He has risen! Jesus is alive. A happy Easter to you all. I pray you and your family had a blessed Easter Sunday. Thank you for reading.
The Easter story, the good news of Jesus Christ, is a bloody story. Over the last couple of months I have opened each sermon with comments about why everything in our lives is all about Jesus. I can even be more specific, especially today, for as it is all about Jesus, it is even more so, all about Jesus’ blood. It is all about the blood of Jesus Christ.
Whenever I preach on the blood of Christ, I always, in one way or another, reference a book by Rev. M.R. DeHaan M.D. I will paraphrase from Rev. DeHaan’s book, The Chemistry of the Blood. I highly recommend this book for personal study. Though old, it is still on Amazon. Acts 17:24-26a KJV,
“God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth…”
Remember, it is all about the blood of Jesus. This one statement at the end of that passage is key for us today to begin, and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.
The one thing that relates all of mankind to one another is the blood that flows in their veins. All of mankind is of one blood and that one blood originated with Adam, in the garden.
The Life is in the blood. Capital L, meaning eternal life, and this is confirmed in scripture. The wages of sin is death; therefore sin affected the blood of Adam and caused him to die. Because all of our blood, the entirety of mankind’s blood, no exceptions, is also affected by Adam’s sin, it can only be cleansed by the application of sinless blood, it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life (Leviticus 17:11).
As Adam’s sin corrupted the blood of the entire human family, so the pure sinless blood of the last Adam, the Son of Man, our Deliverer, our Redeemer, our Savior, Jesus Christ, only his sinless blood can make an atonement for the sin of the world. For without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22).
There is one, and only one remedy for the sin contained in all of our blood, and that remedy is sinless blood, and only One could supply this sinless blood, the sinless Son of God, Jesus Christ.
So, our life is all about our blood. For without our blood flowing there is no life for any of us. And so, our eternal life, Life with a capital L, is all about the sinless blood of Jesus Christ flowing for our forgiveness through our veins.
Our Life is all about the flowing blood of Jesus Christ. For this reason, Jesus must die. John 19:38-42,
“Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.”
The blood of our Savior Jesus is sinless blood, and therefore it is incorruptible, for sin is what brings corruption, and where no sin exists there is no corruption. Although the dead body of Jesus lay in the tomb for three days and nights, no corruption entered it for that body contained incorruptible blood. Just a little while earlier, Jesus’ close friend Lazarus, being dead only one more day, was said by his sister to be stinking with corruption. However, Jesus’ body saw no corruption because the only cause of corruption, sinful blood, was absent from him.
While Jesus’ body lies in rest, there are political machinations taking place. Matthew 27:62-66,
“The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. ‘Sir’, “ they said, ‘we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.’”
“‘Take a guard,’ Pilate answered. ‘Go, make the tomb secure as you know how.’ So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.”
Pilate had granted their request. About thirty Roman soldiers went to seal the tomb after Christ’s body was placed in the tomb by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. They then rolled a two-ton stone in front of the opening to physically seal the tomb. Who would be able to move that stone?
Then, to officially seal the tomb, they place the Roman seal with the official wax and markings of Rome. In a way, this seal was more difficult to break than the stone was to roll away. Just defacing or messing around with the seal was a high crime punishable by death.
The guards also valued the integrity of that seal as if their lives depended on it. Because their lives did depend on that seal remaining untouched. Pilate had assigned one of his most trusted guards, Petronius, to be in charge of this assignment. His team was experienced, well trained, hardened killers, highly motivated to guard the seal and the tomb. Failure meant death by fire. Matthew 28:1-10,
“After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.”
“The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him. Now I have told you.’” So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. ‘Greetings,’ he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.’”
Jesus had risen, just as he said he would. I can just imagine women’ s excitement, thrill even, at being the ones to carry the news to everyone that Jesus was not dead. He was Alive! He was Alive! The tomb was empty.
But there is more to the story. Background inside information related to the Guards, the Pharisees, and Pilate. The worst had happened, from their point of view. Jesus’ body (they still assumed he was dead) had been misplaced. How do you lose a body under a Roman seal with a Roman guard, Pilate’s best and most reliable commander? Matthew 28:11-15,
“While the women were on their way, some of the guards went to the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, ‘You are to say, his disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.”
Jesus is alive, and all the Pharisees can do about it, is to make up a cover story for the guards about someone stealing Jesus’ body. In thirty days’ time, there will be hundreds of testimonies of people seeing and hearing Jesus.
But what the Pharisees think or do or say really does not matter anymore. They are now on the wrong side of history and of truth. Just like Satan, who has to now be apoplectic. Thinking that he was so close to destroying Jesus, he now has lost everything. He has lost. His eternal destiny is hell and damnation. He was so close…he thought he was so close.
But he really wasn’t close at all. The reason? It’s the blood of Jesus Christ, that’s why. The Pharisees and the guards and Pilate do not matter. They are just part of the story.
It’s all about the blood. The blood is what really matters. It mattered in the garden as Jesus created man. It matters now, on April 20th, 2025, when sinful men and women declare their faith in Jesus Christ. What the Pharisees and all the rest of Satan’s evil menagerie of characters throughout history have tried to accomplish always ends in failure. Satan can be powerful, if you let him by allowing him to tempt you. Do not ever make a deal with the Devil.
Yet, when we sin, all we have to do is plead the blood of Jesus. That’s all we need.
What ever happened to Jesus’ blood?
Every drop of blood which flowed in Jesus’ body is still in existence and is just as fresh as it was when it flowed from his wounded brow and hands and feet and side. The blood that flowed from his unbroken skin in Gethsemane, the blood that was smeared as his flesh was ripped by the floggings he received, the blood that oozed out from under the thorny crown upon his head, and that which flowed from his hands, his head, and his feet was never destroyed. His blood was incorruptible.
After Christ had made the atonement, he arose from the tomb, and then, as the eternal High Priest, ascended into heaven to present the blood in the Holy of Holies where God dwells, and that blood is there today, pleading for us and testifying for us. Revelation 12:10-11,
“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much to shrink from death.”
This refers to the nation of Israel in the Tribulation, but it applies just as well to us today. Satan is the accuser of the brethren. He brings charges against us before God, and, to be sure, there are plenty of charges to be made. But when he comes before God to accuse us, there is One there, our great High Priest, the Lamb of God, and all he needs to do is point to the blood that was shed for us AND IT IS ENOUGH! No, Their sins are covered by my blood.
When Satan accuses us, there is only one answer: They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. Do you need this blood today?
If so, there was one son of man, who gave his sinless blood on the Cross of Calvary. There a blood bank was opened up for all of mankind. Into this blood bank went the blood of Jesus Christ. It suits all men and women and is available for free to all who will submit to its “transfusion” by the Holy Spirit. All you need to do is apply for it by your faith in Christ. It will never spoil, it will never fade, it will never lose its power. It is sinless and it is incorruptible.
Jesus is alive. He has risen. The tomb is empty. Hallelujah for the blood of our Lamb Jesus Christ!
Let us plead the blood now for those in need. Please read and agree with the following prayer.
Heavenly Father,
I thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ. I want today to plead the blood of Jesus . I know that Jesus died for my sins on the cross. I am sorry for my sins. Please wash me in the blood of the Lamb of God, your Son Jesus. Please forgive my sins and make me white as snow. I pray for your salvation, through my faith in Jesus as my Savior and Lord of all. Help me to go forth and live for Jesus, guided by your Holy Spirit. I love you, Lord. Thank you for hearing my prayer. Amen.
Do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God.