Jesus our Mediator

(Note: audio of this sermon can be found here)

1Ti 2:1-7

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle ( I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

Sinclair Ferguson, has written "Preaching to the heart addresses the understanding first, in order to instruct it; but in doing so it reaches through the mind to inform, rebuke and cleanse the conscience. It then touches the will in order to reform and transform life and equip the saints for the work of ministry". That is my prayer for us this morning as we consider God's Word and as we reflect on another aspect of the person and work of Christ. As I have been praying for this morning, I have been asking our Father that He would grant that the Spirit would take us beyond mere head knowledge to a heart knowledge that affects how we worship, how we pray and how we serve.

As many of you know, Pastor Dan is in the middle of a series he's entitled "Name above all names". His goal is to look at the wide gamut of names, titles, offices and roles of Jesus. So far he's looked at:

• Jesus the King of kings 
• Jesus our Servant 
• Jesus the Son of Man 
• Jesus the Son of God

One thing that has struck me with each successive sermon in this series is that while each of these roles are unique and important, none of them are independent. Is Jesus our King? Absolutely, but what makes that even more spectacular is that he is the King who serves and became a man and took on our sin. Is Jesus our Savior? No doubt, but this is made more astounding by the fact that He is also the coming Judge and conquering King.

I mention this by way of reminder but also to point out reality that the facet of Jesus' ministry Dan asked me preach on today is really built on the two aspects of Jesus' identity that Dan has preached on the last two weeks. Two weeks ago he preached on Jesus as the Son of Man, how his full humanity was crucial to his role as shepherd and high priest. Last week he preached on Jesus as the Son of God, how his full deity is essential to his role as savior as well as the author and perfecter of our faith. In both sermons Dan asked the same question: "How do these two natures exist together?" His answer: "I have no idea." I have no idea either and I suspect that when we hit the million year mark in the new heavens and the new earth, we will still marvel at the Incarnation. But, for this week, it serves as a great demonstration and proclamation of Jesus as our Mediator.

You see, before the incarnation, before the cross, before the resurrection, the Triune God had a divine dilemma. He was perfectly holy and could not even look upon sin. Yet we were utterly sinful, both by nature and by choice. Our best, holiest works were really filthy rags. If God wanted to glorify himself by redeeming and restoring and recreating lost and fallen humanity, He needed a way to bridge the infinite gap between His holiness and our sinfulness. He needed a mediator.

Before we move on, consider the most heinous crime someone could commit against you. Or the most offensive word or deed. Or most disgusting and deplorable act. How can healing and forgiveness possibly begin? You know the hurt and offense. You know the barriers that rise up and the separation that results. And even though the hurts and offenses among ourselves, although real, are slight compared with our offense against God, we know that even our horizontal gaps and rifts can appear to be unbridgeable. So, if we need mediators in our human relationships, how much more is one needed to come from God's throne to connect with sinful, fallen humanity.

The first place I want to look at as we consider Jesus' role as mediator is the passage we read a few minutes ago. The main reason I want start here is that it is one of only a few places that states explicitly that Jesus is our mediator. But there is more to it than that. As there are with every ministry of Jesus there are implications that go along with Jesus as our mediator and this passage drives some of these home for us.

The first thing that is important for us to see is that Paul is emphasizing Jesus' role of standing between God and men. Interestingly, the word Paul used for mediator has the connotation of someone bringing parties together. So the goal, even here is resolution and restoration. This not like the officials at a football game, trying administer the rules independent of opposing teams. This is more like a negotiator, seeking the best interests of both parties, striving for resolution of the offense. Now this is not to say that Father stands remote and ready to smite us and Jesus graciously intervenes. In fact Paul says exactly the opposite. In verse 3 he says God is our savior and that He desires that all should come to repentance. Hold on to that thought, because we'll come back to it a little later.

Paul is declaring that Jesus is the one who is bridging the gap between a holy God and a sinful humanity. Do you see the connection to this role and Jesus' incarnation? If Jesus were fully God but only pretending to be a man, he couldn't fully bridge the gap. His holiness would still overwhelm us. Yet if Jesus were a god-like man, say David without the Uriah episode or Elijah without the bout of depression, he could still not cover the distance. Remember verses like Isa 64:6 and Ps 14:1 apply to all of us. His sin, a slight as it may be, would still render him unacceptable before God.

Consider with me the first few verses of Rev 5. God is holding the scroll of human history. And at first, who is worthy to open it? There is no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth who is worthy. So bleak are the prospects for opening this scroll that John begins to weep. Praise God there is a living/slain lion/lamb who has conquered. Ah, but that's a different sermon. The imagery, however is incredibly important. In one snapshot, we see the divine dilemma.

Now I want to look at this situation from our perspective. How serious is this situation for us? God had a divine dilemma, but what about us? How are we to assess our need for a mediator?

My contention is that the Bible is full of indicators that show us our real standing before God, apart from Christ. One of the reasons I highly recommend reading through the entire Bible and why I continue to do so each year is to simply soak in the general pathos of this book. One of the things we see over and over is that without God's gracious intervention, we are all (spiritually speaking) standing on the down escalator. What's the next major event after the flood? The tower of Babel. How long is Moses gone before the nation has crafted an idol to represent God? How many hours elapse between Peter's brave declaration before Christ and his fearful retreat from a servant girl?

Then there was this guy named Job. From a human perspective, he was a righteous guy, but God decides to show Job (and us) that our love and devotion need to be in God and not in his blessings. Along the way, Job has a dialog with his "friends" who demonstrate that a reasonable theology at one point can easily be extended into absurdity. In the midst of this dialog, Job begins to slowly realize that his own theology is off the mark and that he really can't put God in a box and that there is a great gulf between him and God.

Listen to his words and see if they fit the ache that is in your own heart.

Job 9:2, 25-35
Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God?
My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away; they see no good.
They go by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey.
If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,’
I become afraid of all my suffering, for I know you will not hold me innocent.
I shall be condemned; why then do I labor in vain?
If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye,
yet you will plunge me into a pit, and my own clothes will abhor me.
For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together.
There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both.
Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me.
Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself.

It should be noted that the word arbiter in verse 33 could also easily be translated justifier, reconciler or decider.  Job is realizing that he is unable to approach God. So Job's plea is for some one to bring our human dilemma before the throne of God.

Let me be quick to remind us all that Job didn't get the full picture until the end of the book, but this is a snapshot into the reality of the human dilemma. If God has a divine dilemma of how to bridge the gap between his holiness and our sinfulness, we have the human dilemma of having nothing to offer this holy, just and righteous God from whom we've rebelled and to whom we owe an unpayable debt. What makes this worse from our perspective is that not only do we not have the means to pay, but any payment we would attempt to make would be in the wrong currency. It would be like trying to pay your credit card or taxes or mortgage with confederate money. While it may have served a purpose in the South during the Civil War, confederate money is no longer legal currency. A millionaire in confederate  dollars is still bankrupt in the real world.

So, I have to ask: Do you feel this gap? Not simply do you see the facts, but do you feel the separation? God is over here with the need to bridge the chasm to restore humanity. And mankind over here knowing there is an unbridgeable gulf and not having any resources or abilities to even begin the journey. I'm not simply talking about the facts. I want you to feel the weight. Do you grasp, here in the depth of your soul that this separation is real and that it is fixed and there is nothing we can do about it? Can we cry out, along with Job, "Oh if there were only someone who could lay a hand upon us both"?

Please turn with me to Eph 2. I want to make the turn by gazing at a passage whose beauty eluded me because I didn't fully grasp its backstory. So, I would like us to take the divine dilemma and the human dilemma and listen to Paul's words starting in verse 11.

Eph 2:11-12
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Separated. Alienated. Strangers. No hope. Without God. Paul sees what Job saw. In reality its what every biblical writer saw. Apart from Christ, God is hopelessly distant from us. I want to linger here just a few moments to make sure we grasp that this is not an accounting trick. This is not like writing a check that exceeds your balance but having money in savings to cover it. This is not like having a lot of friends, but simply having nobody call you on a Friday night. This is real. This is serious. And from our perspective, this is permanent.

But, here is the really good news. Yes, we were separated and alienated, strangers from God and each other, without hope and without God.

Eph 2:13-16
"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility."

Paul is emphatically declaring that Jesus IS our mediator. Look at the spatial and physical terms that Paul uses. We were far off, but now we've been brought near in Christ. There was a dividing wall of hostility but this has been broken down in Jesus' flesh. There was horizontal hostility but Jesus has achieved peace for us with God and by this peace he has enabled the peace that we can have with one another.

All of this brings us back to 1 Tim 2 with a single question. Why does it matter that Jesus is our mediator?
Here is the primary reason from verse 4 of 1 Tim 2. It is God's desire that we be saved. And in order to be saved, we desperately need a mediator. As we sit here, we are lethally infected with sin and only Jesus can provide us the cure. We really are alienated, separated and without God. But through Jesus, God has bridged the infinite gulf to restore us.

I want speak directly to every one within the sound of my voice to consider this reality. Even if you have tuned me out for this entire sermon, I need your attention now. If you have not placed your faith in Jesus, you are separated and alienated from God. I don't care how good you think you are or how perfect your life may seem right now. I don't care if you are an A student, the CEO of your business, in the perfect marriage with perfect kids, enjoying a blissful retirement or whether you just feel really good about yourself. All of that is as transient as the leaves on our lawns. The God who created you is the one who is lovingly pleading with you to turn from your self salvation and turn to Jesus. The call of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation is: turn from faith in your own abilities and turn to faith in the infinite sacrifice of Christ.

If I can press this just a little more, I would like to echo a common warning of Matt Chandler. There is no one in this room whose life cannot be unalterably changed with one phone call, text message or e-mail. This life we are currently living is incredibly fragile and the things we are trusting in for our ultimate satisfaction and security are very temporary and easily devalued. Jesus however, has achieved a salvation for us that is eternally secure and infinitely valuable. He has fought the decisive victory and is sitting with His Father as the conquering king of the universe. Jesus has bridged the gap for us as we place our faith in Him.

I would urge you to ask God to make Jesus clear to you. I would urge you to read His Word, not as literature, not as an owners manual and not as Christianity for Dummies. I urge you to read God's Word as a letter from a loving Father to his wayward children, saying in effect, I love you and I have made a way for you to come home. And most of all, I urge you to surrender your life to Christ and accept the free gift of his grace.

For those of us who have surrendered our lives to Christ, there is another aspect to why the reality of Jesus our mediator is important. It gives us an appreciation of the incredible value of what Jesus has accomplished on our behalf. Sometimes, I don't think we really grasp the distance between us and God. I had previous pastor say that it was like standing on the beach in California and needing to swim to Japan. Hmmm, maybe. But that doesn't seem absolute enough. When we consider Jesus as our mediator, we need to try to grasp the unbridgeable gulf between us and God. We need the Holy Spirit to give us the perspective of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus from Lk 16 where Jesus teaches that there is a great chasm fixed between heaven and hell and no one can cross between them. Friends, that's what we've been saved from. And, we need the Holy Spirit to give us the perspective of the tax collector in Lk 18 who couldn't even look to heaven but beat his breast saying "God, be merciful to me, a sinner"

In addition to this, Jesus as our mediator helps us grasp both the magnitude and the reality of God as our Father. How could we possibly relate to a Father who is distant and aloof? How could we pray to a Father who is waiting to crush us at our first mistake? But, if the Triune God orchestrated this magnificent plan of redemption, if He rescued us and restored us, if He became a man so He could place His hands on us, both to heal us and to hold us, then this Father, this God, this Savior is one we can trust, and rely on and call out to and know that He will never leave us or forsake us.

Finally, there are two glorious implications that Paul leaves us with. The first reality of Jesus as mediator is that it is the engine that drives our prayers. Whether we are praying for our spouses or children or parents, our focus must be on whether they grasp the reality of the gospel and whether that reality is affecting how they live. Even as we pray for their health and safety, we should always be seeking those blessings as something that either drives them to their mediator or something that highlights the magnificence of their savior. On top of this, it affects how we pray for our leaders, both in the church and in the government. We should be seeking their welfare, not so much that they would make our lives easier, but they would enable the proclamation of the gospel to go to the ends of the earth.

This leads us to the second implication of Jesus being our mediator. It should affect how we serve God and each other. Paul knows that his calling has a single purpose: proclaiming the magnificence of Jesus the mediator and the salvation that is available to everyone. Shouldn't our attitude be the same? Shouldn't we serve Christ knowing that our service is not an end in itself, but is really something that God can use to bring us and others back to this one reality:

Jesus is our mediator.

To God Alone be the Glory

Psalm 130

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.

O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities.