The Lunchroom

Goodmorning and welcome in today. Today we are going to look at a passage of scripture from 1 John but before we do that….

Many years ago I used to work with children with disabilities at a high school. I had worked at handicapped homes previously but then I was asked to apply at the school and come help a student that quite frankly, nobody wanted to help. Everyone was afraid of him.

He was very rough and tumble, loud and physical. Each of us have our own problems in life that we need to work through, just as this young man did.

His behavior and actions had burned about every bridge in that school when I finally got to him.

Day by day I was a constantly reconciling him to people in the school. He would wrong another student and I would come running to his defense. He would mouth off to a teacher and I would apologize for his behavior. It was an unending daily task of reconciling him to others in the school, teachers, principals, and students alike. He was a huge handful, who needed a handful of love. He needed someone to mediate for him, because communication was not a very strong skill for him.

He and I had to eat our lunch alone because He had so much difficulty with the other students. By the end of the school year I began taking him to the lunchroom to eat with his classmates who where beginning to enjoy his company. He needed a friend when there were none to be found. He needed an advocate to support and love him when nobody else would.

1 John 2:1-2. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

² And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

An advocate is a person who publicly supports someone, or a person who pleads another’s cause, or who speaks or writes in support of something.

The Bible teaches that all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We have our own faults and mistakes that we’ve committed but it’s Jesus that stands in the gap between us and God the Father. Jesus is perfectly righteous and holy and blameless in God’s sight. Whenever we make a mistake or sin, He’s there to plead our case for us. Each of us need Christ during our life because we need his grace and mercy to someday enter into the kingdom of heaven. As an advocate he makes intercession for us. Intercession is the action of intervening on behalf of another.

Romans 8:34 – Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, wh upo also maketh intercession for us.

Heb 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

A mediator is a person who attempts to make people involved in a conflict come to an agreement; a go-between.

1 Timothy 2:5 – For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

Hebrews 9:24 – For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

At the cross, Jesus reaches out to this sinful world with one hand and with the other, reconciles us to God. Because He is eternal, His intercession is always available.

Hebrews 7:25 – Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

Romans 8:27 – And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.  

A propitiation is the act of gaining or regaining the favor or goodwill of someone or something. Its the act of atoning for sin or wrongdoing

1 John 4:10 – Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Jesus atones for our misdeeds. Thank God for His mercy.

.John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Jesus is our atonement to God for the sins of the entire world, all we need to do is come to Him in faith.

Romans 3:25-26 – Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

Acts 13:38-39 – Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

Forgiveness is availiable. Jesus wants to be our advocate before God the father. Have you come to him for salvation yet?

Let’s think about those things for today and Lord willing we’ll talk to you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody. ♥️

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