Transcript LOVE WRITTEN IN BLOOD A Valentine's Day Sermon LOVE WRITTEN IN BLOOD A Valentine's Day Sermon Introduction I have heard the true story of.

LOVE WRITTEN IN BLOOD
A Valentine's Day Sermon
LOVE WRITTEN IN BLOOD
A Valentine's Day Sermon
Introduction
I have heard the true story of a young broken hearted man
who wrote a letter to his fiancée in blood. It is said that he
died after writing the letter.
The story of this lover and his message written in his own
blood is a moving one, especially at this time in which we
celebrate human love, Valentine's Day. There is another
moving love story written in blood, one I want you to consider
now. That love is the love of Jesus Christ for a lost world.
LOVE WRITTEN IN BLOOD
A Valentine's Day Sermon
I. Christ’s blood pictures God’s love
“Now my soul is greatly distressed. And what should I say? ‘Father,
deliver me from this hour’? No, but for this very reason I have
come to this hour.” (John 12:27)
A. Christ's death shows us love's duty
I. Christ did not reject the cross, rather he awaited it.
II. When duty calls, that is when character counts
III. So many have failed in their hour of greatest testing, but not
Christ.
IV. Because He loved us
LOVE WRITTEN IN BLOOD
A Valentine's Day Sermon
“…For the joy set out for him he endured the cross, disregarding its
shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of
God..” (Hebrews 12:2)
B. Christ's death shows us love's determination
I. To endure means to “abide patiently”
II. The phrase "set before him" is one word in the Greek and means
"to be placed in the line of sight.“
III. Saw the 'joy,' the "occasion of gladness" yet future and it helped
Him press on with determination
IV. Jesus’ purpose was nothing less than to die for sinners (Matthew
16:21:23)
LOVE WRITTEN IN BLOOD
A Valentine's Day Sermon
“that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because
you have been rooted and grounded in love, you may be able to
comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and
height and depth…” (Ephesians 3:17-19)
C. Christ's death shows us love's depths
I. How far will a person go for love?
II. Hosea was an Old Testament prophet who modeled the love of
God for His people. His wife "played the whore" time and time
again. His children were fathered by other men, yet still he
stayed with her.
III. Jesus doesn't quit us no matter how we treat Him. That’s the
depth of His love.
LOVE WRITTEN IN BLOOD
A Valentine's Day Sermon
II. Christ’s blood proves God’s love
“For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only
Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but
have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
A. There was a legal requirement, (Hebrews 9:22)
I.
Someone said, "You can give without loving, but you can never
love without giving.
II. In the days of Moses, There were ordinances and commands to
sacrifice lambs, bulls, goats, rams, turtledoves, etc.
III. In the Garden of Eden, after the humans' sin, God killed an
animal and skinned to provide a covering for Adam and Eve.
IV. Later He sent His begotten son
LOVE WRITTEN IN BLOOD
A Valentine's Day Sermon
“For the law possesses a shadow of the good things to come but not
the reality itself, and is therefore completely unable, by the same
sacrifices offered continually, year after year, to perfect those who
come to worship. For otherwise would they not have ceased to be
offered, since the worshipers would have been purified once for all
and so have no further consciousness of sin? But in those sacrifices
there is a reminder of sins year after year. For the blood of bulls and
goats cannot take away sins….” (Hebrews 10:1-6)
B. There was a lengthy wait
I.
God allowed the sacrifice of animals all through the Old
Testament period as a picture of the sacrifice to come.
II. He had to take a long time to teach his people.
III. Sacrifices were just a teaching aid not the real sacrifice
LOVE WRITTEN IN BLOOD
A Valentine's Day Sermon
“Then he says, “Here I am: I have come to do your will.” He does
away with the first to establish the second. By his will we have
been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ
once for all. And every priest stands day after day serving and
offering the same sacrifices again and again – sacrifices that can
never take away sins…” (Hebrews 10:9-14)
C. There was a lengthy payment
I. It cost Christ His life and God His son to fulfill the old system
II. We are not made whole by animal sacrifices any more.
III. The blood of Jesus Christ has set us free from sin once and for
all.
LOVE WRITTEN IN BLOOD
A Valentine's Day Sermon
III. Christ’s blood promises God’s love
“See what sort of love the Father has given to us: that we should be
called God’s children – and indeed we are! For this reason the
world does not know us: because it did not know him. Dear
friends, we are God’s children now”… (1 John 3:1-2)
A. Christ's sacrifice brings a deeper relationship
I.
Not illegitimate children anymore. But legitimate children born by
God’s will.
II. Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for
us all – how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all
things? (Romans 8:32)
III. But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with
which he loved us… (Ephesians 2:4)
LOVE WRITTEN IN BLOOD
A Valentine's Day Sermon
“No one has greater love than this – that one lays down his life for his
friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer
call you slaves, because the slave does not understand what his
master is doing. But I have called you friends because I have revealed
to you everything I heard from my Father.” (John 15:13-15)
B. Christ's sacrifice brings a fuller friendship
I. In the Old Testament, very few could be called God's friends.
II. But in the New Testament, Christ opened the door to a fuller
friendship.
LOVE WRITTEN IN BLOOD
A Valentine's Day Sermon
“And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has in us.
God is love, and the one who resides in love resides in God, and God
resides in him.” (1 John 4:16)
C. Christ's sacrifice brings a profitable partnership
I. In life, many partnerships end badly.
II. But there is one partnership that will never disappoint. When we
accept Christ, we become one with Him, in Him.
III. For in him all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form, and you have
been filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
(Colossians 2:9-10)
IV. I am the vine and you are the branches… (John 15:5)
V. I have heard some say, "I'm gonna ask God to let me be the mayor of
my hometown" but the emphasis should not be on the what but on the
who. It's not what we'll be doing; it's who we'll be doing it with.
LOVE WRITTEN IN BLOOD
A Valentine's Day Sermon
Conclusion
Dear friend, there is One who has written a message to you in His own
blood. If you will accept Him as your own, you will never be the same
again. You too, will be defined by that one act, Jesus' love written in
the blood of the cross.
I. There is no one righteous... (Romans 3:10-11)
II. This was also to demonstrate his righteousness in the present
time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who lives
because of Jesus’ faithfulness. (Romans 3:26)
III. For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
IV. because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord…
(Romans 10:9-10)
V. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
(Romans 10:13)