Sermon Central
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What Is It About Blood?
Contributed by Mark Jones on Dec 16, 2002 (message contributor)
Summary: Is an ancient, bloody religion relevant today?
What About Blood?
Is an ancient, bloody religion relevant today?
The great nineteenth century evangelist Dwight L. Moody, once said: SLIDE 2
“I must die, or have somebody to die for me. If the Bible doesn’t teach that, it doesn’t teach anything. And that is where the atonement of Jesus Christ comes in!”
EOLS: the blood of Jesus is the superior, solitary and sufficient sacrifice which breaks down every wall, so you can be FREE!
Christianity is a bloody religion!
The world often doesn’t understand the symbols of our faith.
In a day where animal rights often eclipse “people rights”, many do not understand the ancient faith, and the rituals of that other world that has long since passed.
Can you imagine what an outcry would ring forth if we announced “Today we shall make a sin offering”, and I brought in an animal and cut its throat here on this podium and began to pour blood everywhere?
I remember reading of a Cuban man who recently threw a large barbecue. It was his daughter’s high school graduation and this first generation immigrant was proud of her, and what she had accomplished! No big deal? But then, the rest of the story emerges. It seems that this man didn’t just have a barbecue, he slaughtered, gutted and cooked sixteen goats in his back yard! I don’t think his neighbors were very happy!
Can you imagine what an average day looked like to the ancient Jew? Go with me in your mind’s eye. Each and every day, the outer court of first the Tabernacle, and later the Temple was a flurry of activity. It was the Cuban man’s backyard to the power of ten!
The blood flowed like a faucet! You could not go near the center of worship without your senses being bombarded by the crimson flow of death, and life. Alabama is not the original Crimson Tide…downtown Jerusalem was! The Tabernacle in the Wilderness was where the tide rolled!
Can you imagine with me the Day of Passover, when every single home in all of Israel was required to kill a “paschal lamb”?
Can you imagine with me the highest and holiest day in all of Judaism-Yom Kippur, The Day of Atonement?
It was on this day only that the High Priest, and he alone could enter into the Most Holy Place, into the very manifest presence of God in order to make
propitiation (to appease God’s wrath and receive standing before Him) for the sins of Israel.
Today, I believe the Lord would have us look to this day, to receive a fresh anointing of the old truth…
It is the Day of Atonement that is spoken of in Hebrews 9, as the mystery of Blood is unveiled.
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 27“Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.
A number of years ago, I came to a real crossroads in my faith about this issue of blood. In prayer and study I began to ask God : “why blood...why animal sacrifice Lord…did it really take all those animals, all that blood to please You…couldn’t you have just spoken a word, and people would turn to you? For that matter, you are God, and all-powerful, why did you have your people go to such great lengths just to reach you?”
The key to the “blood question” lies in that the blood is the life of the flesh (Lev. 17:11). When God instituted Yom Kippur as the highest and holiest day in Israel, He said:
Leviticus 17:11 “For the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.”
Blood is life! Life is in the Blood! Blood is absolutely necessary for atonement!
As God began to unfold this great truth in my heart, and I began to realize:
What better call , what better substance could God have used to communicate His Way, and His Truth and His Life to humankind?
That symbol had to speak loudly, and it had to speak with a clarion call.
It had to speak across centuries and generations, over cultures and customs.
It had to break down every wall, and every divide, it had to be able to melt the most calloused, murderous, vengeful and spiteful heart as well as to mend and heal the broken, despised, and lost heart
It had to speak in a common language.
It had to unite and coalesce every human being who ever walked the face of this planet