Prophet, Priest & King

Sermon Transcript

Christology-Part 9
Prophet, Priest & King
Pastor Mike Fabarez

Well, let’s pray together, and then we’ll tackle this topic.

God, thank you very much, just for the opportunity that we have to study your word again. I do pray, as I’ve been praying this afternoon, that you would just feed us spiritually, encourage us, just increase our understanding of your Son and help us to leave with a real profound gratitude and thankfulness for all that Jesus Christ is. We thank you very much for just these things that they fall together, they come together, they blend together so well in the Scriptures and there’s so much for us to see and celebrate and connect the dots and I just pray it would be an enriching night for us. Encourage us, I pray, as we study about your Son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

All right. Tonight we’re going to move from titles, which was last week. I counted the segments. We had over 100 squares you filled in, if you actually kept up with us. That was an amazing, amazing night. But we’re moving from titles to offices. See, because it’s one thing for me, maybe take my kids and say, there’s determined Matthew, he’s Mr. Determination, or affable John, the affable one, or charming Stephanie. It’s one thing to give them descriptive titles. It’s another to call them by an office. Pastor Matthew, that’s different. Or President John, or whatever. Princess Stephanie. If it’s a true office. You see, that’s different.

Now, we came across this briefly, and some of these titles overlapped last week, and we saw this, but we left it for tonight, because when we think of prophet, priest, and king, those are different. Those aren’t just descriptive titles that speak to attributes of Christ. These are offices which Christ fulfilled.

Now, before you think of it the way I think we naturally tend to think of it, you need to remember what John 1:3 taught us, and that was that nothing that has been made was made without the direct involvement of Jesus Christ, right? Nothing has been made except for His involvement as a part of the triune God in creating all things. So it’s not as though He gets here and He says, oh, it’s a lot like your priesthood. That’s what I’m like. It’s a lot like that. Not like that at all, see?

It’s not like a pastor getting up and trying to illustrate something from his culture, you know, bringing in a baseball illustration and talking about how, you know, this truth is kind of akin to the game of baseball. Because Christ created all these things. See, He was the architect of the priesthood. He was the one who created the concept of kingship. He was the one who determined and employed every single person that served as a prophet. He made all those things and then came to fulfill all those things. And that’s different. I mean, that takes these offices to a whole new level.

They are created initially in Old Testament history so that Christ would come and fulfill those. He’s not just scrambling to find an analogy that will help you understand His ministry. These prototypes, these what we often call types, these types of service to God and to us that Christ begins to come in and reveal to us that that’s me, these are things that He had planned out as the great architect of all things in time past.

So, we’re back to a familiar chart, and I wanted you to get this back up in your mind. We started here nine weeks ago thinking through the concept. Letter A, the common denominator, is the word Christ. And I use the word Christ because it’s our English transliterated word, and we have the word Christos here on your chart, and then we say to transliterate that brings us to the word Christ. And you’ve already filled this in once, but let’s do it again so that we can get this all fresh in our minds.

Meshach, or I should have put the hieric and the yod in there and made a verb. Mashiach is transliterated Messiah, right? Christos, Christ, Masha or Mashiach is Messiah. Those are just transliterated. And I know I say this a hundred times, but you do know the difference between translation and transliteration, right? Translation, you give it a new word that speaks in your language. Transliteration just takes that word in another language and gives it English letters or Latin letters, letters that then come down and we just say the word in our language, even though it’s the same word in that language. Christos, Messiah, Christ, Messiah.

Now, you take the words Christ and Messiah and you want to translate those, well, then you get this word, right? Anointed. Anointed is the word, and it’s an old English word, but it’s the word that actually gives a different word that communicates in our language what Christos and Mashiach, or the verb form, Meshach, what that means in our language. It means to anoint.

Now, to anoint, if you’re going to create some synonyms here for the word anoint, you’re going to come up with words like this, pour, smear, sprinkle, or rub. Okay? Pour, smear, sprinkle, or rub.

Is this familiar? Remember this chart? You were here week one? You filled it in before you even put them up on the screen, didn’t you? Because you knew this one. We’ve been there before.

Christ, Messiah. Christ, Messiah means anointed. To say Christ is to say the anointed one. To say Messiah is to say the anointed one. To say anointed one is to say that someone has had something, though it’s not defined here, poured, smeared, sprinkled, or rubbed on them.

Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Exodus 30, and just to show you that when we speak of it in this particular lecture, we’re speaking of the religious reference to the Word, although there’s all kinds of non-religious references to the Word. So we’ll talk about those as time unfolds here. Exodus 30, verses 31 through 33. Are you with me on this?

“And you shall say to the people of Israel, this shall be my holy anointing oil throughout your generations. It shall not be poured on the body of an ordinary person, and you shall make no other like it in composition. It is holy, and it shall be holy to you. Whoever compounds any like it or whoever puts any of it on an outsider shall be cut off from his people.”

So you’re going to make this special kind of composition that’s based on oil. That’s the main ingredient. And you’re going to put all these things in it, which, by the way, are going to make it smell a particular way. It’s going to smell good. That’s a good thing. And you are now not going to use that particular, you know, I don’t know, aftershave lotion, I guess would be a similarity to what we use. It’s something you splash on to someone. You wouldn’t ever use that and have that smell. That particular, you know, cologne was only used for this particular purpose. It was set apart. And then the Bible talks about ways in which it is set apart.

There are in the Bible three primary anointings. Okay? And I don’t know how far to go with this. I want to do this week one, but we had so much to talk about week one. But if you kind of want to round out your view of this, because here’s the problem. You talk about anointing. Number one, it’s used in all kinds of bizarre ways today as people talk about it at church. Lord, give the preacher an anointing tonight. You know, you got a lot of usages of the word that are bizarre, but you’re going to read your Bibles and you’re going to find usages, particularly the ESV that tries to be as literal as possible. It uses the word anointing a lot because it takes the word kreo or mashach and it starts to use those root words and translates it straight across. And when it does, we’ve got to know that not every time the word anoint is used or anointed is used, does it mean something religious.

Now that one does, because you had to use this particular composition of oil with the particular fragrances in it for the special usage, and there were three usages for that. But let’s talk around this chart for a minute and not fill it in. If you just want to round out your idea of this, here’s a few passages to write down. We won’t turn to any of them, but Isaiah 21:5. Let’s start with that one. Isaiah 21:5 is one example of the word mashach, which is the word to anoint. And it is the word of, it is the context of taking oil and rubbing it on a shield. Because often the shields, different kinds of shields were used, but the oil was something they used to help preserve them. Oftentimes they had leather over the top of them. They would rub oil on a shield.

Jeremiah 22:13 talks about painting a house and it uses the word mashach, to paint, which is to smear paint on something, to rub paint on something, to cover it with this. Well, that’s, of course, if you find that word, we’re not talking about, you know, and I think the ESV even translates it painting, I’m not sure. We’re not talking about, obviously, the sacred, special, holy anointing.

Amos 6:5. Amos 6:5 talks about applying lotions and perfumes to the body. Now, clearly, they did a lot of that kind of thing with a lot of things that were based on oil, olive oil, which is the number one, you know, commodity there, the thing that was produced in Israel. That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re not talking about just putting oil on your body because we’re talking in the three main anointings as a special or sacred anointing.

Now, there is a secular usage that’s not one of the three primary anointings, and that is when objects are anointed for the tabernacle initially and later for the temple. Tabernacle was a tent, worship center, then it was built by Solomon as a permanent structure, and the utensils, the lampstand, the ark of the covenant, even the offerings, they’d have to be anointed with oil. And that was a special use of the oil that was used for anointing, but it was done for religious purposes. And so the secular usage and then the religious use, the religious use sometimes was used for objects and later for, as the chart is going to be filled in here, for the three specific anointings, prophet, priest, and king.

New Testament, just to show we have the word from which Christos comes, used in common ways in the New Testament. Matthew 6:17. Matthew 6:17. Remember when it talks about when you’re fasting, right? You know, you’re to not be ostentatious about it, and it speaks of putting oil on one’s face. It’s the word that we get the word anointing translated into, Christos, to put oil on your face.

Luke 7:38, Luke 7:38, she takes a vial of ointment, it says, and she pours it out and puts it on Jesus’s feet. Do you remember that scene? The ESV calls it anointing because that’s the word. But we’re not talking about the kind of anointing that we’re going to talk about tonight.

Mark 16:1, when a body was prepared for burial. Mark 16:1, Jesus’ body. They went to anoint the body. That was not for religious purposes. That was for burial. That was a custom of the day.

James 5:14. James 5:14 speaks of calling the presbyteros of the church, the leaders of the church, and have them pray for you, and to anoint the sick with oil. Anoint, which again, you got to remember, and this is a whole other sermon, don’t get me started on this, but the pastors, I hope we can return to this trend, used to be the most educated people in town, right? If you lived in a village, particularly in the diaspora, and you were, you know, wandering out there in your village, you had a Jewish village, and James writes to you, you would, the guys that did the things that required some education and knowledge were the leaders of the community, the presbyteros, the elders of the village, in this case, the spiritual community of the believers.

Now, your pastor is probably not the one you’re going to go to if you have a compound fracture, because you’ve got your doctor to do that. It’s like the mission field. Here’s a good example. I’ve been out in the mission field in some of the remote parts of the world, and you’ve got the preacher there who’s come from America as the preacher. He’s also now, by default, he is now the doctor of the village as well. And I remember being there, and I’m preaching through a translator, and someone got hurt, some accident, and they were cutting wood or something. And of course, they come to the missionary’s house for help.

To anoint with oil, and just to show you that this is a medical, medicinal use of oil, is the story of the quote-unquote good Samaritan. Remember, he takes the Jew that is there on the ground, the Samaritans are supposed to hate, and he bandages up his wounds and anoints them with oil. And that was the primary thing. It’s like in the olden days, whatever your ailment was, you take aspirin, right? That was the aspirin of the day.

And so in James 5, we don’t carry around as pastors and leaders of the church vials of oil. We’re going to send you to the doctor if you have a compound fracture. I mean, we’ll wrap it up for you before you go, but we’re not the doctors of the congregation here.

Did you follow any of that? Because I know that’s a question everybody has. Anointing with oil, you got to pray anointing with oil. Pray. We have a major network of prayers here, including our pastors. All of our pastors get all the prayer requests that come through the quote-unquote prayer chain, and that’s very important to us. But when it comes to anointing with oil, people say, well, we’ve got to do that ceremony. It’s not a ceremony. See, in my understanding of James 5:14, it’s about getting you the medical treatment you need, and since we’re outdone by our doctors in terms of insight as to how to fix your body, we’re going to do that. I’m going to pray for you, but we’re going to send you to the doctor.

There’s some common uses in the New Testament and the Old Testament, and a few mentions of sacred usages of the word anointing. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about three as it relates to prophet, priest, and king.

Okay, let’s look, though, at the prophet. Jot this down and turn with me to 1 Kings chapter 19, and let me show you. Actually, we can kill two birds with one stone in this particular text because there’s both a call to anoint the king and to anoint the next prophet. Elijah is supposed to do the anointing here.

Prophet: Anointed

1 Kings 19:16, “And Jehu, the son of Nimshi, are you with me on this? You shall anoint to be king over Israel.” God is speaking now to Elijah. So there we know we anoint the king, and now you do it with that special fragrance of oil that was made by the Levites.

“And Elisha,” that was the successor to Elijah, in case there’s any confusion, right? Son of Shaphat of Abel, Meholah, right? Which you didn’t know him by that anyway, but I thought I’d see if I could say it. “You shall anoint him to be prophet in your place,” okay?

So prophets, not uniformly, but we do see in Scripture, are anointed by previous prophets to be taking on the role of the prophet. So, a prophet was anointed.

Turn over to Psalm 105:15. Psalm 105:15. Hebrew parallelism is great because it helps us define some words because, as you know, it’s not rhyming. If it were, you wouldn’t see it because it would be in Hebrew, but it’s not rhyming, not even in Hebrew. When you go from prose to poetry in the Bible, the kind of poetry we have most of the time is Hebrew parallelism, where you get one line, and then the next line is a different way to state the same thing you just said. And here we have an example of that.

Verse 14 says, he that has God allowed no one to oppress them, he rebuked kings on their account. Now, verse 15, saying, “Touch not my anointed ones,” right? And we’re not talking about touching with the forefinger, right? “And do my prophets no harm.” We’re talking about doing harm by touching. Don’t sock them, don’t hurt them, don’t stab them, don’t throw rocks at them, don’t touch my anointed ones.

And who are we talking about in this text? Prophets. So the prophets were called the anointed ones, which by the way, if in your mind, and this gets it to be a little more germane to our discussion, if you know that what’s being said here is, do my messiahs, right? No harm. The messiah, well, that’s what it says. If you’re reading Hebrew, that’s what you’d see there. Do not touch my messiahs. Which messiahs are we talking about? My prophets. Don’t do my prophets any harm.

So the prophets were known as messiahs, see? Small m. But it was an important thing because they had a role to play, as we’ll see from Deuteronomy that is very significant and profound.

So the anointing of the prophet, example, 1 Kings 19. What are they called? They’re called the messiahs, the anointed ones, Psalm 105:15.

Priest: Anointed

The priests. Let’s go back to Exodus, Exodus 30. Exodus chapter 30. I guess you wouldn’t have to turn to all these, but you should see them, I suppose. Some of you aren’t, and that’s okay. Let you stay.

30:30, like the Winchester. Huh? Most of you got that.

“You shall anoint Aaron.” Right? He’s the priest. He’s the high priest. “And his sons, consecrate them.” What does that mean? Consecrate comes from the same word, comes from the same root words, which is holy. Make them holy. Set them apart. Make them special amongst the others. And how do you typify that? How do you show that? Through anointing.

“Anoint Aaron and his sons, consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests.”

So every priest, particularly the high priests in particular, as the time went on, the high priest in particular had a very elaborate ceremony to anoint the priests, Aaron.

Numbers 3:3, I guess you don’t need to turn there because these are such simple concepts, but it’s good to have at least the references down here. Numbers 3:3 says, “These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed priests whom He ordained to serve as priests.” The Messiah priests. I mean, that’s what the word is if you transliterate it the way we often do, Messiah. The Messiah priests. Or if it were in Greek, it would be the Christ priests.

Just like we saw the prophets are called the Christs. We’re not used to using those words as it relates to someone other than Jesus, but these words are used throughout the Old Testament for the prophets and for the priests.

King: Anointed

And lastly, for the kings. This is a great historic text that you know, 1 Samuel 16:13. And you can see the importance of this, carrying his flask, again, from the worship center, because this was not just, hey, Jesse, do you have any oil in the cupboard? Because it wasn’t that kind of anointing. It was a sacred anointing, and Samuel was sent as the prophet who had been anointed by the other prophets, right? And now he is bringing the oil, the horn of oil, and he’s coming to anoint David. Or no, is this, yeah, this is David. I had the Saul passage put down, but I thought this would be more fun to look at.

1 Samuel 16:13, “And Samuel took the horn of oil and he anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.”

So he pours the oil on him. Anoints him. It’s used as a verb. I guess that’d be a good way to say the anointing is verbal, and the nicknames are always nouns, like 2 Samuel 23:1. This is a good one just because it’s such a powerful way to state this.

2 Samuel 23:1. David’s about to die, and look at the noun that is used for him with a few associated divine names. Some very interesting descriptives of David, too.

“Now these are the last words of David, the oracle of David, the son of Jesse, the oracle of the man who was raised on high from a little shepherd boy. Underline this now, here’s the noun, the Messiah of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel,” the Messiah, the anointed one, “the anointed of the God of Jacob.”

So we have the kings being called the Messiahs, the priests being called the messiahs and the prophets being called the messiahs. Now again Christ is planning all this out. This is not like he’s just coming up with associations. He planned the offices of prophet, priest, and king in the Old Testament and now he comes to fulfill them.

By the way, every time you use the word Christian you do know you’re using the word anointed, right? You are. If you call yourself a Christian, you are calling yourself the small m Messiah, right? The little Christ. That’s what Christian means, the little anointed one, which has some biblical, you know, precedent.

Not only is the word Christian used three times, usually is a disparaging phrase, twice early on in biblical history. Do you want those references? Agrippa uses it once in Acts 26 when he says, “Are you trying to convince me to become a Christian?” In Acts 11:26, they talk about those in Antioch being called Christians, which probably was a derision. It was probably a, you know, look at those followers of the Messiah. And the last one is used more positively, although it’s often thought of in terms of the oppressor. 1 Peter 4:16 says, and even if you suffer as a little christ as a little messiah a little anointed one 1 Peter 4.

So those are three references to us as Christians. Though that’s not the popular usage of naming us there are three references to us as Christians in the New Testament. The other one that’s important, 2 Corinthians 1:21, “And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us,” there it is, “and who has also put His seal on us and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”

What’s interesting about this is the conjunction in verse 22, “and who has also put His seal on us and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” In other words, it doesn’t equate anointing with the reception of the Spirit, although often that word is connected with Christ having the Spirit, you know, descend on Him. But the picture here is that becoming a Christian, to be established in Christ, is the anointing concept.

“And it is God who has established us with you in Christ and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” And while it’s a bit of a sentence where it’s hard to define what do you mean by that, you can broaden the sentence and at least say, we know that whatever it means, it means you’re a Christian. You’re in Christ, and you’ve got the Spirit as a guarantee, and you’re His. If you’re His, you’re anointed, right?

So, that’s interesting that the word that caught on for Christians throughout at least our, you know, culture has been Christians, even since New Testament times, the anointed ones. I know that sounds like, you know, I’m not worthy of that. Well, you’re not worthy of any of it, really, but you need to wear that name, you know, with a real sense of the depth of meaning. Someone calls you a Christian, you’re saying, wow, that’s cool, I am a Christian. I am anointed. I have been put and placed in Christ. What is the word used here? Established in Christ. Great concept there.

Now, are you a prophet, priest, and king? No. Get over that. But you are, in some related sense, you’ve been set apart as special, which you can see is one step removed from the actual pouring on, right? The concept of pouring was how someone was consecrated. We are consecrated in Christ, and the name that was used because of the rich and steeped culture of anointing, that’s why it fits. Not that we’re looking for anybody to pour anything on us. Please don’t pour anything on me.

I just want to let you know that the concept of anointing carries through to our position in Christ as well. Thank you for that, 2 Corinthians 1:21 and 22.

All right, well, let’s deal with each of these three and see if we can come away rivaling a bit of what I hope was a worship-filled response to last week’s message. Let’s see if we can do a little bit of the same here.

The Messianic Prophet

The Messianic prophet, the, do you see H and E is also capitalized? This is the Messianic prophet, the anointed prophet. We’re not talking about one of them, we’re talking about the one, because we know the messiahs of the Old Testament all had in our minds small m’s. This one has a capital M, and let’s see the beginning of the predictions of the messianic prophet and start in Deuteronomy 18:14 through 19.

Now, this is not explicit. And the more you study predictive prophecy about Christ, or what we call messianic prophecies about Christ, the more you’ll see the God who’s doing all this kind of step into that realm and then step out of that realm. Like, we’ll look to, well, we won’t look at it. I didn’t even have time to put it out there for us to look at. But 2 Samuel 7 is a great example, the Davidic. He steps over the line into something that’s messianic, then steps right back and talks about Solomon. Same thing here. But I want to show you that when he steps over the line and the way he speaks of the ultimate prophet, the ultimate Messiah prophet, it’s not fulfilled in Joshua or anybody else. It’s only fulfilled in Christ.

Deuteronomy 18:14. Was that enough time for you to find that?

“For these nations,” look at verse 14, “which you are to dispossess,” right, the Canaanites, “they listen to fortune tellers and diviners.” Don’t ever do that. Not even when you’re there at the, you know, town center and there’s the weirdo there, the little fortune teller. I don’t even care if you’re playing around. Stop it. This is an abomination. This is a reminder of an abomination before God because in this text it says, I’m not supposed to do that.

Why? “But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.” Why? “Because the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet,” Moses said, “like me from among you, from your brothers, it is him you shall listen to.”

Now think about this. If you go and just play around with the fortune teller outside the Cheesecake Factory in Irvine or whatever, just because, well, let’s see what the weird old lady says. It would be like you, I don’t know, pretending, you know, finding a gal there and you’re married, you’re there with your wife, and then just saying, I’m going to pretend I committed adultery with this lady right now. And I don’t think your wife’s going to be cool with that, right? Come just do that for 15 minutes. Give me a minute. No, because that’s not even something to joke about. Adultery, right? Well, you shouldn’t even joke about trying to find wisdom in the divine through some human mechanism that’s not God-sanctioned because God gave us his prophets, which, by the way, is recorded here.

And in my mind, we’re not only just, I mean, that’s kind of the obvious thing that most of you say, I never dreamed of doing that. That’s ridiculous. Well, we do a lot of validating extra biblical means of revelation that we need to back down from. And a lot of it’s done in the name of Christ. A lot of contemplative spiritual movements that have crossed the line when it comes to trying to divine God’s will. Stop. Don’t. Why? Because God has given prophets.

And in this case, I love the He puts in verse 15, “He will raise up a prophet for you.” Here’s where I’m talking about God kind of stepping over the line into the Messianic.

How many prophets did God send? Dozens and dozens of them. But here he says, I’m going to raise up a prophet. Why are you speaking so singular about this? Because there’s something about the one he’s going to send that will end all others.

Verse 16, “Just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, and said, let us not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see the great fire anymore lest I die.” Remember that whole thing? The mountain is, you know, trembling and there’s lightning and thunder and they’re like, we don’t want to talk to God anymore. And God said, fine, then I’ll send you Moses and he can stand in your stead. He’ll talk to you instead.

He said, just like that day when you were at Horeb and all that happened, verse 17, “The Lord said to me, they are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you.” How is he like Moses? Because he’s going to do the same thing. He’s going to come from God, not down a mountain, but he’s going to come from heaven, right? And he’s going to come among you, and he’s going to be that one. “He’s going to raise him up from among their brothers.” He’s going to be an Israelite. “And I will put my words in his mouth.”

And if John’s gospel isn’t flooding into your mind right now, it should. “And he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever does not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.” That’s why Jesus says, if you don’t do what I say, you will be judged and God will judge. And the things that he’s written and then God turns around and says, I’ve entrusted all judgment to you.

But the bottom line is Christ’s words are God’s words. Now you could say that of every prophet, but the singular use of the word nabi here, the word for prophet, you start thinking, why are you speaking about one nabi, one prophet? Because God had one prophet in mind.

Let me try and show you why I think that. Deuteronomy 34:8 through 12. Deuteronomy 34:8 through 12. Moses dies here, and the end of Deuteronomy records his death and the handing off of the baton, right? He’s just written the first five books of the Bible, and now we’re going be without our great prophet. But we’ve got Joshua, who’s going to be the next in this chain of prophetic voices.

Verse 8, “And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plain of Moab thirty days. And the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. Then Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom.” The words in 1 Corinthians 12, there’s something there about that, prophetic. “For Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses.”

“And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses,” and we’re not sure exactly when this you know editorial statement was appended to this book but there hadn’t been anybody like this, “and all of Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and wonders that the Lord sent to do in in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all of servants in all of his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all of it.”

We’re getting the resume now of Moses, and the promise in chapter 18 was that it was going to be one like you that’s going to come, and he’s going to speak my words, and I’ll hold them in account if they don’t listen. And now we’re saying here, at some point later, there’s been no one like Moses. Certainly wasn’t Joshua. So we’re still looking forward to the ultimate nabi, the Messiah prophet, capital M.

Well, Christ, of course, has been presented. We’ve verse in detail, so we won’t turn there, but at least recall or put somewhere on your notes the word logos, Christ Himself, Jesus, is God’s speech. He is God’s Word. He is God’s communique. He is God’s communication from heaven to us. “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God.” Word. Or verse 14, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory.” And what was that glory? “The glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” That’s what the word communicated perhaps. That was John 1:14. You know that.

But how about this one just so that you can think about the profundity of Jesus’s prophetic ministry. Matthew 24:35. Now in the sermon on the mount he talked about there’s not a word of the law not a yodh a jot or a tittle as the old translations say iota and dot i think the esv says but seraph and yodh are the words. The knob that distinguishes between two Hebrew letters that look a lot alike, and you know what a seraph is, the difference between New Times Roman and Ariel, right? One’s got bumps and one doesn’t. Not a single bump from the law is going to disappear, or a yodh, a little tiny comma, is going to disappear from the Hebrew text until it’s all accomplished. It’s all set, and it’s going to stay.

Well, later in his ministry here, Matthew 24, verse 35, Christ is speaking, and he says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” He puts his words on par with the Scripture itself. I mean, talk about the ultimate word from heaven. It’s a big deal.

Well, some of you turned there. Why don’t you turn back to Matthew 17, and at least let me tie a passage together that you’ve often read and thought about and maybe never put it in the context of the ultimate Messiah prophet, the prophet Messiah.

Matthew 17:1 through 5. This we often call the transfiguration, creatively enough, because Christ was transfigured here. Verse 1, “After six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, his brother, and led them up to a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.”

“And behold there appeared to them” the ultimate prophet Moses, and if anybody was ever going to say who’s the next in line who did some you know wonders and miracles and the greatest prophet of the classical prophet period was obviously Elijah maybe he’s the one from from Deuteronomy 18, there appeared Moses and Elijah talking with him. They were talkers right professional talkers they’re talking.

And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord it’s good that we’re here. If you wish, we’ll make three tents,” three tabernacles here, three places of worship, “one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah.”

“And while he was still speaking,” just to break the tie here, well, I got three great prophets here standing here, “behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice from the cloud,” right, I wish I could do this deep enough, said, “This is my beloved Son.” I’m assuming it’s low, a lot of timber in the voice. “With whom I’m well pleased,” three English words, “listen to him.”

I mean, you want to talk about a divine impermutter, some kind of, you know, professional reference here. You got God saying, here, I got the greatest prophet of the earliest period of prophetic history when it comes to, you know, delivering the message from God to Pharaoh and the Israelites, the law, the giver of the Torah, Moses is here, and then Elijah, the guy they named the University of the Prophets after in the Old Testament. Elijah is the prophet of the classical period in Israel. Now you’ve got Christ, and I’ve got God saying, hey, by the way, hear Him. Listen to Him. That’s major.

This is all about a prophetic ministry. This goes from Messiah Moses, Messiah Elijah, to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the prophetic Messiah.

That’s good text, isn’t it? Hopefully that tied some things together. I don’t know. I wanted to bask in that text for a minute.

Hebrews 1:1 through 3. No text says this better, I suppose, in an epistolatory form at least, a simple didactic form, prophetic ministry of Christ. He is the ultimate Messiah prophet.

“Long ago,” Hebrews 1:1, “at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,” plural. Deuteronomy 18 talked about what? A-nabi, a prophet. But now we’re talking about, well, you know, there are all kinds of prophets, and God spoke to our, you know, ancestors through them. “But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son.” He’s the ultimate prophet.

“Whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also created the world. He’s the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of His nature. He upholds the universe,” you want to talk about His prophetic ministry? “He upholds the universe by the power,” “by the word,” rather, “of His power. After making purifications for sin, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.”

This is the ultimate prophet.

So what do we do with the ultimate prophet? Glad you asked.

Letter C. You need to diligently learn from Him. And I use the word learn because it’s more than just listening. It’s about listening and doing. It’s about listening and doing.

And there where we get the word mathotos. You’ve heard me say that before? Mathotos. The word disciple. Disciple is a learner, one who doesn’t just hear what the teacher says. He’s one who hears what he says and does what he says. A disciple.

We often call disciples followers. Why? Because it assumes that from the rabbi’s ear, it goes into the disciple’s ear, and the disciple does what the rabbi says. Well, let’s just up the stakes, not the rabbi. He’s the ultimate rabbi, the nabi, the prophet, the ultimate spokesman from heaven. So diligently learn from him.

And I don’t know what your Bible’s doing, you know, Monday through Thursday. We got to get into the Word. I mean, this is Sunday school stuff, I realize, but it’s got to be. You got to be more familiar with this than, you know, Dancing with the Stars, right? I mean, you’d better spend more time in the text listening to the Word of Christ, which, by the way, is found not only in the New Testament, but through the various expressions that God created in the Old Testament, Christ’s voice needs to be heard throughout the text of Scripture, and we ought to know it and learn from it.

Some great statements in John 3. I can’t not turn there when I think of the Messianic prophet Jesus Christ. There’s a couple themes that kind of intersect with each other throughout the early part of John, and one of them is the concept of word and light. We get that connection in the beginning of chapter 1, and we often say it, you know, that lecture was enlightening, right? Well, the concept of light is information. We like to make that analogy even in our Western motifs. And so it is here.

In verse 19, for instance, John 3:19, this is the Nicodemus discourse. Verse 19 says, “This is the judgment: the light has come into the world.” That’s just an analogy. You can see it now as in chapter 1, it takes Christ, the Word of God, and connects Him with the light. So the Word of God, the prophet of God, the spokesman of God is bringing light to people. “The light has come into the world,” but here’s the problem. “People loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” I don’t want to hear that. I don’t want to know it. I don’t want to listen to that.

“For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come into the light, lest his work should be exposed.” Does this sound now like James chapter 1? The word is like a mirror. When you look in the mirror, here’s the problem with the mirror. If you’re not a good looking person, you hate the mirror. If you’re super ugly, you really hate the mirror. Only pretty people like the mirror, right?

And that’s the problem with us. We’re sinful people. You’re not perfectly conformed to the image of Christ. And didn’t murder anybody today. If I called someone knucklehead, raka, I’m guilty enough to be cast into the fires of hell. Those are verses we don’t quote very often, but that’s what the Bible says to me, and how does that make me feel? Pretty ugly.

That’s the Word of God, though, see? And I need to be able to take that Word and say, I’ve got to let the light of that text convict me of my sin, and I need to respond as a diligent disciple of Christ and do it. I know it’s easier for us to watch TV that entertains us than to pick up the word that exposes things that need to be rectified in our lives. One’s made to entertain us. One’s made to transform us, and we’ve got to start doing the hard work of sitting in front of the mirror of God’s word.

“Everyone who does wicked things, they hate the light because they don’t want to come into the light lest their works be exposed.” “Whoever does what is true comes into the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” That’s a great line.

Drop down to verse 31, just a little more on this before we leave John 3. “He who comes from above is above all.” Who’s come from above? Christ, the light, the word. Verse 31. “He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way.” A lot of people like that, the Pharisees, classic examples of that. “He who comes from heaven is above all.”

Now, “he bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony.” No one wants to hear it. “Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.” If you listen to Christ, then you are affirming that God is truthful.

I mean, here’s one. You can just name anything, whether it’s whatever the cultural issue is, the exclusivity of Christ. Jesus says, “I’m the way, I’m the truth, I’m the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Go on Larry King and talk about that verse for half an hour. They don’t want to hear it. But if you affirm that that’s what the truth of God is, because Christ brings us the truth as the great prophet of God, the Messiah prophet of God, then we’re affirming God is truthful because this is his spokesman.

Verse 34, “For he whom God has sent utters the words of God.” Talk about a prophet, there it is. We’re speaking now of Christ, obviously. This is autobiographical. “And he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son…” Do you see how we just shifted? Talk about parallelism. If you believe in the Son, you have eternal life. That belief always comes with response. “Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life.” Do you see the contrasting parallelism here? That means that we’ve got to hear it and we’ve got to respond to it. We’ve got to be doers of the Word, even in just the basics of repentance and faith here.

They don’t see life “but the wrath of God remains on them.” That’s why they love the darkness. They don’t want the word.

That’s why, by the way, the saddest thing of all, and don’t get me started on this one either, but when we want to take the word out of the church—and don’t tell me that hadn’t happened, right? Let’s make the sermon shorter. Can we not open our Bibles? Do we not have to dig so far?

I get this all the time. I hear it from people. I go to these things and I listen to what they’re feeding these young pastors about how to have a really cool church that’ll really grow. And the thing is, let’s do a whole lot less of this. And I’m absolutely sure that’s true.

What kind of church are we building, though, if we want to hide the Word of God? I mean, this is not God’s church, then. I just can’t stand it. We’re all about being disciples of Christ, learners of Christ, hearing His Word and affirming that God is true.

Pick your topic. I don’t care what it is. And I know it’s easy to pick on things like the exclusivity of Christianity, but how about now trying to…I watched a pastor just this week fold on the issue of homosexuality because he was in a public forum. And I thought to myself, you know, I don’t understand.

And earlier, last week, I had somebody arguing about the issue of egalitarianism and complementarianism as it relates to roles in the church. And I’m thinking to myself, again, all I’m trying to do is establish the truthfulness of God’s prophets. And I’ve got to defer to what God says. I established that what He says is true.

That’s the test of our Christianity. We often stand in judgment of God’s Word, but God’s Word judges us by how we respond to it. You’ve heard that illustration, right? Guys, kids wander into the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art or whatever when it used to be good. And, sorry, And, you know, the watchman’s watching, and the kids are going, oh, that’s ridiculous, and that one’s stupid, and I don’t really understand that one. And the watchman says, well, it’s not the kids that judge the paintings, it’s the paintings that judge the kids, right?

And see, that’s the issue with God’s Word. I hate it. I saw it just this week. Embarrassed to affirm the clear teaching of God’s Word, because I want to, I guess, be popular, fit in. There’s only one person you should want to be popular with, really, right? He’s the only one that matters.

All right, well, I’m running out of time.

The Messianic Priest

Messianic priest, messianic priest. Now, the ultimate priest was predicted. Where? Psalm 110. Let’s go back to Psalm 110.

The Psalms, an amazing collection of, I mean, it’s obviously the hymn book of Israel, but what an amazing collection of songs that are just interwoven with statements about the coming Messiah. Some of them, there’s double entendre, I get it. You know, something that you can apply in the now, and then something that Christ comes in, and there’s a connection there, and we go, oh, that’s neat. There are some that make absolutely no sense without Christ. Here’s an example.

Jesus quotes this. It’s quoted several times in the New Testament, verse number one. The Lord, now who’s, Psalm of who? David, do you see the prescription on this text? Psalm of David now, Psalm 110, verse one. “The Lord said to my Lord.” Now, Israelites were learning that from the time they were little kids. The preschoolers were reciting it. And Jesus says, now, who’s that? The Lord said to my Lord, who’s saying it? The Lord of Israel, David. Who’s that person, right?

And this is a messianic statement here. “The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand.” That’s an exclusive place that Christ clearly says that he’s the only one that can take it. “Until I make your enemies your footstool.” “The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter.” You’d think, well, that’s an earthly king. It’s not. “Rule in the midst of your enemies.”

“It is an earthly king,” but it’s not. It’s a divine king as well. “Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments.” “From the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours.”

Verse 4: “The Lord has sworn, and He will not change His mind, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” It’s a strange thing to start with in the beginning, words that are regal like Lord. David, the Lord of Israel, says to his, he says, my Lord, the Lord, says to my Lord, who’s that person? It’s some kind of messianic king.

Now he’s called in verse number four, a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Who? Right? This is, by the way, in Hebrews where he stops talking and says, oh, I’m going to lose you here. Remember that? Chapter 5? You’re dull of hearing. Matter of fact, that word is the word lazy. You’re lazy. And this is before television. I can’t even believe it’s possible, right? But you’re lazy people. I can’t talk about Melchizedek, and I wish I could.

So he takes that little section in Hebrews 8 and slams them for a while. Then he says, but I expect better things concerning you, things that accompany salvation. And then he gets back to speaking about Melchizedek.

Melchizedek is only mentioned twice in the Old Testament, once here and the other time in Genesis 14. So whatever the Messiah is going to be, he’s not only going to be the king of the king, he’s going to be, that sounds almost biblical, king of kings, he’s going to also be a priest, but not a priest according to the order of Aaron or Levi, but a priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Zedek. Two Hebrew words, just to throw this in, we don’t have time to explore this whole concept. Tzedek. Tzedek is the Hebrew word for righteousness. Melek. Melek is the Hebrew word for king. Melek, Zedek, right? The king of righteousness. I know it defines it for us, but you need to see Melek and Tzedek. He’s the king, that’s his name, the king of righteousness.

Chapter 18, at the end of this battle. He’s coming back. Abraham is. This is 2000 BC. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, which is interesting, his name is king of righteousness, and now he’s called king of Salem. Shalom. What does shalom mean? Peace. That’s what Salem is. Salem is the word for peace, right? It’s made its way here into English.

So he’s the king of righteousness and the king of peace, the king of Salem, which, by the way, Salem in the 2000 BC is the city of Jerusalem. It’s not called that yet. I’m not even called the Jebusite city, but here he is, the king of Jerusalem. That’s no mistake. Called the king of peace. That’s what Jesus is called, prince of peace. And he’s called the king of righteousness. That’s the whole point of Christ.

He brings out bread and wine. I mean, there’s overtones all over the place here that get our attention from a Christological perspective. He was a priest of the Most High God.

And you’re thinking, what do you mean? Do you know your Old Testament chronology? 2000 BC, when has Moses come along? Give me a rough year. 1400, very good. So we got 600 years to go before we ever get to Moses. Right? 550 years. So, half a millennia before Moses and Aaron, his brother, and starting a priesthood, we don’t have a priesthood yet.

We got Abraham. He meets a guy from Jerusalem, king of peace, king of righteousness. I mean, that’s weird. It’s Christological. He’s a priest of the Messiah.

Verse 19, “And he, Melchizedek, blessed him and said, blessed be Abram,” before his name was changed, “by God most high, possessor of heaven and earth.” So just so we get it clear, we’re talking about the real God. “And blessed be God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” “And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.”

And they make a big deal out of that in the New Testament that he’s here showing a submission to Melchizedek, which he even says, 500 years later, we’re going to have Aaron, who, you know, at least, you know, metaphorically is in the loins of Abraham, and you show submission now that the Aaronic priesthood is under the authority of, at least in this expression, a Melchizedekian priesthood.

So, oh, by the way, when does David live a thousand years later? That’s interesting. Who comes a thousand years after that? Christ. So we’ve got Melchizedek. David speaks about Melchizedek, just in case you’re going to forget about him from 2000 BC. And then a thousand years after that, we get Christ. And then 2000 years after that, you get us. Big deal. But we’re here.

I mean, we are as far away from, think about that. I guess that’s worth saying now that I wonder why I said anything about us. We are as far away from Christ in time as Christ was from Melchizedek. Does that impress you? Somebody’s impressed. Thank you.

All right. Jesus is God’s high priest. He’s the ultimate high priest. He is the ultimate high priest, and that was a brain twister for all the Jews of the first century. That’s why Hebrews 7 is such a big deal.

We’ve got to go there. And if we go there in the middle of Hebrews, we’re really catching all the references to Melchizedek, though we won’t read them all in Hebrews. You’ve got Psalm 110, Genesis 14, Hebrews 5, 6, and 7. Let’s just look at some of the high points here.

Verse 11, “Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood,” I mean, if it could have worked, and what was it all about? Atonement. Atonement was about dealing with sin. If we could have really dealt with sin in the Levitical priesthood, “what further need would have there been for another priest?” Oh, I should read the parenthetical section. “For under it, the people received the law. What further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek,” a priest that is valid, a priest of the Most High God, but he’s not a priest according to Aaron.

Which, by the way, is critically important because you’re thinking, why didn’t God just send Jesus according to Levitical tribe? And we’ve got a 1 in 12 chance that Christ is going to be born in a Levitical tribe, but he’s not because he needs to be the king, and the king has come from Judah because David was from Judah, and the ultimate king was to come from David’s line. So Christ had to be born in the tribe of Judah. So you automatically are excluded from being a priest. You can’t be a priest. Oh, unless, of course, you’re of a priest that precedes and has precedence and authority and supremacy over the Aaronic priesthood.

So there is another priest who comes after the order of Melchizedek.

Verse 12, for when there is a change in the priesthood, there’s a necessary change in the law as well.

Verse 13, for the one whom these things are spoken belong to another tribe. Oh, here he’s going to say it for us. From which no one has ever served at the altar. Remember that? You’ll get leprosy breaking out on your forehead, king of Judah, if you want to go and minister at the altar. You can’t do it. God will condemn you.

Well, how is it that he can be our priest then? Because he’s of a different priesthood. For it is evident, verse 14, that our Lord was descended from Judah. And in connection with that tribe, Moses said nothing about priests.

This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent—because we don’t know anything about Melchizedek’s descent, except for where he lived—but by the power of an indestructible life, which he plays on the fact that we don’t know anything about the genealogy of Melchizedek, and Christ is a life that has obviously been preexistent before his incarnation.

Verse 17, for it is witnessed of him, you are a priest forever after the court order of Melchizedek. That’s in quotes because it’s Psalm 110, verse 4.

Now verse 18, for on the one hand, the former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness—for the law made nothing perfect—but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God.

So we want to have access to God when we have our best man from Levi go and stand in the presence of God, at least his manifestation of presence, on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, when sacrifice is made, and we’re supposed to remember that we have some kind of connection with God because of atonement, covering of our sin. Couldn’t make us right with God, though. So we need to draw near to God. I want a relationship with God. I got a sin problem. It’s got to be removed.

There is a priest that takes it away, the ultimate priest, the messianic priest, the Messiah priest. And if he is our Messiah priest, then we need to fully trust him, which is what Hebrews is all about.

If you’d go back, once you write all that down, to Hebrews 6, let’s just get the tagline at the end of chapter 6 when he brings up the topic of Melchizedek again and says it so well—Hebrews 6, 17 through 20.

I mean, really, all these things are salvific. And we don’t usually present the gospel this way. But if you want to talk about gospel, how can I be a disciple, a follower of Christ, if I don’t follow Christ? That means I’ve got to listen to him and I’ve got to respond to him. I’ve got to do what he says.

How can I be saved? I’m not talking about works righteousness. I’m just talking about I’m hearing him and recognizing him as the prophet and responding to what he says. Like in Mark 1, he comes preaching the gospel of God, the kingdom of God, preaching the gospel, saying what? Repent and believe in the gospel. That’s the idea.

So we listen to him, we do what he says, and now I have to trust him or I can’t be saved.

This is great, verse 17. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise of the unchangeable character of his purpose, which he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it’s impossible for God to lie, right, we have fled for refuge, we might have strong encouragement.

Now, we’ve gone for help. Now, we’re going to have this resolute confidence in our heart to hold fast to the hope set before us. That’s trust, right? We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain. That was the whole point. I want relationship with God. My hope goes in there. How does that happen?

Where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, substitution—he now goes and has fellowship with God. I ride in on the Levitical—not Levitical—the Melchizedekian coattails of the great high priest of God, because he has become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

So I guess when it comes to the fact that he’s the ultimate prophet, the question is, are you listening to Him? And by that I mean listening and doing. Are you a good disciple?

And if He’s the ultimate priest, then I want to say, are you really trusting Him, or do you think this is about your merit, your behavior, your good? Are you trying to cooperate with His work so that you can kind of be good enough when you die? Are you one that says, I hope I go to heaven when you die? Or are you trusting fully in the completed work of Christ, which is what this is all about? He’s already gone there as our forerunner on our behalf. Do you have it as a sure and steadfast anchor for your soul?

Great. I listen, I trust, and I recognize that he’s the messianic king.

The Messianic King

The ultimate king predicted. We’re running out of time. But I’d love to take you to 2 Samuel 7, but I figured I’d be running out of time by this point—where you can see again, like in Deuteronomy 18, God steps across the line and says things that only could be fulfilled by Christ, and then steps right back and starts talking about David’s lineage, specifically Solomon, who would build a temple and all that.

But there was an ultimate king in mind, and I want to show you from one of the best passages in the Old Testament for it, and that’s Isaiah 9—and since we’re already hearing Christmas music at the mall, it’s a good Christmas passage for us to look at. But please look at it with 2 Samuel 7 in mind. The Davidic covenant was the promise that one day the greatest ruler of all from David’s line.

Isaiah 9 brings that theme up here when it says in verse 6, for unto us a child is born. To us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders. That’s a big deal, is it not?

And his name shall be called. He’s got three names here coming up. Two words apiece. Wonderful counselor. Mighty God. Four names, I’m sorry. Two words apiece. Everlasting father. You God, for that matter, and Prince of Peace.

We’ve already seen that motif in the King of Salem. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And now, let’s speak of that divine baby. Of the increase of His government and of peace, there will be no end. This doesn’t sound like a localized ruler here. And on the throne of David and over His kingdom, to establish it and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. Eternal fulfills the Davidic line, but the government and peace, there is no end. And the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. It’ll accomplish this.

Now, turn over to Luke 1, speaking of Christmas time. We often overlook this because there’s a big gap between the promise and the fulfillment, at least now 2,000 years.

But in Luke 1, the Isaiah 9 concept is brought up, the 2 Samuel 7 Davidic covenant is brought up, and it’s a promise made to Mary about her baby. Verse 31, behold, you’ll conceive, Luke 1, 31, in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Yeshua, Joshua, Jesus, for you Greeks.

He will be great, and he will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, the ultimate king. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

Now, you’re thinking about that. If you’re married and you’ve been to Sabbath school, you know immediately what we’re talking about here—the ultimate messianic king. You’re going to have that kid. He will be your child, the ultimate king predicted—predicted in the Old Testament, predicted to David, predicted to Mary before the kid was even born. The child, the king—sorry.

Jesus is God’s perfect ruler. Obviously, that’s what a king is. He leads. He’s the regal representative of all the people—regal, not religious. That’s what a priest is.

Uh, yeah, there’s the passage I was looking for. Revelation 11—my favorite passage I quote often, do I not? Revelation 11, 15 through 17. If you know your book of Revelation, you know there’s some recapitulation that takes place in the book. We go through a certain place, we get to the end—like the seventh trumpet sounds—and then we go back and we get more. You get this retelling of the wrath of God being poured out. So the seventh is the big deal.

You get seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls, and the seventh trumpet sounds—before we go back and look at some other things in the book of Revelation, if we were studying through it—and we would see that the seventh angel is going to announce something in verse 15 that is about Christ’s final regal enthroning in the position of the great king. Now, he is the king, but he hasn’t taken his regal position of leadership quite yet—perhaps in your heart, but not on the planet.

Verse 15: then the seventh angel blew his trumpet—that should be the end of the story, and it would be were it not for some retelling of some things that happened—and there were loud voices in heaven saying, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord—that’s God the Father—and of his Christ. That is the Messiah. That’s the word Messiah, right? Of the anointed one.

And the anointed one, if I’m thinking politically, I’m thinking of David’s kid, and I’m thinking about the kingdom that doesn’t end. The increase of his government be no end. The government will rest on his shoulders, the Messiah, and he shall reign forever and ever.

And the 24 elders who sit on the throne before God, they fall on their faces, they worship God, and they said, we give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is, who was, for you have—I love this—taken your great power and begun to reign.

Now, does Christ have all power? He said that. Matthew 28, all authority has been given to me in heaven and earth—everything. Everything that he needs, he has. But he hasn’t taken his power and begun to reign.

And one day, the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, his anointed one, and he will reign. He’ll take his power and he’ll begin to reign. He’s the ultimate ruler of God.

So what’s our response? Well, there’s several. But Philippians 2, 9 through 11. You know this one by heart. You don’t even need to turn there. But at the end of it all, God gives him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow—those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth—and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ—here’s a political word—is Lord. He’s the ruler, to the glory of God the Father.

There is in that bowing and confession of His greatness, service, and worship. I submit to Him. He is my ruler. I do what He says. I respect Him as the great ruler of God, and I give Him praise. I worship Him.

It takes my mind to Revelation 21, that great statement of God living among us. I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, he will be their people, they will be his people rather, and God himself will be their God.

And 22 says, no longer a need for light, the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, his servants will worship him, they’ll see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads, they will be his subjects, right?

No night, no need for a lamp, or the sun, for the Lord will be their light, and he will reign forever and ever.

Book of the Week

The messianic king—book of the week—work of Christ. I gave you one other in this series. This is a decent series, by the way, if you got the other one—Contours of Christian Theology series. They’re readable but they’re challenging and rich.

This one’s by, uh, Robert Lethem. Poor Robert. I like this book because what he does is what we did tonight, only he does it much differently and more detailed. He’ll talk about Christ, his position, his incarnation, and then his roles as prophet, priest, and king, which is about 75% of the book.

So I recommend that book to you: The Work of Christ. I gave you before McCloud’s book, The Person of Christ. This is in the same series. The only two on Christ, as I recall, in that series.

Closing Prayer

All right, let’s pray, and we’ll let you little messiahs go—let you Christians go.

Let’s pray.

God, thank you very much for the reminder that your son Jesus Christ—not only God incarnate—he possesses the attributes of almighty God and clearly is one in essence with you, Father, but he has established and has fulfilled these three great offices that we need.

We need to hear from you—prophet. We need representation before you—we need a priest. And we need leadership, the ultimate leadership—we need a king. We need someone to look to as our monarch and leader.

When everybody does what’s right in their own eyes, it’s chaotic, as the book of Judges said, but we need one who’s on a throne, whose name is on banners, who we look to for legislation and adjudication and clarity about direction. And I mean, I think about all the practical issues—the economy, the focus of service and production and productivity in the future world—and we need a king. We don’t need Congress. We don’t need a vote. We need our ultimate king to rule.

And so, God, we thank you for Jesus Christ, your Son, who will be all of that for us. He is prophet, priest, and king, the ultimate Messiah.

Thank you so much for that. I pray that these details and these passages we’ve looked at would have been enriching and would continue to enrich our thoughts about who your Son is. May we worship Him more perfectly. May we submit to Him in our hearts more humbly. May we learn from Him more attentively.

And may we come to you in trust because we know that Christ has done for us completely and fully what we could not do for ourselves. We trust Him like an anchor for our soul. What a great word picture that is.

So God, we commit ourselves to you. We thank you for the time of study. Please enrich us through these thoughts.

In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.