John 17:9-24
Examples of Christ's Intercession
Pastor Martin examines three biblical examples of Christ's intercession. In John 17 he unfolds Christ's four-fold concern for His people: preservation, sanctification, unification, and glorification. In Luke 22:31-32 he shows Christ praying that Peter's faith would not fail, demonstrating that the continued existence of grace in the believer is a standing miracle secured by Christ's intercession. In John 14:16 he shows Christ praying the Father to send the Spirit, teaching that every redemptive blessing comes through the living mediatorial work of the high priest.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 12 sections · 53 min
- Introduction and Review of Intercession 0:00
- The Examples Given in Scripture 7:29
- John 17: Overview 11:34
- John 17: Preservation of His Own 13:22
- John 17: Sanctification of His Own 16:39
- John 17: Unification of His Own 19:42
- John 17: Glorification of His Own 25:54
- Luke 22:31-32 — Christ Praying for Peter's Faith 30:25
- John 14:16 — Christ Praying for the Spirit 39:17
- Application One: Study Every Facet of Salvation Through Christ 43:43
- Application Two: Give Thanks for Each Fruit of Intercession 45:22
- Closing Appeal and Prayer 50:07
Key Quotes
“The continued existence of grace in a believer's heart is a great standing miracle.”
“He has a mighty friend at the right hand of God, whoever lives to make intercession for him. His grace never altogether dies, because Christ always lives to intercede.”
“If you can dig down through the heart of every true believer, his greatest longing and desire is to look upon the face of his Savior.”
“There is no gift that comes to us apart from Christ.”
“He doesn't live in heaven to soak up the glories of His present position. He lives to serve His people with selfless intercession.”
“Am I growing in the ability to be disentangled with myself and absorbed in the needs of others. That's a real test of growth in grace.”
Applications
All listeners
- As you struggle against the world, the devil, and indwelling sin, take courage — your high priest is praying that you shall be preserved, so your efforts are not in vain.
- Pursue holiness in specific obedience (work ethic, family life, interpersonal relationships) knowing Christ intercedes that you shall actually be sanctified in the truth.
- As you go about mundane tasks — especially housewives doing daily work — hold communion with Christ in the conscious awareness He has you on His heart at the Father's right hand.
- Make it a daily practice at day's end to thank the Lord that if you have been kept from gross sin, it is because of the intercession of the Son.
- When you look back at moments you came near to apostasy, give glory to Christ's intercession — not to your own resilience — for turning you aside from ruin.
- If you would come within the orbit of Christ's intercession, come by way of the cross — reckon with your sin in light of His sacrifice and cast yourself on His mercy.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 129 paragraphs, roughly 53 minutes.
Introduction and Review of Intercession
In Psalm 111, in verse 2, the psalmist said, The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. He makes a statement concerning an objective reality, the works of the Lord are great. Then he describes a people who have a subjective awareness of that reality. a people who will take pleasure in those works, indicating that though the works of the Lord are great, not all men have an appreciation of those works.
Some have pleasure therein. And the psalmist says the way in which they show their pleasure is to seek out the works of God. They are not content with a surface acquaintance with the works of God. They search out those works in which they find pleasure.
Because no work of God is greater than his work of redemption in rescuing ruined sinners, searching out that work of redemption ought to be the greatest pleasure of the true child of God. It ought to be the object of the most careful and constant inquiry by all of the saints of God. In fact, it's accurate to say there are angels who are nosy concerning things that the people of God are oftentimes indifferent to. Peter tells us concerning God's salvation that angels desire to look into these great mysteries.
Whereas God must often say to his people, those words that he said to ancient Israel, I wrote unto them the ten thousand things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing. God speaks, if I may say it reverently, in a disappointed tone. He said, I was so concerned for their well-being that I wrote the ten thousand things of my law, but they were counted a strange thing. My people found no pleasure in them.
They found no desire to search into them. Oh, may God grant that that will never be true of us, that we will never grow weary of seeking to penetrate the great mysteries of God's salvation, which is precisely the exercise that has occupied our minds for many Lord's Day mornings over the past months as we continue to contemplate the mystery of the person of the Redeemer and the majesty of his offices as our Redeemer. We are presently concerned with examining the teaching of the Word of God with respect to his work as the priest of his people. And I have tried to set before you a biblical framework within which to contemplate his priestly functions,
those priestly activities that are earthly and those that are heavenly, the earthly priestly functions being marked by humiliation and suffering and death, the heavenly priestly functions being marked by glory and power and life. And of the past two Lord's Day mornings, I've given you an outline of some of those high priestly activities of Christ that mark His work in the heavens, and then we have begun to consider those four or five issues in greater detail. Last week we began to consider the intercession of Christ as one of those high priestly activities carried on by our Lord in heaven.
We established the fact of his intercession. Hebrews 7.25, he ever liveth to make intercession. Romans 8.34, he also maketh intercession for them.
and Isaiah 53 and verse 12. Then we were considering together the nature of his intercession. When it says Christ intercedes, how are we as the people of God to conceive of that activity of our blessed Lord at the right hand of the Father? What are we to think of him as doing when we think of him interceding? And I suggested that the nature of his intercession could be understood by examining the word used to describe it. And the word intercession means the coming between of a third party on behalf of two others, either to secure blessing or cursing. And so intercession is the interposing of a request by one on behalf of another. And so our Lord then is
to be understood as making requests of the Father on behalf of His people. Those requests, of course, must be characterized by His own present state of glory. They must be characterized by the mystery of His own person as God. What does it mean for God to ask something of God?
I don't know. and so the asking the intercession is not divorced from the mystery of his person nor from the glory of his present position of exaltation nor is it divorced from God's purpose to bring to bear upon our salvation the entire activity of the triune Godhead so that the Father has specific tasks the Son and the Spirit as well so we are to understand the nature of Christ's redemption from the word used, and then finally, as far as review is concerned, from the end secured. And the end secured by Christ's intercession is nothing less than the ultimate salvation of all of his people. He is able to save to the uttermost, Hebrews 7.25,
because he makes intercession. It is his intercession that preserves them from condemnation and from separation from the love of God, Romans 8 and verse 34. So, the statement of one man of God is accurate in which we are given this concept. The evidence will demonstrate that every need of the believer and every grace requisite to complete his redemption are brought within the scope of Christ's intercession.
The security is bound up with his intercession and outside of it there is no salvation. How then are we to think of the intercession of Christ? We are to think of it in terms of the word that is used. It must involve the making of requests on behalf of his people.
Whether those requests are verbal, the scriptures are silent on that question. that in some way or another, Jesus Christ as our great high priest is presently making request on behalf of his people. We are to understand the intercession in terms of the end which that intercession secures. It is an end which has nothing less as its vision than the ultimate, the complete salvation of the people of God.
The Examples Given in Scripture
Then there is a third way in which we are helped to understand the nature of his intercession, and that is by the examples given of that intercession in the word of God. And that will be the focus of our study this morning, to look at the examples given in the scriptures of the intercession of Christ. While he was here in the days of his flesh, he was a priest. He did not begin to be a priest when he entered heaven.
He was a priest on earth. If he were not a priest, he could not have made a sacrifice while here upon earth. He made a sacrifice because he was a priest. Well, as a priest, he not only made a sacrifice, though that was the primary work of his priesthood while here on earth, but he also engaged in intercession.
And the Holy Spirit has directed the writers of the New Testament documents to leave us some glimpses of our great high priest engaged in his work of intercession. And these glimpses, and that's all they are, these glimpses are an index of what the intercession is probably like now that he has gone back into heaven. For as we shall see, the glimpses of his intercession bring within their scope problems and needs and concerns and perspectives that have not changed at all now that the Lord has gone back to heaven. So because the circumstances brought within the compass of the intercession are exactly the same,
the concerns, the ends, the goals are the same, we have every reason to believe that God has given us these examples of his intercession as a high priest while here, that we might know something of what he is doing as our high priest now that he is there. Now, of course, the classic passage is John chapter 17.
May I say that as I turn to this passage, I feel that I am almost violating a commandment of Scripture. That commandment of Scripture is one in which Jesus said, Cast not your pearls before swine. And I realize as I turn to this passage, there are some of you who will treat this passage like a swine treats a handful of pearls. You come to the swine and say, look at these beautiful pearls.
And all he does is snort and put his head down and butt you and trample those pearls into the mud. Because his swinish nature has no capacity to appreciate pearls.
And you will never understand, some of you, the agony of a preacher's heart who stands with what he feels are some of the choice pearls in all of Scripture. And he knows that he stands before swine.
Who have no appreciation for those pearls. There are some of you, if you could have your way, you'd bolt out of this place today and you'd go wallow in the mud of your carnal appetites. All I can pray is that somehow God the Holy Ghost will take the truth as it is in Jesus and change your swinish nature so that the truths of Christ as a great high priest will become to you the pearls that they are in themselves. Let us then consider this first and classic example of the priestly work of intercession as our Lord engaged in it in the days of his flesh.
John 17: Overview
Now, John 17 is not, strictly speaking, all intercession. The first eight verses are basically indirect praise and direct petition. In the first eight verses, our Lord is recounting what he has done, and implied in that is thanks to the Father for the ability to do it. And he is praying now for special grace for the coming ordeal.
So the first eight verses are not intercession, that is, Christ pleading on behalf of others. It is petition and praise, Christ pleading on his own behalf. But then beginning with verse 9 through to verse 24, we have what could be properly called pure intercession. There is some instruction involved, but the main burden of this section is our Lord's concern for His own.
And He now takes upon Him the great work of intercession, and He's pleading for His true followers. And though time will not permit a detailed study of the passage, let me give you a rough outline of that which our Lord includes in His intercession so that we might understand something of that for which He prays even now at the right hand of the Father. We're trying to come to grips with the nature of Christ's intercession. We have seen that it must involve requests It involves requests that secure nothing less than ultimate salvation for all the people of God But what are some of the details then What are some of the ingredients that result in that ultimate salvation?
John 17: Preservation of His Own
Well, here in John 17, verses 9 through 24, we have in broad outline four great concerns that become the focus of our Lord's intercession. First of all, he prays for the preservation of his own. Verse 11, I am no more in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name.
Verse 12, While I was with them, I kept them. I guarded them, not one of them perished. Verse 15, I pray not that thou shouldest take them from the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil or from the evil one. So the great burden of our Lord's intercession in these three references is the preservation of his people.
He knows their real dangers. He knows that the world is an enemy of his people. And so he says, I pray not that you take them away from their enemy, but that you preserve them in the midst of the presence of their enemy. He knows that the devil is their real enemy.
And so he prays not that they shall be exempt from the devil's influence at all, but that they should be kept from the evil one accomplishing his designs upon them. He prays that they shall be preserved from the world and from the devil. and he prays in a situation in which he acknowledges the tremendous threat and danger of these two realities. Now the word of God is not silent concerning a Christian's responsibility in these matters.
We are commanded to keep ourselves in the love of God. Jude and verse 20. We are commanded to keep ourselves from evil. We are commanded to keep ourselves, or described as those who keep ourselves from the devil, 1 John 5, 18.
So that our Lord's intercession does not negate nor cancel all of the conscious efforts of the believer to keep himself in the love of God, to keep himself unspotted from the world, to keep himself from the devil. But what our Lord's intercession does is this. It undergirds all of the efforts of the child of God with the confidence that those efforts will not be in vain. There will be supplies of grace.
There will be supplies of power. There will be divine enablement so that as I struggle against the world, as I struggle against the devil, as I wrestle with sin, I'm not on my own. I have a great high priest who pleads that I shall be kept from these influences which, if they had their way, would utterly cut me off from Christ and drown me in perdition. And so it should be a great consolation to you as God's people to know that your intercessor is praying that you will be preserved.
John 17: Sanctification of His Own
Secondly, he is not only praying for the preservation of his own, is praying for their sanctification. Verses 17 through 19. Sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth.
Even as thou didst send me into the world, even so sent I them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself. That is, I set myself apart for this aspect of my work that is before me, the work of making a sacrifice. I set myself apart for this task.
that they themselves may be sanctified in truth. Here our Lord prays for what we might call the positive side of that which was previously given in the negative form. He is not only concerned that we be preserved from evil, but that we make positive advancements in holiness. It is concerned that His people be made holy in the truth.
That is, that they may be set apart from the world by actual sanctification of life, so that in heart and mind, thought and words and deeds, they may live more and more in accordance with the will of God. Christ says, I set myself apart for the work of sacrifice, that they may be set apart from sin unto holiness. Why? That's the end for which he died.
Ephesians chapter 5. Christ loved the church and gave himself to the church that he might sanctify, purify, and present it to himself a glorious church. Now again, our Lord's prayer is realistic. He knows that in the world there is sin.
There is the constant pressure of a manifold coming together of influences that would utterly undermine progress in holiness. and surely unless we are totally ignorant of the scriptures we know that again and again we are not only commanded to pursue holiness in general terms follow after holiness without which no man shall see the Lord we are given specific detailed instructions as to what constitutes holiness we are to take seriously all of the instructions that touch our work ethic, our family life, our interpersonal relationships our church relationships, our relationships to government. All of these details and all of that is to be the constant and continuous concern of the child of God.
He is to pursue holiness. But, oh, dear child of God, what a consolation it should be to you and to me to know that as we endeavor and strive and wrestle to be holy, we have a great high priest who is praying that we shall be sanctified in the truth. One who is praying that we shall make progress in grace. And therefore our efforts are not to be efforts in which we hope that progress shall be made.
John 17: Unification of His Own
They are to be efforts rooted in the confidence that he is working in us to will and to do. Therefore we are enabled to work out our salvation with fear and with trembling. But he prays in this prayer not only for the preservation and sanctification of his own, but notice in verses 20 to 23, he prays for the unification of his own. Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their word, that they may all be one, even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they may also be in us, that the world may believe that thou didst send me.
And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them, that they may be one as we are one, I in them, thou in me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that thou didst send me and lovest them even as thou lovest me. Now these are the words that the ecumenical fanatics loved. And if it were not so tragic it would be laughable. People who deny the validity of almost every major doctrine of the Bible.
God, sin, hell, Christ's death upon the cross. Suddenly when they come to these words, they believe in plenary verbal inspiration. Jesus prayed that they may be one. And so they go on in their ecumania with this verse as their great banner.
And say what that means is we all get together with a minimum confession of truth. and we become one big super church. Well, that's not what our Lord has in mind at all in this passage. The unification of his own for which he prays has two primary foci, two primary points upon which it focuses.
Number one, it is a vital spiritual union of believers with the Father and the Son. Look at the emphasis. Verse 20, Neither for these only do I pray, those who are presently believers, but for them also that believe on me through their word, those that will come to me through the God-appointed means of preaching, that they may all be one. In what sense?
Even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they may be in us, that the world may believe that thou didst send me. What is the unity for which he is praying? It is the unity of all believers with the Father and the Son in vital spiritual reality. It is not an external organization, ecclesiastical unity.
He says it is a unity that finds some parallel in the mysterious unity of the members of the Godhead. There is vital life union in the divine essence shared by Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And so our Lord is praying that all the elect of God shall come to share in vital life union with the Father and the Son. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
What is it that makes the world know that Christ was sent? When clerics with all of the paraphernalia of professional religion get together in Delhi or in some other world center and make pompous declarations about church unity, No, the world doesn't even blink at that. It's when a few people on the block are radically transformed by being planted into Christ and become new creatures. Then the world says there's something real in their religion.
When that person who's been dishonest and disinterested goes back to his job. And people say, what are you doing, trying to show us all up? You work around here like you own the business. And he says, well, the Lord saved me.
And I've got to please my Lord now here at the job. Here in the place of business and in every other facet of life. It is this for which our Lord prays. That they may be one in us to the end.
That the world may know that thou didst send me. And then the second focal point of that unity is the vital union of believers with each other. Verse 23. I in them, thou in me, that they may be perfected into one.
He is praying for the formation or the continued formation and ultimate completion of the church, which is His body, in which there is an organic life union. And He says it is the growth of that body and the reality of its sharing in the very life of God that becomes the manifestation to the world of the power of Christ. Now again, these are things for which we labor. We labor and long to see men not just get religion or become religious or change their religions.
What is the great passion of our hearts? Is it not that we long to see sinners brought out of their vital organic union with Adam and into vital living union with Christ? Isn't that the thing for which we pray? I know it's the thing for which I pray and the thing for which I preach and labor.
And I know it's the thing that is upon the heart of my fellow elders that God will use us as a church, not just to spread religion, not just have more people get religion, but to see people brought into union with Christ.
But what can we do to take away their blind eyes? What can we do to unstop their deafened ears? What can we do to break the chains that bind them to their sin and to the world and to the devil? Nothing.
Oh, how wonderful to know that there is a great high priest who knows all of his own in the great mass of humanity. And he is praying that they shall be made one with him and with the Father. That they shall come to experience vital union with himself and then with his people. It should give us great consolation to know that this is the concern of our Lord's intercession.
John 17: Glorification of His Own
And then finally, his concern moves on from their preservation, sanctification, unification, to their glorification. Verse 24, Father, I desire. And he uses a word concerning which there is some debate as to its precise meaning, but this much is clear. Here the request goes beyond a mere asking.
Father I desire I will with delight That they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory Here the desire of the Redeemer is to fulfill the greatest desire of the redeemed. Do you get it? I desire that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, in order that what? They may see streets of gold.
No. In order that what? He then focuses on the greatest desire of the redeemed, that they may behold my glory. So here's the Redeemer desiring and petitioning in his intercession that all the redeemed will have fulfilled in their hearts their greatest desire.
For if you can dig down through the heart of every true believer and find him at the point that he's really true to what he or she is as a believer, you know what you will find is his greatest longing and desire? It's to look upon the face of his Savior. One thing have I desired, that will I seek after, that I may behold the beauty of the Lord. David said, I shall be satisfied when I awake, how, with beholding thy likeness.
Or John says, it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall be manifested, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Father of Jesus, love's reward, what rapture will it be? Prostrate before thy throne to lie and to gaze and to gaze on thee. You see what our Lord has done. He's brought within the orbit of His intercession, therefore making it absolutely certain that the greatest desire of the believer cannot be frustrated.
We have the earnest of the Spirit in us now. What is it that causes us to be disturbed when we sense a cloud in our relationship to the Lord, when He seems distant and unreal, when there seems to be no conscious communion with Him in prayer in the secret place, No conscious delight in Him when we gather in public. What is it that gives us that restlessness? Is it not that God has placed within us the earnest of the Spirit and among the many dimensions of the operations of the Spirit within is this matter that He has stamped indelibly upon our hearts, this longing for our greatest privilege and greatest delight to behold our Savior with undimmed eyes.
And my friend, if that's not your greatest longing, I wonder, I wonder if you have a clue about being a Christian. If your heart has not responded and said, how did the pastor know that's my deepest longing? How do you know that? All he needs to do is read his Bible and he knows it.
I didn't say it's always a conscious longing. I didn't say it's as strong as sometimes. Please don't. Some of you are so tender, you take everything, and you go out and whip yourself with it.
Now, I didn't say that. I guarded my statement. I said, if you can dig down through all the other things and find the Christian where he really is, that's his longing, to see his Savior.
And our Lord brings within the orbit of his intercession that very request. There is nothing in the nature of our need or the nature of God's purposes that differs from the things prayed for here in the days of his flesh and the things for which he now prays. May God give us great joy in the knowledge that this is part of his intercessory work. And now very quickly, let me direct your attention to two other individual verses.
Luke 22:31-32 — Christ Praying for Peter's Faith
We're trying to ascertain the nature of his intercession. Having looked at the meaning of the word, the end realized and secured, now the examples given. John 17 and now Luke chapter 22. And verse 32.
Luke chapter 22.
And verse 32. You remember the circumstances?
Disciples are arguing about who is going to be chief and big shot and prime minister in the kingdom. And the Lord says, that's not mine to give, but I'll tell you to whom it shall be given, the one who serves even as I have served. We read in Luke 22, 28, But ye are they that have continued with me in my temptations, and I appoint unto you a kingdom, even as my Father appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and ye shall sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Here is one of the most powerful verses of assurance.
He says to them, in spite of the fact that you are manifesting carnality, I'm about to die and you people are arguing about who's going to be the big shot. I'm going down to the depths of my deepest woe and you're trying to climb to the heights of carnal prestige. But nonetheless, you're going to make the kingdom not because of your conduct but because of my work. You're going to get there not because of what you do but because of what I'm about to do.
It's a wonderful passage on grace, but I don't want to pause to preach on how it magnifies the grace of God, but simply to underscore the setting. Our Lord says, you've been with me in my temptations. I've appointed a kingdom. You will be found in that kingdom.
Now, verse 31. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you. He addresses himself to Simon, but then he moves from the singular to the plural pronoun. Satan has desired to have the whole bunch of you.
That he might sip the whole bunch of you as wheat. But I have made supplication for you, Simon Peter, that your faith fail not. And do thou, when once you are turned again, establish your brethren. You get the setting.
Our Lord says you will be with me in my kingdom. However, between now and the manifestation of that kingdom in its final glory, or in the glory that would come after Pentecost. It's a problem of exegesis with verse 30. Between now and then, whether it's in the near or far future, some heavy trials are going to beset you, my disciples.
Though I've appointed you a kingdom, Satan has desired you to sit you as wheat. And what he would attempt to do is to make it evident that you're all nothing but chaff, and a real trial will make you blow away like the multitudes who professed to be believers that went back. And like Judas who already had gone out.
And in his heart the work of betrayal was already done.
But he said something has come between the design of Satan and the realization of his design. Satan has asked to have the whole bunch of you to sift you as wheat, to blow you away as chaff. But I stood between Satan and you with my intercession. I made supplication for thee that thy faith fail not.
And that supplication, that intercession would be effectual when once thou hast turned again. He didn't say, and if my intercession prevails and you do turn again, then he says, when once thou hast turned. Now get the picture. A kingdom is appointed, a fall is predicted, but a restoration is assured.
A kingdom appointed, a fall predicted, but a restoration assured. And what is the grounds of that restoration? The intercession of Christ. I have prayed when once thou art turned again, strengthen thy brethren.
you say pastor what are you getting so excited about well I hope you can see where I'm going the father has appointed a kingdom for everyone who is truly joined to his son I go to prepare a place for you and if I go I come again and receive you to myself but between the realization of that promise and where we are now there are sure to be lapses and falls and sins and failures and disappointments.
But what is it that keeps those lapses and falls and disappointments from leading us clean out of the Christian faith?
Christ stands between with his intercession. I have prayed for thee. Notice, he says, I pray that thy faith fail not. I don't build theology on etymology or on similarities of words.
but here is a case where the meaning of the word comes through very clearly in its English transliteration our word eclipse you know what an eclipse of the sun is where the moon comes in the direct path and you can't see the sun at all I have prayed for thee that thy faith be not eclipsed utterly blotted out oh yes its strength may be lessened and you may see that little maid and her threatening words as bigger than your God your faith, the eye of faith may become so myopic that everything's out of perspective and you may be guilty, Peter, of temporary spiritual nearsightedness and you get all of your priorities botched up, but Peter, your faith will not utterly, utterly be eclipsed.
For you see, faith is the root grace out of which all the other graces flow. If faith is eclipsed, we've had it. If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them that draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe.
unto the saving of the soul. The seed of faith in a true believer can never be utterly eclipsed. There may be times when its strength is weakened, its vigor is cut back, and its vitality is greatly impaired. But Jesus Christ in His work of intercession assures that there shall never be the utter eclipsing of faith.
Bishop Ryle, who is not only a great preacher,
But a wise pastor said these words, commenting on this verse. We learn in these verses one great secret of the believer's perseverance in the faith. We read that our Lord said to Peter, I prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. It was owing to Christ's intercession that Peter did not entirely fall away.
Now get the next statement. The continued existence of grace in a believer's heart is a great standing miracle. The continued existence of grace in a believer's heart is a great standing miracle. His enemies are so mighty, his strength is so small, the world is so full of snares, his heart is so weak, it seems at first sight impossible for him ever to reach heaven.
This passage explains his safety. He has a mighty friend at the right hand of God, whoever lives to make intercession for him. There is a watchful advocate who is daily pleading for him, seeing all his necessities, and obtaining daily supplies of mercy and grace for his soul. His grace never altogether dies, because Christ always lives to intercede.
Oh, may God fill us with a sense of wonder and joy in the knowledge that the seed of faith implanted can never be eclipsed. Why? There is one who prays for us even as he prayed for Peter that our faith fail not and wonder of wonders. Even the partial eclipse of faith ultimately fell out to the furtherance of the gospel when thou art turned again.
Strengthen, my brethren! Peter, you will learn a lesson in your laps that will stand you in good stead as a teacher of others.
John 14:16 — Christ Praying for the Spirit
And then the final passage to which I direct your attention is John 14.
Another little specimen of the intercession of Christ. This from his own lips. John 14 and verse 16 You remember the general setting The Lord is going to leave He told his disciples Sadness has filled their hearts So he begins to tell them that someone else is coming to draw alongside and to minister to them. But now by what means will this great gift of the Spirit be given?
John 14, 16, and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth. I will pray the Father, and he shall give. Now follow closely. Here's the tremendous significance of this verse.
The coming of the Spirit in the Messianic age was a certainty rooted in the decree of God and abundantly prophesied in the Old Testament. It was impossible that Messiah should come and that the Spirit should not be poured out. With the coming of Messiah and the Messianic age, there is to be the coming of the Spirit. Messiah and Spirit, God says they are to be together in His purpose, His decree, and in prophecy.
However, follow closely now. Though it is absolutely certain, as a redemptive blessing promised and decreed of God, it does not come to pass automatically and impersonally.
God's work of redemption is not like a pre-programmed computer in which everything is bound up in the tape and it just feeds out at the right time creating the right impulses to bring the right results.
Every facet of God's redemptive work is conferred not impersonally and automatically but personally and vitally by the powerful, present, loving, trinitarian activity in which the high priest is central in his work of intercession. And child of God, if this can somehow grip us, it can revolutionize the delight of communion with Christ. Is it certain that you shall reach glory? Yes, you with me believe in the final perseverance of the saints.
But why is that true? Is it because God has fed onto the computer certain information and certain principles and now they'll just all be fed out automatically? No. One of the curses are many blessings of the computer age.
And we have computer people here. And I'm not slapping your boxes. I'm thankful for all the good that comes to me through them. But one of the problems is it's cutting the nerve of interpersonal relationships.
The clerk may make a mistake in counting and change, but it's at least nice to talk to a clerk and to see a living human being trying to add up the column. Now just...
Nothing very personal about all of that. And because this is true, I think as the people of God, we're losing grasp upon this dimension of biblical truth and other aspects of biblical truth. God is not working out the decrees touching redemption impersonally and automatically. The scripture says, having not spared his Son, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?
There is no gift that comes to us apart from Christ.
And all of the mighty works of the Spirit, and all of the blessings that come to us in the Spirit, Come to us because of him who praised the Father. And Peter got hold of that. For you remember on the day of Pentecost he said this. When they're wondering what in the world's happened around here.
He tells them. He being by the right hand of God exalted. And having obtained the promised spirit. He hath shed forth this.
You see. It didn't happen automatically. Because now the computer said Christ has died. Been raised, gone back.
Everything's lined up. No, no, no, no. He has received. He has sent forth.
Application One: Study Every Facet of Salvation Through Christ
And what does this tell us as the people of God? I want to close our study by just exhorting you as God's people along two lines. First of all, study. Study as God's people.
The whole of your salvation is coming through the mighty mediatorial work of our great high priest. Think of no facet of salvation that comes to you apart from Christ. And this is hard for us to do. It's easy for us to think of it coming from Christ in terms of his past activity.
And everything based upon the cross. And that's proper and right and good. But we need to realize that on the basis of the work that he accomplished upon the cross. He now intercedes to bring as it were out of the great storehouse of the blessings purchased.
every needful grace to the lives of His people. And we need to begin to think in that way as you housewives go about your work. Think that the grace that you now have to do your work delightfully as unto the Lord with a sense of purpose can be done holding communion with Him who at the right hand of the Father has you upon His heart praying for your preservation, for your sanctification, for your unification, for your glorification, who sees the lapses in faith and in spiritual vigor and is praying that your faith fail not. Can you see what this can do in the midst of all of the mundane as you hold communion with Christ
Application Two: Give Thanks for Each Fruit of Intercession
in the consciousness of His place at the right hand of the Father? And then secondly, as the people of God, we need to learn to give thanks for each facet of our redemption as it unfolds. as being another fruit of the intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ. John Bunyan, in a treatise on the subject of the intercession of Christ, said along this very line, I infer again that we have to be saved hitherto and preserved from the dangers that we have met with since our first conversion to this moment.
We should ascribe the glory to Jesus Christ. I have prayed that thy faith fail not. I wouldest that thou keep them from the evil. Here is the true cause of our standing and of our continuing in the faith and holy profession of the gospel to this day.
Therefore I must give all the glory to God through Jesus Christ. And then he goes on to pile verse upon verse, buttressing that exhortation. Dear child of God, do you try to make it a practice to say, O Lord, that I have come to the end of this day, that I have not fallen into gross sin that has, in the language of an old writer, bloodied my conscience and crippled my spirit. O Lord, I attribute my being preserved from sin to the virtue that is to be found in the intercession of your beloved Son.
Thank you for a Savior who prayed this day that I should be kept. Do you do that? well it's true that if you've been kept that's why you've been kept and when you look back at those times when it's proper to look back birthdays and spiritual crises and all of the rest do we consciously see those points at which we seem to come so near so near to taking one more step and we would have ended up absolute apostates what was it that changed the bent of our mind? What was it that somehow awakened us and we saw what fools we were that we were playing with death and hell itself? What was it that suddenly brought us back
to sanity? It was Christ's intercession. And the Father's faithfulness to hear the prayers of His Son. When I look back in my own life, I see certain periods where the whole course of my life could have been radically altered for evil, and I can find no rational explanation for why I turned aside from the course in which I was going.
I can find no rational explanation whatsoever.
And yet I find a wonderful biblical explanation. I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. Oh, how we ought to love him, and thank him, and hold communion with him as our blessed intercessor. And you know, child of God, this is a real test of how we're growing in grace.
You see, the more we're like Christ, the more we will ever live for the ends for which He lives. He doesn't live in heaven to soak up the glories of His present position. He lives to serve His people with selfless intercession.
He that saith He abideth in Him will more and more be like Him. We all with open face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are transformed into that image. What's a real mark of growth in grace? Not our ability to spout out theology.
Not our ability to answer the objections of critics and of objectors to the Christian faith. One of the most telling tests of our growth is this. Am I growing in the ability to be disentangled with myself and absorbed in the needs of others.
That's a real test of growth in grace. Isn't that conformity to Christ? He ever lives to do what? To make intercession, to give that life on behalf of others, no longer in the shame and the agony of the cross, but in the glory of his intercessory work.
As we become more like him, it will be our delight to give ourselves in that same work of intercession. And what shall I say to those of you to whom this has not been a handful of pearls?
Closing Appeal and Prayer
My friend, all I can say is I wouldn't trade places with you for a thousand worlds to go through life and death and judgment with no intercessor who has power to prevail with God on behalf of sinners. May God grant that you shall not go through life and death and judgment without an intercessor. And there is but one way to come within the orbit of that blessed work of the high priest who intercedes, and that's to come by way of his cross and there to reckon with your sin in the light of his sacrifice. And as you embrace the Savior who died and rose and cast yourself upon his mercy,
then you become, in a way that you can draw comfort now, one of the objects of his intercession. May the Lord help us from this very elementary study of his word. I feel that I've not in any way done justice to it, as I said, whether it's been just subjective to me I have preached against what is felt to me like a wall of heaviness and my frustration is unbounded but all I can do is commend the word of God to the care of the God who gave it and have some degree of peace in the knowledge that I sought to set forth his own beloved son let us pray
Our Father, we are such weak, helpless creatures.
We thank you that you are God. You are faithful to every promise that you have made. Be faithful to that promise that your word would not return to you void, but that it would accomplish that whereunto you had sent it. Fulfill that promise concerning that word.
which has been preached in the hearing of this people today. And may it be owned to the profit of your people and to the turning of some from their sins into the way of righteousness. Hear us, we pray, for the sake of our great High Priest. Amen.
Thank you.
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
The fullest example of Christ's intercession while on earth
I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not
Christ praying the Father to send the Spirit
Texts Expounded
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