Sprinkled with Christ’s Blood Part 1

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.”~1 Peter 1:1-2

About a month ago, I had an opportunity to speak at the local assembly [1] I am a part of here in Helena. When studying for the message, I came across a couple of verses I had never thought about before. I don’t know how many times I have read this passage and never thought about what it was saying. The phrase I would like to look at “by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood.”  Many times we think about Christ cleansing us with His blood. (1 John 1:7-8, Hebrews 9:14). When looking at this passage I have found that there are several other passages that we can look at to understand what Peter is saying more thoroughly.  Let us look at Exodus 24:6-8:

“Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!" So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words."

The events that happen before this passage are the oral giving of the Law to Moses. God has given him the Ten Commandments, the judgments for the people if they do not keep the commandments, three Feasts, and the instructions and promises concerning the conquest of the Promise Land. In Exodus 23:32, we see that God commands them not to make any covenants with their neighbors or their neighbor’s gods and their neighbors should not live in their land.  Moses comes down the mountain and recounts to the people what the Lord told him on Mt. Sinai. In verse three of Exodus 24, the people say “All the LORD has spoken we will do!”  Moses writes everything down and the men offer burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then Moses takes half of the blood and sets it aside and the other half he sprinkles on the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant, which he had just written and read it to all the people. Notice they say the same thing again, but add a phrase to the end. “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” Moses takes the blood that was set aside and sprinkled it on the people and said “Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.” The sprinkling of the blood indicated the covenant God made with Israel.

When God made the new covenant with us, Christ’s blood was sprinkled on us. The sprinkling indicates sanctification. This means to make holy, or to set apart for God.  That is what the Holy Spirit has done for us. We are chosen to obey Christ, to be sprinkled with His blood and as a result of being sprinkled with His blood the Holy Spirit Sanctifies us. We also can say “All the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”

We can be thankful that Christ has made the new covenant with both Jews and Gentiles. What a wonderful Savior we have that we have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit because Christ has sprinkled us with His blood.

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[1] For those of you who do not understand this term. It is the local church I am a part of. The assembling together of my brothers and sisters in Christ on Sunday morning. I am not by any means referring to the denomination of the “Assembly of God”. It is another name of the local church that one attends.

Christ the Righteous Branch

Jeremiah 23:5 "Behold, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land. (NASB)

Here in Jeremiah, we see a prophecy of Jesus Christ, the Righteous Branch and the King. The Lord declares the days are coming when He will raise up a righteous Branch for David. This part of the prophecy has already taken place. The Righteous Branch for David has already come. Jesus Christ is that Righteous Branch.

In The Old Testament there are many instances that we see where there are prophecies about Christ the Branch.

Isaiah 4:2- The Branch of the LORD.

Isaiah 11:1- A Branch will bear fruit.

Zechariah 3:8-My Servant the Branch.

Zechariah 6:12-13-The man whose name is Branch.

The Branch or shoot is used in the Old Testament to signify Christ. When it is talking about a Branch or shoot for or of David it is talking of Christ as a descendent of David. (See Luke 1:31-33). Think about a stump, the tree has been cut off but yet if you leave it there you will find a branch or a shoot that is growing out of it, because though it is cut off, it is not dead. During the Babylonian exile the royal line of David was cut off, but not destroyed. Yet God cause a branch to sprout from that stump. Christ is that righteous branch and He will reign over all of the earth one day.

Christ’s righteousness is show by the perfect life that He lived on this earth, his perfect obedience to every aspect of the Law and His Heavenly Father.  (1 John 3:5; 1 Peter 2:22)

The second part of this prophecy is still to come in the future. When the Lord declares something will happen, it will happen. These days are still to come. This verse is talking about the second coming of Christ when He will reign for a thousand years on this earth and for eternity on the new earth. (See Revelation 20-22)

The verse from Jeremiah specifies a few things that this righteous Branch will do and things that will characterize His reign. 

1.      He will reign as king

2.      He will act wisely

3.      He will do justice and righteousness in the land.

Christ will reign as the perfect King. He will not make a decision that is wrong. His decisions will be made with perfect wisdom. His Justice and righteousness will be perfect. Can you imagine having a ruler who is perfect and every decision that He makes is right and good? A ruler who is not corrupt. It is very hard to imagine a ruler like that. A ruler who is without flaw, who does not use deceit to satisfy people. A ruler who has perfect love. This is who we serve. This is Jesus Christ, our King.

Evangelism Update March 5, 2013

Hello Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I have been thinking a lot about mission fields. I have gone to Nigeria to share the gospel.  I have gone downtown in Bozeman, MT and in Helena, MT and those places I have always looked at as mission fields though Africa more so than other places. In my mind I have viewed Montana State University as a mission field, but never have I really done anything on the campus besides personal (friendship) evangelism, until now.

There are over 14,000 students on Montana State University campus and so we have given out gospel tracts to roughly 2.9% of the students on campus in the last three weeks.  That is not a whole lot. There are about 500 student that are Muslims. Those are the ones I love to talk to the most.  There are many students that would claim Christianity as their religion or that they have some back-round in it.  I will not make estimation to the percent that is. I hope that by doing this it will encourage other believers to share their faith also. That it will convict those who claim to be Christians of their lifestyle and that they might repent and those who do not yet believe will come to knowledge of the One who died on the cross for them.  

Today we went out on the campus to share the gospel with some of my fellow students.  This is the third week that we have gone out to hand out gospel tracts and talk with those who want to talk. First of all I want to thank those of you who have been praying for us. The Lord is working. We are getting the gospel into the hands of the students and some are stopping to talk with us. Today we had to move to a different part of campus because the Mormons were out giving out hot chocolate in our normal spot, not wanting to be associated with them, we moved down the way to right outside of the Engineering building where there were plenty of people. People would trickle past and many of them would take the gospel tracts and if they would not, they very politely said no thanks.

Please continue to:

Pray that the eyes of the lost would be opened to the truth of the gospel.

Pray that we would have continual boldness.

Pray that the Lord would be glorified and use us for His glory.

Pray that we might be able to meet with some of the students and continue to meet with them.

Thank you for all your prayers. I am so excited to see how the Lord continues to work and I will keep you all updated on these things.

Your brother and servant of Christ,

T.J. Kerttula

Short Bit of Encouragment

I have been given a voice in order to speak. Yet I have kept silent on more then one occasion. Every Christian that has a voice has the ability to preach the gospel and yet like Moses more then once we make excuses. Excuses like I am not good at talking, I am scared. Where is our trust in God Who can use us in ways we could never imagine, Who can give us the words to say. My God is powerful and awesome and He can and will use those willing to serve Him. Even if they do not speak elegantly or if they are scared. I think of Isaiah, who when the Lord ask, who will go to Israel and tell them to turn back to Me?, replied here am I, send me. Friends, let us have willing hearts and let us not tremble before man because God is with us. We have an opportunity to share a message that people have been Martyred for and we have the privilege to speak. Some Christians in other countries have had their tongues cut out so they can't proclaim the gospel. Seize this great and wonderful opportunity that we have. If we do not sharing the gospel, we act as if it is foolishness to us, just as the world sees it as foolishness. Go and preach the gospel.