Intercession of Christ Part 2

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines 'sympathize' as feeling with another, not just for them, and explains that Christ's ability to sympathize is based on His identity of experience, having been…

An analogy of someone dropping a stone on their toe and another person either chuckling ('feeling for') or hobbling on crutches ('feeling with') to illustrate the difference between superficial and genuine sympathy.

So, his work is first of all then a work of sympathizing. Now, what does it mean to sympathize? Well, basically to sympathize means to be affected with the same feeling as another, to feel another, not to feel for. You're there with a stone just dropped on your big toe and someone comes along and says, I feel for you.

9:01 - 9:23 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It comes from two Greek words, one of which means to cry, and the other one means to run. And so the word literally translated means to run to the cry of one in need.

Martin describes his wife's quick and sensitive response to the slightest cry or need of their children, even in the middle of the night, to illustrate the meaning of 'succor' as running to the cry of one in need.

I see this illustrated constantly with my dear wife, who has in every true sense of the word a real mother's heart,

11:53 - 12:00 Read in full sermon

Driving home: There is no learning of sympathy except by suffering. If I would feel with a man, I must enter into the experience of that man.

A quote stating that 'you must go through the fire if you would have sympathy with others who tread the coals' is used to explain how suffering is necessary to learn sympathy, setting up Christ's qualification.

There is no learning of sympathy except by suffering. If I would feel with a man, I must enter into the experience of that man. One has said you must go through the fire if you would have sympathy with others who tread the coals. Paul mentions this in 2 Corinthians chapter 1.

13:43 - 14:02 Read in full sermon

Driving home: There is no learning of sympathy except by suffering. If I would feel with a man, I must enter into the experience of that man.

Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 1 about God comforting him in tribulation so he can comfort others are used as an example of how personal suffering prepares one for ministry to the suffering.

He says, God who comforts us in our tribulation, why? That we may be able to comfort others by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. He says, Therefore if we suffer, it is for your sake that as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so he says our consolation abounds through Christ. What he was saying was this.

14:02 - 14:22 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first practical result is that believers can come boldly to the throne of grace, pouring out their hearts with freedom of access, knowing Christ understands their struggles.

Martin uses the analogy of a Catholic woman struggling with motherhood problems finding it difficult to go to a celibate priest who knows nothing of her experience, to highlight the need for a High Priest who can truly sympathize.

Let me try to illustrate what he's trying to get at here. This is one of the great mysteries of the Roman Catholic Church to me. If I were a woman, facing the terrible perplexing problems that come to a mother of young children, how to organize her time, how to have time to pray, and time to spank the kids, and dress them in clothes, and keep a grouchy husband happy, and all the rest, I think I'd find it very difficult to come to some man who knows absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing, of what it is to see a wife burdened down with the problems of her home, snowed under by the responsibiliti...

23:05 - 24:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Don't downplay the true humanity of our Lord, or you'll rob yourself of freedom of access in prayer.

The example of a young parent seeking advice from an older, victorious parent who has successfully raised a family is used to illustrate why believers should confidently approach Christ, who triumphed over temptation.

Sure, that doesn't give you much comfort, does it? But that person who's been through that experience and has come out victorious, and there's that woman or that man who by the grace of God have reared their family, they've borne witness to God's grace in rearing a family in an age like ours, and you're a young parent or you're a prospective parent, you say, that person has gone through what I'm about to go through and they've come victorious. I want to ask them how it's done. And you go to them knowing that they can feel with you in your need and are able to help you, because they've conquere...

24:19 - 25:01 Read in full sermon

Driving home: In our Lord's high priestly ministry of sympathizing and succoring, we have omnipotent compassion.

The analogy of drunks complaining together versus a man seeking help from a recovered alcoholic is used to distinguish between mere shared misery and seeking help from one who has triumphed.

Misery loves company. That's true. And so a bunch of drunks may get together, and complain about their problem. But a man who's determined to get rid of his problem, he'll find the man who was an alcoholic, and is now no longer an alcoholic, and say, how did you get this side of it?

26:57 - 27:13 Read in full sermon