The Blood of Christ

In the sermon delivered by James Fetterly, he introduces a forthcoming series on the attributes of God, sparking anticipation for deepening understanding among his audience. The sermon then transitions to a focused exploration of the significance of Christ's crucifixion, rooted in the biblical narrative and emphasizing the prophetic declarations Jesus made about his own suffering, death, and resurrection as detailed in various passages from the Gospel of Luke. Fetterly elaborates on the critical theological concept that Christ’s blood, shed on the cross, stands at the core of Christian faith, serving as the means for redemption, propitiation, cleansing, forgiveness, and reconciliation between God and humanity.

He encourages his listeners to delve into Scripture to discover at least ten ways in which Christ’s blood benefits believers, citing examples from Acts, Ephesians, 1 Peter, Romans, Hebrews, and Revelation to illustrate these benefits. The sermon emphasizes the blood of Christ as not only a sacrificial element but also as foundational to the Christian experience of salvation, sanctification, and ultimate communion with God. Fetterly concludes by leading a prayer that acknowledges the profound spiritual and communal implications of Christ's blood, urging reflection on its transformative power in the lives of believers. The sermon serves to prepare the congregation for a deeper engagement with their faith through the upcoming teaching series and reinforces the central role of Christ’s sacrifice in Christian doctrine and personal salvation.

Transcript

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Next week we will begin a new series on the attributes of God. So I'm looking forward to that. Hope you guys are excited about that as well. Let's open up our Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 5 as we begin our time together. Luke chapter 5. We're considering the cross of Christ and the blood of Jesus this morning. Richard Phillips has said, "At the very heart of Christian faith is a precious red substance, the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ." As we continue our study this morning, I would like for us to eventually look at this precious red substance as it is found in Scripture. But to orient ourselves, let's take a look at Luke chapter 5 as we consider the passion predictions that Christ gave of Himself and His crucifixion. Notice in Luke chapter 5 verse 35. Jesus says the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will fast in those days. Jesus talks about a day where He will be taken. He's talking here about His crucifixion. Just so that we can see that there are many times that Jesus gives these predictions, turn to the ninth chapter looking at verse 22. Again, the Savior is talking to His disciples and He says to them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, by the chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised. Jesus is predicting that which is about to occur in His life. Then we find an interesting scenario in the Transfiguration narrative in verse 31 of this same chapter. Here we have Moses and Elijah. These two men are talking with Jesus. They appear in His glory and notice what it says in verse 31. And what is this talking about? This is talking about His crucifixion. In verse 44, same chapter, Jesus is talking to them, telling them that these words need to sink into your ears. The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men. Jesus was talking about His death. He was wanting His disciples to know beforehand what was going to take place. And of course, you guys know that the Holy Spirit, after His resurrection, brought many of these things to their mind that didn't make sense to them when Jesus first spoke of it. Luke 9 verse 51, "When the days drew near for Him to be taken up, He set His face towards Jerusalem." This was Jesus' passion that He was going to set His face, His direction. His whole life was going towards this to redeem a people, to redeem us. Chapter 12, if you're still in Luke, verse 50. Here, Jesus is talking once again. He says, "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished." Chapter 13 verse 32, Jesus is having great passion, great lament, great sorrow for those that would reject Him. And in verse 32, He said, "Go tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons, and perform cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my horse.' Nevertheless, I must go my way today and tomorrow, and the following day, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem." And then He cries out, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it." And Jesus would long to gather those folks, but they would not have Him. Now, in chapter 16 verse 31, I'm not for sure what you make of this verse, but Jesus is giving a parable, a story, and then it's about the rich man and Lazarus. You remember that wonderful story. And the rich man is in this great division in the afterlife where he sees Lazarus, this poor beggar that is at Abraham's side, and he wants some relief. And then he says, "Finally, why don't you send somebody to my brothers? They'll believe somebody if someone's sent to them." And notice these words here that are in the parable in verse 31. "And he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced of if someone should rise from the dead.'" And I just kind of wonder if that's just foreshadowing that Jesus had even of His own ministry. If you don't believe in the Son incarnate preaching the good news, will you even believe it when He rises from the dead? Is your sinfulness, your hard-heartedness that bad? Chapter 17 verse 25. "But first he," that is the Christ, "must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation." I'm just trying to show you guys that Christ predicted His death and also His resurrection. You can look at chapter 18 verse 31, "And taking the twelve, Jesus said to them, 'See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished, for He will be delivered over to the Gentiles, and He will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise.'" Jesus is talking about His death. He's talking about His resurrection. And of course, you know, after the resurrection in Luke 24, He speaks to them and He tells them, He rebukes them. Isn't this what the prophets were talking about? Luke 24, looking at verse 25, "And Jesus said to them, 'O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter His glory?'" Well, of course. And then in verse 46, Jesus says to them, "This is written that the Christ should suffer, and on the third day rise from the death." Christ repeatedly talks about His death and then His resurrection. And of course, we know that this death was not a clean death. It was a bloody death. And we actually sing about this. You remember Augustus Toplady, who writes in Rock of Ages, "Cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee, let the water and the blood from thy riven side which flowed, be of sin the double cure, save me from its guilt and power." Richard Phillips said that there's this precious red substance that is the heart of the Christian faith. And even Augustus Toplady pens words about it. But we need to see it from Scripture that there is biblical significance to the blood of Christ. And I would like for you guys to write down at least 10 ways that Scripture talks about the blood of Christ and how it relates to His people. First of all, we see it in Acts 20 with redemption. Would you guys turn to Acts chapter 20 and we're looking for a connection between the blood of Christ and what it does? It redeems, it purchase, it will secure those people that Christ has come for. In Acts chapter 20 and verse 28, we read, and of course this is Paul speaking to the elders at Ephesus. He says, "Pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which He obtained by His own blood." He purchased or He redeemed them with His own blood. Maybe we could look at Ephesians chapter 1 in that marvelous doxology or prayer that Paul has writing to the Ephesians. He recounts all the blessings that are found in our Lord Jesus Christ. He says that we've been blessed by God the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in verse 3. And in verse 7, we now see that it's in Christ we have redemption. How do we receive this redemption? This marvelous blessing? It's through the blood. It is through the blood we have this redemption. Well, it's not just written in Acts by Luke. It's not just Paul and Ephesians, but it's also in 1 Peter. Peter gets in the action talking about the blood and the redemption, picking up the reading in chapter 1 verse 18. He says, "Knowing that you were ransomed, you were redeemed from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus." How are we ransomed? Peter says it's by the precious blood. It's the precious blood of Christ like a lamb without blemish or without spot. But we also see this in the revelation that John gives us of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the opening verses of the revelation, we see once again a relationship between the blood and redemption. It says that Jesus is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings on earth, to him who loved us, who has freed us, who has ransomed us, who has purchased us from our sins by his blood. The blood redeems us. The blood ransoms us. He has paid the purchase for us. But the next word that I'd like for us to consider is propitiation. So let's turn to Romans chapter 3 so we can look at verse 25 and we can see how the blood and propitiation relate to one another. Some of you guys are like, "What?" Propitiation, yes, and let me define that for you with the help of Jerry Bridges who says propitiation addresses the wrath of God. It is the work of Christ saving us from God's wrath by absorbing it in his own person as our substitute. Expiation, which basically means removal, accompanies propitiation and speaks of the work of Christ in removing or putting away our sin. Such is the symbolism of the two goats used on the day of atonement. Continuing on, he says, "The first goat represents Christ's work for propitiation as it was killed and its blood sprinkled on the mercy seat. The second goat represents Christ's work of expiation in removing or blotting out the sin that were against us. The object of propitiation is the wrath of God. The object of expiation is the sin which must be removed from his presence." In Romans chapter 3 verse 25 we read that God put forth as a propitiation by his blood, that is Christ's blood, to be received with faith. And this was to show God's righteousness and his forbearance of us. So we see that propitiation is accomplished through the blood of Christ. John Stott helps us by saying this. It would be hard to exaggerate the difference between the pagan and the Christian views of propitiation. In the pagan perspective, human beings try to placate their bad tempered deities with their own poultry offendings. According to the Christian revelation, God's own great love propitiated his own holy wrath through the gift of his own dear son, who took our place, bore our sin, and died our death. Thus God himself gave himself to us for himself. Do you see how God is doing all of this? And he's doing it through the blood of Christ. Next we have cleansing. The blood of Christ cleanses us. And this is wonderful to know that not only are we redeemed, not only is the wrath of God taken away, but if we were to look at Hebrews chapter 9 verse 14, we'll see this cleansing at work. Which says, "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?" The blood of Christ cleanses our conscience. Isn't that wonderful? But not only that, we also see it in 1 John 1, 7. Some of you guys know this verse well. It says, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son, cleanses us from all sin." We need this cleansing work. But we also see it once again in Revelation chapter 7, where you have John the Revelator asking questions about who this great company is and how they came to be there. And the angel says to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to John, "These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. There is a cleansing that comes from the blood of the Lamb." So there's redemption, number one. There's propitiation, number two. There's cleansing, number three. Number four, there's forgiveness. The cross of Christ through the blood of Christ gives us forgiveness. As Oswald Chambers says, "Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace." It costs God the cross of Jesus Christ before he could forgive sin and remain a holy God. Once you realize all that it costs God to forgive you, you will be held in a vice, constrained by the loves of God. You guys remember that passage from Ephesians chapter 1, where it recounts all the blessings? Yes, in fact, we read this verse. It says, "In Christ, in Him, we have redemption, and it's through His blood." And then he adds the parenthetical thought so that you can understand what that means. He says, "It is the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the richness of His grace." He gives us forgiveness. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 22, once again, helps us to see this forgiveness. You know the verse well. It says, "For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness." And of course, all of this should come to mind that there are these Old Testament symbols. These are the Old Testament rituals that we see fulfilled in Christ that He accomplished with His blood. Revelation gets in on the action again and it says He's released us. He has cleansed us from our sin by His blood. The blood's very, very important. It provides forgiveness. Sinclair Ferguson chimes in by saying, "When Paul preaches the cross, he preached a message which explained that this instrument of rejection had been used by God as His instrument of reconciliation." Man means to bring death to Jesus. Was God's mean to bring life to the world? Man's symbol of rejecting Christ was God's symbol of forgiveness for man. This is why Paul boasted in the cross. And may I say, this is why we should boast in the blood of Christ because it brings forgiveness. Not only does it bring forgiveness, but number five, it brings us access. It brings us access to God. Let's take a look at Ephesians chapter 2 verse 13. Of course, we know that as soon as we say Ephesians 2, we're thinking about that we were once dead in our sins, but we are brought to newness of life and that's done through faith. It's not of any works that we have done. And then after all of that is accomplished, he tells us that we're going to walk in these good works that were prepared for us beforehand. And then Paul talks about this oneness that is in Christ. Verse 13, it says, "But now in Christ, you who once were afar off, those who were Gentiles, those who weren't part of the covenant," he says,"those of you who were far off were brought near by the blood of Christ." How marvelous is that? Those of us who were estranged from all the goodness that God has now have been drawn close to Him because of Christ's blood. So we see it not only in Ephesians chapter 2, but we can also see it in Hebrews that we have access to God. Hebrews has so much to say. He says that we have confidence to enter into the Holy Place. And why do we have this confidence? Because of the blood of Jesus. Hebrews 10, 19. We have redemption. We have propitiation. We have cleansing. We have forgiveness. We have access to God. And there is reconciliation. God reconciles those that were at enmity with Him and that He was at enmity with. And He does all of this through the cross of Christ. Colossians 1, 20 states this, that He reconciled. He made peace through the blood of the cross. The only way that we could be brought back into the presence of God is through the cross and the blood of Christ. Now if we have that access, if we have that reconciliation, then we know that we have now been declared justified before God. And that's our next one that we'll see in Romans 5, 19. But our confession says this about justification. Yet their justification is based entirely on free grace because He was given by the Father for them and His obedience and satisfaction were accepted in their place. These things were done freely, not because of anything in them, so that both the exact justice and the rich grace of God would be glorified in the justification of sinners. And this is exactly what we see in Romans 5, 9, where He says, "Having been justified by His blood." Justified. Well, of course, you know as soon as we talk about justification, we know something flows out of justification and that is our sanctification. J.C. Riles says the following. "Sanctification is that inward work which the Lord Jesus Christ worked in a man by the Holy Ghost when He calls Him to be a true believer. He was not only washed from His sins in His own blood, but He also separates Him from His natural love of sin in the world and puts a new principle in His heart and makes Him practically godly in life. The instrument by which the Spirit affects this work is generally the Word of God. The subject of the work of Christ by His Holy Spirit is called in Scripture a sanctified man. Hebrews chapter 13 says this, "That He, Christ, might sanctify the people through His blood." And of course, we are sanctified in two ways. One is positionally and the other one is progressively. Hokemah says it this way. "Sanctification therefore must be understood as being both definitive and progressive. In its definitive sense, it means that the work of the Spirit whereby He causes us to die to sin, to be raised with Christ and to be made new creatures. In its progressive sense, it must be understood as that work of the Spirit whereby He continually renews and transforms us into the likeness of Christ, enabling us to keep on growing in the grace and to keep on perfecting our holiness." So there is justification, there is sanctification, and then we also see another element where there is conquest of evil. The blood of Christ conquers that evilness that is around us. In Revelation 12, 11 it says, "He overcame because of the blood of the Lamb." It conquers evil. And it's the basis of the new covenant. The basis of a new covenant. Going back to Hebrews 13, verse 20, it says, "Through the blood of the eternal covenant." Isn't this wonderful? The blood of Christ covers so much more. You guys have been so good just enduring all ten of these that I have decided to give you a bonus. Number 11, an eleventh element which I hope will help us even as we anticipate the Lord's table today. Number 11, it is through the blood that we understand the Lord's Supper, the table that He sets before us. Remember all that it has represented? It takes us back to the Passover Lamb. And that Passover Lamb's blood was shed for those people in that house, and that blood was placed upon the door lentil, the frame of the house. And when the angel of death came by, it saw the blood and was satisfied and passed over them. And of course, Christ was sacrificed on that great day. He is our great Passover Lamb. And when Passover was taken, you remember they ate the bitter herbs, and they were remembering all the hardship, the bondage that they had. And as New Testament believers, we remember the hardship, the bondage to sin. But because of the blood of Christ, we have been delivered out of that bond, and we now have newness of life. Jesus, in celebrating the Passover, in Matthew 26, verse 28, He says,"This is the new covenant in my blood the night before He gave His life for His people." And of course, you remember how Paul talks about that same blood and that same cup in 1 Corinthians 10, 16. He says about the cup of blessing and the sharing in the blood of Christ. All of these things tell us about the biblical significance of the blood of Christ. Yes, there is redemption, propitiation, cleansing, forgiveness of sins because of Christ's blood. And because of that, we have access to God. We've been reconciled to God. We've been justified. We've been sanctified because of the blood. Evil has been conquered because of the blood. We're in the new covenant because of the blood. We can be invited to His table and sup with Him. And of course, we know that it's not just something that represents what happened in the past. No, that table also represents a present communion that we have with Christ and with all of His believers. And it points to a future time where we'll all sit down at the marriage feast of the Lamb and we will celebrate with Him once again. Isn't this glorious? This is why we sing songs about the blood. Maybe you remember the song, "There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from a manual's veins, where sinners plunge beneath its flood, lose all their guilty stains." Praise God for that blood. It is not just poetry. It's not just theology. It is the clear teaching of God's Word. And we need to thank Him for it. Let's pray. Almighty God, we do thank You for the blood of Christ and for all that it has accomplished. Lord, may it be one of those things that encourages us in our faith. And may it also cause those that are outside of Christ to long to be a part of this body where they could be cleansed of every evil deed and be brought into right relationship with You. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen.[ Silence ]