Prophet, Priest, and King

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0:00It's a joy to be with you this morning and to share God's Word with you and I'm particularly glad to be here right around your anniversary as a church. So Joel has told me and I heard the announcement this morning that you have your fourth anniversary coming up. I have a confession to make. I've never been a real big fan of church anniversaries and the reason for this is because I do not believe that a church's best days are behind it. Your best days are ahead and that's true for us especially in terms of our faith that where we're headed our golden days aren't in the back. Our golden days lie ahead of us and I think that's true for new creation as well and so I made that confession. Really the reason for it is because I'm a little bit of a scrooge right bah humbug on anniversaries. City Church just celebrated recently its 20th anniversary but we didn't have a party. We marked it in some other ways. I'm saving the big party for 25. I didn't want to set the bar too high for 20 because then at 25 you've got to do something even bigger. So I'm saving it for 25 years. But here's why anniversaries are really good right because with anniversaries we look back and we look back specifically to God's faithfulness right. We look back to how God has been faithful to us and that reminds us who we are and as we're reminded of who we are and who who God was for us in the past that helps us to know how to live moving forward. And how has God most been faithful to us his people? Well through Jesus. And today that's what

1:45we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about how God has been faithful to us in Jesus Christ and how that shapes the way that we live in the world moving forward. So this is a topic that we we could talk about any Sunday but it's particularly appropriate as you think a little bit about your anniversary as a church coming up. And there's a historic way of that theologians have used to summarize how God has been faithful to us in Jesus Christ. And I'm going to use that summary in the message today. So this is it originated with a theologian named John Calvin hundreds of years ago. And when he was reflecting on Jesus's work how Jesus served as a mediator between God and people he defined it in this way. He said that Jesus was a prophet, a priest, and a king for us. And so I'm going to use that framework of prophet, priest, and king to reflect on how God was faithful to us in Jesus Christ and how we can live faithfully today. Now in order to do that we're going to read some scripture together. And the beginning of the book of Hebrews is a great place to see these three aspects of who Jesus is. So if you have a Bible open up to Hebrews chapter 1. I'm going to read just verses 1 through 4. And these verses are both printed in the worship guide and they're also on the screen behind me. But let's give our attention to God's word. Here's what it says.

3:19Long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days he has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Would you join me in prayer?

4:10Gracious Father we thank you that you spoke to our fathers through the prophets. But more recently you have spoken to us in the last days through your son Jesus. And we thank you for the word of God that preserves this testimony to Jesus. And as we turn to that word today we ask that you would open our eyes and our ears and our hearts and our very lives to the transforming presence of Jesus. That we would be changed men and women because through your word we haven't encountered your son.

4:46We pray that you would do this for our good and for the glory of your name. Amen. Amen. Prophets, priests, and kings. That's the three-part understanding of Jesus's work and the three-part understanding of our faithfulness in the world. And it's even bigger than just that. Because when we begin to talk about prophet, priest, and king we're also defining the original vocation for humanity. This goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. The creation of Adam and Eve. They were created in the world to be prophets, priests, and kings. And when Jesus came he showed us the most excellent example of how to be a prophet, a priest, and a king. And now through faith in that Jesus and by the power of his life-giving spirit we live that way in the world. So this prophet, priest, and king shows us how we were created to live, how Christ redeemed us, and how now presently we are to live in the power of God. So I'm going to describe each of these in turn. Well let's start with prophet.

6:05Now when you hear the word prophet, what do you think of? What comes to mind? What is a prophet? Well here's my quick and dirty definition of what a prophet is. A prophet is someone who speaks forth the truth of human brokenness and the truth of God's rescuing love. That's what a prophet does in the Bible. You know we might have this this view of a prophet that it's like a fortune teller. Someone who looks into the future. But prophets are less, biblical prophets are less foretellers telling the future and they're more forth tellers. That is speaking on behalf of God. Taking his message and giving it to the people. And what is that message composed of? It's composed of the bad news, the hard news of human brokenness and the good news of God's rescuing love. Both of those things. Again and again as you read the Old Testament which is filled with the messages of these prophets. It has those two parts. The world's hurt and the hope that comes from God. How he saves us. How he rescues us. And the classic example of a prophet in the Old Testament is Moses. Maybe you don't think of him as a prophet but he's really the first prophet. And he comes with his message to Israel and he says hey I got bad news.

7:35Sinners you haven't followed after God. But I've also got a message of good news. That God is going to deliver you from your slavery. And then this same message gets repeated through the other prophets in the Old Testament. Folks like Isaiah and Ezekiel and Hosea and we could list on and on. They all have this same sort of message. And we're told about that here in Hebrews 1 right? Long ago at many times in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. Always coming with this message on behalf of God. And even through the Old Testament. Even with Moses the greatest example of a prophet in the Old Testament. There was always this longing for a better prophet. You can find those verses in the book of Exodus where God himself promises I'm going to raise up a prophet like Moses but he's going to be a greater prophet. There's another wonderful prophecy and prediction and promise of God that he makes about Moses. And he says there's going to be a day when not just do I raise up a great prophet but all people will become prophets. Oh okay. Now we're beginning to see that this pattern of prophet, priest, and king has been God's plan all the way along. He knew he had Christ in his mind even when he sent the people of Israel Moses. And what else does Hebrews 1 tell us? It says in verse 2 but in these last days. Those former days in many ways at many different times God was speaking through the prophets but in these last days. And here's the thing with that word last. It's chronological.

9:21But it's also eschatological. Now that's a big fancy theological word. Maybe Joel uses it sometimes. It basically means it's the final days. The final days are here. And God is speaking now through a different prophet. And what's that prophet's name? Jesus. Jesus. He comes in the train of the prophets of the Old Testament but there's something decisive, climactic, and final about this Jesus. And the word that he speaks is a final word. But I want you to think for a minute about Jesus and his ministry on earth as a prophet. Remember my quick and dirty definition of a prophet? They speak forth the truth of God about what? Human brokenness and God's rescuing love. It's exactly what Jesus did.

10:07When he came he spoke and reminded people about their brokenness and the reality of sin. Even the people who thought they were holiest, most righteous, the Pharisees. He looked at them and said you're a brood of vipers. You have sin on the inside that you haven't even acknowledged. You see Jesus started as a great prophet by repeating this message of human brokenness. And I love the story of Jesus. It's in Mark 5 and it's the story of Jesus listening to a woman who had a disease for 12 years. And it says in that story that the woman looked at Jesus and told her the whole truth.

10:51She told him the whole truth of 12 years of human brokenness and longing and hurt and being turned away by doctors, of seeking treatment, of wanting to get well and not getting better but instead getting worse. Jesus the prophet came and told and listened to the story of human brokenness. That's not all is it? What else did Jesus come and teach? He came and told us the good news of God's rescuing love. He told story after story to point us to God's rescuing love. Do you remember the story of the prodigal son? Yeah this great story that Jesus told to point us to a father who day after day was out in front of his house looking for his son to come home with arms open wide. And when he did come home he welcomed him and put a robe on him and dressed him up and reminded him you're not my slave. You're not my servant. You're my son. You're my beloved. Because Jesus is the prophet who was speaking forth the message of God's rescuing love. Okay well what does that mean for us?

12:06What it means for us now is that we become prophets through our faith in Jesus Christ. Joel told me that here at New Creation he just finished a sermon series on Acts 1 and Acts 2. It's actually a great lead-in into this because what happens in Acts 2? It's Pentecost. It's God giving the Spirit of Christ to all who have faith in him so that now through the power of the Spirit we live as prophets in the world for others. Remember that promise from Exodus? I'll raise up a great prophet. Well that's fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And one day all will have the gift of prophecy. Friends that's you and me. Not foretelling the future but speaking forth on behalf of God. The bad news of human brokenness and the great news of God's rescuing love. That's what we are to do. And friends you cannot begin to speak forth the hard news of human brokenness if you don't start with the hard news of your own brokenness.

13:19You see that's where it starts. Too often we're tempted to want to go tell other people all the ways they're broken. No. The way this message starts is by you talking about all the ways that you are broken. All the ways that you have received the good news of God's rescuing love. That is the message of modern day prophets. The saints from new creation Presbyterian church. You see it begins with an honesty about the brokenness that you know. The ways that you have suffered. And then it points to the ways that Christ has healed you. You know there was another anniversary this fall that was significant for me. I was reading a lot about it. It was the 25th anniversary of 9-11. And you know a month or so ago. Six weeks ago I was with a group of friends who are pretty young. Either in their early 20s or maybe mid-20s. And they had no recollection of 9-11. And so I was retelling some of the stories and what it was like and how it was different from today. And that sent me down this rabbit trail of reading a lot of articles and listening to podcasts about 9-11. Remembering some of the stories of heroism. And one in particular stood out to me. I listened to this podcast and it was a woman who was one of the chief medical examiners at Ground Zero. So her job was to go every day in the months after 9-11 and try to identify bodies. Body parts. And then notify the family that these remains had been found. It was devastating work. Traumatic work for this woman. Every day. Day after day going there.

15:06And this particular podcast. At the time that she was doing it she had a young daughter. I don't know maybe three years old. And that young daughter of course didn't remember much about it. But in the podcast they were talking later on as the daughter was a teenager. And at one point as they're processing this trauma and this hard work that this woman did. The daughter said to her. I don't know you as broken. And without missing a beat. This mother said back. You only know me as broken. Friends that is the reality of all of our lives. This side of the fall. In this shadowed world that we live in.

15:58Other people. And even ourselves. We only know ourselves as broken. We need to start with that. Because it's only when we start with that that we can point to the good news of God's rescuing love. And when Jesus has transformed our lives. When he has showed us the hope of salvation and deliverance from our sin and from our brokenness. Then we can point others to the healing that we've received. And there is a day friends. That day of resurrection. That day of glory. That day that revelation talks about when all our tears will be wiped away and there will be no more mourning and no more pain. Because the former things have been passed away. There will be a day when we can look at our daughters. Where we can look at each other and we can say you only know me as healed. See that's the work of prophets. Prophets, priests, and kings. But what is a priest? Here's my quick and dirty definition of a priest. A priest is someone who represents a holy God to sinful people. And someone who reconciles a sinful people to a holy God. That's what priests do. And it's true in the Old Testament. It's true in Jesus and it's true in us now. You, and we have here in Hebrews 1, it mentions Jesus's priesthood.

17:41It says in verse 3, after making purification for sin. That's the work that Jesus did. That's where priesthood shows up here in Hebrews 1. But that's built upon this background in the Old Testament about what priests do. And they're chapter after chapter in Exodus and Leviticus that go through what priests do and outline their work. And when you think about a priest, you might think about an altar. And if you did, you would be right. A lot of what priests did was perform this work at altars.

18:24And the priests had all these requirements about the clothes that they wore, about their washing of their hands, how they cleanse themselves before they do this work. Why? Well, because they were representing a holy God to a sinful people. And so their holiness was really important. But then they did work specifically at two altars. The first altar is probably the one that you think about most. And this was an altar where they sacrificed animals. Because it was the shed blood of animals that would purify the people of their sinfulness. That was their activity to reconcile sinful people to a holy God.

19:02That was essential part of what the Old Testament priests do. There is a second altar though. Do you know what the second altar was? It was an altar of incense. Incense was kind of this spice and sweet smelling aromas. It was like the Old Testament version of a Yankee candle, right? And the point of it was they had to keep it burning all the time. And this sweet smelling smoke, the altar was right outside the Holy of Holies. That was the holiest place in the temple. And there was a big curtain in front of it. But the idea was that the smoke of this incense would kind of wind its way up and get in between the curtain and into the very presence of God. And the priest's responsibility was to make sure that this incense was always burning. What did it represent? Do you have any guesses?

19:56It's prayer. It's prayer. This was the altar of intercession. And that's what priests did. They offered these sacrifices of reconciliation, but they also offered this incense of intercession.

20:14This sweet smelling smoke to go into the very presence of God. And it was essential for them. In Christ, as the true high priest, as the great high priest, as Hebrews chapter 7 talks about, fulfills both of these elements of the priest, of what priests were supposed to do. Let me read just a couple verses in Hebrews chapter 7. It says this, the former priests were many in number, right? Many prophets, many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office. But Jesus holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him. And get this last line, since he always lives to make intercession for them. You know, when we think about Christ as a priest, we primarily focus on his death, this once-for-all sacrifice, where here the priest, Jesus, becomes the sacrifice. The sacrifice that he offered was himself. And friends, that is the source of our salvation. That is what atones for our sin and makes us right with God. Praise God. But that's not the sum total of Christ's work as a priest.

21:36Because do you know what Christ is doing right now? He is making intercession for you. He ever lives crucified, resurrected, ascended at the right hand of God. And what is he doing right now? He is interceding on your behalf. It's as though Jesus is referring the father back to his death on the cross and say, God, look at that. Father, look at that when you look at people. As you look at your children, see the value and the sufficiency, the worth of my sacrifice. And he's doing that every day for you.

22:20We sometimes think too little of what Christ is doing. As though his work is all past tense. No, his work is ongoing. All right. It's what Old Testament priests did. It's what Christ as our priest did. Well, what about us today? Now through faith and by the power of the Spirit, what does it mean for us to be priests in the world? Two things. We point back to the finished, complete sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and we offer intercession for others. And the main way we are not going to make new sacrifices. Christ has done that. It's once for all. We don't need to make sacrifices. We refer back to it. That's what preaching is. That's what teaching is.

23:09That when we talk about the rescuing work of God in the world, we always point to the cross. And we pray for other people. We intercede for them. That's the ongoing work where we follow the example of the Old Testament priests and we follow the example of Christ himself. Here's a lesson that I learned at Grace Community alongside Joel and Nikki there. When we were there, we had some friends who lost a child at something like 28 weeks. She was still born. And they had to deliver this child and then bury this child. And at that point, I still remember the dad said to me at one point, he was like, I've learned something about prayer. You know that phrase we use about prayer? We say, oh, I'll pray for you. He said, I used to just think that was the content of prayers. But there come times in our lives when we can't ourselves even pray. And so we pray instead of them. So we prayed instead of Randy and Michelle that week, that month, that year. That's what intercession is. The spirit intercedes with us with groans too deep for words. And we intercede for others who, because of their brokenness, because of their depression, because of the things that they're facing, they can't even form the words of prayer themselves. We say to them, I'll pray for you. I will carry you. I will carry hope for you in your season of despair. That's the work of intercession. That's the work of priests, prophets, priests, and kings. Well, what is a king? Here's my quick and dirty definition of what a king

25:01is. A king, biblically speaking, is someone who tells you who you are and keeps you safe. Kingship is all about identity and security. And those just happen to be two of the fundamental longings for humanity. When you think about a king in the Bible, who do you think of? Who comes to mind? David. He's the paradigmatic king in the Old Testament. And what did he do for the people of Israel? Well, he told them who they are. Here's who you are before your God. And he kept them safe.

25:37Even in asking for a king, the people said, we want someone to fight our battles, to keep us safe. We still have that sense today, right? We want someone to fight our battles. I want you to think a little bit more about King David. How was he prepared to be a king? Do you remember what King David was doing before he got anointed as king? He was a shepherd. I heard a few of you say it. Yeah. He was a shepherd. The way that God prepared David to be a king was as a shepherd, tending to wandering sheep, leading them to green pastures, leading them to still waters, giving him a rod and a staff. And a rod was an implement or a tool that was defensive, you know, to beat off the lion or the bear that came to attack the flock. And the staff, well, that was to gently pull back.

26:39So an offensive and a defensive weapon in some ways to protect and to care for. That's what a shepherd learned to do. And that's what made him a king, fit to be a king. There's another thing that David did. He was a shepherd. He was also a poet. You know who wrote most of the Psalms in our Bible? David. Not all of them, but most of them. And you can imagine these two things lining up that as he was out there in the fields, in the pastures, tending to his flock, he was singing songs.

27:18Singing songs about the faithfulness of God. And it was that work, it was those habits that prepared him to be a king. You see, he was learning to tell these stories and to sing these songs that do what? They tell us who we are and they comfort us as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Why are we turned to the Psalms when we're walking through human brokenness and hardship? Because they tell us who we are and they keep us safe. It's the work of a king.

27:53So we get to Jesus, right? And he was a king. He was the true king, the last king. And in Hebrews chapter 1, we get a picture of that because it says that after making purification for sins, what did he do? He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. That's kingship language. He's enthroned. He's at God's right hand. This is further developed in Hebrews chapter 12 where it talks about the promise to the church today that we will receive an unshakable kingdom. And who is the king of that kingdom? It's Jesus. But how did Jesus carry out his kingship? In the surprising way as a shepherd and a poet. He did the same things. Jesus said, I'm the good shepherd and the sheep know me and they follow my voice. And he was a poet. The beatitudes, the parables. These are different stories that he told to capture the truth of who we are and that we are safe. He told us that you are God's beloved.

29:07Jesus was doing the same things that King David did for us. But there's one final aspect of King Jesus's kingship that's really important. One more surprising way that he was king. You know what it is? He was crucified. It's what no one saw coming. It's why even Jesus's disciples would reject him during his lifetime because he said, I am the true and final king. Oh, and by the way, I'm going to die because the path of true kingship is laying down your life so that people would know who they are, who they belong to, and so that they will be safe forever. We now, through our faith and by the power of the Holy Spirit, also become kings and queens in the world. It's part of how we live out our faith that we come before other people as shepherd poets willing to lay down our lives so that they might know who they are and be kept safe forever. It's another story from 9-11 that I read about.

30:29This one was in a magazine and it told the story of a captain in the New York fire department. His name was Kevin Dowdle and he had two sons and loved his job as a firefighter and he was one of the first responders to go into the towers and he lost his life when the towers collapsed on September 11th. But he had left this legacy with his boys that they chose to honor and he lived by this approach to understand his work and he said, our job is to show up on people's worst day and try to make it a little bit better. Friends, that's the work of kings and queens today in the name of Jesus and the power of Jesus that we show up in the lives of our neighbors and our co-workers and our family members and on their worst day we show up. Why? To make it a little bit better. And how do we do that?

31:29By telling people who they are in Jesus Christ and telling them that they can be kept safe by the power of the Holy Spirit. And I think one of the most profound ways that we can do this is really simple. I want to break it down for you. One of the most profound and simple ways that we can do this is by learning people's names and calling them by their names. You know, our King Jesus, the shepherd, the poet, the crucified one, came out of the empty tomb. He saw his friend Mary who had gone there to anoint his body and to grieve. And there in kind of the misty morning, he turned to Mary and he called her name. In Aramaic, the language that she would have grown up speaking, he says, Mary. And at that moment, with that word, that name from the resurrected king's mouth, she understood who he was and who she was. In this sad world, Kate DiCamillo says, there is nothing so sweet as the sound of someone you love calling your name. Friends, the first job that we have as kings and queens in God's world is to call people by their names. I have a friend at City Church. Her name is Bailey. She's a Young Life leader like me. And what Young Life leaders do is we show up in the lives of high school students in order to tell them about human brokenness and tell them about God's rescuing love. She went to a JV volleyball game earlier in the fall, the high school that she leads at. And she met a girl, a girl named Claire. She went back the following week and she saw Claire again. And as Claire was walking by, she called her name and said, hey, it's great to see you again,

33:54Claire. Claire. Claire stopped and turned on a dime, looked at Bailey and said, you remembered my name. She said, most people don't remember my name. Claire's story, what she believed about herself is that my name isn't worth remembering. Most people don't know who I am. Most people don't care who I am. Bailey did. That's the work that we do as kings and queens in the world. Prophet, priest, and king. Because Jesus is your perfect prophet, priest, and king. You are rescued. You are reconciled.

34:44Therefore, new creation, go forth and live as prophets, priests, and kings. Telling other people that they are rescued. They have been reconciled by Jesus and that they can live safe in his love.