Our Ultimate Advocate | Charles Zimmerman | Calvary Church

We're in a series from Hebrews that

we're calling Jesus is better. Better

than anything. Jesus is better than

priests, better than prophets, better

than Moses, better than angels, better

than anything you can call alongside of

you to merit positive favor from God.

Well, this morning we're going to look

at the fact that Jesus is our ultimate

advocate. Our ultimate advocate. Now, if

that word's a little strange, I know

you've heard it a couple of times, but

if that word strange to you, uh, that's

because you may not be as familiar as

you would like to be or need to be with

the Bible. The word advocate appears

numerous times in the Bible. And here's

one of my favorite places it appears in

John 14. Jesus says, "I will ask the

Father, and he will give you another

advocate to help you, be with you

forever." Now, the other advocate Jesus

is referring to is the Holy Spirit. And

Jesus says that, "I'm going to be

leaving, but I'm going to ask the Father

to give you another advocate." And

that's what Carlos was talking about.

That's what we've been singing about.

Holy Spirit, make me more like Jesus.

That's the other advocate. And so Jesus

prays that God the Father will give us

another advocate, the Spirit, to make us

more like Jesus and cause us to live

more faithfully in his mission. Well,

that begs the question, well, if the

Holy Spirit's the second advocate, who's

the first advocate? If Jesus is praying

for another, well, Jesus is the first

advocate. He's the advocate first and

foremost. And when he's leaving, he

says, "I'm going to ask the father to

give you another advocate." So what

we're going to do this morning, we're

going to look at Jesus, our ultimate

advocate. And we're going to start by

looking at our need for an advocate. So

let me ask a couple questions. You don't

have to raise your hand or anything. We

don't want to embarrass you, but uh you

can just kind of answer in your own

mind. Let just to make sure that we need

to hear this message. Um, are you ever

confused,

frustrated,

disappointed,

afraid,

feeling undervalued or unvalued,

wondering if other people care? Do you

ever have any of those feelings? Well,

if you do, this message is for you. And

if you have other feelings beside those,

this message is for you, too. So, we're

going to start by looking at our need

for an advocate. Now, one of the things

that I really like about the Bible is

that the Bible often gives us pictures

to contemplate rather than principles to

memorize. I like that because my mind

thinks more in pictures than in

principles. And so, we're going to read

today about one of these pictures of an

advocate. And in the picture, we're

going to see our need for the advocate.

So, if you have your Bibles or using

your phone or you just want to sit and

listen, I'm going to read from Hebrews

4. I'm going to begin in verse 15 and

I'll read through 57 or somewhere around

there and you as I'm reading you think

of the picture and what an advocate, who

an advocate is and what an advocate does

from the picture. All right, here we go.

for Hebrews 4:14.

Hebrews 4:14

Therefore, since we have a great high

priest who is ascended into heaven,

Jesus the son of God, let us hold firmly

to the faith we profess. For we do not

have a high priest who is unable to

empathize with our weaknesses, but we

have one who has been tempted in every

way just as we are. Yet, he did not sin.

Let us then approach God's throne of

grace with confidence so that we may

receive mercy and find grace to help us

in our time of need. Every high priest

is selected from among the people and is

appointed to represent the people in

matters related to God to offer gifts

and sacrifices for sins. He is able to

deal gently with those who are ignorant

and and are going astray since he

himself is subject to weakness. This is

why he is to offer sacrifice for his own

sins as well as for the sins of the

people. And no one takes this honor on

himself, but he receives it when God

when called by God just as Aaron was. In

the same way, Christ did not take on

himself the glory to become a high

priest. But God said to him, "You are my

son. Today I have become your father."

And he says in another place, you are a

priest forever. In the order of

Melkchisedc, during the days of Jesus

life on earth, he offered up prayers and

petitions with fervent cries and tears

to the one who could save him from

death. And he was heard because of his

reverent submission.

All right, our need for an advocate.

Well, our need's in the picture, right?

The first picture is an ancient picture.

It's a picture of a priest and that's

what the writer of Hebrews is talking

about. He mentions a high priest. Now,

how did priests operate? How did they go

about their advocacy?

Well, worship service back in the Old

Testament church, very different than

today. We get together, we're all kind

of neat and clean. We gather together.

We don't want to get messed up. We sing

songs. We hear sermons. We take a nap.

You know, all the typical stuff in a

church service. Well, in the Old

Testament, in the ancient church, it was

radically different.

Church was all about blood and guts and

gore. Junior hires would have loved it,

right? How did it work? Well, you would

bring an animal to church. Imagine what

that would smell like, right? You bring

an animal to church because worship

wasn't primarily about singing or

hearing and giving sermons. Worship was

about intercession. Worship was about

mediation. Worship was about

representing. And so what would happen?

You'd bring your animal, an unblenmished

animal, and you would bring it to the

priest. And before the priest took it,

you would lay your hands on the animal's

head. And symbolically, not literally,

symbolically,

all of your sin and guilt were

transferred to the animal. And so now

when you take your hands off,

symbolically, the animal is kind of

guilty and you're not. What does the

priest do? The priest then kills the

animal. The priest sacrifices the

animal. And what's the principle? The

innocent can pay for the guilty. The

innocent can die for the guilty. Now,

why in the world would there have to be

a death? Well, you got to remember the

whole story, right? In the beginning,

God creates human beings and he wants to

be present with them. He wants to have

fellowship with them, wants to hang out

with them. But God's perfectly righteous

and holy. When human beings rebel and go

their own way, now there's a penalty

that's incurred. And the penalty for

sin, the Bible says God designed the

penalty for sin is death. And so what

happens when you go to worship

symbolically? The guilt of your sin

transferred to the animal. So now the

guilty must pay for the sin. But

interestingly,

the priest had to go to work long before

the worshipper showed up. What would the

priest do when he went to work and

nobody else was there? The priest had to

bring his own animal.

And the priest had to put his hands on

his animal and he had to sacrifice his

animal because he was guilty just like

all the guilty people that were going to

be bringing animals for the worship

service. And so first he would make

intercession for his sin. Then he would

be able to make intercession and

representation for the other people that

would come. That was what the picture

was. So um you're saying, "Boy, that's

kind of weird. I'm glad I don't go to

church back then. Well, here's a better

or maybe not better, a contemporary

example. So, that maybe it doesn't

register. So, let me give you a

contemporary example. Um, suppose you

were accused of a crime, not just

accused by a friend, accused before the

law. So, like the police show up at your

house and they kind of put the handcuffs

on, read your rights. You've been

accused of a crime. What would you do

after you pray? What would you you'd

call an attorney, right? Because you

need an attorney to be with you so you

can have all those jokes about lawyers

and stuff. So you call an attorney. What

does the attorney do? Well, your

attorney is going to become your

advocate. And so when you go into the

courtroom, you and your attorney almost

become one. It's kind of interesting,

right? Um, so you go into the courtroom

and if you've ever watched Law and

Order, right, 24/7, you can watch law,

you watch it this afternoon if you want.

When you watch Law and Order, what

happens? The judge comes, everybody

stands up, everybody sits down. After

the judge sits down, and the judge then

says, "Will the defendant please rise?"

Question, who rises?

Who rises?

>> The defendant and his attorney or her

attorney, right? Because in the eyes of

the court, they are now one. Now,

does the defendant speak a lot in the

court? Usually not. In fact, every once

in a while, there'll be a real stupid

person, some idiot, will um try to

defend him or herself. You can usually

visit those people in prison.

What do you do? You let your attorney

talk, right? And defendants usually

don't say anything. The attorneys speak

in their behalf. Oh, lo and behold, from

the two pictures, the ancient picture of

a priest and the contemporary example of

an attorney, we now see what advocates

do. What is an advocate? An advocate is

someone who stands in your place.

An advocate is someone who speaks in

your place. In fact, the Greek word for

um advocate is paracto. Compound word.

Here's what it means. Parro means with.

Ko means call. An advocate is someone

that you call to be beside you. And so

what do you do when you go to the

church? When you go to to the worship

service, you call the priest to be

beside you. The priest, you call him to

be your representative. You call him to

be your mediator. You call him to make

intercession.

Interestingly, our word advocate does

not come from the Greek word. It comes

from the Latin word avocarro. What's

abocaro mean to speak with? To speak

alongside. What do advocates do? They

stand in your place. Stand in our place.

And they speak in our place. So what

does the priest actually do? Well, when

you lay your hands on the head of that

unblenmished clean animal, symbolically

your sin is transferred to the animal,

the priest then takes your place and

makes the sacrifice for your guilt and

you go home pronounced forgiven. What

happens in the courtroom? The attorney

stands in your place. The attorney

speaks in your place. And here's

something you need to remember if you

ever get accused of a crime.

You and your advocate are basically one.

Which means if your attorney

is stupid, you're stupid. If your

attorney is eloquent, you're eloquent.

If your attorney is meticulous in his

argumentation, you are meticulous in

your argumentation. If your attorney is

an idiot, you're going to jail because

you're one.

Your attorney stands in your place,

speaks in your place. The priest stands

in your place, speaks in your place.

That's what advocates do. Now, as we go

through life,

we call different advocates, right, to

make our place. Sometimes we call

people, character witnesses. We want

them to speak on our behalf, right?

Sometimes we call our record. Sometimes

we call our resume. Sometimes you call

our morality, our parenting, our you

know our our being a good spouse. We

call things kind of in our behalf to

speak in our place and to stand in our

place. What's the lesson from Hebrews?

Jesus is our better advocate. Our better

advocate. So here's the picture.

You and I stand accused.

We've been accused. Not accused before

friends. Not accused before family, not

accused before your kids, not accused

before your neighbors. We stand accused

before God. Now, that's bad news, right?

Here's even worse news. The accusations

are true, right? You're guilty. And so,

it's not just that you've been accused.

That's bad enough, right? Your

reputation may be tarnished. No, no, no.

The accusations are true. You're now

guilty.

What's the message of Hebrews? You need

an advocate. But whatever advocate you

can invent, whatever advocate you can

call to speak in your place and stand in

your place, Jesus is a better advocate.

Jesus wants to to stand in your place.

Jesus wants to speak in your place.

Accusations beloved, the accusations are

true. Jesus says, "Call me to stand in

your place. Call me to speak on your

behalf. I will be your advocate. We need

an advocate and Jesus is the better

advocate, the ultimate advocate. Well,

that then raises um a question.

Well, what are his qualifications

um to be an advocate?

Well, the qualifications of a priest are

he's got to be, you know, a descendant

of Aaron. The qualifications for a

lawyer, you got to go to law school, you

got to learn. And so to be a qualified

attorney, you have to know how the legal

system works, right? You have to know um

how the courtroom, all the dynamics

work. You have to know the rules and

regulations for the priest. He has to

know the rules and regulations. Um I

started reading Leviticus today. That

would have been like the priest's

qualifications manual. So they would

have to read through, they would have to

memorize and then apply all the stuff

from Leviticus. Well, what are the

qualifications

that Jesus brings as our better

advocate? Now, we don't have time to

tease them all out, but I do want to

read one verse that actually highlights

a number of them. Look at verse 14 from

chapter 4. The writer of Hebrews says,

"Therefore,

since we have a great high priest who

has ascended into heaven, Jesus the son

of God, let us heard hold firmly to the

faith we profess." Okay. Now if Jesus

the son of God ascended into heaven,

what has to happen before he ascends

into heaven, he must first descend from

heaven. And so behind the ascension is

the descension. Jesus becomes a human

being. We just celebrated that at

Christmas, right? We call that the

incarnation. And so the incarnation is

the backstory behind Hebrews 4:14. So

Hebrews 4:14

Jesus becomes one of us so he can

represent us. Hebrews makes that point

in what I read but all over the book.

Right? In order for a pe in order for a

priest to be your representative, to be

your advocate, to stand in your place

and speak in your place, he must be one

of you. He's got to be an Israelite.

He's got to be a human being. And he's

got to know the weakness. And so the

priest is one of Jesus has to become

like one of us in order to be our

advocate. That's why we can say Jesus

did not become an angel. He's not an

advocate for angels. Jesus became a

human being because he's the advocate

for human beings to stand in their place

and speak in their place. Yeah. But not

just the incarnation.

What did we read in those verses? Jesus

is perfectly righteous. So, he knows our

weakness because he was tempted, but he

never sinned. Now, that's a really big

deal. And here's a really big deal.

Remember how it goes? God's perfectly

holy and just. Human beings commit

rebellion and sin because of that sin.

Now, they they deserve death. Jesus

never sinned. Therefore, there he didn't

have to pay the death penalty. He he was

free. He didn't have to die.

But our advocate willingly takes the

place of those that are guilty. So now

the innocent can die for the guilty just

like the pictures. Now I do have to tell

you it doesn't work that way with your

lawyer. Don't make that case. You're

found guilty. Your lawyer's not going to

jail for you. He's gone home. Um but

Jesus, our ultimate advocate, what does

he do? He takes our place. Not just

speaks and stands on our place. He takes

our place and dies to pay our debt even

though he did not have to did not have

to die and did not have to pay it. Jesus

the incarnation Jesus perfectly

righteous. Oh yeah. One other piece.

He's eternal. That's what the whole

Melkisedc stuff at the end. In a couple

weeks Carlos is going to talk about

Melkisedc. So you come with all your

questions that day. Um here's the point

with me Melkisedc. He appears a couple

times in the Bible. very rarely shows up

in Genesis. And here's the point with

MelkiseDC in Genesis. No genealogy is

given. Now, that doesn't mean he didn't

have one. MelkiseDC was a human being.

He was born, but no genealogy recorded.

Now, that's a really big deal because

all of the other priests from the tribe

of Levi, Levi in the family of Aaron,

they had to prove their genealogy in

order to be a priest. MelkiseDC has no

genealogy, but he is a priest. He's the

priest of righteousness and the pri and

and the king of peace, right? Um and he

disappears without genealogy and without

destination. Now, that doesn't mean he's

eternal. What that means that's not

recorded. The writer of Hebrews picks

that up and says, "Oh yeah, but our high

priest, our ultimate high priest, he has

no genealogy because he is eternal. His

high priesthood never ends." You one of

the other facts with the high priest,

you're always getting a new one because

they die or they retire. And so here's

the high priest. He's done. Jesus never

retires. He never dies. Therefore, after

the resurrection, he's our high priest

forever. He um

incarnation becomes a human being to be

our representative. He doesn't sin. So

he doesn't have that debt to pay. He's

perfectly righteous. And he eternally is

high priest. We will never need another

one. So, how does that go? Let me uh see

if I can spin it out like this.

Let's suppose that uh

that is a courtroom

and I'm on trial. I don't want your

accusations. It's my story, right? I'm

on and so um the accusations are

leveled. Uh but thankfully,

Jesus is my advocate. He stands in my

place. He's going to speak in my place.

And so the king of the universe sits

behind the uh bar of justice and he says

uh will the defendant please rise?

So Charles and Jesus rise

and uh the judge says you've heard the

accusations that have been leveled. You

heard the crimes that have been

mentioned. You heard all the sins that

were done in secret and in the open.

What do you have to say now? You don't

speak. But the advocate says this,

"Your honor,

my father,

I tell you today that all of those

accusations are absolutely true." And I

look at him and say, "What the heck?"

Can't we get off this deal with a

technicality? Don't we have some

histrionics? Let's have something,

right? Oh, they're all true. In fact,

there are a few other accusations that

weren't mentioned. And I'm saying, "What

are you doing?"

My client is absolutely guilty. He

deserves to have the book thrown at him,

the bar of justice to be delivered.

Absolutely guilty. And I'm sitting there

saying, "Oh my goodness."

But that's not the end of it. Then Jesus

says, "But but

I am here to announce to the court."

that all of those crimes and all of that

guilt has already been paid for.

I did not have any debt to pay. I did

not have any sin to be forgiven of. But

I died and paid Charles's debt.

Therefore, here's the important thing we

sometimes miss. Therefore, our advocate

says, in the name of justice,

he must be acquitted.

Because in this court, like others,

there is no double jeopardy. You cannot

have two payments for the same crime.

Since it was all paid for, he must go

free. And the gavl hits the table and

the acquitt

is announced.

It's not a bad story, right? Let me just

ask you before we uh move on.

Take whatever

other advocates you're tempted to bring

beside you.

You know, we mentioned a few, right? You

bring bring your 401k as an advocate.

See what that's going to do, right? Uh

bring your spouse, bring your kids,

bring your parents, bring your resume,

bring your transcript, right? Oh, maybe

not. Bring your uh promotion list at

work. Bring all your business cards as

you were promoted through the years,

right? Bring all that. Um,

will any of those

advocacies

make a difference in the court?

Not at all. You see,

Jesus is not just a better advocate.

He's the ultimate advocate because he

has the qualifications.

His qualifications are he's God himself.

He became a human being. Lived a

perfectly sinful life. died to pay a

debt he didn't know. Rose from the dead

to prove that God's satisfied. And now

today

stands as our advocate making

representation and intercession for us.

You know, we often talk about and it's

right to talk about. We often talk about

all that Jesus has done for us in the

past. Jesus died for our sins and we did

it already, right? He became a human

being, died in our place and rose from

one. You need that, right? Or we talk

about what Jesus does in the future.

Jesus is coming back and he's going to

make all things right and he'll bring

vindication to his people and to God's

plan forever. But we rarely talk about

what Jesus does in the present.

That's what he does in the present. In

case you haven't noticed, then

you and I screw up pretty regularly,

right? Which means we need a regular

continuous advocate to continually make

intercession for us.

Well, we've talked about the

qualifications and we talked about um

the need.

Let's talk a little bit about the

results. Um here are a couple of results

that come and we don't have time to spin

them all out. I'm going to mention a

few. Here's one.

We get a new identity. Now, your

identity comes when you are one with

your advocate. And so your new identity

comes if you and Jesus are in an

advocacy relationship. If Jesus is your

advocate, your new identity is that

you're in him and he's in you. You know

that that's one of the major themes of

all the letters that Paul wrote. Paul

never got over the fact that he was in

Jesus and Jesus was in him. In fact,

where that story begins and you can

trace this out in almost every one of

Paul's letters. All that happened in

Acts chapter nine when Jesus appears to

Paul when he's traveling to Damascus and

he says, "Saul, Saul, Paul, why are you

persecuting me?" Paul wasn't persecuting

Jesus. Oh yes, he was though. If he was

persecuting Christians, he's persecute

Jesus is one with his people, right?

Paul never got over that. And so your

new identity is you're in your advocate.

Your advocate's in you. That's your new

identity.

But here's a one that we played with

before.

A quiddle. What are the results? You get

a new identity and you get complete a

quiddle. I'm not a I'm not a big hymn

guy. Um,

but there are a couple hymns that uh

rock me by what they say. And maybe none

of them does that the way um an old hymn

that we never sing and I hope we never

sing. It's really weird. The title is

He's His be the victor's name. That

grammar is even weird, right? His be the

victor's name. Um there are actually

contemporary versions of this. You can

listen on YouTube today if you want. Um

but don't tell Andy you want to sing it.

Um, but here's the chorus

and tell me what this does to your

heart.

Well, may the accuser roar

of sins that I have done.

H,

you ever think about that? You know,

we're guilty

of our own impositions that we make on

other people. So for example, how do you

fair? How do I fair just by living up to

what you expect other people to do? We

do you ever commit sins that you that

you say other people shouldn't commit?

Do you ever tell lies when you tell

people not that they that they shouldn't

lie? Are you ever greedy when you tell

them they shouldn't be materialistic? We

can't even measure up to our own

standard, let alone the standards of

others. Oh yeah, how about the standard

of God? Well, may the accuser roar

of sins that I have done.

And uh in case you haven't realized it,

you've done a few today.

Well, made the accuser roar of sins I

have done. Look at the next line. I know

them well

and thousands more.

Isn't that true?

You know, when you're feeling uh guilty,

maybe somebody confronts you or God in a

moment of sil, you know, you're kind of

lying in bed at night, you're up early

in the morning and all of a sudden

you're just kind of you're wrecked with

how you failed somebody, the sin you've

done, the way you've rebelled against

God after all he's done for you. Well,

made the accuser roar of sins. I know

them well

and thousands more.

But it doesn't take long to swim in

excess pool, does it?

Well, may the accuser roar of sins I

have done. I know them well

and thousands more.

But because of our advocate,

Jehovah

knoweth none.

That doesn't mean because you haven't

committed them. It means because your

advocate has already paid for them.

Well, may the accuser roar of sins that

I have done. I know them well

and thousands more,

but my holy God knows none.

That's the gospel. That's what the

ultimate advocate brings. So, you bring

on the competition. Whatever you're

tempted to trust in, whatever you're

tempted, and whatever you want to bring

before that bar of ultimate justice that

somehow is going to merit favor with God

for you bring the competition on.

Compare the competition to that. How do

they measure up?

Our God

knoweth none.

Well, what's the response to that? If we

get a new identity and full acquitt,

well, what's the third result?

Confidence, right? If we have been

acquitted before the bar of God's

justice

and we have a new identity wrapped up in

our advocate, we can boldly not just

approach the throne of grace. We can

boldly face whatever comes, right?

If our ultimate eternal destination will

be determined that day and that's

already been taken care of all the other

little bars between then and now we can

take care of that, right? Confidence.

That's why the writer of Hebrews says,

"I can walk boldly into that courtroom."

If you can walk boldly into that

courtroom, you can walk with confidence

into any courtroom, any appointment, any

meeting that you and I will ever have.

And one last result

mission. It doesn't end with just all

the benefit coming to us. We now become

God's conduit. We become the channel of

Christ advocacy flowing to others. Jesus

doesn't only want to be our advocate. He

wants to be the advocate of others. And

he wants to use us to transfer that

advocacy to others. And so we get a new

identity. We get complete a quiddle. We

not only get forgiveness, we get

confidence and boldness to face all of

life.

And we get a mission that has an eternal

outcome. We get to be God's witnesses.

We get to worship

and we get to lead others to the feet of

our advocate who wants to be their

advocate, too.

I don't know about you,

but that's a pretty good way to live,

don't you think?

So, I'm not sure what advocate you're

tempted to trust. I know I've got mine.

Trade up today. Put those other

advocates on the back burner. Make Jesus

your ultimate advocate. You'll never be

disappointed. Let's pray.

Father, we give you thanks that in

eternity past, you dreamed up this

model.

Thank you, Jesus, for volunteering to

fulfill the mission.

And now we ask Lord that you would allow

us to never cease being overwhelmed by

that reality. That we have a new

identity, complete a quiddle, boldness

to approach you and whatever else comes

and a new mission that lasts forever.

Help those to be the uh strings on our

guitar, the message that we live by. And

Lord, I pray that you'd be pleased with

that and that we would honor you by how

we live from now until we stand in that

courtroom. We pray in the name of our

advocate. Amen.