Introduction:
Hebrews 1:1-3 - Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high...
The Prophet (Deuteronomy 18:14-22):
-
Will Speak God’s Words – But they did not all listen
See: John 12:49-50 and John 14:10, 24
-
Will be Like Moses – But they did not all believe
See: John 6:32-35 and John 6:51, 57b-58
-
Will Die if He Lies – But they killed Jesus for telling the truth
See: John 8:26b-28 | Psalm 22:7-8, 16-18 | Psalm 22:22-25
Jesus is the Prophet – Will You:
-
Listen to Him?
-
Believe Him?
-
Speak His words?
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
-
00:00-00:01
Good morning, Harvest.
00:03-00:05
It's a joy to be with you this morning.
00:06-00:11
Open your Bibles, please, if you haven't already, to Deuteronomy chapter 18.
00:12-00:16
It's where we will be studying God's Word this morning.
00:18-00:37
And as is our usual, sometimes usual custom, I would ask, please, that you pray for me, that I would clearly, accurately preach God's Word, and I will pray for you that your hearts will be open to receive it.
00:37-00:37
Let's pray.
00:43-01:18
Gracious and holy Father, I pray, Father, you would open our hearts and minds to receive your word, that we would be absolutely convinced beyond all doubt that your word is true and that Jesus is your prophet who speaks your truth to us through your word, through your spirit at all times.
01:19-01:30
And I pray as we believe and trust in Him, you would transform our lives and make us more like Him every day.
01:30-01:33
We pray in Jesus' great name, Amen.
01:35-01:44
So in preparation for Resurrection Sunday, we are beginning a three-part series examining the three offices of Christ.
01:45-01:47
the office of prophet, priest, and king.
01:49-01:53
And we begin this morning with the first of these, which is prophet.
01:55-01:59
Now, we may listen to a lot of modern day prophets for advice on how to live.
02:00-02:12
The experts, the doctors, the internet influencers, the media talking heads, podcasters, entertainment celebrities, even astrologists and politicians.
02:14-02:16
The sources of information are endless.
02:17-02:24
And now we have AI at our fingertips to synthesize and summarize the sum and substance of human experience.
02:27-02:40
Now to be clear, I'm not talking about doctors who say eating this one food three times a day cures sleep apnea or the weird trick that cures tinnitus caused by eating this one food three times a day.
02:40-02:47
Now I'm talking about the major life information, answers to questions like, "Who am I?
02:48-02:49
What's my purpose?
02:50-03:03
What's the best way to live?" And when it comes to that kind of information, few to none of the infotainment talking heads can really help us, because they can only tell us what they know.
03:04-03:11
I'm not suggesting they aren't intelligent, but what they say may or may not be true.
03:12-03:15
But you say like, well, no, hold on, hold on Sprung.
03:15-03:20
I've heard it said that all truth is God's truth, wherever it's found.
03:22-03:24
Well, let's think about that for a minute.
03:25-03:29
God's word is perfect, pure and true according to Psalm 19.
03:30-03:44
So I have a metaphor this morning for us, For God's word, I think that everyone can relate to the delight over opening a brand new container of Play-Doh.
03:45-03:46
It's all one color.
03:47-03:49
Nobody's played with it yet.
03:49-03:51
It's not mixed up with other colors.
03:52-03:57
It's just fresh and clean, and it's ready for my artistic expression.
04:00-04:04
But you know, the inevitable happens, doesn't it?
04:04-04:19
Soon, what was once pure and clean, it's all mashed together with a lot of other colors and that original color becomes unidentifiable.
04:22-04:23
I think you get the point.
04:25-04:29
How do you discern God's truth in a mishmash of worldly ideas?
04:30-04:37
How do you extract the truth once it's all blended into futile human thoughts?
04:40-04:45
Well, this is the problem with the infotainment experts.
04:46-04:53
Their learning and experience and perspective is just a conglomeration of worldly thinking.
04:54-05:09
They can make educated guesses as to how to live and what's going to happen, but ultimately every single one of them is going to reach a point where they have to say, "I don't know." And some of them are speaking directly out of the pit of hell.
05:10-05:13
And those folks will drag you down to hell with them.
05:14-05:20
So you see, that's why when it comes to the astrologists and the mediums and perhaps the to celebrities and influencers.
05:22-05:33
Verse 14 of this morning's passage says that, "As for you, the Lord, your God, has not allowed you to do this." So to whom or what can we turn?
05:33-05:37
Where can we get truth for an accurate world view?
05:38-05:41
Because we need a perspective that is outside of ourselves.
05:42-05:46
Outside of this world, really, and that's what God's Word is.
05:47-05:53
It is the specific and special revelation of God about himself.
05:58-06:01
It comes from the throne of God.
06:02-06:18
The problem with the world is, people in the world, they look at the Bible and like, "Well, yeah, that's just one more system of thought like any other." In fact, it's probably even not as good as what AI can tell us now.
06:19-06:21
They have a low view of scripture.
06:22-06:24
We need to have a high view of scripture.
06:26-06:33
And as we learn from the word that was just read, we can get the truth from the prophet.
06:34-06:36
It is to him we must listen.
06:38-06:40
But what is a prophet anyway?
06:41-06:42
What does a prophet do?
06:42-06:52
We typically think of prophets as forecasting future events, often in a cryptic or mystical way, like that Nostradamus guy.
06:52-06:58
But biblically, that is only a partial description of what a prophet does.
06:59-07:03
Basically a biblical prophet speaks God's words to people.
07:05-07:09
The Old Testament prophets revealed three basic messages.
07:11-07:18
The first was that God sent many prophets to his people to rebuke them for breaking the covenant and worshiping idols.
07:19-07:31
This was perhaps the prophet's most important function, to remind the people of Israel that they, and only they, were in a covenantal relationship with the Lord God Most High.
07:33-07:36
and they were violating His covenant in a high-handed way.
07:37-07:47
Time and again He warned them to return to Him, or they would face the ultimate covenant punishment of being expelled from the Promised Land.
07:48-08:03
Not only did the prophets warn Israel and Judah that they would be punished by pagan nations for their idolatry, God also spoke to them about a future restoration, both near and at the end of the age.
08:05-08:09
And indeed, after the exile, they would return to the promised land.
08:10-08:18
And the nations that assaulted and tormented Israel in their exile, they would in turn be punished and overthrown by God.
08:19-08:29
And then finally, the Old Testament prophets spoke of the coming Messiah, a sometimes suffering, but ultimately victorious anointed servant.
08:30-08:33
The anointed one would bring salvation to his people.
08:33-08:37
He would inaugurate a new covenant between God and his people.
08:38-08:45
And the prophets gave many clues that would help the people identify the anointed one when he arrived.
08:46-08:51
Now, what did God expect his people to do in response to the prophets' messages?
08:52-09:29
expected, well no, he commanded them to repent and believe the messages to return to him and live in accordance with the covenant he made with them at Mount Sinai. And yet the Old Testament records a nearly continuous account of Israel's idolatry. They worship the idols of the nations around them. They And they sought out and listened to the words of false prophets, mediums, fortune tellers, and diviners.
09:30-09:31
They did not listen.
09:32-09:34
They did not believe.
09:34-09:37
They became futile in their thinking and their worship.
09:37-09:47
They mixed God's truth with the religions and lifestyles of the surrounding nations, and they ended up with the equivalent of this, gudo.
09:49-09:52
It's just a mash, a mishmash of ideas.
09:53-10:02
And when the prophets exposed their sin and their hypocrisy, they took offense and they put them to death.
10:04-10:13
So God, after bearing with his people for hundreds of years, he brought the covenantal curses down upon their heads and inflicted the ultimate punishment.
10:14-10:16
He exiled them from the promised land.
10:18-10:22
Now God of course kept his promises and he returned them to the land.
10:23-10:37
And roughly 400 years after that, the anointed one who was known before the foundation of the world, he was made manifest in the last times for the sake of all who would believe in and through him.
10:39-10:45
We of course know from the New Testament that Jesus is the promised Messiah.
10:46-10:52
He's the Son of God who fulfilled all that was spoken of Him by the Old Testament prophets.
10:55-11:03
As the writer of Hebrews says, "Long ago and at many times and in many ways, "God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.
11:04-11:12
"But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, "whom He appointed the heir of all things, "through whom also He created the world.
11:13-11:21
"He's the radiance of the glory of God God in the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power.
11:21-11:36
After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." And this verse summarizes the three offices of Christ that we're going to be studying this week.
11:36-11:37
First is prophet.
11:38-11:48
"In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son." And then priest, he has made purification for sins.
11:48-11:53
And then finally king, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
11:56-12:01
So how do we know Jesus is the prophet foretold by Moses?
12:02-12:08
What evidence is there to conclusively connect Jesus to the promise of a prophet just like Moses?
12:11-12:15
Well, first the prophet will speak God's words.
12:16-12:19
Look at verse 15 of chapter 18 in Deuteronomy.
12:21-12:27
Verse 15 says, "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers.
12:28-12:35
It is to him you shall listen." Thus the prophet would be raised up by God from among the Israelites.
12:36-12:46
And the gospels of Matthew and Luke establish that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary, and he was adopted by Joseph.
12:47-12:50
And both Mary and Joseph were descendants of David.
12:51-12:53
Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
12:54-12:57
His birth was attended by an angelic announcement.
12:59-13:08
And then when John baptized Jesus, God the Father announced that Jesus was his beloved son with whom he was well-pleased.
13:09-13:17
All of these events attest that Jesus was indeed raised up by God the Father from among the Israelites.
13:18-13:29
And these events disprove the idea that Jesus was merely a self-appointed and possibly deluded religious figure, as some people think he was.
13:31-13:35
And then verse 18 tells us that God's words would be in his mouth.
13:36-13:47
"I will put my words in his mouth and He shall speak to them all that I command Him." Now, we've already established that the prophets spoke God's words to the people.
13:48-13:59
But whereas they prefaced their statements with, "Thus saith the Lord," Jesus spoke as the Lord, out of the oneness that existed between Him and the Father.
14:00-14:17
For example, in John 12, verses 49 and 50, Jesus said, "For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment, what to say and what to speak.
14:17-14:20
And I know that his commandment is eternal life.
14:21-14:38
What I say therefore, I say as the Father has told me." And then in John 14, verses 10 and 24, he said, "The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
14:38-14:59
And the word that you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me." As further proof of his prophetic office, Jesus spoke God's words in the way that the Israelites requested.
15:00-15:13
What I mean is this, In Exodus chapters 19 and 20, God descended in a dark cloud on Mount Sinai with thunders and lightnings and the mountains shook.
15:14-15:18
And out of that cloud, God spoke the 10 commandments to the people.
15:19-15:54
And when all the people saw the thunder and the lightning and the sound of the trumpet that they heard and they were seeing the mountain shake and the ground shaking beneath their feet, They were terrified and they stood far off and they told Moses, they said, "You speak to us and we will listen, "but do not let God speak to us lest we die." Certainly Moses continued to speak to the people and gave them God's commands during their journey to the promised land and during their wandering for 40 years in the desert.
15:55-15:57
And then in his final address to them in the book of Deuteronomy.
16:00-16:21
But in chapter 18, verses 16 and 17, Moses told the people that God would send a prophet in direct response to their request at Mount Sinai, to let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, or see this great fire anymore, lest I die.
16:24-16:31
So how did Jesus, in his speaking, demonstrate that he was the prophet sent by the Lord?
16:32-16:37
Well, there's three events that directly identify Jesus as the prophet.
16:38-16:42
And all of them occurred, not coincidentally, on a mountainside.
16:44-16:48
First, he was on the mountain when he was transfigured before Peter, James, and John.
16:48-16:59
and while talking with Moses and Elijah, and a bright cloud appeared and God said, "This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.
17:00-17:08
Listen to him." And the three disciples were like the Israelites of old, terrified by the voice of God.
17:09-17:11
But when they looked up, they saw only Jesus.
17:14-17:26
Second, the most direct connection A connection between the prophet and God speaking in the 10 commandments out of a stormy cloud is found in Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount.
17:29-17:33
Jesus, seeing the crowds, went up on the mountain.
17:34-17:36
And when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
17:37-17:39
And he opened his mouth and taught them.
17:41-17:42
And what did he teach them?
17:44-17:50
Well, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus exegeted the law, including most of the 10 commandments.
17:51-17:59
The greatest commandment, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and then to love your neighbor as yourself.
18:01-18:12
In that sermon, he showed the people that righteousness was not about outwardly keeping rules, but inward devotion to God that flowed from a broken and contrite heart.
18:14-18:18
a heart that revealed itself in confident dependence on God.
18:20-18:31
Instead of fire and terror, Jesus spoke to the people face to face on the mountain, just as they requested of Moses so long ago.
18:32-18:41
He revealed God to be merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
18:42-18:50
And when Jesus finished, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority.
18:52-18:57
And yet, as so often happened in Israel's history, they did not all listen.
18:59-19:06
Yeah, there were those who did, but it seems for the most part, people were going out to Jesus for signs and wonders.
19:07-19:08
The crowds were fickle.
19:08-19:10
They were ambivalent about him.
19:11-19:15
and the religious leaders were so hostile, they wanted to kill him.
19:18-19:26
In Jesus, Israel got what she asked for hundreds of years earlier, a prophet speaking God's words to them face to face.
19:27-19:35
And even though his teaching astonished them, they eventually decided that Jesus really wasn't the prophet or Messiah they wanted after all.
19:36-19:38
They wanted a vending machine God.
19:38-19:42
They wanted a Messiah-o-matic and give them what they wanted.
19:46-19:57
You see, the divide between what the people craved and who Jesus is, is revealed in a third event that demonstrated the prophet would be like Moses.
20:00-20:06
The third thing Jesus did on a mountainside that proved He was the prophet like Moses is this.
20:07-20:12
He fed well over 5,000 people with bread and fish.
20:14-20:36
According to John 6, after everyone had eaten their fill and 12 baskets of leftovers were collected, the people said, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world." And a day or two later, the people went looking for Jesus in Capernaum because they wanted more bread to eat.
20:37-20:49
Jesus knew what they wanted and he told them, "Do not work for the food that perishes, "but for the food that endures to eternal life, "which the Son of Man will give you.
20:52-21:16
"For on Him, God the Father has set His seal." And then the people said to him, "What must we do to be doing the works of God?" And Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." So the people said, "Jesus, what sign do you do that we might believe you?
21:18-21:26
What are you going to do for us, Jesus, that will persuade us to believe in you?" And then they said, "Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness.
21:27-21:40
Have you got more bread?" Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly I say to you, "it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, "but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
21:41-22:02
"For the bread of God is he who comes down "from heaven and gives life to the world." They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life." The people responded to Jesus' assertion with grumbling.
22:03-22:11
First, because he said, "He's the bread that comes down from heaven." They're like, "We want food.
22:11-22:12
We want bread.
22:12-22:21
We don't want you." But their grumbling increased because of Jesus' next extraordinary statement.
22:24-22:28
He said, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
22:28-22:31
"If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.
22:32-22:36
"And the bread that I will give "for the life of the world is my flesh.
22:36-22:41
"Whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.
22:42-22:47
"This is the bread that came down from heaven, "not like the bread the fathers ate and died.
22:48-22:57
"Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." Well, this was just all too much for the Jews.
22:57-22:59
This was just too bizarre.
23:01-23:09
Jesus was speaking of himself as eternal nourishment, and all they could think about was their temporary physical hunger.
23:10-23:24
Like the Jews in the wilderness who grumbled about God providing manna for 40 years, the crowds and even many of Jesus' disciples grumbled about Jesus being the true bread of God.
23:25-23:32
Like Moses, Jesus led and fed the people in ways that revealed His prophetic office.
23:33-23:35
But they did not all believe.
23:36-23:37
They took offense at Him.
23:39-23:42
Many turned back and no longer walked with Him.
23:45-23:50
So Jesus asked the 12 if they too wanted to leave Him.
23:50-23:52
But Peter said, "Lord, to whom shall we go?
23:53-23:55
You have the words of eternal life.
23:56-24:00
And we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.
24:03-24:07
You see, Peter recognized Jesus is more than the prophet.
24:07-24:14
He declares Jesus is the anointed one, the Son of God, because Jesus spoke God's words of eternal life.
24:17-24:22
And what was the most important thing that Jesus said during his earthly ministry?
24:23-24:27
What did he explicitly prophesy at least three times?
24:29-24:33
And what did he emphasize in other ways multiple times to his disciples?
24:35-24:41
That he would be mocked and flogged and crucified and that he would be raised to life the third day.
24:42-24:44
It's a pretty extraordinary prophecy.
24:47-25:05
But you see, this was extremely perplexing to the disciples because they said, "Jesus, you're telling the truth." And along with the words that he spoke and the signs and wonders that he performed, all of this amply demonstrated that Jesus was in fact the Messiah.
25:06-25:14
There's no way he could be a false prophet because they knew that a false prophet will die if he lies.
25:16-25:18
Look at Deuteronomy 18.20.
25:19-25:38
"The prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name, that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die." The religious leaders, particularly the Pharisees and their lawyers, they insisted that Jesus was a liar.
25:39-25:43
They claimed he was merely witnessing about himself and that his testimony wasn't true.
25:45-25:57
Well, Jesus countered that by saying that God the Father is also born witness about me and that he who sent me is true and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.
25:58-26:02
They did not understand that he'd been speaking to them about the Father.
26:04-26:25
So Jesus said to them, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own authority but speak just as the Father taught me." In this passage from John chapter 8, Jesus hints at what the religious leaders are planning to do to him.
26:26-26:34
They want to kill him, and he knows that their murderous maneuverings will result in his crucifixion.
26:36-26:38
You see, this is the supreme irony.
26:39-26:42
A prophet will die if he lies.
26:43-26:49
But they killed Jesus for telling the truth, just like they did the prophets of old.
26:50-26:56
And when Jesus was lifted up on the cross, his opponents thought he got what he deserved.
26:57-27:06
They were certain he was a false prophet, because if he wasn't, he wouldn't be suffering a vicious and humiliating death at the hand of Gentiles.
27:09-27:17
He was on the cross, the chief priests and other religious leaders mocked Him, saying, "He saved others. He can't save Himself.
27:18-27:40
Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe." And yet in the midst of His agony, Jesus cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" His enemies might have said, You're forsaken because you're a liar.
27:41-27:44
Everyone who gets hung on a tree is accursed.
27:45-27:51
The fact that we were able to get you crucified is proof that you, Jesus, are accursed by God.
27:52-27:53
You're no prophet.
27:57-28:02
But by crying out the first line of Psalm 22, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
28:03-28:13
Jesus continues to speak the word of God in a way that reveals that the cross is the culmination of his earthly mission.
28:15-28:17
Psalm 22 is a messianic psalm.
28:18-28:22
It summarizes the Messiah's humiliation and exaltation.
28:23-28:24
Let's look at a few passages.
28:26-28:27
Verses seven and eight.
28:28-28:30
All who see me mock me.
28:30-28:32
They make mouths at me.
28:32-28:33
"For they wag their heads.
28:34-28:35
"He trusts in the Lord.
28:36-28:37
"Let Him deliver him.
28:37-28:44
"Let Him rescue him, for He delights in him." Then verses 16 and 18, through 18.
28:45-28:46
"For dogs encompass me.
28:47-28:49
"A company of evil doers encircles me.
28:50-28:53
"They have pierced my hands and feet.
28:53-28:55
"I can count all my bones.
28:55-28:57
"They stare and gloat over me.
28:57-29:00
"They divide my garments among them.
29:00-29:27
"For My clothing they cast lots." And finally, verses 22-25, "Reflect the Father's care in the midst of Jesus' great suffering and His resurrection." He says, "I will tell of Your name to My brothers, and in the midst of the congregation, I will praise You." Stop there for a minute and think about that.
29:28-29:34
Christ is on the cross, and he's telling the name of God to his brothers.
29:34-29:39
In the midst of the congregation, he is praising God.
29:40-29:42
All you who fear the Lord, praise him.
29:42-29:48
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him.
29:49-30:03
All you offspring of Israel, for he is not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, "And He has not hidden His face from him, but He has heard when he cried to Him.
30:04-30:19
And from you comes my praise in the great congregation, my vows I will perform before those who fear Him." You see, even in the throes of death, Jesus preached to all who would listen and believe.
30:20-30:38
If those who heard Jesus cry began themselves to recite this Messianic Psalm, perhaps the realization began to take hold that what they were reciting was happening right before their eyes.
30:41-31:00
The psalmist's words are being fulfilled here and now, just as Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, "then you will know that I am He." And perhaps the horrible realization set in, we've killed the Messiah.
31:01-31:12
And perhaps that is why, as Luke records, all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, they returned home beating their breasts.
31:13-31:15
We have killed the Messiah.
31:18-31:24
But what looked like an accursed death to the crowd instead a triumph over death.
31:25-31:34
On the cross, Jesus put death to death, and in his resurrection, he offers eternal life to all who would believe in him.
31:36-31:38
All that Jesus said came to pass.
31:39-31:41
He said he would die, and he did.
31:42-31:44
He said he would return to life, and he did.
31:45-31:48
He is the reliable and trustworthy prophet.
31:48-31:51
Every word He spoke was true.
31:53-31:55
And He is still our prophet today.
31:56-31:58
We have His word.
31:58-32:03
We have God's word and His Spirit to lead us into all truth.
32:05-32:17
You know, everyone who preaches is obligated to faithfully and accurately speak in the name of the Lord Jesus and to preach His words, not our own.
32:17-32:20
In this way, Jesus is still our prophet.
32:21-32:25
He indwells his people to speak to his people from his word.
32:28-32:35
Therefore, now that you know that Jesus is the prophet, will you listen to him?
32:38-32:45
Will you daily cast off worldly thinking and unbiblical ideas and commit to reading and meditating on God's word?
32:47-32:58
Are you willing to jettison old patterns of negative thinking and replace them with what the Bible says about your worth and your purpose in Jesus Christ?
32:58-33:05
Will you conform your thinking to God's truth and Jesus' example and teaching?
33:08-33:14
Or will you continue to seek advice from the influencers and false prophets clamoring for your attention?
33:16-33:17
Will you look for guidance?
33:18-33:26
Will you look for guidance in the gudo that shapes and drives the lives of so many people?
33:30-33:35
The skeptic will say, "Ah, I don't believe anything in the Bible is true.
33:36-33:37
It offends my reason.
33:38-33:39
I'm an independent thinker.
33:40-33:52
I don't need a God or a religion to tell me what to do." But that same person has no problem with the collective hive mind telling them what to think.
33:53-33:57
And they'll employ artificial intelligence to do their thinking for them.
34:00-34:03
So much intelligence, so little wisdom.
34:05-34:20
The short of it is, if you refuse to listen to what Jesus says, If you take offense at him and his words, you're just like the Israelites and the religious leaders in past time.
34:21-34:26
You're essentially putting him to death in your heart and in your mind.
34:28-34:31
Now, there are probably very few people in this room that hate Jesus.
34:34-34:44
And if we took a survey of the people in this room, probably most of you would agree that, Yeah, we shouldn't be committing the kinds of sins which the world heartily approves.
34:46-34:49
We shouldn't be following all that chatter out there.
34:51-35:05
And yet how many of us choose to remain on friendly terms with the world and feel free to indulge in all its whims and entertainments and pleasures so long as we avoid open sin.
35:08-35:22
The most dangerous sin is the idea that we can listen to worldly prophets advocating for the lusts and pleasures of the world and follow along and yet still be devoted to Christ.
35:23-35:30
Beloved, you cannot listen to and serve multiple masters and still walk uprightly before Jesus Christ.
35:31-35:35
You must listen to Christ and serve Him only.
35:38-36:14
Jesus is the prophet. Will you believe in him? In some ways I have laid this sermon out like a closing argument in a court case. You've heard from the witnesses Moses, God the Father, Peter, and of course Jesus himself. And you have evidence to consider more than 5,000 people fed on a mountainside. Jesus transfigured on a mountain. And of course Jesus crucified on a cross just as he said he would be.
36:17-36:36
And then this singular fact. Jesus rose from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures and according to his own prophetic words. He to pay the penalty for their sins and remove the penalty of death.
36:37-36:43
And rising again, he offers forgiveness of sin and eternal life for all who would believe in him.
36:46-36:48
So you've heard the evidence.
36:49-36:51
You must now render a verdict.
36:52-36:59
Will you believe that Jesus is everything he says he is, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?
37:00-37:03
He's the one mediator between God the Father and humanity.
37:04-37:07
He is the only priest, prophet, and king.
37:08-37:13
And Jesus is the only name given among people under heaven by which we can be saved.
37:15-37:22
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
37:23-37:26
With the heart one believes and is justified.
37:27-37:30
and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
37:32-37:33
Jesus is the prophet.
37:35-37:37
Will you speak His words?
37:40-37:44
As disciples of Christ, we are all prophets of His gospel.
37:45-37:49
We are to proclaim His life, death, and resurrection until He returns.
37:50-37:52
This is no mystery religion.
37:53-37:56
There is no hidden knowledge in the Scriptures.
37:56-37:58
There are no secret rites to perform.
37:59-38:02
The words of Christ are all out in the open.
38:03-38:10
And we have the awesome privilege of possessing the oracles of God, the word of God.
38:10-38:13
We have God's words in our hands.
38:16-38:20
It's not always been true, but it's true for us.
38:22-38:28
Do we have the ability to read it, to reason through it, to engage with it by the help of the Holy Spirit?
38:31-38:38
We can personally and intimately know God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe.
38:40-38:50
Jesus reveals the truth so that we can repent of our sins, trust in His finished work on the cross and receive the gift of eternal life now and forever.
38:55-39:16
And we have the responsibility of repeating his words clearly to others so that they may hear and believe in him by faith too. God forgive us for shirking our responsibility to share the gospel and for being insensible to the the spiritual condition of the lost and the dying.
39:18-39:19
We must speak His words.
39:19-39:22
We must share the good news of what He has done.
39:24-39:33
We are like beggars dressed in fine linen telling other beggars where to find bread and new garments.
39:34-39:37
It is the most loving and kindest thing we can do.
39:39-39:42
as our worship team returns to the stage.
39:45-39:46
I will conclude with this.
39:49-39:52
Not everyone will listen to us.
39:53-39:55
But then they didn't all listen to Jesus either.
39:57-39:58
Not everyone will believe.
40:00-40:02
But then they did not all believe in Jesus either.
40:04-40:08
We are not responsible for the results of sharing the gospel.
40:09-40:11
The results are for God to work out.
40:13-40:18
Our responsibility is to faithfully speak the words of God from Scripture.
40:19-40:24
For faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
40:25-40:25
Let's pray.
40:28-40:31
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
40:32-40:36
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
40:37-40:40
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.
40:42-40:45
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
40:47-40:49
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.
40:51-40:54
The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
40:56-41:04
Let the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight.
41:04-41:08
O Lord, our rock and our Redeemer.
41:09-41:09
Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Deuteronomy 18:14-22
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Can you assess how deeply worldly ideas influence your thinking? What about how deeply they influence your view of Scripture? How about your walk with Christ?
What expectations do you have of God? That is, what do you want from Him, and what do you want to hear from Him? How do these questions and your answers relate to Israel’s history with the LORD?
It was said the sermon was constructed like a closing argument, requiring a verdict. Imagine you are a jury member – was enough evidence and testimony presented to render a judgment that Jesus is the Messiah? If not, what further evidence would you seek? Where would you look for that evidence?
What are some reasons we don’t take seriously our responsibility share the Gospel of Christ with others? How valid are those reasons?
Breakout
Pray for one another.