Refresh
A Recap from Sunday’s Sermon

Preaching Text: Hebrews 9:11-22

The centrality of the Cross is explicitly seen in Hebrews 9:22, “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.”  It is a gift of grace that God pays our penalty in our place with the death of his own son. 

Forgiveness always demands a fee, which God willingly pays for us.

Blood is a scriptural way of speaking to the life of a person.  The result of our sin against God is death (Gen. 2:17).  Romans summarizes it this way:  All have sinned (Rom. 3:23)… and the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23).  The word “sin” is not heard much today.  It’s mostly used in a playful manner suggesting adventurous mischief as being harmless.  But Scripture uses it to refer to our willful departure from known standards of what is right.  Such trespassing and disregard for God’s law incurs wrath and judgment and leads to death.   

Whereas the Old Covenant was inadequate to fully address our sin problem, Jesus’ sacrificial death was offered in heaven with his very own blood and once-for-all-time.  He is indeed greater!  What it does for us is “purify our conscience from dead works to serve the Living God” (v.14).  Christ’s blood does the work we needed but could not do for ourselves.  It therefore goes to our conscience and sets us free to serve God out of gratitude rather than being motivated by earning favor. In Christ, we already have all we need. We can now forgive others and bear witness to the God who shows his love by dying for us while we were still sinners (see Rom. 5:8).

Taking it home:  The Good News of Jesus’ sacrificial death must be shared with others.  Our church uses the Alpha Course as a tool for sharing. Please join the congregation in praying for 3 people over the next month, that God would open up an opportunity for you to invite them to Alpha starting Sept. 8.