Speaking for God--Christ the Prophet
Speaking for God–Christ the Prophet by Rev. L. John Gable
November 13, 2022
The Gospels give us curious insight into numerous conversations which Jesus had with His disciples. One day at Caesarea Philippi, He asked them, “Who do people say that I am? What’s the rumor going around about Me?” The disciples answered, “Some people say you are John the Baptist raised from the dead; others say You are Elijah, and still others that You are Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” In other words, “No one is quite sure who you are Jesus, although many people think You are some kind of a prophet sent from God.”
The disciples were right on in their perception. There was confusion on the streets about who this Jesus of Nazareth really was and what He had come to do. At the time of His birth there was great expectation and anticipation that the Messiah would be coming soon. They were an oppressed people who lived with the expectation spoken by their leader Moses in our Old Testament lesson from Deuteronomy, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people.” This is what they were waiting for, watching for, praying for, a prophet like Moses whom God would raise up to lead His people out of their bondage of captivity once again. He had sent others, the likes of Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and most recently John the Baptist, so when Jesus arrived on the scene their spiritual antennae were wide open and they desperately wanted to know, “Are you the One or should we look for another?”
Who is this One, Jesus of Nazareth? That was their question then and it is ours as well today. James I. McCord, the late president of Princeton Theological Seminary, once said, “The most critical question of the 1st century is the most critical question of the 20th, now the 21st century, ‘Who is Jesus Christ?’” This is the question men and women of every age and race and persuasion have debated for nearly 2000 years, and it is the question each of us must ultimately answer for ourselves. Many are asking, if they dare to consider the question at all, if He is relevant for them at all today or just another character from long ago who claimed to speak for God? For most of us though, even those of us in this place, the question comes out a little differently. Our question is not only “Who is He?”, but also “What has He done for me that I cannot do for myself? What difference does He make in the way I live my life? Is He the only one or is He but one among many from whom I can choose to follow?” Regardless of how we ask it though, it all boils down to the same question, “Who is this Jesus Christ?”
In the Westminster Confession of Faith, a document written in England around 1650, often considered the standard for protestant theology, this statement is made about the work of Christ. “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 humanity; the prophet, priest and king; the head and Savior of the 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.”
As we unpack that language we hear the Church’s teaching that Jesus Christ is the Mediator, the “go between” between us and God, and He fulfills this role in three rather specific ways, as “prophet, priest and king.” Today, and over the next two weeks we will look at these distinct functions He serves in order to answer our question, “Who is Jesus Christ and what has He done for us?” Today we will look at Him as Christ the prophet, the One who speaks for God.
In order for the Westminster Confession to be used for instruction in the church it was also written in question and answer form, as a catechism, or teaching tool. Perhaps some of you may have had to memorize parts of it when you were children. Question #24 of the Shorter Catechism is, “How does Christ execute the office of prophet?” and the answer given is, “Christ executes the office of prophet in revealing to us, by His word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation.” The role of the prophet, most simply stated, is exactly this: to reveal to us the will of God for our salvation.
The prophet does this by serving as the mediator, the intermediary, between God and His people. Do you recall how Moses used to go up on the mountain to meet with God during the 40 year sojourn of the Children of Israel through the wilderness? He did this because the people were terrified to be in the presence of a Holy God, so they sent Moses who would represent them and intercede for them, who would then come back and interpret to them the Word which the Lord had spoken. This is the role of the prophet: to be the mediator, to speak TO God and FOR God, and through the ages there have been many who have done exactly that.
There seems, though, to be some confusion about who the prophets were and how we are to understand their teachings. Some seem to think they were some kind of psychics or fortune tellers who had esoteric visions of the future who then wrote their predictions in the tabloids of the day. Nothing could be further from the truth. The prophets were not individuals cut off and living in their own little worlds of flight and fantasy who tried to write history in advance. Rather they were individuals who were deeply involved and engaged in their communities and the traditions of their faith. Individuals who were so immersed in the Word of God that they were able to apply the commands and promises of God given in the past to specific circumstances in the present, and so accurately predict outcomes in the future.
The faith of the prophets was grounded in the assurance of two things. First, the confidence that God was actively working out His purposes in human history, and second, that God always stayed true to His promises. So, what the prophets did was simply take the promises of God and apply them confidently to the present and the future. They weren’t like weather forecasters or political analysts of our day who say, “If trends continue as they are this is what we should expect tomorrow.” Those are, at best, educated guesses, and at worst misleading lies, predictions without any guarantee or certainty. Contrast that to the message of the prophets who based their claims on the promises of God and so called the people to obedience and faithfulness.
Are there such prophets today? Of course there are and God is still speaking to them and through them, so we must listen to the message they give us as they call us to live by God’s Kingdom principles. But Jesus also warns us to “beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” So how do we know if the one who claims to be a prophet really is sent from God and is not some kind of wacko, self-proclaimed, “do it yourself”, “wanna be” messiah? We are given two time-proven guidelines we can use to test the authenticity of a prophet and their prophecy. First, a genuine prophet’s teaching will always be grounded in the Word of God and the faith tradition of the people of God. Remember what we read in Deuteronomy, “The Lord will raise up a prophet from among the people”, meaning one who has a history with the faith community and is versed and grounded in its teachings. We should never trust anyone who claims to bring a “new word” of God or a new revelation that they alone have been given or whose teaching elevates and promotes themselves and their purposes rather than God and His Kingdom purposes. A true prophet may shed new light on old truths, but still their call must be to faithfulness and obedience to the One True God.
The second guideline we can use is simply to wait and see if what the prophet says actually comes to pass or not. We read in Deuteronomy 18:22, “If a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord but the thing does not take place or prove true it is a word that the Lord has not spoken.” That seems rather simple. The proof is in the pudding or as Jesus says, “You will know them by their fruits.”
So, what of Jesus? Are His teachings consistent with what we know to be the revealed Word of God? Indeed they are, and even in those instances where He says, “You have heard it said in ancient days…but I say to you”, He is refuting the teachings and interpretations of the elders, not that of the Word of God. And what of His actions? Were they consistent with His words? Again, yes. The people were amazed at His teaching and His miracles, some even wondering aloud, “When the Messiah comes will He do more signs than this man has done?” The answer is “No!” Jesus backed up His words with His actions and called the people to a closer, more trusting relationship with God.
Jesus was, by every measure, a prophet sent by God, but the question remains, “Was He something more than that? Was He a prophet like Moses and Elijah and Jeremiah, or dare we say He was something more, the Messiah, the Promised One of God, the Christ?” That is the question asked of Him then, by them, and by us still today.
There are many people of other faith traditions, even those from no faith traditions at all, who are quite comfortable calling Jesus a prophet, a good man, a great teacher and leader, adding His name to a rather extended list of those have down through the ages claimed to speak for God. What is it then that we can say about Him that will set Him apart from all others? P. Carnegie Simpson writes:
“Instinctively we do not class Him with others. When one reads His name in a list beginning with Confucius and ending with Goethe we feel it is an offense less against orthodoxy than against decency. Jesus is not one of the group of the world’s great. Talk about Alexander the Great and Charles the Great and Napoleon the Great if you will…Jesus is apart. He is not the Great; He is the Only. He confounds our canons of human nature. He compels our criticism to overleap itself. He awes our spirits. There is a saying of Charles Lamb that “if Shakespeare was to come in to the room we should all rise up to meet him, but if that Person, Jesus, was to come in to the room, we should all fall down and try to kiss the hem of His garment.”
When we speak of Jesus as prophet, we do so believing that He is the One who speaks for God in a unique and exclusive way. Not exclusive as to His audience, for all are invited to listen to His message and respond, but exclusive in the claims He makes about Himself. No one can speak with the authority that He does. He is the One who announces the promises of God and calls His listeners into a right relationship with God through faithfulness and obedience, to lives of justice and righteousness and peace. In this, He stands firmly in the tradition of the great prophets of the Old Testament. But even more than this, we believe that Jesus is the One to whom the prophets through the ages were pointing. He is the fulfillment of the Messianic expectation. He is the One in whom “all the promises of God find their ‘Yes!” In this sense, Jesus is not “a” prophet of God; He is “THE” prophet of God, for when He speaks, we believe God speaks. When He acts, we believe God acts. When He makes a promise, we believe God Himself is making a promise which most assuredly will come to pass, on that we can be certain.
When Jesus asked His disciples at Caesarea Philippi, “Who do the people say that I am?” they answered that they thought He was a prophet sent by God, like Moses or Elijah or Jeremiah. That may be fine for them, the masses, those who didn’t really know Him, hadn’t really heard Him, seen Him, walked with Him, but Jesus then pressed on and asked the more critical question, the more personal question, to those who were closest to Him, “Who do you say that I am?”
Friends, this is the question each of us must answer for ourselves today. Who is the Jesus Christ? The world says He is one among many. Let us say, with believers in every time and place, While He may be “a” prophet, He is so much more than that. He is “THE” prophet sent by God to be our Savior and Lord and lead us the way of salvation.
Rev. L. John Gable
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN