01/31 – Deuteronomy 18:15–20 – Prophet Priest and King
January 31, 2021
Grace to you, and peace, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Prophet, Priest, and King. Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last. Emmanuel – God with us. The Messiah. The Christ, the Son of the Living God. Our Savior.
Jesus is all of these things. There are many more titles, honors and offices Scripture assigns to Him. Each of these names tells us something about Jesus, and shows us we need Him to be all of these for us. In our first reading today from Deuteronomy 18, Moses focuses on one of these titles: Prophet.
Moses had been God’s great prophet to Israel for forty years. He’d done exactly what a prophet was to do: deliver God’s Word to the people. God’s Word to leave Egypt; to cross the Red Sea; God’s Word of the Ten Commandments; God’s Word that He would be faithful to them all those years in the wilderness, even when they were unfaithful to Him; and now God’s Word to enter the Promised Land.
Moses would soon die but the job of prophet was far from over. So God tells Moses to tell the people that He would someday give them another Prophet like Moses, but greater than Moses. Of course we know He was far greater than Moses. This Prophet would be more than a prophet.
We heard these words from Moses:
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’1
Christ, who is the Word of God – The Word made flesh, does what a prophet does. He speaks the Word of God. When Jesus speaks, all the world is affected! Even the demons are affected. Last week we heard:
There was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.’
But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’2
Christ is the ultimate Prophet. He speaks with absolute, true and Divine authority. When Jesus speaks, He speaks on behalf of His Father and in the Father’s will. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed that the cup of wrath would be taken from Him, but also prayed that the will of the Father would be done. The will of the Father was done, and the cup did not pass from Jesus. Instead of passing from Jesus, the cup of wrath was poured out on Him, and into Him, and when He spoke His last words from the cross all Divine authority was behind them, even in His dying breath, “Father, forgive them.3” and “It is finished.4” In Jesus’ death, we find the fulfillment of the Law of God. In this singular act of the death and resurrection of Jesus, we receive the Gospel – the Good News. Salvation is ours.
Jesus as Prophet brings this inheritance to you in your Baptism. In Holy Baptism, we are forgiven! Holy Baptism is not Law, a work we offer to God. It is Gospel, a work God does to us. By this work, He gives you the forgiveness of sins! Holy Baptism is not your promise or dedication of yourself to God. It’s God’s promise and commitment of Himself to you. God will never take back that baptismal promise declaring you a child of God. God has spoken.
The flowers fade, the grass withers,
but the Word of the Lord stands forever.5
What happens in Holy Baptism? Roman 8 tells us:
The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.6
We weren’t just sick, injured or blind in sin, we were dead in sin. Paul says in Ephesians 2:
You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.7
We need a prophet to tell these things because we would never see this in ourselves. Then hearing it realize we also need a Savior, one who does the will of God. We need a Savior who could keep the Law of Moses perfectly for us. One to fulfill the Law for us. To do that, He would have to be perfect and, yet, one of us in human flesh and blood. Where could we find One such as that?
God spoke to Moses and told him He would raise up One from among them. The line of David, the shoot of Jesse, Adonai, risen up from among us. The reason for the season of Advent and Christmas is the arrival of that One. The words that God spoke to Moses were fulfilled when God raised up Jesus.
St. Ambrose, who lived in the late 300’s, wrote a very famous and familiar hymn. We opened our worship service today with those ancient words. “Savior of the Nations, Come.” It teaches us:
God the Father was His source,
Back to God He ran His course.8
It also reminds us:
Here a maid was found with child,
Yet remained a virgin mild.
In her womb this truth was shown:
God was there upon His throne.9
John the disciples begins his Gospel reminding us:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.10
Jesus could not be our Savior if He did not become one of us. If Jesus is not fully human He could not be our substitute. The opposite is also true. If He was not God, He could not save us. We cling to this sacred mystery, confessing that Jesus is true God and true man.
Martin Luther, from the 1500’s, wrote a hymn: “Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Your Word.” In it he reminds us how essential this Word is to Jesus’ ongoing work. It is a light to our path on that narrow road that leads through a narrow gate into the expanse of grace and peace everlasting. What Jesus has accomplished in His death and resurrection benefits us only when we hear it and believe it.
Lord, keep us steadfast in Your Word;
Curb those who by deceit or sword
Would wrest the kingdom from Your Son
And bring to naught all He has done.11
Martin Luther repeated those truths in his Small Catechism.
I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.12
In the Creed, we are confessing that the Holy Spirit brings us to faith in Jesus and that He keeps us in that faith. To us, the Body of Christ – the Church, the Holy Spirit applies both the Law (that would convict us of our sin) and the Gospel (forgiveness for sin through Jesus blood and merit.) Where there is the forgiveness of sins, there is eternal life in Christ.
The Word of Christ always comes by the Holy Spirit, who calls us and gives us faith to cling to salvation. We hear it in the hymn:
O Comforter of priceless worth,
Send peace and unity on earth;
Support us in our final strife
And lead us out of death to life.13
Against all opposition in this world, the Church of Christ stands by the power of the Holy Spirit, who gives us that which we need most. By the Word of Christ He preserves us in the very faith He gives us. How can we not be deeply thankful? How can we not pray the Holy Spirit would increase confidence and faith in us everyday?
When God speaks, the world changes. When Christ speaks even demons are forced to obey. When Christ speaks His final words from the cross, our redemption is complete and we are forgiven.
God raised up that great Prophet, Jesus, from among us, as true man. Jesus perfectly kept the Law for our sake, as true God. Jesus speaks with the authority given to Him by the Father, but also as our Savior Jesus takes that authority to the cross and dies for us, and even now, at this moment, He speaks with authority, saying, “You are mine.”
Amen.
1Deuteronomy 18:15–17
2Mark 1:23–25
3Luke 23:34
4John 19:30
5Isaiah 40:8
6Romans 8:7-8
7Ephesians 2:1–3
8LSB 332:5
9LSB 332:3
10John 1:1–5
11LSB 655:1
12Luther’s Small Catechism: Third Article – Explanation
13LSB 655:3
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