1. For our Jewish friends, the Passover begins tomorrow evening.
2. Exodus 12:13 says, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you."

Christ our Redeemer died on the cross,
Died for the sinner, paid all his due.
All who receive Him need never fear,
Yes, He will pass, will pass over you.

When I see the blood, when I see the blood,
When I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you.

Judgment is coming, all will be there.
Who have rejected, who have refused?
Oh, sinner, hasten, let Jesus in,
Oh, He will pass, will pass over you.

O great compassion! O boundless love!
Jesus hath power, Jesus is true;
All who believe are safe from the storm,
Oh, He will pass, will pass over you. -- John G. Foote

3. As Christians we understand the Passover prefigured the Lord Jesus Christ, who shed His precious blood as our Passover Lamb. All those Old Testament sacrifices and offerings were only types and shadows, till the Lord Jesus came.
4. His blood was the reality to which these types pointed.
5. The blood of goats and calves and lambs had temporary value, but the blood of Christ has infinite value.
6. Hebrews 10:4 says, "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins."
7. Hebrews 9:12 says, "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us."
8. Seven hundred years before the cross, Isaiah the prophet said, "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter."
9. John the Baptist introduced the Lord Jesus Christ in John 1:29 by saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."
10. The apostle Paul said, "For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us" (I Cor. 5:7). The atoning efficacy of our Lord's sufferings was in His shed blood. There is power in the blood.
11. Colossians 1:14 says, "In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins."
12. The Bible teaches that we are reconciled to God through the blood (Ephesians 1:7).
13. We are cleansed from our sins through the blood (I John 1:7).
14. Revelation 1:5 says Jesus "washed us from our sins in his own blood."
15. We are justified by his blood (Romans 5:9). Every believer in Christ is already justified in Christ's blood. This means our sins are put away and we are regarded as if we had never sinned. Justification means that we are reckoned positively righteous. Even the perfect righteousness of Christ is put to our account.
16. We are sanctified through the blood (Hebrews 13:12).
17. We have victory over sin and victory over Satan through the blood (Revelation 12:11).

I. THERE IS POWER IN THE BLOOD

Would you be free from the burden of sin?
There’s power in the blood, power in the blood;
Would you o’er evil a victory win?
There’s wonderful power in the blood.

There is power, power, wonder working power
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is power, power, wonder working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb. -- Lewis E. Jones

1. We sing this but do we really understand it? Have you experienced this "wonder working power" in your life?
2. To understand the power of the blood, we should go back to Leviticus 17:11, which says, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul."
3. Jews today celebrate the Passover, but there is no blood!
4. To commemorate the Passover without the blood would be like commemorating Easter without the resurrection.
5. Many years ago I read an interesting tract. This tract is still widely circulated. It was written by the great preacher H.A. Ironside. It is entitled, "A Hebrew's Search for the Blood of Atonement."
6. Back in 1898, H.A. Ironside was preaching at a Jewish mission in San Francisco. One night, he asked if any one had any questions or comments. An elderly Jewish man stood up and gave his testimony.
7. He was born in Palestine in 1828, attended the synagogue regularly, and learned the ancient Hebrew language from the rabbis.
8. But as he kept reading the law and the psalms and the prophets (what we Christians refer to as the Old Testament), he was struck by the emphasis on blood. "For it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul" (Lev. 17:11).
9. He said to the group assembled that night: “This is Passover week among you, my Jewish brethren, and as I sat here, I was thinking how you will be observing it. You will have put away all leaven from your houses; you will eat the ‘motsah’ (unleavened wafers) and the roasted lamb. You will attend the synagogue services and carry out the ritual and directions of the Talmud, but you forget, my brethren, that you have everything but that which Jehovah required first of all. He did not say, ‘When I see the leaven put away, or when I see you eat the motsah, or the lamb, or go to the synagogue,’ but His word was, ‘When I see the blood, I will pass over you’ (Exodus 12:13). Ah, my brethren, you can substitute nothing for this. You must have blood, blood, BLOOD!”
10. And yet there is no blood today in the Jewish ceremonies and rituals. This elderly Jewish man then said these words, "I knew I had broken the law. I needed atonement. Year after year, on the Day of Atonement, I beat my breast as I confessed my need of it; but atonement can only be by blood and there was no blood."
11. This Jewish man was greatly distressed. He went to his rabbi, but the rabbi’s words brought no peace to his troubled soul. So he consulted many other rabbis, and to each one he asked the same question, "Where can I find the blood of atonement?" None of them could answer his question.
12. At the age of 30, this man moved to Constantinople, where in the providence of God he attended a meeting of converted Jews and heard the Gospel. In fact, as soon as he walked into the room and took a seat he heard these words, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin."
13. This Jewish man finally found what he was looking for – peace with God through the shed blood of the sinless Son of God.
14. There indeed is power in the blood of Christ! There is redemptive power in the blood of Christ. There is cleansing power in the blood of Christ.
15. It is powerful because it is the very blood of God (cf. Acts 20:28).
16. Andrew Murray said, "The eternal life of the Godhead was carried in that blood (Acts 20:28). The power of that blood in its divers effects is nothing less than the eternal power of God Himself. What a glorious thought for everyone who desires to experience the full power of the blood."
17. In obedience to the will of God the Father, our Lord poured out His soul unto death. By that death on the cross, not only was the penalty for sin borne, but the law was satisfied, and the Father was glorified.
18. Our Lord's blood atoned for sin, and thus sin was made powerless. When Christ died on the cross as our Substitute, He not only delivered us from the penalty of sin (hell), but also from the power of sin.
19. That is why the blood of Christ is powerful!
20. It is powerful because of our Wonderful Saviour whose blood was shed.

Christ has for sin atonement made
What a wonderful Savior!
We are redeemed, the price is paid
What a wonderful Savior!

What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus!
What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord!

I praise Him for the cleansing blood
What a wonderful Savior!
That reconciled my soul to God
What a wonderful Savior!  -- Elisha A. Hoffman

21. And powerful because of the wonderful way in which it was shed, fulfilling the law of God, while satisfying its just demands!

II. WHAT HAS THAT POWER ACCOMPLISHED?

1. Our Lord came to earth to die on the cross for our sins. The apostle Paul said, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief" (I Timothy 1:15).
2. Our Lord's shed blood had satisfied the law and righteousness of God, and it was through the virtue of the blood, that God raised up Jesus from the dead.
3. When our Lord suffered and died on that cruel cross, he defeated the devil (Hebrews 2:14-18).
4. "Destroyed" in Hebrews 2:14 means our Lord has overcome the power of sin, and brought it to naught.
5. Death was defeated, and the sting of death has been removed (I Cor. 15:55-58).
6. The devil is a defeated foe. The devil had the power of death, but he was defeated at the cross. James 4:7 says, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
7. Our Lord's blood had destroyed the power of death, the devil, and hell. Andrew Murray said, "Where the blood is, there the resurrection power of God gives entrance into eternal life. The blood has made a complete end of all the power of death, and hell; its effects surpass all human thought."
8. Romans 5:10 says, "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."
9. In the Old Testament, God's manifested presence was inside the veil. The veil separated the holy place and the most holy. No power of man could remove that veil.
10. The high priest alone could enter there, but only with blood, or the loss of his own life.
11. The high priest could only go into the holy of holies once a year, on the Day of Atonement.
12. That was a picture of the power of sin in the flesh, which separates us from God. The eternal righteousness of God guarded the entrance to the most holy place, that no flesh might approach Him.
13. But something supernatural happened when our Lord died on the cross. Matthew 27:50 and 51 says, "Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom."
14. The veil of the temple was torn "from the top to the bottom."
15. Not from the bottom to the top, but "from the top to the bottom."
16. This signifies that no man could do this. This signifies that God did it. He tore the veil of temple in two from top to bottom.
17. This happened right around the time when the priests were entering the holy place for their evening service. What terror must have come over them when they saw the invisible hand of God tear down the veil!
18. The torn veil means no more sacrifice for sin, no more priests, no more ritualism, and no more Judaism, etc.
19. The great Jewish historian Josephus said the veil in the temple was thirty feet high and that two teams of oxen could not have torn it.
20. Only God could tear it, and He did.
21. Now our Lord appears, not in a material temple, but is seated by the right hand of God the Father in the true temple up in heaven.
22. Hebrews 12 refers to some of the glorious things that we will see in heaven such as the heavenly Jerusalem, and an innumerable company of angels, and then in Hebrews 12:24 -- "and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel."
23. That "blood of sprinkling" refers to the blood of Christ. First Peter 1:2 refers to the "sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ."
24. In that great Messianic prophecy, Isaiah said, "So shall he sprinkle many nations" (Isa. 52:15).
25. Andrew Murray says it is "through the blood that the throne of grace remains settled in heaven."

III. THE POWER OF THE BLOOD APPROPRIATED BY FAITH

1. Romans 3:25 says, "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood..."
2. This can be traced all throughout Scripture. The Israelites escaped the judgment of God when they applied the blood to their lintel and two door posts (Ex. 12:22).
3. If they did not apply the blood they would not be saved.
4. Down at the cross where my Savior died,
   Down where for cleansing from sin I cried,
   There to my heart was the blood applied;
   Glory to His Name! -- Elisha A. Hoffman
5. Way back in Genesis 4 we see that "the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect" (Genesis 4:4, 5), because Cain brought a bloodless sacrifice.
6. The blood must be appropriated by faith. We see this illustrated in Exodus 12:3-5.
7. In Exodus 12:3 we see "a lamb." Then in verse 4 it is "the lamb." And then in verse 5 it is "your lamb."
8. "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17). Faith is largely dependent on knowledge of the Word of God.
9. I could give many examples of Scripture to illustrate this, but for now consider the words of the apostle Paul in Ephesians 1:6. The Lord Jesus Christ "hath made us accepted in the beloved."
10. That is a wonderful thought -- we are "accepted in the beloved."
11. But how?
12. The next verse, Ephesians 1:7, says, "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace."

CONCLUSION:

I will conclude with some words from the great evangelist R.A. Torrey.

There are some today who are trying to devise a theology that leaves out the blood of Christ. Poor fools! Christianity without atoning blood is a Christianity without mercy for the sinner, without settled peace for the conscience, without genuine forgiveness, without justification, without cleansing, without boldness in approaching God, without power. It is not Christianity, but the devil's own counterfeit. If we would know fullness and power in Christian life and service, we must first of all know the power of the blood of Christ, for it is that which brings us pardon, justification, and boldness in our approach to God. We cannot know the power of the Spirit unless we first know the power of the blood. We certainly cannot know the power of prayer unless we know the power of that blood by which alone we can approach unto God.

To everyone who wishes to know the power of the Spirit we first put the question, "Do you know the power of the blood?"