The Gift of His Intercession
Sermon Notes
Intro:
Today we’re continuing our teaching series called Unwrapped, which is about discovering the heart of the Savior, discovering the heart of Jesus. Christmas is about the gift of Jesus, it’s about the incarnational birth of Jesus, so we’re spending some time unwrapping the incredible heart of Jesus. Last week we studied Matthew 11:28-30 where Jesus tells us his heart, he tells us he’s gentle and humble in heart. But today we’ll learn he’s also an intercessor who wants to intercede for our lives, so we can have peace for our lives. Both skeptics and believers want peace for their lives. We want peace for our marriage and family; we’re tired of the fights... We want peace for our finances; we’re tired of scraping by or feeling we don’t have enough...We want peace for our identity; we’re tired of trying to prove our worth to God and others...Both skeptics and believers have areas in our lives we aren’t at peace with, and today’s text will help us unwrap the incredible heart of Christ, the incredible gift of his intercession, which can bring peace to our lives. So let’s turn to Hebrews 7 and get into it. If you open your bible to the middle, keep turning right, you’ll find Hebrews. We’ll be in Hebrews 7:23-27. Title of today’s message is The Gift of His Intercession, and here’s the big idea. There’s peace for your life, in the daily intercession of Christ...There’s peace for your life, in the daily intercession of Christ.
Context:
Here’s your context. The book of Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians facing fierce persecution socially and physically. They were facing persecution from the Romans and from Jews who hated them for converting to Christianity. It was written to encourage them to keep the faith, to encourage them that Jesus really is their Messiah. It’s really an amazing book that takes the promises of the Old Testament, and shows how Jesus is the messianic fulfillment of those promises. It takes well known people of the Old Testament like Abraham and Moses, and then shows how Jesus is the greater Abraham, he’s the greater Moses. In ch 7 well see this same thing happening, we’ll see Jesus being revealed as the greater high priest, the greater intercessor, and as we study we’ll address 3 questions: #1 What’s the intercession of Christ? #2 Why do we need the intercession of Christ? #3 How can the intercession of Christ affect our lives? Let’s check it out.
The Word:
Hebrews 7:23-27 states, “Now many have become Levitical priests, since they are prevented by death from remaining in office. 24 But because he remains forever, he holds his priesthood permanently.” Notice there’s a contrast between Levitical priests and Jesus being the greater high priest. Historically Levitical priests were Jewish priests that acted as intercessors between God and the Jews, similar to a Roman Catholic priest forgiving sins during confession, except the role of a Levitical priest was even greater. They were given the role of an intercessor between God and the Jews, offering animal sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins. But notice the text says there were many Levitical priests, because they’d eventually die and another would take their place. The point being made is Jesus is the greater high priest, the greater sacrifice, because he’s eternal and they aren’t. Their intercession was temporary, but his intercession is eternal.
Vs. 25, “Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them.” There’s another glimpse into the heart of Christ, another glimpse into the kind of Lord and Savior Jesus is. Last week we learned he has a gentle and humble heart, but here we’re learning he has an interceding heart. So our 1st question is...
#1 What is the intercession of Christ? = What is the intercession of Christ, what does this word intercession mean? It means to stand in for somebody, to make an appeal on behalf of somebody. The Apostle John uses the word advocate to describe the intercession of Christ. 1st John 2:1 states, “I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous one.” The Greek word for ‘advocate’ can also be translated as ‘intercessor.’ So John’s saying when we sin Jesus is there to advocate for us, to intercede for us in the court of heaven. Many scholars give the illustration of Jesus being like our defense attorney. If you break the law and have to go to court, you need an attorney to represent you since you’re not qualified to defend yourself. You don’t have the legal knowledge and experience to represent yourself. So you hire an attorney who has the expertise to represent you, to advocate for you, to intercede for you. Their success or failure is imputed to you so if they succeed you succeed, if they fail you fail, which is why you need to hire a great attorney. Jesus is our great attorney, our great advocate, our great intercessor who never fails to represent us in the court of heaven when we sin. If you’re a Christian, then Jesus is your great advocate, your great intercessor who’s representing you right now in the court of heaven.
So when we’re talking about the intercession of Christ, what we’re talking about is what Christ is doing for us now, in the present. Jesus died for our sins in the past, but he’s interceding for us when we sin in the present, so we aren’t condemned in the future. He’s reminding the court of heaven that our past, present, and future sins have already been paid for through his death on cross. In the book Gentle and Lowly author Dane Ortlund states, “Christ’s heart is a steady reality flowing through time. It isn’t as if his heart throbbed for his people when he was on earth, but has dissipated now that he’s in heaven. It isn’t that his heart was flowing forth in a burst of mercy that took him all the way to the cross, but has now cooled down, settling back once more into kind indifference. His heart is as drawn to his people now, as it ever was in his incarnate state. The present manifestation of his heart for his people, is his constant interceding on their behalf.” When you sin, remember the interceding heart of Christ is there to represent you, and he’ll never fail you. His success on the cross, becomes your success in the eternal court.
Again vs. 25 states, “Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them. 26 For this is the kind of high priest we need: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.” Notice the text says Jesus is the perfect high priest we need, which leads to our 2nd question.
#2 Why do we need the intercession of Christ? = Why do we need the intercession of Christ, especially if Jesus already died for our sins? One reason is because we have an accuser. Revelation 12:10 says, “The accuser of our brothers and sisters, accuses them before God day and night.” We need the intercession of Christ because when we sin Satan’s accusing us of being undeserving of eternal life in heaven. Satan’s the prosecuting attorney pointing out the sins we’re guilty of, while Jesus is the defense attorney pointing out the sins he died for. Some people have a hard time believing this, but if you believe God is holy and just, then you should also believe He judges our sins. If He doesn’t do that, if He doesn’t judge our sins, then He isn’t holy and just. The bible teaches God is holy, He’s just, which means eventually everybody will have to give an account for their sins in the court of heaven. The moral law inside your heart points to this, it points to there being judgment for sin. Tim Keller states, “Why is it that you might be walking, then all of a sudden a slideshow goes off of the things you’ve done wrong? Why is it that your conscience sometimes goes crazy?...It’s because your conscience is a radio receiver picking up the Prosecution. You stand guilty before the judgment seat of heaven, and there is a bar where we all stand accused. We need an advocate.” See the question isn’t are you guilty of sin, it’s who’s representing you against the accusations when you sin? Is it you, or is it Christ?...
Vs. 27, “He doesn’t need to offer sacrifices every day, as high priests do—first for their own sins, then for those of the people.” Once again the text is pointing out the fact that Jesus is our perfect high priest, our perfect advocate, our perfect intercessor. It says all the other high priests had to offer sacrifices for their own sins, and for the sins of others. It’s because they’ve all sinned except for Jesus. Everybody sins except for Jesus, which is another reason we need Jesus to be our intercessor. It’s because we’re all guilty of sin, meaning nobody stands a chance against Satan’s accusations. It’s foolish to go through life thinking we can represent ourselves in front of a holy and just God. Sometimes on tv there’s a person who decides to be their own attorney, but any real attorneys knows it’s foolish to represent yourself without any legal experience, because our legal system’s too complex. Yet this is exactly what some of us do with God. We think we can be our own advocates instead of Christ. We think we can stand before God saying “Look at all the good things I’ve done. I’ve been a good spouse, parent, neighbor, an overall good person, so I deserve heaven.” Christians have their own version saying “I’ve been a good Christian. I’ve read my bible, prayed, attended church, given to the church. I’ve been a good Christian.”
But when we do this we’re trying to be our own advocates. We’re trying to minimize our sins and make ourselves look better than we are. But we can’t minimize or excuse our sins away, which is why Jesus came to wash our sins away. He came to be our advocate, our intercessor. We need him to keep interceding for us in heaven, because we keep sinning here on earth. Dane Ortlund states, “We need Christ to continue interceding on our behalf in heaven, because we continue failing here on earth...Picture a glider pulled up into the sky by an airplane, soon to be released to float down to earth. We’re that glider and Christ is the plane, except he never disengages. He never let’s go hoping we’ll glide the rest of the way into heaven. He carries us all the way.” We need a greater advocate to intercede for us, because we’re incapable of being our own advocates. Jesus is that greater advocate, and he won’t ever let you stand trial alone.
Again vs. 27 states, “He doesn’t need to offer sacrifices every day, as high priests do—first for their own sins, then for those of the people. He did this once for all time when he offered himself.” Jesus did this ‘once for all time,’ meaning he doesn’t have to sacrifice himself for our sins again. His daily intercession is a reminder that his substitutionary death on the cross was done once for all time. If you go back and look at vs 25 it states that his sacrifice on the cross saves completely, some translations say it saves to the uttermost. We need him to save us to the uttermost, because we keep sinning to the uttermost. We don’t need Jesus to be our crutch, we need him to be our gurney. We need him to carry us through life and carry us into eternity. All of this might seem obvious to those of you who are Christians, but don’t yawn at this because you need to think about how your heart works. Your heart’s prone to advocating for yourself, trying to prove your worth to God and others, especially when you sin. We sometimes live as if the text says Jesus saves partially, and we need to fill the other part. We need to fill the other part by doing good deeds, being a good Christian, being a good person, making up for a wrong we did. We sometimes treat Jesus like he’s a Karmic deity, instead of an interceding Savior who saves completely. But we need him to save us to the uttermost, because we keep sinning to the uttermost. His daily intercession is a reminder to us, Satan, and the court of heaven that he saves completely, and his substitutionary death was once for all time. This leads to our 3rd question.
#3 How can the intercession of Christ affect our lives? = If you trust in Christ, trust him as your daily intercessor, it’ll help you be freed of insecurities. It’ll help you be freed of insecurities with God and others. So many people aren’t at peace in life because they’re living with insecurities trying to prove their worth to God and others. Our lives are on trial both in heaven and earth. We’re always interceding, advocating, arguing our case to God and others trying to prove we’re good enough, smart enough, athletic enough, successful enough, beautiful enough, worthy enough. You’ll never have peace living like that, trying to prove yourself to God and others. You’ll have peace when you realize Jesus can prove a better case for you in the court of heaven. You’ll have peace when you realize there’s nothing to prove in the lesser courts of this world, since you’re already accepted in the ultimate court of heaven. You can be freed from your daily insecurities, by relying on the daily intercession of Christ, and his eternal security.
But the daily intercession of Christ can also help you be freed of guilt. Some of us are filled with guilt this morning, and some of us hold onto guilt too long. We listen to the voice in our head saying “You’re such a failure, such a terrible person. How could you do such a thing?” But think of the darkest sinful parts of your life, the parts you hate about yourself and wish you would’ve conquered already...Your quick bursts of anger...Your harsh words...Your addictions... What do you think Jesus is doing in the moments those dark parts resurface again?...Hebrews 7 teaches he isn’t shaking his head at you, he’s interceding for you. He isn’t waiting for you to conquer that sin, he’s interceding because you haven’t conquered that sin. He isn’t waiting for you to clean up your life, he’s interceding because you haven’t cleaned up your life. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take sin serious or even strive to overcome sin. We should certainly take sin serious and strive to put to death, the very sins that are causing death to us and our relationships. We should strive to overcome sin and be more obedient in our walk with Jesus. But in the times you aren’t, repent and remember Jesus is interceding for you silencing all accusations. If he’s silencing all accusations in the ultimate court of heaven, let him silence all accusations in the lesser courts, the lesser trials going on in your mind. Let the daily intercession of Christ free you from guilt, free you from walking this life miserable like Eeyore. In the words of Dane Ortlund, “His forgiving, redeeming, restoring touch reaches down into the darkest crevices of our souls, those places we’re most ashamed, most defeated. His heart willingly goes there. He knows us to the uttermost and saves us to the uttermost. We can’t ever sin our way, out of his intercession.”
The Big Idea:
The big idea of the message is there’s peace for your life, in the daily intercession of Christ...There’s so much peace for your life, your relationships, your career, your identity, your insecurities, your guilt, your life and eternal life, in the daily intercession of Christ. Life’s too hard to go at it alone, and heaven’s too pure for you to enter on your merits alone. You can try being your own attorney, advocate, intercessor, but eventually something will come your way that’ll break you in life, and your sins will prevent you from enjoying heaven in eternal life. You need a better attorney, a better advocate, a better intercessor for your life. Jesus is that better intercessor. So unwarp the gift of his intercession today, by putting your faith in him and trusting he’s interceding for you. Trust he’s interceding for you, he’s praying for you at this very moment.
As theologian Louis Berkhof states, “It’s a consoling thought that Christ is praying for us, even when we’re negligent in our prayer life...That he’s presenting to the Father the spiritual needs which aren’t present in our minds, and often neglect to include in our prayers...That he prays for our protection against dangers we aren’t even conscious of, and against enemies that threaten us...He’s praying that our faith won’t cease, and that we’ll come out victorious in the end.” Let’s join Jesus in prayer this morning, seeking his daily intercession for our lives.