By Rev. Dr. Brent Russett – Asbury Free Methodist
December 3rd, 2023
Advent is all about preparing our hearts to receive Jesus. I recognize that most of you have invited Jesus into your lives. So, when I talk about receiving Jesus – some of you have a tendency to say – been there, done that.
But one of the great temptations in Christendom in our age is to invite Jesus into the foyer of our life and say that we have received Jesus. But Jesus deserves an “all access” pass to our lives. He needs to be able to go into all areas of our lives.
Part of Advent is preparing all of our hearts to receive all of who Jesus is. Some of you will have a tendency to say, “Well, pastor, I’ve been there too. You are talking about Lordship – right? Advent is definitely about Lordship – but there is more to it than that.
This series is about the different roles of Jesus as revealed in the scripture. It talks about three of those roles, specifically the prophet, the Priest, and the king. Today we will look at what it would mean to give Jesus the prophet access to our lives. Next week we will focus on Jesus the priest. Lastly, the message will highlight that Jesus is not just a King but The King of Kings.
Some of you are wondering why all of this matters. There are three big things wrong with the world today. We are ignorant. We don’t know God, ourselves, or how God designed this world to work. So, we need a prophet – a messenger from God to combat our ignorance.
The next big thing wrong with the world is that we are sinful. I am not just talking about the big sins like murder, theft or idolatry. I am talking about the soul-warping sins that each of us fights in one sense or another. That is why we need a priest. One who speaks to God on our behalf and one who speaks forgiveness to us on God’s behalf.
The last big thing wrong with the world is that we are powerless. There are so many things that we don’t control. It is helpful to have a King who has power over all things.
Jesus, as prophet, Priest and king, addresses the world’s big problems. Today, I want to focus on Jesus the prophet.
Moses, Israel’s greatest prophet, predicted Jesus would come as a prophet.
Deuteronomy 18:15 (NIV)
15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.
God through Moses went on to say.
Deuteronomy 18:18–19 (NLT)
18 I will raise up a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell the people everything I command him. 19 I will personally deal with anyone who will not listen to the messages the prophet proclaims on my behalf.
Peter, in his great sermon on the day of Pentecost, quoted Moses.
Acts 3:22–26 (NLT)
22 Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people. Listen carefully to everything he tells you.’ 23 Then Moses said, ‘Anyone who will not listen to that Prophet will be completely cut off from God’s people.’
24 “Starting with Samuel, every prophet spoke about what is happening today. 25 You are the children of those prophets, and you are included in the covenant God promised to your ancestors. For God said to Abraham, ‘Through your descendants all the families on earth will be blessed.’ 26 When God raised up his servant, Jesus, he sent him first to you people of Israel, to bless you by turning each of you back from your sinful ways.”
Jesus described himself as a prophet when he was rejected in his hometown of Nazareth.
Luke 4:24 (NLT)
24 But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown.
One of Jesus’ roles, one of the hats he wore, was that of a prophet.
Let me tell you a little about the prophets in the Old Testament. They had two roles, or their prophecies fell into two categories.
They had a Forth-telling role and a foretelling role. In their role as forth-tellers, they spoke the truth of God into a particular culture. They would hear from God and then say, “Thus saith the Lord.” They would speak about what pleases God and what God detests.
The prophets make up a significant portion of the Old Testament. Books like Isaiah and Jeremiah talk to people about following false gods. They warn against rituals and religion that do not turn the heart towards God. They call the people of God back to repentance. They spoke the truth of God into the particular situation.
Sometimes it is great. The people of God would hear the theme God is coming. He will rescue you from your enemies. Sometimes it was very uncomfortable, like when the prophet Nahum came to David and said, let me tell you a story. A wealthy man was throwing a party, but instead of taking a sheep from his own flock, he took one from his poor neighbour’s farm. David was mad at the injustice of it all – but Nahum said, you are that man.
What would it be like if a prophet of God was to come and talk to you?
The Old Testament prophets would also tell what was going to happen in the future. (Foretelling) God would show them what was going to happen, and they would say, if you continue in this way, this is what will happen. If you don’t repent, this is what will happen. So, Prophets like Isaiah predicted that the Israelites would be captured by Babylon and taken into captivity for 70 years. It happened.
Isaiah also talked a lot about the coming Messiah. It is where Handel’s Messiah gets a lot of its material. Unto us a child is born and unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders, and his name will be called wonderful, counsellor, almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah was writing about what would happen.
The two roles of the prophet are to speak God’s truth into the particular situation (Forth tell) and tell what God would do in the future.
Sometimes, prophets would also back up their words with a demonstration of the power of God. You may remember Elijah calling down fire from heaven to demonstrate that God was all-powerful, not Baal.
You may remember how Elisha helped a widow by allowing a small jar of oil to fill all the empty jars that she could collect from herself and her neighbours.
So, when Jesus showed up and began to do miracles of healing and feeding the five thousand, it is no wonder that people believed him to be a prophet.
Mark 8:27–28 (NLT)
27 Jesus and his disciples left Galilee and went up to the villages near Caesarea Philippi. As they were walking along, he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”
28 “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say you are one of the other prophets.”
Even after Jesus had been crucified, his followers still regarded him as a prophet. Remember the two men on the road to Emmaus. It was Easter Sunday morning, and Jesus had been raised from the dead. The disciples were getting reports about it, but they really didn’t believe them.
Two men were walking on the road to Emmaus, and Jesus comes up and walks alongside them, but they are kept from recognizing him. Jesus asks them, “What are you discussing?”. They said they were talking about,
Luke 24:19 (NLT)
19 “What things?” Jesus asked.
“The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth,” they said. “He was a prophet who did powerful miracles, and he was a mighty teacher in the eyes of God and all the people.
The story that was read a little earlier about Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, where Moses and Elijah appeared to him, was about Jesus taking his place among the law and the prophets.
Jesus came, living out the role of a prophet. People saw him as such. The question is, why does it matter to you and me?
Remember, a prophet is a messenger bearing God’s message. Jesus came bearing God’s message. This message will have two parts to it. There will be a forth-telling part where Jesus will speak the truth about his culture and our culture. He shares God’s message with people. The message that he shared is summed up in one word. “Gospel.” The good news.
The Gospel
The gospel speaks the truth about our lostness.
Jesus came for the spiritually sick.
Jesus came for people who knew they were sinners.
It was the tax collectors and sinners who hung out with Jesus.
Sin brings death and needs to be dealt with.
But the good news about being lost is that Jesus is searching for us. Like a shepherd who would leave his 99 sheep to go find one that was lost. He is searching. Or like the poor lady who lost a valuable coin and searched and searched until she found it. Jesus speaks the truth about our lostness.
The gospel speaks the truth about God’s love for you.
You are valuable in God’s sight. Whether or not you are valuable in the sight of this world, you are valuable in God’s sight.
God loves you, and God cares for you. He sent his son to die for you.
The picture that God communicates through Jesus is that he is a Father who is waiting for his son who has left home and wandered off to come back home. When the son comes home, he is embraced and loved.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. God loves you.
The gospel speaks of God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness.
Anyone who calls on the Lord will be forgiven.
God’s underserved favour rests on any who would believe in him.
We all need mercy, and we all need forgiveness. Jesus speaks of God’s kindness.
The gospel speaks of our relationship with God.
We are allowed to know and walk with God; God wants you to know him and walk with him. God wants you to live in his power and grace. You are made a child of God.
The gospel speaks to the needs of our hearts.
Not only are we forgiven, but we are made new.
Jesus was the messenger of the gospel. He was a messenger of the good news. If you receive him and his message, it will transform your life because you put your faith in what he says. Receiving him into your life puts in motion God’s plan for you to cleanse yourself from sin and adopt you into his family. Putting your faith in Jesus allows you to experience the fullness of the good news.
If you haven’t done that, then I want to urge you to do that today.
The gospel also has a foretelling part to it. Jesus was God’s messenger of what is to come.
It tells us that creation is in distress, but there is a time coming when things will be different.
Right now, creation
- Groans – We live in a fallen world. Sin has taken its toll on the earth itself. The decay and disasters are not what it was made for.
- Satan is the prince of the power of the air. He has some authority on this planet.
- Evil has been allowed a long leash.
- And with it has come
- Pain
- Sickness
- Death
- Suffering
- Grief
- Hatred
- Discord
- Relational breakdown
- War
- Violence
- Ruin
- And we are at war
- With sin
- And injustice
- And evil
- And hatred
- And with it has come
Take a look around the world: Israel and Palestine, Ukraine and Russia. These are indications of what is going on in the human heart. Human trafficking, homelessness, callousness and cruelty happen every day, but it has happened first in the human heart.
But the world was not meant to be this way. The gospel speaks to the future. Jesus’ message from God is that it won’t always be this way. Jesus told us that there will be a time coming when Satan will be destroyed, and evil and pain and death will be done away with. There will be a time when he makes all things new.
Listen, I don’t know if Jesus is going to come back tomorrow or hundreds of years from now. But I do know that he is going to come back for his own. In Jesus’ role of foreteller, he instructed us to be ready for his coming.
When he comes back and takes his own to be with him, that will be the beginning of the end for evil. Satan will be finally dealt with. Evil will finally be erased. Violence will end, and the lion will lay down with the lamb. We will be completely changed, and our doubts and fears will disappear, and our hopes and dreams will be fulfilled. Jesus will set up his kingdom on earth and it will have no end.
As the hymn writer put it,
There’s coming a day when no heartaches shall come
No more clouds in the sky
No more tears to dim the eye
All is peace forever more.
On that happy golden shore
What a day, glorious day that will be
What a day that will be
When my Jesus I will see
When I look upon his face
The one who saved me by his grace.
And when he takes me by the hand and
Leads me to the promised land,
What a day glorious day that will be.
There’ll be no sorrows there
No more burdens to bear
No more sickness and no more pain
No more parting over there
But forever, I will be
With the one who died for me
What a day, glorious day that will be.
Jesus, in the role of a prophet, foretold of that day. It is coming. You can count on it. Jesus, as a prophet, delivered God’s message – the gospel, the good news.
Transition into communion – Jesus was not only God’s messenger – he was God’s message.
Sermon Questions
Introduction
1. What are you giving thanks for today?
2. What are you praying about today?
Digging in.
3. In the upcoming series, we will be looking at Jesus, the prophet, priest and king. Why do we need Jesus to be a prophet, priest and king for us?
4. Read Deuteronomy 18:15-19 and Acts 3:22-26. What does this tell us about Jesus? What does this tell us about who we are to respond to Jesus?
5. A prophet has two roles. Forthtelling (speaks truth into culture) and Foretelling (speaks about what will happen in the future.) Can you think of some examples of how Old Testament prophets fulfilled these roles?
6. Read Mark 8:27-28 and Luke 24:19 – What does this tell us about how people viewed Jesus? Read Luke 4:24 – what does this tell us about how Jesus views himself?
7. How did Jesus fulfill the prophetic role of forthtelling? What problems did he address in our culture(s)? What truth/remedy did he speak to our current situation?
8. How did Jesus fulfill the prophetic role of foretelling? What did he tell us about the future?
9. Jesus was not only the prophetic messenger, but he was also the message? How is that true?