Prophet, Priest, and King

Notes:

Reviewing Christ’s Offices

Prophet:

“Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness...”

v. 5: Jesus the Faithful Witness

Faithful Witness=Role of Prophets

Review: Prophets were the first “Social Influencers”

Proclaimed God’s Holiness

Announced Warnings

Shared God’s Will

Foretold the Coming of the Messiah

Jesus is this Faithful Witness:

NOT MERELY A VERBAL WITNESS!

PHYSICAL WITNESS

Witness=Martyr: Early in Christianity, to be a witness meant verbally announcing something that may get you killed! Martyr shifted away from witness to someone who dies because of that witness.

Jesus is our FAITHFUL Witness

As the firstborn of the dead, he is the risen martyr. His witness announced verbally and confirmed physically through his death and resurrection!

Example:

Thomas: John 20:27-29:

27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

King

“...the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.”

v. 5: Firstborn of the dead: The Ruler of the kings of earth

Resurrection and Kingdom go hand-in-hand.

Ascension Day in the Spring. Ascension=Heavenly Coronation

Review:

Jeremiah 33:15: “15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”

4 Guarentees:

Germination Guarantee

Restoration Guarantee

Gravitation Guarentee: “‌My promise is so sure, unless you finite creatures can stop the force of gravity between the sun and the earth, only then would I stop sending you a King.”

Revelation 22:16: “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

The shoot has been revealed: Jesus!

Victory is hear! Ascension nailed it! (pun intended)

2nd Point of Review:

New King from David’s line will come back, but so will priestly duties!

Kingdom of Priests!

Offices won’t be separated, but integrated.

One High Priestly King, and ALL subjects within this Kingdom are Priests.

Priest:

vv.5-6: To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Review:

Jesus as the Priest

Heb 10:21: “we have a great priest over the house of God…”

Because he is the great King and the Great High Priest, he has made us a Kingdom, priests to his God and father...

Jesus as the Sacrifice

Freed us by his blood!

Review of Yom Kipper (Day of Covering)

Changing of clothes, ceremonial washings, multiple sacrifices. The amount of blood shed on the Day of Atonement is enough to make anyone queasy...

As the High Priest, he served as the perfect conduit between God and man.

Why? Because he was the God man.

As the sinless, Jesus served as the perfect sacrifice. A human committed the crimes, so because God is just, a human must take the punishment.

Summary: Beautiful how John captures the major themes of Jesus’ three offices!

Our Role as Ambassadors

What is the result of Christ’s Threefold Offices?

We are co-heirs with Christ, grafted into his family.

It gives US our identity and purpose

1. Like a Prophet, you have a message to share: “Go into all the world, baptizing and teaching the nations.”

2. You are a Priest called to be a conduit of God’s grace: I Peter 2:9 “9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

3. You are Royalty! “ROYAL” priesthood.

Offices weave together!

Best way to Understand your identity: Ambassador for Christ!

Prophets: Newscasters: Newscasters report the values of the Kingdom like a prophet.

Learn how to report the news! The Good News!

Report repentance and resurrection.

Report how to live!

Hope: Reporting the good news leads to improvement!

“This is how we do things back home, and it works a whole lot better!”

Ethics, human sexuality, social media engagement, cultural conversations, Ambassadors report the Good News into these topics.

Don’t need to scream you opinions.

Server: Like Priests, they serve as mediators through service. Like Jesus was both the Priest and the sacrifice, we are mediators and servants.

Romans 12:1-2: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

You don’t need a seminary degree to be a priest. Priesthood of all believers: No separate class of Christian. No hierarchy.

Different callings, but equally Christian.

Different professions, equally priests!

As an ambassador, you are called to mediate because the culture the Kingdom!

Ambassadors: Representative and delegated authority!

We represent the King of kings, Lord of lords.

DO NOT FEAR!

Linus: Shares the Christmas Story: Angel said to them: “Behold, Fear Not...” I read this past week that it’s at that point when Linus drops his blanket!

Fear not! You have the authority of the King of kings… Christ, the Lord is

If you can’t think of yourself as prophet, priest, and king, pear it down to one identity: I am Christ’s ambassador: Called to report. Called to serve. Called as ROYALTY!

Kingdom and Culture

Sent to Christian Hotbed Now

v. 4:“John to the seven churches that are in Asia.”

Picture: “Asia” literally the province of Asia in Rome

Small: Like the size of Illinios

Christian hotbed

“The regions where the early church was strongest (Turkey, Syria, and North Africa) are now Islamic strongholds. Yet by and large it was the church rather than Islam that destroyed the church; Muslim invaders simply mopped up after them. In North Africa, Christianity weakened itself through internal doctrinal and ethnic divisions, heresies, and the insensitivity of Byzantine and Latin Christians to local culture. Nubia remained a richly Christian African culture until its growing weakness in both missions and Christian education led to its collapse to Islam in the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries. The disunity of the church led to the demise of a glorious Eastern Orthodox culture before Islam.” Craig Keener

History repeats itself...

Internal doctrinal and ethnic divisions.

Heresies.

Weakness in missions and Christian evangelism.

Disunity of the church...

Mike Goheen: Pastor, Professor, used to be CRC, but is now a PCA professor

He answers why Christianity is failing to grow in the West. He describes a reflections by an Australian sociologist:

- NOT a Christian

Why is Christianity declining in the West, and why is it growing in the non-West?

We are not passing along the founding narrative of scripture to the next generation.

We don't see the Christian faith as a story that encompass all of creation in the entire world.

Mike Goheen says we’re not passing along the basic Christian story in discipling relationships.

Very Practical: “And because we don't have this big, all encompassing narrative that is being passed along, we're not bringing the Bible to bear on issues of gender and sexuality on issues of media… on issues of social...on issues of politics and political ideologies and issues of economics.”

We’ve created this truncated vision of Christianity that separates church life from the rest of all of life!

What’s the answer!

Where are we?

Wrote his dissertation on a missionary named Leslie Newbegin who wrote: “Gospel in a Pluralist Society”

“The preaching of the gospel can never be irrelevant. But if the church which preaches it is not loving corporately a life which corresponds with it, is living in comfortable cohabitation with the powers of this age, is failing to challenge the powers of darkness and to manifest in its life the power of the living Lord to help and to heal. Then by its life, it closes the doors which its preaching would open.”

Newbegin: (New Years: Fitting to focus on Leslie NEWBEGINnings)

“That does not mean that the preaching is void, because there is no limit to the power of the Word of God. But it means that the church comes under severe judgment from Him who will ask of us not about our confession but about our commitment to doing his will.”

Preaching put into practice!

Newscaster: know the message and know how to communicate that message

Servant: Lives of sacrifice for others.

Ambassador: Represent the King and the values of the Kingdom in your occupations.

Christmas: Incarnation

New Year: New Beginnings (Newbegin!)