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.
How do you, the fish in the bowl, relate to someone so distinct from your kind and your world?
How do you communicate to him?
What could you tell your fish friends about the Other One, except for some of your guesses and conjectures about what He’s like?
Now, how do we people, little specks on planet earth, do the same with the One Who is so beyond ourselves? That’s hard to answer. But it’s even tougher when an appropriate fear is involved.
-How would you approach such a God when you get the impression that He has something against you and you don’t understand what it is? That was Job’s struggle. Job felt this distance – who would plead his case before God?
(Job 9:32-35) "He is not a man like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court. 33 If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon us both, 34 someone to remove God's rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more. 35 Then I would speak up without fear of him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot.
The creator just doesn’t fit in the same “fishbowl” with the creature. We need someone to connect us with God, just because God is transcendent.
Now, if you’ll look around you this week, you’ll see that many of your friends have figured out just this much about God, and then stopped. He’s the “divine fishbowl owner” – you can’t really know Him, but we can all guess about Him, so one person’s guess is as good as another’s. Still, when it’s all said and done, He’ll be outside the fishbowl, outside our grasp, and we’ll always relate in this watery, distorted, unenlightened way. Occasionally, someone will come along who seems to have “the connection.” They’ll write a book or start a cult. Over 800 people in Uganda are dead a couple of weeks ago because they thought they found someone who could connect them with God.
It’s all real world proof for us to chew on this morning that God is beyond us, and people do feel it. We really do need a mediator. But there’s another reason on top of this that we need a go-between:
We also need a mediator…
2. Because there has been some kind of disparity, some kind of hostility
Eli the priest had 2 wicked sons, Hophni and Phinehas. He pleaded with them to stop the way they were living. He may not have had solid theology at this point, but he at least understood that sin puts us in need of a go-between:
(1 Sam 2:24-25) No, my sons; it is not a good report that I hear spreading among the Lord's people. 25 If a man sins against another man, God may mediate for him; but if a man sins against the LORD, who will intercede for him?"
Mediators are called in to settle disputes. Usually there’s been some kind of disagreement or someone has been wronged.
It’s happened in man’s relationship with God. There’s a rift, and we created it.
• We created it when we choose to be friends with the world, because friendship with the world is hatred toward God. “Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” James 4:4
• We created it when we chose a sinful mind, because “the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.” Romans 8:7
• We created it when we chose evil behavior over good. “you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.” Colossians 1:21
• Romans 5:10 says we were enemies of God
• Eph 2:2 says by nature we were objects of God’s wrath
We created that rift. It wasn’t God. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve chose sin, and when God came walking in the garden, it was Adam and Eve who hid themselves.
• The earliest sad note in the Bible is when God comes walking to have fellowship with His creation and they’re hiding, and God calls out “Where are you?”
I notice that right away, God has already addressed the need to heal the rift, and right away, in Gen 3:15, we get the first OT snapshot of Jesus.
We need someone to be our go-between; a mediator. It’s an ongoing need because of the holiness of God, and our stained state. It’s going to be a need when we stand before God’s judgment throne. Nothing defiled can enter heaven. God’s nature won’t allow that.
Elihu, in the book Job, knew that we need a mediator. I doubt he knew he was speaking about the role Jesus would take on our behalf when He spoke about man in (Job 33:22-27):
“His soul draws near to the pit, and his life to the messengers of death. 23 "Yet if there is an angel on his side as a mediator, one out of a thousand, to tell a man what is right for him, 24 to be gracious to him and say, 'Spare him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom for him'-- 25 then his flesh is renewed like a child's; it is restored as in the days of his youth. 26 He prays to God and finds favor with him, he sees God's face and shouts for joy; he is restored by God to his righteous state. 27 Then he comes to men and says, 'I sinned, and perverted what was right, but I did not get what I deserved.’”
What a wonderful description of what Jesus does! It’s easy for us to see that now. But how wonderful that even that long ago there were people who were recognizing we need a mediator with God.
Look around you and you’ll see we’re in a generation of people today who feel this distance. Maybe they don’t understand the ins and outs of it, but they know they need a go-between to make the connection with God. We need a mediator.
Do you believe it? Do you accept that? If not, then please explain to me why Jesus came to earth. Explain to me why God saw it necessary to come in the form of His Son and live among men. Explain to me why He had to empty Himself and take on the form of man.
If we don’t need a mediator, would someone please talk to God and explain to Him that He was mistaken and really didn’t need to go through all the trouble!
We need a mediator. But we need more than a mediator. …
II. We Need the Right Mediator with God
When it comes to something so basic and essential in the way we relate to God, we need to be sure we have this right!
1. The world has tried to provide one
The world has created substitutes, has made attempts to connect us with God. They’re called religions
• prayer to saints and to others – as though their pleas to God on our behalf will carry more weight!
• declaring that God is dead, so it doesn’t matter
• re-incarnation, so that you can keep getting better and better until you’re right w/the universe
• salvation by good works
They’re all insufficient attempts to access God or to undo the feeling of separation we have with Him. Once again, we can fail by attempting to do things our way, or we could try to do them God’s way.
2. The OT priesthood somewhat provided one
-Here was a way from God – a chance for His people to “connect” with Him.
-Only it was limited to just Israel, and only the tribe of Levi could serve as priests, and only Aaron’s sons could serve as high priests.
And in the midst of all the ceremony and sacrifices and ritual, there was still this thick veil that closed off the most holy place in the temple so that no one could even look in, let alone go in, except for one particular priest, on one day of the year,
This all lacked too, because it depended on imperfect men to come before God on peoples’ behalf. Yes, God kept contact with His people. Yes, they could know about Him. But it still was insufficient for a close relationship with the Father.
(Hebrews 7:19) (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
We need more than just “a mediator.”
Any Mediator that’s Man-made, even one that’s God-selected but still depends on man, is going to fall short when it comes to connecting with God.
Go back to being a fish in a fishbowl. What if one of the big fish in your fishbowl said he’d be the connection for you? He still can’t jump out of the bowl. He doesn’t understand the Other much better than you do. He can’t speak to that outside person. How can someone who’s just like you, with all your limitations, have a connection with the One you’re trying to reach?
We need the right Mediator, not just some mediator. We need someone who will be able to connect us with God.
III. Our Great Need is Met in Jesus Christ
So, the OT doesn’t show us the Mediator as much as it opens our eyes to this existing vacuum – this great need - and then points to the One that’s coming to do just that.
(John 1:18) No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.
Is that good news? Our great need for a go-between is met in Jesus!
Now, one way we could understand Jesus is to look at what a mediator in earthly affairs does. What are the characteristics of a Mediator?
• Represents both parties - Gal 3:20 (In this case, it’s different. God doesn’t “need” it)
• “gets in the middle” – a dangerous proposition when it’s the Hatfields and McCoys, or if it’s a Holy God and wrath is owed.
Jesus is like a human mediator in these ways, but His work is so much greater! He’s not just a mediator. He’s the “Great Mediator” Who meets our great need!
What are the characteristics of our Mediator?
1. Doesn’t just work in the middle, but gets between us and God’s wrath
Really, there is no dispute. It has already been settled. We’ve deliberately sinned, we deserve to be punished, and here it comes. But now our Mediator isn’t just a go-between. He steps between us and the punishment that’s coming and takes the hit Himself.
2. Doesn’t remain neutral so that “the best man wins,” but rather works with us as our advocate, our intercessor, our lawyer; He does the work of forgiveness to us; then He does a work of continual cleansing on us – all to make us acceptable to the Father
(John 16:26-27) In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
3. Has a closeness with the Father – has entered His presence ahead of us, on our behalf
(Hebrews 6:19-20) “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever,”
(Hebrews 9:24) “Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence.”
4. Is the only way to the Father’s favor
(Acts 4:12) Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
(John 14:6) Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
(1 Timothy 2:5-6) For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men--the testimony given in its proper time.
Conclusion:
There are all kinds of ways to not get to heaven. But there’s only One Great Mediator to meet that need.
Ill - Steve Winger from Lubbock, Texas, tells about his last college test a final in a logic class known for its difficult exams: “To help us on our test, the professor told us we could bring as much information to the exam as we could fit on a piece of notebook paper. Most students crammed as many facts as possible on their 8-1/2 x 11 inch sheet of paper. But one student walked into class, put a piece of notebook paper on the floor, and had an advanced logic student stand on the paper.
The advanced logic student told him everything he needed to know. He was the only student to receive an "A." “
The ultimate final exam will come when we stand before God and he asks, "Why should I let you into my heaven?" On our own we won’t pass that exam. Our creative attempts to earn eternal life fall far short. But there’s Someone who will stand in for us.
Wouldn’t you like to have a friend like that stand on your behalf?
Fix your eyes on a hill called Calvary this morning. There are 3 crosses there. 3 men are paying for crimes.
And the one paying for any crime but His own is the man in the middle. He’s Jesus.
