Series: Growing Together in God's Grace
Dear friends in Christ.
When I was a kid, one of my
favorite things about Saturday morning cartoons was School House Rock. If you are not familiar with it or simply don’t
remember it, School House Rock, was a
series of animated musical and educational short films that aired from
1973-1979, airing on ABC during Saturday morning cartoons. Each video was roughly 3 minutes long and
they were designed to teach children on a number of different subjects. There were videos that dealt with math,
grammar, science, and even our Government.
From the familiar Conjunction
Junction, What’s Your Function? to I’m
Just a Bill, these videos inspired many of the children of my generation
and even instilled some of these concepts that would later be expanded teachers
in our Schools. Case in point, one of
these vides from this series was designed to teach children about the three
offices or branches of our federal government.
Using the concept of a three ring circus they showed that in the same
way that a single circus can have three different rings so also our government
has three branches. Each of those
branches has a specific purpose and each branch was designed to be a check and
a balance for the other branches so that our government would run smoothly and
be a benefit to our nation.
Well, just as our government has
three branches to it, our Savior also holds three different offices, or jobs,
you could say. As we know from our days
in Sunday school and Confirmation class, we know that the three offices our
Savior holds are, Prophet, Priest, and King.
We know that these offices were given to him by his heavenly Father so
that he might be a benefit and a blessing to us, making us his own through his
life, his death, and his resurrection.
This is what Jesus did for us while on earth serving as our Prophet, our
Priest, and our King.
“But why,” you might be asking,
“why did Jesus serve in these three offices?”
What was the point of them? What
was the point of him serving as our Prophet, our Priest, and our King? Well, as we know, everything that was written
about the coming Savior was written to teach us and instruct us, and just about
everything in the Old Testament was designed to foreshadow what the Savior
would do when he came. Take for example
the office of prophet. We know from the
Old Testament Scriptures that the job of the prophet was to go and tell people
the word of God. All you have to do is
page through the Old Testament and you see example after example of prophets
proclaiming to the people all the things that the Lord wanted them to say. This is exactly what prophets like Isaiah and
Jeremiah did. This is exactly what Elijah
and Elisha did. This is exactly what
Nathan did when he came to King David, and this is what Moses did as he led the
people of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land. In fact, it was Moses who prophesied that
Jesus would serve as a Prophet of the Lord, when Moses proclaimed, “The LORD
your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers.
You must listen to him.” (Deuteronomy 18:15, NIV84)
Isn’t this exactly what Jesus did
when he was here on the earth? All we
have to do is read the gospels and we learn that in the short three years of
his earthly ministry Jesus was constantly traveling. He was moving from place to place so that he
might continually proclaim to all the Israelites the message of the Lord’s
salvation through faith in him. For in
the same way that the Old Testament Prophets proclaimed the Word of God and
pointed people toward the coming Savior, Jesus continually proclaimed the Word
of God and pointed people to himself, the Savior of the World. In fact, if you ever have the opportunity to
see a map of all the places that Jesus traveled, you will quickly realize that
he traveled throughout all of the territory that had once been held by the
twelve tribe of Israel. He preached
God’s Law, convicting the people of their sins, and he preached the gospel message
of God’s forgiveness—forgiveness that would be completely and fully won for us
when he sacrificed himself on the cross for our sins.
In this way the Lord Jesus served
as our prophet while he lived here on earth, yet, this is an office that our
Savior still holds today. For after he
rose from the dead and returned to his Father in heaven, he sent his apostles
out to proclaim the message of salvation.
They went out and proclaimed all that Jesus said and did and the message
of salvation continued to spread from generation to generation. Even today as the Lord sends us out to
proclaim the message of salvation, we proclaim the very words that he spoke
while he was here on earth. We read and
study the very message of salvation that he proclaimed, and through his word he
continues to proclaim to us the message that he once proclaimed to his
people. But the office of prophet is not
the only office Jesus held, for in the same way that our government is more
than just the office of the President, not only did our Savior hold the office
of Prophet, he also held the office of Priest.
Now, when the Lord established
the Tabernacle in the wilderness, and later the Temple in Jerusalem, the whole
system of worship was designed to show how they had been separated from their
God by sin, and that they needed someone to intercede on their behalf. This was another Old Testament picture of
what the coming Savior would do for them, and this picture was vividly revealed
in the office of the Priests. You see,
in Moses day, and until the need for the daily sacrifice was done away with by
Jesus’ death and resurrection, the priests served as the intermediaries between
God and the People. So, if you had been
living in those days and you became so angry with a person that you initiated a
fist fight with him, the Law of Moses said that you had to make a very specific
sacrifice to receive forgiveness for that sin.
But the thing was, you couldn’t do it yourself. You would have to go to the priest at the
Tabernacle or at the Temple with your offering.
The priest would make the sacrifice on your behalf and then tell you
that your sin had been forgiven because the sacrifice to God had been made on
your behalf.
As our High Priest, Jesus
represented us before the Lord when he, as our Priest, sacrificed himself as
the offering of atonement to pay for our sins.
In fact, the writer to the Hebrews tells us, “For Christ did not enter a
man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven
itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. 25 Nor did he enter heaven to
offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy
Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26 Then Christ would have had
to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared
once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of
himself. 27 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face
judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many
people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring
salvation to those who are waiting for him." (Hebrews 9:24–28, NIV84) And as John tells us, “My dear children, I
write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have
one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2
He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for
the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2:1–2, NIV84)
Though countless animals were
offered day after day at the Temple in the Old Testament times, not one of
those was able to completely take away sins, because each one of those
sacrifices was a picture of the complete atonement that Jesus would make as our
High Priest. When people brought sheep
and watched the priest burn their offerings on the altar for their sins, they
were viewing a vivid picture of how the coming Savior was pay for all their
sins. All sins would be put on him and
he, rather than they, or rather than we, would be put to death for that
sin. That is the amazing thing! Jesus was not only the priest who offered the
sacrifice on behalf of sins of the world, he was also the sacrifice that paid
the price our sins deserved.
Yet, this was not the end of
Jesus’ roll as our priest, for still today he serves as our intercessor in
heaven. As we heard from John only a
moment ago, “we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ,
the Righteous One.” (1 John 2:1, NIV 84)
Or as Paul tells us, “For there is one God and one mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the
testimony given in its proper time." (1 Timothy 2:5–6, NIV84) As our Priest it is Jesus who continually
intercedes for us before his Father’s throne in heaven. He is the one who speaks to the Father in our
defense, who reminds our Father that we are now innocent because he has washed
us clean of every spot and stain of sin, and he is the one who carries our
prayers to our Father’s throne as well.
No longer do we need a human priest to intercede for us before our God,
because we can approach our God with full confidence, through Jesus who is our
High Priest in heaven.
Yet, there is one final office of
our Savior at which we want to look today, and that is the office of King. We know that Jesus is our King because he
himself declared it to be so, when Pilate asked him if he was a king. Now, in the days of the Old Testament, the
king was kind of like the president of the country. He wasn’t elected by the people rather he was
elected, or chosen by God. As the king,
two of his main duties were to make decisions that were beneficial to the
welfare of the people, as well as to take the lead in defending the nation when
an enemy attacks. This is exactly what
Jesus did as our King while he was here on earth, he fought the battle against
sin and death and won the victory for us, as the writer to the Hebrews tells
us, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity
so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is,
the devil—" (Hebrews 2:14, NIV84)
and as Paul tells us, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin
is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 15:56–57, NIV84)
Before the Super Bowl was played
this year, both teams received all sorts of press and praise in the news
papers. But since the Ravens were
victorious, they are the ones who are receiving all the praise and accolades of
victory. Both teams worked hard
throughout the season. They battled
ferociously on the field in the final game, and when it was all said and done
it was the Ravens who had won it for themselves and for their fans. As our King Jesus deserves all our praise
because he is the one who fought the battle against sin and satan and won the
victory over death for each and every one of us. Now, because of his victory, we know that he
lives and reigns in our hearts. He still
fights for us and cares for us our King who is still leading us through this
life on our way to the life that is to come, where we will live by his side,
forever, in his heavenly kingdom.
How amazing it is that Jesus, our
redeemer, served these three offices while he was here on earth and still
continues to serve them from heaven.
What a blessing that we are blessed so completely by his willing
obedience. As our Prophet, Priest, and
King, Jesus has freed us from our sins, made us his own by faith, and continues
to lead us on the path to heaven. May we
always live as his children, praising him that we are his own, that he has
forgiven us, and that we will one day live with him forever.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
GraceEvangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
