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REVELATION

. Part 5 in the Series entitled “Three”


02/20/11

“Washed in the Blood”


One of the most popular things to watch on television for several years now has been the
various CSI programs, including CSI and CSI: Miami. In fact, in 2003, CSI was America's
second-most-popular TV program, coming in a close second behind American Idol, and the two
CSI show combined drew an average of more than 40 million viewers in that same season.
In determining reason for this popularity, it all comes down to the fact that the American public is
greatly intrigued by crime scene analysis and forensics and how the bad guys (who thought
they’d committed the perfect crime) get caught because of the work by those glib and gorgeous
techies in the high-tech labs who spend their days ferreting out minute fragments of DNA and
determining blood spatter patterns.
Prosecutors and attorneys are dubbing this fascination and the resulting effects as the “CSI
Effect”, which has had both positive and negative results. For example, analysts are saying that
the show gives people the mistaken notion that criminal science is fast and infallible and always
gets its man. Furthermore, the “effect” is influencing how lawyers handle their cases and is
placing undue expectations on the police and real crime labs.
But the “effect” has also reached beyond the police station and the prosecutor’s office, into the
very courtrooms where guilt and innocence, and ultimately, the fate of the defendants is
determined. And that has had some mixed results. For example:

• In Phoenix, AZ., jurors in a murder trial noticed that a bloody coat introduced as evidence
had not been tested for DNA. They alerted the judge. The tests hadn't been needed
because the defendant had acknowledged being at the murder scene. The judge decided
that TV had taught jurors about DNA tests, but not enough about when to use them.

• In Richmond, VA., jurors in a murder trial asked the judge whether a cigarette butt found
during the investigation could be tested for links to the defendant. Defense attorneys had
ordered DNA tests but had not yet introduced them into evidence. The jury's hunch was
correct — the tests exonerated the defendant, and the jury acquitted him.

• In Massachusetts, the “CSI Effect” has become such an issue that prosecutors have
begun to ask judges for permission to question prospective jurors about their TV-
watching habits.
Amazing, huh?
But that’s not all, because the power of the “CSI Effect” also is also being felt beyond the
courtroom.

• At West Virginia University, forensic science was the most popular undergraduate major
for two straight years, attracting 13% of incoming freshmen.

• In June, 2004, supporters of an Ohio library drew an overflow crowd of 200-plus to a


luncheon speech on DNA by titling it "CSI: Dayton."

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• The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department crime lab has seen another version of the
CSI effect. Four technicians have left the lab for lucrative jobs as technical advisers to
crime-scene programs. "They found a way to make science pay," lab director Barry
Fisher says.
Now, I’ll admit, I’m not a CSI fan. It’s just not something that I’ve been interested in. But I did
spend three months on a grand jury a couple of years ago, and through that experience I
learned that forensic science really is fascinating.
And one of the most fascinating things about it is crime scene analysis. You know, you’ve seen
it on CSI, right? There’s a particularly heinous crime and the investigators are called in to make
sense of it.
And the first thing they do is gather evidence. And if the crime has been brutal, and blood has
been shed, there is always the task of collecting blood evidence and determining what
happened, how it happened, and who did it.
Now, if you have any exposure to CSI or real experience in the science of blood evidence and
crime scene analysis, you know that when a violent crime is committed, there is always that
blood trail to follow. And the one of the first things investigators do is photograph, document,
and collect the evidence.
But what if the criminal tried to cover up the crime? What if he or she tried to clean up the
blood? What if they used a mop and a bucket or a rag and detergent or bleach? What if there is
no visible blood evidence to collect, in spite of the suspicion that a violent crime as committed?
Enter the “blood screening test”.
According to an Eastern Washington University Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
report dated February 26, 2010, “when a perpetrator had attempted to clean or remove blood
evidence from a crime scene, sensitive light-emitting blood reagents can be employed to locate
residual quantities of blood.”
One such reagent is Luminol, which is a “very sensitive blood enhancement reagent that is
widely used to detect trace quantities of blood at crime scenes.” The drawback of Luminol is that
is has a “rapidly decreasing light intensity during the initial 60 seconds and a gradual decreasing
afterwards.
Then there is Bluestar, which is a newer agent and which, during tests, gave the highest initial
light intensity readings, but also decreased rapidly during the first 60 seconds and more
gradually afterwards.
And then there is a third reagent, known as Hemascein, which, during testing, proved to have
the lowest level of light emission, but proved to retain a more constant emission during the 5-
minute test.
All three reagents are considered good for blood evidence detection; but what if the criminal
goes even farther than clean-up? What if he or she burns the evidence? What then?
Good news for law-enforcement, bad news for the criminal. Not even fire guarantees erasure of
the blood-evidence! In fact, in tests, all three reagents produced light emissions when the blood
being tested was submitted to intense heat and fire; and once again, Hemascein outperformed
both Bluestar and Luminol. And that’s really bad news for the guilty. And the adage holds true,
“Murder will out!” because the blood can’t be erased!
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On the other hand, it can be very good news for those convicted wrongly, like Kenneth Waters
who spent eighteen years in prison for a murder he claimed he did not commit. During the trial
several people claimed Waters confessed to the crime, and the blood at the scene matched his
blood type. Case closed. They got their man.
Or did they? After his conviction, his sister, Betty Anne, who was a single mother and a high
school drop out, went to college. Worked her way through law school, and eventually became
her brother’s attorney.
She began writing to New York based Innocence Project about her brother’s case and
eventually learned how they had been freeing wrongly convicted people based on DNA
evidence. Betty Anne hunted down old blood samples in her brother’s case, long-forgotten in a
box in the courthouse basement.
With the help of attorney Barry Scheck, and the Innocence Project, in 1999 Betty Anne asked
for her brother’s DNA to be tested against that old blood sample, and the results? They didn’t
match!
Betty Anne and Scheck filed a motion for a new trial and prosecutors agreed that vacating the
conviction would be in the “interest of justice”. And after 18 years in prison, Kenneth Waters
became a free man – all because of the blood.
Isn’t the technology that can detect and identify human blood evidence simply amazing? It sure
is. But even more amazing is the power of ordinary human blood to withstand scrubbing,
burning, and aging, so that with it the guilty can be convicted and the innocent can be set free!
Yes, that’s amazing! But even more amazing is the power of the blood of the blood that
flowed through the veins of Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago and was spattered and spilled
so that every one of us could go free, despite our tremendous guilt before Almighty God!
And the thought of that blood evidence fills my souls with joy and stirs my heart to preach! So,
open your Bibles with me to Revelation chapter 1 and let’s look at the power of the blood
evidence as we again focus our attention this week on what Jesus has done.
Would you please stand with me for the reading of God’s sacred Word? Revelation 1:1-8…
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things
which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:
Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that
he saw.
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things
which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which
is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the
prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own
blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and
dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him:
and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. I am Alpha and Omega,

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the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the
Almighty.”
And now, we pick up the question again, What Has Jesus Done?
Notice verses 5 and 6 again…. “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first
begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and
washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God
and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”
Last week we focused on two words – that Jesus has LOVED US.
This week, we focus on John’s second assertion, and that is that Jesus Christ has “washed us
from our sins in his own blood.”
Simple enough, right? But what in the world does it mean? How can Jesus wash us from our
sins in his own blood? I mean, honestly, if I spoke those words to any ordinary person on the
street and they would probably scratch their puzzled head. And if I said that to a forensic
pathologist I’d probably be laughed out the door.
It just doesn’t make sense does it – to wash something clean with blood?
But that’s what it says, and frankly, I have to ask you, since when does anything God do have to
make sense to us to be the truth? Didn’t the Apostle Paul speak of the irony of the work of God
in 1Corinthians 1:17-25 when he wrote,
“For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the
cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that
perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will
destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made
foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew
not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified,
unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than
men.
Yes, it is ironic that men will commit horrible and heinous crimes and try everything they can, in
vain, to wash away the blood evidence. Yet, God, bearing the injury of our crimes against
Himself determined that the only way for those crimes to be washed away was by blood – and
His own blood at that - for as 1John 1:7 says, it is the “blood of Jesus (that) cleanseth us from
every sin.”
Jesus’ blood has “washed us from our sins”. But can you tell me what that really means?
The answer lay in the language in which this text was originally written. You see, in the Greek,
the word “washed” literally means, “to bathe the whole person”. Surely you’ve heard the phrase
“blood-bath” before. Well, if you are saved today and on your way to heaven, it’s because
you’ve had a “blood-bath” – you’ve been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ!

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Now, I know that we talk so freely of the blood of Christ and how it washed our sins away, but
that’s easy to do in a sterile setting where there’s no blood shed.
But John was there.
He watched as Jesus’ blood was spattered on the walls and spilled on the ground when he was
beaten with that Roman whip. And he watched as Jesus’ blood spurted from His hands and feet
where the Roman spikes penetrated. And He watched the blood gush from our Lord’s side when
that Roman spear pierced Him.
John knew what he was talking about when he spoke of this blood, and he understood the
magnitude of what he was saying when he spoke of our sins being cleansed by that blood.
Yet, you and I are far removed from Calvary, and we didn’t see it. And I think we failed to truly
grasp the price because we just couldn’t see it.
But then Mel Gibson released this film, The Passion of Christ, and for the first time, I think a
movie did that even justice. For the first time, the tremendous horror of what happened
physically happened to Jesus was depicted, and it was so strong it received an “R” rating.
And the world howled! It’s too violent. It’s too gory. There’s too much blood. Oh, they were
offended by the blood.
And isn’t another irony? How we are so offended by the blood, and yet God has said, “Without
the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. And how it is written in Isaiah 53:10, of the
Father that, “…it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief:”
The world turns away from the blood of Christ, yet God has deemed this very blood to be the
only thing that can cleanse us from the filth of our sin and release us from the debt of death we
owe to Almighty God!
Praise God for the blood of Jesus Christ! Praise Him for the violence, the suffering, and the
death that Jesus offered for our sakes because it is this blood that has washed away our sins!
And even more! Yes, the blood of Jesus Christ is the gift of God that has washed us from our
sins, but it has done so much more. And I just want to leave you with three more things that
Jesus gave you when He shed His blood for you.
First, when Jesus shed His blood, He…
REDEEMED YOU (1Peter 1:18-19)
“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold,
from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood
of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:”
Have you ever heard someone say that value of something is determined by the highest bidder?
It’s true, isn’t it? It’s not so much what you or I think something is worth that matters. What
matters is what the highest bidder will pay for it, and that, my friends, is the true worth of the
thing.
I remember many years ago when the Christmas season was approaching and this new toy hit
the market. It was called a “Cabbage Patch” doll. (Do you remember?) The mass production
version of the dolls was first introduced at the NYC Toy Fair in the spring of 1983, and by
October of that year, they were so popular that riots were occurring in stores around the country

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as mothers tried desperately to get the doll for their precious little ones. In fact, some were so
desperate that this doll, that sold at retail for about $30.00, was fetching upwards to $1,500.00
on the black market!
Imagine paying $1,500.00 for a silly little doll. People did it.
And in 1996 they did it again! Cabbage Patch was out; Tickle Me Elmo was in. And once again,
the lines were long, the fights were raging, and the prices went through the roof. In fact, People
Magazine reported that the toy, originally sold at US $28.99, was fetching as much as $1500.00.
How much was a Cabbage Patch doll or a Tickle Me Elmo worth - $30.00? or $1,500.00?
The fact is that these silly toys were worth what the highest bidder was willing to pay.
And you, who are of much more value than these – what are you worth?
You and I both know that we go through times when we feel like that question isn’t worth
answering. We look in the mirror and we don’t see much. We feel like we have nothing to offer
and we wonder how anyone could love us.
But God has said that Jesus Christ does love you, and the truth is that if you’ve surrendered
your life to Him you have been redeemed, not with corruptible things – no – not with gold or
silver or the mighty American dollar – no – you’ve been redeemed with the most precious thing
that ever has been – you’ve been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ!

Oh, yes, you are so valuable to God that he determined to be the highest bidder – and He
offered the highest price that could be paid.

And we wonder why? Why would God love me so? Am I that good – that important?

Understand something, okay… it’s not because of your goodness or merit. It isn’t because you
are particularly lovable or because God needs you.

No, God has set His love upon you because He IS LOVE and He made you in His own image
and you are His treasure.

Now, I know that may seem a blow to your self-esteem, but think about it… if God’s love were
based on your merit – how much of His love would you truly merit? Have you been that good?

The Bible says that “There is none righteous, no not one.” There is none good” . “All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God”

I for one am glad that God’s love for me isn’t based on Me, but on Himself, the unshakable God
who never changes, because that means His love for me will never lessen.
Jesus Christ shed His blood to redeem you because He loves you.
But that’s not all. When Jesus shed His blood He…
RECONCILED YOU (Ephesians 2:11-22)
Hear Paul as he makes a case for our need for reconciliation in verses 11-12… “Wherefore
remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by
that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were
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without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the
covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
Man, I read that and I am tempted to think that Paul is a Jewish bigot, and that this is just his
opinion of me because I am a “Gentile”. But I’d be wrong. To say that the Jews “had it all” and
we “had nothing” would be most true.
Jesus said virtually the same thing to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, when he told
her in verse 22, “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the
Jews.”
Jesus said that salvation was of the Jews because it was with them that God made the
covenant, and it was to them and through them that Jesus Christ came.
Yet, God never intended for the Jews to be the only ones to enjoy a relationship with
Him.
Jesus shed His precious blood for us too. He bled to wash us, redeem us, and to reconcile us to
His Father so that we could also enjoy the covenant relationship! Listen as Paul explains it in
verses 13-22…

But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained
in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that he might
reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: and came
and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. (Both Jew and
Gentile)
For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and
of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation
of God through the Spirit.”
Jesus shed His precious blood to fix at the cross what Adam and Eve destroyed in the Garden.
They sinned and brought alienation. They were cast out. He died and brought reconciliation, and
we’ve been brought back in! Praise the Lord!
But there is one more thing you should know, and that is that when Jesus shed His blood He
also…
RELATED TO YOU (1Corinthians 10:15-16)
One of the synonyms for the word “communion” is the word “relationship”. The Apostle Paul
writes in 1Corinthians 10:15-16, “I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say. The cup of
blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we
break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?”
The Greek word translated “communion” in this passage is “koinonia”, and in that culture it most
often referred to a “partnership”. But it was more than this. The word carried the idea of
intimacy, or closeness. You might even say, it carried the idea of a “relationship”. And it is in this

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context that Paul says that we have been brought into communion or “relationship” with Christ
by His blood and by His body.
You know, you hear all this talk of having a “relationship” with God; and all kinds of people say
that they have a relationship with God. But the truth is that the only way we can actually have a
relationship with God, or be “related” to God is if we’ve been born again through the washing
away of our sins by the blood of Jesus Christ.
So, don’t give me any of this Oprah Winfrey, or Hollywood star, or Washington politician
“relationship with God” business that is void of the blood of Christ and absent the repentance
from sin that Jesus spoke of!
There is no such thing as a having a relationship with God” without coming to Him through
Jesus Christ and His precious blood; and He shed that precious blood to validate the message
He preached, which was “Repent ye, and believe the Gospel!” (Mark 1:15)
Listen, when we drink the cup and eat the bread of communion we are communicating a sacred
message – that our sins have been washed away; that we’ve been redeemed; that we’ve been
reconciled to God; and that now we are in a relationship with Him.
In a relationship with God – imagine that!
And the way we live needs to reflect this relationship. We cannot take that cup or eat that bread
lightly – too great a price was paid! It was a blood price, and it cost God everything!
CONCLUSION
When Kenneth Waters went to prison, his sister, Betty Anne gave 18 years of her life to set him
free. So great was her love and so great was her conviction of her innocence that she willingly
paid that price. And she was rewarded with his freedom.
But that wasn’t the end of the story.
Just one year after obtaining freedom, Kenneth Waters was taking a shortcut to his brother’s
house after dinner with his mother. As he was walking along the top of a 15-foot wall, he lost his
footing and fell.
And on September 6, 2001, Kenneth Waters, set free to a new life because of the blood
evidence, died of a skull fracture.
Sad isn’t it… that Kenneth never really had the chance to enjoy his new life, and that Betty
Anne’s 18 year sacrifice seems to have been in vain?.
Well, let me ask you this… “Was Jesus’ sacrifice for you in vain?”
Jesus Christ has loved you and he died so you could be washed in His blood and set free from
the penalty of sin, which is eternal death, separated from God in the Lake of Fire.

The Bible says in 2Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men
count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all
should come to repentance.
God wants to wash you, redeem you, reconcile you, and have a relationship with you. And that’s
all possible because of the blood evidence that history can’t wash away, and yet has the power
to wash away every sin you’ve ever committed or will commit!

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Won’t you repent of your sin and invite Him into your life to be your Lord and Savior
today?

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