Precious Blood • 1 Peter 1:20-24
38:53 Teaching begins
Notes
The blood of Jesus is precious.
We have a problem imagining that. Why is blood precious?
I had a neighbour that had just this problem with Jesus. We would have good conversations about what was happening in the world, particularly with the lockdown. Then it would always come around to Jesus. He would say, "Why Jesus? Why can't people love one another without Jesus.?" can't there be some other way? Can't there be some other philosophy, some other political way, some other religion? Why does it have to be Jesus?
Because the problems that we face are insuperable. They cannot be overcome by any power or might or understanding that we have. But we have proof that only Jesus still continues to be the only solution to every problem there is.
We are going to look at why the blood of Jesus is precious beyond value.
I'm reading in 1 Peter chapter one, from verse 20.
1. Who is Jesus? The answer is, He is God.
A. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, says Peter.
1. Foreknowing is more than God knew things before they happened.
2. It means God considered and made decisions before He made anything, in eternity.
3. What God has planned is eternal. His power is eternal. His purpose cannot be thwarted by any opposition because opposition is created, therefore not eternal, not all powerful, temporary.
B. The Father foreknew that when He would create man, man would sin against God and pollute his soul, become an unbeliever, and die. We’ll discuss what unbelieving means in a minute.
C. Therefore the Father specially designated beforehand that His Son would be the sacrifice for the sin of the world. And that means two things.
1. Jesus is God. The Son is not a created being. The Son is eternal with the Father. The Son is equal with the Father in all things, very God of very God.
2. This provision that the Son would die for the sin of the world is an eternal solution. It has the eternal plan of God. It has the eternal power and foreknowledge of God in it. Knowing all that would oppose this plan, He has planned for every need, every situation, every twist and turn in the road. There are no surprises with God. So this is complete, sufficient, providing for every need and requirement.
D. These things are contained in this statement, “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world.
2. The question my neighbour asks is, “Is sin that big a deal?”
A. Because we have gone through so many changes through the centuries.
1. Different forms of political government, from one-man rule, to republics, feudalism, imperialism, colonialism, fascism, communes, radical, conservative, totalitarian, democratic.
2. Different kinds of businesses and economic systems: mercantilism, capitalism, communism, global economy.
3. Different kinds of education processes, from one on one, to schools, to universities, to Zoom calls at universities.
4. Different kinds of religions and philosophies, from positivism to nihilism.
5. We have advanced in science. There is no question about this. We are doing things today with our phones that were impossible 20 years ago, let alone 500 years ago.
B. But the problems we face are insuperable, incapable of being surmounted, overcome, passed over, or solved. People are dying the same as they ever were. Nothing changes us. We are polluted and unbelieving.
C. Here is a list of sins.
1. Romans 1:29-32 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
2. Here’s another list of sins. 2 Timothy 3:2-5 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
D. These lists are nearly 2000 years old. They are properly ancient. And yet these sins are still with us. They are modern, too!
E. Therefore the same results are among us. We are polluted inwardly. We are unbelievers.
1. When I talked with my neighbour we would come down to this one thing: people need to love one another. If everybody loved one another we wouldn’t be in this mess that we’re in. But all those sins are not about love, they are about pride, arrogance, selfishness, self-focus, the reverse of love. We don’t know how to love anyone but ourselves, and no desire to learn how. Why do that? Who is going to love me first? That’s the pollution of sin.
2. But then my neighbour would say, “Why does it have to be Jesus? Why not somebody else, some other way? Why can’t we do this ourselves?” This is unbelief. It’s not that we don’t believe that God exists. Unbelief is that we do not want to trust God, we don’t want to depend upon God. We would rather have trust in any other thing than God. Because that would mean submitting to God, humbling ourselves before God. We are proud and don’t want to be humble.
3. When Jesus preached in His home town of Nazareth He didn’t do many miracles. He marvelled at their unbelief. It means that they didn’t want to humble themselves and ask the carpenter’s son for healing. “I’ve known Him since He was a kid. Now He calls Himself the Son of God? There’s no way in the world I’m going to humble myself to the carpenter’s boy.”
4. Jesus alone clearly reveals God. He says, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” If you won’t depend on Jesus, you are not trusting in God. There are lots of people trusting in religion, even God, but they do not trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus to save them. This is unbelief, this is the effect of sin.
3. Now Peter goes from Jesus being foreknown from eternity to Jesus being revealed in history.
A. Before Jesus was revealed in history He was concealed in Scripture.
1. Hundreds of prophecies were made in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms about the Messiah. Where He would be born, when He would be born. That He would give sight to blind people and heal lame people. That He would quiet storms. That He would suffer for sins not His own, and that He would rise from the dead.
2. He is also foreshadowed in the law, in the festivals, in the sacrifices. There is a sacrifice that one is supposed to make for the cleansing of leprosy. But that offering was never made in 1500 years since it was spoken by God to Moses, until Jesus cleansed a leper. Then He said, “Go to the priests and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” That one sacrifice was made to be fulfilled by one person, the Son of God who takes away the sin of the world.
3. He is concealed in the accounts of people in the Scriptures. Abraham is given a son by the promise of God. Then God calls Abraham to offer that son of promise on a mountain as a sacrifice. Just before the father offers the son God stops him: “Don’t do it!” And Abraham sees a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. A substitute sacrifice.
4. In the whole Hebrew Scriptures is woven the message of the Son of God who is coming to take away the sin of the world.
B. And now, at a certain point in time, this Person concealed in Scripture is revealed in history.
1. The Son of God was born into this world and did those things written of Him in the scriptures.
2. This happened during Peter’s lifetime. He was an eyewitness of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
3. Then this was preached by the apostles and all the believers. They put the events together with the Scriptures written about Jesus and said, this is that which was written by the prophets, Moses, and the Law. People could check these things out to see if they were true, verifiable.
4. Through Jesus these hearers became believers in God.
A. They heard that word of God which was preached to them and commanded them. The word of the good news about Jesus is a command: because Jesus the Son of God has died for your sins and is risen from the dead, you are commanded to repent, turn around and face Jesus, depend that He did that for you. Receive Him as your Lord and Saviour. You will receive the forgiveness of your sins and eternal life, you will be born of the Holy Spirit.
B. They listened and obeyed. They believed in Jesus, they depended upon what He did. And when they did this they experienced the cleansing of their souls. The pollution was taken away.
C. We know that this is true because they showed forth the evidence in their own lives: they loved one another.
1. These dependers upon Jesus were mostly lower class, low to middle intelligence, slaves, women, children, no political power. They had no modern equipment or science, none of the advantages we take for granted today.
2. They did something that scientists, philosophers, religious officials, and businessmen and government officials cannot do. They laid down their lives for one another and loved one another.
D. They overcame racial differences, between Jew and Gentile, and all other nationalities. They overcame economic inequality. The highborn associated with the lowly.
1. The Apostle Paul is yelling at the believers in Corinth and it’s interesting what kind of people he’s rebuking. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. Are you crazy? You’re born again! Don’t do that stuff anymore!
2. Colossians 3:9-14 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him— a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all. So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
E. One of the main examples is the Apostle Paul himself. He was a Jew with a tremendous heritage, education, position, and influence. He had nothing to do with non-Jews. Hated Christians, tried to persecute and kill them. Then Jesus appeared to him, and Paul depended on Jesus. He was cleansed of his pollution. He began preaching Jesus risen from the dead. He became the apostle to the Gentiles, those completely without God, that they too would become born again, believers in God and cleansed of pollution in their souls.
F. The Christian church is the evidence that the real problem is sin, that there is cleansing of pollution in souls through Jesus alone.
5. Now, all this has happened in these last days, says Peter.
A. You think, really? Last days? For 2000 years? That’s a lot of last days.
B. God has a few reasons for prolonging things.
1. One is to save people. Imagine if He had given it two weeks after raising Jesus from the dead. You and I wouldn’t be here.
2. We also wouldn’t have the historical perspective that we have now. That is, we have seen all kinds of changes but that there has been certain constants. Sin is the same, and only Jesus takes away sins and makes people new. Only Jesus creates love in people so that they lay down their lives for the sake of others. And where people stop listening to Jesus’ words and do their own thing, then sin overflows, there is wickedness of every kind, and you have pollution and unbelief.
3. That’s true in the church as outside the church. The church is just as polluted and unbelieving as the world is, when it turns away from Jesus. There is no difference: there is pride, arrogance, ignorance, wickedness, power struggles and wickedness in the Christian church as in the world.
4. There is either being born again or not being born again. Pollution and unbelief, or purity and holiness and love, in Jesus’ name.
6. Peter exhorts the believers to keep testifying to the truth of Jesus’ death and resurrection by loving one another.
A. Fervently love one another. With all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. Just as you are to love the Lord you God.
B. This can only happen when you become aware of how much God loves you. That He would lay down all His rights as God and become subject to death on your behalf. For your benefit.
C. You find that awareness in the blood of Christ. That is the proof that He loves you. If you ever needed proof that God loves you, this is the permanent, eternal proof. Greater love has no one than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends. God laid down His life for you.
D. His blood never loses its power to cleanse your conscience. 1 John 1:5-9 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
E. If we fail to love, to show mercy, to forgive, then there is no witness that Jesus rose from the dead. There is no difference between believers and unbelievers. Only love solves the problem, only Jesus can love. Without love we are nothing.
F. So we have the blood of Jesus continually enabling us to love people. We have a source of love in this polluted and unbelieving world.
7. The result to this is, you need this precious blood of Christ.
A. All the problems man faces are insuperable, insurmountable, unsolvable.
1. With all our smarts, we can’t love anyone. We are polluted and unbelieving.
2. Jesus solves those problems. The major problem is death. He rose from the dead. He can deal with your addiction. He can forgive your sins. He can cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
B. He does it through His precious blood. Precious blood because He is God, unique and irreplaceable. There is nothing like it, there is no substitute for it. Jesus alone cleanses a soul from pollution and death.
C. My neighbour says, “Isn’t there some other way? Can’t we do this ourselves?”
1. All of history shows man trying and failing.
2. You may not like depending on Jesus. You wish it were something that you liked a little bit better. Something that wasn’t so humbling, embarrassing, dependent. Isn’t there anything that I can do so I don’t feel like a charity case?
D. The real answer is, “No.” This is the testimony of God Himself. 1 John 5:9-12 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son. The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
E. You ought to thank God that there is a way at all. Thank God that He does not require you to go off on a quest to win His favour. If there were any way to do that then God got it wrong in eternity, and the Son of God died for no reason.
F. God did not get it wrong. To you who believe, says Peter. He is precious.
G. This is to find out where you are at: You should love those around you. If you shrink back from that, realise you are sinning against God. You are acting in a polluted way, you are not believing God. You are not depending on Jesus.
H. Where do you go? You come to Jesus and depend once again on His blood shed for you. He will cleanse you of pollution. And when you have received the love of God for you, turn around and you will be able to give it to anyone.
I. Have you received Jesus as your Saviour and Lord? Let’s do that right now.
Let’s pray.