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THE BLOOD OF THE NEW COVENANT
A. Introduction: We’re talking about something that Jesus did at the Last Supper, His final meal with His
twelve apostles the night before He was crucified.
1. At that meal, Jesus “took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My
body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ And He took the cup, and gave
thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘All of you drink from it. For this is My blood of the new
covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins’” (Luke 22:19; Matt 26:27-28, NKJV).
a. After Jesus returned to Heaven following His resurrection, His disciples continued to partake of
bread and wine. This practice became known as the Lord’s Supper or communion, and is still
carried out by Christians today (both protestant and catholic).
b. Our goal in discussing this topic is to help us understand what communion is and why we do it,
so that our relationship with the Lord will be deepened. My hope is that taking communion will
become to us more than just a ritual or ceremony.
1. To help us understand the impact of eating the bread and drinking the wine, we’re
considering what it meant to the twelve apostles. They were all Jewish men whose
worldview was shaped by the Old Testament, the portion of the Bible completed by that
time. These men assessed everything Jesus said and did in terms of what the Old Testament
Scriptures said.
2. We’re also considering how communion fits into the big picture, or God’s overall plan for
mankind. This is the big picture: God desires a family, and He created human beings to
become sons and daughters who live in loving relationship with Him. Sin has disqualified
men and women for God’s family. Jesus came into this world to die as a sacrifice for sin
and bring us back to our Father and our created purpose, through faith in Him and His
sacrifice.
2. At the Last Supper, the apostles did not yet know that Jesus was going to be arrested that night and
crucified the next day. In fact, they didn’t understand much of what Jesus said to them at the meal.
a. When Jesus offered them the bread and wine as His body and blood, they didn’t realize He
meant that He was going to offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin the next day. Nor did they know
that through His death, He was going to open the way to eternal life for all who believe in Him.
b. Why did Jesus tell these men things He knew they did not understand? So that after the
resurrection, they would realize that His crucifixion was not a random act or an unexpected
development. It was part of a loving plan conceived by Almighty God before the world began.
1. On resurrection day, when Jesus appeared to the apostles for the first time as a group, He
went through the Old Testament Scriptures and explained what He had done and why.
2. Luke 24:44-45—Jesus quoted passages from the writings of Moses and all the prophets,
explaining what all the Scriptures said about himself…Then he opened their minds to
understand the Scriptures (NLT).
3. At that point the apostles realized that Jesus, by dying as a sacrifice, put away sin and broke
the power of death (Heb 9:26; Heb 2:14). These men came to understand that Jesus “died
for sinners that he might bring us safely home to God” (I Pet 3:18, NLT).
3. In this lesson we’re going to focus on what Jesus meant, and what the apostles heard, when He
called the cup of wine the blood of the New Covenant which is shed for the remission of sins.
B. The term New Covenant would have resonated with the twelve apostles because they were all covenant
men, or men in covenant with God. Covenants were serious, binding agreement between two parties
through which they bound themselves to each other for mutual purposes.

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1. Almost two thousand years before the Last Supper, Almighty God had made a covenant with their
ancestor Abraham. The Lord promised Abraham and his descendants that if they worshiped Him as
One and Only True God, He would provide for and protect them, and give them the land of Canaan
(present-day Israel). Abraham’s descendants grew into the Jewish people (Israel).
a. The Old Testament is mainly the history of the Jews under this covenant, which became known
as the Old Covenant. (The Greek word translated testament can be translated covenant.)
b. Throughout their history, Israel repeatedly broke their part of the covenant by abandoning
Almighty God to worship false gods. During these periods of idol worship, God sent prophets
to His people to call them back to Him.
c. These prophets wrote that Israel’s problem was that their hearts were not right with God (Jer
11:7-8). But the prophets also foretold that God would one day establish a new covenant that
would remedy or fix Israel’s weakness (Jer 31:31-34; Jer 33:14; Ezek 11:19-20).
2. The apostles also knew covenants were ratified or confirmed with blood. Covenants were serious
agreements. The seriousness of the commitment was shown through the shedding of blood, either
those making the covenant or their substitutes. Covenant, in Hebrew, means to cut a covenant.
a. God’s covenant with Abraham was ratified with blood. When God delivered Israel from slavery
in Egypt, He renewed and expanded His covenant with them. It too was ratified by blood. Gen
15:8-10; Ex 24:1-8
b. When Jesus said to His apostles, “This is my blood which seals the (new) covenant between God
and man” (Matt 26:28, NLT), their minds must have been racing.
c. Is Jesus going to establish the promised New Covenant? What could He possibly mean by
saying that His blood will be shed for the covenant and for the remission of sin?
3. At this point, we need to say some things about what blood and blood sacrifices would have meant
to the apostles, and talk about their understanding of the connection between sacrifices and sin.
a. The men knew that God told the first humans (Adam and Eve) that the consequence of choosing
their way over His way was death. Sin would cut them off from God. Gen 2:17
1. Death is bigger than physical death. Death, in its fullest expression, is separation from God
who is life. All pain, suffering, hardship, and loss is in this world because of sin. Every
problem in this world is a lesser form of death. Gen 3:17-19; Rom 5:12
2. When Adam and Eve sinned, the first death they saw was that of an innocent animal when
God made clothing from animal skins to cover them. This pictured or foreshadowed what
would be needed to deliver God’s family from sin—the sacrifice of an Innocent One. Gen
3:21
3. Although the practice of blood sacrifice was eventually perverted and used in idol worship,
blood sacrifice as a means to approach God (or gods) is found in every ancient culture, as far
back as we know. Gen 4:4
b. Since the earliest days of mankind, blood has been identified as the life (or soul) of a living
being. The life of the sacrifice was taken and that blood (or life) was offered to God (or gods)
as a representative (in place of or on behalf of) of the one who offered the sacrifice.
4. When God delivered Israel from Egypt He gave them a system of blood sacrifices. The purpose of
these sacrifices was to atone for (make up for, cover) their sin so God could dwell among them.
a. The twelve apostles didn’t realize it yet, but those sacrifices foreshadowed what Jesus, the Lamb
of God, would do—deal with their sin by the sacrifice of Himself. John 1:29
1. At the Last Supper, Jesus called His blood the blood shed for the remission of sins. To remit
means to send away. Remission is a dismissal or wiping out of sin.
2. Although they didn’t understand what Jesus meant, the apostles would have been familiar
with the prophet Jeremiah’s statement about a coming new covenant: This is the new

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covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord…I will forgive their
wickedness and will never again remember their sins (Jer 31:33-34, NLT).
b. The apostles would soon find out that this is why Jesus came into the world—to wipe out,
abolish, remit sin (even the memory of it), through the sacrifice of Himself.
C. We get insight into what the apostles understood about Jesus’ death, after He rose from the dead, from
the Book of Acts (the record of their preaching) and from the epistles (letters they wrote to Christians).
1. One of the letters, the Epistle to the Hebrews, gives us great insight into the New Covenant. Paul
the apostle wrote this epistle. Paul was not one of the twelve original apostles. He became a
believer when the Lord Jesus appeared to him a few years after the resurrection. Acts 26:13-18
a. Paul wrote this epistle to Jewish (Hebrew) believers who were under increasing pressure to
renounce Jesus and His sacrifice, and return to Temple worship and animal sacrifices for sin.
b. The purpose of Paul’s epistle was to urge his readers to stay faithful to Jesus. In the letter, Paul
lined out why Jesus and His sacrifice is better than the old sacrifices (lessons for another day).
c. Here’s the point for us: Paul called Jesus our High Priest who “has been given a ministry that is
far superior to the ministry of those who served under the old laws, for he is the one who
guarantees is a better covenant with God, based on better promises” (Heb 8:6, NLT).
1. The High Priest of Israel was a real person, but he also pictured or foreshadowed what Jesus
would do. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest went into the inner most
part of the Temple (called the Holy of Holies), where God’s presence manifested.
2. The High Priest carried a blood sacrifice meant to cover (atone for) any sins missed during
the regular sacrifices offered that year, so Israel could continue their relationship with God.
2. Paul went on to say that Jesus, our High Priest, didn’t enter a man-made holy place, but went “into
heaven itself…to appear in the presence of God for us” (Heb 9:24, NKJV). Paul continued:
a. Heb 9:25-26—(Jesus did not) enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the earthly high
priest who enters the most Holy Place year after year…He came once at the end of the age, to
remove the power of sin forever by his sacrificial death for us (NLT).
1. Heb 10:1—The old system in the law of Moses was only a shadow of the things to come, not
the reality of the good things that Christ has done for us. The sacrifices under the old system
were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect
cleansing for those who came to worship (NLT).
2. Heb 10:2—If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped,
for the worshippers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt
would have disappeared (NLT).
3. Heb 10:3-4—But just the opposite happened. Those yearly sacrifices reminded them of
their sins year after year. For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away
sin (NLT).
b. God wants sons and daughters who are holy, and Paul wrote: What God wants is for us to be
made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time (Heb 10:8-10, NLT).
1. Heb 10:11-12—Under the Old Covenant, the priest stands before the altar day after day,
offering sacrifices that can never take away sins. But our High Priest (Jesus) offered himself
to God as one sacrifice for sin, good for all time (NLT).
2. Heb 10:14—By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who a being made holy
(NIV); he has forever set free from sin the people he brings to God (CEV); For by one
sacrifice valid forever, he enables men to enter into perfect communion with God (Barclay).
3. The Greek word translated perfect in Heb 10:14 means to complete or make perfect by reaching the
intended goal. The word is used in a moral sense—to fully cleanse for sin. In other words, Jesus’

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sacrifice was a success—His sacrifice cleanses us from all sin. A new covenant, a new
relationship between God and man has been established because we are cleansed.
a. This doesn’t mean that we are yet all that we are supposed to be as holy sons and daughters of
God. The idea is that no more sacrifice is needed to deal with sin because Jesus cleansed us.
b. We’ve made the point in previous lessons that the Bible uses word pictures to help us understand
how God, who is Infinite and Eternal, interacts with finite, fallen human beings.
1. Paul used a word picture in his epistle to the Hebrews. He wrote: Almost all things
according to the law are purged with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no
remission (forgiveness of sin) (Heb 9:22, NKJV). The word purge means to cleanse.
2. Blood not only represents life, it represents cleansing. John the apostle (who was present at
the Last Supper) later described the cleansing power of Jesus’ blood:
A. Rev 1:5—To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood (NKJV).
B. John wrote that when we do sin, on the basis of what Jesus has done for us through His
sacrifice: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9, NKJV).
c. We are so cleansed from the guilt of sin that God can now indwell us by His Spirit and make us
His sons and daughters. This indwelling begins a process of transformation and restoration that
will ultimately restore us to all that God created and intended us to be—fully pleasing to Him in
our character and behavior (many lessons for another day).
D. Conclusion: Possibly you are thinking: Who cares about blood sacrifices and all this Old Testament
stuff? I’ve got real problems and need real help.
1. The help we need is actually a new perspective, a perspective that sees things the way they really
are, a perspective that recognizes there is more to life than just this life (more in upcoming lessons).
a. When we live with the perspective that the greater and better life is ahead of us, in the life to
come, this perspective lightens the load of life’s inevitable hardships. II Cor 4:17-18
b. There’s no way to avoid problems in this fallen, broken world. But, because of Jesus’ death, we
have a hope for the future that lifts us up in the midst of life’s challenges.
2. When Jesus offered bread and wine, He told his apostles to do this in remembrance of Him (Luke
22:19). Communion is a meal of remembrance or of calling to mind what He has done for us.
a. Paul later wrote: Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup you are retelling the message
of the Lord’s death, that He died for you. Do this until he comes again (I Cor 11:26, TLB).
1. Remembering Jesus’ death matters because of why He did it and what it accomplished. His
sacrificial death shows the great the brilliance of His plan to recover His family, and it shows
us His great love for His sons and daughters.
2. God Himself incarnated. He became a man so that He could die for our sins. Because of
the value of His Person as the God-man, His blood was an equivalent sacrifice for the sin of
the world. This was no accident. It was part of His plan to recover and restore His family.
b. God desires many sons, and motivated by love, He gave His only Begotten Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, in order to recover the family He created in Adam, but lost to sin.
1. I John 4:9-10—God showed how much he loved us by sending His only Son into the world
so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. It is not that we loved
God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins (NLT).
2. Jesus’s one death opened the way to life for multitudes who believe in Him. God the Father
offered up one Son and gained multiple sons and daughters. John 12:23-24
3. In the face of life’s hardships and challenges, the reality of what Jesus did for us through His death
and why, gives us hope for the future and peace of mind in the present. Much more next week!!