The Prophetic Office of Christ

Tonight we're on lesson number 10 of Christology. So we're at the two-thirds of the way point through our 15-week study. And what we'll be doing tonight in the following five weeks is slowing down a little bit and just considering the offices of Christ, that Christ is our prophet, that He is our priest, and that He is our king. We're gonna begin with looking tonight at how Christ is our prophet. On your handout, let's begin with the Bible point number one.

Christ means anointed one — that's the first blank. His name Christ as the Messiah means the anointed one.

In the Old Testament, there were three mediatorial offices. We've talked about what it is to be a mediator, to be a go-between. And there were three offices that were anointed with oil: that of prophet, priest, and king.

Examples include Elisha, the prophet. Remember how he was anointed with oil? You'll find that in the reference there, 1 Kings 19:16.

Aaron, the high priest — the reference there is Exodus 29:7. Then of course King David in 1 Samuel 16:13. All three of these men, these offices were anointed. They would anoint them with oil, symbolic of God's favor and of God's special care for that particular individual, that this person was marked for His service as being dedicated or set apart for the Lord.

These offices of prophet, priest, and king — they prefigured Jesus Christ, who furnished the reality of these symbols and perfectly combined their mediatorial functions. In other words, like everything in the Old Testament, these three offices of prophet, priest, and king, they were meant to picture Jesus beforehand, before His incarnation. Everything in the Old Testament pictures Christ, and Christ is the fulfillment of them. But Christ isn't just a prophet, He isn't just the king, He isn't just the high priest — He's all three in one. There never was anything like that in the Old Testament.

Jesus Christ was anointed not with oil, but with the Holy Spirit — that's the second blank, the Holy Spirit — beyond measure, and that's the third blank, measure. John 3:34 is a reference for that. You'll see where John speaks of Jesus, saying that the one who would declare the Father to us would be anointed by the Spirit, and that without measure. In other words, without any limitations, the Holy Spirit was poured out on Christ all throughout His earthly ministry. Let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter one, verses 30 through 31.

"But of Him — of God — you are in Christ Jesus." This speaks about our union with Christ. It is by God — God is the one who saves us from first to last. He's the one who unites us to our Savior through faith — "who became for us," speaking of Christ, "wisdom from God."

What does a prophet do? Does not a prophet speak and declare God to us, carrying the very words of God? Well, Christ became our wisdom. He is our prophet. "And righteousness and sanctification." What does a priest do?

A priest makes atonement, right? Makes sacrifice for the people so that we can be viewed as righteous before God. He sets apart the people of God. So Christ is not only our prophet, but He's also our priest. And then in verse 31, at the end of verse 30, he says, "And redemption." What does a king do but redeem and save his people, right? Christ is our prophet, He is our priest, and our king. Verse 31: "That, as it is written, 'He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.'"

We often glory about what we can do with our own abilities, right? When we're young, especially young men, we glory in our strength. Oh yes, I made a slam dunk today in basketball, or I hit three three-pointers. Look how strong and how great I am. Ladies often glory in their beauty when they're young, right? Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all, right? We've all done that.

But what are we gonna glory in? Can we actually know God apart from Christ? No, we can't glory in our own intellect. Can we make ourselves right before God? We can't function as our own priest, right, to make atonement for our sins. No. Can we deliver ourselves from death and hell and into salvation? No, only Christ the king can do that. So he says here, "Let him who glories" — glory in Christ, the one who is the wisdom of God, the one who is redemption and sanctification for us, and the one who is our Redeemer. The application for number one is this: do you glory in your own self or in Christ alone?

We make a big deal about accomplishments and achievements in life, and we should, especially when it comes to our young ones. It's great to affirm them when they hide God's word in their heart, when they study hard, when they show kindness, when they model the character of Christ. We should definitely affirm them. But what are we gonna put our most glory in? Our most glory is gonna be in Christ. And our kids — we glory in them when we see Christ being formed in them, right? It's great if your son scores a touchdown — that's wonderful. It's great if your daughter makes straight A's — that's wonderful. But what's most important is that they show and evidence the character of Christ. That's who we glory in, right?

Bible point number two: Christ's mediatorial offices of prophet, priest, and king find their explanation in that man was originally created — created as the first blank — man was originally created for this three-fold office and work. Adam was placed in the garden to prefigure Christ as our prophet, priest, and king. Man was to relate with God in knowledge and understanding. Is that what a prophet does? Wasn't Adam to know God? Wasn't he to walk with God in the coolness of the garden?

Man was to relate to God in knowledge and understanding, righteousness and holiness. Didn't God give Adam prescriptions? "You can eat of any tree of this garden, except for this one you may not eat," right? He gave him a path to choose of righteousness and holiness, and He created him to be righteous and holy — as we studied in anthropology, He made man upright.

Also in dominion over creation — that's the kingly aspect of man. Didn't God give Adam a whole garden?

And what did He say? "Work the garden. Subdue it," right?

The idea many theologians talk about is that God meant Adam to expand the garden beyond Eden over the whole world, because what does He say to do? "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it," right? So he had a kingly aspect — man was created to reflect the kingly nature of Christ.

In rebellion, he became ignorant, blind, and untrue, thus needing a prophet to know — that's the second blank — and understand God. When Adam sinned, his knowledge of God became darkened, right?

He was estranged from God, and he became ignorant. What does sin do to our minds? It corrupts every bit of us. It corrupts our will, corrupts our affections. The things that are right that we should love, we no longer love. And instead we love the base things, the evil things of this world.

In the fall, man became unrighteous, guilty, and polluted, thus needing a high priest to make atonement. So instead of being a holy one created in God's image, man became unholy. Instead of being the priest that God meant him to be, he was in need now of a high priest. Under the curse, man knew misery, death, and destruction, thus needing a king to deliver him. If Adam and Eve had obeyed God, would they have died?

Would they have been under the curse? No. But once they fell into sin, all of a sudden they needed a king to deliver them, to restore them to the position that God had originally created them to be in. Look at Genesis 3:24.

"So He drove out the man, and He placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life." Adam and Eve were banished from the garden. They were banished from even being able to fulfill their responsibilities — they could no longer do what they were made for — and they would need a Messiah. They would need a mediator to be able to restore them. That's what we find in Christ, right? He restores us to a position higher than the garden. No longer do we walk with God in the coolness of the day, but Christ is in us, the hope of glory, and we are found in Him. We are in Christ. What a blessed state that is. The application for number two is this: why does fallen — that's the blank, fallen — man need a prophet of God?

When you survey those in this world that do not know Christ — maybe they're your neighbor, maybe they're your coworker, maybe it's a family member — do they know God?

Do they rejoice in the things of God? What do they do according to Romans 1?

Even though they knew God, they failed to glorify Him as God, and they suppress the truth in unrighteousness, right? They need to know God, and the only way they can ever know God is through Jesus Christ, our prophet, right?

Bible point number three: a prophet is a mediator — that's the blank for number three, a mediator — a mediator of divine communication and revelation to man. In other words, he's the go-between, between God and man. Remember how Moses was a mediator between God and Israel? He went up to the mountain, he received the words of God. And when they heard the voice of God thunder, what did Israel say? "You go up there, Moses, not us, lest we die," right? They were afraid to approach God. Well, a mediator is one who receives this divine communication — not just receives it, but transmits it, right? There are many people in the Bible who received divine communication but who are not prophets, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Think about Abimelech — I think that was his name — when Abram said, "Ah, this is my sister," speaking of Sarah. What does God do? He comes to Abimelech in a dream and says, "Don't take her." He wasn't necessarily a prophet, even though he received communication.

Think about Nebuchadnezzar. Didn't he have a dream? He didn't understand the import of his dream — that's why he asked Daniel, right? And in the New Testament, Joseph and Mary — didn't they have angelic messengers come to them? So they received communication, but they weren't prophets in the sense of being mediators to transmit this message to God's people.

So a prophet is a mediator of divine communication and revelation to man. Christ is the perfect prophet of all of God's revelation, whether general or special. The second blank is general, the third blank is special. All of God's revelation, whether general or special, is mediated by Christ. When we did bibliology, which is unit one in our systematic study, we talked about general revelation. General revelation is how God declares to the world that He is holy and that His attributes are made visible even to folks who've never heard the gospel. People look at nature and they know there's a God. They know He's holy, they know they're accountable to Him, and they're left without excuse. And Psalms tells us about that — Psalms 19, that day after day they utter speech, their voice is heard throughout the entire world, right? Well, even general revelation is mediated by Christ.

Christ is the mediator of all things. Isn't He the mediator of creation? God is the originator of creation, but Christ is the mediator — He's the one by whom all things were created, and for Him and in Him everything consists. Nothing that was made was made apart from Christ, right? So even in general revelation, He is the mediator of God to man. All revelation finds its focus in Christ. And the same is true with special revelation. Special revelation is where God directly reveals Himself in acts and in words and in the Scriptures, of course. We see the account of these acts and we see these words recorded. God inspired holy men of old to write His Scripture, and He did that through the Spirit of Christ, right? So Christ is the mediator of all revelation, whether it's general or special — it's mediated by Christ. Christ reveals — that's the fourth blank for number three — He reveals the Father to us in creation, providence, and redemption. We've already spoken of how Christ reveals the Father to us in creation, but He does the same thing in providence, right? Providence is God's ordaining and upholding of creation. Doesn't Hebrews tell us that Christ upholds all things by the word of His power?

Doesn't Christ reveal the Father to us in redemption? Yes. The Father sent the Son — "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" — but it wasn't the Father on the cross, was it? It was Christ on the cross. And the cross is the greatest revelation of both the holiness of God and also the love of God, right? We see that God hates sin and He must deal with sin, but we also see that God loves man and He substituted His own Son to take the place of man, to bear His holy wrath, right?

Hebrews 1:3 says, speaking of Christ, "Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person" — Christ is the brightness of the glory of God. He's the exact image of the person of God, who is invisible, right? But Christ is the visible representation of that. He is the full revelation of God in both special revelation and general revelation. Application for number three: who do you look to for knowledge of God?

We have some godly men and women in this church.

There are godly men and women throughout society, but as godly as men that we may esteem — like, I think the world of Jimmy, I think the world of Pastor —

would I say that Pastor is the one who reveals God to me?

No, right?

We don't go to a priest, we don't go to a pastor to have God revealed to us. We go to Christ, and we find the word of God here, which reveals Jesus Christ, right? So the application is: who do you look to for the knowledge of God? I hope it's Christ. Everything else will give you a faulty image. Even the most well-intentioned people, right? Apart from the word of God, we are but dust.

Bible point number four: Christ's prophetic work began before — that's the first point — before He came in the flesh. We often think of the incarnation as being the ground of His revelation, but His prophetic work began before He even came in the flesh. From before creation, Christ existed as the expression of God to Himself.

We know this from John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word." The word we translate as "Word" is the Logos. It means divine reason,

divine rationale, the divine expression. From all of eternity, Christ is the divine expression of God to both Himself and then to all of creation once He created man. The Logos, Christ, existed as the expression of God to Himself. The Logos is thus the perfect object of the Father's knowledge and love, because He was the sole expression of God,

and who is God but love and wisdom and holiness? Christ is the perfect object of the Father's love. So from all eternity — before angels were created, before men were created — God had perfect love, perfect self-expression in the Trinity, right? Because Christ is the very image of God.

The Logos is thus the perfect object of the Father's knowledge and love. Christ mediates the Father's thoughts, words, and actions.

He's the sole expression of God. The Logos is the true light for every man coming into the world. We find that in John 1:9. He's the true light, even in things such as science. When we study mathematics or when we come across scientific fact — whose facts are those? God's, right? God's truth, because He's the Creator, right. All truth is God's truth, whether mathematics, whether science, or what we call theological truth — it's all an expression of who He is.

All — this is the third blank — all of God's revelations in the Old Testament were mediated by Christ. Again, Christ is the only revealer of God. So even in the Old Testament, before Christ was incarnate, all of God's revelations were found only through Christ. Flip over to the back.

In the upper right-hand corner, there are some bullet points. When Abraham saw God, he saw Christ. The reference there is John 8:56. Remember, Jesus says that Abraham longed to see His day, and he saw it and he rejoiced, right? When Abraham is said to have conversed with God, he was conversing with Christ.

When Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on His throne — we had Caleb preach a wonderful sermon on that a few weeks back, Isaiah 6 — he saw Christ. And we know that from John 12:41. It says that Christ was the one who was on the throne. Isaiah saw the glory and spoke of the glory of Christ. The rock that sustained Israel in the wilderness, from where the living water flowed, was none other than Christ. We find that in 1 Corinthians 10:4. Christ was the rock that sustained Israel.

Christ is the embodiment of the law. He's the end of the law, He's the sum of the law — Romans 10:4 — and its giver, James 4:12. There's only one lawgiver, right? Christ, the very Logos, the very expression of God, whose character the law is but a transcript of. When the Old Testament prophets spoke, it was by the Spirit of Christ about Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. This is so important. When any of the Old Testament prophets spoke,

they spoke first of all by the Spirit of Christ. And what they spoke about was the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ all throughout the Old Testament. Let's look at 1 Peter 1:10 through 12.

This is on the back. "Of this salvation" — salvation that we've received — "the prophets have inquired and searched carefully who prophesied of the grace that would come to you." They were prophesying of the grace that we would experience in Jesus Christ. Verse 11: "Searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow." The Spirit of Christ was in the Old Testament prophets, and they testified beforehand both the sufferings of Christ — His humiliation — and the glories that would follow: His exaltation, His death, burial, resurrection, His ascension, His heavenly session, and His coming again in judgment. That's what they prophesied about in the Old Testament. Verse 12: "To them it was revealed that not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven — things which angels desired to look into." So their words were really for us, and they've confirmed everything — Peter speaking in the context of the early church — that you've seen and witnessed and heard, by the same Holy Spirit who is animating Peter as Peter preaches, right? It's confirming what the same Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ who animated the prophets of old, testified: that Christ's death, burial, and resurrection was graciously for you, right?

We see this also in Luke. We've looked at these two passages in Luke before when we looked at bibliology.

Luke 24:25 through 27 is on the road to Emmaus, when Jesus appears — the risen Savior appears to two of His disciples who were dejected and they didn't recognize Him at first. "Then He said to them, 'O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?' And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them" — He brought the truth forward to them — "in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." All the Scriptures in the Old Testament are about Christ. Then a little bit later in the same passage, when Christ appears to a great multitude of His disciples, verses 44 through 47:

"Then He said to them, 'These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.'" That means all of Scripture — the law, the prophets, and the writings — was shorthand for the Old Testament Scriptures. "And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures," because if you're not reading the Old Testament in the light of Christ, you're reading it wrong — you're missing the point. "Then He said to them, 'Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.'" Saying: when you read the Old Testament, you should understand that it was necessary for Christ to die, to be buried, to rise again the third day, and that we must repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that that gospel should be proclaimed starting in Jerusalem throughout the whole world to all men, right?

Look at Peter — let me give you another example. Acts chapter three — this is where Peter healed the lame man who was sitting outside the temple. "Silver and gold have I none, but what I have I give to you." And he makes his great sermon. He says in verse 18,

"But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets,

that Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. For Moses truly said to the fathers, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet'" — notice the capital P there, speaking of Christ — "'like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you.

And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days.'"

Don't ever glance over the Old Testament thinking, "Ah, these prophets — this was speaking about judgment for the Jebusites or the Amorites or these other-ites that I don't know who they are. This isn't making any sense to me; this isn't about me." No, it's totally about us. It's totally about Christ, who is our Savior, right? Who would deliver us from sin and restore us to the garden — to a higher place than we even began with. And then look at Acts 26. We just read Peter in Acts; here's Paul in Acts as he testifies before Agrippa.

"Therefore, having obtained help from God, to this day I stand witnessing both to small and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come — that Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead, and would proclaim light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles."

Paul's saying, "I'm saying nothing more than what was said time and time and again in the Old Testament: Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead — the firstfruit of the resurrection — and He would show the light of the gospel to both the Jews and the Gentiles, to make us all one in Christ Jesus."

So the application for number four is this: the Old Testament preaches Christ. When you read the Old Testament, look for Christ. It's all about Him. Every single prophet was writing about the glories that would come after Christ's suffering — both His suffering and death and His resurrection.

Bible point number five: in His earthly ministry, Christ perfectly revealed the Father in His person, life, work, and His death. Everything that He did was revealing the Father. Remember when in John chapter 14,

Philip says, "Just show us the Father. You know, that's all we ask." And what does Jesus say?

"Haven't you been with Me all this time? If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father, right?" He is the exact representation of the Father. Like the Old Testament prophets, He — Christ — submitted to the direction of the Holy Spirit. We talked about that in His humiliation. In His servant form, Christ came down here and He did everything by the power of the Holy Spirit, according to the will of God, right? He laid aside His independent exercise of His attributes in the salvation of men.

Unlike the prophets, Jesus had the source — that's the first blank — of all knowledge and power within Himself.

Unlike the prophets of old, the prophets of old, they did everything by the Holy Spirit — like Christ, right?

But unlike the prophets of old, Christ had the power and the source of that power within Himself. Remember when the lady touched the hem of His garment? It says He felt power go out from Him, right? Not to be crass, but I know many of us have seen comic book movies over the last few years. One I'm thinking about right now is Thor. In the movie, Thor takes his hammer and he raises it up and lightning hits his hammer — I guess he draws power from the heavens. And then from that, it's like it's charged, and then he like shoots people with lightning bolts from his hammer, right?

Christ is not dependent on any power outside Him, right?

Christ has all power within Him, right?

Unlike the prophets, Jesus had the source of all knowledge and power within Him. He exercised His prophetic office immediately, with direct — that's the second blank — direct personal authority.

In other words, He spoke as the Word of God. He didn't wait to hear the word of God and then proclaim it. He was the Word of God. He spoke with authority, not as the scribes, not as men. In the Old Testament, when you read about the prophets, they'll say, "And the Spirit of the Lord came upon someone and he prophesied," right?

Christ never had to wait on that, right? The Spirit was always with Him, and He spoke from within.

The word of God did not come to Christ. He Himself is the Word. Jesus was not inspired.

That's the third blank, inspired. He was the inspirer, right?

The Scripture was written by holy men of old who were inspired by the Spirit of Christ, right? Christ did not need divine inspiration to teach the Sermon on the Mount, right? He was the inspirer. He was the authority Himself. Christ exercised His prophetic office infallibly and with total authority and unerring speech.

If a prophet in the Old Testament prophesied something that God had not said — if he spoke for God and God was not in that word and it was found out — what would happen to that man? He'd be killed, right? If what he prophesied did not come true, right?

Never had to worry about that with Christ. He's infallible, right?

In the Old Testament, the prophets oftentimes would predict the future. Christ did that all throughout His ministry, right? Did He not predict His own death, burial, and resurrection? Oftentimes in the Old Testament, the prophets worked miracles to confirm their prophetic word, right? We think about Elijah on Mount Carmel. We think about Moses doing the miracles in front of Pharaoh and Pharaoh's court. Christ did all those things too, but He didn't have to draw His power from outside Himself. He exercised His inward power, right. The prophets of old spoke words of comfort sometimes. We often think of them as rebuking people and calling them out on their sin, but oftentimes they spoke words of comfort. You read Jeremiah, you read Isaiah, you read many of the prophets and see these comforting words. Who is Christ but the one who speaks the greatest comfort of all, right? "Peace be to you," right?

John 8:38 says — this is Christ — "I speak what I have seen with My Father,

not what I hear — what I know, what I've seen, what I've experienced from all eternity. I and My Father are one," right?

Flip over to the back.

Mark 1:21 through 22 — this is the beginning of Jesus' ministry.

"Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He" — Christ — "entered the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes." The scribes would oftentimes look at passages of Scripture and there'd be parts that were debatable — they didn't understand what they meant, right? And so you'd have one school of scribes with a certain interpretation and another school of scribes with another interpretation. We see that among the rabbis as well, but not with Christ. He spoke with authority. He says, "This is what it means" — because He's the Word of God, right? No guessing, no conjecture on Christ's account.

The application for number five: you can fully trust — that's the blank, trust — the promises of Christ. You can fully trust the promises of Christ because He speaks directly. He speaks infallibly. He speaks from within, of His own experience, because He is God.

Bible point number six: Christ's prophetic work continues in His heavenly ascension and session. Last week we looked at the stages of Christ's exaltation, and we mentioned how it began in His quickening, resurrection, then His ascension to heaven, and in His heavenly session whereby He rules over both the earth and the heavens currently — and it's gonna be finalized, of course, in His coming judgment, right? Which is the high point of His exaltation. Well, His prophetic work continues in His heavenly session as He's seated at the right hand of God. It is continued through the teaching of the apostles and the preaching of ministers. It is continued through the illuminating influences of the Holy Spirit.

Christ's prophetic work in His session through the Holy Spirit includes the inspiration — that's the first blank — of the apostles. Remember, Christ says, "It's for your benefit that I go to My Father's right hand," right? "Because when I go there, I'm gonna send to you the Holy Spirit." And then the Holy Spirit came upon the church the day of Pentecost — a glorious thing — and then it moved and changed men like Saul

to become a radically different person, because he was born again, and he became a great preacher of the gospel. When we say He inspired the apostles, we're not saying every word they said was inspired, but every written word they said was inspired, right? He inspired the apostles and their contemporaries to write the Holy Scriptures, right?

So His session through the Holy Spirit includes the inspiration of the apostles, and the illumination of Christians to understand the meaning of Scripture — illumination. Christ says, "I'm gonna send you the Holy Spirit, and He's gonna lead and guide you into all truth." Doesn't the Holy Spirit illuminate Scripture to us? There is such a thing. We talked about the perspicuity of Scripture when we looked at bibliology — that Scripture is meant to be plain and easy to understand. But there are some things that, apart from the Holy Spirit, we wouldn't understand or even want to understand, right? Because the natural man can't comprehend the things of God. He doesn't care about God's word. He doesn't care about God's precepts, right? But when you're regenerated and your affections are made new and the Holy Spirit is within you, now all of a sudden you love the law, right? You love the word of God. You want to make it part of you. You want to memorize it. When I see our daughters here at the church recite 10 verses,

that should blow your mind, and it should give you such great joy to see young ones who have a heart engaged in Scripture. So the illumination is part of what the Holy Spirit does.

The conviction of sinners — Christ through the Holy Spirit, not only did He inspire the apostles of old, not only did He illuminate Christians to understand the meaning of Scripture, but He convicts sinners. Which one of us would be a Christian apart from the Spirit of Christ convicting us of sin, right? The natural man doesn't move towards God. Any movement towards God is a work of the Holy Spirit. And we'll study about that when we get to soteriology.

And the sanctification of His church, set apart for Him. That's the fourth blank — sanctification of His church. The Holy Spirit sanctifies us through the word of God. What did Jesus pray in His high priestly prayer? "Sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy word is truth." And what does the Holy Spirit do? He leads us and guides us into all truth, right?

Acts 1:1 — I love this verse. This is a verse we often read really fast as we begin the book of Acts, and we don't really think about what it's saying. It says, "The former account I made, O Theophilus" — speaking of the gospel of Luke, okay? Because Luke wrote both Luke and Acts. Luke records the life and ministry of Christ.

Acts records the life and ministry of Christ through the apostles and the early church. Look what he says here: "The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach."

In other words, it's just the beginning.

Through the church, through the exercise of His prophetic office by the Holy Spirit, Christ would continue to teach, right? He continues to teach us today, right? We want to know who God is, we look to Christ. Flip over to the back.

John 16:12 through 15 — this is Christ speaking here. Now, verse 12 — I'm gonna have to tell you a little story. It's funny — I know a pastor, he means well. This particular pastor I have in mind, he's not here at this church.

He has a tendency to go long in his sermons, and then at the very end of the sermon, when he starts trying to wrap it up, he'll quote verse 12: "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now."

That's humorous and funny, but on the flip side, when you think about it, it's really taking it out of context, and it's really not giving priority to the prophetic office of Christ. Look what Christ says — He's telling His disciples. This is in between the Last Supper and Gethsemane, so we don't know if He's still in the upper room or if He's walking towards Gethsemane during this point. But He says, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak of His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will tell you things to come." Isn't that what a prophet does?

"He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said He will take of Mine and declare it to you."

Christ continues His prophetic ministry through the sending of the Holy Spirit.

Flip back over to the front.

The application for number six: Christ is at work through His word and Spirit. Word and Spirit — remember the axiom that came out of the Reformation? "Never the word without the Spirit, never the Spirit without the word." When we read the word of God, these are not just printed words. These are living words. The Holy Spirit takes these words and they become like a sword, right?

They rip asunder bone from flesh, right? They are piercing. They are convicting, right?

And when you go to read the word of God in your family worship,

you may feel inadequate then.

We all do. We may say, "I know I'm supposed to be the shepherd of my family. I know that I'm supposed to be the spiritual leader of my family, but I don't understand most of the stuff in here."

When you read the word of God,

it'll do its own work. And the Holy Spirit will do its work, right? Because these are the very words of God. We all approach the word of God that way, right? Humbly, and saying, "Lord, speak to us through Your word." Never the word without the Spirit, never the Spirit without the word. When someone says, "Hey, the Spirit has witnessed to me and I have a word for you, Jimmy.

I don't want you to wear a red hat."

You can say, "Chapter and verse," right? Never the word without the Spirit, never the Spirit without the word. These two go together, and that's how Christ is working in and through His church, even as He sits at the Father's right hand.

Bible point number seven: by virtue of their union with Christ and participation in Christ's Spirit — let me explain that to you. Every single believer is united to Christ through faith. When I say united to Christ, we are spiritually one with Him. We are interpenetrated by Him. His Spirit is within us and we are said to be in Him. Our identity is in Him. Because we are in Christ, we're clothed with His righteousness, we're clothed with His favor, we're clothed with His power and standing before the Lord, right? So God looks upon us favorably. In the same way He is within us, animating us and empowering us to conquer sin, He is filling us with His Spirit to always have His fruit living in and through us. "I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ in me. And the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me," right? "And whoever is in Christ is a new creature, a new creation — old things have passed away. All things are new when you are in Christ." So His Spirit — we participate in the Spirit, right? We are said to be in the Spirit and His Spirit is said to be in us. By virtue of their union with Christ and participation in Christ's Spirit, Christians are made, in a secondary sense, to be prophets.

All modern prophecy is true only as it is a re- — the first blank is "re-" — republication of Christ's message, okay? God's not gonna give you a new revelation.

All revelation has come to us through the Son, Jesus Christ, in His death, burial, and resurrection.

Believers can only proclaim and expound truth already revealed — that's the second blank — in Scripture.

So if someone says, "God has spoken to me and He tells me that Christ is coming back on June the 5th" or whatnot — get away, turn your back, right? God has perfectly spoken to us by His Son. Christ's death, burial, and resurrection is the most important revelation in all of history. The fullness and finality of redemption — this is the third blank; this is important, these next two blanks. The fullness, meaning: has Christ totally saved us? Yes. Is there anything left for us to do? No — Christ has saved us on the cross. He says, "It is" — what? "It is finished." So the fullness and the finality of His redemption. Christ suffered once, right? He doesn't have to continue to offer a sacrifice like the priests of old, daily — every morning and every evening, and then once again on the Day of Atonement. Christ's sacrifice was once and for all to remove our guilt, right?

The fullness and finality of redemption in Christ are inextricably — which means you can't tear them apart — inextricably bound to the fullness and finality of His revelation. That's the fourth blank, revelation.

What more can God reveal to us than what He's revealed to us on the cross? Can you think of a better revelation of God's holiness than what we saw on the cross? Can you think of a greater revelation of His love than what we see in Jesus Christ on the cross? No. The fullness and finality of redemption is linked — joined hip to hip — to the fullness and finality of His revelation. Flip over to the back.

Hebrews 1:1 through 4 is our source for this. "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the worlds, who, being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." Christ is the final revelation of God. He sits at the Father's right hand.

2 Timothy 4:2, the first part of this verse — that's what Ken sent the text on this week. "Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season." Do you want to be a prophet of God?

As I mentioned, you're not gonna be giving new revelation, but you can be a prophetic person in a secondary sense and republish Christ's message, right? When we say, "Thus says the Lord," and we say, "Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" — we're being a prophet, right? We're declaring truth to people that salvation is of the Lord, right? Application is this: "convince, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering" — long-suffering is a blank there, you could also write patience, as some translations say — "and teaching."

What does being a modern-day prophet look like? 2 Timothy 4:2 tells us that we're to convince, rebuke, and exhort. So that means that we're to reprove and admonish when people's lives are not living according to the word of God — and that starts with our own life, right? You gotta apply it to yourself before you apply it to your children or your wife or anybody else.

"Exhort with all long-suffering and teaching." I want to focus on the "all long-suffering" — or patience — in teaching. Because we often think, to be a prophet, we gotta be like John the Baptist, and John the Baptist is a fiery one, right? Remember, at the baptism of Christ, all the religious leaders were coming — the whole of Jerusalem and Judea was coming out to the wilderness. And John, he doesn't warmly greet them to this wonderful River Jordan with, "You're all so valued and important." What does he say? He says, "Brood of vipers, sons of Satan, who has warned you to flee from the wrath that is to come? Behold, the axe is now being laid at the trunk of every tree, and he who doesn't bear forth good fruit is gonna be cast into the fire." Basically saying, "You're gonna be burned. Why are you even coming out here? Who warned you to flee from the wrath that is already breaking out on you?" Right? When we think, well, that's what we gotta be to be a prophet, right?

But when you look at 2 Timothy 4:2 — "Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season." Yes, sometimes you gotta convince and rebuke and exhort. We have to admonish sometimes. But also we're to do it with all long-suffering,

which can be translated "with all patience."

How many of you have a little patience?

How many have medium patience? How many have all patience? None of us do, right? We're supposed to use every bit of patience and be gentle, especially with our children. As Pastor preached this past Sunday, fathers, we are not to exasperate our children. We're not to put strain on our family, put burdens on them without lifting a finger to help them, right? We're to teach the word of God gently, with all patience and teaching. What does a teacher do? A pastor-teacher takes the word of God and applies it to their lives where they're at. He doesn't put unnecessary burdens on people, right? He remembers that we are but dust. And he says, "Come to Christ, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and He will give you rest."

Bible point number eight: Christ's prophetic office will continue with His saints in heaven. That's the first point — in heaven. So not only has Christ always been our prophet from before His incarnation, He's been our prophet in His incarnation, in His whole life, ministry, and work. He's our prophet now as He's at the right hand of God, as He rules over both heaven and earth through sending out His Holy Spirit through the teaching ministry of the church by word and Spirit. But He'll continue to be our prophet through all eternity.

His prophetic work is endless. That's the second blank. As the Father that He reveals is infinite. That should be "is" — I wrote in — I'm sorry, I typed that earlier this morning. The Father that He reveals is infinite. Remember when we talked about the nature and attributes of God? We talked about one of the attributes of God being His infinity, His boundless supply from within.

You could sit down at a table with God in heaven and ask Him question after question after question.

And there's always gonna be more to know. There's always gonna be more to understand, more to grasp, because we're finite, right? But He has boundless supply from within. All His glorious perfections, all His attributes will be on full display. So Christ as our mediator,

for all of heaven, is gonna be declaring to us the wonders of our God, right?

The revelation of Christ's glory will be that of the Father. When He's revealed in glory, when we see Christ in glory, it's gonna be the same glory as that of the Father, because He and the Father are one. In heaven, Christ will be the visible God. No man has seen or can see God apart from Christ. That's the third blank, apart from Christ. Flip over to the back.

John 1:18.

"No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father" — who is in the Father's arms or in the Father's heart — "He has declared Him." Only Christ has seen the Father.

1 Timothy 6:16, speaking of God, says, "Who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see,

to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen." Most theologians, since the time of the Reformation — even before that, going back to Augustine — have taken this as: no man has seen God or can see. And in heaven, we're still gonna be men, right? God is so glorious and dwells in an unapproachable light that we're gonna need a mediator as finite creatures. Even though we're gonna be redeemed and we're gonna be glorified, we're still gonna be finite creatures. We're gonna need a mediator to be able to understand and to see the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. Look at John 16:25, what Jesus said: "These things I have spoken to you in figurative language, but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father."

In heaven, that's gonna be a glorious thing — to walk with our Savior. Our faith will be made sight.

Jesus prayed about this in the high priestly prayer, John 17:24 through 26: "Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory, which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world."

When we behold Christ's glory, we'll be beholding the Father's glory, because it's one and the same. "O righteous Father, the world has not known You, but I have known You, and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it." Christ is our prophet. He has declared to us the name of God — meaning the person of God, all that He is. "And I will declare it" — He'll continue even in heaven declaring God to us — "that the love with which You loved Me may be in them and I in them."

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13: "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know, just as I also am known."

And then Revelation 21 —

it's one of my favorite passages in Revelation, talking about the new heavens and the new earth. He says, "I saw no temple in it." Because what did the temple point to?

Christ, right? So there's no need of a temple in heaven. "For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple." We will dwell with them. Look at verse 23: "The city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it." In ancient times, the sun and the moon were very important. At night they didn't have electricity, so you needed the moon — which is a reflection of the sun — to light your way at night. He says, "But there'll be no sun or moon in it. For the glory of God illuminated it, and the Lamb is its light."

Christ is the light of heaven. He is illumined by the very glory of God. His glory is the glory of God, right?

Flip over to the front. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." When we get to heaven, we will have a pure heart, right? What a wonderful day that will be. Application is this: prepare for heaven by knowing Christ now.

If all of heaven is gonna be Christ revealing the Father to us, why wait?

Why wait to learn about God when you get to heaven? Why squander the joy of knowing Him? He is as close to us as the word of God and as the Spirit who lives within us, right? Amen.