Our Only Mediator

Intro

We get back to our series on Advent and what that means for our life. If you remember we are going to go back to the book of Deuteronomy and when Moses spoke of a time when someone like Him was going to come, someone they where supposed to listen to and follow. We see that this was fulfilled in Jesus so if you didn't know, Moses spoke of the Christmas message and I wanted to look into how that was fulfilled in Jesus and how that might just change our view of the Christmas message a little bit.

Moses claimed that someone coming after Him was going to be a mediator. But why do we need a mediator and what does a mediator even do. Lots of times people need mediators. for example, our government. Unfortunately we can not just go talk to the prime minister whenever we want, so we have MLA’s that are supposed to bargain and speak on our behalf. Does this happen all the time? no it does not. It would be nice I think sometimes if we could just go to the house of our leaders and voice our concerns and have them listen to us but that is not the way it works.

Families need mediators as well sometimes. when it comes to lots of high tension situations families will sometimes call on someone to mediate between the conversations that go on. Everyone wants to be heard and have their points heard but they don't know if that is going to happen so they bring in someone to fo that on our behalf.

but there is one thing that we all need a mediator to speak on our behalf for. and that is our relationship with God. You may think that you do not have a mediator between you and God, but you would be wrong. We have always needed someone to meet with God on our behalf, we have never been able to be in the presence of God

Jesus is God’s ultimate spokesman, communicating not only God’s words but embodying His presence among us. Unlike Old Testament prophets who received partial revelations, Jesus is the full revelation of God’s word (Hebrews 1:1-2). This means that in Jesus, we have the clearest and most complete expression of God’s character, will, and love.For us, this means we can trust Jesus' words as the ultimate truth and guidance for our lives. His teachings aren't just moral lessons but divine wisdom that shapes our faith, relationships, and purpose.

Moses and the mediator

We go back to the same passage that speaks of Jesus being a prophet, for even part of the role of a prophet was them being a mediator.

Deuteronomy 18:16 CSB

16 This is what you requested from the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, ‘Let us not continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God or see this great fire any longer, so that we will not die!’

Deuteronomy 18:17–18 CSB

17 Then the Lord said to me, ‘They have spoken well. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.

Hearing even the voice of the Lord was a scary thing. It was a common thing for the Israelite's to hear from God through someone else like a prophet. I wan to go back a little bit to see when the glory of the lord appeared before Moses. One of the reasons why the people wanted someone to appear on their behalf. We go first to the passage that is quoted here. Exodus 20:18-19

Exodus 20:18–19 CSB

18 All the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain surrounded by smoke. When the people saw it they trembled and stood at a distance. 19 “You speak to us, and we will listen,” they said to Moses, “but don’t let God speak to us, or we will die.”

The power of the presence of the Lord was was to much for them to handle, Priests where introduced in the law that was passed down to them as they needed someone to intercede on their behalf. They where to scared to be in the presence of God. I want to share one more story from the account in Exodus.

In chapter 33 we read of another account that helps explains things a little bit. Moses was an intermediary between the people and God. God said he was going to withdraw himself from the people of Israel, even if he was still going to fulfill the promise that

Exodus 33:1 CSB

1 The Lord spoke to Moses: “Go up from here, you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying: I will give it to your offspring.

But because of their sin, His presence would not be in their midst anymore.

Exodus 33:3 CSB

3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go up with you because you are a stiff-necked people; otherwise, I might destroy you on the way.”

This seems familiar getting annoyed enough with people that you just need to back off so you do not destroy them, or at least ground them for a while. I know you can relate parents. So what God did is he Got Moses to camp outside the rest of the people and set up a “tent of meeting”. The point of the tent of meeting was for the people to meet with the Lord, a mediator. Through His presence the Lord would speak with Moses and the people would worship God.

It is a bit of a story but Moses was asking God about who he was, even after all of this he didn't really know God or the plan of God. Moses had previously been in the presence of God, but that is it, in the cloud and the fire. But Moses wanted to know God, actually see God. All this preamble to prove that we need a mediator. Moses was only going to see the goodness and glory of God.

Exodus 33:19–20 CSB

19 He said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name ‘the Lord’ before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” 20 But he added, “You cannot see my face, for humans cannot see me and live.”

You see that, He proclaimed His true name to Moses, we do not have the true name of God. We have other names, aspects of His character that are given to us. His true name (Yahweh/Jehovah) is actually a series of consonants, because at the time the Israelite's revered the name of God so much they would wright it all out. We have the consonants YHWH. Moses was told, Moses saw only the glory of God because sinful man can not see the face of God and live.

Why do we need to know all of this. it tells the story of God relating to man, when man saw the presence of God represented by cloud and fire and thunder, They feared for their lives and rightfully so. Being in the presence of the Lord like this, not even seeing the Lord Face to face causes us to fear for our lives. We need a mediator because we are a sinful people.

The birth of the messiah tells us that we need to approach God with fear and trembling because He is a righteousness all powerful God knowing that on our own we would be lost. But the Lord did not want to leave us lost. We go from Moses to when the prophecy of a mediator was fulfilled.

Jesus the Mediator

This trend continued, we needed a mediator and the role passed to the high priest who would offer sacrifices on behalf of the people. It has been established that a mediator, someone to speak to God, interact with God on our behalf is needed. Someone was to come that was going to be our eternal mediator, our great high priest. Hebrews speaks of this, that Jesus was our intercessor, our great high priest forever. Lets go to 1 timothy.

1 Timothy 2:5–6 CSB

5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time.

One God, one mediator. This all was set in place when Jesus died on the cross for our sins. the curtain that separated the rest of us from the presence of God in the temple was torn in two which signified our access to God. Now we go to Hebrews 4:15-16

Hebrews 4:15–16 CSB

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.

This is the part that I like is that we can now boldly approach the throne of God. Before we needed a high priest, who was human and who would sin Himself and eventually die. We could not approach the throne, we could approach the man but never the throne of God.

How is it that we can boldly approach the throne of God? Because we are covered by the blood of Jesus. We can boldly approach God because we are indwelt, as followers of Jesus, by the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus is our mediator. Only once a year could the high priest enter the presence of the Lord God, His throne on the ark of the covenant. But it was a fearful thing because it was due to the sin of the people He would approach the “throne” of God.

But yet we can do it with confidence because of the mercy and the grace of God. And how do we do this, we do this through prayer. Because Jesus has mediated on our behalf we can boldly come to God on our knees in prayer and bring our needs to Him. We persevere in the faith by coming to God on our knees in Prayer, and we only do this because of what Jesus did for us. And yet we are prone to wander, prone to shrink back from the presence of God.

We start to tune out, we start to think the music in church might be a little to boring, so we do not sing. The preacher is saying things that don't apply to me so I don't have to listen anymore. Did you hear, we can approach the throne of God and bring our requests to him, we can grow closer to Him we can live our life for God. This means that worship isn't about us either and what we can get out of it but about praising the God who has done so much for us.

So What?

The birth of Jesus gave us a mediator between us and God. One who could understand what we are going throuigh for Jesus was a man just like us. But he wasnt like us in the sense that He was perfect and sinless. and this gives us some meaning that we can take from here.

we first learned that Because Jesus mediated between us and God we can approach the throne of God but we need to remember that we do it with fear and trembling remembering who it is we are approaching. There is a reason that all those who came before the Lord, all those who saw the presence of God trembled in fear.

Whem I was a kid I never really liked to get in trouble, shocker I know. I had plenty of opportunities to get into fights, people tried but I never did. I did have to go to the principles office a few times, and I would go with plenty of fear and trembling because I didnt like getting into trouble and I knew I had done something wrong.

We must approach God remembering we are but sinners. But we can also on the other hand go boldly in prayer as we grow closer to Him.

We also need reconciliation with God, We need Jesus to approach God on our behalf for without Jesus doing this we would remain alienated from God.

Without Jesus we would have remained lost to sin, we would still rely on the high priest to intercede for us regularly, we would still be offering sacrifices for our sin. But Jesus intercedes for us eternally Jesus is even now advocating on our behalf for those that are covered by His blood. ANd we need it because we re lost in Sin.

this opens the way for us to eternal life with God. Because Jesus provides direct access to God, because our sins have been forgieven we have access to eternal life with God.

Without Jesus, we would remain lost in our sin and separated from God. His mediation is not just a theological concept—it’s the lifeline of our salvation. By trusting in Him, we experience forgiveness, peace, and eternal hope.