Jesus our Mediator

What is the perfect gift? What would be the best gift you can receive? What would be the best gift you can provide? What do you think God would say is the perfect gift? Who is the One who gives this gift? How can you take part in providing this gift?

I am sure when you thought of the perfect gift your mind went straight to something material. Let’s just be honest most of us would think that. Now when it comes to giving the best gift to some one else we probably don’t think Salvation, because we can’t give that. We are to share the gospel message but we are not the ones who change hearts and minds so the gift doesn’t come from us. There is a gift that is so important though and it is one that I am so very grateful for, the gift of intercessory prayer. Praying on someone else’s behalf. It was through the prayers of other believers who had a connection with God through Jesus that brought me to a saving knowledge of Jesus. Believers who interceded for me who wanted me to have a connection with God because they knew and understood I didn’t have one. They understood that God’s will was to see people reconciled to Him, having their broken relationship mended and that was the desire was to see my broken relationship mended. So they went to God through Jesus and asked God to provide me with the greatest gift anyone could receive, reconciliation, the ability to know God as Lord and to Know Jesus as King. Prayer is the key to reconciliation, prayer is the key to our connection with God and this morning we will look at this connection as we look know Jesus by the name of Mediator.

We will see this morning that believers are connected to God through Jesus our Mediator.

Pray for all mankind to be Reconciled to God through The Mediator.

If you have your Bible’s turn with me to 1 Timothy 2:1-8

1 Timothy 2:1–8 NASB95

1 First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. 7 For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. 8 Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.

1 Timothy is a letter Paul wrote to his protege Timothy to encourage him as he has been sent to pastor the church in Ephesus. Timothy has come across heresy in Ephesus and Paul is providing him with encouragement on how to deal with the issue that is plaguing that church. The key to this letter is in verse 3 Paul writes, “As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines.” This is Timothy’s task to correct heresy. This is not an easy task and can rock a persons faith, but as Paul tells us in verses 18 and 19, “This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.” Instructing people not to teach strange doctrines can be difficult, those strange doctrines are things that are unhealthy to the believer and they turn people away from the faith, they turn people away from God and away from truth. These are the things that can shipwreck people. So Paul wants Timothy to continue to fight the good fight and the key to fighting the good fight is not to go into the battle but as we are about to see it is prayer.

Priority of Prayer

Chapter 2:1 Paul opens with, “First of all, then,” which points back to all that Paul has told Timothy in chapter 1. For this reason, or even if you would like, Therefore. This is of utmost importance. Look at what Paul tells Timothy to do. “I urge you that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men.” Paul is using synonymous here to add emphasis for Timothy, the idea here is pray. To entreat is specific, pointing to a specific need, prayers are a more general and is for a general blessing from God, and the phrase petition, brings out the idea of bringing a plea before a king. The three phrases are used to indicate the importance of prayer, the importance of bringing your requests before God. This is to be done with a grateful attitude. At the end of this verse we find the general, blessing and the specific need, it is for the benefit of all mankind.

And it doesn’t stop there Paul even includes those who are in authority, government leaders and rulers. They need to be prayed for. I like how Paul ends it here. If nothing else when it comes to praying for the government leaders one thing you have to keep in mind is that whether or not these people are changed is not on us but one thing we do need is to lead tranquil and quite lives when it comes to living in this world. The world is in turmoil, if you don’t believe me look at the news and look at what is going on in Paris. You want to live in this world with peace you need to pray. If it doesn’t change them it will change you.

As we went through Luke and even through Acts, we came across the priority of prayer over and over again. Jesus when He chose the twelve apostles spent the night in prayer, before He moved on to another city spent the night in prayer, before He went to the cross spent the hours in prayer. Prayer needs to be a priority. Even as we just looked a few weeks ago before Paul and Barnabas left Antioch they were praying. Prayer really is important in the believers life.

Next Paul moves from the priority of prayer to the purpose of prayer,

Purpose to Reconcile

Verse 3, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

God’s desire is for all to come to Him this doesn’t mean all will but God still desires it. This doesn’t teach universalism, this doesn’t mean that all will be saved it only means that God desires for all to be Saved. It is very clear from Scripture that only whose who repent and believe will be saved, and those who confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord will be Saved. You can’t take one verse and create an entire theology around it just to impose your own will on God’s. It doesn’t work that way. So when it comes to prayer what we do is we align our will with God’s will. In the same way God desires for all to be saved we should desire for all to be saved as well. It doesn’t matter how evil we think they are or who they are. Don’t forget this is within the context of Paul encouraging Timothy to correct certain men not to teach false doctrine so guess who needs the gospel, and needs prayer those men. So even today we need to be praying for these heretics out there for their salvation because they are not connected to the Savior but connected to the world and the world only.

Now the question arises what do they need to be saved from. Well they need to be saved from an eternity in hell, but even more then that they need to be saved to a right relationship with God. The garden is such a beautiful picture of what mankind is missing. Adam communed with God. God created him and spoke with him in the garden. God even gave Adam the responsibility of naming the animals. There was such an incredible time in the Garden before Adam sinned. Now that there is sin in the world, mankind has ruptured their relationship with God. All God had ever wanted was to be with His people and sin keeps us from this, Sin is the hindrance that keeps us from communing with the Father. What we need is to be made right before God. We need to be reconciled back to Him.

This is God’s desire, it has always been His desire since the sin in the garden. That is why God said this in Genesis 3:15;

Genesis 3:15 NASB95

15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

Because of man’s sin man’s fellowship with God was broken, their place in the garden being in God’s presence was severed.

Genesis 3:23–24 NASB95

23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.

Man can no longer come to God. But we do have the promise of the one who will reconcile us back to Himself.

This verse points directly to Jesus and to the fact that He will reconcile all man to Himself. We need to pray on behalf of all man so that this truth may be revealed to them. So they will recognize the truth and the truth is in Christ.

John 14:6 NASB95

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

Jesus is the only way, the only truth and the only one who can offer life to the deadness of man’s heart. With Jesus revealing Himself to us we know nothing, and we have no connection to God at all. Jesus being the truth tells us what is true. We are sinners, we have a broken relationship with God and God wants us to know Him. What I mean by know is He wants our hearts and minds and souls. Every part of our being He wants.

Romans 5:6–11 NASB95

6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Paul tells Timothy the priority in prayer and he tells him the purpose is reconciliation and he provides the power which is all rooted in The Mediator.

Power in The Mediator

Verses 5-6 reads, “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.”

After being expelled from the Garden, God still desired to be with His people but He couldn’t so He chose people to be mediators, to be a connection or a conduit between Himself and others. He chose Abraham as His mediator and the prophets and the priests. The greatest Mediator God chose in the old testament was Moses. Moses was called by God to go and call the nation of Israel out of Egypt. When they went out God didn’t just come to the people, God went to Moses. Moses would go and meet with God alone, then Moses would go back to the people and tell them what God had said. Moses would answer for the people as well when they sinned. When the nation of Israel made a golden calf and worshipped it, God told Moses He would destroy the nation and start fresh with Moses. Moses told God you can’t, you made a promise with yourself and there is no way you can go back on this. God was never going to destroy the nation but Moses needed to step in. Moses had to speak for the nation because Moses was the connection. Do you know what Moses did from there. Moses went down to the bottom of the Mountain and when arrived at the bottom of the mountain he distributed the punishment on those who sinned. He is God’s mediator. He is their connection and God’s representative.

Moses is a type of Jesus, he is a foreshadow of who Jesus is and how Jesus functions.

Hebrews 3:1–6 NASB95

1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession; 2 He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. 3 For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. 4 For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. 5 Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; 6 but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.

Romans 8:26–27 NASB95

26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.