CHRIST THE PROPHET

by Dr. Hank Lindstrom

     The Bible presents Jesus Christ as having three offices of Prophet, Priest, and King.  Many times we don't focus in on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ as He serves as Prophet, Priest, and King.  The prophet is God's representative with the people.  The priest is the people's representative with God.  The king is God's ruler over the people.

     Sin left man in spiritual darkness, ignorant of God.  Because mankind is in darkness and in need of God's Word, mankind needs a prophet.  Throughout all of time God has had His prophets.  The Old Testament prophet was a voice from God.  Jesus Christ is God himself in human flesh.

     The fact that Jesus Christ would be a prophet was predicted in Deuteronomy chapter eighteen.  "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken (Deuteronomy 18:15)."  Also, "I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him."  "And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which He shall speak in my name, I will require it of him (Deuteronomy 18:18-19)."

     The Apostle Peter in his message in Acts chapter three said, "For Moses, truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.  And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people."  "Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have like-wise foretold of these days (Acts 3:22-24)."

     Jesus Christ is superior to all of the Old Testament prophets by virtue of the fact that He is God.  Notice what Hebrews chapter one says, "God, who at sundry times in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds (Hebrews 1:1-2)."

     Jesus Christ is God, and when He speaks, God is speaking.  Jesus Christ is the Prophet that Moses wrote about.  Jesus said, "For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me:  for he wrote of me (John 5:46)."  Jesus as God speaks for Himself.  Again and again He says, "Verily, verily. I say unto you."  We are told to hearken unto Him or it would be required of us.

     Hearken!  What did Jesus say?  "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God (John 3:18)."  To one group one day Jesus will say, "Depart from me, you are cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41)."  To the other group Jesus said, "But the righteous into life eternal (Matthew 25:46)."

     What consequences!  No wonder we should hearken unto Him.  Our whole eternity is affected by it.  The Bible teaches, "without the shedding of blood is no remission of sin (Hebrews 9:22)."  A person may go to church, be nice to his neighbor, obey the golden rule, but unless he has trusted in the shed blood of Jesus Christ, his sins will not be forgiven.  Hell will be the consequence.  The person who accepts the shedding of Jesus Christ's blood as the means of his salvation will be saved and enter heaven.  Heaven and eternal life are the consequences.  Every person who does not hearken to Jesus Christ the prophet is in big trouble.

     Listen!  Jesus has never been wrong!  Listen!  "If I have told you earthly things, and you believe not, how shall you believe, if I tell you of heavenly things (John 3:12)."

     In Matthew eleven we have a classic example.  Jesus Christ preached to the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum.  Because of their unbelief and rejection of His message, He told them that it would be worse for them at the Great White Throne judgment than for the inhabitants of Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom.  Or in other words they would receive a greater punishment in hell.  But, Jesus also cursed these cities.  The result is that these cities were all destroyed and no one lives in them to this day.  All we find today are their ruins.  Other cities around the Sea of Galilee from that time still exist except for these three.  Jesus is never wrong!

     In Matthew chapter twenty-three Jesus warned the religious leaders that they would go to hell because of their unbelief and rejection of Jesus Christ's message.  He said, "You, serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?  Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall you scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias whom you slew between the temple and the altar.  Verily, I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation (Matthew 23:33-36)."

Here Jesus told of the consequences of rejecting Him:

     Forty years after Jesus was crucified the Romans came and fulfilled the prophecy.  A great judgment came upon that generation.  It is amazing how each detail was fulfilled exactly.  Jesus said the following:
1. Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed (Luke 21:20; Matthew 24:2).
2. Jerusalem was to be encompassed with armies (Luke 21:20).
3. Jerusalem was to be besieged and a trench dug around it (Luke 19:43).
4. Great tribulation and woes were to accompany the siege and the destruction of Jerusalem (Matthew 23:35-36; Luke 21:20-23).
5. Jerusalem was to be leveled and not a stone of the Temple was to be left standing upon another (Luke 19:43-44; Mark 13:2).
6. The Jews would be slain or led away into captivity (Luke 21:24).  Those that were not killed were placed on the slave market and carried away to other nations.
     Jesus is never wrong.  In fact we have just barely touched upon the prophecies of Jesus Christ.

     Jesus Christ is the greatest of the prophets.  Jesus Christ is God.  He will one day come "in flaming fire taking vengeance on those that disobeyed the gospel by their unbelief (II Thessalonians 1:8-9).

Friend, do you take the words of Christ seriously?  Here are two verses to consider:
1. John 5:24, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."
2. Mark 16:15, "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."
TAKE HEED!