God Speaks: The Prophecy of Salvation
Advent 2024 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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God Speaks: The Prophecy of Salvation
God Speaks: The Prophecy of Salvation
The Candle of the Way, as our Advent Reading states, “shows us Christ is the Way.”
People, since Adam’s fall in the Garden, sought for every way back to God (or, to become like God), beginning with eating the forbidden fruit and then sowing fig leaves to cover nakedness.
Perhaps you have tried to make a way to God, or having had your way to God somehow lost track of the path.
The Advent of the Prophet brings the message of salvation, or returning to the Lord and enjoying fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
I. The Old Testament Prophets and the Way- Select Scriptures
I. The Old Testament Prophets and the Way- Select Scriptures
Do you know who the first prophet is mentioned directly in the Old Testament?
(Technically speaking, Abel is the first prophet mentioned, cf. Luke 11:51, but in the progression of Scripture Abraham is first!)
Genesis 20:7 “Now then, return the man’s wife, for he [Abraham] is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.””
The next time we see an individual named as a prophet is Aaron in Exodus 7:1 “And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.”
Moses’s sister, Miriam, is called a prophetess next in Exodus 15:20.
We see the requirements for a prophet in the nation of Israel in Deut. 13:1–5. It centers around proclaiming the Word of the Lord faithfully. If the prophet speaks the truth, and directs people to keep and obey His Word, he is a good prophet.
Although the word prophet is used regularly in the O.T. (over 300 times), 1 and 2 Kings and the major prophets use the title most often.
The prophets were attempting to call the people of Israel to return to serve the Lord. They were calling the people back to the way of serving God. The Chronicler, probably Ezra, writes this,
2 Chronicles 36:15–16 “The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy.”
The ending of Chronicles provides a glimpse of the way to which the Prophets, and in particular, Jeremiah, told of God’s work, in 2 Chronicles 36:22–23.
The prophets pointed the way back to God by calling Israel to obey God and worship Him alone. They heralded the way to salvation. The prophets in the New Testament did as well.
II. The New Testament Prophet and the Way- Matthew 3:1–6; Luke 1:8–17, 67–79
II. The New Testament Prophet and the Way- Matthew 3:1–6; Luke 1:8–17, 67–79
Now, it should be said that the majority of references to prophets occur in reference to either a prophet, a group of prophets, or specific prophets.
For example, Matthew 5:12 “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
It also refers to specific prophets, like Isaiah (Matt. 8:17) or Jeremiah (Matt. 2:17). The was also the gift of prophets in Eph. 4:11.
But let us focus on one in particular: John the Baptist.
John the Baptist comes on the scene in Matthew chapter 3, “preaching in the wilderness of Judea.” But there’s a lot more to John the Baptist than meets the eye.
A. John’s Prophetic Beginning- Luke 1:8–17
A. John’s Prophetic Beginning- Luke 1:8–17
Echoing the events of Abraham and Sarah in Genesis, Zachariah and Elizabeth were both advanced in years and Elizabeth in particular could have not have children.
The angel foretells John’s birth, including his Nazarite vows (15, cf. Numbers 6:1–21). He would be a prophet who calls Israel back to the Lord, which brings us toward the end of chapter one with Zechariah’s on words about his prophetic purpose.
B. John’s Prophetic Purpose- Luke 1:76–79
B. John’s Prophetic Purpose- Luke 1:76–79
After receiving punishment for his lack of faith, Zechariah had his speech restored (1:20,63–66). The Holy Spirit, by whom all the prophets of the Lord prophesied (2 Pet. 1:21).
This prophecy includes a mixture of praise and prophecy, whereby Zechariah announces what role his special son would play, namely preparing the way for the Lord, Messiah Jesus.
John will give people knowledge of the way of salvation (1:77–79). What would this New Testament prophet look like? For that we turn our attention to Mathew chapter 3.
C. John’s Prophetic Message- Matt. 3:1–6, 13–17
C. John’s Prophetic Message- Matt. 3:1–6, 13–17
What was John’s prophetic message? “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” His message pointed people to their sins and their helplessness. They needed deliverance from their sins and they were going to be pointed to Jesus.
As special as John was, and indeed all the prophets named and unnamed (Heb. 11:32–40), all served the purpose of pointing people to the Prophet.
*Trinity in Matt. 3:16–17
III. The Prophet and The Way- John 14:6, 24; Luke 24:19, 27
III. The Prophet and The Way- John 14:6, 24; Luke 24:19, 27
All the prophets pointed to Jesus, as He himself states in Luke 24:27
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
John’s purpose was to point people to the Prophet Jesus, because Jesus is the way.
A. The Prophet is the Way- John 14:6, 27
A. The Prophet is the Way- John 14:6, 27
People have sought for salvation, deliverance, peace, nirvana, atonement, and many other words could be provided. All this stems from our separation from God by our sins.
The problem is that in our sinfulness we look to everything but the way. We think our good works will draw us closer to God. We think our faithful attendance will get us closer to God. We think our giving, or moral living, or whatever we can conjure up will bring us to God.
This is the mistake the Jewish people, the national people of God made, as Paul points out in Romans 10:3
For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
It is not a way of life, or what we do, it is Jesus. Jesus, the Prophet of the Lord, is the way, the truth, and the life, as Jesus tells the disciples in John chapter 14.
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Except through me…brings us to the Prophet’s Way.
B. The Prophet’s Way- Matt. 16:21–23; Luke 24:25–27, 46–47
B. The Prophet’s Way- Matt. 16:21–23; Luke 24:25–27, 46–47
The Prophet’s way was one of suffering. He suffered unimaginable pain, physically and spiritual as the God-man.
The disciples could not fathom this thought, as we see in the interaction between Peter and Jesus in Matthew chapter 16.
Jesus tells Peter that He (Jesus) must go to Jerusalem and “suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed.”
To the two disciples on the road to Emmaus he says, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things…?” The entire Scriptures instruct us about the Prophet’s Way, one of sorrow and pain.
Finally, Jesus tells his now 11 disciples, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer…that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”
The Prophet’s way should be our way, but because the Prophet is full of grace (John 1:14), He took the way so that we do not have to.
Isaiah 53 is perhaps the clearest chapter on the sufferings of the Christ, with verses 6 and 11 being quite clear about the Prophet’s way and, our last consideration this morning, our way through the Prophet.
C. Our Way Through the Prophet- Isa. 53:11; Acts 2:37–41; Rom. 10:9–10
C. Our Way Through the Prophet- Isa. 53:11; Acts 2:37–41; Rom. 10:9–10
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Romans 10:9–10 “because, 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. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”