Intercession

Weekly Message

Tom Seymour

January 17, 2014

Intercession

Hebrews 7: 25

Consequently, he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

[Before offering this week’s message, let me apologize for the lack of a message last week. The recent ice storm had knocked out my internet access and I had no way to post a message. Things have finally returned to normal.]

Were it not for Christ interceding for us with the Father, we could never be acceptable to the Lord. But as Paul points out in Hebrews 7: 25, Christ does intercede for us. And not only sometimes, but as the scripture says, “always.”

My goal in this message is not only to point out how Christ petitions the Lord on our behalf, but also to suggest that as we are to be imitators of Christ, we therefore must intercede for others.

Scripture tells us that the prayers of the righteous (that is, on the behalf of others) can cover a multitude of sins. To fully understand this is to grasp something almost incomprehensible. We, as followers of Christ, have the power to pray to God to restore someone who has sinned.

John, in his first letter, says (1 John 5:16a) “If you see your brother or sister committing what is not a mortal sin, you will ask and God will give life to such a one…”  This sounds less like a suggestion and more like a commandment, doesn’t it?

How then, knowing what we have just read, can we possibly not pray for others? Faith without works is dead, but not all works are corporeal. Some are spiritual. So while doing our best to help others materially has much value, the most powerful and important thing we can do is to intercede on someone’s behalf before God in heaven. The two, the physical and spiritual parts of intercession are not to be taken separately, but as a whole. And in the everlasting light of eternity, our prayers and intercessions have more profound and long-lasting results.

Sometimes it’s hard to pray for others, especially if those others hardly seem deserving of our time. But always remember how Christ, while the members of the Roman crucifixion team were nailing him to the cross, prayed to his Father to forgive them their sins for they knew not what they were doing. If Christ, in the midst of his deepest passion, can pray and intercede for those who are torturing and killing him, how can we not pray for those who have wronged us?

Our intercession does not always need to be on behalf of someone’s specific sin. We are all sinners and thankfully, we have Christ to go on our behalf. So what about our friends who we see falling away from God? What about those we love who are sick, and perhaps dying, either spiritually or physically or both? We are bound to intercede for them too. Perhaps God’s will won’t be exactly what we would have it be, but nonetheless, we need to pray, to intercede with the Lord on behalf of our friends and loved ones.

Always remember, God hears our prayers. The prayers of God’s people are the most powerful forces in the universe.