Jesus
In Scripture we find that Jesus held three primary offices. These three offices define, or rather are defined by, who Jesus is, and what he did.
These three offices, or roles, are Prophet, Priest, and King. We are going to look at these three defining offices this morning.
The first office of Jesus is Prophet.
What is a prophet? When people think about prophets today, they often think about people who tell the future, they tell us what is going to happen in some time to come. But the primary purpose of a prophet wasn’t to tell the future, but to call people into right relationship with God. They were the mouthpiece of God to the people, showing and revealing to them God’s will, and how to live in right relationship with Him.
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of prophets mentioned in the Bible. We don’t know all of their names, and we don’t know all of the messages that they gave. But we do know some. Noah is the first person in the Bible to be identified as a prophet. Isaac, and Jacob are both called Prophets. The last books of the Old Testament are all about prophets, carrying the names of the prophet they are about. But the most important Prophet to the people of Israel was a man named Moses.
Moses didn’t do a whole lot of foretelling the future, but it was through Moses that God revealed his Law to Israel. It was Moses who told the people how God wanted them to live. It was through Moses that God freed the people from their slavery in Egypt and let them on a journey to a new future. It was Moses who God used to essentially redeem His people from death to life.
Now, I said that a prophet’s primary purpose wasn’t to tell the future, but to call people into right relationship with God. But that doesn’t mean that they never spoke of things that would happen in the future. And when they did, the purpose was always to draw people’s attention to God and call them to live the way God wants us to live.
Moses is no exception. In Deuteronomy 18:15, we read that Moses tells Israel that God would raise up a prophet like himself, and the told Israel to listen to him. And later, in verse 18, God days, “I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all I command him.”
Jesus is the definitive fulfillment of this prophecy. In the New Testament Phillip, if not the first to recognize, is the first person to vocalize this fulfillment. John writes, in chapter 1 verse 45 that Phillip told Nathaniel, “we found the one who Moses wrote about.” That isn’t our only indication that Jesus is this Prophet, Jesus himself gave witness. In John 12:49 he says, “I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has given me a commandment – what to say and what to speak.”
But Jesus isn’t just a prophet “like” Moses, he is the prophet greater than Moses. Not only does he speak the word of God, he is the Word of God. He doesn’t just represent God to humanity, he is God, the exact expression of God.
In John 14, Phillip asks Jesus to show them the Father. Jesus responds by saying, “The one who has seen me has seen the Father… Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who lives in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves.”
The Heidelberg Catechism states well what Jesus does, it says, “[He] perfectly reveal[s] to us the secret counsel and will of God for our deliverance.” But he doesn’t just reveal it to us, he doesn’t just call us into right relationship, he enables and empowers us to do so.
On our own we would turn away from God. In fact, we all have. Isaiah 53:6 says, “all we [all of us] like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—everyone—to his own way.” And again, in Romans 3:23, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
And if that is where it ended that would be horribly depressing. But Paul goes on to say in the next verse, “[we] are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” In his redeeming work Christ not only calls us into right relationship, but he also brings us in to right relationship. He enables us to follow the two greatest commandments; to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.
How does he do this? That brings us to the second office of Christ, that of Priest.
Now, unless you grew up Catholic, or are familiar with Catholicism, the term “priest” may seem foreign and/or archaic to you. As the Prophets represented God to the people, the Priest acted as the representative of the people to God.
A priest enters into the sacred space of God, in the Old Testament this space is represented by the Tabernacle and later by the Temple in Jerusalem, to intercede on the behalf of the people by offering the prescribed sacrifices. These sacrifices symbolically took away the sins of the people, but they were just a cosmetic cover-up.
The author of Hebrews conveys this in chapter 10, verse 11, “every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.” The sacrifice just covered-up sin, it didn’t, it couldn’t, remove it. It is this sin that separates us from right relationship with God and with other people.
Think back to Adam and Eve, before the Fall. The Bible says that they were naked and knew no shame. This nakedness wasn’t just a physical nakedness, but a mental, emotional, relational, and spiritual nakedness. They were in complete perfect relationship with each other and with God. They were completely vulnerable. And what was the first thing they did after they ate of the tree and knew they were naked? They covered themselves, they set up barriers. Again, it wasn’t just a physical cover-up, a physical barrier, but it was relational, emotional, spiritual. They hide from the God with whom they had previously openly walked with through the Garden. They divert blame from themselves onto others – Adam on Eve, Eve on the serpent.
Sin always results in broken relationship. Romans 6:10 says that the wages of sin is death. This death is not just a physical death, but an emotional death, a relational death, a spiritual death. Sin always creates barriers to right relationship between man and God, and between man and man. It always inhibits our ability to follow the two greatest commands to love God and love our neighbor.
And so, because the sacrifices offered by priests is insufficient to cleanse us from sin, the barriers remain. But the author of Hebrews moves on from the description of the insufficient sacrifice and points us to Christ. In verse 13 of Hebrews chapter 10 we read, “this man [Jesus], [offered] one sacrifice for sins forever. 1 John 1:7 says the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.
To cleanse means “to make thoroughly clean.” The sacrifices offered to God by priests are impotent to make us clean.
My favorite illustration of this cleansing is found in a book entitled “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” one of the books in the Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis. In this book a boy, by the name of Eustace Scrub, is, because of his rebellion, turned into a dragon. “Sleeping on a dragon’s hoard with greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart, he had become a dragon.” He is unable to cleanse himself from this “dragoness.”
He tried. He could get a layer off here, and a layer off there, but just like those sacrifices he couldn’t take it away. Eustace had to come to the realization that he couldn’t do it. And when he came to that place, to the end of himself, that is where Aslan (the “spoiler alert” Christ figure in Narnia) stepped in. Let me read from the book for a moment.
“Then the lion said, ‘you will have to let me undress you.’
“The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right to my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt…
“Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off—just as I thought I’d done it myself the other [times], only they hadn’t hurt…
“And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me—I didn’t like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on—and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment… [I] turned into a boy again.”
And that is exactly what Christ, as our High Priest, does for us. He takes us just as we are and sets us free. He transforms us into the people that we were created to be.
As the Heidelberg Catechism states, he “set us free by the one sacrifice of his body and continually pleads our case with the Father.”
He is the perfect intercessor between God and man, because he is God and man. Hebrews 7:23-27 says, “The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he [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, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.”
And he has offered a perfect sacrifice. One that doesn’t just cover up sin, but actually cleanses us. Hebrews 7:28, “He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.” 1 John 1:7 says it like this, “the blood of Jesus… cleanses us from all sin.”
So, how does this play into the third office of Jesus? How does his work as Prophet and Priest relate to his role as King?
Well, as Prophet he reveals God and God’s Will to us, calling us into right relationship with Him. As Priest he frees us, through his perfect, once-and-for-all, sacrifice from the power of sin and death, enabling and empowering us to live the life God has called us to.
What about Kingship? What does it mean for Jesus to be King?
Jesus is first identified as King in Matthew 2, when the Wise men came asking, “where is he who has been born King of the Jews?” It’s interesting to note that the first people to acknowledge Jesus’ kingship were not devout Jews, but pagan magi, or priests from the region of Persia. In the Gospel of Luke, Gabriel doesn’t call Jesus “King” when he announces the news to Mary, but he does say, “the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end. Both 1st Timothy and the book of Revelation identify Jesus as the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. There is Kingly language surrounding the person of Jesus throughout the New Testament. Ephesians 1:20-23 says that “[God] raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
Now, to say that Christ is King is to say that something else isn’t. In the context of the New Testament writings, to say Christ is King is to say that Caesar is not. To say that Christ is King in our context is to say that he is my ultimate authority, and my ultimate allegiance is to him, not the President, or my country, or my boss, or my community, or my fandom, or anything.
Matthew 6:24 says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” You can substitute anything for money in this passage. You cannot serve both God and career, you cannot serve both God and fame, you cannot serve both God and politics, you cannot serve both God and whatever. Only one thing can be the King of your life.
To say Christ is King is to say that I am going to allow God, and His Will, as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, to govern me, to lead and guide me, to direct my life. It means that my allegiance to Christ comes before my allegiance to anything.
It doesn’t mean that you cannot have any other allegiances, but that his is primary. When Jesus says in Luke 14:26, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” He’s not advocating hating anyone, that would contradict everything he said about loving God and neighbor. He’s using hyperbole to say that loving God comes first.
What it means is that any other allegiances that I have will have to follow my allegiance to Him. I am going to have to evaluate every allegiance, every relationship I have, in the light of my ultimate allegiance to Christ.
But this also means, somewhat paradoxically, that if Christ is my King, my first allegiance, my first relationship, all of my other relationships I have will be better, richer, and more meaningful. When I love God first, I am better able to love my wife. If I’m trying to love my wife as my first priority, I am relying on my own power to love her, and I will never be able to love her the way she deserves. But when I put Christ first, he empowers and enables me to love my wife, and my kids, and my neighbors, and my co-workers, and my enemies. When I love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength it doesn’t take away from the love I have to give, it makes the love I have to give more powerful and more loving. I cannot love my neighbor as myself if I don’t first love God.
So, we have a choice to make. Who is going to be the authority, the King of my life? It’s a decision e all have to make. It’s a decision we all will make. There’s no such thing as a non-decision in this case.
Anyone a Bob Dylan fan? He has a song entitled “Gotta Serve Somebody.” You are going to serve someone.
In the Old Testament Joshua, the successor of Moses, led the Israelites on their initial conquest of the Promised Land. Towards the end of his life, as he knew he would die soon, he spoke to the nation of Israel. He told them they had to make a decision, they had a choice, who were they going to serve? Who was going to be their King?
And that’s the choice you face today, the choice you face every day. Chose you this day whom you will serve. If you chose to do your own thing, have fun, but ultimately that way is steeped in sin and will always lead to death.
But if you chose to make Christ the King of your life, his work as Prophet and Priest becomes efficacious in your life.
Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
There is so much more that could be said about this, in fact, this could be a series of sermons. We’ve barely even scratched the surface of who Jesus is.
But the truth is, we can spend every minute of every day of the rest of our lives and still only scratch the surface. But this is the blessed hope that we have. If Christ is our King, we will one day spend an eternity with Him, and see him face-to-face, and know him, even as we are fully known.
The book of Revelation says this in Chapter 21, verses 3-7, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
Choose you this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.
