Blood Memory verse: I John 5:1-6 Definition of blood- The fluid that circulates through the heart, arteries, veins and capillaries carrying nourishment, electrolytes hormones, vitamins, antibodies, heat and oxygen to the tissues and taking away waste matter and carbon dioxide. The function of blood is nutrition and respiration of tissues. Meaning it feeds the cells of the body and provides respiration, it takes waste away from the body to the bladder and bowels, and it regulates and coordinates chemically in the body. It regulates the heat of the body and it defends the body against infection. Blood is life. “For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life therof:� Leviticus 17:14. There is no substitute for blood. Blood is composed of about 78% water and the rest solid. When a person needs blood he has to have blood in order to live. Our bodies were wondrously made in a delicate and precise balance. Even one of the many chemicals in our blood being out of balance, whether too much or too little, can have a disastrous effect on every other part of the body. An example is the hormone insulin. Too little insulin is a cause of diabetes. Too little or too much of estrogen or testosterone has a devastating effect on the gender. Not enough of certain vitamins lead to illnesses like scurvy, blindness. The blood feeds every cell in our body. It provides necessary oxygen for life. If anything interrupts the blood providing oxygen, death comes swiftly, in a matter of minutes. Breath is also life. The breath of life comes from God. Without properly functioning blood the breath cannot get to the cells of the body. Everything must be in perfect balance, food, oxygen and regulating the functions of the body, removal of waste and fighting infection. Any of these things that are out of order could ultimately kill the body. The blood is also a defense against death coming in to the body. Our bodies are surrounded and invaded daily by a host of bacteria and viruses through our nose, our mouths our skin and any opening in our bodies. Without the defenses in our blood we
would die quickly of an overwhelming infection. A disease that causes a decrease in the protection against disease is AIDS. There are many other diseases that do this also. Anything that destroys the white blood cells will cause this. Though wonderful and amazing, the life that is in our bodies, in every cell is only common life. Common life is temporary life. It is limited in duration. The sword that will kill the body lives within the body in the form of some kind of weakness waiting to emerge at the appropriated time, if death from some devastating accident, or some other outside agent doesn’t kill you first. The life that is in our blood is common life. But the life that is in the blood of Jesus is everlasting life. This blood has no limits in its capacity because it is eternal. John 6:54 “Whoso eatheth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” The blood of Christ far exceeds all things that our common blood does for us. The blood of Christ not only provides all good things for our physical body, it also provides for our spiritual body. It feeds the spirit, providing nutrition. It provides the breath of life to every part of us. It removes all waste matter; anything that we don’t need or that is not good for us is removed. It heals us of sin and death which is the disease of the spirit. Let us compare the blood of man with the blood of Christ. The blood of man provides common life to the body of flesh for a limited period of time. The blood of Christ provides eternal life and removes death. The blood of man circulates nutrients, sugar, protein, fat, vitamins ad minerals to feed the body. The blood of Christ provides his wore. As we eat the word of God, which is Christ’s body, then the blood circulates this to every part of our body-our spiritual body. God is food. His body is meat. Common food gives us life sustaining energy to walk, work and function. Spiritual food enables us to walk like Christ, work hard for the Lord, and function in the church. The blood of man circulates hormones that regulates and coordinates how the body functions. There are growth hormones, hormones particular to male or females, hormones that enable a woman to have a child, and many, many more. The blood of Christ regulates and coordinates how the spiritual body
functions. It is like the testimonies of Jesus that show us how to walk in the law. The blood of man fights against disease. It has a host of white blood cells and antibodies to protect us. The blood of Christ fights against death and sin. Though most saint die the common death in Christ, there is no saint that will die the second death. What did Christ tell Martha? John 11:24-26. The blood of man provides platelets to heal our bodies of wounds and injuries. The blood of Christ heals our spirits. A cut is a breach in the skin. Sin also creates a breach that must be repaired. The most terrible breach was the sin of Adam that separated us from God. Christ covered the breach with his very life, like Moses who also stood in the breach when Israel sinned. The blood of man keeps our bodies within a safe temperature. The blood of Christ keeps us spiritually hot, full of zeal for God. Not only does Christ’s blood do all of these wonderful things for our spiritual body, but at the time of the New Covenant when the law is written permanently in our hearts, it is also sprinkled on us. Christ’s blood will also be sprinkled on the books of our records that will purge us forever from sin. And it is Christ’s blood that will flow through our physical body as it is changed from a terrestrial or common body to a celestial or everlasting body. And we will be one with him. How wonderful a hope we have in Christ Jesus! But how do we get from here to there? How do we get the wonderful blood of Jesus? I Corinthians 10:16, John 6:56-57. The word communion means to share, to partake in, and to be part of. Communion brings us on one accord with God. But we know that eating unleavened bread and drinking grape juice does not make us one with God. Eating unleavened bread and drinking grape juice is a physical action that represents something spiritual, just like baptism does. How do we have spiritual communion with God? John 14:21-23. Christ prayed to his father that we might be one with him. John 17:20-22. The church is the body of
Christ. Romans 12:4-5. When we obey God and keep his commandments we are one with him. We must eat his word every day. When we read and study we are having communion with God, we remember Christ and the law is laced in the forefront of our minds. It is important to keep the law in the forefront because man is very forgetful. In taking in his word every day we become stronger and stronger and closer and closer to God. Let us read the words that Christ spoke at the Lord’s Supper. Matthew 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25 and Luke 22:14-20. In each of these books Christ spoke about a testament. What is a testament? The dictionary says it is a person’s last intentions, like a will. A better definition is that it is a covenant. In fact the word is used interchangeably in the bible with the word covenant. There was a first or old covenant and then a second or New Covenant or testament. Let us discuss a little history pertaining to the first covenant. After the people were delivered from Egypt they came to Mt Sinai in the third month. Moses went up into the mount and received the Ten Commandments, the law, the judgments and promises from God. Then Moses went back down, told the people what God had told him and they promised to obey him. Then Moses wrote the words of the covenant in a book. He then built an altar and the young men of the children of Israel sacrificed offerings to God at the bottom of Mt Sinai. Moses took half of the blood from the sacrifices, he read the book of the covenant again to all of the people who promised to obey God, and then he sprinkled all the people with blood, and said “behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made unto you concerning all these words.” Then Moses and the elders of Israel went up to the base of the mountain and worshipped God, eating and drinking before him. Finally God told Moses to come up to him in the Mount and he would give him the tables of stone with the Ten Commandments that he wrote with his own hand. Exodus 24:1-12. Christ spoke of the New Testament in his blood or the blood of the New Testament. It was not the sacrifice of animals but the sacrifice that Christ made of himself, in which his blood spilled to the earth giving us the free gift, which is resurrection of all men and the opportunity to return God with
conditions of obedience. The old testament entailed laws written on stone that mankind broke. The New Testament entails laws written on the heart. The blood, when sprinkled upon us, purges our heart and our conscious or mind. Hebrew 8:6-13, Hebrews 9:13-15 and Hebrews 9:19-23. And finally, back to my memory verse in I John 5:1-6. How does Christ come to us? He comes to us in the volume of a book. How is he born in us? Recall that we must be just like our father. As Christ came, as he was born, so must we also be born. If we believe that Jesus is Christ we are born of God, if we believe and love God we keep his commandments. If we obey and are born of God we have overcome the world. Jesus comes to us and is born in us through blood and water. We in turn are born again through blood and water and the spirit. I John 5:12 “he that hath the son hath life; and he that hath not the son of God hath not life.�