THE CONTINIOUS MINISTRY OF JESUS CHRIST
“HE EVER LIVETH”
HEB. 7:19-25
In just a couple of weeks, we will celebrate one of Christianity’s most holy days, which is Easter. The Gospel, or good news, contains not only the message that Jesus died for us and paid our debt of sin to God, it also contains the message that Jesus is alive. 2 Timothy 2:8 Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel: Now this morning, I am not going to preach directly on the resurrection of Jesus. I want to share on one of the results of it.
The Gospels record for us the three-fold earthly ministry of Jesus, preaching, teaching, and healing. The Gospels also tell of His concluding ministry on earth to bring salvation and deliverance to those who believe. Heb. 9:11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. The Son of Man is come to seek and save those who are lost. However, we need to realize that just because Jesus has now arose, and is placed at the right hand of the Father, His ministry is not over. Jesus Christ is still very much involved in ministry. The writer of Hebrews tells us that "He ever liveth to make intercession...". Christ is alive as intercessor, He is alive as your intercessor. Now you may ask, what is an intercessor? According to the dictionary, an intercessor is someone who mediates between two contending parties, or a person who intercedes for another, one who pleads for mercy for another. You might think that you don’t need an intercessor, but you do. Thank God for salvation, thank God for victory, but we still live in this weak flesh that gives us problems and troubles. We struggle against the flesh, against Satanic powers and against sin. We are involved in a struggle and we will continue to be involved in this struggle until Jesus comes. There will be times that we will need strength, times that we will need help, and times we will need mercy, in order to continue to live for God. We need the Lord’s help to make it through this world. Remember “He ever liveth to make intercession”. This is part of His ministry as our High Priest. He will, always will be there to give you help when you need Him to be. We often overlook this portion of Christ’s ministry. We seldom think about how important this ministry of intercession is in our lives. Paul said in Rom. 15:30, Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me; Paul is in effect saying, I beg you to pray for me, for we strive, or wrestle (Satanic forces) in prayer. If Paul, the man of God that he was, needed prayer, rest assured that you need it too. It is exciting as well as assuring to know that you are praying and making intercession for me. You will never know how much help your prayers have been for me. We are striving together in prayer. However, just think for one moment, Jesus Christ the Son of God is praying for you and making intercession for you as well. We are here on the earth, but Jesus is in the very presence of the Father. We have to strive in our prayers, but Jesus is right at the Father’s hand. He ever liveth to make intercession! There are three benefits we receive from the intercession ministry of Jesus that I want to share with you as to why this ministry is so important to us.
I. THERE IS THE ACCEPTANCE OF PROFOUND GRACE FROM THIS MINISTRY.
1. Jesus serves as our high priest before God. In the Old Testament, whenever someone wanted God to do something on their behalf, they would go to the high priest, offer a sacrifice, and have the high priest pray for them that God might hear.
2. There was a problem with this. The high priest was human just as the one seeking help was, and he was susceptible to sin just as anyone else was. We know that many of the priests failed God, many were greedy and did not really care for the people at all. When you went to the priest, how could you know that God would hear him, if he was in the same boat as you were. Many times the high priest would not be able to understand your need at all. He might be angry with you, he might not care anything at all for you.
Heb. 4:15-16, For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Notice that the author of Hebrews says that we are able to receive grace to help in times of need.
3. We sing the song, "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me". We know the importance of grace in our experience of salvation. We know that we are "saved by grace through faith". There was nothing in us that deserved salvation, there was nothing that we had done that deserved our salvation, yet because of grace, God saved us anyway.
4. May I tell you this morning that grace is just as important after you are saved as it is to your salvation experience? We still need God’s grace.
5. Most of you know that grace means unmerited favor. Something you don’t earn. "Mercy is not getting what you deserve, and grace is getting what you don’t deserve". We know that we don’t deserve salvation, yet on the basis of faith in Christ, God gives it to us anyway. As a Christian, we understand that everything that we have or own comes from God, and just as we don’t deserve salvation, we don’t deserve these things as well. They come to us on the basis of grace.
6. Whenever we are in trouble, do we deserve God’s help? No, most of the time, the reason we are in trouble is because we have done something that caused our trouble to come upon us. We still don’t deserve any help from God, but He gives it on the basis of grace. He intercedes for us that we still remain in the Father’s favor.
7. God told Paul in 2 Cor. 12:9, My grace is sufficient for thee: In God’s grace, His unmerited favor, we find God’s presence and His power. We find that in God’s grace, we have the strength to face any opposition. Jesus is making intercession for us that we remain in the favor of God, even though we may not deserve help, through His intercession, we may receive it anyway.
8. In knowing that God’s presence and power is with us by His grace, we can overcome anything that Satan throws at us. If God’s grace is able to save us, it is able to help us as well.
II. THERE IS THE ACQUISTION OF PEACEFUL FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD.
1. Christ makes intercession for us. He ever liveth to make intercession for there are times that we fail God, times that we sin and come short of the glory of God. Now I know that we holiness folks don’t like to think about this but you know and I know that it’s true. How many in here have never sinned since they became a Christian? You’ve never done anything that has displeased the Lord since you became a Christian? There have been times in my life that due to stubbornness, I’ve gone my own way and paid the price for it. In these times, we need someone to speak to the Father in our behalf so that our fellowship with Him may continue.
2. Sin will break fellowship with God. I didn’t say it would cause God to stop loving us, or cause Him to hate us, but sin will break the closeness we enjoy with God in our fellowship.
Exd. 33:3 (After Israel had sinned by making the golden calf) I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiff-necked people.
Is. 59:2, But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you.
3. Sin destroys the confidence we have in God. Have you ever went to your parents, knowing that they knew you had done something to offend them, and attempted to ask for something without asking first for forgiveness. Our confidence is shaken, and our faith is undermined by sin in our lives. We can not ask in faith, when we know that we are displeasing God. Sin destroys the fellowship we enjoy with God and just like Adam, we want to hide from God’s presence when we sin. We are not able to enjoy that fellowship because we are ashamed and feel guilt.
4. But Jesus makes intercession for us. In Luke 22:32, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: 33. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
5. That is what Satan desires for us, that we should be unstable in our relationship with God, that our faith be shaky and insecure, but Jesus our High Priest is praying for us that even when we fail God, that we will turn to Him and ask forgiveness.
6. There have been times in my life that I have became discouraged and failed God. I have not always walked in obedience to God. But all that time Jesus was making intercession for me, asking the Father to give me another chance, and I believe that God was watching out for me, even when I wanted nothing to do with Him. I was in places where I could have been killed, and probably should have been, but Jesus was making intercession for me and God allowed me another opportunity to turn to Him. He had every right to reject me, but because Jesus was making intercession for me, He accepted me and forgave me of my sins.
5. You may have turned your back on God, you may have gave up on Jesus, but I guarantee you that He has not given up on you. He is praying and interceding right now to the Father for you. He wants fellowship restored between you and God. If He has already given His life for you to be restored in God’s sight, and if He has done that, He is not going to give up on you now.
6. Satan is called the accuser of the brethren (Rev.12:10) Whenever you sin, Satan accuses you before God, he delights in letting God know just how bad you are, of how sorry you are, but thank God, Jesus raises those nail scarred hands and says, I died for that one, and I am interceding for him, give him mercy.
III. THERE IS THE ATTAINMENT OF PERFECTING MATURITY.
1. The Bible says here in Heb.7:25, that "He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them". The phrase "to the uttermost" is very important. It means to save completely, or to make perfect.
2. I want you to realize, that without the ministry of Christ’s intercession, it would be impossible to live for God. Without His grace, mercy, forgiveness, and help that comes through His intercession, we would fall away from God and become enslaved again to sin and Satan.
3. Through Christ’s intercession, the Holy Spirit is imparted to us to help us reach full maturity in Christ. I want you to know that you can live for God, you can be an ovecomer, you can grow in Christ likeness, for Jesus is praying for you and He is able to save you completely. Now you have already heard me say that sin destroys fellowship with God. God did not save you for you to continue to live in sin.
Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
4. Notice what Paul said, that we are not to continue in sin. He means to live under the dominion of sin. It would only be a cheap grace that would allow you to become a Christian and not change. I don’t believe that nonsense that says you have to sin every day. I can’t find that in scripture anywhere. I also don’t believe that if you sin and refuse to repent, that God will allow you all the benefits of heaven. However, God is doing everything possible to see that you make it and reach full maturity in Christ.
John 14:16, And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever. The Greek word for Comforter literally means one who is called along side to give help and strength.
5. God has not left us to the designs of Satan, He didn’t save you to let the devil have you again. Jesus is interceding for you, so that you will grow in the Lord, that you will be complete in living for Jesus. We are still human, and we are still fighting against the flesh, we will make mistakes, we will falter at times, we will become discouraged at times, that is part of the human, fleshly side that we must deal with, yet Jesus is on our side, praying for you, upholding you with His arms, so that you can make it through.
6. One more thing that I want you to see in this verse of scripture, that is the part of this verse that says, "that come unto God by Him" . In the Greek language, this means those that draw near to God by Him. This is written in the present, continuing tense, and literally means those that keep drawing near, to continually draw, or come to God. I emphasize this, for I want you to see that we must continually draw close to God in Christ, while He is interceding for us, we must draw close to God. In order for God to work in our lives so that we may become more like Jesus, we must keep leaning on Him, we must keep drawing close to Him so that He may impart whatever we need to live for Jesus. Where are you leaning to find strength? Are you struggling tonight needing help? Are you in need of grace in your time of need? Are you wondering, "Can I make it through?" By your self you will fail, but remember, "He ever liveth to make intercession" for you. The Greek means He is always alive and will always be alive, to make intercession for you. He ever liveth to make intercession.
