I so much like the question because it shows that you're not just reading; you're reading and paying attention. Oh, why? “Why is he writing this way?” It makes me happy that things are not being taken, hook, line, and sinker, but you're being a Berean.

For your first question, why is he called “the Christ”? Well, let's, first of all, remember that the Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek and then later translated to English. Furthermore, the word Christ is not the name he was called in Hebrew but an English rendition of a Greek word called "Christo,” which was derived from a Hebrew word called “Mashiach”. And in Hebrew, he was called Yehoshua Hamashiach, which means Jesus the Christ.

Pause and let all that information sink in.

You’ll read in the book of Acts where it is written:

‍"Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." Acts 2:36

It's very deep. It's deeper than I can explain here. But Christ is beyond a person.

I know we think of Christ. We think of the man Jesus of Galilee. But the man Jesus of Galilee said, before Abraham was, I am. What does this mean? It means that the physical person of flesh and blood that you saw was an expression of Christ. The physical form of Jesus that we saw was a container “the Christ” was using. But “the Christ” itself has been there from the beginning. The Christ is not a thirty-year-old man.

John taught us, in the beginning, was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So even before Genesis chapter 1, there was “the Christ," right? Beyond personality. I know we think, “Oh, you know what makes Christianity better? Because our God is a person." Actually, that is a wrong statement because if your God was a person, your God is small because personality is always a product of time and place. Right?

That's why we have media personalities, okay? The word personality is from the Latin word persona, which means mask or a facade, something someone puts on for the sake of time and place, which was Jesus of Galilee, right? He came in sinful flesh. Who is the one who came in sinful flesh? That's what we call Christ.

Something that is more than space and time, something that is more than 33 years of age. So when you read the Bible in Hebrew, it says "The Christ." Hamashiach means "The Christ." "Ha" is "the" and "Maschiach" is Christ.

That's why I just translated literally by saying “the Christ," but I'm not so frozen that I can't say Jesus Christ. You know, some people can get very, very carnal about those kinds of things and then say, Oh, you must say it like this.

Not really. If that's the case, then, I mean, in the Bible, Jesus in his day wasn't called Jesus Christ; he was called Yehoshua. So that means everyone is calling the wrong name by saying Jesus—all those childish limitations—we are not about that.

But, yes, I just said “the Christ” because, actually, in Hebrew, that's how it's pronounced, but there's nothing wrong with saying Jesus Christ, but the Christ is the spirit that became flesh and died for our sins. Yes, they killed the body of the man, but they didn't kill “the Christ." Christ was, is, and will always be.

Amen.

For your second question, every Christian is called to intercession. And we must understand where intercession comes from. The Bible is a very legal and economic book, and most of the terminologies that are used in the Bible are derived from legal language and economic language.

An intercessor is similar to what we call an advocate or a lawyer, literally speaking—one who stands in the gap between a judge and a criminal. Jesus Christ is an intercessor. He still makes intercessions on our behalf. And the devil is called the prosecutor, right? The word shatan means adversary. The word devil means accuser. That's someone who brings out your crimes. So the devil doesn't lie in the courts of God. The devil tells the truth. Okay. He brings about what you have done to gain a negative verdict from God against you. And he can do that (but we won't touch those deep portals today). Hallelujah.

That's why Christ comes out as an intercessor to stand in the gap on your behalf.

So every Christian is called to intercession. Okay? We stand in a gap for people. People who can't pray for themselves or those who can. But, you know, how can I say it? In the realm of the spirit, just like petition.org, where people sign a petition for or against a person, if you have 10,000,000 signatures, the government is forced to act because the government is democratic. So whatever the people want, they get. God is something like this.

In the Bible, when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, it says that a lot of nations were crying because of the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cries went up to God, and God sent angels down to come and investigate whether it was true. And the angels came down and discovered that the petitions against Sodom and Gomorrah were true, right?

Meaning that when many people are praying for you or when many people are crying because of what you have done, it reaches heaven. You understand? So when God wants to work on the earth, He raises people who can stand in the gap so that He can have a legal right to intervene in a particular matter.

Yes, God is God, but God is sovereign. And God doesn't stand above the laws that He has created, right? So when He wants to help someone, He still needs the participation of men to carry out things on earth.

That's why He raises people and says, I want you to stand in the gap for this; I want you to stand in the gap for that; I want you to pray for Nigeria; pray for your mom; pray for your husband; pray for your child; and so on.

Every Christian is called to this. Is it possible that some are more intensely into this than others? Yes. But this is the life of every Christian, and it's something that we have to make a part of our lives.

It's between you and God to decide how those prayer moments will be. God can tell you that one day a week, I need you to stand before me for a certain amount of time for this person. And sometimes, in your daily prayers, just insert that particular person or that particular thing there. So as you pray your normal prayers, towards the end, there's a particular person you always lift every day; there's that too. But allow the Holy Spirit to tell you what He wants your intercessory to be like.

Sometimes He can tell you I want you to fast three days every month for this particular matter, and that's what He has asked you to do. There's a woman called Anna the prophetess in the Bible who spent her life praying in the temple for “the Christ.”.

Have a moment in your day where you have your prayer time; that's very important. And during that prayer time—your communion with God, your fellowship with God—input prayers for the people God brings to your heart. Every believer is called to this.

There's nobody who is not called to intercession. If Christ is an intercessor and we are after the order of Christ, then we are also intercessors. Amen?