Word of Salvation – Vol. 30 No. 04 – January 1985
Christ’s Intercession
Sermon by Rev. Steven Voorwinde, v.d.m. on John 14:6 & Hebrews 7:25
(Belgic Confession Art.26)
Scriptures: John 14:1-14; Hebrews 7:11-28
Suggested Hymns: Ps.H. 366; 369; 455; BoW. 502
Beloved in the Lord,
What do you think is the most common objection that people have against Christianity? What would be the single greatest difficulty that modern man has with the Christian religion?
Well, some people may have trouble with the supernatural.
They find it hard to believe in miracles or in angels or in the resurrection of Jesus. Others may have difficulty with the creation account in the Book of Genesis. And still others are bewildered when they think of a God of love and all the evil and misery in the world.
But still I would say that the single greatest difficulty that people have with the Christian faith is that it is so exclusive. It claims to be right when all the others are wrong. In an age when people like to think of themselves as tolerant and open-minded, here is a religion that is out of step with the times. It is old-fashioned and narrow-minded surely. It could even be classed as bigotry, to think that you have a monopoly of the truth; no even more, that you have the truth itself.
And, brothers and sisters, isn’t it very easy for us to be children of our times and to drift along with the current? We talk so easily about the love of God, about peace and joy and compassion, but underneath there is still that solid rock and stumbling-block of the truth. That truth is either the rock on which we build our lives or it is the stone of offence over which we stumble and fall.
When Jesus was in this world He did more than anybody to help people. He showed them compassion. He taught them to love one another. But still He was very firm and unbending when it came to this matter of the truth. Call Him exclusive. Call Him narrow-minded. For all His love and gentleness He would brook no rivals when it came to being the Saviour of mankind: “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one to the Father except through me.”
Now that’s pretty exclusive: “I am the way.” It’s also narrow. As Jesus said on another occasion: “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life; and few are those who find it” (Mat.7:13,14). Jesus Himself is that narrow way. He didn’t say: “I am A way.” He is THE way to the Father and He is THE way to life. It was a truth that the disciples learned well. As Peter was to say to the Jews after Pentecost: “There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved”; (Acts 4:12).
Modern man says: “Many ways!” The Bible says “One way!”
Just North of Sydney there is a temple on a prominent hill which it can be seen for miles around. It’s probably the only one of its kind in Australia and there aren’t very many of them in the world. It’s a Bahai temple. It’s a round, Indian-looking, dome-shaped building. It’s not very spectacular, but the significant thing about it is that it has nine entrances, one for each of the major religions of the world. That’s the basic tenet of the Bahai faith, that there are many ways to get to heaven just as there are many ways to get into that temple. It’s a religion that may not boast many members and yet it expresses what many people in our society believe today Yes, they believe that God exists. And yes, they believe that heaven exists but there are many ways to get there.
Jesus’ second statement is equally offensive. He said: “I am the truth.” Again He didn’t say: “I’ll show you the truth” or I’ll teach you the truth”. Very simply He said: “I am the truth.” And again this goes in against the grain of so much modern thinking: “Oh, you know, there is no such thing as truth; at least not truth with a capital “T”. Truth is a relative, a personal thing. If you’re a Christian then Christianity is true for you. If you’re a Buddhist then Buddhism is true for you. If you’re a Muslim then Islam is true for you. There is no such thing as absolute truth. Truth is what each man makes for himself.”
In our text Jesus puts the knife through all such modern nonsense when He proclaims: “I am the truth.”
Finally Jesus also said: “I am the life. Notice that He didn’t say: “I lead to life”, although that is true. He didn’t say: “I give life”, although that also is true. Jesus said: “I am the life.” And this is the life that we can have. As Jesus was to say in one of His prayers to the Father: “This is eternal life that they might know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent”; (John 17:3). Knowing Jesus, that’s life!
And how significant is it that these words were spoken on the very eve of the crucifixion: “I am the way”. What greater dead end can you imagine than being crucified on a Roman cross! “I am the truth” – but the lies of evil men were about to enjoy a spectacular triumph. “I am the life”; yet within a few hours his corpse would be placed in a tomb. “I am the way, the truth and the life”; never has a claim stood a more severe test. Yet, never has a claim come through stronger, more valid and more robust for the experience. The way continued on through the dead end; the truth was victorious over the lies; the life conquered death. Jesus died, was buried, but He rose again, and the events of Easter morning prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that He is in fact the way, the truth and the life. Therefore “No one comes to the Father but by me. Again it is strong language. It is going to offend people. There is only one way to God and that way is Jesus.
The largest Protestant denomination in America is the Southern Baptist Convention. Last year the president of that convention got himself into some hot water over this very point. He was meeting with leaders of other churches when it was suggested that a Jewish Rabbi attend a prayer meeting that was going to be held. The South- ern Baptist objected by saying that God does not hear the prayers of a Jew. Well, of course he was immediately charged with anti-Semitism and prejudice and what have you. Well, maybe he left himself open to those accusations, but if he meant that a Jew cannot come to God apart from Christ he was dead right. “No one can come to the Father but by me, “Jesus said – whether that person be a Jew or an Arab or an Italian or an Australian or whatever. That’s true because nobody else crashed through the gates of death and paved the way to heaven as Jesus did. Mohammed didn’t and Buddha didn’t and Confucius didn’t; and Karl Marx and Chairman Mao certainly didn’t. His death and resurrection prove conclusively that Jesus is the one and only way to the Father.
This leads directly into our second text, in Hebrews 7: “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.”
Now you will notice that our texts are complementary; the one fills out the other. The first teaches that He is the only Saviour. The second teaches that He is the complete Saviour. If the first text teaches that He has no rivals, the second teaches that He needs no helpers. He does it and He does it all alone. And both of these doctrines are true because of what happened on Good Friday and Easter Morning. Jesus is the only Saviour because He died and rose again; and Jesus is the complete Saviour because He died and rose again.
The writer to the Hebrews relates this to Jesus’ function as a priest. He looks at Jesus through the eyes of someone who is steeped in the teachings of the Old Testament. There the priest had two main tasks: to offer sacrifices for the sins of the people and to pray for the people in the holy place.
Now when Jesus died and rose again He fulfilled these functions perfectly. When He died He sacrificed himself for their sins once and for all. Because He rose again He always lives to intercede for His people. The other high priests only sacrificed animals, whereas He offered up Himself. They interceded for the people until they died; He intercedes for us forever because He has conquered death. Therefore He is the perfect high priest who intercedes for His people and sacrificed for their sins. The one is the basis of the other. He prays for His people because of the sacrifices that He has made.
What a tremendously reassuring thing that is. If Jesus died for you on Calvary then He is also praying for you in heaven. He is interceding for you at the right hand of God. And I don’t think you have to be very far along the Christian road to realize how encouraging that can be. Just imagine that your progress as a Christian depended on your own prayers! We realize soon enough that our prayer life is not what it ought to be. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. And there are times when we simply cannot pray. Our minds are too tired or our bodies are too sick. We find this often with people who are in hospital. They admit that they just can’t pray. They can’t concentrate. Their minds wander. There are distractions and interruptions. So what a comfort it is to know that Jesus sympathises with your weakness and He is praying for you at the right hand of God! You may be in no condition to pray, but you can rest assured that He prays for you.
The apostle Paul in his many struggles was able to draw a lot of strength from that. In Romans 8 he asks a whole array of questions: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:31-34).
What is there, that can separate us from Christ’s love if He is there in Heaven praying on our behalf? A time of illness can’t. A period in the hospital can’t. Financial difficulties can’t. Not even death can. If Jesus is our Saviour He is also our Intercessor. In fact that’s what He lives for. “He always lives to intercede for them”, our text says. It is true that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us too. He does that with groanings too deep for words. But whereas the Holy Spirit is our Intercessor on earth and in our hearts, Jesus Christ is our Intercessor in heaven at the right hand of God. In fact He is our only Intercessor in heaven. Here again He is the complete and only Saviour. He has no rivals and He needs no helpers.
At this point we must take exception to the teachings of the Roman Church which holds not only that heaven is full of saints praying on our behalf but also that we can pray to them. Especially in the Middle Ages it was believed that saints protected the faithful from specific evils. For example, the city of Rome was protected by Peter, Paul and St. Lawrence; and England by St. George who killed the dragon. Sufferers from toothache pleaded with St. Appollonia for relief, for she had all her teeth extracted rather than deny Christ. St. Florian guarded against fire; St. Nicholas in time of shipwreck and St. Anthony protected those who drove mules.
Now most of these saints have fallen on hard times. But there is one saint who is as popular as ever and that is St. Mary the mother of our Lord. She is the object of the devotion of millions who believe that she can intercede with almost unlimited effectiveness. As the Queen of Heaven and of the whole world, she has special access to God and a heart full of compassion and mercy for sinners.
The other day I read an interview with Poland’s Lech Walesa and it reminded me of how current this kind of thinking still is in the Roman Church. Among other things this was what he said:
“When things got tragic or critical I would say, ‘Mother Mary, I’m losing; now what are you going to do about it?’ Then I would take some time for myself. And I would say, ‘What will be, will be. O.K. It’s your thing. How will you solve this?’…. No, no! I’m not scared. I always have Mother Mary behind me.”
The Bible says that we have only one Intercessor in heaven and that is Jesus Christ and He intercedes on the basis of his finished work, Mary, Peter and Paul may have been very saintly people but they didn’t die on Calvary and they didn’t rise on Easter Morning. There’s not one shred of Biblical evidence that they listen to us in heaven or that we should call on them.
Well, we may not have saints praying for us in heaven, but we should have saints praying for us on earth. Every believer is a saint and every believer is a priest. The Bible has instance after instance of believers praying for one another and for the world. Jesus is an Intercessor in heaven and we are told to follow His example by being intercessors on earth. Jesus prays, and yet we have the responsibility to pray as well.
In Isaiah’s time there was a period of spiritual decline and as he describes what that implied we come across this very significant statement:
“The Lord saw that there was no man, and was astonished that there was no one to intercede”; (Is.59:16).
There was spiritual decline and there was no one to intercede.
To what extent are you an intercessor? How many people in our church do you pray for? Do you just pray for your family or do you pray for all the families in the church? Do you use our church address book only when you need to ring somebody or do you also use it to pray for people? How many people do you pray for regularly and not just when a special need arises?
A man once said to me: “You know, I always get something out of church service because I always pray about it beforehand.” How many of you prayed before this service? How many of you prayed for the preacher in particular? We really need it, you know. Let’s make 1985 a year of intercession where we pray for one another in the church, where no one is left out. We really do need each other. What Jesus is doing for us in heaven we need to do for one another on earth.
But we need to go beyond our own circle. It is said of Jesus that He prayed for the transgressors and He did that supremely on the cross. He told us to pray even for our enemies.
I wonder what God sees when He looks at the Communist Bloc or the Muslim world or a land like India. Does He see and hear intercessors for these nations? Or is He astonished that there is no one to intercede? Are there so many who do not see Jesus as the way, the truth and the life, simply because there is no one to intercede?
Amen.