First Presbyterian Church
Wichita Falls, Texas
April 10, 2011
THE PROPHET WHO SPEAKS GOD’S WORD
Jesus Christ -- The Center of Our Faith: Part 2
Isaac Butterworth
Deuteronomy 18:9, 14-20
9 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there....
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. 15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. 16 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.”
17 The LORD said to me: “What they say is good. 18 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. 19 If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account. 20 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.”
The anointing of a priest in ancient Israel must have been something to behold. Psalm 133 describes how the ‘precious oil [was] poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down upon the collar of his robe’ (v. 2). Aaron, of course, was the first priest in Israel. But it wasn’t just priests who were anointed. Kings were, too, and so were prophets.
The Hebrew word for anointing is mashach, and from that word we get the word messiah, which means ‘the anointed one.’ The Greek word for ‘messiah’ is Christ. So, Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One of God.
The oil of anointing, of course, represented the Spirit of God, who would empower God’s servant to fulfill his office, whether it be that of prophet, priest, or king. No one in the history of Israel ever held all three offices, although some, like Moses, held two. But our Lord Jesus is anointed to be not only Prophet but also Priest, and not only Prophet and Priest but also King. ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,’ he said, ‘because he has anointed me...’ (Luke 4:18).
John Flavel, a Presbyterian minister in the seventeenth century, once said, ‘If ever man [is to] be restored to...happiness, the blindness of his mind must be cured [by Christ as Prophet], the guilt of [his] sin [must be] expiated [by Christ as Priest], and his captivity to sin [must be] led captive [by Christ as King].’ We read in Scripture that our Messiah, our Christ, is a Prophet ‘powerful in word and deed’ (Luke 24:19), a Priest after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:17; Psalm 110:4), and, of course, King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16). So, over the next three weeks, we want to celebrate Christ in each of his ‘offices.’ In the Sundays ahead, we will look at what it means to see him as our Priest and King. Today, though, we begin our reflections by focusing on his role as the Prophet who speaks God’s Word.
In the book of Deuteronomy, God reveals to Moses how he will save a fallen humanity from sin. It will be through a Prophet yet to come. As we look at the words of God’s promise to Moses, we see how Jesus of Nazareth fits the description of each and every phrase. For example, God says, ‘I will raise up for them a prophet...’ (Deuteronomy 18:18). If we turn over to Luke, chapter 7, we will read there how Jesus brought the dead son of a widow back to life and how, when ‘Jesus gave him back to his mother,’ the people ‘were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people”’ (v. 16).
Again in Deuteronomy, God tells Moses, ‘I will raise up for them a prophet like you...’ (Deuteronomy 18:18). Was Jesus a prophet like Moses? Listen to what the New Testament says. In John 1:17, we read, ‘The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.’ And then in Hebrews, chapter 3, we read how Jesus ‘was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. Jesus,’ it goes on to say, ‘has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself’ (vv. 2f.).
Back to Deuteronomy: God said to Moses, ‘I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers...’ (Deuteronomy 18:18). That’s Jesus, isn’t it? He was the Son of Abraham; he was the Son of David; he was of the tribe of Judah; and he was born in Bethlehem. He was of the Israelites, according to the flesh, was he not?
In Deuteronomy, we read how God told Moses: ‘I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him’ (Deuteronomy 18:18). Does that match up with what we know of Jesus? Just a sampling from the Gospel of John will confirm that it does. John 7:16 records Jesus saying: ‘My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me.’ And John 12, verses 49 and 50, also quote Jesus. ‘I did not speak of my own accord,’ said Jesus, ‘but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.’
One more thing to notice in Deuteronomy 18: In verse 15, God says of this Prophet who is to come, ‘You must listen to him.’ And in verse 19, he says, ‘If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.’ When we turn to the New Testament, we hear God saying the same thing. In Matthew 17:5, we find him saying of Jesus, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!’
So, we see that Jesus Christ is the Prophet that God raised up in fulfillment of his promise to Moses. Let’s ask now how it is that Christ executes the office of Prophet.
He does it both inwardly and outwardly. Outwardly, he does it by his Word. Isaiah 8:20 sends us ‘to the law and to the testimony [that is, to the Word of God]! If they do not speak according to this word,’ Isaiah says, ‘they have no light of dawn.’ And Jesus himself was the One in whom ‘was life, and that life was the light of men’ (John 1:4). When we read the Bible, when we are taught its truth, when we hear it preached, it is Christ our Prophet speaking to us through his Word.
But the external witness of the Word will never be enough. How many read it and hear it but are never changed by it? Paul says, ‘The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned’ (1 Corinthians 2:14). Thomas Watson once said, ‘A swine may see an acorn under a tree, but he cannot see a star. [But] he who is taught of Christ sees...the secrets of the kingdom of heaven.’
So, Christ our Prophet teaches us not only outwardly by his Word but also inwardly by his Spirit. Remember how he said, ‘When he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears.... He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you’ (John 16:13f.). Unless the Spirit of Christ illumines our heart, we cannot receive the Word of Christ. But if we are Christ’s, then we have our Lord’s own promise: he will teach us not only outwardly but inwardly as well.
So then, how are we to be taught of Christ? How are we to listen to him? Psalm 119:105 says, ‘‘Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light for my path.’ Using the word ‘light’ as an acrostic, we may urge ourselves to embrace our Lord’s teaching in five ways.
First, listen to Christ as he speaks through his Word. Our Lord once said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’ (John 8:31f.). Again, he said, ‘The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life’ (John 6:63). Repeatedly in the Scriptures the Father instructs us with regard to Jesus, ‘Listen to him’ (Deuteronomy 18:15; Matthew 12:5).
Next, invite him to expose your need. As creatures, we are subject to futility, even in our minds. As sinners, we are inclined to confusion and distortion in our thinking. We look at temporal things, things that will pass away, and we treat them as though they had enduring permanence. We put off eternal things to consider another day. In Revelation 3:18, our risen Lord says to the first century church in Laodicea, ‘I counsel you to buy from me...salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.’ In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul says, ‘We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal’ (v. 18). Let’s invite Jesus to expose our need at this point.
Third, grant him access to your heart. As we have said, Christ’s prophetic office lies not only in the external ministry of the Word but also in the inner illumination of the mind and in opening the heart. We read of Lydia that ‘the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message’ (Acts 16:14). We, too, want Christ to open our hearts. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, ‘We know, brothers [and sisters] loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction’ (1 Thessalonians 1:4f.).
Fourth, hear him with the desire to obey. I heard Henri Nouwen at Austin College several years ago. I remember what he said about listening and obedience. The word ‘obedience,’ he said, comes from the Latin obaudire, which means ‘to hear.’ By contrast the Latin word for ‘deaf’ is absurdus, from which we get our word ‘absurd.’ To truly hear Christ is to obey him; not to hear and obey is the way of absurdity in living.
Finally, treasure what you learn from Christ. Is there anything more to be valued than the words of our Lord? Psalm 19:10 says of his words, ‘They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.’ And Psalm 119:103 concurs: ‘How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.’
Jesus Christ, the One anointed to speak to us the Word of God, is to us a Prophet without parallel. If only we would see how it is to our profit to listen to his words!
