Forever Interceding

Now many have become Levitical priests, since they are prevented by death from remaining in office. But because he remains forever, he holds his priesthood permanently. Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them.

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

Over the last 5 to 6 weeks, we have been going through Hebrews chapter 7 and seen how the author points to Christ as being our great high priest. He has pointed to Christ as being greater than Melchizedek and that his priesthood is greater than the Levitical priests of the Old Testament law.

Today, our passage is going to dig into one of these specific aspects of Christ's priesthood. We will see how Christ, in his forever priesthood, advocates for us before the Father. One way it is often described is like having a permanent defense attorney ready to plead your case before a judge. Knowing our own sinfulness and our guilt in not following God’s law, this should give us great joy and peace, knowing that Christ is interceding on our behalf.

Big Idea: Jesus is our eternal advocate.

Hebrews 7:23-24

Now many have become Levitical priests, since they are prevented by death from remaining in office. But because he remains forever, he holds his priesthood permanently.

The author has been talking about Jesus’ priesthood and it being according to the order of Melchizedek. This repeated use of Psalm 110 by the author is evidence that he brings to show Christ’s priesthood lasts forever.

In the Old Testament, there were many Levitical priests because they could only serve for as long as they were alive. When you look over 1,000-1,500 years, that means many men would have served as priests. Some claim 84 priests served from the time of Aaron until the destruction of the temple in 70 AD.

If we look even closer at those who served as high priests for God’s people, not all of them were descendants of Aaron, in accordance with the Law of Moses. Starting in the first or second century BC, rulers like Judas Maccabeus assumed the high priesthood even though they were not descendants of Aaron. Maccabeus was a Levite, but not from the line of Aaron.

When we get to the time of the Herods, who were appointed as kings of Israel by the Roman Empire, the high priests were appointed politically, meaning we cannot reliably know whether those appointed were actually from Aaron’s line. With a political appointment to the position, it did not take the death of the priest for the next person to take over. During Jesus’ trial, he was brought before Annas, who was no longer the acting high priest but likely still had considerable sway in the Jewish courts when it came to his opinions. Many believe that he was deposed from his position by Rome. After being questioned there, he was taken to Caiaphas, Annas’s son-in-law, who had been appointed to the position in his place.

So we can see that the purity of the Levitical priesthood did not last forever, especially in terms of the line of Aaron. This priesthood had an end date.

In contrast to the Levitical priests, Jesus' priesthood lasts forever. His position is permanent.

We saw this in Hebrews 1, as the author showed his readers that Jesus was greater than the angels and that Christ’s kingdom would last forever. The author quotes from multiple Old Testament Scriptures to show the eternity of Christ. One passage of the passages that the author presented was Psalm 102:25-27

Psalm 102:25-27

Long ago you established the earth,and the heavens are the work of your hands.They will perish, but you will endure;all of them will wear out like clothing.You will change them like a garment,and they will pass away.But you are the same,and your years will never end.

The psalmist says that the earth and the heavens will perish. That means that this world is not here to stay. We see alarmists in the world today talking about global warming and how our use of fossil fuels will destroy the planet to the point that life will not be able to sustain itself. I agree with them that this planet will not endure. But that destruction will not be because of fossil fuels or a lack of sustainable energy. The earth will pass away because God says in Revelation that he will bring about a new heaven and a new earth.

Though the heavens and the earth will pass away, Christ is eternal. The one who spoke the stars into the sky and the earth into motion, made the mountains and the seas, and put life onto this earth, He does not have an expiration date.

Hebrews 7:25

Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them.

Because of this permanent, forever priesthood, he is the one who can provide complete salvation for those who come to God. His forever priesthood allows him to always and forever intercede for believers.

I want to break down this verse a little bit! What does it mean that Christ is able to completely save us? The word used for “complete” in Greek here is panteles.

παντελἠς - Panteles - completely

Pas - every, allTelos - end

The reason this is important is that there are two main ways that this word complete is used in ancient Greek - in the comprehensive extent and duration of time. So, one view is that complete salvation is about the comprehensive extent of sin in our lives from which we have been saved. Christ is able to save us from the greatest sin to the littlest sin. Whether you have committed murder or been involved in human trafficking, or you took a cookie from the jar without asking when you were a kid, Jesus’ sacrifice can wash you clean of all your unrighteous deeds. There is no sin too great or small for Jesus not to forgive you.

That is one thing that makes Christianity unique. Last year, a Christian apologist and scholar of ancient documents named Wes Huff went on the Flagrant Podcast with Andrew Schultz and Akaash Singh.

He went on this show to discuss why he believes Christianity is true and how it differs from other religions. For context, the hosts of this show are comedians who make their living with foul-mouthed, shock-jock-style obscenities and crude jokes. One was kind of raised Eastern Orthodox, and the other was raised as a Hindu. The two guest hosts were agnostic or atheistic.

And in this conversation, Akaash, the guy raised as a Hindu, looks at Wes and says, “You guys will take anybody!” and then starts listing off things like murder, assault, trafficking, etc. And Wes responds, as all Christians should, when he said, “Because the Bible says that there is no such thing as a good person.” He goes on to say that the issue is not that God favors murderers over decent people, but that every person, whether humanity sees them as good or bad, must be forgiven on the same basis — the work of Christ.

Now, some of you have read your Bibles enough that you may be saying, “What about the unpardonable sin that Jesus says will never be forgiven?” Jesus called this “blaspheming the Holy Spirit.” This is what that sin entails. The Pharisees had seen Jesus doing these miraculous works. They had seen how he was fulfilling prophecies from the Old Testament concerning the Messiah. It was obvious that Jesus was the promised one who would take away the sin of the world. However, instead of admitting what their eyes had seen and what their brains were realizing, they purposefully ignored that, saying Jesus was performing his miracles because he was demon-possessed. THAT is what Jesus was referring to as the “unpardonable/unforgivable sin.” If you ever wonder if you have committed the unforgivable sin, you haven’t. Because if you had committed it, you wouldn’t care.

The second view of complete salvation refers to how long Christ has saved us for. We see throughout Scripture that our salvation brings us eternal life with God. So when we have repented of our sins and put our hope in Christ, our salvation will last into the eternal future.

I personally think it is hard to separate these two aspects of Christ’s salvation from each other. I believe, as many of my commentaries stated, it is not likely one or the other; it is probably both/and. Too often, we get caught in this theological binary of either/or about things for which Scripture speaks to both sides.

This does not mean that there are no aspects of theology, or this life, that cannot be explained in binary terms. There is truth, and there is everything else. But let’s not try to make distinctions where God has not made distinctions.

Getting back to verse 25, the author of Hebrews speaks of coming to God, but that coming is specifically through Christ. We can go back to John 14, where Jesus is having his last Passover meal with his disciples. And in this passage in John, Jesus is telling his disciples not to worry and not to be troubled because he is preparing a place for them so that they can be with him again. And after telling them that he is preparing a place, Thomas speaks up and says, ”Lord, we don't know where you are going. How can we know the way?” And in response, Jesus says in John 14:6:

John 14:6

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus himself says that there is no other way to God the Father except through him. There are people all over the world who will say that they follow the teachings of Jesus and then turn around and say that there are multiple ways to get to heaven. They will tell you that no single religion or belief system can actually claim to know all truth. But if you truly follow the teachings of Jesus, you will take it seriously when Jesus says I am the only way to the Father. That means he is the only way. There is no other way.

The disciples actually took this seriously and taught that Jesus was the only way to find Salvation. Shortly after Jesus Ascension into heaven, and after the Holy Spirit fell on the Believers in Jerusalem, Peter and John were going into the temple for prayer. When they got to the gate of the Temple, there was a lame man who was sitting there begging. And many of you know the famous line that Peter said when he looked at this beggar and said, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk.”

And after this beggar had been miraculously healed, they all went into the temple, and Peter and John began preaching to the people. The religious leaders didn't like this. So they arrested Peter and John and had them testify the next day before Annas and Caiaphas (who oversaw the Jewish trial of Jesus) and all the members of the high Priestly family. And the religious leaders asked Peter and John how they had healed this man. In Acts 4:8-12, we see Peter's response.

Acts 4:8-12

Then Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders: If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a disabled man, by what means he was healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing here before you healthy. This Jesus is

“the stone rejected by you builders,which has become the cornerstone.”

There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”

We see Peter proclaiming the exclusivity of Christ to the Jewish leaders. He does the same thing in his letters to the churches of 1st and 2nd Peter. We see Paul throughout his letters proclaim that Jesus is the only way to the Father. John does the same thing in his three letters to the churches as well as in the Book of Revelation. Even the little letter of Jude proclaims Christ as our only master. Scripture tells us over and over and over again that the only way to the Father is through Jesus Christ.

Verse 25 of our passage today also declares that Jesus’ life as our permanent priest is lived as an intercessor to the Father for his people.

To understand this, we must know what it means to intercede. According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary:

To Intercede:

to step in between two parties or on behalf of another person in order to help, mediate, or plead their case. (Miriam-Webster)

When we look at the role of a priest in the Old Testament, their main function was to speak to God on behalf of the people. This was different than the office of the prophet, whose main function was to speak to the people on behalf of God. Both of these offices acted as intercessors for God. One spoke to God for the people, and the other to the people for God.

As our great high priest, Jesus speaks to the Father on our behalf. This is what Christ has already done and continues to do for us. In taking the punishment for our sins, Jesus stepped between us and the wrath of the Father against sin, taking the punishment we deserved, and enduring the wrath of God for the sins of those who submit to him. In that way, Christ mediated or interceded for us in order to give us salvation through his work on the cross. And the work he did only needed to be done once. This is why Jesus said, “It is finished!” just before his death.

We will be recognizing this act through the celebration of communion after the sermon today.

However, we must understand that Jesus interceding for us did not stop with the cross. Hebrews 7:25 says that Christ

…always lives to intercede…

That is a continual, current description of how Jesus comes before the Father on our behalf. The website GotQuestions.org has an article called, "What is the purpose of Jesus interceding in heaven for us?” This morning, I want to quote just a small section of this article to you so we can see how Christ is still active in his interceding for us today.

Jesus did not go to heaven after His earthly ministry and “take a break” from His role as eternal Shepherd to His people…If when humble, despised, dying, and dead, He had the power to accomplish so great a work as reconciling us to God, how much more may we expect that He will be able to keep us now that He is a living, exalted, and triumphant Redeemer, raised to life and interceding on our behalf before the throne. Clearly, Jesus is still very active on our behalf in heaven.

GotQuestions.org, “What is the purpose of Jesus interceding in heaven for us?”

But what does this interceding actually look like that Jesus does on our behalf to the Father? One of the passages of scripture that GotQuestions.org cites to explain Jesus's intercession on our behalf is Romans 8:33-34.

Romans 8:33-34

Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.

There are accusations that come against the people of God. Often, those accusations are actually true. We stated earlier that scripture says that there is no one who is actually good in God's eyes. We are all sinners in need of God's grace. And a good portion of the Christian church understands this.

And so when we hear people from outside the church say that they don't want to go to church and be associated with hypocrites, that accusation against Christians is a true accusation. We are hypocrites. We talk about being holy and doing what the Bible says, but still fall short of God's glorious standard. But the world comes to this reason for not going where the hypocrites are, because the world tries to claim that everyone is actually good, which is the opposite of what Scripture tells us.

I'm going to share some honesty with you here today. There is no such thing as a perfect Church. The reason for this is that the church is full of people, and as we've cited over and over in this sermon, there's no such thing as a good person according to God's standard. There are things that every Church, this one included, could do better. This is not a call to give up on trying to do better, but it should be motivation for us as a church here at Living Word to ask the Lord to sanctify us through the working of the Holy Spirit so that we may better reflect Christ to those around us.

One of the best quotes I've ever heard about trying to find the perfect Church was, "If you find the perfect Church, don't join it, you'll only screw it up." The purpose of saying something like this is not to demean people, but to understand the reality of our humanity. We are fallen, human creatures whose sin affects everyone and everything around us. I mentioned this last week in talking about marriage, that the reason marriage is hard is that you have two sinful people living together in close proximity. At some point, that sinfulness will be revealed and cause friction. It is the same as we gather together at church as the body of believers. Our sinfulness may cause some sort of division between us and someone else here at this church.

And at the same time, our God has forgiven us through Christ, meaning we also should be willing to forgive others, showing love and compassion to those who sin against us, just as God has done when we have sinned against him.

I have said many times from this pulpit that I am not perfect. When I preach a sermon on trusting that God will take care of you through trials and hardships, I am also preaching that sermon to myself because in my Humanity I still struggle to trust God in the midst of trials and hardships. If you feel like your faith is being tested over and over and over again, know that your pastor's faith is also being tested over and over and over again.

The reason for this is that we have an accuser who is constantly telling us of our failures. He is pointing out the ways we have fallen short. And in those moments of accusation and condemnation, we must understand that he is right, but we can't stop there. If we have called upon Christ to save us, accepting his sacrifice as the only hope to be saved from our sins, we can say to the enemy, "You're right. I am not worthy. I have made mistakes. But I serve a god who is bigger than my mistakes. I have a God who purchased my salvation through his own sacrifice and has already won the victory that I could never win on my own.”

The Puritan Steven Charnock wrote about Christ interceding for us in his work called The Pardon of Sin. And in it he says this:

“If once pardoned, thou will always be pardoned. For the first pardon Christ paid his blood; for the continuance, He does but plead His blood, and we cannot be without pardon till Christ be without a plea.”

Stephen Charnock, “The Pardon of Sin”

Charnock says that Christ is pleading to the Father for our case, much like a defense attorney presents our case before a judge. When Satan brings accusations against us to the Father, Jesus is right there at the Father's side to say, “I have already paid for that.”

This was spoken of in the Old Testament as well. In Isaiah 52 and 53, we see this picture of what theologians call “The Suffering Servant.” This portion of Isaiah is one of the prophecies that Christians point to showing that Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross were always a part of God's plan for us.

Isaiah 53:12

Therefore I will give him the many as a portion,and he will receive the mighty as spoil,because he willingly submitted to death,and was counted among the rebels;yet he bore the sin of manyand interceded for the rebels.

When this passage in Isaiah says that Jesus interceded for the rebels, he is talking about you and me. Christ is pleading our case before the Father, even as Satan continues to accuse us and show us our sins. But our savior points to the wounds on his hand and feet to show that the guilt and shame of our sin should no longer rest upon us.

Do you constantly feel the weight and guilt of your sin? Have you ever asked, "Why would God save me?” Have you ever said to yourself, "I don't deserve for God to save me”? This is one of those true accusations from the enemy. I know that I've said it before. I have announced to this church that I don't deserve the sacrifice that Christ made for me. None of us deserves it. What we deserve, what we have earned through our rebellion against God, is death.

This is why we talk about God's grace and mercy. Grace is getting what we don't deserve. God's grace gives us life eternally with him when we willingly accept Christ's sacrifice and submit to him. God's mercy spares us from the punishment of his wrath against sin. So, just as grace is getting what we don't deserve, mercy is not getting what we do deserve. Neither of those can be earned. But we have a God who gives them freely.

If you know today that you need the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus to lift the weight of guilt and shame off your shoulders and off your soul, today is the day to feel that weight lifted away. I say this every week, but there is no better time than now to know the love, grace, mercy, joy, and peace that can only be found in Christ. Today is the day to know that you have an advocate on your side, pleading your case against an accuser who only wants to see your destruction.

If that is you today, I encourage you to take this next step:

Next Step: I will repent and submit my life to Christ.

If this is the step you are taking today, please come and speak with me after service so that I can speak with you, pray with you, and encourage you in the faith, pointing you to resources that will help you have a greater understanding of the life we have in Christ.

Normally, this is where I would end the sermon we would go into prayer and move into communion. However, I want to bring one more application point to this sermon. We have seen today how Christ intercedes for us. Throughout the New Testament, we see the apostles telling their readers to be imitators of Christ. In light of seeing Christ as our intercessor before the Father, how can we as Christ's followers be intercessors to him for those around us?

How can we intercede for others?

We can pray for the Salvation of those who need Christ.

1 Timothy 2:1-4

First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

I know many of us here have friends or family members who have not submitted their lives to Christ. Keep praying for them. Storm the gates of heaven to ask for God’s mercy to work in their hearts and minds, that they may know the grace of our Lord Jesus.

Next Step: I will pray for the salvation of ____,____,____.

You will see that there are three blanks here. In the app, there is space for you to fill in three names of people that you know need Christ in their lives. Fill out those three blanks and continually pray for their salvation.

How can we intercede for others?

We can pray for the Salvation of those who need Christ.

We can pray for the healing of those in need.

James 5:14-16

Is anyone among you sick? He should call for the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up; if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.

These verses can often get misused in order to support things like the Prosperity Gospel or the health and wealth gospel. I don't have time to get into that today. But what we do see from the Apostle James is that we should pray for those who are sick. We should pray for those who are caught in sin. This passage here isn't just talking about those who are sick needing healing, but that we also need healing from our sins, because sin causes destruction and turmoil everywhere it goes.

For those of you who don't know, on our app, we actually have a prayer wall where you can submit prayer requests that you have so that anyone else who has the app can see them and be praying for you. I would like to encourage us to not only be willing to put our requests on that prayer wall, but to actually pray for the requests that get put there.

Next Step: I will pray for those who need physical and spiritual healing.

Emily and I have made a personal practice of asking others, whether we are out to eat with them, or they come over to our house, we ask how we can be praying for them. And then we make sure to pray for those requests in our own prayer time.

Other ways that we can intercede for others is:

How can we intercede for others?

We can pray for the Salvation of those who need Christ.

We can pray for the healing of those in need.

Pray for strength in struggle

Pray for wisdom in difficult circumstances

In this passage, James also says that if you are sick or need prayer, call the elders to pray for you. And so if you would like me to pray for you as your pastor, please reach out to me. If you need to pull me aside after service, or maybe even before service, to lift you up in prayer, please come and get me. If you would like me to pray for you during the week, please reach out through the church phone number or the church email so that I can respond to you and pray with you.

I want this church to be a church of Prayer, because God calls us to be a people of Prayer. And just as Christ has interceded for us to the Father, we should be examples to those around us of interceding for those who need God's work in them. Lord, make us a people and a church of faithful, diligent prayer.

Let us pray.

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