Christ Our Mediator

Praise the Lord. Praise God for his presence here. So let’s continue in that atmosphere of reverence as we move into the word of God. But before I start, I just want to give thanks and praise to God for allowing us to be a part of Restoration since March. It’s been such a blessing to be part of this youth as well. Maybe not part of the youth anymore. But just impressed by the way you guys carry yourself, you know, especially in adult Sunday school in an encounter, thinking about the questions that you ask. It just gives me the impression of like the Berean church that won’t give a free pass to anyone who comes up here to preach. So I’m well aware of that. So, you know, what I’ll be speaking about today may be something you already know about. So if that’s the case, let’s just take this time to remind ourselves about that truth again.

So we’ve been going through First Timothy as a series and we had a break last week and I couldn’t join the two weeks prior to that because we were in India, but I did watch them. So far we saw it’s Paul’s letter to the young pastor Timothy, right? Warning him about the false or wrong teachings that were happening in the church of Ephesus. And it’s a call to him to stand firm in the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel that Paul had originally taught him. And then we are going to continue that into 2:1-7 today, and I’ll be covering 2:1-7. So let’s start with 2:1-2. It says, 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 we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.

We see chapter two starts with a call for prayer. Paul is saying how we are to pray, and he starts with supplications or requests, which is we go to God our father with our needs, similar to a child goes to the father with empty hands, knowing that the father is capable of filling their needs. In the same way we go to God our father with our needs, knowing that he’s the one who is capable of filling our needs that are according to his will. And then prayers is a very general term that means any kind of devotion or praise to God. And then we come into intercession, which again, we all know, it’s us boldly asking God on behalf of someone else to meet their need, right? So this would be a case of where we’re going to God to give deliverance or healing to someone because we can’t give the deliverance or healing that they need, only God can give it. In the same way we intercede for people who are lost, right? We share the gospel with people, but then it’s God who moves in their heart. Therefore, we share the gospel, come home and we pray for them. That is what intercession is. And then finally, Paul says we offer Thanksgiving. It brings our prayer in full circle, right? We’re thanking God for whatever he’s gonna do regardless of our supplications, intercessions and prayers.

And then Paul says who to pray for as well. In the same verse, it says that we pray for all men, which includes women too, all people, right? And this may be difficult for us to do because it’s kind of hard to think of all men as equally important to God or equally dear to God or equally capable of being blessed by God just like we are blessed, right? And then it says all men includes kings and people in authority. You know, even though people in authority today may not be hunting us down for believing in Jesus or like banning Christianity, like how it’s being done in other parts of the world, it still may be difficult for us to pray for them, right? Especially when we know these people are bringing about laws and policies that are clearly contradictory to God’s will. And that’s why, you know, Paul’s admonition here really applies to us too, because there’s a very good reason for us to pray for them. And it’s beneficial twofold. One is, if they come to faith because of our prayer, it’s beneficial for their eternity. And then it’s beneficial for us because he says, we can live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

And then we move into verses three and four, next slide, which shows why we need to pray. It says, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Just imagine if everybody in the world is saved and everyone has the knowledge of truth, nobody’s gonna entertain false doctrines like what’s happening in the Ephesian church, right? Then Paul doesn’t have to write a letter to Timothy and peace is gonna abound. But in the same way, there won’t be any church divisions, there won’t be any quarrels. Unfortunately, we see it around us, right? We ourselves, the church, our church back home, we went through that kind of a situation, which points to the effect of lack of prayer according to verse one. I’m not saying we don’t pray, I’m not saying we don’t offer supplications or intercessions, but do we do it for all men, even people who piss us off, right? And that’s because God desires all men to be saved and to know the truth.

And what is that truth? And that’s what we’re gonna read in verses five and six. It says, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. Paul starts with the truth that there is one God. Again, we need to remember he’s writing this to a Christian church in Ephesus. He’s writing this to Timothy, who is a pastor of a Christian church. So probably he tackled an ongoing battle between monotheism and infiltration of polytheism in this church, because remember, these are Gentile converts, right? So it would be easy for them to slip into what they came out of, which is why he’s stressing, we serve one God. And this may not be a huge deal for us today, right? People who believe in Jesus, people who claim to believe in Jesus, they’re not gonna say that they serve multiple gods. They’ll say there is one God. You know, Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, you name it. Like, they’ll agree to that. But the conflict comes to, when we come to the topic of one mediator. And I wanna spend the rest of the time looking at this topic, Jesus Christ, the one mediator.

So let’s start with the need for a mediator. This term mediator began as a business term where one person acts as the intermediary between two parties to do business, and then in Judaism and in ancient religions, that came as the title for someone who would act as the middleman between God and people, reconciling them, right? And why is there a need for a mediator? Because we know we cannot go to God on our own. We know we cannot expect that God is going to hear us because the word says everyone is spiritually dead and everyone is spiritually lost, and by nature, deserving of wrath of God. But there are people who will say, you know, I’m not too bad, I’m not too unholy, like the people around me, or I don’t do crazy things like the crazy people around me. And that’s exactly our problem. We’re comparing ourselves against other people. And that is not the measurement God uses, right? If you remember the object lesson that pastor did a few weeks ago, you know, he had a bowl of water and he had dirt in it. So whether it’s just a sprinkle of dirt or a scoop full of dirt, we’re not gonna drink it. The water is contaminated regardless, right? That’s how God sees it. Whether it’s a small sin or a big sin in our terms, it’s still sin before God.

One imagery that a preacher shared that kind of stuck with me is this. If you imagine a dad, you know, perfectly clothed, getting ready to go for an interview, his shirt is perfectly ironed, not a speck of dirt. And then here comes the toddler, drenched in mud, playing outside in the puddle, comes to daddy and asks him to pick him up. It doesn’t matter how much the dad loves the child, either he’s gonna run or he’s gonna pick up the child but hold him as far as possible from his shirt, from getting his clothes soiled, right? It’s not because the dad doesn’t love the child, he just cannot associate himself with that dirt. And that’s the same idea that comes when we try to come to God without a mediator with our sin. God cannot associate himself with the dirt that is a sin. And then there are other people who agree that they’re sinners but they try to make up for it with good works, right? They say, they try to balance their negative with the positive and think that, you know, they can make their way into heaven. But we see in Isaiah that our good works are like filthy rags before God, right? Nothing that we do can ever make up for the sin that is innately in us, maybe not something that we did but it’s already in us. And then we see in Romans 3:10-12, there is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks God. All have turned away. They have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one.

So this is also something that everyone agrees to, whether they’re a Christian or even people who are not Jesus-believing folks, you know, because that’s why even other religions, you know, they do these pilgrimages and they do these offerings and prayers and chants and things like that because they know that they can’t please their gods who are false gods without doing something, without some sort of a mediator or a mediation, right? And that’s what we see in Old Testament also. So for the next section, let’s look at how the mediator in the Old Testament differs from the mediator that Paul is talking about in the New Testament. Old Testament folks, obviously, they dare not to enter the temple, and that’s why God set priests and high priests to mediate on behalf of the people. And, you know, we know there was one high priest who would go into the most holy place with the blood of the Lamb once a year with fear and trembling. And there’s actually a section in Exodus that where Moses is describing how the garment of the priest needs to be, and there’s a portion in it where it says that bells needed to be sewn onto the hem of the garment of the priest because the sound of the bells will be heard when he enters the holy place before the Lord and when he comes up. And then according to tradition, during the last couple of centuries of the temple’s existence, they would also tie either a gold or a scarlet rope on the foot of the high priest. And of course, the rope and the bells are not fashion statements because the understanding is that when he goes into the most holy place, if the jingling stops, the priests that are standing outside the veil will know that the high priest has ceased to move, and they would use the rope to pull the body out. Right, that’s how fearful and awesome the presence of God was.

And then we come to Hebrews 7:26-27, which read, for it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, Jesus, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people’s sins. Jesus did this once for all when he offered up himself. All right, imagine going from that Old Testament situation to Jesus, right? That’s very new, that’s very difficult to digest for the New Testament believers that were new at the time. And what happened on the night that Jesus died? We just sang it. The veil of the temple tore top down, right? It wasn’t torn bottom up. It wasn’t a person forcing the tear on the veil, but God himself opening up the partition so that now we can boldly enter the throne of grace with our requests. I don’t know how many of you have read Pilgrim’s Progress, but there’s also an animated movie on it. And at the final part, you know, where the pilgrim falls into the raging river and the devil comes to catch him, there’s a sudden splash of blood that covers him, and then all of a sudden he’s transported to the celestial place. That’s the imagery I get any time I think about coming to God the Father. He sees us through that screen of the blood of Jesus, right? That is the only reason why we can stand before God the Father.

This too is a concept that all churchgoers agree to, right? That we can’t come to God without accepting what Jesus did on the cross. We cannot claim the goodness that comes to a child of God unless you become a child of God, right? That’s what I tell my Sunday school class too. You know, you need to be adopted into the family of God first. It’s like, you know, your dad and mom may be supporting kids in India or kids from poor families, sponsoring their education or whatever, but unless that person, that kid, is adopted into your family, they can’t come and live with you and eat your mom’s food and use your clothes or ask your dad to buy them new clothes or live in their bedroom and eventually ask for the inheritance, right? They have to be adopted first. And that’s the same thing that needs to happen with every child of God too. You need to become a child of God in order to enjoy the blessings of God.

The conflict comes with the next portion, Jesus as the only one mediator. And that’s because the enemy’s tactic, I would say, our top tactics are deception and distraction. He won’t openly ask a church-going person to deny Jesus, right? So he’s gonna do anything that will direct worship or attention away from Jesus. And eventually, Jesus becomes one of many ways to get to God. He wants to divert our attention from our destiny, goal, and purpose that God has for us.

Now, there is a specific reason why I signed up for this portion to do an encounter. I’m not sure how many of you know, but I was born a Roman Catholic. I was born and raised a Roman Catholic. I became a born-again believer when I was in 10th grade. And this was one of the many verses that brought me and my family to faith. Because as you know, Catholic and Orthodox churches are very well known for our surplus number of mediators besides Jesus. And they have their reasons why they do it. I mean, I learned it from pre-K to 10th grade Sunday school. So, and most of it says that these mediators are usually secondary to Jesus. But what I’ve seen is often they end up on pedestals of worship equal to Jesus or even higher than Jesus, right? So I wanna go through a few examples here today. Again, you may know these, but I wanna share their side on why they believe it so that we will be equipped to say why Jesus is indeed the only one mediator. Again, you need to know the argument to counter-argue. I’m not saying you should go argue, but just for your knowledge.

All right, let’s go to the first one. The most common one is Mary, right? In 1950, the Pope declared the assumption of Mary the official dogma of the Roman Catholic Church. I know that’s a bunch of really complicated words. It just means that Catholics don’t believe that Mary died. They believe that Mary was taken up into heaven, and that’s why you can’t find her remains like the remains of the disciples. Catholics also believe Mary had an immaculate conception. That’s also a crazy term, but all that means is Mary was born without sin of origin or Adamic sin, which we know is only applicable to Jesus, right? Everyone is born in sin. They believe Mary did not. And then the last thing is, of course, being the mother of Jesus, she has a special power of intercession with Jesus. I still remember our nuns who were our Sunday school teachers would use this example that if you, you know, if you wanted to get something from dad, dad’s not around and you think dad’s gonna say no, who would be the first person you go to? Mom, so it’s not just me who did it. I did it a lot and it made perfect sense for me, so then that’s why, you know, we would go to Mary first because it felt that Mary was easier to be accessed and then, you know, intercession that way. And what is their biblical basis is the wedding at Cana. We know what happened there. You know, they ran out of wine, the hosts went to Mary first, Mary interceded for them and Jesus did the miracle. And because, you know, because they believe that Mary’s alive and well in heaven, we can, just like the people in Cana, go to Mary and then Mary will intercede for us. That’s the belief.

And our answer back is in that same portion in John 2:11. It says, what Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him. No one knew that Jesus was the son of God except for Mary until that time. This was the first miracle that Jesus did. Disciples knew that he would be the Messiah, but they didn’t know that he was gonna be capable of doing a miracle. Mary knew, right? And it says when the disciples saw what Jesus did, they put their trust in Jesus. It doesn’t say that the disciples believed in the intercessory power of Mary. It says they believed in him. And we don’t see another instance in the Bible after this where anybody goes to Mary for intercession, right? Even the blind man who was sitting on the side of the street cried out, son of David, have mercy on me. They approach Jesus directly and that is exactly what we are asked to do as well.

Moving on to the next set of mediators that are prevalent in Christendom are saints. And the reason they pray to the saints is that they believe people who are dead in Christ are not fully dead, they’re alive in the presence of Christ. And since they’re part of the body of Christ and we’re asked to intercede for each other in the body of Christ, they have closer proximity to Jesus in heaven. Therefore, we can ask them to intercede for us. And you know, there are numerous saints that specialized in specific things like St. Jude is a saint for impossible cases or St. Michael the Archangel is the saint of protection. And then St. Padre Pio who was a bishop is a saint of miracles and healing. So the list goes on. But what is their biblical basis? It’s two sections in the book of Revelation, Revelation 5:8 and 6:9-11, where we see the saints worshiping God and singing hymns and playing instruments. And they ask Christ to avenge their martyrdom and offer prayers for the saints on earth. They say because these saints are alive and offering prayers to God, we can just ask them to intercede for us with God.

Our answer back is, of course, the Bible instructs us to intercede for one another because we’re part of the body of Christ. But the Bible has no examples of believers going to people in heaven to pray for them. The only instance that pops up is the rich man and the Lazarus story where the rich man prays for his brothers, but that’s not because the brothers asked him to pray for him, right? In the same way, the prayers offered by the saints in Revelation are on their own. It’s not because some people are telling them to convey that to God. The problem is this form of dependence on Mary and saints, besides Jesus, always leads to some sort of worship of these additional mediators, right? I don’t know how many of you have witnessed church festivals or Perunal, Pali Perunal, if you’ve heard it. They carry either statues or images of the people or the person that the church is dedicated to, you know, like Mary or St. Jude, St. Gregorios, but still those churches completely deny that they’re worshiping it. And they say it’s just veneration or honor. And we have examples in the Bible where even veneration is denied by people because it needs to go to Jesus, right? First example is in Acts 10:25-26, where Peter, you know, after he shared the gospel with Cornelius, Cornelius fell at Peter’s feet to revere him. And Peter says, stand up, I am only a man myself. And then again, in Acts 14:15, Paul and Barnabas are talking to the people of Lystra, not to venerate them saying, friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human like you. And then they go on to tell them to turn from these worthless things to the living God. And then twice in the book of Revelation, Revelation 19:10 and 22:8, the apostle John begins to worship the angel who is giving him a tour of heaven and the angel instructs him, worship God. Mary and the saints, if they had the capability right now to communicate with us, they would say the same thing, worship God.

And the last set of mediators that I want to cover are priests. In the Catholic Church, the priest is believed to act in the person of Christ. It’s a representation of Christ on earth. It’s a pretty heavy false doctrine, because I don’t know if you have been to a Catholic service, but in the Catholic service, there’s even a veil-tearing segment there where the veil is separated and the priest goes into a replica of the most holy place with an altar. Of course, there are no animal sacrifices, but it’s like a mix of what happens in the Old Testament and their belief that priest is a representation of Christ on earth. It brings us right back to the reason why Paul is writing this letter to Timothy, right? Infiltration of false doctrines and deviations from the original gospel. I’m gonna take that a step further and say, even in Pentecostal circles, sometimes pastors could be viewed as better mediators than Jesus, because you see people rush into conventions where there is healing or deliverance ministries, and instead of looking at the pastor as an instrument in God’s hand, they’re viewed as the healer or the deliverer and lifted above Jesus, and then we become no different from these other denominations who lift up their priests and pope, right? So if we depend on pastors more than we depend on Jesus, then there’s a problem.

Coming back to priests, one specific thing that was vital in our conversion was understanding the fault in the sacrament of penance. Again, another complicated phrase, but in our church, we follow two sacraments, right? Baptism and the Lord’s table, but in other churches, there are multiple other sacraments, and sacrament of penance just means we come to the priest to ask for forgiveness. So we confess our sins to the priest, and the priest, acting as the person of Christ on earth, will forgive your sins if you say the prayer of absolution. A little church history, back in the day, it wasn’t just a prayer of absolution, but something called an indulgence, which just meant you pay money to get forgiveness for your sins. As you may know, that is exactly what led Bishop Martin Luther to start the Protestant Reformation, because at the time, the pope at the time wanted to do a restoration of a cathedral, he wanted to raise money, so he upped the penance, and I read the document about it, it was maybe like, you know, pay $5 if you kill somebody, pay $20 if you slap the priest. Of course, not exact numbers, but similar degree, you understand the idea. Thankfully, that practice stopped, and we were back to just performing specific religious acts or, you know, saying the prayer of absolution.

And I, myself, have done this numerous times, because we have to do this for communion prep. What you would do is, you would stand in a line, the priest would be sitting in a chair with screens on the side, we would call it the throne, that’s not what it’s called, but we just called it. We would stand in a line, when it’s our turn, we come to the priest, we kneel down, greet the priest, and then we whisper our sins, because, of course, you don’t want people behind you hearing what crazy things you did. And then you say things like, you know, I cheated on my test, or like, I didn’t clean my room when my mom asked me to, and that’s about it. Because, again, you don’t want to say anything too crazy, because you’re gonna see him next Sunday, and you’ll have to face him. So, when you do this, you know, the priest will give you what you need to do for penance. You know, either it’s a prayer, or some sort of good work, charity work, whatever it is. Almost always, what I would get is, go and kneel down in front of the altar, and say the Lord’s Prayer once, and say five Hail Marys. We would do it, and then we would come and stand on the sidelines, and we would watch the kids, and time them, because the longer the penance, the crazier sinner they are. But smart kids would say three Hail Marys, instead of five, and then get up and go.

So, anyway, what is their biblical basis, right? It’s based on Jesus sending out disciples with the authority to forgive sins. And that’s in John 20:23, where it says, if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. And, of course, the church believes that Peter was the first pope, because, you know, Jesus said, on this rock, I will build a church. And they think that rock is Peter, instead of the small rock. And discipleship and priesthood only came down that lineage of pope, therefore, forgiveness rests with only the priest. That’s the understanding. And our answer back is Peter, who they claimed to be the first pope, says in 1 Peter 2:9, but you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. And we have Christ Jesus, it says in Romans 8:34, who died more than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God, and is also interceding for us. Jesus is the one mediator, and Jesus is the only mediator we need, right? He was the only one who died for us. It’s not the saints, it’s not Mary, it’s not the priest. That’s just a simple answer.

But the people who practice these things, including myself, would say that, although there are no proofs in the Bible of people going to Mary or saints, it’s okay to do it. It’s not a sin. They say it’s not a sin, although the Bible has no proof of people doing it. But Paul says in 1 Corinthians that not all things are beneficial and advantageous, and definitely not edifying if it pulls our concentration away from Jesus. Right, as I invite the worship team to come forward, I wanna be very clear that my intention in bringing these practices that are prevalent in those churches is not to make fun of them or to condemn them, because I was part of them, right? And I wanna read this verse, Romans 10:2. It says, for I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Because to be honest, I had stricter rules I had to follow when I was a Catholic, and I did them out of fear, of judgment. I could not miss a Sunday, and I had to be in the main room for family prayer by a specific time every single day. I had to fast for Lent. But we also had the zeal to not miss a novena, which is a ritualistic devotional worship, or a zeal to bow down to the altar anytime you’ve crossed the floor of the church, or do the cross sign anytime we pass by a church on the road. You see the type of yoke they’re put under, right, when Jesus freed us of our bondage. And we didn’t know we were freed from saving these worthless things to serve Jesus. And then a group of people made supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving for us to the God who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth. And because of that, God opened our minds to see the truth that he is God, and Jesus alone is the one mediator.

So because of that, whatever we do today is not out of fear, but out of affection and gratitude for the great mercy with which he called us and with which he has called each one of you. The verse also says their zeal is not based on knowledge, and that’s why God wants everyone to come to the knowledge of truth. And the truth is that salvation is free, although it costs God everything. And it’s hard for people to grasp that simple truth. And that’s why, you know, in our portion in First Timothy 2, verse seven, Paul says, I am not lying. I am telling the truth. It’s such a simple truth, but it’s so hard to believe. It’s so hard to grasp. And I think that’s because we have this innate nature of wanting control. We want to know that we got something because we worked for it. We want to know that we got something because we did something. And that’s why you see thousands of people still going to, you know, Velankanni or Padimala, which are pilgrim places for Christians, similar to how Muslims go to Mecca and Medina. And they want to know that their prayers are answered because they’re doing these things. And unfortunately, their prayers get answered. And that’s because the enemy works as the angel of light, which is why it’s so hard for them to get out of that bondage, right? And that’s exactly why we who have been freed of that bondage have a call for prayer for everyone, because God wants everyone to be saved.

And I want to end with this verse, Ephesians 5:1-8. God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Christ Jesus. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace He has poured out on those who belong to His dear son, us. He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins. He has showered His kindness on us along with all wisdom and understanding, amen. Let’s please rise and conclude with prayer.

Thank you, Jesus. Father, we thank You and we praise You, Lord, for the great mercy and great grace that You have showered upon us. Lord, we know that when we come to stand before You, Lord, we know our sin and what they did in separating us from You. And we thank You, God, for sending Your Son, Jesus, to die for us, to reconcile us to You. We believe that Jesus is the one mediator, and we believe that You alone are God. And we thank You, God, for raising up a group of people to pray for us, to intercede for us, and to present their supplications so that we would come into the understanding of that knowledge of truth.

We pray, Lord, today that You equip us to offer prayers and supplications and intercessions for the thousands of people around us, or people in our family, people at work, people in our community, people in authority, that they would come to the knowledge of truth and they will believe that Jesus is Lord and Christ is King. Your word says that You lead us in a triumphal procession, spreading the aroma of Christ and the knowledge of Christ wherever we go. Lord, forgive us for the times that we did not match up to that calling. And we pray that You will equip us these days, Lord, to truly do that and spread the aroma of Christ around us. Help us to have a heavy heart for the people who are still in bondage. Use our words, our thoughts, our actions, our desires. Let them all be aligned to Your will, Lord, and help us to see everyone as equally capable of being blessed by You as You have blessed us. We pray that You continue to speak to us and continue to move in our hearts, Lord Jesus, these acclaimed days, and help us to experience Your presence through the worship we ask all this in Jesus’ name.