This Is The WAY
THIS IS THE WAY
Week Six – His Blood Shed For Me
1 Peter 2:21-25 Christian Standard Bible
21 For you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. 22 He did not commit sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth; 23 when he was insulted, he did not insult in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten but entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
This Is The Way!!! This has been an amazing series for me as I have learned so much about the cost of grace, the actions of my Savior for my sins…today we are going to talk about the Blood!
Jesus said this in
Matthew 5: 17 CSB
17 “Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.
Again it reminds me of the scripture that is becoming more and more my favorite when God said in
Isaiah 55:6-9 CSB
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call to him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked one abandon his way
and the sinful one his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord,
so he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will freely forgive.
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
and your ways are not my ways.”
This is the Lord’s declaration.
9 “For as heaven is higher than earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Did you know that in the Old Testament, the priest would have a certain way of performing the sacrifices for the sins of the nation of Israel.
Leviticus 16:14 CSB
14 He is to take some of the bull’s blood and sprinkle it with his finger against the east side of the mercy seat; then he will sprinkle some of the blood with his finger before the mercy seat seven times.
This morning, I want to share with you the SEVEN TIMES THAT JESUS BLED FOR US and what they mean FOR US!!!
THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE
The first place that Jesus bled was in the garden of Gethsemane. We covered a lot of this on Easter. (notes on pebblehill.church)
Luke 22:41-44 Christian Standard Bible
41 Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and began to pray, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me—nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
43 Then an angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him. 44 Being in anguish, he prayed more fervently, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.
In this garden Jesus redeemed Mankind’s Willpower.
Jesus and the disciples had just left the upper room where they had celebrated the Passover Seder together. It was in this room that Jesus called the bread, His body,” and the wine, “His blood”. We will be learning more about this next Sunday as we learn and partake together Holy Communion.
Anyways, Jesus left the room, where he demonstrated his heart of servanthood, and went to the Garden of Gethsemane.
His prayer in this moment is most revealing:
22“Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me—nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
Notice this, Jesus is asking God to conquer the will of man here.
How many of you have seen this image? (picture)
This is an artist rendition of the prayer and yet it is not this. Instead it was a place of intense prayer, supplication. A place of warfare in prayer. The Bible does not say he brow became as great drops of blood.
Jesus body began to sweat drops of blood, probably to the point that his garments became drenched in his blood. Now, in the Greek, this is not intended to be a simile. It is actually written in the translation, in the English as “literal” drops of blood.
Fear and intense mental stress are the causes for the body to react in this manner. The medical term is Hema-to-hidrosis.
Have you ever seen someone’s face get flushed when they hold their breath, or they are embarrassed, or when they get angry?
What happens in Hematohyrosis is that Jesus is praying with such intensity that the capillaries in his body begin to rupture and bleed out through every sweat gland.
Jesus is going all the way back to where Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden and it’s not a coincidence that the first place that Jesus bled was in another garden as Jesus redeems where man’s willpower failed them.
Adam & Eve failed because their willpower failed. Isn’t that how we all get tempted?
Paul said in
Romans 7:21-25a CSB
21 So I discover this law: When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me. 22 For in my inner self I delight in God’s law, 23 but I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
This is what the human will looks like so Jesus is surrendering in this moment of agony his will to the Father.
So that’s the first place that the blood of Jesus was shed so we our will could be redeemed.
The second place…
STRIPES ON HIS BACK
Matthew 27:26 CSB
26 Then he released Barabbas to them and, after having Jesus flogged, handed him over to be crucified.
Now we know that Pilate didn’t really want to crucify Jesus so instead he had him flogged or scourged.
Now the Bible does not tell us how many stripes that Jesus took but we understand from tradition that 39 stripes was the normal procedure.
This flogging was done with what is called the flagrum. I brought it back out to show you. Maybe after service or during worship you may come up and examine it. Pick it up.
It’s common name was called the “cat of nine tails”. And the reason is because it has nine strips of leather…and you can see that it would rip the skin. It was more than just a bruising, but a ripping.
But why is 39 important?
In the story of the woman that touched the hem of his garment, the word hem basically is the word “corners”. And so Jesus wore a prayer shaw, which is called a tallit and on the corner of the prayer shawl they have Tzitzit. (image)
Tzitzit is a cloth, most of the time it is tied in 39 windings. And the reason I want you to see this is because when Jesus was beaten 39 times with 39 stripes and the Tzitzit has 39 windings. And these winding create five knots which represent the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). But when you pray you put your fingers between the knots that represent YHVH. (yo hey va he), the unpronounceable Name of God, Yaweh.
So the idea behind the prayer shaw is that you cover yourself with the prayer shaw and you hold on to the corners. You pray believing by holding on to this Tzitzit.
Well the woman with the issue of blood had read
Malachi 4:2 CSB
2 But for you who fear my name, the Sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and playfully jump like calves from the stall.
In doing this, she is confessing that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ!!!
Of course we all quote the scriptures that reference the stripes upon his back.
Isaiah 53:5 NKJV
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
1 Peter 2:24 Christian Standard Bible
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
SO we see that Jesus shed His blood through the stripes on His back for our healing…
So we already have sweat becoming great drops of blood and now we have the flogging, the stripes on His back…the next place of Jesus shedding his blood is:
CROWN OF THORNS
The crown of thorns represents the redemption of our prosperity. Now before we go further, I must define Biblical prosperity.
3 John 1:2 NKJV
2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.
How does our soul prosper?
John 19: 1-2 CSB
1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers also twisted together a crownof thorns, put it on his head, and clothed him in a purple robe.
I want you see that the soldiers beat the crown on him, they were mocking him as a king.
So what do the thorns represent?
Genesis 3:17-19 CSB
17 And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:
The ground is cursed because of you.
You will eat from it by means of painful labor
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow
until you return to the ground,
since you were taken from it.
For you are dust,
and you will return to dust.”
Notice the four things that were cursed.
The ground, labor of man, the sweat of the brow, and thorns.
He could have said anything but why thorns?
Thorns and thistles were never intended to be here. Thorns are a part of the curse of mankind.
We are living under a curse.
Every time we plow, every time we sweat, we are reminded of that.
Jesus takes that curse and puts in on his head. Notice he is a king. He should be wearing a crown. A crown of gold which he will wear, a crown of glory but before he becomes the King of kings he takes the curse of man and puts it on his own head to give man back the blessing of prosperity that God intended them to have.
He takes this curse that we have been under where everything has to be hard and difficult and thorny. And he wears it for us and shed blood to redeem our prosperity and redeem our rights.
NAILED SCARED HANDS
In
Deuteronomy 28:1-2 CSB
Now if you faithfully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all his commands I am giving you today, the Lord your God will put you far above all the nations of the earth. 2 All these blessings will come and overtake you, because you obey the Lord your God:
3 You will be blessed in the city
and blessed in the country.
4 Your offspring will be blessed,
and your land’s produce,
and the offspring of your livestock,
including the young of your herds
and the newborn of your flocks.
5 Your basket and kneading bowl will be blessed.
6 You will be blessed when you come in
and blessed when you go out.
We love the blessings of this chapter. You should go and read it…and begin to confess them over your life.
Okay so get this, God’s original plan was for man to walk in dominion authority over the earth. Then God says this in Deuteronomy that “Hey I understand that the earth is cursed. Nevertheless, if you obey my commands, everything you touch will be blessed.”
Jesus redeems our hands!!!
Can I stop right here for a moment:
There are far too many of us not living this blessed life!! And it’s because we have our eyes on the wrong things.
If you want to be blessed, you have to see yourself blessed. Every morning we need to wake up speaking blessing over your life, over your family, over your workplace, over everything…
Instead we wake up and turn on the news…we fill our heads with FOX or CNN and not the Bible. We fill our head with social media and not praise and worship.
If you start your house out every day with then news and newspaper and you haven’t checked in with God, no wonder you think the world is falling apart.
I’ve got news for you! The world is falling apart, but the KINGDOM OF GOD is rising in the midst of all of that!!
So quit confessing your defeat and start confessing your blessing!!!
Yes the troubles are there but we know that God is with us…
NAILED FEET
Jesus’ feet were pierce to give us power over Satan and his evil spirits.
Again back to
Genesis 3:15 CSB
15 I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.
When Jesus went to the cross, this whole prophecy is being fulfilled that through the feet of Jesus being nailed to the cross, we are now conquering Satan.
I Corinthians 15:25-28 CSB
25 For he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be abolished is death. 27 For God has put everything under his feet. Now when it says “everything” is put under him, it is obvious that he who puts everything under him is the exception. 28 When everything is subject to Christ, then the Son himself will also be subject to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.
Jesus did not have to die to have authority over Satan because he was already GOD.
Look at this verse
Luke 10: 1, 18-20 CSB
After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others, and he sent them ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself was about to go.
18 He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning. 19 Look, I have given you the authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy;nothing at all will harm you.20 However, don’t rejoice thatthe spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
And then let’s look at this:
Romans 16:20 CSB
20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
Yes the enemy is here but we are victorious. Yes, he is fighting, but greater is he that is in us, than he that is in the world. We have to keep our eyes on Jesus.
Colossians 2:13-15 CSB
3 And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. 14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.
I love this. We all have things that are being kept in heaven in a book of life. And when that final day comes, we will be judged accordingly. But the scripture says that Jesus erased the debt that we owe!!!!
The last one shedding of Jesus
HIS HEART
Jesus’ pierced heart redeems our joy.
John 19:31-34 CSB
31 Since it was the preparation day, the Jews did not want the bodies to remain on the crosson the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a special day). They requested that Pilate have the men’s legs broken and that their bodies be taken away.32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other one who had been crucified with him. 33 When they came to Jesus, they did not break his legs since they saw that he was already dead. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.
To confirm that a victim was dead, the Romans inflicted a spear through the right side of the heart.
Some say that Jesus died of a broken heart ( a heart attack)
Others say that he died of suffocation.
But Jesus said this:
John 10: 17-18 CSB
17 This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my lifeso that I may take it up again.18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”
In reality, no one killed Jesus. He laid his life down freely.
Matthew 27:50 Christian Standard Bible
50 But Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit.
WHY?
Hebrews 12:2 New King James Version
2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
His joy of Christ’s travail was so that we may HIS JOY.
If we abide in Christ…I refer to my one of my favorite verses:
John 15:9-11 CSB
9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
11 “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.