"Christ Our Intercessor"
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“Christ Is…”
“Christ Our Eternal Intercessor”
Hebrews 7:21b-25
For the past few Wednesdays, we have been going through a series on identity. Specifically, I have been going through Scripture on the identity of Christ in your life.
I started several weeks ago by preaching a message titled “Christ Our Example.” At that point I really didn’t have any intentions of making it a series, but as I continued is study and prayer, I kept finding more nuggets I wanted to share.
So, I continued. I preached a message that probably should have been 2 messages titled “Christ Our Power” then last Wednesday I preached “Christ Our Ransom.”
Tonight I am going to continue the series, but even before I get started, I want to share something I was going to and should have shared Sunday.
Starting this past Sunday, the Assemblies of God started a 30 day long prayer campaign. The campaign is simply called “30 Days To Pray For America” Obviously, our entire world needs prayer, but Jesus said, “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the Uttermost Parts of the World.”
When He sent the apostles out to minister, He said to Matthew 10:5-6
These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
It wasn’t about keeping anything from anyone, IT WAS ABOUT KEEPING FIRST THINGS FIRST!
In Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3 Paul gives the qualifications for a pastor. The gist of it is this…A minister MUST have his personal life and his family life in order, before he can lead a church.
FIRST THINGS FIRST.
The same goes for us as a body of believers and our prayer lives.
WE HAVE TO KEEP FIRST THINGS FIRST.
Obviously, I am my first thing. I have to constantly pray for myself, and constantly work on strengthening my relationship with Jesus.
I have to be constantly praying for my family.
I have to constantly be praying for my ministry, our church, our community, and our country.
This Prayer guide will give you prompts over the next 26 days on how to pray for spiritual strength and revival in our country.
For example, Yesterday’s prompt was… “Pray for spiritual clarity. Among Americans who claim to embrace a biblical worldview, many also believe reincarnation is possible --- and that Jesus is not the only way to salvation.”
Today’s prompt, “Pray for America’s millennials (age 24-40). Although a majority identify as Christians, only 2% hold a biblical worldview.”
The statistics coming out these days our staggeringly disturbing!!!
There was recently a study released that is truly disturbing…
A new nationwide survey of America’s Christian pastors shows that a majority of pastors lack a biblical worldview. In fact, just slightly more than a third (37%) possess a biblical worldview and the majority—62%—hold a hybrid worldview known as Syncretism.
These shocking findings are part of the American Worldview Inventory 2022, conducted by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University and administered to Christian pastors to better understand the worldviews that drive their thinking and behavior.
As veteran researcher and CRC Director of Research George Barna explains, “It’s just further evidence that the culture is influencing the American church much more than Christian churches are influencing the culture.”
According to this latest report, the level of biblical worldview varies by the pastoral position held. Among Senior Pastors, for instance, 41% hold a biblical worldview—the highest incidence among any of the five pastoral positions studied. Next highest was the 28% among Associate Pastors.
One of the more concerning revelations emerging from the research is the worldview of pastors who work with young people, Barna noted. The study found that only 12% of Children’s and Youth Pastors hold a biblical worldview. And among Teaching Pastors, the level of biblical worldview is a mere 13%.
“A person’s worldview primarily develops before the age of 13, then goes through a period of refinement during their teens and twenties. Therefore, from a worldview development perspective, a church’s most important ministers are the Children’s Pastor and the Youth Pastor,” Barna said.
“Discovering that seven out of every eight of those pastors lack a biblical worldview helps to explain why so few among the nation’s youngest generations are developing a heart and mind for biblical principles and ways of life, and why our society seems to have run wild over the last decade,” Barna explained.
CHURCH, WE HAVE TO DO BETTER!
WE HAVE TO PRAY
WE HAVE TO GET IN THE WORD AND BELIEVE WHAT IT SAYS!!!
WE HAVE TO LIVE IT OUT
But the reality is we cannot do it alone. We cannot make it through this life, on this Earth, IN THIS WORLD, without some help.
Tonight, I want to preach for the next few minutes from the title,
“Christ Our Intercessor”
but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him:
“The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind,
‘You are a priest forever.’ ”
This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.
The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 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.
The letter to the Hebrews is believed to have been written somewhere between 60 and 70 AD. The writer of Hebrews is unknown and has been disputed by scholars for centuries.
What is absolutely undisputed is the intent of the letter!!!
The introduction to Hebrews in the ESV study Bible says,
“The letter to the Hebrews was written to encourage Christians in a time of trial. It does so by focusing on the absolute supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ. While God spoke in the past “many times and in many ways,” he has now spoken to us “by his Son,” Jesus Christ, who is the “exact imprint” of God’s nature and who “upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:1–3). Jesus accomplished complete salvation for all who trust in him (Hebrews 1:1–10:18). We dare not “neglect such a great salvation” (Hebrews 2:3; 5:12–6:20; 10:19–39).[1]
We can learn a lot about the identity of Christ in our lives from the book of Hebrews. The point that this introduction to the book makes is that He is ABSOLUTELY SUPREME AND SUFFICIENT!
He is supreme to all other priests that came before Him
And He is Sufficient for our every need.
Hebrews often compares Jesus to Melchizedek, whose name means “priest of the God most High.” Melchizedek is used as an example through the book of Hebrews as a standard of righteousness, but a standard that wasn’t enough.”
Therefore, Jesus came to be both Supreme and Sufficient!
That first verse we read is a quote from Psalm 110:1-4 an eschatological psalm of David pointing to the Messiah.
The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”
The Lord sends forth from Zion
your mighty scepter.
Rule in the midst of your enemies!
Your people will offer themselves freely
on the day of your power,
in holy garments;
from the womb of the morning,
the dew of your youth will be yours.
The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind,
“You are a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek.”
David said that the Messiah would be a priest forever. Not after the order of priests that live AND DIE, but the Eternal Priest that would AND DOES intercede for us day and night!
Jesus’ ministry of Salvation was not just for the day at the altar when you gave your life to Jesus.
It wasn’t just for taking away your sins and your past.
Jesus’ ministry of salvation is forever.
It is for the times when life is hard.
It is for the times when the world seems to be headed for Hell in a Handbasket.
It is for the times when you JUST NEED A FRIEND!
It is for the times when you learn that only 2% of Americans between the ages of 24 and 40 hold a Christian worldview.
His ministry of Salvation is for the times when you learn that “just slightly more than 37% of American pastors hold a biblical worldview…”
It’s for times when we have to stop and say, “GOD HELP US!!!”
Unfortunately, too often we are at a loss on how to even pray.
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
We just celebrated Pentecost Sunday. WE celebrated the birth of the Church. We celebrated the Power of God being given to mankind.
BUT HOW OFTEN DO WE USE THE GIFTS WE ARE GIVEN?
How often do we stop to consider that we have authority over the non-sense we have to face on the day to day.
We have the ability to give in and give up…we have the ability to open our mouths and allow the Spirit of God to intercede on our behalf?
Think about the hardest thing you have been through in the last year!
Think about how you dealt with that situation.
If you dealt with it in prayer, kudos…good job.
Now think about how your prayers might have been made better if you allowed the Spirit to interceded to Jesus who in turn interceded to the Father on your behalf.
Imagine the perfection of a prayer that has no selfishness, no possibility of worldly desire, no unforgiveness or bitterness…JUST THE PERFECT WILL OF GOD BEING PRAYED THROUGH YOUR MOUTH AS YOU SUBMIT TO THE HOLY SPIRIT!!!
Tongues is about more than a charismatic sign of a second blessing!
Tongues is a gift from God to us!
It is a gift of intercession to Jesus who intercedes on our behalf!!!
Jesus also intercedes when we feel accused or condemned.
And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.
The enemy of your soul constantly seeks to accuse and condemn.
He wants to destroy your mind, body, and soul. He wants to steal your children, spouse, friends.
He wants you to FEEL condemned, but let me encourage you with THE WORD
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
NO CONDEMNATION!!!
Furthermore, not only are you not condemned, but even better, there is nothing and no one that can come against you!
The enemy can’t condemn you and He can’t separate you from the Love of God because Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father constantly making intercession...
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Finally,
If we believe that Christ is our intercessor, and that He loves and cares about us, WE SHOULD COME BOLDLY TO HIM WITHOUR EVERY NEED.
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version(Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Heb.