Prophet, Priest, & King
Notes
Transcript
Roles We Play
Roles We Play
In every relationship you have, you have a role to play. It may a role you’ve talked about and intend for. Or, it may be assumed.
Everybody’s got that friend who gets things done. It may be you. Or, you know a guy.
He’s the guy everyone calls when there’s a task that needs to get done. That’s his/her role. Somebody comes up w/ an idea. Then, it’s, “I know. Let’s call...”
They are very busy. If you want to get something done, ask the busiest person you know.
They maybe like to do things their own way. Maybe they don’t play well w/ others. But, it gets done.
Another leadership adage I live by. It’s always better to rein in a thoroughbred than motivate an ass.
Who are the thoroughbreds in your life? They have a role to play and do it very well.
If you try to be that person and you’re not, you’re asking for trouble.
If you don’t want to be that guy, then don’t be good at getting things done. Know your role in life.
I work hard to not know what I don’t need to know in life. Otherwise, you will hold me accountable to knowing it, and doing something about it.
Around here, I watched Jim, Tom Guilliver, and their various volunteers construct this stage, do all the electrical, I don’t have a clue. My role was to get out of their way. I worked hard at that.
And, here this morning, Jim. His role is to make me look good and sound good. I am not about to try to tell him how to do it.
I don’t have a clue. I watched him hook everything up after he took it apart to lay the carpet.
Do you know how many computers he’s got running right now?
4 on his table and 1 in the closet. Sound, slides, lights, and the new TV.
Nobody notices the sound guy unless there’s a problem. Just notice Jim today b/c while everything looks great, sounds great, and is functioning right.
My role here is to do my best to not put you to sleep or confuse you about what God is up to.
I do my best to teach you Who Christ is so we can all get a little closer to Him. That’s our mission here.
The elders’ role is to hold me accountable to that.
They are very encouraging in this, too.
Just this week I was telling Tom Gulliver how I was kind of struggling w/ something, not doing a great job w/ it, and his encouraging reply was, “Don’t beat yourself up. That’s our job.”
Thanks.
Sara and I have been married almost 38 years. We each have a role to play in the marriage. Some are obvious, some are assigned, some we just had to figure out.
Sara’s the cook.
The first year of our daughter’s life, I was still in seminary, Sara had to go back to work. So, I assumed the role of stay-at-home dad and part time grad student.
I can do those things. Some, not near as good as Sara.
People ask me, can you cook. Yes, I can, but why would I?
One of my roles is to make sure Sara has all the cooking equipment she wants. Not needs.
For Xmas, I bought her a flat-top griddle.
Then, I had to buy her a propane heater for our deck. B/C she wants to cook on it while it’s snowing.
Okay. If you’ve seen the pictures on FB, you know it has been worth every penny.
She cooks, fills me up, fills up the trash. I take out the trash.
Sara grew up in a house where her mom paid all the bills and took care of the finances. I was fine w/ her wanting to do that, too.
Then, a short time into our marriage we came to the conclusion it would be better for me take that role.
Sara is a wonderful, big-picture thinker. It makes her a great cook. She doesn’t need recipes b/c she can see the finished product and know how to get there.
But, the details of monthly bills and balancing checkbooks, not her forte.
We have to know our role in every relationship we’re in. If we fail to perform our role, or try to perform someone else’s, it will lead to conflict, trouble, frustration, disappointment.
Know your role. Know everybody else’s. Everybody does what they are supposed to do and everything goes great.
This is also true in our relationship w/ Jesus. It is important to know Jesus’s role, or roles in our life. That way, we know what to expect of Him. We know what roles he’s got covered so we don’t have to do it ourselves. And we shouldn’t even try to do what we’re not equipped to do.
This is Palm Sunday, and thru this Easter season I’m going to talk about several roles Jesus plays in our life. We can let him do these things and respond appropriately to them.
When we know Jesus’s roles in our life, we let Him do them, and we respond appropriately; life goes better.
This morning we are going to look at 3 roles Jesus plays in our life. Prophet, Priest, & King.
Understanding these roles, letting Him be them in our lives, not trying to do it ourselves, and responding appropriately will make our lives go better.
First, Jesus our Prophet.
Prophet
Prophet
So, what is a prophet? A prophet is someone who speaks powerfully in encouragement or warnings.
IOW, this is what’s going to happen if you keep doing that!
Good or bad.
And, this is how you should respond if want things to go well.
A prophet elicits a response. There is not passive receipt of a prophet’s message.
Most prophets are calm speakers. They let the message, and the Lord behind the message, bring the motivation and energy.
There were several OT prophets.
Among them, Jonah, was told by God to go to Nineveh and speak to the ppl, warning them that God would destroy them if they continued on their current path.
Several interesting things happened.
God prophecied to Jonah that if he disobeyed things would not go well for him.
He didn’t obey. He ran away.
God sent a storm, the sailors threw him overboard, and a big fish swallowed him. For 3 days he wrestled in the darkness of the belly of the fish, no doubt, wishing to die rather than go to Nineveh.
Inside the fish Jonah repented, apologized to God. God forgave him and gave him a second chance.
The fish vomited him up onto the shore. Jonah went to Nineveh, reeking of fish vomit as a walking illustration of what happens if you don’t heed the message of the prophet.
Nineveh believed Jonah. Repented. So, God relented and did not destroy them. Until another generation who returned to their old ways.
Jesus prophecied how he would save ppl;
because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.”
The disciples were confused. They didn’t know how to respond to this at the time.
They believed Jesus to be the Messiah, they knew he was a powerful miracle-worker, but how could men kill him.
This is like the adults in every Charlie Brown cartoon. Jesus told the ppl he was going to have to die, after that, all they heard was,
“Wah wah wah wah wah.”
They were early in learning all the roles Jesus would play so they didn’t know what to expect. Or, they expected the wrong thing that led to their confusion.
This wasn’t the first time He said this, nor were the disciples the only group to be confused by it.
Jesus had just run all the businesses out of the temple. It had become a religious shopping mall. And the vendors were taking advantage and gouging the ppl w/ high prices and unfair practices.
Jesus ran them off and told them the temple was His Father’s house and should be a place of prayer, not business.
John wrote this:
The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
By what authority? He is God’s Son. And that is God’s house that is being misused by its occupants.
They missed the message altogether.
They thought Jesus was being intolerant and destructive. They were offended at the seemingly mean thing he said about tearing down their temple.
They wrote off his message b/c it taken so long to build the building it was absurd to think he could rebuild it in 3 days.
The message should have been clear.
The reference to Jonah was intentional. 3 days in the fish and 3 days in the grave.
Just like the Nineveh, if the religious leadership did not change their ways, God would bring to an end the religion they built.
So many roles rep’d by Jesus in these verses, but as a prophet, was he right? Did he accurately predict what was about to happen?
Jesus would end up making them so mad, as they accused Him of breaking their laws, they eagerly broke their laws to execute Him.
A prophet’s message demands a response. A change in course. And new lifestyle. New behavior based on new beliefs.
Jesus is also our Priest.
Priest
Priest
A priest is a mediator between God and ppl.
Think elementary boys and girls. A boy likes a girl. Rather than tell her, he tells her best friend to tell her that he likes her.
The girl tells her best friend to tell the boy that she likes him, too.
It would be so much easier if they would just talk to each other.
The boy goes to recess w/ all his buddies and is on cloud 9 the BMOC now b/c he has a girl that likes him.
They haven’t spoken to one another yet. But they have it on good authority. Maybe the long-term relationship lasts 2 weeks.
Jesus is our mediator between God and us.
God is the source of life and everything good. All the fruit, wisdom, power, and abilities come from God; thru Jesus, to us.
The ultimate goal is to be close to God.
We talk about Jesus all the time b/c He is the One we can relate to. For a time in His life, He was a man. He looked like us, talked like us, and gave us a easy way to relate to God.
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Jesus is uniquely qualified to be our mediator. He is both God and human.
His mother was a teenage girl. His father is God.
Ancient kings would give their children in marriage to other king’s children. Their children would grow up to be mediators of a peace treaty between the 2 kingdoms.
Jesus mediates our peace treaty w/ God. And He is the only One who can.
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
God communicated the terms of peace w/ Him to us thru Jesus. We have no authority to negotiate w/ God on these terms.
Zelensky wants to negotiate w/ Putin. Zelensky has something Putin wants. Putin has something Zelensky wants.
Putin wants all the resources Ukraine has and does not want them to become a member of Nato and share their resources w/ the west. That way the west has to get their energy from Russia.
Zelensky wants Russia out of Ukraine and to leave them alone to do bsns w/ whomever they choose to do bsns. Give back Crimea. Leave all the cities and citizens alone to live peacefully and freely in their homeland.
We don’t have anything that God wants or needs that would give us a position to negotiate w/ God. But, in His grace and mercy, He gives us consideration thru Jesus and b/c of Jesus.
Peace w/ God is only available thru Jesus.
Can Jesus perform this role?
The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
The curtain in the temple hung in front of the room where God lived . It was flexible and about a foot thick, hanging from wall to wall and floor to ceiling.
It protected sinful ppl from a holy God. No sinful person could stand in the presence of Holy God. They would be struck dead, smote on the spot.
There is no peace possible between God and ppl who do what He says we should not do. And the rules are impossible for us to obey all the time.
So there is no hope for peace w/ God w/out a mediator who can navigate the process between the 2 parties.
The curtain was massive and heavy. Impossible to move.
An earthquake couldn’t break. In the massive earthquake in Haiti all the damage was the result of homes and businesses being built out of concrete to w/stand a hurricane. The wind couldn’t huff and puff and blow their houses down.
But then, the earth moved and the concrete crumbled.
The curtain in the temple was flexible so an earthquake couldn’t break it.
And it was too big and strong for any human force to tear it.
The moment Jesus died, Friday afternoon at 3, nailed to cross; he proved he is the perfect person to be our priest.
The curtain tore in 2 allowing us full access to God as long as we go thru Jesus to get to Him.
Peace w/ God is possible for us. We need a mediator. We cannot approach God and receive from Him anything He offers w/ mediation.
The Mediator is the only One who can gain access for us to God to get anything that He offers us.
Jesus is also our King
King
King
The King is the ultimate authority in his kingdom. He is sovereign. That is, independent of every other authority and no one can make him do anything.
The King has authority over the citizens, land, and resources of the kingdom. No one can do anything w/ any of these w/out the King’s okay.
The King makes the rules and is powerful enough to enforce His rules.
His soldiers arrest those who appear to break the rules. He alone judges whether or not a rule was broken.
The King is always right. If he ever makes a mistake, the King is always right. There is no appeal.
That’s why it’s important to have the right person as your king.
Among the rules, the King sets all the requirements for immigration. No one becomes a citizen of the kingdom w/out meeting the King’s requirements.
Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”
At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!”
Jesus decided that no one guilty of sin can become a citizen of His kingdom.
The religious leaders protested b/c they said only God can forgive a person’s sins qualifying them for citizenship.
Well....?
Jesus alone has the authority to determine each person’s eternal destiny.
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Every individual throughout history will enter into Jesus’s throne room to be judged to determine where we will spend their forever.
Jesus is the only One Who has the power and authority to determine our eternal fate and make it happen.
It would do no good to ask anyone else to let you in.
He is uniquely qualified to be your King.
So, if you have chosen Him to be your King, then you need to respond to Him as those in Jerusalem the day He rode into town on a donkey knowing what was about to happen to Him.
The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the king of Israel!”
Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:
“Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
see, your king is coming,
seated on a donkey’s colt.”
At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.
Probably close to a million ppl came to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Many of them were on the road from Bethany to Jerusalem when Jesus made His appearance on the donkey.
The ppl didn’t fully understand Jesus’s role as King. They were hopeful he would recruit his army, invade Rome, overthrow the oppressive gov’t, and install his kingdom right then.
The welcomed Him as their earthly King. But he came that day to be their spiritual King.
They cried out to be saved, from Rome.
This is why it’s important for us to know Jesus’s role in our life. He didn’t come the first time to bring heaven to earth. He came to get us to heaven.
He didn’t come to overthrow the offenders and oppressives in your life. He came to give you peace in the midst of them.
He had to fulfill His prophecy that he would be killed by men and 3 days later rise from the dead.
He had to fulfill the role of the priest and tear the curtain giving us full access.
He is fulfilling the role of our King by negotiating peace with God for us and making available to us all that God possesses.
So the question for all of us is, will you accept these roles that only Jesus can perform in your life?
Applications
Applications
Prophet
Prophet
Will you accept Him as a prophet?
A prophet’s message demands a response. A prophet of God is never misleading nor wrong.
Jesus predicted what would happen to Him accurately.
He has also predicted what will happen to us when we leave this life.
If He’s right, only those who Believe in His name and receive Him will enter Heaven.
A prophet’s message demands a response.
If He’s your prophet, the believe and receive.
Priest
Priest
A priest is a mediator between you and God. The mediator negotiates peace between you two.
Jesus says we have nothing to offer God. He only offers us peace thru and b/c of Jesus.
Jesus came w/ a big basket of fruit from God. Peace, joy, patience, kindness, self-control, etc.
He came w/ wisdom and power for us from God.
If you want access to all of this in its full potential, choose to make Jesus your priest and go to Him and thru Him to get to God.
King
King
Jesus alone has the power and authority of His kingdom.
He enacted His own immigration laws. There is no sneaking across the border into His kingdom.
We don’t have palm fronds and coats to lay down on the ground to acknowledge Jesus as our king.
They missed the point anyway when they did that.
We just have to acknowledge Jesus as our King by acknowledging his authority in our life and over all our resources.
Acknowledge Him as your king by only doing what He wants you to do.
Make Him your King by submitting your entire life to Him.
All of our relationships work better when understand everyone’s role in them even Jesus’s.
I’m not going to try to invade my kitchen and take over the cooking.
That would be about as dumb as trying to find any other means of getting into God’s kingdom.
Ignoring Jesus’s prophetic warnings and encouragements would be fatal.
Thinking there’s a better way to get to God, or that you have something to offer God that could make Him let you in would be devastating.
Occupying your own throne. Trying to be the powerful authority in your own life is naive and ignorant. You’ll create more trouble for yourself than you could ever imagine.
When we know Jesus’s roles in our life, we let Him do them, and we respond appropriately; life goes better.
Today is Palm Sunday. Celebrate it by living your life w/ Jesus as your Prophet, Priest, and King.