Tonight out Lenten journey invites us once again To explore what God did to win our hearts. And specifically, to explore God’s powerful promise to redeem us through the shedding of the blood of His Son, Jesus, our Savior. Our Savior Jesus, who the writer of the book of Hebrews said this, Offer for all time a single sacrifice for sins, and by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. As we contemplate what this single sacrifice for sins means in our lives, Let us listen to the word of the Lord, found in John’s Gospel, chapter 19, beginning with verse 28. Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, I am thirsty. A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of hyssop plant, And lifted it to Jesus lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, It is finished. With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. The Gospel of our Lord. Let’s pray. Dear Father, as we explore the cost your Son paid for us tonight, We ask you to send your Holy Spirit to open our ears to hear you, our hearts to receive your love, and our minds to understand your truth as you take me out of your way. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. It’s the fourth week of Lent. How’s your journey going? Smooth sailing? A little bit rough. What word would you use tonight if I asked you to describe it? If I told you one word that was all you could say, what would you say? For me, this Lent is powerful.
Powerful, because boy howdy, has our Father in heaven taken us deep. He has no holes barred for us this year. There’s no punches he’s pulled this year. No, sir. This year he’s taken us right smack dab into the middle of his son’s anguish and of his son’s pain. And he has shown us how his son suffered, how his blood was shed when he was beaten almost to death by the street. How they put that crown of thorns on his brow. How they pushed it down into his flesh, making him bleed. If you’ve been here, Wednesdays. You’ve heard these things. If you’ve been here Mondays for our Easter experience, you know that some of the videos we’ve been watching have almost been too much to bear. Yet, bear it, we must. Talk about it, we must. Preach about it, we must. Experience it. We have to. Let it become part of the fabric of our soul, we must. You see, there’s no running from his suffering this year. There’s only running toward it. Why? For one thing, we’re closer to going home to heaven than we want to admit it. Closer today than we were yesterday, for sure. We don’t have time to waste anymore. You and I don’t have the luxury of thinking, oh that question about what I’m gonna do with Jesus, I will figure it out later. No.
We face the cross of Christ tonight. We come to the sacrifice of our dear Savior tonight. Why? A three letter word. Sin. Sin entered God’s creation and a price had to be paid because of it. A price, a debt, a payment was demanded, and there’s not one woman or man in this place that can pay it. God said to Adam and Eve, Do not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you do it, if you eat it, you will surely die. Yet Adam and Eve didn’t listen to God. Instead, they listened to the voice of the enemy. God told them death was the penalty if they sinned, but they didn’t believe Him. Instead, they believed Satan, who lied to them, saying, Did God really say that? It’s the same trick. It’s the same lie that you and I hear every single day. He still cries into our ears. Are you sure that’s really what God said? The world says, God didn’t really mean it. He’s a God of love. He won’t send you to hell. He’ll look the other way. What’s a little bit of sin anyway? Wrong. Sin has always been a big deal to God. That’s why he commands us, Listen to me. Obey me. From the beginning of time, he has dealt with sin head on. Adam and Eve suffered the consequences of their sins, so did the serpent, so did Satan. God meant what he said. Adam and Eve sinned, and when they did, they spiritually died when they became eternally separated from God.
But God would not allow his children to be eternally separated from him, so he made a way. They sinned and because they sinned their sin There was a price that had to be paid and they couldn’t do it. That price included the shedding of innocent blood. As far back as Genesis 3 21, innocent animals have been sacrificed because of sin. Adam and Eve needed clothes for their naked bodies and so God sacrificed animals to make clothes for them to wear. All through the Old Testament, innocent animals were sacrificed. Hebrews 9. 22 says, Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. In his book, He Chose the Nails, author Max Lucado writes this, How Abel knew this truth is anyone’s guess, but somehow he knew to offer more than prayer and crops. He knew to offer a life. He knew to pour out more than his heart and his desires. He knew to pour out blood. With a field as Abel’s temple and the ground as his altar, Abel became the first to do what millions would imitate. He offered a blood sacrifice for sins.
A blood sacrifice for sins. After him, there was a long line of people who followed suit. Abraham, Gideon, Samson, Saul, David, the list goes on and on and on. They all knew that the shedding of blood was necessary for the forgiveness of sins. Do we? Moses knew it. In Exodus 12, the Lord told Moses to tell the whole company, the community of Israel, to take a lamb. One for each family. One for each household. The lamb was to be as perfect without defect or blemish as they could find. And on the 14th day of the month, God said, sacrifice them. At twilight, the blood of the lambs were to be put on the sides and the tops of the door frames of the houses. Why? So that when that same night, the Lord passed through Egypt to strike down every firstborn as a judgment on the gods of Egypt, the blood of the lamb on the doorpost would be a sign.
This is where my people are. I will pass over their house. And when the Lord saw the blood of the lamb upon that house, that’s what he did. He passed over them saying no destructive plague will touch you. Sin came into God’s world and blood was required as a payment. Solomon knew it, hence the building of the temple. Aaron knew it, hence the beginning of the priesthood. Haggai and Zechariah knew it, hence the rebuilding of the temple. What about you and I? Do we know it? Do we remember it? We owe a debt that we cannot pay. Romans 3. 23 says, For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All. Me chief among us. That’s the bad news. It gets worse. Romans 6. 23 says, The wages of sin is death. And you and I can’t pay it. So we must ask, is there any good news for us this Lent? Lent. Oh, please, we beg. And the answer is, yes, there is good news. Because Romans 6. 23 ends with, But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. We needed a Savior.
We needed a Savior so the long line of shedding of blood would come to an end. And that end happened on the cross. You see, for God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, So that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life. God so loved the world, but God so loved you. And God so loved you, and God so loved you, and you, and you, and me. That He sent His Son to be the sacrifice. John tells us, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But how much blood did the Lamb of God have to shed? How much was required to take away the sins of the world? The shedding of the blood of Jesus, the shedding of the blood of the lamb started in the garden.
One throw he knelt down and prayed. Father, if you are will, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done. Then an angel from Heaven appeared to him and gave him strength in his anguish. He prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood. Falling down on the ground were the great drops of blood falling on the ground enough to pay the price Would that be all that was asked after Jesus bled as he prayed to his father our Savior Stood up. He squared his shoulders as he faced the cross. He walked back to his disciples Saying, are you still sleeping and taking your rest? See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up! Let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand. Jesus walked in front of his disciples. He stood facing Judas, and he said, My friend. Do what you came for. After his arrest, he faced mockery of a trial before the religious leaders. They took him to Pilate. You see, they didn’t have the legal authority to crucify Jesus, but Pilate did. And so the shedding of the blood of the Lamb continued with the flogging of our Savior. When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, But that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. I am innocent of this man’s blood, he said. It is your responsibility. All the people answered, his blood is on us and our children. Then he released Barabbas to them, but he had Jesus flogged and handed him over to be crucified.
Surely the beating of Jesus was enough, right? Surely the blood flowing from his torn flesh, his exposed veins, was enough to pay for the sins, wasn’t it? I mean, how much blood did he have to shed? My sin! You see, there’s more blood to come. Cost of the sins cried out for more from the Lamb of God. The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace, that is, the praetorium, and called together the whole company of soldiers. They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. And they began to call out to him, Hail, King of the Jews! Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him, and they led him out to crucify him. The shedding of the blood began in the garden, continued. With the whipping, now surely the drops of blood flowing from his head would be enough. How much more does he have? The drops of blood that flowed from the crown of thorns, would they be sufficient to pay the price? To restore all that had been lost when sin broke our relationship between us and God? How much more of the Lamb’s blood would it take to pay the price? God’s justice. Would the cross finally be enough? The cross where the blood of the lamb ran down that rugged wood as his hands and his feet were pierced with those nails for our transgressions? Our Savior is the perfect Lamb of God, chosen by the Father to be sacrificed, so that when His blood was found So, upon us, the Father would say, Ah, there with my son, pass over them.
The next day was to be a special Sabbath because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath. They asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been sacrificed with Jesus, and then those of the other, but when he But when they came to Jesus and found he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. He had already said, it is finished. The soldier’s spear pierced him. Any drop of blood and water left in his body flowed from that wound. The price had been paid. Christ calls us to remember what he did. What he did for you, what he did for me, what he did for the world. But how do we remember? When do we remember? I wonder, as I was preparing this message, this thought kept coming to my mind as Christ was sitting with his disciples that night, sharing his last Passover meal. When he told them, do not be afraid. How would they remember? As Jesus and the disciples remembered the blood of the Passover lambs that were sacrificed at the time of Moses. Did Jesus know his own blood would soon run down that cross?
When he took that cup and he lifted it up, and he gave it, gave thanks to his father. Think about that one, okay? Thanks to his father and he offered it to his disciples and they drank from it as Jesus said this thing. This is my blood of the new covenant Which is poured out some translations say which was shed for many For the forgiveness of sins, remember it. You and I are watching the blood turn, er, the water turn red. What’s on your mind? We’re about to come to the communion table to remember. Remember what? Remember that Jesus freely He didn’t come kicking and screaming because his dad dragged him there. He came freely to give every ounce of his blood for you, and for you, and for you, and you, for me. That sword pierced his side, and it all ran out. What was left as it did the shedding of all of the blood and the water in Jesus’s body paid the price.What had to be done was done. Innocent blood was required. Innocent blood was shed once for all time. He doesn’t have to keep coming back and doing it over and over again. He did it once for all time. The book of Hebrews tells us the Son of God became the Lamb of God, the cross became the altar, and we were made holy through the sacrifice Christ made in his body, once for all time. Jesus did it for you.
As we get ready to come to the communion table, let that sink in. We hand you the wafer, and we hand you the cup, and we say, For you. If the devil is lying to you right now, if the great enemy is lying to you and telling you that there is a sin that you have committed that cannot be covered by the blood of the Lamb, tell him to get, take a hike. He’s lying! There is nothing that you can do that cannot be covered with the blood of the Lamb. There’s no place you can go that is too far for Him to run after you. Listen to Him when He says, I did it for you. Bring your sins to Jesus. Ask for forgiveness and then get the peace, receive the peace of the Lamb of God who says, I’ve taken care of it. He did it. Jesus did it for you. Let’s pray. Father, your son came to take away the sins of the world, came to take away our sins. Father, forgive us. Have mercy on us.
Jesus, thank you for coming. Thank you for taking on the suffering our sins demanded. Thank you for shedding your blood in the sweat as you prayed. Father, is there another way? Thank you for squaring your shoulders when you and the Father said, no, there’s not another way. This is the way. The cross is the way. Thank you that you took the stripes on your back for us. Thank you that you endured the crown of thorns on your head for us. And when the nails pierced your hands and your feet, thank you that you allowed your blood to run out through your hands and your feet and down that cross. Amen. Thank you that when it was all paid, you said it is finished. And when that soldier pierced your side with his sword, it was done. Lord Jesus, look upon us with mercy, look upon us with compassion. Jesus rescue Jesus. Forgive us. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you.
