Mediator!

I. Introduction & Scripture Setting.

There are many men and women recorded in Scripture.

We read about their lives, the high points and the low. Nothing it seems, is held back.

And at times I have thought: “This man, or that one, are so much better than I! The Jonathans, the Daniels, the Hosea’s.

They were Noble, courageous, humble and strong.

Then too, we meet evil kings, pagan priests, mad prophets and selfish pharisees.

So I guess it’s safe to say that you and I are better men, better women, than a few in this wonderful Bible book.

One particular figure in Scripture comes to us today.

His name was Job, and his story held more suffering than anyone should ever have to endure.

Now I’m gonna make a confession:

Everyone pays attention when the preacher says that!

The truth is:

I used to read Job only because it’s one of the 66 inspired books of Scripture.

It is possible to speed read through Job and move on to the next book!

But if you do, you’ll miss something very important.

And that something is a truth that I would like to present to Connect Point church and then we can celebrate this truth together!!

Now some books in the Bible are fun! 2nd Samuel for example, is better than any Hollywood movie!

Really!

Psalms is a roller coaster that takes you to every mountain top and every valley low, to the deepest emotions in the human experience.

Even Song of Solomon. Who knew that was in the Bible?

(Laugh Pause..)

Yeah, This Bible is an amazing book….

Still Job was hard for me. I guess I never could quite relate to him.

Had he been hopeless and weak and ill and poor to begin with, I’d still have pity on him!

If he was just a normal guy, I could relate better to him

Not so. Job was a very, very wealthy man in many ways.

His days were filled with the joy of watching his children grow and develop in a time of peace.

As the seasons passed, I imagine Job's chest puff out just a little bit as he watches his boys.

I consider the pride he had in his strong sons: The thinker, the hunter, the builder, the brave.

Each different in his own way.

What is it like for Dad, when your sons begin to earn more than you can, or lead other men effectively, or exert great positive influence among their peers?

I hope that one day, I will know.

I am looking forward to it!

Perhaps Job smiles and thinks: “I taught him that.”

Or how does this good man feel, when he sees the radiant beauty of what used to be his little girls, now tall?

Knowing how much I love my little princess baby girl, I can imagine the emotions that engulf him, as he watches each daughter in turn, watches them learn and grow.

Once upon a time, they were his little ones, but now he sees vibrant young women walk across his fields laughing together, as the sun bounces off flushed cheeks and hair as dark as a raven’s wing.

Surely Job smiles to himself and acknowledges the goodness of a God he has never seen.

Yes, it’s true that Job has never seen God, for God is a Spirit.

And yet, Job has never doubted.

He believes in a God he cannot see, with the same force he believes in wind that cannot be stored in a barrel or a crate.

Job may not be able to explain all, but He knows what He feels, and Job feels God.

He talks to God.

He worships God.

You ever notice? Some of the happiest people have very little in the way of money.

Their relationships, their family and the love that fills their days are counted for wealth, and they are richer than many millionaires!

But Job was the rare man who had both!

I don’t know if he was a flashy guy, or modest. But even if he didn’t show his wealth, you can just trust me, the man had it.

His wealth covered field after field.

In a time before currency, wealth was not accumulated in a bank.

Livestock was your wealth! And Job’s servants had to keep his herds moving far and wide, just to keep them fed and steward the land.

I wonder what family dinner was like in Job’s house?

I imagine a cool terraced seating area, couches, pallets and rugs spread about.

I see rich draped tapestries that keep out the harshest light, yet welcome the warm, fragrant breeze as the sun dips into a blue pink cotton candy sky.

Servants bustle in with tray after tray of olives and sweet meats, spicy, savory, exotic dishes.

Perhaps Job leans back and listens to the shop talk of his sons. They speak of management, of growth and gain.

He hears the radiant natural laughter of soft voices, the swish of flowing garments from his daughters who orbit their mother like bright planets.

Job is blessed! He knows the source and Job is grateful!

Everything is going so well!

Then came the day that Job lost everything.

All of the sudden, messengers rush into make their report:

The hits come so fast, he cannot even start to process one before another slams home!

Camels and oxen, all stolen, and the rustlers kill his servants to a man!

7000 sheep and their shepherds are wiped out in a thunderstorm!

All ten of his children! Killed in a cyclone!

Could it get any worse?

Well, yeah...

If you are healthy here today, know that you are blessed.

Friends, we are living in a world where people suffer.

And some of you wonderful people here today, that perhaps work in the areas of healthcare and the giving of care, you know what I’m talking about this morning.

It doesn't matter how much money or power you have, illness is a common enemy that we all share.

If you were a spirit being only, then pain, illness and weakness would mean nothing to you.

But since we are both body and spirit, we do not escape the human condition.

Don’t blame it on God!

Blame it on Adam and Eve if you must, or simply save your energy to endure.

“How can it possibly get any worse?”

Job soon found out!

A hideous, painful disease consumed his body and by the time that we reach our text today, his world has shrunk to an ash heap on the edge of town.

As we turn to Job 9:32-33, understand that He has been talking for a while already, Job is suffering!

Already, back in chapter 3, Job wished he had never been born and longs for death!

From Ch 4-27, are three cycles of speeches, in which his friends have a lot to say, but aren’t helping.

In Ch 29-31, Job calls for vindication

In Ch 38-41, God speaks and you owe it to yourself to read those words. Just the fact that we have free access to the things God says in Job Ch 38-41, is awesome!

Finally at the very end, God instructs Job to pray for his friends, and when he obeys, we see it is a key and the beginning of his own restoration!

God eventually gives back to Job, more than He ever had to begin with!

But my focus today, before the healing, before the restoration, is right there in chapter 9.

And before we read it together, let me remind you that Job is not a ghost! He is flesh and blood!

Job is just a man.

Pastor Patterson, When I consider the tests and trials he went through, I don’t thing I deserve to stand in the same room with him!

Eventually, he comes through with flying colors!

But at this moment, chapter 9:32-33, Job is so low, he needs something, and SOMEONE more than ever before!

Speaking of God, this is what Job says:

Job 9:32–33 NKJV

“For He is not a man, as I am, That I may answer Him, And that we should go to court together. Nor is there any mediator between us, Who may lay his hand on us both.

Job honors God. And yet, he feels that the human experience, the suffering that He is going through is so rough, that in order for God to truly understand, He’d have to be human.

Yes, God is great, but what Job needs right now, is someone that can truly understand his suffering!

Si Dios fuera un hombre, ¡Él podría entender mi sufrimiento!

(If only God was a man, He could understand my suffering!)

It’s like the little boy who spent the night over at Grandma’s house.

The thunderstorm outside scared the little man and he ran into Grandma’s room with big eyes, this close to tears.

Grandma says “It’s okay honey, God is here, He’ll not let anything happen to us.”

And the little fella responds, hugging her so tight: “I know Grandma, but sometimes you need a God in skin!”

“Someone to hold on to!”

At His lowest point, That’s what Job needed!

Yet Job is a realist, he knows God’s not about to change all creation and the order of things just for him...

Okay, a compromise then. He’d settle for that!

Since God is Spirit only, since he’s never felt pain in a body he does not have, perhaps a third party would help...

El Arbitro. El Mediador

He mentions a “Daysman.” which refers to an arbitrator, or a mediator, a go between man, that could somehow make things better!

Someone that could explain man to God!

And then, explain God to man!

“If only, Job cries, such a one existed!”

“If only, that one could come into my situation!”

Job’s heart rending cry that day, is the cry of lonely, hurting people everywhere and across the ages of man!

“We need something! We need Somebody that we do not have!

Someone that can put one hand on God and one hand on man, and then somehow, bring the two together!”

“Oh what I would do for such a one!”

If his words had been a song, that song would have been sung by countless millions from Adam to the age of mighty Rome!

Every time a village was plundered and burned,

Each time, some lad woke up a slave, chained to an oar in his own filth,

Each time, some father’s sweet daughter was sold as so much meat in a market, humanity has cried out: “If only God knew what suffering was really like!”

“Surely, the God who created the blues, pinks and purples of a hazy setting sun,

Surely the God who created seasons and nature and this thing between a man and a woman that we call love, surely that God is good!

“If only He could feel the loss and pain that we feel, surely He would do something about it!”

Now, let’s move to phase two of this message:

II. Application

Friend, we hear Christmas music on the radio and in the mall, and we forget what it really means.

We forget about the glory of an angelic host, Heaven’s choir, that sang one night to shepherds in an open field:

We forget what it means to humanity!!!

Hear those words once more: Luke 2:8-14

Luke 2:8–14 NKJV

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

Do you truly understand the power of a God that lives and breathes and faces the same fears that you face?

Who knows suffering and pain and restoration?

Who understands human mistakes, forgiveness and reconciliation?

I am not here to talk to you about Mohammed, I am not here to speak of Buddha, or the pantheon of Hindu gods, or any other such.

I’ve come as does your pastor, every time he steps into this pulpit, I come to preach Jesus Christ!

Let me remind you, that Jesus Christ did not physically exist until the day that He was born of Mary in a stable some 7,500 miles from where we stand today.

The concept of an eternal Son does not exist in Scripture!

Always it is the “Begotten Son!”

Never, “God the Son,”

Always: “The Son of God!”

Yes, He existed before Mary, but not physically!

He existed in the plan of God! Since the foundation of the world, the man Christ Jesus existed in prophetic anticipation!

The great I AM who progressively revealed himself to his people over the ages, had the ultimate destination of becoming a man himself!

It was the only way to bring salvation!

The sins of the world could only be covered by perfect, sinless blood!

Almighty God had perfect down!

He was all of that! But he did not yet have the blood!

And so he clothed himself in flesh!

At no point, has there ever been more than one God!

He is absolutely and numerically one!

Yet God was a consuming Fire! A Spirit that no man could see!

Hey, a spirit holy or otherwise, cannot bleed! It is physically impossible!

God fills the role of Father, in that He created all that is, and yet the Father is not a separate personality or person from the Son!

The Son existed in the plan of God since the beginning, but Job never got to meet Him!

Jesus wasn’t born yet! His time was still to come!

God fills the role of Son and Savior in the person of Jesus Christ!

Same God! Filling different roles to save lost humanity!

He fills the role of comforter, the promise of John 14! In that role of activity toward man, we call Him the Holy Spirit!

And none of it could have ever happened, unless God became man!

If only Job had known that what he so longed for, was already in the global plan of Almighty God!

If only He knew, that the day was coming, when God would be both fully God and fully man!

Theologians call it the dual nature of God!

Jesus Christ was both fully God and fully man!

He had to be in order to lay hands on both!

He had to be God, so he could represent God to Humanity!

He had to be human, that He could represent humanity to God!

So it turns out that Job was not really my text today, Job just set us up for this one:

This is your take away today: I tim 2:5, 1 Tim 2:5, 1 Tim 2:5!

1 Timoteo 2:5

Reina-Valera 1960

5 Porque hay un solo Dios, y un solo mediador entre Dios y los hombres, Jesucristo hombre,

1 Timothy 2:5 NKJV

For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,

I wish that Job could have seen Jesus moved by compassion as he healed the multitudes!

Job was right! We needed a daysman! We needed a mediator!

And this Jesus is here right now!!!

He can save your family!

He can send his angels to protect them!

He is able to heal you!

He can save your job or give you a better one!

Who is this Jesus?

He is greater than any ruler,

Mightier than any warrior,

Nobler than any king,

Wiser than any sage,

Bigger than any kingdom,

Better than any crown,

Lovelier than any name!

Worthy of worship

Deserving of praise!

III. Conclusion

Why don’t we all stand up and shout the name of Jesus!

Tell HIm that you love him!

Tell Him that you trust HIm!

You can recieve the Holy Ghost today!

You can be baptized in Jesus Name today!

Let us praise Him together today!