Thank God For The Go-Between! Series

I want to know Jesus, don’t you? I want to see Him from different angles. I want to hear Him described by different people. I want to see the different ways He has touched other people.

Today we begin a series of messages for the month that will have us looking at Jesus – only we’ll be looking in a place where we too often fail to see Him – the Old Testament. The fact is, the OT is full of “Snapshots of the Savior.”

We’re not talking the old “Where’s Waldo” scene, where you have to hunt and hunt until you find the one time he appears amidst the thousands of others in the scene.

It’s more like this puzzle I ran across in a somewhat “dumbed down” entrance pre-test. (show on screen: “Can you see the elephant in this picture?”)

The OT is actually full of Jesus. Someone has summarized the message of the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation: “Someone is coming. Someone is here. Someone is coming again.”

It’s with that realization that we’ll see some different views of Jesus as the OT looked forward to His first appearance on earth.

The one we’re looking at today centers around the view of Jesus as a Go-between, a mediator – we might call such a person the arbiter, or umpire, or the middle man.

The carpet outlet store tells me to buy direct from them – they’ll eliminate the middleman and save me money. Buy direct! Who needs a middle man?

That’s fine when it comes to buying carpet, or a car, or dog food, but what about when it comes to my relationship with God? Do I need a go-between or not?

I. We Need a Mediator with God

Before anyone is going to care about a message on this subject, we’re all going to have to be convinced it matters. I’m already convinced of it! Now let me tell you why!….

1. Because God is beyond us

-If God seems far off, it’s because He is!!

-transcendence – “to climb over, to go beyond”

God is “transcendent,” beyond creation: uncreated (I Tim 6:16 – “Who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light”), holy, exalted, unbound by the dimensions of time and space that confine our reality.

Israel got a taste of this once God began to speak with them directly…

(Deuteronomy 5:24-27) And you said, "The LORD our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even if God speaks with him. 25 But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer. 26 For what mortal man has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived? 27 Go near and listen to all that the LORD our God says. Then tell us whatever the LORD our God tells you. We will listen and obey."

“Go on, Moses, you talk with God and then talk to us. We think it would be good if someone could be our go-between, kind of soften the blow of dealing directly with God.”

Do you suppose God realizes this about Himself? Of course! He’s the One Who’s told us about it!

-(Isaiah 66:1-2) "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?" “Where are you gonna fit ME?”

• How do you relate to such a God? – you can’t have Him over for dinner or a sleepover!

• How do you speak with such a God? – You don’t just call Him up! (What’s His #? His Email?)

• How do you tell someone else about the great Being One Who always was, but Whose greatness extends into a dimension that we can’t even understand?

Here’s what I mean…

Ill – imagine being a fish in a fishbowl. You know the other fish in the bowl. You’re familiar with your surroundings. You understand a lot about them. You’re also aware that there’s a world outside of your world. You see it, though it’s fuzzy. You can’t go there, because you wouldn’t be able to breath. You once experienced just how different it felt when you accidentally jumped out and had to be picked up off the floor. You know there’s another who is different from you. You know that he has something to do with the food that you eat. You fear him, because you know him to be much bigger and more powerful than you are. You know that he’s mobile and he controls your whole environment.