Christ's Marvelous Ministry of Intercession

The past month I have been preaching through Isaiah 53 and just finished what turned into a four part series last Sunday. It was a wonderful study exploring the details of our Lord's suffering, death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation written down 700 years before any of them came to be. (If you are looking for proof of the inspiration of Scripture, there you go! Only the Spirit of God can write of the future in such detail that many years ahead. Man can't accurately predict what the weather will be like tomorrow and that is from watching patterns.) The very last statement of this song or poem really struck me. In speaking of the Messiah's exaltation, the prophet states, Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the many, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors. Part of the Messiah's exalted work is to make intercession for the transgressors. While His pouring Himself out His soul to death, being numbered with the transgressors, and bearing the sin of many all are in the perfect tense in Hebrew, communicating a completed event in the past, the verb for make intercession is in the imperfect tense, indicating that it has not yet been completed. It is a work that the Messiah continues in His exalted state. The New Testament speaks of this continual intercessory work of Jesus as well. Paul mentions Jesus being the one who died-more than that, who was raised-who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us (Romans 8:34). And the author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them (7:25). This work of intercession is one that I don't think that believers ponder enough but would serve as a great encouragement to us. 

 

Take a moment to reflect on the point that Jesus is praying for you at this very moment? Isn’t that an encouraging thought? In the midst of our weakness and struggles, our very Savior who bore our sins upon Himself and took the punishment for them is speaking to the Father on our behalf. When you can’t find the words to pray, and who of us haven’t been there, Jesus continues to intercede for us. When we are negligent in our praying, Jesus is never negligent in bringing our needs to the Father. Young Scottish Pastor Robert Murray Mc’Cheyne put it this way, “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.” If we were more aware of this throughout our day, how much more confidence in our Christian walk would we have? Let me encourage you to remind yourself of this very thing. That Jesus is praying for you. See if that doesn’t strengthen your faith and help you better get through whatever it is that you are going through right now. And, of course, the Father will always answer Jesus' prayers. There is never any reason to worry about that.

What specifically is Jesus’ praying for us you may wonder. One thing that we can be sure of that is included in those prayers is the forgiveness of our sins on the basis of His shed blood. Similar to what He prayed for the transgressors as He hung on the cross. The very first of those seven sayings that He uttered just before His death. When He cried out to God, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). As J. C. Ryle has said, "as soon as the blood of the Great Sacrifice began to flow, the Great High Priest began to intercede." Jesus continues to plead for the forgiveness of our sins on the basis of His shed blood. John alludes to this in his first letter when he writes, if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world (1 John 2:1-2).

 

We have an enemy who continues to accuse us before God’s throne. Who constantly brings up our sins to the Father. But we have an Advocate in Jesus who keeps reminding the Father that He has paid the price for every single one of our sins. Who continually pleads for our acquittal. That’s part of His intercessory work that Isaiah prophetically draws our attention to here. I can imagine Satan coming up to God and saying, “Did you just see what Your child did there? Did You notice that sinful thought? Hear that cross word? He deserves hell for that.” And then Jesus stepping up and pointing out that He experienced hell in the believer’s place and that the believer has been cleared of such.

 

We may find another hint of the content of Jesus' ongoing prayers for us in the prayer that He prayed for His disciples both then and now in His high priestly prayer of John 17 where He asked that the Father would keep them from the evil one (v. 15), sanctify them in His truth (vv. 17-19), and to make us all one as He and the Father are one (vv. 20-21). Such are prayers that we still very much need prayed for us today since we continue to face threats from the evil one, are not fully sanctified, and are not completely one as the members of the Trinity are with each other. In fact, none of these will be a reality for us until we get to glory. Hence, why we should be thankful for Jesus' prayer for them.

 

I think that Jesus is also praying for us like He did for Peter in Luke 22:32 that our faith will not fail. How else can anyone explain how a Christian’s faith, as much as it is tested and tried by the things of this world, will not fail and continues to hold fast to Jesus, even in the most difficult times? Wouldn’t it have to be due to Jesus’ praying for us? It certainly can’t be because of how strong it is on its own. If it wasn't for Jesus praying such, I'm convinced that none of us would be able to keep the faith.

 

So, fellow weary believer, take heart in the fact that your Savior is praying for you right now in the midst of whatever it is that you are going through. That He is bringing your needs before the Father as you read. That He is continually pleading with the Father for your forgiveness based on His sacrifice, your protection from Satan, your sanctification, our unity together, and for the perseverance in the faith and be comforted. If God be for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31).

 

Love in Christ,

Lee

It is Finished!

As we come to celebrate Easter this month, I thought that it would be good for us to explore the most significant word ever uttered in human history. Granted, if it was said by anyone else in any other context, it would nowhere near carry the same weight as it does when coming from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ as He hung on the cross that Good Friday. The word that I am talking about is the Greek word tetelestai. It is rendered in most English translations as It is finished. This is the next to last saying that Jesus cried from the cross before His death and is recorded for us in John 19:30.

The term literally means bring to an end, finish, complete, accomplish. It conveys the idea of carrying out a task. It is what one would say triumphantly after laboring hours or days at something and now having finished it. In fact, Matthew and Mark indicate that Jesus said this with a loud voice or cry. This served as a cry of victory and not defeat.

Notice too that Jesus did not say I am finished but it is finished. He was not simply indicating that His life was over or that His end had come. The it referred to His mission, not Himself.

What was this mission? It doesn't take long for us to go through the Gospels to find out. In the opening chapter of Matthew's gospel, we read about the angel who appeared to Joseph tell him regarding Mary that She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). His mission was to save His people from their sins. In fact, Jesus' very name indicates this mission. In Aramaic, Jesus is Yeshua, which means Yahweh is Salvation or Yahweh Saves. Jesus Himself stated that He did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). His mission was to save His people from their sins by giving His life as a ransom; a price paid to purchase someone’s freedom. He came to live the obedient life that Adam didn't live and to die to experience God's full wrath on the cross in place of those who would trust in Him. A wrath that He did not deserve because He was sinless but that everyone of us does deserve because of Adam's sin and our many sins. He came to serve as a substitute. This was the mission that He declares accomplished. The ransom had been made and the substitution complete.

This Greek word communicates a full completion of the task at a specific point in the past with ongoing results into the present of its writing. This was something fully and completely done in the past with ramifications for years following. Like an earthquake or a hurricane that strikes fully but leaves results felt for years to come, what Jesus did on the cross was fully accomplished, leaving results felt far into the future. It could be translated as “It is finished, it stands finished, and it always will be finished.” There is a finality to Christ's work of redemption that He accomplished on the cross which we still benefit from today. In fact, this Greek word was often used in the marketplace during the time of Christ's life and would be stamped upon a receipt after a purchase of a good to indicate that the transaction had been "paid in full." Our debt of sin has been "paid in full" by Christ's death on the cross and remains paid for all those who put their trust in Him. And that would include all of our sins, whether they were past, present, or future.

This means that nothing more needs to be done pertaining to our redemption. There is nothing that we can add to Christ's already completed work. We cannot add our own works. In fact, to do so would be to say that the cross was meaningless and that Christ's work had not been sufficient. This truth is communicated well by the author of Hebrews when he writes Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins of all time, sat down at the right hand of God (Hebrews 10:11-12). The Old Testament priests were never allowed to sit down when they were doing their duty of offering the annual sacrifice for their people. This was symbolic of the fact that their work was not done. The sacrifice offered would only symbolically cover the sins of the previous year. They would have to enter into the "holy of holies" once again the next year for the sins of that year. However, Jesus is said to sit down as His work was finished when He offered Himself as the perfect and final sacrifice. No other sacrifice for sin was needed after His death. His cry from the cross communicated this. It was a declaration that those Old Testament priests could never have made since their work of offering sacrifices was not finished but our Lord could because His work was done. Everything needed to bring us into a right relationship with God had been fully accomplished.

For us, Easter is a specific celebration of the finished work of Christ. We celebrate the work of redemption that He has accomplished that Friday on Calvary and the His victorious defeat of death itself in His resurrection. And as I have heard it said, “The resurrection is the Father’s ‘amen’ to the Son’s ‘It is finished.’ ” Praise God that Christ's work is finished! Let's make sure that we trust the One whose work has been accomplished and live as if it has been complete by not trying to add our own works to the salvation equation.

Love In Christ,
Pastor Lee

The Indispensable Place of Women in Ministry

Women have an indispensable, invaluable, and irreplaceable role to play in the ministry of the church and of the home. Just as an important and necessary one as men do. Without women, there would be no human population as they are the ones who bear and give birth to the next generation. A child would be deprived without the nurture and influence of his or her mother (and some unfortunately have been through circumstances which they had no control over). And where would we be without women missionaries such as Elizabeth Elliot and the numerous areas in the church in which women faithfully serve for its edification and to bring glory to God? How many younger women in the church would be hurting without those older ones teaching them what it means to be a godly wife and mother (Titus 2:3-5)? The home and the church need faithful men and women serving within them to flourish and to fulfill God's calling for both.

However, while God has an important place for men and women to serve in the home and in His church, Scripture is clear that He has not designed them to serve in the same way but has called them to different roles in both. God in His good wisdom, for the glory of His name, has determined for men to serve as leaders in their homes and in His household, the church, and for women to serve as the men's helpers in these areas. This is evident form God's very creation of man and woman. He explicitly said to Adam that He was designing this woman that He was going to make to be a helper corresponding to him (Genesis 2:18). And when they both disobeyed God in the Garden, it is significant to note that God approaches Adam first instead of Eve, even though she had taken the first bite (Genesis 3:9). The man was summoned to give an account for his family as a leader is to give an account for those who submit to and follow his leadership.

 We see these differing roles play out in both the home and the church. As a husband and father, man has been called to be the head and leader of his home (1 Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 5:23). If you will, we could say that the man is to be the pastor, protector, and provider of and for his family. (You can't tell that I'm a preacher who likes to alliterate, can you?) And the wife and mother is called to submit to and respect her husband's leadership (Ephesians 5:24, 33). This in no way makes the wife and mother less important or inferior to her husband. No more than it does the husband and father to the wife and mother due to him not being designed to bear and give birth to his own children. He has a very crucial indispensable role himself to play in the process of that child being formed but certainly not the same role that the woman has. Both are needed with their distinct roles and a family as God has designed is not possible without one or the other. The different roles that God has designed for men and women to have in the home are equally important and needed, although the roles themselves are not equal.

The same thing is true in the church. And here is where I am about to get even more controversial because this flies flat in the face of our current culture. We can always expect the values of God's kingdom to run counter cultural to those of man's kingdom. In fact, I think that we should find it problematic whenever any of our views line up with the way the world is heading. Though unpopular, even within some areas of the church today, I see no way of getting around the clear and plain teaching of Scripture that God has intended men to occupy the primary leadership roles in the church. We notice this prescribed with the office of pastor or elder limited to qualified men (1 Timothy 2:12-15; 3:1-7; 1 Corinthians 14:34-36) and the practice of Jesus and the early church in the appointing of 12 men to serve as apostles (Luke 6:12-16) and 7 men to lead in the distribution of the food for the widows (Acts 6:3). Just as women submit to the leadership of their husbands at home and valuably contribute with their own work, so women do in the church under the leadership of the elders or pastors. 

Now, the only way that this could be seen to be degrading of women or devaluing of them would be for the pastorate to be elevated to a greater status than other areas of service in the church, which Scripture does not do. Paul is clear in 1 Corinthians 12 that every member of the church has an important, indispensable, and distinct role to play in the work of the church. Hence why, in the analogy of the body that he uses, the ear cannot say to the eye that it has no need of it. If the body consisted of nothing but eyes, it could never hear or walk. The body cannot function as it has been designed without all of its parts. It would be lacking in some sense if it was missing just one part as anyone who has ever lost the use of an arm, leg, or eye can attest to. And if one of the parts decided that it would serve as a different part than designed, the body also would be hurting and not able to function fully.

Likewise, in the church, every member is needed with whatever role that they have been graciously given to play. If all would be pastors, the church would severely be lacking and much work would not get done. Which is why we need women to come alongside to teach other women how to faithfully serve their families at home (Titus 2:3-5 again). Something no pastor or elder can do since they do not have that experience. And the same can be said for so many other areas in the church women have been called to serve as well.

So, don't let anyone ever tell you that women do not have an indispensable role to play in the home or in the church because they have not been called to lead in these areas. The fact of the matter is that they have an invaluable role to play in contributing to God's work as helpers and we would not be able to function without them. I am so thankful for the women who currently are faithfully serving with the role that God has designed for them to have and pray that He would raise up more since our families and churches greatly need them!

In Christ,

Lee

Soli Deo Gloria!!!

God at the Center

One of the hardest things for us to grasp is that life is not about us. We do not serve as the center of the universe. Everything does not revolve around us but far too often we falsely think that it does when the reality is that everything exists for God and it is all about Him.

 

The very reason why God created the world was to bring Himself glory. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork (Psalm 19:1). As our Good Shepherd, He guides us in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake (Psalm 23:3). David knew that his pleas for God’s mercy must be grounded in who God is and not in himself (Psalm 25:11; 79:9). God’s salvation of Israel and us was ultimately for His glory (Psalm 106:8; 106:8; Isaiah 48:9, 11; Ezekiel 36:22-23; Ephesians 1:4-6). As we read through the Old Testament, we find over and over again God saying that He does or doesn’t do such and such for the sake of His great name or so that His name would not be dishonored or shamed among the nations. So, God is all about God. His chief concern is to bring Himself glory. 

 

We want it to be all about us though, don’t we? We often seem to think that God’s sole desire is to please us and grant our wishes. (This can be seen in our prayers many times. Hence, why we can so easily get upset when He doesn’t answer the way that we would like Him to or find ourselves disappointed in the way that He chooses to respond.) Or we entertain the idea that God sent Jesus to the cross on account of Him thinking that we are so great. But the truth of the matter is that God sent Jesus to the cross ultimately to bring glory to His name. Jesus’ aim was to glorify His Father through the redemptive rescue of rebel sinners. He even prayed right before the cross, Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You (John 17:1).

 

One thing that the Holy Spirit seeks to do through the words of Scripture is to bring about what we could call a “Copernican Revolution” in our lives. Nicolaus Copernicus was the one to discover that the sun actually served as the center of the universe with all of the planets revolving around it. Up until that time, everyone had believed the earth to be at the center of the universe and that the sun and the rest of the planets revolved around it. Such a discovery was shocking to the established view of the time but necessary for us to understand the reality of the universe that we live in. It may be shocking for us to come to realize this truth that everything ultimately centers around God but necessary so that we can understand what our life must be about. Or, better put, Who our life must be about. It helps us recognize our place as well. As God’s creature with Him as our Creator whom we owe everything to. That we were made for Him and not for ourselves to live as we please.

 

We will never live our lives rightly if we fail to view God as the center of it. Things just do not function as they ought to whenever we try to usurp the place that God Himself occupies. If the earth would one day decide that it would no longer desire to revolve around the sun but would just remain still and wait for everything to begin circling around it, it would not be able to function because it was designed to be in orbit around the greater sun, and in such an orbit, functions and is sustained. The world in which we live simply does not have the ability and strength to pull and hold everything in orbit around it. Likewise, things will not be in the right place in our lives if we consistently fail to view and treat God as being in the center of all of it. True joy can never be found with us in the center but with God because God alone is qualified to serve as that center of everything due to the very nature of Him being God. 

 

And the fact that God is all about God with His main goal being His glory is good news for us. The very grounds of our eternal assurance of our salvation can be said to be found in it. If God’s saving and preserving of us was centered on who we are rather than who He is, we would be in a heap of trouble. We would have every reason to fear God giving up on us on account of our sins. Even our faith can be fickle at times and the Puritans were right that our repentance needs to be repented of. We provide God with a number of reasons to give up on us. But if His saving of us and preserving of us is ultimately based on who He is and for His glory, then we have no reason to ever be fearful that He will ever abandon us. This was the case for the Israelite's after their many sins. God said to them following the rejection of Him as king that they could be assured that He would not abandon them on account of His great name, because the LORD has been pleased to make you a people for Himself (1 Samuel 12:22). Not based on their name and who they were but on account of God’s greater and supreme name. It was all on account of God’s reputation and His pleasure or desire to make the people His own. If it wasn’t for such a desire to exalt His great name in the purchasing and keeping of such sinful rebels, none of us would have any hope to be saved. Aren’t you glad then that God ultimately is all about His own glory?

 

So, let’s be sure that the One who is the center of the universe serves as the center of our lives. That we make it our goal to, as Paul instructs us, whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). May God continue to grant us the grace for us not to view and act as if everything is about us but to rightly have everything in our lives revolve around Him, as it has been designed to do.

  

Love in Christ,

Pastor Lee