Well, good morning. Hopefully, you should have some notes in front of you that say, Of Christ, the Mediator, chapter 8, number 3. And just to begin our thinking this morning, turn, if you would, to the Acts of the Apostles. The Acts of the Apostles in the third chapter, Acts of the Apostles, chapter 3. I'm going to read beginning in verse 11 down through verse 16 of Acts chapter 3. This is Peter preaching at the Temple Square, the second sermon in the Acts of the Apostles. As I'm moving through it, especially you might notice verse 22, because that's gonna relate to, our focus this morning will be on the ministry of Christ as a prophet. And that's a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. But I thought it'd be helpful just to kind of put it in context to look at the entirety of it. So it begins in verse 11 down to verse 26. Acts chapter three, beginning in verse 11. While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them, at the so-called portico of Solomon full of amazement. But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, men of Israel, where are you amazed at this? Or why do you gaze at us as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him. But you disowned the holy and righteous one, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. But put to death the prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. And on the basis of faith in his name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know, and the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that is, Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled. Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. and that he may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient time. Notice verse 22. Moses said, the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brethren. To him you shall give heed. to everything he says to you. And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announce these days. It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. For you first, God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways. Let us pray. Father, thank you this morning for the privilege we have to gather together to begin this day by fellowshipping together to begin this Lord's Day, this first day of the week, by worshiping you and fellowshipping with one another and considering your pure and precious and holy word. I thank you for each one that is here this morning and their evident love for Christ and interest in spiritual things. And I would ask for the help of your precious Holy Spirit just to convey realities about your precious son and his ministry as a prophet. I pray that it would be honoring to thee and instructive to our minds and helpful to our thinking process in the living of the Christian life. So I commit our time to you and pray that you would be honored and that you would be glorified. And we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, this is the third lesson on this theme, and I want to take a moment, first of all, just to read this paragraph to give you a sense of what, just a reminder, and then just take a moment and review what we considered last week. But at the top of your notes, it pleased God in His eternal purpose to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, to be the mediator between God and man, the prophet, priest, and king, the head and savior of His church, the heir of all things, and judge of the world, unto whom he did from all eternity give a people to be his seed, and to be by him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified." And then just by way of a brief review from last week, I offered just some general observations about the work of Christ as prophet, priest, and king collectively, so we consider these things together. And there were seven of these observations. The first His first major theologian to apply these categories was John Calvin in his work, The Institutes of Christian Religion. Secondly, that there were three major offices among the people of Israel in the Old Testament, prophet, priest, and king. These three offices were distinct. And then fourthly, these three offices foreshadowed Christ's work in different ways. As a prophet, he reveals God to us, speaks God's word, to us, and he is obviously uniquely equipped to do that because he is the Word, he is the pure expression of God in his person. And then as a priest, he both offers a sacrifice to God on our behalf, and he himself is the sacrifice that is offered. Hebrews 7.27, who does not need daily like those high priests to offer up sacrifices for his own sins, and for the sins of the people, because this he did once for all when he offered up himself. Then as king, he rules over the church and over the universe as well. And then we noted these three offices, which were divided in the Old Testament. They're united in the person of Christ. And then in the sixth place, his offices are concerned with us, especially as sinners, especially as sinners. As a prophet, he teaches sinners, calls them to faith and repentance. As a priest, he gives himself as a ransom for our sins. As a king, he governs his people, defends them against the devil, the world, and the flesh. And then relatedly, number seven, the misery introduced by sin necessitated his threefold office. And the threefold misery that's introduced by sin is ignorance, guilt, and the tyranny and corruption of sin. So this threefold misery necessitates his ministries, but ignorance as a prophet, guilt, his ministry as a priest, and then tyranny and corruption, his ministry as a king. So today's lesson, we're going to focus on the scriptural ideas, our Lord's ministry as a prophet, and under two main headings. And the first one is the scriptural idea of a prophet from the Old Testament. And Deuteronomy 18, 18 says, I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. What I'm reading to you now is not in your notes. It's from Burakov's very helpful work on systematic theology. And he writes, with regard to the word translated prophet in Deuteronomy 18, 18, the word designates one who comes with a message from God to the people. Message from God to the people. He writes, the prophet is one who speaks from God. The prophet is one who sees things, that is, who receives revelations, who is in the service of God, particularly as a messenger, and speaks in his name. And he indicates there are two elements combined in the idea. One is passive and the other is active. You can think of it, one is receptive and the other is productive. The prophet receives divine revelation in dreams, visions, or verbal communication, and passes these on to the people. And I have in your notes, Jeremiah 1, 4 through 10, that I think is helpful. It says, now the word of the Lord came to me saying, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. and before you were born, I consecrated you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations. Then I said, alas, Lord God, behold, I do not know how to speak because I am a youth. But the Lord said to me, do not say I am a youth because everywhere I send you, you shall go and all that I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord. Then the Lord stretched out his hand and touched my mouth the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms to pluck up and to break down, to destroy, to overthrow, to build and and to plant. So we notice here, what I would have you notice in the first place, is that Jeremiah was appointed to this position by God. You notice that that is in verse five, before you were born, I consecrated you, I have appointed you as a prophet. That's again, verse 10, see, I have appointed you this day. So the first thing when we think about a prophet in the Old Testament, they were appointed by God. It wasn't like Jeremiah got to a point, he thought, you know, I just, Things are not going well. I think I'll try being a prophet see how that works out, you know But rather he was appointed by God and then secondly what we need to emphasize is instructed by God He does not make up the message at all. He conveys the word that God has given to him You see that in verse 7 the Lord said to me do not say I am a youth because everywhere I send you you shall go all that I command you you shall speak and again in verse 9 Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. So he's instructed simply to convey to others what he has received from the being of God. So this is central to the idea of a prophet. And the idea is that it's not that they were clever, it's not that they were creative, it's not that they were imaginative, but rather just faithful to convey the truth that they had received. And so we see how important that is. Then another good example on the next page is Ezekiel. First of all, Jeremiah, then Ezekiel, and verses one through four, which is in your notes, Ezekiel three and verses one through four. Then he said to me, son of man, eat what you find, eat this scroll and go speak to the house of Israel. And in that verse, you see this passive and active sense. So I opened my mouth and he fed me this scroll. And he said to me, son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with the scroll, which I am giving you. Then I ate it, and it was sweet as honey to my mouth. Then he said to me, Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them. Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, warn them from me." So we see here that he has to communicate God's words according to verse four, speak with my words to them. And again, like Jeremiah, he is appointed by God, not self-appointed for this particular ministry. And we see this idea of the passive and active also in verse 17, you hear a word from my mouth and then warn them. You receive it and then you convey it. So we see this active and passive dimension. Burkoff writes of these two elements. The passive is the most important because it controls the active element. In other words, if there's nothing coming in from God, there's nothing to say, there's nothing to convey. So he said the passive is the most important because it controls the active element. Without receiving, the prophet cannot give, and he cannot give more than he receives. So he's not to add to what he receives from the Lord. What constitutes one a prophet is the divine calling, the instruction, to communicate the divine revelation to others. So again, the prophet is not creative, he's not clever, he's not imaginative, he just conveys what he has received to others. Well, we notice in the next place under this heading, the duty of prophets, the duty of prophets, and Burkhoff makes some very helpful points here. The duty of prophets is to reveal the will of God to the people, and that's one of the reasons that they have to stay committed to what they have received. The will of God is conveyed in the Word of God that they have received. So the duty of prophets is to reveal the will of God to the people, and this might be done in the form of instruction, admonition, exhortation, promises, glorious promises, or stern rebukes. They were interpreters of the law, and then he indicates especially its moral and spiritual aspects. Interpreters of the law, and especially its moral and spiritual aspects. And he indicates it was their duty to protest against mere formalism. And the text here is in your notes. Isaiah 29, 13, the Lord said, because this people draw near with their words and honor me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from me. And their reverence for me consists of tradition learned by rote. So we see that the Lord has always been concerned about the centrality of the heart in worship. So he goes on to say, to stress moral duty, to urge the necessity of spiritual service, and to promote the interest of truth and righteousness. And here a good example is Micah 6, 8. He has showed thee, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. And then another aspect of prophetic ministry was if the people departed from the path of duty, they had to call them back to the law and the testimony and to announce the coming terror of the Lord upon the wicked. And I might just say there is a sense, and this was a point of application that I may or may not get to, there is a sense in which you and I have a prophetic ministry in that when we're communicating the word of God to someone, and notice here, for example, if the people departed from the path of duty, They had to call them back to the law and to the testimony. We'll turn if you would to James chapter 5 and verses 19 and 20. Keep that thought in mind. And then turn to James chapter 5 verses 19 and 20. We're not prophets. There are no more prophets. But this at times is a prophetic aspect to the ministry that you and I might have. And keeping in mind the people departed from the path of duty, they had to call them back to the law and the testimony. And notice James 5 verses 19 and 20. It says, My brethren, The last two verses of the book of James, My brethren, if any of you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. And then there's a similar verse would be Galatians chapter six and verse one. It says, brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you are spiritual. Restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. So there may be opportunities when we see a brother or sister sort of drifting away from the faith, and we have the opportunity to go to them. bring a word of award to them in a way that's just commensurate with the situation. So we can have a similar ministry in that sense when people are moving away from the walk with the Lord and you feel the opportunity to go and speak to somebody about that. He writes their work also is intimately related to the promise and the gracious promises of the future. Okay. And then the second main heading this morning, second main heading is a scriptural proofs for the prophetic office of Christ, scriptural proofs for the prophetic office of the person of Christ. And the first one I have listed in your notes, um, there's four sub points here, but the first one that I have listed in your notes is first Peter one 11. It reads, As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry. Now notice verse 11. Seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. So we're talking here about the pre-existent prophetic ministry of Christ as prophet. And J. N. D. Kelly writes, it was Christ in his pre-existent spirit being, the spirit of Christ within them who inspired or rather spoke through the Old Testament prophets. Martin Lloyd-Jones put it like this. He says, Christ was the spirit enlightening the prophets even about himself, as they spoke their prophecies, expressed them. He was the prophet teaching the prophets and gave them their message. So he was the prophet teaching them about his own future prophetic ministry and his sufferings that were to come. It is foretold that his prophetic ministry is foretold in Deuteronomy 18, 15. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet. This is Moses. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your countrymen. You shall listen to him. And then the Apostle Peter quotes that particular passage in the section that I read to you from the Acts of the Apostles in verse 22 and 23, especially verse 22 of Acts chapter three. And let me read some helpful. These are comments from FF Bruce on the Acts of the Apostles, that section that I just read. He writes, the primary reference of these words of Moses is to the institution of prophets in Israel as a way appointed by God for making his will known to his people. But even before apostolic times, this prophecy seems to have been interpreted as pointing to one particular prophet, a second Moses. who would exercise the prophet's full mediatorial function as Moses had done. Among the Samaritans, as later among the Ebionites, the Messiah was envisaged in terms of this prophet, like unto Moses, and the same may have been true of some Orthodox Jewish circles as well. At any rate, we have clear evidence in the Gospels, especially in the fourth, of people who found this form of messianic expectation fulfilled in Jesus. Here we see that from the earliest days of the apostolic preaching, this passage from Deuteronomy was invoked as a mosaic prediction of Jesus, and it appears to have been regularly included in the testimony compilations which circulated in the early And there's, at least from my own perspective, there's two main reasons that relate to the propriety of seeing this particular text, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to Christ. At least in my own thinking, two main reasons why it's legitimate to apply this to the person of Christ. One is because Moses was regarded as the greatest prophet. And Christ surpassed Moses. He was regarded as the greatest prophet. And the quote here that I have is from Simon Kistemaker. He says, from among the Old Testament prophets, Peter chooses the example of Moses. No one can dispute the prophetic status of Moses, for God himself gave him this rank. At the burning bush, God called Moses to be his prophet. Other prophets received a similar call. Moses then is first in the line of prophets and is the greatest. The Jews considered Moses the greatest prophet on earth because God spoke to him face to face. They also knew this eloquent testimony concerning Moses. Deuteronomy 34 10. Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face for all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh, all his servants and all his land. and all the mighty power and for all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel. So Moses is regarded as the greatest prophet. And then secondly, if you turn back to Acts chapter 3 and verse 22, the section I read to begin with, The immediate context, I think, argues for the propriety of applying Deuteronomy 18, 15 to the person of Christ. And that is especially, notice verse, in verse 20, as you're kind of, your mind is moving through, verse 20 says that he may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you. And then this next quote I have is from J.A. Alexander. He talks about verse 21 here. And he says the four, and what he's talking about there is if you have a King James or a new King James, Verse 22 begins with four, for Moses. And he says the four connects this with the 20th verse, that is, that he may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, and verifies the statement there made that Jesus Christ had been foreordained of God. The intervening verse, that would be verse 21, is a digression or parenthesis relating to his present and future abode. So you see kind of the flow of thought moving from verse 20, that he may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you to verse 22 Moses said the Lord will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren to him you will give heed to everything he says to you and then the force of verse 23 it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people okay so moving on to letter C he makes reference to himself as prophet. Jesus makes reference to himself as a prophet. This is the legitimacy of understanding the ministry of Christ as a prophet. He makes reference to himself as a prophet in Luke 13, 33. Nevertheless, I must journey on today and tomorrow and the next day, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem. And then there are passages in which he claimed to bring a message from the Father. And these are quite fascinating, and I think helpful in this regard. Notice John 8, 26. He says, I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but he who sent me is true. The things which I heard from him These I speak to the world. And you see this idea of passive and active. He receives and then he conveys. They did not realize that he had been speaking to them about the father. Jesus therefore said, when you lift up the son of man, then you know that I am he. And I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak these things as the father taught me. And then notice John 12, 29, I did not speak on my own initiative, but the father himself who sent me has given me commandment what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. Therefore, the things I speak, I speak just as the father has told me. John 14, 10, do you not believe that I am in the father and the father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the father abiding me does his works. John 14 24 he who does not love me does not keep my words and the word which you hear it's not mine but the father's who sent me. John 15 15 no longer do I call you slaves for the slave does not know what his master is doing but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard from my father I have made known to you. Then John 17 8 For the words which thou gavest me I have given to them, and they received them, and truly understood that I came forth from thee, and they believed that thou didst send me." I think these verses, at least in my own mind, are pretty powerful testimony, because you see the same kind of ministry that was true, the prophets and the Old Testament. He's receiving the word from the Father, and then he's communicating that same word which he has received. Well then another point with respect to his ministry as a prophet, he speaks with authority. Matthew 7 29, for he was teaching them as one having authority and not as the scribes. And then another point related to this would be that the people recognized him as being a prophet. They recognized him as being a prophet. Matthew 21, 11, multitudes were saying, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee, Matthew 21, 46. And when they sought to seize him, they feared the multitudes because they held him to be a prophet. Luke 7 16 fear gripped them all they begin glorifying God saying a great prophet has risen among us and God has visited his people Luke 24 19 he said to them what things and they said to him the things about Jesus the Nazarene Who was a prophet? Mighty indeed and word in the sight of God and all the people John 4 19 the woman said to him sir. I perceive that you are a prophet John 6, 14, when therefore the people saw the sign which he had performed, they said, this is of a truth, the prophet who has come into the world. John 7, 40, some of the multitude therefore when they heard these words were saying, this certainly is the prophet. John 9, 17, they said therefore to the blind man again, what do you say about him since he opened your eyes? And he said, he is a prophet. So he speaks with authority. The people recognized him as being a prophet. And then I have two points of personal application I kind of already did one but I don't know I don't know if this is necessary turn to 2nd Timothy chapter 4 and verses 1 & 2 and with respect to the prophetic ministry of the person of Christ two points of application and this actually the reason I say that I'm not sure if it's necessary the first one is is kind of to me and then the second one is to all of us but here's how I would say this applying to myself or really anyone who is a minister of the gospel. 2 Timothy 4 verses 1 and 2, Paul says, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. So the application of yours truly is not to be imaginative, not to be creative, not to be clever. It's to convey the word. That's where the power is at. That's where the truth is at. That's where God's will is at. That's where edification is at. So it's to convey the word. And then what I have here is really Kind of in the Old Testament, we see the phrase, thus saith the Lord. Well, there's a sense anytime you and I say that, that's prophetic, because it's revealing God's mind, it's revealing God's will. So when we can say to somebody, we might not put it that way, we might not point the finger, thus saith, but when we can convey to somebody, this is what scripture says, thus saith the Lord. It is a prophetic kind of ministry, it's conveying the word of God to others and that which would be honoring to the person of God, that which is true, that reflects, that which would reflect his will. All right, we'll appreciate your attention this morning. I'm gonna ask Joe, brother, if you would close for us in your prayer. Father, we come before you this morning for your son, Lord, and we're so thankful for his prophetic office to be the great prophet, Lord, and we're so thankful for the revelation in your word about him, Lord, and that we can learn these truths. I pray that these are things that we can meditate on only today, but in the year to come, Father, I just ask that you would go before us this morning in worship and pray that it would be pleasing to you and that the preached word would encourage us and that if there is anyone that does not know you this morning, Lord, that your spirit would move on them that they would turn and repent, Father. And we're just thankful for this day, and we give you thanks in Christ's name. Amen.