched towards one another

But here in Hebrews 9 we something different:

I guess in all the times I read it before I missed it.

The Altar of incense is included behind the veil with the Ark.

There are a variety of ways to understand what the writer of Hebrews is saying here, but I’ll leave you to study it.

I believe that it is not a mistake.

The altar of incense was of primary importance to entering the Holy of Holies.

The smoke of incense speaks of the prayers of the saints.

But, like the writer of Hebrews says in Verse 5:

My point is not the construction or layout of the Tabernacle

My point is to tell of what Jesus did, not in the earthly Tabernacle which is just a copy of the heavenly, but in the real Holy of Holies.

Hebrews 9:24 NASB95

24 For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;

Jesus appeared as our Great High Priest, BETTER than any earthly High Priest, to make atonement for us with His own Blood.

As verse 12 tells us:

The OT ritual of offering the blood of bulls and goats was just that — a ritual.

A teaching device to help us understand what Messiah would do..

That Messiah would…

As it says in verse 11, Jesus entered into the REAL Holy of Holies in heaven, to secure our redemption, our salvation, our eternal life by sprinkling His Own Blood on the REAL, the TRUE Mercy Seat for us.

Praise God for the Blood offered on the TRUE Mercy Seat on our behalf!

Let us give thanks to God!

More Than Clean Flesh — A Clean Conscience

But Jesus’ Blood does more than secure eternal life for us.

It will also cleanse us and thus give us peace with God.

As the scripture we looked at last week says:

Colossians 1:20 (NASB95) … having made peace through the blood of His cross; …

Through faith we receive that peace with God purchased by the Blood:

Romans 5:1 (NASB95) Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Peace through His shed Blood!

But the Blood of Jesus does more that buy our redemption.

It cleanses our soul.

The OT focused on the externals of sacrifices. offerings, and rituals.

God used these things to attempt to teach dull, thickheaded humans that external works are dead.

In and of themselves they cannot produce righteousness — right-standing with God.

For thousands of years the Jews tried to earn right-standing with Good through rituals.

But it was for nothing if their heart wasn’t in it.

Isaiah 29:13 (NLT) And so the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.

The Blood of Jesus goes beyond empty rituals learned by rote, by mindless repetition.

It cleanses and makes alive what our text calls, our conscience.

Our inner being — that which tells us right from wrong

The inner being that was dead to the things of God is made alive to Him.

Through the Blood of Jesus we are cleansed from an indifference towards God, an indifference towards His Kingdom.

Through the Blood of Jesus a passion for Jesus is born.

An ardent desire to serve Him.

I would like to ask you to consider:

If you have been cleansed by the Blood of Jesus from the dead works of serving self to serving God, what are you doing to serve Him?

In what ways has God gifted you to serve Him?

Romans 12:6–8 (NASB95) Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; 7 if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; 8 or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

If you are not sure how to answer these questions, could I ask you to please come to me?

Together we will pray for God to give you insight into what He has called you to do.

I will have you read some scriptures on the various gifts God gives — which is every gift that exists.

1 Corinthians 4:7 (NASB95) … What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

I have some tools we can use to help you discover your giftings.

Then you can do more than come to a building once a week — you can serve the One who loves you so much He gave His only begotten Son to die for you.

To shed His saving, cleansing Blood for you.

Avail Yourself of the Blood

Before serving comes surrender.

Have you surrendered to the One who died for you?

The One who shed His Blood for you?

If not, I urge you surrender to Him.

That means, first of all doing what He commands.

He commands that we repent of our sins.

That we turn away from disobedience and walk in obedience to Him.

Jesus began His ministry with these words:

We read about the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Mark 1:14–15 (NASB95) [that] … after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Have you repented of your sins?

Jesus commands us to surrendered control of our life to Him?

Is He the Master, the Lord of your life?

Luke 9:23–24 (NLT) Then [Jesus] said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. 24 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.

There is a crowd that purports to be disciples, followers of Jesus.

But how many are doing what He says?

How many have surrendered control of their lives to Him?

Do you want to do that right now?

Let’s pray.

if you repented of your sins and asked Jesus to be Lord of your life, would you let me know?

I want to give you materials that will help you grow closer to God.

The Lord’s Supper

A. If you have repented of your sins.

If Jesus is Lord of your life.

I invite you to remember what your salvation cost Jesus.

B.But before we do that, those who didn’t just pray with me a few minutes ago, where are you in your relationship with Jesus?

1. 1 John 1:6–9 (NASB95) If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

C. Self-examination

1 Corinthians 11:27–28 (NASB95) … whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

1. Prayer

D. Distribute elements:

1. Sing: There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood

E. Bread

1. John 6:48–51 (NASB95) “I am the bread of life. 49 “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 “This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”

2. Prayer

3. End prayer with prayer from Seder:

i. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, who brings forth bread from the earth.

4. Partake

F. Cup

1. John 6:53–56 (NASB95) So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. 54 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 “For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. 56 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

2. Prayer

3. End prayer with prayer from Seder:

4. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.

5. Partake

G. Jesus is coming back for His redeemed

1. 1 Corinthians 11:26 (NASB95) For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.

H. Sing: Redeemed