Entreaties And Prayers

“First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.” 1 Timothy 2:1-6 NASB

God is the Creator of all, all the mountains, oceans, deserts, rivers and every single thing that fills His created earth including mankind. God is not a character in a story someone made up a few thousand years ago. He is the alpha and the omega, God Jesus Christ Holy Spirit is all that is, all that was and all that will be, He is the beginning and the end. 

The Lord of heaven and earth loves His creation, He loves His people, God did not set the world like a clock that He put a battery in and left alone on a shelf.  And I get it, there is so much evil in the world and so much brokenness in our lives that it can appear like God has left us on that shelf. 

But my friend, fear not, the word of God teaches us that Jesus is Lord and Saviour, the mediator between God and humanity, and the truth of the Bible tells that He hasn’t left us alone. God is intricately involved in your life whether you realize it or not. All throughout scripture we see God who is invested in His creation, who cares about His beloved people, who sees and hears us. 

If you feel like no one gets you, no one understands you, that no one sees the pain or struggle you're going through, know that God sees you. He hears you.

Every human heart is searching for something. Deep in the soul of humanity, there is this void that we try to fill. Yet know this without doubt - Only Jesus the Christ, messiah, saviour, can flood our emptiness, oh sure we charge ahead looking in the wrong place for that thing or especially a person, leader, that will mediate and connect the divine to our mortal existence seeking to belong in this world, to be fully known by our peers, to find fulfillment and purpose and accolades in our surroundings…… friend stop. There is no aimless wandering necessary, right now in this moment you can choose to take the hand of Jesus, in fact let Him lift you out of the dark and into His light…… the seeking nature of man is a gift from God to shepherd His people with Him through the narrow gate to eternal life, we will go where are heart is seeking if our eyes remain fixed on the perfector of our faith, Jesus, with Him we will wander no more…….. God we praise You for the Bible, thank You Holy Spirit, teach us about sanctification, repentance, redemption, salvation - teach us more of the One mediator, Jesus the Christ. 

As God, Christ brings divine justice and mercy to bear on our relationship to our Creator, and as man, Christ brings the perfect human obedience we need to be reconciled to God.

Jesus shares in our humanity so that we can be joined to Him and thus stand before God. Moreover, it must be noted that to be an effective mediator, Christ must be truly God and truly man. By definition a mediator is a go-between who can represent the interests of both parties.  

And so Jesus is an entirely different kind of mediator between God and us. This mediation is not a two-way street bringing our good to God to see what can be arranged. Jesus is the good that is brought to God. He is both mediation and mediator.

He is not seeking compromise. He is not asking both sides—sinful man and holy God—to meet in the middle and give a little ground. Jesus is not finding the best of the unsatisfactory solutions to difficult problems. He is not carrying messages from one side to the other, and then rephrasing them to be more acceptable and palatable.

Hebrews 8:10-12 NASB “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, And I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, And they shall be My people. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, And everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ For all will know Me, From the least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more.”

By dying as the sinless sacrifice for all who put their faith in Him, Jesus Christ provides for the forgiveness of sin without God’s forsaking His just judgment against sin. 

His sacrifice is offered for all, Christ is the only mediator available to us whether we are rich or poor, male or female, king or servant.

Hebrews 8 teaches the mediating work of Christ: He “sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” and “has now obtained a superior ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been established on better promises”. 

Hebrews 8:1-2 NASB “Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord built, not man.”

Jesus the Mediator is not simply a negotiator on our behalf; He is the fulfillment of all we failed to be in the old covenant with God. He is the keeper of the laws we could not keep. He is the sacrifice for all the sins we have and will commit. 

Hebrews 8:6 NASB “But now Jesus the Christ has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.”

King Jesus lives now, at the right hand of God, as both ruler and judge, the embodiment of the new covenant of grace, and the assurance of promises to be fulfilled when He returns.  When we fall short (daily) and break fellowship with God, we can rest in the teachings of 1 Timothy 2:5-6 Hallelujah! Holy holy holy is our Lord God almighty! Our mediator is, in Himself, our innocence in the eyes of God. He goes to God—with His own work, His own perfection, His own death and resurrection—as the defense for us, the otherwise eternally doomed.

What greater hope could we have? If you and I were to mediate an agreement with God, it would never end in anything other than our guilt and falling short because of our sin. But Jesus did, does, mediate for His people….... So we can hope (Jude verse 21) when Jesus returns, bringing glory and perfection with Him. We can trust Holy Spirit’s knowledge that the One mediating for us can also protect us from stumbling (Jude verse 24).

Jude 1:17-25 NASB “But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” 

In Christ, we are forgiven. In Christ, we are set free. It is through the shed Blood of Jesus Christ that our heart is made new and we are made whole, cleansed from all unrighteousness.

The Blood of Jesus Christ paid for your sin. For my sin. His Blood washes the stain of past transgressions away. His Blood washes the guilt, the shame away. His Blood heals you. Amen. 

Hebrews 12:22-24 NASB “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.”

There is only One Mediator whose Blood stands before God— Jesus the Christ. There is no other person in all of time whose Blood can fill the void of your heart—other than Christ Jesus. May Christ fill every area of your life. May Christ fill every void of your heart. 

May you surrender to His Way. May you surrender to His Word. May you surrender to His Counsel. For it is through Jesus Christ that we are redeemed. For it is through Jesus Christ that we are saved. For it is through Jesus Christ that we are forever set free. 

Jesus was, and is, the only mediator between God and man. It is through His flesh (the veil) that we have reconciliation to God. His sacrifice on the cross redeemed us. His Blood reconciled us to God. When the Lord of all creation sees us through the Blood of His Son — He remembers our sin no more. 

Luke 23:45 NASB “It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, because the sun was obscured; and the veil of the temple was torn in two.”

The veil was torn for God’s people. The veil in the Temple was what separated man and the Most Holy Place within the Temple — the place where the Ark of the Covenant was housed.

The veil was what divided God and man. Behind the veil was where God’s Presence dwelled. When Jesus Christ was crucified, His physical flesh was ripped. He was the Veil. Jesus Christ the Temple. He fulfilled what the Temple represented. The construction of the Temple in the Old Testament pointed to Christ. Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, Jesus Christ the Word in the flesh. 

Hebrews 9:11-15 NASB “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”

The time of His return is near. Choose today to surrender to Christ. Let Him lead you in every area of your life. There is only one mediator between God and man — Jesus Christ, our salvation—both today and forevermore.