The Cross; the Blood

Fusion is, but Carris has a real big interest in Fusion,

not in the past, well in the past, in the

future too, so tell us about it.

Good morning everyone, how are we all excited?

Yeah? This is Rob Hi. Everybody nice to eat.

And Rob works for a lovely charity called Fusion, which

is quite on my heart as well because I will

be starting work with Fusion in June as a evangelist developer,

which is really exciting. But yeah, Fusion it's a student

organizational sort of movement that is missional. So our heart

is to love Jesus, love the church and to see

students plugged into local church, which is kind of what

we're all about. As you can see, there's so many

students here this morning, which is so exciting. But we

just want to equip the church, equip leaders and pastors,

and to see students being discipled as their journey and

university which is a really weird time, but it's just

a great way to equip the local church in this time,

gen Z, this is like the time to be living,

the time to be going to church. What is the percentage?

Now? Go on, Well, it's exciting that Chris is going

to join a team, so thank you, guys for encouraging

carries her whole life well as long as you've been

here and so sending her off, So that's gonna be awesome.

But yeah, we do a survey across the UK where

we kind of get to know what students are thinking

about God's and one of the questions is if a

friend invited you to church, would you go along? If

a friend invites you to church, would you go along?

And what percentage do you reckon of non Christian students

in the UK would say yes? That question maybe turns

the person next you say, what percentage of non Christian

students would say yes to an invitation to church? What

you reckon? Does anyone want to shout out a number?

Anyone wanted? Thirty percent, fifty forty five, anyone else? Guys

are so pessimistic? Sixty guys, seventy six percent of of

non Christian students we go to church if invited by

a friend. Isn't that crazy? And so kind of That's

why me and Curris will be part of the evangelism team.

So we'll be going to churches and chatting to their

young people and say, hey, like people want to be

invited you can invite them. So that's basically going to

be our role, which is really exciting, really exciting.

So yeah, what's I gonna say. We'll probably have an

opportunity at the end to open up space to support

Rob as well, because we actually all fund our kind

of mission. We do this thing called MBD, which is

where we partner with people churches to raise our salary

completely one hundred percent. So there'll be an opportunity at

the end if you want to give to Rob, give

to Fusion, and obviously in June and I start, there'll

be an opportunity to do that as well.

So that's great excit.

But yeah, I'm going to hand over to Rob's excime message.

Thanks guys, awesome, it's so good to be here. Thank

you for having me. Guys. I thought I would share

a little bit of my story to kick us off,

so you know who I am, and because everybody here

has a story, and your story will interact with God's story,

which is a wonderful thing. And the hope and prayer

is off the back of this morning that you'll go

forth in your story encouraged and more looking like Jesus.

So that's exciting, isn't it in this book. It's a

really rare book. You guys may have never heard of

it before. It's called the Bible. It says that all

have messed up, all have messed up and fullard short

of the goodness of God. And I definitely did that

as a teenager. I was a nuisance. My parents are

church leaders, but that doesn't mean that your children are

going to be saved. So I was a bit of

a nuisance. It goes on to saying the Bible that

the wages of that stuff, the wages of all of

that stupidity, is actually deaf and instruction. It turns out

if you lie to your friends, then you kind of

lose your friends. It's pretty logical, isn't It turns out, actually,

if you're making really bad choices, that your mental health

will probably go in the bin. So I don't know

if you can relate to that that maybe you are

a perfect person, maybe you've never done anything wrong in

your life. If you are, please talk to me off

tow us. I'd love to know your secret. But we

all mess up, and we all fall short, and it

causes destruction and pain. And we see so much stuff

in our world that's not right, and God doesn't want

it that way. And when I was seventeen eighteen, I

went to a Jesus night at a summer festival and

I asked the question. I was like, God, if you're real,

if you're real, would you meet me? Because it's not

going very well at the moment. And that verse it

says that the wages of sin is death, but it

goes on to say, but the gift of God is

eternal life. And that night I actually realized that God

had sent his son Jesus to die for me. And

it's special, It was really really special, and I felt

this deep love in my yes and I started crying

like a little baby snart everywhere there was a pool

of water on the floor. Is horrid, It's horrid, but

it was a beautiful moment because the truth was this,

that whilst I was still a muppet, that Jesus died

for me, whilst I was still doing stupid stuff, that

he loved me and he cared for me, and that

all I needed to do, all I needed to do

was believe in my heart that had been risen from

the dead, and declare of my mouth that Jesus is Lord,

and I would be saved, not might be saved, not

fifty percent. If I worked hard enough and if I

did enough good stuff, no, I would be saved because

it was all from His grace. And I realized that

on that night, and it changed my life. And so

I just wanted to say, I don't know. Obviously, it's

my first time with you guys, so I don't know

who's in the room. There might be some people that

don't know Jesus yet I want to say that your

story doesn't have to stay the same, it doesn't have

to stay in death and destruction, but actually can have life.

And so I'm sure there'll be people here part of

this family, this church family, that would love to talk

to you about that if you want to take a

step into the Kingdom of lights. But I'm told that

you guys as a as a church community, are looking

at the Cross running up to Easter, which is a

really good theme. So i'd wonder if you could just

close your eyes. We're going to do a bit of

an imaginary exercise just to focus on Jesus as we begin.

So I want you to imagine that you're your toddlers self,

that you're little, You're small and imagine that you're sitting

in a room, maybe a living room, but a place

where you feel safe, a place where you'd call home.

Maybe it's a place from home from when you're small,

or maybe your current place that you live. But can

you imagine somewhere where you feel completely safe, your little

toddler self. And you realize there's another person in the room.

He comes over and he takes your hand, and you

feel that actually there's holes in his hands. He takes

you by the hand and you walk outside. And you

walk outside into a beautiful garden. What can you see?

What can you smell? Can you fill the grass under

your feet? Can you smell the flowers? Can you see

the bees and the birds? Can you imagine walking through

the garden holding his hand, the warmth of the sun

on your face. And as you walk there starts to

be a bit of a hill, start be a bit

of an incline, and you walk up, walking at the

same pace as Jesus, and you per see that on

top of the hill there's a cross. You're still holding

Jesus's hand as you look upon it. Jesus turns to

you and he says, I went on that tree for you.

He says, I love you, And he asked you a

question this morning, do you love me? Do you love me?

So you walk back down the hill, through the beautiful

garden and back into that place of safety, and you

realize this time it's not just you and Jesus. You

recognize your friends, you recognize your family, you recognize all

the people that you've known at church your whole life.

And you realize there's a massive party, there's a massive celebration.

There's lots of good food, there's lots of joy, there's

lots of smiles. And Jesus turns to you again. It

says one last thing. He says, who are you going

to invite to the feast? Amen? Or you can open

your eyes. Now. I don't know about you, but sometimes

church can get quite complicated, but it's really simple. It's

all about the cross. It's all about Jesus. It's all

about what he's done for us, and that how much

he loves us, and how much he loves you. And

so today we're going to be looking at just one

aspect of the cross, and we're going to look at

the blood of Jesus today, which flowed from the cross.

And John Scott, who is a theologian. He said this,

there is no Christianity without the cross. In one Corinthians

fifteen fourteen, it says, and if Christ has not been raised,

then our preaching is in vain and your faith is

in vain. There's no resurrection. There's no Easter Sunday if

there isn't also a death. There's no good Friday without

Easter Sunday. And so today we're going to look into

the bloods We sing about it all the time, so

many songs. Who can think of a song that's got

the blood of Jesus in it? You know what should? Yeah, yeah,

there's loads, there's so many something We sing about it

all the time. And we talk about the blood of Jesus,

don't We always talk about the blood Jesus, and we

read about it in the Bible. And I grew up,

you know, in church. My mum and dad were church leaders. Okay,

so I grew up hearing about the blood Jews all

the time. You know, I knew the stories, I knew

the answer. What washed away? You're seeing the blood of Jesus.

I won't say it all the time, but to be honest,

when you think about it, it's kind of weird for

someone who's never been to church before. If you say, oh,

it's the blood of Jesus, They're like, what that is strange?

And actually, if I'm honest, even though I was in

Sunday School, even though I kind of grew up going

to church, I never really understood about the blood of Jesus.

I kind of conceptually understood that maybe, you know, I've

done some bad stuff and he was really good, so

that means he died and then alive. I understood that,

but I really never understood about the bloods and why

it was so significant. And so today, hopefully as we

kind of unpack some scriptures, we're going to see answer

hopefully a few questions, and one is why does the

blood matter to God's Why did you just have to

shed his blood? And what does the blood accomplish? What

does it accomplish? Do we know what it accomplishes? And

then do we walk in that freedom? Do we walk

in the knowledge of it? So that's kind of the

journey in which we're going to go. So sound okay,

sound good friends, perfect Okay. The first scripture is from

actually from Leviticus seventeen eleven. It says this, For the

life of the flesh is in the blood, and I

have given it to you. Maybe I should read it

from this translation. Here we go, For the life of

the flesh is in the blood, and I have given

it to you upon the altar to make atonement for

your souls. For it is in the blood that makes

atonement for the soul. For the life of the flesh

is in the blood. The life of the flesh is

in the blood. My mum's a biology teacher, teaches biology.

It's really cool, and she always bangs on about hemoglobin.

Does anyone know about hemoglobin? Basically, it's this little I

don't even know what it's called. I'm going to say protein,

and it picks up oxygen all right from your lungs

and it takes it around. It takes it to all

the parts of your body. And it basically means that

you're alive because of this this thing that's in your blood.

And also when you eat your food, it goes, you know,

processing in your tummy, then it goes into and it

goes in the blood. It goes around your whole body.

And I was thinking about this, This is not just

a theological thing that the life of the flesh is

in the blood, guys. It actually is biologically like if

your blood stopped flowing, you know, like the life of

the of somebody is in their blood. Like it is true.

It aligns with all of the science. It aligns with

all of the biology. You know, every living animal has

blood which flows, and if the blood stops flowing, then

life ceases. Life is literally in the blood. And we

know that God is the creator, God who loves us,

who made us. He's the author of life. And so

he chose blood to be the thing, blood to be

the thing that would carry the oxygen to ourselves, that

would carry the energy to ourselves. He chose blood. So

blood is mightily important to him. He calls himself the way,

the truth and the life. There's life in the blood.

Blood is important to him. In the Second Scripture from

Genesis ninety six, it says this, whoever sheds man's blood

by man, his blood shall be shed, for in the

image of God he has made man. So why such

serousness about the blood. Well, humans are made in the

image of God, in the image of God, and his

blood represents life itself. And to shed innocent blood is

to destroy something is to just sw something that he

cares so deeply about because He's created it with a purpose.

God is fiercely protective, fiercely protective over life. He hates

it when life is spilt, absolutely hates it. He is

the source of life. He is just. And as you

read this in the Old Testament, you might be thinking,

maybe that is an Old Testament law that whoever sheds

man's blood by man, his blood shall be shed, meaning

that if you murder somebody, then actually the consequences of

that murder is death. Now we're living post resurrection, and

so we're not under the law. But the principle, the

principle of God caring about life and the principle of

justice still remains. And so if there is wrongdoing, God

is not like someone who's a cleaner who just wipes

things under the carpet and goes to you know what,

it's all right that there was death in this place,

a right, that there was lives. There was all right

that there was a sin. No, he's very serious about it.

He doesn't brush things under the carpet. But the beautiful

thing is that he came, He came to this earth

and went upon that cross and died for us, that

all of our sin would come upon him, satisfying the

need for that justice, satisfying that need for the consequent

reaction of our sin. The other day, I was on

campus in Lincoln, which is pretty cool. But has anyone

ever been to Lincoln before? Nobody? Oh, yeah, one or two.

It's quite nice in Lincoln. It's very nice. And I

was on campus and we were walking around doing the survey,

chatting to people about Jesus. It was good fun. And

were getting talking to these two guys and one of

them is a philosophy student. So I was like, ah,

it's a philosophy student's going to ask me really hard questions.

You know, this is going to be really tough. And

so he's like trying to like trip me up all

this sort of thing. And he said, if you believe

in a god of love, then do you believe that

there's heaven? And hell? I was like, my friend, let

me ask you a question. Do you think that justice

is a good idea? He's like, yeah, of course, justice

is a really good idea. I was like, oh, really, okay, awesome.

So if someone is still something you think that actually

there should be a consequent you know, punishment for what

they've done. He's like, yeah, hundred percent. Our society wouldn't

work if there wasn't a justice system. Ah, that's really interesting.

So do you think that it's a more loving thing

for a justice system to actually keep people to account

for the wrong things they do or just to let

people off. He's like, if they let people off, that

would be wrong, right, interesting? So would you say that

God is the god of love if he keeps actually

what justice is? He's like, yeah, I would like to

follow a god who is a god of justice. And

I was like, well, Jesus is the god of justice

because he doesn't brush anything under the carpet. The wrong

things that he is that people have done to you,

if they come to Jesus in repentance will be on

him on the cross. But if there isn't repentance, if

there isn't relationship with Jesus, if actually you're not covered

by the brother of Jesus, then you have to make

account for that. You have to make account for that,

and that is on you. He was like, Wow, that's

really deep. I was like, it is deep for Wednesday morning,

whatever it was. I was like, mate, would you like

me to pray for you. He was like, yeah, I'd

love for you to pray for me. So we prayed

to get it. It was wonderful. I told them a bit

of my story, a bit of my testimony, how I

had really bad mental health, and actually I met Jesus,

I repented of the things where I associated with those lies,

and I gone into new life. And he said, well,

if that happened to you, that could also happen for

me as well, couldn't it. Yes, of course it could

happen for you. Guys, jen Z are really care about justice,

they really do. They want things to be right. When

they see injustice, they try and cancel people straight away,

just cancel them, get them got like they really care

about And guys, Jesus is the god of justice and

the cross is good news. Is good news because they

do not need to take the payment of their sin

anymore upon themselves, but they can give it all to him.

He's more than able to save them. So why is

the blood Jesus different? In the Old Testament we see

animal sacrifices, which covers sin temporarily, but Jesus' blood doesn't

cover sin, it removes it because his blood was sinless, pure, divine, eternal,

full of love. His blood carried life itself. The architect

of life walked and talked and walked among us with

his blood coursing through his veins. And his blood is

so precious, so so precious, And so I want just

think about what the blood accomplishes. What does it accomplish? Like,

can we unpack it and look at what the Bible

says about what the blood accomplishes. So, if you're scribbling,

if you're taking notes, these are your points. Okay, here

you go, all right. So Number one, the blood brings forgiveness. Okay.

Ephesians one, verse seven says in him we have redemption

through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the

riches of his grace. In him, we have redemption through

his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the

riches of his grace. Because of his bloods our sins

are not counted against us. Hallelujah, Thank you Jesus, Thank

you Jesus. It's not partial forgiveness, it's not temporary forgiveness.

It's not forgiveness with a catch. It's full forgiveness. It's

complete forgiveness through his blood. You are washed white as snow.

He is not like a head teacher, right, who's Oh,

he's a naughty one. He's a naughty one. And I've

forgiven him for what he did. You know, when he

put the alarm clocks into the ceiling and they went

off middless. I've forgiven him for that, but I'm not

going to forget it. No, Jesus isn't like that. He

has blotted out our transgressions. He sees you as white

as snow. You must put your trust in him. Secondly,

the blood satisfies justice, as I've been speaking about, and

Romans Free twenty four to twenty five says, this being

justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is

in Christ, Jesus who set forth as a probe. I

can't say that word. It's really tough. Properly. Yeah, there

we go, Thanks guys, by his blood through faith to

demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance, God has passed

over the sins that were previously committed. Thank you Jesus.

The blood is powerful and it satisfies the justice of God.

We are not just forgiven, we're justified. It satisfies the

wrath of God. It satisfies our rebellion, It satisfies the

whole world's rebellion. If someone's wrong, gee, he cares about it.

It's partly why he went on the cross, for the

justice for all those who've had wrongs against them. The

blood cleanses our consciousness Hebrews nine twelve to fourteen. He

entered once and for all into the Holy Place. I've

got it different here, That's okay. He entered once and

for all into the Holy Place by means of his

own blood, fust securing an eternal redemption. How much more

will the blood of Christ purify our conscience from dead

works to serve the living God? This is the truth.

The blood doesn't change, just change our status. It cleanses

our conscience. Guilt is removed, shame is gone. It says. Therefore,

there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

We are made clean from the inside outs. Absolutely no condemnation.

And when there is condemnation, we know it's not from him.

We know it's from the enemy, the father of lies.

He loves to come in and say, actually, do you know,

maybe the blood Jees doesn't cleanse you from your sin,

and it's a lie from the pit of hell. We

have to come against it. We have to take it

with the fort captive and make it obedient to Christ Jesus.

Obedience to the blood of Jesus. The blood gives us

access to God. Ephesians two thirteen says, But now in

Christ Jesus, you who are once who were far off,

had been brought near by the blood of Christ. Hebrews

ten nineteen says, therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to

enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, Guys,

we have access to God. We've been singing to him

this morning. How is that possible? It's the blood of Jesus.

We've been brought near. We've been brought near. Do any

of you guys know who the Prime Minister of the

UK is? Anybody anybody know him personally? You know him?

You know him? But could anyone here pick up their

phone and call him? No, so you can know God?

But do you know him? And God's the blood of

Jesus has meant that it's not just the knowledge of God.

You can experientially know God. It's as if you've got

his number in your phone. You can pick up the

phone and you can call him. And how has he

allowed that to happen. It was through the blood of Jesus,

which means we can enter into the Holy Place wherever

we are. It's not just I know of who that is,

it's I know him. I have a relationship with him.

And that was made possible by the Blood of Jesus.

Thank you God. The blood redeems us from our past

one Peter eighteen nineteen. Knowing that you were ransomed not

with perishal things such as silver or gold, but with

the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb,

without blemish or spot. Guys, you were purchased with something

that is so so so valuable. The past does not

own you anymore. The blood has paid the price, and

you belong to God. It's like silip bang okay bang,

and the dirt is gone. Like it's true bang and

the dirt is gone. You belong to Jesus. He's redeemed

you from your past. And every time the enemy wants

to remind you of your past, say no, I belong

to Jesus. I plead the blood of Jesus over my life.

The blood reconciles and brings unity in Ephesians two fourteen

to sixteen says this, but he himself is our peace.

For he himself is our peace, who has made both

one and has broken down the middle wall of separation,

having abolished in his flesh the enmity, that is the

law of the commandments contained in audiences, so as to

create in himself one new man from the two fast

making peace, and that he might reconcile them both to

God in one body through the cross, thereby putting death

to the enmity. Guys, he brings unity from us to God,

but also between each other. How is that possible? It's

not humanly possible. It's through the blood of Jesus. It's

through the blood of Jesus. And I don't know if

you guys have watched done the Alpha course before you guys,

done the Alpha course before you know the story of

Corey Tembu, who was a Jewish lady. She was in

auschwitzen and she was now preaching. She survived, but the

rest of her family passed away, and she survived the Holocaust,

and she was speaking at a Christian meeting and she

realized that one of the guards who used the guard

in Auschwitz was I think it was Ashwitz, but was

sitting and maybe it's rather than anyway, that's a side point,

But were sitting in the audience, and she felt in

that moment that she could not forgive him for all

the things that he had done. But he came up

to her, he said, I become a Christian, and I'm

so sorry for all the things that I've done wrong.

In that moment, she put her hand and shook his hand,

and she felt the love of Jesus course through her body.

That she could not forgive him in her own strength,

but the blood of Jesus, which brings unity to brokenness,

could forgive him, and that the forgiveness could flow through her.

So the question is for you guys in this community,

is the blood of Jesus bring you together? Because the

blood of Jesus is powerful, It's powerful enough to bring

us together from things of brokenness. The blood establishes a

new covenant. One Corinthians eleven twenty five says this, this

cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this

as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

He's established a new covenant. Not based on your performance,

not based on whether you're cool, enough, Not based on

whether you just called Rob, because otherwise me and Rob

would be in business, not based on anything like that,

based on him, based on what he did on the cross.

And it's a promise that can never be broken. It's

not a promise maybe from a family member where they're like,

oh yeah, I really promise that I'll take out the

bins and they don't take out the bins. It's a

true promise. It's a promise that is secure. It's not

a promise that the humans break. It is a promise

that will never break. Thank you Jesus. We've got a

couple more. Does that sounded good? I just love reading them.

Doesn't it make you excited? Like this is our inheritance? Friends?

This is so cool. Anyway, here we go. The blood

gives us identity and authority. Revelation one five to six

says to him who loves us and has freed us

from our sins by his blood and made us a

kingdom of priests, him to God and to the Father. Wow,

the blood doesn't just cleanse us, it gives us a

new identity. We are no longer slaves. We are kings

and priests. You have authority because of his blood to

stamp on the head of the enemy. I don't know

if you guys think about yourselves as princes and princesses

in the kingdom. You know you're wearing heavenly robes, not

to be flash and to make other people feel not

as good. But you're wearing heavenly rose. When you were

covered by the blood of Jesus, he gave you kingdomly robes.

You're not wearing sackcloth anymore. You're not wearing things that

will perish. You're wearing something that's eternal, that glows with

radiance of Jesus. So you've got to see yourself as royalty.

Do you see yourself as royalty? Got to see yourself

as royalty. The blood redeems people from every tribe and

tongue Revelation in five nine, and they sang a new

song saying you are worthy to take up the scroll

and to open its sells, for you were slain and

have redeemed us to God by your blood out of

every tribe and tongue and people and nation. The blood

is for everyone. There's no race excluded, there's no nation excluded.

Just how you got your flags up everybody. It's not

for one particular people group. The blood is sufficient for all.

It's more than able for every human being. And his

heart is for every person to be reconciled to himself.

Isn't that a beautiful truth. It's a beautiful truth. And finally,

the blood gives us the victory. Come on, the blood

gives us the victory. Revelation twelve eleven. It says this,

And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb

and by the word of their destiny. And they did

not love their lives to the death. Praise God, Praise God.

There is victory with the blood of Jesus. The enemy

is defeated. It's not by our strength, by an effort.

But when we call upon the blood of Jesus, things

change in our lives. Things changes in our lives. We've

got to thank him for his blood. So the blood

of Jesus, it brings forgiveness, justification, cleansing, access to God, freedom, restoration, covenant, identity, unity, victory. Guys,

the blood of Jesus is so precious, and we must

ponder it. We must think about it. From the beginning,

God declared that there is life in the blood. And

when Jesus shed his blood. He wasn't just dying, he

was giving his life so that we could live. His

blood is restoring all that has been lost. It's restored

so much in my life, and I know it's restored

so much in your life. But there might have been

an aspect that I've read just then, forgiveness or access

to God or covenant identity, where actually, even though you

know Jesus, you don't feel that you're walking in the

full freedom of it. And there's a call today to

ask Holy Spirit for a revelation of the blood, for

a revelation of what the blood means to you in

your life. The bood of Jesus is not just symbolic.

It's the foundation of our faith, foundation of that salvation moment,

but it's also the foundation of our everyday walk with Jesus.

So I wonder if you want to just close your eyes.

I'm just going to pray and maybe invite the band

to come up as well. Who are going to lead

us in a song? I'm going to pray, But afterwards

I love us to respond in an only son to

die for us, that the author of life himself would

spill his blood so that we could have life. I

thank you Jesus for that truth. And so right now

I just plead the blood of Jesus over this family,

for your protection, for your heart, for your love. Jesus,

I pray, Father, I just pray you'd reveal to them

that you are, that they are precious, and that you

see them as princes and princesses, not as slaves, but

you see them as free. So Father, I just pray

this morning in that they would know their identity in you. Jesus.

We thank you so much for your blood. We praise

your God. Amen. So before we sing, is it all

right if you go into the two and just pray

for one another? Is that okay? That sound good? And

then we'll sing together,