Word of Salvation – December 2018
B.C.26 – Christ’s Intercession And Our Praying
Sermon by Rev. John Westendorp
Scripture Readings: John 14:1-14 & Hebrews 4:14 – 5:10
Introd: There is a Religious Studies course at HSC level that is proving very popular.
Basically the course makes a comparison of all religions… and that has some dangers in it.
The risk is that all religions will be seen to be equal – all religions are true.
Christianity is often presented as just one of many religions on the religious marketplace.
Yet despite those dangers studying other religions can also be informative.
There are two things we can especially learn from comparative religion.
Firstly: there seems to be agreement about the distance between God and man.
The consensus even seems to be that the distance between God and man is an immense chasm.
That is brought out in several ways:
God is holy… Man is sinful and unholy.
God is all-powerful… Man is frail and of limited strength.
God is eternal… Man is mortal and dies within about a 100 years.
Most religions indicate in some way these immense gaps between God and man.
Secondly: There seems to be agreement that man needs God and longs for God.
He strives for some form of fellowship with his Maker.
That would even seem to be why we have so many religions in the first place.
We are made for God just as a fish is made for water.
So we have this profound dilemma that is highlighted by nearly every religion:
We need God and we want God.
We strive for fellowship with Him.
But there is that immense gap that keeps us apart.
Now most religions resolve this dilemma in either of two ways.
Some resolved it by introducing a PRIESTLY caste or order.
Priests and High Priests…. gurus and enlightened ones… who bridge that gap for us.
Others propose that we ourselves can bridge that immense gap.
They tell us what we have to do to be restored into fellowship with God.
A] UNIQUE ACCESS TO GOD.
- As Christians we agree that there IS an immense gap… a chasm between God and man.
As Christians we also agree that we need God and are made for God.
Both of those are Biblical concepts.
However we cannot agree with the solutions given to solve that problem.
It is at this point precisely that Biblical Christianity becomes inflexible and insistent.
It strongly affirms that all those priestly orders do not work.
And that our own efforts are doomed to failure.
Instead Christianity stresses the UNIQUENESS of the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Our Reformed faith is insistent on this… it is adamant.
The Belgic Confession – for example wants no mistakes or misunderstanding at this point.
The relevant article is the longest article in any of our Reformed Confessions.
At issue here is the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as Mediator.
“There is no access to God except thru the only Mediator and Advocate, Jesus Christ.”
So at this point Evangelical Christianity makes exclusive claims… it even becomes quite intolerant.
Of course, that this is not a politically correct thing to say these days.
The exclusiveness of Christianity has never been popular.
It has always been opposed… sometimes even violently.
But today especially we are living in an age where tolerance is seen as a virtue,
…where the loving thing seems to be to accept everything….
…where it is preached that all religions are a way to God.
So it is OK for a Buddhist to be a Buddhist, and a Hindu to be a Hindu.
To say less than that is to be old fashioned – or worse – bigoted!
But that leaves us in trouble with the Scriptures.
How then do we do justice to the words of Jesus: I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE.
Jesus did not say: I am A way, but THE way.
No one comes to the Father but by me!
He did not say: There is a Buddhist form of truth and a Hindu form of truth.
But He IS the truth – it is personified in Him.
He did not say: Moslems will find life by their teaching… but you can also find it by me.
But He said: I am the resurrection and the life.
The radical demand made upon our faith at this point is Jesus… and Jesus alone!
In fact: He didn’t even say: I’ll SHOW you the way…but I AM the way.
Nor did he say: I’ll teach you the truth… but I AM the truth.
Nor does He merely help us to find the life… He IS the Life.
So He is THE unique Mediator – the only go-between between God and man.
- There is a good reason why Jesus makes such exclusive claims.
And there is good reason for Christianity being quite inflexible at this point.
A Mediator is one who bridges the gap between two people ..two people at odds with each other.
He is one who breaks across the barrier – crosses the chasm.
But a mediator must always have one very important qualification.
He must be someone who can appreciate both sides of the story.
He is only effective if he is able to understand both parties.
Can you imagine a marriage counsellor saying: “I just don’t understand women!”?
How effective is such a mediator in a marriage dispute?
Or imagine an arbitrator in labour and industry who says: “I just can’t identify with workers.”
Such an arbitrator will be as useful as a pork chop in a synagogue.
Mediators can only be effective if they listen to both sides…. if they understand both parties.
Now Jesus Christ not only understands both parties.
We can say that in a very real way He IS both parties.
Jesus is God – and His divine powers are clearly seen in the gospel.
But Hebrews 4 also shows Him as fully human… tempted in every way that we are.
Therefore Jesus is unique. He alone is both God and man.
In His person He bridged the chasm and brought God and man together.
He did that not only by His work but even in His person.
But this has often led to problems with the humanity of Jesus.
Somehow Jesus doesn’t seem to be quite on our level…. not quite as human as us.
They accept that He is fully God… but therefore He can’t be totally human.
Maybe that was the problem here in Hebrews… these people asked:
“Couldn’t the OT priests represent us better? They knew what it was to be human and to fail.”
To ask that is to do an injustice to the humanity of Jesus.
Hebrews 4 says: We do not have a High Priest unable to sympathise with our weaknesses.
Therefore Jesus is well qualified to be our merciful and faithful High Priest.
B] OUR PRAYING.
- All this becomes very relevant when we begin to talk about prayer.
This ONE AND ONLY MEDIATOR
is not just there so that we can come to God at the moment of our death.
But also so that we can come to God CONSTANTLY in prayer.
This is also one of the main thrusts of this article of the B.Conf.
It simply reflects Hebrews 4 where the apostle concludes:
“Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace
so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
We are speaking here especially of prayer fellowship with God here and now.
You and I may now come directly into God’s presence in prayer.
Prayer for a Christian is not just folding our hands, closing our eyes and then saying some words…
all the while hoping for the best that someone out there is listening.
For the Christian prayer is now a matter of standing before the very throne of God.
A free and unhindered access into the presence of Almighty God.
That chasm between God and man…
between Creator and creature…
between sinful beings and sinless Deity…. that chasm HAS been bridged.
At this point we especially need to say something about the prayer of intercession.
By intercession we mean – of course – the whole matter of praying for others.
Let me ask: How important is that to you…? This matter of praying for others?
We regularly publish the names of members of the congregation… a community register.
Maybe you keep that handy for making telephone calls – that’s good.
But perhaps we should also use it as a prayer guide:
Systematically praying for others in the church.
Think of how that would enrich our congregational life.
We’d suddenly become aware of people we didn’t know very well.
We would begin to be more concerned about the needs of others.
And we would get into a habit of bringing each other before God’s throne.
Of course we do that when there are special needs… when we read in the bulletin about the sick.
But we could do a lot more than that couldn’t we?
Scripture commands us to pray for one another.
Intercession is an important work in the church.
Not only because of the blessing that brings to God’s people.
It is also important because it imitates Jesus’ ministry of intercession.
- Maybe you are wondering why I am suddenly talking about intercession.
OK – we have access to God’s throne…. the way is open thru Jesus.
That is certainly an immense… an immeasurable blessing for us… it means our eternal salvation.
But why are we now talking about praying for others?
During the Middle Ages a certain line of thinking developed in the Church.
Christians pray for other Christians… we need each other’s prayers.
Intercession is good… and it is God’s will…. it is biblical.
But maybe that praying we do for one-another doesn’t stop at death.
Maybe loved ones who have died are even now still praying for us.
And what about particularly saintly people who are now in heaven?
Is it not conceivable that their prayers for us are especially effective?
So there developed that whole “cult of the saints”.
Special patron saints to pray certain countries…. St. Patrick – patron saint of Ireland.
Each trade had its own saint… in fact saints for all kinds of purposes.
Toothache sufferers could plead with St. Appollonia for relief.
After all she understood that problem… she had all her teeth extracted rather than deny Christ.
St. Christopher for travel… and St. Nicholas in time of shipwreck.
The argument went like this: Surely the believers in heaven still pray for us.
And God will hear the great saints of old more readily than us.
Especially Mary – Jesus surely will listen to His own mother.
Martin Luther agreed – it may well be that believers in heaven pray for us.
But he bitterly opposed the whole cult of the saints.
Because even if it is true that they do pray for us – (and we have no proof of that)
then that is still no basis for us today to ask them to pray for us.
We are not commanded to pray THRU them.
In fact we might rightly doubt whether they can hear us praying.
Even worse – in this way we detract from the SOLE MEDIATORSHIP OF JESUS.
The uniqueness of Christ as our only Mediator is undermined.
What’s more we even do the godly men and women of old a dishonour.
Many of them saw Jesus as their only Mediator.
They would be horrified if they knew that people today prayed to them or through them.
C] CHRIST’S INTERCESSION IN HEAVEN.
- Over against that Reformers taught that we only ever come to God thru Jesus.
He made the way open for us by His death and resurrection.
He is still the One who stands between God and us as our Bridge to God.
So we come to God through Him once for all in our eternal relationship with the Father.
But we also come repeatedly into God’s presence with our prayers… thru this same Mediator.
We must now never put anyone else between Jesus and ourselves.
And we never need to do that either.
That brings us the key reason why we are now talking about intercession.
When Jesus ascended into heaven it was especially to do three things.
FIRST of all He ascended – to reign in heaven as King.
SECONDLY – to send His Spirit and His gifts upon the Church.
THIRDLY – to be our High Priest for us in heaven (Heb.4).
The point is that the OT priests really did two things…. they had two tasks:
OTOH they sacrificed sin offerings for the people.
We have already considered that priestly work of Jesus.
OTOH they also prayed for the people.
And here we are now focusing on that priestly work of prayer.
This is a work that Jesus as our great High Priest continues to do in heaven.
He is there as our Intercessor… our Defence Attorney who pleads our cause.
And that is tremendously meaningful for our praying.
You and I know that praying has its difficulties for us…. it isn’t always easy to pray.
Sometimes we don’t know HOW to pray.
Should we pray for healing or for acceptance ?
At other times we don’t even feel all that much like praying.
The world and the devil distract us.
But now in all our difficulties with prayer we have three biblical perspectives to help and encourage us.
FIRST:- the way to the throne of God is always open for those who believe in Jesus.
There is never a time and never any circumstance in which we may not come directly to God.
SECOND:- Romans 8 teaches us that here on earth the Holy Spirit prays IN us.
He does that with sighs too deep to be heard.
THIRD:- As if all that wasn’t enough Jesus Himself intercedes for us in heaven.
He takes our prayers and He Himself lays them before the Father’s throne.
These are wonderfully encouraging truths for praying Christians.
- It is true that many people have problems with the uniqueness of Christianity.
Yet for us these things are central in our faith.
This is the very heartbeat of our religion…. because it deals with our whole approach to God.
So let others raise their objections.
We know that we can come with boldness, with confidence into God’s presence.
That encourages us in prayer as nothing else can.
I hope and pray that you will never think that Jesus is too far above us and beyond us;
That we might still need some other mediator between Jesus and us.
That would mean that you don’t see His intercession as central and unique.
It’s true of course that prayer by others on our behalf is very important.
It is great that I can ask you to pray for me.
And it’s a blessing that I can pray for you.
But if our praying for one another ever detracts from the work of Christ we are on the wrong track.
All prayer to God must be thru Jesus alone.
To highlight the importance of that I’ll close with two questions:
First:- Is there anyone who loved us more than Jesus?
He loved us so much that He gave up His very life for us.
And if He was willing to go that far for you…
will He then not also be ready and willing to hear and answer your prayers…
as you come to the Father thru Him?
Secondly:- Is there any limitation to His power and ability ?
He reigns over all creation at God’s right hand.
Is he then not also able to do far more than we can ever ask or think ?
Pray boldly God the Father thru Jesus Christ.
Pray with confidence – the way is open and Jesus is even now praying for us.
Amen.
BC stands for Basic Christianity. What are the fundamentals of the faith?
BC also stands for Belgic Confession – a document in which the Christian church (in a time of great persecution) spelled out the basics of what she believes.
When Christianity is a mile wide and an inch deep it needs to grasp again the basics of the faith and confess them in a world where the faith is increasingly under attack.
Those who drew up the BC declared that they were ready to obey the government in all lawful things, but that they would “offer their backs to stripes, their tongues to knives, their mouths to gags and their whole bodies to the fire” rather than deny the truth expressed in this confession.