11/1/26 Hebrews 9:11-14 “What’s Up with the Blood?”

15 Oct 11/1/26 Hebrews 9:11-14 “What’s Up with the Blood?”

11/1/26    Hebrews 9:11-14       “What’s Up with the Blood?”

I’m pretty much a believer in an honest day’s work for an honest day’s wage.  But in today’s world I have to often wonder if some of the things that people get paid for might not be very honest.  I’m not referring to some of the welfare programs that just pay you for not working.  These programs need to be modified.  They are kind of like CRP or soil bank for some people.  But what I’m talking about is something I read on the front page of a newspaper once.  Someone did another so-called scientific study to find out that processed meat is not good for us.  This was such a wonderful study that they just included all red meat at no extra charge.  My question is, “Haven’t we studied this before?  Why are we wasting millions to find out something we already know?”  Don’t get me wrong here.  I take this with a grain of salt because we already know for a fact that butter is far worse for you than margarine.  We also know for a fact now butter is better for you than margarine.  When in actuality it’s all ok if you use things in moderation.  We are to eat in moderation processed meat, red meat, chicken, milk, butter.  You name it and we should show moderation.  But how many people are making a living, like these researchers, by doing totally meaningless work?  Today’s Scripture talks about something that many in today’s world consider to be meaningless.  Let’s see if few can discern the importance of the blood that is always talked about in the Bible.

Jeff Strite tells the story of a woman who was holding a rummage sale or garage sale or whatever you want to call it.  She was selling an antique copper kettle for $2.50.  A customer came in and wanted to buy this antique kettle but was hesitating a little because it was so tarnished and didn’t look good.  She asked the owner if there was anything she could do so that the kettle would get its color back.  The sale lady cheerfully took the kettle and told her she would see what she could do.  She went inside and scrubbed the kettle until it was nice and shiny.  Then she brought it back out to the other woman but she had also put a new price tag on it.  It now cost $10.  What was it that made the shiny kettle so much more valuable?  It was now worth more because it had been cleaned.

Now that is a real novel concept.  Things are better or worth more when they are clean.  This is kind of basic hygiene.  People are much more attractive when they are clean.  Therefore, we have the bathing industry.  Millions of dollars are put into soap and shampoo every year.  We even have deep pore cleaners.  You should all remember that you are much more valuable if your deep pores are clean.  Not only that but have you ever noticed that you feel so much better after you have bathed?  It is true

We have to keep our vehicles clean so that they last longer.  We especially notice it up north in the snow and salt country.  Cars and trucks would rust out quickly if we didn’t keep them clean.  We have places to go to keep our cats and dogs clean.  We have janitors who keep our churches clean and attractive.  I would go so far as to say that no matter what we have, we try to keep it clean.

This isn’t just a modern phenomenon.  When the first white people came to Japan, they marveled at how clean the Japanese tried to be.  In just about every archeological dig, there is some sort of bath or way to keep clean.  The ancient Greeks and Romans had bath houses for all the people.  I would say that since the beginning of time, humans have been trying to stay clean.  You have heard the saying that “cleanliness is next to Godliness.”

Then one might ask, “Why is it so important to stay clean?”  I would guess that this is a favorite question of any of youngsters who come up for children’s time.  Have you noticed how some children do not want to take a bath but once they are in the bath, you have a hard time to get them out again.  Many people in our modern world might say that we have to stay clean to be attractive.  After all, being attractive is the most important part of life.  Seriously, we need to stay clean and keep things clean around us if we are going to survive.  There is a much smaller chance of getting sick if we are clean and we eat things that are clean.  The more we have learned about germs and bacteria, the more this makes sense.  This is one of the reasons that God put in all the dietary and cleanliness laws in the Old Testament Law.

This brings us to the terms of clean and unclean.  Anything that was clean was much less likely to have or get a disease.  Things that were unclean were unhealthy.  It was unhealthy to eat pork in those days because you could get a worm from undercooked pork and you could die.  This can even happen today but pork is much safer now than then.  We still shouldn’t eat raw fish, especially the kinds described in the Bible.  You hear about people getting sick all the time from raw or undercooked fish and other things too.  Even lutefisk needs to be cooked but cooking does not really help it.  Anyway, God put the dietary and cleanliness laws in place so that we would be protected.  It’s pretty simple.  God has loved us from the beginning and He is always trying to protect us.

Now you might say that this is all interesting but what in the world does this have to do with blood and the blood sacrifices?  I’m glad someone finally asked this question.  We have to remember that God is at least a million steps ahead of us when it comes to wisdom and intelligence and anything else.  God not only installed ways for us to be clean on the outside but He devised a way for us to be clean on the inside.  Enter the reason for blood.  Do you know the main functions of blood in our bodies?  Number one is that it carries oxygen and nutrition out to all the various parts of the body.  Therefore, the blood that flows outward in the aortas is bright red.  It is full of oxygen and good stuff.  But that is not how it returns.  As the blood is away from the heart it picks up the garbage from all the different parts of the body and brings them back to places like the liver and kidneys.  This is basic biology.  Before God made Adam, He knew that we would need a system like this in order to survive.  Let’s see evolution explain this complicated process.  Our blood was the first cleaning system that was ever invented.  We need blood to survive.  Blood is the Waste Management truck of the body along with being the food wagon.

Now the ancients would not have understood this like we do today.  But they did know that if all the blood drained out of something, it died.  They knew blood was needed for life.  Therefore, blood was considered to be a life force.  Scientists today do not all agree with some of what the ancients thought but when it comes to blood, we all realize that we cannot live without it.  Life is in the blood.

Now God, knowing all this because He made all of this, decided that blood would be the ultimate sacrifice because people from all the centuries know that you cannot live without it.  So God made blood the symbol of sacrifice and repentance.  If an animal gave all its blood, then it gave the ultimate sacrifice.  Do you see what is happening here?  Blood, life is the ultimate sacrifice for our sins.  However, the blood of animals did not take away the sin, it only reminded the people of who was in charge of taking away the sin.  We have always been supposed to take our sins to God whether through confession today or sacrifices in ancient times.  This is the point that was lost over the centuries.

It is lost on us today also because we think that the blood of Jesus automatically takes away our sin.  This does happen but we have to react.  We have to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and then He will take away our sins by the blood He shed on the cross.  Just as the animal could not take away our sin, Jesus cannot either without our cooperation.  Then it is a done deal and it is permanent.  You see the sacrifice of blood is permanent.  It indicates that the price has been paid.  The sheep or bull paid the price for the family if they so choose to accept it.  Jesus, who is God, paid the price for His family which happens to be all humans, once and forever.  Because Jesus is God, this will never have to be done again.

So God set up this cleansing sacrifice system so that all could come to know Him.  So what happened to this original system?  If you do the simple math of the situation, you have to come to the realization that you cannot keep on sacrificing animals because it would take just too many of them.  The population increases and so must the sacrifices.  I also just mentioned the main reason why this system did not work anymore.  The priests and church leaders had gradually gone away from the original meaning.  To be quite blunt, they were as crooked as our government leaders today.  To them sacrifices had become a business.

Are we any different?  Someone tracked down the top 100 growing churches in America and they interviewed each pastor.  They found that only one even mentioned Jesus Christ.  As I mentioned before, we have pastors of leading United Methodist Churches who think they are smarter than Paul.  We watched the news a few years back when there was a school shooting in the northeast somewhere.  Pastor after pastor got up and spoke about comfort and yet only 2 pastors referred to Jesus Christ, the father of all real comfort.  No one else even dared mention the name of God!  I could go on and on here.  We have churches right here in the area that are in dispute because the pastor actually believed in Jesus and the Bible.  The only answer to any and all of these types of situations is Jesus Christ.  He is the answer!  Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life.  There is no way around it.  You cannot have comfort, joy, peace or love without first knowing Jesus.  And by the way, how are you doing praying for patience and kindness?  Is anyone still doing this?  Please keep on praying for these two fruits.

I know that God cannot be thwarted and we should praise Him for this.  God in His infinite wisdom decides to send His only begotten Son to earth to live with us, to teach us and to die for us.  Jesus Christ did a lot of things for us and He still does today.  But the most important thing He did was to shed His blood so that my sins could be washed away 20 centuries later.  Just as the blood carries away the waste in my body, Jesus carries away the waste in my life.  When you stop and think about this, this is the greatest gift we could ever get and still we have so many people who know more than God so they reject Him.  People, if you do not know for sure where you will spend eternity, I beg you to go to Jesus with your sins and let Him wash them away.  You will never, never regret a life in Jesus.

So what has this to do with All Saints Day?  If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you are a saint.  In Revelation, John sees all the saints as they come out from under the altar.  These are the martyred saints; those who died for their belief in Jesus.  They sacrificed their blood so that we may live on in our faith. Today, this would range from the Christians in Africa, Middle East and other ugly places in the world where we are slaughtered for our belief to those aborted babies who have never had a chance.  Jesus keeps track of all these things and without repentance, those who inflict these terrible acts have no chance.  But praise the Lord that even if you do wrong things like this you can still come or come back to Jesus.  As long as you are alive, it is not too late to come or come back to Jesus.  He will never leave you high and dry.  He always loves you and wants you to come to Him.  That is a promise.  That is a promise you can stake your life upon.

(next time)This morning we will be taking Holy Communion.  Remember when you take the bread, that you are taking the body of Jesus Christ; the body that He sacrificed so that you could take the elements that day(today).  You are being able, and this came with a price, to worship here today because of the terrible price of Jesus dying on the cross.  There is not a person here who is worthy of such a sacrifice.  Then remember the juice we drink as it represents the blood of Jesus.  This is the blood that washes us clean just like the blood in our bodies.

God has thought of everything.  All you have to do is follow.  Jesus has not only thought of everything but He has gone ahead and done everything.  I praise the Lord for the writer of Hebrews, Paul and the other writers of the Bible.  I praise the Lord for Jesus Christ and all that He has done for you.  And I praise the Lord for all you people and all that you do for each other and for us.  Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.