Jesus - Our Resurrected Mediator

If this is your first week with us here at North Park Stratford, or just your first week in a while, we have been going through our church’s statement of faith in our series called, “We Believe.” Today’s statement is the fifth line in our creed and it’s no accident that we are halfway through our series and we have come to resurrection of Jesus. Just as the resurrection is the centerpiece of our statment of faith, with four statements before it and four statements after it, it is also the the centerpiece of Christianity.

Famous bible commentator J.C Ryle said, “The resurrection of Christ is one of the foundation-stones of Christianity. It was the seal of the great work that He came on earth to do. It was the crowning proof that the ransom He paid for sinners was accepted, the atonement for sin accomplished, the head of him who had the power of death bruised, and the victory won.”

So let’s read this week’s line from our statement of faith and see what God may say to us through it.

We believe Jesus was raised from the dead, ascended into heaven, and is the mediator between humanity and God the Father.

Have you ever realized that something you were doing was completely pointless? Almost every single day, one of the first things that I do when I wake up, is make the bed. I tighten up the sheet, re-align the comforter, put the pillows in the right, exact way that they have to be, all 6 of them. And then I move on with my day. What makes this pointless isn’t the fact that later that night I will go to bed, but that Hannah, my daughter, will jump into our bed two or three times during the day and mess it all up again, before I get a chance to. Most of the time, at my house, making the bed is an exercise in futility.

I remember when I was working at a roofing supply center a few years ago that in my first week there, they gave me the most pointless job. Shingles come on trucks on pallets. Each pallet has 42 bags of shingles and each bag of shingles weighs close to 80 pounds. We were told by head office that we had to repack about 50 pallets of singles. So one of my first tasks, which took over a week to do, was to remove each bag of shingles from a pallet and repack them on a different pallet in a different and far worse way. It was the most pointless waste of time that I have ever had to do.

Sometimes in life, we have to do pointless things. That’s life. But it’s frustrating, isn’t it? I think we find activities that we define as pointless particularly frustrating because I think we humans need and desire purpose and meaning.

In Christianity, it is the resurrection of Jesus that gives our lives purpose and meaning. Without the resurrection of Jesus, life would be as pointless as making the bed, just for my kids to mess it up again or as pointless as moving 50 pallets of shingles to other pallets, just to stack them differently. In his first letter to the church in Corinth, Paul wrote...

1 Corinthians 15:17 NIV

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.

Paul is telling us that without the resurrection, our faith is meaningless. Without the resurrection, Jesus pays for the sins up to that day, but not after so we would still be under the power and penalty of sin. He goes so far as to say

1 Corinthians 15:19 NIV

If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then no one will rise from the dead and this life is all there is. Paul says that if that is true, then we are to be pitied because we are living delusional lives, worshipping a false God. But that’s not the case. Paul writes

1 Corinthians 15:20 NIV

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Paul, along with every other author in the NT, declares that Jesus is risen, he is risen indeed! And because he is risen, we can hope for and trust in our own resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:23 NIV

But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.

Jesus is the firstfruits - which is just a way to say that Jesus did it first, and then we get to do it next. Those who belong to Jesus - which is everyone who has put their faith and trust in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour - will be raised from the dead. And that has huge implications:

It means you don’t have to fear death. If you belong to Jesus, physical death is a momentary transition where you become better than you have ever been here.

It means your life has meaning. Your words, your choices, your actions have eternal implications. Remember flying and going places? That was great, right? Imagine you are sitting on a plane and the person next to you is visibly upset so you pray quietly to God for them. Maybe you offer them an encouragement or maybe you even share the good news of Jesus to this person. Those actions may have eternal impact on that persons life. And this is all because Jesus was raised from dead.

When we look at the narrative about Jesus, we read about the miraculous nature of his conception, the beauty of his teaching and how it mirrored how he lived. We read of how he was betrayed, beaten and crucified as a criminal, though he was innocent. We read how the women found the empty tomb three days later and how he, as our resurrected Lord, appeared to the disciples over and over again. And then we read of his ascension, which is the second part of this fifth statement in our creed.

Acts 1:4–11 NIV

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

Why is the ascension important for us to know and embrace as a theological reality?

One reason is that this event marked a new age. We could look at life in terms of three ages: The first age is the age of the Old Testament, where God is present and speaks to and through his chosen prophets like Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Jonah, Isaiah, etc. With a few exceptions, in this age, God is “above” and speaks down toward us.

The second age is the age of Jesus where God became man and walked among us. For 33 years, God was with us in a real, tangible but finite way. If you wanted to hear what God said, all you had to do is listen to Jesus.

The third age is the age of the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ ascension to heaven marked the end of the second age and the beginning of this third stage, which we are still in today. In this stage, God is present within every person who declares with their mouth and believes in their heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. Instead of speaking to one person like the prophets or through one person, like Jesus, he now speaks through the Holy Spirit to everyone who follows Jesus. God became world-wide through the Holy Spirit.

In the ascension of Jesus, he ends his earthly ministry and then sends the Holy Spirit to every believer to continue the work.

John 16:7 NIV

But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

But more than just sending the Spirit to dwell in every believer, Jesus guides the Holy Spirit to help us.

John 16:13–14 NIV

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.

Jesus is speaking to us through the Holy Spirit who dwells with us. If you have ever experienced an “a-ha” moment when reading the Bible, that was sent to you from Jesus through the Holy Spirit. If you have experienced a sense that you need to go talk to someone or pray from someone, that was Jesus speaking to you through the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus was on earth, he could lead and speak to however many people could get close enough to hear him. But now, because Jesus ascended to heaven, he can speak to every believer in the world at any time through the Holy Spirit. Amazing.

But the second reason the ascension is important to us is because of the work Jesus is now doing for us.

John 14:1–3 NLT

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.

Jesus is working to prepare “heaven” for us. Honestly, I don’t know what “preparing the place” fully means. Maybe Jesus is up there, making up the beds, putting some heavenly chocolate on the pillows for us (not the cheap stuff they use at some hotels, but the good Rheo Thompson smoothie kinds )? I don’t know. More likely, his preparing a place is his obtaining a place for us through his death and resurrection, but, who knows? Maybe Jesus, a carpenter on earth, is building homes for us to live in and enjoy when we join him in glory one day. All I know is that because Jesus ascended to Heaven after his resurrection, he is preparing a place there for me and, if you put your faith in Jesus, he’s preparing a place for you too.

We believe Jesus was raised from the dead, ascended into heaven, and is the mediator between humanity and God the Father.

In addition to preparing a place for us, Jesus is still active in heaven, acting as the mediator between humanity and God the Father.

Romans 8:31–34 NIV

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

So what does it mean that Jesus is interceding for us. Well, let me say what it is NOT first. It is not Jesus, on his knees, pleading with daddy. It is not Jesus trying to get something from the father that the father is normally unwilling to give us.

In the eternal communal relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, where they are of the same essence, Jesus’ intercession is a cooperative relationship with the Father on our behalf. Picture this: a Christian person has committed a sin and they start feeling shame, or guilt because of it and now the devil comes along and starts whispering in their ear, accusing them of being a bad Christian - of being a failure or worthless. You know, the stuff many of you hear and think when you sin, even though you are trying hard to live for Jesus.

When that devil starts whispering you, discouraging you, lying to you. The lion of Judah, Jesus leaps to your defense and tells the Father - No, this can’t stand. I love that person, I died for that person, they are mine and I have forgiven all of their sins. Let’s send their friend to encourage them and maybe, let’s speak through the Holy Spirit to the pastor who delivers that exact right message to bring healing and hope to that broken person. And the Father agrees because they are of the same essence and the Holy Spirit is like, “Absolutely! Let’s do this!” and the whole Trinity is on their side, bringing them out of that despair and guilt and shame and reminding them how loved they are by God - that they are forgiven and they have been set free from the power and the penalty of sin. That’s what the intercession of Jesus is like - he’s there on your side, mobilizing the whole Trinity to work on your behalf because you are God’s beloved child.

But if we are real, doesn’t it sometimes feel like Jesus took a day off from interceding for you and that God kinda of forgot about you? Well, that’s the problem with feelings. They are not always reliable and you shouldn’t trust them completely. They can be great guides if we acknowledge what we are feeling and use it to draw near to God, but feelings aren’t truth. Feeling that God is distant or that he has forgotten you isn’t the truth. The truth is that God has declared that He will never leave you or forsake you. The truth is that Jesus is always interceding on your behalf, even if you can’t feel it or see it. Most of the time, we allow our pain, our anger, or our shame to blind us to the work of Jesus on our behalf.

And that’s where faith comes into it. We believe that God is for us, not against us. We believe that because Jesus was raised from the dead we have a hope for this life and a future that goes beyond it. We believe that because Jesus ascended to Heaven after his resurrection he sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us to help us live the life God wants for us. And we believe that Jesus is interceding on our behalf. Faith is trusting God when you can’t feel him or see him and we live by faith, not by sight.

As we embrace this line in our statement of faith as a cornerstone tenet of our lives, how do we apply this to our lives?

The resurrection means we don’t need to live in fear because not even death is final for us. So examine yourself and identify what those core fears that affect the choices you make and the way you live. Release those fears and trade them for faith.

Jesus’ ascension means that not only is he preparing a place for you, he sent and directs the Holy Spirit to empower you to live and enjoy the abundant life that Jesus promises to you. So learn to put down the phone, to turn off the TV and leave the novel on the side table and spend time listening to Jesus speak to you through the Holy Spirit as you quiet your mind, pray and read the Bible.

Hebrews 7:25 says that Jesus always lives to make intercession for us. So be encouraged that God has not forsaken you, or forgotten you but trust in the Lord and open your eyes to the ways God is working in you - whether it is through the Bible, or friends, or podcasts, or even preachers.

We believe Jesus was raised from the dead, ascended into heaven, and is the mediator between humanity and God the Father.

Pray.