God's Anointed Prophet, Priest, and King

Take again your copy of God's Word and if you're able remain standing as we read from Deuteronomy! Before the preaching of God's Word. Deuteronomy chapter 18. We're going to be going backward in time a bit from where we were in Joshua for the scripture reading earlier in the service.

Here in Deuteronomy 18, Israel is on the cusp of entering the promised land. God is giving instructions to the Israelites and these words are embedded in those instructions beginning in verse 14.

The nations you will dispossess. Listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so.

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore or we will die.

The Lord said to me, What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put my words in his mouth and he will tell them everything I command him.

If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call to him, will call him to account. But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods must be put to death.

You may say to yourselves, How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord? If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken.

That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him. This is what the Lord says.

Let not the wise man boast about his wisdom, or the strong man boast about his strength, or the rich man boast about his riches.

But let him who boasts, boast about this, that he understands and knows me. And though Jeremiah recorded those words of the Lord 2,500 years ago, I can't think of three things that men today boast about more than these three.

Wisdom, strength, riches. We boast about education, what degrees we have, what universities we've been through.

We boast about our strength, how much we can bench press, how fit we are, how fast we can run, how far we can hit a ball.

We boast about riches, how much money we have, how much on our bottom line, our investments, our possessions, our cars.

Now God says, all of these things are nothing to write home about, nothing at all to rejoice and boast about. But let him who boasts, boast about this, that he understands and knows me.

Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? That's something worth boasting about, worth rejoicing over, glorying in, glorying in, that you understand and know him.

And that he knows you, and will confess it in the day of judgment. Because according to Jesus, there will be many in that day who profess that they know him, and that they served him, but that he will say, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you worker of iniquity. You had no relationship with me. I didn't know you. You did not know me. And so after our Lord has carried out his earthly ministry for three years, he then turns to his disciples and said, who do men say that I am?

And they say, well, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, some say Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. And he says, but you, what about you? Who do you say that I am?

And Peter says, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Last week we saw two lessons from this passage that we looked at.

First of all, a true understanding of Jesus is a supernatural thing. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, Peter, but my Father who is in heaven.

It takes a supernatural work of God to overcome the blindness of man's mind, to see the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ. And then we saw the second lesson that a true understanding of who Jesus is is a progressive thing.

The Father does not reveal everything about His Son at once. And we saw that in Peter. He knew Jesus was the Messiah, but he did not know Messiah's mission for when our Lord said, I must be killed and I must rise again the third day, Peter took Him aside and began rebuking Him.

Never, Lord, this shall never happen to you. So he's properly identified and comes to understand by the revelation of God the Father, Jesus is the Messiah, but he doesn't have a clue on Messiah's mission and why he even left heaven in the first place to be the Messiah.

He had a lot yet to learn. And so do we. We're to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

So let's begin with what Peter tells us about Christ, about Jesus. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. There are two titles here for our Lord.

He's the Christ and He's the Son of the living God. We're going to save the Son of the living God for next time, Lord willing. Today we're just considering that you are the Christ. What does that mean?

The word Christos or Christ in the Greek means anointed one. And the Hebrew word in the Old Testament for the anointed one is Messiah.

So Christ is the same as Messiah. One's Greek, one's Hebrew. Christ is that long-expected Messiah of the Old Testament.

So why is He called the anointed one? Because that's what Christ and Messiah mean. He's the anointed one. Well, in the Old Testament, men who were set apart by God to serve in one of the three offices of prophet, priest, or king were anointed with oil.

Kids, you've had the story of Samuel being told by the Lord to take a horn of oil and to go anoint one of Jesse's sons. And it wasn't this one, that one, the other one.

He got down finally to David and Samuel poured the oil on his head. He anointed him with oil. That's what was done for anyone who was made king.

And that's why David said over and over when Saul, who was king, was chasing him, I will not touch the Lord's anointed. Who's the Lord's anointed?

It's King Saul. God has designated him as the authorized king of his people. I'll not remove him. And so the oil, why oil, kids?

Well, the oil was a symbol of the Holy Spirit. And so what it was saying is that not only has God authorized this man to be king, to be prophet, to be priest, but God has equipped him for the working of his office with the Holy Spirit who's represented by the oil that was poured over his head.

So that's what was done with prophets, priests, and kings in the Old Testament. But Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. He is the anointed one in a unique and a special sense.

He's the only anointed one, the only authorized and equipped by God one to hold all three of these offices in himself. So if we would know who Christ is, we must consider him in his three offices then of prophet, priest, and king.

He's the anointed prophet, the anointed priest, the anointed king. So that's our aim this morning. And we begin then considering Christ as the uniquely anointed prophet.

So contrary to the then popular opinion, Jesus is not just another one of the prophets like John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, and on and on we could go.

They brought to God's people the word of God. And yes, Jesus the Christ will do that. But he is the word of God.

That could not be said of any of the other prophets. John 1 verse 1, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth.

And no one has ever seen God except God the one and only who is at the Father's side. He has made him known.

He has come and revealed him, disclosed him, explained him. So wives, some of you have lived with that guy beside you for 30, 40, 50 years.

You've been with him all that time, side by side, on his good days, his bad days. You've watched him. You've listened to him.

You've learned his ways, his habits. You know what he thinks. You can almost finish his sentences and predict his behavior in any given situation because you've been with him.

So if I wanted to know something about your husband, I'd come to you because you are the expert in all things him. And it's your closeness with him that makes you such an expert on who he is.

But now God the Son has been with God the Father from the beginning. With him, creating all things that ever were made.

Made with him. Not for 40 or 50 years. But for thousands of years. He's been with the Father. And even before creation, when there was nothing in existence but God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the Word of God was with God.

He's the great I Am. Before Abraham was born, I am. I'm the eternally existing one without beginning or ending of time from everlasting to everlasting.

He is God. Now it's hard for creatures of time like us to grasp eternity. But what it means is that there has never been a moment in all eternity when the Son has not been with the Father.

Ever and always, face to face, in the bosom of the Father, at the Father's side. Therefore, He's uniquely qualified as the prophet to tell us what God the Father is like.

To tell us His works, His ways, His habits, His nature, His attributes, His thoughts, His will, His desires, what He loves, what He hates, what He's done, what He is doing, what He has yet to do, His promises, His plans, His purposes, His decisions, His decrees from all eternity.

The one way of salvation. He's uniquely qualified to share the Father's gospel. Now, doesn't that throw light on what Jesus said back in Matthew 11, 27?

No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. Nobody. Oh, it takes God to know God infinitely, to know Him completely.

And God the Son knows the Father. And no one else knows Him fully. and no one else knows Him except those who Jesus chooses to reveal Him.

He is the uniquely anointed prophet of God. So, Christ is not just one more in a long line of the prophets just like the rest.

He's the prophet promised by Moses in Deuteronomy 18, the passage that was read for us. And you might not know it as you read Deuteronomy 18, but if you go to Acts chapter 3, 22 and 23, Peter preaches to the Jews of his day and he quotes this passage saying, for Moses said, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your people.

He'll be like me and then he'll be a Jew. And you must listen to everything he tells you. Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people.

And Peter there in Acts chapter 3 identifies that prophet that Moses wrote about as the Lord Jesus Christ. The one that God raised up and sent first to the Jews to bless us by turning each of us from our wicked ways.

Acts 3, 22 to 26. So the coming of Christ in the new covenant, the coming of Christ in the new covenant redefines the Israel of God.

Who are the real people of God now in the new covenant? Well, it's all who listen to the prophet that God anointed to come.

Jesus Christ. They listen to him. They learn from him. They obey him. They trust him. They follow him. And so that means that any Jews who were unbelieving have been pruned out of the Israel of God.

And it means any believing Jews and Gentiles are now grafted in to the Israel of God. The difference between Jesus and the other prophets who went before him is clearly seen as soon as he begins teaching.

These other prophets, you can read them in the Old Testament, how do they introduce something that they are about to say? Thus saith the Lord. That's how I began with Jeremiah's words.

Thus saith the Lord. This is what the Lord says. But now when Jesus starts teaching and he says, you've heard it said long ago, but I say unto you.

You see the difference? Thus, this is what the Lord says. But I say unto you. There's a personal authority behind this prophet.

He's not just quoting God. He is God in the flesh, as we'll see next time. The Son of the living God means that. And so he speaks in his teaching with authority.

I say unto you. And therefore, anybody who doesn't listen to him will be cut off from his people.

Remember how he ended that Sermon on the Mount showing that the eternal destiny of his hearers depends on what they do with these words of mine. Not the words of the Lord.

No, his own words. What you do with my words will determine whether you spend eternity in heaven or hell. Because if you obey the words that I'm preaching to you, you'll be like a man who's building his house upon a rock.

And when the storms of life and the final storm of God's judgment come, you will stand. But if you do not put into practice these words of mine, well, you're building your house on the sand.

And when the storms of life and the final storm of judgment come, you will be destroyed. This is the authority of this prophet. No other prophet spoke like that.

And when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching. because he taught as one who had authority and not as their scribes and teachers of the law.

So, this is the prophet God sent. Hebrews 1, 1 and 2 says, in the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us in his son. This is the prophet, the anointed prophet, that God has ordained and equipped to come and reveal the most important things in life.

He's not just another one like the previous prophets. He's God's last word to man. You must heed what he says or be cut off from him forever.

Now, let me just wrap up the study then of Christ as this anointed prophet by referring to the children's catechism that asks them very simple but perceptive questions.

And the question is, how is Christ a prophet then? And the answer is, he teaches us the will of God. How can we know God's will?

Only Jesus knows that fully. And he's our prophet to teach us the will of God. We pray, your will be done. What is that will?

Jesus is our prophet to teach us the will of God. And why do you need a prophet is the next question. The answer is because I am ignorant.

You see, there's no proud people in Jesus' kingdom. They've been humbled to know that they are ignorant. When it comes to the most important things in life, I am ignorant and I need to be taught by God's prophet.

Children, do you know why you need to receive Jesus as your prophet to teach you? It's because you are on a journey. You are traveling from this world to your eternal destiny where you will live forever and ever.

And there are many, many, many, many, many different roads in which you can choose in this life. And some of them seem so right to a man.

You look at that road and you say, this has got to be the way to heaven. And lo and behold, it leads to destruction. And that's why you need this prophet to teach you.

Because you only get one chance at life. You've got to get it right this first time. You don't get second chances at the end of life.

There's not only many wrong roads, there's many false prophets. That was the problem in the Old Testament, wasn't it? We read about it. And they would come and say, thus saith the Lord.

And then they'd spout out their own ideas. And what they were spouting was things that the people loved to hear, like peace, peace, when there was no peace between the sinner and God.

Oh, but the prophet says, the Lord says, we're at peace with each other. And so they told the people what their itching ears wanted to hear. And the people loved the message of the false prophet that says, you're okay and I'm okay.

And so they say to the true prophets, tell us pleasant things. Stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel.

We don't like your message, you true prophets. Give us pleasant things. So all of this is going on, you see, in life, children. You got all kinds of false lying prophets.

You got all kinds of roads claiming to be going to heaven and even seeming right to you. How will you know the right road? Many are easily deceived in taking the wrong road and realizing it all too late.

And so we dare not lean on our own understanding. We dare not trust our own mind. We're ignorant about the right way. For it's not in man who walks to direct his steps.

God has not given us by nature that information. We need a prophet to teach it to us. And he's sent just such a prophet.

His name is Jesus, the Christ, the anointed prophet of God. And you need him to teach you, to guide you, and then to keep you on the narrow way all the way to the end.

And he'll do that if you ask him to. Follow him. He's the only way home to the Father. That's what he'll tell you.

You want to know the right way to heaven? I am the way. No one comes to the Father except through me. Well, that's Christ, the uniquely appointed priest or prophet.

We come secondly to Christ as the uniquely anointed priest. You are the Christ. What does that mean? He's this uniquely anointed priest.

He's not like the long line of priests that came from Levi's descendants. They had to be replaced one after another because they died.

But Christ, we read in Hebrews 7, 17, Christ is a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. And now there have been many of those other priests like of the followers of Levi since death prevented them from continuing in office.

But Jesus lives forever. And because he lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. You see, he's very different from all the earlier priests. They served for a lifetime and then they had to be replaced.

Jesus holds office by an indestructible life. And because he forever lives, he's forever the priest. Furthermore, the sacrifice of this priest that this priest made was unlike any other sacrifice of the prophets.

They sacrificed animals. He sacrificed himself. Day after day, every priest stands and performs his religious duties again and again.

he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.

For he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. For Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people.

That's all found in Hebrews 9 and Hebrews 10. You see, because he alone was sinless, he alone could be sacrificed instead of sinners. And so he suffered the death penalty that sin deserved.

And he suffered enough for God's justice to be satisfied. He, therefore, his people's sins are forgiven.

They're blotted out. They're remembered no more. He drank the bitter cup of God's wrath, and he left nothing in it for his people to drink. Christ is God's anointed priest unlike any other because he could make the one sacrifice that obtained eternal redemption for his people.

He's the last priest who offered the last sacrifice for sin and now forever lives to intercede for his redeemed ones.

You see, the priest's job was twofold, and we see that in the catechism question. How is Christ a priest? Well, he died for our sins, and he pleads with God for us.

The Old Testament priest had that twofold ministry. He would first offer a sacrifice, a lamb that was symbolic of the lamb of God. He would shed its blood, but that was not all the priest's work, just to make a sacrifice.

He then took the blood of the sacrifice into the most holy place, into the presence of God, and on the basis of a sacrifice, pleaded God's forgiveness for the sins of the people.

His job was to sacrifice, and then to intercede for the people. And so this priest, Jesus Christ, has that same double activity as our anointed priest.

He made the sacrifice for sin by sacrificing himself. And then, having died, he was raised to life, and he ascended to the Father's right hand, where he is there now for us, interceding for us, pleading the merits of his blood to bring forgiveness to all his believing people, to blot out their sins forever, and to give to them every blessing that he has won for them.

He's there at the Father's right hand. His work of atonement is over, but his work of intercession continues in heaven.

And the question then comes from the catechism, why do you need a priest? Why should you ever need a priest? And the answer is because I am guilty. I'm guilty.

I'm guilty before God. I have a sin debt I cannot pay the first payment on, but Christ alone has made the one sacrifice and paid my debt in full.

And only he then can now present his offering as the thing that satisfies God's justice on my behalf. And now he pleads the merits of his blood to forgive me, to show me blessing.

Every spiritual blessing I have right now, it comes to me through Jesus Christ, through the merits of his sacrifice, and through the intercession at the right hand of the Father.

So every time I sin, the Father just sees at his right hand the sacrifice for my sin. And his very presence there says, Father, look on me and pardon him.

I stood in for him at Calvary, and his presence there prays and intercedes for us. And besides that, he also prays for us and speaks to the Father on our behalf.

Look on me, he says, and send mercy and grace to help him in his time of need. Consider these five Ps about the intercessory work of Christ right now at the Father's right hand on behalf of all of his people.

Five things about that intercessory work right now of our priests. It's first of all, protective. Romans 8, 33, and 34. Who will bring any charge against God's elect?

It's God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus who died, more than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

And so no one can separate us. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, not as long as our intercessor is there praying for us.

He protects us from the condemnation, the accusations. And we have an illustration of that in our Savior's intercession for Simon Peter.

Luke 22, Simon, Simon, Satan is asked to sift you as we. That means to shake him up and to cause him to lose his faith in Jesus. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail and when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.

You see, the protection for Simon is Jesus' prayers. So that though Satan is shaking him and tempting him, his faith will not altogether fail.

And so he prays for everyone who's trusting in the Savior. It's protective. It's personal. I pray for you, Simon. individuals is who he prays for.

John 17, 9, Father, I'm not praying for the world, but I'm praying for those you have given me. There are a people that have been given to the Son by the Father from eternity.

You go, Son, and you suffer for them, and you obey for them, and you rise for them, and now Jesus is there in heaven pleading for them. It's a personal thing.

He entered into heaven itself now to appear for us who are in Christ. And just as he had us on his mind when he suffered on the cross and endured it for the joy of bringing us to glory, he now at the Father's right hand has us in mind as he's praying for his people.

It's a personal intercession. It's a powerful intercession. Satan wants to have you, Simon. He wants to destroy your faith, but I have prayed for you so that your faith may not fail, and when, not if, but when you have turned back, strengthened your brothers.

Jesus' powerful prayer is prevailing and ensures that Peter's faith will not altogether be extinguished. What do you owe for the perseverance of your faith and repentance to the end of your life?

You owe it to the intercession of Jesus on your behalf. It's a powerful intercession. It's a perpetual intercession. The Bible says in Hebrews 7, 25, therefore he's able to save completely those who come to God through him because he always lives to make intercession for them.

Kids, you know what always means? Always. He always lives for this purpose to make intercession for his people. His disciples fell asleep instead of praying, didn't they, in Gethsemane?

This high priest never slumbers or sleeps, but is always at all times interceding for us, for you who are in Christ, personally.

And then lastly, it's a pitiful, intercession, by which I mean full of pity, joined with power. This high priest who now prays for you is the one who loved you enough to die for you when you were his enemies.

What is his pitying love for you now? That you are his friends, that you are the children of God. And if he saved you from his wrath when you were his enemies, how much more will he by his life save you as he's praying for you?

He's not just some mechanical principle in the sky. He's a personal savior with full of pity, joined with power.

For we do not have a high priest who's unable to sympathize with us in our weakness, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet was without sin.

He had to be made like his brothers in every way in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God.

So though he's in heaven, he still remembers what it's like to be tempted as a child, tempted to disobey his mom and dad. He remembers. And so he knows exactly the grace to send to you children.

He knows, he remembers what it is to be sunk in grief over the loss of dear friends.

And so he knows exactly what you need to comfort you in your trials, in your temptations. He remembers the darkness, the forsakenness, the loneliness.

And so he knows exactly what you're going through. He knows it by personal experience. And so he pities you. He pities you in your weakness. As he prays for you with a fellow feeling in his heart, with what's going on in your heart.

He knows just the mercy and grace to send you in your time of need. What a blessed thing to have this high priest always interceding for you.

On your best days, on your worst days, he's not pleading your merits, but his. And that's why his prayers are always heard and answered in heaven. They're not based on your performance, but on what he has done for you.

Therefore, if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father. Someone there pleading for our forgiveness. Who is he? Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And he's pleading his righteousness.

Look on me and pardoned them. Have you received Christ as your priest to pardon your sins and to pray for you?

Consider, lastly, Christ as the uniquely appointed, anointed king. You remember when God promised in 2 Samuel 7 that David would have a descendant of his who would sit upon the throne and reign forever and ever.

A thousand years later, an angel Gabriel was sent by God to a virgin named Mary. And he told her that she would conceive and give birth to a son as a virgin.

The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end. Jesus, this uniquely anointed king, prophesied of in the Old Testament and now announced as having come in the womb of the virgin Mary.

Isaiah said that this virgin-born son said of him that the government will be upon his shoulders. The government, he's the king who reigns. then Isaiah goes on to say that of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end.

He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it from that time on and forever. So many Israelite kings had reigned before Jesus and one after another they died and needed to be replaced.

But this anointed king reigns forever. Hebrews 1.8 This is what God says about his son. Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever.

Yes, he is king and his throne endures forever. When Jesus came and began his public ministry, what was his message? Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.

There's never a kingdom that doesn't have a king. And if the kingdom is at hand, it's because the king has come. And indeed he has come. He is Christ, the anointed king, the anointed Messiah king.

Three years later, Jesus is riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. And Matthew writes in his account of the gospel that this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet saying, say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey.

And the people shouted, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. The week later, the crowd was shouting, crucify him, crucify him. And Pilate says, why?

Well, shall I crucify your king? And they said, we have no king but Caesar. king. And so he's crucified.

And the sign had it right. Jesus of Nazareth, the king, the king of the Jews. A few days earlier, Jesus had told a parable.

A parable saying that a man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, we will not have this man to rule over us.

He was made king, however, and returned home, faithfully rewarding his servants and then saying, as for those enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them for me.

Jesus is the king. He's God's anointed king, God's authorized king, authorized to rule and to reign, and not just over the Jews.

God the Father says to the Son, ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for your inheritance. We have a picture of the rebellion against this king in Psalm 2.

Why do the nations rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth and the rulers take their stand and they don't like God's rule and so they're rebelling against the Lord and his anointed one.

Who would that anointed one be? It's God and his anointed son, the king. Let's break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.

But he that sits in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak to them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure by saying, I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.

You can do what you want. You can vote how you want. I'm not taking votes. I have made my son king and he's reigning and he's reigning today.

One day he's coming again. And then the kingdom of God will come into its full fruition. salvation. And the book of Revelation points us to this king over and over and over.

He's not just like the other kings. No, this is the king of kings. He's not like the other lords. This is the Lord of lords. And when he returns to judge the earth, we read in Revelation 11, 15, then the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord Lord and of his Christ, his anointed one.

It's all his. He's not just another one of the many kings. So the catechism question to apply, how is Christ a king? Well, he rules over me and defends me.

A king has laws by which he rules over his people. And this king too has laws. And they're all holy, righteous, and good laws.

The king exercises his authority and his laws for the good of the citizens. And he not only rules over me, but he defends me. That's the other thing that the king does.

Well, who do we need to be defended from? Well, we've got three big enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. And he defends me from the world, the flesh, and the devil.

They're a trinity of evil. Well, why do you need a king? Because I'm weak and helpless. You know, any one of those enemies are too strong for us.

But when they're working together, if we're left to ourselves, it's disaster. Oh, but we have a king, and he rules over us, yes, with his good laws, and he also defends us from all of our enemies.

So this is the good news about the gospel. God has sent his anointed, the Christ, the Messiah. Messiah. And we can rejoice that this king says, be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.

And he's promised to not let the power of sin rule over us. And he said the very reason that he's come is to destroy the works of the devil. Yes, he's able to defend us from our enemies.

And we find then that Jesus in his offices as prophet, priest, and king perfectly matches my need for somebody to teach me because I'm ignorant, somebody to die for my sins and plead for me because I'm guilty, and somebody to rule over me and defend me because I'm weak and helpless.

What a match. Jesus, prophet, priest, and king, for me, the sinner. He meets every need that I have, all that he is for all that I need.

This is the Christ that God sent. When he was baptized at age 30 by John the Baptist, you remember that a voice came from the heavens in which God the Father said, this is my son.

Who else says, this is my son, but the father, right? This is the word of God the Father. This is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased. He's the authorized, anointed prophet, priest, and king, beginning his public ministry.

Something else happened at the baptism. The heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended like a dove and rested on him to equip him for his work, to equip his humanity to be that prophet, priest, and king for his people.

Oh, what a Christ. What a long-expected Messiah. Hundreds and thousands of years, the prophet had said, he's coming, he's coming, he's coming, and now he's here.

He's here at last. And it is by the work of this prophet, priest, and king that sinners are saved. Your eternal salvation hangs on him, the Christ of God.

Have you received him as he's offered to you in the gospel? You see, we don't get to receive him as a priest but reject him as a king. Oh, some people say, well, I like to have him dying for my sins but I don't like him telling me what to do.

Well, then I'm sorry you can't be saved. Because Jesus is one whole person and you either accept him as he is or you leave him as he is.

Prophet to teach you, priest to die for you and plead for you, and king to rule over you and to defend you. All for your glory, your good and his glory.

You can't dissect him and tear him apart. It doesn't work any more than if you invited me to come for supper. You said, we want to have you over but we don't like your head.

Leave that away. You don't like your arm or your foot. You can't have a part of me. You either get me, the whole, or nothing. It's that way with Jesus. He's the whole Christ.

He's everything that you need and I need. We need him as a prophet to teach us the most important things. As a priest to die in our place and to pray, pray down every blessing from the Father.

We need him as a king. We have many enemies and we're weak and helpless, but he will defend us. And wonder of wonders, he's willing to be all of this for anyone who seeks him.

You seek him with your whole heart and receive him as he's offered to you, as prophet, priest, and king. And you'll have him in his full salvation. Could we bow in prayer?

Thank him then. Father, thank you for sending your son. You made promises and like Joshua said, not one of them has failed and not one of your promises to send a prophet, priest, and king has failed.

The Christ has come, your anointed one. We thank you, Lord Jesus, that you are all of this for us. We needed nothing less and you have met all of our needs.

And thank you, Holy Spirit, for resting upon the Son without measure that he might fulfill his saving ministry for a poor sinner like us.

Thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. may may may may! may may may