In the sermon 'Who Is Your Mediator?' by Scott Brown, the central theme revolves around the role of Jesus Christ as a mediator. The speaker emphasizes the importance of recognizing Jesus as the sole mediator between humanity and God, urging believers to abandon all other mediators. He discusses the two primary aspects of Christ's mediatorship: as a substitute who took the punishment for sins and as an intercessor who bridges the gap between God and man. The sermon references several biblical texts, including 1 Timothy 2:5 and Hebrews 7:23-26, to illustrate Jesus' enduring role as a compassionate and merciful high priest who intercedes for believers. The speaker warns against relying on false mediators, such as cultural figures, religious rituals, or personal relationships, and stresses the need to seek closeness to God through Jesus alone. The sermon concludes with a call to prayer, asking for guidance to rely solely on Jesus as the true mediator.

I don't think I could ever tire of telling about Jesus Christ and to speak of His ways, His life, His perfection, His work on the cross. I can't think of anything more wonderful to talk about at any given time. And this afternoon I'd like to speak about one aspect of the glory of Jesus Christ, and that is that He is a mediator, and I hope He's your mediator, of the many facets of the glory of Jesus Christ. One of the most beautiful, one of the most helpful and life-giving aspects of his life is that he, of his glory, is that he is mediator. And in the midst of this, so I want you to be asking a question, who's my mediator?

Who is my mediator? Who is your mediator? That really is the most important question. And I, My hope really is to woo us, to urge us, to draw us into the joys of abandoning all other mediators that we have and to prefer Jesus Christ as our only mediator In two particular ways, one for salvation, but also just for help in daily life. If you ever fear that God wants to make you miserable, remember that God gives so many angles to help us understand how good and how kind He is.

There are many illustrations of Jesus Christ. He is the mercy seat. He is also the goat, the goat who receives all the punishment that we should have. He's the suffering servant. He's the lamb.

He's a criminal. He's a thief. He's a guilt offering. He's a man of sorrows. And of course he's the eternal son.

He's the word made flesh. He's the resurrection. He raises to eternal life. He's a propitiator. He's a curse.

He's a mediator. He actually is sin. Jesus Christ becomes sin for us. So all of those, I think, are designed to help us to see how much we need him. And of course, that's why he said, I am the light of the world.

That's why he said, I'm the good shepherd. That's why he said, I'm the bread of life. Because he wants us to know how much we need him. And this issue of his mediator, mediatorship is very critical. There are two aspects of Jesus being the mediator.

First of all, he's our substitute. He stood in our place, receiving the punishment that we deserved. So he's a mediator in that sense. He's also a mediator in that he stands between us and God the Father, and he makes a case for our acceptance. But he does a lot more than that.

He actually steps in front of us. Now I want you to see some biblical text just to help us to get our minds Calibrated here. I want to give you four biblical texts just as a starting point to build a framework of our understanding of Jesus Christ the mediator and And again remember my motive. Here's my motive. I already said it My motive is to encourage us to abandon all other helps in this world and To go to Jesus Christ as our mediator either for salvation or for help in anything So for text first is first Timothy 2 verse 5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all.

Secondly, Hebrews 7, verses 23 to 26. Here is a picture of Jesus Christ the Mediator as the High Priest. He says, But he, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood, since he always lives to make intercession for them, and he is wholly harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens. He always lives to make intercession. He's always interceding for me.

You know, for some reason last night I had one of the hardest nights I can remember. I was just in black darkness of terror and regretting my life, regretting even that I would come and preach today, not even thinking I could get out of bed to come and preach. By the way, that didn't happen very often. But I was so thankful that he was interceding for me. He was, he was interceding for me in a time of black darkness in my soul.

I wondered what was going on. Was the devil attacking me? What was happening to me? But he always lives to make intercession for them. And it was fitting because he is holy, harmless, and undefiled, separate from sinners.

Here is the next text, Revelation 12. This is the passage about the accuser of the brethren. The accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down. You have an accuser. The devil is accusing you before God day and night.

But guess what? Didn't we just read that Jesus is always interceding for us? He lives. He never goes to sleep forever to make intercession for us. While the devil is accusing Jesus Christ the mediator, he's interceding.

He's neutralizing the condemnations of the devil. Here's the problem. Those condemnations are mostly true. We are like the devil says we are. But guess what?

Jesus Christ has put his robes on us. He made us righteous in his eyes. The fourth text, Romans 8, verse 33, I'll just read part of this, Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns?

It is Christ who died and, furthermore, is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" There is somebody who is making a charge against you. They might be people, actually. But guess what? He's making intercession for us, and he's constantly reminding us of his love for us.

So with those four passages of scripture, I want to sort of give a definition from Scripture about this matter of being a mediator. First of all, the Greek word for mediator means man in the middle. A mediator is someone who stands between an offended party and an offender. Man in his rebellion is on one side, he has guilt, he has done things worthy of death, but there is a man in the middle that protects him from a guilty charge and a condemnation. Now there are five things that Jesus Christ the Mediator does for his children.

Christ the mediator protects you from the wrath of the offended party. Jesus Christ your mediator protects you from wrath that you actually deserve from the offended party. And that's why the Apostle Paul writes in Colossians chapter 1 about the lamb who was slain. And he says, For it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell, and by him reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, Yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight." mediators protect the reproachable from reproach.

And the mediator that Jesus Christ is, is a contradictor. He's contradicting the charges against us And that's why we read, who will bring a charge against God's elect? Who? Is there anybody? Bring a charge.

Go ahead, bring it. Bring the charges against Freddy. Bring the charges against Ash Noah. Bring them. Bring them on.

Jesus Christ, the mediator, neutralizes them. He incinerates them. Secondly, Christ the mediator brings you close to God. Mediators bring you close to God, to the offended party. The man in the middle doesn't just stand there with his arms stiff-arming you.

That's not what this mediator does. He separates the offender and the offended party, but he actually embraces the offender, and he brings you close to God. And he has mediated the conflict And then he embraces you. You know in Job chapter 9 verse 33 there's an image of this situation. There's a beautiful graphic picture where Job says, Nor is there any mediator between us who may lay his hand on both of us." Lay his hand.

He lays his hand upon you and he holds you. You know, the Bible talks about God's tender care toward his children with these terms of hands and arms, like in Psalm 139 where it says that, David says, You have laid your hand upon me. You have hemmed me in behind and before." In Isaiah the Lord says, I will hold your hand. I'll hold your hand and I'll walk with you. But a mediator brings you close to God and he lays his hands on God and on man and he brings them together.

He brings you close to God. That's the idea. You know there are so many mediators out there to help you feel close to God. We need to understand where you're going to feel, where are you going to feel close to God. You know, on Mount Sinai, when Moses was on Mount Sinai in the wilderness, Aaron thought In Mount Sinai, Aaron thought the golden calf would bring people close to God.

In the days of Malachi, the people thought that their liturgy would bring them close to God, but they ended up saying, my, how tiresome it is, because only Jesus Christ is a comforting mediator. And then thirdly, the third role of a mediator is that Christ the mediator sympathizes with our weaknesses. The Bible talks about Jesus Christ, who is the compassionate and merciful High Priest concerning sins and and fears and troubles. You know, if you walked in here discouraged or fearful, then how does Jesus Christ approach you? He's a compassionate high priest.

Remember, He's the one that cried out, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? He was tempted, He experienced everything, and worse than you have ever experienced. He is a compassionate high priest. In compassion he feels for you. That is his disposition toward his children.

When you are beaten down, when you are hurt, he has compassion. Often in his compassion he will come and rebuke you and tell you to repent of your unbelief, but his objective is all the same and that is to deliver you from your fears. That's what David said, I sought the Lord and he heard me and he delivered me from all my fears. Well, he's a compassionate high priest. You know, it was J.I.

Packer who was commenting on the role of Christ the mediator and that mediators, you know, are very familiar in modern industrial negotiations. He says this, the mediator has links with both sides and sympathizes with both. Both trust him. Here's the fourth role of the mediator. Christ the mediator speaks and acts on our behalf.

The mediator role is very broad and includes all the different roles that the mediator carries in his ministry. Jesus Christ was sent to fulfill many different roles with us. Like for example, he comes to us as our prophet. He comes to us as a priest. He comes to us as a king.

He comes to us as the heir of all things and the Judge of the world. He comes to us as a prophet because we need to hear words from Him. We need to hear words different than the ones that we are repeating to ourselves. He comes to us as a priest because we need compassion in our sins. He comes to us as king because we need leadership.

We need someone to teach us how to walk. So the prophet, the priest, and the king fulfill all of those roles. That's how Jesus acts on our behalf. He fulfills those roles and carries them out, becoming those things for us that we need. He is always making intercession.

Our confession says that he is making intercession, uniting us with God, revealing himself, persuading, governing, overcoming our enemies. That's what the Baptist Confession says about the mediatorial role of Jesus. I wish we had more time to unpack some of the stuff there, but it's remarkable what he does. He perfects our faith. He prays.

In John 17, he puts our enemies under his feet. In 1 Corinthians 15, he disarms the devil. In Colossians 2, he destroys the works of the devil. In 1 John 3, he says that Jesus won't cast out any of his children. He says, all that the Father gives me comes to me and I will by no means cast them out.

So the role of the mediator is very broad. You know, Remember when we were in 1 John? In 1 John 2, 1 and 2 is one of the most distinctive and beautiful descriptions of the mediator. First of all, John starts out very tenderly. He says, My little children, these things I write to you so that you might not sin.

And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world so if anyone sins we have an advocate with the Father. So Jesus Christ is such a marvelous mediator. You know, Martin Lloyd-Jones speaks of this and he says, Christ is not just pleading desperately and urgently trying to persuade the Father at the last succeeding and in getting him to change his opinion. Lord Jones says that's not what Jesus is doing as a mediator because the Father is also compassionate. And Jesus Christ joins with one voice with His Father.

So he's not pleading desperately with the Father for us. He's pleading in a unified way with his Father toward us. That's why John says we have an advocate with the Father. With the Father. It's not as if the Father is angry.

The blood of Jesus Christ is already paid for our sins. We have an advocate with the Father. They're on the same page. They're united. Remember, they are one.

I and my Father are one. And so you have the compassion, all the compassion of God the Father, the perfect Father, with more compassion than any father ever had. And you have the compassion of a high priest brought together, and the advocacy of Jesus Christ brings those together. Christ the Mediator brings the tenderness of your Father who loves you with an everlasting love, and a faithful and compassionate high priest together at one time. So he makes intercession.

So the question is, who is your mediator? Who brings you close to God? Who is it who speaks to you? Who is it who protects you? Who is it who has mercy on you for your sins?

And when we speak about the matter of a mediator, We're talking about being brought close to God. And what is it that brings you close to God? What gives you peace? What is it that consoles you? What is it that makes you happy?

What is it that gives you a sense of security in your sinfulness. A mediator really is security for happiness. Often we find ourselves seeking the wrong mediator. Again, I think that there are two elements of Christ's mediatorial role. One is in salvation, and the other is the way that we go with our troubles and with our questions in life.

Most people aren't perfectly satisfied with Jesus Christ as their helper, as their mediator, and they want more. And of course you know you see this broadly in world religions, you know, they invent heroes, we invent heroes. Maybe they're superheroes, maybe it's Buddha, maybe it's Muhammad, maybe it's, maybe it's Madonna, maybe it's the Patriots, maybe it's Garth Brooks, whoever it is, you create some hero that's going to come and console your soul, some song, some artist, some activity, some sport, whatever, some person, to come and make you feel the way that you want to feel. The Roman church has attempted to bring people close to God by images and saints and candles and a thousand other inventions. One of the most prominent ways people try to get themselves to feel closer to God is through music.

Often that becomes the most important mechanism for them for feeling close to God. But the Bible says there is one mediator between God and man. A mediator makes you feel safe, makes you feel good about yourselves. You know, there are different kinds of mediators. Pastors can be like mediators.

You know, we were in Africa recently and one of the things that is prominent there is you have these bishops, these holy men, and everybody goes to the holy man to get all of their answers. But it's really nothing different than what they did with the witch doctor. They claim to be closer to God. Like you want to go find that man of God. Find that holy man and when you talk to him, you're going to get close to God.

You're going to get all the answers that you need. And often people treat pastors or celebrities of celebrity, pastor, people of different kinds. Sometimes you have people who think, I only want this man to baptize me because he's a holy man. It makes it more official. It makes it more official.

Sometimes people take counseling and they make it their mediator. I'm an advocate of biblical counseling, but sometimes I almost hear people talking as if there's this sort of priestly class of counselors who can finally unlock everything in your life. And I think it's dangerous. Go to Jesus Christ. Go to Him.

Go to His word. Find Him there. Mediators often show up in personal relationships. It goes like this, my boyfriend makes me feel so alive. You know, my girlfriend is such a soulmate, you know, I really get so much help.

Well, we just need to be really careful. Here's the problem. When you get a girlfriend and she makes you feel so alive, you know, if you get married you'll find out that kind of wears off after a while. And life gets really normal and actually better. Wiser, better, and more helpful, actually.

But you know, you find people, they're looking around, you know, for their soulmate. Well, The Bible says there's one mediator between God and man. Your soulmate is going to usually probably disappoint you at some point. Your pastor is going to disappoint you at some point. Your pastor is going to disappoint you at some point.

Your counselor is going to disappoint you at some point. Sometimes it's entertainment. People go to entertainment for their, for their mediatorial role. I was really struck by something Derek Thomas said a while back. He said, ours is the first generation of Christians that has seriously asked the question, how much time can I spend entertaining myself?

He says, I've read books out of the 16th and 17th century, and I've never heard any 16th or 17th century author ask the question, how much entertainment should I engage in? But we live in an entertainment addicted culture. We go often to entertainment and sports for our mediation, for our help, to make us happy, to make us balanced, and to make us feel good about ourselves. So when we need to draw near to God, which is all the time, let's abandon all the imposter mediators and Go into your prayer closet and read your Bible. And don't think that your friend or your wife or your pastor or that book is going to fix you.

Go to Jesus Christ. Go to Him. Go to Him alone. You know me well enough to know that I'm not saying, you know, forget your pastor, forget your friend, forget the body of Christ, forget books. I'm not saying that.

I'm just saying that there can be an unhealthy impulse of the Spirit that actually neglects that one mediator between God and man, and that is Jesus Christ. Turn to him, read his word, pray, listen to the preaching, fellowship with the people of God, and remember that He protects you from the wrath of God, and He brings you close to God, and He sympathizes with your weaknesses, and He speaks and He acts on our behalf. Behold your mediator, what a blessing. Behold the glory of Jesus Christ. Would you pray with me?

Lord, how much we need to turn to you. Lord, We are so sorry for the many places and ways we turn to other things when we need you. We need your word. We need to commune with you in prayer. Lord I pray that you would wean us from all the false mediators and bring us to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Even today, Lord, as we continue on through the day, that we would seek you as such a sympathetic and compassionate mediator. Amen.