There is Power in the Blood
Hebrews • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 30:12
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· 340 viewsAs the old hymns says, "There is power in the blood of the Lamb!"
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My sermon text this morning is Hebrews 9:11-10:18, however for our Scripture Lesson I will be reading just the first paragraph. This paragraph serves as an introduction of this much larger section of Scripture and provides a summary of all the major points the author addresses in the larger section. Let us now turn our attention to Hebrews 9:11-14.
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
One of the most beloved hymns in gospel believing and loving churches is the 1899 hymn, written by Lewis Jones entitled, “There is Power in the Blood.” This hymn has fallen out of favor in recent years because many people, including pastors, misunderstand what the Bible means when it speaks of the blood of Christ or the blood of a sacrifice. The biblical writers did not teach, nor did they believe that blood has some type of mystical power. Blood is simply a powerful metaphor for “sacrifice.” Nothing more powerfully represents the life of a person or animal than their blood. It is our blood that carries the life sustaining oxygen and nutrients our bodies need. The loss of too much blood will always result in the loss of life. It is the loss of life that gives a sacrifice its power.
God warned Adam that on the day he ate of the forbidden fruit he would die. (Gen 2:17) Consequently, the “wages of sin is death.” (Rom 6:23) Later on in chapter 9 we read this:
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
Death, followed by judgement is the penalty of sin. Consequently, the only way to atone for sin is by the death of the sinner or by the death of a substitute. In Heb 9:22, the author says this:
Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Thus, when we say or sing, “There is Power in the Blood,” we are really saying there is power in the sacrificial death of Christ. It is this power that Hebrews 9:11-10:18 is about. In this passage we will learn that the sacrifice of Christ accomplished three things:
There is power in the blood of Christ to:
Redeem Us From the Penalty of Sin
Cleanse Us From the Pollution of Sin
Free Us From the Power of Sin
Moreover, this power far exceeds the power the Old Covenant animal sacrifices had. Let’s begin with the power to...
Redeem Us From the Penalty of Sin
Redeem Us From the Penalty of Sin
I said earlier that our sermon text is from Hebrews 9:11-10:18. Let me highlight what this lengthy passage says about the power of the blood of Christ to redeem us.
The blood of Jesus:
“secures an eternal redemption.” (9:12)
“it purifies our conscience” (9:14)
“it redeems [the elect] from the transgression committed under the first covenant.” (9:15)
The power of Christ’s sacrificial death is contrasted with the power of the Old Covenant sacrifices. These Old Covenant sacrifices had to be made again and again, because they had not power to pay the penalty of sin.
For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?
Instead of taking away the penalty of sin, they only served to remind people of their sin.
But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.
This is because an animal can’t pay for human sin, only a human can pay for human sin!
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Of course, Jesus was not just any human—He was fully God and fully man. Moreover, like Adam before Him, Jesus was appointed as the representative head. He was appointed by God the Father to represent others. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians:
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
Consequently, Jesus was able to offer Himself as a sacrifice just once:
Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
We have just looked at a lot of Scripture, what does this all mean for you and I in a practical, everyday life?
It means that if you trust in Christ Jesus for your salvation, you have the means to silence the Devil and your accusing conscience. Will Rogers once said, “I have done some terrible things in my life, some of which are true!” That was his attempt at using humor to help us all swallow the bitter pill of our sinfulness. We have all sinned and we know it! You will never silence the accusing voice of the Devil and your conscience with good works or with any other sacrifice than the sacrifice of Jesus. His one sacrifice is able to “secure an eternal redemption.” (Heb 9:12)
Not only that it is able to...
Cleanse Us From the Pollution of Sin
Cleanse Us From the Pollution of Sin
Earlier we learned that the penalty of sin is death followed by judgement, however that is not the only consequence of our sin, probably the consequence that we struggle with the most is the pollution of sin. We can push our coming death and judgement “out of sight, out of mind.” We can’t do that with the pollution of our sin, if we don’t remind ourselves of that pollution, there is always someone else who is more that eager to tell the whole world about our dirty laundry! Today with social media it is worse than ever.
So many people feel so dirty! So polluted!
The pollution of sin can paralyze us. Out of fear of accusation we cut ourselves off from other people. We start believing the lie that our best days and best opportunities are forever gone. We stop dreaming. We stop hoping.
We see the ugly reality of the pollution of sin in the despair and depression that leads many to self-harm, even suicide.
What a good Word we find in our text today:
For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
God doesn’t want you to remain paralyzed by the pollution of your sin! He wants you to realize that you can be purified by the blood of Jesus so that you can serve the living God!
Just think about that for a moment. If the blood of Jesus can so effectively purify you so you can serve the living God, it can purify you so you can do anything. Jesus blood had the power to turn prostitutes into virginal bride and tax collectors into Apostles! It still has that power today! Stop living in the mire of your past and present sins and start living your new reality in Christ!
This leads us to the final “wonder working power of the blood of the Lamb.” It...
Free Us From the Power of Sin
Free Us From the Power of Sin
Sin doesn’t only condemn us and pollute us, it also enslaves us. This is the terrible reality few have the courage to admit. We like to think that we are masters of our own fate, but because sin is in this world our fate is already sealed before we take our first breath. Having committed adultery and murder, David became aware of the depth of his depravity for the first time and confessed:
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Paul had a similar epiphany and wrote:
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
It is to this dark reality that the blood of Jesus speaks hope:
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
“This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts,
and write them on their minds,”
then he adds,
“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
Faith in Christ begins a process which will not end until the believer stands “perfected for all time” before God. The reality of sin is such a pervasive reality it is hard to imagine existence without it, but there is coming a day when you (if you are a believer) will be totally free from sin!
We are not there yet, sin is still a part of our lives in this world, but even now the Holy Spirit has begun the process of writing God’s Law on our hearts and minds.
All of us here today who are believers, it is true we are not what we will be, but it is also true we are not what we once were and praise God, we are not what we would have been without God’s grace arresting the tentacles of sin that once threatened to overwhelm us!
Yes, there is power in the blood, wonder working power in the blood!
Power to Redeem Us From the Penalty of Sin
Power to Cleanse Us From the Pollution of Sin
Power to Freed Us From the Power of Sin
Let us pray...