The Greatest Prophet Series

F. F. Bruce in his commentary on Hebrews concludes (Jesus) "is the prophet

through whom God has spoken His final word; He is the priest who has accomplished a

perfect work of cleansing for his people's sin; He is the King who sits enthroned in the

place of chief honor alongside the Majesty on High." Everyone agrees that Jesus is the

prophet, priest and king in Hebrews, and this means that he sums up the whole

revelation of God. But the fact is, we hear more about Jesus being the priest and king

than we do about Him being the prophet of God. I have to confess that in 34 years of

preaching I never dealt with this subject, and I do not recall ever reading a message on

Jesus as a prophet. It is not a popular theme, but it is more significant than we realize.

Hebrews begins by saying that the prophets were the spokesmen for God in the past,

and that Jesus is the final spokesman of God in these last days. He is the final and the

ultimate prophet, for He speaks God’s final answer to man.

God told Moses, who is considered the greatest prophet in Judaism, that He would send

another prophet like him, and Christians have always considered this as a reference to

Jesus. It says in Deut. 18:18, "I will raise them a Prophet from among their brothers, like you

(Moses), and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak to them all that I shall

command him. And it shall come to pass, that whoever will not listen to my words which he

shall speak in my name, I will require it of him." Jesus was the very Word of God, and His

words carried the most important message God ever spoke to mankind. Eternal life is in

His words, and failure to listen to them and obey them leads to eternal rejection. It is a

matter of life and death that we hear and heed this prophet who spoke, not just to Israel,

but to all mankind, and who sent His church into all the world to teach them to obey all

that He has commanded. No other prophet had such a powerful message, and no other

prophet had such a universal message to all people. Jesus was, without a doubt, the

greatest prophet. Isaac Watts wrote,

Great Prophet of my God,

My tongue would bless Thy Name,

By Thee the joyful news

Of our salvation came,

The joyful news of sin forgiv’n

Of hell subdued, and peace with heav’n.

Deuteronomy ends with these interesting verses. "And there has not arisen since in

Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and the

wonders, which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his

servants, and to all his land, and in all that mighty hand, and in all the great and awesome

deeds which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel." A prophet like Moses had to have

more than words from God. He had to have deeds of miraculous wonder. Jesus fulfilled

this image perfectly as He went about daily doing miraculous deeds as no one else in

history has ever done. Elijah and Elisha did miracles too, but not on the scale of Jesus. He

not only talked to God face to face as Moses did, but He was the very face of God

confronting mankind. Never before, and never again has there been a prophet like Jesus in

both word and deed. After He fed the 5000 we read in John 6:14, “After the people saw the

miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, ‘surely this is the Prophet who is to come

into the world.’” He was the second Moses in the eyes of those who saw His wonders. Those

who heard his wisdom say the same thing in John 7:40, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”

No one had ever come to fulfill the prophecy of one like Moses until Jesus, and the people

knew He was the one. The leaders of Israel should have known as well, for in Rabbinic

literature there is a much repeated principle: “As the first redeemer (Moses), so the final

redeemer (the Messiah).” They should have known He was the final Prophet fulfilling the

promise to Moses.

There are a number of ways that Jesus parallels Moses. Both had their lives threatened

as babies and they needed to be rescued from tyrants. Both reflected the glory of God on

the mountain. From the mountain where he talked to God Moses gave the people the law

of God. From the mountain Jesus gave the new law in the Sermon on the Mount. It is