A Glad Day, Not a Sad Day: The Seven Places Jesus Bled

Sermon outline

Good Friday is a day of celebration, because the blood Jesus shed still carries power, and believers overcome by that blood and by the word of their testimony.

1. They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony

   The apostles and prophets faced many challenges but overcame. That is why believers make proclamations, declarations and confessions: we overcome Satan by the blood and by testifying personally to what the blood has done for us. We are a royal priesthood and carriers of God's presence, so we must speak life over our children, households and church.

   “So what you speak is important.”

   • Revelation 12:11
   • 1 Peter 2:9
   • Proverbs 18:21

2. A revelation of the righteousness of God

   Because he came to Christ only in his early twenties from a different background, he had to receive a revelation of righteousness. It is not something we earn by right living, good and necessary as that is, but God's own nature imparted when we receive Christ. So we don't judge people; we pray for them and commend them to God's grace.

   Illustration: Working in the secular world, he once liked a good pair of shoes in a shop but bought another pair he didn't like, at about the same price, because he thought humility meant what you wear.

   “The righteousness of God is not something that we do by right living.”

3. The seven places where Jesus shed His blood

   He traces the seven places: sweating great drops of blood in Gethsemane, being struck in the face at the high priest's house, having His beard plucked, being scourged in Pilate's courts, the crown of thorns, being nailed to the cross, and the spear in His side that brought out blood and water. Then He cried out to God and gave up His spirit.

   Illustration: The Romans mocked Him as a king by forcing a crown of thorns onto His head, so that blood poured down His beard.

   • Luke 22:44
   • Isaiah 50:6
   • John 19:1
   • John 19:2
   • John 19:34
   • Matthew 27:46

4. We serve a living Christ

   Even the disciples thought the cross was the end, but the tomb was empty. He teaches that Jesus' body went to the tomb, His spirit to the Father and His soul to Hades, where He freed the righteous of the Old Testament. The church has the eternal hope of being transformed to glory.

   Illustration: He is glad he did not grow up as a Christian, because it helped him understand what it means to be saved and translated from darkness into light.

   “We don't serve a prophet that's dead. We don't serve an image. We serve a living Christ.”

5. Jesus took it all on the cross

   When Jesus was nailed to the cross He took our poverty and our sickness, so we are not people who need to suffer. The Lord who heals is a continuous present, so we keep walking in God's health, wealth and blessing, and our generations are blessed as Abraham's seed. Religious spirits keep a form but miss the power of God; we walk in His power.

   Illustration: A story from a book about two pastors driving together: one asked why the other seldom prayed for the sick, and he answered that he teaches his people how to walk in health.

   “We're not kind of people that need to suffer.”

   • Exodus 15:26
   • Galatians 3:29
   • 2 Timothy 3:5