“What can wash away my
sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus,”
resounds the old hymn.
Our Bible Study teacher was
reaching from John 6:41-58 as Jesus was teaching in the Synagogue. I took notes
and present an edited lesson for your enjoyment.
Jesus was remembering the Old
Testament sacrifices where the blood offerings were preeminent. Bread offerings
were also presented with grain, meal, oil and frankincense applied for a sweet
order unto God.
That day as many were
listening to Jesus teach in the temple, as he began to speak of himself as being
the living Bread of Life, and whoever believes in Jesus will have eternal
life.
Jesus began to look forward to the
Lord’s supper, so the next words were not understood by the multitude of
listeners. Jesus said, I give you my
flesh to eat and my blood to drink.
These words were extremely
offensive to the listeners, because to eat or drink blood was strictly
forbidden in the Law of Moses. It was a
Big deal NOT to eat blood.
The crowd took Jesus words
literally and could not understand the spiritual implication, and it was too
much for their thinking.
In the Old Testament, the
people brought a pure lamb for a sacrifice as they asked forgiveness for their
sins.
Today we as believers, come
to Jesus our Lamb of God, and it is His blood that will wash away our
sins. In order to be saved, we must come
to Jesus and receive the salvation so freely offered.
The Jewish culture experienced
all the offerings including the Passover Lamb. Jesus had participated in these
ceremonies from a young child. He knew
full well that as time passed, he would become the Lamb that takes away the
sins of the world.
1 Kings 1:50-53 tells the
story of Adonijah who was afraid because of his treason against his own brother
King Solomon. He fled to the temple and
held on to the horns of the alter and begged for his life. Solomon declared that if Adonijah remained a
man of honor, he would not slay him.
When we make a decision to
follow Jesus, His blood protects us from judgment and washes away our
sins. We are then to follow Jesus and
walk in His righteousness and holiness.
“In Him we live and move and
have our being.”
Deuteronomy 10:12-14 The Lord requires us to serve Him in fear and
reverence, and to keep his statutes and commandments.
Deuteronomy chapter 28 lays
out the blessings for following God and the cursings for rebellion and going
our own way.
In the Old Testament, the
fire was to always burn and never go out.
After Jesus returned to
heaven, on the day of Pentecost - - fire was released upon the believers as
they prayed to receive the Holy Spirit.
God desires that we remain burning for him.
In the book of Revelation,
God speaks of a certain church body who were neither hot or cold but were luke-warm.
In a few words, this caused God to be
sick at his stomach.
May we ever remain burning
with hot fire and zeal for our Lord.
Our teacher mentioned to
continue to pray for the Pastor in North Korea who is in prison, and
others believers who are being killed and persecuted for their faith in Jesus.
They are our brothers and
sisters for we are all one blood from Adam.
1 comment:
Thank you Hazel. This has so ministered to my spirit. I love how you care for us.
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