Sermon: The Intercessory Character of Christ

#1645
Martin G. Collins
Given 02-Apr-22; 64 minutes

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One of the earliest questions raised in recorded history was, "Am I my brother's keeper?" recorded in Genesis 4:9. This question relates to our moral obligations toward others.

Throughout the Bible prayer is a deeply important aspect of the activity of God's people. And we express in our prayers concern not only for our own needs, but also for those with whom we are bound up by natural affection and for others we find are in need. The apostle Paul recognized this personal responsibility of the followers of Jesus Christ to pray for others when he exhorted the pastor, Timothy, to fulfill this obligation, "I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men."

Now, intercession is the act of petitioning God or praying on behalf of another person or group. The sinful nature of this world separates humans from God and it has always been necessary therefore, for righteous individuals, hopefully you and I, to go before God to seek reconciliation between Him and His creation.

Intersession often arises as the distinct burden of the individual who has been called to serve God among His people. It becomes the inevitable accompaniment of our work for God, especially during crisis—failure—and intercession becomes more prominent as the servant of God, that is, the priest or the saint today, increasingly identifies himself with the guilt of the people to whose service he has been called. That is each and every one of us.

One of the earliest and best examples of human intercession of this type occurs in Genesis 18 where Abraham speaks to God on behalf of Sodom. His plea is compassionate and it is concerned with the well being of others rather than with his own needs. The selfless concern is the characteristic of all true intersession.

Moses is an excellent example of this type of intercession. His prayers are always vivid and passionate thoughts and words, especially his intercession for Israel after the episode of the Golden Calf, and many other prayers that Moses offered to God. Even the Pharaoh asked Moses to intercede for him. You heard that right.

Exodus 8:28-29 So Pharaoh said, "I will let you go that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only you shall not go very far away. Intercede for me." Then Moses said, "Indeed I am going out from you, and I will entreat the Lord, that the swarms of flies may depart tomorrow from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people. But let Pharaoh not deal deceitfully anymore in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord."

Moses said he would intercede for Pharaoh, but he also told Pharaoh to repent. He was going to ask God to ease off the plagues on Egypt. But he also made it very clear that repentance is involved if that intercession is to have of an effect. As a righteous leader, he successfully pleaded with God on behalf of the ancient Israelites.

Psalm 106:23 Therefore He said that He would destroy them, had not Moses His chosen one stood before him in the breach, to turn away His wrath, lest He destroy them.

Faithful intercession does carry a lot of weight. Moses complied with the people's request, representing them before God. And he was a leader whose heart was filled with the most intense loyalty and regard for his fellow Israelites. His vivid and fervent prayers exhibited his heartfelt enthusiasm and affection, which is exactly the attitude you and I need with one another as members of God's church, and even, in a sense, with the world. Primarily, that deep intimate relationship with each other is first and foremost important. Of course, we must qualify that our relationship with God is the most important. But with one another is a close second.

Abraham and Moses demonstrated genuine prayers motivated by a sincere heart in circumstances of deep and critical importance. And apart from their importance in the history of Israel, they are a noble record of great leaders of men and servants of God who set an example that was followed down through the history of Israel.

It was natural that these extraordinary examples of intercessory prayer would be followed by other leaders, such as Israel's priests and especially the high priest as the intercessor for those who came to sacrifice. This was particularly the significance of the Day of Atonement when, after offering himself, the high priest offered the sacrifice for the whole people. The official act, however, did not do away with the intercessory character of prayer as offered by the people. But just as righteous men often succeed in reconciling Creator and creation, the Bible also reminds us that the ongoing sinfulness of a people can hinder the effects of intercession. Sin separates us from God. Therefore, even if we are offering up intercession for someone, that separation is still there.

I Samuel 2:22-25 Now Eli was very old; and he heard everything his sons did to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. So he said to them, "Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. No, my sons! For it is not a good report that I hear. You make the Lord's people transgress. If one man sins against another, God will judge him. [the ESV and the NIV has "mediate for him"] But if one man sins against the Lord, who will intercede for him?" Nevertheless they did not heed the voice of their father, because the Lord desired to kill them.

If a person is sinning and we try to intercede for them, but they are not repenting, then that intercession is hindered dramatically.

Eli's rebuke was justified in the light of widespread and public reports of his sons' evil deeds, but his rebuke fell on deaf ears. Eli's reprimand was so weak that it had no effect, especially since God had already decided to put Hophni and Phineas to death. Now to mediate requires making a judgment and God may mediate for a sin against another human being, but He does not mediate or intercede for a sin against Himself.

The wickedness of the people of Israel during Jeremiah's time was especially abominable to the Lord because of the entire populace's worship of the queen of heaven. The Lord explicitly forbids the prophet to intercede for His people.

Jeremiah 7:16-18 "Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you. Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger."

It was likely that this goddess was the Assyro-Babylonian Ishtar, a very familiar name to us knowing the history of paganism, Ishtar, the goddess of love and fertility. She was also the thought of as the planet Venus. She was worshipped mainly by women at that time and this obscene idolatry was practiced not only privately but also by whole families, including children. That kind of reminds us of today and the New Age movement and all the pressure to that on the children and in public education by the government, their influence in pushing away from God and pushing towards paganism. And the history of our nation and how it is based on such things as the Statue of Liberty and Columbia on top of the capitol building and other goddesses that they have placed around the nation. So it is likely that this is the same woman, so to speak, Ishtar, Venus, and so on.

Jeremiah 7:19-20 "Do they provoke Me to anger?" says the Lord. "Do they not provoke themselves, to the shame of their own faces?" Therefore thus says the Lord God, "Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place—on man and on beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. And it will burn and not be quenched."

It is interesting that the environment is included in this because the environment is definitely a god to many people in this world today—their mother earth and that type of thing. God destroys other people's gods in a dramatic way quite often. The people thumbed their noses at God and willingly ignored the consequences of their sins. The punishment would be reciprocal and shame. Sin affects all areas of nature. Devastation would fall on people and animals and plants and trees and the produce of the soil. So they were so obstinately sinful that praying for them was useless.

On the other hand, those who humbly walk with God by obeying His commandments received blessed intercession. That is why it is so powerful when you and I pray for one another. A faithful person prays for another faithful person on their behalf. I believe very strongly that gossip is the opposite of intercession. That is just one example.

The meaning of the word intercession is determined by its use in I Timothy 2, which I quoted earlier on, where the different kinds of prayer appear to be distinguished. Supplications and prayers refer to general and specific appeals and intercessions will then have the meaning of a request concerning others, speaking in general terms.

I Timothy 2:1-2 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that they may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.

So he adds there that we should be praying for people in the world as well, and our leadership. Because if we pray for our leadership, we are also, in the long run, benefiting ourselves and our families and our communities, asking for God to influence them or to make them do certain things.

Paul's point is not to list all the ways to pray, but to add various terms in reference to prayer for their cumulative impact. This is a call for all sorts of prayer for all sorts of people. We have different types of prayers that we offer God on behalf of other people or any areas of life.

Throughout his writings, Paul continually refers to his own intercessory prayers and seeks for a similar service on his own behalf from those whom he writes. So we can request people to intercede for us with God to help us pray about something or that type of thing. Intercession is motivated by the righteous heart filled by love and a deep sympathetic sense of relation to others. Because of our unique relationship to God through Christ, we are urged to intercede for all people and as I said, primarily, or first and foremost, our own families and our own brethren, then for the world.

The prayers and praises of believers are acceptable to God through Christ's intercession. And in the general sense, the intercession of Christ refers to any aid which He, as perpetual High Priest, extends to those who approach God, confiding in Him.

Hebrews 4:14-16 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

That is one of the things that we can ask for and should ask for—Christ's intercession on our behalf and on behalf of others. Jesus can be touched with the feelings of our illnesses and is both a merciful and faithful High Priest—the perfect High Priest. He is also represented as offering up the prayers and praises of His people which become acceptable to God through Him. And we may come before God through Christ and speak plainly and honestly, but still with appropriate reverence, without fear that we will incur shame or punishment by doing so. God the Father with Jesus at His right hand graciously dispenses help from heaven to those who need forgiveness and strength in temptation.

I Peter 2:4-5 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Spiritual sacrifices include intercession. Each and every one of us as members of God's church have a duty, a responsibility, and obligation to offer up intercession for one another as part of the priesthood.

Of the intercession of Jesus Christ we can be confident that it is righteous because it is founded upon justice and truth and compassion. It is perpetual, it is effective.

God the Father honors Jesus Christ, His servant, for His faithful work and Christ's work is presented as a victory over spiritual enemies, resulting in the distribution of the spoils, so to speak, to those made strong by Him. Jesus is the ultimate in self-surrender in dedication to the will of God. In Isaiah 52 we are going to read verse 13 to begin with and then we will jump over to chapter 53.

Isaiah 52:13 [The heading of this section is The Sin-bearing Servant] Behold, My servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.

Isaiah 53:3-6 He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:11-12 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge, My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

He has been working very strongly for a very long time to help mankind come to a point of repentance, to be able to receive, eventually, eternal life. Therefore, Jesus the Servant, is the perfect intercessor for sinners and He was numbered with the transgressors, not only in the outward circumstances of His death, but as a general description of the meaning of His sacrifices. Although innocent, He was charged with human sins and so bore our penalty.

Now beyond this, He has an intercessory ministry based on the finality of His sufferings. This means even when vindicated by God, He is still concerned to minister to His people. Now, the development of a specific office of intercession is perfectly manifested in Jesus Christ since He has set up an office of intercessory because it is so important for us to understand that it is our responsibility. It runs through the whole history of Israel, but it is founded much more distinctly in our Christian lives and in a sense in the practice of Sabbath worship. We come and even the opening closing prayers are a type of intercession.

The works of Jesus are constantly inspiring ordinary people to come to Him on behalf of others. Parents plead with Him in desperation for sick children, mothers bring Him their infants, friends plead on behalf of friends. Jesus commands intercession even for people we do not like or are outright enemies.

Matthew 5:44-48 "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect."

Our responsibility of interceding for others is an element of becoming perfect. There is also an element of being worthy.

He also encourages intercession by promising an answer to prayers made in My, Jesus Christ's, name.

John 15:16-17 "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another."

Love and compassion and those types of things are always connected with intercession. To pray in Jesus' name means to pray encouraged and inspired by the word that He has spoken, by the grace He has shown, and by the interventions that He has done regarding difficulties that challenge us when in His service. Jesus sets the example and we follow it and we fulfill our obligation, at least in part.

Members in the church can pray confidently to God. The church is understood as a royal priesthood, as we read earlier, which is required to make intercession for all mankind and engage spontaneously in prayer for others. You may be walking along and something may come up or a person may need some type of help. Or a thought comes with that, "Oh, there's another member of the church who needs my prayers." We can pray anytime for that type of thing in addition to our formal prayers. And once again,

I Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

The prayers of the church are part of the wide vision and scope of the book of Acts. Signs are given of the effectiveness of intercession. People are healed through it, Peter is delivered from prison by it. The intercession of the church is behind the advance of the Word of God. So in our lives in Christ there is a free and confident outpouring of intercessory prayer because of certain basic convictions. Our intercession arises out of confidence in the supreme sovereignty and Lord of God. We would not be offering a prayer for people if we did not have faith in God. God is the living God, as loving as He is sovereign. And prayer is an expression of confidence in His goodness. This goodness inspired the prayer of Jesus Himself and inspires constant and confident praying in those who come to God through Jesus.

In facing God, we are facing a loving heart who desires to be asked and we are responding to the promises and challenges of His Word by asking.

Luke 11:9 [Jesus promises] "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you, seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you."

We are, in a sense, commanded and encouraged by Jesus Christ to go to Jesus, to go to the Father any time that we we want.

As members of God's church, we have a sense of the service that we owe the world. We do owe it because we are told that God and Jesus Christ do not want any to miss out on salvation. As His priesthood we have an obligation to preach the word and preach the gospel to anyone that we can. To let them know that it is available and God will call who He will call.

Though Christ's intercessory bearing of the burdens of all people had been unique and redemptive, the church can, in a sense, according to Jesus' example, take upon itself a loving burden of intercession for others. It is not pleasant to pray for someone who has cancer or had a heart attack or anything like that because we would rather as human beings with human nature avoid it, avoid the thought, avoid the issue. So there are burdens involved in praying for other people who are sick and there are so many prayer requests every day on just our website alone, not to mention others as well. And it does become a burden to pray for everyone every day and it can even be discouraging. It can have a negative impact. We have to do our best to think of it from a loving and concerning attitude and approach, realizing that we are having an effect and are helping in doing that. The love of God for everyone in our hearts by the Spirit, enables us to participate in the effective bearing of other's burdens.

True intercessors understand about the burden of Jesus' sacrifice and carrying out our own burdens as we suffer with Christ. It requires conviction and perseverance and devotion to God. God's intercession arose out of the belief that God had called the church to fulfill before Him not only a priestly ministry on behalf of others, but also a kingly ministry.

Revelation 1:5-6 To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

In the area of prayer and intercession God gives a person a real freedom in His presence to influence the course His providence is going to take. The inspiration of the Holy Spirit enables the church to imitate within its own earthly life the intercession of its High Priest. In a word, we are to imitate Christ as our High Priest and be priests ourselves in function. The church prays in the Spirit. In such intercessory prayer the church is not engaging in a fresh work of redemption, but it is furthering the efforts in this present age of the redemption that Christ has already provided.

Jesus presents the merits of His death as a reason why we should be saved. The precise method, however, in which He makes intercession in heaven for us is not revealed. The general meaning is that Christ undertakes our cause and assists us in overcoming our enemies and in our efforts to live a holy life. Jesus does whatever is necessary to obtain grace and strength for us and He secures the aid that we need against our adversaries. He is the pledge or security for us, so the law is honored and the justice and truth of God is maintained. Through this we have the guarantee of salvation. This is all good, it is all positive, it is all absolute.

It is reasonable to presume that this is done by the presentation of the merits of His great sacrifice and that that is the basis on which all His grace is obtained. Since the effect of His sacrifice and God's grace are infinite, we do not have to fear that it will ever be exhausted. We cannot use up God's love and His compassion and His concern, His power and His sovereignty and His glory.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews speaks of Jesus Christ as the one who always lives to make intercession for people in Hebrews 7:25, and he also speaks of Him as appearing in the presence of God for us in Hebrews 9:24. And the amazing thing about Jesus is that He has never lost His interest in or His love for us. We must not think of Him as having gone through His life on the earth and His death on the stake and then finishing with humanity. We know that very well being in the church that He and God the Father keep us in the palm of Their hands, so to speak. And He still carries His concerns for us deep within Himself, He still intercedes for us.

Let us take a closer look at this intercessory work of Christ as our Advocate. Christ is making intercession for us on our behalf, representing us always to the Father. To better understand Christ as an advocate, it will be helpful to understand more about His intercession for us as well. The general conception of Jesus Christ's mediatorial (a word that we do not use very often) office, especially summed up in His intercession in which He appears in His High Priestly office and as interceding with the Father and on behalf of the church whose purpose He has taken up.

I John 2:1-2 My little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation of our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.

The term translated "advocate" in I John 2, verse 2 is parakletos, which in John 14:16 is translated helper or comforter. The word is of familiar use in Greek for the legal advocate or patronus who appeared on behalf of his client and thus in the double sense of priestly and legal representative. So the intercessory work of Christ can be represented in this way: He represents called human beings before God in His perfect nature, His exalted office, and His completed work. There could not be a greater advocate to have as a mediator or intercessor than Jesus Christ. You can be very thankful and also offer up thanks on a regular basis for such things.

There is also an active intercession. This is the office of Jesus Christ as Advocate. It conveys a connection to the aid and support that a lawbreaker receives from an advocate. We find Christ's intercession in this aspect connected with the scriptures that refer to justification and its associated ideas. Christ is of course the great Intercessor. He prayed on behalf of Peter and His disciples, and then in most selfless intercession of all, He asked God on behalf of those who crucified Him. But Christ's intercessory work did not cease when He returned to heaven. In heaven, He intercedes for His church. His advocacy with the Father for His people is based on His own perfect sacrifice. So He pleads for and obtains the fulfillment of all the promises of the everlasting covenant.

I mentioned before that intercession belongs to the office of Christ as priest and refers generally to the aid that He extends as Mediator between God and mankind. In a sense, Christ is represented as drawing near to God and pleading on behalf of human beings and as a result in harmony with the idea of intercession.

Hebrews 7:24-27 But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests [that is, high priests of the Old Testament], to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then the people's, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.

The sacrifices and prayers of the Old Testament priests were acts of intercession, which pointed forward to the work of Christ. Let us look at two aspects.

First, let us view Christ's intercession in its priestly aspect. The function of priesthood in the Old Testament involved the position of mediation between man and God. The priest represented man and on man's behalf approached God. Accordingly, he offered sacrifice, interceded, and gave to the offerer, whom he represented, the sanction and expression of the divine acceptance. There was also the transfer of guilt and its conditions, typically by laying the hand on the head of the animal which then bore the sins of the offerer and was presented to God by the priest. The acknowledgment of sin and the surrender of God is completely fulfilled in Christ's offering of Himself.

Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned, every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him [that is, Jesus Christ] the iniquity of us all.

II Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Christ's intercessory quality and the sacrifice of Himself is not only indicated by the imputation of guilt to Him as representing the sinner, but also in the victory of His life over death, which is then given to man in God's acceptance of His representative substitution.

In the epistle to the Hebrews, the intercessory character of Christ's High Priestly office is transferred to the heavenly condition and work of Christ, where the relation of Christ's work to man's condition is regarded as being continued in the heavenly place.

Hebrews 9:11-14 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works and serve the living God?

Serving God involves and includes being an intercessor.

Salvation brings people into God's service and God is called living, indicating His eternality. Here there is a contrast with the dead works. Christ mediates the covenant first by revealing and then by serving as its Priest, who refers Himself and offers Himself in sacrifice.

Hebrews 9:15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

The preceding death of the Mediator was necessary because almost all things are purified by blood. Christ is the Mediator between God and man in respect to the New Covenant, which He has made, or that new privilege by which people are saved. And He stands between God and man, the parties at variance, and undertakes the work of mediation and reconciliation.

Hebrews 9:23-28 [this heading in my Bible says "Greatness of Christ's Sacrifice] Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the Holy Place made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another—He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

We have redemption through the blood of Christ. This sacrifice for sins is once for all and in the person of the High Priest, the way is open to the very presence of God. Jesus Christ is serving in the priestly service of the Father anticipating His soon-coming reign in His kingly office as King of kings when His enemies are put under His feet.

Now, in the next chapter of Hebrews, we are going to read verses 12-18 to begin with. This section is about Christ's sacrifice once for all.

Hebrews 10:12-18 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting until His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering, He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them," then He adds "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

So the superiority of Christ and His salvation encourages our faith and perseverance. That faith endures hope in God. And the truth of Christ and His work leads to encouragement to draw near to God and cautions against shrinking back from faith. We should never shrink back in any way in the service of God, we should all be priests of God, should all be always looking for ways to serve, to intercede for one another, to pray for one another, and other ways as well.

Hebrews 10:19-22 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

As we go through our sanctification process, these things are happening and we are becoming more complete for God's purpose, and eventually we will have perfection after we are resurrected and receive eternal life. In the meantime, we have to head that way, moving on to perfection.

Of the methods in which Christ carries out His spiritual intercessory office, we do not fully understand except as can be deduced from the phraseology and suggested ideas of Scripture. As our High Priest, he aides in our weak faith by the assurance that our Lord and Savior pleads for us. That is a view of Christ's intercession in its priestly aspect and of Christ's advocacy regarding the kingly legal requirements when a sin has been committed.

Second, let us view Christ's intercessory work from the perspective of prayer.

The intercessory character of many of Christ's prayers, and especially that of John 17, has been what has encouraged people to view His prayers as the primary method that He uses in His intercession for us. And while on earth in human form Jesus interceded for transgressors including His own murderers, but in a more intimate sense for His disciples and all believers. Just before Jesus was betrayed, He prayed to His Father for His faithful followers. And this prayer is also a prayer for every member of God's church. (We usually read this during the Passover service each year.)

Christ's intercessory prayer is the highest example and pattern of this form of prayer. His intercessions for His disciples and for His crucifiers are recorded in John 17 and are a sacred record of the supreme excellence of the intercessory character of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this prayer we find at least five intercessory characteristics.

First, it is based upon the intimate relation of Jesus Christ to the Father. This gives to such prayer its justification. In other words, its right.

John 17:1-5 [This begins with Christ praying for Himself.] Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was."

Jesus was about to die and having expressed His love to His disciples and made known to them His last desires, He then commends them to the protection and blessing of the Father—grace. This prayer is a specimen of the manner of His intercession and confirms the interest which He felt on behalf of all who would become His followers in all ages of the world, which includes you and I.

The second characteristic is that it follows the completest fulfillment of duty. It is not the mere expression of desire, even for others. It is the crown of effort on their behalf. He has revealed God to His disciples and He has given to them God's words. Therefore He prays for them.

John 17:6-10 "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. All Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them."

In view of their dangers and trials, He seeks the protection and blessing of God the Father on them. As a reason why God should bless them, He says that they were not of the world, that they had been taken out of the world, and that they belonged to God. The intercession was not offered for the wicked, perverse, and rebellious men, that is, the intercession that He is going through here, but for those who are the friends of God and are positioned to receive His blessings.

The third characteristic is it recognizes the divine unbroken relationship to the object of the prayer.

John 17:11 "Now, I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are."

Keep that in mind "that they may be one as We are" because that one is so important, including having to do with intercessory prayer.

John 17:12-14 "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world; that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world."

In verse 11, the word holy and Holy Father confirms the attribute of God's awesome purity and this is the only time in the New Testament that this form of address is used with reference to the Father. That makes it very important. In Jesus' intercession He shows the kind of profound unity that should be the norm among genuine believers. And this is to reflect the unity that has existed eternally between the Father and the Son. This is a unity of a common mind and purpose, absolute shared love. A lasting, all-inclusive intimacy in goals as revealed in the Father-Son relationship characterized by Jesus's own ministry.

The fourth characteristic is that the supreme end of this prayer is salvation from the evil of the world.

John 17:15-19 "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes, I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth."

Even though God's people amid hardships may sometimes want to be taken out of the world, as Paul mentions himself, Jesus does not ask for that. The place of God's people during this lifetime is not to withdraw from the world but to remain in the world and to be a positive influence continually for good, as difficult as that may be. And by even merely living God's way of life, they are a blessing to the world by that example. And if we go a step further, you have intercessory prayer or other types of prayers for people in the world.

Jesus prays that His people will be guarded from the evil one, that is, Satan, who would attack us to destroy our lives and our ministries. And it is a prayer that our lives and ministries are not overcome by Satan or by any other evil and that we may be kept from doing evil as well.

Now, the common saying that Christians are in the world, but not of the world, is not found exactly anywhere in Scripture, but the idea is true and is taken from verses 15 and 16 of John 17.

The fifth characteristic is the broad application of the prayer and its primary objects emphasizes unity with God and presence with Christ and indwelling of the divine love.

John 17:20-23 "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I and You, that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me, I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one. I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and loved them as You have loved Me."

This unity is the result of Jesus' active work of keeping and guarding those who believe in Him. It involves sanctifying believers who serve. It becomes a witness to the world, so that the world may eventually believe. It reveals God's glory and it results in the experience of the indwelling love of God and the presence of Christ.

The kind of unity that is central to Jesus' High Priestly prayer is not organizational, but is an all-encompassing relational reality that binds us together with each other and our Lord. Unity, absolute unity with each and every one of us, God and one another. Jesus does not stop praying for Himself and His disciples, but then prays for those who will believe in Him in the future—you and I. Jesus' concern is for His followers unity in love. The purpose of salvation is communicated in verse 24. The full experience of it lies beyond this present age.

John 17:24-26 "Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them."

Jesus' prayer for the members of the church is that our union may be complete. That there may be no contentions, no conflicts for our union as Christians to be complete or perfect. There can be no disputes, no grudges, no jealousies, no resentment. Well, we all have a long way to go, do we not? With God's help, we will get there.

It is noteworthy how entirely the union of His people occupied Jesus' mind as He drew nearer to death and He saw the potential and danger of rebellion and dissension in the church. He recognized the tendencies and imperfections of human nature of even the finest people in the church. He knew how prone they would be to desire and ambition. Selfish and worldly people, that is, tares within the visible church, might divide His true followers and that they may encourage ungodly attitudes and friction. Jesus saw the potential damage this could do to the credibility and integrity of the church. And certainly there has been a lot of people that have come through the church who have hurt the integrity of the church, its credibility.

So, He took the opportunity when He was about to die to impress the importance of unity on His followers. By solemn warning and by gentle and kind supplication, Jesus appealed to God the Father, which showed His sense of the value of this union. And He used this most extraordinary and inspiring illustration to link intercessory prayer and lovingkindness with unity. He highlighted the eternal union between the Father and Himself to remind us of His love and of the effect that our union would eventually have on the world to secure it more deeply in our hearts.

This prayer in John 17 is a model for all intercessory prayer. We see in this prayer that Christ is committed to making intercession, that is, to bring our request to the Father as we approach God through Him. And since the ever-living Christ intercedes for us, we can have great confidence that we will never perish. What a guarantee, what assurance we have! In fact, we can know that all things in our lives will work together for good, because God the Father will answer the intercession of His Son. All we have to do is repent and overcome and live God's way of life.

Let us begin to wrap this up. Christ's interceding as our Intercessor, as our Helper, claims our justification is a matter of right based on His righteousness. Our earthly prayers are carried up to God by and through His Spirit.

Romans 8:26-27 Likewise the Spirit [Jesus Christ Himself] also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. But the Spirit Himself [that is, Christ] makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He [Christ] makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

These verses point out that we are not left on our left to our own resources in our suffering and groaning. Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, helps us in our weaknesses. And it is not that the Spirit-Christ helps in those occasional times when we are weak. Our general state is one of weakness and the Spirit continually helps us in our weakness. It is continuous.

Now, "helps" is translated from the Greek word which pictures someone helping another carry a heavy burden. The Greek word for weakness includes physical and emotional and spiritually disabled evidenced by inward groaning. One evidence of our weakness is the fact that we do not always know what to pray for, what we should pray for. In the Greek, it literally means "what we should pray as it is necessary." We certainly do not want to pray amiss, as James warns us of.

In our weakness, both the content and the manner of proper prayer often eludes us. But Christ comes to our rescue and intercedes. In verses 26 and 27, this is the present tense of the word intercession so it also means "keeps on interceding." Christ does not just intercede for us once or occasionally. He is always interceding for us as the need arises. He keeps on interceding for us with groans that words cannot express. And the one who searches our hearts is God the Son and He knows perceptively and intuitively the groanings and so intercedes for the saints in accordance to God's will.

Christ continually intercedes for us in God's presence and though we are often ignorant of what to pray for and how to voice those requests, Christ conveys our request personally for us, and it sounds to me like He even interprets are our prayers, what we mean to say. We may not get the wording exactly right or correct, but He understands our minds' intentions and that type of thing.

Then in verses 33 and 34 of Romans 8, we see more proof that the Spirit that is mentioned here is Jesus Christ, who is our Intercessor.

Romans 8:33-34 Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

Is there anything that can be more comforting or more consoling, and to know that at this very moment, and always, Christ is concerned for us, watching over us? He is concerned about our interests and is there representing us.

Jesus Christ, our High Priest, has set us an example of intercession that we must follow and execute with great effort. It requires great self-sacrificing and is the kind of loving attitude that is characteristic of a worthy member of the Family of God.

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