The Perfect Mediator.

If you have ever had to phone into sasktel or to a government agency they require you to give evidence that you are the person who is in on the account. They ask you questions like the last 3 digits of drivers license or mailing address on the account. For them, this gives them confidence that you are who you say you are.

In bible times, the way that you would prove who you were was through your genealogy. For example, when Israel was returning from exile in Babylon in Nehemiah’s time, there were Jewish people who wanted to serve in the tabernacle. This service was strictly restricted to the Levites. These folks who wanted to serve were required to prove they were Levites through their genealogy. In , it could not be proven so they were excluded from serving as priests.

So this leads us to the passage of Luke’s genealogy of Jesus Christ. Luke has written his gospel so that Theophilus would have certainty about what he was taught orally. Luke is writing out the genealogy to prove that Jesus is both the Son of God and Son of Man. By proving this, Jesus is the Messiah who perfectly mediates all the covenants that sinful man could not do.

For our message today, we are going to focus on how Jesus is the only one who can mediate or be the one who can solve the dispute or disagreement between God and man. There is three main covenants that we will cover. The Davidic, Abrahamic and Adamic Covenants.

There is a good 5 minute video that will help explain the theme of covenants.

I showed that video before to help explain the theme of covenants.

Point #1 - The Mediator of the Davidic Covenant.

Where Matthew starts his genealogy account with Abraham working forward in time to the birth of Jesus, Luke starts with Jesus and works back in time to Adam as the son of God. Matthew’s genealogy points out the royal line of King Jesus. Luke’s genealogy takes a biological line right to Adam.

In , God promises David that the Messiah would come through an heir of his. He would also come from the tribe of Judah and would sit on the throne forever. So Luke must prove that Jesus is in fact of this lineage.

However, not just any descendant of David could be the true King. In we read that Jehoiakim had acted wickedly. Even though he was the a son of David and king of Judah, God curses him and declared that his descendants would not sit on throne of David.

So Luke in (31) reveals that Jesus is the son through Nathan as David’s son from .

When it was decreed by God that a son of David would reign forever on his throne, Israel was constantly looking for one to fulfill this role as King. But every son failed to mediate this covenant because of sin. A perfect Mediator in the line of David would be required. Jesus qualifies through this bloodline.

Point #2 - The Mediator of the Abrahamic Covenant.

In God tells Abram (exalted father) to leave his family and friends and go to the land of promise. A land flowing with milk and honey. In this land, God will bless Abram and make him into a great nation. Those who bless you will be blessed and those who dishonour you, the LORD God will curse. Through this blessing from God, all people groups will be blessed.

One great difficulty that Abram had is that he and Sarai (my princess) had no children. Abram was 75 years old and Sarai was 65 years old when they set out on their journey. After 10 years of no child they try to help God along and Sarai gives Hagar her servant to Abraham. She gets pregnant and gives birth to a son Ishmael. He would become a great nation but not of the promise that God made.

When Abram is 99 years old, 24 years after the promise, God restates his covenant and changes Abram’s name to Abraham (father of multitudes). God changes the name of Sarai to Sarah (mother of nations).

God sovereignly blesses Abraham and Sarah. Over time they become a mighty nation of millions. But they fail to be a blessing to other nations. They disobey God’s commands from the Mosaic covenant. They should have revealed to the pagan nations around them that the God they serve is a good and gracious Saviour. But their rebellion led them to captivity in Babylon, exiled from the promised land because of their sin in breaking the covenant.

God sovereignly blesses Abraham and Sarah. Over time they become a mighty nation of millions. But they fail to be a blessing to other nations. They disobey God’s commands from the Mosaic covenant. They should have revealed to the pagan nations around them that the God they serve is good and gracious. But their rebellion led them to captivity and exiled from the promised land because of their sin.

Israel did not bless others. A perfect Mediator was needed who would be the true Israel, who would obey the law perfectly that God commanded. Thus blessings would flow to all peoples. Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, slave and free, man and woman.

The genealogy that Luke writes confirms that Jesus falls in the line of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (34). A true Son of promise.

Point #3 - The Mediator of the Adamic Covenant.

Luke takes the genealogy right back to the garden of Eden. This Adamic covenant is broken into two parts. A covenant of works and a covenant of grace. The first covenant is how God gave instruction to Adam to obey God’s commandments and would then be blessed. When Adam failed by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he broke the covenant by his works. As a result he brought sin and the curse upon all humanity. Since Adam is the head of humanity, everyone is guilty for the sin of Adam as well as their own sin (Rom. 5:12).

from comes in line after the fall. Eve is deceived by Satan and eats of the forbidden fruit. Adam does not act as priest to her and fulfill his calling. So God curses the serpent to eat dust all its life, that there would be enmity between the seed of Satan and the seed of Eve. That their would be pain in childbirth and marital conflict. The ground was cursed and man would constantly labour hard to get a crop. As a result of sin, humanity would return to the ground it was created from in death. Physical and spiritual death as a result of disobedience to God.

Although these curses are severe and inescapable, a wonderful covenant of grace is the second part of the Adamic covenant. God tells Satan that there is going to be this battle between the offspring of Satan and the offspring of the woman. The Son of the woman will bruise the head of Satan or crush it. However, it will cost the life of of the Son because of the striking of the heel.

God intercedes by grace to fulfill the covenant of works for us. This is played out over history in the sub-covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and perfectly in Christ.

The covenant of works required a perfectly obedient human. The covenant of grace required a spotless, sinless human to pay the debt of sin and be the perfect sacrifice. This required a perfect Mediator between a holy God and sinful man. By the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of humanity has come. The perfectly obedient man completes the works for us... and the Lamb of God fulfills the death requirement of the law in paying the wages on behalf of sinners.

[18] Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. [19] For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

Jesus won back our freedom by conquering sin’s debt and the curse of death. Jesus reversed the curse as the perfect Mediator of the Adamic covenant. Jesus is restoring sinful humanity to the holy God as our Mediator. Our Advocate acts as a type of defence attorney in heaven’s court before the Holy One as the righteous Judge. By trusting in Jesus as our Saviour, Christ points to the blood that was shed on the cross. The wages of sin which is death is paid by our Advocate. God declares us “not guilty”.

Jesus won back our freedom from sin by conquering it’s debt and the curse of death at the cross. Jesus reversed the curse as the perfect Mediator of the Adamic covenant. Our Mediator acts as our Advocate. He is like a type of defence attorney in heaven’s court before the Holy One as the righteous Judge. By trusting in Jesus as our Saviour, Christ points to his perfect righteousness, his works not Adam’s and to the blood that was shed on the cross. Doing this as the Mediator, God declares us “not guilty”.

[18] Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. [19] For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. (ESV)Jesus won back our freedom by conquering sin’s debt and the curse of death. Jesus reversed the curse as the perfect Mediator of the Adamic covenant. Jesus is restoring sinful humanity to the holy God as our Mediator. Our Advocate acts as a type of defence attorney in heaven’s court before the Holy One as the righteous Judge. By trusting in Jesus as our Saviour, Christ points to the blood that was shed on the cross. The wages of sin which is death is paid by our Advocate. God declares us “not guilty”.

God now calls us “sons and daughters.”

Jesus is going to restore sinful humanity to the holy God as our Mediator.

Have you trusted in Jesus to be your Defence Attorney? Or are you trying to defend yourself by your own works like Adam? Do you think you are a good person so there is no way God would ever punish you in hell? Do not be foolish, repent and trust in the merciful Mediator, the righteous Redeemer, the sinless Saviour.

[16] From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. [17] Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. [18] All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; [19] that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. [20] Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. [21] For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

[16] From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. [17] Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. [18] All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; [19] that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. [20] Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. [21] For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (ESV)

So what does that mean for us?

Since Jesus is the Mediator of the Davidic Covenant, when we become discouraged with life, it’s pain, loneliness and financial hardships, look to Jesus. Our time on earth will be hard, but it is temporary. We are not of this world but are patiently waiting and eagerly anticipating the return of Christ our King where we will reign forever with him. “…by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.: (,)

First, when you consider all these names tracing back in time, think about how they all died in anticipating who would be the Mediator. God is sovereign and what he decrees, it will surely come to pass. talks about the faith of the OT saints. “They all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” (11:13)

Because Jesus is the Mediator of the Abrahamic Covenant, we enjoy blessing those around us with telling others about Jesus. What greater blessing can one receive than forgiveness of sin and eternal life with Jesus? Where Israel failed to bless the nations and evangelize them, Jesus empowers us by his Spirit to share the gospel and disciple each other. By sinners turning from sin and trusting in Jesus Paul writes in that “… if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” You are not of the slave woman but of the free woman. True sons and daughters!

Because Jesus is the Mediator of the Abrahamic Covenant, we enjoy blessing those around us with telling others about Jesus. What greater blessing can one receive than forgiveness of sin and eternal life with Jesus? Where Israel failed to bless the nations and evangelize them, Jesus empowers us by his Spirit to share the gospel and disciple each other. By sinners turning from sin and trusting in Jesus Paul writes in that “… if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” You are not of the slave woman but of the free woman.

Since Jesus is the Mediator of the Adamic Covenant who conquered Satan, we can have confidence that our sin debt has been perfectly put away forever. This truth is vital to us believers when we struggle with assurance of our salvation. Yes we will still sin as Christians but by faith unifying us to Christ as his body we can have complete confidence in the finished work of Christ as a new creation. He has fulfilled the covenant of works and grace for us. We are now righteous and blameless before our Heavenly Father.

God promises a perfect Mediator who follow the blood line of Adam, Abraham and David. God’s promises are never revoked or changed. They are accomplished exactly in the timing that God sovereignly chooses for his glory as the Saviour of his people. These people you see in the genealogy died believing in these promises. We now live in light of the promises fulfilled in Jesus our Saviour. Trust God to do in you all that he promises to do for he is always faithful.

Since Jesus is the Mediator of the Adamic Covenant who conquered Satan, we can have confidence that our sin debt has been perfectly put away forever. This truth is vital to us believers when we struggle with assurance of our salvation. Yes we will still sin as Christians but by faith unifying us to Christ as his body we can have complete confidence in the finished work of Christ as a new creation. He has fulfilled the covenant of works and grace for us. We are now righteous and blameless before our Heavenly Father.

“[16] From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. [17] Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. [18] All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; [19] that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. [20] Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. [21] For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Secondly, through the genealogy we see that Luke traces the sonship all the way back to God. Adam is declared a son of God. Seth is not called a grandson of God. Enos is not called a grandchild. God is the Father of sons and daughters, not grandchildren. Faith in Christ Jesus means that you are adopted as sons and daughters just like Jesus is the true son of God.

Thirdly, we see that since Jesus mediates the Abrahamic covenant. God blesses others through us. All people are blessed through us since we are in Christ. So we can know that we bear fruit of the Spirit in how we love, forgive and make peace with each other. We tell others about Jesus so that they also may be forgiven and called children of God. Isn’t that something to praise God for? That through more people trusting in Jesus, more people will turn from sin and worship the one true living God and glorify him.

As we go to our last song, let us worship our Father for graciously granting us all spiritual blessings in Jesus.

So to sum this up. Luke has laid out for Theophilus how he could be confident that Jesus is in fact the Son of God.

The genealogy proved to both Jew and Gentile that the promised Messiah must have the birthright to claim who he is as the Son of God and Son of Man. The genealogy proves that the perfect Mediator of all covenants is now here.

Be blessed in Christ brothers and sisters. Let us bless the Lord by humbling obeying and worshipping the King of kings and Lord of lords who has done great and awesome things for us. Let us adore him for we will be with Jesus forever and ever as our King!