Intercession in the New Testament

The Need for Background in Hebrews 8

Continuation of our Hebrew study, but more background needed to make sure that we fully understand the arguments of the writers. So Hebrews chapter 8 began this morning. Once again, let us ask the Lord's blessing.

Gracious Heavenly Father, as we open your inspired word, we confess our need for your spirit to instruct, your spirit to enlighten. So guide and direct us now. Began our Hebrew study in the book looking at the role of the high priest on the day of atonement.

This Lord's Day morning, verse 7, some extra study. You may recall, signal passage lives to make intercession for them. This concept of making intercession, consider that more fully, raise one particular issue.

And statements about into, we cannot simply assume that everyone has an addict. And so turn 23, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption of sons, the redemption of our body.

For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope for who sees what he, for who hopes what he already sees. But if we hope what we do not see with perseverance, we wait eagerly for it.

In the same way, the spirit also helps our weakness for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Intercession in Romans 8 and the Spirit's Help in Prayer

Keeping that in mind, then we skip over the golden chain of redemption, which is pretty unusual for stick with us. But then shall we say to these things, if God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?

Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died. Yes, rather who was raised, who is the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us, who will separate us from the love of Christ.

Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, justice is written. For your sake we are being put to death as sheep to be slaughtered through him who loved us. One section of scripture, intercession and different intercession.

Very interesting to note our weakness for the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches the heart knows what the mind is because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of Christ.

I think we'd better be finishing the book of Romans. He probably has committed himself to retire. Which would be fine with me. But I don't think we're going to be stepping on any toes. My intention to try to execute Romans 8, this is a deep, deep history.

What is needed for someone else, or had someone intercede for you. They came before the judge. Possibly they argued your case. Maybe they came and they bore testimony to your character. They bore witness concerning a situation.

There was a form of intercession in our families. Very often mom is the soft heart. And so sometimes mom intercedes and says to dad, yes, Junior did that. But you know, he was thinking this at the time.

Or I had said this to him. And there's some sort of, maybe a desire for an amelioration, a limitation of the punishment in some way, shape or form. Intercession. What does it mean? Well, it was interesting to hit a target, or just simply to hit.

It's used a number of different ways. And over time it developed in meeting to the idea of meeting. I mean, hitting a target, meeting. But then over time it developed in the idea of standing in the presence, of communicating with someone.

And it has a very special meaning here and in some extra-biblical sources. Of one who intercedes. One who enters in between a meeting of two people. And the idea, as it is used in this range of usage, the idea is of one representing another and seeking some, either amelioration of punishment or the giving of gifts for another person.

And so to intercede would be to come between two people. And the term itself doesn't necessarily mean that one's greater than the other. But in each of these situations we see that the intercession is taking place between God and creatures.

And so there is a need that the intercessor be fitting to enter into the presence of God himself. We saw the role of the high priest. Remember last week, what was the first thing the high priest had to do as he began to make atonements, plural, on the day of atonement?

He had to purify himself and he had to make purification for himself and he had to make purification for the alter. It's been amongst these sinful people. And so an intercessor is a very special person.

He has to have certain qualifications. Now notice we are introduced, Trinitarian intercession. In both intercedes for us, that is he intercedes for the saints, according to 26 and 27, you have a different.

Jesus is at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. Before whom each of these other divine persons are interceding on the intercession seems to come from the different roles that the Father, Son, and Spirit voluntarily have taken in our redemption.

And so this brings us directly to, and that there are three divine persons that share fully the one being that is God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We can recognize the Father, the Son, and the Spirit because they have allowed us to recognize them in the roles that they bear toward one another and in the roles they have taken in our redemption, what we call the eternal covenant of redemption.

The Father is the fountainhead, the source of the decree of salvation. The Son is the one who in his incarnation, his death, his burial, and his resurrection provides the very, the very essence of redemption itself in a substitutionary atonement.

And it is the Spirit who comes and makes these things real, makes application in the believer's life. They have taken different roles, and we see in this form of intercession being reflected. Remember in John chapter 14 that Jesus had promised his disciples that the Father and the Son would make their abode with his people, how?

Through the presence, the indwelling presence. Though clearly the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are differentiated from one another in their roles, yet in the Spirit's presence in our life we can honestly say, in light of Jesus' words, that the Father and the Son likewise dwell with their people in the presence of the Holy Spirit because of that unity that is theirs, they share fully, not one third of the divine being, they share fully the entirety of the divine being.

So they're being dwelt by the Holy Spirit. So in his role, who lives, who enlightens our minds, we have this section, this intercession by the Spirit. But it is not a soteriological intercession, an intercession relevant to bringing about our salvation.

It is not soteriological in the sense that Christ's intercession is soteriological, having to do with salvation. Instead, the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep. This has to do with the fact that we have weakness.

Communication with God, we would think, can be. But we're talking to ourselves all that well, certainly not on the level that God himself is. We have weaknesses, we have built up, and so we need an intercessor who dwells within us, makes our prayers, see our prayers tinged as they are in sin, who intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

I explained whether the words or the Spirits were this morning. The point is that we have a picture here. He who searches the hearts, that's the Father, knows what the mind of the Spirit is because of their perfect unity.

Because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And so God the Father has a perfect knowledge of our hearts. The Spirit dwells within us, and since the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God, you in essence have God taking care of our weakness.

By giving us the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit sanctifies us, the Spirit guides us, and the Spirit provides the proper, holy means of communication with God the Father so that even when our prayers are imperfect, the true needs of our heart are presented before them.

The situation of intercession is directly parallel to what we have in the next section, Romans, because the Spirit here is providing for us that necessary corrective. We still live in this life, we have not yet been fully sanctified, there is impurity within us, and yet because of the imputed righteousness of Christ, the Spirit can dwell within us, and yet he takes our imperfections, and he takes our prayers, and we don't have to shrink away from the throne of grace, knowing our imperfections, because we can trust that the Holy Spirit of God intercedes what would be right in a certain situation, but we want God's will to be done, we want our fellow believers to be sanctified, we don't know what to pray for, but the Spirit does, and so we don't have to shy away for us.

But then compare most eight of intercession, because there are only a couple examples where the term is used in the Bible to give us the light that we need to have to understand what the writer of the Hebrews is saying.

What then shall we say of these things? These things being that golden chain of redemption where God is the one who from eternity past has chosen to glorify himself in the salvation of a particular people.

What then shall we say of these things? If God is for us, and we hardly need to argue it amongst ourselves, but sadly amongst so many others, they do not understand that the context has already established for us what is being said here.

If God is for us, who is the us? Those who are foreknown and predestined before time itself, the elect. That will be repeated then. If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all.

Delivered him over, the very same term used of betraying, to give over in sacrifice. Delivered him over for us all, the elect, how will he not also with him freely give us all things? If the father has been so giving as to give of himself in his son, then what question can possibly exist as to his attitude toward us?

How will he not also with him freely give us all things? If you have Christ, then you have the greatest evidence of God's favor to you. No Christian should ever be seeking some further sign than that of Jesus.

He takes us into the court. There are some differences between the legal system of the law. There are many similarities. A charge against God's elect has to be a formal charge that is brought against the one who is being brought into the law court.

Someone must come before the judge and say, the charge against this person is this. This is where he or she has violated the law. And so you have the one who brings the charge of accusation in our system.

This would be the prosecuting attorney representing some civil organization. If this is a, some governmental organization, if this is a trial where you have some type of crime that has been committed, bring a charge against God's elect who will enter into the courtroom, bring a charge against the ones that God himself has chosen.

There we sit as the elect. And so Paul is saying, who can enter into God's presence? Remember the book of Job. When Satan enters in before God's presence and he attempts to bring allegations against Job.

Take this from him and Job will do that. Take this and Job will do that. This is the role that is being spoken of here. God is the one who justifies. To justify is to declare righteous. To bring down the gavel and say not guilty is the one who justifies.

Paul has already talked about that. He is described as the one, the justifying God. That's divine action. To bring down the gavel and say not guilty. If God is the one who has said not guilty, then who can be the one who says condemn?

Is there an authority above Christ? Jesus is he who died. Yes, rather who was raised, who is the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. And so now we have another brought into the law court. We have the prosecuting attorney because no one would be foolish enough once the judge has said not guilty to enter in and try to say, but you're wrong.

The ultimate authority has already declared righteous. Christ Jesus is he who died. Yes, rather the right hand of God. Jesus is he who died. Yes, rather who was raised. There's nothing left upon which condemnation can be made with him.

He has died. He has been raised. And since he's been raised, he is at the right hand of God. God has accepted his sacrifice. If he had not been raised from the dead, that would have been clear indication that God did not accept his sacrifice.

But he has been raised from the dead, and he has entered into a position of absolute authority and acceptance, the very right hand of God. And so here you have a unique individual who has conquered death, experienced resurrection, and now he is at the right hand of God, which shows that he has been accepted.

He has authority, power, and dominion. And then we have four. God's elect. Those united to him. Those for whom the sacrifice has been made. Before the judge, they bring down that gavel and say, you are righteous, knowing.

You see this intercession we live. I can say without this prayer, praying for a loved one and their prayers. Many places, the virgin mother of Christ, but the faithful wife, the one who did not understand that Jesus needed to be about his father's business.

The one who had to ponder things in her heart. The one who, with her other sons, came to take Jesus away because they thought he had gone mad. The early believer who is in the upper room of Pentecost.

A wonderful example, but not a sinless source of grace. What happened that could result in the kind of object I see bodily assumed in heaven, queen of heaven, co-redemptrix, co-mediatrix. In the second, third, a celibate intercession of Mary.

You see, when you have material to save us, praying to Mary says, save me from my sins. And since there is no sin in every mass, you see, we need to understand the nature. It's not just Roman Catholic.

Since they never finished work, Roman Catholic fears the wrath of God, and appropriately so. Who understands what the non-seeing Savior, he turns away the sacrifice of Christ as the Son of the Spirit.

This idea that turns the Father into this unpropitiated wrathful person, and Jesus is this, oh I just love sinners Jesus, you know, type of, it is, and it's totally based upon not seeing that the work of God in salvation is a triune work.

God, glorification, in the work of the Father, Son, and Spirit, in the gospel of Jesus Christ, in themselves, themselves. God's trying, Lord's suffering, yet he himself bore the sin of many, and what did he do?

Who pours himself out, yet he has been, yet he himself bore the sin of many pictures. He sees a lamb standing as if slain, has those, it is not that the second the sacrifice, his job isn't done, the sacrifice is offered, he has to take, that's one work.

And so, when the Son, who never stops, he never sits, he never, the Son, as if slain, is seated. Sacrifice, that speaks, he's seated, it's not Thomas response, he interceded, we already saw it, and he's gone in, we have that sure anchor for the soul, and now we're seeing why it's such a sure anchor.

What could not move, I think that's just a start, will not share his glory, how to be saved, other one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith, that accepts the necessity of what he had to do, but thinks there's something more.