Oh, The Blood

I first wrote and preached this message as a 10-minute sermonette in August of 2004 for a homiletics ministers-in-training course that was being taught by Pastor Link Howard III (who has since been elevated to Bishop) who was at the time the pastor of Interfaith Christian Church, Port Huron Michigan (eventually changed to Faith Christian Community Church) of which I was a member and associate minister. I subsequently developed this message into a full-sermon and have preached it several times over the years with some editing and tweaking as I go along.

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Praise the Lord. To the one and only true God who exists in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, praise be to the Almighty God.

Isaiah 12:2 quotes the prophet Isaiah as declaring, "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid". Yes, God is our salvation. Thus, in addition to all that we normally thank and praise God for, we must also always remember to give God thanks and praise for the salvation he has given us by virtue of his Son Jesus Christ who by his blood sacrifice on the cross has rescued us from the hand of the enemy, that old serpent the devil.

For it is by declaring that Jesus is Lord God and Savior and by believing that he rose from the dead…by believing in his death, burial, and bodily resurrection with all of one’s heart, that we are saved from eternal damnation. And it is the blood that Jesus shed for us that wipes our sins away when we repent and believe, which brings me to my main text … Ephesians 1:7.

And it reads,

“In him we have redemption through his blood, forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.”

The scripture says that in him, meaning, In Christ Jesus, in Him we have redemption through his blood.

And with that said, the title of my message is…Oh, the blood.

Christ shed his blood for us in order that we may be forgiven of our sins. And it’s no wonder that it was blood that had to be shed for the redemption of our sins because blood is a curious thing.

There are certain factors about blood, that, when looking at those factors, makes one say to him or herself, well there is really no other physical element that would have been more fitting to use symbolically as that which has the ability to eradicate or clean up the sins of the world…aside from blood. And this is because blood is a cleansing, life-giving agent itself.

Now I said that blood is a curious thing and indeed it is, curious in the sense that blood is a peculiar element…it stands in a class all by itself. But what is it that makes blood such a curious thing? Well, there are five things in particular.

The first curious thing about blood is that it is the matter which is used to transport oxygen to all parts of the body. You see, in order for us to stay alive, it is not only our lungs that must maintain oxygen, but every organ in our body needs oxygen as well. So technically, every part of our body is breathing because every part of our body is being supplied oxygen by the blood.

The word of God tells us in Genesis 2:7 that “the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

So God created man and breathed life into him. And one of the elements that God made within the body of that creation is what we call blood, which continuously flows throughout the physical body to keep the entire body breathing.

And just as the blood breathes continuous life into the entire physical body, God breathes eternal life into the spiritual body through the name of Jesus Christ who by the shedding of his blood has breathed life into the entire body of the church. And the church has therefore become a spiritually living, breathing thing. Oh, the blood!

Now within the make-up of our physical blood, there are red blood cells and white blood cells. And the red blood cells carry electrolytes, nutrients, vitamins, hormones, and oxygen. This is the life-giving part of the blood. The white blood cells produce antibodies.

So, while the first curious thing about blood is that it gives oxygen to the body so that the body can breathe; the second curious thing about blood is that it is the thing that is on the front line constantly at war with any molecular enemy that would try to kill or damage the body.

These white blood cells are well equipped with molecular soldiers, called antibodies, just waiting for a fight. Blood, therefore, is what protects our bodies against germs and viruses. It is the body’s first internal line of defense against bacteria, against parasites and against invading organisms.

And it is the same sort of thing with the blood of Jesus. The shedding of the blood of Jesus is our first line of defense against infection, against bacteria, against parasites and against invading organisms. One might ask, what do you mean by this? Well, Parasites are living organisms that live on or in other living organisms. These parasites are not supposed to be there.

There are some people who are spiritual parasites. They infiltrate the church and worship among us. They are living within the organism of the church and help to usher in false doctrine, hopelessness, witchcraft, demonic spirits, and a whole host of other evil things that make way for the invading organism of the false prophet, the invading organism of the antichrist, the invading organism of idolatry, the invading organism of heresy, and the invading organism of what the word of God calls “another gospel,” which Paul says in his letter to the Galatian church that that really is no gospel at all, but a fake gospel.

These invading organisms try to overthrow the church. But just as our physical blood fights against microscopic invading organisms and parasites, the blood of Jesus, in a figurative sense, fights against these spiritual invading organisms and parasites as well.

And not only does our physical bodies’ blood fight against parasites and invading organisms but blood fights against infection as well. A physical infection is the result of the invasion of microorganisms that injure the tissue. If an infection is not taken care of quickly by the infection-fighting qualities of the blood, it’ll spread quickly to other parts of the body.

And so it is with a spiritual infection. To practice sin is like having a spiritual infection. A spiritual infection is the invasion of the practice of sin that injures the spirit. And the blood of Jesus fights off the infectious practice of sin, that, if not taken care of promptly, can metastasize itself and spread quickly throughout our spirit.

But Jesus made himself a living sacrifice through the shedding of his blood on the cross in order to redeem us from our sins. It is his blood, and the blood of none other, that atones for our sins and therefore fights against the infectious rampages of sin not only throughout our own bodies but throughout the body of the church as well. Oh, the blood!

To take it a step further…during Old Testament times, in order to be forgiven of sins a person had to take an unblemished goat or bull to the priest in the Temple to be offered as a blood sacrifice to God. Blood had to be shed because it symbolically represents spiritual cleansing since removal of waste from our physical bodies starts with the blood. Therefore, it makes sense that whatever animal that was to be sacrificed had to be unblemished, the skin of the animal had to be perfect; no blemish at all.

Whether or not the animal was blemished was a reflection of how well that animal’s blood was working, how well that animal’s blood was at getting rid of waste, fighting off bacteria, fighting off parasites, and fighting off invading organisms; because if the blood does not do these things well, then there will be telltale signs of this on the body, usually a blemish of some sort.

This is why only God himself would be able to make the sacrifice in the flesh that was needed to be made to atone for sin; because only God is perfect, only God is unblemished, in other words; only God is sinless. And Jesus is God; he is the second person of one God who exists in three persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is the Son of God who fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies of the coming Messiah, And the word of God says that he was indeed sinless.

The Old Testament book of Leviticus tells us of how the high priest was to slaughter a bull and goat for himself and for the people respectively and bring the blood of those animals to the altar of the Holy place inside the temple in order to make atonement for his sins and the sins of the people. God is quoted in Leviticus 17:11 as saying that the life of the flesh is in the blood, to make atonement for the soul.

So now if we bring it into the New Testament, we read the following in Hebrews 9:11-15,

“11 So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. 12 With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. 13 Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. 14 Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. 15 That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.” Oh, the blood!

So no more must we sacrifice animals and go to a human priest because Revelation 1:6 teaches us that God has made, those of us who are saved and have confessed Christ as Lord, into a kingdom of priests which means that we ourselves can go to God and ask for forgiveness for our own sins by pleading the blood of Christ, the ever-powerful cleansing blood of Jesus Christ who is our High priest.

So, the first curious thing about blood is that it carries oxygen to the body. The second curious thing about blood is that it is the body’s first internal line of defense against infection. This brings us to the third curious thing about blood, and that has to do with how the blood acts within our immune system.

Marshall Bain describes the immune system in this way, he says “The immune system creates a barrier that prevents bacteria and viruses from entering your body. And if a bacteria or virus does get into the body, the immune system tries to detect and eliminate it before it can make itself at home and reproduce. Furthermore, if the virus or bacteria is able to reproduce and start causing problems, your immune system is in charge of eliminating it.”

Bain also says that “To understand the power of the immune system, all that you have to do is look at what happens to anything once it dies. When something dies, its immune system, along with everything else, shuts down. In a matter of hours, the body is invaded by all sorts of bacteria, microbes, and parasites. None of these things are able to get in when your immune system is working, but the moment your immune system stops, the door is wide open. Once you die, it only takes a few weeks for these organisms to completely dismantle your body and carry it all away, until all that’s left is a skeleton.”[1]

In other words, our immune system protects us from death. And the blood is at the center of this system, particularly white blood cells. So, it is actually the blood in our veins that triggers this system and protects us from certain physical death.

This brings to mind the events that are documented in Exodus chapters 11 and 12 which gives us the historical account of the last plague that God cursed Egypt with because of Pharaoh’s stubbornness to free the Jews from slavery. In that account, God tells Moses that every firstborn son in Egypt would die at midnight. But the Jews were to slaughter lambs that had no defect and take the blood and put it on the sides and tops of their doorframes.

God is quoted as saying in Exodus 12:12-13

“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt (here God is referring to the false pagan gods that they worshipped). God goes on to say, “I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.” (NIV)

In other words, the firstborn sons of the Jews were protected as long as they applied the sacrificial blood on their doorframes as a symbol of their allegiance to God. They and their firstborn sons were immune from death through the application of the blood.

And just as the blood in our bodies is central to the working of our immune system that protects us from a physical death, and just as the Hebrew slaves (the Jewish people) were immune from physical death by the application of the blood of unblemished lambs, so it is that we who are Christians are spiritually immune from what the Bible refers to as the second death through the application of the blood of Jesus (the lamb of God) by his sacrifice on the altar of the cross. Because we as Christians are covered by the blood just as the Hebrew slaves were covered by the blood on the doorframes. Spiritual death passes over us just as physical death passed over them. Oh, the blood!

And not only does the blood of Jesus give us immunity from spiritual death, but it gives us immunity from repented sins as well. For we who are Christians are as those who have committed a crime but are offered immunity from criminal charges based on certain conditions of a confession, because the blood of Jesus, based on the condition of our spiritual confession, gives us immunity, in the form of God’s forgiveness, against the charges of sin.

So now… the first curious thing about blood is that it is a life-giving substance giving oxygen to the body. The Second curious thing about blood is that it is the first internal line of defense on the front line constantly at war with any molecular enemy that would try to infect the body. The third curious thing about blood is that it is the bedrock of our immune system that keeps us from premature death.

And so now, the fourth curious thing about blood is that… it can be… transfused.

You see, there are different types of blood. There’s A positive and A negative, and B positive and B negative, and AB positive and AB negative, and O positive and O negative… all different types. And if one needs a blood transfusion, then the doctors must be careful to match the types because more often than not, the blood that is transfused into the recipient’s body must be the same type of blood that was already in there to begin with. Otherwise, the body will reject the transfused blood and possibly die.

However, if a baby, soon after it has been born, has a heart transplant before the immune system matures, then the baby will be able to receive blood even if the blood type of the donor is incompatible with the blood type of the baby. And when we first came to Jesus, we were yet babes in Christ but even though we were yet babes we had had a spiritual heart transplant.

We know this because Romans 10:9 tells us that we are saved if we declare/confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord (meaning that he is the second person of the Godhead who came as God in the flesh), and if we believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead (which means that Jesus fulfilled his own prophecy in which he said if they kill him he’d raise himself up in three days, which is exactly what he did, proving his deity). So it is with the heart one believes that Jesus rose from the dead, and by believing this we have symbolically experienced a heart transplant, and since we have experienced a heart transplant our heart has automatically transfused new blood through the veins of our spirit and thus we have become new creatures in Christ.

There was a time when our sinful selves rejected the blood of Christ because there was no match, but now since we’ve come to Christ, the transfusion was successful, it is a match, it took, even though the blood types were incompatible, it still took because our spiritual hearts were transplanted as soon as we were born again; yes, even while we were yet babes in Christ.

And now the lifeblood of Christ is continuously pumped throughout the entire body of the church through the hearts of those who have embraced him. His blood is the spiritual oxygen that we so desperately need and it has saved us from the certainty of the damnable second death, which is Hell itself. Oh, the blood!

So, the first curious thing about blood is that it carries oxygen to the body, making it a life force. The second curious thing about blood is that it is our first internal line of defense against microscopic invaders. The third curious thing about blood is that it is the bedrock of our immune system and keeps us from premature death. The fourth curious thing about blood is that it can be transfused under certain conditions.

And finally, there’s one more curious thing about blood, and that is this…it is hard to get rid of, once shed. First of all, blood gets everywhere when shed, especially when it is shed violently. It gets into all kinds of cracks and crevices. It spreads quickly and there’s usually a lot of blood spatter all over the place.

We see how difficult it is to get rid of blood when we look at the crime of murder. One of the things a murderer must do, in order to cover up his or her crime, after having killed violently, is to try to get rid of the blood. Murderers have gone through great strides to do this. They’ve cleaned up the area in which they’ve murdered by changing the rugs, scrubbing the floors, painting the walls, taking up the tile, buying new furniture, incinerating the sheets…whatever had to be done to try to get rid of the blood, they did it.

And from all outward appearances they succeeded. But there is this substance called luminol that criminologists use when testing an area in which they believe a murder was committed. Luminol will illuminate any blood that is anywhere no matter how small the droplets are and no matter if the blood is invisible to the naked eye. The blood is detected because when the luminol reacts with the iron that is contained in the hemoglobin of the blood (which, by the way, is the part that transports the oxygen) the blood glows in the dark as a blue light. The blood was always there, even though folks couldn’t see it.

So, if blood has been spilled, a murderer cannot really get rid of it no matter how hard he tries. And no matter how hard people try, you can’t get rid of the blood of Jesus either. Jesus’ blood was shed by violent means so it spilled all over the place and it’s in all kinds of cracks and crevices all over the world. You can’t get rid of it! But people have tried anyway.

There are false prophets who go around denying the deity of Christ and in doing so, they’re trying to get rid of the blood. There are people who go around denying that the resurrection of Christ ever happened, and in doing so they’re trying to get rid of the blood. There are people who go around trying to discredit the Bible, and in doing so they’re trying to get rid of the blood. But you can’t get rid of the blood because it keeps popping up in all sorts of places. And just because some people can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there.

Folks might try to act like the blood of Jesus isn’t there. They might not see it with the naked spiritual eye, or they might simply turn a blind eye. But even if you turn a blind eye to the blood of Jesus you’ll eventually stumble over it because the blood spatter of Jesus is everywhere. It’s in the whorehouse. It’s in the dope house. It’s in the crack house. It’s in the jailhouse. It’s in the courthouse. It’s in your house, it’s in my house, It’s even in the White House. You can’t get rid of it!

It’s in the mosque. It’s in the shrine. It’s in the temple. It’s in the synagogue. It’s in the church. It’s in China. It’s in Russia. It’s in Ukraine. It’s in America. It’s in Gaza. It’s in Israel. It’s in Germany. It’s in France. It’s in Italy. It’s in the North Pole. It’s in the South Pole. It’s in Egypt. It’s in Northern Sudan. It’s in Southern Sudan. It’s in Iraq. It’s in Iran. It’s in Pakistan. It’s in Afghanistan. It’s in Saudi Arabia. It’s all over the Middle East. It’s in South Korea, It’s even in North Korea. It’s on every continent: Asia, Africa, and Europe. You can’t get rid of it!

Nero tried. Muhammad tried, and a bunch of atheists and agnostics in this country are trying right now. But you can try with all your might, to cover it up, lock it up, break it up, shut it up, burn it up, tear it up, tie it up…you can’t get rid of it!

You can take prayer out of school; take away the Ten Commandments from the courtroom. You can fire people from their jobs for speaking out against sinful sexual practices, for speaking out against pro-choice, for speaking out against civil rights injustices, for not using the incorrect pronouns. You can try to intimidate Christians with the terms “politically correct,” or “woke,” or “lawsuit.”

You can write as many books as you want that bash the Bible, that bash God, that bash Christianity; You can make laws that prohibit people from saying Merry Christmas, or God bless you, or Happy Resurrection Day, or Praise the Lord. But no matter how hard you try you can’t get rid of the blood of Jesus. It ain’t going nowhere, because his blood spatter is all over the place!

And just like there’s a substance in the physical world called luminol that, when applied to shed blood that someone tried to hide or cover up (that to the naked eye is invisible), makes visible what was not seen, by illuminating the blood by making it glow in physical darkness; there’s a substance in the spiritual world called faith, that when applied to the shed blood of Jesus, illuminates his Word and makes it glow in spiritual darkness, because faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen!

Oh, the blood of Jesus is a life-giving agent carrying oxygen to the church!

Oh, the blood of Jesus is our first line of defense against satanic attack!

Oh the blood of Jesus gives us immunity from the second death and from the wages of sin!

Oh, the blood of Jesus can be spiritually transfused into anyone who repents, confesses, and believes!

Oh, the blood of Jesus is impossible to get rid of and is illuminated, made to glow, through the faith of those who believe in him!

Oh, the blood of Jesus that heals all wounds!

The blood of Jesus that atones for all sins!

The blood of Jesus that proves the test of time!

The blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross for our redemption!

The blood of Jesus that cleanses us from our misdeeds!

Oh, the blood of Jesus that leads us into salvation!

There is power in the blood!

So. Thank God! Thank God! Praise God…for the blood!

[1] Marshall Bain. I took these quotes from an internet article (written by Marshall Bain) sometime in 2004 when I wrote the original draft of this sermon. However, I have not been able to find it again. I have cited the name of the person from whom the quote is taken from. But that is all that I know.

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