The Power Of Christ's Blood - Calvary Road Series Series

“The Power of Christ’s Blood” – The Calvary Road

Romans 5:1-11

March 28, 2004

Purpose: This sermon answers three questions: What gives Christ’s blood the power? How may we experience this power in our lives? Are we willing to accept this power? Adapted from Hession’s book entitled, “The Calvary Road.”

INTRODUCTION

In our day and age, most of us are uncomfortable when we begin talking about blood.

In fact, when we did our first blood drive here at the church, Cozy Cupboard was still open in Marcellus. We were instructed by the Red Cross to give little table tent reminder cards to local restaurants to invite the community to the drive, and the owner of Cozy’s, Clara, had no problem helping us out…at least…at first.

When I walked into Cozy’s a week after dropping these little cards off to her, I found the cards stacked neatly by the register. Claire quickly apologized, “I’m sorry pastor, but I was getting complaints. People didn’t want to eat their food and think about blood at the same time.”

Paul Brand wrote in “Christianity Today” (March 4, 1983) that…

“In early history, blood assumed a mysterious, almost sacred, aura in human relations. An oath held more power than a person’s word, but blood made a contract nearly sacred.

We moderns inherit quaint symbolic tokens of the intrinsic mystery of blood: a wedding ring on the "leech finger," which was believed to contain a vein that led directly to the heart, or perhaps a child’s game of "blood brothers" in which two participants solemnly and unhygienically act out their undying loyalty. We echo misconceptions, too, when we use such terms as "pure blood," "mixed blood," "blood relations," harking back to the days when blood was assumed to be the substance of heredity.”

“He continued to say that…”

Although (today, as Christian) worshipers (,we) feel increasingly uncomfortable with the thought, Christianity too is inescapably blood based. Old Testament writers describe blood sacrifices in painstaking detail and their New Testament counterparts layer those symbols with theological meanings. The word "blood" occurs three times as often as the "cross" of Christ, five times as frequently as "death." And (in the service of communion), we commemorate Christ’s death with a ceremony based on his blood.”

All one has to do is look in the back of our hymnals (United Methodist) and see the 28 listings under the topic reference of the blood of Christ.

Those hymns come with some familiar lines for many…(let the congregation finish them)

“What can wash away my sin…nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

“Rock of ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee; let the water and the blood from thy

wounded side which flowed, be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure.”

“Alas, and did my Savior bleed and did my Sovereign die? Would he devote that sacred head for

sinners such as I?”

or some from our heritage like,

“Are you washed in the blood?” or one of my favorites Andrea Crouch’s “The blood will never loose it’s power.”

There is no mistaking it. Christianity and the blood of Christ are unmistakingly inter-linked.

In the Strongs concordance it reads that “Christ and the believer have the same life. They are not separate persons linked together by some temporary bond of friendship, they are united by a tie as close and inseparable as if the same blood ran in their veins.”

We are inter-linked by the power of the blood. And this is the message from this 5th Chapter of Romans.

Paul said we are justified…not by our works, but by the blood of Christ.

Paul said we have access to God…by the blood of Christ.

He said we can experience the love of God…by the blood of Christ.

Paul said that this grace in which we stand and rejoice in, came by the blood of Christ.

To repeat v. 9, “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”

Though we were once enemies, we have become reconciled…

And because of that blood-bought, grace-filled reconciliation… we can glory in our tribulations (we can be content even in the midst of our trials) because we know that the tough times produce perseverance which inturn produces character, and character produces hope.

In short, as Christians, we are tapped into a power greater than any earthly power source, and it all stems from this, sometime stomach-churning, aspect of the power of Christ’s blood.

Which leads us naturally to three important questions…

I. What gives Christ’s blood the power?

II. How may we experience this power in our lives?

III. Are we willing to accept this power in our lives?

I. What gives Christ’s blood the power?

It’s interesting to note the many times in Scripture we see the power of Christ’s blood making a difference.