Mediator
Partial Outline: Full PDF HERE
1 Tim. 2:5 [Heb. 8:6; 9:15; 12:24]
Three titles of the Lord Jesus Christ are closely related: Advocate; Mediator; Surety (tonight’s sermon).
A “mediator” is “a go-between; an arbitrator; an intercessor; a peacemaker,” who seeks to reconcile two parties who are out of sorts with each other. Job lamented in Job 9:33, “Neither is there any DAYSMAN betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.”
The Lord Jesus Christ is our sole Mediator between God and men (1 Tim. 2:5).
➨Roman Catholicism teaches Mary is a mediator between God and men.
- “No one can approach Christ except through his Mother” (Pope Leo XIII, 1891).
- “My salvation depends upon Mary’s mediation in union with Christ, because of her exalted position as Mediatrix of all Grace…” (catechism in My Sunday Missal).
The title “Mediator” differs from Christ’s title as our “Advocate” (1 John 2:1-2)— An Advocate is partial to his client; the “Mediator” is impartial; He represents both parties equally.
ILLUS: Sometimes when there is a dispute between labor and management, a mediator, or arbitrator, will be called in to help settle the dispute.
• Jesus is the Mediator of a better covenant (Heb. 8:6); the new testament (Heb. 9:15); and the new covenant (Heb. 12:24).
➨ What is a covenant? It is a CONTRACT / AGREEMENT.
The book of Hebrews teaches the Old Covenant God established with Moses and the children of Israel was not good enough (8:7-9). The Lord Jesus Christ came to establish a new and better covenant (Heb. 8:6).
What makes this new covenant better than the old covenant?
- The old covenant was like a SAIL BOAT. As long as the Jew cooperated with the winds of God’s law and lived up to that law, he would be blown along by the blessings of God.
- The new covenant is more like a STEAM BOAT. Under the new covenant God puts His laws in our hearts (Heb. 8:10). It is not something that we have to reach for or live up to—It is something that operates in us and for us, not something operating against us unless we uphold all it’s precepts.
- The old covenant said, “Thou shalt… Thou shalt not.”
- Under the new covenant, God says, “I will… I will… I will…” (8:10, 12).
- The old covenant was only temporary— a stopgap measure.
- The new covenant is called “the everlasting covenant” (Heb. 13:20).
- Under the old covenant, Moses acted as the mediator. He stood in the gap between the Holy God and sinful Israel.
- Under the new covenant, Jesus is our Mediator—Our go-between who stands in the gap between sinful man and a thrice holy God and intercedes on our behalf.
I. As the Son of God, Jesus is the CONNECTOR of the New Covenant.
Since this covenant is between God and man, the Mediator, must be LINKED with the One who is making the covenant.
A. To be the Mediator, Jesus must be connected with God, therefore Jesus must be the Son of God. (Read Hebrews 1:1-3).
B. Jesus must also have a connection with man.
1. He can mediate with God because he was fully God.
2. He can mediate with and for us because he was fully man. Therefore, as the Son of God, He is the CONNECTION of the New Covenant, and…
II. As the Son of Man, Jesus is the CONDENSATION of the New Covenant.
Jesus had to become man in order to bring the covenant to the sons and daughters of men.
A. The covenant was out of our reach. We could not attain unto to it.
Ephesians 2:12 says, we were “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:”
B. Praise God, Jesus CONDESCENDED to us in our low estate, that we might be partakers of this better covenant (READ Heb. 2:9, 14-17).
HE WHO WAS GOD, BECAME MAN (John 1:1, 14).
A. He is the ONLY WAY this covenant could get to us!
- Jesus must be the Son of God (the CONNECTION of the covenant);
- He must be the Son of Man (the CONDESCENSION of the covenant).
Now, how are we going to accept the agreements of the covenant? What is it that will create in us a desire to enter into this covenant?
Partial Outline: Full PDF HERE
