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This morning, we will be looking at another thing that bears record on the earth. The Bible says there are three that bears record in heaven; talking about the Spirit, The Word and The Father. And it says there are three that also bears witness on the earth, The Word, which the Holy Spirit has been dealing with us on, the Blood and Water. And we are going to look at The Blood today. We are going to be looking at The Blood of Jesus: The Obedience of Christ. I will start by looking at Leviticus 17:11. We are observing under the leadership of the Holy Spirit today; The Blood: The Obedience of Christ.
Leviticus 17:11 is where we would be starting from and I will read from the New King James Version. The Bible says: “The life of a thing is in its blood.” And if we start by looking at that, the Bible makes us to understand from this place, in the old order, for there to be an atonement of sin, for there to be a covering for sin, for God to have mercy on the people and pardon, because the word then is pardon; God does not forgive, he pardons; there would be a shedding of blood. God would usually expect them, to offer sacrifices, and not sacrifices of plants, but sacrifices of animals. Things that have blood. And what is the reason? Why was God not saying that people should come and sacrifice things like coconut, or plants like pear or apples. But God was always specific about the blood.
The sacrifices are always based on the shedding of the blood and that Scripture in Leviticus 17:11 makes us to understand that the life of a thing is in its blood. So, what God was doing for them at that time is that there is a bloodshed for them to be pardoned. So whenever the blood is shed, then there is a pardon. So, we see that blood is synonymous to life. That’s the first thing we want to establish. So when we are talking about the blood, we are talking about life. We could juxtapose the blood for the life. And in Luke chapter 22:20, the Bible says: Jesus said: “Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying; This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.” In my blood; not in my water, this new covenant is my blood which is shed for you. The new covenant and the new order of life is in the blood of Christ.
Like we said, in the old order, in the Old Testament, the blood of animals were used as restitution; as exchange for pardon. Then the old order left. Jesus said about what God was intending, He said “in sacrifice and burnt offering you do not desire it anymore. But you have prepared a body for me.” Now, Jesus said you have prepared a body for me, and that body was going to do something. If we look at ourselves as human beings, when you want to see somebody that is going to have an issue about his/her life; the blood is usually tempered with. When somebody is murdered gruesomely, you would realize that; maybe the person was shot or probably the person was stabbed, there is always a loosing of blood. That brings about the death of the person.
If it is a little blood that is lost, the person could still survive. But once the blood is more than what the body can do without, the person gives up. That means life is tied to blood. We can see it from our own biology. I remember when I was younger, I had a cut in one of my hands, and when I had that cut, it was really deep, and when we got to the hospital, not that it was a little cut, my entire hands didn’t fall off, it was just a part of my body. But the amount of blood that was let out from that small portion was so much that the doctor was wondering how come I was standing on my feet. He said number one, I should have collapsed, or I should have been in convulsion, like in and out of fainting. Because this amount of blood should have tampered with your normalcy.
And when he said that, he said you know what, thank God it did not hit one of the artery that if it had hit one of my veins we won’t be talking about the same thing. That means the blood in the human body is equivalent to the life of that human being. That is why the blood is a supplier. The blood carries nutrients, it carries a lot of things, when you go the hospital and they are giving injection, they make sure they get your veins because they need to transport that thing via your blood. Whatever does not go through your blood cannot enter your body. So, the blood is synonymous with life.
There is so much the blood does, even our human blood. In the same vein, because God is principled based. That’s the way He has fabricated and created the human body. In the same vein, for anything to be transported in the human body, there is a need for the blood. That is why when Jesus was going to die, He said in this Luke 22:20 “Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying; This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.”
It is the new covenant, it is the new order. Before, there used to be blood of goats and all that but He said this new covenant, is in my blood. So, the supply of the new life, the supply of the new covenant could flow to you via my blood. My blood would supply. So, I am injecting into you, my blood that will supply, all that you need for life. Jesus did not give us His water, He didn’t say this new covenant is in my water, or is in my face, or any other thing. But He said “it is in my blood which is shed.” When something is shed, it means there is a flow. That’s why the death of Jesus is so significant. He didn’t die by gun shot. He did not die by falling down from the mountain. He died in such a way that His blood will be shed because if there is no shedding of blood, we can’t tap into the life of Jesus. What Jesus was saying there is that this new order and this new covenant, is in my blood and this blood is what is able to supply the kind of life that I want you to have.
Romans 3:24-25, the Bible says: “being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,” I want us to pause a little in verse 25 and see. “Whom God sent forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith to demonstrate His righteousness because, in His forbearance.” He was able to forbear the process, God has passed over the sins that were previously committed through His blood.” There is do much that the blood of Jesus has done for us. Hebrews 10. I am just going to rush through many of this, but we going to look at the one that I believe is so important and germane in the heart of the Holy Spirit for us this morning. Jesus was saying here.
Hebrews 10:5 “Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come In the volume of the book it is written of Me To do Your will, O God. Previously saying, Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them (which are offered according to the law).
I want us to pause a little. You know why God didn’t have pleasure in them? They are externalities. There were things that were going on the outside and were not affecting the inside. It was just like when the Pharisees were saying to Jesus why is it that your disciples don’t wash their hands before they eat? And Jesus was trying to make them understand, you have been living in the old order, it is not what a man eats that defiles him. So, it is not about all these things you used to do. All these externalities, all these religion. It’s not the things that makes you justified before the Lord. He said it is what comes out of a man that defiles him. Meaning that it is what flows from the inside. You could see that you will not find any blood on the skin. The blood is on the inside.
So, when there is something that is contaminating your blood, it won’t show. It won’t show on the outside until it is fully corrupted on the inside, then it’s now evident on the outside. So, Jesus was addressing an internal matter. His blood is to address an internal matter. It is not something on the outside He was not concerned about that. He was more concerned about what was on the inside. And that’s why He was saying, in this verse 8: “Previously saying, Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them (which are offered according to the law).”
Then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God. He takes away the first that He may establish the second.” And that’s why in Luke 22, He said this is a new covenant. There have been a convent before, the old covenant that was established on the blood of bulls and goats, that dealt with external things. But there is a new covenant and it is in my blood. This one will take care of you from the inside out. In the old order, you were taken care of from the outside, and it feels it’s going to enter inside but it doesn’t work. So what you see is that God covers their sins. Their sins are still remembered, because it’s external. But in this new order, sins are washed. There is a cleansing, there is a purifying, that means that thing no longer exist.
In the old order, it used to exist. It was just covered. It was just a parson. It was just for a period of time. They were still coming back. In another time they were still come back to sacrifice. They will still comeback to offer. But this time around, it is permanent. It is settled once and for all. When you have situations that you go to the hospital, there are certain situations that they would say that, you know what, we can’t keep applying external things. We need to draw out the blood of this person, and replace it. That means all the applications are not working. The external is not affecting the internal. The problem is internal. And that’s the situation of the people. Our issue is internal, it’s not external. So, the solution must be internal. And that’s the blood. But I am just giving us a background, that’s not exactly where we are going to. I will just go through seven things that the blood does for us.
Number One: We Are Purchased By The Blood
Acts 20:28 we were purchased by the blood of Jesus. We are bought over. When you go to the market and you purchase something, do you return it back? It becomes your own. So the blood purchases us. So, when Jesus was going to resurrect, He didn’t die and resurrected and just showed up for us. The Bible says He went into hell and He did a transaction, that I have paid the ultimate price of obedience. And we are going to come to you and I, how this affect us. Because whatever Jesus does for us, it’s a precedent of divine order. Whatever we see as an example in the life of Jesus is a precedent of a divine order.
It is something that He is expecting you and I to step into. And that’s why apostle Paul said “that I may know Him, that I may have fellowship with the sufferings, that I may even conform to His death” because once I am able to understand why He did what He did and what was the reason behind what He did, I would be able to follow that order. And that’s why he said imitate me, follow me carefully, as I follow Christ.
I see Christ as my example, I see Him as my model, I look unto Him as the author and the finisher of my faith. And I pursue after Him. And as I pursue after Him, you can pursue after me also. Because He is the order, He sets the precedence of a divine order. So, the blood of Jesus that we are talking about today, we are not just talking about the blood, so that all He means to us is to just take communion, it’s just to know that our sins are forgiven, to just know that we are redeemed of the Lord, via His blood. That we stepped into a new covenant and a new order via His blood. There is more that this blood has done for us, He has set for us a divine precedence.
And what that means is that, now we are purchased by the blood. But that blood, as I said is the obedience of Christ. It said in sacrifices and burnt offerings you do not desire, but a body you have prepared for me. And I come in the volume of the books. To do that which you have prepared afore time. To step into the obedience and the life that you have prepared for me. So, what the blood of Jesus connotes to us as believers is the obedience of Christ. He loved not His life unto death. To do the will of God for Jesus was to die and shed His blood. And His blood connotes His obedience. And this is what His obedience has brought for us. He has brought for us the free gifts of salvation. So much so that we are now purchased by that blood. We are no longer slaves to sin, we are now redeemed in the Lord via His obedience.
Number Two: There is a Reconciliation Between God And Man Via The Blood
So when God sees you, He sees you as the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Because the blood shows up. Every time you show up, there is the blood as a testimony. That this one is covered. Now, a type and shadow of that is when the children of Israel were in Goshen. And there was going to be an angel of destruction, How will we know that these ones are different? How do we know that they are redeemed? How will we know that they are not supposed to be destroyed? By the blood. So the blood brings about a reconciliation between man and God. The blood stands in the gap for every believer.
Number Three: The Blood Redeems Us
Particularly I want us to read Revelation chapter 1 verse 5-6. “And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, And has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
Now the Bible says He has washed us from our sins and He has made us. So, we are redeemed to a life of royalty in God. And that is what the
blood does for us. Remember when we are talking about the blood we are talking about the obedience of Christ. The Bible says “He is the first born among many brethren.” Understand that everything you see in the life of Jesus like He rightly said He is a standard, a measure that’s why the Bible says we should look unto Him, looking unto Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith.
Listen to Podcast: The Blood: The Obedience of Christ Jesus
He is the one that set the order from the beginning as the author and He is the one that finishes so the syllabus of our faith starts and ends with Jesus. The life of Jesus is the syllabus of our faith. So, if you want to start the work, we must start in Christ, when we want to end the walk we must end in Christ. And the start and the finish of that faith, is in the life that He lived, the life of His obedience. And it is significant to us by His blood. That’s why the Bible says the blood of Jesus bear record, on the earth.
Number Four: The Blood of Jesus Cleanses And Purifies
Hebrews chapter 13 verse 12 tells us “Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Hebrews 9:14 also tells us that: “how much more shall the blood of Christ, now this was giving example of the old and new. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” So we are purified and cleansed by the blood.
Number Five: The Blood Remits And Pays for our sins
So, the blood is like the currency that is used in trade and exchange, in the market of the Spirit. So, the blood pays for. Hebrews 9:22 tells us: “And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.” So there is a remission via the blood. So, the blood is a strong currency. A strong exchange instruments in the world of the spirits.
Number Six: The Blood Gives You And I Access
And this is where we are going. Hebrews 10:19 tells us: “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh.” We gain access by the blood of Jesus.
Number Seven: We Triumph By The Blood.
The Bible says we overcome by the word of our testimony and by the blood of the lamb. We are victorious and we have triumphed by the blood.
Number Eight: The Blood Justifies Us
Romans 5:9 we are justified by the blood of Jesus. But we are coming back to the fact that the blood gives us access. Hebrews10:19 “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,” So, the blood of Jesus gives us access into the Holy presence of God. The blood of Jesus gives us access into the presence of our Father. He gives us access. And the Holy Spirit wants us to understand this, the blood of Jesus signify the obedience of Jesus. The obedience of Jesus did so much for us. We have just listed eight of them, there is so much more. But the blood of Jesus is able to bring us into this kind of experience via His obedience. If He did not obey to the point of death, the Bible says He loved not His own life, He didn’t value it, apostle Paul said concerning His own testimony that He counted it as dung for the sake of Christ.
All that His life meant to Him, was rubbish for the sake of Christ. So we can talk about the obedience of apostle Paul. But this morning we are looking at our ultimate model which is Christ. As a leader, as a child of God, what will your obedience do? Remember we said that all that we are talking about now, we are talking about Jesus setting a precedent of a divine order for us. And His obedience has brought us into an experience. An experience of life of being redeemed of being justified, of victory the experience of the obedience of Christ has brought us to a life, a new covenant, into an order where we are no longer subject to sin, we are no longer slaves to sin we have access to come into the presence of God.
That’s because of the obedience of one man. The Bible says in Romans it says through one man’s offense, disobedience, sin came to many, through another man’s obedience righteousness, life, came to many. What will your obedience supply? Because what the Holy Spirit is hammering on is this morning is not for us just to be all excited about the blood of Jesus. It is exciting to know that the blood gives us victory, I overcome by the blood of the lamb and by the word of His testimony. I am justified by the blood of Jesus, I have access to the holiest in the blood of Jesus. We can be excited about that but Jesus has done all these to set an order of precedence. What will your obedience supply?
As a leader what will your obedience supply? What access will your obedience give to the people or are you going to be disobedient? There is something right now that God is not pleased with. And He is telling you about it. He wants you to do something about it. He has prepared a body for you, He has prepared a voice for you. What are you doing with it? Jesus said in sacrifices, in burnt offerings, in offerings of sin you have no pleasure. That’s the problem. There was a problem, and you raised me up as a solution. You prepared a body for me, you gave me life, you gave me breath, you gave me your word so that I can solve a problem.
And Jesus used what was given to Him, was prepared for Him to be an instrument for the remission of sins of men. To bring righteousness to many. To bring life to many. The same way, God has prepared something for you. A voice you have prepared for me. A ear you have prepared for me. You have given life, you have given me health, you have given me a wonderful family, you have given me health to do something, there is something. There is something God is not pleased with. You are not Jesus, Jesus has done His own, He has already sacrificed His blood, that have brought about redemption and salvation, God is not giving you the same mandate, but there is a mandate that God is giving you after the order of Jesus.
That’s why when Jesus was going He said, see I am leaving the scene, the works that I do, you will do, and greater works. So that means we have been called to a life of work. It is a work. For Jesus it’s a work. He said “I have finished the work”, I have finished the assignment, there is something you were not pleased with and you sent me forth to bring the gospel to the gentiles and I have done it. I have obeyed and I have given access to the gentiles, my obedience has given access. That’s apostle Paul. My obedience has given access to the gentiles, my obedience has brought about the redemption of the gentiles by the blood of Jesus. What is your obedience doing? That’s the question the Holy Spirit is asking us as leaders this morning.
What is your obedience doing? After the order of Jesus what is in your obedience? What are people benefitting? What is the church benefitting, what is the world benefiting in your obedience? What is it that God has given to you that you must shed? For Jesus it was His blood. God is not requiring the blood of another man now, the blood has been shed once and for all. It says that there is no other foundation that can be laid except that which has been laid which is Christ. So the blood of Jesus has been shed for the salvation of men for the redemption of sin. But there is something God wants you to shed in your obedience to Him.
There is a call of obedience this morning after the order of Jesus. There is something God is expecting our world to benefit. There is something He is expecting us to start doing. For me, that Scripture just keeps coming back “In sacrifices offerings for sin and burnt offerings you have no pleasure.” There is something God has communicated to you, He said I have no pleasure in it. The corruption that is going on in your land I have no pleasure in it. The divorce rate that is increasing in your land, I have no pleasure in it. I hate divorce. But I have prepared a voice for you. I have prepared a body for you. What is it that is written in the volume of books concerning you. Is that what you are doing?
That’s what the Holy Spirit would have me share with us this morning.
[Centre for New Dimension Leadership]
