The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.” So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” Again he spoke to him and said, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” He said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.” (Genesis 18:17–33, ESV)Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
You know that Jesus intercedes for you, right? Do you understand how utterly amazing that is? At this very moment, the Lord of the Universe, the Crucified Son of God, sitting at the right hand of the Father, reigning over all things, is speaking your name to God, the Father. He isn’t distant. He is pleading for your faith. He is there before God, showing his justifying wounds pleading for you. When your words of prayer fail, when you are tired and harassed by the things of this world, when you don’t know what to say, he is praying for you. He is your advocate. He is your high priest. He is your brother. Despite all your sins, all your sorrow, all your doubt, all your selfishness, he pleads for you. If you could see what he is doing for you, right now, you would never doubt his love for you.
Let that sink in for just a moment.
When I was at the seminary, I took a class call “The History of the Christian Church”. We called it “The History of Heresy”. We went through history step by step, heresy by heresy, highlighting the churches’ failures, misinterpretations, errors, and downright lies. By the end of the class, we were wondering how the church ever survived. My professor, Rev. Ron Feuerhaun, seemed to understand how we were feeling. During a lecture highlighting a particularly heinous error, he stopped the lecture, walked around the podium and sat on the desk. The room fell silent. “Gentlemen,” he began, “Remember, the Lord is still praying for his church.” What he meant was, despite all the error, pain and suffering, Jesus is still interceding for his church.
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. (Romans 8:34, ESV)
Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)Even a cursory look at the History of The Christian Church, bears out, that it has only survived because of Jesus’ intercession. Faithful Christians sin. Faithful Christians doubt. Faithful Christians push toward error. That is the constant struggle of the church. We bring our sin; Jesus brings his forgiveness. We are Saints and Sinners. Our sinful flesh would have us push out everything to do with God’s grace. Without his constant intercession on our behalf, the church would never grow. Keep that in mind as we move forward with our building project.
Jesus is our intercessor. There is no other. Roman Catholics try to use the Saints as intercessors, not replacing Christ, but using them as subordinate intercessors. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The saints do not take Christ’s place. They do not answer prayers by their own power. But in their closeness to God, they lovingly pray for us—just as we lovingly pray for others on earth. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, summary of §§956–957)This false idea doesn’t come from scripture, or even the books the Roman church sticks in between the testaments. It is a post-scriptural development. There is nothing in scripture that says the dead in Christ hear or even see anything on the sinful earth. The dead are cut off from the living.
For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing [of earth], and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. (Ecclesiastes 9:5, ESV)Grandma isn’t looking down on your life. If she did, she’d be appalled at your sin. If you think about it that’s a good thing. Grandma is enjoying the presence of Christ. No more sin. No more death. No more suffering.
The false teaching that the Saints intercede for us has led to an even greater sin. Just an example. Have you heard that if you bury a statue of Joseph upside down in your yard before you sell your house, he’ll be forced to help it sell (be sure to dig him up after the sale or he’ll curse you instead!)? The truth is, the carpenter, the step father of Jesus, Joseph, doesn’t know or much less care about your house.
So, how do we get here from our text today about Abraham bargaining with God? Well, Abraham is interceding for the sinners in Sodom and Gomorrah. He boldly asks if 50 faithful are found, would God destroy the city. God says he won’t if 50 are found. Then Abraham asks about 45, 40, 20 and 10. God relents at 10 and says he won’t destroy the city if he finds 10. Abraham is silent. He has pushed God as far as he can. So, why did Abraham stop at 10? Didn’t he know how many people were in Lot’s family? 10 seems like a small number for such large cities. Maybe he realized that even though his intercession was bold and faithful, it had a limit. He could not save the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. He could plead with God, but he could not save. He could ask, but righteousness was not his to give. Abrham was a friend of God, he spoke to him boldly on account of the people of the cities. But he isn’t the redeemer. Abraham stopped at 10, but Jesus doesn’t stop. He is the righteous one who saves, who gives his own righteousness freely. He is the one who pleads to the Father on account of the guilty, offering them (especially you and me!) that righteousness. Abraham plead his case; he was willing to speak very directly to God. Jesus is willing to die. On the cross Jesus pleads to the Father for sinners. His death there is the reason we are saved from hell. Abraham reflects God, although limited. Jesus is the very image of God in human flesh. Jesus is the more complete Abraham. Better. He is the only one.
So, what does that mean for us today? We have an advocate, a perfect advocate. You can see it in the history of the church. It is preserved because of Jesus. Century after century, heresy after heresy, corruption, persecution and weakness, the church still stands on the Word of God, protected by Christ himself.
Numbers don’t matter. 10, 20, or 33. The church lives in Christ, and for Christ. It isn’t us, it’s him. “Brothers, Jesus is still praying for his church!” He does it when we are too weary. He does it when everything seems to go wrong. He does it when our worship is weak, when our doctrine is confused, and our witness is tainted. Jesus Christ remains faithful. He doesn’t bargain. He paid the price for his church in blood.
And so, like Jesus, we plead to the Father for “the whole church of God and all people according to their needs.” It is because we are part of Christ. It is exactly what he does. And we are joyfully able to pray because he is the perfect advocate. We never pray alone. The Spirit interprets our feeble prayers. We have an advocate at the right hand of the Father. He is speaking to the Father for all those we pray for. And he is speaking your name, advocating for you, right now. Jesus has covered you in his robe of righteousness. You are his. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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