Allen Jackson - When We See Jesus - Part 2
I wanna give you a tool. Revelation chapter 12 and verse 11. You have it in your outlines. Says, «They overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony». And I put in your notes some parenthetical insertions, some words in parenthesis that help amplify that verse just a bit. «They (the believers on the earth) overcame him (Satan) by the Blood of the Lamb (that’s Jesus) and by the word of their testimony». Or if I just said it in good Southern vernacular, (that is, they testified to what the Word of God says about the blood of Jesus). Do you remember the Exodus story, the last night the Hebrew slaves spent in Egypt? All the plagues, all the expressions of the power of God and it hadn’t changed the hearts of Pharaoh or the people. They weren’t about to release the Hebrew slaves. And God told Moses to tell the Hebrews to take a lamb and to prepare the lamb.
They gave him specific instructions on how to prepare the food. The bread was to have no yeast because it didn’t have time to rise, but they were just to catch the blood of the lamb in a basin and to use hyssop, a common weed in the region. And to put some of the blood on the doorpost of the house because God said that night death was gonna pass through the land of Egypt and on every house where their blood was on the doorpost, they would be spared, but where that blood was not on the doorpost of the house, the first born in every house would die. Whether it was a man, a woman, or even an animal, God said. Death rolled through the land of Egypt that night and the only people spared were the people with the blood on the doorpost of their house. Do you think there was anybody in the Hebrew community that didn’t participate? I promise. I promise.
And the next morning, there was so much grief, so much fear that they literally drove the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt. They gave them their gold and their silver. Well, that’s the imagery that’s being used in Revelation. It’s the blood on the doorpost of the house except it says we overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb. We don’t put it on the doorframe of our house any longer, we apply it to the circumstances of our lives with the word of our testimony. It’s not enough to have a Bible. It’s not even enough to have committed to the memory or read it to know what it says. We have to give application of that truth with the authority of our words. You know, your words carry with them a spiritual authority. I know you know that. You’ve been wounded by things people have said. You know, we learned a little phrase as kids, «Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me».
It’s not true. It’s not true. Well, if it’s true in the negative, I assure you it’s true in the positive. You can say what the Word of God has said about you and it will bring freedom and liberty to your life. So I’m gonna give you some verses of Scripture and then I’m gonna give you a proclamation, a profession of faith that is a summary statement of those verses of Scripture. And whatever challenges you’re facing tonight, I’m gonna show you through the Word of God, the victory that is ours through the blood of Jesus. But in order to realize that, to live in that, you’ve got to be willing to give expression to it. Let’s walk through it, and then I’ll give you some hints on how to put it into practice.
Ephesians 1:7 says, «In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace». In Psalm 107, «Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy». Don’t just say, «Let the redeemed of the Lord believe in their redeemer». Says, «Let the redeemed of the Lord say so». I think church and worship and the people of God should be respectful. I think an expression of the fear of God, a reverence for God should be a part of when we’re together, but I don’t understand that to mean we’re timid. «Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,» the Psalmist said.
So I take those three verses and I testify to what the word of God says the blood of Jesus does for me. Through the blood of Jesus, I am redeemed out of the hand of the devil. Through the blood of Jesus, all my sins are forgiven, amen? I can’t accomplish any of those things for myself. The only possible way they can be descriptive of Allen is if, by faith, I receive what Jesus accomplished for me through his shed blood. I want to invite you to make those three statements with me. We can just read them together if you would like. Are you ready? In your outdoor voice. «I testify to what the Word of God says the blood of Jesus does for me; Through the blood of Jesus, I am redeemed out of the hand of the devil; Through the blood of Jesus, all my sins are forgiven».
That’s a good beginning. Let’s not stop there. 1 John 1:7, «If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin». I don’t do a lot of word studies with you. I can put you to sleep without them. But there is a bit of a grammatical component in that verse that is helpful. The verbs in that verse are in the continuing present tense. So if we wanted to read it in the most literal expression, you would say if we walk and continue to walk in the light. And if we fellowship or if we continue in fellowship with one another, then the blood of Jesus Christ his Son continually cleanses us from all sin. In order to be cleansed, we have to walk in the light and we have to stay in fellowship.
There were many destructive aspects of the COVID craziness, but one of them was the lie that emerged that it’s not important for the people of faith to be together. I understand we can learn in many ways. I’m grateful for all the digital technology and all the ways we can communicate. What we’ll do on our campus this weekend will be shared in the nations of the world. I’m very thankful for that. But there is something that cannot be replaced with being in the midst of people of faith saying yes to the Lord. And if you have settled for a digital worship service, I’m grateful for the opportunity, but I want to encourage you to find a community of people. It’s not just my imagination. I just read it to you. I’m gonna read it again. «If we will continually walk in the light, as he is in the light, and if we will continue in fellowship with one another, then the blood of Jesus will continually cleanse us from all sin».
Now, let me caution you. Somebody say, «Well, I don’t believe that». I appreciate that God has given us free choice, but a part of learning to live out discipleship is to submit to the authority of Scripture. For far too long in the contemporary church, we have been told we can stand apart from Scripture and we can judge it. I want to invite you to a different posture. When you read your Bible, let it judge you. Let it evaluate you and your behavior. Sometimes it’s uncomfortable, sometimes it’s even unpleasant, but if you will let the Word of God read you while you read it, it will change completely the trajectory of your life. It’ll bring the power of God to bear in your life. It’ll move you from a theoretical Christianity to a transformed experience. So the proclamation from that is the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, continually cleanses me from all sin.
Now, the assumption in that, and I know the fallacy of that, is that we are walking in the light and we are maintaining fellowship. But can we make that sentence a proclamation together? «The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, continually cleanses me from all sin». Now look at Romans 5:9, «Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him». If you’re doing the Bible reading with us, we’re in the book of Revelation right now. Pretty intimidating book, huh? You know, the Gospels introduce us to Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
The book of Revelation introduces us to Jesus, the conquering King, returning to the earth for his people with judgment for the nations. You wanna be an early adopter and be Jesus’s friend before the scenes of revelation start to play out. Amen, pastor. And that verse in Romans tells us that we can be saved from the wrath of God. You know, I’m a bit amused. I meet Christians pretty frequently they say, you know, that they don’t like to read the Old Testament. And their attitude seems to be that the God of the New Testament is different. It’s like he got some gummies after he finished Malachi and he’s chill. Just a little laid back. That’s really bad theology, folks.
My Bible says God said, «I don’t change». And I assure you that the God of the Old Testament, the God of the Hebrew Bible, is the same God that walks through the pages of the New Testament. It’s the same Spirit of God that’s moving in the earth today that moved in Jerusalem when the Babylonians came and besieged the city. It’s the same Spirit of God in us that brought Jesus out of the grave. And it says that we can be justified by his blood. Justified or justification is something of a technical term in the New Testament. To be justified is to be acquitted. It’s to be declared not guilty. It’s more than just being forgiven. It’s having your record expunged. When we understand that we’ve been justified, you know, it changes our standing before Almighty God.
To be justified is to be made righteous, to be given the ability to stand in the presence of God without fear, guilt, or shame. And you say impossible. It’s impossible for me to stand in the presence of God that way. And I would agree it’s impossible for me, it’s an impossible for you, except for by faith in the blood of Jesus. He gave himself as a sacrifice. Why do you think those men and women were so dramatically changed when they saw a resurrected Jesus? They’d seen him walk on the water, raise the dead, make wine out of water. They’d seen him feed a multitude. They knew he was miraculous, they knew he could heal, they knew he had authority over demons and wind and waves, but when they saw him after the Resurrection, they’re never the same again.
See, I think we know Jesus in a lot of ways. We know him as a miracle worker, we may know him as a Savior. We may know he’s forgiven us. I wonder if we’ve really seen him as alive. If we imagine that he joins us for our day, that he’s interested in our thoughts. I wonder if we have the imagination that we can truly be justified. That through the blood of Jesus I am justified, made righteous, get this, just as if I’d never sinned. People don’t forget. But if you looked up my record in heaven, there’s not like a full length video of the worst chapters of Allen, hallelujah. Now we have to live that out in the world. It doesn’t expunge all the consequences for our ungodliness. It doesn’t remove the people that have been touched by our ungodly choices. Those things still populate our lives and we have to overcome. It takes courage and determination and humility and kindness and a generosity of Spirit.
A willingness on our part to repent, to not only be forgiven, but to forgive. All of those things are a component. We’ve walked with too much arrogance, too much hubris. We’ve pointed at theological principles, but we haven’t really chosen to live them out. We can be justified through the blood of Jesus, but then we have to walk through this world with the humility that knows something that has been given to us that we didn’t earn and we’ll have to respond to people with a kindness and a gentleness while they come to understand not only that they can be forgiven, but what’s happened to us because it’s unimaginable for them. It’s unimaginable for them. I wonder if we could make that statement together. «Through the blood of Jesus I am justified, made righteous, just as if I’d never sinned».
Then Hebrews 13 expands it even more. «Jesus, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate». He was crucified outside the city. It was a part of the shame and humiliation of what happened to him. And the author of Hebrews tells us that he submitted himself to that so that we might be sanctified. That’s another one of those religious words. To be sanctified means to be set apart for the purposes of God. Now, it takes some some significant determination to yield my purpose for my life to God’s purpose for my life. I’ve got some clarity on what I want. What I want to achieve, what I want to become, how much I want, this and that and the other. To be willing to say, «God, not my will be done, but your will».
I have to pray that prayer regularly. There’s seldom a week that goes past where there’s not some very real invitation put in front of me that looks pretty attractive and I have to say, «God, is this what you want? Is this what you intend»? I’m not talking about your salvation. I’m talking about your usefulness, your fruitfulness. Are we willing to be sanctified? Are you willing to have your entire life set apart for the purposes of God, or is somebody giving you a fractured gospel that you think you can make a profession of faith and then compartmentalize your life and have a little church life and a group of church friends and a church vocabulary, but then you’ve got another set of friends and another set of behaviors and another vocabulary.
Folks, that is deception. And it’s the reason the church is as anemic as it is today. It’s the reason the president of the United States, a political leader has to stand up and define marriage because the pulpits of the nation haven’t had the courage to do so. I’m grateful for a leader that will say it, but I’m ashamed that it didn’t begin, it didn’t reverberate from the churches. It should. It should. So there’s one more statement there. «Through the blood of Jesus I’m sanctified, made holy, set apart to God». Can we say it together? «Through the blood of Jesus I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God». All right, at the conclusion to this little tool kit has to do with what is within us. 1 Corinthians 3:16 says, «Do you not know»? And when the Bible says, «Don’t you know»? you know the answer. No, we really don’t. «Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you»?
We can have church outside because the Spirit of God is in us. Spirit of God didn’t dwell in the building, hallelujah. I’m grateful for the buildings. They represent something. They give us a point of reverence, a point to give expression to our faith, they’re tools, they’re helpful, but you and I are the temple of the living God. The Spirit of Almighty God dwells in you if you’re a Christ follower. It’s unthinkable. There’s no other faith in the world that would make such a claim. It’s unimaginable. It’s the great shift of the New Testament and the shift of the new covenant.
Look at 1 Peter 1:18, says, «You know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers». Peter’s not writing to a group of pagans. He’s not writing to a group of people that weren’t familiar with Scripture. He’s writing to a group of people who lived under a covenant with God. They celebrated religious holidays. They read Torah. They celebrated, they kept kosher. Their lives were filled with religious rules. And he talked to them about an empty way of life, that they had been redeemed from keeping a set of rules. Well, the New Testament describes Jesus literally walking into the slave market. Slavery proliferated in Rome.
In the Roman Empire in a public place, they would drive a spear into a beam or a wall and then they would stand somebody underneath the spear. It was understood if you were in a public place beneath the spear, you’re being sold as a slave. And the New Testament describes Jesus walking into the slave market, and there we stand, most likely naked, under the leering gaze of the assembled people, and they’re evaluating you, whether you have the strength to make a contribution. And the challenging part of this is if you’re sold as a slave, you may be sold as a slave for some noble purpose, but you may be sold as a slave for some very ignoble purpose as well. You have no determination over your future. It’s the most humiliating of places. And we’re told that Jesus walked into the slave market and said, «I’ll pay that price. I’ll redeem that individual. I’ll offer my blood, that they can be delivered from that place».
Why do we serve Jesus? So we can go to heaven? No, no, no, no. We serve Jesus because he redeemed us from an empty way of life. He paid a price to deliver us from the bondage of sin. That’s why there’s no habit that has authority over you. There’s no habit that can maintain mastery over your life. There’s no dark chapter of your past that can define your future unless you give it the permission to do so. There is a new authority in our lives. We have been redeemed from an empty way of life. There’s no disappointment. There’s no expression of failure. There’s no unexplained circumstance. There’s no expression of evil that interrupts us. All of those things are a part of the journey through time.
But we have good news through Jesus. It’s why John in Revelation 1, when he hears Jesus’s voice, his face is on the ground. Folks, we need a revelation of Jesus. I’ll read you those last three statements and then we’re gonna say them together. My body’s a temple of the Holy Spirit redeemed cleansed by the blood of Jesus. Oh, I know I look like Allen. In case you didn’t know, I’m actually a temple of the Spirit of living God. How’s that possible? Well, I’ve been redeemed and cleansed by the blood of Jesus. And here’s the good news, it’s possible for every person that will believe it. Therefore, it’s a summary word, means because of everything we’ve said so far, Satan has no place in me, no power over me through the blood of Jesus. Can we read those two sentences together? «My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, redeemed, cleansed by the blood of Jesus. Therefore, Satan has no place in me, no power over me, through the blood of Jesus».
Now, here’s my suggestion. If you’re in a battle, maybe it’s a physical battle, maybe it’s an emotional battle, maybe it’s a battle with grief or disappointment or despair. Maybe it’s a battle you just need physical strength. You’re in a season where the demands on your life are overwhelming and you need the help of Almighty God to navigate a course. The needs will be as diverse as we are people. But God’s provision is complete, entire, and irreversible, and it’s made available to us by faith in the blood of Jesus. So I would suggest if you’re in one of those places and you understand it, that you take those simple phrases that I put on your outline in bold print and you say them morning, noon, and in the evening.
I would make it my spiritual medicine. It would be my declaration of what the Word of God says about me every day. I’m not telling you it’ll change your circumstances in the first 30 minutes or even the first 30 days, but I can tell you I have lived with this, and I have seen the faithfulness of God in my life, in the lives of countless other people. Now, I’ll give you a cautionary note. God seldom resolves the challenges that I see in the way that I would have resolved them. I know you’re probably not surprised that God’s smarter than me, but it shocks me week after week after week. But I can tell you God has been faithful in responding to those prayers when I’m willing to believe what he said about me. I wonder if we could close by making those statements that are in bold in your outlines together. You think you could do that? Can we stand for that? I didn’t have enough room to consolidate it on your outlines, so you’re gonna have to be like piece of cake. You’re ready?
I testify to what the Word of God says the blood of Jesus does for me; Through the blood of Jesus, I am redeemed out of the hand of the devil; Through the blood of Jesus, all my sins are forgiven; The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, continually cleanses me from all sin; Through the blood of Jesus I am justified, made righteous, just as if I’d never sinned. Through the blood of Jesus I am sanctified, made holy, set apart to God; My body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, redeemed, cleansed by the blood of Jesus; Therefore, Satan has no place in me, no power over me, through the blood of Jesus. Amen, hallelujah.