We Believe in Jesus Christ: Prophet

Who is Jesus?

Basketball player

At first glance it might be easy to brush off Jesus as just another guy. He came from a nothing town, the son of a carpenter.

Who is Jesus?

That is one of the most controversial questions you will ever ask and the most important question you will ever have to answer.

In today’s culture you will find people who say all different kinds of things about Jesus. Things like: he was just another guy, he was an enlightened individual but not divine, he did not exist (he was merely a legend), he was a great teacher, or he is God.

And when you look at what the Bible says about Jesus you realize there is only one of those statements that truly fit who jesus is.

And so the next few weeks in our series, Credo: I believe. We are going to look at what Christians believe about Jesus, and specifically we are going to look at three offices or roles that Jesus fulfills.

John Calvin simply said that these offices are Prophet, Priest, and King. So today we are going to look at this claim of Jesus as a Prophet and how that impacts not only us, but the world.

PRAY

A Prophet

A prophet was a servant of God who received messages from God and then communicated them faithfully to the people.

Some of the famous prophets of Scripture are Moses, Elijah, and Isaiah who received God’s law and instructions and taught the people. And this was normally accompanied with announcements of salvations and warnings of judgments as well as predictions of the future.

And God would normally accompany these prophets with miracles to verify their messages. Because if someone claims to be a prophet the only way you can know if they are true or not is if what they proclaimed comes true, or if they demonstrate God’s sovereign powers.

Case in point, when Alex and I were engaged a man named Harold Camping, claimed to be a prophet and that Judgement day would happen on May 21, 2011. Well Alex and I were very interested in that date, because we were getting married on the following day, May 22nd. Imagine saying hey we are getting married on the 22nd, and being told dude you are one day to late.

However, as we see Judgement day did not happen and Harold Camping was proved to be a false prophet. He was wrong.

On the other hand, one of my most favorite scenes in Scripture, the prophet Elijah gets into an argument with some prophets of a false god named Baal on who is the true God and they agreed to a test that both would pray to their own God to bring down fire and the one that did was truly God.

So the Baal prophets took a bull and made an alter praying to Baal to send down fire to consume the alter. And they cried out, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice and no answer.

Then Elijah says says fill 4 jars of water and pour it on the alter, not just once or twice but 3 times. 12 jars of water soaked this alter, and then Elijah cried out, “O LORD, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word.” Immediately fire fell from the sky, consuming the alter. Elijah was verified as a prophet of God.

So when we look at Jesus we need to examine his teachings and who he said he was, but we also need to see if they were verified? Did they come true and/or were they accompanied by a supernatural authority.

Jesus Came Proclaiming the Kingdom of God

Jesus was an unassuming guy. He was the Uncle Drew of Israel. (Do you know who I’m talking about when I say Uncle Drew - KYRIE IRVING, plays for Boston Celtics).

He was born in a nothing town called Bethlehem, and he was raised in a nothing town of Nazareth. He was the son of a carpenter. A single guy in his thirties and he loved his mom.

But all this changed after his baptism when the voice from heaven cried out, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

This was the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. And when we normally think of Jesus’ ministry we often go to his acts of mercy and healing, but in reality his ministry was not healing (it included that) but primarily it was proclaiming the Kingdom of God.

Jesus told his disciples in that they needed to go to the next town, so that he could preach there also, “for that is why I came out”.

Mark 1:38 ESV

And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”

Jesus came primarily to teach the people God’s message. And he summarizes it in Mark 1:14-15

Mark 1:14–15 ESV

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Time is Fulfilled

God had said that a day would come when His Kingdom would come to the earth, when all peoples of the earth would be blessed, when the rule of Satan would end, were death would cease, and all of God’s people would be reborn with a new heart worshiping Him alone.

Jesus’ message was that time had come. The Kingdom of God is at hand.

The Kingdom of God is at hand

That the sin of the world that had marred creation and the hearts of men would be eradicated, and men and God would dwell together again in perfect unity just like in the Garden of Eden. And that God’s people would be ruled perfectly by God’s King.

And our response to this good message should be repentance and belief

Repent and Believe in the gospel

Jesus tells the people to repent, to turn from their sins and the sins of the world, and to believe and not just any belief but a clinging to, a complete hope and assurance in this gospel, this good news that the God’s Kingdom was coming.

The ESV Study Bible Chapter 1

These verses summarize Jesus’ preaching ministry. The gospel (see note on v. 1) is the “good news” that the kingdom of God is at hand, meaning that God’s rule over people’s hearts and lives is now being established, and people should repent and believe in the gospel

Mark 1:38 ESV

And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”

Mk 1:38

Jesus Called His Disciples and Taught with Authority

And so Jesus is going through out Galilee proclaiming this gospel message, and he calls people to follow him, to be his disciples and that he would make them fishers of men.

Meaning that they too would go out with this same message and lead people to repentance and belief.

Mark 1:17 ESV

And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

Meaning that they too would go out with this same message and lead people to repentance and belief.

And people were astonished by Jesus’ teaching, because as says, “he taught them as one who had authority”.

Jesus wasn’t just regurgitating what had been told to him from others. Be he was teaching as his own authority. All the prophets had taught under the authority of God. Even today, preachers do not teach from our own authority. No we teach God’s Word, because God is the highest authority.

God can trump anything that I say or that Pastor Dan says. Our words have no weight if they do not come from the Bible.

But here is Jesus not saying, “Thus says the LORD”, instead teaching, “But I say unto you”. Jesus was teaching from his own authority. He was not a typical prophet, and so his fame spread.

Jesus Came Teaching and Exercising Authority

Mark 1:21–22 ESV

And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.

The ESV Study Bible Chapter 1

The core purpose of Jesus’ earthly ministry was teaching, rather than performing miracles or casting out demons—actions which accompanied his teaching and attested to God’s presence with him

Mk 1:

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Jesus Came Healing

Not only that but as he taught he healed sickness and diseases, and he cast out demons.

Mark 1:32–34 ESV

That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

And so his teaching was accompanied by these miracles attesting to, verifying his message. But people still did not understand who he was.

Mark 1:31–33 ESV

And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them. That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. And the whole city was gathered together at the door.

And then in , Jesus makes it very plain to the people.

Mk 1:

Mark 1:41–42 ESV

Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.

Jesus Is the Son of Man

This is the story of Jesus healing the paralytic man. Many of you have probably heard it before.

Jesus was in a house and so many people had come to see him that you couldn’t get through the door.

So these four men, bring their friend who is paralyzed, he can’t walk, to Jesus by climbing up to the top of the house, removing the roof, and lowering their friend to Jesus.

Jesus sees this man and he doesn’t heal him. Wait that doesn’t seem right.

Instead, he tells the man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Jesus does exactly what he came to do. Jesus is proclaiming the coming Kingdom of God, and what the people of God need is forgiveness of their sins. The only way they can be in God’s perfect Kingdom is if their sins are washed away, that they are forgiven of any guilt.

And so Jesus by his own authority forgives the sins of this man.

This makes the scribes, the religious people, in the house go crazy.

Mark 2:7 ESV

“Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Mk 2:

What they are essentially saying, is we do not believe that you are God. Only God can forgive sins, and you are merely a man.

Jesus immediately responds and tests these religious men saying “which is easier to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise, take up your bed and walk?”

Obviously it is easier to claim that a persons sins are forgiven because it is an invisible miracle and impossible to disprove.

It is much harder to preform a miracle to make a paralyzed man walk.

And Jesus says, “so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” The man rose and immediately picked up his bed and went home.

Jesus proved to them that his words, were not just words, but that they were powerful and authoritative. He did not ask God to heal this man or that God would forgive this man. Jesus healed the man, Jesus forgave the man.

Jesus verified that not only was he a messenger of God, but that He is God.

The ESV Study Bible Chapter 2

Which is easier …? On the surface, of course, it is easier to say the words, “Your sins are forgiven,” because that is something invisible and impossible to disprove. But it is harder to say, “take up your bed and walk” because, if the man does not get up, the one who said the words will be shown to have no authority to heal. On a deeper level, however, it is harder to forgive sins, because only God can forgive sins—at the cost of Christ’s death on the cross. The logic here is that, since Jesus can do the visible miracle (heal the paralytic), this is evidence that he also has the power to do the invisible miracle (forgive sins).

Conclusion

The ESV Study Bible Chapter 2

Jesus’ healing of the paralytic verifies that he also has divine authority … to forgive sins. That Jesus is the Son of Man, when fully understood, will communicate his exalted authority

The scribes thought he was blaspheming, because they did not believe Jesus could be God. The funny thing is that this is not going to be the only crazy statement of Jesus. Else where in the gospels Jesus says, “I and the Father are one,” and “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” And, maybe most shocking of all, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” These are all incredible, amazing, ridiculous statements for a carpenters son, born in Bethlehem, to make. Unless He truly is the Son of God.

For Jesus to make these claims, the claims that He is God, that He is the only way of salvation, you really only have two choices. You can reject the claim or you can accept it. What you can’t do, at least for very long, is suspend judgement and just see how it plays out, which many people try to do.

Jesus said the time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel.

Just some soul searching questions before we close, if we claim Christ, do our lives match that belief, are we repenting of sin and clinging to Jesus, are we being disciples fishing for men, telling others this gospel message? If that is you, I’d love to help you, come talk with me, join us on Sunday nights, own your faith.

If you haven’t believed in Christ, I just heartfelt and sincerely ask you what is holding you back. Today is the day of salvation. Jesus says your sins are forgiven, just come to him, receive Him as he truly is God and Lord over all things.

Pray