JESUS' ROLES AS MEDIATOR
Truth for Life • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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-Often times, when there is a dispute between two people or two parties, they bring in a mediator to find a resolution to the matter, often to avoid the high costs of any sort of legal litigation. For example, if there is a dispute between labor and management, they might bring in a mediator to bring resolution and reconciliation. If there is some of family law issue—a dispute between family members—they might bring in a mediator. Or, looking at current events, there are several nations trying to act as mediator between Israel and Palestine to bring about a ceasefire.
-But what about the dispute God has with mankind? There is no doubt about it—any issues between God and mankind is completely humanity’s fault. We are the ones who rebelled, we are the ones who broke God’s laws, we are the ones to whom swift judgment is due. God cannot ignore His justice because He would go against His own nature. And yet, God in His love, desires to extend mercy to these same rebels. How can He extend mercy and yet satisfy His justice? This is where the mediator comes in. There needed to be a go-between between God and humanity.
-Obviously, Jesus is that mediator. On the first Wednesday of the month we have been looking at creeds and confessions that summarize important biblical doctrines so we have a greater foundation in the faith. I have been look at the Second London Baptist Confession and how it outlines basic Christian beliefs. In Chapter 8 it talks about Christ’s role as that mediator—He is the one that represents God to man and man to God. In earlier paragraphs of the chapter it has said that it pleased God to send His Son as the mediator. In order to fulfill that function Jesus had to be both God and man to represent them to each other, and He was more than equipped to fulfill this role. I want to continue this study as we consider the roles that Jesus undertook to fulfill His duties as mediator. So, let’s first look at paragraphs 9 & 10.
8:9 This office of mediator between God and humanity is appropriate for Christ alone, who is the prophet, priest and king of the church of God. This office may not be transferred from Him to anyone else, either in whole or in part.
8:10 The number and character of these offices is essential. Because we are ignorant, we need His prophetic office. Because we are alienated from God and imperfect in the best of our service, we need His priestly office to reconcile us and present us to God as acceptable. Because we are hostile and utterly unable to return to God, and so that we can be rescued and made secure from our spiritual enemies, we need His kingly office to convince, subdue, draw, sustain, deliver and preserve us for His heavenly kingdom.
-Paragraph 9 concentrates on the fact that only Jesus can be the mediator between God and humanity—there can be no one else that fulfills this role. The Bible makes clear:
5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
-The Baptists of the 1600’s very much wanted to stress this because of the religious conflict going on at the time. This time period was not long after the Protestant Reformation, and there was still the war raging between Protestants and Roman Catholics—war of words, war of theology, and sometimes actual war. And during this time, the Protestants were convinced that the Pope was the Antichrist and the Roman Catholic Church was the harlot of the book of Revelation—that’s how heated things were.
-The Baptists of the day wanted to refute certain Roman Catholic doctrines—namely that Mary and the dead saints could act as mediators of some sorts. To simplify it, they thought that Mary and the dead saints and the Catholic priests could mediate between man and Christ who would then mediate to God the Father. But the Protestants wanted to refute this and made clear there is Only One Mediator as Scripture itself attests. In 1592 Andrew Willett wrote a scathing rebuke against Catholicism’s denial of Christ being the sole Mediator (which, as I will mention in a minute, is demonstrated through His roles as prophet, priest, and king). Willett wrote:
So the Pope denies Christ to be our Prophet, King, and Priest: Christ’s prophetical office the Pope defaces, and in effect denies, [by] disgracing the scriptures, saying [that the Scriptures] are imperfect and do not contain all matters necessary to salvation, [and] that [the Scriptures’] authority does not bind us without the Pope’s allowance. [He denies Christ’s] Kingly office by making himself Christ’s vicar and viceregent upon earth, in making new laws, sacraments, [and] ordinances besides Christ’s as necessary to salvation as the rules of the Gospel. [He denies Christ’s] priesthood by setting us a new propitiatory sacrifice in the abominable Mass [set] beside the the only sacrifice of atonement upon the cross [and] in making other mediators and intercessors beside Christ....The Pope, in denying the offices of Christ, denies Christ, and so is Antichrist.
-That’s how serious they took this role of Christ as Mediator. But we Evangelicals must be careful not to look to others to mediate on our behalf. As one author warned:
Parents intercede for their children in prayer but cannot save them. Pastors preach the Word and shepherd in the household of God but cannot make a sinner right with God. Christ has His exclusive place as the sole object of faith, trust, and hope.
-There can be only one that can fix and reconcile the broken relationship between God and man, and it is the God-man, Jesus Christ. And it is in the roles that are entailed within His position of Mediator that are able to accomplish that purpose, and paragraph 10 summarizes those roles and works. Three roles of Christ as Mediator are highlighted: that of Prophet, Priest, and King.
-So, first, Jesus is our ultimate prophet. The paragraph says that we need a prophet because we are ignorant—ignorant of God and His ways. Had God not reached out to us we would not have gone looking for Him. And had God not revealed Himself to us, we would have known nothing more than that He existed and the He was powerful. But Christ reveals God to us and removes the ignorance in which we lived. And this is His prophetic work as Mediator.
-Moses had prophesied to the people:
15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—
-And then in his sermon at Pentecost, Peter tells the people that Jesus is that prophet:
22 Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.
23 And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’
24 And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days.
25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’
26 God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”
-Jesus is that prophet through whom we can truly know God—we no longer need to be ignorant of God. Fulfilling His office of prophet, Christ brings the Father’s message, proclaims His message to the people and His disciples, and foretells or predicts future events. He continues to exercise His work as prophet in revealing to us, by His word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation and edification.
-Then the paragraph describes the role of Jesus as priest—we were alienated from God and imperfect in our service to Him, and so we needed a priestly office to reconcile us and to present us to God as acceptable. If we wanted to summarize, the prophetic office is Christ representing God to us, and the priestly office is God representing man to God.
-Priests, through their service, would present a sacrifice to make atonement between man and God, and interceded on man’s behalf to God. When you look at the work of the priests in the Old Testament, they would make atonement for Israel by being the one to stand between the sinner and God, symbolically bringing the two together in reconciliation. But these Old Testament priests were merely a picture, a type, a shadow of what Christ would ultimately fulfill. But Christ’s work was also different in that He is not only our priest, He Himself is the sacrifice given to make reconciliation possible.
-Through His priestly work and sacrifice of Himself, Christ fulfilled the work of satisfying what was needed to bring the two parties together. Paul said:
26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
-All throughout the book of Hebrews it describes this priestly work. As the High Priest Jesus offered up the sacrifice that would satisfy God’s divine justice and bring us back to God.
17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
-And in this priestly role, he makes continual intercession on behalf of those who come to God through Him.
9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
-But then the paragraph goes on to talk of Christ’s kingly role in his mediating work. In His role as king, Christ calls a people to be part of His kingdom—out of the world and then under His authority, lordship, and sovereignty (as the paragraph says, as king He convinces, subdues, draws, sustains, delivers, and preserves).
16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
-But if He is King, that means that He has all authority, but His yoke is easy and His burden is light. And it is good to know that He has all power and authority, because then we also know that we can be rescued by Him and that we are secure from all of our spiritual enemies.
15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
-With these roles comes the fact that at the end of time Christ will bring all who have believed in Him into the fullness of glory in His kingdom, but those who did not believe and disobeyed the gospel he will take vengeance.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
-And so, Christ work as Mediator is a source of hope and joy and comfort for those who are in Christ. We have been saved and we will be saved out of this corrupt world—we are completely secure. But for those who have not believed, it is a source of dread and fear as judgment looms over their heads. But it doesn’t have to be that way if they would believe.
-Christian, every day rejoice and rest in the Mediator. Non-Christian, believe in the One who died and rose again to be your Prophet, Priest, and King.