Healed from Trauma: United with the Eternal Intercessions of the Son of God 12/2/25 St Marks Bassendean
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ASIXLmAoA4E&si=GlKFx2W_a2vlhUI9
Readings
Ps 141:1-10; Isa 52:13-53:12; Rom 8:18-34; Luke 3:21-22 [] = omitted from sermon address
“he/Jesus is able to save to completely those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” (Heb 7:25)
Introduction
Given we are leaving for Myanmar soon ,and that, as I preached two weeks ago (http://cross-connect.net.au/healing-nations-in-trauma/), the Church there is in the midst of a trauma induced by a vicious ongoing civil war, what would we expect those healed from trauma to be doing now (cf. Eph 3:10) in their relationship with Jesus? The answer is simply and profound, the present great preoccupation of Jesus is above all else his intercession in the power of the Holy Spirit for the final fulfilment of the eternal will of God the Father . This means that intercessory prayer is foundational for the followers of Christ in an ongoing manner.
Eternal Intercessions
In John 17 we hear Jesus praying from the heart. “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” (John 17:5) (Rev 13:8). We know from this testimony, of “the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8), that there is an “eternal cross” in heart of God, so Jesus’ prayers for the world, must in some real sense be eternal. This has always been so from the beginning of creation. When God spoke in Genesis 1, “Let there be light”, and there was light.”, the light in which all things were made was, as John 1 puts it, “the light of all humanity”. (John 1:4) This is the light and life of the eternal Word who became one of us when this “Word became flesh/human”. (John 1:14). Since one way to understand prayer is “thinking God’s thoughts after him”, all of Jesus’ prayers have always perfectly imaged the mind of his Father (cf. Col 1:15; 2 Cor 4:4). The prayer life of the human Son of God (1 Tim 2:5) is the model for all the prayers of the Church.
In the prayers of Jesus we hear God’s heart perfectly repeated in human words and so answered. At the tomb of Lazarus Jesus could say on earth, ““Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me” (John 11:41-42), how much more is he heard and answered in his prayers today from heaven! As Jesus prayed for the lost world when he was here, so we are on earth we commanded to do the same (Luke 23:34; 1 Tim 2:1 cf. Eph 6:18). The call to intercede for lost people is a call to be embraced by an ever-increasing faith. John, who lived close to the heartbeat of Jesus, “leaning on his breast” (John 13:23; 21:20), confidently describes the faith-filled prayers of the people of God, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life (A). 14 And this is the confidence that we have towards him, (B) that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” (1 John 5:13-16). n.b. B follows A
Eyes on Jesus Only
Remember how Jesus prayed for the difficult and stubborn apostle Peter, “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”” (Luke 22:32). This was not only a prayer for Peter but for everyone who has shared Peter’s foundational confession that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God.”” (Matt 16:16). The key to a revolution in the praying life of our parish is to pay close attention to this exhortation in Hebrews 12, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb 12:1-2). Our biggest problem, one that strangles and suffocates our prayers, is that our vision of Jesus is too small so that our vision of ourselves and our needs is to large. E.g. family and personal needs crowd out the concerns for the kingdom of God (Mark 4:19).
Unity through Glory via Sacrifice: the pre-eminence of total forgiveness
As a young Christian I was exposed to the powerful teaching of a man wounded in Singapore by the Japanese in 1942 and left in life-long pain (https://www.newcreationlibrary.org.au/about/GBingham.htm). His ongoing suffering and subsequent recovery from trauma were the key to his deep spiritual authority. Two of his emphases are unforgettable, the Fatherhood of God and total forgiveness. In Luke’s account of the crucifixion these two come together (https://www.newcreationlibrary.org.au/books/covers/160.html). “Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”” (Luke 23:32-34 cf. Isa 53:12 cf. Luke 22:37). In hearing this prayer we hear a plea from deep in the heart of God so incisive that it penetrated the innermost being (cf. Heb 4:12-13) of the penitent thief being crucified next to Jesus moving him to repentance; this is also a prayer that should lead all of us to turn from our “hard and stubborn hearts” (Rom 2:4-5) so that we in turn pray earnestly for the lost (cf. Acts 12:5).
When I was a youthful zealous pastor I often in my ignorance asked people about their prayer lives, to which the standard reply was, “It could be a lot better!” Such interrogations bore little spiritual fruit. Why? Because most Christians have an uneasy conscience about their personal prayer life, living as if this exhortation from Hebrews 10 were untrue. “Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” (Heb 10:19-22). This prophesied cleansing of the heart is found in the words of Jesus, ““Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘Youmust be born again.’” (John 3:5-7 cf. Ezek 36:25-26). The cleansing from the power of indwelling idols sets people free, free to pray to God as an all- hearing Father! This is the inner transformation that has taken place by the power of the blood of the cross and the washing of the Spirit (Titus 3:5). If you lack a vital active energetic prayer life perhaps you need to be “born again”! Let me approach all this from a slightly different angle. Jesus explained to a hard-hearted Pharisee why the tears from a “sinful woman” washed over his feet. “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”” (Luke 7:47)
After recently being righteously rebuked by my holy wife (1 Pet 3:5) I subsequently confessed my arrogance to the Lord in the middle of the night so my conscience was at peace. Then on the way to an early morning (6.30) prayer meeting I had a powerful and overwhelming revelation of the foundational basis of forgiveness to the entire eternal plan of God to reconcile all things to himself by the blood of the cross. I sensed that the dynamic of forgiveness in the Lamb of God slain and raised (John 1:29, 36; Rev 5:6), makes this plan uniquely more glorious than any other conceivable plan. Importantly, any plan which excluded suffering and trauma would exclude the need to forgive and the glory it brings to the Lord.
Praying in Heaven
Our vision of Christ must include his glorious ascension into heaven. Paul testifies that we are “raised us up with Christ/him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6) and that our “lives are hid with Christ in God…in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:3; 3:3). This truth has profound spiritual implications. The “secret”, [in the sense of something once hidden but now revealed (https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/stewart_don/faq/bible-basics/question14-mystery-bible-doctrine.cfm)], of how churches in revival are able to pray all night, from the regular all-night prayer meetings in South Korea to Iranian converts prayers in Australia, without becoming exhausted, is that they share in the Spirit of Jesus his own sense of time and space transfigured by his resurrection from the dead and “being taken up in glory” (1 Tim 3:16).
For Whom Does Jesus Pray?
Jesus never has, nor ever will, become psychologically (n.b. his ordinary physical weariness John 4:6), wearied so that his prayers are strangled or suffocated. He always was abiding in the perfect will of the Father (cf. John 15), exactly as we are exhorted to do, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Rom 12:1-2). Today Jesus’ Holy Spirit is sent to us from heaven in the immediate presence of God the Father (Heb 6:19-20; 9:24) where he is asking for us spiritual realities beyond our natural comprehension (Ps 2:8; Zech 3:1-5; Luke 22:32; John 17:15, 24; Rom 5:12; Heb 7:25). There is in Jesus prayer life nothing at all cold or indifferent. It is the all-compassionate Son of God who always intercedes for us (Heb 7:25) [Zechariah prophesied, “because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit usfrom on high 9 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”” (Luke 1:78).] How can such great and miraculous things come to pass amongst us in our ordinariness? By the power of the same Gospel power which transformed the first divided opinionated disciples into a global hub of prayer for the expansion of the Church (Acts 1:14 etc.).
The Turning Point of Resurrection
The first followers of Jesus were ordinary but the Lord we worship is not. At Pentecost, Peter applied Psalm 16 prophetically to the resurrection, ““‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; 26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. 27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’” (Acts 2:25-28 citing Ps 16:8-11). Whatever trauma momentarily overtook Jesus in his [Ichabod] hour of darkness he went on believing that his Father [in the power of the Spirit] would not allow his sinless body to decompose so his fleshly humanity dwelt in resurrection hope that he would be “raised from the dead by the glory of the Father” (Rom 6:4 cf. Matt 16:27; Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26). The resurrection transformation in the life of Jesus imparted to him spiritual authority to pour out the personal gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:33 cf. John 20:21-23). The whole person on Jesus is now overflowing with the Holy Spirit. [For our sake and for our salvation, the Holy Spirit has become “the Spirit of Jesus” (Acts 16:7; Phil 1:19), the Spirit of the glorified man Jesus Christ.] In the intimacy of the glory of God, the Spirit imparts to the Church the obedience he imparted to the earthly life of Christ, “ Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Phil 2:12-13). In Jesus, believers can pray with all the liberty and authority of God’s sons and daughters (see Rom 8:9-11, 14-17, 21; Gal 4:6; 1 Cor 12:13; 2 Cor 3:17)
Conclusion
The present equivalent of Jesus’ eternal glory (John 17:5) is his being seated in heaven interceding for us. The vast reach of his all triumphant humanity includes each of us through faith, “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” (1 John 5:4; cf. Gal 2:19-20; Col 2:14). The perfectly authoritative rest of the once totally traumatised but now perfectly healed Jesus is the all-victorious triumphant rest into which we are invited to dwell by faith in his completed work for us.
The great promise within the call to intercessor prayer, is that as we echo Christ’s eternal intercessions, and see them answered, we bear witness in the Spirit that Jesus has included us amongst the sons and daughters of the living God (Rom 8:14-16). This dynamically fulfils the promise, “this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3).
Let me conclude with one of the Lord’s challenging stories: “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart…(then it concludes with a promise and a caution) will not God give justice to his elect (cf. Rom 8:33-34), who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”” (Luke 18:1,7-8)